Being 10 years old in Second Life: a decade of transformations

I joined Second Life 10 years ago yesterday: on April 1st, 2007 – always as Ricco Saenz. Being 10 years old in SL means that I have seen a number of technical and cultural transformations there, and it is interesting to remember what has changed since I first rezzed on the grid. By thinking of […]

Experiencing the Roaring ’20s in a recreated New York

UPDATE: The 1920’s New York Project has already moved to a full sim. This is its new location in SL. The SLURLs on the post have been updated. Historical reconstruction and role-playing has found a breeding ground in Second Life, and one of the most impressive examples of such an endeavor that I’ve stumbled upon […]

A train to a vanishing world

I was going to write on the Victorian era presence in Second Life and on how the Victorian times still fascinate many of us. My point of departure would be Victoria Station, which I have recently found in SL – where I embarked on a 19th century train, went to a bookstore where I could […]

Svarga: how to forge memory from prims

Many have written about Svarga – that’s just fair, for it’s a milestone sim in Second Life: it has been there since 2006 and has been saved by Linden Lab itself from disappearing. If you’d like to learn more about the history of Svarga, I strongly recommend a post written by Inara Pey back in […]

An alien visits a Japanese WWII battleship

Yamato was an emblematic Japanese battleship that ended up sunk by the American forces during World War II. However, for those who grew up in the 1970s and the 1980s, she was also the spacecraft that took Captain Okita (or Captain Avatar) and Susumu Kodai (or Derek Wildstar) and their crew to their adventures in […]

A colossal experience

Tall and imposing, the Colossus of Rhodes, in Ancient Greece, was short-lived: the statue stood at Rhodes’ harbor (or at a site nearby, depending on the sources that you consult) for 56 years. In Second Life, the Colossus of Rhodes‘ existence will be even shorter, at least as a building for the “Fashion For Life” […]

That day in 1917

For years, the notebook had rested in the deep drawer. It not only looked old, but also forgotten: a uniform layer of dust covered it, indicating no one had touched it for years, maybe decades. With a sense of respect and curiosity, I opened it randomly and read: “[…] common in those days, he could […]