Fire Disaster in Madori Falls Wilderness

Gemma Cleanslate's latest story was about an unexpected adventure. She was hiking around in Madori Falls Wilderness when she smelled smoke. It was a forest fire! The result was getting away from the flames with fellow hikers, avoiding dangerous animals, and more. So how did she escape?

Read the story in Extra.

Gamer Gets Help For Friend Having Seizure 5000 Miles Away

To those who say online friends aren't real friends, the parents of a 17 year old gamer, Adian Jackson, would disagree. They were watching TV in their home in Widnes, Great Britian, while their son was playing games on his computer upstairs. They had no idea anything was amiss until two police cars with lights flashing drove over. The three officers told them they'd gotten a call that something was wrong with the boy. Going upstairs, the boy was found "severely disoriented and not fully conscious of his surroundings." He still had his headset on, and a gamer friend, the one whom had made the call, was still online trying to talk to him.

The other gamer was Dia Lathora of Texas, 5000 miles away. While they were both gaming online, he suddenly stopped talking Dia was able to guess he was having a seizure. She had his address, but not his phone number, so she tried to reach an emergency number. While she couldn't find it, she was able to talk to someone, and though that person was able to explain what was happening.

"We always say to the kids, be careful who you speak to online," Caroline Jackson stated, "but in this case, it was invaluable."

Sources: BBC News, Liverpool Echo

Interview with Tealcie Annibles (Tealcie Resident) of SL Regional Search and Rescue.

Recently, yours truly interviewed Tealcie Annibles (Tealcie Resident). Tealcie is the founder and leader of the SL Regional Search and Rescue group, which roleplays first responders at the scene of various disasters. I talked to her about how she got started in Second Life, and just what goes into planning and setting up these exercises.

Read the interview in People.

Second Life Regional Search And Rescue

Suppose there was a great emergency, would you know what to do? Not a little emergency like your engine not starting, but a big emergency like a train wreck or a major fire on a ship? The Second Life Regional Search and Rescue does frequent first responder roleplay exercises. Gemma Cleanslate was recently able to witness one such exercise.

Read Gemma's story in Extra.

Rescuing Deepmarsh

On late Thursday night, September 27, I was informed about Deepmarsh, a beautifully-designed sim that apparently was in trouble and in danger of vanishing. Given a name, Honor Woodget, I messaged her, and the following day got in contact with her. She told me she was an estate owner, "The lady that rents from me has had this place for ages. Her display name is River, but her account name is Moya McCallen. She set it up as a relaxation sim, come hang out calm down, take photos, etc. As you can see, she's done a wonderful job."

"About three weeks ago, the sim went past due. Because she'd been here a long time and it was such a well done place, I was patient instead of reclaiming it. At eight days late, I managed to catch her online. She said real-life work had kept her really busy, and she was having trouble getting online. As she was TPing to the tiles to pay rent, she crashed. (I) haven't seen her since."

"Now, she had a good friend who was listed as co-owner of the place: Bigticket Resident. He couldn't afford to pay rent on it, and offered to let me spam the group for help." She directed my attention to the donation box in the building in the middle of the sim, "At two weeks late, I put up that ugly box you see behind you (laughter) for donations." I asked how much was raised. Honor answered, "Visitors and group members paid me enough to pay the two back weeks rent, plus this past week." As we spoke, someone came into the sim, dropped a little cash into the box, and left, Honor saying, "And there's another 200L$"

"So tier is due again today (Sept 28)," she went on, "and I'm hoping to keep it going another week. ... From 11 L to 2000L donations, every single bit goes to the rent." Honor told me most was coming from other members of the group, saying they really wanted the sim to stay, "they love it."

"I'm just hoping Moya aka River comes back soon," Honor commented, "I think she'd be amazed at how people stepped up to help." She had no idea when that might be, "Two people have email addresses and have updated her, but no reply yet." They are considering the possibility she might not be back, "Right now, the community is weighing its options. ...to confirm the rumor, last weekend I did a donation matching thing for a bit. (We) got 4k in donations in 1 hour, which I matched. I might end up doing a dance here. But the 20 avatar limit bites. But yeah a fund raising event is possible. And there may be a buyer for it who would keep it as is."

"It's a great place for photo shoots or just zoning out. I mean I decorate some, as a land lady, but this place rocks."

Those who want to check out the sim for themselves, donate, or both, can head to: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Beck/114/148/21. There's also a Flickr group for pictures. 

Bixyl Shuftan

Seraph City is Saved, Moved to New Sim

Good news for fans of the "retro-future" city area, Seraph City. Once in danger of fading away from Second Life, it now has a new home in the Symbiosis sim. On Wednesday night, I was invited to Club Seraph where some of the location's friends, including some involved with it's rescue, had gathered to celebrate with a few drinks at the bar.

Read Bixyl's article in Places.

Video: "Save City of Heroes"

The effort by it's fans to save the City of Heroes MMO continues, one of whom made this video. More information can be read at http://www.savecoh.com/.

Arcadia Asylum Library

Earlier this summer, Gemma Cleanslate wrote about the Library of Arcadia. Recently, she heard that the library was due to be closed, but the contents were being set up at new locations. On a tip, she went to one place to have a look for herself to see how Arcadia's works were doing.

Read more in Design.

Horsenet Horse Rescue

Reporter Grey Lupindo came across a place in Second Life devoted to helping out horses in need in real life: the Horsenet Horse Rescue. Laura24 Kiranov tells about exactly what her organization does, and what it needs, both in real life and Second Life.

Read the story in Places.