My 8th rezzday

Another belated post, as my rezzday was almost two months ago! September was quite busy for me, so I didn’t organise anything special – I didn’t even think much about it, to be honest – but I was grateful to everyone who sent notes and messages on FB and elsewhere.

As always, Duncan redecorated my place, making sure that when I logged in at Refugium for our meditation session on the morning of September 9, everything would look very festive there.

And in the evening hours, after Ciska logged in, we had impromptu fireworks (not the best snapshot, but the sight was lovely!)…

…and we did some dancing at the Norgaard pub.

All in all, it was a perfect day in SL. I’m so grateful for such inworld experiences!

Norgaard Village – Summer 2020 Updates

I’ve been making lots and lots of changes to Norgaard Village lately (surprise, surprise!). I do love experimenting with different builds and features, it’s a lot of fun to work on that elusive perfect feel to a piece of virtual land. And over the past few weeks I’ve been doing that a lot, on an almost daily basis! It must be due to the pandemic and the fact that I’ve been spending most of my time at home – spending a little bit of extra time in Second Life helps to distract you from thinking and worrying about all the crazy RL stuff…

So anyway, let me give you a brief walk-through. The landing point is by the public road (Route 12), in the central part of Norgaard Village, right at the small police station / village office.

Following the path up north will take you to Refugium – our old meditation spot (also filled with fortune tellers, magic potions and Voodoo stuff!).

There’s also a small Shinto shrine – pretty much the only feature that has survived all the recent changes intact.

The area to the south is where you’ll find a small gas station, and a garage / service station / workshop – a man cave, basically.

Nestled among lush grass and wildflowers are the remains of a mysterious phallic cult. These rocks must have been here for thousands of years!

Up in the hills is where you’ll find the local brewery…

…the diner…

…and my home on the floor above.

To me, the single most important feature of the Village is one that occupies about the quarter of the parcel – the swamp. Ever since I left Second Norway and moved all my stuff to this mainland parcel in Odie, the swamp has been there (initially a small lake that I gradually turned into what it is now), with most of the builds placed around it and somehow gravitating towards it.

The waters are crocodile-infested, so think twice before jumping in!

The whole place is open to public, feel free to visit and use whatever you like! To get there, you can follow this SLurl.

Most of old Norgaard Village sold

Greater part of my old land has been sold. I’ve just been there to take back my things and say good-bye.

Before

I kept putting it off, but now it had to be done. I keep telling myself it’s silly to be so attached to a piece of virtual land, but when I think of all the hours I spent working on that parcel over the past two years, it just feels sad.

After

The single only item I could neither take nor return was this piece of poop, rezzed by Duncan in the early days of Norgaard Village.

Not sure what the SL universe is trying to tell me…

P.S. Two parcels are still up for sale, on reduced prices (around 1L$/sqm). If you might be interested, please follow these links:
Triphosa
Melanthia

Northern part of Norgaard Village in Triphosa, Heterocera.

The entire parcel is on sale now. You can find the listing here.

Lumberjack’s cottage

Up in the hills of Triphosa, behind the Norgaard Village train station, there’s a cozy lumberjack’s cottage. It’s one of the smallest builds on my land, but one that I’ve been enjoying the most this winter.

Although it has stopped snowing, there’s still some snow on the ground and it remains freezing cold. It’s nice to spend some time inside, warming up and having some quiet time.

It’s also nice to have wi-fi in here! I couldn’t function without it… How else would I blog from SL?

If you need some time-off, do come and visit. Here’s your taxi.

"Gustav’s"

“Gustav’s” is a new and recently opened store, found near the Norgaard Village train station. It’s owned by Gustav von Rosenheim, a 1920s Berlin resident and one of my oldest friends in SL.

Gustav has been dedicating a lot of his time and effort researching period items and furniture and then recreating them in Second Life. His work is well known within the 1920s Berlin Project community – and very popular. His items look great, and equally important, they are all low-prim, which is essential given the residents’ constant struggle with prim limit. It’s a mystery to me how he does it, but all the items available at the store have the land impact (LI) of only 1.

For the purpose of this blog post, I asked Gustav a few questions about his work.

Abi: Where do you find inspiration for the items you make?

Gustav: Well, the major inpiration comes from the 1920s furniture and gadgets because I mainly live in the Berlin 1920s Project sim. I’m more interested in the ordinary down-to-Earth furniture for ordinary people living in those days rather than stylish Art Deco items, because I would love to know how people used to live and look at their life in those days. Recreating RL historical items virtually is really an interesting approach to studying people’s life historically. Why did they choose those colours? Why did they choose those shapes? Why did they choose those materials? Those pieces of information are connected to each other and show you many things, such as the reality of international trading, the economy, even the systems of thought like ethics, taboos and social standards in those days.

Since I started renting a part of Norgaard Village where I opened my shop – Gustav’s – I’ve also started exploring more the things I’m interested in, in terms of design and virtual modeling, as well. Looking at RL decor items and furniture, now I’m thinking, “How can I recreate this shape virtually or how can I recreate this texture?” Exploring my creativity has been a very fun process.

Abi: Is there a specific reason why your focus is on the 1920s?

Gustav: I guess it’s the same reason why I got attracted by the Berlin 1920s sim. I am openly gay both in RL and SL. I wanted to know if we could have avoided gay Holocaust during the Nazi regime. If possible, how? From my point of view, patriotism and conservatism are currently arising in all countries in the world, for various reasons. Because of the economy, as a reaction against liberalism, or just because of the staggering feelings in society. Some people say they’re seeing similarity with the interwar period. The swell of conservatism and patriotism led to the gay Holocaust where an uncountable number of gay people was killed. So, I thought, “Oh no! I don’t want to get killed by being deported to a gas chamber! Then, let’s go back to that period and look at what was actually going on in the pre-gay Holocaust era.” That’s why I got interested in the 1920s, especially the Weimar period in Germany.

Abi: Do you have plans to create items from some other periods, as well?

Gustav: I don’t have any plans right now. However, as I said, I’m also interested in the visual art aspect of virtual modeling. I will create items that are not restricted by historical accuracy, too, along with creating objects related to the 1920s.

To visit Gustav’s store, please follow this SLurl: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Triphosa/170/176/35

Converted barn

For the past few months, my home base was a small trailer parked close to the train station at Norgaard Village. Now with the colder autumn weather, I decided to move into a larger and warmer place, so I did some work at converting my old barn.

Out with the cows…

… and in with Abi and all his junk!

Well, not all – I would need about a dozen barns to rezz everything, but at least now I’ve got rezzed all the essentials that couldn’t fit inside the trailer.

I love the cozy feel. Being woken up every morning by Peggy, Olaf and Jezebel’s grunting – those are my pet pigs – is an added bonus!

Foggy autumn day at Norgaard Village… But sun broke through over the chapel.

July at Nørgaard Village

Summer break in RL has meant for me a bit more time for SL and work on my land. Seafront area looks a bit different now, with some new builds. Village itself has also seen some changes, mostly in an effort to save a few prims. I can’t say I’ve been so successful with the latter, but I like how the place looks like now.

Village Grocery

This afternoon I went shopping in the newly opened grocery in Nørgaard Village. It is conveniently located close to the railways tracks, just opposite the village church.

It is well stocked with canned food, cereals, spices and drinks.

It was a very hot day on the east coast of Heterocera, and fresh fruit and veggies was all I needed.