Category: Events

SL Pride 2018: a Second Life community event

Posted on by Inara Pey
Courtesy of SL Pride

I’m a little late in getting to this – so my apologies to the organisers.

SL Pride, the event celebrating diversity and focusing on Second Life’s LGBTQ community is currently in progress in-world. Featuring shopping, art, music and dancing, the event will remain open through until 23:00 SLT on Sunday, June 24th, 2018.

The theme for this year’s event is This Is Me, This is Us, a celebration of community, and also of solidarity – at least one of the billboards in the region includes a display commemorating those from the LGBTQ community who lost their lives in the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting.

SL Pride 2018 shopping, art and entertainment area

A full schedule of entertainment is available on the event website, as a full list of sponsors and participating merchants.   Note that while the entertainment schedule opens in List view, for ease of reference, you can change it to a Day view via the drop-down at the top right of the schedule page.

In addition, the website also supports a Get Social option, which allows people to interact with one another. Those joining it can create extended profiles, upload profile pictures, join an activity stream (similar to Facebook), connect with friends, private message one another, and so on. Click the Get Social! in the website’s menu bar to get started.

SL Pride 2018: park

For 2018, SL Pride is raising money for The Trevor Project. Founded in the United States by Peggy Rajski, Randy Stone and James Lecesne, the creators of the 1994 short film Trevor, the stated goals of the project are to provide crisis intervention and suicide prevention services for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning  young people ages 13–24, as well as to offer guidance and resources to parents and educators in order to foster safe, accepting, and inclusive environments for all youth, at home and at school.

The Trevor Project offers a number of services, including:

  • The Trevor Lifeline – the only nationwide, around-the-clock crisis and suicide prevention helpline for LGBTQ youth in America.
  • Ask Trevor – an on-line non-time-sensitive question-and-answer resource for young people with questions surrounding sexual orientation and gender identity.
  • TrevorChat – a free, confidential, live and secure on-line messaging service.
  • TrevorSpace – an on-line social networking community for LGBTQ+ youth ages 13 through 24.
  • Lifeguard Workshop Programme – a school workshop programme using a structured, age-appropriate curriculum to address topics around sexuality, gender identity, the impacts of language and behaviour, and what it means for young people to feel different.
  • The Youth Advisory Council – a liaison between youth nationwide in the United States and the project on issues surrounding suicide, sexuality and gender identity.
  • The Palette Fund Internship Programme – providing five internships for young LGBTQ people at the Project’s Los Angeles and New York City offices.

Donations to the Trevor Project can be made via the kiosks located around the SL Pride region.

SLurl and Links

A SL15B video message from Ebbe Altberg

Posted on by Inara Pey
Courtesy of Linden Lab

On Tuesday, June 19th, the Lab continued their blog posts about SL15B with the publication of a short video interview / message from Linden Lab CEO, Ebbe Altberg, talking about Second Life, its longevity and more (embedded below).

Ebbe has been discussing Second Life  – and Sansar – a lot over the last few weeks with various media sources, and the blog post on the video also includes a link to a chat he recently had with Games Wisdom (June 15th).

In May, Ebbe sat down with Saffia Widdershins of Designing Worlds for a lengthy chat on all things Second Life and Sansar, and he’ll be doing so again on Wednesday, June 20th, as a part of the Meet The Lindens Series of events. You can catch him at the SL15B auditorium at 14:00 SLT.

In the meantime, if you want to catch-up with Ebbe’s Designing World chat, you can do so via the video, or if you prefer, via my transcript of the conversation, which provides a linked breakdown of topics discussed, as will as Ebbe’s comments and thoughts.

I’ll have coverage of the SL15B Meet The Lindens events available in this pages in due course.

Linden Lab announce the start of more SL15B festivities and events

Posted on by Inara Pey
The SL15B Shopping Event feature 80 Second Life creators and merchants (SLurls below)

Following the opening of the SL15B Community Celebration on Sunday, June 17th See my preview for notes and SLurls), Linden Lab has announced further festivities and events as part of the overall celebrations. Some of these can be found on the SL15B regions, others are located elsewhere across the grid.

The SL15B Music Fest

  • When: Friday, June 22nd through Sunday June 24th
  • Where: The Serpent Stage (Stage Left) at SL15B
  • Schedule of Performers – all times are SLT and the schedule may be subject to last-minute changes.

At the time of writing, the performers line-up was as follows. All times are SLT, and not this schedule is subject to last-minute changes.

The SL15B Shopping Event

Occupying a total of four regions, the SL15B brings back the familiar shopping mall of recently Linden shopping events, now decorated with a crystal motif in keeping with the SL15B theme.

The 4-region mall brings together 80 of Second Life’s creators, each of whom is offering a free gift to celebrate SL15B as well as deals on some of their most popular items. In addition, many are also participating in a special sale on the Marketplace.

Check the list of participating merchants for names and use the SLurls below to jump to the event.

The Weekly Gift Grab

To mark the fifteen years Second Life has been open to the public, the Lab is running a weekly Gift Grab for the next 15 weeks.

Each week, one crystal-themed gift will be made available in-world, and a clue relating to its location will be published on the Second Life blog, and via their social media feeds. All you have to do is find and collect each gift – which will remain available for one week only, before the next gift is made available somewhere else on the grid. People can collect as many of the gifts as they want – however, the final Birthday Gift will only be available to those who have collected all 14 of the previous gifts.

You can join the hunt by:

Tapestry of Time

Don’t forget you can visit the Tapestry of Time at SL15B, a special exhibition by Linden Lab and the Moles recalling some of the history of Second Life year-by-year, of 2003 to the present day.

Revisit the history of Second Life at The Tapestry of Time, by Linden Lab and the Moles

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

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.

Alien truths, revenge, adventure and darkness

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.

Monday, June 11th 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 12th: The Cold Dish (Walt Longmire #1)

Two years ago, four boys were put on trial for raping a Cheyenne girl. Now one of them – Cody Pritchard – is dead, shot and dumped in with a local farmer’s sheep.

For Walt Longmire, it means his hope of finishing out his term as sheriff of Wyoming’s Absaroka county in peace and quiet is at an end; instead, he finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation.

Plenty of people had cause for wanting Cody Prichard dead but who had the guts to do the deed? And are his three compadres next on the hit list? For Longmire, it means facing one of the more volatile and challenging cases in his twenty-four years as sheriff. One in which he means to ensure that revenge, so often regarded as a dish best served cold, is never served at all.

Join Kayden OConnell as he reads the first volume of Craig Johnson’s tales of Sheriff Walt Longmire.

Wednesday, June 13th 19:00: Hello, Universe

In one day, four lives weave together in unexpected ways.

Virgil Salinas is shy and kind-hearted and feels out-of-place in his loud and boisterous family; Valencia Somerset, who is deaf, is smart, brave, and secretly lonely, and loves everything about nature; Kaori Tanaka is a self-proclaimed psychic, whose little sister Gen is always following her around; and Chet Bullens wishes the weird kids would just act normal so that he can concentrate on basketball.

None of them are friends; at least not until Chet pulls a prank that traps Virgil and his pet guinea pig at the bottom of a well.

This leads Kaori, Gen, and Valencia on an epic quest to find the missing Virgil. Through luck, smarts, bravery, and a little help from the universe, a rescue is performed, a bully is put in his place, and friendship blooms.

Join Caledonia Skytower as she reads Erin Entrada Kelly’s 2018 Newbery Medal Award-Winning tale.

Thursday, June 14th:

The Haunter of the Dark

The Shining Trapezohedron was discovered in Egyptian ruins, in a box of alien construction, by Professor Enoch Bowen before he returned to Providence, Rhode Island in 1844.

Members of the Church of Starry Wisdom in Providence would awaken the Haunter of the Dark, an avatar of Nyarlathotep, by gazing into the glowing crystal.

Summoned from the black gulfs of chaos, this being could show other worlds, other galaxies, and the secrets of arcane and paradoxical knowledge; but he demanded monstrous sacrifices, hinted at by disfigured skeletons that were later found in the church. The Haunter of the Dark was banished by light and could not cross a lighted area.

Join Shandon Loring as he delves into a classic tale by H.P. Lovecraft. Also presented in Kitely (hop://grid.kitely.com:8002/Seanchai/144/129/29).

19:00 Seanchai Late Night

Contemporary Sci-Fi with Finn Zeddmore.

 

 

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.