Meme: Things I do when I log on

Therese has been so nice (:P) to tag me and so this is basically an invitation to share my list of things that I do when I log on.

• the first thing I do after the always too slow login procedure has completed is to check my email, to see the messages since the last night. I give priority to Wildstar's email but I also check my alts, since they belong to groups I am interested in but that are beyond the 25 groups limit. I use Thunderbird with IMAP settings so I can have all the accounts of my alts in one window.
  
• Next it is time to check the Twitter and Plurk messages and to quicky follow the most interesting discussions and the links embedded in the messages.
  
• after the microblogs I check my google reader to see if anyhting interesting has been published in the blogosphere, among those I follow. A lot of time can be spent here: some posts are interesting and one is compelled to follow links and references. Internet can be such a time waster :D
• next it is time to take care of my own blog. First I check the latest visitors and where they came from. In the meanwhile I think if I have to enter anything new. Most times, even if I have something to say, I just add pictures and enter a few bullets to fix the ideas to be expanded later.
  
• If I have survived the blogosphere and I still have time, it is the moment to log in SL. The notices go away rather quicky: after all I hd read them already in email. Somethims though I also refuse some attachment that was supposed to be interesting and so I go back to the group notices to retrieve them.
  
• After the notices and the IMs from the previous hours, I decide for the outfit of the day and then I check my friend list to see who is online. At this moment I probably have already someone saying "hi" to me. If not it is me who says "hi" to someone :) And so the SL day begins :)
  

Boring, isn't it ? :)

And now my victims :D ... Princess, Mykyl, Serra you have been tagged ;)

PHC on the Airship

PHC on the Airship
Originally uploaded by Wildstar Beaumont

Yesterday I hosted PHC on my fantasy airship, docked at my airstation 2000m over Winterfell.

It was fun! I was a bit worried about constraining the guests in the airship but I guess it worked. The regular bunch was there and I was able to find a stream giving PHC and also The Thistle & Shamrock at the times we were used when listening to WXXI.

Alphonsus gave proof of his magical powers once more, dancing the entire night in the fire without even warming up :) And Princess was up to the challenge spending almost all the time in the fire with him :)

Mykyl was with us buy afk for part of the time. She actually was at Dulcinea's home in RL and her niece appointed her toy of the day, so she did not have full time and availability of her hands for SL :)

The evening/night had a geeky end with a discussion about graphic formats and Princess' photoshop activities. I hope not too many were bored :)

So long 

W

exploring the colonies extra world

Following many who have done the same after the Openspaces Crisis, I spent some time into the Openlife grid lately. I had created an account there last June, as suggested by the always wise Princess Ivory, in order to protect my virtual identity by registering it in some other world. I did register and I spent some minutes there, barely enough to de-ruth myself, but I had not visited since.

I went back there recently and I explored a bit more. There is the strange feeling of a new land being developed. Mostly undeveloped or underdeveloped land, many features given for granted in SL are missing, old bugs forgotten for months or years are there again. Of course the grid is labeled as being alpha code, i.e. unstable by definition, and so there is little to complain.

Yet some beauty is already present here and there, like this boat that I admired for long minutes during one of my explorations.



The first task once in a new world is to get an acceptable look. It was not easy. There are some freebies here and there but not much, especially for males. I copied the parameters of my SL shape, I found a nice skin and some clothes. Unfortunately I did not find any prim hair that I likes, so I spent some time to shape the non-prim hair in a way that I liked.

People tend to look very similar to one another where clothes and skins and hair are limited, so I spent some time building a pair of sunglasses to give myself something unique to wear.

Once I was satisfied with the look I spent a few sessions exploring around and I started meeting a few people and make the first friends. Today I even met the famous SL blogger Botgirl Questi and we chatted about the protection of one's virtual identity across worlds.

In the south of the grid, I found a large sandbox made by four sims. I have never been to much of a builder and I never even tried to create any piece of clothing, but suddenly I found that I was missing not to have even a small boat and I also missed some piece of naval looking cloting, I invested a few hours in Gimp and Photoshop and I started putting prims together and so I created a small sailboat and a uniform. Surely not the best even appeared in cyberspace but I am quite satisfied as first experiment. I know I have a script somewhere to drive non-physical boats. I must try to import it and to see if I can sail the boat in Openlife seas.

The uniform is far from perfect but not bad either. I am playing with the idea of creating one in SL with the Winterfell colors now :)

By the way, I have already imported the boat building experience into SL, and I have started building a schooner in my shipyard near my airbase. It is just an experiment to improve the technique but is does not look too bad and so I have decided to take it down to Star Port to make some pictures. Still a lot of room for improvement, but so far it has been fun. (psst ... I also have a submarine and a armored airship under construction in the shipyard but do not thell :) )

There are other Opensim based grids out there that look interesting and worth a visit, like OSgrid and Legend City, just to mention a couple. I read today about a hypergrid technology which permits the teletrasportation among different grids and more and more grids are being inteconnected. It is even possible to carry the content of one's inventory from one grid to the other. Sounds very very interesting and I must explore more. Stay tuned :)

W

news from the weekend

It was an interesting week-end with a number of events.



Saturday evening Winterfell was hosting the Winterball, that was part of the Grand Tour Balls, a series of events covering many nations during the entire week end. It was the usual fun and the Taure En Lor ballroom if probably one of the best dance floors in SL.



Just across the border of Ebonshire, on Mykyl's Winterfell Faeria we had the weekly PHC. We had many people, including Princess and Alphonsus almost full time, and it was fun time, even if these are not good day for Aianna and she spent most of the time underwater as her mermaid self, like she uses to do when she is down.



It is a pity that the station we used to listen to, WXXI, is no longer providing a stream outside their website, so we have been forced to find another station for the past few weeks. We are able to listen the Prairie Home Companion but we miss The Thistle & Shamrock after that, which takes away part of the tradition.

We were visited by some of the new neighbors in the new sims across the strait. Friendly people, despite the place being a dark vampire RP area.

On Sunday I explored here and there. In particular the Organized Tours sim. They provide automated vehicles and scripts for organizing tours of SL areas. I am playing with the idea of having a shuttle providing a service between Star Port and the airbase. I also started working to a small copter to be used as a shuttle. I do not have a lot of scripting experience yet, so i wasted a few hours before realizing that rotating a linked objects is different from rotating a stand-alone object :)




In the evening (European evening) I could not reach the Molaskey's Pub, where I spend many of my Sundays evening. The Molaskey's Pub is one of the very first places I discovered in SL and I never stopped to go there to listen to their live music. Unfortunately yesterday the sim was always full, and I was never able to TP there.

A bit later there was another event in Winterfell : the End of Fall Carnival , organized by the Victorian Ladies Society. It was a splendid event. The true atmosphere of a Carnival with music, dances, stalls, games, tarot reading, cotton candy. Great fun! :)



After the carnival I quickly went to Beek Haven where I acquired a couple of batteries of SPD guns to deploy at Star Port for the protection of the harbor. I placed two batteries at the opposite sides of the harbor that cover pretty much the entire Bay. I feel safer now :D




The evening ended in the Aurora Town Tiny Village for Aianna's Bedtime Stories. These days she is reading Kipling's Jungle Book. It is magical to listen to familiar names from the youth: Mowgli, Akela, Baghera ... :)




When the reading ended I was practically sleeping and I am afraid left without saying goodbye. I will have to apologize.

This morning I woke up with RL snow :)

W

Winterfell is changing .. follow-up

This morning the emptiness outside Star Port had already been filled by the new sim, a new full sim inheriting the name of Winterfell Moldoror. The view is quite different but the overall look is very nice. I wonder already what those mountains will look like in Winter.

Now Star Port is in a cul de sac, connecting to the rest of the region through a canal between between Winterfell and Morigion. A very nice and protected position for a harbor. I must be careful that no enemy force block the canal though *** grin ***
Maybe I should place some guns for the defense of the port :)




While I was getting used with the view, Miss Serra joined me and suggested to join my two land plots on the island moving the harbor back a few meters. It was a good idea, even if moving the infrastructure of the harbor and some terraforming were required. I still have to finish to work on all the details by I kind of like it. There is a bit more sea outside the harbor and the connections of the two plots makes it easier to operate on the sky platforms, while before I always had to be careful about not place prims over the Winterfell group land between the two plots.

Still some work to do but so far I am happy about the changes :)

W

Winterfell is changing

Yesterday I took the ships out of Star Port and into Winterfell Libris. I was considering to take some pictures of the full fleet cruising near the home port but before I could recall the Running Star near the other ships a neighbor visited me and we started chatting about ships and sailing regions and pirates. The time went by fast and so the hour of leaving came and this is the only picture I was able to take. It shows my flagship, the Star of Christmas escorted by the Fighting Star, while in the background the Morning Star and the Star of Faeria are docked at Star Port.

Today I was considering taking the pictures again but I found out that there was nothing a couple of steps out of Star Port. Winterfell Libris has gone (moved to another position i nthe grid). This was scheduled to happen but it was still a bit of shock. I am going to miss the view from the deck of the Morning Star, the sunset behind the atoll in Winterfell libris, the masts of Miss Serra's ship at the horizon.



The Winterfell openspaces are going. Eight of them will be converted into two full sims. According to Miss Serra's current plan (available at the main gate of Taure En Lor) a new sim will be placde west of Ebonshire so I will have a new view. It will be different. A big mountain is raising in Winterfell Morigion which is one of the new full sims, SW of Ebonshire. The mountain will continue in the new sim and so m ynew view will probably look mush more like that of a fjiord. It may be interesting. But I am sure I will miss the old view.




So long

W

P.S. In the next days I'll have also to recover my never published Mix'n Merge contribution and publish it here.

the running star

The Running Star is the latest addition to the fleet. She is a Chase Speculaas' Corsair, born for speed and aggressivness. 

She is less armored and with less firepower than the Fighting Star but she is much faster and more manouvrable.
In terms of permissions the ship does not actually belongs to me but to one of my alts. I chosed to do so partly to be able to have some sailing fun also when I am not logged as Wildstar (after all I have given a naval rank to all my alts ;) ) and partly because being these ships built with wearable technology, they can be used only by the owner, so, as Wildstar, I could use just one at the same time.

Being my second nature that of a photographer I have been playing for a while with the idea of taking some fleet action shots, but it is impossible just for Wildstar to take more than one boat at sea. So the idea is to be able to take more than one ship in world making use of more than one avie.

I have experimented with two clients running in each of my two PCs and, even of they slow down a lot, it is quite possible to assemble static scenes with up to four avies. I did so to take a shot to document my entry for the Mix'n Match initiative, whose subject was about alts :)

So, I now look forward to be able to take some good shot, and I better hurry as long as some waterways are still existing. Even if ... I am now tempted to get even another ship for another alt. It would be such a great fleet to photograph !

/me laughs aloud

Until the next time ...

W

magical storytelling

like all Friday nights yesterday it was the time for Aianna's reading of the second volume of her Valley of the Ivory Swan. It is the more advanced of her currently running readings and it is the followup of the series of readings that started more than one year ago in Faeria. Since when Faeria has left the land in Huin, the readings take place in the Sanctuary of Adrilan in Alurel.



Some reading are more successful than others, with many people attending. Some other days are less successful, and like yesterday, almost nobody show up. I hate when that happens because I love that story and I don't want the reading to be canceled, and I am also sorry for Aianna who put a lot in these readings and it is not nice to see nobody attending.




But yesterday Aianna recovered pretty well. Since Mykyl and I were the only ones there, she remembered a night, about one year ago, when she made up a story for us as she was telling it. True storytelling of the highest level.

And she did so yesterday. We moved down from the Sanctuary to the Fairy Garden and, after a few minutes to get the inspiration, she started telling the most wonderful story. It was truly a fantastic telling, full of magic and sense of wonder. Aianna is simply amazing in these things and she gave us a great moment.

Thank you, Aianna :)

W

P.S. : Aianna Oh currently reads her novels at Milk Wood on Mondays at 2pm stl, in Alurel on Fridays at 5 pm slt and she reads her bedtimes stories (classical tales and fairytales from Andersen, Brothers Grimm, Kipling, Dr. Seuss and others) on Sundays at 5 pm slt at the Aurora Town Tiny Village

constructions

I have never been a great builder or scripter. Mostly because I much prefer to spend my time online exploring or hanging with friends rather than improving my skills. I have created a nice script for detecting and greeting visitors and a few minor builds. I have started a Roman villa once and two castles that I abandoned.

I loved the Roman building, but it was taking far too many prims and I gave it up.



I also started three castles, to be used as skyboxes. The first can be seen in the next image. It is almost completed and it is in my inventory. I did not dislike it, but I made a mistake and I took a footprint too large with respect to what I could afford on my Winterfell plots. I started a new one but after a while I decided I did not like the way it was turning out, so I erased it.




Now I have another one under construction, 3000m on the sky over Winterfell Ebonshire. This time I made a plan before I started to put the prims together and it is not coming out too bad, even if the surrounding conditions have changed and I do not know if I will complete it, at least in its present form.

In the meanwhile I started a new project : an airbase. It all started when Lord Lisle took me on some of his planes. Lord Lisle is a great fan of SL aviation and riding his planes with him has always been a great fun. He took me also to get a number of freebie planes, among which some really cool steampunk flyers (in return I have taken him out to sea a few times :) ).

In the meanwhile I also found a couple of really cool airships I became very fond of and so I decided to star building a space that could provide a runaway for the planes and docking spaces for the airships.

The airbase is still under construction and in progress but so far I am having a lot of fun and so I hope to see it completed early enough.



I think it would be cool to have a grand opening once it will be ready :))

Stay tuned

W

P.S. My entry to the Mix'n Match event was supposed to appear yesterday, but the hosting blog has not published it yet. It is really a pity not have appeared together will all the others on the expected date, but from her latest post,it appears that the blog owner was taking some time away, so I hope it will appear eventually when she will be back

Mix'n Match : Life Lesson I learned through Second Life: Immersion Aversion

Today is the day the contributions for the Mix'n Match event appear on the pages of the participant bloggers. I am therefore very honored to host Rik Riel's contribution on Biggest life lessons (first or second life) learned in SL, a topic suggested by Joan Kremer

It's great getting an opportunity to post here on Wildstar Beaumont's blog. The assignment I was given as part of the "Mix-and-Match" game created by Arminax and Vint Falken was to write about a "life lesson" that Second Life has taught me. So here goes...

One thing that Second Life has helped me see about myself is how much I am both drawn to and flee from community.

Second Life offers an amazing array of possible sub-cultures, niche interest groups, role-playing guilds, churches and sects that all together create the diverse society of Second Life. These are loosely represented by the "groups" functionality in SL, which is one way of expressing how you choose to represent yourself to the larger digital world. I.e. anyone can right-click my avatar and see what groups I am a member of, which is a way of getting at who I am.

Many Second Life residents I run into are incredibly passionate and enmeshed in their particular community, whether its a neko sim, a Star Trek RPG, a fashion design guild or a machinima crew. Residents often ask me what I "do" in SL. I often have a hard time answering this question, since I have such a broad range of interests. Usually I say that I'm a Second Life blogger and activist, but that doesn't really capture it.

More correctly, I dabble in all sorts of communities. I attend random live music acts, flit around from art museum to gallery, zip over to a fashion show, or hang out with some furries or mermaids who come across my path. But I don't commit to any particular one over an extend period of time.

In my real life, I find that the same pattern in my associations. I attend a local church but don't get involved in any of the committees or volunteer opportunities. I am vaguely civilly engaged, but don't commit serious to any particular political group or cause. I love my extended family very much, but choose to live on the other side of the country from them.




There's something in me that fears group commitments. I worry about losing my freedom. I get stressed having to negotiate the things that I want amidst the various interests of a group of other people. I see the complications before I see the benefits.

What makes Second Life interesting is that you have to explicitly choose to "join" a group, which subjects you to whatever group notices, group votes, and group chat exchanged among the members. You can't half-way join or provisionally join. You just have to say "yes" or "no" to an invite request.

Not only that, you are limited to only 25 groups that you can join. So you have to be judicious about what groups you choose, because that eliminates one potential slot that another group could occupy. Usually I'm maxed out on my groups, so every time I'm invited to a new one, I have to decide which one I want to leave. Often it's a painful choice.




I've found that I'm good at observing and reporting on the diverse happenings in Second Life, enough so that I worked for New World Notes as an event blogger and often get linked to and quoted on other sites because of my reportage on some event or subculture. I'm able to connect a particular group with the larger implications and connections that group has to the larger world. I.e. I'm good at looking from the outside in.

But I've learned that it's not enough to just be the passive, external observer. At some point, you've got to get in the game.

Second Life has taught me the importance of committing to some endeavor with other people, even if you aren't 100% sure if you want to be involved over the long haul. It's about letting go of some of your freedom and letting other people's interests and orientations interact with your own. It's letting other people in, warts and all.

My first go at this is being involved in the Nonprofit Commons, organized by Techsoup. They have regular meetings every Friday, that I try and attend. I blog on the nonprofitcommons.org site, and participate in the email list. I try and attend social events and help other groups in the Commons that need assistance when I can. I've met several Nonprofit Commons folks in the flesh at SLCC and other conferences, and count several of them as friends.

I started working at Global Kids earlier this year, which engages in all sorts of educational and civic activities on both the Main Grid and Teen Grid. Suddenly, I'm no longer just on the sidelines observing what's happening in SL, I'm in the thick of things -- organizing events and builds for Global Kids, working with a range of builders, machinimators, educators, volunteers and teens, building relationships with people.

It feels good to be a part of something, and to have longer term connections with people in Second Life. I believe it's helping me to be a more well-rounded, richer person, in whatever world I am inhabiting at the moment.


My thanks to Rik for his great contribution and I invite all to visit his very interesting blog : The Click Heard Round the World. Rik is also on the Teen Grid as part of his educational activities, so we can find a perspective in his pages that is new to many of us.

My own contribution (Alts in Second Live - A necessary evil, a fun diversion or an easy way to be dishonest , suggested by Joonie Jatho) is due to appear on Meara Deschanel's One Girl | Two Worlds blog.

The topic I suggested, Drama and neighbor wars in mainland, will be discussed by Joan Kremer on Ann O'Toole's Unique Needs blog

a sim that will be no more

Winterfell Maldoror flattened and ready to be abandoned

other Winterfell openspaces are following the same destiny

sunken and shut down

So, yesterday it was the a significant portion of the flying community that decided to give up and implement a contingency plan, as announced in the Royal Caledon Air Force Page and discussed today in Capt. O'Toole's Blog. Today many fears about the sailing community have been made official by the SL Sailing Blog and by another post by Capt. O'Toole.



I wonder what is next ? Will the elves be forced to chop their trees and the mermaids to move into tiny pools ? Will spellfire and DCS2 be forbidden because too expensive for the servers ?

We will wait and see. Or many will not wait ?

news of the day

I did not wake up badly this morning. Today I have to turn in my blog assignment for the Mix'n Match initiative, and, despite not being a masterpiece, I think it may meet some minimum requirements not to shame myself. A couple of final readings and I'll be ready.

My blog got its fifth follower this morning (thank you, Rhett :) ). Not many, I know, but that is why every one counts. By the way, Rhett is following other pretty interesting blogs that I did not know and I will add them in my aggregator. And I found out that my technoraty authority is in double digits ! Silly, I know, but it still a measure that someone likes to read here :)

Not a bad morning it was ... then ... I read news like this (found on Vintfalkens.com) and I am suddenly sad again.

Shall I forget my boats and get a snorkling equipment ?

*sigh*

W

it is the people, not the platform

yesterday's announcement from M. Linden improved very little the scenario of what I call the Openspace Crisis. The new Homestead sims, functionally equivalent to the current openspaces, will still cost 125 USD, even if that will be in July '09 after 6 month at an intermediate price of 95 USD. They will have new limitations, though, like a 20 avies limit and probably scripting limits as well. So, we can say that their functionality will be reduced respect to the current openspaces.
The new openspaces, the actual new product being released, will be little more than backdrop sims. They will be priced at 75 USD, like the current openspaces but very little will be possible there. A limit of 750 prims and 10 avies will make it impossible to use them for any serious activity. So, even if they are intended to host sea and forests, sea races, naval battles and drum circle dances will be probably too much for them.
Neither product addresses the issues many themed communities have risen, pointing out the potentially killing impact the new prices can have to thier regions. Homesteads still are going to cost 66% more than the old openspaces and the new openspace will not allow many activities characterizing the communities.

I must therefore stick to my concerns and be afraid that so many beauty is in jeopardy and will be probably lost. Capt. Hotspur O'Tool 's blog very clearly addresses some of his concerns about the dangers themed communities have to face.

I live on a plot on a regular sim of the estate of Winterfell. I am not going to be personally impacted by the costs in the short run, but I still have become very sad about the last weeks events because I am afraid that many regions will collapse and the people making them will disband.

Yet earlier today I listened to a chat between Miss Serra and Miss Hypatia and they made me look at the issue also from a different point of view. Miss Hypatia mentioned a group of people who lost their game on line and migrated partly in SL, partly in There and partly in IMVU. That made me think.

Communities are made of people. That is the key assets, not prims, not square meters. We all love out experience in SL because of the interactions with other human beings. If it was just to dress funny or wear pointed ears or pilot a plane or make guns fire, I am sure there are hundreds of games out there with better graphics, better performances and less crashes.



It is the people we value. It is the feelings we exchange, the interests we share that keep us hooked to the game.

And the people does not have to disband. Even if they are dissatisfied by the platform they do not have to be dissatisfied one another. Any community will survive as long as the members stick together. And if the community is together, should we face a worst case scenario, the world can be recreated. Elsewhere if necessary. I love SL and I do not want it to go away, but SL is a platform that allow us to get together and share a dream. But a layer above the basic infrastruture, the added value is all made by the people sharing that dream. And why that should not be portable. There are other platforms out there. It will require work, it will require flexibility, it will require changing some habits, but I am sure it can be done. It has been done already.

Sure, we may miss sailing and firing guns, playing drums or dancing, building or doing business as we know them now. But they will come back soon. The technology is evolving and despite the noise in mainstream press about virtual world being no longer fashionable, more and more start-ups are entering the game.

The experience is not going to die, it is just changing, evolving, coming to age. SL may be remembered as the Netscape of the virtual worlds ten years from now, but we can be sure than we will have a firefox by then.

Isn't it a fascinating idea to think about a Caledon or a Winterfell with colonies in more than one virtual world? or an Elf Circle, or a Sailing Community ... and all the others one may care for. Spread among many worlds, where they experience different sides of what the technology is offering and yet part of a single commutity.

Maybe a dream but I think I play with that dream for a while :)

W

P.S. I suggested the Queene to create a social network page with NING to have community page for the Faeria exiles, and she did : http://faeria.ning.com :)

the power of SL

yesterday, before going to sleep, I briefly joined Princess Ivory who was following the US elections results from the Capitol Hill sim and invited me there. It was very late for me already (almost 3 am) and, altough regretting it, I had to go to sleep after a few minutes, yet once more SL gave me a proof of its power. I was no longer alone watching the event on CNN or CNBC on satellite TV. I was among other people who were passionate, worried, excited. I was living the event rather than watching it.
Not being American my interest in the election was indirect, but it was very difficult not to have the feeling that I was personally living a moment that will be remembered in history. And maybe not only for the election of an African American, but also for the way the technology is evolving to make us part of something bigger than what we were used to experience.

I am just sorry that I was already too sleepy to think to take a picture, but you can see one in the New World Note Blog, where you can also find a statement from Princess herself :)

W

P.S. I do hope that a certain announcement later today is not going to spoil my current enthusiasm

mix'n match - update

the Mix'n Match assignments are out !
I get to write about Alts in Second Life - necessary evil, fun diversion or an easy way to be dishonest ?

Sounds cool enough, does it not ? Not as bad as some other subjects I could have picked and about which I would have had nothing to say.

The entry is going to be published on Meara Deschanel's One Girl | Two Worlds blog.

In turn I am going to host a piece by Rik Riel, about Biggest life lessons (first or second life) learned in SL.

At the moments I am excited about the assignments. :)
Wish good luck to me and to all the fellow bloggers involved in this cool initiative. I think some good stuff will come out of it

W

beek haven

Beek Haven is a pirate and mermaid RP area. One of the best I have seen. It is a set of nine sims, eight of which are openspaces. Six more sims were planned to expand the area into a 4x4 sims region. Those openspaces are almost full open water. Ships fight battles with a lot of space to manouver and play hide and seek with a number of fighting events scheduled each weeks. The underwater landscape is perfect for mermaids to swim and be happy. The piers see several ships of different types docked there, and the view is really spectacular. 

The people are friendly there and it is quite easy to be drafted as crew for some battle :)

The sim is also home to the shop of Chase Speculaas, great builder of fantastic scripted ships and it is there that I got my Fighting Star and I did some training in sailing and fighting.

The eight openspaces of Beek Haven are used in exactly as openspaces are supposed to be used, according to the latest Lindens statements. Yet, this wonderful place will be soon lost.

I was there this morning and I briefly chatted with Dutch Hoorenbeek, the owner and the soul of the region. He told me that the new cost policy was unsusteinable and if there will be no change they will have to close down soon. 

Another great place in jeopardy and potentially lost

fire in Caledon

fire in Caledon
Originally uploaded by Wildstar Beaumont

it gave me a big emotion to see this cottage on fire while I was sailing in the Firth of Caledon. I wonder if this is the destruction starting because of the current OS crisis and we are going to see more and more of this



Live update : here is another one in Caledon Cay

Happy Anniversary, Winterfell !

Two years ago today Winterfell was born.

I wish all the Winterfallens a Happy Anniversary and I wish to thank Miss Serra whose vision and dedication have given many of us a fantastic place to call home.

I rise a toast to Winterfell and Miss Serra!!!