Conversation with Sand Castle Studios CEO Gianna Borgnine

By Nazz Lane

I’d become aware of Sand Castle Studios through my friendship with an associate of Sand Castle and through the Association of Virtual Worlds, where Gianna Borgnine and I first became acquainted. After exchanging wall postings there for several weeks and later in twitter, we were able to connect in Second Life recently for a conversation about her and Sand Castle Studios.

“Hello Nazz.” She said, as I rezzed into her office at the Sand Castle Studios headquarters. “Shall we sit?” She asked and then added, “It's nice to finally get together.”

We each took seats at the long glass conference table where we exchanged pleasantries and then I asked her, “Sand Castle is an interesting name for a company ...what's the genesis?”

“Actually, I would love to say we put lots and lots of thought in it, but ... really we liked the idea that SL is constantly changing and that what we develop here in this platform never stands still … where you can build anything … including fairy tales.”

“How long has Sand Castle been in operation?

“We started in October of 2007. I had recently left another company and decided to start my own. We barely had the building up and we had clients. It happened so fast, we never even had a grand opening party or an official launch date.” She replied and then laughed.

“What was it that bought you into SL and why did you stay?

“Originally someone recommended it to me … more as a social place. Then I saw an article about it in Time magazine. It made it sound very interesting ... a virtual world where you could explore places, meet people, create things.” She replied and then added. “Of course the first thing I wanted to do was buy everything! Then I thought, maybe Gianna needed a job.”

“What was your first job?”

“I looked for what was available and many of the posting were in the "adult" field. I wasn't too interested in that. I did eventually get my first job working as a live in landlord overseeing what the builder/owner referred to as a battered woman's shelter. He said he wanted to make a safe haven for woman to feel safe in SL when some did not at home. The position was slightly overwhelming, even given my RL experience, and I shortly after took a job with a man starting a graphic design studio. Then I got into this field, and have been here doing it ever since. It is now my full time RL job as well … completely changed my life.”

“What was your RL experience if I may ask?”

“I have a BA in psychology and one in criminal justice. I did some counseling and eventually took a job as a Probation/Parole officer for offenders on Home Confinement. It came with quite a bit of counseling as well as law enforcement.” She replied, than added. “It was nice to get to use a different piece of my psychology degree for marketing in SL. I wanted it to be lighter than RL … more upbeat.”

“Isn't psychology and marketing the same field?”

“It certainly hasn't hurt our company any.” She replied and laughed.

“Sand Castle is your full time job now ... how has business been in these uncertain economic times?

“Believe it or not, business has been better than ever. We hit a slow patch in December and I was worried that the economy was taking its toll ... but I think the holidays were stressful for many people. Since, it has been great and is full force! I think in these times where many people have to choose their brand strategy/marketing wisely, SL is a great way to advertise and build a community around your brand. It's very cost efficient when done correctly.”

“Reading through the SCS list of service offerings ... marketing and branding has been in the forefront of the surge then?” I asked

“Yes, very much so. With many of those, we get to do amazing building jobs and we have such a great team that has really been up to the challenge. In my opinion, the potential of virtual worlds is still largely untapped. But the opportunities to create emotional connections with brands through truly interactive experiences are there. We get to allow companies to build communities that tell their stories through interactive experiences based on the emotions underlying their brand which in turn allows them the opportunity to develop connections with their customers in a truly unique way that you just can't achieve by simply advertising at them.”

“I've always thought that was a component of SL most major corporations missed ... tell me a little about VESIM/NESIM technology, is it proprietary?”

“Almost all major brands have completely missed that. We are hoping to change that.” She replied and then continued. “Our VESIM/NESIM technology doesn't truly belong to just us. We were approached not long after opening by a long time friend and business associate of mine who happens to be a nursing instructor in RL. He was looking to develop something unique to use with his students in SL. He had also met another instructor looking for the same thing. They couldn't find anything truly interactive for their students in SL. We met and discussed his vision and how we might change that. We made it mostly as a BETA to test the concept which was very successful. We do have several schools trying NESIM and providing us feedback and we are still working on it with someone who is truly dedicated to Nursing Education in virtual worlds to take the concept further. NESIM stands for Nursing Education Simulation and VESIM is Virtual Education Simulation as we were approached by many fields looking to create something interactive and educational for their students as well. I can't say much about what we are currently working on in this area due to the NDAs involved but I will say we are trying to make it as easy as possible for students to come in world and use the technology without much exposure to SL.”

“Any closing thoughts you'd like to share with my readers?”

“Hmm ... Whether it’s with us, or with another company, or own your own, don't forget the imagination you had as a child. If you can dream it, you can create it.” She replied.

An Interview with JueL Resistance

By Nazz Lane

We’d become acquainted in Twitter, where I’d happened upon her profile while building on my list of people to follow. I’d heard her perform in SL and enjoyed it immensely, so I clicked to follow her tweets. It was a little later the same day that JueL replied with, “Thank You for the follow, if you get a chance check out one of my live acoustic performances ... and if you know of COOL SL things pass it on”, and she returned the follow. We next crossed paths at a concert, the opening of Tranquil Gardens, where we chatted in IM while listening to the performer. She agreed to an interview and we made the arrangements to do so in Skype.

Nazz: What bought you into SL and why did you stay?

JueL: I used to play sims on-line for a few years and a friend suggested I try SL, that was in 2004, and there was no music back then, just the U2 shows, so I quit. Another friend suggested coming back as the music scene has come along, so I came back in SL in November of 2005.

Nazz: You’ve been performing in SL for three years now, how much has the SL music scene changed in since then?

JueL: Rolling Stone, Wired and NPR all interviewed me about music in SL. I have to say it was a healthy competition a year ago ... now it’s a free for all. The music community is very loose knit … some will play for free and some are writing their own music. Most venues are unwilling to pay … I won’t play for free. So my impression of music scene ... It’s expanding, my visual is that it’s like a field of flowers spreading out … and competition that is so unnecessary … so few people who sing and play with an instrument.

Nazz: Do you perform in real life as well?

JueL: I’ve performed in RL since I was 15 or 16. I was very shy and it took me a long time to get over it.

Nazz: What performers have influenced your style and music the most?

JueL: Well, my music is not for everyone, I have smaller crowds. I’ve been influenced by the darker side. I like Nirvana ... I’m a big fan of Kurt Cobain and I feel like we have much in common. He was one of those rare artists who can take the music and the lyrics and blend them into something that we can feel. Other artists that I like and have inspired me … Lucinda Williams, John Prine, Bob Dylan, who’d influenced my song writing style … Patty Griffin, Mary Gauthier and Bonnie Raitt.

Nazz: What’s your favorite venue in SL?

JueL: My place is my favorite. There are no dance balls and exploders. You come in sit and listen to the music. The Living Room #13 started in early 2006 and it is centered around nothing but the most raw, down to earth, real live musicians and performers in SL. If it moves the soul, it's here.

Nazz: Any performances or special moments that stand out?

JueL: I’ve played so many over the years … iVillage, Elward, and at Dell last year at the opening. You do your own music and some covers, make new fans. Some think that getting a gig like that will make you famous. It doesn't, but it’s still nice getting recognized.

Nazz: I see from your profile that you’re and artist and have a gallery, how’s that going for you?

JueL: There’s a period of time now where I feel like painting and I'll do that and nothing else. I may pick up and write … mostly poetry and short stories. Filthy (Fluno) and Cyl (Cylindrian Rutabaga) were a big influence on getting me to sell my art work in SL and on Etsy.com … now I want to do so in RL. My style is "Folk art", I see colors and I want to throw them onto a canvas. I have synesthesia … it’s where the stimulation of one sense leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sense … like sound and vision … so painting is like music to me.

Nazz: You’d mentioned earlier a commonality with Kurt Cobain, is the synesthesia?

JueL: Like him, I’m bipolar. I feel that I’d known I was bipolar since I was eight, but I wasn’t diagnosed with it until 1989. Since then I've studied … I want to know everything about it. Everything that has to do with the brain I want to know about it. Like did you know that musicians who play string instruments are more likely to be unfaithful in their lives … and that most musicians have more testosterone. I have so many books on the brain.

Nazz: Where do you see your musical career taking you?

JueL: I’d like more exposure, on radio stations like Radio Paradise and clearchannelmusic ... and I’d like to be known as a song writer not so much as a performer. Maybe in three years or in five … someone with a bigger recognition will do a cover of something I’ve written. Or maybe I will. I still perform in SL, but not as much. I’ve tired of it and monotony bores me to death, I like more variety.

Nazz: Is there anything else you’d like to share with my readers?

JueL: The biggest thing, and I tell this to everyone who wants to do music in SL, ask to be paid. If the venue owner says no, keep looking for one who will … and I’ve learned that it takes fifteen years to be an overnight success.

The End of a Sim, But Not a Community

By Bixyl Shuftan

It was March 21st when I got the news. Dreamers Cove was gone, and with it my old home, Woodlin. The other sim in the area had vanished a couple weeks before.

Woodlin was created almost a year ago, and when I first saw it in Summer 2008, it was mostly the form I had known it. Dreamers Cove was the main of the two sims in Woodlin. Most of the residents lived there, either in treehouses or apartments built onto the larger trees that stood a few hundred meters high. There was also a shopping mall where people could get new clothes, accessories, avatars, etc. Dreamers was also where the Margaritavile beach club was located. The sim also boasted a movie theater (for a time, people could see movies in their own homes as well). All was built in a sim with a natural look to it, where one could explore the trees, hills, and streams, occasionally finding some hidden caves. The largest one was a temple where one could meditate.

Hopeful Shores was the second sim of Woodlin, only occasionally ever have anyone living there, and fewer trees. But it had two good clubs. 6th Circle was the hell-club there, inspired by another one that had gone out of business. Later on came Star Tails, the highly-colorful space club that regularly hosted parties to the end. Late in 2008, a space station was built and Star Tails attached to it.

The Woodlin area was built and managed until recently by Dax Loon. Staticminded Waco became co-manager in January, and full manager in February.

I made a number of friends there. There was Bubbles, whose lighthearted manner and “bubbly” friendliness were always a cheery sight. There was Aiko, whom was a bit of a prankster, but always wanting everyone to have fun. There was Maria, whom was often seen with Aiko and her “partner in crime" in mischief, though the more I knew her the more I saw of her sweet and tender side. There was Mega, whom liked firing her guns and causing explosions (away from peoples’ houses). There was Miki, the self-described “lil imp,” whom was known for her line of clothes and webcomic. There was Galvanized, whose “movie voice” made him popular with others and one of the best DJs. There was Rory, who proved to be a great event organizer and club owner. There was Aiko’s partner Foxy, whom also made a name for himself DJing. There was Isegrim, the “big but not so bad” wolf as I called him, whom was known for eyeing the ladies, but so big-hearted none of the girls minded. There was Jessica, whom was a bit of a tease. There was Danikia, whom was an up and coming DJ this year. There was Ekedo, the quirky little DJ whom is best described as young at heart. And there are many others whom I lack the time to mention.

The times we had. Where to begin? We saw movies together, laughing at humor and cheering at the action. We played games of Una in the space station’s lounge, cracking jokes over voice and laughing harder than we had in weeks. And of course all the parties we had, and not just in the clubs. We would have a dance party out on the deck of one of the apartment trees. This included a few beach parties with the landlady dancing around in a bikini and guitar.

Although this may be the end of the Dreamers sim, it is not the end of the community that for months called it their home in Second Life. Foxy acquired another sim: Foxworthy, also known as Willow’s Thicket. Running the location with help from Aiko, he has offered a number of houses for rent, some housing other old neighbors of his. With the close of Dreamers Cove, he plans to eventually offer more residential places for them. In the meantime, the residents of Willows are continuing to keep in touch with old friends.

The land may be gone, but the happy memories remain, and friendships forged over time between neighbors in SL continue.

Bixyl Shuftan

Mend a Broken Cyber Heart

So awhile back, one of my SL loves dumped me cruelly, hurtfully, and for stupid reasons. I know that probably sounds pessimistic but break-ups are rarely pleasant. But as it did happen on SL, I decided to wander about looking for distractions to ease the hurt and take my mind off things. So on that note, I give you...

PENNY'S TOP 5 WAYS TO DISTRACT YOURSELF FROM A BROKEN HEART ON SL

5) Go dancing! Yeah I know that sounds simplistic but SL has no shortage of dance clubs of all sorts, including our very own Secret Seductions, and sometimes dancing mindlessly to good music with fun people around is a great way to soothe the ache. For a lot of people it's healthy to be around people after a break-up. It also doesn't hurt to just dance the anger away. I find personally that channeling break-up anger through dancing is a lot healthier and positive then stewing on it.

4) Go exploring. I found that with so much hurt in my heart, it was a perfect time to look up some things on SL I had been meaning to look for but kept forgetting to. I looked up the Apple store, and had fun browsing all the virtual computer props. Even put one on my desk in my office. Then I looked for various themes. I found an actual Transgender support area, hidden amongst all the shemale sex clubs, and met some really cool supportive people there. Just search the places tab for anything you're into, goth, rave, art, etc, and go exploring. You'll be amazed how easily you get distracted from the hurt.

3) Learn to build or create. Get yourself to one of the many public sandboxes here on SL and start building. Create something. Experiment with textures and shapes. Build a house, a car, a guitar, anything you can imagine, you can build in SL. I'm just a beginner myself, but I found it incredibly cathartic to even just build a box with my logo on it. It was liberating, and helped me ignore the hurt awhile. So go get yourself building, and see what you can come up with.

2) Hanging with friends. A simple yet easily overlooked option. There's always SOMEONE on SL more than happy to shoot the breeze and gab happily for hours about anything and everything, or even nothing in particular. Talk about your break-up. Talk about the weather. Talk about that new prim outfit you bought that you don't think quite looks right, but talk. It really is the best way to purge negative energy from a break-up, to just talk it out, or talk about completely unrelated things. But talk, and soon you'll find the hurt fades into the background.

1) GO SHOPPING!!! Okay, this one probably usually only applies to us girls, well, except if there's a good hardware store on here someplace. But the best medicine sometimes for us ladies when we're hurt is to go shopping. Spend frivolously on things we don't need, or just window shop looking at nice stuff we can't afford. Shopping is a great stress reliever, because you get so caught up in all the cool things you can find that for a while you forget you're hurting. Shopaholics unite!

Of course we know nothing ever truly makes the hurt go away. Only time can do that. But for the immediate moment, it helps to have fun ways to make you stop thinking about it. And that's really the best painkiller isn't it? So go have fun. Hurt is only as painful as you allow it to be.

Now give me a hug dammit!
Penny Sautereau

WHERE DO BABIES COME FROM IN SECOND LIFE?

Well, we all know about babies in Real Life and the shenanigans that go in making them and then looking after them until they are old enough to look after themselves.

But how does it happen in Second Life? Does it happen on Second Life, you ask? Of course it does. But, hoe does it happen and why does it happen? Because we live in a non-biological world, we have to take a difference approach to having babies.

In fact it can be very much like the future predicted for RL.

A lady can go into a shop and buy an avatar with several stages of pregnancy, six, for instance. One where there is nothing showing - a normal avatar. Then there are five stages of pregnancy where there is a discernible bump, which grows according to a timetable set by the RL person to whom the avatar belongs.

There is a very advanced baby which can monitor conversations going on around it and can contribute with its own appropriate comments, an awareness which many people believe in, in RL, but not the talking, of course.

I went to several shops to find out how it all worked. In each place the ladies were very happy to talk to me about it and I learned a great deal.

Having a baby in SL can be a learning experience for some and a cathartic release for others. Every stage from conception (controlled by a HUD which even caters for a percentage success/failure rate until conception occurs) through labour to birth, is covered and, of course the delivery of the baby.

The choice of baby is very wide. You choose, girl, boy, colour of skin, hair and eyes. Babies develop in much the same way they do in RL, growing from newborn to nine years old in some cases.

One “baby shop” had a maternity wing with all the necessary facilities to simulate childbirth in an environment that was very much like a maternity ward in RL.

Never having been through the process (fatherhood in SL) myself, I cannot describe what happens but, like all of us with RL experience, I can be sure that it is very realistic.

One thing I am very sure of is that the ladies that I met were very serious about what they did and were very confident that their services were beneficial to many customers, helping mums to be the overcome fears they have of childbirth in RL. Several ladies in the shop at the same time as me were very kind and described how going through pregnancy and childbirth in SL helped them approach the process in RL with more confidence or get over the loss of a real child.

What could appear to many as inappropriate and sentimental came across to me, from what the services providers and past and current customers told me, as a very sincere and worthwhile virtual service and gave a range of experiences which satisfied the needs of the many different customers with their very different needs.

Kim Trefusis

Breezes Thoughts

The floodgates of piratelands and 9 sims are chucked full of sl designers ready and waiting to entice you to buy buy buy.
I tell you you won't have a linden left. The array of selections is enough to make the mind go berserk. I want, I want, I need oh yes of course you need more. No one can ever have enough. (hides face in hands and laughs like crazy.

You simply must explore all the sims not just the shops but see all the wonders of landscapings provided for your pleasure.
The relay for life is the biggest event for second life ever.
With all of our help we will help overcome this disastrous cancer.
We need you all to help with the battle.
Together we will win.
Come please please help us make the world full of survivors and cancel the big "C" word forever.
See you all there
yo ho ho and a bottle of rum to ye me hearties!


Breezes Babii

Pictures from the first fashion show hosted by Timeless agency wonderful ladies!

Breezes Thoughts

Slugs in the sky, yes sir, and down where normal people are DJ Qwark our very own DJ Is giving us the neatest slugs you ever had to dance with.
Gemma and Qwark and many friends are down on the dance floor where most normal peeps are.
How would bree know what normal is??
Now answer me that.

Breezes Babii
I am always searching for something

“We Don’t Allow YOUR Kind Here!”

By Bixyl Shuftan

A few days ago, one of my foxfolk friends was exploring around, and wanting to rezz some items came across a sandboox at an Italian beach villiage. Like the majority of places he had seen, all were in normal human avies, “mature content and a nude beach.” Just after getting there, “I was approached by a resident and told that I had to reove my ‘ mask.’ I was polite and said that I wasn't wearing a mask that this was my personna.” But the local persisted, so my friend left. Not long afterwards, he told the story to another fox friend of his whom got irritated and insisted he take him and some others online at the time over, most furred but one neko joined in, “We were pretty civil, except for **** calling them racists. ... they bounced us out and banned us from the area."

When a couple others from the incident arrived, they told me a little more, one saying she took on the appearance of a naked hermapodite with a huge appendage and didn’t get banned until changing back to a clean furry. They asked me to see the scene for myself, and ported me to a spot next to the beach village. I walked in, the scene rezzing more slowly than normal. Just across the bridge was a sign, and one resident nearby. So I stood on the bridge for a while, waited for the sign to fully rez, and sure enough it stated “No Furry” alongside “No monsters” and the usual behaviors against intimate activity in the open and gunfire. The resident did nothing, though might have been away from the keyboard, so I turned around and left. Porting to a tavern, we had a long talk about the place.

It’s my experience that incidents like this are very rare in Second Life. Most places are happy to have anyone whom is not bothering anyone, especially if they’re spending money. But considering how treatment one sees as unfair sticks in one’s mind, when someone does end up booted from a place because of his looks, it is certainly remembered.

Why do some places limit what avatars can come in? Some are roleplay sims that have rules against certain avatars, but will also boot anyone not following the dress code or anything else of a strict set of guidelines, that is, if they let anyone outside their group in at all. I have heard no real complaints about their policies.

Then there was the one single place I was asked to leave because of my avatar’s appearance. Someone from a charity group sent me a complaint about a formal dress nightclub only allowing in human avatars. I decided to check things out for myself, put on my Dana Delight’s tuxedo, and ported over. Seeing a lady by the door, I chatted with her for a few minutes, and she clearly welcomed me. Going in, no one bothered me at first, but the place was laggy as heck. I was about to conclude the place was a false alarm and port out, when a lady approached me and IMed me, “Excuse me ... could you please change to a human avatar?” My response, “The lady at the door didn’t have a problem with me. And in the year and a half I’ve been here, not a single place I’ve been to has had a problem with my appearance.” “I’m truly sorry, but we have a dress code, and we still need you to change.” I was irritated, no sign of a problem at the door and now this. But how much was a place too laggy to stay worth making a fuss over? So I ported out. Most likely the lag would keep away more people than anything I could do or say.

So why did they have a problem? It may be they saw avatars as an extension on the dress code, since people in Second Life have the ability change their shape, as well as their clothes. Trouble is, many people, both furry and normal people, dislike changing their avatar’s look. “I have this nagging fear that I might not be able to change back,” one person told me. In any event, no other place before, or after, had a problem with my foxfolk look. It’s notable that a few weeks later, I was invited to a live classical music performance in a place that was *really* high class and elegant. No one had a problem with my avatar’s look (and Dana's tuxedo fit in nicely).

Then there’s the scenerio that my furred freinds think of most often, getting tossed out “just because” by someone being a real jerk about it. I was a semi-witness to one example. I once joined a group for a pirate club an event organizer I knew liked to go to. One day, one of the pirates started a group chat, “Don’t go to *****. I went there, and they refused to sell me anything, telling me ‘We don’t allow YOUR kind here!’ .“ The immediate response was, “WHOAH! They’re gonna get it now!” This was followed by cries of righteous indignation, and calls for going to the sim to protest or teach them a lesson.

I didn’t get to the scene until later. According to the group chat, the furred pirates began porting over to the place, and before long the local ones threw up a “No admittance” barrier. With no way to get in, the tailed buccaneers cursed for a while, then gave up. The guy who started this then told everyone he might as well shop elsewhere. He soon told the group, “Hey guys, I finally found a place. They even have a furry among them.” And so ended the fight between what one guy called “the tail pirates versus the butt pirates.”

Why do some people have problems with a guy or girl in a furball avatar? The subject can be an article on itself. Penance Sautereau did a two-part article that can be read here and here. But what do do about the few whom take things to the point of banning people minding their own business from sims? That was the subject of a lengthy discussion between me and other furballs.

Second Life’s Community Standards begins with this statement, “The goals of the Community Standards are simple: treat each other with respect and without harassment, adhere to local standards as indicated by simulator ratings, and refrain from any hate activity which slurs a real-world individual or real-world community.” Even if the banning of people because of their avatars is not against the letter of the rules, it certainly goes against the spirit, in my opinion.

By all means, this kind of problem is not limited to furred avies. I have heard stories of players with normal human appearances being subject to harassment in sims populated by furred residents. One former friend of mine told me via instant message about going to a place recommended by me, and treated harshly by some local furballs, “I had no idea furries could be so cruel!” She would then have nothing to do with furs again. A couple of my friends who prefer to appear normal human told me they themselves had gone through some of this kind of harassment.

The antics of the “human-haters” I find to be as silly as their anti-furball counterparts, if not moreso. Aren’t we all human behind our keyboards? I’ve had a couple mild-mannered furballs say normal human avatars look unnatural and zombielike to them, falling into what some call the "Uncanny Alley," but I’ve never gotten much of an answer from the few haters I’ve come across.

These rare but annoying incidents make me think a little of one bit of movie trivia I came across. Fans of the “Planet of the Apes” movie occasionally recall one of the themes was it’s anti-racism message - the gorillas could only be soldiers, the orangutans were limited to sciences and study, etc. Just how well the message reached the actors was brought into question one day. The time it took to put on the makeup was so long, actors would eat lunch still in costume, and did so in a designated lunch area. Once, one of the “apes” happened to look around, and noticed that the place had segregated itself. The gorillas were in one area, the orangutans in another, and the chimpanzees in a third. Even though everyone was human underneath, they had broken up into groups based on their costumes!

With this in mind, maybe it’s a little less surprising some are reluctant to explore places populated by another type of avatar. But in the opinion of this Second Life resident, it doesn’t excuse a few monkeying around with our freedom of movement.

Have any of you the readers experienced this kind of treatment? Feel free to tell your story in the comment section below.

Bixyl Shuftan

Want To Get Somewhere Fast? Make A Teleporter Box!

While I was building on my island in Second Life I realized that I could build a skybox way up to 4000 meters above the ground. I was so excited and put on my flight feather, which is an attachement that allows you to fly up that high. I built my skybox, all glass, and I set my environment lighting to midnight. I set out a rug and put a music pod on the wall that played all classical music. It was so incredibly relaxing that I almost fell asleep. The stars were bright and I could see the moon so well. Afterwards I clicked on my map and teleported back home, down to the castle below. Unfortunately I had no way of getting back up to the skybox unless I flew again, which took entirely too long.

I had set a landmark there and renamed it my skybox, but for some reason I couldn't teleport there. Maybe my land setting was a blocked teleport setting, or maybe I had it set to a landing point, but no matter what it was set at, I could not teleport there at all. I didn't want to fly back up, so a friend suggested that I rezz a box and put in the parameters that I needed to get to. That is exactly what I did. I went into the build mode and rezzed a normal, plain box. I went into the edit mode and to the object tab. I set the parameters for the X, Y, and Z coordinates to the same ones my landmark for my skybox had been set to. The box disappeared. My friend suggested that I sit on the box first, and it turns out he was a smart friend. Less than a second after I put in the Z coordinate I was sitting in my skybox along side the other box that I had rezzed earlier. I was amazed that I could get anywhere by just sitting on a box and editing the coordinates to the right parameter setting for the place I wanted to be. Now all I needed was to make the box a little more attractive and I had my own vehicle of transportation! A pink cushion of velvet sounds great!