My faithful companion, Juju the talking snake and I splash around with a friendly Gaetan, at Jane and Sid´s Creativity Island in SUNSPIRAL! It was wonderful; come on, let us tell you about it!
Greetings and Salutations my dearest dears! Welcome one and all to this, our SEVENTH geography guide. For the past few months I have been writing about the Second Life Mainland Continents in the order of their creation. For those of you who are joining us for the first time,welcome! and allow me to explain. I was becoming bored just teleporting around Second Life from A to Z with no real idea where I was. I wanted to fly around and explore without hitting ban lines, or ride my bike without being ejected, or just go for a good old fashioned walk! Where could you do these things? None of the maps I found made any sense to me, and the information I found inworld and online was patchy at best. I decided to crack Second Life geography wide open, and post my findings as I progressed. You may recognize this map:
This map is posted all over Second Life. The left side is a detailed map of the first two continents, Sansara and Heterocera. The right side shows ALL the Linden Lab Mainland Continents, numbered in their order of creation. Heads up my dears; this map only shows the Linden created continents, which in no way represent the bulk of Second Life. The oceans surrounding them, expanding outward for miles in all directions, are jam packed with privatley owned islands and even continents! Have a look my world map at the top of this blog! And also please remember, the term continent is only used for cultural familiarity; in other words, to make cyberspace feel less alien. If you run an inworld search on Sansara, for example, you will get nothing. You have to run searches on REGION names, which I always write in upper case letters. For more information please see my other six geography posts.
Some of you have probably already noticed, that although the continents are supposed to be listed in chronological order, Gaeta I is continent number eight, and there is no Gaeta two to four. There is a typically unclear Linden Lab explaination at the very top right corner of the map. It says Gaeta is planned as a group of linked continents. Fab. After much knocking around in forums and online, what I got was this: when Linden Lab say “creation” they actually mean going online. Five Gaetas have already been put together at Linden Lab , Gaeta 5 was the first one up and running online, making it continent number seven, Gaeta 1 was the second to go online, making it number eight. Official word is, when they are all online, the names will probably change to Gaeta mainland, Gaeta North, etc.
And now, my beloved readers, with no further ado, let us begin.
CHAPTER ONE: AENEAS´ NURSE
Gaeta V is unprepossessing. Peanut shaped, and so small as to be more of a big island, you have to look good and hard to see it on the map. Unlike the other continents, it was created with almost no fanfare,( something I have a theory about by the way). Its closest neighbor is Corsica, and the two continents share the distinction of having real world names. Real world Gaeta is a city located on a small promontory on Italy´s west coast, who´s nearest neighbor is, you guessed it , real world Corsica. Tiny, real world Gaeta has an big cultural heritage. Ancient Rome´s greatest poet, Virgil, claimed it´s name derives from Cataes, Trojan prince Aeneas´ beloved nurse, who died, and was buried there. It´s location has made it a military base for everyone from the Etruscans to NATO ; and according to my theory, location is also how Gaeta wound up in the virtual world. Because my dears, as long as there has been a Rome,( and for my many non-western readers, we are talking thousands of years), there have been Romans on holiday in Gaeta. For the last few hundred years, the citizens of Naples have joined them. I think, that after all the fanfare of the “Korean” continent Jeogeot´s , opening and the subsequent, very public failure to hook any significant number of Koreans , that Linden Lab decided to tread more softly when they wanted to snag the Italians. It appears to have worked; from what I saw there are alot more Italians on GaetaV than Koreans on Jeogeot.
I have another theory. I think the lack of fanfare is responsible for its extreme unpretentiousness,wildl eclecticism, and for it being one of the friendliest darn continents I have been on in months. Ban lines are the exception, rather than the rule, you can actually leave the road, and go for walk or bike ride, which I would encourage you to do. Try every door; usually, you are welcome. There may not be any mindblowing cultural areas, but there is also a real lack of your standard malls and casinos which I found very appealing. It seemed that every few feet I saw something unusual and unexpected. I had to change my clothes constantly; from furs and ice skates to ball gowns to scuba gear. It was hard to keep up. And it was hard to finish this post. For a small continent, the accesibility made it very time consuming to travel. When I can stick my big fat nose in, I do. And on GaetaV I could stick it EVERYWHERE. Now let´s get started!
This, my dears is a map of Route 7, which is part of the Second Life Road Network !For those of you who are new, SL maintains a network of public, unrestricted roads on all the mainland continents. Ideally there should be a rez area in every region, but life, first or second, isn´t always ideal! If you would like more info, check my catagories, tags and glossary! As usual, virtualchristine, Cartography Queen has added numbered reference points. Let´s check them out!
1) The Rez Zone at EDDISON is a pier! At the pier´s end, touch the sign next to me and get one of Abner Mole´s great free sailboats!(see my sailing post)
2) The main terminal of the Waypoint Airport and Marina in CLEMENCE. The Marina is located below. I can imagine the lack of ban lines make for some good flying. If you don´t have a plane, and would like a selection of free ones, read my “Come fly with me” post!
2) CLEMENCE also boasts MEO-The Alternative Preachers, an art gallery /club complex.
3) The Z&A Coffeehouse & Art Studio, in GOLDBACH. Beautiful detail, be sure to take a look at the indoor carp pond.
3) Across the street is the Z&A Winter Park, where you can get free ice skates and Santa hats. At the crossroads behind me, you can pick up a free bike!
4) SCHIRRA has the Freebie Market, which is a huge, multi level complex with hundreds of freebies. I am standing in the main courtyard, where enormous boxes of freebies fall down the chute and land at your feet! Huzzah!!
5) The Select Gardens Sandbox in LIMTESSA is now at the top of my browser in my Favorites. It is nice and empty, has really unusual practical stuff like these very useful prim charts….
5)…. and a Buddhist Temple. You can do Tai Chi between builds. Literally.
5) LIMTESSA is also home to DCMU City of Heroes. Just fly straight into that big black box on my left.
5) You will find yourself in a lovely forest. Look around for the cave entrance, and go in.
5) Take a minute to admire the detail, then press onward….
5)… to this. Obviously you click on everything until you teleport..
5).. to this! Superman´s Fortress of Solitude! It´s pretty good, have a look around. You can teleport back to the cave, but getting back out to the road can be tricky. It was easier to walk off the edge of the fortress and fall back down to Gaeta V.
6) La spiliagia di Pucetta in PUCETTA, has this beautiful hacienda and amenity laden beach at your disposal. Across the road is a wacky little japanese garden, and a Byzantine department store. By Byzantine I don´t mean just big, I mean Byzantium themed. Fun area.
7) Jane and Sid´s creativity Island in SUNSPIRAL, is located just off of the SUNSPIRAL rezz zone, where you can get a free boat and explore the nearly ban line free waterways and coastal communities. This castle has a spiffy wizards study. Take a close look at the formaldehyde soaked heart.
8) CLIANSA rez zone, which is just open sea.
9) Another free boat at the rez zone in REBIN!!
10) Soraya´s Winter Enchantment Public Snow Playground Dreamscape in XERIACLE,is a memorial to Soraya from her metaverse friends; and although I had to change my clothes AGAIN! I ultimately had a great time skating and sledding and messing with the bear. Lovely sentiment. Beautiful detail. Big thumbs up.
11) The Helfell Infohub in HELFELL, has this castle, a beach with remnants of Magellan Lindens (see my Linden post) airship, and some mediterranian looking ruins. The cannons work, which I found to be it´s coolest feature.
11) North of Helfell is Squall Sands in GUMTREE. I still have no idea why the hillside is covered with giant ants, but you have to love this!
12) The Einer Beach Rez Area in EINER has free scuba gear! The surrounding area is couples oriented beach resorts.
13) HANAJI was full of landowners who demand total privacy, and have a truly bizarre way of achieving it. There are no ban lines around this enormous, unmissable Griffith, who is in the wide open garden of a house a couple of feet from the public road, with a path leading to said road. If you put one pixilated toe beyond the Griffith, the very aggressive security system begins calling you names and howling threats. This was typical of the whole area. Weird place.
14) The Kalahari in SEYFERT is an Arabic themed complex with gardens , tents, and several impressive structures. They claim to offer free rooms, which are bedrooms with no locks and sex beds. Just so you know, my dears.
15) Please check out every inch of NEMMERS . The charming wood and gardens are strewn with nice surprises; I had a great time. And no surreptitious sex beds!
16) Joni´s World in BENTHAM is a whacking big castle and garden that is completely open to explore and relax in. The fact that the entire complex is in very good taste, combined the giant statue of two very normal looking women locked in passionate embrace, leads me to the conclusion that Joni is a Real Life Lesbian strutting her stuff, and not some idiot boy looking to use your avatar to make porn. So relax and enjoy!
17) Jacko Field Aircraft Sales in KAGECHAN, is yet another working SL airport! Huzzah!
18) Above PUTNAM, which has a sad amount of interesting looking abandoned land, but the freebie factory and Gothic casino are still up and running.
19) The Secretsea Airport and Marina in ELBERT has this fantastic aquarium, skydiving, and planes you can take out for a spin.
20) At Butt Pirate Radio HQ in FEOKTISTOV you can get a free hoodie in the club, then take the paddle boat out for a spin. Don´t swim. See the shark, he´s not alone.
21) With the customer relations manager of the Tiny Bayou Cajun Fest Blues- Living on the Bayou in ARCOBLUSTER.This is a beautifully detailed reproduction of a little Bayou community, which is what I thought the word tiny was referring to. Wrong. See the little figures behind me?
21) Meet the Tinies! These are right to left Boots Shamrock, Cool Writer and Shee, who told me to tell you that they want the whole world to be Tinies. These very unique SL residents are some of the most intensly friendly, ebullient, gregarious creatures I have encountered in any reality. Within 5 minutes of first meeting Tinies, a gaggle of them had invited me to a live music event, and given me photos of their skiing holiday amongst reams of riddles and dances. No one is selling anything. They were G rated and wacky enough for me to bring along my 14 year old son . Boots´ non stop fart humor ..
21) as well as the Tinies predilection for choppers, has completely won the lad over. This is a very different SL experience, and ya´ll are very, very welcome. In spite of the Lady Hermit thing, big thumbs up.
22 ) Was a Freebie area/ info hub / sandbox in SHIROMANI, which has evaporated. Shiromani I mean, not the info hub. But take a look anyway, in SL, a whole region could blink back into existence even as I write this.
23) Barrow Bay in Barrow is a pretty coastal area of sandbars, castle,s and bridges. Nice with ambient sound.
24) The Route Seven road begins having no rez areas for a couple of regions, before it ends here, on Wissendon Beach, and becomes a waterway largely surrounded by ban lines and very ordinary beach rentals. No rez areas. Dull, but..
Keep an eye out for these garbage scows. They steer themselves along the difficult to follow water route, thus make the trip more relaxed, and turn into trucks when they hit something solid; see how the front of my scow is changing? Then they turn back into boats when they are on water.
25) In friendlier KORAT, the ban lines lighten up, and a swan takes you on a tour of Sea Starr´s diverse beaches, woods, and gardens
26) The paved road picks up again in GEOFFROY, which has a working rez area and a free sailboat!
27)The road between GEOFFROY and LOXICH was unfortunatly surrounded by ban lines, but at least the rez zones were working! Be careful in LOXICH, there are alot of scripted animals, which made the region very unstable. It kept dematerializing whenever I flew, I ended up having to cycle.
28) A working rez area and another free boat in SWANBRIDGE.
29) I am still not sure quite what the Royal Dandy in SCHOOMERE is, other than Japanese and generous; the quirky little house has some nice freebies!
30) Another working rez area and free boat in MACLANE!!!
And now mydearest dears, I absolultey have to get some sleep! I hope you found my seventh geography guide to be of some small value. Thank you so much for reading this post. Your company means the world to me!
From virtualchristine and the whole menagerie here in my Blue Heaven, all our wishes to you for the Happiest of Holidays . Ho Ho Ho!
