A Look At A Linden Houseboat

By Gemma Cleanslate

I thought I would bring you up date on my new Linden Houseboat.  Finally I was able to acquire one on the last release day. It was hard work as many hundreds who did not make it will attest. I actually brought my laptop to work to check on the release. There are many left waiting again so I consider myself so lucky!

I love the location too!! It is in the far northeast corner of ... right next to a spit that is unoccupied. It is next to ... beach . To the west of my boat is the bay. It is almost like a private island!!  I can hope over to the spit and take my horse for a ride all over the peninsula and check out the decor of the other decks.

I started with one model and was decorating a friend came to visit. We talked about the model and the sloping back wall. After going over and checking out his model I thought about it and decided to change. There is a lifesaver on the dock next to each house that gives one the option of 4 models. Just press and voila! Of course I had to move and reinstall all my furniture but I managed it.

With the prim allowance I have two boats in my boat slip. I rezzed some things I really like but don’t have room for at my other home in Thorstar. I found an SL14B kittycat in my inventory and rezzed her too!!  I had a few issues with finding her swimming under water when she was tiny but now that she is over 5 days and larger she seems to be stabilizing on the floor of the houseboat. My other kitty , Puffin, won’t be jealous since she lives at Thorstar.  I still have some prims to play with  when i can look at all the decor I have saved .

I know that the Moles are overburdened right now with the SL16B and  getting more Linden Homes ready for those panting for them.  Ihear that there is also a new model of Linden Home to be introduced at the SL16B Have faith and maybe some patience! It is worth the wait! The community is forming groups for various activities I must check into. My home is called Peace.  If you would like to visit let me know.

Gemma Cleanslate

Valentine Town

By Bixyl Shuftan

Next week, Valentines Day falls on Wednesday February 14. This is a holiday couples look forward to, with numerous dates arranged and plenty of candy and flowers given out. And in Second Life, virtual couples can go to a number of places to have fun together, or where people can get things to help liven the event or a present for their special friend.

One place you can do both is Valentine Town by Laura Liberty.Valentine Town has been a yearly feature in Second Life for quite some time. set up every year by Laura Liberty. But this year, the place is a bit different. The shops are still around, as before in cartoony-looking buildings. But this year, there is more.

Right at the entrance, you can see the biggest addition: the Tunnel of Love. Circling around the middle part of the town, the couple gets in the small boat near the doors, then goes down a heart-shaped opening into a heart-shaped tunnel with pink lights. As the small boat goes down the canal, it will go through both segments of lighted tunnel and  open air, until coming around to stop where the trip began and the couple can get off, or perhaps take another trip.


The center of Valentine Town is a large dance
area with a fountain in the middle, and white, pink, and red lanterns hanging overheard. The lanterns are lit, and illuminated the area when viewed at Midnight. There were also flower stalls near the edge, where one could buy a bouquet of roses. The radio was playing romantic tunes, or songs in which the theme was romantic, such as "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Love Me Like You Do."

I happened to come across Laura Liberty talking to a couple lady visitors, "Hi Bixyl, how are you doing? Thanks for coming to Townies." The two women with her told me the Tunnel of Love was great, "Laura worked hard. The tunnel is beautiful." "It's fabulous." "She does not stop, always working." Laura excused herself to help someone, and I would meet her at a place to the right of the center area, the "Love Locks" fence.  "I engrave them with names," Laura told me, "Have you seen that in real life? (It) will be a fence full of locks overlooking water. People write their names and throw (the) key in (the) water in that moment in time they were in love. It is sweet. I hear they do them many places now."

This year, Laura had some assistance in building the town, "I had help from Acehole Ixito and Tanyja Resident, took us a month to rebuild it. They are mesh makers, and we worked about a month straight to finish.. We try to make all the towns have some sort of entertainment." She then intoduced me to one, Acehole, or just "Ace" as Laura called him. He looked like a child's handmade paper doll in his avie, "I use this avatar sometimes to be low-lag, someone came earlier asking for it (laughter)."

When I asked about the biggest challenge in building this year's town, Ace answered, "I would say the biggest challenge by far was designing the sim from scratch. We didn't even plan on creating all this after we took down Christmas, but Laura had a few small ideas on how to make our old Valentine's Town better. And that small seed just kind of exploded." "I wanted that Tunnel of Love ride," Laura added, "We finished the builds and about a week before we opened, I said to Ace, 'I should have mentioned this before Ace but, I really don't know how to make a ride.'" They chuckled as a Callisto (CallistoKilgannon Resident) walked up.

"Callisto is our friend here," Laura continued, "We stayed up until about 4 am and got it sorted." "I think it came put pretty well," Calisto spoke. Ace then stated, "During testing, the ride occasionally flung Laura hundreds of feet in the air." "It was certainly an experience seeing it all come together," Calisto went on, "coming by for a little each night and seeing the progress that had been made that day. if you had asked me if I thought it would end like this, I'd have said no. It's come very far." Laura smiled, "Aww thanks Calli. Yeah you were here through it all. Building is fun but more fun when people come and can enjoy it."

I brought up Mardi Gras Town, which was hundreds of meters overhead, asking if it gets overlooked sometimes. Ace answered no, "It actually seems pretty popular this year. I've noticed more people than I expected going up there since we opened yesterday. ... More than half the people on this sim seem to be up there now." Laura told, "One of the first years I did Townies, I made a smaller version of a skate castle and no one came. I sat on that sim by myself all of December. So if people come, it just makes it so nice." Ace explained why the two towns were not on the same level this time, "Before, Mardi Gras was right next to Valentine's, but the big Mardi Gras dome just didn't look right down here this year." Calisto added, "I think it's more of an adventure when you don't have another town just on the horizon. it doesn't feel like a movie set. So I think you made the right choice with that one Laura."

We talked some about some cartoons the Newser did with Valentines Day and cupid in mind. Then Laura looked over her shoulder, "Speaking of funny cartoons, here comes Bean." At first, I noticed a short grayish shape with short arms and legs walking our way. But eventually, Bean (GreenBeanGirl Resident) came clear in view, a cheerfully cartoonish avatar with a green visor had and a Christmas sweater with her name, "Hi friends! Bean here! Callistooooo." Calisto chuckled, "No town is complete without bean. she's got a lot of personality (laughter)." When Bean was told who I was, "Wow, you are famous. ... Ask me what you want. I am open book. ... I am ride conductor. I wave in my chair, and say 'Welcome friends to Townie! Without me, this all would not work." Ace stated, "Bean greets the guests. Lots have taken to her."

Calisto continued, "Laura had a bit of a tough time this year with creating the new town. Every time things change, it becomes less of a setup and more of a build from scratch type of thing. The ride was certainly a challenge. And just ask her about the bridges (laughter)." I asked about the bridges, and Laura answered, "just struggled with them." Calisto explained, "Long story short, the textures have her a bit of trouble since the bridges are composed of so many different pieces. 85 if I'm correct. And they all had to be textured separately, earning them the endearing name of 'effing bridges.' " Ace added, "Yes we spent hours finding music. Instrumental romantic music for the ride, and classic love songs for the rest of the sim."

Bean talked about how good a snack of french fries and a milkshake could be, then described how nice the central area near the waterfall in the back could be when viewed at Midnight, "Laura tell me this, she think of all thing like that. Music special picked out, make good for dance, or relax." She asked to me to be still for a moment so she could take a picture, "I never have Fox as friend before. ... I better take picture in case no one believe me." She then told me she was placing it in her profile pics, which she did.

It wasn't much longer than this that I had to be elsewhere, and Laura had to help someone out. So we told each other goodbye.

Be sure to see Valentine Town at Townies (128/169/7). You'll probably also want to see Mardi Gras Town at Townies (93/206/748).

Bixyl Shuftan

The New Raawr Fox Avatar

By Grease Coakes

In today's world of Second Life people like you and me always want to try a new look whether a new furry avatar or set of clothes. For the humans maybe a new human skin or shopping trip.

One of the things I do when I log on is look through my notices. I scan through them fast but I did happen to notice was that Furnication at 
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Furnication/115/222/2001did have a new fox avatar release party recently. So I figured it couldn't hurt I had some Linden to blow to try out a new look. I check out the Raawr site I found on search. The LM is http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Free%20Spirit/137/81/22.

I let the store rez which didn't take that long before going about. I looked through the fox vendor and decided on a black color. The price is 900L which wasn't so bad. I went to the ark sandbox to try it out and the first thing I see when I put on the shape is that I look very skinny with the male shape. Remember when the Aventity foxes came out years ago and it seemed every fox fan was wearing them? They were really skinny, so male wearers of that avatar had to add a lot of body mass to look not feminine. This avatar from Rawrr has a much skinnier male shape. Even when I added more muscle I still looked unhealthily skinny. Skinny is fine Aventity foxes looked good and were the fad years ago when they first came out for a fair price. But they also came with a read me to let you know how to use your avatar. When I look through the recent section of my inventory I see no such read me for the Rawwr avatar. 

When I load up the HUD for the avatar I see a jumble that's not exactly clear. Granted I like the PG-13 artwork that you see on the hud however I would prefer a read me and a HUD that's easier to understand over nice artwork. To be fair clickies are already installed on the ears and tail so that saves time of having to look through my inventory for me to install. But the HUD isn't clear when I see numbers and symbols? What do the numbers 1 through 4 mean? I had to spin the hud around to find eye color. When I clicked the symbols, turns out it changes the iris of your eyes. Neat effect, but when I look at ears and hands I'm not sure what they do.

Granted the avatar does look good, although the ears don't show up when I put on my fave hat I bought from a Native American vendor. Heartspeaker Lorefield himself said I look good with it on. 900 Linden is a fair price. Toshuki avatars are the same price. However for a majority of avatars that I purchased there was always a "read me" notecard so if I got lost on what this does or how do I change the eye color.

And the HUD is a jumble. It seemed rushed as if the creator wanted to rush it out without beta testing to make it user friendly. I clicked things on the hud and it took a few times to get it to click. I did look through the box again and there were adult add ons for your avatar. That's a nice touch. I'd have to say like Aventity foxes it might have been geared to the ladies crowd, and this avatar seems that way too. I don't like the "Straving Marvin" look, so I find a sturdier fox shape. I think the creator had a femboy look in mind when she made it. I looked on my tail and saw the creator was Flower Leleu.

I think if the HUD was easier to use and there was a read me explaining what everything does I'd have a better feel for this avatar. I didn't like the male shape either. But graphically it does look good. And looking at my screen I do see my tail wagging by itself and it came with clickies. I think if the creator took more time with the HUD and took the time write a "read me," I could have a much easier time working this out.

Flower you did do a good job creating your avatar. However I think the male shape is way too skinny and I wish the HUD was easier to understand. Other than that, if you like tinkering with a hud and heart eyes this might be the avatar for you.

Also now that I think of it, this might be a good avatar for the fairer sex. When I saw a box for the adult add ons, I did see lot of them for vixens. Since I'm male I didn't try that stuff out.

I have mixed feelings about the Raawr fox. I'd give it a B-. I wish I understood the inner workings, but it does come with nice features. And I would recommend using a different male shape.

Bottom image credit: http://raawr-avs.tumblr.com/ 

Grease Coakes

The Kattoan Avatars

I haven't been inworld much, playing Minecraft and other games and all, but when I heard that Kinzart Kreetures had a new variety of Hyena out (Kinzart being one of the places I avatar shop often at), I came across something... unusual. Something I hadn't seen before, and after being on Second Life for five plus years, anything unique or that stands out is rare for me.

Enter the Kattoans. These are small avatars that look like, well, a mammal, at first look. I wasn't quite sure what they were. They're mesh avatars with a wide variety of colors. I grabbed a lime green one and was referred to as a muppet, so I grabbed an almond-color one as well. I was impressed with the avatar overall, and could actually envision a tiny civilization of these guys elsewhere. They're only a little bit bigger than the largest of the Meeroos, and I could -easily- see them as befriending the 'roos for companionship.

I tracked down the avatar creator, one Athau-xan, also known as 1000 Carlos, and we sat down to a brief interview.

Xymbers Slade, "These are some pretty neat avs, 1K. Where did you come up with the idea? (smile)"

Athau-xan, "Most of my inspiration came from Spiral Knights, mainly. I also threw together a couple different art-styles from around the N64-era."

Xymbers Slade, "Can't say I've heard of that... sounds like an anime. It's still very unusual and it was enough to draw my attention away from the hyenas I was after for the time being. Were they difficult to create? I hear mesh isn't the friendliest thing to work with."

Athau-xan, "They weren't too difficult to make. How long it actually took me to make them is hard to say, as I just worked on them a little bit whenever I had spare time. I purposely kept them really low polycount because, artistically, it looked better, and I wanted them to use as little resources on the sim as possible."

Xymbers Slade, "What exactly are they supposed to be, besides a very unique race? Kind of like... I don't know, a groundhog or something? Or a fuzzy rodent of some kind, perhaps?"

Athau-xan, "I'm not quite sure myself really, something like a mix between a rodent and a mole I guess."

Xymbers Slade, "Is there anything you wanted to do with them but couldn't thanks to Second Life, well... being Second Life?"

Athau-xan, "I would've liked to make the body separate pieces, which I could. but unfortunately SL likes to make really bad seams where parts are split, and I didn't really want the avatar covered in seams."

Xymbers Slade, "I don't know a thing about building, so I'll take your word for it. I see over there the sign for the 'Republic of Kattoa.' Do you have a grand design for them in mind or are you letting the incoming community build on its own?"

Athau-xan, "I do have my own future plans for the Kattoans. Such as perhaps an entire sim dedicated to them in the long run. I'll eventually release a builders kit when I get around to it so the community can create their own ideas for them."

Xymbers Slade, "Do you also do commissions? I know I'd like to see, say, a set of knight's armor, or something."

Athau-xan, "I am currently not accepting commisions, and I don't expect to start in the forseeable future, but I do have a knight set planned, among plenty of other outfits."

Xymbers Slade, "Ok, is Okarthel the only spot you have these available, or have you got a main store somewhere?"

Athau-xan, "Currently Okarthel is the only location to find Kattoans. I do plan on getting my own simulator for them eventually, but I cannot say when that will happen."

Xymbers Slade, "Sims ain't cheap, but I'll get behind this if one does pop up."

I could see these critters clearly in my head in their own little civilization running around. It is very rare that one can see something just "spring to life" in one's head like that. These guys are small enough to even ride the My Little Pony avatars I did a piece on a while ago, and I can see several potential possibilities in my head that this could really take off and give other avatar makers a run for their money. At about 350 $L, plus the cheap cost of outfits, they're far cheaper than most avatars I've come across. They come in a wide variety of colors and currently four mesh outfits are also available as separate purchases. One of them, the civilian outfit, being free.

Four Dragon Hoards out of five --- only because I want to give it room to grow and see where it goes. This is something I can really get behind. They can currently be found in a corner of the Okarthel sim.

Xymbers Slade