Running now through until January 1sts 2019 is the 2019 Survivors of Suicide Christmas Fair, an event that serves as a both fund-raiser for the group, and to mark its anniversary.
Founded in December 2008, Survivors of Suicide (SOS) is the longest running support group of its kind in Second Life. A a peer to peer support group, it is dedicated to helping those who have been impacted by depression, thoughts of suicide, or who have attempted suicide or have lost someone to suicide. The group offers support and a safe platform for Second Life residents through weekly activities at their in-world headquarters, one to one support, mentorship, and via group chat.
The 2019 Christmas Fair features:
40+ merchants and designers, each offering at least one item with 100% of sales proceeds going to Survivors of Suicide.
A photo contest with prizes by The Bearded Guy and Paper Sparrow.
Raffles.
Live entertainment and DJs.
Donation kiosks.
Survivors of Suicide 2019 Christmas Fair – the meeting place (l), two of the photo contest boards and the entertainment stage and dance area
The schedule of entertainment for the event can be found at the Survivors of Suicide Information Kiosk in the event’s shopping area, and also via the group’s event calendar. The information kiosk also provides details on the photo contest, as do the photo contest boards located around the entertainment area.
As Christmas can be an especially stressful period for many, the Christmas Fair includes an Information Gazebo, located between the shopping and entertainments areas of the event. This provides self-help guides to those who many want to take advantage of them. For those who may want more direct help, Survivors of Suicide mentors will be available at the Fair, and there is a special meeting area with chairs and an open-air fire for those who would like to meet and talk, while the Survivors of Suicide headquarters will be open throughout the holiday.
The holiday period commences at the weekend, and to mark the end of the 2019 working year, Linden Lab has once again issued a challenge to Second Life users to join them in the Winter Wonderland for a snowball fight that will take place on Friday, December 20th.
Get your warm clothes and throwing arms ready – it’s time for a Lindens and Residents snowball fight! This Snowball Showdown means you’re free to pelt your fellow Second Life Residents and Lindens with a bevy of sparkling snowballs- launched fresh from the snow-arsenal available at the arena.
This year there will be two fight sessions, the first between 10:00 and 11:00 SLT, and the second between 14:00 and 15:00.
As with previous years, the challenge will be played out in the two regions of the snowball fight arena in the Winter Wonderland. Weapons can be obtained at the entrances to the Snowball Arena, one of which I’ve linked to in the above SLurl. Just touch the weapons vendor for a HUD. By default, users have a choice of a Snow Pistol or Snow Rifle. However, Premium members can claim their 2019 Winter Premium Gift and get a Token to obtain a SnowZooka.
Collect your weapons at the vendors in the Snowball Arena.
For those who may not have previously visited the Winter Wonderland, the location also includes a winter snow track for snowboard and snow mobile racing, a skating ring, a Ferris wheel, and spaces to walk as well as the snowball arena and the village – so lots to enjoy.
Lairig Leacach, December 2019 – click any image for full size
Open for a short period over the holidays is Serene Footman’s latest creation, and for this setting he has turned his eye to the central highlands of Scotland, in the Lochaber region, home of the Grampian mountains and the Mamores ridge. In particular, Serene takes his inspiration from an area close to Stob Bàn Munro that includes the Lairig Leacach bothy.
For those unfamiliar with the term, “bothy” refers to a basic form of accommodation or shelter. In the former guise, it provided accommodation for gardeners / workers on an estate (such as the one in the Royal Gardens at Windsor Castle). In the latter guise – and how it is used within Serene’s Lairig Leacach – a bothy offers free shelter for anyone wishing or needing to use it in remote mountainous areas across Northern Ireland, Wales, Northern England and Scotland, where they are particularly common and number in the hundreds to offer shelter for those hiking or climbing in the highlands and / or temporary places from which freshwater fishermen cast fish for salmon, etc.
Lairig Leacach, December 2019
The mountain bothy is analogous to similar shelters across the mountainous regions of Europe, such as the Alps. But it is somewhat different to at least some of its European brethren, as Serene notes:
Unlike the ‘refuge’ or ‘refugio’ that is typical of the Alps, bothies are unstaffed, contain no supplies or proper bedding. A bothy is usually just a simple hut – often a converted farm building. It is maintained only through the care and diligence of those who use them, and the goodwill of a network of volunteers making up the Mountain Bothies Association.
As such, the MBA describes the use of a bothy as “camping without a tent”, as you’ll need everything associated with camping sans a tent in order to stay in a bothy
The Lairig Leacach Bothy, Lochaber, Scotland, with Stob Bàn Munro behind it. Credit: Chris Bowness
In particular, the Lairig Leacach Bothy is regarded as one of the primary examples of the Scottish Mountain Bothy. It sits on the the old drovers road linking the Great Glen with the south, and is a popular stopping point for hikers climbing the hills of the Grey Corries range, and cyclists travelling through the pass. Oft-photographed, it has been maintained (and refurbished) by the MBA since 1977, and can also see use during the stag hunting season (late October through mid-February), when the public are advised to contact the local estate prior to wandering at large around the Grey Corries.
The bothy is the centrepiece for Serene’s build, caught as it is in the depth of a snow-heavy winter. Made specifically for the region by artist and mesh designer Impossibleisnotfrench (aka Harry Cover), and the detail afforded it is superb. The structure of the bothy is a faithful reproduction, and like the original, backs its way into the slope behind it. Inside, the sparse nature of the accommodation is also reproduced (those staying in the bothy during the colder months are advised to carry coal for stove!), and Serene has included some excellent touches to his – the MBA sign on the door, and further information sheets from the MBA framed on the walls inside.
Lairig Leacach, December 2019
As with the original, the bothy sits close to a bubbling burn (stream), but here the landscape – due to the constraints imposed by region size – diverge from the actual Lairig Leacach area around the bothy. While there are woodlands Lochaber, they are not as close to the bothy as seen within the build. The placement of the trees is interesting.
On the one hand, when compared to the open, rolling glen in which the actual bothy sits, they might appear to be something of an incursion, and interrupt the landscape when compared with photos such as the one by Chris Bowness shown earlier in this article. On the other, however, Serene’s build is inspired by the bothy and its surroundings, not a one-to-one reproduction; therefore the trees help to offer an alternative setting that in no way spoils the finished region. Indeed, given the noted constraints imposed by region size, the trees help break up what might otherwise be a limited sense of depth between the bothy and the off-sim peak that represents the 999m high summit of Stob Bàn Munro.
Lairig Leacach, December 2019
The fact that this is a setting inspired by Lairig Leacach rather than a reproduction also leaves room for some of Serene’s little touches, such has his signature placement of chairs in his builds. There’s also the large frozen pond of the landing point that perhaps reflects Serene’s reference to the region as a “vacation” region as it seem to invite visitors to perhaps try a little ice skating (but bring your own skates!).
Overall, however, Lairig Leacach once again demonstrates Serene’s mastery of the art of representing physical world locations within Second Life. The region is captivating in design and in detail – and makes for a worthwhile visit given it winter appearance.
There was no deployment on Tuesday, December 17th, leaving the SLS Main channel and a portion of the RC channel servers on simulator version 2019-12-04T20:29:26.533447, originally deployed on Thursday, December 5th, and comprising:
A build of release 2019-11-15T21:13:13.532828 using new build technology.
Addresses some cases of scripts erroneously stopping.
Fixes a crash.
On Wednesday, December 18th, some RC servers should be updated with server release 2019-12-06T21:03:45.533558, comprising internal fixes. This is a re-deployment of the release originally made on December 9th, 2019, containing “a difference under the hood”.
No Change Window
These deployments are the last scheduled for 2020. Due to the end of year No Change Window (December 20th through to January 2nd, 2020, the next simulator updates will not likely be deployed before Tuesday, January 7th, 2020.
SL Viewer
There have been no viewer updates to mark the start of the week, leaving the current pipelines as follows:
Current Release version 6.3.5.533275, formerly the Wassail RC viewer, dated December 4th, promoted December 1th2 – NEW.
Name Changes – the ability for Premium members to change their first and last names, with the first name being free-form, and the last being selected from a list – is due to be launched around January / February 2020.
As has been previously announced, Name Changes will be offered for a US dollars fee, and there has been some speculation over the last couple of months as to the the size of that fee (one prominent rumour surfaced at some User Group meetings has claimed the fee will be US $20.00, for example – see here).
A. Description of Prizes. One free Last Names change (estimated value at US$39.99 plus $11.99 to represent the value of a month of Premium Membership) on an account of Winner’s choice.
B. Estimated Total Prize package value: US$51.98. Exact value dependent on account status.
(Emphasis mine.)
Of course, the fee still has yet to be finally confirmed, but it’s fairly safe to assume that it is likely to be the $39.99¹ mentioned in the contest rules. This raises some interesting thoughts about the capability and its potential uptake.
On the one hand, a fee is to be expected, if for no other reason that that re-introduction of names changes has required extensive changes to many of the back-end systems and services that support Second Life (hence the time taken for the capability to be introduced). Also, given the impact of making a name change will have an extensive impact on those systems, the Lab needs to limit how frequently such changes might be made to avoid unintended impact.
There’s also the the fact that in order to meet demands from users for the Lab to reduce land tier (which they’ve tried to address over the last few years through the likes of the 2016 buy-down offer and the reductions to mainland (March 2018) and private region (June 2018) tier), there need to be ways in which the revenue can be made up (see Thoughts on Second Life fees, tier and revenue ) and Name Changes is one more option by which this might – in time – be achieved.
BUT … the potential for revenue generation needs to be balanced against the level of the fee: if it is set too high (and leaving aside the inevitable shouts about “gouging”, etc., from some quarters), then it could be self-defeating. Simply put: if users feel the fee is too high, they’re not going to run with it, particularly given Display Names will remain available. As such, there is something of a risk that Name Changes may take a good deal of time to recoup the costs of implementation – if it can.
There’s also the overall level of interest in the capability: while a lot of noise was made following the removal of last names in favour of “Resident”, the fact is that those who have been around long enough to have a last name (like myself) may well be so attached to it, so changing it may hold little interest. Even those partnering or with the “Resident” last name might prefer to stay with using Display Names rather than forking out for a Name Change.
Time will tell on both of these latter points – and there will likely be much debate on the fee as well as the capability in general. As such, I thought I’d try a straw poll of feedback on the subject from readers – make sure you vote in each box; once for interest, the other for the fee.
Note that Linden Lab has indicated the fee will be lower for Premium Plus once it has been launched. However, Premium Plus pricing has yet to be confirmed, and the option will not be launched until some time after the release of Name Changes.
Open now through until December 29th is an ensemble exhibition organised by ViktorSavior. Entitled Out of Mind – Inner Galaxy, it features the work of a dozen Second Life artists.
The art is offered alongside the poetry of Alena Witt, who is also one of the artists, alongside of ViktorSavior. The remaining ten artists are: Amethystreignn, AngelinkaNega, jessamine2108, OrpheusofDarkness, RichardGrataineSuoh, Sleksanas, TaraAers, Ava Jhamin, Lanka Milligan and Vita Theas.
Out of Mind – Inner Galaxy
The setting is somewhat ethereal: a temple-like structure with columns of which hold aloft a sky of blinking star-like lights over which clouds pass, mirroring the mist the issues from the base of the columns and above a marble floor, two sides of which are limned with tear drops of light.
The art is set between the columns, alternating on each of the “walls” with poems by Alena. The latter are presented in Russian, but touch a poem to receive a note card with the poem in both Russian and English. The art – up to three pieces per artist, is displayed vertically – again, touch a picture for a note card on the artist responsible.
Out of Mind – Inner Galaxy
With the images focused on avatar studies, the exhibition offers an interesting insight into different styles and approaches to avatar art, with fantasy perhaps taking centre stage among the majority of the images presented. The theme stands as a excellent companion to the idea of expression of how we perceive ourselves and projection that inner self outwards and create a world around us we project through this virtual realm.
Small, rich with colour and presentation, this is an interesting and expressive exhibition.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 