?
Continuing off from my last adventures, I am reminded of fall. The leaves have really started to fall around where I am IRL, and in my Second Life, so they have as well. So without further ado, I present to you the following photos, this time in chronological order:
-
I was struck by the realism of this pile of leaves. Oh, if I looked closely enough, I could see the jaggy edges, and that's not what I mean. This is a still picture, but were it a motion picture, there was something very hard to describe — fluid and graceful — about the way the orangey clusters bobbed back and forth as I observed the martial arts duel in progress. More about martial arts in a sec.
I remarked how neatorama the Starbucks copy called Coffee Talk in the distance was, and I think it was Kenzington (Fairlight) who perked up and declared, "Aren't knockoffs great?" I had to agree.
-
It shouldn't be a surprise that I get down to techno music, even in my Second Life. Ah. Hiijoro Platini busted out Daft Punk's "Aerodynamic" inworld, and I could not resist dancing along. Also pictured raving are Shugo Gomez and Subliminal Mackenzie. I kept going "OMG!!! WHAT A TRIP!!!" and declaring loudly which parts of the track I enjoyed, such as the big DONG bells, the Bach-baroquey section, and most certainly THE GUITAR RIFF! DISTORTION!!?Shugo and Subliminal did this awesome moment of synchronicity and started bobbing in time with prim-guitars when the riffs came into play again, and I danced some more. Brings a whole new meaning to "Sandbox", doesn't it? TECHNO TECHNO TECHNO TECHNO.
-
After some flying around — which I like, but I wish it would go faster, especially travelling across great expanses — I happened to chance upon the sisters named Hawk Falcone and Nagi Akebono. They were in their red VW beetle convertible — not my fave neon green but still a cool car — and invited me to take a ride with them. Dayum, sitting is tricky in SL. Notice how in the pic, I am teetering off the edge. It wasn't until later that I was able to "properly" ease into the seat and firmly wedge myself as we went around the city. There were a lot of red bordered-off private areas, I observed, and soon enough, we found ourselves caught in a driveby shooting from afar. The brave sisters got out to defend yours truely, and soon, there was silence again. Several times, we got caught in the middle of a watery groove, but this was quickly solved by way of… explosives. Believe it or not, the bangs sent us sky-high, and then, it was on to…
-
Kuroda. The sisters seriously explained to me about their "Second Culture" within Second Life — the way of the samurai and ninja. They spoke many Japanese terms to me which I only had a passing familiarity with, so I asked them for explanations. They showed me to places like the tea room (which had a very short ceiling) and the dojo where they train. They also vomited for me. Yes, you read that last sentence correctly. Apparently, there is a device called a "puker" that will make you blow digitized chunks of undigested nutrition. It was in stark contrast to the classy outfits that Hawk and Nagi wore, but as you know, I enjoy this diversity.
-
Hawk and Naki toured me through more locations , and there was a weapons demonstration given consisting not only of swords but guns and other such combat machinations. I was given a bow and arrows and kindly encouraged to visit in the future and practice my archery in the dojo. I may have to take them up on this invitation. Thanks, girls, you're very honorable.
-
While chatting in the Welcome Area for a bit, I was contacted by Cristiano Midnight, who I talked to about Second Life even before downloading the program and trying it out for myself (as you may have read on my FAQ). We had a good talk. I told him I wanted to be teleported to his area as I really don't like text chat alone. I asked him, quite literally, if he built a lot of stuff in SL. The answer, of course, is a more-than-resounding YES. One of his innovations happened to be a whimsical method of expressing one's self I had earlier seen in a sandbox area. A girl used it to spaz her way across the virtual landscape, to none other than a soundtrack of "Battle Without Honor Or Humanity" from the Kill Bill soundtrack. IT MADE ME LAUGH SOOO HARD, OMG!!! I inquired about this to Cristiano, and within seconds, he had identified it as the Crack Dance. I suppose it's named that because of its similarities to how a human would behave upon consuming an entire ice cream-pail of crack cocaine, but I didn't ask. True to form, we both broke out in a "crack dance". (The other mode of behavior upon ingesting so much crack, I suppose, would be dying dramatically. Cristiano graciously showed me an animation for this as well. )
-
Now, here we are at Cristiano's art gallery. You can read what it says on the wall, it's very meaningful. Interestingly enough — and I like to make connections — when I was playing trivia earlier today (not pictured), one of the questions happened to concern The Wizard of Oz. You can see this is in one of the pictures. Ever-so-timely Myradyl Muse dropped in to say hi! She is Cristiano's neighbor and a top builder in SL, I am told. She is also very nice, being a mermaid. Cool cyan hair, it matches her dress.?Apparently, she helped create the Heaven section of Kris Ritter's Heaven and Hell exhibit on Krittania, which I enjoyed immensely but did not know she did. I wish Second Life had a better auto-journalling feature for travels. I know I've mentioned this before, and so I'll be needfully redundant and mention it again. It was nice to meet her, and I hope to see her again.
-
Now, here we are at Cristiano's hotel, the last stop of the night. I have long mentioned that there is something very magical about hotels and airports. I really like all the work he's put into the place. It has nice swatches of blue and classy furniture, and the stairs are ever-so-smooth to walk on.?This is a great balcony view, and although the hotel only has one room, that's because its primary purpose is to host events. I stood briefly at a podium in a room to declare, "HI, I'M DONALD TRUMP, AND YOU'RE FIRED!" Works for me.
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?