Looking Forward to SL10B!

Wow, it's that time of year again already?! Seems like it wasn't that long ago that we chopped down our Giant Mushrooms at SL9B!

Well, it is that time again, so of course Raglan Shire and the tinies have a presence there. This year I again recruited the amazing Etheria Parrott and Panacea Pangaea to assist with the building and asked Summer Seale to come on board to help add a touch of sparkle and all-round beauty to the finished thing. I did virtually nothing; OK, I came up with the concept, but aside from that my contribution was embarrassingly minimal!

It's Second Life's 10th birthday and this years' theme is Looking Back, Looking Forward, encouraging residents to review their time in SL so far. I don't know of anyone who's still around since then - I think the only person I ever met who was 'born' in 2003 was the late Stillpink Sandgrain - and of course Raglan Shire didn't come into being since 2007, so we haven't had as much history to draw from, but enough.

I won't elaborate any more on our build just yet so as not to spoil it for you, dear reader (it doesn't open to the public until tomorrow), but I think the ladies have done an incredible job. I do hope you find time to visit!

Super 6 Cometh!

April 2013 will mark Raglan Shire's 6th anniversary of being and as usual we are holding a themed-event month to celebrate. This year's may prove to be one of the most exciting and dynamic yet!

It's Super 6: Superheroes versus Supervillains!

For the 30 days of April, the League of Defenders (LoD) will fight back against the forces of the Legion of Tiny Villains (LTV) from spreading their influential menace across the cluster!

The LoD have erected a glorious base of operations beside the Shire's favourite social hangout, the Paw & Whisker clubhouse. It's a pristine white villa and has been strategically placed directly opposite the abandoned warehouse that the LTV have taken up residence in. The former base of operations of The Leftovers Catering Company has fallen into ruin but the LTV are now using it to cook up their own evil schemes!

The League of Defenders' Headquarters

But on whose side of the stream will you align yourself with? Will you stand alongside the heroes of the League of Defenders or will you set out to cause trouble with the Legion of Tiny Villains? Or will you align yourself with neither? Perhaps you will be a mercenary, ready to fight for the highest bidder or perhaps you are already part of a group that will take on all-comers!

SL9B Opening - Saffia & Tinies!

SL9B Opening - Saffia, originally uploaded by Victor1st Mornington.

So SL9B gets torn down this week! If you haven't been over yet reader, I suggest you do so before 11.59pm on the 27th! If you can't, feast your eyes on the wonder that it was in this amazing Flickr picture pool.

I thought it was a really great event, one of the best ever birthday events that truly captured all that is good about Second Life and the creative possibilities it presents.

Maybe it was the lack of involvement of the Lindens (and the lack of red-tape and political correctness that follows them), maybe it was the theme that united all of these different communities, maybe it was the incredible psychedelic 8-bit themed main-stage...or maybe that it was packed full of tinies from the very start?

I'm going with that last one.

SL9B Main Stage

SL9B Main Stage, originally uploaded by Winter Jefferson.

Beautiful picture of the beautiful Lotus Stage at SL9B!

Birthday Bashing

Here's Serendipity Haven rightly pointing out that the Lindens really weren't needed when it came to putting together SL9B!

Shroom With A View

SL9B has begun!

Yes, despite Linden Lab's attempt to ensure another one of its big community events didn't happen, the residents have successfully risen to the challenge and have made this year's event their own; in truth, the Lab suggested a 'community' theme should be handled by the community, so less attempted sabotage by the Lindens and more just general laziness on their part.

The annual birthday celebration kicked off at 11am SLT yesterday (Monday), and after Saffia's impassioned opening speech, the tinies were representin' in force with at least a dozen riverdancers making a whole lotta noise!

Our plot is on Jamboree, one of 20 sims given over to this year's event, and in some cases with up to 36 plots on each sim, that's a whole lot of exploring to be done! In keeping with the feel of Raglan as a whole, the Shire SL9B plot is made up of overgrown natural elements - primarily three giant mushrooms, upon which we (myself, Etheria Parrott and Panacea Pangaea) have put out different creative elements from the community. I won't give too much away in that hope that you, reader, get the opportunity to go and visit the plot and play around at it!

The info hut and the community picture display.

The mushroom-head picnic tables.

On the smallest shroom sits three picnic tables (with waffles), where we invite tinies to gather and chat; a ladder above that is our Poetry Slam shroom, where a small circle of mushrooms each hold a poem written by a different member of our community; and an Anywhere Door journey above that is our sundial of events.

The Poetry Slam shroom circle: when clicked, a shroom reads the poem contained within it.

As I said in my previous blog entry, it felt imperative to me that as many tinies from Raglan contributed to the build as we could involve. Although we were limited by the small amount of people who were allowed access to the sims in the building stage, we put out a plea to the group to contribute pictures, poems and free gifts, and it didn't go unheard - we were sent dozens of pictures and a good number of poems.

The Event Sundial: when touched, the dial turns to a specific month with details about that months event.

We've already had a number of other SL9B participants come around and compliment us on our build, which is incredibly kind and generous, especially for a build that developed organically - my only idea when we got our plot was 'it should be on platforms'. I love seeing builds you can interact with and explore, and given that each plot covers a relatively small ground area, the best way to develop that interaction was to go high.

I'm exceptionally pleased with how the build has turned out, and that really is a testament to the community; my own contribution to the development of the build was very minimal - I rezzed a couple of things, sent out a couple of notices asking for stuff - so it really has been the generosity of others that has injected the plot with life. It's fun, colourful, cute and different - exactly how life as a tiny can be! Visit it at this SLURL!

Polly Ellsmere (left) and Bree Himmel explore the plot.

I should really start thinking about SL10B. Or would it be SLXB?

Growing Shrooms

Hello reader! Apologies for my distinct lack of updates on the Second Life front of late - truth be told, it's simply because of my complete lack of activity in-world. My time spent in SL has greatly diminished of late, not through a lack of interest, but simply because RL demands it.

That being said, someone reminded me a couple of weeks ago that it was SLxB time again and inquired as to whether the Shire would be having a presence there again. Seeing that the theme of this year's SL9B event is 'community', I felt it was imperative that we would; after all, it has been said a number of times in the past that the Shire community is one of the strongest and largest on the Grid.

So I'm here at Jamboree, slowly putting the plot build together with the help of my trusted friends Etheria Parrott and Panacea Pangaea, who between them could build, texture and code almost anything. The above picture is just a teaser of what our plot consist of, but I think it fits perfectly with the natural feel of our home sims and offers a good general picture of what our community has to offer all year round. It's an incredibly difficult thing to bottle, as by its very nature 'community' is only really defined by the people who take part in the events, but I'm trying to involve as many tinies as I can by asking for snapshots of tiny life. We'll have a method of hearing poems written by Copper Mistral's Poetry Slam group too.

And as an amazing unplanned bonus, our plot neighbours the plot for in-world percussion group DRUM!

SL9B opens to the general populace on June 18th. More information can be found on the official blog.