TEXT SOON.
Nascera IV, 02 > Pyri Funfair December 6, 2010
TEXT SOON.
In the meantime, see here for great post on Pyri Funfair
http://marianne.secondlifekid.com/2010/10/22/pyri-funfair/
2 new sinks? I believe we must declare it so. November 9, 2010
Just when I start to think I can finally give up on SL, it begins to surprise me again. Not necessarily this seascape in the new Sea of Fables, although it is new, and an improvement over the old sea bed…
… but, kind of, some new landscaping in Nascera, and on the oldest square of 64 sims, the core of the continent that I explored last winter to a large degree. I have a hankering for more biking adventures on this continent to see all the changes, and just to soak in some purdy colors. 🙂
I’ll report more on these and other finds at that time. For now just some prelim pics.
I was sort of surprised to still see the White on White Gallery near my new dwelling spot in Ulyanovsk Oblast (next to the Maebaleia side of the Rabbit Hole), since it doesn’t have an attached, official Sasun Steinbeck art kiosk any longer. I think these smaller hole-in-the-wall type galleries (and I’m using the phrase in a positive sense here) are gaining more and more of my respect, as I see the same type of works over and over again in the larger art venues. The “art for art’s sake” phrase springs to mind, although I don’t think that’s exactly the description I’m looking for. More a detachment from what *I* most deeply care for, and that is the surrounding landscape (in most cases). At the very least, with small galleries like this, on the ground, the landscape is just outside a nearby door. It brings a sense of airiness, and attachment to the virtual world at large. Often large galleries, on their own islands, for instance, whatever the advantages of such a setting, also set themselves apart from the common SL creators. Sometimes this is justified, of course. I’m just adding my 2 cents here in saying that occasionally, to me, it appears exclusive and aloof to do so. But there’s that old saying about the 2 types of users that populate Second Life, the mainlanders and the estate people. I’m definitely in the former category now, which has been a minority for several years.
*And* I’m also interested in the fact that an artist named Lemmon exhibits in a sim with the Rabbit Hole, as I’ve stated before. It’s reassuring he’s still here now that I am as well.
This fairly surprised me: a sim in the center of the Maebaleia continent that has double the terraforming limits of any of the numerous sims I checked nearby after discovering the anomaly. Surrounding sims all have the standard +4/-4. This one (Ilythyia): +8/-8. I was tipped off to this exaggeration by the large mound pictured below, apparently created to help hide a nearby roadside ad billboard. It seemed unnaturally tall when I passed by it while traveling down Route 8, and so turned out to be. To other people this type of quirk may be ho hum boring, but to me it’s spice for the otherwise sometimes bland meal that is SL.
Nearby deep holes, also in Ilithyia. Not nearly as deep as, for example, the Rabbit Hole (either Jeogeot and Maebaleia “sides”), but still unnaturally so, if you will. I do not know of any other sim outside Sansara (oldest mainland mass) and perhaps a couple on Heterocera (2nd oldest) that allow this non-conformative terraforming, to give some perspective on how rare the phenomenon appears to be. Apparently some bug allowed the creation of the amazingly deep Ulyanovsk Oblast hole — just as was the case with the Jeogeot (Blackmount sim) side of same — because now the sim has the usual +4/-4 limits, like all others I’ve found on the newer continents beyond the original two, save Ilithyia now. For this reason alone, I would gladly give up a present non-Otaki Gorge parcel to by one here, just to play around with the anomaly — same would go *doubly* for Notata (Heterocera; +16/-16 limits). Fun with holes and hills!
And *this* most definitely surprised me (!), for right under my nose all this time is what appears to be a 9th, official mainland sink, and a fairly large one at that. And, ta boot, I use to rent on the lip of this thing (Spring 09) without realizing what it was at the time. This would be what we will call the Finsteraarhorn sink, after the main sim it lies within. But, somewhat similar to Chasm Deep on Corsica (which it’s comparable in size to, if not in depth), the newly identified sink obviously spills over into at least one more sim, Dammastock in this case.
Below, Baker poses for a picture in heavy vegetation atop a Linden tunnel positioned at the lowest point of the sink, it seems, with a freshly emerged Route 8 stretching west ahead of him. Behind Blochs here, the highway moves “underground” for one whole sim (Dammastock again) before reemerging on the east side of Bietschhorn.
And then *another* surprise this night to add in: the discovery of even a 10th, mainland sink, and not far south of the Finsteraakhorn sink on Maebaleia. Again, we have the requisite texture color change, and the needed size, it seems. This particular one is more obviously split between 2 sims, with the bottom of the sink almost straddling the line between them. This would be Grossglockner and Schreckhorn. Perhaps interestingly, Grossglockner is named for the 3rd highest peak of the Alps by prominence, while Finsteraarhorn, although located a number of sims to the north (five), is named after the 2nd highest peak of same, again according to prominence. Mount Blanc, also the highest overall Alp mountain, would come first in the same list.
While I’m formulating a better name, I’m just going to call this Grossglocken/Schreckhorn depression “Sink X”, remembering the recent mention on this blog of Plant X located in Earth, Texas. In conjunction with this, I also think back on the so-called “Magic Square of Earth” I’ve encountered in several web searches, which happens to be 10 numbers wide and high, or 10×10 — “X” again, then, as on a clock face. I specifically remember a Great Serpent Mound site coming up among the few hits on this phrase, but which seems to no longer exist. I’ll have to check on that — I believe I have some printouts of the web site somewhere in my files.*
As you can see by the picture below, Sink X is a pretty deep affair, with the bottom presently at about the 29 meter level. The water level in the associated sims is at the normal 20 meters, meaning that there’s no way to terraform down to it while inside the sink.
A tangential note: I wonder if this fellow and his namesake phenomenon (Lamb Shift) have anything to do with the Cross of the Lamb and our Peter?
http://www.osti.gov/accomplishments/lamb.html
Below are the 2 new sinks as they appear in the terrain view of the inworld map. Finsteraarhorn Sink is centered by the larger, isolated beige area to the north, and Sink X is identified through the smaller, isolated beige texture patch to its south. Arguments will appear saying that both of these depressions are too close to the coastline to count as true sinks, but I think they will be overruled by the majority who judge such things. Is this ruling body the legendary Confederation of Sinkers or a part thereof?**
*****
* Traditional associations between magic squares and planets usually stop at the 9×9 Magic Square of The Moon. The complete list, smallest to largest, is Saturn (3×3), Jupiter (4×4), Mars (5×5), Sun (6×6 — note the Earth is skipped in this backwards progression), Venus (7×7), Mercury (8×8), and Moon (9×9).
** The 10 identified mainland sinks as of 11/9/10 according to continent:
Jeogeot (6): Big, Second or Oolamoo/Drews, Aotearoa, Otaki Gorge, Lill Burn Valley, Blackmount
Corsica (2): Egg Hill, Chasm Deep
Maebaleia/Satori (2): Finsteraarhorn, X
Karoz, Meanwhile… March 27, 2010
… had found a bishop chess piece at the bottom of a Nascera channel, in the new additions since Christmas. Just to note: it appears in Nascera and its *clone* continent Arecsan. Two white bishops, then.*
Two bishops lie on either side of the King and Queen on a chess board. 🙂 I can’t help but think they somehow represent the cloning process itself, a microcosm of the macrocosm.
Yes, Karoz was still in contact with the family, although in an abstract way. He’ll continue to explore Second Life while the others are groundside, as it were.
*****
In other news — still sad to me even though I’ve been away for close to 1/2 a year now — Azure Islands has been sold; Big Island is no more. Not sure yet the status of Azure Island #2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. I assume they’ll be cut up as well, like Azure Island #1 before them. There will be no true sub-continents on estate property soon. People seem to prefer the isolated sims if they go the estate route.
*****
* See more here on the relationship between Nascera and its clone. The original white bishop lies in the Ahi sim of Nascera, the second, clone bishop in Rokugatsu of Arecsan. Rumors abound of even a 3rd, cloned continent.
Bluebells & Back March 19, 2010
In the middle of the Bluebells Forest properly known as West Woods in Wiltshire County, England, Baker Bloch indeed unlocked a portal connecting First Life back to Second Life. When he opened the crate with the skeleton within, left there by ever practical jokers Hucka Doobie and Baker Blinker (Hucka Doobie was the real mastermind), he was frightened all the way back to that more comfortable, much less texture heavy virtual reality. Merging with a beech within the forest itself — for he was indeed baker Beach, my true name — he then found himself in the middle of a larger, “expanded” skeleton: the skeleton of a ship in the very center of Bluebells sim, Second Life, a place visited a number of times by Baker Bloch this past winter.
But Hucka Doobie, who was one and the same as Hucka D. and not split in two (Baker Bloch and Baker Blinker) like myself, knew what he was doing all along, apparently, for there were now other things Blochs needed to see in the newer parts of the same channel to the south. Like yet another water goddess statue, this one having a quite particular name unlike the others: “She Holds The Sun.”
Another skeleton wreck lies nearby. This would be in the Catoblepas sim now, about 400 meters south by southeast of the Bluebells water goddess statue.
Then another 350-400 meters south by southwest, in Igneoushalla, we find this second goddess statue in the new, southern part of the channel, this one having sunk into the ocean floor a bit and leaning, and also holding a white orb instead of a yellow one. Baker Bloch instantly recognized that this is, in all likelihood, a lunar counterpart to the solar goddess just to the north. The name of the object is more generic this time: “Mythic Corroded Sea Goddess”. Another thing to note is that the water considerably shallower now than before, with the channel’s floor rising 10 meters in the passage between the 2 statues in question. The webbed tail of the “lunar” goddess, even though she is leaning, manages to just touch the top of the water, only 10 meters deep here as opposed to the previous 20.
Having scanned all of the channel below Bluebells, he now returns to his starting point to compare new finds with the basically duplicate statue in that sim.
First off, it’s called a “Mythic River Goddess” here and not a “Mythic (Corroded) Sea Goddess”, like the one holding the white orb in Igneoushalla. Is the channel a part of a sea or part of a river, then? Also, as described before in this December post, the orb the goddess holds is bluish now. I should also mention that this one and the one in Catoblepas (solar goddess) have jeweled eyes whose color matches the orb they hold. The one further south in Igneoushalla holding the white orb has no such jeweled eyes.
While reexamining the curious courtyard once more behind the statue here…
… Baker Bloch suddenly finds himself back in the West Woods of Wiltshire, his “spell” apparently having worn off.
He needed to find the rest of the family and tell them what just happened!
Nascera Expansion, 04 February 7, 2010
Newest picture of the Nascera continent expansion. Already it is quickly approaching the size of the smallest, present continents of Gaeta and Heterocera. For now, you can still clearly see the square extent of the original 64, now making up considerably less than half the total land.
And Baker was super pleased to see that whole sims have still been set aside in new development as buffering park regions, just as was the case with the original 64.
Moving to the southern part of the continent now, we have expansion in this direction of the fantasy themed region. The below ridge butts directly up against the west side of the old 64.
Interesting terrain just south of the channel running through the fantasy region, below the Bluebells sim. As of this writing, none of the new sims have specific names, nor can you teleport directly to them. Instead I, or Baker Bloch, had to teleport into the original 64 and fly into the newer regions.
While at the above location, Baker spotted an avatar hovering between two jagged hills directly in front of him, and decided, just out of curiosity, to see who it was. There weren’t many avatars in the new regions, and I think Baker had only encountered a couple of moles so far, busy making adjustments.
He focused in, and lo and behold the avatar turned out to be a JohnnyMac Lemmon, making Baker actually gasp at the time. Why the surprise? Well, it’s obviously a kind of mashup of names John Lennon and McCartney, and reference to these two names had *just appeared* on the cover of the newly minted second edition of Sunklands Today, a picture of which actually appears just beneath the photo below (if you’re viewing the blog from the home page). The specific reference is “What Marty Said; Lemon = Lennon?”. Marty, to remind regular readers, is a former spirit guide of the blog referred to as a Paul McCartney variant, with the name Marty being derived from an edited version of the letters of Paul’s surname. The name Lemon in this blog, according to Marty and perhaps Hucka D., refers directly, in turn, to John Lennon. Anyway, here with JohnnyMac Lemon, we have a eerily similar mashup of names McCartney and Lennon; hope you can grasp that queerness at least a bit. 🙂
Despite advertising himself as friendly and inviting others to say hi to him, Baker Bloch balked at direct contact. Best, he thought, just to take a picture and allow the associations to unfold within the blog.
Additional note: Mr. Lemmon apparently is staring directly toward the Bluebells/Corrigan ruins complex.
Nascera Expansion, 03 February 6, 2010
More slopes in the northern part of the continent. But Baker is heading south again by now, toward the original 64 once more.
A path piece in mid air.
I don’t think these type of paths were found in the older California modern sims. Nice addition. Despite the many dissenting opinions, I feel the new continent has some really interesting promise, again taken for what it is.
The empty land, again, separating the old California modern region from the new California modern development to the north. Please make this a park, please make this a park, please…
Looking across the empty expanse to the original development.
Then on the west side of this empty area we find more Japanese themed houses, another expansion on the old 64 taking place on the west side of the continent and already reviewed here a bit.
Looking east from whence he came.
ce
Nascera Expansion, 02
More snapshots from the burgeoning Nascera continent, now expanding in all directions.
To the north lies more California modern housing development. But first we have interesting, empty terrain beyond the upper border of the original 64 sims of the continent. I really, really hope they turn this large area into a park. We’ll see soon enough; new Linden homes are advertised to be available Feb. 17th, only a bit over a week away. I assume they’ll have all new land ready to go at that time.
More hills within the new California modern developement.
Interesting hollow of houses on the new, northern edge of the continent at sunrise, surrounded by treed slopes.
Another hill with a house apart from the rest.
I’ll let others give the details of the new houses, and if anything has changed from the originals. My focus is on the land itself, and any mythology that might be derived from a study of the continent.
I was pleased to see this larger tract of forested land within the housing developments.
A longer shot better showing the typical relation of houses and landscaping in the populated areas of the north, with most of the trees found on slopes separating the various housing “clusters”. Interesting.
More typical draw distance an avatar would use (96 meters), with “softer” terrain changes.
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