Miles Van Der Rohe?

While not yet in Second Life, I got an email telling me that:

The object ‘Einladung zur bizMart Adventsaktion’ in Second Life has offered you inventory.
Log in to accept to decline this inventory.

= Einladung zur bizMart Adventsaktion is owned by Architect Miles

Suspecting advertising spam (a scourge still in its infancy in Second Life, but on the rise), I did a search on “architect miles”. Nothing that would help me figure out who he is, but a distressing number of results for this:

Designed by legendary modern architect Miles Van Der Rohe

Ride the monorail!

Tribute Island 82,58,37 – This is a lovely, inventive island with fantastic texturing and builds. Be sure to ride the monorail in mouselook, especially through the underground tunnel. Be sure to look for all the clever little things everywhere.

Amazing trees

Kenroku 59,33,52 – Come to the Kenroku sim and see the amazing creations of brue Noel. I can’t tell if the foliage is sculpties or just tortured regular prims, but there is a lot of depth for only 11 prims per tree (the trunks are sculpties). The garden center has a demo for changing the season of the trees.

Desmond requests feedback on Windlight

Caledon Regency 169,242,26 – Guvnah Desmond Shang has just asked in Independent State of Caledon group IM for feedback on what policy to prepare for when Windlight becomes available: Enforce standard daylength across Caledon? Nature of the sky? “Desmond Shang: well I won’t make a snap decision now, but what I’d like, is if anyone has fairly strong feelings on this, PLEASE notecard me. ESPECIALLY those with Duchy sims.”

Harvest festivals and mazes

The Caledon/Steelhead Harvest Festival began today. I opened Murdann to tree-felling. I have no way of tracking who took trees, but several of my friends have told me they took trees, and the island is definitely a bit clearer now.

Steelhead hosted a horse race, and I now have a saddle horse, Fróði (“Peace”). No photos yet. There are prize pumpkins hidden all around Steelhead, and it’s great fun looking for them. There’s also a corn maze:

Miss Lumina Elvehjem then gave me a landmark to Falln’s Corn Maze, which is very extensive and quite wonderful. (This maze is in the sky above a fantasy RP sim that uses a telehub. You’ll need a flight assist to fly up. Try not to peek at the maze as you navigate to the beacon.)

Surveying the neighborhood 2

Karthos 128,112,47 – Standard setup, covenant “This island is being developed as Wooded/Oceanfront themed.” Large parcels, with very different themes, nice builds, good texturing. Volcano in the center of the sim. 4 avies present in sim.

Porto Cervo 130,152,43 – Commercial telehub, stores all empty. 80 agents, double prims, estate sun. Harbour build with restricted access. Most of sim empty. Terrain flat sand, with some water areas with surf.

Wyre 59,196,23 – And that is that for the SW and NW quadrants in the first ring of map screens. I’ll go ahead and start on the next ring of maps, starting with the NNW quadrant.

California 122,106,29 – An empty, fresh out of the box sim.

Coral Sea 101,98,24 – closest sim of a mini-continent, this void sim is all water.

Empress Augusta Bay 104,29,34 – Another water void sim, this one showing clear signs of being set up for sailing races.

Bismarck Sea 33,186,35 – Now this void sim is more interesting–it has an object bonus of 8.5, and there’s a small island on the NW corner with a very attractive maritime building. There’s one person in the sim.

Spoke the owner of the void ocean sims, Svar Beckersted. He says the NYC organizes races there. The center sim of the square of 9 is a full sim, Vella Lavella, which he says is closed to visitors.

Surveying the neighborhood

Wyre 59,194,22 – I am setting off to explore the environs of Wyre. Starting with the area visible to me within the map, I will begin at 12 and proceed clockwise, spiralling outward.

tenjin fukuoka japan 156,77,103 – Still too new to show any features on the map, Tenjin fukuoka japan (PG) has a water height of .1, agent limit 40, and uses an estate sun. There are large protected areas, clifflike terrain, a dirigible, and two large urban constructions. There are no plants. There is one other avatar here, somewhere.

InWorld Studios 47,108,30 – InWorld Studios (PG) Agent limit 90, fixed sun, telehub. No covenant. 1861 prims. Mostly bare, but green, corporate sim with teleporter to amphitheatre, machinima sound stage, beach, and cinema. Adjoining to the east is InWorld Park, which I cannot enter. There are no other avatars here.

InWorld Studios 47,108,30 – Most of the island seems to prohibit the scripts or communication required for SLurlBlogger and TwitterBox.

Germanius 1 129,129,23 – Germanius 1 (M) 100 agents, fixed sun. Telehub on map, but I didn’t land there. No covenant. A beach commercial sim, with nice wooden walkways above the water and Asian-Pacific Islander-styled rental booths. Also a couple of large (empty) contemporary office builds. No other avatars.

Harry Potter Island 126,147,46 – Harry Potter Island (M) SE of previous sim, touching corners. 100 agents, fixed sun, no covenant. 1144 prims. Telehub, not enforced. All parcels around edge restricted. One has a pirate ship in it. The center of the sim has an alpine/medieval style set of prefabs (I think I’ve seen these elsewhere) with a couple of shops but otherwise empty. One other avatar present.

Wyre 166,143,503 – Caovilla Venice (M) 40 agents, no covenant, 3185 prims on one parcel, with landing point. Some nice stonework piazzas and bridges amongst waterways, with a few boats. Center section has large glass building with rotating prims with RL shoe photos on them, banners in front that say “Rene Caovilla”. SLurlBlogger didn’t work.

Wyre 166,143,503 – I’ve now finished the right-hand quadrants, and will take a break from this exercise. Interesting to see that my neighbors are mostly empty.