Kowloon

Kowloon iSL: it's easily the best long-term build I've seen that I can't support by renting there!   The sim is Chinese-language only to live or rent a shop there, and that makes it the closest thing to a RL Chinatown that I can imagine.

Based on an old PlayStation videogame that apparently had no U.S. release, Kowloon's Gate, the sim is a labyrinth of alleyways, shops, neon signs, and beautifully crafted surprises around every corner.

Visit there, shop there, RP (without weapons) there, and ideally, dress more appropriately than my created-thanks-to-Rudi surfer-girl avi is dressed.

Great shops, beautiful artistry

The feeling is like being in a mostly deserted San Fran or NY Chinatown

Where are the almond cookies?  Anyone see a bakery?

When is the dragon parade?   Yikes, I'm sucha tourist.

A less sinister feeling than Midian City to me, but that's not for lack of dark alleyways.

The gate: open due to a resident having recently arrived.

Interesting sign for a shooter-videogame-based sim.

Mmmm the sweet smells of an incense shop.  Great for my Dia de los Muertos alter in NOLA next year.

Artful builds within builds.  On the left is the original notecard; on the right is a Google translation of the text.

Links to more about Kowloon

• in the destination guide
• as blogged about by Raul Crimson
• as blogged about by Chestnut Rau
• as blogged about by Wagner James Au

Escapades adventure

Until November 6th, Escapades Island is hosting a quest to rescue a puppy.

A chainsaw HUD is involved.

We didn't make it that far, but we had some fun on the way.

I dare Robot L to sit with me on a spinning pumpkin and go into mouselook.

I don't for a minute believe he did it.

He *did* get himself into trouble in the junkyard,
like they used to tell us kids not to do,
by climbing into an old fridge!
Aren't they supposed to take the doors off these things now???

A wild ride later and we finally get him out!

Windlight

Kardesh had me playing with face and body lights the other night after he taught me how to make one; he showed me that using different shapes and colors can really affect the way your avi looks.  (That's one thing I like about K: it's all about the details, and that's how it is for me too.)  I love to take screenshots of the avis in SL, so I want to play with this a lot more.
Another thing that I'm learning is GREAT for photos is windlight settings for the water and sky.  Torley has a great page on the wiki about them here, and there's a download zipped file of bunches of his own preferred settings there too.  I just found that today, so I'll post more pics here as I try them.  Meanwhile, here's one I did inworld the other night.

Long Beach Carnival and Amusement Park

Kardesh and I have been having such a good time lately with vehicular explorations that we decided to extend that to amusement park rides.  Long Beach Carnival and Amusement Park, by Ellen Spark, is a solid well conceived venue with lots of neat couple poseball rides built in and food vendors for when you get hungry.  We rode bumper cars (which to me was the most fun: when K started multitasking me to a really noticeable degree, it was nice to be able to whack him one), a water slide, and this sweet couples swing.

He also got me on a ferris wheel contraption when we first got there, but I got dizzy dizzy!!  I need dramamine for SL!  (haha, how true is that -- any drug with the word "drama" in it is perfect for SL!)

• Long Beach profile 
• Visit in-world