Hounds, lamps, murder, wishes and road trips

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, September 9th:

13:30: Tea-time at Baker Street

The third full-length novel written about Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles is likely to be the one Holmesian story which – at least in outline – known to most, whether or not they have actually read any of Holmes’ adventures.

But how many of us know the story as it was originally written? Over the decades it has been adapted for film and television more than 20 times, starting as early as 1914/15 with the 4-part series, Der Hund von Baskerville, and continuing on through to Paul McGuigan’s The Hounds of Baskerville, featured in the BBC’s brilliant Sherlock series.

All of these adaptations have offered their own take on the tale. Some – such as McGuigan’s, have simply taken the title of the story and used it to weave a unique tale of their own; others have stayed true to the basics of the story whilst also adding their own twists and turns quite outside of Conan Doyle’s plot in order to keep their offering fresh and exciting to an audience.

So why not join Cale, David, Corwyn and Kayden as they read from the 1902 original, and discover just how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle unfolded this apparently supernatural tale of giant hounds and murder, and the pivotal role played by John Watson himself?

18:00: Magicland Storytime – Aladdin and His Magic Lamp

With Caledonia Skytower at the Golden Horseshoe.

Monday, September 10th 19:00: Murder is Bliss

Gyro Muggins reads the first volume in the Jasper Stone series by Ellen Anthony.

In the year 2179, police lieutenant Jasper Stone finds himself called upon to solve the high profile murder of Elizabeth West. The case appears to revolve around a valuable house  – and the leading suspect is West’s disabled son.

But then the son is murdered – and the evidence points towards West’s grand-daughter, Jewell. Only she appears to have a rock-solid alibi for West’s murder. So is there more than one crime, or will Jewell be the next victim?

The more he investigates, the more Stone finds himself entangled in a complicated web of motives and a situation involving not just murder, but drug smuggling and blackmail. And the more he investigates, the more he might just be protecting the woman behind it all.

Tuesday, September 11th 28th 19:00: Wishtree

Trees can’t tell jokes, but they can certainly tell stories. . . .

Red is an oak tree who is many rings old. Red is the neighbourhood “wishtree”—people write their wishes on pieces of cloth and tie them to Red’s branches. Along with her crow friend Bongo and other animals who seek refuge in Red’s hollows, this “wishtree” watches over the neighbourhood.

You might say Red has seen it all. Until a new family moves in. Not everyone is welcoming, and Red’s experiences as a wishtree are more important than ever.

A contemporary tale for the times we are witnessing, told with sensitivity and humour. The protagonist (and in may ways the victim of prejudice as unsought as that received by the family in question) may well be a tree, but she has a lesson to teach all of us about tolerance and understanding and a need to heal.

Join Faerie Maven-Pralou as she reads Newbery Award winner Katherine Applegate’s 2017 story.

Wednesday, September 12th, 19:00: Roll It! An Original Tale

With Ktadhn Vesuvino.

“Time is a fixed resource. Mass requires work. The wheel is a lever that can move time around. “Roll It!” is an exploration of idea, process and implications, 20 years of experience collected, distilled and condensed into an hour.”

Thursday, September 13th, 19:00: Don’t Make Me Pull Over!

In the days before cheap air travel, families in America didn’t so much take vacations as survive them. Between home and destination lay hundreds – perhaps thousands of miles of road, and dozens of annoyances.

During his childhood, Richard Ratay experienced all of them; from being crowded into the back seat with noogie-happy older brothers, to picking out a souvenir only to find that a better one might have been had at the next attraction, to dealing with a dad who didn’t believe in bathroom breaks.

Now, decades later, Ratay offers a paean to what was lost, showing how family togetherness in America was eventually sacrificed to electronic distractions and the urge to “get there now.” Through his words he paints large what once made Great American Family Road Trip so great, from twenty-foot “land yachts” to oasis-like Holiday Inn “Holidomes” and Smokey-spotting Fuzzbusters to the thrill of finding a “good buddy” on the CB radio …

 


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

The current charity is Feed a Smile.

Within a Lost Unicorn Forest in Second Life

Lost Unicorn Forest Sanctuary; Inara Pey, September 2018, August 2018, on FlickrLost Unicorn Forest Sanctuary – click any image for full size

Lost Unicorn Forest Sanctuary is the full region component of a trio of regions we were recently pointed towards by Milo Collas. Designed by Nessa Zamora (Noralie78), it is themed after an elven fantasy setting, routed somewhat in Tolkien, but with enough departures to make it clear this is not in any way a Middle Earth clone. It is, however, one of the most visually impressive and  – when taken with its two neighbouring regions, Faerie Tale and Storybook Forest – creatively intriguing settings we’ve recently visited in Second Life.

Such is the scope of all three, that I’m devoting a couple of posts to them, with this one focusing in Lost Unicorn Forest Sanctuary and Faerie Tale. I’ll look at Storybrook with a follow-up article in the near future.

Lost Unicorn Forest Sanctuary; Inara Pey, September 2018, August 2018, on FlickrLost Unicorn Forest Sanctuary

A journey begins towards the north-east of Lost Unicorn, within a stone tower. Beyond it, an entire world awaits visitors. Distinctly elven in design as noted, it feels somewhat Sindarin in nature: rich woodlands with tall trees that support the flets of elven tree-houses.

A more direct Tolkien symbol faces south-east: the great Argonath, the Pillars of the Kings. Carved in the likenesses of Isildur and Anárion in Tolkien’s mythology, they stood on either side of the River Anduin, guarding the northern borders of the realm of Gondor. Here, the great figures stand either side of a river much narrower than the great Anduin, and which winds its way inland, one of three that cut the region into several landmasses, each connected to the next by bridges that invite visitors to explore them all.

Lost Unicorn Forest Sanctuary; Inara Pey, September 2018, August 2018, on FlickrLost Unicorn Forest Sanctuary

Across the landscape unicorns roam, keeping watch whilst resting under the eaves of trees or in the shafts of sunlight rotating through them. Within the water, mermaids swim And which may trap you in the water if you’re not careful – just look for the whirlpool, and great sea beasts raise their heads from the coastal seas.

Throughout this landscape, coloured by plants and the changing colour of leaves overhead, paths and trails wind their way. The more obvious lead to the tree-houses, others point the way to secret glades and places hidden among trees and hills,  awaiting the chance to delight the eye. Some of these – such as the entrance to the crystal cavern – again carry hints of Tolkien (the gate into Moria). Others draw on other realms of fantasy, such as faery gardens.

Lost Unicorn Forest Sanctuary; Inara Pey, September 2018, August 2018, on FlickrLost Unicorn Forest Sanctuary

Not all of these places are necessarily easy to find, so there are teleport points also waiting to be found offering a short route through the region. For those who prefer other means of travel, a flying horse rezzer can be found close to the landing point.

However, I strongly recommend taking the time to walk along trails and climb steps lest you miss things along the way. This is certainly the best way to reach the great council house to the north-west. Located above falls that tumble into a slender pool below, this can only be reached on foot by climbing up into the flets of the elven tree-houses. Watched over by dragons circling overhead, it is a place of rest and serenity, a kind of inverse Imladris, sitting above the lands, rather than hidden in a valley below them.

Lost Unicorn Forest Sanctuary; Inara Pey, September 2018, August 2018, on FlickrLost Unicorn Forest Sanctuary

Nor is this all; close by the landing point tower, at the end of a short path, a rowing boat can be found. Sit in this, and you’ll be transported across the waters to Faerie Tale, one of the neighbouring regions, and home to the Lost Unicorn Gallery. Here you’ll be delivered to a wooden wharf within a great cavern, with signs inviting you to ascend by stair, platform and bridge – although for those who prefer there is a bubble car rezzer or  – for part of the way up – a rope climb. At the top of the climb is the gallery: a fairytale castle sitting on a great finger of rock around which a great dragon is coiled, apparently at war with a powerful unicorn.

This is a magnificent setting, designed by Jennifer May Carlucci (JenniferMay Carlucci). An entire story unto itself, time should be spent camming around it and appreciating it. The halls of the castle form an exhibition space for art. Climbing through the different levels of the castle are displays by Iruki Levee, Aleriah, Ursula Floresby, Pretty Rexen (prettyparkin Rexen), Freyja (Freyja Merryman), Natalie (Natalie Montagne), Luka Henusaki and Efinyn Jinx. Together they provide a wonderfully mixed exhibition of landscape and avatar studies.

Lost Unicorn Forest Sanctuary; Inara Pey, September 2018, August 2018, on FlickrLost Unicorn Forest Sanctuary

However, the gallery isn’t purely about displaying art, it also serves to support First Book, an organisation dedicated to providing access to new books for children in need, and which since 1992 has distributed more than 100 million books and educational resources to programs and schools serving children from low-income families throughout the United States and Canada. A portion of all donations made to the Lost Unicorn Gallery go directly to First Book.

Should you opt to make your way back to Lost Unicorn, there is a path running south that will take visitors by bridge and tower to Storybook Forest – but that is a journey for another blog post.

Lost Unicorn Forest Sanctuary; Inara Pey, September 2018, August 2018, on FlickrLost Unicorn Forest Sanctuary

For now I’ll leave you with thoughts of visiting Lost Unicorn and, should you enjoy it as much as we did, I hope you’ll consider a donation towards the upkeep of the regions – and perhaps in support of First Book.

SLurl Details

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer 2018: the full season

via Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Across Second Life

Some 1.7 million women – and men – were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012, the most recent year for which detailed statistics are available. It is currently believed that the figure remains around the 1.6 million mark world-wide, which equates to around 270,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer per year in the United States and around 55,000 in the UK alone.

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer is a signature event by the American Cancer Society to raise awareness of, and funds to counter / treat breast cancer, and it is marked in Second Life very October with the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer (MSABC) Across Second Life event.

For 2018, MSABC Across Second Life will be holding an expanded season of events through October, a couple of which I’ve previously blogged about, and on which ACS and the MSABC team issued more information on Friday, September 7th, 2018.

In all five events are planned for the month, offering a broad range of options by which Second Life users can donate money that will expressly go into the work involved in treating and researching breast cancer and its causes. Full details of the events can be found on the MSABC Across Second Life website, and I’ve summarised the key points below.

Photos For A Cure

  • Dates: now through until Sunday, September 30th, 2018.
  • Theme: The Rat Pack
  • Sponsor: SKYY Games

Photographers across Second Life are invited to share their artistic talents by submitting a photo that they feel best reflects the Photos For A Cure theme to the MSABC Across Second Life Flickr group.  A prize pool of L$22,500  is available for the photos judged as best reflecting the theme. For contest rules and details, visit the Photos For A Cure on the Making Strides website.

Out-Shop Breast Cancer

  • Dates: Monday, October 1st through Wednesday October 31st, 2018.
  • SLurl: all across the grid – HUD based.

Get your shopping HUD at the American Cancer Society Island, then visit the variety of stores who have committed to Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. The more you buy, the greater the funds raised for MSABC.

Out-Shop Breast Cancer and Parade of Homes

Parade of Homes

  • Dates: Monday, October 1st through Wednesday October 31st, 2018.
  • SLurl: all across the grid – HUD based.

Collect a Parade of Homes HUD from the American Cancer Society Island and use it to hop to the participating designs and discover your dream home for Second Life. This is a perfect opportunity to discover some of the great home designers in Second Life, get your new home, and fight breast cancer – all at the same time.

The parade of homes will conclude with a special live auction for a L$90,000 dream home, donated by Slash Hansome, owner of AXL pro – check the MSABC website for details in October!

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk-A-Thon

  • Date:  Saturday, October 20th, 2018.
  • Registration opens: Saturday, September 15th, 2018 (walkers); Sunday, September 16th, 2018 (sponsors).
  • SLurl: check the MSABC Across SL website.

Get your walking shoes ready and join other walkers at the 2018 Strides Walk track. The Walk-a-Thon will take place between 10:00 to 18:00, with walkers invited to join in throughout for as long as they can. Music will be provided throughout the event, and there will likely be an after-walk party.

Walkers will be provided with tools to track the number of laps they complete around the track, allowing them to collect pledges from their supporters. Awards will be presented for Top fund-raiser, most laps completed, most sponsors (pledges), and Overall Top Walker.

Registrations, once open, will be available through the MSABC Across SL website.

Breast Cancer Gala

The annual gala event will celebrate breast cancer patients, survivors, and pay homage to loved ones that are no longer with us. This is a chance to meet new people,  reconnect with old friends, and share stories with others about your personal connection to breast cancer. This is a formal attire event with special live performances. Donations are encouraged throughout the event.

Meet the Challenge

In 2017, the Making Strides campaign raised over US $10,000 for the American Cancer Society. For 2018, the MSABC team would like to beat that total – so why not be a part of the efforts by taking part in one or more of these events throughout October?

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.

2018 SL UG updates #36/2: TPV Developer meeting

Bellefleurs; Inara Pey, August 2018, on FlickrBellefleurs – blog post

The following notes are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on Friday, September 7th, 2018. A video of the meeting is embedded below, my thanks as always to North for recording and providing it.

This is another short TPV Developer meeting, with a lengthy discussion (roughly from 7:00 to 13:15) on the Estate Access Management project viewer, the majority of which is covered by my overview of that viewer, and so not repeated here. There are also some extended silences on the video.

SL Viewer

[0:58-7:00]

The Rakomelo Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 5.1.9.519298 on September 5th.  The remaining viewer pipelines remain as:

  • Current Release version 5.1.8.518593, dated August 14, promoted August 20. Formerly the SL Voice RC viewer – No Change.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • Animesh RC viewer, version 6.0.0.518949, August 24.
    • Love Me Render RC viewer, version 5.1.8.518751, released on August 20.
    • BugSplat RC viewer, version 5.1.8.518305, August 7. This viewer is functionally identical to the current release viewer, but uses BugSplat for crash reporting, rather than the Lab’s own Breakpad based crash reporting tools.
  • Project viewers:
  • Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17, 2017 and promoted to release status 29 November – offered pending a Linux version of the Alex Ivy viewer code.
  • Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, May 8, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7. This viewer will remain available for as long as reasonable, but will not be updated with new features or bug fixes.

Assorted Notes on the Viewer Pipeline

  • The Bugsplat RC viewer is still awaiting a further update (to bring it to parity with the release viewer), and this update will include some Mac improvements.
  • A second viewer with further round of rendering updates will be following on the heels of the current Love Me Render RC viewer.
  • EAM Project Viewer:
    • The next update to the EAM viewer may see it promoted to release candidate status.
    • This update will include the ability to set time-based bans on individuals (i.e. banning someone for a period of time, after which they are automatically unbanned).
  • The snapshot viewer is still awaiting internal resources at the Lab to be able to resume working on it.
  • Both the Bakes on Mesh and Environment Enhancement Projects continue to await the AIS update (see below for more).
    • The Bakes on Mesh project also requires both a simulator update (as does EEP) and an update to the Bake Service. These  will take place some time after the AIS update has been deployed,
    • [7:51-8:49] As a sidebar to the Bakes on Mesh and EEP work, it was found that the existing viewer code did not handle inventory assets types very well if it could not recognise them. This has now been corrected with one of the updates in the Rakomelo RC viewer, so viewers with this code, but which do not have the BOM and EEP code should handle the new asset types delivered by the simulator / CDN for these projects a lot more gracefully than has previously been the case with adding new asset types.
  • [6:16-7:00] The Animesh is now down to a small number of must-fix bugs before it can roll to release status; additional bugs have been tiraged and flagged as “fix later”. As noted in my most recent CCUG update, there will be a behavioural change to add a scale limit to the existing translation limit such that Animesh objects can’t become too large or too arbitrarily placed.

AIS Update

[4:00-4:34] As noted above, the AIS (Advanced Inventory System) update contains changes to support both the Bakes on Mesh project and the EEP project. However, it is primarily aimed at running the inventory services on a newer version of their operating system (the Lab is currently engaged in updating the operating system used across their servers, as noted by Simon Linden at the week #36 Simulator User Group meeting). This OS update is also one of the foundational requirements need to start moving more of the SL services to a cloud based infrastructure in the future.

The AIS update has now cleared the Lab’s QA testing, and is expected to be grid-wide in the next week or so.

ARCTan and Viewer Texture Caching

[13:30-14:40] ARCTan and the viewer texture caching updates have been on hold, the former because of the effort being put into the rendering updates in the Love Me Render RC viewer (and presumably its follow-up viewer) and the EEP project. Both ARCTan and the viewer texture caching project are expected to resume “real soon nowTM“.

In Brief

  • A reminder that the SL Voice .EXE in the current release viewer (5.1.8.518593) is incompatible with earlier versions of the viewer, and cannot be used with them.
  • There is also a report that viewer 5.1.8.518593 can disconnect voice when teleporting a lot more frequently that previous releases. This is to be the subject of the bug report.
  • A reminder that the fixes for ensuring off-line Group messages and Friend requests are correctly delivered at log-in by the new HTTP capability can be found in the Rakomelo RC viewer.
  • [21:27-22:10] There is still no confirmed date as to when the inventory UDP messaging will be turned off at the simulator end. All inventory messaging switched from UDP to HTTP earlier in 2018, and it had previously been indicated the UDP support would be switched off on the server end in late summer / autumn 2018.  This is in part due to the discovery the messaging system is being used by some “other things”, and this need to stop before UDP messaging can be disabled.

A Carnival of the Arts in Second Life

Carnival of the Arts: Silas Merlin

The Dirty Grind Independent Artist community is celebrating its fifth anniversary over the weekend of Friday, September 7th through Sunday, September 9th, 2018 with a Carnival of the Arts. The weekend will be marked by live music sets throughout the three days, and also art displays by Enola Vaher, Toysoldier Thor and Silas Merlin, who appears at the Dirty Grind as the celebration’s featured artist.

The focal point for the event is a newly revamped venue building, where the artists can be found, and a stage area has been established in the back lot area. Inside the building, 2D and 3D art Enola and Toysoldier is located on two floors to one side of the building, with Silas’ 2D pastel art from the physical world and his 3D mesh sculptures created for Second Life can be found at the back of the building, again on two floors, facing the stage area.

Carnival of the Arts: Enola Vaher

The music event kicks-off from 15:00 SLT on Friday, September 7th, and at the time from writing, the schedule looked as follows:

Time Friday 7th Saturday 8th Sunday 9th
14:00 — Shannon Oherlihy Wald Schridde
15:00 Davis Cisiszer Thunderfoot Lorefield Lexie Smith
16:00 Strum Diesel Phime Alcott Winston Ackland
17:00 The Matthew Show Senjata Witt DimiVan Ludwig
18:00 Jamba Losangelas Grace McDunnough The Vinnie Show
19:00 Twostep Spiritweaver Bearsheart Effinjay
20:00 Benski Korhonen Suzen Juel Ethan Kamaboko

However, given that events can always undergo last-minute changes, be sure to check the Dirty Grind website for updates or changes to the schedule.

The art displays are compact, but deliver a good sense of the work of the three artists. Enola’s 2D art – featuring both SL photographs and also drawings – is displayed on the upper floor of the gallery space she shares with Toysoldier Thor, and is an evocative mix of images. On the ground floor, Toysoldier presents a mix of his 2D paintings and 3D art, which is always captivating to see.

Carnival of the Arts: Toysoldier Thor

Silas Merlin remains one of the artists I deeply admire. His work in pastels is extraordinary, and while perhaps a little on the small side, the pieces presented at the Dirty Grind serve as a welcome introduction to his 2D work for those unfamiliar with it – and I do recommend seeking his art out whenever you have the opportunity to do so. His 3D work is perhaps more familiar to people in Second Life, being very popular among collectors, and the pieces he’s selected for this exhibition again present a good cross-section of his sculptures for those wishing to familiarise themselves with his 3D work.

So, do make a point of hopping along to the Dirty Grind over the weekend and wishing them a happy anniversary.

Carnival of the Arts: Silas Merlin

SLurl Details

RFL of SL adjusts fund-raising season for 2019 and beyond

via slrelayinfo.com

Following the open house meetings with volunteers on Wednesday, September 5th, the RFL of SL organisers announced that from 2019, the fund-raising season in Second Life will be shifting dates somewhat.

The revised dates will see the season commence in mid-February and run for 16 weeks, culminating in an Event Weekend in June of each year.

This means that for 2019, the season will commence at 10:00am, on Saturday, February 16th, 2019, and will run through until the weekend of Saturday, June 8th, 2018, and the RFL of SL signature 24-hour event.

Prior to the open house meetings, it has been put forward that the season’s primary event  – the Relay Weekend – should be moved from July of each year, which is seen as being a period when Second Life tends to be quieter that usual, due to many in the northern hemisphere being on vacation or enjoying summer breaks, etc., to earlier in the year. May was initially suggested, as this is the month in which the American Cancer Society holds it’s signature global fund-raising event.

While the May suggestion for the final event of the season is not going ahead, the revised dates for the season mark a significant change for RFL of SL’s signature weekend, with Stingray Raymaker, Director of the American Cancer Society’s activities in Second Life, noting:

This will be the first time in the history of the event that it will be held in June … Our volunteers all had an opportunity to weigh in on this decision and the overwhelming feedback was in favour of holding Relay For Life of Second Life in June because it will allow our season to start earlier, when more residents are logged in and active.

The June date also allows for more of a break period between the RFL of SL signature event and the “mega” events such as Fantasy Faire, which takes place in March / April and the Sci Fi convention, which occurs in April / May, than would have been the case had it been moved to May as had originally been suggested.

More details on the activities taking place during the RFL of SL 2019 season will be posted via the official RFL of SL website, and I’ll continue to provide notifications and review through these pages.

Relay For Life fund-raising helps the American Cancer Society to provide access to support, information, resources, and services to cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers in Second Life. Every resident, group, merchant, and community in Second Life is welcome and encouraged to get involved in the grid’s largest and most impactful campaign to fight cancer.

Those wishing to receive updates and event information are invited to join RFL of SL’s in-world group, or join the RFL of SL Scribo board at the American Cancer Society headquarters.