Google Maps for Second Life?

After reading all of Zyx Flux's road trip posts again (Web), I had a hankering to cruise the byways myself, so I started at a road terminus in Ahern (SLurl) and took the Western road through Dore and beyond, zipping along as long as I felt like it on my Terra "Z" personal transport (free; SL Marketplace). With no goal in mind other than sightseeing, my mind wandered over to the question "Why can't we have a Google Maps for Second Life?" That would be so cool.

Furniture That Really Rocks

It  is not often that I give over a blog post to recommend something that I've purchased for my Second Life (though products are often featured in other contexts), but I just had to mention this fabulous rocking chair that I just bought  from Little Hopper (L$600; SLurl). With only 24 prims including the shadow, the chair offers 8 poses suitable for a single avatar and 11 poses for couples — 3 fairly intimate. Unlike many rockers on the market it has a gentle rocking motion that doesn't give me whiplash. More importantly, it looks really great on my front porch. This is the chair I've been looking for since I came to Our World.

Want

A scene from Tangled (2010), a truly gorgeous animated movie.

Raise your hand if you want Rapunzel's home from the 2010 Disney movie Tangled for your home in Second Life. Not just the home, but the landscape, too. And I wouldn't mind having a little chameleon pet like she had. As long as I'm being greedy, I'd also like ...

Zyx's Road Trip: Day Eight

Zyx Flux and her trusty pack snail Shelly finished their trip today, having traveled the length of Route 9 on the mainland. Here's her report:

Looking down the hill to the inland sea.

I woke up today to find Shelly snoozing next to me, her gear all polished and ready. Apparently she got in early, early this morning and decided to let me sleep in for a bit. After I awoke we shared a brief breakfast as I showed her on the map how close we were to home. The big decision was to stick to the road and go under the small sea via a tunnel or try to hire a boat (flying her the whole way would be more than my little wings could handle. Arriving at the water's edge, we couldn't find a boat, so the tunnel it was. At least we could say we stayed on the road the whole way around Route 9.

We left the tunnel and found ourselves in Dongyeonju (Slurl) not far from where we started our journey about a week earlier and a little disappointed that we didn't see any fierce fishes through the tunnel's glass walls. Well, we did see a bit of sea junk, or whatever you wanted to call it. But at the exit (or entrance, if you were traveling the other direction) is a loaner car you can drive — just sit in it and go.

We saw some sort of junk through the glass wall of the tunnel, but no big fishes or sunken treasures or sea monsters or anything really interesting at all. Trying to find a boat might have been a better idea.

But just 2 minutes later we got back to where we started (SLurl) and could see home from the road. Since it was a short distance I picked up Shelly and flew her the few hundred meters to home (SLurl) and we collapsed in the grass near a new-looking pond that Uccello or her brother (the land owners) must have built while we were away.

Collapsed by a little pond, Shelly and I relaxed and chatted about the trip. I live on land owned by Uccello (this blog's owner) and her RL/SL brother, CC Columbo. I'm told that this is the first plot of land that CC owned (or darn close to it) when he first came to Second Life. At one time they owned most of the Nangrim region. Now it is my home, too.

I had to pay respects to the pixy statue at the pond on the Memorial Park side of the property. She represents the real life daughter of CC's, Lydia Rose, who passed away at the age of two. The park is for her. The tree house is where Uccello lives. I'm not sure where CC lives. Lately he's a Komodo dragon or a tortoise and hangs out in the pond.

One of my jobs at the Memorial park is to make sure the candle for Lydia Rose stays lit.
Everyone is welcome to visit to enjoy the beautiful scenery.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Nangrim/220/110/73

During our trip, Shelly and I received fairly regular dragonfly messengers with news from friends about things they have found around the mainland. As mentioned in my previous report, big purple crystals have been found on other roads so maybe Shelly and I will try to catalog those. Or maybe we'll try to find more greenhouses. There may not always be something interesting to see on the Second Life roadways, but this was a great trip over all and I might have to do another one. Hugz to all my readers!

Zyx and Shelly

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Editor's Note: I've had a lot of fun with these last nine posts, writing as Zyx. It's a fairly open secret that Zyx Flux (and Zyx Resident, for that matter) is my alt — probably my favorite, too.

When I first came to the Main Grid from the Teen Grid I moved into a little 16m² piece of land my brother had set aside inside his 1536m² land in Nangrim so early on I learned to enjoy the amazingly diverse absurdity we call mainland. Route 9 didn't exist and that little inland sea shown in this post was a bay into the open sea as that those regions were the edge of the world (at one time Nangrim was the edge).

Eventually, my brother and I came to own most of the Nangrim region. When a casino later opened and kept the sim so full I could only access my parcels from the border with Dongyeongju we sold everything at an enormous cost to the casino and went "homeless" for a while. Two days after the sale, the gambling ban was implemented and the casino had to close, selling all the land at a huge loss. A few years later, after having various parcels in other regions and trying the wonderful Linden Homes, my brother found that a 512m² parcel upon which I had a treehouse in Nangrim back in the day was for sale so we abandoned our Linden homes, bought that lot, had the Lindens sell us some adjacent abandoned land, and we've been "home" ever since. CC has acquired more land, for some reason (honestly, we can't afford the monthly on even the low cost of mainland, but somehow we do it) and CC's intent to have a Memorial Park for my niece has been fulfilled.

And wee Zyx has a home with butterflies, flowers gone wild, and a big pixy born of love and wishes to look up to every day.

Zyx's Road Trip: Day Seven

Zyx Flux and her trusty pack snail, Shelly, have been wandering Route 9 on the Second Life Mainland for several days and reporting back regularly. By my estimates, they started today nearly three-quarters of the way home. Shelly was given most of the day off so Zyx was able to fly quite a distance, which put her an easy half-day's journey close to home. Her report is after the map.

Leaving the beautiful Jasmin's Hollow in Zeds Pitch behind with more than just a bit of reluctance, Shelly and I headed East on Route 9 (SLurl) past another Apolon Motors store (SLurl) without grabbing a vehicle but stopping at Domino Designs in Spinolds Flat (SLurl) for a few free textures and then in Edgecumbe (SLurl) to see another huge purple roadside crystal (and another in Putiki Fold; SLurl).

While looking at the last crystal, an overnight dragonfly delivered a message from a friend that she's found a number of crystals on other roadways, including Route 1 in Lambeau (SLurl) and Lunalis (SLurl). If I hear back from crystal crafter Pelxore Lumiere, I'll have to ask just how extensively these things have been spread, especially since I've passed five just between Zed's Pitch and Bennafield (SLurl) with little else of interest along the way.

Jiwecu Haiku, Movie Star

Except for another Movie Star. I saw Jiwecu Haiku eschewing a roadside rest bench to sit on the bare concrete in Wombat (SLurl). Her Profile didn't show her groups but it seemed pretty complete otherwise, contrary to what "bots" normally have for Profiles, though her appearance differed from her Profile pic. I tried talking to her but avoided IM assuming that like the others I'd "met" she'd ignore me completely. Also like the others, her entire appearance was made up of freebies that one might find at The Free Dove (SLurl), a really popular stop for noobies. I wonder if we'll see other so-tagged 'Movie Stars' on our journey. Better yet, I wonder if we'll see actual movie stars. Wouldn't that be exciting? So, being bored, Shelly and I kept heading East on Route 9, prepared for more empty parcels with the occasional home or shop.

I think some of the critters
were steam-powered.

After passing another crystal in Munford, we left the road when we spotted what looked like an oasis. It turned out to be Cosmic Steam, a little meadow with mechanical kangaroos and a beautiful pond with waterfalls, mechanical dragonflies, and mechanical frogs. A very interesting combination, certainly, but it was a comfortable place to break for a snack and a refreshing swim. There were some "natural" creatures there, too, including swans, and all of them seemed to get along fairly well. It was a nice stop with both Shelly and I enjoying the rest.

In Dokkaebi, Shelly and I found a huge surprise! A greenhouse like the one I saw in Clearwing (Web)!! Shelly shook off her pack and scrambled into the greenhouse like a snail possessed. While she romped about, chasing butterflies, I worked to rid the greenhouse of pests (giving the smaller ones to the tiny frogs to teach them what they should be eating) and to do a bit of weeding. We spent the better part of the day here, but I eventually moved on, leaving a bus pass with Shelly so she could have the day off and catch up tomorrow. I hitched a ride with a squirrel and kept going, excited about maybe finding another greenhouse.

Making friends with the frogs.

Shelly chased me around a shallow pool, splashing me then running when I chased her.

The pests didn't bother Shelly much, but they were playing merry Hob with the delicate plants.

Lines of magnetic force around a coil.
Or something like that.

The Yongwang-Cheonma border (SLurl) was a study in contrasts with three good-sized castles, several adobe-brick houses, Native American tents, floaty skyboxes, fantasy caves, and ugly modern shops. I had a wonderful picture framed up, but some technical glitch wouldn't let me save it. I won't blame my iPhone, but the App — always trust the basic one that comes with the phone. Anyway, the squirrel dropped me off at another crystal in Ungnyo (SLurl) and from there I stretched my wings and flew for a bit. The land became less empty as I flew on and became down right densely packed by the time I hit Madhupak and some sort of odd magnetism display (SLurl). There were several rez-on-demand science exhibits there and all were fun to play with. Near by was a fairly organized community called Chilbo, with a town hall and everything covering a large tract of land across a few regions, but I couldn't figure out a purpose or find any citizens, so I gave up and continued my journey.

In Anma (SLurl), across from an art gallery with some nice photographs (many Not Safe for Pixies) was an amusement park with a train, a trolley, a carousel, and other rides, plus a kiddie park. It was kinda dull without Shelly, so I took one ride on the roller coaster and hit the road again. Not far along I found Mystery Lake on Han Loso with it's free kayak rental (SLurl) and some really mean-looking giant mutant catfish. Thank goodness my pixy magic air bubble protected me. If you decide to swim or dive here, be very careful.

There were a number of shops and homes around the lake and further along in Chiaksan I found another Outy's store (SLurl). But I kept going, through the heavily developed urban region of Kyung and into Haean. Finally I stopped in Seoraksan (SLurl) before the big underwater tunnel I saw on our maps and camped out for the night to wait for Shelly to arrive after her day off. She needed the rest and the greenhouse was a great place for that. I missed her company, but I chased some fireflies and generally enjoyed the fine copse of pine trees on a hillside. I could probably fly home from here — it is that close — but I wanted Shelly to share the finish line with me.

I really blended in with the deep forest vegetation.