Error Island

A new set of nudes, shot this time at the dreamlike Error Island.

I really need to start blogging more often.

It's been so long...

avaria sims 271108_001, originally uploaded by Myf Mcmahon.

Three months since my last entry, told you updates would likely be spotty.

Avaria consists of four sims spread beneath Grendel's Children, purveyors of some of Second Life's most amazing avatars. The sims themselves portray a fantasy landscape that owes more to Howard than Tolkien. Here is a marginal landscape of rocky plains and canyons. Civilization is limited to a shamanistic tribe of Kobolds, high in the cliffs and the remains of a long forgotten culture, their temples drowned beneath a calm and shallow oasis.

And now we have a Flickr stream..

gardens 230808_008, originally uploaded by Myf Mcmahon.

To celebrate our newly added Flickr, we have some photos taken in Straylight, the one accompanying this post being, if not my favourite from the set, easily the most dramatic. There's been minimum post processing work done on these pictures, one or two have had no more done to them than a change in size. Most of the variations in lighting and appearance are down to the effects of Windlight. It's really quite incredible how a change to the atmospheric settings can change the whole tone of a build.

Tableaux - A Dream of New Orleans

I've never been to New Orleans. All I know of the city and it's environs come from movies, books and the tragic reports that followed in Katrina's wake. I'm fairly certain the city, as portrayed in film and the writings of Poppy Z Brite, doesn't really exist. It's a dream of a city and Tableaux is a dream of that dream. . .

Nudes 1 - Portage Bridge

They're a bit too dark sadly.

All roads lead to. . .

Getting about in SL has changed. I don't know exactly when, the change occurred before my time. I suspect it wasn't long before I joined, the signs of the switch were still dotted around more liberally than today. Then again, I could be completely and utterly wrong about this. It wouldn't be the first time, it won't be the last.

So what was the change and what got me thinking about it? Second part first. I was doing something you rarely see anyone in SL do these days, I was taking a walk. I plopped down in a mainland sim and I started walking the Linden road. This is not something that folks do anymore and the reason they don't is directly related to the change I mentioned. Once upon a time, you couldn't teleport to anywhere on the grid you felt like. There used to be teleport hubs, central locations dotted about the grid. You'd teleport to between the hubs, from there making the last stage of your journey by car, by bike, flying, walking, pogostick, whatever. Consequently, there was a time when the roads were important.

Roads are and were clearways. Threads of land unobstructed by the nearly unzoned building practices of SL residents, assured paths crossing the sims. People followed roads, used them. Consequently land along the roadsides became expensive, precious. If you ran a business then a roadside plot was coveted. People saw you as they walked by, you got the benefit of passing traffic, impulse drop ins. Rare custom outside the malls these days.

You see the grid differently when you follow the roads. You see places you'd otherwise never find. On my last walk I passed through a number of Japanese dominated sims, looked inside some shops I'd be unlikely to find otherwise. Checked out a castle of impressive dimensions, it was one part Cinderella's castle in Disneyland, one part spun sugar. There was an art gallery, presumptuously named The Second Louvre. Prim sculptures of Burns and Smithers were approaching it's fromnt door, I'm sure there was commentary involved there. Finally, I found myself passing through the very sim in which I first rented in SL and for the sake of nostalgia I left the road and had a look. Surprisingly, the place was still there, despite having changed owners at least once since I left...

And that's it. Much like my walks, this blog entry was leading nowhere in particular and instead just kind of trails away...