Thursday September 29 was the day of "Joust a Linden or Mole" at the Renaissance Festival. For a 1000 Linden dollar donation, residents could spar with one of the several Lindens and Moles at the event.
Several Lindens and Moles took part in the event. There was Allota and Dreaming Mole, and there was Constantine, Derrick, and Patch Linden. Constantine's mount was an ostrich. Patch's horse had on bright purple colors.
In the matches, the residents did pretty good, such as Nikki Lacrima's victory over Patch Linden. Unfortunately near the end, my viewer crashed, and lost track of who else jousted who.
There would be other events that day. This included an archery tournament in which the top four were
From October 14 to October 23, the Second Life Sci-Fi Expo will be taking place in Second Life. This event to benefit Making Strides Against Breast Cancer will have numerous music and dance parties, discussions, exhibits by various sci-fi & fantasy roleplay and fan groups and others, and more.
The SciFi Expo is an event in Second Life held to benefit Making Strides
Against Breast Cancer, a campaign sponsored by the American Cancer
Society. SciFi Expo’s mission is to help unite the residents and
community together against a common cause. This great cause is to help
bring awareness and donations to support finding a cure for Breast
Cancer. The mission also strives to help the American Cancer Society
fund breakthrough research about breast cancer, provide free information
and to support people in reducing the risk of breast cancer and finding
methods early to prevent complicated treatments.
Taken at the Furry Fashion Lounge. Pumpkin spice season is here. And that means millions of fans are after their favorite seasonal spice. Pumpkin spice coffee. Pumpkin spice milkshakes. Just why does pumpkin spice have to be so darn popular?
October is almost here. While the month is best known for Halloween, it's also known in real life for the fall season taking hold as the days start to get shorter, the summer heat fades, and trees start to change color. Gemma dropped by a location in Second Life which mirrored real life as it showed trees with changing and falling leaves and other scenery: Longing Melody. It is one of the Nature Collective areas, though hadn't been by it yet. So what did she think?
From the Relay for Life in Second Life Discord channel, three important dates for the 2023 Relay Season. Registration of teams starts on Sunday January 15, 2023. The Kickoff for the season takes place on Saturday February 18. And the big event, the Relay Weekend, is on Saturday June 10 to Sunday June 11.
The Renaissance Festival, or Ren-Fest continues. Besides the shopping, there's been a number of events. I dropped by a discussion of roleplaying at one point.
There's also been music events, both DJs and live performers. Among them was tiny singer Songbird Sorbet.
Tomorrow, Thursday at 1 PM, is one of the more notable happenings of the festival, the "Joust a Mole or Linden" event. The donation needed to take part is 1000 Linden dollars.
The festival raises funds for Making Strides Against Breast Cancer.
Saturday September 24 was the real-life birthday of one of Second Life's more unique performers: Tuna Oddfellow. So he celebrated with an impromptu performance of his Odd Ball.
Tuna Oddfellow is a magician in real life, "Fish the Magish" Fishman. He got attention during Second Life's heyday in 2007 when NBC did a "Most Talented Avatar" competition.
"I've got a mission to bring a little magic to everyone's day," he told
the reporter then. And magic he has delivered, eventually coming up
with the Odd Ball.
For those who have yet to experience his show, it's a bit like dancing
inside a kaleidoscope, or as someone put it, like a drug "trip" without
the nasty side-effects. A few people have gotten headaches from it. Some
feel "trippy," feeling unusually relaxed or euphoric. Others feel it
just looks cool.
Tuna at this time does not have a regular showing of the Odd Ball, instead having occasional performances, announcing to those on his contact list when he's about to start.
In my opinion, this is a unique show that no one else has done anything else like it, and like many other things in Second Life needs to be seen at least once.
For more information, read Penny Shuftan's 2017 interview.
Correction: The date was orginaly a day off, and was later corrected.
The Suweaver Estates have a number of places to visit. There are the various clubs. There's the Newser office. There are some spots one can grab a surfboard or bumper boat. There's the railroad system. There's a few stores and the Puddle Jumper Mall. There's the Farshore Field airport, which members of the community can use to fly planes. Of the latter, overlooking the airport is a large hill. Cyantia Farshore recently informed the Newser it's been given a name: Joy Mountain.
The lower part of the mountain has a railroad tunnel. But the more notable parts are the caves and waterfalls higher up. "The cave is part of the mountain made by Landscaping by Felix and you know it's been here few years now," Cynthia told me, explaining while it's had a few games and sitting spots for quite some time, she recently added to them, "more poses around the pool at the peak and then added games in the cavern. And I knew it needed a name, so came up with Joy mountain 'cause that's what I want it to provide."
Of the games, there were classics such as chess and pool. But there was also "Clued Up," an SL version of "Clue," the popular "Cards Against Humanity," and others. But that wasn't all. "Did you see the spa pool at the top?" She asked me, "the top is a pool you soak in." She pointed out some friends used it for "skinny dipping" not long ago. "Sim is mature," she reminded, "Guess may have to put a sign up, 'possible nudity beyond this spot.'" There was also a bear rug with cuddle poses.
Of future plans, "Maybe a couple rope slides down like Caledon is in order here," she thought, "The cave may have some 'game nights.' I'll have to work details out on that, have competitions with prizes for the top scorer." She thought having special events there for Team Sunbeamers during the Relay season was very likely to happen.
THIS WEEK: The Finale and Final Days of "Evil Under the Sun" on SLEA 6, plus new spooky movie nights and more. Join us this week for more story adventures!
Check out the stories and the storytellers!
All events at Nowhereville (203/43/26) , unless otherwise noted.
Stories told in open voice unless otherwise noted. All times SL/PT
--------->> COMING THIS WEEK
**MONDAY, September 26th at 7pm: THE WOLFEN continues with Gyro Muggins
The Second Life Renaissance Festival is underway. The event, also known as the Ren Fest, started yesterday, September 24. There are numerous things to do there, such as shopping (notably for Medieval and Fantasy clothes, furnishings and gear), attending live and DJ music events, classes, contests, auctions, and competitions and other contests.
Dropping by the landmark area, there was a kiosk display with several outfits, from prices from 250 to 75L There were also some silent auctions done in cooperation with Linden Lab, such as an otherwise free year of Premium Plus or name change. There was in addition a kiosk for a "mega raffle" offering 45,000 Lindens worth of gift cards. I also witnessed a ceremony involving numerous people on horseback.
One of the more notable events, "Joust a Mole or Linden," takes place on Thursday September 29 at 1PM SL time.
The Ren Fest raises money in support of Making Strides, which raises money for the Relay for Life for breast cancer support and research.
Since getting the new office building a few days ago, Gemma and I have been slowly refurbishing it. This includes unpacking some trophies and awards won over time, as well as a desk from our days at Second Life Newspaper.
But we've also gotten some new items, such as this desk and office plant. Bit by bit, we're getting things set up again.
There's a new sim and group to help out veterans. It is Echovets: Band of Brothers. I had a few words with the woman behind it, Stacy Maracas. In real life, Stacy works at a local vet center. Seeing what could be done in Second Life, she would go on to build the place and group behind it.
Second Life has a number of places that appeal to water activities, and some places that appeal to tinies. But how about both? In the Safe Waters Foundation group, I heard about such a place from JoyceTravels.
Talahoy Mercat and Dinkie Friends,
We have been busy with SO many things making Aloha Dinkie Deep a wonderful place to play and live as Mercat and Dinkie!
Dropping over with a friend, we found ourselves on a small island. Joyce and her friends greeted us, and invited us to look around and enjoy the activities. There was a surboard rezzer (and a nearby surf shack), there was a nearby tiny-sized schooner, and a tiny sailboat rezzer. I saw what looked like a sailboat race course around the small island. There was also a small dance floor for parties.
I decided to give the sailboat a try. This was a bit more detailed than some other sailboats as it took into account the wind in the virtual world. Text above the boat (not visible in the picture) showed which direction and how fast it was. It was green when the wind was directly behind you, yellow when it was to the side and slightly behind you, and red when the wind was blowing at your front. I decided to try to sail the race course. But I soon ran into trouble. Trying to get through the markers, I ended up sailing into the wind. So there wasn't anything I could do but wait. And after a few minutes of it not changing, I turned around and sailed back to the island.
I recalled reading in the age of sail, sailors could sometimes have to wait for days for favorable winds. While one wouldn't have to wait that long in Second Life, it did seem patience was needed for these sailboats. Oh well.
It seems the griefers have discovered an exploit in the viewer, and once again the people at Linden Lab, and Firestorm, have to take care of it. While it looked worse than it actually was, it did cause some worry.
A few days ago in the forums, the following was posted in the forums: "New Form of Griefing?"
Today I was at a rental office and noticed a few people hanging around
the welcome area, thought nothing of it then suddenly and simultaneously
my viewer (Latest Firestorm) opened up search and some offensive words
appeared in the text box, as well as a "create new group" window, with
some errorsappearing on the screen. I quickly left and
closed out all these windows. It was quite a scary experience and I was
only one click away from clicking the OK to create a random group at a
100l$ cost.
The post was made by an AmerAaron, who doesn't post on the forums often. And that wasn't the only incident. Earlier in the month, a Stenelaide posted about an incident at a music event.
So tonight I was halfway through my shift as a hostess in a live music
venue and I suddenly crashed. I log back in and this mess pops up on my
screen, on the singer's screen and on her manager's. A search bar with a
nice statement, a friend request and a voice call to the singer. They
also managed to block her on my behalf and they asked me to teleport to
some random piece of mainland. The owner found two scripts that were
dropped. That was awful, how do they manage to execute stuff on our
viewer? Is that simple?
Firestorm Viewer will have a new beta viewer out, hopefully tomorrow with the fix.
To pick up the Firestorm Beta, please join the "Phoenix-Firestorm
Preview Group" & the beta will be sent out in the group notice.
This problem affects all viewers that don't yet have the Linden Lab patch.
Whirly would go on to say the bug was more annoying than dangerous.
It's just a clever use of viewer media.
Though it seems very scary, all that can be done on unpatched viewers
is open up any viewer floater on your screen when the media loads, plus
enter custom text into the search window or TOS window etc.
Obviously I don't want to explain how it's done before everyone has the
fix. I wish I could because then it would be less scary when you see
what 's actually happening. All I will say is the media is not actually directing to an web page at
all & it's actually using supported functions in the viewer. I'm surprised no griefer thought of using it this way before.
So please don't worry - it's extremely annoying but ultimately harmless.
I suspect LL patched it quickly because it was causing lots of worry to those that had been hit with it, understandably.
Checking the Phoenix-Firestorm Preview group, there was a new beta viewer that was released just a few days ago, Firestorm Beta build 6.6.5.68062. Checking further on the wiki entry, they had added some features related to the issue.
Fixed media on a prim looping when it should not.
Fixed audio from media on a prim (MOAP) begins to play if object is put into edit mode
Fixed the Search floater opening without appropriate search results after performing a search from the NavBar
So it seems the annoyance is on it's way to being solved, though it may be some time before the feature gets put into an official viewer update.
"We went commercial!!! Viva Capitalism! You can now buy this limited edition cap that everyone wants at Deathlands! Adjustable! Made with love by Goddess!"
Taken at Club Cutlass's sci-fi party. In the original series of Star Trek, lower-ranked men and women in Security, noted for their red shirts, ended up getting killed a number of times to the point it became a trope. Thinking about it, their weapons were smaller than those in a certain other science-fiction tale. Looks like this one 'shirt isn't taking chances on her next away-team mission.
It was almost ten years ago in December 2012 in which the SL Newser got a change of office buildings. While the first one stood for about a year and a half, the second building stood for almost ten years. But nothing lasts forever, and a few days ago, Ranchan Wiedman who manages the sim contacted us saying the new office building was ready to be put in place. So most of the furnishings were taken out, and yesterday Ranchan placed the new structure.
Both buildings have a few things in common, such as plenty of windows for a good look outside. The previous building people could get up or down via a spiral staircase in the middle. The new design is more of a zigzag, slightly slower in climbing upstairs, but a little less likely to slip and fall down.
A few items were taken down for good such as a retired reporter's desk and the terminal of an old sponsor that couldn't be moved. In the case of a picture left by the late Alleara Snoodle, as it couldn't be moved Ran did her best to work around it.
We'll be spending a few days putting some of the furnishings back, and putting in some new furniture and decor. We'll miss the old office, it served us well. But we'll soon have the new one fully up and running.
The location remains at HV Community (140, 85, 25)
Maps of Second Life can be misleading, especially when trying to show the entire world at once. Because of a few outlying regions (or agglomerations thereof) that are positioned extremely far from the Grid’s geographic center, Second Life can appear mostly empty despite its enormous size.
Distance can seem less important in a world where teleportation is possible—and often the only way to travel. Still, some trivia: The western- and easternmost Second Life regions are currently about 449 km apart, with roughly 665 km between the regions in the far north and south.
It's been a few months since the Relay Weekend, and a couple months since the Relay for Life's fundraising season for 2022 officially ended. But the team has been getting ready for the next season. In July, team captain Rita Mariner placed an off-season tip jar for anyone to donate money for next season. On Friday Sept 16, Rita announced the total raised so far was 125,000 Linden dollars, or $500 US dollars. "We've made Gold," she stated, meaning that the amount was what it took for a team to reach gold-level fundraising level this past season.
The 2023 fundraising season doesn't start until February. Until then, there's the Christmas Expo in December, and Making Strides which is in October. The Renaissance Festival which raises money for the later starts this Friday, September 23.
For those wishing to donate, the tip jar is at Club Cublass, at Sunweaver Bay (114/117/757)
"Shiver me timbers! It be 'International Talk Like A Pirate Day' me hearties. So feel free ta speak th' way of th' brotherhood, dress up like a buccaneer or wench, or better yet, both. Check out yer groups fer pirate-themed goin's on. Arrrrrrrrr!"
*Update* While in Second Life, heard about a cool place in Bellisseria chat.
Michael (Bubblesort Triskaidekaphobia): This is outside Bellisseria, but I thought somebody here might know what this is... I found an island pirate cove, with a massive hoard of gold, off the NW coast of Satori The NW coast of Satori has a lot of cool islands to explore. Anyway, when I click on the one treasure chest I got a gleaming pirates sword. I got something similar when clicking on a treasure chest in some tunnels in a rainforest once... is this part of a bigger game that I don't know about, or is it just a cool thing the lindens leave lying around? My notice said Naughty Mole gave it to me.
Checking out the island at Orlop (86,154,23), I found myself on an island with a huge skull in the center, filled with gold coins. Clicking on it, I got the golden sword that was being talked about, as well as a crown when clicking elsewhere. I got a script warning message stating the code was outdated. Oh well, it's an interesting momento for Pirate Day.
The island was created by the Moles of the Department of Public Works.
If you ever thought of getting into a pin up calendar, here's your chance!
This years theme is Couples, so not only can you become a pin-up, you get to be a pin up with your favorite Angel!
It is being held at "The Happy Vixen Beach club!" Come by check out the models up for your bidding as well as the club!
This auction will run from Sept 15th until Oct 1st, so come and see who you want to bid on and hang out and listen to some GREAT tunes from our fantastic DJ's SEE YOU HERE!
THIS WEEK: Pirates! Poets! Wizards, and more Sci-Fi journeys. Join us this week for more story adventures!
Check out the stories and the storytellers!
All events at Nowhereville (203/43/26) , unless otherwise noted.
Stories told in open voice unless otherwise noted. All times SL/PT
--------->> COMING THIS WEEK
**MONDAY, September 19th at 7pm: AVAST! THERE BE PIRATE (George)! with R. Dismantled and Caledonia Skytower, celebrating International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
**TUESDAY, September 20th: ~ at NOON: RUSSELL EPONYM, Live in The Glen
~ at 7pm: HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE Continues with Caledonia Skytower.
Taken at the Happy Vixen. This avatar took a while to rezz on my viewer, resulting in a mostly red appearance. It left me guessing for a few moments what she really looked like.
Since the closing of Second Life Newspaper, the predecessor paper of the SL Newser, not much has been heard of it's editor Dana Vanmoer. She has come back to Second Life once in a great while, but not often. But recently in real-life, she made a little news.
In real life, Dana (Donna Wilby in real life) has taken up crochet. With the passing of Queen Elizabeth, she decided to do a tribute of her own, knitting a mailbox "topper." Well, it was one of several "Woolly Wonders" that were featured in the Daily Mail online newspage.
She would write on Facebook, "I intended to stay anonymous but have been outed by the Daily Mail so you get to see work in progress and final photos"
If you rent a place in Second Life through someone rather than getting it directly from Linden Lab, then chances are you know of Caspertech. Their rentboxes are a fairly common sight in numerous places here, including at the Sunweaver Estates where the Newser office makes it's home. Since 2018 with the closing of Hippo Technologies, they've clearly been the top seller of rental vendors. Things seem to have run smoothly with them. So it was a big surprise yesterday when Linden Lab announced they were acquiring them.
CasperTech has provided various business related services within Second
Life for 13 years. Over that time, CaperTech has proudly provided
continuous service for tens of thousands of Second Life businesses, and
it has remained steadfast in its commitment to the merchants who have
depended on those services.
This acquisition will ensure that all of the existing CasperTech
services in Second Life will continue to operate without interruption
into the foreseeable future, but it also opens up brand new
opportunities to vastly improve the experience for our users as our next
step in the CasperTech and Second Life journey.
You can expect to see the same great services that you know and love
continue on, with all of the same functionality you enjoy today, but
with closer integration into the Second Life ecosystem – and as such, an
even more reliable and convenient experience.
The news sparked more than a few questions and some fears among some residents, both those on the forum thread to discuss the matter, as well as conversations with people I had that day. A few were expecting Linden Lab to gouge them to the point they'd have to give up some of their land.
Shortly afterwards, there was a special episode of Lab Gab to help explain things. In short, Caspervend is not in trouble, but the owner had other reasons to sell.
Caspertech is owned by Casper Warden, and he and Patch Linden were interviewed by Strawberry Linden. Casper stated he came to Second Life in 2006, was asked to by people in his real-life job to take a look at it. Worked on promotional material for the company at first. But was soon making his own items. Caspertech as a Second Life company has been around for 13 years. Casper originally created the vendor system in 2009 for his own personal use as he didn't like some of the ways what was on the market worked, "they were script-heavy, and I didn't like the way that the vendors scrolled through the products." But he soon realized people were more interested in his vendors than what he was selling, "In hindsight, I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised by that." So he soon launched version one to the public. While he didn't do an ad campaign for it, word spread by word of mouth and started becoming popular, "and we just continued to expand to meet customer needs." Casper does make other items, such as a security orb and a product update system, though his vendors continue to be his "bread and butter."
Patch called himself "a bit of a fan" about Casper's products, and had been using them not just for himself, but Linden Lab work, calling it "an awesome system." He would say the talks about Linden Lab getting Caspertech started, "a little while back now," with he and Casper talking on various subjects, and eventually came to the idea of the Lab taking the system and intigrating it with Second Life. This way, Patch stated, this would mean the long-term stability of the vendor system while under the Lab there would be more resources available to improve on it. So Patch asked him about the idea, "and well, here we are." Patch went on to say Caspertech's technology, "will bring a lot of capabilities ... in the future."
Strawberry asked what residents can expect. Casper answered that customer services will continue, "It's really critical to us that our customers don't get disrupted." He went on to say that he was still basically in charge of Caspertech's day to day operations, saying the big difference was that they now had, "the support and resources of Linden Lab behind us," reminding that other companies offering rental vendors had closed down over the years, "now our customers can be assured that their Caspertech services aren't just going to suddenly disappear." Of the future, he stated that he saw "plenty of exciting opportunities" to improve the vendor system, saying residents can expect "significant" improvements. Patch stated that in the deal, the Lab "would not interrupt or change what you know and love about the Casper products today. They will continue for the foreseeable future just as they are now. ... the goal is to ... give Second Life residents the tools they need to be successful in what they do."
Casper described himself as mainly a software engineer, and stated that as his business expended, "I found increasingly less and less time on my hands to really spend on the code," and that "many requested features have kind of sat on the back burner. ... this move give me an opportunity to really get back to what I love and what I'm good at," developing his rental vendors and other products of his. He would go on to say he'll still be online, and around in group chat, "monitoring and helping to keep everything running," and thanked his support staff, "who have already kept the show running all these years."
Patch stated they would soon start working with Casper to "transition the service" to the Lab, saying the goal was to make it smooth to the point it wouldn't be noticed by anyone. And after that, Casper would presumable have more time to work on the system's new features.
In the forums, someone would ask Casper if he was in some kind of financial trouble, and he would answer, "No! We've been profitable since the day we launched. But the amount that one guy (me) can handle is limited, and as CT grew I found myself with a massive challenge and not enough time to improve the service. Now I can! *yay*" There were numerous other comments. Some were cautious, some were optimistic, some were a little of both, feeling the Lab wasn't out to gouge them but weren't so sure about the promised improvements. There were a few comparisons to Linden Lab's acquisition of Xstreet, which would eventually become Second Life's Marketplace. One would say this was no surprise as she felt Caspervend had gotten "too big to fail" for Second Life.
While a major development, for now it appears little will change as far as daily life in Second Life goes. Hopefully Casper will soon come up with the improvements he says he was requested to make, but hadn't the time to develop them. For now, we can only wait and see.
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