Lawrence of Serenity

 Tosha Tyran: Hiya Lawrence, thanks for the invite

Thirza Ember: the bravery of this man is incredible

Lawrence Pierce

Lawrence Pierce: My pleasure

Forest Azure: are we dangerous?

Luna Lunaria: we iz

Tosha Tyran: lol, yes, we nibble

Lawrence Pierce: Well, just a brief introduction...I started using and building in Second Life while working on a master's in education, and then discovered Open Simulator and Kitely.

James Atlloud: Hey Lawrence, I did pretty much the same thing.

Lawrence Pierce: Yes, SL and education are regular portals to virtual living! Serenity Island was born August 29, 2011. I came here every day to create as a calming activity while going through a loss. It represents a variety of my interests through time.  After all this time, visiting Serenity Island now is like visiting a lifelong friend.

Tosha Tyran: how sweet

Lawrence Pierce: So, our first destination is the main house behind me. I've featured the RL neon artwork of Lili Lakich. Follow me!

Lawrence Pierce: Walk around to see all the collection... the side rooms have more... Touch artwork for a notecard with more specifics.

Unadecal Arado: some times textures take a while

Lawrence Pierce: I call this the "hearts" room, even in RL.

Luna Lunaria: nice neon work :-)

Thirza Ember: how did you get interested in this artist Lawrence

Lawrence Pierce: She was the featured artist when Cal State Northridge opened its new art gallery after the Northridge earthquake.

Thirza Ember: nice house, did you design it to hold the art work? it's prim-tastic!

After a while, it was time to move on to phase 2 of our visit to this eclectic paradise. Back to the tp boards at the landing area.

Lawrence Pierce: There are a couple paths... follow me for the scenic route...

Thirza Ember: jess you're doing a the lag-leg shimmy

Unadecal Arado: where are we going next?

Thirza Ember: maybe mars... lol

We all teleported up to the spaceship part of Lawrence's build. It includes a number of items including a space station orbiting earth, and show ships that work both as teleport stepping-stones, taking you up to the Moon and Mars, and also as display units in their own right, having crew quarters, an engine room, a bridge and lots of links to resources on the Nasa website - that's the Science crew station. We traveled largely on the low-cost 'jump on someone's head' ticket. Cheapskates.

Lawrence Pierce: So, first you engage the fusion drive on the control panel (marked button that is glowing). Then when you are traveling in space, touch the Mars button... Hope that makes sense!The control panel is on my left.

Thirza Ember: a pure prim ship!

Taarna Welles: It's a primmy evening :)

Kelso Uxlay: Sweet dreams

Roffellos Kisses: shhhh

Forest Azure: /me sleeps like an elephant... on tosha's head

Tosha Tyran: yeah, messing up my hair

Kelso Uxlay: The wings are hard on the back when sleeping

James Atlloud: aww, sleepy heads.

Thirza Ember: the caption here is... James has nowhere to sit

Forest Azure: well, that is quite an accomplishment, right?

Lawrence Pierce: This build is entirely fictional... I don't know how people will be housed on Mars.

Unadecal Arado: modular construction is a certainty

Lawrence Pierce: Here you can follow the NASA website. The starship also has a couple dozen media buttons that open various topics related to space travel.

lifted pixel: safari loves to sit

Luna Lunaria: we does we do

Thirza Ember: so Lawrence, what made you choose Kitely for your home grid

Lawrence Pierce: I chose Kitely mostly for stability. Their business acumen seemed very sound. I wanted a long-term home. 

Luna Lunaria: I have a little place on Kitely but I'm not there much

Lawrence Pierce: NASA has a lot of content but it can be confusing to find. Organizing display panels can help. I put up these affordances and then tended to forget about them, but I need to update them from time to time, especially the Mars info.

Luna Lunaria: Nasa confusing? Surely you jest

Tosha Tyran: hehe, Luna

James Atlloud: so true about organizing

lifted pixel: this is really lovely, solid prim work... the warp speed effect is super cute, mega cool

Photo by T Welles

Thirza Ember: I think Taarna may have been Lost in Space

Taarna Welles: Yes I was :( Floating between the stars

Thirza Ember: very Bowie

Taarna Welles: Scott me up beamy :)

Thirza Ember: don't do it Lucy!!! think of what happened to Spock!

Lucy Afarensis: hehe

Lucy boldly goes into the engine room.

Thirza Ember: Lawrence, what do you hope people get out of this build, what would you say is the main idea you want to get across

Lawrence Pierce: You know, I did not build Serenity Island with thoughts of a tour... it was something that grew organically from my own interests and desire for escapism... it's interesting to get some feedback on how other's experience it. My main idea, however, is that virtual worlds can be safe places to work out emotional realities.

lifted pixel: the metaverse is the best

Thirza Ember: a great creative outlet

Luna Lunaria: My work is always therapeutic for me. My virtual home is a very serene space

Tosha Tyran: yes, so it is, to me as well

Lawrence Pierce: I need Serenity Island to be a place of serenity. Which it is!

lifted pixel: i'm just in awe of the quality of the prim work

Thirza Ember: me too, i love a good prim

Star Ravenhurst: This is all prim? I am even more impressed. Well done Lawrence!

Lawrence Pierce: I write articles for Hypergrid Business, but I've been hesitant to talk about non-business uses of VR. Now I have a friend who has opened a wellness clinic and it has a VR station I hope to explore soon.

Unadecal Arado: one of the main reasons I do Safari is to see what people come up with just because they can, because they started building and the creative process just took over

Star Ravenhurst: I love this all so much!! The people in Open Sim are so inspirational with their amazing builds.

Lawrence Pierce: I hope you all wonder around Serenity Island today, or at a later time. For me, the wondering around is part of the pleasure of its design.

Finally on the Red Planet, James' long quest to find somewhere to sit was over... nice ride, let's hope he didn't break any of the delicate instruments.

Lawrence.Pierce: The rover outside drives in a loop around the starship.

Taarna Welles: Dune! Where are the worms and spice?

We 'took ott' again via the spaceship to arrive at our final, lunar, destination.

Forest Azure: is this the moon?

Lawrence Pierce: Yes. If you leave the ship, I've recreated the footsteps of the first astronauts here.

Unadecal Arado: nice seeing a spaceship idea that isn't the usual Trek with the same old tired textures...

Forest Azure: small steps indeed

Thirza Ember: small steps and tight shoes

Forest Azure: maybe there is a correlation

Thirza Ember: you sure are studying those steps James

James Atlloud: very intently

lifted pixel: /me watches James walk through the historical dust piles, spreading them everywhere

Thirza Ember: DON'T SNEEZE

James Atlloud: virtual dust I hope

lifted pixel: i love prims, SL should have stopped at sculpties, mesh was a mistake, please take me back

James Atlloud: Nice place to end our visit.  I would never imagined being here.

James Atlloud: Prims were a golden age for sure.

Forest Azure: /me does not speak primsculpmesh

Star Ravenhurst: Well I am a prim builder and I love prims, and textures, and what you can do with a cube. This is well done and rezzed super fast.

lifted pixel: lol does anyone have a ride home?

Angelic Kisses: I called an Uber...it'll be here next month

Lucy Afarensis: Been fun and interesting

Star Ravenhurst: Thank you Lawrence for the visit. Fantastic build.

lifted pixel: thank you for making the metaverse!

Angelic Kisses: this was very interesting...Such an amazing build made completely from prims.   So impressive, Lawrence.

Lawrence Pierce: Thank you Thirza for including this world on your list of worlds to visit!

Forest Azure: well, i may be flat now, or isn't that how space works?

lifted pixel: lag and space are no match for safari

Roffello Kisses: thank you Lawrence this was  great

Angelic Kisses: Thank you for sharing and giving us a tour

Star Ravenhurst: Have a great week everyone. See you next week!