Diomita Maurer’s Blog

Yesterday, I had my 12th anniversary of joining Second Life.
It has become a tradition for me to write a longer blog post on the occasion of my rezzdays, to have a look back on the last year and to realize the changes in my Second Life as well as the things that didn’t change. Yesterday, I published Part I of my anniversary entry and talked about my closer family and the changes in my family. Today’s part II is about the simploring tours I made in my 12th year.

12 years in Second Life – part II: My simploring tours

Let me start with my simploring tours about art in Second Life. I admire the creativity of artists in this virtual world, I visited galleries like Lyric Art Gallery, La Masion D’Aneli, 20][21 gallery, Rey’s Gallery, Shui Mo Gallery, Milly Sharple’s Fractal galleries, Daphne.Arts and Deva Westland’s Galerie Des Beaux-Arts. I visited and wrote about 7 installations of Cica Ghost, who continues to conjure a smile in my face with every of her funny whimsical creations. I saw fewer art installations since the Linden Endowment for the Arts (LEA) is on hold. But some private initiatives luckily provide space or the artists themselves dedicate their own space. Just recently I saw an exhibition of Mistero Hifeng’s art at Valium Creek Art Park. I saw “The Mind Melter” by Thoth Jantzen at VeGeTaL PLaNeT, I saw “Lalawood” by Theda Tammas, Yoon (onyxxe), Iono Allen and JadeYu Fhang at La Maison d’Aneli as well as “Binary Radiation” by Nino Vichan. I saw Twilights Doors by Bo Zano (Bozanonl Resident), “The Outer Garden” by bisou Dexler, “Inferno” by Noke Yuitza, “Avaloir” by Eupalinos Ugajin, Undertones by Oluja (artistik Oluja) and “Delicatessen – Tell Me a Story” by Meilo Minotaur.

Shui Mo Gallery (upper left) / Aneli Abeyante’s art at La Maison d’Aneli (upper right) / Delicatessen – Tell Me a Story (lower left) / INFERNO by Noke Yuitza (lower right)

Since January 2020 the blog has a new category for blogposts about art in Second Life, I won’t categorize old entries though.

I found many cosy and lovely sims where people built their own dreamworld, peaceful and picturesque. You don’t need many prims or a large place for it, Nevgilde Gaard or Black Mire – around hi-cafe are examples for that. Most of these dreamworlds were homesteads: Florence Bay, Authors Point, Secondlife National Park, Maderia Springs, Blaylock Island, Scarlett Isle, Carolina, Broken, Alternate Reality, Fleur Nederland [Dutch], La Digue, Northern Shore – Skärgården, Soul of Dreams … just to name a few. In these sims I spent relaxing hours and enjoyed the views and the peace.

Northern Shore – Skärgården (upper left) / Scarlett Isle (upper right) / Secondlife National Park (lower left) / Black Mire – around hi-cafe (lower right)

Some were really particular. I want to mention Last Dove, a sim like a movie. It’s setting is based on Lonesome Dove, a 1985 Western novel by American writer Larry McMurtry. Last Dove is still open if you haven’t seen it yet. I also liked Kun-Tei-Ner, a sim that provided a scary view into mankind’s future, a place with no land, a city that grew up on a huge mountain of containers filled with broken technological stuff. And just recently I visited the SS Galaxy, the largest cruiseship in Second Life – impressive, in particular when you consider it’s history.

Last Dove (upper and lower left) / Kun-Tei-Ner (upper right) / SS Galaxy (lower right)

Then there were the sims that have a real background, where a place in the physical world was build in Second Life. This way I got a picture, an idea of the real places and my visits gave reason to do a little bit of research. Venice in Italy was one of these impressing places and I spent some time exploring it.
I had never heard about Ukivok before and now I have the feeling that I’ve been there already. I had heard of Huntington Beach before but wasn’t aware of it’s oil industry history. I also had heard and read of North Brother Island, yet I haven’t been there in real life (yet). Now I somehow feel like I’ve been there. I learned a lot about Chesapeake Bay, a place I’ve been to twice in reality already being not aware of it’s history.

Ukivok (upper left) / North Brother Island (upper right) / Chesapeake Bay (lower left) / Huntington Beach (lower right)

I also discovered many places related to my kinky side, to BDSM. That’s another dream you can live in Second Life and I do. Unfortunately some of these places don’t stay long like the Elevate Femdom Lounge, Windhaven or Meadow Rose. Also some adult places, that we liked to visit every once in a while, are gone now like The Apostasy or Angel of Pain’s BDSM island (Remark: Angel of Pain has a successor sim)

Gone: The Apostasy (upper left) / Angel of Pain’s BDSM Island (upper right) / Dungeon at Windhaven (lower left) / Meadow Rose (lower right)

Just recently I discovered Caged Elegance, a club with many member, lots of events and all sort of kinks. I enjoyed my visit to Catena et Cavea, an adult sim that is also really picturesque. Amrum is another place I not only went to for simploring but also for a session with Mistress Jenny when I had a green light. I like in particular the BDSM vacation home there.
We visited The Obliviation Hole RLV Prison of Starbright Wingtips who gave us a full tour. The prison and what is going on there is a regular subject when we chat during our Friday night parties.

Caged Elegance (upper left) / Catena et Cavea (upper right) / Amrum BDSM vacation home (lower left) / The Obliviation Hole RLV Prison (lower right)

Thank you all for building, for creating and for sharing your dreams (kinky or not kinky) with the rest of the community. And please apologize if I did not mention all of my tours, it were simply too many. I did really enjoy all of my simploring tours!

End of part II, tomorrow’s part III will be about the other highlights of my 12th year.