Category: Events

2019 Home and Garden Expo in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
via slhomeandgardenexpo.com

The 11th Home and Garden Expo (HGE) in support of Relay for Life of Second Life and the American Cancer Society, is currently open, and will remain so until Sunday, April 7th, 2019. Taking place across ten regions (Hope 1 through 10) and the new Linden Homes preview region, the event offers some of the finest in home, garden, and furnishing designs available across the grid.

With over 100 exhibitors taking part, the event offers something for anyone who is looking for a new home, ideas for furnishing and décor, 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 Home and Garden Expo Theatre

As always, the Expo there will be a range of events and activities, including entertainment and dancing, classes, a dedicated gacha region, talks and discussions, artists, and more. There is also:

  • The Silent Auction – featuring some stunning prizes – visit the auction boards in-world.
  • The Expo Hunt: follow the hints, visit all the main expo regions (in any order you choose), and pay L£10 for each prize (all proceeds to RFL of SL).
  • Visit the Home Decorating Competition and watch as the finalist decorate their assigned homes (March 20th – March 28th) and then vote on which you like the best (March 29th – 5th April), with the winners announced on April 6th.
  • Participate in the Lantern Ceremony at the main theatre. This ceremony goes back to 2012, when Alchemy Immortalis created the Blue Willow lanterns especially for the Home and Garden Expo. It became the custom to release them each day at 4pm, and people would gather to watch and reflect as the lanterns rose slowly into the air.

Don’t forget as well, that you can see a preview of the first designs for the new Linden Homes that will be made available to premium members in the near future.  You can also read more able these homes in my New Linden Homes Preview.

The first designs for the new Linden Homes for Premium members can be previewed at the Home and Garden Expo

About the Expo

The Home and Garden Expo raises money for Relay For Life of Second Life (RFL of SL). Relay For Life is the American Cancer Society’s signature fund-raising event, and RFL of SL is one of its virtual counterparts. 100% of registration fees, sponsorship fees and donation items are paid to Relay For Life of Second Life. 50% of the proceeds from the gachas will be paid to RFL and 100% of the L$10 hunt items.

Fantasy Faire 2019: a region teaser and a call to bloggers

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Fantasy Faire

Fantasy Faire, the largest fantasy-related event to take place in Second Life, opens its portals on Thursday, April 18th and runs through until Sunday, May 5th, 2019 inclusive. It will bring together everyone with a love of fantasy  – enthusiasts, creators, performers and designers  – for eleven days of commerce, special events, live music concerts and more, all to help raise funds for Relay for Life of Second Life.

All of the sixteen regions and their designers have yet to be announced in full, but nine have been outlined as a teaser:

  • Bayounimba  by Sweetgwendoline Bailey and Mondi Beaumont: a place that has gone from art and light within a forest to a place of darkness and swamp, where half-remembered echoes might still be found.
  • Department Discarded Curiosities by Mayah Parx: a place of whimsical clutter, collected and tossed aside, where colour and curiosity reside.
  • The Light of Valoth by Kilik Lekvoda: a once glorious city once protected by Nature, but now reclaimed by her.
  • Midas by Alia Baroque: where rivers meet, the jewel of the ancient world is born. Follow the trail of incense through baths and gardens to meet the one that will touch your heart of gold.
  • Nightshade Blossoms by Rowan Thursday and Kylie Todriya: a window on a land forgotten by time lit by lanterns and starlight.
  • Sanguinely Garden by Eldowyn Inshan and Katz Republic: humanity destroys its own environment. and the animals and plants are building a new home. The garden with its inhabitants shows them a new way.
  • The Shrine Tree by Marcus Inkpen and Sharni Azalee: a place of Dark Mystical Fantasy where sunset colours the world and the occult, mystical, Gothic and spiritual might be found.
  • Tensors’ Flying Market by Lrriven: a place of endless antiquities and curiosities,  one of the Dreaming’s most wondrous of destinations.
  • Twilight Spring by Searlait Nitschke:  a place of worship for Dark Elves and Drow, where dance, music, and celebration might be found.
Fantasy Faire 2018: Erstwhile

Call to Bloggers

On Monday, March 18th, 2019, applications to be a 2018 Fantasy Faire blogger opened, with the announcement reading in part:

Faire blogging should stem from the same source the Fairelands do: inspiration and imagination. There are no obligatory assignments. Instead there are challenges. We do not want to force anyone to do anything, we want to inspire, dare, encourage: challenge.

We are looking for bloggers that genuinely love the Faire and cherish the fleeting time the Fairelands visit our realm. Since the application is mostly about getting into the early access, we are focusing on bloggers who take pictures in the sims, or of the sims. Studio-work is not dependent on if the sims are laggy or not, after all. We are also searching for bloggers with strong ties to RFL, who are passionate about the Relay and willing to write about it. I am also always, always looking for and favouring good writers and storytellers.

If you would like to chronicle the Faire, make sure you complete the blogger application form (also produced below) BUT! – don’t hurry there right away; as with past Fantasy Faires, there are a few little extra things to consider!

Bloggers are additionally invited to participate in one or more challenges. These are not obligatory, and anyone  – official blogger or otherwise – is free to participate in them. They are:

  • Faire Folk – create a Fairelands character based on one of the Faireland region themes, and bring that character to life through photography and / or writing
  • My New Shiny – merchant-focused blogging from a personal perspective.
  • I Remember – write about your favourite Fairelands of the past.
  • Faire Life – get involved in a Faire event – roleplay, literary workshop, attending a dance or other performance – and write about it.
  • Why I Relay – share a personal reason why you Relay.

Those applying can also apply to write for the official Fantasy Faire website. This has no influence on the actual blogger selection for the Faire, and should be filled only if you are truly interested.

So, if you are interested, make sure you check-out all the information for bloggers and that you complete the application form, either below or on the official Fantasy Faire website.

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A Quiet Man, an alien, and Irish tales

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, March 17th: 13:30 The Quiet Man

Released in 1952, John Ford’s The Quiet Man is regarded as a classic Irish-American romantic comedy / drama. Starring John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara (and assorted members of their RL families!) and Barry Fitzgerald, it is a popular choice among critics and film-lovers.

The screenplay for the film was drawn in a large part from a short story of the same name originally published in 1933 in the Saturday Evening Post, and penned by Irish author, Maurice Welsh. Together with a number of other short stories by Walsh, The Quiet Man was gathered into a single volume of his short stories, The Quiet Man and Other Stories, which dealt with many recurring characters living in rural Ireland of the 1920s, and set against the backdrop of the civil unrest which affected the country at that time, while examining the complexities and occasional intrigues of life, love and Irish traditions.

Join Caledonia Skytower as she reads Walsh’s original tale of The Quiet Man, Paddy Bawn Enright to Mark St. Patrick’s Day.

Monday, March 18th 19:00: The World Of Ptavvs

Gyro Muggins returns to Larry Niven’s Known Universe to read the first novel Niven ever set within it  – given it was actually he first full-length novel. Within it, he lays many of the seeds, human and alien that would come to define that universe, its characteristics, traits and races.

A reflective statue is found at the bottom of one of Earth’s oceans, having lain there for 1.5 billion years. Humanity’s experiments with time manipulation lead to the conclusion the “statue” is actually an alien caught within a “time slowing” field.

Larry Greenberg, a telepath with highly developed and honed abilities is asked to participate in an attempt to make contact with the alien. This involves Greenberg and the “statue” being places within a single time slowing field, the effect of which is to nullify the one shrouding the alien.

The the new field in operation, Greenberg finds himself in the company of Kzanol, a member of a race called the Thrint. Powerfully telepathic, the Thrint once rules the galaxy pure through their mental powers and the ability to bend the minds of others to their own will. However, in the time that Kzanol has been trapped the result of a malfunction aboard his ship which forced him to abandon it and fall to Earth protected by the stasis field of his space suit, the Thrint were facing a revolt by all the races they had enslaved.

As a result of this, the Thrint had determined to wipe out every race in the galaxy using a thought amplifier. Now, his own mind mixed with that of Kzanol, Greenberg sets out with the alien with the aim of using the weapon to enslave every mind in the solar system…

 

Tuesday, March 19th 19:00: The Shadow at the Gate

Caledonia Skytower reads one of her original Irish tales from her first publication, A Trio of Irish Tales.

Wednesday, March 20th 19:00: Selections from Wind on the Willows

With Faerie Maven-Pralou.

Thursday, March 21st 19:00: The Lady of Finnegan’s Hearth 2

With Shandon Loring. (Also in Kitely grid.kitely.com:8002:SEANCHAI).

New Linden Homes Preview

Posted on by Inara Pey
New Linden Homes preview – available until Sunday, April 7th, 2019

Friday, March 15th marked the opening of the 2019 Home and Garden Expo in support of Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society.

I’ll have a report on this year’s event coming up soon, but for this article I’m focusing on a special element within the event: the preview region for the new Linden Homes continent that will be débuting very soon for Premium members (Patch linden indicated it is just “weeks” away now) as a long awaiting “upgrade” to (and eventual replacement of)  the old 512 sq metre parcel Linden Homes.

I hopped over to the preview region – which is presented just as one of the regions in the new continent will look – as Patch Linden and members of the Linden Department of Public Works were available and taking questions. Rather than go on at great length, I’ve attempted to summarise the key points below.

Note that the preview region will remain open until the end of the Home and Garden Expo on Sunday, April 7th, 2019.

New Linden Homes preview

Launch and Availability

  • No precise launch date has been announced, but Patch indicated it is now “weeks” away for the initial deployment.
  • When launched, the new Linden Homes will be available to all Premium members, and will not be tied to any new Premium tier option.
  • Obtaining a new Linden Home will follow similar lines to the current Linden homes – using a web page to make an initial choice of home type, before selecting the style of house when in-world.
  • Premium users will be able to swap between house types, just as they can with current Linden Homes.
  • When launched, the new Linden homes will be made available on a new continent  – apparently to be called  Bellisseria (according to the covenant).
    • This continent will form a “bridge” between two of the existing Mainland continents (which continents has yet to be announced) to form “a larger contiguous continent”.
  • In time, as take-up of the new Linden Homes increases, the existing Linden Homes mini-continents will be retired and removed from the grid, with those remaining on them rather than obtaining a new linden Home being encouraged to move.
The new Linden homes include houseboat options, couple with moorings for boats

Parcels and Houses

  • Linden Homes (and houseboats) will be provided on 1024 sq m parcels.
    • Premium members must have 1024 sq m of available tier to obtain a home.
    • Premium members are limited to one Linden Home per Premium account.
    • Parcels will have a total of 351 LI for use by those using them (houses and houseboats do not count towards the total).
  • Parcels will be made available in themed areas, and house types will be in keeping with the theme.
    • Parcel terraforming is not permitted.
  • Each parcel will be managed by a mailbox, which will offer four house styles in keeping with the overall theme / type.
    • Houses may not be removed, modified, exchanged, set or deeded to group, or transferred.
    • All of the house styles are deigned to provide garden / yard space.
    • Houseboats include moorings for boats.
  • Additional buildings or structures are allowed as long as they are in theme and meet the height restrictions.
    • Privacy walls or fences should match the theme and extend no more than 4m above ground level.
    • All other structures should not extend higher than 15m above ground level or sea level, whichever is higher.
    • Note that house styles are presented with boundary walls / hedgerows / both for privacy
  • The interiors of Linden Homes can be decorated to residents’ likings. The exteriors should always remain in theme.
  • Types and styles of houses / houseboats include interior / exterior décor options, working curtains / blinds and house control system.
  • Skyboxes are permitted, providing they are above 2000m altitude.
Individual house styles (4) for a given type can be selected from the mailbox associated with a parcel

There is also a new covenant for these linden home, that can be viewed via About Land when visiting the preview region.

General Impressions

The new houses are well presented and offer a good choice of style  – unsurprisingly a good step up from the very long-in-the-tooth current batch of Linden Homes (first introduced in 2010), and I’m personally quite enamoured of the houseboats with their moorings.

Providing infrastructure to the new regions – roads, parks, coastline, beaches, rivers, etc., will hopefully help build more of a community feel to the new Linden Homes than the approach taken with the first series, and in this, providing houses that sit within their parcels and with privacy boundaries (walls / hedgerows) to me both increases the sense of ownership and also the look and feel of these developments being a residential development. True, the privacy is only visual (you’ll need parcel privacy) and the shape of the houseboat parcels tended to make these feel a little crowded, but on the whole, the layout appears to work.

Patch’s indication that the new homes will be part of a “bridge” between two existing continents came as a surprise, and seems to suggest the SSP regions where Linden home development work is being done may be relocated prior to the new Homes starting to be offered.

The Linden Homes preview offers some hints as to the landscaping found within the new continent regions

SLurl Details

2019: sixteen years for Second Life and twenty for Linden Lab

Posted on by Inara Pey
Courtesy of Linden Lab

We’re all familiar with the Second Life Birthday (or more correctly, anniversary, given Second Life is technically older than the celebrated date), marking the month and date on which the platform opened its doors to the public – June 23rd, 2003.

In 2018, we celebrated the platform’s 15th anniversary – a remarkable milestone given the speed at which software and hardware and platforms themselves can rise to prominence before fading away, replaced by the Next Big Thing.

However, as Linden Lab noted in a March 14th blog post, this year’s anniversary marks another special year:

Sixteen years ago, on June 23rd, 2003, Second Life launched to the public. Though it feels like just yesterday and a lifetime ago at the same time, this year we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go retro and embrace the “Sweet Sixteen” theme for our big party. Sock hops, bowling alleys, and late nights at the diner were a quintessential part of many teenagers lives back in the 1950s, but the 1950s were also a time of political and social change. The world was shocked by the iconic ‘Elvis pelvis,’ and poodle and pencil skirts changed the fashion world forever. Rebellion became the titillating pastime among all that soda shoppe sweetness. It was an era that – like Second Life – rocked and rolled! So, this summer we’re throwing a 1950s themed SL16B with a TON of fun events and happenings. Here is a brief run-down of just a few.

– Linden Lab official blog post

This year the official celebration period will run from Thursday, June 20th, 2019 through to Tuesday, July 8th, 2019, and to mark it the Lab is promising an array of activities, including:

  • The SL16B Shopping Event: scheduled to run throughout the celebration period, this multi-region shopping event is now accepting applications from merchants. Those wishing to participate should ensure they have applied by June 1st, 2019.
  • The SL16B Music Fest:  popular during recent SLB events, the Music Fest will be returning for 2019, and details on how performers can apply will be forthcoming soon.

There will also be the grand community celebration, plus from the Lab the return of the Swaginator and gifts and parties.

Linden Lab Also Turns Twenty

Courtesy of Linden Lab

2019 also marks anther significant anniversary, one that is also worth noting and I would hope (assuming plans aren’t already in-hand) it will also form a part of the SL16B celebrations: the 20th anniversary of the founding of Linden Lab itself.

Linden Research – to give the company its formal name, although it does business under the name of Linden Lab – was founded in 1999 by Philip Rosedale, the company’s first CEO and former Chief Technology Officer of  Real Networks. The company’s original focus was on the development of a immersive virtual reality system comprising both hardware and software known as “The Rig” (which, rumour would have it, still lies in boxes at the Lab’s head offices in San Francisco.

However, unable to develop a commercially viable version of The Rig, Linden Lab turned to software application, producing LindenWorld, the precursor of Second Life.

Initially developed by Andrew Linden, one of the first employees at the Lab (and who would remain with the company until opting to re-join Philip Rosedale and work on the fledgling High Fidelity). LindenWorld wasn’t open to the public, and was more a game than social environment, with a focus on guns and the avatars were made out of prims and carried the name (appropriately enough, of Primitars.

Then in 2001, during a meeting with investors, that Rosedale and his team noticed those at the meeting were particularly responsive to the collaborative, creative potential of the nascent Second Life.

Thus, the objective, game-like focus of the platform’s development shifted towards a more community-drive, social environment, focused on user-created content, and thus Second Life as we  know it today was “born”. On March 13th, 2002, Steller Sunshine became the first public resident of Second Life, and the platform’s public beta commenced in October of that year. Then in June 2003, Linden Lab released Second Life to the world at large.

The first Second Life trailer

So … here’s an early “happy Birthday” to Linden Lab itself. While we may not always agree with the company or its decisions, the fact remains that without the Lab, many of us might never have entered user-collaborative, immersive social digital environments. So I hope that SL16B will mark the company’s birthday as much as it marks SL’s anniversary.

2019 Spoonful of Sugar merchant registrations

Posted on by Inara Pey
Spoonful of Sugar 2018

The 2019 Spoonful of Sugar (SOS) festival will be opening its doors on Saturday, September 14th, 2019 and will run through until Sunday September 29th. It will bring together fashion, home and garden, breedable designers and creators, artists, DJs and live performers to help raise money for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

Merchant registrations for the event are now open, with an extensive range of tiers available for those interested in supporting the event. Full details on these options can be found of the SOS Registration page – all of which should be read in full before applying – but a summary is provided here as a means of quick review.

Sponsor Tiers

Facility

  • Only 15 spots available.
  • 500 Li awarded.
  • 30 x 30 metre build size.
  • 2 x 100% donation to SOS vendors required (more if you wish up to LI limit).
  • As many 50% or 75% donation to SOS vendors as you wish, up to LI limit.
  • Up to 15 vendors allowed for your store (exceptions for hair ans skin vendors – see Registration page).
  • Individual fashion show for your brand – see Registration page).
  • fee: L$9000.

Triage

  • 300 Li awarded.
  • 20 x 25 metre build size.
  • 2 x 100% donation to SOS vendors required (more if you wish, up to LI limit).
  • As many 50% or 75% donation to SOS vendors as you wish, up to LI limit.
  • Up to 12 vendors allowed for your store (exceptions for hair ans skin vendors – see Registration page).
  • Participation in general fashion show.
  • fee: L$6000.

Surgical

  • 200 Li awarded.
  • 15 x 12 metre build size.
  • 1 x 100% donation to SOS vendors required (more if you wish, up to LI limit).
  • As many 50% or 75% donation to SOS vendors as you wish, up to LI limit.
  • Up to 8 vendors allowed for your store (exceptions for hair ans skin vendors – see Registration page).
  • Participation in general fashion show by invitation only, and if space available.
  • fee: L$3000.

Clinical

  • 100 Li awarded.
  • 10 x 8 metre build size.
  • 1 x 100% donation to SOS vendors required (more if you wish, up to LI limit).
  • As many 50% or 75% donation to SOS vendors as you wish, up to LI limit.
  • Up to 4 vendors allowed for your store (exceptions for hair ans skin vendors – see Registration page).
  • fee: L$1000.

Additional notes:

  • All fees form a 100% donation to SOS / MSF and are non-refundable.
  • Each tier has requirements and responsibilities specific to the type of merchant applying (fashion / home and garden / breedables) – again, please refer to the Registration page for details.
    • There are exceptions to these requirements at each tier level as well.
  • All SOS/MSF proceeded items must be placed within SOS vendors that will be supplied by the organisers.
  • Non-scripted vendors must be used for all non-SOS/MSF proceeded items offered for sale.
  • Again, all applicants must read the full requirements and guidelines on the Registration page prior to applying.
Spoonful of Sugar 2017

About Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

Also known as Doctors Without Borders, MSF was founded in Paris, France in 1971 as a non-profit, self-governed medical humanitarian organisation delivering emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural disasters and exclusion from healthcare around the globe, based on need, irrespective of race, religion, gender or political affiliation.

Since that time, MSF has grown to a movement of 24 associations, bound together as MSF International, based in Switzerland. Thousands of health professionals, logistical and administrative staff – most of whom are hired locally – work on programmes in some 70 countries worldwide. See the video at the end of this article for more on MSF.

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