Day: June 17, 2018

SL15B: fifteen years and counting!

Posted on by Inara Pey
The SL15B Cake Stage

The first part of the celebrations for Second Life’s 15th anniversary opened on Sunday, June 17th, when the SL15B Community Celebration regions opened to the public.

Events within the 24 regions will run from Sunday, June 17th through until Sunday, June 24th, with the Big Day, marking the original opening of Second Life to the public at large, far back in June 2003, taking place on Saturday, June 23rd. After the main celebrations, the regions will remain open for visitors from Monday, June 25th through Sunday, July 1st, although there will be no formal events during this period.

The SL15B (animated) Serpent Stage

As befitting a 15th anniversary, the theme for this year’s community celebration is crystal, so expect to see a good few builds within the regions reflecting this – and possible watches and timepieces as well, given these are often gifts associated with 15th anniversaries.

Throughout the week of festivities, there will be much going on: music, dancing and performances at the various stages found within the regions; talks and presentations within the auditorium – including the now-familiar Meet the Lindens events, of which more anon, and some of the exhibits built be SL residents and found within the regions may also play host to events of their own.

The SL15B Welcome Area 1 and Welcome Area 2

The festivities bring together the use mix of resident-build exhibitions and SLB infrastructure builds – with the latter this year being provided by Mikati Slade – Cake Stage; Walton F. Wainwright (Faust Steamer) -Serpent Stage; Anthony (ADudeNamed Anthony) – Auditorium; Ancient Mole – Crystal Rotunda Stage and Welcome Area: and City Builder (Lim Pikajuna) – Stage North.

As well as these, there are special features, such as the Tapestry of Time, tracing Second Life’s History from 2003 to the present; people can also pay a visit to the original Cornfield – the Sin Bin of early Second Life, and tour Bear Island, which makes a return to SLB celebrations for all lovers of Linden Bears. Plus the ever-popular SLB Big Hunt and the pod tours and very much a part of the festivities.

The SL15B Auditorium has landed

Meet The Lindens

This year, Meet the Lindens will talk place between Monday and Friday, at 14:00 SLT at the SL15B Auditorium. The participating Lindens this year include:

  • Xiola Linden – Monday, June 18th.
  • Patch Linden and Kiera Linden – Tuesday, June 19th.
  • Ebbe Linden – Wednesday, June 20th.
  • Grumpity Linden and Oz Linden – Thursday, June 21st.
  • Brett Linden  – Friday June 21st.
Patch, Grumpity, Brett and Xiola – all taking part in this year’s Meet the Lindens at SL15B. Credit: Linden Lab

Where To Find Information

The best place to find information on all that is going on at SL15B is the SL15B Community Celebration website. Daily schedules will be posted there, together with news and updates. IN addition, you can view the daily schedules for the major stages and the auditorium via the following links:

Visit the Tapestry of Time to learn about SL’s history

Getting There – SLurls

Appreciating the great outdoors in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

Zion National Park; Inara Pey, June 2018, on FlickrZion National Park – click any image for full size

Update: Zion National Park has closed. SLurls have therefore been removed from this article.

Zion National Park is an ambitious, two-region stretch of parkland designed by Judge Firecaster. It offers a look and feel of some of the great national parks of north America – most notably Yosemite, given the reproduction of the Mariposa Grove – and presents a lot to see and explore.

A visit starts on the north side of one of the two regions making up the park. This features a park lodge and a camping ground (parcels available for rent), looking to the north over open water and a distant range of mountains. A dirt track runs between the lodge and camp site, pointing west towards a narrow cleft between high shoulders of rock, and east to run almost parallel to the water’s edge and between the massive trunks of huge Sequoia-like conifers.

Zion National Park; Inara Pey, June 2018, on FlickrZion National Park

Which route you take is entirely up to you – but if you have a wearable horse, you might want to add that and take to riding while exploring (a riding horse rezzing system would be a nice addition to the park). The route west will take you through the rocky cleft to where another body of water await, overlooked on both sides by a rugged landscape that, to the south, climbs towards distant green peaks.

Here the track swings by a small lodge were visitors can take a log ride around the lake – just wait for a boat to automatically rez ready to depart as one returns and de-rezzes. The ride will take you east along the lake, under the tall trestles of a cliff-top bridge spanning the water, and back around to the west before returning you to the little lodge. Or, if you prefer, you can follow the track to where it climbs up into the hills, switching back on itself as it does so, to arrive at a high café abuts the steeper slopes of the (off-sim) mountains).

Zion National Park; Inara Pey, June 2018, on FlickrZion National Park

If you opt to go east from the landing point, the track will take you by twist and turn, passing the single permanent private residence to be found here, to where it again climbs up into the rocks and hills of the park. This leads the way past cliff-edge seating areas overlooking waterfalls, paths to hidden tunnels, and a climb up to a peak where a hang glider can be rezzed and you can take to the air to appreciate the park from overhead.

The high paths rise and fall, twist and turn, cross canyons and water by way of bridges, descend to the edge of bubbling streams  and pass through mine-like tunnels to link up with one another, allowing visitors to fully circumnavigate the park, often just a few short steps from where the regions end and the off-sim mountains begin – a relatively seamless join that gives Zion Park a huge amount of additional depth, vastly increasing its national park like feel.

Zion National Park; Inara Pey, June 2018, on FlickrZion National Park

Wild life is to be found here in abundance – the trees are rich in bird song, bears grumble and roam,raccoons raid litter bins and get up to other mischief, wolves bask in the sunlight and elk graze or drink cautiously from the banks of streams. Going by the chap out on the waters of the lake and the cormorants on the shoreline, fish are in abundance in the waters here as well. There could perhaps be a few more places to sit and enjoy more of the many views to be found within the regions, but this is a minor point; as noted, if you do have a wearable horse to ride, this is a place where you can put it to good use and appreciate the views.

All-in all, Zion Park is a rich environment which demonstrates just how much can be done when working with Homestead regions. The default Windlight settings perhaps don’t do the landscaping full justice – I’d certainly recommend playing around with any you have installed on your viewer to find something more suitable and warm. When exploring, keep an eye out for the information boards, and the way down to the subterranean lake. The former are a worthwhile read for those unfamiliar with American national park heritage, and the latter takes a little finding – but a visit cannot be said to be complete until you do 😉 .

Zion National Park; Inara Pey, June 2018, on FlickrZion National Park

Should you enjoy your visit to Zion National Park, please consider a donation at the lodge alongside the landing point to help ensure the regions remain for future visitors to enjoy – and for additional visits of your own as the mood takes you!

SLurl Details

  • Zion National Park (Fhloston and Zion, both rated: Moderate)

Scarlet studies, humans and aliens, and an invisible man

Posted on by Inara Pey
Seanchai Library

It’s time to highlight another week of storytelling in Voice by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s home at Holly Kai Park, unless otherwise indicated.

Sunday, June 17th

13:30: Tea-Time at Baker Street

Caledonia Skytower, Kayden OConnell and Corwyn Allen return with a Seanchai favourite: Tea-time at Baker Street. This time they are going right back to the roots of the legend, and the case which first introduced the world to Doctor John Watson and the renowned Consulting Detective, Mr. Sherlock Holmes.

study-in-scarletA Study in Scarlet was written in 1886 as a full-length novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and published the following year. It is actually one of only four novel-length stories Conan Doyle penned about Holmes and Watson in the original canon (the remaining 56 tales of their adventures are all short stories). As it was the first time the two had appeared in print, part of the story was used to establish each of them, and how they met.

It is 1887, and Doctor John Watson, invalided out of the British Army after being wounded in the Battle of Maiwand during the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-1880), has returned to London where he is seeking accommodation. After bumping into an old friend, Watson finds himself being taken to St. Bart’s Hospital, where he is introduced to a stranger carrying out a laboratory experiment. On shaking Watson’s hand, Sherlock Holmes immediately perceives that he has recently returned from Afghanistan, and thus Watson first experiences Holmes’ remarkable deductive abilities – although quite how Holmes came to his conclusion remains a mystery. After a short conversation, he agrees to join Holmes in moving into a flat (apartment) at 221B Baker Street, where they’ll split the rent.

In the story, it is actually several weeks before Watson learns of Holmes’ rather unusual chosen profession. When told, he remains initially dubious until Holmes gives a practical demonstration of his powers of observation and deduction, using a messenger from Scotland Yard as his subject. The messenger has come with a request for Holmes’ assistance; Holmes is at first reluctant to heed the call,  but Watson urges him otherwise. So it is that they set out on their first adventure together, one involving poison, a double murder in London and a bitter tale of love, loss and revenge from America.

18:00 Magicland Storytime – Mrs Piggle-Wiggle

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle lives in an upside-down house and smells like cookies. She was even married to a pirate once. Most of all, she knows everything about children. She can cure them of any ailment. Patsy hates baths. Hubert never puts anything away. Allen eats v-e-r-y slowly. Mrs Piggle-Wiggle has a treatment for all of them.

The incomparable Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle loves children good or bad and never scolds but has positive cures for Answer-Backers, Never-Want-to-Go-to-Bedders, and other boys and girls with strange habits.

Join Caledonia Skytower at the Golden Horseshoe in Magicland Park, as she reads from Betty MacDonald tales of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.

Monday, June 18th 19:00: Protector

Phssthpok the Pak had been travelling for most of his thirty-two thousand years. His mission: save, develop, and protect the group of Pak breeders sent out into space some two and a half million years previously.

Brennan was a Belter, the product of a fiercely independent, somewhat anarchic society living in, on, and around an outer asteroid belt. The Belters were rebels, one and all, and Brennan was a smuggler. The Belt worlds had been tracking the Pak ship for days — Brennan figured to meet that ship first…

He was never seen again. At least not by those alive at the time.

Join Gyro Muggins as he reads Larry Niven’s engaging tale of humanity’s past – and future.

Tuesday, June 19th: Walt Longmire

Join Kayden OConnell as he reads more from Craig Johnson’s tales of Sheriff Walt Longmire.

Wednesday, June 20th 19:00: Written in the Sand

Images and Thoughts from the Seashore with Ktadhn Vesusino.

Thursday, June 21st: The Invisible Man

Oh! – disillusionment again. I thought my troubles were over. Practically I thought I had impunity to do whatever I chose, everything – save to give away my secret. So I thought. Whatever I did, whatever the consequences might be, was nothing to me. I had merely to fling aside my garments and vanish. No person could hold me. I could take my money where I found it. I decided to treat myself to a sumptuous feast, and then put up at a good hotel, and accumulate a new outfit of property. I felt amazingly confident, – it’s not particularly pleasant to recall that I was an ass.

– Griffin, the Invisible Man

Join Shandon Loring as he delves into the classic tale by H.G. Wells of Griffin, a man already consumed by a desire to have power and fame, who finds a way to make himself invisible to the rest of the world – but not the way to become visible again.

The results do not go in his favour, heightening his bitterness and encouraging him to think only in terms of wreaking havoc as his bitterness grows deeper and his desire to revel in the absolute lack of conscience, to commit crime and instil terror, grows to the point of fanaticism… Also presented in Kitely (hop://grid.kitely.com:8002/Seanchai/144/129/29).

 

Please check with the Seanchai Library’s blog for updates and for additions or changes to the week’s schedule.

The current charity is Feed a Smile.