Making Strides Against Breast Cancer in SL is underway, and the event’s I Feel, You Feel Hunt hunt has kicked-off, which runs through until the end of October 2014.
The hunt, which has been organised by Earth Nirvana’s and the Be Hunted Group, features more than 50 participating stores and a creators across Second Life, with a range of male, female, and unisex gifts available to hunters. Just L$2.00 is being asked in return for each gift – and 100% of all donations will go to Make Strides Against Breast Cancer. That’s a very small price to pay in helping to save people’s lives.
To get started on the hunt, visit the MSABC in SL kiosk at the American Cancer Society Island, where you can make a donation to the cause, pick-up a fundraising tool kit – it’s never too late to get involved in helping to raise funds! – and find a list of participating stores and landmarks.
In addition, you can visit the hunt webpage for a list of participating stores and hints on where the gifts can be found.
Get started on the I Feel, You Feel hut at the American Cancer Society Island, and help raise funs for Making Strides Against Breast Cancer
About Making Strides Against Breast Cancer
Making Strides Against Breast Cancer or MSABC is the largest network of breast cancer awareness events in the United States, uniting more than 300 communities across the country. Every breast cancer walk run during the MSABC’s season is seen as an incredible and inspiring opportunity to honour those who have battled breast cancer, raise awareness on how the risk of breast cancer can be reduced, and to raise money to help the American Cancer Society fight the disease with research, information, services and access to mammograms for women who need them.
About Be Hunted
BE HUNTED {BH} is a group for store owners to promote their businesses through specially low-priced or free prize hunts. There is no cost to participate, and enquiries on participation should be made to Earth Nirvana. Th {BH} group can also be used by hunters to receive information on current and upcoming hunts.
It’s time to kick-off another week of fabulous story-telling in voice, brought to Second Life and Kitely by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. and Seanchai Kitely.
As always, all times SLT / PDT, and unless otherwise stated, events will be held on the Seanchai Library’s home on Imagination Island.
Sunday September 21st
13:30: Tea-time at Baker Street: The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes
Caledonia Skytower, Corwyn Allen and Kayden Oconnell once again open the pages of The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, the final set of twelve Sherlock Holmes short stories first published in the Strand Magazine between October 1921 and April 1927.
This week: The Adventure of the Retired Colourman
Holmes is rather busy with a case, so when retired art supply dealer Josiah Amberley asks for his assistance in tracking down his wife, who has apparently run off with her lover, one Doctor Ray Ernest, taking with her a large about of Amberley’s securities and cash, Holmes asks Watson to take care of the preliminaries by going to Lewisham, where the Amberleys live, to see what he can find out.
Watson does as his friend requests, and finds out a few interesting things that pique Holmes’ curiosity. The first is that for a man upset about his wife apparently stealing his valuables in order to make off with her lover, Josiah Amberley seems remarkably intent on painting the interior. It also appears that someone else has an interest in the Amberley household; none other than Holmes’ rival in the art of private investigation, Barker. Digging a little further into matters, Holmes finds that Barker has been hired by Dr. Ernest’s family to investigate his disappearance. This and other facts Watson has uncovered lead Holmes to suspect what may have happened, and thus a ruse is set-up so he might have time to investigate the Amberley house himself…
To find out more, be sure to turn up on time for a spot of afternoon tea at Baker Street!
16:00 Magicland Storytime
With Caledona Skytower at the golden Horseshoe in Magicland Park.
Monday September 22nd, 19:00: Far From Home: Angel Unawares
Zenna Chlarson Henderson was one of the first female science-fiction authors, having started reading publications such as astounding Stories from the age of 12, and becoming a popular author in the 1950s and 1960s.
She is perhaps best known for her The People stories, which focus of a race of human-like aliens forced to flee their homeworld due to a natural disaster, and some of whom arrive in the American southwest shortly before the start of the 20th century.
The People have the very best of human qualities: love, gentleness, spirituality; and also special powers of healing, levitation, telekinesis and more, who wish only to preserve their home culture and beliefs amidst a world which, despite their human appearance, does not understand them.
Henderson’s tales about The People ran to some 17 stories which examined the lives of The People, their past on their homeworld, their attempts to live quietly on Earth, their interactions with their human neighbours, all told in a beautiful, moving style. Why not join Gyro Muggins to learn more as he resumes their story through the pages of Angel Unawares.
Tuesday September 23rd, Random Acts of Poetry
With Caledonia Skytower and friends.
Wednesday September 24th, 19:00: Bellwether
Constance Elaine Trimmer “Connie” Willis is an American science fiction writer. She is one of the most honored science fiction writers of the 1980s and 1990s. Her books have between them won 11 Hugo awards, seven Nebula awards and four Locus awards, making her the recipient of more major science-fiction awards than any other author.
Bellwether, published in 1996, was a Nebula ward nominee, brings together pop culture, love, chaos theory and a study of human behaviour. Dr. Sandra Foster studies fads and their meanings for the HiTek corporation, a company keen to find a means of predicting how fads happen so they might create one themselves and profit from it. Also working for HiTek, Dr. Bennet O’Reilly is studying monkey group behaviour and chaos theory. When a misdelivered package brings the two together, coupled with a series of unfortunate events, they engage upon a joint project involving a flock of sheep. Even so, more setbacks, disappointments and surprises are likely to arise before the answers to their questions are found…
Thursday September 25th, 19:00: TBA
With Shandon Loring.
Saturday September 27th: The Further Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Join Shandon Loring at the Seanchai Library Kitely homeworld, as he picks up Greg Matthews’ story as it continues the tale of Mark Twain’s famous literary hero, picking up the narrative after Finn “lights out for the Territory”, at the end of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The great Mississippi, hard time, adventures, and familiar characters light the way as “Huck” finds his way to California by way of a return “home” and assorted encounters.
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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 September-October is Reading is Fundamental: seeking motivate young children to read by working with them, their parents, and community members to make reading a fun and beneficial part of everyday life.
On Saturday September 20th, Avatar Social Network (ASN) celebrates its first birthday and is holding a party in Second Life. It comes pretty close to marking my first month of involvement in ASN, so what better time to take another look, and also chat to Arkad Baxton, ASN’s founder about the past year and what may lie ahead?
As I noted in my first piece about it, ASN was established to provide a social hub where users of virtual worlds and games – not just SL – can interact with one another in a wide variety of ways: post comments and pictures to a common feed, write blog articles, discuss topics on the forums, post videos and photos to their own walls and to albums, create their own pages and feeds, create groups to promote and share creativity, in-world activities and so on – and generally have fun.
ASN’s founder, Arkad Baxton
Since starting up in September 2013, ASN has enjoyed steady growth as people have discovered it, although over the past few months the growth in sign-ups has increased somewhat dramatically, passing quickly through both the 2,000 and the 3,000 mark and continuing to rise. But why set-up a social network in the first place? Second Life, World of Warcraft, many OpenSim virtual worlds, and so on, have forums where users can interact, and some have supporting social networks (SL for example has the SL feeds, Moolto, SL Friends…), so why start another?
“I get that question a lot actually,” Arkad says in reply. “People using virtual worlds and games like World of Warcraft and so on did not have a social network environment where they could freely interact with one another as their preferred avatar or character. Nor did they have a place where they could discuss their various interests in different worlds and games. The social networks and forums they did have were focused just on individual platforms. So I decided to try to make a place where people can freely make friends and share content no matter what their main interest in games or virtual worlds.”
Given the current rate of sign-up, ASN has certainly garnered a lot of interest among a widespread audience, which has in turn generated a core of active users who use the service daily, blogging, interacting through the feeds, groups and pages, and sharing their content. Indeed, such was the popularity of the site at the time of my joining (when membership was just touching 2,000), the service was actually showing signs of strain, and I wondered how it would handle future loads. I needn’t have worried.
When it was announced that ASN would be down for a couple of days during a server upgrade, members responded by helping to develop the site’s maintenance banner
ASN has a development roadmap in place, which is constantly being refined, updated and acted upon. Proof of this came a few days after my original article, when ASN’s ISP moved the service to bigger, faster and more robust servers. At the same time additional back-end services were introduced, including the use of SSL / HTTPS for more secure connections between users’ computers and the ASN servers.
An interesting aspect of ASN’s roadmap is that it is not being defined solely by the ASN team and their service provider. Feedback, ideas and input is openly sought from ASN members, both through the website’s feedback page, and through direct discussions with Arkad himself.
“Feedback has had a huge impact on the changes we make,” he notes during our chat. “Our feedback page lets people add their ideas and thoughts. Others can vote on them to show us how strong the demand is for specific ideas or suggestions, and our team is reviewing and evaluating them as we go. Obviously, we can’t please everyone, but we always listen to the members.”
Nor is the roadmap and listening to feedback confined to the core website; in my first article on ASN, I made an entirely personal aside about the level of access the Android app requests of a device. This was not a direct critique of the application or any suggestion that the app is doing anything untoward; merely that as a non-technical person, i felt the app exceeded the level of access to my device I was comfortable in giving.
On reading the article, Arkad contacted me to enquire what could be done to redress this, his view being that if I felt this way, others may as well, so it would be good to try to amend things if possible. As a result, and alongside the development of an iOS version of the app, a possible revisit to the Android app could be on the cards (the app is already undergoing an overhaul so it works more smoothly with the more secure servers).
Of course, the development of the service requires funding, so I asked Arkad how that is managed. “The primary revenue for the site is coming from advertising at the moment,” he replied. “That being said, there are various investors involved, so the finances are somewhat diversified, and we are hoping to add to the revenue stream by offering additional paid services down the road.”
Meeting with Arkad at the party venue in SL
One of the criticisms from outside of ASN is that there is so much anonymity involved – not so much where users are concerned, but in how the site is operated. ASN is owned by a virtual company, AP Holdings; while this may well be a Second Life company traded on SL Capital Exchange, it is still virtual and the only name associated with it is that of an avatar.
“ASN is a website structured to give people the freedom to be known purely as their preferred avatar or game character, and we promote the fact that no real-life information need be given or shared in order to use the service,” Arkad says in addressing this criticism. “We’ve simply tried to demonstrate this in a ‘show by doing’ approach. However, I do recognise that trust in a service is important, and we will soon be providing information on the actual company behind ASN and we will then continue to publish information related to it as the growth of the website demands.”
The LeFevre Mansion, will host the 2014 Team Fox SL Autumn Gala on Saturday September 20th
Saturday September 20th marks two special events in support of Team Fox and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, and they extend warm invitations for you to attend.
Team FoxSL Autumn Gala
The Team FoxSL Autumn Gala will be taking place throughout the day in the ballroom of the stunning LeFevre Mansion, the event’s sponsor. Starting at 10:00 on Saturday September 20th, it will feature fashion shows, live music and dancing, and more:
10:00 SLT: fashion show hosted by BLVD featuring designs by Solde Rothmanay, Solas naGealai, Dainie Fraina and Kylie Sabra
11:00 SLT: a live music performance by Quar
15:00 SLT: a live music performance by Mankind Tracer (Seth Regan)
18:00 SLT: fashion show hosted by BLVD featuring designs by Solde Rothmanay, Solas naGealai, Dainie Fraina and Kylie Sabra
Plus – throughout the day – a silent auction with amazing prizes and fashion designs.
So be sure to make time to pay the gala a visit, attend one of the shows, join with the dancing and bids for the things that take your fancy in the auction? In fact, given the location, why not spend the time between events exploring the magnificent mansion and its parklands? There is much to see, as I noted back in March 2014.
TeamFox SL was founded in 2008 by Solas NaGealai, and was the first official representation for Team Fox, the grassroots fundraising organisation for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF), in Second Life. Team Fox SL is dedicated to raising funds for the MJFF, disseminating information about the disease, and providing support for those diagnosed with the illness and their families. 100% of all donations received by Team FoxSL goes directly to Team Fox and the MJFF.
As one in twenty of the 8 million Parkinson’s sufferers worldwide is below the age of 40 – as were both Michael J. Fox and Solas herself when they were both diagnosed with the disease – a particular focus of TeamFox SL’s activities is that of Young Onset Parkinson’s Disease (YOPD), and you can read more about their work through my recent article and chat with Solas.
Bilbo Baggins Birthday, which is being held in support of Creations for Parkinson’s, will be held at the Hobbit Hole on Bran and hosted by Branwen Arts. Coinciding with Tolkien Week, the Birthday will celebrate a hobbit’s life in literature and offer a feast of storytelling kicking off at 11:30 SLT on Saturday September 20th:
11:30: Caledonia Skytower – Introduction & Dinner with Dwarves (from “An Unexpected Party”, The Hobbit)
12:00 noon: Kayden Oconnell – Meet the Trolls (from “Roast Mutton”, The Hobbit)
12:30: Corwyn Allen – Riddles in the Dark (from the chapter of the same name, The Hobbit)
13:00: Kayden Oconnell – The House of Beorn (from “Queer Lodgings”, The Hobbit)
13:30: Luna Branwen – Bilbo Meets Smaug (from “Inside Information”, The Hobbit)
14:15: Caledonia Skytower – A 111th Birthday Party (from “A Long Expected Party”, The Fellowship of the Ring)
15:00: Dubhna Rhiadra – Bilbo & Frodo in Rivendell (from “Many Meetings”, The Fellowship of the Ring)
15:30: Aoife – Leaving Middle Earth (from “The Grey Havens”, The Fellowship of the Ring)
Creations for Parkinson’s grew out of the work of Barbie Alchemi and her brother, AlmostThere Inventor, in building a place in Second Life they could share with their mother, Fran Serenade, who had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s – a disease which had also claimed the life of her husband. Today, Creations Park offers a range of locations above and below the waves which are open to visitors to enjoy and explore.
Creations for Parkinson’s holds events throughout the year, often in collaboration with Team Fox SL, and 100% of all donations received goes directly to Team Fox. You can read more about Fran and Barbie’s story through this blog, or witness it through the award-winning Drax Files World Makers video of their lives.
About the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and Team Fox
The MJFF was founded by Michael J. Fox after he had been diagnosed with Young Onset Parkinson’s Disease (YOPD) when just 29. He refers to it as a business in the business of going out of business – by finding the means to combat Parkinson’s more effectively and bring about a lasting cure.
In the fourteen years since it was established in 2000, the MJFF has raised over $400 million, money which has been put to use funding a broad-ranging and aggressive programme of research into a number of areas related to the disease: defining it, altering it, investigating untreated symptoms and developing new tools to assist in further research activities.
Founded in 2006, Team Fox is the grassroots fundraising arm of the MJFF, established in response to requests from Michael’s fans and other Parkinson’s sufferers to help support the Foundation’s work. To date, it has raised some $27 million which has gone directly to the Foundation’s research activities.
Open now through until October 1st is A Clockwork Spiral, a shopping and music event featuring steampunk, steamgoth, dieselpunk, dieselgoth and dark Victoriana in Second Life to help raise money for the National Kidney Foundation. 2014 marks the fifth year for the event, and the second time it has been run as a multi-day event, thanks largely to the demand of merchants and attendees.
Organised by the folk who run the World Goth Fair (Axi Kurmin, Lokii Violet, Dolce Blackflag, Sonya Marmurek and Cruel Britannia), the event is host to 40 merchants, who have brought with them their interpretations of the theme for the visitors to shop while enjoying the atmosphere of the specially built event locations and enjoying good music and good company.
All of the merchants at the event are offering at least one 100% donation item or two 50% donation items in special A Clockwork Spiral vendors. As always, Club Gothika’s Mobile Unit will be the heart of the music events which will be taking place through the 16 days of A Clockwork Spiral, and you can find the club under the central railway station.
When visiting, do keep in mind that there is a lot going on at the region, and it is likely to have a good number of visitors – so please help keep things running smoothly by attending as lightly scripted as possible, and try to avoid wearing texture-heavy attachments as well.
Having been put back from its usual May time slot due to unavoidable circumstances, the 7th Home and Garden Expo (HGE) in support of Relay for Life of Second Life and the American Cancer Society, opened its doors to the public on Tuesday September 16th, and promises to be another hugely popular event.
Running through until Sunday September 28th, 2014, HGE comprises nine regions adjacent to the American Cancer Society region, and offers some of the finest in home, garden, and furnishing designs available across the grid. With around 90 exhibitors taking part, the event offers something for anyone who is looking for a new home, ideas for furnishing and decor, wishing to improve their building (or other) skills, or who just wishes to keep abreast of the latest building / home trends in Second Life.
The Prim Perfect Castle and grounds, designed by Aisling Sinclair using elements from a number of SL designers, provides a magnificent venue for the magazine’s talks and presentations
As well as providing the opportunity to discover the best in housing designs ans itself, there will be a wide range of events going on through the two weeks of HGE, including talks, classes, hunts and more taking place around the Expo spaces, as well as a special gacha, a raffle, the silent auction … detail of which will all be made available through the HGE website’s programme pages.
The theme for this year’s event is Story Time, and many of the exhibit areas reflect this, often in quite imaginative ways, so it’s worth taking your time when exploring, as there are some gems of exhibit pieces to be found.
Communities and groups have also had the opportunity to represent themselves at the Expo by means of info boards which have been available for lease throughout the Expo regions. Roleplay groups, bloggers, music venues, galleries, and so on, have been able to advertise themselves through these boards and extend their reach, with all proceeds from the leasing of the boards going directly to RFL of SL.
As well as offering full-size display homes and furnishing / decor displays, several exhibitors are also showing beautiful miniatures of their works, like this detailed model from HGE Gold Sponsor, Meshworx
Visitors to the Expo areas can also participate in Letters From Expo. The HGE blog describes this as:
Working to give the folks battling this deadly disease reason to hope. To give their caregivers and loved ones hope and encouragement. Because the battle is lonely, and so is the caregiving. Both can leave a person with feelings of isolation and hopelessness.
This year, we want to spread the hope as far and as wide as we can. We want to show our love, offer our courage, give our thanks, and remember those who are no longer with us in a new and immediate way. Moreover, in a way that can be seen across the globe, even by non-SLers.
Plato Novo’s exhibit for %Percent Furniture & Lighting imaginatively builds on the HGE’s Story Time theme
To this end, visitors are invited to write a letter of hope to cancer sufferers and caregivers on one of five subjects (Love, Hope, Thanks, Courage. Remembrance), and for a suggested donation of L$50, post them in the corresponding mailbox at the Expo’s Post Office, where they will be sorted and later appear on the HGE blog. Visitors may of course submit letters on more than one of the themes, but all letters should meet the requirements set-out in the Letters From Expo page linked-to above.
With some L$415,000 raised during the core RFL of SL season, the Home and Garden Expo offers an opportunity to further build on this year’s total for RFL, while offering SL users a lot to see and do. Be sure, as well, not to miss the event interviews featured on the HGE website.
A Disastrous Beauty offers a fabulous exhibit which perfectly captures the Story Time theme to this year’s event
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 