Santa Maria dell’isola Italy

Santa Maria dell'isola Italy (1)

Santa Maria dell’isola Italy (1)

The Mediterranean seems to attract a lot of people and in SL you can find really nice sims with a lot of mediterranean feelings. Again I came across such a sim following Inara Pey’s blog: Santa Maria dell’isola Italy. Please read Inara’s blog for more details about this beautiful island

More Timeless Memories in Second Life


Yesterday it was quiet when Jenny and I came online and we used the extra time to go simploring together and to enjoy this nice environment. I’ll share some pictures here. If you see a pitoresque place for taking pictures or if you seek a place jsut to sit together and chat, Santa Maria dell’isola Italy is a good choice. Enjoy.
Here’s the url to get there:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Timeless%20Memories/213/60/23

Santa Maria dell'isola Italy (2)

Santa Maria dell’isola Italy (2)

Jenny and Diomita taking a break to chat at Santa Maria dell'isola Italy

Jenny and Diomita taking a break to chat at Santa Maria dell’isola Italy

Baby’s ear

I went simploring shortly today following again Inara Pey’s Living in a modemworld blog. I visited Baby’s ear and was once again excited about the beauty that Second Life offers. Visiting Baby’s ear is like taking a short vacation to a forgotten island.  It’s more or less a farm on an Island and it looks like the inhabitants left it from one moment to the other on a short notice. And for me it was a trip back into the late 1980’s. Please read more at Inara’s blog (http://modemworld.me/2015/07/14/exploring-beautiful-babys-ear-in-second-life/). There’re not only beautiful pictures but also a short video about this treasure. Unfortunately this treasure might be gone soon although it was just opened, so you’ll need to hurry with your visit. I couldn’t resist taken some shots. I was in particular attracted by the workplace in the living room which looked a bit like my own chaos in the 1980’s.

Like a flashback to the 1980's: Dio's visit to Baby's ear

Like a flashback to the 1980’s: Dio’s visit to Baby’s ear (1)

Like a flashback to the 1980's: Dio's visit to Baby's ear (2)

Like a flashback to the 1980’s: Dio’s visit to Baby’s ear (2)

The creator, Neva Crystall, made a really great job. Ths sim is a must see for all photographers – realistic views of a forgotten world.
Here’s the landmark to get to Baby’s ear:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Babys%20ear/190/99/47

Thank you for creating it Neva!

Diomita visiting to Baby's ear

Diomita visiting to Baby’s ear

Summer: A visit to Flux Sur Mer

20150607 Flux de Mer_010

I followed again a recommendation of Inara Pey’s “Living in a Modemworld”-blog: Flux Sur Mer.
(https://modemworld.wordpress.com/2015/06/07/on-days-like-these-in-second-life/)
Her post made me very curious. She wrote strolling through the sim is like a vacation day in South France and that it revives memories if you were there before. And I was there. Inara is right. The sim is simply beautiful, the textures selected with love for the details, everything fits. The environment settings do transport the atmosphere, although I intend to try playing with other settings myself on my next visit. While I was taking my first pictures, I met another woman who was overwhelmed by the place. She told me that she was following a recommendation in a blog and to my surprise she came from another blog reporting about Flux Sur Mer, Ziki Questi’s blog about the arts and destinations in Second Life. Here is the link to this post:
http://zikiquesti.blogspot.de/2015/06/flux-sur-mer.html
As this blog seems to be another great source for exploring SL I added the URL to Ziki Questi’s blog in the link section.

Dio visiting Flux Sur Mer (1)

Dio visiting Flux Sur Mer (1)

Dio visiting Flux Sur Mer (2)

Dio visiting Flux Sur Mer (2)

As there are already two detailed descriptions about Flux Sur Mer in the above mentioned blogs, I’ll refrain from writing a third one. I can simply say that I really enjoyed my visit and it felt like a short vacation. The sim is beautiful and worth to stay longer, to cuddle, to dream, to chill or to take pictures. And I took some pictures. There are so many cosy places! I like in particular the cuddle place at the terrace of the large villa on the rock …

Flux Sur Mer offers many cosy places to chill and to dream

Flux Sur Mer offers many cosy places to chill and to dream

Diomita Maurer (picture taken at Flux Sur Mer June 7th, 2015)

Diomita Maurer (picture taken at Flux Sur Mer June 7th, 2015)

Apropos chilling: You could also sit at a wine bar overlooking the sea and turn your favourite music on in RL and drink a glass of wine in SL and RL and chat with your friends – just if you’re in the mood for it :-). Before I forget about it, I still need to provide the destination in SL. Here it is:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Flux%20Sur%20Mer/45/159/26

Dio enjoying a warm summer night at Flux Sur Mer

Dio enjoying a warm summer night at Flux Sur Mer

Enjoy your visit!

The Vineyard at Checkmate

Besides my particular celebration with Jenny for our 7 years together online, I am still following Inara Pey’s Living in a Modemworld blog. Today Inara’s post “Wine and Checkmate in Second Life” caught my attention:
https://modemworld.wordpress.com/2015/05/30/wine-and-checkmate-in-second-life/

I fully agree “The Vineyard” is one of the most beautiful sims that I ever visited. The nature is breathtaking. The views are very natural although the pictures of my visit look a bit kitchy, but sometimes I think the very same about some RL pictures also. A visit there with the warm sun heating up the island after a summer rain shower is just the right thing to do today as it is the meteorologic beginning of summer.
During my visit I was alone, but there’re many places to cuddle and simply to enjoy the view. I recommend that you don’t change the environment settings for your first visit at least.
Here is the link to get to “The Vineyard”
(http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Checkmate/205/25/42)
and here are some impressions of my visit:

The Vineyard at Checkmate: Dio getting wet feet at the Landing point

The Vineyard at Checkmate: Dio getting wet feet at the Landing point

The Vineyard at Checkmate: Beautiful and breathtaking views

The Vineyard at Checkmate: Beautiful and breathtaking views

The Vineyard at Checkmate: A place to slow down, enjoy and recharge energy

The Vineyard at Checkmate: A place to slow down, enjoy and recharge energy

Thank you, Inara, for bringing the sim to my attention and many thanks to the creator of it, Amae Moriarty. Let’s enjoy the summer!

WindWept

Once again I traveled in SL following the “Living in a modemworld” blog of Inara Pey. This time I went to WindWept:
https://modemworld.wordpress.com/2015/05/14/windwept-echoes-of-a-starfall/

A Visit To WindWept

A Visit To WindWept (1)

Windwept provides a watery environment filled with some surreal art and places, naked trees and nonetheless cosy places. Quite close to the landing point is a place with 4 hoovering windows of which 3 are actually offering teleports to skyboxes. And they are also worth visiting. If you climb down the ladder close to these windows you’ll find a small cosy room.

A Visit To Windwept (2)

A Visit To Windwept (2)

The creators of WindWept inez pennell (nezzy) & cinderr resident (imp) wrote a notecard about their sim:
I want to kiss the wind. Even as her stern hand makes impossible my mission of motion, even as she disrobes the world, even as she slices through my trappings and musses my hair.
In other dreams, she wakes and whispers in terrifying clarity that the valley has been robbed of all its trees in the night. I smile, she sobs… out each window, other worlds are inscribed across the distinct “Now. Here Now. Here. Now.”.. nowhere.
Welcome to WindWept, feel free to wander and explore. Touch the surrounding windows for a journey into other windswept worlds. Join the group to stay updated on all sim happenings, for lovers of photography: temp. rezzing rights (please be courteous and pick up when you leave) also please consider joining our flickr group (www.flickr.com/groups/windwept/) to post all your lovely shots.
Bring a friend, a lover.. or just yourself, and discover another way to know the wind.”

Chilling at WindWept

Chilling at WindWept

WindWept offers nice motives for pohotographers, some surreal art and al lot to discover. Here’s the url for your visit:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Dolly/129/131/21
Enjoy.

Alternative activities: Miyagi Raceway

I’m a regular reader of Inara Pey’s “Living in a modemworld” blog and I often use it to find new sims and worlds in Second Life. This time her blog leaded me to Miyagi Raceway.  Miyagi is an Japanese sim. And to be honest the Japanese characters can be quite confusing. I first went to Miyagi Racing alone and roamed through the Japanese surrouding. Although this is a strange world for me, it was fun exploring. I recommend to read Inara’s blog post about it to find out more about the sim (https://modemworld.wordpress.com/2015/05/06/meandering-through-miyagi/). During my first visit I climbed up the mountain to find the bungee jumping that was mentioned in Inara’s post. I was on the top of the montain as Jenny came inworld and so I stopped exploring. A few days later I returned together with Jenny. We entered a balloon and had a nice overview over the sim.

Exploring Miyagi Raceway from above

Exploring Miyagi Raceway from above

Then we went to the bungee jumping. Ok, it’s SL and thus it doesn’t provide the kick, that i should provide in RL and I never dared trying it in reality. Nonetheless it was fun. Even more fun was trying the Paragliding. We both did it and it is not as easy as it looks. The glider isn’t easy to steer and both of us landed quite hard several times.

Paragliding at Miyagi Raceway (1)

Paragliding at Miyagi Raceway (1)

Paragliding in Miyagi Raceway (2)

Paragliding at Miyagi Raceway (2)

Today I returned a 3rd time to find out about the raceways. Right from the landing point you can teleport to raceways that are up in the sky. Again, I was confused about the Japanese characters and had some problems to find out how to get a racecar and how to rezz it. But I managed that part successfully.

Diomita getting into her new racecar at Miyagie Raceway

Diomita getting into her new racecar at Miyagi Raceway

Driving the car was easy and intuitive. I drove the car around the curcuit several times and got quicker and quicker. For sure, I’m far from the speed record, but for a first try, I was really satisfied with my performance: “Speaker Ver3.0 shouts: Diomita Maurer T-962 STARTS!! Speaker Ver3.0 shouts: Diomita Maurer T-962 finished this lap in 41.465sec. *** Personal Best Lap *** Speaker Ver3.0 shouts: Diomita Maurer T-962 finished this lap in 39.337sec. *** Personal Best Lap *** Speaker Ver3.0 shouts: Diomita Maurer T-962 finished this lap in 36.933sec. *** Personal Best Lap *** Speaker Ver3.0 shouts: Diomita Maurer T-962 finished this lap in 34.655sec. *** Personal Best Lap *** Speaker Ver3.0 shouts: Diomita Maurer T-962 finished this lap in 30.647sec. *** Personal Best Lap ***”

Diomita speeding

Diomita speeding

I will return to this place for sure. It must be real fun to race against eachother here. So if you’re into car racing, you shouldn’t miss Miyagi Racing. And during the time I was here there was no lag at all! I began the post talking about the bungee jumping but still there is not picture about it. And as I missed taking a picture of it during my first 2 visits, I took some shots today….

Diomita preparing for her bungee jump

Diomita preparing for her bungee jump

YAY !!

YAY !!

Miyagi Raceway is a great palce for some alternative fun and provides entertainment for hours. Here’s the URL to get to it: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Miyagi/128/128/48

Please enjoy!

A visit to Otium

Exploring sims: OTIUM

Exploring sims: Otium

The “Living in a modemworld”-blog of Inara Pey provides me with places to visit. This time I visited Otium, first alone and then together with Jenny.
The name of this sim has a meaning that I looked up at Wikipedia for a correct description:
Otium, a Latin abstract term, has a variety of meanings, including leisure time in which a person can enjoy eating, playing, resting, contemplation and academic endeavors. It sometimes, but not always, relates to a time in a person’s retirement after previous service to the public or private sector, opposing “active public life”. Otium can be a temporary time of leisure, that is sporadic. It can have intellectual, virtuous or immoral implications. It originally had the idea of withdrawing from one’s daily business (negotium) or affairs to engage in activities that were considered to be artistically valuable or enlightening (i.e. speaking, writing, philosophy). It had particular meaning to businessmen, diplomats, philosophers and poets
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otium).

What you can experience at Otium fits perfect to the name. First of all there is a Mediterranean village with small alleys, lots of cosy places, benches and pavement cafes. And the village is not empty. There are little shops and the houses can be rented. Where you land when arriving at Otium, there’s a gallery. The exhibtion there shows Giovanna Cerise’s art and is called “LINE”. This Exhibition isn’t restricted to the gallery itself but is spread over the whole island. Giovanna herself wrote about her permanent exhibition “Creation of a path-research on the infinite freedom hidden in two-dimensional and three-dimensional size. The line, with its lightness incisive, inspired the Transposition of the complexity of the solid structures of some of my work in new areas, expression of pure essentiality.”

"LINE" exhibition permanent of Giovanna Cerise

“LINE” exhibition permanent of Giovanna Cerise

When exploring Otium you will come across Giovanna’s art everywhere, her filigrane “line”-art is non physical, thus you can walk through it and it changes it’s look depending from which angel you look at it. The art provides a perfect background for creating your own photo art, something to publish at deviantart. At the beach there’re other 3 dimensional pieces of her, of which some are also changing permanently. All of Giovanna Cerise’s art can be purchased directly. And I’m pretty sure that I saw her art before at some other places. I consider to get a piece for our island as well.

"LINE" exhibition permanent of Giovanna Cerise in the streets of Otium

“LINE” exhibition permanent of Giovanna Cerise in the streets of Otium

Coming back to the name of the Island: Otium. I visited Otium together with Jenny and after roaming through the alleys we walked down to the beach which offers some places to cuddle, to watch the waves of the ocean and even for sport activities like Taichi. Thus Otium provides everything to recover, to enjoy simply being yourself or to refresh your mind with art: relax, unwind, soothe your soul. The name Otium does really fit.

Taichi at the Otium beach

Taichi at the Otium beach

Jenny and Diomita enjoying at Otium beach

Jenny and Diomita enjoying at Otium beach

Otium is owned by Franz Markstein. Thank you, for your hospitality.

Piony Hideout

On my tours following the recommendations of Inara Pey in her Living in a modemworld blog, I came across Piony Hideout:
(https://modemworld.wordpress.com/2015/03/29/returning-to-a-picturesque-hideout/)
Once again I’m overwhemingly facinated by what people create here in Second Life. Piony hideout looks like an own small world and in particular it looks like real. For me it took a long time for the mesh objects to rezz but once the did – wow. Rezzing itself was also interesting and fun to watch. For example the there are 2 cars, an Aston Martin and a Mini and while the rezz you can see the chassis, the motorblock, the steering wheel, the seats and finally the autobody being set together like a puzzle. These two cars hide a lot of details!

A visit to Piony Hideout

A visit to Piony Hideout

exploring Piony Hideout

exploring Piony Hideout

The main street has looks British because of the two British cars and because of a sign “Carneby Street”, but it also has something mediterranean, quite a mix. When you walk on to the waterside, see the Vespa and the colours, you think you were in Paris. And if you leave the main street and walk a bit you’re right in the Provence. This little world of ist own is really worth not just one visit!

La Provence at Piony Hideout

La Provence at Piony Hideout

Here’s the landmark:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lions%20Hill/76/115/23
Enjoy your visit.

Exploring Second Life – Sunday tours

Sometimes I do get time for exploring Second Life like last Sunday. It was quiet, none of the family around. So instead of hanging around in one of our clubs, I opened the “Living in a Modemworld”-blog from Inara Pey and visited some of her recommendations. And it was worth the time and worth sharing some pictures as a teaser for you to visit as well.

Metmorphosis Escher

Metmorphosis Escher

I started my Sunday tour with art (https://modemworld.wordpress.com/2015/03/25/metamorphosis-looking-through-the-eyes-of-escher/). This artful, mostly held in black and white installation by Beq Janus was inspired by M.C. Escher, a Dutch graphic artist, who is famous for his impossible constructions. I recommend reading in Wikipedia about him. Back to SL, where you can walk through virtual art, where you can see it from different angels, in different lights and explore all 3 dimensions. Beq translated Escher’s work into all three dimensions – just as looking with his eyes. Here is the landmark: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Quarry%20Hill/229/118/4001.
It is temporady art, gone in a few months, irrecoverable. And pictures can just capture 2 dimensions. But they can revive memories.

Diomita meets M.C. Escher

Diomita meets M.C. Escher

Forever Dreams

Forever Dreams

My second stop on my Sunday tour was Caladan http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Forever%20Dreams/217/75/31. It is sort of a demo for landscaping and gardening in Second Life. Antinéa (antinea.torok) offers to decorate other sims. But you can also jsut enjoy this garden, the beauty of Second Life and relax. That’s what I did. The sim is simply beautiful. I sat down, relaxed and watched the fountains, enjoyed the  colorful garden. Truely a place to cuddle, talk and recover and to let your thoughts wander. Also see: https://modemworld.wordpress.com/2015/03/24/caladan-tranquility-in-an-indian-garden/

Diomita enjoying Forever Dreams

Diomita enjoying Forever Dreams

20150329 The Trace Too_002My last stop was a particular one for me: The Trace too. (https://modemworld.wordpress.com/2015/03/22/returning-to-a-second-life-watercolour/). It is, as I know now, the second sim that Kylie Jaxxon created. And her first one is gone. Visiting “The Trace” was for me like travelling to the US East coast with a few mouseclicks. Kylie brought memories alive. When you walk along the beach and see the lovely huts overlooking the sea, it invites you to sit down and inhale the atmosphere. The environement sound is perfect. I could sit hours in a lounging chair and just watch the scenery. I truly enjoyed Kylie’s sim. Here’s the landmark to go there: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Trace%20Too/38/121/32

A visit to the East coast: The Trace Too

A visit to the East coast: The Trace Too

The Trace Too: At the beach

The Trace Too: At the beach

Ruins

Diomita visiting "Ruins" (1)

Diomita visiting “Ruins” (1)

So I did it again, simploring following the “Living in a modemworld” blog. I haven’t had the time for simploring on my own for quite a while, so I took the opportunity that arose today. This time I travelled to Ruins. Ruins is Cica Ghost’s newest build. As the name implies, you’ll find just ruins there. Only the blackbirds and wildflowers remain to inhabit the ruins of the once active city, its brick edifices having collapsed to reveal the deserted worlds within.

Diomita visiting "Ruins" (2)

Diomita visiting “Ruins” (2)

Diomita visiting "Ruins" (3)

Diomita visiting “Ruins” (3)

As the name implies, you’ll find just ruins there. But nature is taking back the place, flowers are growing everywhere, in every room, out of every crack in the floor and walls. You can see leftovers from former life when there were people living here. Nowadays its quiet and peaceful, you hear the wind. Some stars, that rise from the flowers, add to the mystery of this place. Stars that arise like phoenix from the ashes ..

Diomita visiting "Ruins" (4)

Diomita visiting “Ruins” (4)

Here is the landmark to travel to the ruins: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Wondering%20Dew/38/21/26
Here is the URL to Inara Pey’s blog entry about ruins: https://modemworld.wordpress.com/2015/03/18/ruins-the-ruined-city/

Diomita visiting "Ruins" (5)

Diomita visiting “Ruins” (5)

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