Apr 19 2022

What to do ….

in SL… Second Life. Second Life has become my ‘go to place’ when I feel I can no longer endure the reality of my daily life situation, my true life! After a few moments in world, time seems to stop… when time starts again, I come up from being in sort of a trance and I find that time has not stopped at all. Time has lost it’s meaning speeding up to a warp speed, faster-than-light travel and I am truly shocked. Now one could argue that’s not a good thing to advance time. On the other hand, filling a few hours that seem to pass in the blink of eye could be brain soothing.

One of my favorite things about virtual worlds is that there is always something to do. Always! Alone or if you’re lucky enough to meet some great on-line friends that you can spend time with in world, you can always be entertained. I really like spending time alone in virtual worlds. You can try on all sorts of new hair-dos, and clothes and costumes and for the ladies make up and the gents facial hair or just lay on a beach lounge chair sipping mint juleps and do nothing at all. Just enjoy the views, hear wave sounds, set the sun to sunrise or sunset… beautiful to see, a powerful force, one capable of imparting its warmth on the most hardened of souls.

Seems the most popularity activity in virtual worlds in going dancing at a club (venue). Every kind of music you love is offered by Dj’s spinning the tunes or a live singer crooning your favorite songs. Going to a club is like being in a Cheers episode on TV… where you arrive everyone says “Hello or Welcome” and immediately know your name. We have name tags that reveal our Second Life names when they hover their cursor on an avatar.

♫ Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name
And they’re always glad you came ♪

You can explore the sims and admire the creativity and builds of lush gardens or a busy city. You can learn to build yourself and make your own garden of Eden. You can ride in hot air balloons with out fear of falling or you can paddle a surfboard over virtual waves without getting sand in your pants. You can fly an airplane or drive a motorcycle or ride a horse (or elephant) around. You can have races with your online friends, and even enjoy some combat fighting with a variety of weapons. You can roller skate, go bowling, play board game with friends, the possibilities are endless.

… and with that sentence I will end this blog and wish you much joy in all of your lives!

Thanks for reading my beloved friends, step in sunshine!

Apr 22 2017

THE SUNS of the HYPERVERSE

The avatar adventures of Sunbeam Magic includes many Suns. Before I came and immersed myself in OpenSim I had many (many) alts. At one time in Second Life I think I counted a total of 25 *LOL*… many were used for Roleplay as for a couple years AAcme and I were totally into RP. Others were made to ‘re-create’ ourselves as many times we tried to “quit” the world and vowed never to come back. It seemed to be taking over our real life time and emotions ran high at times over silly incidents. After over a decade since we first discovered virtual worlds now I can not even remember the whys or what for regarding the high emotions!

One (out of 3 or 4) of my FREEBIE shops @Nara’s Nook

When we first went to an OpenSim grid (3rdRock and InWorldz) we made new avatars for new names and jumped in with both feet, socializing, becoming an Events Manager, building, creating, opening shops, managing others’ regions, Mentoring, joining Admin teams… you name it we tried it! Then we found other grids as they popped up and before HG you had to join them to see them. So as the years went on I became a member of over a dozen grids. Some (most) still have my original avatar on file, even if I have not logged into that particular grid in over a year. Amazing! I did decide after roaming away from the closed grids to always be ‘Sunbeam Magic’. IT goes back to my grass roots, as when I first joined Second Life, the legacy grid, I started as ‘Sunbeam’ Jewell… changed to Magic as surname because I feel these worlds are MAGICAL!

Below are a few of the profile shots from the many grids I am a member of:

CRAFT10-14-2011

DigiWorlds 3-17-2015

Osgrid 3-06-2012

Franco 12-16-2015

Great Candian Grid 4-13-2015

Island Oasis 3-08-2012

Kitely 10-14-2012

Lost Paradise 11-19-2012

Metropolis 9-03-2012

Nara’s Nook 11-11-2014

3rdLife Grid 1-14-2016

Tangle 4-22-2012

3rdRock Grid 12-18-2010

I’m sure I have other Sun’s out there… SimValley, Discovery, Zetaworlds, The Adult Grid, Virtual Highway ring a bell! But forgot the passwords and couldn’t get my Profile pic to show you my dear friends. So I’m stuck with only 13 images to preserve and record for future prosperity. Plus I did not include any of my still alive and breathing avatars in Second Life (about 3 or 4 or them I believe). Anyways, thanks for joining me in my trip down Avatar Lane!

As Always, Step in Sunshine, Be Happy and enjoy your lifes!

Dec 31 2016

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017

Sunbeam took some TIME off from blogging in the year 2016. A lot of TIME off! A whole year of TIME off ! NOW she’s ready to start anew. 2016 was so full of lots of fun in OpenSim: special projects, special builds, HG VISIONZ magazine, many changes and much more she was involved with there just wasn’t any TIME left for blogging.

Anything and everything under the ‘Sun’ is fair game. We decided to revamp the way we do our blog for 2017. Instead of 50+ images showing her travels and friends and what she’s was up to in the OpenSim Metaverse each month, we choose NOW a simpler life, a simpler blog focusing on one subject at a TIME. We may blog on thoughts, on a word (or two or three), on an OS destination, on an OS event, on a friend, or an enemy, or a spirit. The main objective is to K.I.S.S. my blog (Keep it Short and Simple).

TIME is the word for today’s blog.

TIME: noun> “the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole”.

TIME: verb> “plan, schedule, or arrange when (something) should happen or be done”.

TIME is that one thing one never has enough to do all they want to do. We must use the verb TIME to make the noun TIME fulfil our dreams and visionz. As most everyone knows, the best laid plans of Fairies and humans often go awry. Things often go wrong even though you have carefully planned what you are going to do. With that said our new 2017 mottos shall be: ‘Go with the Flow’ and have a ‘Devil may care’ attitude and with thoughts like those TIME will always be on my side! I’m gonna ‘live in the moment’!!!

In closing I’d like to say “Happy New Year! Have fun, enjoy life and may 2017 be your best year ever!” Step in Sunshine

Dec 7 2015

NOVEMBER NOTABLES

November was a HUGE month for notable events that Sunbeam was a part of. Sun started off with the Premiere of the Immersive Edge, a hypergrid story, then on to the celebration of being an avatar at the AvatarFest and then the exciting Grand Opening of Leighton Marjoram’s new grid ‘Lighthouse Point’. There was a Birthday party for Nara’s Nook, Happy Birthday Two Years Old! AND her home grid GCG (Great Canadian Grid) celebrated their Two Years Old Birthday! and Sun and the team of VISIONZ produced their biggest issue ever with a whopping 90 page edition.

Christmas came to our Virtual Worldz with lots of winter regions popping up to explore and Ice Skating parties to attend. Naturally our party girl, Sunbeam, jumped in with both wings! She set up a Free Christmas shop at her friend Linda Kellie’s Christmas region on GCG and she also built a little Christmas scene at the Winterfest Expo on the Tangle Grid.

Of course in between all these notable events Sun went to HG tours, concerts and parties, enjoyed a private tour of her friends’ Anna and Steve Ford’s ‘Pet Gallery’, plus her friend Jessie Campbell taught her how to play the game ‘Greedy’. May of been beginners luck but Sun won both games they played! Sun also did some fun exploring and went shopping and bought some new gowns.

Sun also set up two new shops in AAcme City, one a Mermaid shop and the other Aine’s Statues (Of course all items are free to copy). She did some landscaping around the city (terraforming really relaxes us), added some animals to the forest and cleaned up some areas that were overly primmy. She moved the Halloween graveyard to a new area by the AAcme Airport and ser up her Happy Holidays HO HO HO area in it’s place. All in All November was a busy, fun and exciting month for this little Fae!

A high note in Sunbeam’s life was when she took her friend Scarlet ‘Abby’ Rose to meet Elsie and Anna, Scarlet’s idols, at Fred Beckhusen’s Ice Castle on his Outworldz grid. Scarlet was so excited and really loved riding the dragons. Scarlet was born with MD and is a very special young lady who guided by her nurse and my virtual sister, Kat Ewry finds fun and love in the virtual environment.

A low note in Sunbeam’s life was when she lost her dear friend and virtual nephew, one of the great musicians of our worldz, hunter Montgomery to a heart attack. hunter went peacefully in his sleep; may he rest in peace as he lives on in our hearts. Also there was the world wide tragedy of the terrorists attack in Paris, France. Sun has many friends in the Franco grid and was thrilled to hear that all of them were safe and survived this unfathomable incident.

If I must say what the most notable event that happened in Sunbeam’s journey it has to be when she FINALLY broke down and used her voice. Yes, she does has a voice. Ever since ‘Voice’ came out in Second Life (about 10 years ago) Sunbeam was distinctly opposed to it. Sunbeams’ typist being hard to hear and having ear problems most of her life aslo was against the activating their voices. The awful sounds from the ear plugs and the ear splitting feedback and the confusion of 20 avatars talking at once hurt their sensitive ears. Even though Sun’s ears are huge and pointy, they don’t work well at all! Plus she really liked ‘type text’ where she could always go back and review conversations, maybe something she missed or needed to make note of. One night after a party everyone was chatting and having a gay old time while Sun was typing away and no one noticed. We decided right then to ‘activate’ our voice and early the next morning she went to her friend Daisy Coronet who patiently taught her how to use the voice system. Thank you Daisy!

As has become our custom, here are a few pictures taken during the month of November… please enjoy the slideshow showing the fun Sunbeam has in her virtual worldz with family and friends this month of November 2015:

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As always my valued friends and soon to be friends, step in sunshine! Sunbeam

Oct 6 2015

SEPTEMBER SIZZLES

The month of September found Sunbeam busier than ever! She learned a lot about NPC’s and how to direct them like actors in a stage play, she worked long long hours on ‘Immersive Edge’ A Hypergrid Story (and game) which is a collaboration of many talented creators and scriptors coming together to make a vision of Nara Malones’ come alive. Sunbeam also set up a Steampunk exhibit at the Tangle’s grid Steam Expo that ran September 12th to October 7th. Of course Sun took some breaks from building and went dancing at Hedoism and visited some friends and went on a couple Hypergrid tours. The magazine VISIONZ September issue was the biggest yet with 46 pages. She attended the Farewell party for an OpenSim Core Developer, Justin CC, who is moving on to a new job. She attended Opening day of the Summer of Arts 2015 event on Metropolis grid and was amazed at the art displayed. .

September is also the month of Sunbeam’s rl typist, me, birthday. We celebrated with family and received many well wishes on the social site Facebook. Seems Nara Malone also has a September birthday and Sun went to Nara’s virtual birthday party. Fun times!

Sunbeam also went Dragon Flying! Yeah Baby! What a fun time at Fred Beckhusen’s Phaze Dragons region where you can fight skeletons, ride dragons and explore some great builds by Fred.

Sunbeam attended Market day at the River Lands, went fishing with fellow fae Talia Sunsong, and attended the HG Nights’ tour to explore the new Fairy region recently added to the River Lands community.

Since I’m a bit late getting this month’s blog out, we will just do a slideshow of images to speed things up ! Again thank you for reading my blog and reliving our virtual adventures. As always my valued friends, and soon to be friends, Step in Sunshine!

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Jun 2 2015

“Crazy as a Loon’

My title reflects my insane laughter as I merrily skip from grid to grid making new friends and new promises! Another ‘slang’ phrase that comes to mind is ‘biting off more than I can chew’ or perhaps I just drink too much coffee…LOL

The month of May found Sun pretending she was a Movie Star when asked to be in Nara Malone and Fuchsia Nightfire’s 2nd tutorial video on “NPC” fun , Sun also visited about two dozen grids, went on three HG tours, complied and published the 3rd Issue of VISIONZ magazine (38 pages woot), went to a couple of Metropolis’s 7th Birthday parties, partied at the Tangle grid’s Fashion Expo exhibit, worked on her Enchanted Village (Hidden Glenn region) on Tangle, started progress on a castle for her Fairytopia sim at SimValley grid, visited Kamis Haven – The River Lands – Cedar Point and Shoalwaters Bay regions at her home grid of GCG, hooked up with her dear friends Lion and Kat Ewry and Daisy Coronet and DJTommy Seetan, had Balpien Hammerer visit AAcme City and ride the chopper and then declare it “an amazing build, had fun!” , added a couple new blogs to the Blogz “R” Us offices, and of course continued working on tweaking and creating AAcme City with her soul mate AAcme Fall. Judy Muircastle specially scripted a couple of her awesome vehicles (The Chopper and the Bonnie and Clyde car) so that now anyone visiting AAcme City can rezz a ride and drive all around the 3×3 var (downtown area, country, beach, forest and mountains) and we finished connecting our paved roads land level to the two story roads hovering above the city. Phew!

Of course I took lots and lots of pictures which I will display here as slide show (40 images wow and I could added more ☻) instead of my typical laundry list of images 🙂

June looks to be just as busy for Sun. She is so excited to hold the first official VISIONZ magazine meeting now that we have official staff members! And on June 13th, Saturday, Sun is the ‘Guest Tour Guide’ for Metaverse Tours… hope you will join us. I’ve chosen 3 regions on 3 different grids hoping everyone will enjoy. So stay tuned as Sun continues to be Crazy as Loon ha ha ha ha (insane laughter).

As always my valued friends and soon to be friends, Step in Sunshine, enjoying your time!

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May 2 2015

May Day May Day May

April was such a busy month on the RL Grid I for one am glad we have moved into the month of May! AAcme City is now completely moved on to a 3×3 var region on the Great Canadian Grid and Sunbeam has acquired two Fantasy regions (works in progress). One called ‘Enchanted Village, Hidden Glen’ on the Tangle Grid and one called Fairytopia @ SV-66 on the SimValley Grid. More on those next post.

When not imagining great things that we should be creating and trying to create them, then I’m running around the Hypergrid space systems delighting in the awesome builds popping up like magic all over the place. It’s gonna take forever and a day to see all the glorious things the metaverse has to offer.

Finally made it to a group tour (with Metaverse Tour) and got a couple snapshots. Sunbeam always plan to go to these event, but somehow time slips away from me all too quickly. Next thing I know its the next day after and I missed everything I wanted to atttend. Sometimes, like this week I was off running some errands that took twice as long as I believed and ~poof~ missed another tour. Was really disappointed I missed the new WIP show put on by Serene Jewell and Selby Evans, hope to make it next time. Sure wish someone would invent a ‘time travel’ code so I could pop back in the metaverse and rewind to any missed events.

After promising TeslaCoyel for weeks and trying in vain to HG to his home grid, the Atek Grid, Steam Punk City Sunbeam finally made it albeit without hair, skirt or shoes. I loved the City and the big ships and the imagination used to create the most wondrous metaverse Steampunk space. Got myself a Landmark and plan to roam around again soon.

Stopped by to see my long time friend Peter Veliz (IamSambard Kingdom Brunel) who is very active on the Tangle Grid with Expo’s and his own region> Brunel Isle of Steam and the Brunel Museum of Steam. You have got to see his amazing steam engines and vehicles. Some of Peter’s items are built as exact duplicates (1/3 scale) of actual products on the rl grid. A little birdie told me he does rl models of steam wonders and may put up a website soon. Gosh, it’s been five or six years I’ve loved and admired Peter’s work and his sweet disposition. I was thrilled to connect with Peter again after about a year or two since we last interacted. Quite the family affair, his daughter, wife, niece, sisters (??? who knows who all else) have joined Peter in his favorite past-time torturing prims.

Of all the tours Sun missed we were totally thrilled to be part of the group that traveled over to the Tomb Raiders region on (grid.kitely.com:8002:Tomb Rider , temporarily on display hosted by Min Tigerpaw) created by the most talented artist Avia Bonne (Avia 3D Designs). Since it’s one of my favorite places to roam and get inspired I was excited to see it once again! If you’re a lover of all things fantasy or you want to pretend you are Lara Croft herself then jump on over and experience the thrill and joy of this very special region.

One early morning Sun popped into the Tangle Grid (residents mostly European time visits) and attended the ‘Meet and Greet’ with Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Hooked up with my disco buddies Gary Kling and Leslie Kling and ended up with a second location for my ‘Blogz R US’ (see separate page this Blog coming soon). Was amazed they still had the fantasy oar from the old Olantica grid where I had designed a fantasy region a couple years back. Its was great to see Sarah Fairport, a very dear girl and true friend, and meet some new folks that call Tangle grid their home. Sunbeam felt so welcomed!

January 2013

The month of April has always been a lucky month for me as my previous blog stated Sun attended an impromptu Dance Party at the Welcome center on Great Candian Grid (with awesome DJ Stormy Nights) and entered a Lotto drawing. We walked away with $1,000 Maples WOOOT Hooooooooooooooo! New hair!

AAcme and I purchased a 3×3 var region to accomodate the growth and imagination we have for AAcme City’s future. On 4/20 (yep I said 420… puff puff pass) our var was erected and on 4/27 our OARs were uploaded. Well it did take two times for the OARs to come in correctly… but we couldn’t be happier with the new lands where we’ll now have a country area and forests surrounding our urban fantasy AAcme City. Feel free to hop on the next ship heading our way and fly around to see all the improvements coming soon.

2 Region AAcme City B4 Move

3×3 var region AAcme City Now

This should keep us busy for a long long time! Forests, ranches, farms, warehouse district, harbour, and underground sewage maze to cover 9 regions space. Oh me oh my what have we got ourselves into AAcme!

Our first visitor in new lands.

Shawnmaloney Craftgrid

Who also likes to read the new magazine hitting news stand through the Metaverse, VISIONZ. Just a little side hobby pulbished by Sunbeam Magic and her heartsis’ Minethere Always all about Hypergridders Dreams. Shawn is reading March’s issue. April’s issue of VISIONZ is out now (Morning Coffee Shop on Hobo Park GCG and don’t forget to look for May’s issue coming out around the 24th of May.

Have a great Cinco de Mayo my fellow grid hoppers and virtual valued friends.

Yesterday is but today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream. Kahlil Gibran

Definitely need some Metaverse Magic now! Hope you enjoyed my tales of Sun’s Magical virtual times in the Metaverse.

Lovin’ Virtualworldz

Jan 30 2013

Artificial Intelligence in VW

A.L.I.C.E. Artificial Intelligence … has come to virtual worlds. My first introduction to this phenomenon was when my friend Lion Ewry introduced me to “Mr. Ed” a beautiful black and white pinto horse who will follow you around and chat with you on just about any subject. The more you talk the larger “Mr. Ed’s” vocabulary grows. I was totally impressed!!!

This wonderful experience felt magical, my goodness we’re communicating with a horse! Oh such bizzare fun! DJTommy Seetan and Lion Ewry worked together to make this talking horse a virtual reality. And if you just feel plain silly talking to a horse, go to Intoxicated region @ Island Oasis, at the Games Area there you can sit and chat with ‘Nadia’ the Gypsy… ‘Nadia’ she will make you laugh and the time will fly by as the two of you get to know each other. Daisy Coronet, Mrs. Kat Ewry, Lion Ewry and DJTommy Seetan and Sunbeam spent a lovely time playing games and chatting with Artificial Intelligence… what’s next.. holograms??? dancing with your avatar buddies from around the world in your very own rl livingroom. IMAGINE.

The Gypsy ‘Nadia’ A.L.I.C.E.

Sunbeam Shares Secrets with ‘Nadia’

It’s been a very busy couple weeks for me…. in my VW grids. Sunbeam enjoyed some great Disco music and shared some laughs with Max Kling DJ @ Olantic… it brought back memories of the days when Dude and I taught Disco lessons around the Southern California area. Dude was the DJ (killer sexy voice) and myself and our dear friends at the time (so to protect their privacy lets just call them the Furries, and myself made up our traveling troupe. We called ourselves “The Sunset Dancers” ♫♫♪ “Those were the days my friend I’d thought they never end ♫♪♫” Freak OUT! Funky Town!

DJ Max Kling

Silver Horses Pub

Sunbeam helped set up the venue for my bffz (best friends forever)Lion Ewry and Katarina Svarovski and was Maid of Honor at the wedding and Wedding Co-ordinator. We had a nice rehersal and all went very well. It was the most beautiuful wedding I’ve ever been to in a VW (and let me tell you I have been to many over the last 8 years) and the most special thing happened. Lion asked Kat to marry him in rl too. Yeah! so romantic. They met in InWorst virtual grid and were introduced by me, myself and alt (Evvie Silverweb) and I feel like a match.maker he he. The are two of the nicest, most generous, most helpful, most compassionate avi’s I’ve ever met. I made a smilebox slideshow of some wedding snaps I was able to get:

The Ewry Wedding, January 27th, 2013

On the WHAT grid: don’t you just love that name. Remember the old “who’s on first routine” done by Abbot and Costello? Sunbeam helped fill up the contest pods, and get avi’s entered. The beginnings of the contest builds is already turning Marvin Park into a magically wonderful, colorful place full of hearts, and love. We have such awesome builders entered: AAcme Fall, jillytopaz wasp, guy quicksand, Fee Edenbaum, Anan Eebus, Shadow Ilo and mark forster.

Progress has begun on WHAT Hearts Desires Build Contest

I set up a sim wide menu teleport system for the RP Western Town, Dry Gulch IO on Lady K & Lions Horse World region. I visited the new Welcome center at Island Oasis and spent some quality time with my friend Annallisia (she lives in Germany but is actually from the United States). I down sized to one shop only in 3rg and helped Dude to take down his AAcme shop and box up his things. He rarely rarely ever joins me in Virtual Worlds anymore, preferring to spend his time other ways. Anyway I will close this post with just a bunch of random GridHopping pictures I captured while flittering about the magical metaverse. Hope you enjoy them!

Step in Sunshine!

Ps. I haven’t quite mastered inserting pictures they seem to stick whenever they want to not where I told them to.