Reader Submitted: The SL23B Swaginator Gift Locations

 

 Sent by Kamida Delec, for those having trouble finding the Swaginator gift locations.

 

Gift 1 - http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SLB%20Celebrate/154/23/21

Gift 2 - http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SLB%20Fascinate/191/88/23

Gift 3 - http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SLB%20Impressive/146/89/219

Gift 4 - http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SLB%20Mesmerize/199/145/22

Gift 5 - http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SLB%20Incredible/187/155/21

 

Rez Zones For Boats in Bellisseria

 

Among the various activities in Second Life one can do is boating, whether it's a small sailboat or a big yacht. But finding a place to place one from your inventory isn't always easy. Fortunately, the other day in Bellisseria group chat, Abnor Mole offered a list of locations.

 

[11:58] Abnor Mole: If you're looking for a place to rez a big boat... here are a few: 

 

[11:58] Abnor Mole: SSPShell Yeah (118,116,26)

Sloop John B (58,91,26)
 

Buffalo Springs (155,94,26) 

 

Running Bear (221,105,26)
 
SSPRum Tug (106,74,26)
 
Treeowatoor (33,28,26)
 
Bridle Path (208,38,26)
 
Itsa Fluke (124,162,26)
 
BelliHub (167,168,26)
 
Pegleg Channel (193,114,26)
 

Merrymount (33,54,26)
 
Salmon Eddy (154,129,26)
 
Eyrie (131,227,26)
 
Oukranos (126,124,26)
 
Port Cullis (124,129,26)
 

Baxby Gulf (255,53,26)

[11:58] Abnor Mole: Coral Waters (132,93,26)
 
Norse Auk (151,93,26)
 
Whiskey Bay (171,22,26) - next to Fairgrounds
 
Light of Aurelia (194,125,26)
 
Sunrise Pines (227,156,26)

Maiden Rock (81,170,26)

[12:01] Abnor Mole: Rez zones for large boats

Checking one out, I found one happened to be right over the water, and I fell in. So be prepared for a possible bath on heading over. Other residents reccomended slightly different locations, such as Freddie Harrington (Freddie Venus) "We just rezzed a big yacht here also SSPRum Tug (106,87,22)."

 

It should be noted that notecards of boat, car, and airplane rezzing places around the Linden Home continent are occasionally posted in the Bellisseria group. 

Happy boating

Bixyl

Still More Christmas Locations

 

Gemma Cleanslate continues her explorations of Christmas locations. One was Enchanting Landscapes Decor Fantasy Home & Garden for some shopping. Next was Never You Mind.  Third was Snowhaven in Bellisseria Fairgrounds. And finally SWANK was having a Christmas sale.
 
Read Gemma's story in Places.
 

Still More Halloween Locations

There's a lot to do and see this Halloween. The Newser has written about a number of places and events, but hardly all of them. So before the big day arrives, one more article with several more fun Halloween attractions. From locations such as Old Town, to events such as Spooky Strides, to games such as The Guild's Halfway Hunt, there's a little something for everyone.

Read the story in Extra.
 

Don't Forget the Destination Guide For Halloween Locations

 *

There's a LOT going on around Second Life this Halloween, too much for us to do a review on it all. Plus there are other things going on, such as the closing of one mental health support group and the opening of another. We're still going to write up on a few more Halloween haunts. But don't forget to check the Destinations Guide's Haunted category.

And if you find a haunt that's very well done, let us know about it, or even better write a reader submission to describe it in your own words.

Happy Halloween.

https://secondlife.com/destinations/haunted
 

EOTB: "Valentine’s Day in Second Life"

 
In the official Second Life blog this week, Linden Lab had a Valentine's Day themed entry, highlighting several topics. Among them, the Isle of View. 

The Isle of View is our annual tribute to all-things-romantic via four regions filled with forested walks, cozy nooks for cuddling, and romantic swan boat rides.

Visit one of the Love Pavilion gift kiosks to browse through a variety of gift selections that you can send to your friends and loved ones on Valentine’s Day. This year’s selection includes heart lollipops and balloons, an adorable teddy bear, a chocolate box with rings, cutesy cupcakes, love lanterns, and, of course, romantic roses. To select and send your free gifts, follow the directions on the sign adjacent to the kiosk. 

What are you waiting for? The Isle of View is now open! 

And they mentioned Linden Lab's event at the Isle, the "Hug-A-Linden/Dunk-A-Linden" event.

Are you feeling “some kind of way” about the Lindens? Show your love (or friendly aggression) for the makers of Second Life at our annual Dunk-A-Linden & Hug-A-Linden Event, held this year on February 12th from 1pm to 3pm PT. Come early or watch the live stream on our YouTube channel for some fun conversations and plenty of soaked Lindens!  

Also mentioned was the Valentine's Day-themed "Shop and Hop" that starts in a few days.

Ready to shop? Share the love and bring your friends to get big discounts and free gifts from over 160 of your favorite Second Life Merchants at the Valentine’s edition of our Shop & Hop event, held Feb. 5-17. This year’s event spans 8 regions filled with exclusive items you won’t want to miss!

Look out for a detailed blog post coming up on Friday at 9am PT (when the doors for Shop & Hop officially open) with a full list of participating Merchants accompanied by direct links to each store.

In the meantime, browse in advance the vendor and blogger pics being submitted to the Second Life Shop & Hop Flickr photo pool for this upcoming event.

The Lab also announced the addition of new items to their Second Life merchandise store:  mugs, masks, tote bags, and more with a teddy bear holding a heart with the Linden symbol. 

This stuffed bear is emblematic of the warm connections so many Residents find in SL. Give yourself a positive reminder that love comes in many forms with a coffee mug to start your day, or a pin on your backpack. Our furry friend will be available on a variety of custom accessories for a limited time, so hop over to our official merchandise store today.

By all means, Linden Lab isn't the only one planning something special for Valentine's Day in Second Life. And in the Destination Guide, they're featuring a list of several locations, one that will grow as people add to it (after some delays, it's been fixed so people can add to it again).

Finally, we have dusted off our Valentine’s Day Destination Guide category, too! You’ll find a few romantic Valentine’s-themed destinations in there already - so grab a loved one and go on a romantic date or just some friendly exploration.

The Destination Guide Suggestion Form is now working, so make sure to submit your Valentine’s-themed destination soon!

 To view the post in full, Click Here.

A Few More Christmas Locations and Displays

 

Gemma Cleanslate found lots of Christmas-themed locations this year. But before Santa arrives with his presents, a few more Holiday themed places, and an Xmas display or two.

Cynthia Farshore has her "Christmas Express" up again in Caledon Downs.

 http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Downs/194/137/50

 Grendles' Children, the long-lived shopping mall, had this unusual Christmas tree, or should we say "Tree-Rex", up. Toady Nakamura says there will be tinies caroling at different times Christmas day.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Avaria%20Tor/128/140/302

Featured in the latest Second Life Destinations was Silent Night. Made by Nessa Nova, it was described as "like a movie set, with visitors starting at a train station before following a path through the snow and glowing trees to a cafe, an ice skating rink, a carousel, and more. The atmosphere feels at once unique and familiar, like a communal reverie." Nessa made it in part to help people depressed about the Coronavirus Pandemic and how it put a cloud over the year. Check out the video Draxtor Despres made about it.

https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/New%20Jersey%20Beach/131/247/23/

I could keep on going, but then I wouldn't be able to post this before Midnight. Merry Christmas everyone.

Bixyl Shuftan

Christmas Places: Rebel Yell and Christmas Town

 

Christmas is coming, and Gemma Cleanslate continues her exploration across Second Life of holiday-themed locations. In her latest article, she looks at two, Rebel Yell and Christmas Town. At Rovaniemi Lapland's Rebel Yell, there's plenty to see and plenty to do, with winter sports and Santa's village. Christmas Town by Laura Liberty has some old favorites, but also new activities, and you can shop for both Xmas and New Years.

Read Gemma's story in Places.

SL Video: "Second Life's Lab Gab - Winter Festivities 2020!"

 

 

(Click here if the video does not play)

 Filmed on Friday December 11, "Tune in on Friday, December 11th at 11am PT/SLT. Strawberry & Tara Linden will be giving you a quick run-through of Winter Shop & Hop, and exploring other winter-themed regions." Here, the two Lindens check out the Shop and Hop, and winter places White Veil by Bryn Oh and Cica Ghost, Distant Edge, and Linden Lab's Winter Wonderland.

SL Video: "Second Life's Lab Gab - Haunted Halloween 2020"

 

 The video of the Lab Gab on Friday October 20, where Strawberry and Tara Linden checked out a number of Halloweenish locations. Among what goes on, Strawberry expresses a weakness for merry-go-rounds, and they check out an escape room.

Bus Tour Across Second Life

With her tour of Christmas places done, Gemma wondered where to explore next. She soon came across a sign for the answer, literally. On a road was a bus stop sign. She didn't have to wait for an actual vehicle as clicking on it took her to someplace unknown, with another bus stop sign. So where did she go on her mystery tour?

Read Gemma's story in Places.

Five Fun Places in Second Life

Sometimes you see so many interesting places, you're not sure which one to focus on. Cyfir (Cyfiremmerich Resident) had this problem recently when he came across five noteworthy places in Second Life, and felt all of them would be enjoyed by the readers. So which one to write about? He decided to write about all five of them in one story.

Read Cyfir's article in Places.

Second Life Destinations: "Horse Riding and Enthusiast Communities"

(Click here if the video fails to play)

Even though motor vehicles have long been the dominant form of transportation for about a century, there's something about riding horses. In this week's Second Life Destinations, Linden Lab puts the spotlight on places and groups related to horses, or "Horse Riding and Enthusiast Communities."

This week, we shine a spotlight on the many virtual horse communities in Second Life. ... there is renewed interest in equestrian experiences across the Grid. Horse lovers need places to saddle up and ride...and there’s no shortage of destinations that cater to horse enthusiasts ...  Check out the Pets & Animals category in the Destination Guide for even more options.

The number of horse groups, breedable horse companies, and horseback riding locations are too numerous to mention. Last month, we interviewed Kitacelia about the challenges of raising breedable horses. If one wants to get a horse from her, she has a few at Dark Moon Rising at Helmsgarde (14/20/22).

Linden Lab "Introducing Second Life Destinations : A New Travelogue Video Series"

On March 6, Linden Lab launched "a new weekly video travelogue series" that it calls "Second Life Destinations." The purpose of the series is to put the spotlight on "some of the incredible experiences and events created by Residents within the virtual world of Second Life." The Lab says there will be one location a week mentioned.

In this series, we’ll highlight different places focusing in on the beauty and imaginative possibilities in no more than 60-90 seconds so that you can get a quick peek at the creations and communities inside each virtual space. At times we may even speak to creators of theses spaces so they can shed some light on what inspired them. Look for each new episode on our blog and social media channels, including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. 

 

This week, we explore Bay City’s popular self-proclaimed “beatnik hang-out space” The Pen. Here you can grab an espresso and join the community for conversation, book readings and good times! The venue also hosts “Espresso Yourself,” an open mic night held on the first Tuesday of the month from 6-8 p.m. (Pacific).

The video of the location was taken at Marianne Mccann's recent 13th rezzday party. Grace  Dunnough was the singer featured. One can head to The Pen at Bay City - Mashpee (76/48/25), and the venue has it's own website at https://thepensl.wordpress.com/ .

Linden Labs Annouces "Place Pages" in Beta

By Bixyl Shuftan

One of the problems residents have, especially those new to Second Life, is about finding interesting places to go to. There is the "Search" function while inworld, but while better than nothing it doesn't always find what you want. Then there's the Destination Guide on the Linden website, though it offers just a short description. In the Linden Blog on Wednesday, the Lab announced they have been working on a few feature that is now available in a beta viewer: "Place Pages."

Place Pages are a new feature aimed at making the huge variety of awesome places in Second Life easier to find by creating web pages for each inworld location that opts to show in search.

Today, we’re starting a beta for this feature. All regions and parcels that have elected to Show In Search now have an automatically generated Place Page that’s visible on the web, you can check them out and share them today! Places rated General will be visible to anyone, and those rated Mature or Adult will be subject to the usual Maturity controls.

Several of these Place Pages are already up. On the entry in the Knowledge Base (and Daniel Voyager's Blog), were links to the following: Innsmouth, Fogs End, Crestwick Island, and Inslico (which was rescued from closing several days ago). In the forums, a fifth place was mentioned, the Linden-run Winter Wonderland.

Inara Pey called the announcement, "frankly – vague. Whilst explaining the purpose of Places, and the fact it is beta, the blog post itself doesn’t actually provide information on where to find detailed information on the new pages – such as how to get started or even how to view the new pages." Hamlet Au stated that he had been told six years ago this feature was in development, but obviously work on it had never gotten far until now. He went on to say the feature had much to be improved, notably one problem that made it next to useless for anyone not a user of Second Life.

"The first problem is right in the announcement itself: 'Places rated General will be visible to anyone, and those rated Mature or Adult will be subject to the usual Maturity controls.' Trouble is, most great Second Life locations are rated Mature or Adult. So in other words, hardly anyone including and especially non-users will be able to even see these web pages.
Seriously. Imagine you're a fan of HP Lovecraft who wants to show another Lovecraft fan the Page of Innsmouth, a great Second Life sim devoted to the horror author's work. If they're not already a user, (they get a page just marked "Mature Content"). 99% of non-users will give up at this point. On Linden Lab's scale, 'Mature' is equivalent to an R rating from the MPAA, but they're currently treating M places like porn. So hopefully Linden's web devs realize what a fail this is."

Other suggestions by Hamlet include, "a button for sharing pages on Plurk" and "an option to embed pages on blogs and other websites."

On the official forums, there was a general feeling of approval, "Love, love, love this idea!! Thank you SL!" "Something like this has been needed for quite a while." Though some felt it still needed much improvement, "We really need a way to let outsiders see these pages though, without them needing an account first.Use these pages to lure non-sl people in. Perhaps a little disclaimer about possible maturity issues or something, but these pages should be viewable for everyone." Loki Eliot felt this feature had a great deal of potential, but at the moment the description had "less space than on the destination guide. What was the thought behind limiting to 250 characters?"

Troy Linden on the forums admitted that most pages not viewable to non-users of Second Life was a problem, "We're working on a better solution to gate content based on the visitors and hope to have a better solution soon." So it seems there should be changes in this feature in the near future.

Sources: Modem World, New World Notes, Daniel Voyager's Blog, Linden Lab

Bixyl Shuftan

Places to Visit on Memorial Day in Second Life

This Memorial Day in in the United States, there are a number of places on the Grid an American can visit if one wants to take a moment or two to honor those veterans who fell in service to the country.

Sadly some memorials to Veterans are no longer online. One of the best was a reproduction of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which was up from 2007 to sometime in 20011 when it vanished.

Veterans Isle is the home location to a group of veterans, and friends of. Every month, they hold a fundraiser to raise funds for the "Homes For Our Troops" charity. Pictured here is their Tomb of the Unknown Solider.

Veterans Isle (176/195/22)

Another location is the Operation Enduring Freedom Memorial, the inworld memorial to the ongoing fight against terrorism. Owned by Theremes Langdon, it is at Arena (75, 96, 45)

At the Biker Veterans Administration HQ are a few memorials, including a POW*MIA memorial.

The BVA is at Paintoy (152/224/25). The sim is rated adult, so it may be blocked to some residents.

One memorial which has been moved around a few times is the Iraqi War Memorial. Originally in Epimetheus, it was moved to Ganymede, then Galactica. The memorial's displays change every several seconds to show a new name and picture of American soldiers whom lost their lives in the conflict.

The memorial's current home is Minoa (149, 23, 110)

Eye On The Blog: Second Life Haunted Highlights and L$10,000 Snapshot Contest

Second Life is holding a contest for the spookiest picture. Linden Lab is sponsoring the "Fa-BOO-lous Halloween Snapshot Contest," in which those sending pictures can win up to 10,000 Lindens. Pictures are submitted, and displayed, in the Second Life Forums.

Every day is dress up day in Second Life, but now is your chance to win some cool prizes for it.

The Second Life Fa-BOO-lous Halloween Snapshot Contest is here! Get your avi ready and show us your best Halloween/Dia de los Muertos themed images.

You could win L$10,000, L$3000, L$2000, or L$1000 for your snapshot!

The contest runs from 10am PT on October 15, 2013 untilt 5pm PT November 8, 2013. Winners will be voted on by the community! Check out the full rules and submit your snapshot here.


There was also a list of several haunts that Linden Lab thought were worth mentioning.


The Haunted Pirate Mystery Hunt

It's a murder mystery and hunt! People have died from a variety of unnatural causes. Can you discover what happened? Explore this magical island, looking for fifteen clues. Find the clues and solve the mystery.

Yes (210/90/26)


Dark Dharma Haunted Manor

Welcome to Dark Dharma Haunted Manor, they've been waiting... Built in the 1880's, this haunted Victorian manor is an imposing structure, never mind the broken windows and wandering souls. It might even be charming, if it wasn't for what happened. What happened to the last occupants? Come visit, if you dare!  

Benten (87/221/28)

Deadpool

Aged elegance is re-animated in DeadPool, a new experience ripe for exploration. Watch as the bygone disco days rise again! Zombies roam the overgrown and wistful spaces of a forgotten amusement park, see the old roller-disco flash and strobe while amazing DJ's pump dance-worthy beats. Skate around the fringes of the party if you're too afraid to chance in the park. Remember, zombies hate fast food, so get those wheels greased and ready to go.

Fantasies III (71/226/22)


Halloween Town

Halloween Town is full of shops for all of your Halloween needs. From party, food, costumes and more. Be sure to enter their spook house where you'll turn from spectator to participant as they pay tribute to the greatest horror of all time.  

Elizabeth Town (117/106/99)

Havenhollow

Welcome to Havenhollow, an interactive neighborhood featuring a door to door trick-or-treating experience. Trick or be treated, leave no corner turned unexplored. This town is packed with fun, mystery and excitement for friends to experience together. Days of mischief, haunted woods and surprises galore await you in this fog-lit town.

 Purgatory (148/240/110)

RMK Halloween 2013

"Happy Halloween!" booms from a pumpkin-headed boy from a dark alcove. "Trick or Treat and welcome to RMK Gothic. I am Jack, the ghost living in this town!" It must be the Halloween season at RMK Gothic, come visit for spookily-themed quests, stores and more.

RMK Gothic (154/152/495)

The blog post in full can be read (Here).

SL Video: "Traveling"

A machinima made by a "Pep Lemmon" in 2011, showing a number of locations. Note AM Radio's classic locations early in the video.

"Music and video by Pep Lemmon. This machinima was filmed in several well known locations in the virtual world of Second Life.

"In the second half of the video I played a little bit with some tweaks that you can find in the advanced menu in Phoenix viewer. Thanks to all the amazing builders and sim creators who make possible filming in such wondeful locations."