SteamSkyCity

Made a visit to the new SteamSkyCity in Caledon. An impressive build, and pure steampunk. You can get an idea as to the scale from the two figures in the landing bay (I'm the one on the left).

New Neighbors

I decided to check on my ground-level terrace, and found that the Japanese-style building that had been next door was gone, and in its place was a rather large skyscraper. These things happen suddenly and unexpectedly in SL.


It rather blocks the view that I had; fortunately I have already moved everything to my platform just above the cloud layer.

Castle In the Air 2

I wasn't happy with the particle effect I had underneath the Castle grounds, so I decided to borrow some tech from the steampunk crowd. This makes the construction feel more dynamic, in my opinion.


The accompanying low sound effect of the engines adds ambiance to the Castle and grounds as well.

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.

Spectacles

After some experimentation, I decided that adding some glasses make me look a little less, well, scary. I think it makes me look studious (as in student, not stud). Check out the new me over on the right side of the page.

Second Life: The Final Frontier

Other bloggers have mentioned Spaceport Alpha, so I thought I should have a look for myself, being a long-time space exploration fan and amateur astronomer. How long-time? Let's just say that I remember when Sputnik was launched: my Father recorded the beeps of its signal on his ham radio equipment.


This is one of the most amazing sims in SL. There is a lot of information to look at, and the roof of the main building has life sized models of nearly every NASA and Soviet rocket ever launched.

A model of Kennedy Space Center

The Vertical Assembly Building doesn't look so big after all...

The grandaddy of them all -- Robert Goddard's first liquid-fueled rocket , 1926

I wonder what old Robert would have thought of the Saturn V, only 40 years later?

The Business end of Atlantis

If you have any interest in spaceflight at all, this is a must-see.