Even though I consider myself lucky to have even obtained first land, and I wound up with great neighbors who are creating a huge open community park adjacent to my property, there's only so much you can do with 117 prims. I'm not ready to buy, and I don't really even know my exact land needs, so I decided to rent.

I found an awesome little island on a sim with plenty of open water and the surrounding sims have open water too. The parcel is just over 8000 sq meters, but a lot of that is water. I rezzed my windsurfer and went for a quick sail.



Then I went over to Quan Li to purchase surfable waves. The instructions seemed simple enough, but when I rezzed the wave rock I couldn't locate it. Here I am with Aeron, standing at the bottom of the ocean looking for it.



After the normal troubleshooting, we IM'd the creator who was super responsive and helpful. She in turn summoned a Linden to our plot. There were two tiny issues. The first was that when I rezzed it, I didn't have the right group activated (not sure if this is a feature or a bug). The second was that when I rezzed it, it fell off the edge of my sim and onto the next one, but instead of being right there, it wound up clear on the other side! A bit of a burrito effect.

But the waves are in place, and surfable. Woo hoo!

The Winterfest build has developed a bit since I was there last week.

First up, the new ice sculptures




Next up, some new decorations



And a cool ice bar!

This weekend everyone showed off their pimped out yaks, confirming that there are a lot of creative people in Second Life.

Some people experimented with color.


Others expermented with functionality.


Some went for the literal.


And some went for the bizarre.


Mine was pretty boring compared to the rest of the submissions. I created a saddle featuring some of those animated textures that I've been experimenting with.

World Vision has a parcel in Second Life designed to promote alternative gift ideas. Instead of the usual tsotchke, make a charitable donation on someone's behalf. Gift ideas range from livestock, to hospital and school supplies, to sanitation equipment.







The "be a chicken" is "snort laugh out loud" funny so I snagged some video.

I hadn't been to Abbot's Aerodrome in a while, and I had an odd urge to go flying so I teleported over and tried out some of their demo planes.







Probably would have been a good idea to read the instructions. Don't think I'm ready to buy just yet...

The Yak Shack in Midnight city is selling virtual yaks. According to the signs, 100% of the preceeds go to the Save the Children charity. I already have a motorcycle, and it is for charity after all, so I decided to buy one.

Anxious to ride my beast of burden, I rezzed it and hopped on. As soon as I did, the yak became invisible! I quickly chalked this up to buggy Second Life issues, hopped off, and tried again.



I should have read the readme (quite funny, since I used to write the darned things), which explained I also needed to wear the "yak attachment" and THEN rez the yak. By the way, "yak attachment" and "rez the yak" are two phrases I couldn't have imagined saying 12 months ago.





(Like their real world counterparts) You can milk the yak and knit sweaters from its wool, and like the Scions over in Scion City, the Yaks are fully modifiable. There's even an event this Saturday for everyone to show off their pimped out yaks!

Yesterday I wandered into Virtual Morocco. In one of the notecards I read that the island opened in November and was developed by Life3 Solutions.





After putting on an "info fez" and suiting up in some (free) traditional Moroccan attire, I headed out to explore. The "info fez" is supposed to enable you to receive information about what you are seeing, but I don't think it was working quite right. The only info I received automatically was a welcome to the Mosque of Hassan II.

Inside the mosque, there are a few information stations where notecards explain the prayer ritual. Outside the mosque, there is a traditional market selling spices, lanters, and such. I saw another visitor with a hookah pipe, but (try as I might) I couldn't find where it was sold. The island also features gardens, what looks like a residential area, and a beach. Sadly, the windsurfer was not for rent :(

There's plenty of winter holiday fun to be had in Second Life.



Over in Demersal, Linden Labs is busy preparing for the 3rd Annual Winter Festival which begins on December 15th.





Midnyte City (not to be confused with Midnight City) is also festive with a rideable train, reindeer, and a nativity scene.

The Second Life version of Big Brother began on December 1st and runs through January 4th.



It's pretty much the same as the TV version. Participants have to spend at least 8 hours a day in the virtual house, each week they are given tasks to complete, and residents of Second Life vote to determine who is eliminated from the house. The resident who remains at the end will win their own Second Life island. You can read more here.



Unlike the TV show, this house is open 24 hours a day and its design allows you to explore the rooms and interact with the participants.

Thursday night the Elf Circle (a fantasy role play group) kicked off their holiday fundraising week with mermaid synchronized swimming.





The event, which is held on Mystica and benefits charities such as the American Red Cross, Toys for Tots, Habitat for Humanity, and Doctors without Borders, runs through December 15th. Full schedule available here.

A few weeks ago I found a giant holodeck cretaed by Virtual Reality Rooms.

This week I came across the Holodeck Super Store. The difference here is that the holodecks can include objects (such as furniture), whereas other holodecks only change the texture on the surrounding walls.





There's a free demo version that will fit on a First land plot, although it will take up 115 of the 117 allowed objects. They also sell a version for L$500 that lets you purchase additional scenes, and a version for L$9000 that is fully customizeable.

My friend AM Radio created this beautiful "pathetic Christmas tree" (his title, not mine).



Very expensive on the prim count at a whopping 94! This is why it is stored in the basement of our secret lair :)

He also created this wonderful train.



Meanwhile, I'm completely obsessed with making statues with animated textures. Here's my latest and a better picture of the first one.





It's actually quite easy, so here's a tutorial if you want to make your own.

1. Click CTRL+4 to open the Create palette (also under Tools --> Select Tool --> Create)


2. Select a shape and then click in world. You should see a new shape in world and your avatar should be pointing at it.


3. The Create palette will now be in Edit mode. Click the More button and then Select the Content tab.


4. Click the New Script button, the double click the new script to edit it.


5. Delete the contents of the script and replace it with this
   
   default
   {
   state_entry()
   {
   llSetTextureAnim(ANIM_ON | SMOOTH | ROTATE | LOOP, ALL_SIDES, 1, 1, 0.0, TWO_PI, 0.1);
   }
   
   }
   


6. Click the Save button, and when the save is complete close the script window.

And that's it - the texture on the prim is now animated!

At last, the Juiceof Prunes Sports Tour HUD is available on SLExchange!

The tour takes you to visit some of my favorite activities in Second Life. If you're out of Lindens, consider heading over to DragonFly Oasis where you earn L$2 for scrubbing floors or gardening for 10 minutes :)

My friend Aeron Copeland made this really cool Second Life-themed snowglobe.



I was going to put it on my land but then I realized that it takes up as many prims as my house! He has referred to me several times as a "prim nazi" because of my recent obsession with prim counts.

I went to an Art and Dance festival yesterday afternoon and was inspired by the motion art sculptures by Abbaca Aoi.



If you missed the festival, you can see their work at the Second Louvre.

I'm a photo and digital art enthusiast in real life, so I have entire hard drives full of potential textures. Aeron helped me with the scripting (which it turns out is very simple) and there's now a Prunes original on my roofdeck.



If you go check it out, be sure to view it at different times of day to see how it looks in different lighting conditions.