Saturday March 8th and Sunday March 9th mark the Relay for Life of SL kick-off celebration, which will be taking place alongside a number of RFL team events being held across the grid as the 2014 Relay for Life season gets officially underway in Second Life.
There’s a lot going on, with plenty to keep people occupied and enjoying themselves, with plenty of entertainment, music and opportunities to both fund-raise and donate to the cause.
The Kick-off Celebration
Relay For Life of Second Life kicks off it’s fundraising season on March 7-9th with a weekend FULL of celebration! Teams have been registering and will be present at the kick-off regions with team vendors, kiosks and flags waving to show their team spirit.
On Saturday at noon the official Kick-Off Ceremony will begin. This year’s ceremony will be presented by the 2014 Steering Committee, Stingray Raymaker, Nikki Mathieson, Dawnbeam Dreamscape and Random Padar Darrow. It will also include a survivor speaker NickiB27 and readings from this year’s Division Chairs, Gemstone Sunkiller (Internal Support), Sunshine Zhangsun (Events/Design), Serina Juran (PR, Outreach) and Dwen Dooley (Tech). The ceremony will conclude with the traditional PARADE OF TEAMS and with that, the 2014 RFL of SL Journey will officially begin!
Journey to Africa as a part of the RFL of SL kick-off celebrations…
There are four regions for the Kick-off celebration, which has the theme of A Journey Through the Continents. Follow the path through the continents, from the sands and plains of Africa or through the tropical rains forests of South America and onwards around the world, passing team kiosks where you can tarry a while, join silent auctions, queue for a kiss at the kissing booths, buy merchandise and enjoy other fund-raising activities while T1 Radio broadcast music and events.
…or wander the olde worlde quays and watersaide kiosks …
And there are a slew of events through the week and beyond, all a part of RFL of SL’s 10th anniversary year – see the RFL of SL Events page for details!
The 2014 Relay for Life of SL season gets underway on the weekend of March 8th / 9th with the kick-off celebration. This is the tenth year RFL of SL has been held, and all involved are working hard to ensure it is a special anniversary.
In a press release about the celebration, Nikki Mathieson, this year’s Event Chair, said:
A favourite time of year, for many Second Life residents, is about to begin. The experience of working together for a cause that touches each of us so deeply is like no other experience, online or off. The support and camaraderie, the depth of passion to do more, reach further and spread awareness, while fundraising make this yearly campaign so special and amazing. We strike REAL blows to cancer. Relay For Life of Second Life is an incredible group of people who work hard KNOWING that they are saving REAL lives against an all-too-REAL disease. We need more volunteers to come join us and spread the word.. COME RELAY WITH US.
The kick-off regions will be opening to RFL of SL teams at 17:00 SLT on Friday March 7th, and the celebration proper get underway at noon SLT on Saturday March 8th.
In keeping with this year’s overall theme for RFL of SL, A Journey of Promise, the celebratory weekend will focus on A Journey Through the Continents. Relay teams have been invited to set-up kiosks on the path round the world within the kick-off regions, where they’ll be able to run a raffle or silent auction (or both) and / or a kissing booth, and have up to six vendors so that they can start-up their in-season fundraising efforts.
A look along the track from RFL SL 2012
Activities through the weekend will include (all times SLT):
17:00 Friday March 7th: regions open for Relay Teams to set-up in their assigned spaces along the path around the world, followed by a tailgate party
10:00 Saturday March 8th: T1 Radio commence their celebration broadcasting from the regions
12:00 noon, Saturday March 8th: Opening Ceremony featuring RFL Planning and other committee members, and cancer survivor Nickib27 will share her experiences and the role the American Cancer Society played in her fight. The ceremony will be streamed live by T1 radio for those unable to attend
Saturday March 8th afternoon / night: a range of entertainments featuring DJs and liver entertainers
Sunday March 9th will feature a dance troupe, more music and entertainment, and at 13:00, a game of Family Feud which will allow three Relay teams to compete with one another and the Planning Committee!
22:00 Sunday March 9th: the kick-off celebration closes.
There is still time of those Relay Teams not registered for the celebration to do so. Teams just need to register via Google Docs, and do so by 23:59 SLT on Tuesday March 4, 2014.
Commenting on the celebrations, Stingray Raymaker, American Cancer Society staff partner, said: “I’m really excited about this year’s Kick-off because it’s the biggest Kick-off event that we’ve ever planned. The ceremony will be fantastic, but I’m really excited to see what our teams are selling in their Relay vendors!”
Other Relay for Life events scheduled for 2014 in SL include:
May 4-10: Halfway There Journey Week
July 19-20: Relay Weekend
August: Wrap-up Party
About RFL of SL
Relay For Life is the signature fundraising event of the American Cancer Society, and has grown into a world-wide event in the fight against cancer in all its forms.
Relay For Life of Second Life is an annual activity that takes place in Second Life in July each year. Volunteers form or join teams to have fun while fundraising and raising awareness from March through mid-July. In July, teams build campsites and walk a track, just like in a real world Relay. Over the last nine years, Relay For Life of Second Life has raised more than $2 million for cancer research and is the largest charity event in the virtual worlds. Several thousand volunteers from more than 80 countries participate each year, truly making it a global event.
Trying to catch-up on a backlog of blog reading, I came across an update from Sonya Marmurek on the Fantasy Faire website announcing some of the details for this year’s event. The post was made on February 17th, and I’m not entirely sure how I missed it, as I’m sure I’ve looked at the FF website between then and now … Anyway, Sonya informs visitors to the site that:
Fantasy Faire 2014 will take place in the Fairelands unlike anything you’ve seen before, the lands change shape every year and every year they become better.
This year, the Faire will take place during the eleven days of Thursday May 1st through to Sunday May 11th inclusive.
Fantasy Faire 2013: Magnificat
Interestingly, there will be a few changes in organisation this year. most notably, open applications for merchants will be limited in number, and will be available “some time after” Saturday March 15th. As Sonya explains in the blog post, this is because:
The Faire is old and established and there are plenty of creators who are as much an integral part of it as the Fairelands themselves and we will first scribe in those registrations.
This announcement may give rise to some concern among merchants who might be wanting to participate in the Faire for the first time, but it’s also understandable as well; anyone who regularly travels through the Fairelands each year will be familiar with the excitement and pleasure of coming across “old friends” and seeing how they’re integrated presenting their goods into the year’s theme, and many creators really are as much a part of the event as the fabulous builds created each year and in which the Faire is hosted.
Fantasy Faire 2013: Titan’s Hollow
Last year’s Faire was something very special; the conception and design of the Faireland regions added up to something quite extraordinary in look and feel, and I felt a tremendous sense of involvement during my wanderings through each of the ten regions, all of which seemed to present a continuing, evolving story to me and encouraged me to write about my explorations as if I were on a journey. I don’t know if my Traveller muse will return this year, but I’m very much looking forward to witnessing all that unfolds in the run-up to the Faire and the event itself.
It’s time to kick-off another week of fabulous story-telling in Voice, brought to Second Life by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library SL.
As always, all times SLT, and unless otherwise stated, events will be held on the Seanchai Library’s home on Imagination Island.
Sunday March 2nd
13:30: Tea-time at Baker Street: The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans
Tea-time at Baker Street sees as Caledonia Skytower, Corwyn Allen and Kayden Oconnell reading stories from His Last Bow.
A 1917 anthology of previously published Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, His Last Bow originally comprised seven stories published byThe Strand Magazine between 1908 and 1917. However, later editions of the book saw an eighth story included, The Adventure of the Cardboard Box, originally published in 1892.
Despite his frequent appearances in various television series depicting the life and times of Sherlock Holmes, Mycroft Holmes only appears, or is mentioned, in just four of Conan Dyole’s tales, The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans being one of them – actually the one which marked his final appearance in the original canon.
It is Mycroft who kicks-off this adventure as he visits Holmes about missing submarine plans and a dead man. The latter is Arthur Cadogan West, formerly a young clerk in a government office at the Woolwich Royal Arsenal, who was found dead next to the London Underground tracks near Aldgate tube station, his head apparently crushed by a passing train. The plans for the Bruce-Partington submarine were found on his body – with three pages missing, and Mycroft is concerned they could have been taken by enemies of the Crown.
Not only is there the mystery of the missing pages for the submarine plans, there is much about Arthur Cadogan West’s death which does not add-up; why, for example, was he carrying top-secret plans about his person while apparently due to visit the theatre with his fiancée? Why is there no Underground ticket about his body? Did he manage to travel the service without a ticket, or did someone take it? If the latter, why would they take it?
Holmes responds to his brother’s request for help on behalf of the British government – noting to Watson along the way that Mycroft actually is the British government – and thus the adventure begins …
Find out more by joining Caledonia, Corwyn and Kayden!
18:00: Magicland Storytime
Join Caledonia Skytower at Magicland Park, in the Golden Horsehoe, as she reads The Princess and the Frog, and Mardi Gras stories.
Monday March 3rd, 19:00: From an Alien Point of View
When humans interact with aliens who are actually alien, we run into the fact that we’re as weird to them as they are to us. This can cause the most remarkable misunderstandings…. More thought-provoking sci-fi from the collection of Gyro Muggins.
Tuesday March 4th, 19:00: Ireland, Land of Poets
Join Kayden, Corwyn and Caledonia as they read from the poetic words of some of Ireland’s famous daughters and son.
Wednesday March 5th, 19:00: Tír na nÓg by Marni L.B. Troop
Tír na nÓg (“Land of the Young”) is, in Irish folklore and mythology, one of the names of the “otherworld”, in part a supernatural realm of everlasting youth, beauty, health, abundance and joy. It is also the title of the first volume of Marni L.B. Troop’s The Heart of Ireland Journals.
In looks, the Faerie are folk little different to humans, other than their pointed ears, although they are vastly different in other ways, and Casey is a princess among them.
She is horrified when a stranger from Iberia arrives on the shores of Ireland, home of the Faerie, believing them to be the gods of his people, but the kings of the Faerie respond to his overtures by having him slaughtered.
Thus the Faerie kings bring down the vengeance of the Iberian people upon their own folk, and war comes to their land. Caught in the middle, and herself in love with an Iberian called Amergin, Casey tries to find a way to bring peace between the two peoples so that they might live together. Unfortunately for her and her beloved, things do not go as she had hoped.
Join Caladonia as she embarks on a reading of this intriguing faerie tale.
Thursday March 4th
16:00: Stories from Ozland and Pictures
With Llola Lane.
19:00: The Dream of Macsen Wledig and The Black Cauldron
The Dream of Macsen Wledig – image courtesy of Donald Correll
Shandon Loring sits down to read from two more tales rooted in tales from the Mabinogion.
Macsen Wledig is in fact Magnus Maximus, a Roman general who was proclaimed emperor by his legionaries in 383AD before he successfully challenging and defeated the Western Emperor Gratian and initially reaching an agreement with Valentinian II and Theodosius I, which saw him recognised as the Emperor in the West. This arrangement last until 388AD, when Magnus was himself defeated by forces loyal to Theodosius I and Valentinian II, after forcing the latter out of Milan.
A key figure in the latter days of the Roman Empire in Britain, the story of Magnus Maximus filtered into Welsh mythology, and may also helped to give rise to the initial Arthurian legends. As it is, in Welsh tradition, he is seen as the progenitor of the dynasties of several medieval Welsh kingdoms, and appears in lists of the Fifteen Tribes of Wales. In The Dream of Macsen Wledig, we learn of how he came to dream of (and find) his future wife here in Britain.
Shandon follows-up the The Dream of Macsen Wledig, with a reading of The Black Cauldron.
21:00: Seanchai Late Night
Details still TBA, so please check with the Seanchai Library blog as the week progresses.
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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 March and April is Project Children: building true and lasting peace in Northern Ireland one child at a time.
Update March 17th: The transcripts and audio of the presentations made by Tim and Agenda are now available.
On October 19th, 2013, Agenda Faromet and Tim Faith (SL: Yoss Kamachi), both real world lawyers, held an in-world legal panel (together with lawyer Juris Amat) to discuss the August 2013 changes to Linden Lab’s Terms of Service and matters of fair use, copyright and the Internet.
The event was well attended, and saw a host of questions asked, and not a few misconceptions dealt with.
Now Agenda and Tim are to reconvene for a meeting in a similar vein, marking their coverage of fair usage rights whichis also liable to be of interest to SL content creators (this particular meeting last having been held in February 2013). This will take place at the Justitia Legal Resource Village from 10:00 SLT on Saturday, March 1st.
We did this last year and it was really successful, so Tim and I are doing it again this year. Are you interested in learning more about what we mean when we talk about “fair use”? Would you like to hear some actual lawyers talk about what it really means, what the current state of the law is, and how it applies to content creation and use in SL?
Of course you would.
So if you’re still confused or concerned about things like the Terms of Service, IP rights and fair use, make a note in your diary and pop along!
For those who missed the ToS discussion panel, and wish to catch-up with what was discussed in that forum and perhaps formulate questions based on that, you can find the relevant information by following these links:
Branwen Arts and Stories Unlimited have announced a call for performers at the Fourth Annual Storyfest event, to be held on Sunday March 23rd, 2014.
StoryFest is a partnership between the Branwen Arts Coop, Seanchai Library and the Stories Unlimited, and produced by StoryFest Events. It will take place at Here Be Pictsies in Bran, commencing at 10:00 and running through until 17:00.
The event is held to mark World Storytelling Day, which celebrates traditionally told tales, and which this year falls on March 20th, with the theme of Monsters and Dragons. Storyfest will comprise a day of stories presented in a variety of live performance forms: traditional telling, literature, theatre, dance, and so on.
Anyone who is currently presenting stories in Second Life in any manner of live performance (i.e. not pre-recorded readings / performances), are welcome – and encouraged – to apply. Performances should be timed to fit a 30-minute slot, although there are a limited number of 60-minute slots for more elaborate presentations. Multiple performers can share a single slot, so long as the organisers are aware of how many and who as a part of the application. Note that no streams will be available for individual performers.
The organisers are also seeking volunteer hosts to help organise and run the day’s events.
How to apply
Those wishing to participate as either a performer or volunteer host should contact either Caledonia Skytower or Dubhna Rhiadra via note card, giving their SL name and role (performer / host) they are interested in. Those wishing to help with hosting should provide times at which they can be available on the day. Performers should also provide the following:
Length of slot required (30 or 60 minutes)
An outline of your proposed performance / presentation, including technical requirements (e.g. prim count for props, etc.) – please note that no stream will be available for individual performers / presenters
If the presentation involves multiple performers, please supply the number / names
A reference to what and where you present on the grid at present.
All submissions should be received no later than midnight SLT on Wednesday March 12th, 2014. successful applicants will receive confirmation by Tuesday March 18th March, and a schedule for the event will be published at that time.
Additional Notes
The organizers reserve the right to review the performers submitting and accept those performances & performers that they feel best fit the goals of the festival
While performers are welcome to use the theme from this year’s World Storytelling Day, “Monsters and Dragons” they need not restrict themselves to just that theme
Questions on the event should be addressed to Caledonia Skytower or Dubhna Rhiadra by note card, as IMs do frequently get capped.
Saturday March 8th and Sunday March 9th mark the Relay for Life of SL kick-off celebration, which will be taking place alongside a number of RFL team events being held across the grid as the 2014 Relay for Life season gets officially underway in Second Life.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 