Cartoon of the Day: Reader Submitted

From "CuriousAboutSL," taken in June 2015, this was sent over more recently.

Reader Submitted: Grendel's Bids Farewell to the SL12B

Toady Nakamura, who was the builder of the Live Stage in Spellbound, sent in this picture of how she left the sim after taking the stage down.

Toady, and her partner Flea Bussy, run Grendel's Children, a huge store long known for discount avatars and other goods. There's also a prehistoric roleplay area in the sims.

SL12B: A Message From Doc

Doc Gascoigne, the co-leader of the SL12B staff, had one final message for the people behind the Second Life Twelfth Birthday.

Thank you SL12B Community

 We would like to thank everyone who contributed, volunteered and exhibited. All the DJs and Performers and the builders. It took an army of volunteers to bring this year’s birthday celebration together. 

If you enjoyed this year’s event and want to be a part next year, keep an eye on this blog and stay in the SLB Community Group for notification of next year’s festivities.

 It is always my pleasure to work with all of you.

The message came with the picture above, appropriately titled, "C'ya next time."

SL Video: "SL12B Cake Explosion "

(Click here if the video fails to load)

Of the Cake Stage takedown party on Sunday night, July 5th, Nic Blackthorne had a video up, soon after. The "explosion" takes place around 11:25 into the video, and around 31:30, I appear in the video.

SL12B: The End of the Cake Stage

"All good things must come to an end," and a week after the official end of the Second Life Twelfth Birthday Celebrations, it was time to take down the main stage, also known as the Cake Stage. And so on Sunday July 5, after a day of being closed to all but basic staff, the four sims of the Cake were reopened to all so people could party and witness the cake going "boom." Although it would be more of a collapse then an explosion, they still called it blowing up the Cake.

The festivities began at 4PM SL time. BubbaCJohn (in an Elvis avatar) and Erin Fenser took to the stage and did music for the crowd. Later on, they were joined by a fast-stepping dragon who managed to avoid stepping on anyone.

At 6PM, the main event began to take place. First the stage was raised a hundred meters in the air.

A view of the stage from below.

After some minutes of not so paitently waiting, it finally came crashing down.

What had taken weeks to create disintegrated in seconds.

At ground level, a few people began having more trouble with lag. But most continued to dance.

Yours truly wasn't under the cake when it fell, but in a news chopper piloted by Uccello Poultry. But something went wrong, possibly a stray prim hitting the blades, and we had to bail out.

There were a number of SLB volunteers around, including Mikati Slade, the builder of the cake stage.

And so, the biggest build of the SL12B was now history. But this will be only the first to come down. From tomorrow July 5 to Wednesday July 8 is the "take down" period when the exhibitors pick up their builds. And on Thursday July 9, The Birthday is truly over when the sims themselves go offline.

Bixyl Shuftan

SL Video: "SL12B Free Avatar Giveaway 'Crazy' "

(Click here if the video fails to load)

June 11, 2015, the day of Linden Lab's early release of their freebie avatar for the twelfth Second Life Birthday.

Cartoon of the Day: At The SL12B

Taken at the SL12B Auditorium

By Bixyl Shuftan

SL12B : Marianne McCann, Revisited

While at the Second Life Twelfth Birthday celebrations, DrFran Babcock had a chance to interview Marianne McCann, whom was part of the staff organizing the event. As it turns out, getting the interview arranged took a little trickery on the part of Marianne's fellow coordinator Doctor Gascoigne. DrFran (pictured here in the Linden SL12B avatar) had a few questions for her, such as her opinions about the future of Second Life with new virtual worlds developing and being developed, and where the theme of this year's Birthday celebrations came from.

Read more in People.

Meeting the Lindens at the SL12B

Last Friday June 26, the last of the "Meet the Lindens" events for the Second Life Twelfth Birthday took place. Here, the CEO himself of Linden Lab, Ebbe Linden, would be interviewed. Gemma Cleanslate was among those in the audience, and wrote about the happening, in which one of her concerns about Second Life was answered.

Read Gemma's story in People.

Second Life Birthday Celebration Officially Ends

Last night in the Second Life Birthday sims, the last of the official events took place (Sunday schedule). At 5PM, Saffia Widdershins interviewed the last guest at the Auditorium:  Raglan Shire's leader Zayan Till. At 10PM began the last of the DJ performances.

While Yamata36 DJed for the Ixtlan Stage, at the Cake Stage, Laz Dresler spun tunes for the crowd.

 One girl in a Colossus avatar danced with the crowd, somehow avoiding stepping on anyone. No word on if she had to deal with anyone trying to peek up her skirt.

There was also a fireworks show by Bewell Ormega, throwing some pyrotechnics in the air.The Birthday quite literally ended with a bang.

There were a number of personalities there, such as Mikati Slade, Catboy Qunhua, Daniel Voyager (his picture above), iSkye Silverweb, and others. As the minutes ticked down, there were many well wishes, "Happy birthday!" "Happy Birthday SL!!" "HAVE A GREAT SL!"

And at 12 Midnight, Laz finally got off the stage. The week-long celebration was officially over.

While this was the official end of the SL12B, the exhibits will still be up for several days. The schedule shows that the sims will be open at least until July 4. So until July 6 to July 8 when "the breakdown" takes place, feel free to continue to explore the exhibitions.

The sims finally go offline on July 9. Only then will the event truly be over.

Happy twelfth birthday Second Life.

Bixyl Shuftan

Cartoon of the Day: At the SL12B

From the SL12B Auditorium. No, Catboy Qunhua didn't *really* say that.

Bixyl Shuftan

"Something Amazing" And Other SLB 12 Exhibits

Across the Second Life Birthday grounds, there are many exhibits. Some stand out, due to detail, interactivity, or both. Bixyl Shuftan took a closer look at some which were recommended by others. In the case of one, "Something Amazing," the builder Kenny Luckless was interviewed about his exhibit.

Read more in Places.

Scenes From the SL12B

Friday June 26 was the start of the SL12B "Music Fest" sponsored by Linden Lab. Taking place at the Ixtlan Stage at SL12B Dazzle, among the performers were Jaycatt and Frogg at 12:30 SL time. Taking place in a packed sim, a friend who requested a teleport from me was blocked from coming in. Among those who were there was Xiola Linden. With the lag, not everybody rezzed on my viewer, such as performer Frogg, whose amphibian av was showing only his head, hands and feet.

 Friday at 1PM was the "Meet and Greet" with Ebbe Linden, the last one for the SL12B. While I got there early, there was a sim restart, so had to hop away. But by the time I tried to teleport back, both sims were full. The best I could do was listen in from the outskirts, which a number of others had to as well. Others with me included Pygar Blu, Catboy Qunhua, and Kenny Luckless.

Gemma Cleanslate was there, so her article about Ebbe's interview will be available later.

Saturday and Sunday mark the last two days, officially, of the Birthday. As it turns out, yours truly has to work in real-life, so that cuts down on time for both exploring, seeing, and writing. But the sims will be up for a few days afterwards for both those whose computers couldn't handle the lag, and those wanting to see what they missed.

Bixyl Shuftan

Official SL12B Music Fest This Weekend

Although Linden Lab is no longer sponsoring the Second Life Birthday exhibitions, it has backed one of the events. This weekend, the SL12B Music Fest, backed by the Lab, is taking place, featuring performers such as Jaycatt Nico and Frogg Marlowe.

Last month, we had a blast at an inworld showcase to audition performers at the Lavender Field. It was great to not only see the talent, but also the incredible support this community has for one another. Thank you to Brique Topaz - who heads up and operates the Lavender Field - home of the wonderful Feed a Smile initiative - who let us take over the field with hours of music. Selecting the final artists for this Official SL12B Music Fest was near impossible - a task made all the more difficult by the sheer volume of talented and exciting acts we saw. Thank you to everyone who came out to audition and those who just came to show their support. After much deliberation, we reached our final list of artists and are pleased that each and every one of them was able to come play the big show!

Over two days, we’ll feature an amazing line-up of those artists, across many genres of music, and we hope you will come join us. It’s all the fun of a music festival without the over exposure to the sun, the grueling sludge through the mud, or the long haul and long lines of those questionable public bathrooms. It’s a bring your own refreshments and get ready to dance your pixels off kind of event - check out who's playing, then grab your ride to the festival below.

The schedule was given as follows:

Friday June 26th, 2015

11 - 11:30 AM	Alazarin Mondrian
11:30 - 12 PM	The Pink Vampire
12 - 12:30 PM	Tamra Hayden
12:30 - 1 PM	Effinjay
1 - 1:30 PM	Amforte Clarity
1:30 - 2 PM	Isabella Rumsford
2 - 2:30 PM	Tempio Breil
2:30 - 3 PM	Phoenix J

Saturday June 27th, 2015

8-8:30 PM	Mavenn Resident
8:30 - 9 PM	Oblee
9 - 9:30 PM	Collin Martin
9:30 - 10 PM	Taunter Goodnight
10 - 10:30 PM	Donn DeVore
10:30 - 11 PM	Zak Claxton
11 - 11:30 PM	LuvofMusic
11:30 - Midnight	Ren Enberg & Quai Franklin

The event will take place at the Ixtlan stage at SL12B Dazzle (153/105/22)

To see the post in it's entirety, Click Here.

Cartoon of the Day

At the Cake Stage at the SLB, DrFran Babcock's avatar gets a slight glitch that makes her "above it all" so to speak.

By Bixyl Shuftan

Oz Linden at the SL12B

On Monday was the first of the "Meet the Lindens" events at the auditorium at the Second Life Birthday. This would be an interview of Oz Linden by Saffia Widdershins and Jessica Lyon. The meeting was not without technical glitches as Oz crashed a couple times. Still, a number of questions were answered.

Read more about the interview in People.

SL12B: The Welcome Area and Station

 By BloodyKitty

There is an event going on, the SL12B that runs from June 21st to the 28th of June. The information has also included that the sim is also open on the 4th of July for residents to explore the particular location. This event is celebrating the birthday of Second Life, but in a cool way with tons of events. When you first arrive you are greeted with a spooky scene, but also a beautiful one if you change your lighting (or the sun settings). 

There were two people greeting (at the moment I was there) that go by Londyn2, as well as another girl but she had left before I got a chance to see her name. What was a positive for me right away was that they instantly helped me and asked if I needed any information on the sim and the event, I said I do.

Upon getting an info card if you request one by one of the fabulous hosts, it tells you on what's going on, as well as that you get two gifts which include a party hat and a flag. Aside from that there is a map of the whole place via a texture sort of file, landmarks to the major venues, and a schedule for the events going on around the land. It is when you go down from where you are greeted that the fun begins. There are teleports to different locations to different places in the sim to help people easily get around, which is a plus for me. 

What I found the best part in my opinion of the experience was that they had a train station and an actual train. It totally reminded me of Harry Potter, which unfortunately the train does not move, but it doesn't totally take away a good experience. If you look closer though you can see the station is in ruins as well as that the back of the train is all messed up. Just use your imagination on what may of happened!

Overall the world is large in itself if you take time to explore it, and there are different activities to enjoy while searching around. Because of it being a large sim and how many locations there are to teleport to, I haven't had the opportunity to exactly explore everything like I'd hope before this was put up. I believe that just touching base on the important details helps people who'd love to visit and check the place out. Have fun! 

BloodyKitty

"Meet The Lindens" at the SL12B

From Monday to Friday this week at the SL12B, the residents will get a chance to meet up with CEO Ebbe Linden and four other members of Linden Lab. The discussions will be at the Dreamatorium (Auditorium) at SL12B Astound (202/180/22) and will take place at 1PM SL time.

The schedule on the SL12B website is as follows:

• Monday 22nd June – Oz Linden, Engineering Director, Second Life
• Tuesday 23rd June – Patch Linden, Senior Manager, Product Operations, and  Dee Linden, Land Product Specialist
• Wednesday 24th June – Xiola Linden, Lead Community Manager, and Pete Linden, Senior Director, Global Communications at Linden Lab
• Thursday  25th June – Danger Linden, Sr. Director, Product, Virtual Worlds and Troy Linden, Senior Producer
• Friday 26th June – Ebbe Linden, CEO Linden Lab

While the Lindens have been making more appearances lately, it's still an uncommon event to get a chance to meet one. So for those interested (and who isn't) here's your chance.

SL12B : First Impressions

Saturday June 20 was Press Day for the Second Life Twelfth Birthday grounds. For DrFran Babcock, it was her first chance to see the builds. With time a bit limited, she only saw a few places, and wrote on two, by Asmita Duranjaya, and iSkye Silverweb. So what did she think?

Read DrFran's article in Design.

Various Happenings at the SL12B

Yours truly spent most of his time at the SLB grounds before Press Day building the SL Newser exhibit, so I didn't get much of a look elsewhere. On Press Say itself, I only had a short time to get around. I didn't get the time of any official tour, so just looked around a little at the entrance sim of SL12B Beguile. The "dream" here looked more like a nightmare with this disturbing-looking train.

Not far from the train into the next sim at SL12B Impressive (224/57/24) is the exhibit of our sponsor M&M Creations, by 10 and Marcthur Gooson with their "Cottage Ma Mason."

Near the Newser exhibit at SL12BWonderous (232/231/22) is the SL Universe Forums exhibit by Soen Eber.

 Just across from the Newser's exhibit at SL12B Wonderous (233/196/22) is the "Spire" by Mac Kanashimi, whom assisted with the Cake Stage and whom some time ago worked on the "Pinwheels."

I happened to run into Mac, and had a few words with him. The hat of course was from Mikati Slade, the main builder of the Cake Stage. "So how was it working with Mikati?" I asked him. Matter of factly, he answered, "Just like 3 years ago (at the) cake stage SL9B. She made a scale 1:10 model of the cake stage, then uses my script to move an object to the right region, to the calculated real stage coordinates, then resize times 10."

Of The Spire, "(The) view from the top straight downwards is very nice." Asking him about it, "Well. take a square, then draw a square in it, but slightly smaller and slightly rotated, continue until the squares are small. Later I added the color effects and the changing from left rotating to right rotating squares, and back."

I asked him what other exhibits attracted his attention, but his answer was, "I didn't write them down, i was just flying around."

I soon had to be elsewhere, but did come across two events that evening. One was a stand up comedy performance at the Cake Stage at 4PM SL time by SL comedian Lauren Weyland.

An hour later at the Auditorium (Dreamatorium), was a group of roleplayers of the "Sanctuary" RP, discussing the history of their roleplay, and a few words from each of the players there.

Among the roleplaters was ZodiacLansing, whose words included, "Sanctuary, like several other sims, is born out of an intense love and it shows. When I arrived in the sim and explained that I was new to CCS, I was taken aside by several of the players who worked with me until I understood how things worked. Even to this day, they are willing to help me with any questions I may have. The environment of Sanctuary is one of help and kindness out of character. The members of the city are always willing to help out each other and new players so that everyone proves to the a be better player.

"When the RP starts, things can happen that are dark, but the people remain the same friendly sort who are willing to help. That's the biggest difference I have found and that is what brings me back to the city over and over again. As many will attest to, in our sim we strive very hard to create an atmosphere that sponsors RP and friendship in OOC. To me, it's the best sim."

More to come later this week. In the meantime, don't forget to stop at the Newser's exhibit at SL12B Wonderous (207/195/21).

Bixyl Shuftan