Veterans Tribute Opens

 

 

 The Veterans Tribute is now open in Second Life. This is the eighteenth year this annual event in honor of veterans has taken place, with memorials and music parties set up for a short time in November.

 

The 18th Annual SL Veteran's Tribute is non-political and serves one purpose and one purpose only and that is to honor all the men and women that have given willing of their time to protect the lives we enjoy today. Visit the wall and honor a loved one or leave a tribute for the ones there!

 

 

The main feature is the Memorial Wall. Each of the bricks represents a veteran alive or deceased who served, the names contributed by residents. The Newser has written about some in the past, such as Lothi Aeon/Army Specialist Jacob D. Borton and a group of ten soldiers whose story was told by one Marine. While the majority on the Wall are American, there are other veterans honored.

 

 There are other memorials at the Tribute, such as this one honoring the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. 

There's also music events every day. One can get announcements in the inworld group, or on Discord. 

The Tribute is located at Stillwater Cove (41/6/29).

Bixyl Shuftan

 

Second Life Birthday Sims Closed

 

Since Thursday June 17, the sims of the Second Life 18th Birthday were open to the public. That is, until sometime in the morning of Friday July 9. Checking a little after Noon, I found the sims to be closed, and later on checking the map, they were shown to be offline. 

Checking around the day before, many of the exhibits had been cleared out.  

I came across one exhibitor, Pixels Sideways, in the middle of her takedown. She would post in group chat, "All tidied up.  Thank you Moles for all your creative work and help.  Ya did good! :-)  Thank you to the exhibitors and performers for your creative visions and music.   TY to the Shop n Hop merchants for all the fab swag,  And TY Linden Lab for keeping the lights on and the plumbing intact.  Raises a glass - to Ebbe.  TY for guiding us here.  We'll keep the engines running & the creative juices flowing and continue to create merry mayhem throughout Second Life.   Ciao everyone.  Stay safe out there. Hope to see you around the playground. xoxo"

And so, another Second Life Birthday is now history. For some, there is Burn2 Conception and Burning Man to look forward to. But for others, already people are looking forward to SL19B. Among them, Marianne McCann, "As one might say among Burning Man folks, 'Next Year Was Better!' You will always look fondly on SL18B... but next year, just *imagine* what may come! All the things you learned at 18B, and another year of exploration." 
 
Bixyl Shuftan
 

Second Life Birthday Sims To Close Today (For Most)

 

Yesterday, Tuesday July 6, was the last day the SLB sims were scheduled to be open for the Second Life Eighteenth Birthday. So the sims had a number of people going about for one last look at the exhibits. Group chat was full of people saying how much they enjoyed the event, and more than one commented they were going to have to leave some exhibits unseen as they didn't have enough time to see them all.

An alt of mine was able to get in the sims after Midnight. So it's possible the sims will be accessible for part of the day. But the schedule is for the sims to be closed and the exhibitors to take what they want picked up. 

Yours truly was up late last night exploring around, so before writing more, it's time for some much-needed rest.

Addition: My alt was still able to get to the sims at 9AM SL time, but the main music stream was turned off and some exhibits were already gone.  

Addition 2: At 1PM, my alt could no longer get into the SLB sim. So presumably they were closed to the general public at Noon.

Bixyl Shuftan
 

DJs At The SLB

 

There's a lot going on at the SL18B. There's the "Meet the Lindens" events. There are the numerous exhibits. And there's the music. On Monday, I stopped by two DJs playing music at the DJ stage. One was Grease Coakes.

DJ Grease played to a crowd at the DJ stage at 4AM SL time, a mix of humans, furs, a gryphon, and one glowing shape. He would later post his set on Mixcloud, "played for the amazing people who make up Second Life. Trance and video game remixes are meshed in tightly for an amazing two hour dj set. The theme of "Other Worlds" for SLB this year fits in nicely with this trance set. The picture is based upon Dragon Warrior Monsters 1. Thus the last song is a piano remix of the town theme from Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 DWM 1 and 2 is all about traveling to other worlds as you jump into an epic adventure!" 

A few hours later at 10 AM was DJ Moff (MoffettMephit Resident) of Montecito Bay. He and Emmy (Emorald Resident) greeted me. 

There was quite a crowd there, including the Relay's black unicorn Avariel Falcon and Squeaky Mole.

Moff compared his set to a spaceship run, "Welcome board Crux Space Flight 168 to Tech Noir! We've begun boarding for all classes, so please, step inside, buckle up....and leave the rest of this trip up to your Captain, Super Rockin' Magic Moff! We expect a VERY smooth, uneventful flight.....(famous last words....)"

"OMG Finally! we're approaching the Pacific Coast! ... It's been a long drive, but we're almost there. I hope we don't run into anything WEIRD though. ... I told ya I'll get ya to the SpacePort! OMG the Mole fell off! *throws a teleporter* We can't wait! The ship will depart soon! ... Alright, let's see if 88mph will do the trick! HANG ON! ... OMG I think it worked! I can see the space port!"

Before long, someone in an ostrich avatar came out. And then was going around riding a banana. As Moff put it, "Now THAT is properly weird!" 

Eventually, the set would end, Moff saying, "This was fantastic! Thank you SLB18 crew for having me." Over the stream, he would say "Thank you all for having me! Happy Birthday Second Life!"

Check the schedule for more DJ events (here).
 
Bixyl Shuftan
 

SL18B Starts Today

  

After a few months of planning and preparation, the Second Life Eighteenth Birthday is finally ready to begin.  There will be 23 sims with much to see and much to do. There will be numerous music events, both DJs and live performers. There will be at least one "Meet the Lindens" event, on Monday June 21. In some separate sims there's the "Shop and Hop" event. It is believed there will be one reveal of new Linden Homes. And of course there's all those resident exhibits. 

Among the exhibits is that of the Second Life Newser. Build by Silvia Ametza (with help from Kimble (kimblecoles) ), the build reflects the theme "hidden worlds" with a look at the Earth's core (and a poke at the flat-Earthers). The build is in Pizzazz (187/171/23). 

The sims are scheduled to open at 9AM SL time. At 11 AM is the Opening Ceremony at the Main Stage.

Main Stage 1: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SLB%20Fascinate/33/226/21
Main Stage 2: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SLB%20Dazzle/28/32/21
Main Stage 3: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SLB%20Wonderous/225/31/21
Main Stage 4: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SLB%20Exhilarate/230/232/21
 
See you at the Birthday.

Addition: At the Opening Ceremony, Patch Linden stated the next theme of Linden Homes is "Fantasy."

Bixyl Shuftan
 

SL18B Update: Map Names Changed, Newser Officially In As Exhibitor

In our last update about the Second Life Birthday sims, they were back up, but still having their SL17B names.  Checking again after a tip, the "17" was gone, and some water sims at the edges were added. 

Yesterday, the Newser was contacted by Linden Lab, informing us that we were once again welcome as an exhibitor. This marks the tenth year we've been doing so. In the Second Life Exhibitor's group, it was stated, "We had 275 applications for 175 spots." So competition for the spots was fierce. 

The announcement also stated the sims should be open to exhibitors sometime today, May 24. Unfortunately, one thing they won't be open to is published photographs of the area, even teasers of placeholders and closeups of Linden builds that reveal next to nothing about the whole thing. Which is unfortunate as teasers we've done in the past such as the bathroom with the three sea shells stirred up interest without revealing much of anything.

Hat tip: Daniel Voyager 

Bixyl Shuftan
 

SL18B Update

The Second Life 18th Birthday, or SL18B, is a little more than a month from now. So where are the sims? It looks like they're up, but most are still labeled SL17B from last year. Including the still unlabeled ones, there are a total of 22, though this could change.  There's another sim called "SLB Dev" a little to the north of these, though is likely just a place for building things and not to be part of the exhibit.

The celebration will be held from  Thursday June 17 to Thursday July 1, though the sims will probably be up for a few more days.

Stay tuned for more updates.