Author: John

Now that the trailer for Stömol is done, I can get down to the serious business of procrastinating over doing the audio for the movie. Since I promised a series of ‘how to’ blog posts back in September, I’m going to start with that.

I’ll begin with the basic tools. To anyone who’s dabbled with machinima in Second Life, the following will likely be nothing new. The problem with this sort of stuff, however, is that people rarely take the time to write it all down because they assume everyone knows it. It’s a human weakness that we tend to forget that we didn’t once know the stuff that we know now, as evidenced by the SL residents who still seem to think that all the paraphernalia associated with mesh bodies and ‘appliers’ is easy (whilst still expressing astonishment that more people don’t take up SL). Luckily, one of my…

For my simploring tour on Monday, January 30th, I picked Soul of Dreams from scoop.it SL Destinations. Soul of Dreams is a moderate homestead owned by Xana Ligati (xana newall). Xana is the blog manager of GOOSE – Home & Garden.
The sim was designed by Busta (badboyhi).

Soul of Dreams – overview

Soul of Dreams consists of three islands, one main island and 2 smaller islands. They are connected by bridges. The landing is close to the brigde to one of the smaller islands, with is occupied by a huge lighthouse. I first had a look around at the landing point. Some seals and birds are there and the spot already offers nice opportunites to take pictures. The sim is surrounded by snow covered mountains, Soul of Dreams is covered with less snow.

Impressions of Soul of Dreams (1) – around the landing point

I first went…

The Cold Rose, January 2020 – click any image for full size

Designed by artist and blogger Oema and her SL partner Van Lopen, The Cold Rose is a public / residential homestead region that opened its doors at the start of 2020, and which we dropped into over the weekend whilst out exploring.

Nestled amongst a group of off-sim islands, and itself split into a number of rocky and low-lying isles, the region has the feel of being a small group of islands perhaps seated in the more northern latitudes, and a place caught between the passing cold of winter and the warmer times of spring. The About Land description states the region is “perfect for photographers and bloggers”, and there is certainly much that is photogenic about the setting. However, I’d suggest this is tempered somewhat by the five private properties also to be found within it.

The…

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Forbidden Fruit

Monique “Moni” Beebe makes a further return to Dido Haas’ Nitroglobus Roof Gallery to mark the start of the year, with her latest exhibition Forbidden Fruit.

Moni is one of the most sensuous, evocative artist and – given she is generally the subject of her own work – models in Second Life, somthing I’ve noted in the past, as such I’ve been looking forward to seeing her latest exhibition since Dido tipped me the wink that Moni would be making a further return to Nitroglobus. She has the ability to present studies that are rich in mood, sensuality, nuance, story and sexuality – the latter without relying on being blatant provocation.  Rather, they are genuine works of art that would be fully at home in any physical world gallery as they would in a virtual setting.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Forbidden Fruit

This latter point is…

via and © Linden Lab

Linden Lab has issued a call to merchants interested in participating in their 2020 Valentine’s 2020 in-world shopping event, scheduled to run from Monday, February 3rd through to and will run through Friday, February 17th, 2020 inclusive.

Merchants interested in participating are asked to offer at least a 20% discount on the normal price of their goods, and to indicate whether or not they would be willing to offer a gift to shoppers.

Those wishing to participate in the event should do so via the official application form, and do so no later than  Monday, January 20th, 2020. Note that this is only an application – depending on the number of respondents, it is possible that not all those who apply may  receive a place at the event. Successful applicants will be contacted by the Lab after January 20th.

For further information, please refer…

Grey Magic Winter, January 2020 – click any image for full size

Grey Magic is a full region designed by SL partners Kimmie Rayna and CHRlSTIANGREY that offers a mix of public spaces and private rentals. For those still feeling in the mood for winter scenes and snow, the region is currently dressed for the colder months, a blanket of snow covering most of it and the central pond / lake has a frozen surface which, going by the condition of the top of the ice, has seen use as a skating rink.

Grey Magic Winter, January 2020

The east side of the region, together with the central body of water, form the region’s public areas, with the east side laid out as a street from a small town, lined by small businesses and town houses.  Most of the buildings are empty, although at the times of my visit, one…

Congratulations to the winners of the Scare Me Silly 2019 Photo Challenge!

1st Place: Chic Aeon

2nd Place: Diptheria Glas

3rd Place: Kimble Coles

4th Place: Cheri