We’re now just a week from the opening of Filling the Cauldron, and everything is starting to fall into place. Our marketplace slots are all filled, several of our artists are all set up and ready to go, the entertainment slots are filling up. There’s a fair bit still to be done, but we’re getting closer and closer to being all ready to open the gates!
Cerridwen’s Corner, Elicio’s shop for the event is now complete, with lots of vendors and the opportunity to enjoy his fabulous creations. Elico has also provided a Welcome Area gazebo for us, which will have information givers, teleport maps (also located throughout the event areas), and more. Just follow the crystal stairway from the main landing point (SLurl coming soon!).
You’ll be able to purchase a lot of Elicio’s goods from Cerridwen’s Corner, located in the South-East corner of the Filling the Cauldron region
The teleport board, designed by Vecchio Barbosa is also available as a handy HUD – just grab it when you arrive, give it permission to teleport you, and you can hop around the event areas at your convenience – although signs and gates throughout the region will hopefully guide you around as well and offer a pleasant walk from place to place!
We’re not going o give too much away on the entertainment front, other than there will be music throughout the week, and we’ve also got two special dance performances being planned. On Sunday, April 2nd, the Night Theatre will perform for us – watch for more details in this blog! Then, on Saturday, April 8th, the Monarch Dance Troupe will be giving a special performance of Amnesia – and we’ll again have full details on that in an upcoming post.
Our teleport boards and HUD will help you get around
We also have a lot going on with out auction, with some very special items up for grabs. Saffia will have more to say on these this week, so keep an eye on the Filling the Cauldron blog for more very soon.
The full event schedule will be available via a Google Calendar soon, and we’ll have a breakdown of entertainment alongside that in the blog to help make finding out what’s going on easier.
And don’t forget – the photo contest is still going, with some great prizes up for grabs – just get your entries in before April 3rd.
We’ll have more for you throughout the week, so keep checking back!
The Welcome Area – you’ll be able to pick up your teleport HUD there
Recalling Seanchai Library’s Big Read of Alice in Wonderland, from May 2016
It’s time to kick-off 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 Second Life home at Bradley University, unless otherwise indicated.
This week starts with a very spacial celebration – the Library’s ninth anniversary!
Sunday, March 26th Volume IX: Seanchai Library Anniversary
From the Seanchai Library website:
Nine years ago someone had an idea. That someone was Derry McMahon, founder of Seanchai Library, which began its life at the West of Ireland Library and Cultural Centre in March 2008.
Nine years ~ 108 months ~ 3,287-ish days ~ Thousands of hours of stories ~ Hundreds of Authors ~ Dozens of Genres, and over $4000 in small cash donations to non-profits doing good works all around the world.
Seanchai Library have brought – and continue to bring – stories from all genres to life as part of the weekly readings at their centres in Second Life, Kitely and Inworldz, through to special events – such as this 2011 re-creation of the Orson Welles 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds – to entire immersive experiences such as The Dickens Project and their Explore the Arts series on Kitely.
“We are not large-scale philanthropy, ” Library lead Caledonia Skytower discloses, “Giving back to the world community through small charitable gifts is just one aspect of what we do. Job #1 here is to inspire people with stories and literature, to enable or encourage them to read and to share the stories they love with others. Stories are an intrinsic part of the human experience.”
It’s a little hard to conceive how to acknowledge such an achievement. The Library looked to polite society to see if there was a guide as to how to celebrate a ninth anniversary: willow and pottery in traditional observance, and leather in the modern. “That’s it!” they cried, “It’s obvious! A virtual Chili Cook Off!” . . . and that, friends, is what they will present today in both Kitely and in Second Life.
The party marquee and video links connecting Seanchai in Second Life with Seanchai in Kitely
Dual Video feeds and Local Chat “Simlinks” will connect the two parties, enabling celebrants in both grids to see the other party, and to communicate in local text chat.
Schedule
13:00 – Chili Cook Off: Stories and Recipe Exchange: drop a note card with your favourite chili recipe ahead of the event, or bring it with you and hand it to Caledonia
14:00 – Dancing under the Cook-Off Marquee: two hours of partying to the music of DJ Dano Bookmite.
Jay Gatsby’s mansion, as produced by Seanchai Library for the 2015 Explore the Great Gatsby season, held in Kitely in conjunction with Tacoma Little Theatre’s real-world production for the stage adaptation of the novel
Monday, March 27th 19:00: Enemy Mine
Gyro Muggins continues reading Barry B. Longyear’s novella which first appeared in a 1979 issue of Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, before becoming the basis of the of the 20th Century Fox film of the same name, starring Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett, Jr. This led to Longyear producing an expanded version of the story, written with David Gerrold.
In the midst of an interstellar war between humans and Dracs (a race of humanoid reptilians), Willis Davidge, a human fighter pilot, crashes on a hostile planet after a dogfight with a Drac – who is also forced down on the same planet.
The two initially continue their hostilities towards one another. But the planet proves so hostile that Davidge and the Drac, Jeriba Shigan (whom Davidge nicknames “Jerry”), are forced to join forces in order to ensure their survival. Then Davidge learns Jeriba is pregnant – Drac being entirely asexual …
Tuesday, March 28th 19:00: Of Mice and Magic
Faerie Maven-Pralou reads the forst in the Ravenspell series by David Farland
More than anything, Benjamin Ravenspell wants a pet. But when he buys a mouse named Amber, he gets more than he bargained for. No sooner does Ben take her home, than Amber turns him into a mouse too.
You see, Amber has magical abilities, and it so happens that Ben is a familiar, a creature that stores magical energy. Together they each form half of a powerful wizard. Alone, they’re just vermin.
Soon Ben and Amber find themselves pitted in an epic battle against a magical enemy who is as crazed as he is evil, and the fate of the world will rest on them learning to work together.
Wednesday, March 29th 19:00: Wild at Heart (Explorer’s Club Romance #1)
Aoife Lorenfield reads selections from Clare Alexander’s2017 novel.
At 26 and unmarried, Nora Nicholson believes she has little choice but to follow her brother Edward away from England to West Africa. So it was that, having never set foot outside of the village where she had been born, she found herself boarding a Royal Navy frigate about to set sail for those exotic, distant lands.
Little did she know that she would find work illustrating birds for the naturalist and ship’s surgeon, John Sharples, or form the unlikeliest of friendships with Senhora Morena – or that she would meet Hugh Beaumont, naturalist and explorer, late of the 95th Rifles.
Once he led men in war, many of whom died in the field of battle. Now he desires to explore the rivers and forest of West Africa. But for Hugh Beaumont, leaving duty behind does not come easy. So it is he finds himself bringing criminals to justice and protecting Miss Nicholson, who is sorely in need of help. Then love enters the picture.
Thursday, March 30th 19:00: Scary Stories for Sleepovers
With Shandon Loring – sleeping bags provided! Also presented in Kitely.
Please check with the Seanchai Library’s blog for updates and for additions or changes to the week’s schedule.
The featured charity for March April is Project Children, building peace in Ireland one child at a time.
The 2017 Second Life Science Fiction Convention touched-down safely on the main grid on Friday, March 24th, ready to embark Second Life residents on flights of intergalactic adventure and fancy which will continue through until April 2nd, 2017.
Active across six elemental themed regions, the convention this year celebrates its 10th anniversary. Once again, it presents the best in Second Life science-fiction related role-play, with some of the top sci-fi role-play groups, content creators and designers represented within the regions, all bound together in the aim of raising funds for Relay for Life of Second Life and the American Cancer Society.
As well as the role-play group, designers, visiting folk, and intriguing region layouts, the event features a range of entertainment and presentations. So much is going on through the week in fact, that the best way of staying up-to-date on things is to check the convention’s event calendar. This can also be found at strategic points scattered throughout all of the convention’s regions on browsable display boards, so keeping up-to-speed on where to go and what to see is pretty easy.
A full list of exhibitors for the event is also available, tidily broken down by region, with each of the main landing points for the six regions also listed. For ease of reference in general hopping around, these are:
Life (Forty Two) – the centre-most region, and possibly the best landing point for explorations on foot.
Note that all of the regions are rated Moderate. For intra-region getting around, there is a monorail systems and a network of stargates – although these didn’t appear to be working on my visit (possibly one of the Energy Lifeforms of M4C-862 was getting up to mischief…). Also, when visiting the landing points, keep an eye out for the free Sci-Fi Con 2017 outfits by Design’s Designs, which can be obtained for the exceptionally most fee of L$2, and which comes in both Fitmesh and standard mesh sizes.
I confess, I didn’t fully get the elemental theme with the convention; I’d have expected “Air” to be – well, in the air, rather than on a hill, and “Water” to perhaps be more aquatic. But this is a minor quibble in the scheme of things, as there is a lot to see, and I did particularly enjoy poking around the cityscape of “Water”. To escape the worst of the inevitable lag, you might want to disable shadows if you usually run with them enabled and drop your draw distance down if you normally have it set to a couple of hundred metres or more, other than for when taking photos.
So, as I’m prone to say when previewing this event: whatever your interest in science fiction, be sure to set your phaser on fun and head back to the future with a visit to the SL Sci-Fi convention. So say we all!
“The initial project, ‘The Little Prince’, would take a long time,” Sniper Siemens explains in introducing Second Life 1999 / 2017 – The Story, which is now open through until the end of June 2017. “For my health and work reasons, I could not make it this year. I apologise for the inconvenience.”
Frankly, I don’t think an apology is warranted; if anything, Sniper’s look at the entire history of Second Life from 1999 through to the present should be a permanent, living installation in Second Life (although Sniper may well shoot me for saying so!).
Before I get into the Story of Second Life, let’s take a look at the story of the story of Second Life. The installation originally began in July 2014 as Second Life History, a relatively modest but informative installation, complete with humorous touches which continue to mark these exhibitions. In February 2015, Sniper returned with The Greatest Story Ever Told, expanding on the original idea, offering more information, a new presentation layout and lots of new little characters to show you each of the many notable events throughout Second Life’s history (and that of its precursor, LindenWorld).
For this latest installation, Sniper builds on the 2015 design, bringing it bang up-to-date with everything that’s happened since that installation was exhibited, with a look at things like Bento, the starter avatar updates, improvement to Sl web properties such as the Community platform, etc., and a tongue-in-cheek “look” through the gates at Sansar.
From the landing point / information point, visitors progress along a footpath passing through the years sequentially, from 1999, with the originals of Linden Research and The Rig, progressing through LindenWorld, Primitars, early experiments with AI creatures, to the birth of Second Life. From there, major notable events, positive and negative (depending on your perspective if you were around at the time). All are marvellously presented, with a great balance between information – presented via static information boards, interactive elements, and in-world videos.
As well as walking around the installation, visitors can opt to take a train ride through the exhibits. A Canopied station forms part of the landing point. Simply touch the rezzer to generate a car, jump in and touch the car to start your ride. You can stop along the way at any time to take a closer look at exhibits by touching the car once more – just make sure you cam over to them, don’t get out of the car or you’ll have it de-rez on you! A further touch of the car will resume your journey, while barriers at certain points also encourage you to stop in case you risk missing something. With a change of train half-way around, this is a really charming way to see the exhibition (rail traffic allowing!) – kudos to Sniper for including it.
Journey’s end for Second Life 1999 /2017 – The Story is a shady park alongside of the cheeky “look” at Sansar. However, this isn’t the end of the installation. A teleport station will take you on to a look at the History of Burning Life, (or Burn 2 as we now know it). This can also be toured by rail car – just follow the path to the right as you exit the main landing area and before you enter “1999”.
I am an unabashed fan of Second Life’s history (and I’m flattered to have played a very small and indirect role in this exhibit), so cannot recommend this installation highly enough anyone wishing to gain a rounded understanding on Second Life, Linden Lab and Burning Life / Burn 2. It really is a pleasure to visit, marvellously informative without ever drowning you in a flood of information, and rich in gentle touches and delightful flicks of humour. I also couldn’t help be notice the layout of the exhibit seems to include a fair amount of space for future expansion as well 🙂 .
Nautical Smile is a special event being held at Holly Kai Park in aid of Feed A Smile / Live and Learn Kenya.
The event marks the first major fund-raiser to be held for Feed A Smile at Holly Kai Park, which was adopted as the park’s new charity in February 2017.
Organised and hosted by Rossini Events, Nautical Smile will take place at The Pavilion, Holly Kai Park, and will feature 10 hours of music starting at 11:00 SLT, and finishing at 21:00 SLT, with one hour sets from some of Second Life’s top DJs, and live performers.
The live performances at Nautical Smile will include a “double Dutch” back-to-back paring of singers from the Netherlands, Thera D and Hedy Patrucci-Collazo, who will be appearing at 12:00 noon and 1:00pm respectively. They’ll be followed by Akilikos Singer at 2:00pm, and Sal from 3:00pm. The entire event is sponsored by Meerkats Estates.
Event Schedule
The event schedule at the time of writing is as follows. For updates and the latest news, please follow the Nautical Smile link above. All times SLT.
11:00 am
DJ Valeri
12:00 Noon
Thera D – live
1:00 pm
Hedy Patrucci-Collazo – live
2:00 pm
Akilikos Singer – live
3:00 pm
Sal
4:00 pm
DJ Joy
5:00 pm
DJ Evan
6:00 pm
DJ Jaxssin
7:00 pm
DJ Lauren
8:00 pm
DJ Noel
“Nautical Smile follows up on our hugely successful events in January and February for the same wonderful charity,” Michael said. “This month we have been given the use of a terrific location, courtesy of Hollywood Real Estates, right on the Blake Sea. So it will be possible to sail there as well as the more conventional teleport.”
Feed A Smile is a programme run by Live and Learn Kenya (LLK) to provide nutritious warm lunches for over 400 children every day, paid for entirely from donations to the project. It is part of a broader programme managed by LLK, which includes finding sponsors to finance the education of children in Kenya, helping to provide them with everything they need: uniforms, shoes, text books, school supplies, etc., and even building a school in Nakuru, Kenya.
In addition, the organisation also provides medical and dental care for children, including check-ups and vaccinations. 100% of the donations received by LLK are transferred directly to Kenya to care for children, provide education, medicine, food, shelter and foster care. Nothing is lost to salaries, fees or administrative costs at LLK.
About Rossini Events
Rossini Events was established in July 2016 – a collaboration between MichaelJ Rossini and Valeri Carissa organising private and public events in Second Life. Rossini Events especially prides itself on charity fund-raising, with monthly events supporting Feed a Smile, Relay for Life and Making Strides. To date, Rossini Events has raised L$240,000 for these charities. Everyone involved in Rossini Events donates their time free of charge, and every penny raised goes directly to the charity concerned. For further information, please contact MichaelJ Rossini in-world, or email to michaeljrossini-at-gmail.com.
The 2017 Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education (VWBPE) conference will be taking place between Wednesday, March 29th and Saturday April 1st, 2017 inclusive. A grass-roots community event focusing on education in immersive virtual environments, VWBPE attracts 2200-3500 educational professionals from around the world each year.
A press day for the event was held on Sunday, March 19th, but due to physical world things, I ended up unable to attend. Therefore, this little sneak peek at things is coming a little late – although you can have a little explore around the conference regions yourself, as they are now open through until Sunday, March 26th.
The full calendar for the conference has been published, and it includes a new segment Above The Book, which will feature two one-hour interviews with individuals who “have been noteworthy and have, in one way or another, helped build a legacy in virtual environments: for educators, researchers, advocacy groups, communities of practice, content creators.“
For VWBPE 2017, the two interviewees will be Linden Lab CEO, Ebbe Altberg and noted documentarian, Draxtor Despres. The interviews will be conducted around topics they have suggested, and will feature questions submitted by Second Life residents and which have been selected on the basis on relevance and appropriateness to the goals of the conference, and its legacy theme.
The interviews will take place as follows:
Ebbe Altberg – Wednesday, March 29th at 13:00 SLT, on the topic of A Conversation about Education and Second Life
Draxtor Despres – Saturday, April 1st at 15:00 SLT, on the topic Will VR Matter in Education? Lessons Learned from a Second Life Documentarian’s 10 Year Life.
Now, if you want to attend either or both of these sessions, there is a catch: you must submit a question for consideration in the interview.
You can find out more – including the application form for submitting a question – by visiting the VWBPE 2017 Above The Book information page. Not that the deadline for question to be submitted has been extended until 23:59 SLT on Sunday, March 26th.
If you wish to bring a colleague or friend in-world to tour the conference regions and attended VWBPE, the Rockcliffe Registration Portal is now open for people to register new avatars and find out more about the VWBPE conference in-world. Just point them towards https://urockcliffe.com/reg/second-life/ where they’ll be able to follow easy instructions to get started. It’s recommended that you get them to register at least a day or two ahead of the conference proper, so they can get oriented and not miss any of the events and activities.
You can find out more about this year’s anniversary conference via the VWBPE website.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 