Exploring Second Life

Tag: Whimsical

  • The Absolutely Fake Museum of Lindens & Moles – A Bay City Curiosity

    The Absolutely Fake Museum of Lindens & Moles – A Bay City Curiosity

    A three-story building—The Absolutely Fake Museum of Lindens & Moles—Second Life
    The Absolutely Fake Museum of Lindens & Moles – Second Life

    What if Second Life had a museum dedicated to Lindens and Moles, but filled entirely with fake facts.

    Exploring Second Life is addictive. One moment you promise yourself you’ll log off, and the next you’ve missed a real-life appointment because some new place kept you hooked. Most of the destinations I write about are full regions or large builds, the kind you can get lost in for hours.

    But sometimes you only have 5 or 10 minutes before real life pulls you away. That’s where little gems like The Absolutely Fake Museum of Lindens & Moles come in.

    An avatar entering the Absolutely Fake Museum of Lindens & Moles through the ground floor doors,
    Entering The Absolutely Fake Museum of Linden & Moles , Second Life

    The Museum Itself

    Set in a three-story, art deco building of dark grey brick (purportedly created by Glamorous Mole), this quirky museum sits on a modest 1024 m² parcel in Bay City. Despite its size, it’s packed with wit, parody, and click-worthy surprises, using only 378 prims at the time of my visit.

    The museum is the creation of Lara Panthar, and it’s designed very much as a “click and listen” experience. The walls are covered with posters, each one responding with a sound, a song, or a snippet of tongue-in-cheek commentary when clicked.

    • A Bay City Funeral Services poster bursts into song by “Deadly Mole.”
    • Other posters poke fun at imaginary, less celebrated regions and projects of Linden Lab; for example, Linden Seashore , where the poster cheerfully reassures visitors that no Linden ever goes there and there hasn’t been a shark attack in almost 24 hours.

    There are also freebies scattered around, little extras to discover as you wander.

    A poster on the museum wall -"Bay City Funeral Services"
    Be sure to click on all the posters on the walls.
    A poster on the wall of the Absolutely Fake Museum of Linden & Miles; showing a picture of a person surfing with a large fin breaking the water in the foreground.
    Be sure to click on all the posters on the walls

    A Few Highlights

    Outside, you’ll find gravestones for Linden notables, including the elusive Governor Linden, whose portrait also hangs inside, though presented only as a silhouette to keep the mystery alive.

    Each floor has its own theme, and the humor runs from sly digs at SL history to playful absurdity. The experience is short; you can see it all in 10–15 minutes, but it’s lighthearted fun worth a detour.

    If you enjoy the visit, there’s a tip jar just inside the entrance, on the left-hand side. I suspect contributions of any size would be appreciated.

    A framed picture od a silhouetted figure, bearing a title Govenor Linden
    The enigmatic Govenor Linden – In the Museum click on the picture to learn more about him
    Four white memorial stones outside the Absolutely Fake Museum of Lindens & Moles
    The final resting places of some famous Lindens and Moles – – – – Perhaps

    Landmark

    Visit The Absolutely Fake Museum of Lindens & Moles (Bay City)

    A big thank you to Veyot for telling me of the museum’s existence.

     Follow this blog for more Second Life destinations, art, and oddities.

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  • A Second Look at Cica Ghost’s A-Maze-Ing

    A Second Look at Cica Ghost’s A-Maze-Ing

    Two whimsical cheerful snails meet at A-Maze-Ing by Cica Ghost in Second life
    Two smails meet up at A-Maze-Ing by Cica Ghost

    I decided to return to Cica Ghost’s current build, A-Maze-Ing, because after seeing more pictures on Flickr, I realised there was still much I hadn’t shown the first time around. Cica’s worlds are like that; they reward return visits, always offering another small detail or whimsical surprise. You can read about my first visit here

    Cica’s Cat

    One thing I missed the first time was Cica’s cat. Not always present in every build, but often appearing in one form or another, her feline friend feels like a recurring character. This time I made sure to catch it

    Whimsical cat figure at Cica Ghost’s A-Maze-Ing in Second Life, standing against a wall on which are painted daisy like flowers
    Cica Ghost’s cat at A-Maze-Ing – Second Life

    Wall art

    I also wanted to look more closely at the wall art scattered throughout the maze. Forget Banksy; these playful, cartoonish drawings aren’t rebellious so much as lighthearted and funny. They’re simple, but not amateurish, and they made me smile as I passed.

    Playful cartoon wall art, showing a nervous sheep and a flying bee inside A-Maze-Ing by Cica Ghost in Second Life
    Wall art at A-Maze-Ing by Cica Ghost – Second Life
    Whimsical drawing on the maze walls in A-Maze-Ing by Cica Ghost, showing a large blue whale and a smiling starfish
    Wall art at A-Maze-Ing by Cica Ghost
    Whimsical drawing on the maze walls in A-Maze-Ing by Cica Ghost, showing a large green frog and a blue daidy like flower
    wall art at A-Maze-Ing – Second Life

    Sleeping Monster

    Another detail: inside one of the little houses I found a sleeping monster. My photo doesn’t show it, but in-world you can see its chest rise and fall as it breathes. A tiny touch, but absolutely adorable.

    Sleeping monster with rising chest animation in A-Maze-Ing Second Life build
    The sleeping monster – Absolutely adorable

    Textures and Atmosphere

    The whole build has a kind of cartoonishness, but not in a crude sense, more like a deliberately stylised storybook world. The wheeled wooden animal rides, for example, hold up beautifully even zoomed in with ultra graphics. The overall light is soft and hazy and sepia tinted.

    A wide view of Cica Ghost's A-Maze-Ing, showing the sepia-tinted sky, bottle-shaped buildings, and, in the foreground, the maze.
    A wide view of A-Mazing showing the Sepia tinted sky

    Rides and Interactions

    I didn’t ride the wooden animals on my first visit, except to test out the small rides designed for Dinkies, so I made a point of testing them this time. Each one has its own whimsical pose:

    • On the duck, you sit cross-legged.
    • On the giraffe, you lie on your stomach, knees bent, feet in the air.
    • On the horse, you recline on your back, arms folded behind your head.
    • On the elephant, you sit upright, feet on either side of its head.

    There are also plenty of seats, benches, pods in the trees, and places tucked inside houses. Each has several poses, some playful, like doing a handstand on the back of a bench

    Second Life avatar riding wooden duck with playful pose at A-Maze-Ing by Cica Ghost
    Riding the wooden duck at A-Maze-Ing – Second Life
    Whimsical bench pose with avatar doing a handstand in Cica Ghost’s A-Maze-In
    Doing a handstand at A-Maze-Ing – The things bloggers have to do!

    A Visit Worth Making

    The maze itself, the bottle-shaped houses, the ladders and rides , I wrote about those in my first post, which you can find here. This follow-up is really about the little details that give A-Maze-Ing its character.

    The build is open for a week or two more, so I encourage you to visit before it’s gone. While I was there, I ran into a group of role-play campers and their leader, having a wonderful time running through the maze. It was the perfect reminder: Cica’s worlds aren’t just about looking; they’re about playing, laughing, and discovering together.

    Useful Links

    For other relevant links, see Cica’s Inworld Shop, Cica on Marketplace, Cica’s personal Flickr stream, and the Cica Flickr group. 

    For other bloggers’ views and photographs of A-Maze-Ing, take a look at posts by Inara Pey, Susann Decuir, Yse Dido Petra Haas, Hans van der Velden, Bsukmet Imniali, Bruno Denis and Caity Tobias

    A link to see all my posts about Cica Ghost.is HERE

    📌 Follow this blog for more Second Life destinations, art, and oddities.

    🌍 Join us in the Second Life Destinations Facebook Group where bloggers share new finds.
    📸 Photographers, share your snapshots in the Second Life Destinations Flickr Group.

  • A-Maze-Ing – Cica Ghost’s New Second Life Build

    A-Maze-Ing – Cica Ghost’s New Second Life Build

    A-Maze-Ing - a Second Life build by Cica Ghost – A whimsical rideable wooden giraffe on wheels, set against a sepia-toned landscape with brick walls and painted flowers.
    A rideable wooden giraffe on wheels, at Cica Ghost’s new build ‘A-Maze-Ing’.

    A new build by Cica Ghost opened on Monday, 11th August:A-Maze-Ing. As usual, it’s accompanied by a thoughtful quote:

    “At some point we all look up and realize we are lost in a maze.” – John Green

    Before you explore, I recommend turning on the shared environment:
    World → Environment → Use Shared Environment.
    Here, the light matters; the sepia tones, soft shadows, and muted skies are part of the experience

    A whimsical maze landscape featuring red brick and grey plaster walls under a brown sepia sky, with wooden toy animals such as a giraffe and elephant in the foreground. Part of Cica Ghost's latest build A-Maze-Ing, in Second life
    The maze at A-Maze-ing

    First Impressions

    This is quite different from Cica’s previous build Among the Hills. The sky is a brown sepia, scattered with drifting clouds. Below, an island-sized maze stretches out, its walls of red brick and grey plaster intersecting at perfect right angles. The floor beneath your feet is brick too, patterned in circles like an old patio.

    Here and there, steep little hillocks rise almost vertically. Many have a single tree at the top; others are bare, and a few hold bottle-shaped houses. At the very centre, on a raised area, stand more bottle-shaped houses, mostly brick, some with partial plaster coverings, looking like something from a dream. 

    A whimsical scene featuring several bottle-shaped houses with a mix of brick and plaster, set against a cloudy, sepia-toned sky. The landscape includes twisted branches and a large wheel structure in the background. Part of Cica Ghost's latest Second life build, A-Maze-Ing
    I think the houses look like bottles – do you agree?

    Exploring the Maze

    Your arrival point is on the east of the island, where four large wooden animals wait: a giraffe, an elephant, a horse, and a duck, all with wheels and ready to ride. In true Cica style, there’s also a second, smaller set so Dinkies can join in the fun. 

    A whimsical scene featuring wooden toy animals, including an elephant, a horse, a giraffe, and a duck, all mounted on wheels. A small black cat figure sits atop the elephant. The background features a sepia-toned landscape with gentle hills.
    A second set of rideable animals is available for Dinkies

    At one end of the island, a small shop sells some of Cica’s whimsical “monsters,” including the wheeled animals. 

    Cica Ghost's small shop with whimsical art displays featuring wooden animals and snails for sale, set against a sepia-toned background, at A-Maze-Ing, in Second life
    There is a small shop if you want to buy a souvenir

    This time, there are no towering creatures like in some of her earlier builds, but I spotted a few snails and a strange rabbit-like being. And yes, their eyes move, as always. 

    a white coloured whimsical rabbit like figure, standing in front of a red background
    I think this is a rabbit – Iooks like one

    Colours, Details, and Surprises

    True to form, there are also trees and flowers, all in sepia or white, matching the sky and stonework

    viewed from above, low growing little white flowers, without visible leaves. on a stony brown substrate,. Designed by Cica Ghost. Part of her Second life, A-Maze-Ing build.
    There are always new flowers with each build by Cica – I like these.

    The only real splashes of colour come from a few painted red sections of wall and charming line drawings of cats and other animals. 

    four amusing colourful cat figures painted on a red wall. Standing in front of that is a rather grumpy looking anthropomorphic, whimsical black cat
    There were cats painted on the wall so I joined them with my grumpy Magurami cat

    The quiet charm of this build is in its details. the interplay of light, texture, and geometry, and the unexpected little discoveries around each corner. 

    a whimsical snail with large eyes, with building in the background
    A cute snail, naturally with moving eyes

    Supporting Cica’s Art

    In these tightened times, when money is scarce, I know it’s a lot to ask, but if you enjoy Cica’s work, consider leaving a contribution at one of the tip jars or perhaps buying a monster as a souvenir. Your support helps her continue to build these playful and imaginative spaces for us all to enjoy.

    a tree with the top bent horizontally, bearing grey flowers, no leaves visible. In the background is a sepia sky
    A flowering tree

    A-Maze-Ing is exactly what the name promises: a playful labyrinth, an atmospheric landscape, and another reminder of how Cica Ghost can turn the simplest shapes into something magical.

    For other relevant links, see Cica’s Inworld Shop, Cica on Marketplace, Cica’s personal Flickr stream, and the Cica Flickr group. 

    For other bloggers’ views and photographs of A-Mazing-ing, take a look at posts by Inara Pey, Susann Decuir, Yse and Dido Petra Haas

    A link to see all my posts about Cica Ghost is HERE

    📌 Follow this blog for more Second Life destinations, art, and oddities.

    🌍 Join us in the Second Life Destinations Facebook Group where bloggers share new finds.
    📸 Photographers, share your snapshots in the Second Life Destinations Flickr Group.