By Bixyl Shuftan
1 week ago
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Burn2 "Mini-Burn" Land Rush
You already know that there will be a “mini-burn” on the playa at Deep Hole beginning March 31 and ending April 1. There were two land rushes on Saturday at 8:00 AM SL time and 8 PM SL time to accommodate all time zones. It was fun seeing a land rush again! It has been a while since I witnessed one.
As the gates were opened, avid burners rushed down the dusty playa looking for open plots to rent at a very low price, 1L. It went well at both times and by the end of the second hour all plots were occupied. I was lucky enough to get a plot in the morning after most were gone. By then I did not feel guilty about grabbing it as I patrolled as ranger helping locate empty plots for frantic burners. I thought the builders would wait a bit but no! By the next morning there were at least tents or chairs on each plot.
By Sunday afternoon there were some amazing builds rising on the playa. It is such fun to see the empty dusty playa come alive with motion and color. I think we need more mini burns!! One builder I know who had no intention of coming arrived and in a few hours, I think she is already finished. Well, as you know builders are never finished.
There will be tinkering and fiddling with prims going on right up to the close of the mini burn! Hope to see you all on the playa soon! Parties being planned! And, remember it is April Fool’s Day weekend!
Gemma Cleanslate
As the gates were opened, avid burners rushed down the dusty playa looking for open plots to rent at a very low price, 1L. It went well at both times and by the end of the second hour all plots were occupied. I was lucky enough to get a plot in the morning after most were gone. By then I did not feel guilty about grabbing it as I patrolled as ranger helping locate empty plots for frantic burners. I thought the builders would wait a bit but no! By the next morning there were at least tents or chairs on each plot.
By Sunday afternoon there were some amazing builds rising on the playa. It is such fun to see the empty dusty playa come alive with motion and color. I think we need more mini burns!! One builder I know who had no intention of coming arrived and in a few hours, I think she is already finished. Well, as you know builders are never finished.There will be tinkering and fiddling with prims going on right up to the close of the mini burn! Hope to see you all on the playa soon! Parties being planned! And, remember it is April Fool’s Day weekend!
Gemma Cleanslate
Help Wanted: Managers Needed for Castaway Cove, Green Meadows, Clubs
Two clubs are looking for people to help manage them, due to the owners having multiple demands in Second Life and real life. These are the Castaway Cove and Green Meadows clubs.
The Castaway Cove club was built fairly recently, a few months ago. Built in the Kalmeere Paradise sim, it was intended to be a temporary club until the sim was developed for residential use. But plans for housing have changed, and the club will be untouched for some time. Most likely, it will stay at the sim in some form.
Castaway Cove is owned by Nydia Tungsten, a longtime DJ whom has also ended up with ownership of a few clubs. This beach club has a unique layout, resembling a wrecked pirate ship broken in two. The dance area is located in between. There is a small shopping area, some board games to play between events, jet skis to boat around the sim's ocean area, and a "Primtionary" game, possibly the only one around outside Luskwood.
Castaway Cove is in Kalmeere Paradise (18, 184, 21)
The Green Meadows Club has been around for a few years. Originally opened as Xanadu by Perri Prinz and RECoyote Mindes, it was developed to be a "classic rock club for people who enjoy both popular and obscure rock music from the 70's and 80's." The club temporarily closed in 2010, but was reopened a year later to a cheerful group happy to see its return. Officially, it was renamed the Green Meadows Club, but fans continued to call it "Perri's Xanadu."
The club's exterior has a strong resemblance to the Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles, which was the setting of the club in the movie "Xanadu." The inside of the club is made to look like a 70's disco, with sacks of vinyl records next to the DJ booth. The place has a small store area nearby, as well as a teleport to Perri's art gallery with illustrations for her "Spectral Shadows" stories, and more.
Green Meadows is located at HV Community (61, 201, 4051)
Both venues are part of the FCA club alliance, of which the various clubs work to coordinate their schedules to avoid time conflicts. Those interested in managing Castawave Cove are asked to send a notecard to Nydia Tungsten, and for Grean Meadows send a notecard to Perri Prinz.
Bixyl Shuftan
The Castaway Cove club was built fairly recently, a few months ago. Built in the Kalmeere Paradise sim, it was intended to be a temporary club until the sim was developed for residential use. But plans for housing have changed, and the club will be untouched for some time. Most likely, it will stay at the sim in some form.Castaway Cove is owned by Nydia Tungsten, a longtime DJ whom has also ended up with ownership of a few clubs. This beach club has a unique layout, resembling a wrecked pirate ship broken in two. The dance area is located in between. There is a small shopping area, some board games to play between events, jet skis to boat around the sim's ocean area, and a "Primtionary" game, possibly the only one around outside Luskwood.
Castaway Cove is in Kalmeere Paradise (18, 184, 21)
The Green Meadows Club has been around for a few years. Originally opened as Xanadu by Perri Prinz and RECoyote Mindes, it was developed to be a "classic rock club for people who enjoy both popular and obscure rock music from the 70's and 80's." The club temporarily closed in 2010, but was reopened a year later to a cheerful group happy to see its return. Officially, it was renamed the Green Meadows Club, but fans continued to call it "Perri's Xanadu."The club's exterior has a strong resemblance to the Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles, which was the setting of the club in the movie "Xanadu." The inside of the club is made to look like a 70's disco, with sacks of vinyl records next to the DJ booth. The place has a small store area nearby, as well as a teleport to Perri's art gallery with illustrations for her "Spectral Shadows" stories, and more.
Green Meadows is located at HV Community (61, 201, 4051)
Both venues are part of the FCA club alliance, of which the various clubs work to coordinate their schedules to avoid time conflicts. Those interested in managing Castawave Cove are asked to send a notecard to Nydia Tungsten, and for Grean Meadows send a notecard to Perri Prinz.
Bixyl Shuftan
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Events this Week in Second Life from March 20th to March 26th
St. Patrick's Day may be gone, but there are plenty of things to do this week from the Fashion for Life, which ends today, to the Terry Fox Foundation and the Feed a Smile "Feed Your Ego" fundraisers, the March Military Expo, the London City Spring Fest, and more unique events. And of course the regularly scheduled book & poetry readings, live & DJ music parties, talk shows, and more.Read more in Events this Week.
Terry Fox Foundation Cancer Fundraiser Today
"Join friends for this inspiring and fun fundraising event for The Terry Fox Foundation, held March 20 from 1-8 p.m. (Pacific). Event includes live music, a fashion show and more.More info at http://twomoonparadise.wordpress.com."
Two Moon Paradise (152, 47, 21)
SL Enquirer: Interview with Pooky Amsterdam
"Pooky Amsterdam is amongst a handful of people in Second Life that have instant name recognition. She's prominently known for her Machinima productions and her production company, PookyMedia. She's produced clips for a variety of clients, including Linden Lab itself. If you do a search for television shows with her name, you get numerous returns. Her YouTube channel has received over 1.2 million views. One of her early experiences with VR has been Habbo Hotel, where she was producing videos as well."I had the tremendous good fortune to be able to sit down with Pooky on a Thursday evening for a chat about herself and her values in both her company and in Second Life. While my interviews are usually short and pointed, I discovered an hour had passed by the time we were wrapping up! She's a very open and easy personality to get to know, and I'm glad to count her as one of my friends in SL."
Read Allen Eppenberger's article Here.
Monday, March 19, 2012
"Fashion for Life" Ends Tomorrow
The Relay for Life event "Fashion for Life" officially ends tomorrow. Begining on March 10th, this is a big fashion fundraiser for the Relay, where one can buy clothes with the proceeds going to the Relay for Life. The event is in the Dreamseeker sim."It's time for Fashion for Life! Check out the designs and do some shopping all for a good cause. Efforts and funds committed to FFL go to support American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life. Fashion For Life is entirely volunteer-driven, and 100% of the funds raised are presented as a charitable donation to ACS from the residents of Second Life. Read more at http://www.fashionforlifesl.org. "
DreamSeeker Its Time (128, 128, 26)
An Awesome 80’s Club
Grease Coakes is back with another club review. Here, he checks out a place playing music from the time of Atari games, MTV, and the fall of the Berlin Wall: the 1980's. Grease talks to the owners about how the club came to be, and what goes on with running it.Read more in Extra.
The New "Destination Islands" for Newcomers Compared to Previous Entry Islands
I recently heard about new "Destination Island" areas set up as the new entry point for newcomers. With the Linden Helper and Greeter Islands recently closed, this got my attention. I couldn't head over with my own account, getting a message saying the destination was "not available." So I decided to have a see for myself by creating a temporary alt, and logging in.
And the experience was … simple. One landed in a circular structure made of arches and pillars. The floor was white brick with the Linden Lab hand symbol in the center. Around the place were trees in the style of the Linden Realms area. One could walk for a short distance and fly around. There were a few other avatars around, mine taking over a minute to rezz. There was no music.
A window named "Tutorial" popped up, which had simple, basic instructions such as movement, panning the view, flying, chatting, adding a friend, and using search. There were several portals here, with names like "Popular," "Music," "Adult," "Editors Choice," etc. I chose one named "Roleplay." But this revealed a flaw in the Linden's intentions. The sim where the infohub was, a script called my avatar "too young," and I was ejected to another sim at random. This would be a very confusing start for a newcomer.
It certainly was a different entrance than my own initial experience to Second Life years ago in December 2006, over five years ago on Orientation Island. It was fairly well detailed, a beach island, and looked interesting and different compared to what else I had seen. At least it looked interesting once everything rezzed. And the music was nice too, as well as having appropriate lyrics, "If you bravely go, you can build a whole new wor-ld!" The brick trail I went on took me to several stations, which had me click on a Linden hand hologram for a notecard on how things worked, such as flying and chatting.
Trouble was, the lag. On my old PC, it took a while for everything to appear, and getting around was terribly slow. Not to mention I crashed frequently. It was more than a little frustrating. It took a total of a few hours of time inworld due to the lag and crashes before I had gone through the island to the place where one. Trying it again more recently (see below) I moved much faster, so perhaps it was the computer that made me so slow then. Other residents described other problems, such as those tacky-looking "noob" avatars (Click here for a list of Orientation Island experiences from New World Notes 2008).
In March 2010, Linden Labs made a change. Orientation Island was replaced as the entry point with the Welcome and Discovery Islands. Hamlet Au described them as being two years in development. He thought they were an overall improvement, but still didn't take care of some of the issues newcomers had with Second Life. Noting the high tech feel with the white roundish buildings, he called it "like walking into an Apple store that's selling Microsoft products." The biggest improvement to him was the place being a series of instructional rooms, which he felt kept newcomers from getting lost or confused.
Following a trip through here, there was an option to head to Discovery Islands, an open place with a similar high tech look. It had video screens for more instructions (often from Torley Linden). Hamlet Au thought while useful, he doubted most new users would recall "much of the firehose of information thrown at them."
Blogger Mickey Vandevere described her own experiences with Welcome Island. She found herself cloudy, or naked and bald instead of blonde and clothed, "I feel alone, and I'm not having fun. And I know what's ahead. A true newcomer does not."
Daniel Voyager has his own article about the new Discovery Islands. It was his opinion (in the comment section), "I think many newbies will get lost and most likely quit faster than in previous years. Changes are needed ASAP! " Others commenting on his blog, and in the Linden forums, that this needed more work.
On another note, there are public versions of Orientation Island and Welcome Island up (Orientation Island Public and Welcome Island Public), the former where I found moving around was much faster than my first experience (though the beach look had been changed into grassland). Perhaps newcomers are better off with these places than with the new bare-bones welcome area.
Sources: New World Notes, Daniel Voyager, Mickey Vandevere
Image of Orientation Island by Hamlet Au
Image of Welcome Island by Daniel Voyager
Bixyl Shuftan
And the experience was … simple. One landed in a circular structure made of arches and pillars. The floor was white brick with the Linden Lab hand symbol in the center. Around the place were trees in the style of the Linden Realms area. One could walk for a short distance and fly around. There were a few other avatars around, mine taking over a minute to rezz. There was no music.A window named "Tutorial" popped up, which had simple, basic instructions such as movement, panning the view, flying, chatting, adding a friend, and using search. There were several portals here, with names like "Popular," "Music," "Adult," "Editors Choice," etc. I chose one named "Roleplay." But this revealed a flaw in the Linden's intentions. The sim where the infohub was, a script called my avatar "too young," and I was ejected to another sim at random. This would be a very confusing start for a newcomer.
It certainly was a different entrance than my own initial experience to Second Life years ago in December 2006, over five years ago on Orientation Island. It was fairly well detailed, a beach island, and looked interesting and different compared to what else I had seen. At least it looked interesting once everything rezzed. And the music was nice too, as well as having appropriate lyrics, "If you bravely go, you can build a whole new wor-ld!" The brick trail I went on took me to several stations, which had me click on a Linden hand hologram for a notecard on how things worked, such as flying and chatting.
Trouble was, the lag. On my old PC, it took a while for everything to appear, and getting around was terribly slow. Not to mention I crashed frequently. It was more than a little frustrating. It took a total of a few hours of time inworld due to the lag and crashes before I had gone through the island to the place where one. Trying it again more recently (see below) I moved much faster, so perhaps it was the computer that made me so slow then. Other residents described other problems, such as those tacky-looking "noob" avatars (Click here for a list of Orientation Island experiences from New World Notes 2008).
In March 2010, Linden Labs made a change. Orientation Island was replaced as the entry point with the Welcome and Discovery Islands. Hamlet Au described them as being two years in development. He thought they were an overall improvement, but still didn't take care of some of the issues newcomers had with Second Life. Noting the high tech feel with the white roundish buildings, he called it "like walking into an Apple store that's selling Microsoft products." The biggest improvement to him was the place being a series of instructional rooms, which he felt kept newcomers from getting lost or confused.Following a trip through here, there was an option to head to Discovery Islands, an open place with a similar high tech look. It had video screens for more instructions (often from Torley Linden). Hamlet Au thought while useful, he doubted most new users would recall "much of the firehose of information thrown at them."
Blogger Mickey Vandevere described her own experiences with Welcome Island. She found herself cloudy, or naked and bald instead of blonde and clothed, "I feel alone, and I'm not having fun. And I know what's ahead. A true newcomer does not."
Daniel Voyager has his own article about the new Discovery Islands. It was his opinion (in the comment section), "I think many newbies will get lost and most likely quit faster than in previous years. Changes are needed ASAP! " Others commenting on his blog, and in the Linden forums, that this needed more work.
On another note, there are public versions of Orientation Island and Welcome Island up (Orientation Island Public and Welcome Island Public), the former where I found moving around was much faster than my first experience (though the beach look had been changed into grassland). Perhaps newcomers are better off with these places than with the new bare-bones welcome area.
Sources: New World Notes, Daniel Voyager, Mickey Vandevere
Image of Orientation Island by Hamlet Au
Image of Welcome Island by Daniel Voyager
Bixyl Shuftan
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Press Release: Milk Wood's 3rd Annual March Poetry Fest
We have much pleasure in announcing that this year's poetry fest will take place at Milk Wood Writers' Colony and Showcase from Friday 30th March - Sunday 1st April, 2012.
The poetry fest will embody the edginess and energy that is currently exploding across the Second Life® poetry scene. It provides a 3-day opportunity for some of the best poets to display and perform on one of the first writing sims created in Second Life® - now 5 years old.
How to Get Involved :
There are several ways you can get involved. You can choose to exhibit your work in one of our easels or in the fallen leaf displays (which enable you to exhibit your poetry in simple notecard format).
If you choose the easel route you will be given a special easel with a script that allows several pieces of work to be installed. The viewer simply clicks on the easel and the display automatically changes screen.
In addition to the easel exhibits and fallen leaf displays, we will have readings by popular poets throughout the festival.
We also have a special Book Fayre for artists to display more of their creativity. Be sure to rent asap if you want to take up the offer of our 2 weeks free rent.. We plan building a stage area for Book Fayre renters to promote their work through readings and our Virtual Book Tours interview.
If you are interested in displaying your work and/or reading please email Harri at harriet.gausman@googlemail.com
Several people have offered to help build your displays for you so if you don't have the skills to perform this yourself, please contact us and we will put you in touch with them.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
Best Wishes,
Milk Wood Writers' Consortium
Dead Wood Market, Milk Wood (162, 186, 25)
The poetry fest will embody the edginess and energy that is currently exploding across the Second Life® poetry scene. It provides a 3-day opportunity for some of the best poets to display and perform on one of the first writing sims created in Second Life® - now 5 years old.
How to Get Involved :
There are several ways you can get involved. You can choose to exhibit your work in one of our easels or in the fallen leaf displays (which enable you to exhibit your poetry in simple notecard format).
If you choose the easel route you will be given a special easel with a script that allows several pieces of work to be installed. The viewer simply clicks on the easel and the display automatically changes screen.
In addition to the easel exhibits and fallen leaf displays, we will have readings by popular poets throughout the festival.
We also have a special Book Fayre for artists to display more of their creativity. Be sure to rent asap if you want to take up the offer of our 2 weeks free rent.. We plan building a stage area for Book Fayre renters to promote their work through readings and our Virtual Book Tours interview.
If you are interested in displaying your work and/or reading please email Harri at harriet.gausman@googlemail.com
Several people have offered to help build your displays for you so if you don't have the skills to perform this yourself, please contact us and we will put you in touch with them.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
Best Wishes,
Milk Wood Writers' Consortium
Dead Wood Market, Milk Wood (162, 186, 25)
Saturday, March 17, 2012
RFL Kickoff Snapshots
Last weekend's Relay for Life Kickoff was a big event, with more pictures taken than I could reasonably put in the article, so here's some more of both the opening event and some of the parties afterwards.Read more in People.
Press Release: Burning Man "Mini-Burn" from Mar 31st to April 1
April Fools! Time for a little fun on the PLAYA!
Hey there Burners! Ready to giggle in a gaggle? Play jokes over on the Playa? Put your boots and dust masks and water together, because it is time for April Fools Day!
This is a mini-Burn event on BURNING MAN Deep Hole sim from March 31 to April 1. We have fifty 512 plots for campers to landrush and build on, make art, make a chill space, do a performance, or just pitch a tent.
LANDRUSH for these gift plots is 3/17 at 0800 and 2000 SLT! One plot per RL person!
We open 3/31 with a special Center Camp, DJs and music, wild crazy events, pranks, wackiness, and fun. It won’t be April Fools without you! There are no Bystanders!
Make sure you are in BurningMan 2.0 group to get all the news and releases! More info is at the info tent: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Burning%20Man-%20Deep%20Hole/226/61/25
Event Action Date
Time 24 Hr format SLT
Announce 3/3/12
Land Rush 3/17/12 0800 & 2000
Builder Orientation 3/24/12 0800, 1159, 2000
Build Period 3/24/12 2100 until...
Lock Down 3/30/12 2359
Event Open 3/31/12 0800
Event Close 4/1/12 2359
Hey there Burners! Ready to giggle in a gaggle? Play jokes over on the Playa? Put your boots and dust masks and water together, because it is time for April Fools Day!
This is a mini-Burn event on BURNING MAN Deep Hole sim from March 31 to April 1. We have fifty 512 plots for campers to landrush and build on, make art, make a chill space, do a performance, or just pitch a tent.
LANDRUSH for these gift plots is 3/17 at 0800 and 2000 SLT! One plot per RL person!
We open 3/31 with a special Center Camp, DJs and music, wild crazy events, pranks, wackiness, and fun. It won’t be April Fools without you! There are no Bystanders!
Make sure you are in BurningMan 2.0 group to get all the news and releases! More info is at the info tent: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Burning%20Man-%20Deep%20Hole/226/61/25
Event Action Date
Time 24 Hr format SLT
Announce 3/3/12
Land Rush 3/17/12 0800 & 2000
Builder Orientation 3/24/12 0800, 1159, 2000
Build Period 3/24/12 2100 until...
Lock Down 3/30/12 2359
Event Open 3/31/12 0800
Event Close 4/1/12 2359
Cypress Rosewood at the ISM
When the International Space Museum at Spaceport Alpha returned, among the events planned was a concert by musician Cypress Rosewood. Last weekend on March 10th, it took place.
Known as the "Best Ambient Artist in SL," Cypress' performance was a combination of quiet, harmonic melodies, and dazzling special effects.
Cypress, or Tony Gerber as he's known in real life, regularly performs at the Sci-Lands. He can be found every Sunday at at the Space Music Theater in Spinthrift (156, 81, 98).
SL Youtube: Dublin in Second Life
A Youtube from 2008, it shows party scenes from the Dublin sim as part of a campaign for St. Patrick's Day that year. It was hoped that this virtual tourism would lead to the real thing, with a website set up for the sim: http://www.dublinsl.com . Within the past year, the website's gone inactive, but the sim remains and is a bit hit this time every year.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Press Release: RFL "Road Rash Relay Rally" Saturday Racing & Music Event
"Just a heads-up notice for this Saturday's event. We will be doing some races for fun and a good cause. Krisie Snowdrop will be singing for the first hour, starting at 3PM SL time. Come by and listen to her beautiful voice. Then DJ Twist will be taking over."Hope you can all make it and bring your friends. Don't forget you can still be invited to the group."
Head to the "It's All Good Biker Bar," at Sabie (182, 42, 23)
VWBPE Dragon Parade
Thursday March 15th was the start of the 5th Annual VWBPE (Virtual Worlds Best Practices in education) Conference in Second Life. Three days of discussions and other events concerning Second Life and other virtual worlds. Gemma Cleanslate came by, and came across a parade of dragons, one which she couldn't help but get her camera out.For Gemma's screenshots of the dragon parade, go to Events.
The schedule for the event can be found Here. Daniel Voyager also has his own account of the conference.
Skyrim-Inspired Sim and Builder Merceal Smythe
With all the attention over the Skyrim video game a few months ago, it's no surprise someone would be inspired to make a place much like it in Second Life. Recently, MistressBubbles Bondar got in contact with SL Newser to show off one in progress. As the discussion went on, it became about more than just this sim, but also about the builder behind it and some of the points about making a roleplay sim.Read more in Places.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Linden Helper and Greeter Islands Closed
Daniel Voyager had a little sad news this week, notably for newcomers and those trying to attract them. The Linden Helper and Greeter Islands disappeared from the Grid.The Islands appeared with little fanfair in November as part of a "Linden Beta Program" to help out newcomers. Besides Daniel Voyager, Caitlin Tobias also wrote on the areas. A thread in the official community forums also sprung up.
Despite some good reviews, at least initially, access to the islands was blocked in January, as well as taken off the Destination Guide. Although hopes were expressed for their return, this week's news means Linden Lab has called off it's recent program to help newcomers.It's unclear what the reasons for the cancellation are.
Pictures of Greeter Island can be found Here.
Image credit: Daniel Voyager, Marigold Devin
Bixyl Shuftan
Scenes from Second Life: Breezes and the Leprecauns
After appearing at the RFL Kickoff, SL Newser's friend Breezes Babii checked out Harmony Hall at Essell Center. There, she found herself in this scene, surrounded by leprechauns.
She didn't say whether they had a pot of gold, or were after her lucky charms. ;-)
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