Love Songs and Bad Hair

DJ Janis's set on Wednesday nights at the UGC is known as 'Love Songs', an excuse for everyone to dress up and look 'glam'. Lovely Nahiram was hosting this week and wearing the most gorgeous dress (in Eds humble opinion).

Ed has a nice tux and wishes he could wear it more often. He danced the evening away with Sarah and Isobel and other regular visitors at the Underground club.

The previous evening a competition for 'Best Demo Hair' was run during DJ Genevieve's set. Gen had a swan nesting in her bouffant style hair.

Ed was pleased he had kept hold of some demo beards but couldn't match them with the ginger centre parted style he chose as the 'best' worst hair in his inventory.

Bee Gees and Under the Sea

Recreations

Pillow Fight with Am at UGC Pyjama Party

In Isobel's Rickshaw

Meditating at Tempura Island Sim

Ambrose Island

Ed's home is on the beautiful island sim called Ambrose. The land he rents covers about a quarter of the eastern shore (about 1/16th of the sim overall) and he has lived there for about 4 months now. The sim owner is a lovely female avatar called Vbinnia Radek, Ed has become good friends with 'Vb' and her close companion Melody who both also have homes on Ambrose.

One of Ed's joys is riding around the the Ambrose fore-shore, either on a motorcycle or his faithful old steed Dobbin. There is amazingly variety of terrain, vegetation and buildings on different parts of the island, reflecting the diversity of the tenants and their ideas of the perfect home or retreat. A network of paths and waterways intersect the various parcels of land ensuring free movement and preventing adjacent builds from encroaching on each other.

Although Ambrose has no specific theme, Vb herself follows the SL style of ‘Victorian Steampunk’. This is a sub-culture best described as a meeting of technology and romance, and is set in a world where steam power is still widely used. It is full of fantastic inventions like those found in the books of HG Wells and Jules Verne, Vb is also an aviatrix and shares Ed's fondness for flying. Having declared Ambrose an aviator friendly sim, her home in 'the Quarry' resembles an airship hangar. Vb's own Ambrose information pages can be viewed here.

Melody's mansion covers a large area in the south western corner of the island and seems to be continually evolving. The most recent additions being an archaeological dig in a newly discovered amphitheatre and the Victorian glasshouse complex. Read about Melody's home in her own words here.

Next to the quarry is Ambrose Mountain, an area provided by Vb for the enjoyment of everyone including visitors. The stiff climb to the top is well worth the effort for the stunning panoramas at the viewing points of all parts of the sim. It's Ed's favourite place in SL when he is looking for a little solitude, especially at sunrise or sunset. Ed considers that he was very fortunate to have been invited to make his home on Ambrose, because it is probably the best residential sim on the grid.

Swimming with Seals (and a Mermaid!)

Ed was taking it easy to-day after the frolics of the previous night. His friend Amourette is building a new house and Ed paid a visit to see how she was getting on. They arranged to meet later for a swim at the Haven of Rogues sim, which is actually one of an estate of four aquatically themed regions.

Ed dusted off his Scuba gear which until now has n't seen a lot of use, and Am donned her Mermaids tail. There were a few wrecks to explore and the usual shoals of fish, but by using pose-balls you are able to swim with a family of seals. There is lots more to see and plenty of fun to be had, so Ed will probably be returning before long.

After a break Ed called up his friend Hibiscus and invited himself over to her place in the Victoriana sim. In the picturesque harbour area, Hibs has opened a gallery selling art with an office and rooms above. Ed admired the delightful period furniture and other lovely objects which Hibs has acquired. Ed could n't resist bashing out Chopsticks on the old Joanna, lol.

Returning to the Underground Club, Ed socialised awhile with his friends until it closed. Just as his thoughts were turning towards bed, he received a note saying a Metallica concert was about to start. Ed reluctantly (oh yeh!) TP'd over to the Extasia (adult) sim. So what Ed thought was going to be dull time, turned out to be an enjoyable and fun packed day. Thanks to all of his Second Life friends.

1970s Retro Night

There was a very 70s feel about SL London last night as an ABBA tribute concert was performed in the Kensington Building. Ed dug out a paisley shirt and matching kipper tie from a folder lurking at the bottom of his inventory. Thanks to Brie and Seany for a terrific show.

Hibiscus at the Abba tribute concert in SL Kensington

After the concert the fun moved to a street party just round the corner outside the Greyhound pub. DJ Gen, assisted by Hostess Cute played a set consisting entirely of 70's records. Absolutely Fab, was the only thing Ed could say.

A Night To Remember

After the previous disappointment Ed didn't hold out much hope of success in another UGC competition, but entered last nights 'Best in winter clothes' event anyway. To his great surprise and not a little embarrassment, he won! For the second night running Ed received a vampire bite request from a female, blonds obviously do have more fun it seems.

Earlier Ed had visited the Titanic sim. The 100th anniversary of the disaster will occur during April 2012. This static Titanic has mostly a shopping theme although there is a small museum on board, also a very nice club and a swimming pool. Overall it seems an accurate representation of the famous ship, the 4th dummy funnel correctly absent of smoke. Many visiting avatars will recreate the famous pose from the 1997 film at the bows of the ship.

Blond Moment

Ed decided to enter the 'Best in Blond' competition at the UGC last night but unwisely didn't read the instructions on the hair dye bottle, well he is a 'typical male' avatar. Now it looks like he is stuck with his new blonde locks. To add insult to injury he didn't get even a single vote!

The Second Life grid was unaccessible for a period to day due to maintenance. Ed has been wanting to create jet engine flames for his aircraft for a while, so he used the time to watch a SL tutorial about 'Particle Effects'. He then TP'd over to the Particle Lab sim to pick up the necessary scripts, and after a few adjustments to the parameters he was pleased with the results.

The Primstar

More Machinima, a tale with a Christmas theme about Second Life builders... it contains a tutorial about making 5 pointed stars with prims and sculpties. Compliments of the Second Life blog, Enjoy!

Second Life's Tallest

The new tallest building in the RL world was officially opened yesterday 4^th Jan 2010. The Burj Khalifa Hotel in Dubai rises to 828 meters (2,717 ft or just over 1/2 mile) and has 168 floors. It is an amazing 319 meters taller than the old record holder, the Taipei 101 building in Taiwan.

Ed decided to find and visit the tallest building or structure in Second Life. Although search reveals there is no Burj Khalifa (Burj is Arabic for tower), there is the Burj Al Arab, another luxury hotel. Famous in RL for having the world's most expensive hotel rooms, it is also in Dubai and is known as the ‘Arab Sail’ because of it's shape.

Ed had a quick look round the hotel, riding the lift to the 10th floor, but at 260 meters tall, this 'Burj' is unlikely to be tallest building in SL. There was an interesting looking club on a boat called 'White Eagle' moored next door and Ed will be back some point to investigate that.

So what is the highest object in SL? The answer was as simple as typing 'tallest' into search which quickly pointed to The Tallest Structure In SL

Ed was there in a flash to find himself in a sandbox on the Second Life Campus sim, and this impressive edifice in front of him. Having scrambled to the top, Ed glanced at his dashboard to find out his altitude. Ed thinks he knows the answer, but what was the question?

More Machinima

Love of Lothlorien

Machinima is not something you come across much day to day in Second Life which is a pity. Almost anyone can make their own films because all the tools you need are there. Here is another example, not by SL professionals this time, but equally brilliant.

Apologies to anyone who has already found this link. Other great films from the National University of Singapore can be accessed from the right hand panel in You Tube.

Inspiration

Trilogy Group members 2010: Ed Follet, Janey Bracken, Hibiscus Hastings (Boye Jervil & Pixi Piers not shown)

Impressions (Right click and open in new window to play on You Tube)

A favourite example of Machinima - the ultimate imaginative and creative art in Second Life

Out With the Old, In With ....?

Ed was up bright and early this first morning taking what will probably be his last look round the London sims for a while. There's virtually no ' lag' at this time of day and Ed quite enjoyed himself flying at pavement level around the deserted streets. It reminded him of his carefree days as a young av when that dreaded word was rarely spoken in the capital. But then, as with second life in general you tend only to remember the good times.

Ed was partying hard last night, first with his friends at the UGC where he saw in the New Year, then moving on to the Coach and Horses pub for their fireworks display before returning to the UGC until it closed. However, Ed wasn't ready for bed quite yet. Opening his map to look for other likely places to continue the revelry, he settled on a familiar one, the Blarney pub in SL Dublin where an 'all-niter ' was under way.

Sadly Ed didn't get a single hug or kiss over the entire festive season. He did however, get some wonderful gifts and had a joyful time in the company of his friends, so he doesn't feel unloved. The year's end is usually a time not only to reflect, but also to look ahead. Ed has resolved to spend less 'unproductive time' in world. He really wants to get back to being creative and learning new SL skills. Although he will continue writing and is grateful for all the help he has received, Ed has felt for a while now that his second life is getting a bit too repetitive. So to-day he repacks his inventory and moves on.

And there's a hand my trusty fiere,

And gie's a hand o thine

And we'll tak a right guid-willie waught,
For auld lang sine.