Your source of news about the people, places, things, and events across Second Life.
This Saturday, the "Seasons of Hope" Relay for Life season officially comes to an end. All from the various teams, and their friends, are invited to the Florida Keys sim for the "Wrap-Up" party. From 3-4 PM SL time is live music from Damian Carbenell. at 4 PM, T1 Radio takes over the tunage. And at 4:30, the Awards Ceremony begins.
Why Follow ... When You Can Lead?
It's quite a week this mid-August in Second Life. There's plenty of dance and music parties across clubs of all kinds. Plus there are the talk shows. And this weekend a couple special events, the Zindra Expo and the Spot 3D conference.
While on the trail of another story, I ran into a former renter of Omega Properties. After he'd been living there for a year and a half, he found himself suddenly evicted even though he had paid his teir in advance. Others had been evicted too, one woman losing nearly a quarter-million Lindens. Calling the staff for help, he found the owner of the company, Chaos Ametza, was nowhere to be found.
Grey Lupindo recently took a trip to the Steelhead region. With recent attention in the countryside, she took a trip to the city, ending up in the Chinatown area of Steelhead Shanghai. In the article, Grey looks at the sights and sounds of this working class Oriental/Steampunk place.
About the same day as her interview with Sara Glenn, reporter Netera Landar had a chance to meet up with another writer: Gwen Mayo. Having studied politics and history in college, she went on to write about historical subject matters. In Second Life, she has been found at Book Island.
The Transylvanian region celebrated seven years in Second Life last week, Saturday Aug. 13th being the anniversary. The Transylvania sim itself is not a true roleplay area, but a hangout for vamps. Except for the "Bloodlines" vamps, whom will be booted. If you ever feel like braving a little danger, or feel like being a "pain in the neck," check this place out for some spooky fun. Besides the gothic town you port in, there are a few other sims in the place to explore.
In the early evening of Friday August 12th in the Steelhead region, Mt St. Helens errupted. The eruption was deliberately planned, but was probably larger than intended, and earlier than the intended time of 7PM SL time. Pyrocastic flows of lava poured down the side and into a nearby lake. A number of trees were destroyed, but the only property damage appeared to be a tent set afire by embers that drifted over and a boat in the lake that had caught fire and halfway sank.
They were soon joined by a huge red dragon, followed by what looked like a female demon. Instead of attacking, they just mingled, the demon dancing to the music. More residents began arriving, in addtion to another firey girl with flames flickering off her body plus some kind of creature resembling a small volcano with airplanes flying around it. and they joined in. No one seemed too upset by the volcano, perhaps trusting that the local scientists had it under control, or perhaps had been looking forward to a show of some kind, “We just love a good ... spectacle, don't we?” someone commented with a grin. A couple nekos were chewing on tiny Chinese firecrackers
And then there were the puns, “What did the flint say to the piece of steel? - ‘You look very striking tonight.’ “ “Let’s strike up a conversation.“ “Did someone make an ‘ash’ out of himself?” “The punsters are on fire tonight.”
Last week, the new top breedable pets to take the Grid by storm, the meeroos, found themselves under assault. First vandals put up phony food supplies up for sale. Then came Linden Lab's response - suspending the account of the person who could make the food!
The Burn2 is off to a great start.The dates are October 1 through 9 and although it seems far away it will be here soon. Plots are being sold to builders and they are busy are working on their creations off the playa getting ready for their projects and are excited. I cannot wait to see the artistic visions for Rites of Passage, the theme of Burn2, 2011.
Gemma Cleanslate
Shellie Sands is back with us at Second Life Newser. Upon her return, she presented a tale of a trip to Witch's Forest where there was an art exhibit "Seasons of the Witch." After that, she walked the trail to Witch Mountain, which offered a number of sights along the way.
Sponsored by the Linden Endowment for the Arts, but certainly not under Linden direction, the "Avatar Games" take place every Monday with residents dashing down a surreal obstacle course. Join us as we look at this new weekly event conducted as only the residents of Second Life can.
Last week, New World Notes reported that Beth Odets, “a longtime Second Life community leader, artist, and musician” was going through surgery to remove a brain tumor. In a couple days, $6,000 US Dollars had been raised. Since then, the money has continued to come in. Daniel Voyager recently posted that the total had passed nine thousand dollars.
The psychedelic 60’s can be found at the latest rotating installation on the Syzygy community. “Welcome to Pip’s Acid Trip: An Ode to Olo!” begins at the Community Center on Syzygy Eos (15, 10, 76). Pipsqueak Fiddlesticks created the installation and named it in honor of resident Olorin Tigerpaw.
The build consists of three levels, all wildly reminiscent of that groovy era of peace and love. The first level is easily reached from a teleporter in the Community Center. You will be transported into a meadow of happy, smiling flowers. Explore this magical, vegetative matter until you fall into the secret passage that leads to the second level, a psychedelic sphere of color and grooviness. As you explore this sphere, you will fall into the third level, which was the site a wild party on July 23. Frequency Picnic served as DJ, and over a dozen residents and friends of the Syzygy community danced and told tales of that bygone time. Dance cages, fantastic flowers and even an old VW van set the scene.
Some residents claimed to have had first-hand knowledge of those times. Olorin Tigerpaw lived on a hippie commune for a while. The best event was recounted by Crescent Renard, who told about seeing Jimi Hendrix play at UCLA. She and her friends were right up by the stage. “He was ... taking joints from, or giving them to, the audience,” she remembered, “and he was playing like crazy ... guitar behind his back, everywhere.” Other residents were suspiciously silent about any memories they might have made. But for the duration of the party, at least, everyone was a flower child.
This resident installation is temporary, so visit it soon. The music has ended, but the colors and lights are fantastic. Enjoy the trip!
Grey Lupindo
Tensai, who was nearby, seemed to grin manically, "Yesss... something must blow up." TotalLunar commented, "It is called the 'smoking mountain' for a reason." A Rockandroll Michigan who was nearby suggested that "bewm" was a "state hobby" of the area.
Netara Landar first met Sarah Glenn not in Second Life, but at an Authorfest in real life. Netera convinced her to come here, and her work can be seen at Book Island. Here, Sarah talks about her writing and her novel "All This and Family Too," which deals with vampires, "extraordinary people ... in very ordinary circumstances."
This week in Second Life offers a variety of things to do this month. From clubs with various themes from romance to pop music to space age, to gaming events, to fishing contests, to talk shows, and more.
After the announcements Sunday and Monday about Club Zero Gravity's closing, people talked. Although folks understood the club was closing due to events beyond Nydia's control, a number expressed their desire that it continue.
This weekend, the annual live music event "Jamm for Genes" took place. Raising money for a children's' charity in Australia, live musicians performed at four venues across Second Life. In all, 380,000 Lindens were raised, easily beating last year's total.
Gemma Cleanslate has been a busy reporter. She's been spending a lot of time "working on the railroad" at the Heterocera Atoll continent exploring the Second Life Railroad. Originally created before teleporting as a way to quickly move residents from one place to another, it continues to run for the railroad enthusiasts here on the Grid.
Yesterday on Sunday August 7th, Nydia Tungsten informed Second Life Newser that the space club Club Zero Gravity would be closing it's doors to regular events "until further notice." She cited real life events beyond her control as the reason for the decision. Club Little Dove, which is in the Southern Colorado sim, will be taking over its events for now, it's events being sponsored by sim owner Daaneth Kivioq.
From Thursday to today Saturday, the Avination Grid has been having it’s first official Anniversary celebrations. Conducted mostly in a sim appropriately named Avn1B, there were live concerts to attend, as well as a few freebies to pick up and a few amsements, such as an amusement park ride and a maze sim. There was also a raffle in one building on the northeast, the prize being getting an Avination sim rent-free for a year.
Dropping by on Friday afternoon, a Carah Nitely was singing. While the crowd at 26 residents would be considered great for a typical party in Second Life, it seemed small considering the magnitude of the event. Among the crowd were some of Avination’s “A-Team,” the equivalent of Second Life’s Lindens. Chatting with someone with customer relations, she admitted things were a bit smaller and simpler here, but the A-Team was far better at listening to the residents and dealing with problems.
Avination has had great success as well as challenges in it’s first year. It grew rapidly, then more recently began leveling off. There has also been a debate about Avination having a less strict gambling policy than Linden Labs, some saying it gives the residents more choice, others expressing worry about the gaming halls. It was partially because of their allowing gambling that Paypal and Avination almost parted ways but reconciled. There were also rumors floating around that Avination hired JCool/Fractured Crystal of Team Emerald to work on their viewer. Although the man in question was later booted from Avination for trying to access Second Life again after being banned, there has been no solid evidence to support the rumors.
Tomorrow, I'll be at Netera Landar's Coffee Lounge. But instead of in the audience, I'll be the one being interviewed by Netera. Usually she interviews musicians and poets in front of her audience, but this time they'll be hearing some about the business of running an online newspaper.
A team of builders, scripters, and combateers has been working on a new combat sim - Aria Clash. Called a “feudal Japan/sci-fi crossover,” warriors with their blades and rangers with their guns spar against one another in the arena, or against monsters in the "Forest of Death." There are also tournaments and fights against "boss" enemies.
"Jamm for Genes" is part of the annual "Jeans for Genes" fundraiser for the Childrens Medical Research Institute, an Australian charity with global benefits. "Jamm for Genes" is all about live music raising money, for research into cell biology that helps with both prevention and cure of childhood, congenital and genetic diseases.
Fredrik Linden, a software engineering director at Linden Lab for about 18 months, announced he will be leaving this Friday, August 5th. "I'm off to new adventures," he was quoted as saying.
For those wanting to check out a combat sim on the Grid that offers both player vs player combat and players against computer-controlled enemies, that offers a choice of fighting melee or with ranged weapons, check out the Aria Clash combat sim. Built and run by a team lead by the feisty Aasha Kohime, it's worth a look.
This first week of August offers a number of events on the Grid, from dance parties to live music events, to talk shows. We can't get them all, but we can find out about a few.
On Sunday July 31st, there was a Benefit Concert at the Sunset Jazz Club. It was held in behalf of Circe Broom, a resident whom was noted by the staff as being a generous supporter of the arts, whom now was in need herself.
The party began at 4 PM SL time wit Vincent Mericks playing on the stage. At 5 PM, Krissie Snowdrop took the microphone. At 6 PM were “The Hamelins” (RB & Raven). At 7PM was the musical pair called “Soar,” Bright Oh and Charles Somerset. Finally at 8, Gamjo Mokeey was scheduled to sing. The event at tunes was called the “Brent and Lexie Benefit,” refering to Brent Kingsley and Lexie Leitner. There were a few times the music was interupted to announce a particulary large donation. People gave donations large and small.
After the fundraiser, I had a few words with Circe's partner Vincent Merricks, “ It was a good night and we made her enough to take some of the pressure off her when it comes to tier.” Asking him what was planned for the future, “Just to keep doing what she's always done and provide the best entertainment she can to the people in SL. Music most of the time, but also poetry aand other arts on Laurel. She loves the arts. A strong supporter of the arts. (smile)”
If you had problems with Second Life this weekend, you weren't alone.[RESOLVED] All network issues have been resolved.
[POSTED 31 JUL 2011, 1:18PM PDT] We are currently experiencing network issues that may cause regions to fail to restart, login and teleport issues, and Landstore issues. We are working to resolve these as soon as possible. Please check this blog for updates.
Hopefully this means things have been cleared up. Then again, most of us know the Grid seldom is truly glitch-free.
Bixyl Shuftan
