Reader Submitted: The Relevance of Statues

All the current news about statues in the real world reminded me of a rather unprepossessing statue in Second Life that celebrates a huge step forward in the virtual world.

Back in 2006, working in the dark dangerous prim mines which honeycomb Heterocera,  a mole, sadly their name seems not to have been recorded, made a remarkable discovery as detailed for posterity on the plaque.

"This statue commemorates the discovery of sculpted prims in '06. Found in the prim mines of Heterocera, sculpted prims were immediately recognized as a new category of prim that would change the face of Second Life forever. This statue is dedicated to the brave Moles who delved into the pixelated crust of Heterocera Atoll in order to bring forth these valuable prims."

The statue is located alongside the West Coast Road,  close to a rezz zone and the YellowDots -"Chatty Cafe"-   http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Nightfield/252/145/37

If you want to combine a bit of extra  fun with your visit, there is a friendly mole  which allows you to rez a 4x4  and close by an Air Balloon rezzer. 

Annie Brightstar 

From "Exploring Second Life With Annie"

Cartoon of the Day

Picture, and most of the dialogue, from Anne Brightstar. In real life, even pet items are starting to get hard to find in places thanks to the Coronavirus-induced panic buying. So what's a kitty to do when even litterbox filler is in short supply?

By Bixyl Shuftan

Deepmarsh Sim In Trouble

Late last night, Anne Brightstar told me about a picturesque sim that may not be on Second Life much longer. Deepmarsh, located in the Beck sim, the sim had been owned by River McCallen. But apparently there is some kind of trouble with the payments. Anne told me who to contact for more information. And after I have more, I'll have an update. For now, those who want to check out the sim for themselves, donate, or both, can head to: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Beck/114/148/21

Bixyl Shuftan

Cartoon of the Day

Anne Brightstar was telling me about the pictures on her Flickr page, and I noticed this one. Why would just one statue have a ball. Maybe they were playing catch.

Bixyl Shuftan

Reaction to the Return of "The Lost Gardens of Apollo"

Since we (or rather Anne Brightstar and Shin Klaar) revealed that the beloved classic sim "The Lost Gardens of Apollo" was back online, there's been a number of reactions. Among them from Dane Zander, the sim's creator, whom thanked us for letting him know the location was back online.

Hamlet Au in his article about the return of the Gardens reminded readers what had happened to cause the location to close. Dane had been having financial problems at the time, bad enough for him to apply for debt relief, and "Doing so involves detailed scrutiny of my personal finances," he stated. Counting the European Value Added Tax, the sim was costing him $250 USD a month, and on his limited income, he couldn't afford it. While he had been able to cover most of his expenses through donations, he was far from alone in being hit by financial troubles, and the amount of Lindens in his donation jars dwindled.

Zander had written to Linden Lab at the time, suggesting to them they could take the sim and keep it running. But he never did hear from them. Nor is there anything to suggest that he had been contacted by the Lab before they restarted his sim. He was quoted as saying, "I only just heard about it. I am pretty shocked ... I had no idea. I'll have to ask LL what is going on. Thanks for the heads up though!"

The reactions from residents have been overwhelmingly positive, many fans happy to see it back. That the sim could be brought back years after it's fading away apparently without the permission of the owner was brought up by a person or two, which brought up the question of does this mean Linden Lab could do this with any sim. But that one person thought some statues seemed to be missing suggested that perhaps some data could have been lost.

And what of the "Lost Gardens of Apollo Memorial" by Delphi Bernard? She says she plans to keep her sim up as long as she is able to. She feels with the restored sim's broken animations and the lack of music, people will want to head to hers.

So will Linden Lab bring back another sim anytime soon? Right now, that's something only the Lab can answer, and it's probable they haven't decided whether or not to yet. Already some residents are making suggestions such as Forgotten City and Starry Night. Anne Brightstar had one other suggestion, one aimed not at bringing back a place but putting some activity back in one it already had: the SS Galaxy. She felt Linden Lab could easily get a few people to help organize parties on the ship, keep an eye on the music stream, and rent out rooms to people interested. While bringing the ship back by itself was better than nothing, no activity at all made it simply a museum piece, which to longtime fans of the ship was a sad reminder of once was.

For longtime residents whom once could only look at screenshots and old articles about favorite places which had vanished years ago, the return of the "Lost Gardens of Apollo" offers hope that maybe, just maybe, they will someday return.

Addition: Hamlet got in touch with Dane, and he had a few more things to say, about the return of his masterpiece.

Image credit: Hamlet Au

Bixyl Shuftan

Beach Party at Sunny Beach

Last weekend, the Newser crew took the time to relax with a beach party, and invited it's friends to come by. Taking place in the Sunny Beach sim just west of the Newser office, the party went on for three hours with lots of music and dance from Tantari Kim and Grease Coakes. A number of pictures were taken at the party.

See the pictures in Events.

Reader Submitted: Postcards From Greece

 Anne Brightstar, after informing the Newser of a tip that the Greek Islands would soon be closing, send over several screenshots of the location.

 A build of the Parthenon, one of the most famous remains of Ancient Greece.

As it turns out, much of the thirteen sim area has already been lost. How much longer the rest of the estates remains up is unknown.

Pictures by Anne Brightstar.

The Newser Beach Party

On Saturday January 2 at Noon SL time, some of the writers and fans of the SL Newser met up for a little beach party. The Newser crew usually has a beach party around Christmastime in December. It was suggested that a party just before the holiday might have a small turnout due to people either doing last minute shopping or being with family. So after some thought, it was moved to the Saturday after New Year's Day.

Among those who attended was Grey Lupindo, whom hadn't been inworld in a while, but took the time to drop by to get in touch once more with friends such as Gemma Cleanslate and FoxytheJamie.

The intended DJ was unable to log onto Second Life, so Tantari Kim, whom has been regularly DJing at the Happy Vixen took over, bringing her "Journey of Sound" to those outside the club's group of regulars dropping by. Old friends such as Kikas Barbenco (who ended up in the cartoon the following day) and Bejita dropped by. So did newer ones like store owner Alejandra Jumanya, Anne Brightstar, whom has recently started her own Second Life blog, "Exploring with Annie," Rai Fargis, who described himself as a real-life journalist, a co-captain from the Second Life Cherleader Squad, and others.

It was a happy time as we danced to the music, and put our cares away, at least for a little while.

Bixyl Shuftan

The Sim The Lab Wouldn't Close

Lately it seems a number of sims have been on the chopping block, sometimes threatened due to a bureaucratic glitch despite years of steady payments. So one would think if someone actually wanted their sim closed, Linden Lab would have it done quickly. In the case of MIC Island, that wasn't the case. Despite the owner telling them to take it down as she couldn't keep up the payments, the lab kept up the sim, and continued to bill her.

Read more in Extra.

Cartoon of the Day: Anne and Torley

Picture from Anne Brightstar on Facebook, she wrote that's actually Torley Linden there in the female avatar, quoting, "Torley started out in SL as Torley Torgeson Sr., a young male avatar in his 20s who carried around a synth. Due to some crazy time warp in SL, Torley Torgeson Sr. was replaced by his daughter Torley Torgeson Jr. a few months after joining SL. Torley Jr. was for a time replaced by a Bunny Torley, but eventually came back and the current Torley is once again Torley Jr. (female)." (S)he didn't have an explanation for these "Torley warp holes," though each one always had a preference for the same colors, watermelon pink and green.

But the first thing I noticed in this picture was how shaggy Anne looked in that outfit. Even her hair matched the color of those fuzzy pants.

By Bixyl Shuftan