Fantasy Faire 2024 in Second Life: Plankbarrow Harbor

Plankbarrow Harbor is a shopping Region, sponsored by ::Static::, and created by Nama Gears (Owner of ::Static::).

The floating shanty town, made of a jumbled pile of lost ships and other marine debris, only drifts close enough to reality for mortals to visit every hundred years.... A truly original Region with many interesting shops to explore. . I regret that I am running out of Lindens...

SLEA In Second Life: London Junker's "Lorca" Exhibit

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SLEA3/203/53/20

Statue at Lorca Exhibit

Wikipedia Entry

From SLEA Announcement:

SLEA presents Lorca by London Junkers, an homage to Federico Garcia Lorca. Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. Member of the "Generation of 27", a clear representative of the Silver Age of Spanish literature and one of the most influential writers of the 20th century.

Tour the exhibit and try to match the works to the poetry.  I think I have three figured out.

Romance Sonambulo

Lament for Ignacio

Ode to Salvador Dali

Fantasy Faire 2024 in Second Life - Last Stop

 Today I did an in-depth exploration of Last Stop, a Region sponsored by Teegle. 

Most of the build was submerged, with a deserted subway tunnel snaking along between scattered shops. It was all absolutely beautiful.  The Teegle fish swimming back and forth among the plants added a nice but not too in-your-face ambiance, I can remember when SL fish were just flat shapes, these Teegle fish looked real and three-dimensional. 

Subway Tunnel at Last Stop

Fish in subway tunnel, Last Stop

I made a quick run through of all the stores.I paused at DFS because they had something I hadn't seen before: llamacorns, and I wanted to make a Relay for Life contribution from the shop to show my appreciation for their humor and creativity. I couldn't find one. I think every shop at Fantasy Faire should have a way you could make a Relay for Life contribution without buying anything.

Llamacorns from DFS at Last Stop

I did buy a Sass gnomie. You can never have too many gnomies. I also bought a Teegle dog

One store confused me. It didn't have a name - just a logo, and I didn't find out what it was they were advertising until I clicked on the free gift.The info card explained that this shop was advertising the Akipelago Group:

"secondlife:///app/group/165c25d2-7ff3-e3a6-54a3-2ff7bdb71010/about

The Akipelago is a not-for-profit group of sims is dedicated to artistic and natural beauty in its many forms including:    multiple worlds of breathtaking vistas; interactive and immersive sim-wide exhibits;  particle shows; music and dance performances; and of course, galleries of portraits and sculptures.   It is also a very large playground !  The Akipelago is comprised of:  Akijima, Akimori, and Akimitsu.  For any questions or concerns please let me know, and thank you for your time here in the Akipelago.  Everyone is welcome!

  - Akiko (◕‿◕)♡"

The store decor was very nicely put together, and I was impressed that it looked like they could communicate in six different languages. I hope to visit their Regions after Fantasy Faire.

On the surface The Last Stop was mostly water with some rocky outcroppings , and the rails heading out over the water to the horizon reminded me of a scene in Spirited Away.

Last stop at Last Stop

My favorite Region so far. 

The only negative was a store that disguised its exit as a solid wall. It was not alone among stores in doing that, but it is annoying. I'm wondering if they are thinking that visitors will get trapped when they can't find their way out and buy more things?

 

Fantasy Faire 2024 in Second Life: Blogging About the Bloggers

 A few years ago, when I really wanted to be an Official Fantasy Faire Blogger, I read almost every single official Fantasy Faire blog post from the year before and tried to make my blog posts as much like some of them as I could. It didn't work and I was disappointed when I was apparently turned down when I applied to be a blogger the next year, but I still like to read the official blogs - most of them are well-written and have excellent photos of the Fairelands and Faire Events. Often they showcase events and items that I would not have known about otherwise.

I spend more time at Fantasy Faire looking at the builds and enjoying the activities, rather than shopping, but if you look at the Official Blogger List you can see that, of the categories Shopping, Exploration,  Blogger Challenge*, Story, and Character, most of the posts and flikr entries are about Shopping. Most post photos of their avatars wearing and/or surrounded by items available at the Faire, with links to the stores that sold them.

In an event with over 300 merchants I used to wonder why I was seeing some of the same items reviewed over and over again, and then I found The Merchant's Guide to Bloggers. Apparently merchants fill boxes with items that are free to official bloggers so that the bloggers can blog about them. While it is fair for official bloggers to get some rewards for their efforts, I think it may put a burden on merchants who must produce items for bloggers and questers, and who also give some or all of the profits from some of their merchandise to Relay for Life.

 I will never be an "Official" Fantasy Faire blogger, but I appreciate those who are. I will never be a fashionista: I don't have the patience or talent to perfect my avatar, although every few years I make an effort to get a new body and some new clothes. 

After reading through the Official Fantasy Faire blogs I have added some of the bloggers to my 'follow' list so that I can read them year round.

Softpaw the Fairy Cat

Chic Aeon

and

Vloggers: Around the Grid Productions

Yes, I would still like to be an official Fantasy Faire blogger, but in the meantime I will just enjoy what others have written, and write what I like. 

The grapes would have been sour anyway.

--------------

*Blogger Challenge seems to be an attempt to get official bloggers to write about something besides shopping.

Fantasy Faire 2024 in Second Life: Help With The Quest

Fantasy Faire 2024, Using a flashlight in Thunnus Bay

Even after years of doing the annual Fantasy Faire Quest and other hunts, there are still times I have problems finding everything. I confess that my secret talent seems to be 'ignoring the obvious', whether it is the unicorn in the garden or the glasses on my forehead.

Here are some you might try to make the Quest easier.

Join the **Fantasy Faire Fans** Group. It is fun to listen to and participate in the chat, and you can always ask for help.

Try to be as low lag as possible. While I love to see elaborate Faire costumes, I know that rendering them can slow things down so I try to dress conservatively. You don't really need to wear your toenail color Hud.

Set up folders in Inventory ahead of time and put items away while they are still listed as "Recent"

My folders are: "Fantasy Faire 2024" with two subfolders: "Quest Items" and "Shopping".  By the end of the Quest you will have dozens of prizes, so it is always a good idea, if you have the time and discipline, to open your prizes right away and send thank-you's to the makers and givers of things you especially like.*

Use the "Help" button on your Quest Hud. It has some good information. This year I learned that if the Hud suddenly doesn't show everything you've collected so far, the first thing you can do is reset it.

Can't find the Queen?  Try using your map to see if there is a cluster of green dots away from the main area. 

Listen to the Quest characters and to your companion animal.

It's OK to ask for a hint in chat. 

Do not curse the Quest Organizers**.  There have been times when I thought that the hints were misleading or mean, but I have come to realize that they are just coming from a different perspective. We all see things differently.  Be prepared to encounter a few glitches. Try to stay calm and enjoy everything you see along the way and be glad you're not one of the dedicated volunteers who set up the Quest.

Know what you are looking for.  In many SL hunts the hunt object is always a specific item, in this hunt the thing you are looking for comes in many shapes.  Once you've found the first item, examine it and its surroundings. Who made it? Who owns it? How big is it? How far was it from the spot the hint directed you to?  Was it named as a hunt object, or something like "I'm just a rock"?

Take time to let the hunt object materialize. Depending on lag time, it can sometimes take minutes for a hunt object to show up. If all else fails, go away and come back later. Also, sometimes objects won't show up until you are almost on top of them so don't rely on camming around from one corner of the Region.

If you can't see, lighten it up. This year some of the Regions were very dark. In the ink I saw a few avatars with their facelights turned up to "stun" and one resident who was wearing a large shining globe as an avatar. There are things you can do to improve your vision:

• Turn up your computer screen brightness
• Use 'Environment' settings and see if you can set the world to mid-day.
• Turn off "Use Shared Environment" and choose a brighter environment. In one Region, I had to change the water to "Lassies Clearwater" to keep from bumping into things. (Be sure to change settings back afterwards.)
• Temporarily de-render things like underbrush and pesky buildings.
• Use the 'search area' option if your viewer has it. If you click on an item on the list and select 'edit' it will show up better.

Thanks to Ryan Schultz for some great tips on his website.

If all else fails, I notice that last year they offered an "Express Quest" HUD for L$5000 during the last days of Fantasy Faire. 

Have fun!

*Says she, who just noticed she had a few items from SLB20 in her inventory, unopened.

**I apologize for saying "I hope that when she tiptoes past the bears, she is covered with honey and the bears are awake and hungry."