Halloween Race

A spooky race track is something different for Halloween. You can rez a bike at the landing spot. Don't miss the haunted mansion. After exploring you can rez a new bike and finish the tour.

Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Wakulla%20Waters/200/137/3022

KAGAMI - The Game

Usually I log in to Second Life for working: blogging, organizing, supporting, curating, meetings and stuff. I cherish the hours when I take the time to play in SL as today.

Kagami is an excellent made mystical game. At the entrance you take a HUD and choose your language.

What is the story about? The latest rumour in the school was: "Hey, you know what? At midnight, put two mirrors facing each other. Then you can see your future spouse in the mirror!" Most stayed suspicious, but Kasumi does not come back the next day to school. What happened to her? Did she try a mirror?

You as her friend decide to go after it and while researching you are wrapped up in a mystical and melancholic storyline in the world between life and death.

What is in the mirror?

It took me about 3 hours to pass through part I and II and I enjoyed it. It is not too hard for unexperienced gamers like me and I love the story. The HUD allows to come back anythime and to go back to the place where you stopped.

Don't forget to donate and to check the nice mall to buy something. Events like this should be supported!

Open until August 31st!

More about Kagami: http://kagami2014.wix.com/secondlife

Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Hakoniwa/151/127/22

Faith

As usually Cherry Manga leaves meaning to the visitors in her latest installation "Faith" but on closer look it is obvious that her personal point of view regarding religions is more than critical.

The veil with crown is to be found as dollarbie at ART IN HATS

The Madonna scares with her face tattoos.

The installation is a wild mixture of religious motifs in a spectacular surrounding which leaves the items as they are for many: Just some glorious decoration...

Scatter is wearing: Outfit Professor Plum by Lybra for TMOF, hat JfL/Bravura Boater, glasses GOS
Me: Dress Miss Peacock  for TMOG, The Roses Crown by 22769 for ART IN HATS, Ginger Heels by Miss Canning

Scatters and my outfits by Lybra for "The month of Games" where the perefect match!

Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Dark%20Swamp/36/26/28

Tearing Down A Gallery

What I really like with Haveit Neox is that he is always able to make the best use of a given space. Those who know my little gallery shop at Aakriti Arts will recognize the structure of the "Influence Art Gallery", which is very interesting but also dominant.

Haveit dares to tear down the building to tell his story and as always it works and moves the visitors. In Haveit's words:

WHY ARE YOU TEARING DOWN YOUR BEAUTIFUL HOME?
Because it is profitable.
I can do what I wish with what is mine.

AND WHY ARE YOU TEARING DOWN THE PLANET AS WELL?
Because it is profitable.
I can do what I wish with what is mine.

My outfit is the beeautiful Lady Fatale by Sonatta Morales for TMOG

What he is mentioning here is the tragedy of Christianism as well as all cultures with monotheistic religions - the wrong thinking of owning mother earth instead of acting as guests. The future will show if mankind is able to change fast enough...

Opening today at 1 PM SLT feat. DJ Jim Perhaps

Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Koala%20dAlliez/30/214/30

A Hot Day

You may be aware that I did not blog a lot the last few weeks. Apart from ART IN HATS there was holiday season and some exciting changes in RL but everything is going back to normal now. So, imagine today is one of the few extremely hot days in Germany. Too hot to go out. We closed all doors and windows. As most Germans I have no Air-Con as it is useless for the handful of really hot days here. I am sitting, sweating and thinking this Sunday afternoon is the perfect time for a blog post as I am sooo behind. Besides the hard working fan of the computer the only sound is of one of these awful fat flies that you only hear at these days.

And do you know what? When I arrived at MetaLES to visit RomyNayar's latest installation "El Laberinti Perdito" (The Lost Labyrinth) I exactly heard that fly sound first! A good start to visit a scary place. At the entrance is a warning: "If you decide to delve into the Lost Labyrinth, your deepest fears and defects will take your control . You will live them again and again and again and...again...
No one has gotten out ..."

Now it became dark in RL too and I still found no way out, but stumbled over many small, scary installations with some surprises....The fat fly is not the only nightmare.

My beautiful outfit is creatd by Lyrical Bizarre for "The Month of Games" which I am going to blog tomorrow

Highly recommended! Make sure to hear local sound and to click all.

Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/MetaLES/245/249/24

Saucy Opening Today

Maya Paris did it to get her LEA sim ready and invited me to have a look...

Guess, you come to Second Life after a busy day and land on a spot where the telephone is ringing. Relaxing, isn't it? And the question is, which one? So, you have no choice to go and try. And immediately you are wrapped up in a strane adventure to test your "Sauce Factor". As usually with Maya's builds with funny animations and loads of crazy gifts.

Maya writes:
"Fancy a bit of Seaside Sauce?

Slap on your wig and flash those knobbly knees because this time it’s personal. 

Test your Sauce Factor, try your luck at the Modern Love Bureau, get sparky in the Saucy Science lab and take a headlong dive into a sea of plenty more fish&chips.

(Bring your own hair or teeth...and a friend)

“It’s like sucking real life through a straw” Fishslappers Gazette.

Open all hours, come whenever you like.

TIPS: Keep clicking and don't stop until you land in the water.....and if it comes after you, run at it until it explodes"

I should add that Maya recommends for full fun to explore together with friends. You will see why.

I have the Sauce Factor! What about you?
Not to be missed!

Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA25/38/176/1801

Star Wars in Second Life

The perfect suit for the trip:  Black Classic Spacesuit by ZiSP at Futurewave

There is so much creativity in Second Life, but nothing that gives an overview of all the great places to discover. So we have to rely on recommendations to find the places. Luckily I often get hints from readers. When they IM me and when I am in the middle of something I just ask for the Landmark or a note card. When I have time time I go through all new items and check the places. I have no clue who sent me the LM for Keldabe but I am very grateful. It was the beginning of a long journey through the world of SWRP in SL. SWRP is Star Wars Role Play. I have seen at least 10 sims if not more which all are connected by role play. There was so much to explore and so much creativity in design. All sims are visitors friendly. You just should wear the OOC tag and do not disturb the role play. Of course I have seen the Star Wars movies as everyone else but I have not really a clue which role the places shown here are playing in the Star Wars world. So I better shut up and just show you what I saw. If you are interested you will find much information at the places.

Keldabe

Keldabe, the capital city of the planet Mandalore, the cultural homeworld of the Mandalorian people, located in the galaxy's Outer Rim Territories.

It has been built by Darth Infestus (Jashin Lionheart) as the next two sims too.

Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Illusion/131/4/20


Byss

Byss is the Capital of Sith Empire. Here was so much to explore. Almost every door was a TP to other places. I took a lot of photos and hardly could decide which to show.

Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Byss/179/20/2528

Dromund Kaas - The Dark Planet

 A remote & shadowy world in the Sith Empire, with dark secrets at every turn... The most interesting was the Forgotten Laboratory:

Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Dromund%20Kaas/59/40/957

Bakura - City of Salis D'aar

 Bakura is an urban place. I could change my outfit to another beautiful suit from Futurewave and to have a "catwalk" ;)

Nomi Jumpsuit fire by DRBC, Post Apoc Nerd Stompers by Death Row Design,
Neural Net by Chaos Panic and Disorder
Not from Futurewave: [Manticore] Black Cait v2

Whoever gave me the LM for Keldabe...a big THANK YOU for this adventure!

Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Fourth%20Dimension/128/120/996

Futurewave is open until Sunday, 23rd: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cursed/127/131/967

Futurewave and Futurebuilds

Taken with old viewer

I know why I rarely blog fashion. Getting the look, finding the pieces you imagine plus make up, skins, accessory, face and body lights, poses and the perfect location is a huge work. How easy is it to blog art insteadt! You take some nice pics, find a few more or less smart words and you are done.

See the bumps on the pumpkin

But some events like Futurewave are so interesting that I cannot resist. And when I unpacked and checked a zillion blogger bags and tried to get some looks together I had the idea inspired by Bryn Oh's Kumiko to build a projector for the photos. It is not that simple as I thought, but luckily Elke Wylie helped me. You see the results here.

Elke recently filmed a walkthrough at one of the rare builds in SL which already use widely items with materials enabled and she said "Isn't it sad that so many users are not aware of the endless possibilities in Second Life and never use them?" She is right and I decided to visit the place and to use it for my second Futurewave post.

I used the Firestorm-Betax64 4.5.1. which is materials enabled. Since my graphic card is quite simple and cannot eat too much data I had the settings on Mid/High with advanced Lighting Model and shadows. The first image on top is taken with old viewer. All images are NOT edited and the WL settings are not changed. I think the results are quite amazing.

DRD centipede XS bw at Futurewave

The caterpillar sucking the spine fascinated me. I recently saw a science fiction series in TV where extraterrestrials this way took humans over and used their bodies as their own. It took me ages to find a dress that goes with the beast.

For Futurewave: Necklace Spyralle Wearable Comm Hub Model rrl8b, Skin [PF] Sora <Alabaster> - Rust
Others: .:SS:. BLACK WHITE STRIPED SPIKED MINI, Headpiece . a i s l i n g. Cour des Cauchemars Crown  for Genre

For Futurewave: Boots DRD post apoc nerd stompers coal, , Pose: {NanTra}

If you don't use a materials enabled viewer it is still a great build. To see the full effect have a look at this walkthrough by Elke Wylie:



The shop owner and builder of Srs corp. Kelkith Kiezelstein is to me one of the very creative and innovative designers in Second Life. Do you remember the North Pole sims Wolfenstein + Leviathan? Kelkith was the builder! Back in 2011 I made some travel tips with a German SL TV broadcast and those sims where in the first issue, starting from 2.20 min:



On closer look you see that some features are the same as here in the new shop. I am no weapon and war fan at all. But looks as if even in SL some of the best are working in those industries.

Taxi to Srs corp.: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Capella/28/41/3801
Taxi to Futurewave: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cursed/127/131/967

Sneak Preview: The Singularity of Kumiko

This weekend I had the chance for a preview on Bryn Oh's latest installation and as usually it was not done in a couple of minutes.While I was there I had an IM with a friend who wrote about Bryn: "I wish she was a sunnier type of person. lol" I don't know how sunny Bryn is, but her works always have a huge portion of darkness and melancholy. And you can take darkness literally this time. Before you enter the build you have to change your viewer settings. Bryn Oh recommends to use Firestorm, my favourite viewer too, but provides also information for the LL Viewer and Singularity. I had to follow instructions on 2 notecards. The windlight has to be changed to absolutely dark (Phototools - no light), advanced light model and shadows has to be enabled. Thanks to Phototools it was easily done and I saw that both run well with graphics on medium, that I still could move ok. The last step is to grab and wear a headlamp. Like a coalminer you are ready to enter the tunnel.....and to face the first challenge.

I think I already admitted that I am not a gamer and fast annoyed facing obstacles. If you are the same I give you a first hint how to get in: It sometimes helps to express your wishes that you get them fulfilled ;)

The highlights of group travels in my youth often has been a night hike in the dark woods. And even in a group I was scared. The same feeling I had entering the work but I was alooone! The light settings helped me to move on. To follow the story you have to click microphones to get the story told or to click a message in a bottle to get the same text as texture and at the same time in local chat. That is a very good idea because it helps non English visitors to use a translator.

Just at the beginning you see that the story is about a person which got obviously lost after an accident. While I felt last year with the predecessor  of this work "Imogen" that I had to guide the readers through the huge installation not to get them too fast giving up, I think this time the goal is obvious. You will follow the storyline and find out the singularity of Kumiko. Be careful! Not every pet is as nice as cute! But the work is not only a story. It is a Film Noir with you as the main actor, it is a journey to the own fears and loneliness.

I really admire that Bryn Oh always explores the technical possibilities to get the visitors into a new and surprising immersion. I like a lot the zooms to see details after click on objects. And the special lightings caused feelings from being scared to playful enchanting. If you don't believe me just change the WL and see what happens.

Here the promo video taken by Bryn Oh:



For full experience make sure to follow the Windlight settings, to take off ALL body lights and bright items and to have sound enabled.

More in Bryn Oh's blog: http://brynoh.blogspot.de/

Opening Friday, February 14th. To enhance the experience, the number of avatars is strictly limited.

Taxi:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Immersiva/16/114/21