I have gradually been spending more time back at the ITRT Retreat recently and felt like something was missing, something one would typically find in a wooded area of Virginia. So, I went shopping for a bird and was thrilled to find a cardinal. Our little red friend is now happily flitting around the center of our retreat. Come pay him a visit!

Since it’s very unlikely that I will visit Egypt in real life, I did a search for it in Second Life and chose 2 sims to explore. The first one, Little Egypt, included the traditional Egyptian monuments such as the Sphinx and the great pyramids.

Once inside the pyramid, I discovered the beautiful treasures that had been buried with the pharaoh.

The walls were lined with hieroglyphics.

Of course there was a throne that I just had to try on for size.

Then I came across the tomb, as well as some bones…ugg. I bet there’s story behind them!

The second sim I visited was a present day replica of the Sinai Peninsula.

There were delightful restaurants, shops, and even an ice cream stand.

One of my all time favorite musicals is The Phantom of the Opera, so when I heard about the sims devoted to this story, I had to check them out for myself.

First, I visited the Phantom Rose Opera House. Upon entering the front door, I found myself inside a magnificent lobby complete with several staircases and beautiful carpeting.

As I climbed the stairs, I found a piano tucked away behind a roped off area, so naturally I flew right over that rope and played a few bars of “Music of the Night.”

Then I happened to glance over the edge of the balcony and saw the famous chandelier. Fortunately, it had not yet fallen into the audience.

I also checked out the box seats in case I want to purchase tickets later on.

The top floor appeared to be living quarters for the actors….or perhaps for the phantom himself. Outside was a beautiful lake named appropriately enough, Swan Lake.

The other sim devoted to fans of Phantom is called Phantom’s Labyrinth. Instead of a beautiful opera house, I found myself walking through a maze filled with pictures and mementos from the movie.

The labyrinth also has its own version of the famous chandelier.

My favorite find of all in the labyrinth was the gorgeous pipe organ. Listen! You might just hear me playing “The phantom of the opera is here….” with all of the stops wide open. Great fun!

Well, as promised, I have returned to exploring and playing in Second Life. I have read about the Greenies Sim on several other blogs and decided that it was just the place to lift me out of this blue funk. So off I went!

Upon arrival, I found myself inside a tunnel underneath the floor. I had to follow the arrows and then squeeze through a tiny hole in the wall to enter the living room area. Wow! Either I was suddenly the size of a mouse or this was a home for Jack in the Beanstalk’s Giant. Everything was huge!

First I explored the kitchen, drifting through some flour that was spilled on the counter, getting caught between 2 slices of toast, and finding a mousetrap under the sink.

Then I flew over to the living area. There was a huge computer, ipod, and camera, among other items. The friendly little green guys were everywhere, always willing to guide and help.

I rode a rocket up towards the ceiling, and ran inside a hamster wheel to while escaping from the huge black cat.

All in all, the Greenies sim provides a great afternoon of entertainment and is well worth a visit!

This past week has had way too many reality checks in Real Life, and somehow they have also managed to migrate into Second Life. I’m spending way too much time in SL and have lost much of the fun aspect of it as I’ve been working very hard to get the retreat ready for some sort of public opening. However, my friend has had too much going on to spend time working with me there, and my excitement and fun have definitely waned. Maybe that sense of adventure will return at some point, but it’s gone for today.

So, I think I’ll concentrate on the things that grabbed my attention when I first entered SL. I was fascinated with all of the fabulous builds that folks had created and, if you’ve been following my blog, you know that I have enjoyed exploring such things as city recreations and amusement park rides. I’ve decided to return to those days of fun and exploration as time allows.

I have some choices to make within in the next few months concerning my professional life, so I probably need to spend less time learning the SL scripting language and more time working with RL projects involving ASP.net and my schools’ web sites. I suspect that will look much better on a resume to most employers in my part of the country!

My office in the ITRT Retreat is located on the third floor of the treehouse. I had the most difficult time trying to decide how to furnish it. Did I really want a desk and chair in Second Life? What on earth would I do with them? I don’t even have a desk of my own in my Real Life job, but that’s a sad story for another blog.

So, since I love playing the piano, and I wanted something that absolutely could not happen in Real Life, I decided to furnish my treehouse office with my favorite instrument. After many hours of searching and playing, I decided on the Blueberry Hill version at Serendipity Studios.

The piano came bundled with several different candelabras that were absolutely beautiful but way too high prim to keep out on the floor. They will be saved for special occasions only. Wow, talk about transforming a treehouse!

The piano also came with a selection of 12 songs from the 50’s.

My partner in crime, Tyna, returned recently to SL, much to my joy, and she took a turn playing a lovely rendition of “Peggy Sue.”

So, please come visit us at the ITRT Retreat and teleport to the third floor of the treehouse. Have a seat on the piano bench and click on the keys to start the music. Have fun, and send me a picture!

Well, my good friend Tyna seems to have no time to join me in Second Life these days. She hasn’t been in world with me in what seems like forever. I’m growing lonely as well as tired of working on the retreat, not being sure if what I’m doing is even ok. So, since she’s not around, and since I’m getting a bit bored, it’s time for a change!

Meet Pammie Freenote, my new friend! She was just born today, so she still has on her new furry outfit. Cute, huh?

Pammie has a bit of a knack for interior decorating, so she went to work on Tyna’s office. She tried so hard to make it look like a comfortable, homey place. She even added a jack-o-lantern since autumn is just a few days away.

Hmmm, looks like she’s suspended in space above that chair seat! Don’t you just love the flamingo peering out the window? And where did that parrot come from? Looks just like the one I found in the apartment. Sure hope Tyna likes Pammie’s work, if she ever returns!

I’ve been working on getting the ITRT Retreat ready for primetime, and in the process, I’ve learned a lot about the more technical aspects of this vast new world. We needed a bridge, and I could not find one that wasn’t either too high prim or just too fancy for a woodsy setting, so I decided to try my hand at building. My first stop was Ivory Tower, a very impressive site containing numerous tutorials and examples for using the building tools already available in Second Life. After spending a couple of days with those lessons, I was able to create a bridge that I think will work out just fine.

Next came some exploration with the SL scripting language. We wanted to allow avatars to choose from a list of landmarks when they click on a prim rather than just giving them a dozen landmarks one after the other. I finally found an example that changed the chat window colors using llDialog, so at least I knew what the proper function was. After a few visits to the Linden Scripting Language Portal, I was able to create a dropdown type box with the choices as button labels. After that little adventure, I found that I had a wealth of free scripts from various sources that were easily edited to meet our needs. Many thanks to the SL community for doing an outstanding job of commenting and documenting every script I have opened.

Finally, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, so it was time to lighten up a bit. We put two innertubes in the creek for folks to ride. The script had to be altered to allow everyone to ride, not just the owners, but it works now! I found a plastic float that I placed under the waterfall. You never know when you just need a nice relaxing float trip under a cool mist. In the Recreation Center, there is a tictactoe board on the wall, a beach ball that responds to touch, and a trampoline that bounces you up to the ceiling. There are other goodies free for the taking in each cabin and hidden in one of the caves.

OK, back to scripting….but I’d much rather be relaxing underneath that waterfall!