Three SL Stores That Make An Impression

One of the thing I do in Second Life is shop. I have been to a lot of stores in SL, but never bothered to blog about them, because most are so unoriginal. You got your box stores, your boutique stores, your fancy upscale stores that look like they belong on Rodeo Drive in LA, 5th Avenue in New York, or any of the other famous upscale shopping locales.

But this is Second Life! Why do you have to be normal?

I recently stumbled on to a few stores that were far more interesting as places to explore than as places to shop, and being the 3D adventurer, it makes me want to shop at these places more.

Being a “shopping” themed exploring guide, I decided to get a new outfit. Something wild but fashionable, but not formal dressy fashion, and ended up with the above outfit. Half the outfit comes from the first store pictured above The Abyss (more pictures) The store consists of two buildings and a walkway surrounded by a post-apocalyptic nightmare world. Lots of gothic and art deco looking buildings leaning at angles like they are about to fall over. Its a very cool.

The second completely original shopping experience belongs to The Boudoir (more pictures). The Boudoir City region looks like a french village on most of the server, but the skyline is dominated by a completely bizarre and completely original building. The bottom half has stone arches similar to a gothic cathedral, the top half looks like a post modern disaster you imagine seeing in East Asia.

As original as the exterior is, the interior is an equally impressive decorated store, looking like something you might see in a French opera house, or a Las Vegas casino. It makes you want to spend some money.

Finally on the stores that impress list is an odd fantasy combat store called Alruneia Sentry (more pictures). Being somewhat traditional in my tastes, there wasn’t much I was interested in buying, but the place looks gorgeous and unlike anything I have seen before.

The rez  point for the region will drop you at the store, but fly on down to the surface and explore there too.

Lots of glowing plant life and flying neon whales to keep your eyes busy. There are lots of hidden corners to explore. One was a “grotto” cave filled with water and  things to see both above and below water. I had to check it out but did not want to ruin my new clothes. So I just took them off.

SL Surfing with Rebecca Part 2

So last week Rebecca taught me how to surf at Epic Conditions Surf. This week she is showing me around a few other popular surf places. First stop is the PrimWorks server, where the inventer of SL Surfing Heather Goodliffe has her home base.

“Last week we saw the epic waves,” says Rebecca, “there are two other kinds of surfable waves, the foam waves and the pipeline, both of which are for sale here. While there are resellers out there, here you know you will also get the latest versions.”

“Well, since I dont own a ton of land, I’m not in the market for my own waves.” I said, “But, I could use a surfboard.”

“Good thing we are standing in front of a mall filled with various board designers, then.” said Rebecca.

“Ooh, shopping!”, I exclaimed.

So I found this cool hawaiian board, traditional wood with a flower print. I asked where Rebecca recommends surfing next.

“The epic waves on Majini Island, are the coolest place to surf,” she said. “There are actually 6 server islands dedicated to surfing here. This is where the SL surfing experts all hang and try their stuff.”

“Cool, nice to know, but this looks like the place we went last week,” I said, “Are there any original surfing builds?”

“Yes there are, but its not for beginners,” she said, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Whoa, what is this?”

“This is the Boneyard,” she said, “waves and rocks to slalom through.”

“Looks like fun, lets go!”

I caught a “pipeline” wave and slalomed my way through the waves. It was not too difficult, and a nice change of pace from the epic waves.

“Yeah, that was fun,” said Rebecca, “it can get a bit laggy here though so the controls are a little tricky some times”.

“Shirts can also get a bit wet here too apparently,” I said.

And so we surfed around the rocks over and over, until I slammed right into Rebecca and we hit a big rock, and we both ended up dead. How ironic.

Steampunk in SL

Every now and then I like to venture into the RP sims for some interesting exploration adventures. We got into a discussion at So There about "Steampunk" in Second Life. My primary exposure to the genre was reading The Difference Engine about 15 years ago.

Steampunk is basically about a reimagining of 19th century Europe (primarily Victorian England) where technologies imagined by fiction writers Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, as well as inventors Charles Babbage and Nikola Tesla actually came into being. There are lots of variations and sub-genres associated with Steampunk, and you are likely to run into most of them in Second Life as well.

First step in any RP adventure is to dress the part. A good starting place is Steam Forge, a mall dedicated to steampunk clothing and acessories. I found the above "rogue" look more to my taste than the traditional "Victorian" dresses. The boots blow steam when you fly.

Now I got an outfit, time to start exploring the steampunk worlds. A good starting point is the Steampunk Resource Center in Caledon. Caledon is a 45 server build dedicated to the Steampunk genre. Yes you read that right, 45 servers!

The resource center is where you can get landmarks to the best places. Its also centrally located so you can take off in any direction and find interesting stuff. The above picture was taken from a flying machine, behind me is Victoria City, one of the oldest Steampunk dedicated builds.

The other major build in SL dedicated to Steampunk is Babbage. With 6 servers, it may be small compared to Caledon, it makes up for the lack of size with attention to detail. This is a really beautiful build worth checking out even if you are not into Steampunk.

The place is covered in old victorian style homes, industrial plants, iron and glass buildings reminiscent of the Great Exhibition I mentioned in a previous blog entry.

But an easy to miss highlight is the Vernian Sea. This is a mostly water covered sim has an elevator at the end of the dock on Port Babbage.

Underneath is a huge underwater city complex, with ornately decorated tunnels and chambers, and all variety of fish swimming by. I’ve seen attempts at cool underwater builds, but this has got to be my favorite.

The tunnels are easy to get lost in, however, so a good explorer will venture outside in the water and swim around. I don’t have a steampunk diving bell or submarine. I also dont want to ruin my new outfit, and a bikini is so NOT steampunk. So the only choice is diving au natural.

Black and Red: Three New Themed Builds

 

Last time I blogged about cool builds, they disappeared on me. So for this trio, I’m picking three fairly new builds that are up and running. The underlying color scheme of all three are black and red.

Lets start with black. Above is a cool themed build called SICK, It has a dystopian Japanese Anime feeling about it. Very dark, with lots of glowing neon signs in both Japanese and English. There are some cool shops selling anime style clothing and accessories. Many of the people on this sim are bots, which are there to add to the atmosphere I guess.

 

Moving on to both black and red is the Jabberwocky sim, which just opened this month. It is designed around an Alice in Wonderland theme, crossing between the Lewis Carroll version and the American McGee version.

There are various rooms, some with paths made from playing cards, others made from childrens books. Still others featuring plywood, indicating the build is still a little on the incomplete side. There are 4 or 5 stores in place selling neo-victorian clothing, mostly female. I plan to check back when it is more complete.

Finally, moving to pure red, we have the new build called Rouge, featuring a fancy dance club called Code Red. This was the subject of an elaborate ad campaign earlier this month, which brought a lot of interest, though when I checked it out i was pretty much vacant. Couldn’t help trying out some
recreational pole dancing while I was there though.

Sexiest Dances in Second Life Redux

A few months ago I set out on a project to find the sexiest dances in Second Life and scored pretty good. Here is the list from last March.

Second life is an ever growing and huge world, so I am always finding other sexy dances worth checking out. Enough now that I have to revise my list extensively.

First stop, Abranimations, and if you are going to go there, you may as well go to the main headquarters on Devils Moon, because it is one of the coolest looking builds in all of SL. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Devils%20Moon/126/147/250/?title=Abranimations These dances have been around a while, and I do not always see new ones, but here are some sexy classics:

sexy twirl
seductive sway
seductive twirl

Next Stop Animations by Jesse Murdock of Bad Girls fame.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Apukohai/129/60/71/

This place specializes in sexy pose balls, and also partner dances, but in the back they have some single person dances. Jesse has the best Salsa dances, and Salsa dances = always sexy. There are 25 at his store, which is a bit of an overkill unless you want nothing but salsa, but 1 or 2 adds some variety to your dance list. Anyways, my sexy dance shopping list:

Salsa2_jm
Salsa4_jm

So far so good, we went to both of these places last time, how about a new place? A real gold mine of great dances is Sine Wave http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sine%20Wave%20Island/124/127/22/?title=Sine%20Wave This is a fairly new place, but it has possibly the best selection of high quality dances in Second Life. My sexy favorites:

Butterscotch
Crimson Breeze
Crystal Roses
Sherbert
Swoon

And these are what I consider the best, there are at least a half dozen other really good ones that could make the list.

If you really want a sexy edge, you have to dig. First, two of the sexiest dances in all of SL can be found at LostDog which sells al sorts of novelties, and does not specialize in dances. The exact location of the sexiest dances is http://slurl.com/secondlife/Brauer/52/78/33/?title=LostDog and they are called:

seduction1
seduction2

Other assorted sexy dances:

“slinky sexy dance remix” from Anomations
“daze” from Owenimations
“melody groove” from Promenade

Well there you have 15 sexy dances ranging from fun loving sexy to erotic sexy. Throw them in a chimera, wear it on your spine (or a little lower so they have to grab your butt to dance) and be the life of the party.

Online Shopping in 3D

Kinset is a new 3D web program that mixes online shopping with the feel of a store. Download the small program and find yourself in a 3D shopping mall which currently only has 2 stores. (one of which is a bookstore which is the primary reason I go to malls).

Kind of a cool idea, though I have been shopping in other 3D programs for some time now, so it seems redundant. It has the feel of Active Worlds too as the camera moves are a little flaky. It could really benefit as a 3D web embed as discussed below.

It is a curiously cool way to shop at Amazon though, and the web integration with 2D information is first rate.

The Sexiest Dances in Second Life

Most social dance clubs have their own dance box that you can click on and dance the night away, but most people know that if you want to stand out of the crowd, you should get your own dance chimera and buy your own dances.

The problem of course is that dances are not cheap, about L200 on average and trying to find the best means you are likely to spend money on some lame ones along the way.

I know this, because I set out on a project, to fill a dance chimera with the sexiest dances I could find. Believe me, when I wear this chimera at a dance club, I always turn heads. I’m still searching, but here are the best sexy dances I have found so far, and where to find them.

First stop, Abranimations, and if you are going to go there, you may as well go to the main headquarters on Devils Moon, because it is one of the coolest looking builds in all of SL. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Devils%20Moon/182/126/250/?title=Abranimations

Here is where you can buy a dance chimera, that is better and less than half the cost of the one at Owenimations. Also get the following sexy and seductive dances:

sexy twirl
sexy tease
seductive sway
seductive twirl

You are now at a good start. Next Stop Animations by Jesse Murdock of Bad Girls fame.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Apukohai/129/60/71/

This place specializes in sexy pose balls, and also partner dances, but in the back they have some single person dances. Jesse has the best Salsa dances, and Salsa dances = always sexy. There are 25 at his store, which is a bit of an overkill unless you want nothing but salsa, but 1 or 2 adds some variety to your dance list. Anyways, my sexy dance shopping list:

Salsa2_jm
Salsa4_jm
eroticdance12b

Owenimations is the most popular animated dance store in SL, but I have no idea why. The dances there are in my opinion overpriced. But there are at least a couple that fit in with the sexy dance theme. Owenimations is all over the place, but here is a link to one http://slurl.com/secondlife/Hiaka/171/174/27/?title=Owenimations Here is my two sexy dances, a lot of people also like Cirque as a sexy dance, but I think it is a bit too showy.

slow sexy spin
daze

Those are the big 3 dance animation stores, but so far all we have are the sexy dances everyone else has. If you really want a sexy edge, you have to dig. The two sexiest dances in all of SL can be found at LostDog which sells al sorts of novelties, and does not specialize in dances. The exact location of the sexiest dances is
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Brauer/41/93/33/?title=LostDog and they are called:

seduction1
seduction2

Next stop Zaius Creations. This store specializes in erotic dances for strip clubs and sex clubs, so most of the animations here are a bit too sexy for casual club dances, but throwing in a couple really livens up your dance routine.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Whitlock/28/88/92/ The best ones for chimera dancing are:

sexydance6
sexydance8
and if you are really daring, sexydance9

Other assorted sexy dances:

“slinky sexy dance remix” from Anomations
“slow lap dance” a freebie by Mystic Dawn found in “157 free poses and dances” at Yadni’s Junkyard

Well there you have 15 sexy dances ranging from fun loving sexy to erotic sexy. Throw them in a chimera, wear it on your spine (or a little lower so they have to grab your butt to dance) and be the life of the party.

Pizza Time!

So someone built a Cosa Nostra Pizza in SL. It is the pizza place in the book Snow Crash which was a major influence on the building of SL in the first place. The term “Metaverse” comes from the same book.

So wouldn’t it be cool if you could order a real pizza in Second Life and have it delivered to your first life door?

Well Dominoes is working on just that! Coming soon, you can IM Dominoes in Second Life and get a pizza delivered to your door in first life.