16 Mar 2017
by diomitamaurer
in Exploring sims in Second Life
Tags: Diomita Maurer, Inara Pey, Jacky Macpherson, Living in a Modemworld, Norderney
When I read the title “A return to Norderney in Second Life” in Inara Pey’s blog, I already knew that I had to visit. Norderney is one of the East Frisian Islands off the North Sea coast of Germany. The island is 14 by 2.5 kilometres, having a total area of about 26.3 square kilometres and is Germany’s tenth-largest island. On the northern side of the island lies a 14 kilometres long sandy beach (read more about Norderney in wikipedia here).
I visited the North Sea coast of Germany sometimes and the landscape is quite familiar to me. I don’t know if Linden Lab named the homestead sim or if it was named by the owner and creator of Norderney in Second Life, Jacky Macpherson. But from what I’ve seen, the sim is provides some of the environment and typical elements of the North Sea coast of Germany. For example there are sheeps. The sheeps play an important role at our coasts as they graze on the dykes protecting the coast. On the beach and on porches and terraces you will see often roofed wicker beach chairs. They are very cosy and you can spend a good time sitting in them even on windy days. Also typical are the many bicycles you’ll see in Nothern Germany. Of course you can find beaches everywhere in the world but together with these little elements you’d probably be in Germany.
For my visit to Norderney in Second Life on Thursday, March 9th, I didn’t change but went there in my fetish outfit. That is for sure not the right outfit for a walk on the beach. But it adds a nice contrast and is something you resonably can only do in SL and not in reality (although it’s not illegal at all). And thus I got pictures of me in second life in an environment that I love in real. Kinky Diomita :-).
March 9th at Norderney in Second Life: Diomita Relaxing in a roofed wicker beach chair
Norderney offers many places to sit and cuddle, to dream and to watch. It is really beautiful and gets you into a relaxed mood. While I visited it was quite full there for Second Life, there were about 10 avatars exploring the island or enjoying the beach and the the mood. Thank you Jacky Macpherson for providing Norderney to the public.
07 Mar 2017
by diomitamaurer
in Exploring sims in Second Life
Tags: Diomita Maurer, Inara Pey, Living in a Modemworld, Long Journey, Yang (Sun2idea)
I went simploring and visted “Long Journey“, a place created by Yang (Sun2idea). Inara Pey had a blog post about it – A Long Journey in Second Life. From Yang’s profile I took this text about Long Journey: “An end or just a start? Are you always on your trip or need a stop? Make your heart peaceful but the music loud. Runing away is also a long journey, waitting a tram go through your dream and keeping smile.”
Visitors land inside a cosy bar and coffee shop and I couldn’t resist to sit down first before I began exploring the place, which is not that large but really offers a lot. I try to describe what I discovered. 
The bar, where I landed, is at the entrance to the tunnel, that you see in the middle in the background of the overview picture. On the left is a large buildiung, that looks like a storage building but is mostly used as a photo and painting atelier. On the right is the ruin of another storage or fabric building. In the center is the railroad station and a a train is just arriving. In the foreground bottom right side is a residents house. And what else? A lot of details are to discover. Long Journey seems to be a artists’ colony. There’s the big building on the left. On the frontside is an painting atelier. The main part of the building is dominated by a scenery with a truck, obviously to take pictures of to present other artists acts. The ruin on the other side is in use for making a movie scene.
March 3rd: Impressions from Long Journey (1)
March 3rd: Impressions from Long Journey (2)
And on the street is the exhibition of another painter. You can also see a camera on a tripod that on a wooden bridge over a canal in the middle of the village. And there many restaurants and cafes. You will find a lot of places to sit and dream or to pose for a picture. What you really sense here is the love for detail that Yang has put in this creation. What I missed to my surprise was music. But I could turn on my own instead. I enjoyed a lovely, relaxing hour of simploring at Long Journey. Thank you Yang for opening the place for the public.
Landmark for Long Journey
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Nightshark/19/236/2472
Inara Pey’s blog post about Long Journey
https://modemworld.me/2017/03/01/a-long-journey-in-second-life/
21 Feb 2017
by diomitamaurer
in Exploring sims in Second Life
Tags: art in SL, Diomita Maurer, Eclectica, Inara Pey, Living in a Modemworld, Maddy, Mystica, Nibby Riddler, Second Life
“
Gardens by the Bay is a nature park spanning 101 hectares (250 acres) of reclaimed land in central Singapore, adjacent to the Marina Reservoir. The park consists of three waterfront gardens: Bay South Garden, Bay East Garden and Bay Central Garden. The largest of the gardens is Bay South Garden at 54 hectares (130 acres).
Gardens by the Bay is part of a strategy by the Singapore government to transform Singapore from a “Garden City” to a “City in a Garden”. The stated aim is to raise the quality of life by enhancing greenery and flora in the city.” (source
Wikipedia). I also recommend to go to the official
website of the gardens, there’s plenty of information about it.
The
Gardens By The Bay in Second Life were created by Maddy (nibby.riddler), the creator of Eclectica, which I visited within my exploring tour in 2015 (see
here) and 2016 (see
here).
Upon my arrival I had the first wow-experience. What a breathtaking colourful environment!
You will recognize immediately the Supertrees. In reality the Supertrees are tree-like structures that dominate the Gardens’ landscape with heights that range between 25 metres (82 ft) and 50 metres (160 ft). They are vertical gardens that perform a multitude of functions, which include planting, shading and working as environmental engines for the gardens. There is an elevated walkway, the OCBC Skyway, between two of the larger Supertrees for visitors to enjoy a panoramic aerial view of the Gardens.
In SL you can walk a whole circle and you get amazings views on the garden from up there. There are TP pads spreaded in the garden and on the eleveated walkway to travel easily between both in SL.
The
garden in Second Life is just beautiful. It is hard not to be overwhelmed by all the colours. But there’s more to discover, more similarites between real life and second Life, yet it is not just a copy, it is inspired by the real garden. Take the glas structure that looks like a big agave – and then look at the 2 greenhouses in the real garden, by the way, which are supposedly the biggest columnless greenhouses on the world.
Or look at the silver ant and compare it with the little ants in reality. Or the flower clock – here and there.
Maddy added her own art to her garden, which is artful itself. You can spot it everywhere. Not a single space is not designed with artful creativity. As Inara wrote and as the landmark description says: This is a “must see build” for everyone who enjoys traveling and discovering SL and for everyone who likes to take pictures. Awesome!
Feb 18th: Diomita’s visit to Gardens By The Bay (1)
Feb 18th: Diomita’s visit to Gardens By The Bay (2)
Feb 18th: Diomita’s visit to Gardens By The Bay (3)
Feb 18th: Diomita’s visit to Gardens By The Bay (4)
Thank you Maddy for creating this for us. I just love your garden!
19 Feb 2017
by diomitamaurer
in Exploring sims in Second Life
Tags: art in SL, Astral Dreams, Inara Pey, Living in a Modemworld, Mistero Hifeng, Second Life
Just after visiting Anduril, where I saw art of Mistero Hifeng again, Inara had another blog about an exhibition of Mistero’s art at Astral Dreams “Mistero Hifeng at Astral Dreams in Second Life“. 
Of course I went to Astral Dreams and had a look. In this concentration Mistero’s art has not the same strong effect than it has when you stumble over it by accident be it in plain nature or in any other environment. I think this kind of art, big surrealistic statues often somehow craving for love or for music, and always a bit broken into pieces, do fit better as a single point of art, as stand alone piece – but that is just my personal opinion and for art everyone has an own way seeing it. No question I like Mistero’s art.
Feb 15th: Diomita visiting the Mistero Hifeng Exhibition at Astral Dreams
(La…chiamano realta’ by Mistero Hifeng)
The pieces at Astral Dreams do provide a good overview about Mistero Hifeng’s art and you can even buy them there….. and Bruciando ricordi (Burning Memories) can be seen at our homeplace now.
Feb 15th at home: Mistress Jenny, Angelique, Diomita, slave Flo, slave cecy looking at “Bruciando ricordi (Burning memories) by Mistero Hifeng”
Landmark to Astral Dreams with the exhibition of Mistero Hifeng:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Hawaii/37/63/25
Inara Pey’s blog post
https://modemworld.me/2017/02/11/mistero-hifeng-at-astral-dreams-in-second-life/
14 Feb 2017
by diomitamaurer
in Exploring sims in Second Life
Tags: Anduril, Asa Vordun, Diomita Maurer, Inara Pey, Living in a Modemworld, Marina Breen, Mistero Hifeng, Silas Merlin
Saturday, Feb 11th, I went on a simploring tour to
Anduril. Inary Pey wrote about it in her blog “
The streets and paths of Anduril in Second Life“.
Anduril is a sim with 3 faces. Upon your landing it is first of all a small town as you land on the main street. There are cars, street lights, sidwalks, shops, some trees, just what you expect from a small town. Every thing is nice, clean and neat. maybe there could be more people on the street but that’s Second Life. The town and the the whole sim is somehow dominated by a lighthouse, you can see it from everyhwere. Just where you land is a hotel and above the entrance is at well lightened statue. Inara writes it is a statue from Marcel Marceau. At least it is extraordinary for sure. At the end of the street is a big old villa. If you go in, you’ll find a big room that is used for ballet and on the balcony is a (ballet?) dancer.
But
Anduril is not just a little town. if you turn right and walk through a passage you can look at the backside of the houses and it looks not neat and clean anymore, but abandonned, as if the people left the place in a hurry. In one old building there’s an art installation of Mistero Hifeng .. that leads to the second face of Anduril: art. There’s not just the statue of Marcel Marceau, other pieces of art from Silas Merlin and Mistero Hifeng and others are spread over the sim.
Art at Anduril
The third face of Anduril is nature, more a park just next to the town. There are places to sit and cuddle, places to enjoy the view and there’re other pieces of art in this park. Overall, there’s a lot to discover and explore at Anduril and my one hour visit went by very quickly. Thank you Marina Breen and Asa Vordun for providing Anduril to the public. For me it is the best way to espose art, not in a museum and packed but in a park more by accident, when you’re in the right mood as you’re relaxed when walking through a park. There you can you discover each piece and they look different outside embedded in the environment.
09 Feb 2017
by diomitamaurer
in Exploring sims in Second Life
Tags: art in SL, Cica Ghost, Diomita Maurer, Frogs by Cica Ghost, Inara Pey, Living in a Modemworld, Second Life
Tuesday, February 7th, I came across “Cica’s Frogs in Second Life” in Inara Pey’s blog. Cica Ghost is an artist from Serbia, in Second Life since 2010. Cica’s art in Second Life has impressed me and I went exploring and discovering “Frogs by Cica Ghost” right away.
Feb 7th: Frogs by Cica Ghost
“
Frogs by Cica Ghost” is surreal. The landscape looks artificial, like a model, in particular as you can see how it was build with fiber mats. Nonetheless there’re flourishing flowers and some lonely trees. The island is dominated by huge giant frogs, which slowly jump up and down. Your avatar is really short in comparison to them. and you feel a bit scared beside them until you climb on them. On the top of the one hill of the island is a wall with a door. On one site an ugly girl is painting what might be a self portrait with a bubble that she’s dreaming of a prince just like in the fairytale “Frog King”. On the other side of the wall sits the same girl with a lollipop watchting tv (but it is not a tv, it is a box with a broken glas front and in the box is a christmas scene with a bald christmas tree). It is hard to guess what Cica wants to express with her installation and I assume everybody sees it different. As a human the scenery is a bit scary on the first glance.
While I was visiting Cica Ghost herself showed up and she transformed herself into a frog. You can grab the frog avatar at the landing point and become one of the frogs, hence they are not giant anymore for you and you become part of the installation. I asked Cica which frog to kiss and of course she answered that nobody knows that. I agree with Inara, after a while I began to smile and enjoy “
Frogs by Cica Ghost“. It is for sure unique, a virtual, creative and artful approach to the fairtale Frog King.
06 Feb 2017
by diomitamaurer
in Exploring sims in Second Life
Tags: art in SL, Diomita Maurer, Inara Pey, Light Reflections, Living in a Modemworld, Second Life, Venus Adored
Tuesday late afternoon, January 31st, I went on a short simploring tour and visited “Light Reflections“. Light Reflections is an art installation by Venus Adored and as the name implies it is all about light and reflections. You explore Light Reflections from top to bottom starting at the top and going down. The first two levels are instructions (most important: activate advanced lighting). Then you dive into colours and light. you start sitting in a soap bubble and enjoy great light effects. the next levels are all different. It’s virtual art, always changing, temporary. It’s just what you see and none else will see it the way you do. The effects are great. In some installations there are turning statues and floating candels. In other installations are clouds and leaves that flow through the air. One level is black and white. But all levels are just amazing, each in it’s own way. I enjoyed this short late afternoon tour. Thank you Venus Adored for this installation. According to Inara Pey’s blog the installation will stay online until June 2017.
Jan 31st: Light Reflections (1)
Jan 31st: Light Reflections (2)
Jan 31st: Light Reflections (3)
Jan 31st: Light Reflections (4)
Landmark to Light Reflections
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA27/193/122/1642
Inara Pey’s blog “Light Reflections in Second Life”
https://modemworld.me/2017/01/30/light-reflections-in-second-life/
03 Feb 2017
by diomitamaurer
in Exploring sims in Second Life
Tags: Diomita Maurer, engelsstaub, Inara Pey, Living in a Modemworld, Second Life, Staubi, Whimberly
Sunday morning, January 29th, it was time for a bit of simploring again. I scrolled through Inara Pey’s blog and picked “The gentle elegance of Whimberly in Second Life“. The landmark description says “Come and explore the spring themed location called “Whimberly”. Enjoy your stay, take lots of pictures, meet friends an above all have fun!”
Jan 29th: A visit to Whimberly – overlooking the sim for orientation
Whimberly is a lovely sim with lots of nature and many spots to sit and enjoy. It consists of a main island with a hill upon which’s top is a Mediterranean villa overlooking the island and a smaller island which is connected by a little bridge. Roads and walkways lead you around both islands while you explore.
At several spots you can rezz a boat and see the island from the waterside. It is spring! Everything is green, the flowers are flourishing, and the sun already giving enough warmth. I enjoyed a lovely, peaceful hour at Whimberly, took pictures, sat down here and there and enjoyed.
Jan 29th: A relaxed Sunday morning at Whimberly
As we still are in Winter and are wistfully waiting for spring that was just the right thing to do for a Sunday morning. Thank you, Staubi (engelsstaub) for providing your sim to us! Staubi is also a blogger, look up her blog at: https://engelsstaubresident.wordpress.com/ (old blog) and here “Love and Lipstick” (new blog)
Landmark to Whimberly
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Whimberly/101/182/28
Inara Pey’s blog post about Whimberly
https://modemworld.me/2017/01/24/the-gentle-elegance-of-whimberly-in-second-life/
Staubi (engelsstaub)’s blog’s
https://engelsstaubresident.wordpress.com/ (old)
http://staubissecondlifeblog.blogspot.de/ (new)
24 Jan 2017
by diomitamaurer
in Exploring sims in Second Life
Tags: Diomita Maurer, Inara Pey, Living in a Modemworld, Mila Maesar, SnoobJohnson, The Hell's Heaven 2.0
Following Inara’s blog “A second helping of Hell’s Heaven in Second Life” I visited The Hell’s Heaven 2.0. Hell’s Heaven has something of both elements – of Hell and of Heaven. Upon your landing it’s more like you might imagine hell. Not hell in the classic sense, hot and with fire, but hell in the sense of being in the middle of nowhere, in a strange, lonesome abandoned edge of the world which is or has just sunk.
Jan 24th: Arriving at The Hell’s Heaven 2.0
You land in a rotten hut, the water reaches up to your ankels, there’s a truck wreck that you can see through the window and everything is rotten. Stepping out of the hut it’s not going to be better …the water seems to have taken all of the land, you can see some other huts on the horizont, some power line and the nature has taken back what mankind has build and left. And it’s cloudy and the atmosphere is dark.
“Stay awhile……let this world refresh your soul and melt your worries away. Enjoy the relaxing atmosphere of music and landscape here at hell`s haven. Explore this cloudy world of changing scenery and enjoy your stay !!!” is the decription of the sim, build by Snoob (SnoobJohnson) and his partner Mila (Mila Maesar).
The music at The Hell’s Heaven 2.0 is very nice, one of my favourite stations, slowradio and is a bit in contrast to the environment. Slowradio is easy listening and exhilarating. But the more you explore, the more you see the charme behind hell and walking to the big rocks you can get dry feet at some point again.
Jan 24th: Relaxing at The Hell’s Heaven 2.0
Overlooking the sim is very peaceful and now the music fits. Even though everything is rotten you get lovely views. There are some sopts you can sit and dream and let your mind wander. And on your second round over the sim you begin to like it – well I did :-). And then this world refreshes your soul with it’s own character.
Jan 24th: Ending my visit to The Hell’s Heaven 2.0
Snoob and Mila did a great job creating this edge of the world. There’s one blocked private area with a house that looks quite lived-in from the distance and not rotten. I suspect that’s where they live.
Landmark to The Hell’s Heaven 2.0
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Rainbow%20Ridge/155/95/28
Inara Pey’s blog post about The Hell’s Heaven 2.0
https://modemworld.me/2017/01/15/a-second-helping-of-hells-heaven-in-second-life/
17 Jan 2017
by diomitamaurer
in Exploring sims in Second Life
Tags: art in SL, Diomita Maurer, Inara Pey, Living in a Modemworld, RAG Randt, ragVR, Richard A. Goldberg, Second Life
I picked a recommendation of Inara Pey again reading her post “ragVR: imagination and expression in Second Life“. ragVR is the portfolio sim of RAG (rag.randt), in RL the artist Richard A. Goldberg, an illustrator/Designer looking at SL as a source of inspiration and new experiences. He creates virtual objects and environments. ragVR was created to showcase a wide variety of things such as gachas, graphics, buildings, and vehicles.
Jan 13th: The airplane at ragVR
You arrive just next to an airplane that is parked at the end of a runway, just before a steep cliff. If go go upstairs you see two kiosks. These kiosks deliver pertinent information about things in proximity to the kiosk. There’s an art deco elevator door and when you click the elevator buttom the elevator will come. There is no elevator panel, instead there’s an operator who will take you to the main level of
ragVR. Walk through the main building to gain more information on RAG’s past, present and future.
The showroom you reach with the elevator contains RAG’s earliest work for SL, beginning with 2D illustrations up to creating a LEA sim in 2011 “Am I dreaming”. From the showroom a path leads out to the sim where you can see other examples of RAG’s work, like the flying pigs or the snowmen (both created for MadPea). RAG also contributed to a fundraise event of Feed-A-Smile (FAS) (a charitable organization for the children of Africa) with creating a stage/sim setting that you can see on your way through the sim. At the highest point there’s an observatory giving you a view at the zodiac signs. Outstanding is also the Ice Cream Alien, a submission of RAG to a creative challenge. If you click on the bottom of the cone a ladder slides out and you can enter and discover the inside.
Once you finished your round through the sim you’ll come back the showroom. But there’s more to see. On the ground level (where you arrived, you can also follow the runaway and furtheron a path that leads you around the sim. Here RAG plays with textures and light and you can get some extraordinairy pictures and views.
ragVR is for sure a great example of the possibilites of Second Life which still continue to facinate me, although I’m just a resident and my building knowledge is limited. According to Inara you can can contact RAG about projects and ideas and to discuss rates via IM, notecard or through e-mail (
rag@ragmedia.com).
Thank you RAG for providing the
ragVR to the public, although it is not fully completed yet – which is a good reason to return soon :-).
Landmark to ragVR:
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I visited the North Sea coast of Germany sometimes and the landscape is quite familiar to me. I don’t know if Linden Lab named the homestead sim or if it was named by the owner and creator of Norderney in Second Life, Jacky Macpherson. But from what I’ve seen, the sim is provides some of the environment and typical elements of the North Sea coast of Germany. For example there are sheeps. The sheeps play an important role at our coasts as they graze on the dykes protecting the coast. On the beach and on porches and terraces you will see often roofed wicker beach chairs. They are very cosy and you can spend a good time sitting in them even on windy days. Also typical are the many bicycles you’ll see in Nothern Germany. Of course you can find beaches everywhere in the world but together with these little elements you’d probably be in Germany.
For my visit to Norderney in Second Life on Thursday, March 9th, I didn’t change but went there in my fetish outfit. That is for sure not the right outfit for a walk on the beach. But it adds a nice contrast and is something you resonably can only do in SL and not in reality (although it’s not illegal at all). And thus I got pictures of me in second life in an environment that I love in real. Kinky Diomita :-).
Diomita Maurer’s Blog 