Tag: Video

Hollanov: Take Daily As Required (and an Update on my Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov Avatars in Second Life)

I forget exactly how or when I found this piece of Heated Rivalry fan art, but I love it.

Hollanov is the name of the ship (relationship) between Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov. It’s shorthand which covers all the fan-created works inspired by the hit television series Heated Rivalry, based on the Game Changers series of gay hockey romance novels by Rachel Reid.

On December 31st, 2025, I wrote on my blog:

And so it was, that my Second Life freebie fashionista friend and partner in crime, whom I only know by their avatar name, Dreamer Pixelmaid, messaged me via Discord and asked me if I had watched Heated Rivalry yet. I had not. (Tonight I am finishing my second rewatch. I am hooked.)

…

It turns out that Dreamer and I not only have a shared interest in ferreting out fabulous Second Life freebies and bargains (something we both happen to be very good at!); we also shared an interest in same-sex romance fan fiction! Soon we were exchanging links to YouTube videos, Tumblr posts, and podcast links, all to do with the outsized reaction which a small Canadian TV show about a gay romance in the professional hockey world (actually, not one but two such romances) was causing, both among the gays and the straights.

Here is a zoom-out of all the pictures stored in the Photo Library on my iPad. Ever since Dreamer Pixelmaid told me about Heated Rivalry in late December 2025, 99.99% of my saved pictures are Hollanov fan art! I am legitimately obsessed.

Also, I now have well over 400 Heated Rivalry-inspired fanfics (fan-written fiction) bookmarked to read. I usually spend an hour or two lying on the sofa reading through recommended HR fanfics, some of which are good, and a few of which are among the best writing I’ve ever read. (I usually read lying on the sofa, to rest my neck and shoulders if they are aching. Oh, and the best place to find this fanfic is a website called Archive of Our Own, or AO3 for short. Here’s a link to get you started, of the most popular Heated Rivalry/Game Changers fanfic sorted by popularity. You’ll need to set up your own AO3 account to read some of these. Enjoy!)

In addition to fan art and fan fiction, there are many people who create fan-edited compilations of scenes from the television show. These video artists usually set their fan videos to music, but in the following example (one I love to rewatch), the fan-edit was made to a spoken-word poem by actress Helena Bonham Carter.

Source: Wild Geese by Mary Oliver (read by Helena Bonham Carter)
Fan-edit created by heated-rivalry-two-souls (posted to Tumblr)

Wild geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

In other words, in only eight months, Heated Rivalry has inspired people to create many, many Hollanov art, videos, and stories. I haven’t seen anything like this personally, since Brokeback Mountain sparked a similar explosion of fan fiction, almost exactly 20 years ago. (I even created some alternate-universe BBM Jack/Ennis movie posters, using my rudimentary PhotoShop skills! So you could say that Hollanov is not my first rodeo…pun intended. 😉)

As to why a gay hockey TV show has led to this level of obsession, a social psychologist tries to explain, in a more scientific way, why Heated Rivalry has had such an impact (10-minute YouTube video; she also has a whole channel diving into other aspects of the show from a social psychology perspective):

Well, as you might already know, I have been using my 19 years of experience in creating and styling avatars to create Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov avatars in the virtual world of Second Life. I wrote about an earlier version of them back in January, but since then, I have been able to obtain much better head skins for both Shane and Ilya, and I have been tinkering around with the face and body sliders a bit more, so now they look like this:

And here are some pictures and videos I have taken of them in the past few months:

The cuddle animation in this video is from the Dutchie sofa (worth every Linden dollar spent!)
This tender animation is from the menu of options on this bed from Dutchie.

My most recent Hollanov creation in SL is the following work-in-progress video (silent, 1:14), in which I show various skating animations from two different AOs. Unfortunately, I still cannot seem to find any kind of hockey jersey that fits well over these hockey pants from Meva (the only ones I could find on the entire grid and in the Second Life Marketplace). So we have a topless Ilya skating around (I’m quite sure this is a sexual fantasy of Shane’s in some Heated Rivalry fanfic I have yet to read!).

Ladies, gentlemen, and fabulus people of all genders—Ilya Rozanov on ice!

UPDATE August 14th, 2026: I found a set of static hockey poses with a hockey stick on the Second Life Marketplace, and I took some more pictures of Ilya Rozanov at the Brooks Arena within the Chamonix City Winter Sports Complex. I probably will need to recruit some more avatars to actually create a believable hockey scene with multiple players, but hey, it’s a start! POSE AND ANIMATION DESIGNERS: Season two of Heated Rivalry will be released starting April 2027. Please please please make some hockey poses and animations! There is next to nothing out there. This was the only set of hockey poses I could find on the SL Marketplace. Thanks!

I have been posting these pictures and videos to Primfeed (the Twitter of Second Life), as well as to four different Hollanov fan Discord servers of which I am a member. And I even resurrected my ancient, long-dormant Tumblr account to be able to post them to the thriving 31,000-member Hollanov community there:

Below is an example post of my Shane and Ilya Second Life pictures to the Hollanov community on Tumblr

Of course, the Hollanov fans (who call themselves “loons,” IYKYK) know next-to-nothing about Second Life, and many of the SL folks, who have not watched Heated Rivalry or read the books, are probably mystified as to why I am so often posting shots of these two fictional hockey players to my Primfeed. What can I say? My two obsessions have collided. I might need to create a very niche, very specialized 12-step group for myself… 😜

So, now you know how I have been keeping myself busy when I have been feeling anxious and overwhelmed and need an escape: enjoying Hollanov fan fiction, fan art, and fan-made music videos, and busy dressing, posing and taking pictures and videos of my Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov avatars! It’s been a blessed escape to enjoy other HR fans’ works, or to get lost in the creative flow of Second Life for an hour or two.

Thank you to Rachel Reid for writing the series of novels, and thanks to Jacob Tierney for making such a wonderful TV show from Rachel’s books. Heated Rivalry has inspired me to move forward in so many areas of my life. I’m so grateful for the push it has given me!

UPDATE 4:15 p.m. August 7th, 2026: I’ve been asked to provide the full styling credits for both the Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander avatars (please note that this is an update from my January blog post about them, before I bought new head skins for both):

Ilya Rozanov Styling Credits:

  • Head, Eyes, and Hairbase: LeLutka Kris head (a freebie from a previous LeLutka December event)
  • Head Skin: Ilya by Stray Dog (matches Velour’s Ivory skin tone)
  • Neck Moles: Izzie’s neck moles (medium)
  • Hair: WingsDG ER0714 brown pack (this was probably the hardest thing to find; I tested out a lot of hair at a LOT of different places before deciding this one came closest to Ilya’s shaggy, curly hair! I actually added the same hairstyle twice, and slightly rotated the second one, to get this look.) Underneath I have the BoM LeLutka EvoX hairbase 42 from the LeLutka head package.
  • Body: Meshbody Legacy Special Edition Basic (free, from the Avatar Welcome Pack)
  • Body Skin and Hair: Velour Picasso Homme fit figure body skin in Ivory skin tone (along with the chest, leg, and happy trail body hair and body moles included in the package; all body hair was tinted blond to match Ilya’s hair).
  • Arm Hair: Arm Hair 05 from Samurai (I bought this for free using free Samurai store credit from a previous Shop and Hop event; also tinted blond to match the rest of the body hair)
  • Fingernails: Purec Nature Nails Male (free group gift; group is free to join; they come with a fingernail alpha)
  • Toenails: Purec Nature Nails Male (free group gift; group is free to join; they come with a toenail alpha)
  • Shape: My own, playing with the face, head, and body sliders to match up with internet pictures of Ilya Rozanov/Connor Storrie (still somewhat a work-in-progress, although I am very happy with this result).
  • Animation Overide: Tuty’s sLIFE Free Male AO (free)
  • Shorts: Hardcore (HD003ST) Men’s Slim Fit Shorts in black (I bought this for free using free Hardcore store credit from a previous Shop and Hop event)
  • Black Underwear: Hardcore (HD013BS) Men’s Basic Briefs in black (I bought this for free using free Hardcore store credit from a previous Shop and Hop event)
  • Hockey Gear for Video: Meva’s Hockey Pants Complete (these only come in the Signature Gianni size, but with alphas they fit well). I had to create a BoM/underwear layer grey wool sock to cover some bare skin above the skates.The skates were bought from a gacha reseller, they are from the Winter Hockey gacha by Sese & PA and you’ll need to find a good ankle lock to use with them, as well as foot and fingernail alphas! There’s no skating AO that comes with them, so I am trying to cobble something together myself from other skating AOs I can find…still a work in progress! Somebody please make a hockey AO, you’ll make a killing once season two of Heated Rivalry hits!

Shane Hollander Styling Credits:

  • Head: LeLutka Gen head 4.0 (while there’s a free Gen Lite version in the Avatar Welcome pack, I bought the full-price version to use the facial animations and poses in the HUD)
  • Head Skin: Shane skin by OuterNaked (matches Velour’s Idol skin tone; includes the optional, tintable freckles shown in these pictures)
  • Eyes: Florest eyes from Alexandrite
  • Hair: Jack hairstyle by ADE (free group gift; group is free to join). Underneath I have the BoM LeLutka EvoX hairbase 49 from the LeLutka head package, tinted a darker black.
  • Body: Meshbody Legacy Special Edition Basic (free, from the Avatar Welcome Pack)
  • Body Skin: Velour Picasso Homme fit figure body skin in Idol skin tone
  • Arm. Armpit, and Leg Hair: Arm Hair 02 and Leg Hair 02 from Samurai (I bought this for free using free Samurai store credit from a previous Shop and Hop event)
  • Fingernails: Purec Nature Nails Male (free group gift; group is free to join; they come with a fingernail alpha)
  • Toenails: Purec Nature Nails Male (free group gift; group is free to join; they come with a toenail alpha)
  • Shape: My own, playing with the face, head, and body sliders to match up with internet pictures of Shane Hollander/Hudson Willaims (still a work-in-progress, but I am extremely happy with this result).
  • Animation Overide: Tuty’s sLIFE Free Male AO (free)
  • Shorts: Arcback Shorts Blue – Legacy Basic (free; I believe I picked these up at the new Avatar Shopping Island here).
  • Hockey T-Shirt: Matching Hollander and Rozanov Ottawa Senators team T-shirts. Available on the SL Marketplace for only L$60 here: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Tribute-T-Shirt-Heated-Hockey-Tees/27912865
  • Underwear: Hardcore (HD013BS) Men’s Basic Briefs in black or grey, depending on the picture (I bought these for free using free Hardcore store credit from a previous Shop and Hop event).

EDITORIAL: Two Recent YouTube Videos Take Aim at Mark Zuckerberg, Meta, and Meta’s Virtual Reality Hardware and Software Development

Horizon Workrooms get savaged in a highly critical review video by The Verge, a sign of the growing antipathy toward’s Meta virtual reality hardware and software strategy

This is worth negative ten billion dollars. I would pay ten billion dollars to never use this again. I wanted to have hope that we could do this, and it would be fun, but I mean, you guys agree that this one of the most buggy software experiences, ever.

—Alex Heath, The Verge (transcribed audio excerpt from the video below)

I’m still percolating, alas, but I did want to share with my readers a couple of YouTube videos which caught my attention.

The first, a 15-minute editorial video by The Verge‘s Adi Robertson, discusses Meta’s new Quest Pro VR headset and its Horizon Worlds and Horizon Workrooms social VR experiences. She and her colleagues did not hold back in their criticisms of both, particularly the Horizon platforms (the quote at the top of this blogpost comes from another writer for The Verge, as a group was kicking the tires on Horizon Workrooms).

The Verge staff make it very clear that they are less than impressed with what is on offer from Meta, and that they do not believe that remote workteams will be using either the Quest Pro or Horizon Workrooms, over a Zoom call.

The popular virtual reality YouTuber ThrillSeeker goes even further in the following 15-minute video, which has already racked up over 400,000 views:

In it, he takes Mark Zuckerberg and his team at Meta to task for dropping the ball with their virtual reality hardware and software strategy to date:

How in the hell did it go so wrong that Meta and Horizon have become the laughingstock of hundreds of videos and publications, and that Quests, for the most part, are just sitting on shelves collecting dust?

Meta, I understand that you are a massive corporation…and that running a business like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Oculus is probably incredibly difficult.

But you have somehow managed to turn one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life, into one of the lamest jokes in tech.

—ThrillSeeker

Among many other criticisms, he accuses Meta (rightfully) of focusing on wireless VR headsets to the exclusion of high-end PCVR (that is, headsets like his and my beloved Valve Index, which require a good desktop computer with a powerful graphics card, and can run a lot of applications which wireless headsets would struggle with.

What I find so fascinating about both these videos is that they are emblematic of a rising tide of antipathy against Meta, as it tries to repivot to become a metaverse company, sinking tens of billions of dollars a year into a VR/AR strategy that might take a decade or longer before it goes truly mainstream (that is, beyond the early adopters and the hardcore gamers). Both videos mention the recent massive layoffs at Meta, a further sign that all is not well with the company as it struggles to find the next big thing after social networking.

Mark Zuckerberg is placing a very expensive bet on virtual and augmented reality and the metaverse, but will that big bet pay off, and when? Stay tuned.

Video: Matthew Ball Talks About the Metaverse Road Map in Breakroom

On Thursday, October 21st, Matthew Ball, author of the influential Metaverse Primer and lead creator of the Ball Metaverse Index, was joined by Gene Park of the Washington Post and virtual world blogger Wagner James Au for a fireside chat in the virtual world of Breakroom. The chat covered a wide range of topics, including key trends to watch for, the mainstream adoption of the Metaverse, and the broader impact on society. Near the end, metaverse pioneer Philip Rosedale was also invited up on stage. You can read more about the event here.

Matthew Ball is a well-informed, articulate, and insightful speaker about the metaverse, and I highly recommend you watch the following 50-minute video of the well-attended event:

Please note that, as you watch this video, both Adam Frisby and Rohan Freeman of Sine Wave Entertainment, senior executives of the company who make Breakroom and Sinespace, were the ones responsible for spawning the dizzying array of items on and around the stage as the panel members spoke to the assembled audience.

I certainly don’t blame Adam and Rohan for wanting to flex the dynamic editing capabilities of their platform, especially in front of an audience full of big names in the metaverse! However, at first I thought it was a griefer attack! (I even DM’ed Adam to report the “griefer”, not knowing that it was him! How embarrassing.)

Anyways, I learned a lot from Matthew’s talk, and there were some great questions afterward from the audience, so I thought I’d share the video here with you. Stay tuned for news of the next in this free series of Fireside Chats in Breakroom!

This blogpost is sponsored by Sinespace, and was written in my role as an embedded reporter for this virtual world (more details here). 

Two Videos Which Show the Variety and Beauty of Sansar’s Many Worlds

I admit it: I still have a soft spot in my heart for the early social VR platform Sansar.

I joined Sansar which was then in closed beta test, in January 2017, and I began this blog in order to write exclusively about Sansar (in fact, the original name for the RyanSchultz.com blog was the Sansar Newsblog). Over time, I slowly expanded to write about other platforms, but Sansar was my introduction to social VR.

In my opinion, Sansar (built by Linden Lab, opened to the public on July 31st, 2017, and later sold to Wookey in 2020) still boasts some of the most breathtakingly beautiful worlds in the metaverse (thanks in large part to their advanced lighting model). I wanted to reshare two of my favourite videos to give those of you, who might never have set a virtual foot in Sansar, a taste of those worlds.

First is a video by Wurfi, compiled in 2019, showcasing numerous worlds in Sansar. Watching this brings back so many happy memories!

And second is the following YouTube video by Daisy Winthorpe, made in 2020, which also shows off numerous Sansar worlds:

I do hope that these two videos will inspire you to download the Sansar client, and go do some exploring! Many if not most of these worlds are still up and running. Here’s a step-by-step guide for newbies I wrote up in 2019 (although I cannot guarantee that parts of it are not a bit out-of-date).