THE BEST OF SL MAGAZINE-JANUARY 2024 by The Best Of SL Magazine

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PHOTO: TIYIALIC

MODEL: AME MORNINGSTAR

PUBLISHER/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Reign Congrejo

CONTRIBUTORS Arya Braveheart Cara Paine Cari Avon Coco St. George Compe Lockwood Jamee Sandalwood Nemsis

Reign Congrejo Sarah E. Brenham Stevie Basevi Tiyialic

LAYOUT

Viktor Serrao

COVER Jamee Sandalwood

COVER MODELS Caesar Langer

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BOSL Magazine January 2024 Edition

PHOTO: NEMESIS

MODEL: DESIREME FALLEN

CONTENT

81 31

47 GRAB YOUR SKATES

A LA FOLIE

WINTER SPORTS

COLOUR OF COUTURE

CRAVONE CITY

BOSL ARTS

BOSL FASHION TREND

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Editor’s Note January

2024

Dear Readers,

As we stand on the threshold of a new year, it is with great excitemen BOSL for 2024. The past year has been a journey filled with challenges As we embark on the next chapter, we find ourselves inspired by the st world.

In this issue, we delve into the ever-evolving landscape of [industry/fie redefine the way we live, work, and connect. Our team of dedicated w to bring you insightful features, captivating interviews, and visually st cover.

As we reflect on the past year, we are reminded of the power of human the face of global challenges, we have witnessed remarkable acts of k of purpose that unites us all. It is our mission at BOSL to celebrate thes spirit.

As we embrace the opportunities and challenges that 2024 brings, we continued support. Your engagement, feedback, and passion fuel our c entertains.

nt and anticipation that I welcome you to the first edition of s, triumphs, and the indomitable spirit that defines our times. tories, innovations, and resilience that continue to shape our

eld], exploring the trends and transformations that promise to writers, researchers, and photographers has worked tirelessly tunning imagery that captures the essence of the subjects we

Thank you for being part of the BOSL community. Here’s to a year filled with discovery, growth, and the pursuit of excellence. Wishing you a joyful and prosperous 2024! Warm regards,

Reign Congrejo Editor-in-Chief BOSL

n ingenuity and the strength that emerges from adversity. In kindness, groundbreaking advancements, and a shared sense se stories of resilience, progress, and the unwavering human

e extend our deepest gratitude to you, our readers, for your commitment to delivering content that informs, inspires, and

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b a r G

k a S t e r s u ! o Y Arya Braveheart

appy New Year, all, and welcome to 2024. In honour of the new year, I thought I wo some amazing places for you to go ice skating. I visited a whole lot of places and found gorgeous skate-friendly locations for you to enjoy the views, relax, and breathe in the Grab your skates, and let’s get started.

Blue Finch Frosty Hollow: The TP point is at the train station, which is the perfect place to sta lovely sim. Grab a slice of pizza on your way down the platform and out into the wintery wond horse or wander through the paths until you find the frozen lake. You can grab some skates, ju and head off to explore this beautiful area. This sim has plenty of snuggle spots, so if you have this would be the perfect date spot!

J URLAYB Y O U R S K A T E S G

ould start off with d seven of the most e cold wintery air.

art your tour of this derland. Jump on a ump on a poseball, e someone special,

PHOTOS: ARYA BRAVEHEART

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Color Alchemist and Chronicles of Snowfall: If you want somewhere to skate that offers a bit of otherworld magic, then this is the place for you. I felt like I was stepping through the wardrobe into Narnia as I skated around this amazing sim. There are new delights around every corner, and I am definitely going back to explore a bit more. Ice skating here is simple as the whole place is covered in ice and snow— just don’t accept sweets from tall ladies in sleighs!

GR AB YOUR SKATES

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Daydream Believer: This is a part of The Nature Collective family of sims, and you can see why. It is a mix of imagination, wilderness, and icy beauty all rolled into one. This is another ice skating-friendly sim with options right by the TP point for skating on your own or with a friend. From there, you can skate right around the sim on the frozen river, taking in the sights. Make sure you check out the light tunnel and keep an eye out for reindeer, polar bears, and snow cats!

GR AB YOUR SKATES

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Sailor’s Cove: Wander past the cute cottages after the TP point, grab a coffee at the kiosk, and head straight for the ice pond. In the middle is a wee island where you find all of the skating options. If you don’t own skates, there is an option to buy some. You will see the sign next to a bench across from the coffee spot. Once you have your skates on, the pond is yours. Make sure you check out the rest of Sailor’s Cove, too. This little fishing village is a stunner!

GR AB YOUR SKATES

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GR AB YOUR SKATES

Un Brin de Folie: Your TP point here is another train station, but this time, you are standing next to a steam train! Follow the platform down to the signposts and find the one that leads you to the skating area. There are plenty of sights to enjoy on the way with deer, stoats, and stunningly lit trees and pathways. There are skates and an AO to grab at the entrance to the skating pond before you step onto the ice and enjoy the view. Mind that you don’t step on a penguin. They are crazy on the ice!

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Winter at Borkum: Borkum is a tiny and charming island in the North Sea, perfect for taking in the beautiful winter scenery, the quiet cold, and your newly-discovered inner peace. There are so many places for photos on this island, which is gorgeous in any season but especially stunning covered in snow. The ice skating rink is down by the sea and is the perfect place to grab a coffee and spend some time on the ice as the snow falls!

GR AB YOUR SKATES

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GR AB YOUR SKATES

Winter Crest Ski Resort and Lodge: This sim is an explorer’s dream with so much to see and do. Jump onto the iced-over river at the TP point and enjoy skating around under bridges, past gorgeous lodges and through the beautifully lit ice cave. You can even bring a few friends and have an ice skating party. There is an option for this right by the TP point. Great fun for all. And, if your feet get sore, go check out the top of the mountain where you can ski, snowboard, saucer sled or toboggan to take you back down to the ice. I hope you enjoy all of these places as much as I did. I am making it a goal this year to get out and about and visit as many of these lovely sims as I can. SL is so much more than shopping and your home spot. Let’s celebrate the incredible work of the sim designers by stopping by and showing them how much we appreciate their work.

t i a n k g s ! y p ap

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A LA FOLIE Cari Avon

s this French term indirectly instructs, give me your passion, and do so deeply and madly. Or, let’s take the literal translation and apply it appropriately to the Metaverse— To Madness! It has a certain Marie Antoinette kind of ring to it, right? A native of France, Pixivor Allen, known as Pixi, started her Second Life in early 2007. Little did she know that 17 years later, AlaFolie, her brand’s name, would still be a remarkable representation of both the amazing content she creates and our time on the Grid! Passionate Madness! If you visit Pixi’sboutique in the BoSL shopping mall or spend time at her flagship store, you will see Pixi’s talent as an artist shines through her products and imagery. The vendor boards for several of her dresses resonate with shoppers as they portray a spirit of vibrance, alive with a feminine story to tell. Pixi laughs while she admits with some pride how feminine her creativity is. And she’s gotten some criticism for her approaches to her vendor boards in the past but shrugs them off. “Since I create clothes, I take my photos with moving characters, which has earned me some criticism that they do not look professional. But I am a painter in RL, and I’m not like everyone else.” Her bold statement is finished off with a smile that softens the blow from her astonishing independence. One very underappreciated aspect to fashion designers, for fashion creators on the Grid in particular, is the ability to get technical skills to go hand in hand with their artistic talent. Pixi is no exception. In fact, we found her to be amazing in both qualities! Like many designers, Pixi has spent countless hours learning how to work several

A LA FOLIE

software suites, including Blender, Z-Brush, and Photoshop. But just how technical designers can be might just blow you away. We asked Pixi to relate any experience she might look forward to in the way of using Artificial Intelligence, i.e. the “AI” that is all the rage in technology circles. To our surprise, we learned that the fabric print of the Lina dress was generated via AI! Here is an excerpt from our conversation with Pixi: BoSL: Do you think you will use AI technologies to make your art? Pixi: Yes. But I have already started on some textures! The Lina dress, for example. BoSL: Really? Oh, wow! Pixi: The first four textures on the HUD are made using AI. These are unique textures; it’s only me who made them with AI and the help of Laurent Bechir, my friend in RL and my manager on SL. ☺ BoSL: Fascinating. This is so pretty. You know, using AI the way you want is still up to you. It’s still your art. You just use it as another brush. Pixi: Exactly. So we asked our techie-slash-artistic maven as the longtime resident of the Second Life grid that she is, what “wishes” she might have for Linden Labs and content creators on the Grid to develop in the future. Pixi’s answer is equally retrospective as it is forward-looking: “I was first on SL when there were only flexies, and I dreamed of mesh. And mesh arrived. Now, I dream of having clothes that move with the collisions. It’s

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A LA FOLIE

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A LA FOLIE

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A LA FOLIE

difficult to make dresses that are far from the body, loose. It requires a lot of memory. Maybe one day… that would be great.” Her words are innovative and technical; she speaks like a true long-time citizen of the Grid, too. The AlaFolie main store is located well off the mainland, on the private region of Ramen AlaFolie. There, you will find more art installations created by Pixi, including sculpted items to decorate your space. The store is a wonderful venue and worth the visit, even if just to browse and take photographs. SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ Ramen%20AlaFolie/128/128/2 However, make sure to check out the BoSL shopping mall. And when you do, make a stop at the AlaFolie boutique to be inspired, even if you aren’t in the market for a fabulous, feminine, and fun dress to be active in! You might just walk away with a piece of art or, at minimum, a smile of appreciation on your face.

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WINTER SPORTS

or, how to tackle the first month of the year Coco St. George

ere we are, at the threshold of a new year. Behind us lie the joy and mirth of the year’s end festivities and celebrations, and now all we have ahead is the not-so-joyous return to our daily chores. But not having a pretext for partying and boozing doesn’t mean the end of the fun for us since we still are in Winter (in fact, Winter just began a few days ago). You know what that means: Winter sports! Don’t think that the pitiful condition you find yourself in after the unending bender of last year’s parties would prevent you from practicing sports. On the contrary, physical exercise might be just what you need to get out of your funk.

round. But we like to go with the flow of nature and keep things realistic, so we will ski in Winter and swim in Summer, even if we can’t tell the difference between seasons in our pixel world. Ski, you said? Yes, that’s the image that first comes to mind whenever we talk about winter sports. You are standing atop a hill, a pair of skis fitted to your feet, a ski pole in each hand. You take a deep breath, and off you go downhill! It doesn’t get any more exhilarating than this: you’re taking the fresh air of the snowy mountain right on your face at high speed; you need to exert all the strength of your legs to keep yourself on track, skillfully maneuvering the ski poles to guide your descent; all the while, you’re trying to strike the perfect pose to post your selfie all over your social media. Right? Because you know what they say: “Pic, or it didn’t happen.” Skiing has a long history, evolving from a simple means of transportation in the distant Scandinavian reaches to a high-risk and enthralling sport that encompasses several disciplines in the modern Winter Olympics. Its name comes from an ancient Old Norse word meaning “split piece of wood,” which describes the most basic piece of equipment used in this sport, the skis. Other stuff you need includes the poles for balance and propulsion, a helmet for safety, goggles to both offset the glare from the sun on the snow and protect your eyes from particulates and other foreign objects... And, of course, you’ll need an outfit— which means a shopping opportunity! How cool is that?

While winter sports are seasonal by definition since they are usually practiced on ice or snow settings, in Second Life, we can have snow and ice all year

WINTER SPORTS

If you want to ski, you may want to visit Lake Tahoe, which offers a wide variety of activities like skating on a frozen lake with complimentary ice skates and, of course, skiing. You’ll be offered all the equipment you need to ski from head to toe. While you may ski

PHOTOS: COCO ST. GEORGE

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WINTER SPORTS

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by yourself, it is definitely more fun if you invite your friends and have a competition. You all will be racing down the hill through several markers, which you need to be sure you don’t miss. So, TP in your friends and have a blast competing against each other. Snowboarding is another sport you may want to try. You’ll find a boot dispenser and a board rezzer next to the start, so you don’t need to go too far. You may be tempted to say that snowboarding is akin to skiing with only one ski, but you’ll find that you need a different set of skills to master the board and descend the slopes. One difference is that you don’t use poles to help keep balance, which makes controlling your board harder.

Ever heard about curling? The sport you practice with a broom and weights called stones? Yes, I know, curling was once spoofed by the Simpsons, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take it seriously since it’s a Winter Olympics sport regulated by the World Curling Federation. You could say it’s shuffleboard on ice, and that it resembles bowling, too. It’s also called chess on ice because it is a thrilling and highly intellectual sport. Just as in chess, where “reading” the board is crucial, curling is won or lost by the strategy of stone placement. You play on a long sheet of ice, throwing the stone by hand; you want to position it in the scoring area and, at the same time, shove your opponent’s stones out. But no verbal description could match the thrill of an actual game. So, grab your curling shoes (yes, WINTER SPORTS

you need special shoes to play it) and point your teleporter to Chamonix City, where you’ll find four curling lanes to play to your heart’s content. As this is a competitive sport, you need a competitor, of course. So call a friend and let the fun begin! Here are some pointers to get you started: Pick a lane, and then, on the wall next to it, click the scoreboard. You’ll see a menu; choose “Start Game.” There is also a red box between the lanes: click it and accept a folder that contains two brooms and an aim cross; this will be very useful when you are in mouse look. Choose team red or yellow (your opponent will be the other team, and you’ll be taking turns pushing your respective stone), and wear the corresponding broom and aim cross. Sit on the foot pad next to the first stone, and you’ll enter mouse look. You want to push the stone hard enough to position it on the score area, but not too much so it goes beyond and gets lost in the alley. The power will be determined by how long you keep pressing your mouse’s left button. On open chat, you’ll see an indicator; you can use that to establish how much power you want to use. Also, you may want to use the lines on the lane as a guide to aim your stone. Remember, you want not only to send it into the high score area but also, if possible, to shove your opponent’s stone out. Sports are great not only for our physical health but also for our mental well-being. Focusing all our attention on a seemingly futile goal, such as hitting a ball, pushing a stone, or sliding downhill, puts other issues that might be bothering us in a fair perspective. And as we stand before a brand new calendar, perspective may be just what we need. Enjoy your new-found Winter activity and aim for a happy New Year!

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colour of courture

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COLOUR OF COURTURE

PHOTOS: REIGN CONGREJO

MODEL: NEGLY

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COLOUR OF COURTURE

MODEL: DRESDEN COUERBLANC

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COLOUR OF COURTURE

MODEL: MONROCIE PONTECORVO

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COLOUR OF COURTURE

MODEL: MZZSAPPHIRE

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COLOUR OF COURTURE

MODEL: MZPICKLEJUICE PASSION

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COLOUR OF COURTURE

MODEL: ZELLY ZADOQ

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COLOUR OF COURTURE

MODEL: ZULI VOXEL

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CREDITS

FA SH IO N S T Y L E C A R D

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CRAVONE CITY Sarah Brenham

ouldn’t it be nice to travel to any place in the world? Well, I am here to tell you that you can. How? With virtual environments, such as Second Life, visiting your favorite locations is just a click away. If you decide to do this, your experience won’t quite be the same as it would be in Real Life, but it will still be a good substitute. Traveling from a computer allows you to see every aspect of a spot at your own pace. Bonus point: You can wear whatever you want in Real Life and typically anything in SL when checking out a place. With all of this in mind, why don’t I show how easy and fun it is to visit locations in Second Life? Go on and pack your Second Life bags; we are going on a trip! When thinking about a spot to tour, I wanted to pick one that would appeal to the masses. So, friends, we are going to Cravone City! Cravone City is a sim that is modeled after the Big Apple or New York City. This area is known for its shopping, which is popular in NYC, but there is so much more than that here. Let’s have a look around. When you land on the Cravone City sim, you are at the subway station. As of this writing, the only places that you can be taken directly from there are some specific stores. To exit the subway station, you will need to take a flight of stairs. Once you arrive above ground, the exploration can truly begin. I won’t show you everything that you will find there, as I want you to come and discover some areas for yourself, but I will point out the highlights. If you have ever been to the Big Apple in RL, then you know that they have the best bagels— Cravone City keeps this tradition alive. You will find a stand that sells the most delicious bagels, along with an assortment of accompaniments and beverages. Still hungry? There are a few restaurants dotted in the sim, as well as a grocery store. After you have been fueled up with some yummy food, why not shoot some hoops at the basketball court or perhaps play C R AV O N E C I T Y

a game or two at the arcade? I do want to mention a few things before we continue on. All of the places that you can “get” food from do not have any staff. You will have to pretend to receive service there or role-play it. For those who are serious role players, Cravone City could be a great spot to RP in; since it is known for more than its role-play opportunities, it is not governed by rules that dictate anyone’s RP. The other remark that I wanted to make was that I don’t consider this place suitable for children. The reason is that there is a strip club in the area. While it seems that nobody works at the adult venue, I still would not risk bringing kids to this location. Shopping is the main attraction, and Cravone City is the home to many popular stores, such as Bad Unicorn and Baka. In Real Life, a few select cities have what is known as a Fashion Week. This event lasts approximately seven days and is filled with fashion shows. This is something that I have not seen in Second Life. Wouldn’t it be cool if Cravone City started that trend? Especially since it is cojoined with The Mens Dept., a sim that hosts a monthly shopping affair for fellas. I would like to thank you for allowing me to show you how simple and fun it is to go on holiday via SL. This is a topic that is close to my heart. If you are unaware, I am disabled in Real Life; it’s difficult for me to go places, especially if they are far from my home. But Second Life gives me the freedom to go wherever I want. I think that this liberty should not just be used by those who have mobility issues but by everyone who is unable to travel for any reason. As they say, where there is a will, there is a way. Don’t miss an opportunity to enjoy life! Cravone City http://maps.secondlife.com/ secondlife/Cravone/41/83/29

PHOTOS: REIGN CONGREJO

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C R AV O N E C I T Y

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C R AV O N E C I T Y

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C R AV O N E C I T Y

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POST ENTRIES HERE

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BOSLArts

Jamee Sandalwood

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BOSL ARTS

COOKIE HUT

ARTIST: JAMEE SANDALWOOD

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HOLIDAY DELIVERY

ARTIST: JAMEE SANDALWOOD

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I SEE SANTA

ARTIST: JAMEE SANDALWOOD

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IN THE REEDS

ARTIST: JAMEE SANDALWOOD

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MAGIC OF WINTER

ARTIST: JAMEE SANDALWOOD

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POINT AND SHOOT

ARTIST: JAMEE SANDALWOOD

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SHOW ME THE TREE

ARTIST: JAMEE SANDALWOOD

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T H R O U G H J A N UA R Y 2 0 TH

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Waterfront Gallery

B O S L I N N O VA T I O N P A V I L L I O N

Jamee Sandalwood is a professional photographer, artist, model, stylist and blogger in SL. She is a 2015 graduate of Visionaire Institute of Photography and since graduation has explored all areas of photography and art in Second Life. Jamee is known for her work with shadows and lighting and considers herself to be a shadow artist as of this time, though she continues to explore more areas of photography and art. Jamee produces landscapes, abstract art, fashion photography, and professional invitation/graphic art for various projects around SL.

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