Stories from Second Life

Verwaltung+3

CYXENEX — Sun, 13 May 2012 07:08:36 GMT

Chapter three !!!

Verwaltung+2

CYXENEX — Sun, 13 May 2012 06:34:19 GMT

Chapter two !!!

"KIKKI-GROUP111" work against all violence

CYXENEX — Sun, 13 May 2012 06:19:21 GMT

Sorry, my english is very terrible so I write in german language.

Am 03.05.2012 habe ich durch Zufall, auf Ihrer Seite "CNN" dass Element untersucht, dabei kam mir die "Anonymous function" entgegen!!!

Ich habe mit meinem Handy davon Bilder gemacht und zwei Handy-Movies erstellt, und soweit aufgenommen in meinem Handy!!!

Die anderen Bilder sind von meinem Arbeitsplatz, der Verwaltung in der ich meiner Arbeit nachgehe.

Die Bilder und Movies hoffe ich uploaden zu können, ich bin nicht so der PC-Spezialist, was das schreiben von Scripts betrifft, ich bin eher der jenige der mit dem PC Musik hört und meine eigenen Ideen schreibt.

Das Script was ich entdeckt habe war nur kurzfristig erschienen, ich habe so gut es geht images gemacht und zwei Handy movies, auch die sind mir nicht sonderlich gelungen!!!

Aber ich denke mir, wenn jemand mit mir auf der gleichen Seite gegen Anonymous, der Site 198.95.10.204, gegen psycho-war-slavery, Nazi-terrorism und allgemein gegen Gewalt in jeder Form ankämpft wird Mittel und Wege haben diese Message im Rahmen von meinem second live zu decodieren!!!

In meinem second live bin ich "KIKKI-GROUP111" against all violence looks like the CNNfreedomProject,

ich will kein Held werden, jedoch will ich mit meinen engsten Freunden die ebenfalls in "KIKKI-GROUP111" mit Civilcourage und (without weapons but with Brain) ihren festen Bestandteil haben, helfen in allen Belangen und einen Teil dazu beitragen aufzuklären!!!

Meine engsten Freunde die auch second live leben und mit meinem Motto "Freiheit, Liebe und Fairness für alle"
einen gleichwertiger Partner zu Ihrem CNNfreedomProject sein möchten (nur aus Germany hier arbeitend) in, wie gesagt einem second live Modus, was Informationen betrifft die ich hier schon mit drei eigenen "iREPORTS" angedeutet habe!!!

Hoffentlich klappt es jetzt mit dem upload der Bilder beziehungsweise der beiden Handy-Movies!!!

Ich teile die Bilder und die beiden movies in drei Upload´s auf und benenne diese einfach nachfolgend
zu "Verwaltung+1", "Verwaltung+2", "Verwaltung+3"

Die Verwaltung ist zum einen mein first live dort wo ich normal meiner Arbeit nachgehe nicht zufällig ausgesucht sondern auf längeren Zeitraum geplant!!!

Second live ist gleich "KIKKI-GROUP111" mit der Zentrale Im Kulbeweg 23-25, 13587 Berlin bei Christian August Steffens der HEADER von "KIKKI-GROUP111"!!!

Sollte sich irgend jemand in näherer Zukunft mir zu Nahe treten wollen in Bezug auf meine images und movies, sehe ich mir nur bestätigt in meinen gesammelten Werken speziell was psycho-war-slavery hier in Deutschland betrifft und den daraus folgenden immer mehr seelisch kranker werdenden Deutschen, was resultierend ist aus den TEST-Medikamenten der Pharma-Industrie!!!

Nicht unbedingt auch aus Zufall bin ich dokumentierend in meinen Kenntnissen was Psych-Pharmaka betrifft seit spätestens im 1990 unterwegs gewesen. E

s ist schon eine "STORY", die meisten meiner Freund sagen ich solle ein Buch über mein Wissen schreiben, aber dass mache ich ganz bestimmt nicht, denn ich möchte nicht voreilig unschuldige Menschen in Bedrängnis bringen wollen, was auch eine Art von violence sein kann!!!

Ihr lieben CNN-user ich bin immer anzusprechen auf mein second live als "KIKKI-GROUP111" vielleicht könnt Ihr CNN-user, TEAM-Reporter oder auch iREPORTER an CNN-Anchors weiterleiten, hier in Deutschland verschwindet man mit den beiden Urteils-Paagraphen §20 mit §63 spurlos von der Bildfäche, landet in Kliniken dort wo die Pharmalogie-Mafia Ihre Medikamente testen lässt bis die Menschen gebrochen werden und psycho-war-slavry like abhängig gemacht werden von harten Neuroleptischen Psychpharmaka-Präparaten!!!

Nur zur Information, ich war auch 10 Jahre verschwunden, keiner wußte wo ich gewesen bin, ich habe aber looks like "The show must go on" mit gespielt, ich habe Zeugen die auch betroffen waren und sich meiner "KIKKI-GROUP111" mit angeschlossen haben!

Ich kann hier in Deutschland nichts sagen, sonst bin ich wieder weg!

Vacancy Decontrol

promisenews — Tue, 08 May 2012 07:28:39 GMT

The American Dream
Promise Yee

Oceanside, CA - Mobile home owners own their homes, but must pay space rents set by park owners. In June 2012 voters will decide whether to uphold vacancy decontrol that nixes long standing rent control and allows park owners to raise space rents without limits.

Mobile home owner Linda Walshaw explains why rent control was passed in the 1980s.

A clip from the video short The American Dream, Producer Promise Yee.

The American Dream

promisenews — Tue, 08 May 2012 05:03:39 GMT

The American Dream
Promise Yee

Oceanside, CA - For some the American dream of owning a home is realized by owning a mobile home. Mobile home owner Richard Gaume shares his story.

A clip for the video short The American Dream, Producer Promise Yee.

In Memory of Dianna, Who Bravely Ran the Relay for Life

JaneyBracken — Sat, 05 May 2012 19:18:39 GMT

Last year I covered the Relay for Life (American Cancer Society) event in Second Life. At the time I was drawn to one particular lady whose avatar ran the virtual race with so much enthusiasm and complete devotion to helping others, that she brought tears to my eyes when she told me her story about her battle with cancer. Her avatar was named Mitra Lok and she told me her name was Dianna in real life. So it’s with great sadness that I've learned that Dianna has recently died. She had Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and Haemolytic Anaemia.

Dianna had told me ‘I was a caregiver for my mother who died two weeks after last year’s Relay” I had said how brave she was and she answered “I’m not brave, I’m just fighting to stay alive and battling like everyone else to find a cure. I relay here because I could never do this in real life, I am just not well enough. Here, I can run the entire thing!” She said “I relay so my granddaughter won’t have to, I relay so she can grow up and possibly not ever have to have what I have gone through. I relay for all those that cannot, and of course, I relay for myself.” Dianna had admitted that she had cried through the whole thing as it meant so much to her.

I feel greatly honoured to have had the chance to meet Dianna, a beautiful lady who was so full of warmth and life. Her memory is an inspiration to us all, and let’s hope that a cure can be found for this dreadful disease very soon.

My deepest sympathies go to her family and friends at this sad time.

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-636644

Lindens Launch 100 Pathfinding Sims

any1gynoid — Sat, 05 May 2012 13:03:40 GMT

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has gone viral on Second Life's main grid. A new technology called pathfinding embeds AI in SL servers. On over 100 sims, AI characters can navigate intelligently among avatars, terrain, walkways, and obstacles, with behaviors such as pursuit, wander, evade, patrol, and navigate to location.

Any of these behaviors can be invoked with 2 lines of Linden Scripting Language (LSL)… to automatically move mesh or classic prim objects… possibly replacing hundreds of lines of vehicle animation code. Is this just a reduction in user code or something more? Yes, much more.

Pathfinding is a new mobility ecosystem. Pathfinding can calculate all feasible pathways across land and prims (e.g. bridges), generating a navimesh (picture 5). Pathfinding characters (aka Non Player Characters or NPC) use AI searches to find navigable pathways to their target avatar, object, or location. Throw up a roadblock? No problem, they will find another way round. There is enough randomness and simulated nervousness in the solution, that NPCs have distinctively organic motions.

Yeah, but what about lag? Everyone asks. Okies. I ran stress tests with my animated NPCs on the Snack Sandbox regions. Kitty is a 4 legged animated critter that walks; Funky Munky is a humanoid NPC that strides and does a funny skit (Pictures 7, 8, 9). I took baseline performance stats, then starting rezzing wandering NPCs simwide; hundreds of them.

As I watched the lag numbers; a startling result! At first, only 2 numbers trended with added NPCs, Physics Time went up and Spare Time went down. All other numbers flatlined... no lag effect! Just over 100 NPCs and Spare Time hit zero; the first noticeable lag. Amp that up to 200 NPCs, and yes, we are driving frame time up as well, but linearly, not aggressively. Even more surprising, virtually no NPCs crashed. After rezzing 200 kitties, I only lost 2 and the population held steady for several hours. Conclusion: multiply your Spare Time by 5 and that's how many animated NPCs you could rez on your sim without any noticeable lag.

That means, Lindens created a very reliable and efficient infrastructure, but only for NPCs. Of course, all this AI is beta test, and sim crashes happen often outside the sandbox. You know this when you can't move or chat… you've got crash! The sim does an auto-rollback, including your inventory; and sometimes you relog to a place you left hours ago! Time Warp! Coolies!

The Lindens should be congratulated for these achievements... but that's not enough. User generated NPCs should support animations, in other words, NPCs with moving limbs that walk and gesture. I used the very popular prim animation script by Ferd for my NPCs. My teaching NPCs worked for weeks… umm… until Wednesday, when Lindens rolled out a new server beta that broke all my prim animations and everyone else's. Ugh! Fix that bug!

To date, Lindens test pathfinding with the default cubes that you rez when you start building (Picture 10). This testing scales to other non-articulated NPCs such as rubber duckies, plastic bunny toys, and snails. Clever use of flexiprims gives you a few more options (Picture 6). Let's see, hmmm, NPC can only travel on land and float but not animate… maybe ghosts? daleks? spaghetti monsters?

To fill the vast depopulated regions of SL with engaging content, citizens of SL need animated NPCs… i.e. NPC people and realistic, animated NPC critters. I'm just saying... pathfinding has tremendous potential. Linden Prayers that it lives up to expectations!

PICTURE CAPTIONS AND RESOURCES

Picture 1 Maestro Linden, Any, and Oskar Linden
on Aditi test grid

Picture 2 Any, Lorca Linden, Maestro Linden, and Falcon Linden. The Pathfinder Users Group (PUG) meets Thursdays at 4pm SL time on Aditi test grid at the PathTest megaregions (use the Map to find us!).
Chat log from this meeting: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Pathfinding_in_Second_Life/2012-05-03

Picture 3 Falcon Linden, the genius behind pathfinding AI. Dude! ... You ROCK!

Picture 4 Any at New Citizens Inc (NCI Dream Seeker region) with some NPCs: Animated Kitties and Ladybugs - NCI Dream Seeker is dedicated to teaching and pathfinding research. We plan to start teaching pathfinding and related skills to everyone for free as soon as PATHBUG-110 is fixed! VOTE as if there is no tomorrow! For obvious reasons!

Picture 5 Any's test range on Snack Sandbox. The smaller ramp is rezzed and is in the navigrid at NCI Dream Seeker. The large spiral staircase is a prim-tortured torus. I measured the Linden staircases on Aditi, and the minimum diameter appears to be 10.25 meters with a 7 meter rise. Shown here is a 7 X 12 X 12 spiral, easily navigable, as shown by the navigrid lines.

Picture 6 Any with the dragon NPCs. Not animated, but they have a wonderful flexi-tail which moves beautifully in pursuit.

Picture 7 Three positions from the stand animation, I made Funky Munky do. Guess what she's saying?

Picture 8 When Funky Munky moves, she starts striding, left and right animations, with smooth transitions. This sophisticated NPC only needs these 5 positions recorded from Pictures 7 and 8, to fully animate. Easy!

Picture 9 Linden Prize Winner …. Gentle Heron comes round to chat about pathfinding. She is wonderful and amazing! Girl Power! Eeeeep!

Picture 10 Any on Aditi grid, PathTest4 region, with some pursue cubes, the Linden's primary test NPCs. Throw a barrier down and these cubes will go the long way round to refind you. Do a little dance to signal your presence on the navigrid! Hmmm... pursue cubes… majorly lacking in cuddle factor! ;-)

It's Global Love Day, I Joined in the SL Celebation of Love!

JaneyBracken — Tue, 01 May 2012 22:53:31 GMT

It’s all about unconditional love, yes it’s Global Love Day today, where people from a 140 countries participate in joining in a worldwide celebration of sharing their love with one another and spreading the good vibes to everyone on the planet. Founded by Harold W Becker and John T Goltz, who started the Love Foundation nine years ago, the truly inspirational concept has been carried into Second Life where they are celebrating their third SL Global Love Day anniversary.

I’ve covered the Love Foundation’s success from their first event in SL three years ago, and I went over today to see how the celebrations were going. I was met by a lively group of people who were having a wonderful time and I joined in the dancing, which was great fun. New people were arriving all the time and you could feel the warmth and friendliness of everyone there.

The one thing our planet needs right now is love and hope for everyone in these troubled times and as the Love Foundations says ’Love begins with me’ We can all do our bit to care about other people; with Global Love Day you can be assured that there are many like minded people who want love and peace for us all. You can visit the Love Foundation website and you still have time to join the party in SL today if you hurry. Peace and Love to everyone!

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Gemini/136/135/801

http://www.thelovefoundation.com/

Global Love Day May 1st gathers a global audience in SL

PhilipSnow — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:42:08 GMT

People from all over the world will gather their virtual avatars together in Second Life on May 1st to celebrate Global Love Day. Now in its third successive year in Second Life, this will be the ninth year that Global Love Day events have been held in over 140 countries in the 'real world'.

Does the world need more love? Plenty of people think it does. Last year over 1000 people from around the world came together in Second Life to enjoy Global Love Day in a spectacular 24hr event across all the timezones.

Promoter of the worldwide annual Global Love Day is The Love Foundation, a Florida, U.S.-based not-for-profit organisation founded in 2000 jointly by author Harold W Becker and co-founder John T Goltz. The Love Foundation's mission is to inspire people to love unconditionally. As well as offering six books that the co-founders have written, The Love Foundation is extensively web-based with over 1 million hits on both their website and YouTube channel respectively, and over ten thousand contacts on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. It also has an office and a sublimely beautiful meditation sim called Loving Earth in SL.

Global Love Day organiser in SL is avatar Philip McGillivary, a director of The Love Foundation and their SL coordinator. I asked Philip to explain how this event relates to the major and growing concerns people around the world have about the global economy, and its domination by transnational corporations and the international banks.

“My understanding,” Philip answered, “is that the institutions and systems which have such an influence in our lives operate according to the level of consciousness of the people at the top. And that level always needs to be at the point where policies are guided by love, compassion and public service.

“If we, the ordinary people, want to see the powers-that-be express more love, compassion and service to the public and the planet, we can quite readily make this happen by expressing more of these qualities in our own day-to-day lives. I strongly believe it really is as simple as that. No need to protest, riot, campaign nor even worry because those things do not bring love and peace. The motto of Global Love Day is 'Love Begins With Me'. When we love and have compassion and give kindness, gratitude and service to others in our own lives, we spontaneously and effortlessly raise the level of love, compassion and kindness in the world around us. Everyone, including the powers-that-be, gets positively influenced by that. And when groups of people get together to express these positive qualities the effects are even more powerful and life-supporting. That's why we come together to celebrate Global Love Day in groups all over the world and here in the virtual world of Second Life where people can come together as their avatars and be part of the group. Second Life offers the opportunity to become part of a loving group despite whatever one's circumstances at home may be.

“Love is the most fundamental creative energy in the universe, holding everything together, nurturing and supporting the whole of life; love can be seen even in gravity and magnetism, and in the interdependence, correlation and connectedness of everything including ourselves. It all works best for everyone and everything when we each play our loving part. Global Love Day can remind us of this.”

The event in Second Life will take place on a simulated tropical island with palm trees and exotic flowers surrounded by blue ocean, frolicking dolphins and endless sunshine. The day's program includes all-day dancing and simply being together making friends, meditations, yoga and live performances.

Other Global Love Day events will be taking place across Second Life, all coordinated into a single program schedule. If you'd like to be there, see http://www.thelovefoundation.com/second_life.htm for details, or teleport to

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Gemini/136/134/801

Happy 5th Rez Day To Eliza

JaneyBracken — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 22:55:07 GMT

It’s a very happy Rez Day to dear friend Eliza Janus today! Well it was actually Eliza’s 5th Rez Day a couple of days ago, on March 25, but she had arranged for a group photo-shoot and a get-together this evening. Eliza always does things in style and this time she had a beautiful Roman setting. She looked absolutely stunning in a white gown adorned with flowers.

Eliza got us all to gather round as she took her place with two hunky men, Alphonso and Gibson, in a very romantic pose and after a little while the photo-shoot was complete. Of course it wouldn’t be Second Life without a lot of fun and some unusual things thrown in! After the photos had been taken there were fireworks and then Eliza handed us all a frog gun, yes ‘frog’ gun! The gun shot frogs instead of bullets, happy frogs I might add, no cruelty involved, and we all had a great time.

Happy Rez Day Eliza, and I hope you will celebrate many more! (for anyone not knowing about Second Life Rez Days, it’s the day you first created your avatar and is celebrated in SL just like a real life birthday, only hopefully you don’t have ‘frog’ guns in real life!)

SL Flying Tigers to Stage Military Expo

JaneyBracken — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 19:25:06 GMT

Second Life is a fabulous platform for people to share their real life experiences, or to live out their ambitions using virtual reality as a creative tool. That’s why Aviation and Military sims are so popular in the virtual world for those who have the same interests. One group in particular, the Flying Tigers, are a hot favourite Aviation group, boasting nearly 2000 members at the present time. You can actively take part in virtual combat flying or just try your skills at flying in the non-combat areas of the group’s sims. The Flying Tigers say they view SL World War 2 role-play as a constant memorial and tribute to that era “because it symbolizes humanity’s triumph over evil.”

From March 25 to March 31 the Flying Tigers, whose sims and groups are owned by SL avatar Guarocuya Giano (Flying Tigers’ CO and Major General), are holding a Military Expo, and it looks like an event not to be missed for all those people who are interested in all things military as well as aviation. The press release says “The Military Expo will bring together military themed content creators for a special showcase of military vehicles, aircraft and services. This event will be held at the WW2 Pacific sim in Second Life, which is part of the Flying Tigers’ sims and groups.”

The SL Flying Tigers are inspired by a real life aviation unit, the 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG) (Flying Tigers) and the SL group state ‘The mission statement and main objective for the SL Flying Tigers is “we fly to honour of all veterans and are dedicated to pursuing camaraderie, goodwill, co-operation and harmony within the Second Life aviation community.”’ Something that a lot of people can aspire to, particularly in this day and age!

You can catch up with all the latest information about the Expo as well as the schedule of planned events and creator’s profiles on the Military Expo blog http://militaryexpo.blogspot.com/ and for information about the Flying Tigers on http://slflyingtigers.blogspot.com/

I met event organiser and promoter Jessii2009 Warrhol, who kindly gave me a model of one of the jet fighters to try out. My SL flying skills are on par with my virtual driving, a bit dismal I’m afraid! but I jumped into the cockpit and off I took and it was really thrilling to zoom upwards into the virtual skies. Well, I obviously need a lot more practice, but the plane, created by Guarocuya Giano was brilliantly made and easily controlled (in more capable hands than mine!). I can’t wait to go along to the Expo to see the other military vehicles on display.

There is a very full schedule of exciting events for the Military Expo, so be sure to go over to the Pacific sim on March 25 and join in the fun. For more information contact Jessii2009 Warrhol in-world.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/WW2%20PACIFIC/24/145/42

Logo by courtesy of SL Flying Tigers

Kony 2012 - What is the Truth?

JaneyBracken — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 22:39:59 GMT

Suddenly something hits the news, something you haven't heard of before that grabs your attention and you get the feeling that it just isn't right. With the planet seemingly in financial meltdown whilst governments appear to be throwing endless money at taking us into wars in the Middle East for no rhyme or reason (except they say they are protecting the peoples of those countries, bringing them democracy and keeping us safe from terrorism (what!!!!)). In fact ‘protecting’ us merely restricts our very own freedoms and steers us away from any democracy that we assumed we had, a formulated plan that is being hastened through with great momentum over the last few months in Europe and in the USA too, using the same process saying it’s for trade, by the look of it.

Suddenly a story about Africa is unleashed,’ Kony 2012, Invisible Children’, so smoothly marketed that it brings in millions of dollars to the people behind it, whilst it is aimed at the youth of the world; using social networking to create a massive emotive movement throughout the West, which not only supports the cause, but also makes sure people send their money to the Kony2012 charity by buying the ‘kit’ (a box containing posters and wrist bands etc) so they can really belong and feel they are doing something worthy to aid Ugandan children.

The very interesting part of this is, that it is mostly young people who are now asking questions and it seems that there is a new awareness with the public to ask why, where and when before they believe all that is being thrown at them through the usual media channels. I watched the original Kony 2012 video with interest and yes, it’s a slick well edited presentation by a professional film maker who even brings his own little tot into the film to add the twee sentiment to it all. It’s about someone called Kony who abducted Ugandan children and trained them as soldiers as well as making some young girls sex slaves to his regime. Not a nice character, and as I would think, everyone would agree that he should be brought to justice for what he did to those children. But then people started to speak out, Kony apparently hasn’t been seen for 6 years and there are stories going around that he died 5 years ago. Yet suddenly after this huge venture to recruit followers to this charity, the US government are talking about sending the troops in to Uganda to seek this villain who hasn’t appeared for so many years, all this whilst other regimes are still in action who systematically abuse their own people.

I watched more videos from people who have made their own little films to say something just doesn’t add up with all this and it seems they have a point. The comment section too has been stopped on the original Kony 2012 film, so people will have to watch all the evidence they can find to see if they think Kony 2012 is the real thing, or just a marketing ploy to make money and an excuse for governments to send troops to Africa for whatever political gain that would bring them.

As Second Life is a social networking site, I searched there for Kony 2012 and wasn’t disappointed, there is a plot of virtual land set up to watch the video, so it looks like they have covered every media source they could think of to market this particular charity.

I’m not making a judgement here, just looking at what evidence there is so far and it’s up to people to support what they think is right, but these are unique times, times when the very structure of our economies and constitutional laws are being taken apart piece by piece, so people need to be aware and ask questions before they commit to, or part with their hard earned money, to any cause without looking into what is really going on. At least find out how the millions of dollars sent to the charity are actually being used and then make up your minds. I’m not giving the landmark for this Kony 2012 site in SL, I’m not judging it, but I’m certainly not promoting it.

Kony 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc

Kony 2012 Video is Misleading

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DO73Ese25Y

Response to Kony 2012 – Truth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLCagapv38g&feature=related

Kony 2012 Scam …Bankers Outsmarted by Millions of Young Activists

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k78xX9uwj-0

Museum Dedicated to Alice In Wonderland Legendary Author

JaneyBracken — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 18:54:13 GMT

If you wanted to know all the facts and falsehoods surrounding Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass’s legendary author Lewis Carroll, you need look no further than Mimsy Manor in Second Life owned by Avanthalas Absent.

Mimsy Manor, situated in Mieville, is a museum dedicated to the history of Lewis Carroll, real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832- 1898), plus it also gives us an interesting insight into the real life of the little girl he wrote about, Alice Liddell, who featured in his famous stories. Avanthalas gives us a wealth of information displayed all around the walls of the museum, supported by some good quality photographs of the era. She quotes “If you read the introductory blurb in many of today’s (and yesterday’s) versions of “Alice” you will discover “facts” about Lewis Carroll that are nothing of the sort. In an attempt to counter some of these untruths, here is a display of the top ten Carroll untruths (in no particular order) and some small evidence to the contrary. These are by no means all of the rumours that have circulated about this great author and interesting man, but I’ve chosen to skip some of the more outrageous (and therefore obviously untrue) lies.”

And so I wandered through Avanthalas’s museum and it was a fascinating experience, I must admit to not knowing a great deal about Carroll/Dodgson, but the well written information boards made it interesting and satisfied my curiosity about how the author had befriended Alice and her family to eventually write his fantastically surreal tales, seemingly spun around the child he appeared to adore.

Alice Pleasance Liddell was born on May 4, 1852 and Avanthalas succeeds in bringing Alice to life for the visitors to the museum, telling Alice’s story right up to her death at the age of 82. She had in fact married and had her own family over the years and I liked the picture of the adult Alice on display as well as her childhood photos.

Bravely the museum touches upon how the question of a child’s friendship with an adult can be misinterpreted and even child nudity in Victorian photography is mentioned, uncomfortable reading for some, but a totally innocent and a pure outlook for others, depending on how you perceive the idea, and what evidence and information there is to hand. I spent a good deal of time looking around the Manor as there is much to read and it’s very interesting. I also explored the grounds where I found a lovely life-sized chess board and then I took a ride in a little boat which glided me past beautiful images based on Carroll’s books, it was very well done! I even picked up a newbie along the way, she was brand new to SL and she shared my boat, her own adventure into the virtual world just beginning; what better place than Avanthalas’s wonderful Mimsy Manor for her to start exploring SL! Avanthalas has carried out a great deal of research into Lewis Carroll’s “Alice” and whether you are a fan of the author or not, I think you will enjoy this informative and magical sim.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Mieville%20Shelley/44/175/23

A Blurred Line, (Editorial Commentary)

VickieMaid — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 06:30:51 GMT

Certainly as I log into Second Life on a daily basis I am faced with a variety of situations. In some cases more than others and for a variety of reasons. I can only say that within the scope of this opinion that I have found the following to be quite unsettling.

I am a member for example of some high profile groups in SL, and sometimes I wonder if I made the right choices to join and then get dragged into an endless pit of slander,untruths,lies, coverups you name it. I can only say that sometimes we the members of Second Life hate to hear or read the word "Drama".

Yes, we all been there, we been dragged thru the mud and have been spoke about behind our backs. We been accused without a proven piece of evidence, but only to try to defend ourselves even in a virtual world.

I have seen with my own eyes, the countless arguments, discussions that without fail on occassion seems to go on and on until, you open the group list and click on it to leave that group or groups and confirming you want to leave and presto you leave.

One group I'm currently in is undergoing a lot of controversies in which activities are clashing, and many within this particular community are upset at what is becoming a fractured broken group, but within this group though a small vocal minority is complaining and back biting each other or indiviuals. It's really upsetting with the vast majority as they sit helplessly by and see the drama unfold before their eyes even in the group's forums.

I told a couple of very good friends about my feelings about the matter and they told me to go on with what I was doing and not let what was happening bother me. I agreed and have made that choice to remain and go on with my work. I also maintain my neutral stand on the issues involved as much as I am maintaining the standards I am bound by here at CNN Ireport as well, to be fair and honest, to be unbiased, to report on what I do or see. I am bound by moral standards of the people here at CNN Ireport and will abide by those same standards even in a virtual community as Second Life.

How does this relate to the real world?? In essence, it does in a variety of ways when it hits close to us in our daily lives where things can and do happen and then here we go, dragged into what can be described a pit of quicksand that we are slowly sinking into unless somebody comes along to speak on our behalf and to bring peace between those affected within our own circle and surroundings.

In closing, even in today's world we are surrounded by even the most trivial ideas that gets blown out of hand and until it gets resolved even to the point of going to court and let the jury decide who is right and who is wrong. Both sides of an issue that gets blown out of proportion and cause a lot of damage in a short amount of time, bring unwanted results such as the loss of friends, families, respect and honor to one's name in which such can lead to disgrace in a well respected community group, and I hate to witness even what is happening even now and the results that can have a far reaching impact for the future.

I'm Vickie Maidstone reporting.

Music on my mind

newsman714 — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:46:02 GMT

I happened upon a video online, of course it was on you tube. I happened to be surfing the web, and to my amazement I saw a still picture with glowing silhouette border. The picture stood out , and upon further gazing I saw the name of the musician. Young Moni london, I was sure that was not his real name. The music was very good for a new artist, so I delved further into finding and meeting this musician. After a few contacts and a phone call we agreed to meet. Young Moni london was apprehensive about our meeting but had reluctantly agreed. I selected a restaurant that I was certain he would not turn down the opportunity for a nice meal. I had a selfish reason in wanting to meet this guy, his music was great and I knew he would be a star someday. The big day came and we met downtown at Rittenhouse square, I easily recognised him, who can miss a serious artist. We said hello and proceeded into the restaurant, and immeadiately we were seated. Between the bread rolls we talked about the area and music in general. He appeared to have total mastery of music, and I was impressed at what I heard. I ordered some wine to loosen up the tongue, and to my surprise I found out that this fellow Young Moni London trained in the sciences and later in his career switched to full time music. This truly was a second life for him, a career where the power of your work was not reflected in the reach of your product. His music was not on televison or radio, but he had uploaded it unto the popular site you tube. He placed two samples online, "we had it all" and "win is all we do". The quality of his work was superb, yet he could not get any major carrier to play his music. I was amazed at his commitment to music, but I also wondered how he made ends meet. He seemed to suspect what I was thinking, and he remarked towards the end of our meal that "I do odd jobs here and there to put food on the table". This was the life of a musician, always unpredictable but gratifying. I realised that a musician could write a great song, and probably never get discovered. Young Moni london obviously had not been discovered by the general public, but I had stumbled upon a rising star. How long the secret was going to be kept away from the popiulace was anybody's guess. In the music business, everything is choreographed by the minders. Until a script is written for you, darkness remains hovering over your head. We left the restaurant heading in opposite directions, he towards the subway and I made a dash towards the parking lot. Rush hour was approaching, and I had to head for the mainline before the gridlock descended upon those heading away from the city. This truly was a story of a second life for a young man struggling to have his music heard amongst the music industry sharks. I thought about it for a moment. but it seemed a daunting task in America, to push your music into the mainstream without the backing of a major recording studio. I decided to follow the career of this man,and perhaps see a rising star glow for us all. I reviewed online to see how his work was doing, and surprisingly there had been over a thousand hits in a three week period and counting. I thought to myself, that he had hope after all, No need to feel sorry for a starving artist, not this one at least. Like his lyric "It is well my friend", I realized he would be alright.

Sailing in Second Life!!

VickieMaid — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:48:48 GMT

Of all the things I do or done in Second Life I never thought I would be sailing a boat and become..well..good at it. Last year I had taken on a relay team that is part of the sailing community in Second Life, Sail4Life under the direction of Chad Sawson is where I found out that even someone thats never sailed even in the real world could take a virtual boat and with some lessons sail or even participate in virtual sail boat races.

After contacting Chad Sawson to inform him I was being assigned his team mentor we proceeded to talk a little bit about sailing in SL, I learned there's quite a number of Real world sailors that are actively involved as they brought a tremendous amount of knowledge of the Racing Rules of Sailing inworld.

Another thing I learned was each boat has there own characteristics in how they sail using the inworld winds and going from one sim to another just by using the main map. There is so much I can tell you but I have to say it's certainly something I never ever thought I do, even in the Real world.

Certainly I will try to bring a little bit more about sailing in Second Life when time permits.

Valentine's Day Love Tower Broke SL Record

JaneyBracken — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:58:49 GMT

There’s a lot going on in Second Life to mark Valentine’s Day tomorrow! Yesterday Up4 Dawes and Rux Anatra, owners of the Old Europe sim, held an event which was a little bit different to the usual dances and parties leading up to the most romantic day of the year.

Up4 and Rux celebrated by building the highest tower of heart shaped balloons ever recorded in SL. Up4 wanted the balloons to reach the virtual skies and that’s just what they did, fourteen of them, and inside 13 of the balloons were 13 avatars, me and friend Hibiscus Hastings amongst them!

The beautifully decorated ‘in my heart’ balloons are large enough to have a couch inside, so the owner can hold their balloon by the string and their loved one can sit inside it whilst the owner walks along; a very novel idea (only achievable in SL of course!). Up4 gathered us all in Old Europe at 1pm and we each got our balloons from the vendor. Rux started the tower, as she held onto her balloon and asked one of the participants to sit inside it. The person sitting in Rux’s balloon held their own balloon making room for the next person to join the tower, they held their balloon too for the next person to sit in and so on! The tricky bit was trying not to have a computer crash, a risky business in SL when there are lots of avatars and scripts being used in a sim. A crash would have sent the people in the balloons above you spiralling off into the skies! I gingerly took pictures from my position near the lower half of the tower, just hoping my computer would be good to me!

More and more people came to the sim and it got trickier for them the higher the tower got, until we settled for the record of 14 balloons held shakily aloft. Up4 completed the event by getting his airplane launched with Rux’s balloon attached to it so we all suddenly took off into the virtual skies behind Up4 as he looped the loop around the rooftops of Old Europe. He did a great job until the inevitable crash of the line of balloons and we suddenly started falling back to the ground. What a good job avatars can fly in SL, so there were no casualties!

We all had great fun and Up4 and Rux had broken the record with the height of their Love Tower! Congratulations to the two of them for this very unusual Valentine’s event!

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Old%20Europe/5/207/23

Happy Valentines Day from SL!!

VickieMaid — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:18:48 GMT

From Fisher Island Yacht Club in Clipper Bay, Vickie Maidstone reporting
==============================================
And good evening everyone form the home of Fisher Island Yacht Club where at this hour a beautiful Valentines Day dance is in progress. Members of the yacht club and members from the SLCG were dressed in formal attire making for a beautiful evening under the stars and dancing to the music provided by DJ Loriiii Shepherd, and is hosted by Fanci Beebe-Leavitt. As I said that members of the yacht club and of the SLCG (Second Life Coast Guard) looked stunning in beautiful dresses and dress uniforms making for a very lovely evening. Drinks and finger foods were provided by the yacht club and contests were being held as well providing quite an evening filled with music, dancing and over all a wonderful evening.

The club was decorated with lovely bouquets of flowers and the tables were set lending to the over all formal atmoshpere. The refreshment table was also set with drinks and as I said delicious finger foods.

Certainly a beautiful night on the dance floor under the stars and a gentle breeze coming in from the ocean and with the couples dancing together for a night of memories made for an unforgettable evening.

I'm Vickie Maidstone reporting, Happy Valentines Day 2012

Pooky Mania The 1st Question

any1gynoid — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:18:46 GMT

An exceedingly intellectual game show is the foreground for this story about fame and fortune in Second Life. Low brow it is decidedly naught. What happened? Well. Well. I promised myself I’m not begging to get into the gig. I’ll report this straight up.

Twas naught the night before Xmas, but about 1 hour before show time Pooky Amsterdam sent out an all hands announcement… Hey Mates! She’s doing a special, unheard-of, “Friday” show! Wow! Say what?

The guest stars in this show… simply amazing. First, my longtime Second Life friend, a world treasure, Widget Whiteberry (Picture 2). She is the producer of Virtually Speaking, a wildly popular live podcast show in Second Life, that covers all things political. Widget has expanded the show from the usual 6pm SLT Thursdays to include novel events throughout the week, most any evening in SL.

This explains a lot. Guest #2 is Will Wright (SL name StupidFunWill, Picture 3), one of the rock star gods of electronic game design. The original architect of The Sims and Sim City, Will’s favorite element is Titanium, and his invented word is “perplexinated”.

Guest #3 is Grady Booch (SL name Alem Theas, Picture 4); Grady is hands-down, the all-time greatest rock star god of software engineering. Currently an IBMer with a business card that says “Free Radical”, the Hermit of Lakewood’s favorite element is Oxygen, and invented word is “politigusted,” which apparently is how you feel after watching Fox News all day at work. As if! Hmmmm.

But what is this story really about? I’ll sketch an outline, and let you draw the conclusions. Reminder: There are no coincidences.

Will’s getting paid. Grady’s getting paid. Will is the new king’s wizard, SL CEO Rod Humble’s go-to guy for all things game design. The moral hegemony of VS. Surprise show on a Friday. IBM’s god-man. Linden Lab's god-man. I'm just saying. Command performance. Hydra Shaftoe returns to Second Life, out of deep SL retirement. Never say never. There is something that could make all these coincidences happen. One dollar one vote! Eeeeep!

Surprising find: Treet TV’s Overflow Room at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Garden%20of%20dreams/18/233/24
A great place to catch all things Treet TV, including The 1st Question. No Lag. It’s where hard working iReporters do their thang, just like our RL counterparts on the campaign trail. The Overflow Room. Go Figure!

Special thanks and photo credits to Petlove Petshop for the pictures. Huggles! I still can’t get into the gig! Eeeeep!

The 1st Question website: http://www.the1stquestion.com/

The Story in Pictures

Picture 1: Pooky Amsterdam and Hydra Shaftoe… The classic dream team: superstar emcee and her beloved sidekick of The 1st Question! A Second Life Game Show. Great to have you back Hydra! Woot! Or as Widgy might say "Pookilicious!" One aspect of Pookiphilia. lol

Picture 2: Widget Whiteberry

Virtually Speaking (VS) events are at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtually%20Speaking/43/54/29
Podcasts on this site: http://virtually-speaking.com/

Linked VS program updates available via Google Groups and Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/groups/6626186145/
and http://groups.google.com/group/virtuallyspeaking

Picture 3: Will Wright

Will’s GameTech briefing is at: http://www.slideshare.net/guesta79ddf9/orando2010-5

Picture 4: Grady Booch

Grady’s blog is at: http://www.handbookofsoftwarearchitecture.com/index.jsp?page=Blog

Picture 5: Superflufee and the rabble rousing audience. Three Cheers to All You Lot! Razzy! See my previous iReport viciously spoofed by Superflufee in this amazingly funny video! Eeeep! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiPqFfHdtwQ

Five Years of SL!!

VickieMaid — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:43:46 GMT

Well, October 26th 2006 I rezzed into the virtual community of Second Life, and not knowing what or how I literally stumbled into this strange and wondrous community. Over time I made friends, learned how to communicate, how to teleport to many places and lots of other interesting stuff.
As I have told some friends recently the real reason why I haven't quit Second Life is because of the up coming Relay For Life of SL, of which I support whole heartily.

I guess its an addiction you get accustomed to even like other online communities as well, I am still on World of Warcraft yet so my time there is a long ways from being over. In closing going on my 6th year in Second Life has already brought a lot of wonder and amazement.

The two screenshots are before and after pictures of me.

“State of Being in a virtual world” - Lecture in Second Life

SLMarjorie — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:24:21 GMT

The Virtual University in Second Life held a new conference.

When: 2012, 5th February

10 am slt (1pm EST, 6pm GMT, 19h CET)

Speaker: Pamala Clift

Title: “State of Being in a virtual world”.

Where: in Second Life

Biomedicine Research Sim

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Biomedicine%20Research%20Lab2/201/174/2532

Abstract:

The realities of multiple perceptions by those populating our virtual environment.

This lecture will examine how it is to BE in world. Divided in three categories... Dissassociative, Immersive, and Augmentative. How all three are valid methods of Being, but how the interactions played out can be major drama fest. Lets exam how to tell where the avatar your talking to is on the sliding scale of being... A lecture for those who wish to understand the mental framework of their students, target markets for business, and the psychology of virtual being. And an interesting lecture as a basis for understanding virtual relationships.

A man from Bangladesh granted the US Citizenship with fraudulent documents. His ex wife from Venezuela claims that he has another identification and has proofs

Sorangel — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 01:04:23 GMT

A man from Bangladesh with the name of Nurul Mostakim who is currently living in Atlantic City New Jersey granted the US Citizezship with another name Afjal Hussein. This person lied to the United State inmmigration so easy and now is US citizen. Nurul Mostakim came to US in 1994 and applied for a politica asylum and got an employment authorization issued by innmigration from (Newark) in 1996 until 1997. His application for the political asylum was denied in 1997 but Nurul Mostakim Stayed in The United States illegaly. Now Nurul Mostakim granted The US Citizenship under other name with a different passport and impersonating his brother identification. This person is involved in fraudulent singnatures given to the Family Court in Atlantic City in order to obtain the temporal guardianship of his child as his uncle in 2003. His ex wife Sorangel Marron figured out all this issues whe she came to US to make a report to the Police and went to the to the Family Court in Atlantic City. The family Court said that she gave the temporal guardianship to the uncle of her child. Sorangel wasn´t in US in 2003 and claims that the uncle of his child is the father using another identification.

Her son who born in Atlanta GA was taken by his father Nurul Mostakim when he came to visit him from Caracas Venezuela to Atlanta GA in 2000. The father disspeared with her son without a trace. After ten years thanks to facebook her son found a profile under his name with a picture that she created with the hope to find him. She hired a privated detective and identified her ex husband with a new name. The FBI said that this person is an US Citizen under the name of Afjal Hussein . She claims that this person is impersonating his brother identity and carrying a temporal guardianship given with fake signatures under her name. Now she is requesting to the Family Court in Atlantic City a paternity test and an expert in forensic caligraphy to compare the signatures. Afjal Hussein told her in front the police that to proof her story. Sorangel Marron went to The Inmigration Office in New Jersey to report the case. Now she is waiting for any actions against him. Sorangel Marron is from Venezuela but currently living in Spain. She crossed the ocean with her ten months old baby to solve this problem and tell to the media about this situation.

Cartoonimals Sim Closing in SL - Last Chance to See the Cutest Virtual Animals!

JaneyBracken — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:12:06 GMT

I have quite a few virtual birds and animals at my SL home, they add a bit of life as they wander and fly around the sim, just like the real thing, only without the care and attention you have to give to real pets! So when I heard that Cartoonimals, a business that sells SL creatures, owned and designed by Duggy Bing was closing, I decided to take a look. Duggy has a notice displayed at the sim saying it will close on February 14, so you still have a chance to see all his wonderful work on display until that time. All is not lost, however, as his creations will still be available on Second Life MarketPlace.

I had guessed by the name Cartoonimals that perhaps the animals were more of a comical nature than true representations of their real life counterparts, and I wasn’t wrong! I simply fell in love with the SL beasts as soon as I saw them! They just raise a smile with their cuteness!!

I hadn’t really intended to make it a shopping trip, but ended up coming away with some gophers, an owl and a playful skunk who walks around omitting a green cloud every now and again! No wonder his name is Stinky!

Duggy has designed some of the best tip jars I’ve seen, all little creatures in their various poses, a cat playing a violin, a disc jocky dog with his record deck, even a little hoola hoola cat with her grass skirt! Not to mention a cartoon Elvis with his white rhinestone suit.

The jungle animals are so funny, the Elephants and Hippos with their big eyes blinking in the SL sunlight. The flamingos are busy watching one of their eggs hatch as a baby flamingo’s head pops out from the cracked shell! As you walk around you notice a chimpanzee overhead on a swing; there is an invitation by way of a pose ball to join him in the air, clicking on the pose I was suddenly holding hands with the chimp as if on a trapeze, great fun!

For anyone with a pond on their land or access to some SL ocean, there are plenty of little creatures to choose from. Sharks raising their heads out of the water, various little cats and other animals swimming in colourful rubber tyres, most of them sporting sunglasses as they relax and drift along. Beware of the crocodiles though, big green monsters wandering around at the water’s edge! A frozen Island of cartoon penguins is a comical sight as one of their friends floats near to them on his own lump of ice. Just further along there are some dinosaurs, huge scaly and green, one of them taking a run at you as you walk along the footpath, whilst a pterodactyl swoops about in the sky.

Duggy has some human cartoon figures too, a hilarious assortment of characters to wear as accessories with your own avatar. You can buy two burly bare-chested bodyguards who walk with you when you rez them, or for the men a cartoon lady who grabs your ankle as you try to walk away, like an adoring fan who just won’t let go!

I’m sad that the sim is closing, it’s enjoyable just going there to see, in person, all the brilliant creations that Duggy has made, so be sure to go and take a look before it finally close down in February. Meanwhile wishing Duggy every success with his business on the ever popular MarketPlace! No doubt I’ll be shopping for some more creatures soon!

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cartoonimals/167/158/24

LOST DOG HAVE YOU SEEN HIM?

jamurray1 — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 13:52:05 GMT

Sunday January 22, 2012 Gyeongju, Gyeongsang-buk-do South Korea. Express Bus terminal. Traveling from Suwon to Gyeongju City at 10:19 am departing Suwon arriving at Gyeongju at 2;50 pm. Janet Murray USA residing in South Korea on a Tourist Visa retired Postal Worker and teacher.
Prince is about 1 year and 10 months old and he is my friend and companion. Today when we were on the bus in South Korea he came up missing and no one seems to know where he is. If you have seen him please contact me. He was in the black case under my seat when he was last seen by me. The bus company has lied to me about it as well they seem to not understand me this is their excuse for telling me they would look for him they had me sit in the bus depo for over two hours saying that he was on the way and the bus would be back with him or that was my understanding and when another bus showed up that was not the bus he was on with me they tried to tell me it was the bus. I had taken a picture of the bus and the bus they were trying to make me believe was the bus did not even have the same tag let alone driver. I am totally flapper gasted to say the least. I have a tracking chip in him but that too is all in the Korean language and there is no one available to ask to help me read it to find him any help will be greatly apperciated and even rewarded with funds as well. Please help me find my dog. Contact me at 82 1087872041 you can text me or call if your in Korea dial 010878720041 if outside dial as above.

Brilliant News About Friend Pixi

JaneyBracken — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:53:53 GMT

Well my Christmas dreams did come true! I wrote recently that I’d lost contact with a dear friend in Second Life and I dedicated my Christmas Story to her this year, just as I had done before, as I hadn’t heard from Pixi for an awfully long time; I was worried sick knowing she had been ill. Pixi, who is one of the bravest people I know, hadn’t been able to use her computer because of her illness. However, thank goodness! I have finally heard from her, and she is now making a good recovery. Pixi, whom I met in Second Life in 2008 was just finding out that she had a real talent for writing, her humour and warmth showed in her articles and I quickly asked her to join our little SL News Team and write for ‘Virtually London (lite)’ and ‘Our Virtual Trilogy’. Have a look at her story about the ice rink in SL Hyde Park in 2008 http://sllondon.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-ice-skating-rink-in-hyde-park.html
reading it still makes me smile when I think of her, she is such good company and so much fun to be with.

So never give up on people if you don’t hear from them! I sent Pixi emails to let her know she was still one of our team and was badly missed. Hopefully, very soon, she will be well enough to join us again and I will watch this budding writer’s career blossom, as I’m sure it will!

Welcome back Pixi, hearing from you was the best Christmas present anyone could ever give me!!!

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-722381 (Christmas Story for Pixi 2011)

http://ourvirtualtrilogy.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-story-for-pixi.html

http://sllondon.blogspot.com/2010/12/gemma-and-angel-christmas-story-for.html

MICHAEL JACKSON TRIBUTE IN SECOND LIFE

Lorriefla12 — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 09:35:24 GMT

NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED

PURELY A TRIBUTE WITH ME & MY FRIEND SINGING THE
VOCALS

Twenty-four Hours in Second Life – Looking Back

webspelunker — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 04:30:33 GMT

Well, I did it! I spent twenty-four hours in Second Life (SL) and am still among the living (both SL and Real Life (RL)).

I don’t have enough space to describe everything but it was a wonderful experience and please read my blog where I’ve posted four stories recounting the trip.

SL is a fantastic place with great people. I encourage all to visit some of the sites I write about and when inworld look for a few of their own to visit.

Before I go, I want to thank those who came out in the last couple of hours to encourage me to keep going. Spec Belfire, Hibiscus Hastings, and World Undercroft, I really appreciate your being there for me in the wee hours of the morning. Janey Bracken, thanks for coming out to be with me as I finished my journey and witnessing its end! I look forward to our next game of Greedy, Greedy with Hibiscus.

Happy New Year to all and please visit and support the sites mentioned in these stories!

I want to thank all the others for coming out to meet and travel with me during my twenty-four hours in SL. I also am grateful to all of them for helping me along the way!

I welcome feedback from readers, please either comment on my blog or e-mail me at webspelunker@gmail.com .

If you would like to read about my other adventures in Second Life please click here.

Photo No. 1: Flying Crane Tour

Photo No. 2: Kevin the Bird Behind web

Photo No. 3: Topographic Map of Phaze Demesnes

Photo No. 4: Linden Realms Portal Area

Photo No. 5: North Pole Sleigh Ride Adventure Off Season Arrival Area

Photo No. 6: web on a snowmobile

Photo No. 7: Muddy’s Music Café Dance Floor

Photo No. 8: Ankh-Morpork Winter Scene

Photo No. 9: Snowmen Auto Accident

Photo No. 10: Fashionably Dead

CNN Island Goes Out In Style In SL

JaneyBracken — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 01:00:32 GMT

CNN island had a fitting send off tonight as some of the big names in SL media turned out to join the party for the final CNN gathering before the sim closes forever this weekend. Nicole, Henry and Rhonda from CNN.com joined in the fun and the lively group took to the dance floor with Nicole doing some nifty dance moves as her final role as Nicole ireport! Grace McDunnough kindly supplied the music for the event. I could see Henry tonight and he could see me, we had been a cloud and a grey figure to each other last time we met, so I managed to get some pictures of him tonight for his final SL log-in as Henry ireport.

It’s been great working with the CNN team and I went over earlier today to get some photos of CNN Island before they take it down. Nicole and Henry had held meetings on different parts of the sim for a change of scenery, so we would often end up at the little café, the car lot or even the rickety old bridge for our weekly get-togethers. I’d like to say Hi to CNN’s Tyson Wheatley and Lila ireport who I met in the first few weeks of CNN's presence in SL, if they are reading this! It was nice to see some of my fellow writers, Ed Follet (who kindly supplied some early pictures of CNN meetings), Hibiscus Hastings, webspelunker Ghostraven, Vickie Maidstone and AlexHayden Junibalya who were there tonight.

Sad days for us all, but not the end, I’ll still be writing as no doubt the others will too, so there will be many more SL stories to share on the CNN ireport pages. Good wishes to the team at CNN and all at the party tonight, I hope everyone has a brilliant 2012. Happy New Year and new beginnings!

Farewell To CNN In Second Life

JaneyBracken — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 20:00:32 GMT

It was with a little sadness that I heard the news from CNN producers Nicole ireport and Henry ireport (their avatar names! but CNN producers in real life none the less), that CNN Island will be closing in Second Life. It has come as no big surprise to be honest, as the hectic politics of today’s real world leaves CNN people with little time to cover everything, let alone a fun thing like Second Life.

It’s been great, I owe both Nicole and Henry a lot, as I started to write seriously by using the CNN ireport pages back in 2008 when they started the SL project. Today at a meeting at CNN Island Nicole said “We set up shop here in 2008 because we wanted to see what it was like to participate in a real-time community, in a virtual world no less. We didn't know what to expect. The prospect was a little scary, to be completely honest.”

“We've realized that there's a whole culture in-world, and we met so many people and acquired amazing threads and dance moves. Our comfort level grew, and we really feel like we've come to know you. It's been a few years now and we're thoroughly appreciative of this community we've had a privilege to be a part of. We are all proud of what we accomplished here and excited about the future. Just wanted you to know that.”

She added “We wanted to let you know that we'll never forget our meetings, amazing hair and of course the incredible figures on our avatars. (lol!) We wish we looked like this in real life. It's truly been one of my favourite projects at CNN, and I think others will agree.” It’s been fun for us too Nicole and I think I can speak for a lot of other ireporters too!

Nicole and Henry told us that there will still be Second Life Assignments, so nothing has really changed except their visits in-world. There are still some of the finer points to work out, but CNN will let us know very soon what else is happening. There will be a farewell party on CNN Island on Thursday at 2pm SLT and it would be nice if as many of the SL ireporter group could come along and show Nicole and Henry our appreciation for all the time they shared with us in SL.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/CNN%20iReport%20Island/128/128/24

Twenty-four Hours in Second Life

webspelunker — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 18:55:31 GMT

Greetings all! I haven’t been here for a while but I’m dropping in to let everyone know about my next endeavor.

On Friday, December 30th, I’ll be in Second Life (SL) for a full twenty-four hours. That’ll be from 12:01AM to midnight on that day.

I’ll be visiting with old friends and going to some of earlier haunts. I also hope to meet friends, see new places, and have new experiences. I’ll be posting a new story every hour on my blog. So, if you can’t join me on the grid, hopefully, you’ll follow my travels!

In case, anyone is worried that I’m having difficulty separating SL from Real Life (RL), don’t fret. RL requires that I stay home that day and I thought this would be a good time to do this. I’ve been looking for an excuse to do this and now I have one.

I hope that you’ll look me up on Friday if you happen to find yourself inworld. Or, if you have a location or someone whom I should me, send me the particulars and I’ll check them out. (Assuming they’ll have me!)

Below, please find some pictures of a few places that I’ll be visiting during my twenty-four hours in SL.

As the Old Year winds down and the New Year approaches, I want to thank everyone who met with and helped this wanderer and I hope to meet you again soon in SL. Happy New Year!

I welcome feedback from readers, please either comment on my blog or e-mail me at webspelunker@gmail.com .

If you would like to read about my other adventures in Second Life please click here.

Photo No. 1: Flashmans - Esoterica

Photo No. 2: 1920’s Berlin

Photo No. 3: Renaissance Faire