Survivors, dragons, spycraft and adjustments

It’s time to kick-off the first week of storytelling in Voice by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library for 2017. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s Second Life home at Bradley University, unless otherwise indicated.

Monday, January 2nd 19:00: Flight of the Phoenix

flight-phoenixGyro Muggins continues Elleston Trevor’s gripping 1964 novel which spawned two films, the classic 1965 version starring James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Hardy Krüger. Peter Finch and Ernest Borgnine, and the 2004 featuring Dennis Quaid, Giovanni Ribisi and Hugh Laurie

Twelve men survive the crash of their cargo plane when a blinding, unexpected sandstorm forced it from the sky in the middle of the Sahara. Stranded and alone and facing a slow, agonizing death under the unrelenting Libyan sun, only two of them have the skills to avert a terrible fate: the brilliant, obsessed engineer Stringer, and the tormented pilot Towns. Bitter enemies, they must now work together to build an impossible dream from the wreckage and fly it to freedom … if madness, rage, suspicion, and the merciless desert don’t destroy them first.

Tuesday, January 3rd 19:00: How to Speak Dragonese (How To Train Your Dragon #3)

Climbing on to a Roman Dragon Rustling ship by mistake in your first ‘Boarding an Enemy Ship’ lesson is bad enough. But to then discover that Alvin the Treacherous is also on board proves to Hiccup he couldn’t have been more wrong, especially when he steals his copy of How to Speak Dragonese. Can Hiccup save the dragons and the day?

Caledonia Skytower reads the third How To Train Your Dragon book by Cressida Cowell.

Wednesday, January 4th 19:00: The Atrocity Archives

atrocity-archivesBob Howard is a low-level techie working for The Laundry, a super-secret government agency. While his colleagues are out saving the world, Bob’s under a desk restoring lost data. None of them receive any thanks for the jobs they do, but at least a techie doesn’t risk getting shot or eaten in the line of duty. Bob’s world is dull but safe, and that’s the way it should have stayed; but then he went and got Noticed.

Now, Bob Howard is up to his neck in spycraft, alternative universes, dimension-hopping Nazis, Middle Eastern terrorists, damsels in distress, ancient Lovecraftian horror and the end of the world.

Only one thing is certain: it will take more than control-alt-delete to sort this mess out…

Join Corwyn Allen as he delves in The Atrocity Archives, the first volume of the Laundry Files, by Charles Stross.

Thursday, January 5th 19:00: The Adjustment Bureau

Shandon Loring delves into the world of Philip K. Dick, this time examining  The Adjustment Team / The Adjustment Bureau (the former being the original story, the later the title of a film loosely based upon it).

Is humanity really in charge of its own destiny, or is every that occurs in life carefully orchestrated by hidden forces?


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

The featured charity for January / February is Heifer International, working with communities to end world hunger and poverty and to care for the Earth.

Bay City New Year prim drop in Second Life

Bay City Fairgrounds: The clock is ticking down the hours until the 2016 Prim Drop to mark the start of 2017
Bay City Fairgrounds: The clock is ticking down the hours until the 2016 Prim Drop to mark the start of 2017

Saturday, December 31st 2016 will once again see a great Second Life tradition take place, with the Bay City “prim drop” set to mark the start of a new year.

Festivities will be kicking-off a 23:30 SLT at the Bay City Fairgrounds in North Channel. The theme for the event is a wintertime soirée; black tie attire is recommended, and all SL residents are invited to attend. Marianne McCann will be providing the music and fireworks, and food and drink will be provided.

This will also be the final opportunity in 2015 to donate to Child’s Play Charity,  a US 501c3 non-profit organisation which helps seriously ill children around the globe during their hospital stays with the purchase of games and gaming equipment.

As of December 24th, 2016, Bay City – recognised as a Silver Level sponsor for Child’s Play as a result of all their efforts over the years – had raised L$151,408 for the charity through a series of event. Hopefully, the Prim Drop will see this figure increase still further!

Bay City Fairgrounds: will you be on the red carpet for one of Second Life's great New Year traditions?
Bay City Fairgrounds: will you be on the red carpet for one of Second Life’s great New Year traditions?

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 group for Residents of Bay City.

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See out 2016 with classic tales from Seanchai Library in Second Life

It’s time to kick-off the last week of storytelling in Voice by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library for 2016. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s Second Life home at Bradley University, unless otherwise indicated.

Monday, December 26th 19:00: Flight of the Phoenix

flight-phoenixGyro Muggins continues Elleston Trevor’s gripping 1964 novel which spawned two films, the classic 1965 version starring James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Hardy Krüger. Peter Finch and Ernest Borgnine, and the 2004 featuring Dennis Quaid, Giovanni Ribisi and  Hugh Laurie

Twelve men survive the crash of their cargo plane when a blinding, unexpected sandstorm forced it from the sky in the middle of the Sahara. Stranded and alone and facing a slow, agonizing death under the unrelenting Libyan sun, only two of them have the skills to avert a terrible fate: the brilliant, obsessed engineer Stringer, and the tormented pilot Towns. Bitter enemies, they must now work together to build an impossible dream from the wreckage and fly it to freedom … if madness, rage, suspicion, and the merciless desert don’t destroy them first.

Tuesday, December 27th 19:00: How to Speak Dragonese (How To Train Your Dragon #3)

Climbing on to a Roman Dragon Rustling ship by mistake in your first ‘Boarding an Enemy Ship’ lesson is bad enough. But to then discover that Alvin the Treacherous is also on board proves to Hiccup he couldn’t have been more wrong, especially when he steals his copy of How to Speak Dragonese. Can Hiccup save the dragons and the day?

Caledonia Skytower reads the third How To Train Your Dragon book by Cressida Cowell.

Wednesday, December 28th 19:00: Faerie and Gina Take Off!

Stories for the season to uplift you with Faerie Maven-Pralou & Gina Pralou-Maven

Thursday, December 29th 19:00: Total Recall

we-can-rememberShandon Loring with Philip K. Dick’s We Can Remember It For You Wholesale. Another book to have spawned two major motion pictures: the 1990 vehicle for Arnold Schwarzenegger and co-starring Ronnie Cox, Sharon Stone and Michael Ironside, and the 2012 film starring Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, bill Nighy and John Cho.

Douglas Quail (Quaid in the movies), a simple and ordinary clerk, wishes to visit Mars. Unable to afford it, he visits a company, REKAL (pronounced “recall”) Incorporated, which promises to implant an “extra-factual memory” of a trip to Mars as a secret agent. The procedure involves administration of narkidrine, a sedative and truth drug, which causes Quail to remember and reveal that he actually did go to Mars as a secret government agent. His conscious memories of the trip have been erased, but are now slowly returning – much to the consternation of his handlers…

Friday, December 30th 15:00: New Year’s on Maeve Benchy’s Chestnut Street

chestnut streetjournalist, columnist, playwright and author, Maeve Binchy began her writing career by accident, thanks to her father sending the letters she wrote to him while on a kibbutz in Israel during the 1960s to a local paper in Ireland, which subsequently published them. This in turn led to her being offered a job with The Irish Times on her return home, thus starting her on the road to becoming one of Ireland’s most successful and internationally recognised writers.

Through her career, she would often jot down short stories about an imaginary street in Dublin, where people would constantly come and go and experience the most diverse of times and situations. Once written, these stories would be put away for “the future”. That imaginary street was called Chestnut Street, located not far from the setting of her 2010 bestseller Minding Frankie. In 2014, these tales of the folk who live along, or visit that street were gathered together in a single volume and published posthumously under the title Chestnut Street.

Join Caledonia Skytower as she reads two seasonal tales from the volume, A Cure for Sleeplessness and One Night a Year.


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

The featured charity for November-December is Reach Out and Read, a non-profit organization that gives young children a foundation for success by incorporating books into paediatric care and encouraging families to read aloud together.

December 19th: don’t forget – snowball showdown in Second Life

Winter Wonderland - the Snowball Arena
Winter Wonderland – the Snowball Arena

Don’t forget – if you needed any reminding – that the Lab’s Jolly Holiday Crawl (Monday December 19th) will be finishing at Winter Wonderland at 12:00 noon SLT, ready for the traditional snowball fight  – the Snowball Showdown – with residents, which will continue through to about 14:00 SLT.

To get to the Snowball Arena in the 5-region Winter Wonderland (which I again previewed this year) can be reached either through the new portal parks (again, reviewed here), or via direct teleport to the landing point. Just walk through the village on arrival and follow the path up over the hills. Kiosks at the entrance to the arena are available for obtaining your weapons.

Those who are Premium members can also pick-up the latest Premium gift via the Premium Kiosks,  which once again includes a wearable token which allows you to upgrade your snowball weapons. I have no idea if the tokens given out in previous years also work as … I deleted mine!

lock'n'load at the weapons kiosks at the entrances to the Snowball Arena
lock’n’load at the weapons kiosks at the entrances to the Snowball Arena

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A Dickens of a day in Second Life!

Christmas Past, The Dickens Project SL, 2016
Christmas Past, The Dickens Project SL, 2016

Sunday, December 18th marks the finale for this year’s The Dickens Project SL, presented by Seanchai library and hosted by Kultivate magazine. And it promises to be a real Dickens of a time!

Throughout the week, Seanchai volunteers and friends have been reading the five staves of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in a specially constructed series of sets representing elements of the the story – Christmas Present, Christmas Past and Christmas Yet To Come / The End Of It All. Along the way there have been a variety of additional events and activities (see my preview , including a chat with the event’s Director, Caledonia Skytower,  here).

The Old Docks, The Dickens Project SL, 2016
The Old Docks, The Dickens Project SL, 2016

For the grand finale, commencing at 12:00 noon SLT, on Sunday, December 18th, Seanchai Library will be presenting The Big Read, featuring all five staves of the story over some 3.5 hours. The reading will take place in the Square of Christmas Present, and the audience is invited to attend in suitable period costume, if they wish. You don’t have to stay for the entire performance – although doing so is really worth the time – and the rest of the scenes will be open to explore both before and after the readings.

As a special treat, immediately prior to The Big Read, at 11:00 SLT, there will be an hour of dancing to traditional 17th and 18th Century songs presented by Wald Schriddle. Be sure to get there early for this as well, as the Raglan Shire Tiny Carolers are rumoured to perhaps be making one final, triumphant Wootmas 2016 appearance!

The Dickens Project SL, 2016
The Dickens Project SL, 2016

The Dickens Project SL is free to attend, but donations are gratefully accepted on behalf of Team Diabetes of SL and the American Diabetes Association.

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It’s Christmas at Caitinara Bar, Second Life

Caitinara Bar
Caitinara Bar

On Wednesday December 14th, between 16:00 and 18:00 SLT, we’ll be celebrating the best of the Christmas and seasonal songs with a special holiday Music with Anthony at Caitinara Bar.

It will be a great way to start your holiday celebrations – despite the bar being on a beach, we’ve ordered in some special seasons looks and even arranged some snow and a turkey dinner for anyone feeling peckish!

Caitinara Bar
Caitinara Bar

Anthony will be playing all the famous hits, old and new and will be taking requests from our guests. And if you feel like it – why not come dressed for the occasion – formal or fun, naughty or nice, all those with the festive spirit are welcome! So, we’ll hope you’ll join us in celebrating the season, and just maybe looking back over the year and forward to 2017 as we dance under the snow and the stars.

We look forward to seeing you! And please set your viewer to midnight on arriving, if it doesn’t take the parcel settings automatically.

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