A better view of the whole Noru gallery complex, minus the main structure, b_hivia, which sits way up in the sky instead. In the center you have the Temple of TILE with the newly added circle-based tower I’ve been speaking about in the blog lately.
A look up to the bottom of b_hivia using a longer draw distance.
b_hivia in all its, ahem, glory.
Then it’s on to new Atoll continent mysteries. Thanks, Flynn, for recent information about the history of Cypa and Sylvia, courtesy of one of its current residents. For the record, Flynn, who I’ve mentioned several times before in this blog (and who is a long time email friend, minus the more recent SL connection), rents in the Sylvia sim currently, and spoke of some odd similarities concerning the name of the sim, the next sim over to the west (Cypa), and then a parcel called Syd’s Place in Cypa but bordering Sylvia. In teleporting over to examine the place for myself after her initial email about renting there, I landed right in front of a quite nice duplex, I suppose you could say, and seeing the rent was really cheap there, promptly rented the southernmost of the two units. That was about a week ago, and until today I hadn’t had a chance to go back because of the building projects/moving projects I’ve been involved in. Now that’s resolved (hopefully!), I can get more involved in exploring, perhaps starting with Sylvia/Cypa. So I was able to get back to the rental apt. today, after a follow-up IM from Flynn inworld about the history of Sylvia/Cypa from that long time resident. I won’t relay details, but several things struck me about the history as it was summarized to me. The first concerns the relationship between the sim names Sylvia and Cypa, and Syd of Syd’s Place. Apparently all this is coincidence, as the Lindens named the sims in 2005 when the Atoll continent was originally formed. An avatar named Waleis Moseley owns both Syd’s Place in Cypa, and the majority of the adjacent Sylvia sim as well. Most of the Sylvia land Mosely owns is under the New Beginnings rubric, but the person who contacted Flynn also stated there are presently 3 other, smaller Moseley owned Sylvia parcels set aside for the “convenience of managing media.” One is named Diamond, for the current renter’s first name. When I read this, I immediately thought of Syd Barrett and the famous tribute song about him composed by Pink Floyd called “Shine on You Crazy Diamond”, on the Wish You Were Here album from 1975 (the album title also may refer directly to Syd). I won’t go into the story of Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett again, but instead point interested readers to the Barrett wikipedia article. But the presence of a Diamond parcel added to the Syd mystery brewing in this area.
To the name Syd’s Place itself, where I have my own current rental: apparently when Waleis Moseley first came to Sylvia in 2005, an avatar named Syd or Sydney was already living there. This might be Sydney 30 — yes, in searching for this name came up with a profile for “Sydney Thirty”, who must be the same. It’s a woman avatar (I was personally thinking male avatar, like Syd Barrett). Hmmm, apparently some kind of slave (?) of Moseley. Well, we won’t dwell on that aspect, but just to note that there *was* a “real Syd” in Sylvia, and that this Syd, again according to the note sent to Flynn, left Second Life in 2006. Then the note states — this again really, really interested me — it’s possible that you’ll still see Syd in Sylvia, although it won’t be the real Syd but a ghost (!). This again was much like Syd Barrett, who left from Pink Floyd in 1968 but retained a spectre like presence for the group down through the years.
Now to the maps below. When Flynn originally told me about the Syd name “coincidences” surrounding geographically connected Sylvia/Cypa/Syd’s Place, I told her that the Rubi sim where I first found a picture of Syd Barrett in Second Life is immediately west of both Sylvia and Cypa. In double checking this today (after knowing about the detailed history of Sylvia/Cypa), I noted the grid location of my Cypa apt., and then teleported over to Rubi to see what I could find on the same latitude. Firstly, I noticed a green dot near my Cypa apt., but in scanning the area could find no avatar. No big deal. But as I subsequently walked around the apt. to find the exact grid locations, the green dot moved closer; in fact, it seemed to be in the same apt as me, but, again, upon checking found no one there. I though that it may be just my own location trace — that might be part of it — but when I teleported over to Rubi, I decided on a hunch to find the odd triple 97 that marked the beginning point of my explorations of the Rubi Diagonal. My regular blog readers may remember at least an inkling of this from a series of posts on the Diagonal from last fall, found in the Rubi Forest category of the blog. I eventually found the 97,97,97 spot on the map, as demonstrated below.
Here’s the really queer part of this particular aspect of the subject. When I shifted over to Cypa and my apt. using the SL map, either my trace was still there in the symbol of a green dot, or someone else was still there. Again, it was probably my trace. But when I clicked on it, miraculously the “97, 97″ popped up (!). The last “97″ was explained by the fact that the elevation I would teleport into would be the same as where I was standing in Rubi. But the middle “97″ means that *that green dot*, whether it was the last place I was standing in Cypa or where someone else was currently standing, was situated *exactly east* of the 97, 97, 97 triple point in Rubi. Could it have been the aforementioned “ghost of Syd” if not my trace? And, if so, I could ask, “*which Syd*?” (Thirty or *Barrett*).*
I also should point to my quite mysterious dialog with Hucka Doobie upon first visiting the Rubi sim and finding the Barrett/Floyd picture in Zarek Lock’s gallery, just before I bought land there myself and stayed for 4 additional months. It’s, then, also the earliest post you’ll find in the Rubi Forest category of this blog. To summarize, Hucka Doobie paints the picture of Barrett as a ghost or spectre that perhaps haunts the Rubi Forest. Creeps!
Add all this up, and I think you get a pretty deep mystery. At any rate, I rented in Cypa for another week; I’ll relay any new developments asap.
* I should add that when I teleported back over to Cypa after this to see if anyone was there, discovered only an empty apt. once again.
But it seems worth the sacrifice. Was initially looking at renting my old property in Rubi just next door, but this parcel was cheaper and also much more protected. Doubly protected, as they say, since the wall is to the immediate east and there’s also a Linden road to the south.
