Castle in the Air

I've put my place in Sipiwesk through some changes in the past. Why settle for one design when it costs nothing (well, my time) to do something different?

I lately decided to get above the clutter of neighbors. At first, I built a 200-meter tower, which worked, but lacked a certain ambience, being done in a rather austere Faux Medieval style.

But if you're trying to get above the crowd, there are better ways. After all, SL doesn't limit you to mundane things like physical laws. The Law of Gravity is more like ... a guideline.

So I tore down the tower and rebuilt just above the cloud layer, at 230 meters. It's a work in progress (and probably always be), but I'm much more satisfied with the effect.

I added particles coming out of the base to maintain altitude and position. A local teleport system gets me around without having to waste prims on things like stairs and the like.

Unfortunately, it isn't as isolated up here as I would like. It seems everybody is building skyboxes these days, and there are floating constructions all the way up to 700 meters in the neighborhood. But they are reasonably distant enough that I feel like I have some privacy.

Speaking Out

I guess I should weigh in on the proposal to add voice to Second Life. When I first entered the virtual world, I had expected something like that, and was a bit surprised to find that it wasn't implemented.

That being said, I don't plan on using voice when/if it does get put in. My Otherworldly voice (as Ordinal Malaprop so quaintly puts it) doesn't sound right for my appearance in SL, and I like the opportunity to correct mistakes before I send the text. And wouldn't it spoil a beautiful female avatar's aesthetics if she spoke in a booming male voice (there are lots of those in SL: you know who you are!).

But voice will be ideal, as has been said, for lectures and presentations, and those who prefer speech over typing. It should prove interesting to see how this develops.