Faces (That We See)

By Gemma Cleanslate

Thought provoking is what I would call the exhibit in Lea23. Ilyra Chardin (Ilyra Chardin) in collaboration, with friends has created a project named “Faces.” It involves you, and me. 

The entrance room has pictures and poems and comments about people and life , in real life and in Second Life , from people we know or have read about. We are all people behind an avatar. Some we come to know well because they want to let the two worlds meld, others do not so we know them as Second Life residents only. The portraits reflect the varied choices we make as a persona in the virtual world. The words on the wall remind us of the connection between our persona and the real person behind the face. Read it all well. The information in the slide show of a survey from 2015 is part of the basis for what is going on here I would suggest.  

Every visitor is invited to join in a writing contest . Look on the posts for information and rules. After checking out everything out in the anteroom walk through a door of your choice and begin your journey in creating your story . The information pack in the anteroom that you pick up will help you . Choose the scenario you like best as a basis for your story and begin to create. A map in each folder will guide you to the sites that offer options for thought.

Or, just go visit and explore the venues that are out there. I  took a tour of all the venues and your choices are many. You might approach the venue from one angle or another and come up with a completely different thought about what you wish to do. In one of the folders there is an interesting insight into Trolls. I found it really so interesting just looking at all the various sites that Ilyra has created.

I loved all the sites and saw so many options. It will be so interesting to see the stories that develop. There is much to think about in this installation. Just visiting each site caused me to come up with several possible stories of characters I know here or in real life.

As an example of this is from the folder at the hospital, “Did you know that 81% of those surveyed reported that someone close to them was in the hospital in real life during their time on Second Life?  Fifty-one percent reported that they were in the hospital at least once during their time on Second Life.  Eleven percent reported that they had a child during their time on Second Life.  84% reported a death of someone close to them during their time on Second Life.”  I have had both experiences. 

I am not sure if I will have time to write for the contest but am thinking about it. I have to get going on Christmas and winter places for you to explore! Visit and explore the region and the many environments created for you.

Gemma Cleanslate
  

"Feed The Beast" and The Minecraft Building Contest

By Bixyl Shuftan

Since the Minecraft "Angels Village" server was updated, and it's contents wiped away, the attention of the game's players in the Sunweaver and Angels groups switched to the FTB, aka "Feed The Beast," servers set up by both Kit Repine and Nydia Tungsten. Kit's initial server went from a shack set up near the spawn point for anyone unfortunate to drop in at night to a small stone fort with an ever-expanding underground chamber and tunnel network. Valkyrie McGil built an impressive build on the cliff next to the fort.

Jasmine quickly noticed the wide variety of tools the FTB version of Minecraft offered, from robot miners that could clear out sections of underground for stone and ores, to better suits of armor, including one with limited flight ability, and some nifty gadgets. One I found useful was a mechanical arm that acted like a combination diamond pick and gun. One could use it against zombies and creepers, but it had a strong recoil. Another was a pair of boots that kept one from getting hurt when falling from a great distance. It's a safe bet most Minecrafters ended up back in their bed after making a misstep at least once. One gadget some players had fun with was the "Portal" gun, which acted like the one in the game. One fun thing that came later were the funny hats that one could collect from mobs they appeared on at random.

But building these tools and toys required machines, machines that required energy. Exploring around, I came across a few oil fields some distance away. Those were one source of energy. But Jasmine's bigger machines required more. One interesting feature of "Feed The Beast" was accessing other worlds, or overworlds in Minecraft jargon, besides the Nether and "The End." Some of these places were quite strange, such as one in which players could end up damaged from sunburn if not wearing certain types of armor, which put us in the same position as a zombie or skeleton. These worlds could be accessed through portals, but they could also be traveled to and back via special books, leading to this part of the game being called "Mystcraft," after the popular computer game Myst in the 1990s. Besides places to explore, Jasmine used them as a source for mass quantities of energy-supplying lava and lots of ores.

All these features were certainly a contrast from the Minecraft we'd first set foot it, and it came with a price. Lag began to become a problem. And then, the servers would start to occasionally crash. This became quite frustrating to players and server owners alike. As it turned out, "Feed The Beast" was the combined result of over a few hundred Minecraft modifications cobbled together. Little wonder it could get unstable at times. And then came the server updates, which would sometimes wipe out what was made.

Despite the bugs, interest in Minecraft persisted. Nydia took some time to clean up her new FTB server before inviting her friends over. Once she thought it was ready, she wondered how it could be tested.

"I wanted to test the latest FTB server, see if the problems were solved," Nydia told me in a conversation, "so … I thought what a better way to test it than to have my friends go NUTS with their builds." Nydia decided to hold a competion to see who could come up with the best build, "So I turned them loose with OP powers and kept an eye on the server." The rules were fairly simple, build a town a small group of players could reside in, " purposely left the build requirements vague, I wanted to see how they would be interpreted, and I must say I was NOT disappointed in the creativity that was generated. (I wasn't the) only one impressed either, the builders were as well when they got to see each other's builds."

The competition attracted a number of players, "We started with over eight builders, but due to their real-lives, some had to drop out, which was a shame really. The beginnings of their builds looked so promising. We had futuristic to medevil and even fairy tale fantasy. We even had some Anime thrown in, but unfortunately that one wasn't finished. … This will sound obscure to those not familiar with the series 'Girls und Panzers' it was going to be a city ship," a ship with a city built inside, "It qualified for the contest (laughter)."

"The way it was judged was very unique as well," Nydia explained,  "I have never heard of (Minecraft) being done like this at all. I left some of the judging be done by the builders themselves. The only reason I did it that way was I knew all the builders and knew they would be fair. They would judge the others, but not themselves. And I had 2 people here with me in real life that don't play MC (yet) to help me with the judging. And yes I did the live broadcast the event to help." Nydia put a live feed of what she saw into her video channel on the day of the judging.

One problem the contest had was the unstable nature of FTB Minecraft, and the contest was suspended and extended a couple times due to the server crashing, " I run it off my same system I use I thought it could maybe it could handle it this time, unfortunately...it cant. … I wish I could invite everyone on to view the builds, but itwas just too hard on my system, I have 8GB of RAM with the server and (with) Second Life running, it would climb up to the 80% used area. If I was linked a video....it would go into the 90s. More than once it got to 98%, if it went higher I would crash." Still, she persisted, "But we were able to finish the contest and have a lot of fun in the process."

Of the winners, Skylark's village came in third place. Valkyrie was second "by only a few points." Her village was near the server spawn point, and had crop and berry bush areas, with miniature golems gathering the fruit. For first place, it was "a tie between 2 good friends and Angels Jasmine and Shion (Winkler), it was so close it was almost a 3 way tie!"

Jasmine's place was a treehouse village with buildings set up on super tall trees, "t was a fully function town any elf would DROOL over with all the tech any mage would envy and then it had the walk ways between the massive trees to count as a city in itself." Jasmine tapped into another overworld via "Mystcraft" for the lava to power it, "Val went into the Nether to power all of her computers and tech as well." Jasmine's village had a diner in which automated machines could dispense a variety of foods with the press of a button. Kryxia Silverfall helped her out during the building.

Shion's town was build around a cathedral, as were some Medieval cities. It was the most detailed building, both inside and out. It had a harbor with ships, and a balista and a number of cranes around, to give it the look of a place still in construction.

For the winners, Nydia had a prize, "I kept the prize secret until the day of Judging I was able to offer the winner $50 USD or split it as it turns out, but they both turned it down. Sooo, I donated it to 'The Furry Gamer' group to help some of our members get into the rest of (the games we play). They wanted me to use it for my Angels, which I will do if it is needed. But I think it could do better for a group dedicated to having some fun. Thats what this was all about, having fun."

As good as the builds were, Nydia had to take the server back down. The FTB was just too much on her systems to keep up without crashes. But her new "vanilla" server, updated to Minecraft 1.62, was available. This newer Minecraft is commonly called the "horse update" due to its now including horses. They can be fitted with a saddle and "broken" for riding.

So how to build a place for the Angels there? Nydia soon had her answer, "that night when I finally had all the votes, I brought them all to my office at home (in Second Life) and told them who won, well, they started talking about each others builds, and before I knew it I had a build crew on my hands for the new Angels Village. … once in and started they met up with 'Hojo' another builder from the last world we had and he joined in"

Dropping in for myself at Jasmine's invitation, the place wasn't too far from the spawn point. Just walk down the road for a few minutes, and one would soon see the place, encompassed by walls. Inside, they had built a barn for horses (by Jasmine) and other critters, a town hall, an inn, an outdoor market, a mages tower (by Valkyrie), a cathedral (by Shion), a harbor with ships (also by Shion), and more. When Nydia saw it for herself, "I can sum it up with one word: 'Whoah …' "

So what was next for Nydia and her Angels & friends in Minecraft? She does have some plans, "in the future I am planning on having adventure maps for group play. I have a bit to learn still before I can start hosting events but it IS planned for in the future. We have had 'End raids' in the past and those were a LOT of fun."

So despite "Feed The Beast" acting a bit beasty, the action in Minecraft from residents of the Sunweaver and Angel's estates continues.

Nydia has a video of the villages during the contest judging donwloadable in the following link (here - 498MB).

Bixyl Shuftan

Biker Rally at ZZ Studios

A friend of mine had told me ZZ Studios, the exotic “blue movie” studio, was holding a biker rally on Sunday July 17th. It had originally been scheduled for Saturday, but after hearing about the Relay for Life walk moved the event up a day. The event was at 6PM Second Life time, just across the street from the Studio’s theater and social club in Falcon Valley.

So what’s a biker rally hosted by an adult media company like on the Grid? There were a few more women than the one’s I’ve seen in real life, sometimes with skimpier clothing, and there wasn’t any beer. But they had the essential element: motorcycles. Over a dozen motorbikes were parked in the lot. To get around the prim limit, two riders brought in a couple more bikes by staying mounted on them. And of course, Miss Cindy “Zig Zag” Babi, the infamous tigerstriped skunkgirl whom was the owner and main actress of ZZ Studios, was there.

Most of the bikes were made up from 28-39 prims, some looking fairly well designed. But there was one monster primhog, the GSXR88, taking up 239 prims. While well detailed, those on the Grid whom have had to deal with lag (and who hasn’t) might question the wisdom of using all those prims. Also, maybe it was a glitch of the Grid that particular day, but periodically the GSXR88 would vanish then gradually rezz prim by prim.

The DJ for the event was Husky Fang. And just what music gets played at a ZZ Studios biker rally? Most were pop hits one could expect at most any other party. They included, “The Reanimator,” “Numa Numa,” a Tron “Derezzed” remix, which got Cindy going, “Wow! I like this song,” and of course one skunk song, “Stamp on the Ground.” Also played was “I Can Only Imagine,” which I hadn’t heard in Second Life since a visit to a Christian club. And the DJ played one song just for one biker ...

On the day I was born, the nurses all gathered 'round

And they gazed in wide wonder, at the joy they had found

The head nurse spoke up, and she said leave this one alone

She could tell right away, that I was bad to the bone.

Bad to the bone!

Bad to the bone!

B-B-B-B-Bad

B-B-B-B-Bad

B-B-B-B-Bad

Bad to the bone!


They talked about the bikes and the music, but talk went to other things. Somehow food and deserts came up, and conversation turned to cheesecake. One of the girls sighed, “Cheesecake? Oh, I would make LOVE for cheesecake.” Some of the guys promptly began doing Internet research for cheesecake recipes.

Cindy Babi had a bike of her own in the rally, her “Super Sybian.” But at another point she rezzed something else, a kind of rideable jet. Readers may remember from her interview “never put Zig Zag in the cockpit,” so what would happen if she tried driving the thing? The jet launched, and quickly zipped around the office building. It quickly went past the beach, and into the water. But before the engine’s fire was flooded out, she got it out of the water, and ZOOOM!! It took off like a rocket. Within a couple seconds, the jet was out of view. Would Cindy end up being the first porn star in orbit? A minute later, she walked back to the bike rally. She had managed to get away before becoming an accidental astronaut without a suit.

It was soon time to judge the bikes. Third place went to Valen Greymoon, second to Krae Evanier, and first went to Polecatt Merryman, who owned the GSXR88. But the crowd wanted a little more, and Cindy agreed to a “Burnout” contest. Krae and Valen entered, along with “Bad to the Bone” Ronald Milev. One after another, the two biker babes and biker guy drove to the street, revved their engines, and sped down the road for a short stretch. Krae Evanier was declared the winner of the Burnout and 600 Lindens.

With the end of the contest, the bikers began going their separate ways. And this ended the bike rally at ZZ Studios.

Bixyl Shuftan