More tea-time radio and seasonal stories in Second Life

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 in Nowhereville, unless otherwise indicated. Note that the schedule below may be subject to change during the week, please refer to the Seanchai Library website for the latest information through the week.

Sunday, December 5th, 13:30: Teatime Holiday Radio Classics

First appearing in 1947 and starring Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, Natalie Wood and Edmund Gwenn and a script by Valentine Davies, Miracle on 34th Street has been subject to a number of remakes and updates, including the 1994 version starring Sir Richard Attenborough. A novella based on the film, also penned by Davies, was published simultaneously with the film’s release, and was itself turned into a stage play in about 2006 by Will Severin, Patricia Di Benedetto Snyder and John Vreeke.

Now the Seanchai Team offer a radio interpretation. So why not join Corwyn Allen, David Abbot, Gloriana Maertens, Elrik Merlin, and Caledonia Skytower as they read the story of how Kris Kringle, initially indignant to find that the man assigned to play Santa in the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is intoxicated, find himself hired to play Santa at Macy’s flagship New York City store on 34th Street, bringing a taste of Christmas miracles into people’s lives – even if they aren’t entirely on his side.

Monday, December 6th, 19:00: A Few Miles

Join Gyro Muggins as he reads the 1960 short story by fantasy and sci-fi author Philip José Farmer.

Tuesday, December 7th

12:00 Noon: Russell Eponym

With music, and poetry in Ceiluradh Glen.

19:00: Vintage Christmas – stories by L.M. Montgomery and Ralph Henry Barbour and Others

Live in Seanchai’s *Winter Holiday* with Caledonia Skytower. The landmark will be distributed on the day.

Wednesday, December 8th, 19:00 Adventures from Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather

Susan had never hung up a stocking . She’d never put a tooth under her pillow in the serious expectation that a dentally inclined fairy would turn up. It wasn’t that her parents didn’t believe in such things. They didn’t need to believe in them. They know they existed. They just wished they didn’t.

There are those who believe and those who don’t. Through the ages, superstition has had its uses; nowhere more so than in the Discworld where it’s helped to maintain the status quo. Anything that undermines superstition has to be viewed with some caution.

There may be consequences, particularly on the last night of the year when the time is turning. When those consequences turn out to be the end of the world, you need to be prepared. You might even want more standing between you and oblivion than a mere slip of a girl – even if she has looked Death in the face on numerous occasions.

Caledonia Skytower read selection from the 20th book in Pratchett’s Discworld series.

Thursday, December 9th: 19:00: The Further Adventure of Ebenezer Scrooge Pt 1

On a hot summer day some twenty years after he was famously converted to kindness, Ebenezer Scrooge still roams the streets of London, spreading Christmas cheer, much to the annoyance of his creditors, nephew, and his employee Bob Cratchit.

But in order to help his former partner, poor chain-wrapped Jacob Marley, Scrooge will need the assistance of all those he has annoyed; he’ll also have to call on the three ghosts that visited him two decades earlier.

Written in uncannily Dickensian prose, Charlie Lovett’s The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge is both a loving and winking tribute to the Victorian classic, perfect for readers of A Christmas Carol and other timeless holiday tales.

Join Shandon Loring to enjoy the story.

Bay City 2021 tree lighting fund-raiser in Second Life

Bay City Tree Lighting 2021

Christmas is a time for giving, and on Sunday, December 5th, 2021, Bay City will be hosting their annual Christmas Tree Lighting and fund-raiser. With it comes an opportunity to support Child’s Play Charity, a 501c3 non-profit organisation offering on-line communities such as the Bay City Alliance an opportunity to help seriously ill children around the globe during their hospital stays with the purchase of games and gaming equipment.

Activities will commence at 13:00 SLT and run through until 16:00 SLT, taking place at the Bay City fairgrounds. On offer will be:

  • Live entertainment, music and dancing.
  • A skating party.
  • refreshments and fun.

Music will be provided by DJ GoSpeed Racer and live performers Tamra Hayden and FrankLee Anatra.

Funds will be raised via a silent auction that will run from 13:00 through to 16:00 SLT on December 5th. Confirmed designers, artists, and brands who have donated to the auction include: GenusProject, Diana Takeda (of Meshbody), Cica Ghost, Lunar Tripsa, Owen Lusch (of Lusch Motors), Brick Swansen, Late Billig (of Junk Food), Cindy Henusaki, Javatar Mocha, Plato Novo, Bryn Oh, Trinity Yazamoto, Vinsie Bunny, LadyJane Shippe (of Shippe & Saille), and OldManChristmas. DeeDee Dakota will also be offering a parcel in Bay City.

Bids are made via vendor. Should your bid be exceeded by another, your Linden dollars will be automatically refunded. You can, of course, increase your bid if you wish. Items will be awarded to the highest bid when the auction closes.

In addition, donation kiosks will be provided in the Fairgrounds for those who would like to support Child’s Play without participating in the auction.

Bay City Tree Lighting 2021

About Bay City and the Bay City Alliance

Bay City is a mainland community, developed by Linden Lab™ and home to the Bay City Alliance. The Bay City Alliance was founded in 2008 to promote the Bay City regions of Second Life and provide a venue for Bay City Residents and other interested parties to socialize and network. It is now the largest Bay city group, and home to most Residents of Bay City. To find out more, contact Marianne McCann in-world.

Bay City and the Bay City Alliance and Child’s Play

Bay City and the Bay City Alliance have a long history of fund-raising for Child’s Play, and in 2016, they received special recognition by the charity, being awarded Silver Level sponsor on the Child’s Play’s website.

SLurl Details

On reaching fifteen in Second Life

Yup fifteen years as Inara Pey; I’m pretty sure that in SL terms, that officially make me a OAP – where can I claim my pension? 🙂 .

Usually I try to write something on the occasion my rezday, but this year I really don’t have a lot more to say than I noted in 2020, I continue to log in (pretty much daily), I’m still blogging – and appreciative of all who read my ramblings and take the time to offer comments / feedback. I’m still enjoying kitbashing, building, landscaping, exploring et al. So really, not that much has changed in the last year :).

Sadly, unlike many others this year, I don’t have any stats from Linden Lab that I can share about my on-line times, etc., (not that I set much stock by such things as they always seem to have an air of elitism about them (or maybe that’s me just being crabby 🙂 ). That said, were I to approximate the amount of time I spend in SL, the answer would likely be “too much!”, as I don’t think there has been a day in the last 36-ish months (at least!) when I haven’t logged-in.

I’m not sure if that reveals something about me or about Second Life – or both. Admittedly, a lot of the time when I am logged-in, I’m actually parked somewhere, either blogging about it or something else, or actually off away dealing with physical world matters (like stuff that pays the bills, given I work from home), but at least my avatar can impersonate an answer machine for catching incoming IMs!

I’ve certainly not got a lot to reflect on SL-wise or personally; things have chugged along on both front pretty much “as is” throughout the year. Platform-wise, as the work on “bedding in” SL at AWS draws to some kind of initial completion, there will hopefully be a lot more to play with and ponder in 2022, but we’ll see.

On the personal side, I did make the decision early-ish in the year (with thanks to Vinyl for giving me little nudges!) to re-engage in some of the things I was involved in years ago, and this has been fun. I’m still happily settled in Second Norway (with my Linden home as a useful bolt hole from region restarts and the like!); after some 15 months since moving, I have absolutely no hesitation the estate and Vanity and her team to anyone looking for a island parcel with plenty of open water access for sailing / boating / flying, but which maintains its own sense of tranquillity by being off the more regular boating / sailing routes.

One of the things I’m still enjoying is playing with the home island – kitbashing house models, scratching building (in prims) and landscaping

Back in 2016, I pondered on whether a decade of virtual living was really enough, and that perhaps it was time to consider stepping away. Truth be told, I still have such thoughts from time-to-time; I think any of us who have been engaged in SL for an extended length of time has similar thoughts. Yet, here I am, half as much again beyond that point, still enjoying the many forms of freedom of expression SL offers all of us.

In this regard, when we discuss SL, much is made of its “secret sauce”, with people pointing at this or that. To be honest, I don’t believe there is a single “secret sauce”; rather it is – like many recipes – made up of multiple ingredients, of which one of the core items is that freedom of expression (which in some technical respects is also SL’s Achilles Heel). With all the hype and yack-yack around “the metaverse” we’ve seen this year, this freedom we enjoy in SL – be it to create, to generate an income, to role-play, to use SL as an artistic outlet, to socialise (and find romance) – is what really already separates SL from anything we might see spawned by the likes of Meta, Microsoft, Google, Nvidia, et all.

This doesn’t mean I think those “big players” won’t succeed – likely they’ll all end up with there own walled gardens of various sizes. Rather, I mean that I just don’t see any of them being remotely interested in offering such broad-based freedoms of expression we have with SL. Thus, and while such freedoms may not be something the vast majority are looking for in this age of instant gratification, I tend to feel that there enough people with a similar outlook as those of us who remain engaged in SL year-on-year such that if LL can find a balanced means to market SL and make initial engagement smoother for those who are out there who can appreciate SL’s potential, then there is no reason why this walled garden cannot continue to flourish in its own modest corner of the digital landscape for the enjoyment of users and the pockets of investors, unnoticed by those now rushing to put their own stamp of authority in “the metaverse”.

Obviously, whether or not I’m right in thinking this will be revealed in time. For now, I think I’ll just got on with getting the start of my sixteenth year in SL kick-started!