The Warmth of Yana

It's no secret that Yana Dakota likes to be warm! Whether it's her signature Tahiti build, visited by the HG Safari group back in  or her take on what makes the ideal opensim gird, warmth is key. She discovered opensim by herself, and the experience wasn't all that positive at first.

Yana Dakota: I joined a grid that was not open for HG which had some serious problems and after 3 months I had had enough. Then I joined OSGrid and I didn't feel comfortable there either, that didn't last long. And then I come to AMV and it was a feeling of coming home. I was immediately addicted again, lol. What I look for in the owners of a grid, is warmth, safety, feeling safe under their wings, and that's what I found here.One big family, warmth, coziness, and especially love, because that is actually what life is all about, not only in RL but also here.

Yana on Tahiti

Yana's experience as a landscape builder began early in her virtual life - back in 2007 she got a job dressing sims for XiaoWang Yue of Tao estates - five regions, each with 16 parcels if you remember those. Plenty of work, then, in organizing them for rental use.

Yana Dakota:   I  think I worked for him for 3 years. Landscaping is a thing of mine.  All in all I got the hang of creating 3D. I put everything on the marketplace with a 3D picture and in no time everything was rented out with the result that he had to order more sims. Eventually I became general manager there.Then the recession in RL meant that he started selling his sims until there was nothing left. After that I had 2 more jobs and then took a big break from SL.

Volcano fun on Yana's huge Tahiti build on AMV

It's one thing to dress a sim to the specification of a rental agency, and quite another to have land of your own to work on - a blank canvas can for some of us be daunting. It can also be thoroughly absorbing.

Yana Dakota: When I am working on a landscape, I don't know I exist anymore until I'm done. Totally gone from the world. Landscaping gives me so much peace. I love to make the people happy when they walk around in a place that is nicely done and when they see the details you have added, they will tell you. Those are the ones that are valuable when they visit.

Thirza Ember:  Do you start with a set of fixed ideas and goals, or do your builds grow organically?

Yana Dakota: Yes and no. I take pictures of RL scenes, but I don't have fixed ideas. It comes as it comes.

Tahiti blue bliss

Thirza Ember:  what kind of building do you do? Are you deep into Blender, or do you mostly source items from around opensim? Some people like to build with a friend or collaborative group, what is your working practice?

Yana Dakota: My use of Blender is zero... I suck at it and I don't want to learn it. I mainly work with Freebies, we are surrounded by many artists who make the most beautiful creations, so I leave the creating to someone else. When it comes to building, I like to do it alone, I like perfection..I don't want to do that to someone, they will immediately hate me, lmao!

Samsara is a detail-rich region

HG Safari has a date to return to a Yana Dakota build in the spring - this time it will be the Asian build  Samsara. Any RL connections with the Pacific ?

Yana Dakota: I have never been to Polynesia in my life, but I have a great desire to go there. As a Dutch person I do live on an island in the Canary Islands, Lanzarote. All year around 25C on average and palm trees but I literally and figuratively live on a volcano with a landscape that looks like the planet Mars, nothing tropical about it, except for the temperature. I love Lanzarote and this is the place where I want to grow old

The Samsara build is particularly rich with spiritual significance, which is no coincidence. But it also has a sense of humor... notice the name of the book shop. Does it reflect Yana's life and personality? Seems so.

Yana Dakota:  I was partly raised Buddhist by my father. And I am so grateful to my father that I was able to enjoy this in my life. I draw so much strength from this that it has really kept me going in my very turbulent real life. Buddhism is not a religion but a teaching. It's about the law of cause and effect (karma) and reincarnation. I have believed all my life that one of my previous lives was in Japan. I love this theme: peace, respect, dignity,  honesty and most of all LOVE, PURE LOVE.

Plenty to do on Tahiti

In terms of Yana's building, the future may not be quite so warm however, but not in a bad way.

Yana Dakota: Right now I have taken on a challenging, very big build, 3 10 x10 area the equivalent of 300 regions. It is a  special project for AMV, and it has something to do with cold and ice, I can't say more about it. This will take some time to finish. 

HG Addresses:

alternatemetaverse.com:8002/Tahiti/2148/2437/23

alternatemetaverse.com:8002/Samsara/196/200/21