A Balloon Trip - But Not THE Balloon!

Earlier this month I mentioned that the Ambleside balloon tour was back and that caused me some excitement. But so far I haven't taken the flight and I suppose it will happen at some point. In the meantime, Mony and I discovered another balloon ride, complete with a bottle of champagne.


If you want to take the same trip, you need to go to Full Moon island. Enjoy.

The Balloon is Back!

It may seem odd that someone would get excited about the return of an object in Second Life but count me as odd. After months of non-existence, the balloon at the "Balloon Tour" in Ambleside has made a reappearance. Sure it is little different in design but we no longer have the absurdity of a balloonless balloon tour!



I tried to work out why I felt so happy about its return and I guess it is because it represents some element of stability in an ever-changing virtual world. After six months of Second Life I realize that a good number of friends on my "Friend's List" no longer visit SL, and the number of close friends has reduced. A quick glance at the "Landmarks" folder also reads like a history book of lost places: Club Hades, The Rock, Speakeasy - all the clubs of my youth and all gone. And even The Merry Inn has become Merry Inn 2 with a shift from the medieval tavern to a goth hang out. Things change.

And change is endemic on Second Life. Get used to it. All we can do it hold on to some symbols of permanence. Like the balloon. Like our friends. Like Mony.

Dance...the Night Away

Hardly a Second Life day goes by without some dancing taking place. It's a phenomenon of note in SL that even the most nonathletic of us will happily get up and boogie until the wee small hours of one of SL's daily mornings. My friends and I hang out in Linden Land at the Balloon Tour in Ambleside, where the ironic thing is that there is neither a balloon nor a tour currently available. Even more ironic - or perhaps tragic - is the fact that the Newbie Introduction Pack handed out to the poor souls who join us in this self-chosen hell includes a LM to the non-balloon tour.

But on the upside, here are the two really fun things that you have there: A large platform that can fit lots of people, and an endless supply of fresh meat... sorry, new people... who are looking for things to do.


Enter one of SL's one-woman dance machines, Willa Wycliffe. Willa is kitted out to be the perfect hostess for a dance party at any time and in any. She (a) has a chimera she wears that folks can click on to dance, and (b) a web link in her profile that folks can click for music. Ergo, a dance machine!

Frequently I'm there with Willa and my other special friends, Merry Felwitch, mtd1952 Timeless, and Mony Markova, dancing our asses off until Willa falls asleep at the keyboard (Note to fans of abbreviations: FAAK = "falling asleep at the keyboard" or "fell asleep at the keyboard.")

Last night was no exception. Willa, Merry and I were joined by Jahmon Johin and Drumby Camel, along with the occasional passers-by. There's something about dancing and talking that makes Second Life special.

Folks of a literary bent might want to read - or re-read - Nikos Kazantsakis' Zorba the Greek to get a feel for the passion that can be behind dancing. For Zorba, the dance was a way of directing both his pain and his happiness; a physical catharsis of psychological tensions.

Maybe the same is true for some of us in Second Life.