Me and my Cave

As you surely know a Drow is pure underground... literally. We live subterranean, usually don't like height and find the most cuddly spots rather in self-dug earth-holes or cozy caves than in extravagant canopy beds.
So it was rather naturally that I would eventually own my own cave in Second Life too. My friend Nepal was so kind and surprised me with a lovely made and already furnished cave in the heart of Panoply! What a lovely home!

Welcome at my palace, human! Want have a tour?

I always felt human houses dramatically overrated. Here you are much closer to mother earth (and no annoying neighbors too)!

And there even some great programs on TV.

Nepal did such a lovely job with furnishing my cave I really didn't had to change much, just adding some minor things.

Everything a Drow needs: a refrigerator. plenty of books, a shower, a sofa, a cage for humans (the only really essential thing I had to add) and a cozy campfire.

Enjoying a chilled tropical sunset.

Do we need an Anthem? - Nah!

Well, I know I do silly things when I'm bored (I don't want to get into details here and I hope my notebook - unlike da Vinci's - wont ever get published) but I know where the limits are. Really. Thats important for me and should be important for everyone else: Keep the crap for yourself!
But while innocently (note: I'm always innocent, whatever the judges say!) surfing a Second-Life-related Forum yesterday I found something which not only breaks this unwritten law in social behavior. It rather takes it, rips it apart and stuffs it into your throat:
There are some individuals who actually think Second Life needs an anthem - yuck!

I think you can generally say Second Life is what you make of. Its the absolute space for individuality, for creativity and expressing your own identity in whatever way you like. So why the bloody hell should it need an obsolete 19th century nationalism-relic like an anthem?

Apart from the fact that you most likely wont ever find a tune which all Second Life residents will like and that only a minority every heard of this contest and most likely a even smaller minority has voted for a song at all, I still wonder whats the purpose of all this... well besides the desire of the campaign's initiators to aggrandize themselves of course.

Anyway. I'm glad not seeing an official Linden Labs label there nor finding them in the sponsors list. The spirit of Second Life can hardly be pressed into a few lines of text nor put into a melody at all. That's just as silly as trying to describe yourself this way... you can try it but you will leave inevitably important things out.

So why not just burning the silly idea of an anthem on a stake and do your own thing after it?

Time Standing Still - The Mysteries of Pteron - Part III

Part of Pteron is also a place called "Coma". A spectacular stone structure levitating in endless dark skies and also a real treasure chest:

The mysterious plant is called The essence of the dream.

Next to it you can find another beautiful plant and a light with a nice flicker effect.

If you follow the steps upstairs (or simply fly) you will find a house (due to its design and decoration its likely a temple) and another two lovely souveniers:

The left one of these two artifacts is called God Wand. The glowing plant is a variation of the one you can find at Pteron.

Inside the temple waits another gift: a photo-album!

I already missed this one: Another bedside lamp!

Not really a gift but pretty cool: Halfway between Coma and Pteron lies a small platform with a curious flying machine you can easily find when just jumping down from Coma (of course after getting all gifts there).

Its not the drugs... its Pteron!

After I returned back to the starting portal this elegantly my next destination will be Nostos - in my next entry however :-)

Time Standing Still - The Mysteries of Pteron - Part II

I love Pteron not only for its enigmatic alien architecture but also for the fact that you can take a piece of it home too. Well, actually more than a piece - its quite a number of unique and stunning looking artifacts.
So I decided that the second part of my expedition will be a little guide leading you to the hidden treasures of Pteron I was able to discover so far. Obtaining these gifts is pretty easy: either you will get them in your inventory by clicking it, or you have to "buy" them for 0 L$. Shopping can be so much fun!

A stylish bedside lamp.

Clicking on the rotating... thing gives you a dream-dance-animation.

Not far from the dance you can also find this glowing plant. One of several hidden at the sim.

There are some Preserver (a kind of stasis-boxes) stored in this tank.

Preserved Drow.

Next to the preserving tank is a strange hovering device called "flow" and a Pteron photo-book.

Odd things are hidden here. An Atom-Avatar and a pretty big fountain!

So much for the city of Pteron itself. In my next posts I will continue with the locations Coma, Nostos, Kyklos and Speciation. Until then I wish you happy souvenier-hunting!

My Second Life Bike Tour the 3rd - Part 21

Surprise Surprise! After clubbing last night with Miss Victorias I was allowed to stay out of the cage for a day and serve the rest of my time later! Of course I used this opportunity to go on with biking and exploring the archipelago in the west of Nautilus. At some moments though I almost wished that... nooo... just kidding. The trip wasnt that bad!

Rebeck - 10 commandments for sale - what should I think about this?

Costard - playing some slayer for a change.

Btw: entering this place triggers an automatic vistor message:

[09:27] Visitor Master: Welcome to my home, please enjoy yourself. Remember this is a PG realm, garments must be worn in the public viewing areas and all intimate attributes must be put away or covered.

Sounds like a true fun place - huh?

Since the coastline-sims again seemed pretty "banned" I decided to try my luck on the archipelago in the southwest.

Montague - taking off from the Fairlady

My flight took only a few second though for reasons you might imagine already. I decided going on travelling by bike to be more promising.

Scroop - Kingdom of Syldavia - a temporary return to a road.

Banquo - Grand Entertaimnent Complex - pretty cool club for sale here.

...and a cute kitten-club too!

Trueblood - I wonder if there's a chapter about Drows too.

The Five Second LIfe Commandments - not for sale.

Pisanio - Posing at the "Cheeky Kitten Magical Pet Market"

Hmmm - kitty needs diet?

Erlingford - quite the hidden underwater-wonderland!

Today's path at its closest guessing. Again you can see my brave attempts to find a way passing banned parcels and even whole sims in the west of Nautilus. My next steps are now getting back to the continent and taking the road you can see in the lower right corner.

My Second Life Bike Tour the 3rd - Part 20

Sometimes you ride mile after mile without spotting nothing really interesting. On other occasions though you can hardly do a step without stumbling over a photo opportunity. After reaching the end of the road at Beatrice I decided to look a bit arround and search my path further alon the west-coast of Nautilus. I didn't came far - but I had plenty of nice photo opportunities!

Beatrice - a nice view out to the sea...

...and a not that nice view inland.

This place tries to make everone happy: zombies, tentacles, cells, traps...

...and of course gallows too. None of them actually wakes my sympathy. Its all a bit too exaggerated and lacking good taste. Needless to mention I'm pretty disgusted by executions.

Desdemona - this stylish shop deserves a picture!

Publius - sort of invading a "romantic beach & tropical ballroom" called That's Amore. No injured though.

Follow the light!

It leads you to a... treehouse?

A boy's playground - definitely!

Rebeck - another medieval castle. Equipped with the Second Life-counterpart of a drawbridge: a banline.

Now thats pretty.

I think this was my shortest stage so far. Pretty entertaining though. As you can see I followed the road a little before finding a decent off-road passage to explore the coastline of Western Nautilus. There are also plenty of small islands out at sea too which are surely worth a look!

My Second Life Bike Tour the 3rd - Part 19

Wow! Part 19 of my journey already. And there is no end in sight! I had no idea how big this whole project would be when starting my first tour at Heterocera loooong time ago! Back then I had no idea I would even be "compelled" by circumstances (or sheer lazyness) one day to use a plane at all (which feels quite naturally for me in the meanwhile)...

Pouncival -  starting my faithful petite rouge. As you may remember I finished last time with returning to Pouncival. Studying the map (actually just quickly scanning without any further planning) I saw a junction leading to a passage in the south I haven't explored yet starting at Dreyfus.

Flying was actually pretty nice this time. After the 2nd attempt...

Dreyfus - perfect landing. Just a little overshoot. But well... a triplane has no brakes at all.

Spike - grrrr annoying zombie-traffic again!

I really don't like these automatically driving vehicles at all. And the roads of Nautilus are stuffed with them!
Their AI is poor at best: If you stand with your bike on the left side of the road and they approach you driving on the right side you can be sure they will cross to your side and run directly into you...

Speaking of intelligence: somehow the name of the sim (Spike) was familiar to me. A look at the map eventually showed me that I took the wrong way... *coughs* navigating via plane really  seems   more easy for me.

Back to Dreyfus - this time taking the right road.

Barkley - hmm I have nicer wings.  Well, on my planes. ;-)

Helicanus - this wheel's on fire... and I think its the same typie I already saw in Rannveigh.

Beatrice - aaaaaw... and it was such a nice ride!

Part 19 of my journey finally led me to the western coast of Nautilus . an area which still is mainly undiscovered for me. I can't wait to see more of it (if they have roads there of course)!