Living at Poker Has a Lot to Offer!

Finding a good piece of land in SL can be a problem, especially if you want to be next to the sea! For most of us having an SL home is a must, a place to call our own that we can use if we want to change our clothes or have some quiet moments to ourselves. It’s also nice to have somewhere to bring friends back to without being interrupted by people passing by. However buying land can be a bit tricky and a little confusing, especially for newcomers.

I scouted around yesterday and found a few really nice plots, all with sea views. The sim is called Poker and I met up with Cliff Chesnokov who owns it. Cliff is an experienced estate owner and is there to help the tenants should they require it, which is really handy.

Cliff’s deal is a very good one, for his parcel of land measuring 1024 square meters he charges 438 Linden dollars a week for the tier payments, and the initial price to buy the land is an amazingly small sum of 219 Linden dollars! Cliff has two parcels up for sale measuring 1024 square meters. You get a 234 prims allowance with each parcel. (For new people, everyone who buys land in-world pays a tier fee each week, it’s a bit like rent and goes towards the upkeep of the sim where the land is. Prims are primitive objects that everything in SL is made of i.e. your house and furniture.)

Cliff’s other parcel of land on offer is to die for! It measures 4096 square meters and has an allowance of 937 prims (imagine what you could do with that!!). The buying price is 875 Linden dollars and the tier works out 1,750 Linden dollars a week, a snip for such a big piece of land, and to see the sunrise over the sea there is awesome! Cliff has a special first week offer on each parcel too, so don’t miss out! All parcels can used for business or residential.

I took a look with fellow writer Hibiscus Hastings and if I hadn’t already had purchased my place I would have definitely been interested. If you have any queries regarding the plots on Poker, please contact Cliff Chesnokov in-world.

Janey Bracken

Just A'Mazing, Trying To Get Out Of The Maze!

I'm totally useless at directions! I get my lefts and rights mixed up all the time and even go wrong using a Sat Nav! So maybe picking the Maze Area in Sculptie Paradise wasn't the best thing I could have chosen to explore, but I thought I'd give it a go. There are five levels you have to climb and I soon found that this maze was very clever indeed! Visually it is quite confusing with the flashy interior looking the same wherever you go on each level, like being inside the belly of a giant space ship, but then it happens!! the walls start moving, panels sliding shut or opening. Just as you decided to try one exit it suddenly closes off and another one further along opens! quite ingenious as well as frustrating! This makes it very interesting and sets it aside from ordinary mazes. I found myself up for the challenge of trying to crack it and get to the final level. There's only one way out on each floor and I found I kept going around in circles in the beginning. I can't tell you how good it felt to find each ramp taking me up a floor, and finally reaching the top was pure magic. I could see all the other people below me by using my mini map, they were wandering around the same way I had been doing trying to get out. One little tip though, I found it was very laggy and doors were slamming in my face before I got to them. I set my avatar to run instead of walk and this helped me a lot, so try that if you are having trouble! There was also treasure to be found near the exit, but I think I had taxed my brain enough and gave up on that one, good luck if you think you can find it! The Maze was a lot of fun and worth a visit, I think I did well to get out, I bet you will do better, give it a try!!

Janey Bracken

Great Performance by DarlingPresley Xue at Le Chiantelle's

It always amazes me, the amount of talent you find in SL, I go wandering around and sometimes I find such great places. I called in at a sim called Le Chiantelle's Live Music & Ballroom yesterday, just out of curiosity, and I was lucky enough to arrive and catch a live singer called DarlingPresley Xue. Darling doesn’t hide the fact that she is a big Elvis fan and does include some of his songs in her music, but she also covers so many more legendary artists.

I joined a group of very appreciative people listening to Darling and we danced and had a great time. Darling has a very sweet, but strong voice and she went through her own cover versions of songs by the Beatles, Celine Dion, Elvis, Madonna, Barba Streisand, the Carpenters, Debbie Harry and Michael Jackson, plus others. Her rendition of Joleen by Dolly Parton was awesome, this girl is good!!!!

The Le Chiantelle's Live Music and Ballroom is a lovely friendly sim and they made me feel very welcome, go along and give live music in SL your support!

Janey Bracken

Captiva Island

While looking in the search showcase the other day I found an intriguing description for a place called Captiva Island . It said “A moss giant guards the entrance to this underground cave where a troll waits to snatch up unsuspecting visitors. Find the secret door and be transported inside the mystic tree, a world full of mutant plants and mysterious creatures.” I have never been able to turn down an opportunity to see mutant plants and mysterious creatures so I tp’d over. Entering the cave I found a rocky interior with a water covered floor and the promised troll. I did spend a bit of time in a cage next to the troll, but was able to get out and continue searching for the mysterious door. A very kind avatar pointed it out to me and I went through. I found myself in a beautiful forest, full of huge, glowing plants and trees as well as some jewel like insects. I walked around, first stopping at a campfire where I sat and warmed my hands, then continuing along the paths which wound throughout the forest.

At one point I fell into some quicksand and thought I was done for, but fortunately I was able to extricate myself with some difficulty and continue my explorations. I came upon a second fire and had a little rest there, lying down on a log and munching on a glowfruit. From that position I spied what looked like a sheltered resting place on a leaf-hammock, so I climbed up to it and lay down for a little while (I was still tired from my experience in the quicksand), but after a couple of minutes I had the distinct feeling that I was being watched. Sneaking a look around I saw, to my horror, that a large lizard-like beast was staring at me intently. I thought it best to leave as quickly and quietly as possible, which I did.
Hurrying away from the creature I came upon another door and slipped through it, only to end up in a cavern full of boulders and spiders! Not liking spiders at all I retreated through the door and back into the forest where I took a path in the opposite direction from the lizard creature. I discovered yet another door. Opening it and crossing the threshold I plunged onto the deck of a ship being tossed about on a stormy sea. It was difficult finding my footing at first but I was able to master walking around on the deck after a bit of trial and error, and soon found myself standing guard and looking out across the ocean. Feeling even more daring I swung around on one of the ropes and then tried balancing on another. That was quite a feat and I felt after that that it was time for me to return to my peaceful home, where I could sit in front of my fireplace in safety and comfort.

Hibiscus Hastings

Mr. Stoneyheart's Surprise

By some unknown means I have acquired a litter of fledglings. Being a man about town I cannot possibly look after them in draughty art galleries and so I have moved into Old Bert’s apartment during his absence.

1am When troubles come they come not single spies but in battalions

2am Absinthe: The panacea for all ill to my aid, perhaps this is nothing but a bad dream.

3am, awake and fractious, demanding milk and solace. Staring, blinking like myopic owlets behind thick tortoise-shell spectacles.

4am and asleep at last!

5am awake and dancing! It’s going to be a long day

Next instalment – I find a nanny.

Merciless0413 Stoneyheart as told to Boye Jervil

The Awesome Beauty of Blag Island

The lush countryside slowly appears as you land, a place where horses graze on the soft green grass and the meadows are full of summer flowers. There are sparkling rivers that run into the sea and a canoe awaits passengers at the end of the small jetty. Taking the canoe I paddled my way around the cool waters, nearly colliding with a friendly whale as it leapt up from below the surface of the water with a giant splash, porpoises also played in the sea between the jagged rocks, as they jumped into the air before tumbling back into the deep blue waters. This is Blag Island, one of the prettiest and most romantic places in SL, a perfect setting for getting back to nature with a hint of fantasy thrown in with the fairytale buildings there.

I saw a proud pelican sitting preening his feathers on a nearby rock, and beyond the pelican I could see a little island with seals barking their greetings to each other as they relaxed in the afternoon sun. Waterfalls cascade down the side of the rocky terrain and you can feel the gentle rain on your face as you wander through some ancient ruins overgrown with wild flowers and grasses.

Climbing to the top of the hill I approached a domed building and surprisingly this contained a giant telescope aimed into the skies above. Also glimpsed from the telescope’s viewing area are two of the tallest towers I have ever seen in SL, are these the tallest? well maybe! Climbing to the top of the towers you can literally hold a party up in the clouds, entertaining your friends whilst peering down on Blag Island hundreds of feet below!

There are many places where you can sit and relax, romantic little niches to cuddle up with your partner or lounge about with a group of friends. The working windmill is a great feature and looking over the cliffs I could see a galleon docked in the harbour below. I could read a big red sign on the galleon deck. It advised passers by not to stand on the deck area, and I couldn’t resist. All I can say is that you will be sorry if you do stand there, so keep well clear of it! After my traumatic experience on the galleon I went back onto the island and looked around and found a lovely walled garden, it was like stepping back in time with it’s little wooden-framed greenhouse and rows of well established bedding plants and colourful shrubs.

Blag Island is owned by Mafiawl Mower, a business man in real life, who invented the best selling board game called Blag, which is destined to be a big hit in SL as well, with the in-world version. Mafiawl has used his imagination to create this wonderful island and I’m going back to explore it further as there is so much to see there.

Janey Bracken

The Very Unusual Frogstar B Magic

Do you love your partner so much that you want to give them the Moon and the Stars? Well now you can, Frogstar B is a romantic location but with a space age setting which is really unusual.

You land on an outer platform of a large space pod, but even the platform is planted like a meadow with its bright grasses and wild flowers.

Inside the pod there are pose balls for romantic clinches and dances for couples who arrive there, you can take the winding staircase up to the roof garden, which is very pretty. It was there I spotted the beautiful unicorn in the first picture.

I walked through the tunnels of the pod and the colours are breathtaking and the design is really lovely. Going outside I spotted a meteorite with a seat on it, and strangely, a tree growing out of it, so I sat on the seat for a while gazing back a the planet earth below.

Owned by the Wa-Kei-Sei-Jaku group, this sim has certainly had a lot of thought put into it to make it like no other, if you want to explore on your own or with your partner, you will really enjoy it. The colours and textures alone are startling and the mixture of lovely gardens and the galaxy are really out of this world!

Janey Bracken