Gofundme Set Up For Nuala Marcus After Home Damaged

 

Things have not been easy lately for Nuala Marcas, Sandra Rose in real-life, one of the leaders of the Relay for Life's Relay Rockers.  On Saturday June 13 (right on the Relay Weekend), a car smashed into her home's bedroom, demolishing  the wall and just about everything inside. The result has been thousands in damages and living elsewhere until the repairs are done.

 

 

 Sandra is the kind of person who shows up — not just for friends, but for strangers fighting for their lives. For 22 years, she has volunteered with the American Cancer Society, helping raise millions of dollars to fund cancer research and support patients and families in need. She has given decades of her life to helping others through their hardest moments.

Now she is facing her own.

 

 On the morning of June 13, 2026, a car crashed directly into Sandra (Nuala)'s bedroom — destroying everything inside and leaving a gaping hole in the wall of her condo. She had no warning. In seconds, the space she slept in, the belongings she'd built over years, and her sense of safety were gone.

The impact destroyed Sandra's bedroom completely — her furniture, mattress, clothing, electronics, and personal belongings were either crushed or rendered unusable. While insurance will cover a portion of the losses, it will fall far short of what it actually costs to replace everything she lost. The gap between what insurance pays and what real replacement costs is significant, and that burden falls entirely on Sandra. 

Sandra has been forced to leave her home entirely and is now living out of hotels while repairs are assessed. The timeline to rebuild is uncertain — it could be months before she can return.

The result has been a Gofundme created to help Nuala out. The money is not only to replace and repair what insurance wouldn't cover, but to pay for her current living quarters while the place is fixed. 

 

WE have started a GoFundMe to Help Nuala:  https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-sandra-nuala-rebuild-after-car-crashed-into-her-home-8myr3   Please donate if you can ...

 

 The goal of the fundraiser is $13,000 CAD. As of the writing of this article, over $4200, about a third of that has been raised. 

 

 Once again, the link is at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-sandra-nuala-rebuild-after-car-crashed-into-her-home-8myr3 

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

When Real-Life Strikes ...

 

Yours truly has been really busy in real-life, so some articles I was hoping would be finished will have to wait until next week. My apologies for the delay.

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

A Little Reminder: Daylight Savings Time Is Tonight

 

 Just a reminder. Tonight Daylight Savings Time begins in the United States (most of it) and a number of other places. At 2 AM, the clock will "spring forward" to 3 PM. So not only are you going to have to go to bed a little early or get up a little later, but you're going to also have to keep this in mind when going to events, or hosting one, both here and real-life.

 

Oh, and some countries with a number of SL residents, their DST doesn't start for a few more weeks, which can add to the confusion. 

 

Stay timely,

 

Bixyl Shuftan

 

"Massive" Amazon Server Troubles Take Down Much of Internet

 

 If you've had some trouble online today, you're far from alone. Various Internet services from Snapchat to Netflix to Reddit and were down, and many others had problems because of an Amazon Web Services server outage. The trouble supposedly started today, Monday October 20, at 2:40 AM EST, possibly at one of their largest datacenters in northern Virginia. There were supposedly "over 1,000 businesses impacts, including many banks." The total damage done may be in the billions of dollars. 

 

Second Life was affected as well, the Grid Status report showing "A service provider for Second Life is currently experiencing an outage which is affecting the Destinations page: secondlife.com/destinations/" Search was affected as well. A couple friends told me they had problems getting on. 

 

Supposedly the data engineers have taken care of the trouble, though this is a reminder of how many companies use Amazon servers, and what can happen when something big goes wrong. 

 

Sources, CNN, Techradar 

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

Update: "The Corsean Encounter" Now on Paperback

 

 

It was a few days ago that yours truly announced his novel "The Corsean Encounter" was finally published and up on Kindle. The paperback wasn't available then. But as of a couple days ago, it now is. So now you can get the sci-fi tale done by the editor of the Newser on both Kindle and paperback on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DRT58H37/ 

So what's next? Yours truly has been working on a sequel: "The Corsean Encounter: Prelude to War." I've also been working on a fantasy tale, "Tales of a Metamorph." 

But writing those won't stop me from doing stories for the Newser, and as always will continue to write about the people, places, and events of this virtual world.

Bixyl Shuftan

"The Corsean Encounter" Up On Kindle

 

 

I don't normally post about my activities outside Second Life, but this has been a project decades in the making, and is finally up.

 

Those who know me well recall that besides having a longtime interest in current events, I've also been reading science-fiction and history. Most science-fiction stories involve aliens with either advanced or tribal technology. Technology in a Medieval or Colonial Age state? Not so much. 

So introducing my first published story: The Corsean Encounter.

Theadore Smith, sentenced to a Soviet gulag, gets a second chance when the train he's on has a wreck in Central Asia. Making his way south with his companion Leonid Kakanov, they're ambushed by Muslim tribesmen, and have to seek shelter in a cave they stumble upon. Finding a strange machine, it teleports them to another cave. They emerge not on Earth, but another world. Running into some of its not quite human inhabitants, whom live under Medieval conditions, the initially friendly encounter turns hostile when they're captured by a local lord, whom turns them over to his superior.

After a period of time in which Theadore learns the local language, the overlord takes the two humans to his Emperor as a gift. At the Imperial Palace, they learn more about the land and it's people. They get attention from some people who see value in their knowledge. They also run into the ambassador of a nearby land which is somewhat more advanced and not an empire but a republic, Gideon. But some consider the humans little more than monsters, whose lives are of no real value. Can Theadore and Leonid convince enough people of importance that they deserve more than a lifetime in a dungeon, or worse? And what can they do for the Gideon Republic, which many in the Empire want to settle old scores with?

For now, the story is available only on the kindle version, though kindle apps can be used on computers, tablets, and some smartphones. The paperback version will be available soon. 

You can find the story on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DRDZSTHC

And stay tuned for the sequel: "Prelude to War."

Update: "The Corsean Encounter" is now available on both Kindle and paperback.

Bixyl Shuftan

Election Day in The US

 

After months of campaigning, some might say since just after Inauguration Day 2021, it's finally Election Day in the United States. And we at the Newser encourage all Americans to vote, if they haven't already done early voting. 

In the past, the Newser (and the SL Newspaper before us) wrote a number of Election-related articles. This year, not much. As time has gone on, politics has gotten more divisive and toxic than any time in living memory, with not just the Presidential candidates but also their supporters branding the others as evil, dumb, or both. 

So while we encourage people to vote, we also ask that we respect each other, and while any reasonable accusation of voter tampering should be investigated, once the Election results are final, they should be accepted. 

Hopefully all will go smoothly,

Bixyl Shuftan

July 19 Tech Outage Could Cost Over Five Billion Dollars

 

Last Friday, a massive global tech outage affected many thousands from airport travelers to 911 callers to hospital workers as data and communication became unavailable.  Airlines were particularly hard hit, some still having many more delayed flights for days. CNN reported one insurance company stated the crash, "will cost Fortune 500 companies alone more than $5 billion in direct losses."

 

Crowdsrtike would also issue a report about what went wrong, saying that it came from part of it's security system that checks for hacking on customer's computers and smartphones after an update was made which was glitched. While it's updates are screened before being released, there was a bug in the system that allowed it to get through, “despite containing problematic content data.”The result was the "blue screen of death" on millions of computers and smartphones, which could only be delt with by manual operations, sometimes over and over and over.

For more information, check CNN. 

Bixyl Shuftan

Real-Life News: Burning Man 2023 A Muddy Mess

 

 For fans of Burning Man, this was a year that will be remembered not so much for the art, music, and the Burning of The Man, but for the mud.

Last weekend was the high point of the Burning Man art and music festival in Black Rock Nevada, which normally has the high point of the event, the Burning of The Man, a huge wooden effigy, on Saturday night. But then the normally dry desert ended up getting heavy rains. The result was ground turning into a muddy mess. People ended up covering their shoes in plastic bags so they wouldn't get stuck in the thick muck. With people unable to leave, or order fresh supplies, people were asked to conserve food and water. Some grumbled at their festival quite literally dampened. Others just took things it stride. There was also a death at the event when a man was discovered having died for reasons still unknown. The Burning of The Man ended up postponed until Monday so things could dry out. But by then, many had taken advantage of the roads finally being driveable again, and there was a jam of people trying to leave.

For Second Life, Burning Man has had a long-lasting connection. In the late 1990s, many of the original staff of Linden Lab, including it's founder and first CEO Philip Rosedale, would attend and be impressed by the temporary city of attendees having been so quickly created out of nothing, which helped inspire the creation of Second Life. Second Life would have reflections of the Burning Man festival almost since the beginning, taking place in October. They would be sponsored by Linden Lab until 2010, called Burning Life. In 2010, Linden Lab would cut off it's support, and the Burners would run the event on their own, renaming it Burn2. Eventually there would be spinoff events at other times of the year. In 2022, a split among Burning Man fans in real life would be reflected in Second Life with a "Renegade" Burn being held in the virtual world, as well as real life.

 

 Image credit: BBC

Sources: BBC, AP News

Bixyl Shuftan

Hurricaine Idalia Threatens American Southeast

 

 

 Just after Hurricane Hilary caused a scare for California, there's another major storm taking aim at Florida, and on course to barrel through Georgia and South & North Carolina: Hurricane Idalia. Projected to strengthen to Category Three before it lands, there's the possibility of it getting still stronger to Cat 4 when it hits the Florida coast this morning. The storm is expected to remain at hurricane strength as it heads through Georgia, and only weakening to tropical storm status in South Carolina, and continue on through southeast North Carolina, being out at sea only very early Friday morning.

 

People in the path of the storm can expect a strong possibility of electrical, and Internet, outage, and some on the outskirts may experience some interruptions as well. So some of us in Second Life may be offline, or notice some friends who are usually on being off.

 

Sources: News Nation, Weather Channel

 

Bixyl Shuftan

 

Back Online

 

I often say the Newser updates 364 days a year, allowing a day for technical difficulties and the unexpected. Well, on Sunday came the unexpected technical difficulties, which a simple rebooting of the Internet equipment didn't solve, and had to call the company. It's fixed now, and we'll soon be posting as before.

Once again, sorry about the crash.

Image Credit: Erik Mondrain
 

Bixyl Shuftan, Editor, SL Newser

Fundraisers For Earthquake Relief

 

 

 The earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria on February 6 was a truly devastating one. Registering 7.8 on the Richter scale, over 50,000 have been confirmed dead, mostly in Turkey. Shoddy building construction appears to be the major factor in why the death count has been so high. But this is just part of the problem. Thousands remain homeless, and there are medical worries as cold temperatures and lack of housing and food often result in disease.

 

Doctors Without Borders set up a donation area in TONE2 in the Ever Ever Land sim. Head onto Ever Ever Land (101/216/22) and donate what you like.

 

 

A few days ago, Mia Wallace of Burners Without Borders pointed out a fundraising party. This was at Orginia at Happy Clam Island. It was at late Saturday night February 18. 

Awesome initiative!!....BWBSL supports this event!!>> Two hours of music from Turkish & Syrian producers & artists who create the music we dance to. All tips will be donated for earthquake relief to the Red Cross/Red Crescent & Doctors Without Borders. Bring your friends (& your lindens)

It was quite an enthusiastic event, and another example of helping out people around the world in real life through this virtual world.

Bixyl Shuftan

The Big Chill: "Once In A Generation" Winter Storm Rolls Across Much of US, Canada

 

 

 Millions of Americans and Canadians face being stranded at home and without power as a powerful winter storm, described as "once in a generation" and "bomb cyclone" is making it's way through the countries. In some parts of the country, low temperatures are approaching -30F, -40F, and even in a few places approaching minus fifty degrees fahrenhiet. Storm warnings and severe weather alerts are being issued. Record low temperatures are being set and predicted to be set. Flights are getting cancelled. People in a number of states and provinces are being urged not to travel. It's being called the coldest Christmas in forty years.

For Second Life residents, this means the possibility of power outages, which may be for overnight or days, depending on where they are. For those whose power doesn't get knocked out, plans inworld may be inconvenienced as some of their friends will likely be in the dark and unable to log on. For some, it will be a cold, dark, Christmas.

 

Stay safe.

 

Sources: Daily Mail, CNN, weather.com, weather.gov

 

Bixyl Shuftan

How to Prevent And Deal With Doxing

 

After some time away to take care of matters, Angel Fencer is back. Sadly, one of the matters she had to deal with was being doxed and harrassed online. In her article today, she talks about her experience with the issue, and what to do about it should it happen to you.

Read Angel's story in Extra.
 

Daniel Voyager's Blog On Hiatus

 

Noted SL blogger Daniel Voyager hasn't been doing well. It's been several weeks since his blog, Daniel Voyager's Blog, published an article.  Taking a look at his Twitter, it seems he's been dealing with some real life issues that will take some time to resolve. In his last post, he expressed hope at being active again sometime in June.

Best of luck Daniel, and hope you'll be back soon.
 

Remembrance

 

Yesterday, a family member close to me departed (some of you know who she is). She had cancer, and despite surgery it had come back and spread. She spent her last days at home, and passed peacefully. 

The idea of virtual worlds was a bit beyond her, but she was pleased I had a following online, and was putting the spotlight on the good people were doing, notably the Relay for Life in Second Life. And with her passing, I have more reason to cover it than ever.

Newser updates over the next few weeks are likely to be sporadic due to dealing with the details, as well as pondering. A number of Relay track sneak peek pictures have been uploaded ahead of time, as well as a few articles and press releases.

To those whom were there for me with words of support, or even just listening, thank you.

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Gemma Cleanslate On Medical Leave

 

After writing for the Second Life Newser steadily since it's start almost twelve years ago, circumstances in the real life of Gemma Cleanslate are requiring she take a leave of absence. She is having to do so for medical reasons. We at the Newser wish her well, and look forward to her recovery, and return.

Gemma Cleanslate began her career in virtual journalism in early 2008 under JamesT Juno's and Dana Vanmoer's Second Life Newspaper. In June 2010, she would be one of the founding staff of the Second Life Newser. 
 

Further Reactions To Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

 *

It's been about a month since we last discussed how the Russian invasion of the Ukraine was being reflected in Second Life. Since then, there continue to be fundraisers to help out the Ukrainians, such as the one at Union Passage posted here a few days ago. The Marketplace has dozens of Ukraine-related items. And people are continuing to dress in blue and gold, or wearing blue and gold items, such as this back pocket cloth seen at a Relay for Life event (left).

Of the protests in the Moscow Island sim in which the demonstrators found themselves restricted to one tiny out of the way corner, returning to the place, there was one large sign asking people to please stop.

Our island does not belong to any country, it is a private territory. We are not a political organization, this iz just a historical sim, so please do not gather here whit political slogans! Thanks

One question that I've heard is what happens to Russian residents in Second Life? I've had people tell me that friends from the country are being IMed with insults. While the invasion has been marked with atrocities by Russian soldiers against Ukrainian civilians, it's also seen other soldiers sabotage equipment, thousands of Russians being arrested for demonstrating against the war, leaving the country, and Russians taking up arms in support of Ukraine against the invasion. 

With Paypal stopping business in Russia, as well as other means to trade Rubles for Lindens and vice-versa, Russian residents are increasingly unable to buy Lindens or cash in on any Second Life businesses. Hamlet Au recently interviewed one, whom had taken part since the start in helping out Ukrainian residents, and stated he was seriously considering leaving the country as his business was so successful compared to real-life job prospects. But some others who don't have that option may end up having to close their places down due to inability to pay, or possibly leave Second Life for a while if not being able to access money from a Second Life business leads to economic hardship.

The gaming industry has also seen a number of reactions, such as Blizzard and Epic Games halting sales in Russia. It should be noted that Wargaming, best known for "World of Tanks" and "World of Warships," got it's start in Belarus in the 1990s, but since moved its headquarters out of the country. Following the invasion, it fired one of the staff whom made some comments in support of the war. And a few days ago, it announced it was withdrawing completely from Belarus and Russia. The following was posted on it's Discord channel:

Over the past weeks, Wargaming has been conducting a strategic review of business operations worldwide. The company has decided it will not own or operate any businesses in Russia and Belarus and will leave both countries.

Effective March 31 2022, the company started the process of closing its studio in Minsk, Belarus and transferred its live games business in Russia and Belarus to local management of Lesta Studio that is no longer affiliated with Wargaming. The company will not profit from this process either today or going forward. Much to the contrary, we expect to suffer substantial losses as a direct result of this decision.

Going forward, in all other countries Wargaming will continue to operate World of Warships as before. The game servers will be operating as usual, and players' accounts, as well as their in-game property accumulated through purchase or any other means, will remain unchanged.

No doubt there will be more developments in this ongoing story.
 
Sources: BBC, New World Notes, Time , Reuters, PC Gamer, Wargaming 

Bixyl Shuftan
 

RFL: My Mother's Caregiver

 

Today I'm deviating from my usual writing about something in Second Life, although it is about something that will affect my time here in the virtual world. Lately my real life has gotten less predictable as someone in real life close to me is now in need of help, and it's up to me to do so.

More in Extra.
 

DJ Matt Sets Up GoFundMe After Robbery

 
DJ Matt (Matt Carlton) raised plenty of dollars for the Relay for Life in Second Life, such as the DJ competition in April. Unfortunately, she herself right now is in need of money. Her luck recently took a turn for the worst. Her storage shed was broken into, and a number of items were stolen, notably lawn equipment and kitchen appliances.

We found my shed was broken into at my property on Monday, all my lawn equipment was stolen as was all my small kitchen appliances and cookware I was storing in there while redoing wiring and drywall at the house. They took some other miscellaneous stuff, like and old PC and some old radios, but not as bad as the other things. Anything easy to snatch was gone.  I been staying with my parents furring this remodel but now this has really screwed us over. I did not have insurance for this property either. I hate asking for help but I'm at a loss as to what to do. Anything is appreciated. I am even currently selling my old Pathfinder just to try and get extra cash to get a more efficient car just to make deliveries to try and dig out of this hole I am in, but it just seems to keep getting deeper. I'm not great at asking things like this so....I guess I'll leave it at this. Thankfully the house was not harmed and the shed door just needs new hinges....

Matt set up a GoFundMe for anyone wishing to donate. As of the writing of this article, $20 has been donated.

Other ways to get money to her include purchasing items from her small online store, or getting a copy of her cookbook.

Bixyl Shuftan