SL10B – The Bear Necessities Part 1

In this little mini series I’m taking my SL10B Avatar on a brief tour of some SL10B sims and highlighting, albeit very briefly, some spots. This doesn’t mean I don’t like the spots I don’t highlight, it’s just that there’s not enough hours in the day to do full justice to the event. We’ll start with Second Life In Black & White, Journey by Bear Silvershade.

The notecard tells us: “In this exhibition, you will see the work of SL artist Bear Silvershade, with examples of early work not long after he first rezzed in 2010 through his growing fascination with monochrome in 2012 to his current, ongoing “Journey of the Lonely Man” series.”

SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SL10B%20Dazzle/216/158/22

Marianne McCann chimes in with a couple of exhibits on my travels, one is still going strong, but the other is alas not, it is in memory of Greenies Home:

Greenies was once a must see sim, lots of impressive work there and a real fun place to visit.

SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SL10B%20Dazzle/31/72/22

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June 20, 2013

Under The Sea Expo – Mermaid Pearls Hunt

As I said in my last post, The Under The Sea Expo has a hunt and it involves Mermaids! Now on with the details.

The Lost Pearls of Hanalei

TEASER

Alina’s little sister Mishell thinks she’s been spending too much time in the Mermaid Palace and not enough time swimming in the sea where they live. To lure her out of the palace, she’s taken Alina’s favorite pearl necklace and hidden the pearls in some of her favorite underwater spots! Alina is busy preparing for a dance and she needs that necklace. Will you help her get it back?

INTRO

A beautiful mermaid flicks her tail in exasperation as she reads over a piece of paper.

“What was Mishell thinking? I need that necklace for the dance! But I don’t have time to play these games. I have to get ready!”

Spotting you out of the corner of her eye, she waves you over. “I need this necklace for the dance tonight. Please help me get it back.”

Before you can respond, she is already back to combing her hair. You look down at the piece of paper.

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June 20, 2013

Under The Sea Expo Opens Today

Me: “Avast Ye scurvy dogs and prepare yourself for an adventure with The Blake Pearl and ghost pirates, although not Le Chuck as he’s copyrighted.“

Organiser : “Psssst, It’s The Under The Sea Expo, not The Pirate Expo”

Me: “Prepare yourself for nautical adventures as you go under the Second Life seas in search of the mythical Jaguar Shark.”

Organiser: “Steve Zissou will not be making an appearance!”

Me: “Captain Nemo?”

Organiser: “Will you please behave!”

Me: “Prepare yourself for nautical adventures as The Under The Sea Expo allows you to explore the beauties of what lies beneath and above the Second Life seas!“.

Organiser: “We’ll let you have that one.”

Me: “Yarrr!”

From sometime around or shortly after 3pm SLT today until June 26th, The Under The Sea Expo takes place, with over twenty five vendors/participants taking part to celebrate the mystical beauties of like aquatic ……

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June 19, 2013June 19, 2013

Marketplace Billing Engine Changes And Materials Project Viewer Arrives

A rather bizarre blog post appeared yesterday: Marketplace to Move to Second Life Billing Engine. I say the post is rather bizarre because I’m bemused as to what other billing engine The Marketplace was previously using. This is probably because I’ve only ever purchased items from The Marketplace using Linden Dollars from my account balance, which were merged with Marketplace accounts quite some time ago.

I can only assume that when people purchased Linden Dollars for use on The Marketplace, they made the purchase via some sort of legacy system, if that was the case it certainly makes sense to update the system to use the same system the rest of Second Life uses. I guess we’ll see if there are any issues in the future, but off the top off my head I can’t think why there would be.

In other, and rather less bizarre news, The Materials Viewer Has Been Released! I haven’t yet looked at this, although I hope to shortly but the blurb tells us:

“This Viewer will allow content creators to build objects using normal and specular maps and will allow users to view the effects of this new feature set. The end result is photorealistic textured objects inworld, such as the SL10B Bear Avatar, which will look even better with this Viewer.”

There’s a video, which I will embed in traditional style at the bottom of this post … well it’s traditional for me to do that! There are some important things to note regarding materials, one is that you need to be using a viewer that supports Materials, which obviously the Linden Lab Materials Viewer will do and secondly, you need to have a system that can handle advanced lighting, unfortunately not all systems will support this option.

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June 18, 2013

Magellan Needs Help But Where On Earth Is Salazar Jack?

Magellan’s Grid Scavenger Hunt

Welcome, brave explorers and adventurers! Magellan Linden uncovered an evil scheme by the mad Doctor Talpa to build mind-controlling machines and take over the world. While Magellan builds a machine to counter this scheme, you are needed to gather materials and components — and to destroy every one of Talpa’s machines you find. Magellan has established workshops, a laboratory (even a bar) on the Isles of Ice; travel there to learn more, get equipped and start the hunt!

Visit in Second Life

Magellan Linden needs you! Well if you’re a Premium member he does anyway. Why does he need Premium members? I have no idea, but you can’t help if you’re not a Premium member, maybe Magellan is partying with basic accounts and hitting on girls, he has a reputation for booze and bawdiness. Wait a minute that would mean us Premium members doing all the work!

In the past Magellan used to write chronicles, but they ended around 2005. Magellan hasn’t been doing much since October 2008 when the infamous Nautilus City Investigation took place, you’ll find lots of links about the legend of Magellan Linden there. There you will also get some insight into the nature of Magellan Linden, as exemplified by one of the last known chat logs of the intrepid explorer:

Resident: Excuse me, but could I ask you please to move?

Resident: I mean, with that huge suit you’re wearing, it’s hard for people to walk around you in here.

Resident: Please?

Magellan: Hush, woman! I’m in three different IMs and they’re all more important than you.

Resident: But this is my art gallery. People are here for the opening party.

Magellan: Just tow it out to Weiland or Shenning. I’ll board it there, head south.

Resident: What?

Magellan: Damn it!

Resident: What did I do? Tow what?

Magellan: No, some arty-farty cow is making noise and confusing me.

Magellan: Damn it again!

Resident: Hey, wait, are you talking about me?

They gave Magellan a Mole Tank! I mean, letting Magellan loose in something like that!

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