Robin started this awesome new group for kids called Kulture Kids that organizes field trips to cool different places in SL. Today was our first ever trip and Danny and I and a bunch of other kids all went to to see “Virtual Starry Night - Vincent’s Second Life,” a whole sim dedicated to Van Gogh. They’ve taken Van Gogh paintings and rendered 3D versions of the paintings into SL. I’ve never been a huge Van Gogh fan at all, but this place was wicked cool. If feels like you are just walking right into  some priceless painting.  You see the painting on the canvas, and then take one step and you are suddenly in this beautifully crafted 3D space that feels just like the painting.  Its wicked cool amazing guys.  Really worth the visit just for the sake of seeing the creative potential of SL even if you aren’t a big arts person.  Everybody should really take a look.

And if you want to join Kulture Kids in SL, just send Robin an IM and he’ll add you to the group. I think most trips will be on Sunday mornings (this one was at 7am SL time).

Have a wicked cool Sunday everybody!

I finished another vase and have some plans for a few more, but right now am focused on a couple of other building projects, mainly my Greek Temple. Its relatively simple in design, but I’ve put a lot of work still into getting all the details just right. Did you know that Greek temples are also twice as long as they are wide and that there is an algebraic formula for determining how many columns must be on each side? I’m learning a lot as I work because I really want my temple to be authentic.

I’ve run into a bit of an artistic dilemma though with the project. I want the temple to appear an authentic Greek temple, but with that said I also want the temple eventually to be part of a larger sim inspired from Shakespeare’s play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. The play is set in Athens so I don’t see a problem there with having lots of Greek artifacts about, but I also want my temple to reflect the fact that this is a Shakespearean and British work of art, and want the temple in some ways to symbolically reflect on the entire play. But including a huge statue of Shakespeare in the front, as I have it now, while looking great, creates an artistic clash. Shakespeare wasn’t Greek at all, and the image of him surrounded by books I created for the project doesn’t quite look right. So now I have to make a decision. Do I maintain the authentic Greek feel I was striving for, or do I go for a more postmodern look, and mix Greek and Shakespearean images?

I’ve finished my first serious project: a replica of an 2500 year old Greek vase, known as the Euphronios Krater. Its not a huge project and I didn’t actually do the building part, but I spent a lot of hours getting the textures just right and I am really proud of the result. Below is a picture of the RL original and my SL replica. I know its not perfect, but I’m happy with the likeness. I even listed it on SLX, my first ever item I’ve tried to sell. No sales yet, but I really didn’t make it to sell it, so even if it never sells I don’t mind.

Over the next few weeks I want to make a few more Greek vase replicas for my collection. Before I can do that, though, I have to finish some pajamas for Danny. He wants some footie pajamas and asked me to have them done by tonight, but I just didn’t have the chance to get them done yet. I will though over the next couple days. And if they’re good, I’ll list them on SLX too! Making stuff in SL is fun!

Hey you, I’m Symon! Symon Effingham. Yes, the twin brother of Spenser, he already wrote a bit about me. He said I’m awesome - I’m not sure about that, hehe. But okay, he is awesome, we are identical twins, so I guess I should be too.

He told you about why we created ourselvess, I only can second that. I always was fascinated with twins, and I guess having no siblings in First Life made the idea of having one in Second Life even more appealing.

Well, here we are! Exploring this world - but much more exploring the feelings of having a brother. Isn’t that cool, having someone to bug and tease - and someone to share your deepest feelings, fears, growing pains and so on with?

Here we come. The Effingham Twins. Be afraid, Second Life, be VERY afraid! Haha. Just kidding. We are good boys (yeah, sure!).

See you somewhere!

Sy

My name is Spenser Effingham, and I’m from Second Life. For those of you who don’t know, Second Life is this wicked cool online place where you can be anybody you want to be, make anything you can dream of, and live the “second” life you’ve always wished for. Wanna be young and rich? Sure thing. Wanna huge house filled with the coolest stuff? No problem. Want to make some absolutely amazing friends who will truly touch your heart forever? It happens. Its happened to me. Let me a share just a little bit about my experience.

In Second Life, I’m a boy. That’s right, a boy. In RL I’m much older, but I’ve always wanted to relive my childhood, so in SL I’m only twelve, kind of living here to discover a few feelings and experiences left undiscovered in RL. I’ve also always wondered what it would be like to have a brother, particularly a twin brother. So here I am. A twin. This isn’t my first “second” life. In another life, I met this amazing guy, and we are boyfriends. We decided we wanted to add another dimension to our experience last November so we created the twins. Same rez day. Same surname. Same everything. And I do mean everything.

So here I am. Here we are. This is our blog. A place to report on what we are up to. What we are learning and feeling. Expect a post from my awesome bro soon here. Its a shared blog, so we’ll both be making posts here. And feel free to comment too. We’d love to hear what you are thinking.

Till then - laterz!