Hola Amigos,

It is incredible how fast this year is going. Here we are, entering the 2nd quarter of 2010, and I still feel it was like yesterday when I was out celebrating with friends on New Year's Eve. Q1 2010 was a fantastic quarter for our estate. We are still growing at our projected rate and we are increasing the number of new residents per quarter at a higher rate than last year. During Q1, we saw 138 new residents added to the estate. This is a 40% increase in new residents when compared to Q1 2009.

Staring this month, I would like to add a new section to the Estate Status Report named "Notable News from Linden Lab®." I am aware that most of the residents do not read the official Linden Lab® blogs, and frankly I wouldn't either if I wasn't in charge of this project. But sometimes, there is some interesting information released by "the Lab" that I feel should be brought to the attention of all members of our community.

There are so many good things to report this month besides our continuous growth. So let's recap everything that went around our beautiful estate this past month.

Notable news from Linden Lab®

Recently "The Lab" announced the "First Steps Towards Script Limits." What does this mean? Well to make a long story short, we all know land in Second Life® comes with a certain number of allotted prims. One of the most common causes of "lag" we all experience in here is due to scripted objects. Currently, there are no limits on the number of scripts a parcel can have, unlike prims, so theoretically a 4,096 sqm parcel could have more scripted objects than a 8,192 sqm parcel. Therefore, the smaller parcel could be using more server resources and lowering the performance of the entire region. With the new guidelines, parcels, depending on their size, will have script limits, just like prim limits. This will eventually increase region performance and the "lag" caused by scripted objects will be lower.

I will keep you all informed about this new road map as "The Lab" releases more information.

Land Sales

In March, we added two residential regions to our estate. A homestead region, Playa Flamingo, and a full prim region, Isla Ballena. Both regions sold in a matter of days. We closed March with the estate at 98.9% occupancy.

Events

Mr. Costa Rica Sims 2010

What is a beauty pageant without a few "conspiracy theories" going on here and there? This year, we heard some rumors about people logging from wireless mobile devices from all over the world in order to keep voting for their favorite candidate on our web page. What the claims forgot to mention was that the web voting had nothing to do with choosing the winner. The Mr. Costa Rica Sims winner, just like the Miss Costa Rica Sims winner, is always chosen by the panel of judges, and this year, just like the previous one, the scores were really tight. In the end, the judges selected Mr. Todd Anton as the new Mr. Costa Rica Sims.

Contestants picked Mr. David Jupiter as Mr. Congeniality, without a doubt one of the friendliest and sweetest guys within our estate. I must say that this was a magnificent pageant and any of the 7 finalists would have made the estate proud as Mr. Costa Rica Sims. I would like to thank all the finalists for their love and dedication, the judges for their professionalism, the sponsors for their great support, the Costa Rica Sims Productions Team for their hard work putting together the best pageant to date, and finally to my co-host, Miss Fly Littlebird, for her amazing job and for making me have the best time so far in any of the pageants I have hosted. 

If you want to learn everything that went on during the pageant click here to read the pageant review posted by our estate blogger Takeshi Kiama.

Rezz Days Party

La Tortuga Feliz Café was smoking hot from what I heard! I was so looking forward to celebrate with our March babies their rezz days, but sadly, I had to run into town in real life at the last minute and was unable to attend. As usual, the party was fabulous and residents had a blast with our estate DJ and heartthrob, Azu Catteneo, rocking the house with his hot tunes! To read Takeshi's review of the party, click here.

Many more happy rezz days to our March babies: Adonis, Apollo, Axem, Chase, Dana, DejanZ, Erdan, Evad, GJ, Holly, Isabeau, Jarrod, Kaiju, Lavender, Lazette, Maxie, Mikey, Nogi, Porsche, Royal, Rufferto, Samantha, SJ, Sommer & Halostar.

Merchant News

One of the things I am most proud of about our beautiful estate is the incredible talent we have in our residents. It always makes me smile to hear and see when one of our residents ventures into a business. One of the classiest ladies we have within our borders, Miss Tempest Hennesy, that some of you may know as one of Second Life's top models, just opened her store at our commercial district. t&t design and consulting specializes in shapes, so if you are looking for a new look, make sure to stop by the store or contact Miss Hennesy for a one of a kind shape.

Updates

geko Stoop's Memorial Forest

In little less than a month, we were able to recreate one of the national parks in Costa Rica here in Second Life®. As I mentioned in last month's status report, when geko was in real life Costa Rica, she fell in love with one particular spot, a place she said she would have loved to live in if she had the chance. Today, this magical place is now part of our estate.

I encourage all of you to visit geko Stoop's Memorial Forest. When you get there, give it time to rezz, then explore all paths leading to the different areas. Finally, when you are done exploring, look for one of the many benches around the forest, sit down, look more at the surroundings, take a deep breath, and then close your eyes, concentrating on the sounds you will hear all around you. After a few minutes, you will feel at ease.

Many people have visited the forest already and the feedback we are getting is overwhelming. One resident said to me, "God I didn't even know geko and I have tears in my eyes, what a beautiful way to pay tribute to her." Others are in awe to see how beautiful and realistic it feels. Most ask me, "Does Costa Rica look like this for real?" The answer is yes it does! It is a very small country, but amazingly blessed by Mother Nature. Even Patch Linden said to me, "It's absolutely beautiful."

This project was a labor of love to pay tribute to one amazing soul many of us knew as geko Stoop, a project that would not have been possible without the help of all the talented and dedicated people that worked so hard to make it a reality. I would like to thank:  Colleen Bracken, Jon Haskell, Maurice Messmer, Moonde Magic, Felicity Sneerwell, Tunes Meness & Ub Yifu and all of the people that submitted their note cards expressing all the lovely words about our dear friend geko Stoop. For those interested in reading the submitted notecards, they are available at the entrance of the forest. Just click on the sign to receive a copy.

To Maurice Messmer, my friend, there is no one that can plant a bush or tree like you do here in SL™. Thanks for capturing my vision so easily. You rock!

The geko Stoop's butterfly

If you reach the shack inside the forest, you will find a custom made butterfly with geko's name. My longtime friend and great supporter of the Costa Rica Sims, Mr. Tunes Meness, owner of 2xtreme, made this beautiful butterfly. All proceeds of the sales of the geko Stoop's butterfly will go to the American Cancer Society.

I asked tunes for a favor to create a butterfly with geko's name because I feel it truly represents the phase geko is at right now. As you all know, a butterfly goes through a 4-phase metamorphosis. It is at the final phase that this beautiful creature gets its wings and it’s able to fly freely. geko got her wings, and now she is able to fly free for eternity.

Leatherback Turtle Trust

In March, we raised L$4,590. I would like to thank all residents and friends of the estate who kindly donated to this worthy cause: David Jupiter, LexiDare Claven, Carmichael Caudron, Sabra Valeska, Biff Parnas, Taralynn Trommier, Alan Ganioso, Tristen Ansar, Paola Paulino, Victoria Allegiere, Gazha Slade, Hao Schnyder, Gela Artis, Deb Palmer, dixiesweet28 Twine, Ima Zhora & Carlotta Olivier.

As always, here is a photo of transaction made via Paypal for last month's donation.

And finally on behalf of all of us, I would like to welcome the new residents that moved to our beautiful estate in this past month and are now part of our growing family: Adonis, AgileBill, Alan, Aldo, Anastacia, Bambi, Biff, Bikerbabe52, Bo, Cael, Cherryberry, Claudia, Clay, Colette, Dennis, Dolci, Dong, Gerogette, Hepzibah, Holly, Irishgirl, Jilly, Komyc, Lacy, Leya, Lilmiss, Liv, Lothar, Magnar, Mathiew, Marco2feelgood, Maxius, Memocan, Meri, Miakoda, Mikey, More, Moria, Nikkita, Nina, Pandora, Rafakiller, Rhea, Robby, Rowdy, Sdot, Shawn, SJ, Skittled, Solen, Sommer, Soumya, Spartan, Sultana, Tawa, Tempest, Tistana, Uptowngj, Vadimir, Wentir, Wunderschatz & Xander. Welcome Home!

Love & Light,

Gian