The “How-to” machinima post that I wanted to write…but didn’t

Wouldn’t you know, Head BurroAntfarm beat me to the punch. That’s what I get for not having a RL (or an SL, for that matter!).

Rather than duplicate the post, I’ll just link to HBA’s
Lights Camera Action – My Adventures With SL Machinima.  I filled in a couple gaps about my personal (and limited) experience with machinima.  It’s an exhaustive “how-to” blog post that offers great hints on how to get started and what tools to use.

Well done, HBA!  Happy filming!

The Linden Department of Self-Immolation

For those who don’t follow Second Life/Linden Lab-related news, the Second Life 5th Birthday celebration is coming up…but the Lindens don’t want to see ALL of their various communities represented. Just the ones that they choose. No child avatars (sorry, Marianne…). No gor (a subculture I still don’t understand and probably don’t want to). And this is causing all sorts of problems.

Jacek Lives puts the question into a larger context, one that I urge interested readers to check out. In a nutshell, he offers this observation:

…Linden Lab, it seems, doesn’t want its Residents anymore. It doesn’t want a free, open, creative world. It wants a sanitized, media-friendly world, that universities and big corps won’t think twice about making major investments in. LL’s message for Residents now is: Thanks for making us so popular, but go away now. You’re embarrassing us in front of the cool kids.

I just can’t believe that Linden Lab is doing this to themselves.

Where should I be walking?

I’m out on walkabout, seeing what there is to see, grabbing the occasional machinima footage, taking snapshots (with “nifty” grid patterns thrown in by Linden Lab for free…grumble grumble) and getting a feel for what the Second Life grid has to offer. But I know that I’m missing a lot. And, sadly, RL isn’t offering me the opportunity just to stumble around the grid like I’d wish.

So I’ll throw it out to you, dear readers: Where should I take my walkabout? What places on the Second Life grid are so special that they demand to be seen? I’m thinking about the truly great builds, like Svarga and Zero Point.

Leave some ideas in your comments. I’m interested in your suggestions and will follow up as quickly as time permits.