Cartoon of the Day

From Club Cutlass. Looks like Dark Helmet's Schwartz just ran out at a rather inconvenient time.

By Bixyl Shuftan

SL Video: "Mac on Trial"

(Click here if the video does not play)

From "TheOtherSideBand InSecondLife in April 20, a video about the justice system in the Tombstone roleplay community, "The arrest and trial of Mac McLeary."

Announcement: RFL Team Shadow's "Blues For Life" , Today 12 Noon to 10PM

Team Shadow Presents Their 6th Annual Blues For Life

Saturday, May 18th
12-10pm SLT

Featuring performances by:

Barton Kidd
Joelle Lustre
DJ Sar
DJ Dune
and our own
Fizban Underwood


Hosted by the Golden Tambourine Club

All donations benefit Relay For Life and the American Cancer Society.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Coral%20Ocean/83/89/22

SL Video: "Peeping Tom"

(click here if the music does not play)

From W.L.F. on April 2017

Relaystock Starts Today, Ends Sunday May 19

Starting at 1:30 PM tomorrow, various Relay teams and musicians will be taking part in the Relaystock. Hosted by the Relay Rockers, this multi-team event will take place over three days, ending on Sunday evening. There will be much to do, from look over the various teams' camps, to buying items at vendors, to contributing to the "Bid the Lindens Bald," and of course dancing at the grounds in front of the 60s style concert stage.

So if you have time, head on over to RelayStock2019 (128/6/23). And don't forget to check out the Team Sunbeamer camp at RelayStock2019 (171/113/23).

Go Relay!

Press Release: HFOT Memorial Week Benefit, May 19 4-9PM

Frets Nirvana and US Military Veterans Group announce 2019’s Memorial Week benefit for Homes For Our Troops in Second Life! 

Frets Nirvana, the premier guitar artist in the virtual world Second Life and the US Military Veterans Group announce the 2019 May benefit in Second Life for the Veterans Support Organization Home For Our Troops.  This is the week where we should remember those who have sacrificed the ultimate for our country so this month’s Homes For Our Troops benefit is a special one.


Frets Nirvana states:  “HFOT is a privately funded 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization building specially adapted, mortgage-free homes nationwide for the most severely injured Veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of these Veterans are multiple amputees, paraplegic, quadriplegic or suffered severe traumatic brain injury (TBI).  Since its inception in 2004, over 90 cents of every dollar spent by Homes for Our Troop has gone to directly support Veterans. DURING THAT TIME HFOT HAS BUILT OVER 274 SPECIALLY ADAPTED HOMES NATIONWIDE FOR WOUNDED VETERANS.”

In 2018 the community in Second Life sent over $13,000 to Homes For Our Troops, thanks to may kind hearts and great Second Life performers.  HFOT built 34 homes for extremely wounded veterans in 2018.  We hope to help them exceed that in 2019!

Home for Our Troops benefit concerts feature premier Second Life talent monthly at Veteran’s Isle.  The Memorial week concert on May 19, 2019 is scheduled from 4pm to 9 PM PST.  Featured artists will be DJ Waya Snowpaw, Lazarus Doghouse, Lark Bowen, Cryptc Harmony and Franklee Anatra

Sponsored by Frets Nirvana and the U.S. Military Veteran’s Group of Second Life.  To learn more about Homes for Our Troops visit https://www.hfotusa.org

Reminder: Bay City Anniversary Sunday May 19

Just a reminder that Bay City's Eleventh Anniversary events are this weekend, Sunday May 19. First at 12:30 SL time is a parade down the main street of the urban area, followed by a music concert at Bay City Fairgrounds.

The CDS Election Candidates Speak

This week, the CDS community is holding it's biannual elections. On Monday, several candidates running for it's Representative Assembly appeared at the Colonia Nova Amphitheatre. They would give statements about their campaign, and answer a few questions.

Read the story in Events.

Press Release: 6th Annual RelayStock - May 17, 18,19, 2019

The Relay Rockers invite everyone to join them on May 17, 18 and 19 at  RelayStock, a multi team Relay For Life of Second Life event, sponsored by X-City games and featuring live and dj entertainment, dancing, vendors and as always mud!

The event will feature 'Team Sites' around a 60s style festival stage. 

Relay Teams have been invited to bring Kiosks and Vendors, host music performances on the stage and participate in one the most popular events this year, the Rocker's 2019 Celebrate Remember Fight Back Top DJ Competition.

"The Rockers have been fortunate to have participants from many teams in our CRFB Event" said Rockers Co-Captain Arizona Ballinger. "RelayStock is our way of saying thank you for the huge support across the grid for our event.  It affords every team the opportunity to share in a super fund raising event."

Team Captain and past RFL of SL Chair Nuala Maracas added, "This is just another example of the One Team concept in Relay. It doesn’t matter who's kiosk or vendor the donations land in, after all we are all on the same team in the end."

The event will be held at the RelayStock2019 region and is open to all residents of Second Life. In addition to the festival the region will also be hosting Bid The Lindens Bald. Attendees can 'vote' by donation to the special kiosks that will be placed near the entrance to the Region. The challenge runs from May 15th to May 19th!

The Schedule:

Friday May 17
1:30pm  DJ Kermie       UFS Metamorphosis
3:00pm  The A Team     Friends For A Cure
4:30pm  DJ Evee Nikolaidis  Spirit of the DragonRFL
6:00pm  DJ Madonna Daehlie  Team Shadow

Saturday May 18th
10:30am  DJ Ray02 Little    Inspired Dream Walkers
12pm  DJ Dolleyes Barbosa   Too Tough To Die
1:30pm   TBA
3pm Todd Rumsford - LIVE - Cure Chasers
4pm Keeba & The Tiny Maniacs - LIVE - Relay Rockers
5pm The Core Four - Cancer Gets Stung
6:30pm  DJ Heath    Harmony Of Hope
8:00pm   DJ Kayla   Roos With A Dream

Sunday May 19th
11am Holocluck Henly  ACTS
12:30pm TBA
2pm CRFB FINALIST #2
3:30pm CRFB FINALIST #1
5pm CRFB AWARD CEREMONY
5:15pm Trader Whiplash - Cure Chasers, The River Of Life & Roos With A Dream Teams


For More information contact:
Arizona Balinger
RelayStock Coordinator
Arizona@t1radio.com

Crew Meeting

From the Newser's last crew meeting on Saturday May 11, at our office in HV Community. Showing up from right to left were reporters Marcel Mosswood, Klaus Bereznyak, Deaflegacy, Bixyl Shuftan (myself), and Gemma Cleanslate. Also there were Velani and Rua Whitepaw as guests.

Gemma had a little something for those exploring around on the roads: a bike rezzer. The bike works well enough in-sim, though there may be issues with sim crossings.

Oh, as for those jokers who thought they could disrupt us by using a N-word gesture, we just turned down the sound.

We'll be busy in the coming month, covering Relay for Life events as well as the setting up for the SL16B sims for the anniversary celebrations next month. And next month we'll be celebrating our ninth anniversary. Assuming all goes as planned, we'll have a little something for you the readers.

Bixyl Shuftan

Cartoon of the Day

Taken at Club Cutlass during a beach party

By Bixyl Shuftan

Bellisseria: The New Linden Homes Continent

It's been about a month since the newest continent, Bellisseria, began appearing on the map. The location of the new Linden Homes, those available were quickly snapped up, almost all occupied in less than two days. The homes come in two kinds, neighborhood houses, and the houseboats. The latter have been the focus of more than a little attention. Gemma Cleanslate recently went to the new land to take a look.

Read Gemma's article in Places.

More on The Scheduled Maintenance Outage

On late Monday night just after 9:30PM SL time, Second Life experienced an outage that offlined practically all the residents. While some trouble was expected due to the scheduled maintenance that night, what happened was a surprise. Not just logins onto the Grid, but Marketplace, secondlife.com, JIRA, mysecondlife. and more were disabled.

In the forums, Grumpity Linden would respond the the comments of residents in the "Network Maintenance" and the "Second Life is Down" threads, "It's probably cold comfort to reiterate to everyone here that this is not our idea of a good time either." "We're not actually that crazy about taking down the grid, but we had to bang on some things, and are terribly sorry! "

Reactions from the residents varied. One person messaged me, asking me if I thought Linden Lab hand finally shut down Second Life for good. Others grumbled. Some began cracking jokes about not knowing what to do with their time now that they couldn't log in (not unlike the Facebook outage a couple months ago), that there'd be a small baby boom in nine months, and that finally Sansar had more people inworld than Second Life had. And of course there were jokes about the Lindens "banging on things," someone tripping over a power cord, and the cleaning lady causing a short after plugging in her vacuum in the wrong place, Grumpity commenting, "I feel like the cleaning crew is getting a bad rep here!"

Finally at 1:43AM Tuesday morning, the Lindens announced on the Grid Status Report, "We are bringing services back online. Logins have been turned back on. Your experience may still be bumpy as normal concurrency resumes. Thank you for your patience!" Grumpity would say, "Thank you all for your patience.  We can't wait to call it a night! "

But on Tuesday night as this was a second night of scheduled maintenance, there were some worries this would happen again. Grumpity assured that this was highly unlikely, "While you may experience minor disruption, it will be nothing like last night.   Just in case though, we've sacrificed a goat.  It gives us just a little extra confidence." Fortunately, there was no major disruption that night, and residents appear to have more or less gotten about normally.

Third image credit, JB Raccoon

Bixyl Shuftan

Hoshigarei Bridge

Taking a look at random around the map, I came across this huge bridge linking two groups of Japanese style Linden Homes divided by the water on the Hoshigarei sim. The bridge takes up most of the width of the sim, one side just short of the edge of the Chibi sim.

The bridge was made by Molly Linden and Cadroe Murphy. The sim itself falls under the Linden Department of Public Works

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Hoshigarei/152/195/60

Press Release: The Silk Road Series #1 - Sat May 18 5 AM to 8 AM SL Time

LIVE EVENT @ The Writers Centre, Singapore and streamed from Second Life

From Singapore to Second Life: come to the Caravanserai for a one-night stop over to witness a grand live concert, streamed online as Singapore wordsmiths and improv musicians team up with accomplished artists, writers, musicians, comics, filmmakers and poets from Germany, UK, Holland, Portugal, Japan, Mexico, Costa Rica, Hawaii, Canada and the USA.

This coming together of SL and Singaporean artists is in aid of Feed a Smile, a charity serving Kenyan school children.

Feature artists include Yadleen (ambient keyboards), Karima Hoisan and Natascha Randt, (machinima screening and discussion) in world poets and well known performers like Rosedrop Rust on the same programme as  comedians such as Esteban Voljeti and world wide storytellers like Caledonia Skytower.

Kaylee West, founder of Chinese Island, a part of the Monash University sims where Caravanserai is located says, ‘So much of world history is built on the dialogue and cultural exchange represented by the land and sea Silk Roads.”

 Her colleague, Singh, (Dr Chris Moone-Singh, an Australian located in Singapore, himself a poet-singer and educator adds, ‘We are very happy to start the Silk Road Series and share the heritage of East-West arts.”

As the Singaporeans share South-East Asian culture, world artists likewise share their poems, songs and stories this unique programme will be streamed live from Second Life from their online locations in the spirit of bygone days along the digital Silk Road.

Second Life:
Some Teardrop (singer-songwriter); USA.
Yadleen (Clara Mayef) Germany - ambient synth composer/performer 
Karima Hoisan and Natascha Randt, poet and filmmaker (Costa Rica/Germany)
Dansy Insight (Traditional Chinese songs)
Rosedrop Rust (Oregon)
Poets: Persephone (NYC), Shyla (MiD-West),  Klannex Northmead (London), Adele Ward (London), Key Key Underwood (Cleveland),  Frederique McMIllan (Quebec, Canada)
Storyteller: Caledonia Skytower: Seattle area, US
Esteban Voljeti - comedy
Singh - original spoken word and music

Come early and try out the Magic Carpet Racetrack and have your tarot read.




See promo video @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-JErgwvpoY

See programme @ Google docs
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bv8qXirDeFnyN3Bu_GJ7QNMaArkZ6ozVWs8aF_haL4I/edit?usp=sharing

FACEBOOK Events page: https://www.facebook.com/events/2343526299257395/

Events This Week at the Sunweaver, Montecito Bay, Furry Fashion, and CDS Clubs

Here's what's going on at the Sunweaver and Montecito Bay clubs, Lyuba's Game and Dance Center, and Furry Fashion's Furscape

Club Cutlass: Best in 'Q' and 'R,' Wings, Metalica

The Happy Vixen: Fluffy Tails, Australia, Tailbait and Tail Hunters, Old Avatars, Bunnies and Foxes, Bikers, Swimsuits, Undies, TBA

Club Zero Gravity: DJ Snowbuns,  DJ Naughty Nydia, The Blues Furs

Montecito Bay: Leather and Lace, Sun and Surf, Pizza Party, Fun in the Sun. Black and White, Mythical Creatures, Becky and Mateo Birthday

FF Furscape: CAYA, Rock, Omnipunk, Canines, Pool Party, CAYA, Heroes and Villains, After Dark, Felines, Rainbow, Rave

Lyuba's Game and Dance Center: Apocalypse to Thunderdome, Monday Blues

Read the schedules in SL Clubbin'. 

Announcement: Ride for Life

Many of us have been impacted by cancer, whether it is some we know and love or ourselves.

In honor and memory of those who have fought and won and sadly those who have fought and lost. We keep fighting to help others who now fight or will be one day.

Rogue Echo's is hosting Relay For Life Event "Ride For Life".
March 20th - June 3rd

On June 3rd at 12pm SLT will be he Honor and Remembrance ride

Vendors will be in the event area to raise money for The American Cancer Society.

If you are a creator and want info on a booth please contact Jaden Warwillow (please send note if I am off line

Booths are free but creators are required to have a minimum of two RFL official vendors  and vendors set to "Rogue Echo's" team
I will send you a vendor request hud for the RFL vendors

creator can set up 2- 5 vendors for  their shops as well as a landmark giver

Jaden Warwillow

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Enoshima/136/95/2282

Breaking News: Second Life is Down

 If you got knocked off online, you're far from alone. Shortly after 9:30PM SL time, most residents were logged off the grid. A look at the Firestorn viewer showed only a few hundred still on the Grid. A look at the Grid Status Report showed logins were disabled.

While this was the first of four days of scheduled maintenance, it's doubtful they intended to log off everyone. For now, they've disabled logins. Grumpity Linden says people should be able to get back on "soon."

Stay tuned for more information.

14th Raglan Shire Artwalk and Interview With Karmagirl Avro

Raglan Shire, Second Life's most noted community of Tinies, has many annual events across the year. But it's best known and longest-lasting one is the Artwalk. With over 170 artists involved, this year's Artwalk is the largest. Marcel Mosswood went to the show, and had a few words with Karmagirl Arvo, the director.

Read Marcel's story in Events.

"Fran Serenade’s Celebration Of Life" Raises Over 350,000 Lindens For Parkinson's

On Saturday May 11, The Savoy Ballroom at Creations for Parkinsons was the scene of a memorial concert and dance event. The event was done in honor of Fran Serenade, whom had passed away on March e at the age of 92. Named "Fran Serenade's Celebration of Life," it went from 11AM to 9PM SL time, a number of singers performed for the crowd, which at one point numbered 64.

The event was organized by Fran's real-life daughter, Barbie Alchemi. Besides celebrating the life of her mother, it was also to raise funds for Parkinson's research.

some of the very best live singers in Second Life will be performing in her honor. Most knew Fran and some had performed at her 90th birthday party, also at Savoy. All talent will be perfoming for tips only, and like all events at Creations Park, this will benefit Team Fox for Parkinson's Research.

The goal of the event was to raise 250,000 Linden dollars. But by 6:42PM, the amount had passed 300,000L. And the total continued to grow. Almost 40,000 Lindens were raised in one single hour period. After the last singer performed, a few people made last-minute donations. The final total was  353,800 Linden dollars!

With the event finally over, there were messages of congratulations, "What a joyful day for Fran." "Fran is smiling tonight." It certainly has been a fantastic night!!! Thank you," Barbie told.

Although Fran has departed, Barbie and her real-life brother AlmostThere Inventor will continue running Creations for Parkinsons and it's events. It's mission remains to be a place of comfort and beauty, and raising funds for Parkinson's.

Bisyl Shuftan

Announcement: 14th Annual Raglan Shire Artwalk

ART! ON A HEDGE! IN THE FOREST! IN THE TREES!! EVERYWHERE!! AHHHHHH!

Once again, The Hedge has appeared and with it comes all the incredible Art hatched from the minds of creative & talented individuals for all to see!

This years ArtWalk promises to be the biggest one to date as we expect to surpass 200 within the next several days which will be the first time we’ve hit that number.

Friday is set up day and there is already a staggering amount of art of all types up and out for viewing. Whether it’s paintings (oil, acrylic, watercolor Etc) or Drawings and sketches (digital, pen, pencil, charcoal, crayon yada), Photography or 3D sculpture, There’s something for everyone to see and marvel at in addition to a bunch of extra’s you can experience to augment your enjoyment of the event!

Expect to also see live performances both Artistic and musical during the next 4 weeks!

ArtWalk officially begins May 12th and lasts a month so you all have time to come and have a look at all things creative and support the people who put the time in to share their Art with everyone!

Cartoon of the Day

Taken at the Happy Vixen. Looks like some guy couldn't leave the Yinglet girl alone, until she went "MC Hammer" on him.

By Bixyl Shuftan

Announcement: Relay For Life Events at Club Amarantha

Team Meli's Maniacs recently hit Silver fundraising rank among the Relay for Life teams. But they're not finished yet. They're going for the gold with a couple live performances at their adopted club, Club Amarantha this week.

Tomorrow will be appearing one hen you'll want to keep away from the KFC kitchen. Introducing Nivor, the Singing Chicken, scheduled for Monday May 13 at 12 Noon SL time.

On Wednesday May 15 at 4PM SL time, shimmy on down to hear the music of Bo W. Shim.

Go Relay!

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Amarantha/17/216/1504

Reminder: Fran Serenade’s Celebration Of Life Today

A Celebration of Fran’s life will be held at Savoy Ballroom in Creations Park on Saturday, May 11, 2019, from 11AM to 9PM SLT.  Some of the very best live singers in Second Life will be performing in her honor. We hope you can stop by at some point during the day.

https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Creations%20Park/5/49/28

SL Video: "In The Arms of An Angel"

(click here if the video does not play)

From Jackson Redstar Videoography on May 2018, "Sultry Sonata Masterson is a singer in Second Life. She sings Jazz, Ballads, Blues and R and B, Pop, Rock, and even a little Country thrown in for good measure."

Ari's Concert on Cape Heron

A couple weeks ago, Virtual Ability had a conference with a number of speakers. But events like those are not the only events the community has. Virtual pianist Ari (Arisia Vita), whom has played in places like Creations for Parkinson's and the VWBPE, has been doing performances at the Cape Heron sim. Deaflegacy has been at the events, and recently wrote about one.

Read Deaflegacy's story in People.

SL Video: "Love Made in Second Life: Episode 5 - Meet Phox and Sonya"

The latest "Love Made in Second Life" video is out, featuring Sonya Iceghost and Phox Sillanpaa.

“To anyone looking for love in Second Life … when you’re not looking for it that’s when it’s gonna find you,” says Sonya. “It’ll find you twice as hard.”
Sonya who now shares her life with her husband, Phox, and their adorable first born child.
“Don’t be afraid to meet people” adds Phox.

Announcement: HFOT Donations, April 2019

The heat of the summer is just around the corner folks ….and the Homes For our Troops donations are getting hot!  In April we were able to send just over $1050 to HFOT.  Our total for 2019 now comes to just over $5500.  This is once again due  to a lot of effort by the following folks:

 Ray Pinson and all the folks of Legion of Veterans International and Lov MC
Hale Compton (The Peak)
Wyckdrayn Resident (Ashur)
JacksonTrig Resident  at Jacksonville Island
RGHangnLo Resident and all the folks and VIPs at Hangin's Hideout

Other efforts that were notable were made by:
Ravencrisler Resident (Partners in crime)
Marson2014 Resident (Nina Isle)
Joi Shepherd (Serena Montecito)
Bixyl Shuftan (Purrfection estates)
Cayleen Linette (Cay's at Woodland Lake)
Dirkdanger11 Resident (Sacred Island, Sky Ranch, Bear Creek and Stargate Command)

And those performers and their managers that help us in every way that they can …singing playing and offering up every reason they can to help this cause!  Thank you:

Waya SnowpawDJ
Nina Bing
Zak Claxton
Maali Beck
Neomaximus Brandenburg
Donn Devore
Bad Setner and all the folks at Bad Management
Sassy Nitely
Troyjames and Music Speaks Management

And then Dahlea Milena and Gjackie Winkler are always there helping at our monthly event at Veteran’s Isle.

Thank you all ,,,this is a family effort that will help some very deserving veterans.  Let’s heat those summer donations up!

All the best,

Frets Nirvana

Ebbe Altberg / Ebbe Linden Interviewed,

Recently, James Wagner/Hamlet Au , whom years ago was Linden Lab's embedded reporter in Second Life, gave an interview to the Linden Lab's CEO: Ebbe Altberg / Ebbe Linden.



The first thing Altberg talked about was his optimism about Second Life, saying it was "doing quite well, there's a lot of positive signs." It was making more money, and the number of Premium accounts was up, "We're very bullish about the long term health of Second Life. ... A very hardcore entrenched audience in there."

The CEO talked a little about how things were when hie first arrived five years ago, "when I came here, the users were a little bit angry, there was a disconnect between the Lab and the user base, the residents." He went on to say some of the Lab's policies at the time "didn't make much sense." Five years later, "We're psyched with what the Second Life team has accomplished," saying there were some good people among Linden Lab's employees.

Talking about the Lab's focus on continued revenue growth, saying too much had been charged for land, and they were taking steps for those with mainland property to get more for their money on it, as well as less costly private sims. But they had to make up for the lost revenue there somewhere. He added they were still working on their pricing strategy, hoping to take another step in a few months.

"There's no virtual world ever made that has the diversity of Second Life," Altberg would say, though saying this "incredible" diversity was a challenge to run, calling a bit like dealing with the different policies of cities and countries to "find the right balance." He also compared a resident looking for their place in the virtual world to someone moving to a new home in another city in real life, it's a lot of effort for someone to find the right community, find the right neighbors, find the right clubs, activities, and places ... it takes a lot of effort to be comfortable and happy with a place within your social circles."

The CEO also stated those who thought Second Life's residents were heavily into adult activities because so much of the sims were marked "Adult" were mistaken, "what's marked as an adult region is a completely meaningless metric. A lot of people mark their regions as adult because they (fear they) won't have freedom of speech, but they're not really doing ... what you consider adult activities there." It wasn't necessarily a warning that people would see things "that you will be shocked for the rest of your life." Of those who do engage in adult activities, he didn't see them as necessarily bad, "our job is to make sure things are done legal and healthy for the community." He did admit sometimes people do cross a line, "so obviously the banhammer has to come out sometimes. ... overall, it's not really a significant problem."

He also talked about the "massive effort" to move Second Life's data from servers in Phoenix to Cloud servers by Amazon, feeling it would probably take less than a year longer. As Sansar started with Cloud servers, that gave them some knowledge that helped with their move of the older virtual world's data there. He stated once the move was completed, people in faraway places such as Australia and Asia would better able to enjoy Second Life.

Hamlet asked the CEO about the three top mesh bodies being "horribly optimized" and causing a great deal of lag. The CEO answered what happens to the avatars was ultimately up to the residents, saying that was why they introduced the option to jellydoll high complexity avatars, hoping it would create a supply and demand issue that would pressure avatar makers to come up with less laggy avatars, "we can plead and beg, but ultimately users going to do what users going to do." He did say there ways always the option of giving sim owners the power to limit how complex an avatar on their land.

Altberg called getting Second Life's overall user retention rate going up and continuing to go up "the toughest goal we have." Mentioning that Second Life has a number of games, he mentioned the possibility of introducing a quest.

Of the upcoming iOS viewer for handheld devices, the CEO stated this would not be a true independent viewer, but a "companion." He had no idea at the moment when they might be available.

The talk soon turned to Sansar. Altberg stated the reasons for it's low numbers was that it was still a product very much still in Beta. He went on to say they could have continued to develop it in secret, but wanted to get feedback from those that were using it, "some great users whom have been persistently with (the Sansar team) through this journey." Hamlet asked the CEO why VRChat was so popular in comparison. Altberg answered it was because of the creativity of the avatar makers, which allowed for plenty of roleplay. But in Sansar, a content creator could make money. They can't do that in VRChat. So he was confident eventually Sansar would do better than it's rival. When asked about Second Life residents who questioned why the Lab was investing so much in Sansar, Altberg responded that Second Life had both a larger team and a larger operation budget than Sansar.

Two beautiful products, I love them both for different reasons. ...I hope they're both successful for a long, long time."

Source: New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan

Press Release: Bid The Lindens Bald 2019

A Bid Me Bald Challenge – May 15th to May 22nd   
Once again Linden Labs is teaming up with the Relay Rockers to support the Relay For Life of Second Life and putting their hair on the line’ to help the American Cancer Society Save Lives, Celebrate Lives, and Lead The Fight For a World Without Cancer.

Five teams of Lindens have accepted the challenge to see who can raise the most donations and win the right to shave the heads of the members of the team with the lowest kiosk total.   The team that is ‘Bid Bald’ will be without hair for 30 days!

The participating Linden Teams are:

CUSTOMER ACCOUNT OPERATIONS: Dakota Linden, Theresa Linden and Vanessa Linden

CONCIERGE SUPPORT: Dottie Linden, Evie Linden, Rocko Linden, TJ Linden, Vix Linden, Volo Linden and Wendi Linden

LAND OPERATIONS: Constantine Linden, Izzy Linden, Kona Linden and Madori Linden

TIER 1 SUPPORT: Acan Linden, Cantara Linden, Ellie Linden, Ginger Linden and Jet Linden

SUPPORT MANAGEMENT: Ami Linden, Derrick Linden, Kristin Linden and Maggie Linden

The five Linden teams will have kiosks placed on the RelayStock2019 region beginning May 15th.  For the next week residents can vote to help their favorite Linden(s) KEEP THEIR HAIR while bidding the team with the LEAST in their Kiosk Bald for One Month! Don't miss the party on May 22nd, featuring the debut of the Tiny Maniacs ‘On Our Own’! (No Keeba!??! OMG!)

Be sure to stop by and donate to the special kiosks and don’t forget to visit RelayStock 2019… the 6th annual gathering of the Relay tribes for 3 days of Peace Love and Hope.  The multi-team event, sponsored by X-City Games, is a RFL of SL tradition and will feature live performances by Keeba Tammas and the Tiny Maniacs and Todd Rumsford and the Finals of the Celebrate Remember Fight Back Top DJ Competition!

Linden Labs and the Rockers first joined forces in 2017 when the event raised over L$2.25 million in support of Relay For Life.  Since then Bid The Lindens Bald has raised more than L$3.5 million.

*Bid Me Bald recognizes, with honor and respect, those for whom the choice was made, not by themselves, but by Chemotherapy and other cancer treatments.  We have the choice and we choose to sacrifice our hair to honor these Survivors and to help the American Cancer Society Save Lives, Celebrate Lives and Lead The Fight for a World Without Cancer*

For More information contact:
Trader1 Whiplash
Bid Me Bald Coordinator
Trader@t1radio.com

The Borobudur Temple

After a short vacation, Newser reporter Marcel Mosswood is back in business. Her latest article is about the Borobudur temple. Located in the Gentility Land sim, Borobudur is a detailed replica of the world's largest Buddhist temple, built around 800 AD and located in central Java, Indonesia. Marcel had the chance to interview Aryluke, the person behind this great build.

Read Marcel's story in Places.

Four Day Period of Scheduled Maintenence Next Week

It's no secret that lately, the Grid has been having some issues. Last month, Linden Lab admitted TP fails were a problem. In recent days, I've heard of several people complaining their friends lists have been glitching and some names not appearing, event when the person is online.

So perhaps these bugs, and others, are the reason for the Lab announcing four days of scheduled maintenance next week from Monday May 13 to Thursday May 16.

Our engineers will be performing maintenance on the Second Life network May 13 - 16. We hope to perform most of the maintenance early in this window, but it may extend several days if needed.

Residents may experience problems connecting to, being disconnected from, or an inability to log in during this time, as well as possible issues rezzing objects, teleporting, or crossing regions. We hope to keep these disruptions to a minimum and greatly appreciate your patience during this time as we work to make Second Life more robust.

Hopefully the time period will have few, if any disruptions.

Hat tip: Female Winslet

Bixyl Shuftan

Reader Submitted: Sheherazade

From Chandni Khondji

New Houseboat Sims at SSP Region

When the new Linden Homes continent was opened, it's houseboats were occupied in about 48 hours. So when at the Linden Jail and Bail during the Fantasy Fair when Linden Home houseboats were offered as an incentive to donate, it was a sure sign there would soon be more available. Another sign has recently appeared. At the SSP continent far to the northeast of the map, forty-eight sims have appeared, most appearing in the style of Linden Home houseboat sims.

Presumably, duplicates of these sims will be placed near Bellisseria at the mainlands. How soon this will happen, there's no date available.

Hat Tip: Daniel Voyager

Bixyl Shuftan

Cartoon of the Day: Too Much Firepower

Taken at the RFL Team Shadow Paintball event. This tiny in stormtrooper armor looks like his gun is a bit big to wield around without a lot of trouble. But of course stormtroopers don't exactly have the best reputation for marksmanship.

By Bixyl Shuftan

Events This Week at the Sunweaver, Montecito Bay, Furry Fashion, and CDS Clubs

Here's what's going on at the Sunweaver and Montecito Bay clubs, Lyuba's Game and Dance Center, and Furry Fashion's Furscape

Club Cutlass: Best in "P", T-shirt Night, Steampunk

The Happy Vixen: Quads and Mods, Class and *ss (Ladies' Revenge), Barely There, Bodysuits and Leotards, Cowboys and Aliens, Silks, Jailbreak, TBA

Club Zero Gravity: DJ Snowbuns,  TBA, The Blues Furs

Montecito Bay: TBA

FF Furscape: CAYA, Horror, 80s, Cute vs Creepy, Hybrids, Black and White, Videogames, After Dark, Fursonas, Stripes, Cats vs Dogs

Lyuba's Game and Dance Center: Apocalypse to Thunderdome, Monday Blues

Read the schedules in SL Clubbin'. 

Reader Submitted: May The Fourth Be With You

From Skylark "Snowbuns" Lefavre, during the Happy Vixen's "May the Fourth Be With You" party on Saturday May 4.

Later Today

Did the Fairelands Quest with the help of a few friends before it closes down on Wednesday. But it meant staying up a bit. So today's articles will be delayed until I get some much needed rest.

A Busy Weekend

Quite a bit happened this weekend. Saturday May 4 was "Star Wars Day" , "May the Fourth be with you" being a pun among sci-fi fans. So many places had "Star Wars" themed events such as the Tiny Snail Races (above) and Club Cutlass.

There were other happenings such as the "early bird Walpurgisnacht" hosted by Baron Klaus Wulfenbach. But the big thing of course was the Fantasy Fare that came to a close this weekend. Many thanks to the sim designers and sponsors such as the Safe Waters Foundation.

Fantasy Faire Ends

Sunday May 5 was the last day of the Fantasy Faire. The event has been going on for a little more than two weeks, though most were having such a great time they didn't want it to end. But they could make the best of things, such as one last event, the "Ravedown" which took place across multiple sims across the day.

With most of the sims due to be locked down within hours, it was the last day to take a look at the scenery. It was also the last day for people to finish the first part of the Fairelands Quest. For those who did, they have until Wednesday May 8 at Midnight to complete the second. Those who do get some prizes, and get to see what happens in the story.

But not all the news was sad. There was an announcement that the Faire had raised a total of fifteen million Linden dollars.

Because of you, Fantasy Faire 2019 and our Anonymous Friends in the Physical World are proud to announce that our current total is now….wait for it…

L$15,000,000 or $64,000 US Dollars!

Take THAT Unweaver! And hold on, Kenya! The Fairelands are on the March!

For everyone but the questers, Fantasy Faire 2019 has come to a close. For those who want to know a little more, you can read more information at their website at https://fantasyfairesl.wordpress.com/ . You can also check out pictures at their Flickr page. But of course the Relay goes on, with the Relaystock later this month, and the Relay Weekend next month.

Bixyl Shuftan