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Harleywan Haggwood is a young builder and designer who has created his dream in Second Life. His store/home/playground Never You Mind -island is a wonderful example of passion for building in SL. It has not made for making money or for fame in SL . It has made because of it just had to come out..out of Harleywan's imagination. Landscaping is not easy, but Harleywood's island looks perfect to me. Even though he claims it is still in progress. I tried to catch it's feel in the sim with snapshots, but with my skills it just cannot be done. You just have to go and see it for your self. It is rustic, rural, worn out, but very romantic. Along the rustic buildings he has created not-so-usual vehicles like a ridable kite, balloons and sailable bath tubs. He has also made rambling robots and old toys. Sounds like fun? I had a change to spend a morning with Harleywood talking about him and his work in SL.
Y: How did you come to SL and how did you end up to become a builder and a store owner?
H: I was first introduced to Sl about a year and a half ago by my friends SkyeRider Varriale, TatianaDokuchic Varriale and Marin Mielziner. It took me a while to actually come in world and after a few weeks I discovered that i was getting hooked.
My building skills have all been self taught with little pushes in the right direction by friends. I like learning that way and practically everything I've made has been a big, big trial and error thing. After some initial truly horrendous attempts and making so
me simple things, I got hold of a couple of full perm objects and pulled them apart to see how they were contructed and how things fit together, and things sort of just took off from there. I always test out stuff I make on my friends Tat, Bebe, Zac and Skye and rely on them for feed back, criticism and suggestions ( some of which I completely ignore), but I really do value all of their opinions. Skye and Tatiana are seasoned and extraordinary builders, and even though the look of my rustic things and my building style are completely different to what they both make, they are always more than happy to tell me what they think ,good or bad and I appreciate the honesty.....though I sometimes might not agree :).I love old rustic stuff, whether it be Country, Steampunk, Urban or just plain used looking :)... and if it has a tinge of humour about it...even better. I opened my 'Never You Mind' world on a 4096 plot roughly about 8 months ago. First off it was just so I could have a go at making things. Its moved around a little bit as I've required more space, and I'm more than happy with the place it is now on a homestead sim that I rent.
Y:What do you like the best in Second Life?
H: Thats a hard question. there really isnt any one thing i like best in Second Life. I love building stuff, but I also like meeting new people and discovering new things. I guess if I had to narrow it down it would be... oh hell I dont know , I guess i like everything...except griefers!
Y: People like interactive stuff. Also I find them fun. I bought your kite. I think it is very brilliant idea, and I have had fun time flying with it. Making those does require some scripting skills.
H: Thanks! I like making stuff that does stuff. :) The kite turned out pretty good I think.... and it drove me up the wall for a few hours trying to get the flight script to work properly. The kite actually statred out as an idea just to have a kite you could attach and carry around that moved in the wind... and it got a bit out of control. I thought wouldnt it be funny if you actually flew it...like really flew it :). Most of the scripts that I use in my stuff are scripts that I have bought and then edited to suit my needs, and I have absolutely no programming skills whatsoever except for little titbits i pick up from here and there. Scripting really does my head in, but very slowly I've been learning the language with mixed... sometimes hilarious... but mostly just bang my head against the keyboard results.
Y: 'Never You Mind' is very carefully landscaped. It seems to be more than just a store to you. Does 'Never You Mind' exist in any form in RL?
H: Ive wanted to own my own island for ages and when someone offered me too much money for my old mainland I decided i may as well look for one. This is all from my imagination. I did grow up on a farm in Australia though, so i supose theres a lot of influence from there. It is my home away from real life home, as well as my store ... and its also
my playground.Y: Who are your 'idols' as creators in Second Life?
H:Wow there are so many! Everyday I find a new place that blows me away with creativity and imagination that makes up peoples objects, clothes and worlds. It would be unfair to mention any one or two people because there are just way too many and the list just keeps on growing every day.
Y: If there will be other virtual worlds competing Second Life that have own economy, would you be interested expanding to the other worlds? Or leave SL ?
H: No! Not at all Im having way too much fun here at the moment.
Our time is up with Harleywan and he has to dash to RL work. I stay to wander around for awhile. I wonder what his next realease will be...Darn, I forgot to ask..
Nerver You Mind :
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Never%20You%20Mind/117/101/23
The 
The recently opened Oblonski shop in 
Not very far off the Oblonski shop is the 
Further down New Babbage, the Dagon's Pleasure Pier in the 
Inside of one of the Jules Verne inspired tubes at 100 meters below sea level of the waters in Vernian Sea 
The Nautilus in the 
Meeting Skusting Dagger at the entrance of Serenity Steamworks in Port Babbage
Our own Second Life star PatriciaAnne Daviau (yes, she was featured in this Blog not so long ago...) build part of the Wonka Factory in Second Life. What is so special about this you may ask? She build the 230 prims factory in a Willy Wonka hat!
The hat with the highly detailed miniature factory can be admired in the Metaversal Arts sim, close to the 
Aerial view of the new Metaversal Arts Shop, another fine creation by Equine McMillan 
The steam engine with fireplace, boiler and alternator can be admired in the North-East side of 
I became interested to see whether Equine had created more similar objects and was not disappointed -after I had viewed the picks in his profile ;-) Here a snapshot of the Botanical House greenhouse heating system, 
Raffles, home to Munro Imaginary Motors, makers of aircraft and airships both practical and fanciful. Her new airborne base in the Duchy of Loch Avie, 
A long (150 meters) and majestic, low prim suspension bridge (called "Epona's Gate") connecting two duchies in Caledon and part of the new railroad extention was one of Equine's major builds. Conspirators of Caer Firnas, Steampunk Duchy of Caer Firnas 
Duchy of Greystoke, 
Not very far off the Greystoke Station is Oxbridge University. The majestic clock in the tower was build by Equine, and look at the details! It contains a chime script which appropriately hits quarters, halfs, three quarters and the hour of course. Please do visit it a few minutes before the hour to hear it in action :-). Caledon Oxbridge Village, 
Whilst sitting on that clock in Caledon Oxbridge University, I was too busy taking snapshots and I did not notice two nasty flying creatures. Apparently kept by a nasty Dean to keep students IN the buildings and not, as I did, hanging around on the roofs and towers.... Before I knew what happened the most ugly and biggest of the creatures grabbed me in the crutch.
Having the camara still at hand, I managed to take these two snapshots before I was slammed to the ground, not very far off the Oxbridge University Building..... 
After rezzing and still a bit dizzy from the wild ride, I looked around. By strange coincidence (was it really?...) I was dropped near Equine McMillan's L'Engle Tesseract Generator in 
The prime mover of the Tesseract Generator was at first sight a version of the ubiquitous McMillan two cylinder steam engine coupled to two huge alternators, hmm, interesting so far... A more closer view revealed that this machine is more detailed then the other ones I saw so far.
..... sit on the seat and pull the handle on the switchboard to generate a Tesseract...., said a note. .....(Do this at your own risk, of course :)....I jumped on the chair and pulled the handle. Actually, I should have been more careful after reading the second note, because the engine started running, the sliding door closed and I was pushed upwards in the tower ...
Arriving at the top of the tower, without being able to move, four arms came from the ceiling, forming a cage....
A split second later after the four arms had touched each other, the alternator down in the building made a loud high pitched sound and the inside of the cage bursted out in flames..