SL Video: "Sunbeamer's Bring Your Own Kiosk Moment"

 

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From Baine Finch on May 31, a pan-around of the Sunweaver Estates, "Having some fun at a Sunbeamer's BYOK"

  

"Dedication to Crim" Video Updated

 

 A few days ago, the Newser posted a "Dedication to Crim" video by Bain Finch, the song sung by Empress Luna at the memorial service to Crim Mip on October 4 with a number of screenshots. Since then, the video was taken down, and redone, giving it a new address and making the old link unviewable. It has been corrected.

 

On another note, the Newser is doing an article about the funeral, but a combination of the writer's real-life plus writing about Halloween has delayed it. It should be done soon. 

 

SL Video: "Dedication to Crim Mip"

 

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 From Bain Finch on October 23, "Dedication to the one known to us as Crim Mip. 'The Starfish and the Sky' by Empress Luna."

 

*Addition*  The video was updated, and briefly unavaibale. It's been corrected and should be seen without trouble now. 

 

SL Video: "MerryJest Live at SL22B"

 

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 By Bain Finch on June 21, "MerryJest sings Live, consists of cover music and performed by Merryjest Starchild (with guest performers in pre-recorded appearances). Recorded at SL22B Celebrations on June 20th, 2025. Merryjest is a classically-trained professional opera singer who creates immersive narrative and musical experiences in Second Life, a show unlike any other!"

 

SL Video: "NatureCon 2022"

 

 From Bain Finch on August 14, "NatureCon 2022 runs from August 18-31, 2022 Second Life Event Regions of Ruthenium and Osmium"

https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Osmium/115/83/23

http://natureconsl.site

SL Video: "2022 RFL of SL, Heroes of Hope Track at 60 MPH"

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Posted by Bain Finch on July 2, a run of the Relay Weekend track at night, "Voice over something I tried doing at this year's Track with this as the best take."
 

SL Video: "2022 Relay For Life of Second Life First Lap"

 

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From Bain Finch on January 7, "Relay For Life of Second Life taking our First Lap of the 2022 season."

 www.relayforlife.org/secondlife 

www.slacsinfo.com
 

SL Video: "SciFi Expo in Second Life Region Tour"

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From Bain Finch on October 11, a tour of the 2021 Sci-fi Expo sims.
 

SL Video: "Pre-Opening of 2021 SL Renaissance Festival"

 

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From Bain Finch on Sept 23, "Media Day Access to the 2nd Annual Second Life Renaissance Festival, September 23 – October 4, 2021 to fundraises for the American Cancer Society Breast Cancer Mission. 

Funds raised through Strides allow the American Cancer Society to serve breast cancer patients and their families. All proceeds of the SL Renaissance Festival will be directed to funding research, 24/7 support for breast cancer patients, and access to lifesaving screenings.

www.slrenaissancefestival.com
 

SL Video: "2021 Fantasy Faire ~ Amethyst Rift"

 
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By Bain Finch on May 28, " This the fourth of a playlist, featuring the 21 Regions of the Fantasy Faire 2021 gathering of creators, designers, sponsors, story tellers, story makers, and a whole bunch of passionate and dedicated peoples. Each year in late April, the Fairelands return from the mists anew and Fairelanders gather to fundraise for the American Cancer Society in Second Life. This video series is to capture those stunning worlds, so the mists of time, had no teeth, over the joy and inspiration, these places gave us."
 

SL Video: "Fantasy Faire 2021 ~ The Fairechyle Takes Sail"

From Bain Finch on April 25 , “Fantasy Faire’s Live at the Fairechylde series is made possible with support from Spyralle, by Kerryth Tarantal. And our beautiful, new Fairechylde fleet was built by Ketsui Naidoo of Novus Ascending, and Grimoire Hexem. We want to say a very special Thank You to these three Fairelanders for helping us bring our parties to life!”
    

SL Video: "RFLofSL First Lap 2021"

 

 From Bain Finch on January 10, "Relay For Life of Second Life Full Relay First Lap 2021"

"Thank You SL Newser"

 Our decision to not just do a "Man of the Year" article, but look back at the previous decade and do one for the decade for the Relay for Life in Second Life's volunteers, had some positive reactions. In the Relay's Discord chat, Stingray Raymaker called it a great honor. "Thank you ... for recognizing the amazing work of the RFL of SL community." Bain Finch called it "nicely penned," adding, "A roller coaster ride I am delighted to have taken part in. If I hadn't, I would have never met our honored people, along the way."

Glad to be of help.

Bixyl Shuftan, SL Newser

 

SL Video: "2020 Second Life Renaissance Festival"

 

From  Bain Finch on October 21, "2020 Second Life Renaissance Festival Unites Medieval Role Play Communities to Crusade Against Breast Cancer in support of the American Cancer Society Strides Campaigns in Second Life. Russell Eponym Sonnets captured and used by permission. Many thanks to all involved. slrenaissancefestival.com "

A Virtual Traveller Speaks On The Split Future of InWorldz's Residents

It was last week that Islandz, the virtual world created by the Inworldz team following the closure of their previous virtual world in July, came online. A number of InWorldz's old residents promptly headed over to log on. But the question remains: will the new virtual world recover the numbers of it's predecessor. Bain Finch didn't think so. While we at the Newser know Bain best for his being part of the Relay for Life in Second Life, he's also been in InWorldz and other places. He made the following commentary on Facebook about where the residents of InWorldz would go.


Islandz will never be the size of InWorldz for a simple reason. The existing residents of InWorldz is forever fractured into two main camps. Those that will not go back and those that will. And of those that will, that camp further broken down into two, those that will check it out but not 'home' there, and those that will make Islandz their primary (virtual world).

The other wave that happened, many of the other ranking open sims, benefited by the exodus. All the grids that are benefiting by the hyper connectivity to facilitate grid hopping, will drive the development cross grid technology for security and commerce. And there is a new focus in those directions, with the addition of all these new residents. Just taking the combined total of residents on all the hyper connected grids, is I'm guessing, is now a rather large population, taking the uniqueness of the individual and not duplicate accounts on multiple grids, into account. Then add to the mix, new open sim grids, such as Infinity further dipping into the pool of people. Many of the grid have registered spikes in new residents, the open sim market place also noted a huge spike in sales, and people are not going to walk away from those investments.

And then, there is all the whispers, one hears on the song of birds, of things in the works, in far away rooms. So in the end, what will have happened, people that enjoy virtual life, will have several options. Life in the big city of SL, or the small town feel or themed community, of a bunch of smaller girds. A few will be closed grids that will require separate logins, but would offer unique benefits, the inter connected, hyper open sim, can't do.

The friendships, that was established in InWorldz, will mature all these grid together, and a good many folks will explore across many grids and be involved on those grids. Sounds like fun to me.


So despite the disporia, Bain feels everything will work out for the better for the former residents of InWorldz, and other residents of virtual worlds.

What do you the readers think? Feel free to comment below.

Reader Submitted: Relaying in Real Life and Virtual Life

 By Bain Finch

My first Relay was in SL 2011. In 2012 I helped bring Relay to IWz. In 2014 I join my local real life Relay group, and been involved with all 3 groups, every year, since. This year, I've pulled back some, and will be the first year, I will not hold any planning group role.

For the most part, both RL and VR Relay are exactly the same. We joke about no bugs, weather, parking, but we do have lag, and we do have sim crossing parties. For the uninitiated, lag is just want it sounds like, so many people are on one sim (server) the system can't keep up. Sim crossing parties slightly different beast. Each sim is a different server, so when moving from sim to sim, your avatar and all you are wearing, needs to be handed off to that new server. When that fails, people pile up at the sim boarder, trying to enter, hence, sim crossing parties.

But you want to know something, the challenge of keep walking the track and dealing with lag and sim crossing issues, pretty much equals the challenges of dealing with weather, and temperatures, while walking, all night long.

The one thing VR Relay has over RL is our campsites builds. Most campsites are season themed, reflecting the Team's reason for Relaying, filled with advocacy information about cancer, health choices, mission messages and more. The biggest uniqueness for Relay on virtual grids is ability to communicate locally, within groups, group notices with tie-ins to social media, blogs and more, right across the whole grid, with the same abilities of using the fundraising dashboard, is virtual Relay's greatest strength. Virtual Relay transforms ones advocacy's signage, into a portals, able to span the world, free of language barriers.

The one marked difference, from the virtual Relay I noticed, was during and following lighting of the Luminaria. Wasn't until my second RL Relay, that I noticed it. Once the Luminaria are lit, the track begins to stratify and have distinct lanes. The outside lanes are for the runners. The middle lanes are for the walkers. But that inside lane, next to the Luminaria, that for the Luminaria shufflers. Moving one step at time, reading each and every Luminaria as they go. Silently advancing, bit by bit, read, step forward, reading the outpouring of love, all mindful of each other, while the walkers are pacing their laps, further out. After a bit, I find myself on that divide between the Luminaria shuffle lanes and the walkers coming at me, just looking at all their faces. Right there, I could see it in their eyes, that quiet, unspoken connection of the heart.

In the wee hours of that night, when I found myself sheltering from the cold and light rain, alone with my thoughts, I found my thoughts bouncing back and forth between all my Relay experiences, that I now realize, Relay's greatest strength is it's sense of community it creates, it's sense of belonging. As an individual, I can build a house. But get a bunch of folks together, and we can move mountains, build a pyramid or a coliseum in short order. Together, we can help each other, each doing our part, all adding together, all the while, reaching our goals.

Lite one candle, you push back the darkness on a space, lite a bunch of candles, you brighten up the whole night.

Bain Finch

Relay for Life in InWorldz Season Opener

The Relay for Life for Second Life raises hundreds of thousands of US dollars for cancer research every year. But the Relay does not confine itself to just one virtual world. Last Saturday, August 6, the Relay for Life of InWorldz had their Kickoff event. While a smaller event then it's Second Life counterpart in March, it still drew a number of people.

Read more in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games. 

Cartoon of the Day

Taken during the Relay Weekend, Canis Baxton in his huge doggie avatar seems very happy to be with Bain Finch. One wonders how a dog could get so big. Maybe those snacks made more than just his belly grow.

By Bixyl Shuftan

The Relay For Life Walk in InWorldz

While the Making Strides fundraiser brought in funds for breast cancer research in Second Life, on the InWorldz grid, the Relay for Life has been having it's own season for raising cash. On November 1, the Relay for Life in InWorldz Walk took place. Several personalities noted for their work on the RFL in SL were there, and there was much to see as the charity closed in on it's two million mark.

Read more on the event in Other Grids and MMOs.

Reader Submitted: "Pinky and the Bain"

From Panza Elide, whom sent this picture from the dance party at the 2014 Alliez Mysterio Awards on Sunday August 24 after a "Pinky and the Bain" joke.