RFL at Replugged Recap

April 25, 2012 by Leave a comment

The Best in Black & White Event at Replugged was a massive success with the DJ Suzette at the DJ booth spinning inspiration songs. This event even went out on net radio and had listens who weren’t in Second Life. It was a touching gathering where everyone shared their stories of people they knew who were Cancer Survivors and those who lost their lives. We managed to raise 5,439L$ and it kept going after we left.

Thank you so much to everyone who showed us support.

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Fantasy Faire: 2012

April 22, 2012 by Leave a comment

Its that time again, one of the largest gatherings of designers, enthusiasts, role players, and performers  From April 21st –29th, Fantasy fever will be spreading around Second Life through the Fantasy Faire. If you love everything that has to do with Medieval and Fantasy, this is the place to be. Nine days of shopping, live music concerts, auctions, and hunts. All proceedings will go towards fighting cancer through Relay For Life. Sounds interesting?  Well check out the Fantasy Faire SL Blog for more information.

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Relay For Life: History

April 13, 2012 by 2 Comments

Relay for Life has been a part of Second Life for the past, 9 years, and has done a lot to raise money and Relay For Life 2012 Kick Off awareness for the American Cancer Society. The History of how Relay For Life became a part of Second Life is truly an inspiring story, and the Torch SL Guide was able to hear it at Relay For Life 2012 Kick-Off Celebration.

In 2004, a resident by the name of Jade Lilly realised that Second Life  had the potential to do good through fund-raising. After holding a party which raised 5000 Lindens (L$), she contacted the American Cancer Society and pitched the idea of using online fundraising. At first ACS shrugged at the idea but Jade was able to convince them to give it a try and once they did it grew rapidly.  ACS worked with RFL SL and monitored the events and quickly realised that the sky was the limit. 

Second Life Resident MamaP Beerbaum is a chair person for RFL and plan the relays along with other committee members.

"Every Relayer has a story, my story is that my father had cancer, my mother and I were his caretakers. I came intoMamaP SL with some friends" Said MamaP "one of which worked with Canadian Cancer Society. Through Relay For Life I was able to Relay, raise money and spend time with my father, if i were to relay in real life that would take time away from him and I didn’t want that, so relaying in Second Life really helped."

At the Kick Off, we heard the story of a couple who met in Second Life, and it touched our hearts. Pippa Rexen has been a prominent member of RFL, she met her husband in Second Life, but unfortunately he discovered he had cancer. Pippa became his care giver  and stood beside him through thick and thin. Unfortunately he is no longer here but their inspirational story lives on.

"I am amazed by how many people have joined RFL and how much money they have raised for our cause." MamaP continued, "Every year more and more people become relayers and raise amazing  amounts of money, up to date the grand total  is about 2.5 million US dollars, last year’s total was 320,000.  We are still going strong even though we are in hard economical times."

Pippa RexenRaising money in Second Life is very different from that of real life, while 100 Lindens (L$) might look like a lot of money  it really  isn’t, "A key to this is the fact that RFL isn’t raising large amounts at once," Comments the Chair Person Of Relay For Life, "it’s nickels and dimes tossed into our kiosks. Most people have a few lindens to toss into a kiosk, while in real life that amount is very small, in the end it all adds up to a big amount  "

Whether you are 300 days old or one day old you can still get involved with  RFL. " Newcomers are always encouraged to join a Relay For Life time, they can choice to do as much or as little as they want. There are a lot of different teams, so find one that is close to your interests, whether it is music, art, gorean roleplay  or time travel.  On the website you can find information  on all of the teams and if you find one that is interesting you can get in touch with their captains."

Donating to an organisation online will always raise suspension, unfortunately it is no different in Second Life. Relay For Life tries their best avoid scammers who say they fund raise for them.

MamaP comments on this topic: " Heading into the 8th year, the fundraising  fidelity have always been in the centre. The KiosksThey have never changed the kiosks because they want the ones that put money into them to instantly recognize them."  There are many limitation  in Second Life, the kiosks of RFL try  to work within these limits. When money is placed into a kiosk it is paid to the person that rezzes ( or loads) it in world, it is then taken from the person’s account and diverted straight to RFL automatically and as soon as it is paid into the kiosk. If you are unsure about Relay For Kiosk, simply click it and select verify, it will tell you if it is legit.

"The American Cancer Society are working hard and close with Linden Labs to prevent fraudulent items with the RFL and ACS logos and we recommend that our relayers NOT use the Marketplace and similar places to fundraise.  If you come across a team that you would like to donate to make sure you ONLY pay official verified RFL kiosk and vendors. "

If you are not sure about a team you’ve come across, you can always check the official website www.relayforlife.org/secondlife and click the Our Teams tabs to get a list of all the teams in this year’s Relay For Life.

Pictures by: Isthars Kiss from the SL RFL Album

Filed under Culture in Second Life Tagged with , , , , ,

So You Want to Own a Business in Second Life – Part 2 (Clubs)

April 2, 2012 by 3 Comments

On our second segment of this series, we will focus on the club business in Second Life.  In case you missed the first part of our series on business owning in Second Life, you can view that story here.

If you are new to Second Life, it will not take you long to hear about clubs, events, or djing!  Owning a club in Second Life can be fun and rewarding, but it also takes a great deal of time, planning, and organization.

Since owning a business in Second Life, mirrors business owning in real life somewhat, I am going to employ a real life business concept—the SWOT Analysis.  No this is not MBA 101, but you should analyze your own capabilities before jumping into what can be a costly venture in Second life.  I have streamlined the concept of SWOT into four categories.  Please consider these five things, as they are the key to making or breaking your club in Second Life:

  1. Budget- Decide from the beginning, how much of your real life money you can put into a club.  You will need money to pay for property for the club, as well as for events if you decide to hold contests, and for advertising the club.  There is also the possibility of paying for special events, dj’s, or event hosts. You also have to budget for club equipment and the actual club building.
  2. Theme-Will your club have a theme? Is it going to be a rock, pop, top 40’s, country, etc type of club? You can also make your club appeal to a specific community in Second Life, such as goth, vampire, furry/neko, steampunk etc to name a few. What will the rating be? Adult, mature, or pg?
  3. Location-do you want your club located on the mainland or will you rent private estate land? Each type of property has it’s plusses and minuses.
  4. Staff-How will you find DJ’s and hosts? Do you have the time to host or dj yourself? Will you used managed DJ’s or will you simply send out in DJ groups?
  5. Time-Do you have the real life time to devote to the club? This is very important, particularly if you cannot find enough staff to keep your club going, you may end up hosting or DJing or at times doing both.

If, after considering the five things above and you still would want to own a club in Second Life, then keep reading! So let’s imagine you have a club set up, fully staffed, and you are ready to open for business. Before you throw open the doors, consider the following tips:

  1.  Consistency-It’s important that you have a consistent schedule, not only for your staff, but for our VIP’s.  People have routines in Second Life and if they know their favorite club is opened a certain time, they are more than likely to plan to go to your club.  Try to narrow down days and times that work for your staff and your VIPs.
  2. Advertising and Promotion-this is important so people know you even have a club in the first place!  Make sure your location parcel is listed in search, take out a classified ad, and put your club on your picks.  Encourage your staff to do this as well.  You should also strive to put events in the Second Life event’s listing daily. Of course promote your events in your group. Consider setting up a blog and tweeting events using the Secondlife tags.
  3. People-keep the drama out of your clubs, ensure that your club staff and the VIPs are happy! This means listening and paying attention to their wants and needs to ensure that your club can function without any real hassles.

Once you are ready to open and have considered everything on this list, the next steps is to keep your club fresh and a great place to be in, this means reevaluating things such as times, themes, genres, and even the location of the club. Of course paying attention to the trends of Second Life also helps.  Remember owning a club can be challenging and a lot of work, but it can be as fun as you want it to be!

Filed under How to do...., Music, Newbie Advice Tagged with , ,

Torch Relay for Life Fundraiser at Club Capital Recap!

April 1, 2012 by Leave a comment

Today the Torch SLG had it’s first Relay for Life fundraiser! The event was held at Club Capital and DJ Morphman was on hand to play a variety of tunes and take requests from everyone! Everyone had fun dancing, talking, and of course raising money for the cure…and raise they did, pushing the Torch Relay for Life Team donations to almost 6,000 Lindens! Thanks to everyone who donated today, keep an eye on the blog and the Torch group in world for more information about upcoming Relay for Life Fundraisers! Below is a slideshow that contains photos from the fundraiser:

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Relationships in Second Life: Snowball and Angel Stryker’s Story

March 28, 2012 by 1 Comment

The final love story is from a couple who met on a dating site and continued their relationship in Second Life. Told by Snowball Stryker, he talks about how Second Life has played a huge part in bringing him and his beloved Angel closer together.

“Isn’t it amazing that love can pop its head up in some of the most strangest places? I’ve seen it come and go and in some of the most  strangest places. It’s quite a ride, you just hold on and pray you land safely. It’s a minefield for sure. To understand that ride I have to take you back 12 years… well not that far. But you have to understand where I come from and who I am.

I’m a dying breed, the type of guy who never tries to score on the first date. Just not my MO, you know. When you get tangled up with girls who aren’t serious it can be frustrating. I had a couple devastating breakups, but they were normal type ones. It wouldn’t be until January 2012 that I would finally have love wake me up and make me see what was going on.

Many meet during Second Life and go on to have happy lives together. I didn’t. SL did play a part but we haven’t gotten to it yet. I am a furry and I have no shame in admitting that. It was through a furry dating site I got tangled up with my ex. She seemed sweet and that was the danger. She was, to quote Alice Cooper, "Venomous Poison." A Spider. She spun this web of lies and deceit and then when things don’t work out, she turns herself into the innocent victim. She manipulated me into doing things I wasn’t okay with…. starting wars with her ex b/fs (one of who is currently one of my best friends now), yelling at me for not saying "I love you" on her guestbook over and over.
Things fell out between us when I joined SL. She didn’t want me on second life because she was using me and didn’t want me to find out. When I joined SL she made up excuses to drop me like a rock. I didn’t realize what she was doing and wanted her back, she said yes, but then told me to compete with the guy she was seeing behind my back. Then I made mistake two. I told her I had met my Angel. She then pulled the "I want to be friends but you can’t see anyone," Card.

Why go into this detail? What does this have to do with Angel? Everything. You see part of me woke up but I didn’t realize it. I had met this girl and Angel at the same time on the aforementioned dating site. I told Angel how little confidence I had and how I wasn’t sure if I could be serious with her like i wanted to. Angel told me to follow my heart. I followed my heart alright, but it wasn’t after the right girl. Well I contacted Angel shortly after my first day of disaster on Second Life and opened up to her. I said "I’m sorry I didn’t listen you. You told me to follow my heart, take a chance and not sell myself short. I really do like you and I hope you’ll let me get a chance to get to know you again." Confidence I didn’t have before, made it’s appearance. I spent the next 48 hours, tormented, hurting, in pain. I got a message from Angel and things began to move forewords. She had to reinstall Second Life to get a hold of me.
We spent 72 hours on Skype together, getting to know each other. She walked in to The Shelter where I was to tell me and everyone, she wanted to date me, she saw through me and saw that I wasn’t a failure, I was just trapped in a nightmare and needed someone to pull me out. And then she showed how serious she was. i wasn’t honest with my ex about Angel and Angel went and told her to back off. Took a knife that had my name on it.
I have to admit I was very angry she did that, I didn’t want her to get hurt, but I understand now that she’s as willing to go to bat for me as I am her. She’s everything I’ve been looking for over 12 years. The right girl, the one whose meant to be. I believe that Love is a journey that takes you to find your mate. It can be cruel to those who don’t appreciate what they have, and kind to those who wait and hang on.

As I write this, it’s 6 days out from when Angel will be coming up to be with me. The feelings of Anxiety and Excitement fill the room. It’s been quite a journey.

I helped Angel heal from heartbreak on Second Life. I always say I duct taped up my broken heart and gave it to her to replace her shattered one. She’s my Angel. I’m her Hero. She saved me from eternal dread and torment, and I owe her my heart, my love, my soul and my life for it. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about her.

So where did Second Life come into play? Right now. You see long distance relationships can be hard, even when it’s as short as 500 miles. Second Life helps us to take things slow so we don’t destroy it. Second life is letting us have a life together until we can physically be together. It’s a great tool to help nurture a relationship that is begging to survive. I used to hate SL back in the day, never understood it, now I do.

Love is a journey, an adventure. Second Life is the same, and when coupled together, despite the bad, good things can happen. Call it a game or don’t. Second life to me has become a lifesaver that drew me closer to my soul mate.
So close in fact that during her spring break she came up here to spend time with me, sort of a ‘are we compatible beyond internet/long distance dating?’ Well we knew we were but you never know. The week was magical. I’m a loose cannon, always full of rage and gets angry very easily. Not once when she was here did I lose my cool or my temper. It’s amazing what a soul can do when they love you back. So how close did we connect?
Drury University is one of the top colleges in the country, they take everyone unlike others. I’m enrolling in Fall Semester this year, and in June of this year, I’ll be giving up life in Chicago to move to the boonies with my girl. I’m giving up everything in the name of a girl who I love dearly. To start my life finally, and with the girl who I know is worth everything to me. Is her family crazy? Yeah. But so is mine. I can deal with that. Middle of nowhere? Well okay not, about 45 minutes outside of Springfield, Missouri. The thing is, we love each other, and we’re going to get married and have kids at one point. But for now, we’re just settling in nicely with our relationship.

Call Second Life what you want, I call it a lifesaver, because I was drowning in depression, hatred of myself, not caring about anything, and it brought her to me, and now, my outlook was turned around for the better.”

                                                             SnapshotSnowballAlpha_001

Not all Second Life relationships work like the ones you’ve read on this site. Like real life, it hurts when you give your heart to someone and they break it. Once you find someone you can truly trust, Second Life can be an amazing thing. Although being a couple is not required in to have fun in Second Life,  It is just an added bonus. Remember that behind every avatar is a living person, so treat each other with respect.

Filed under Culture in Second Life, SL Experiences Tagged with , , ,

March Military Expo

March 25, 2012 by Leave a comment

March 25th marked the beginning of the Military Expo, a 5 day convention that celebrates Military Life in Second Life.MElogo

Event Manager Jessii Warhol states: “ I saw that there were a lot of Military  vehicle creators in Second Life, many of which aren’t known the residents who are outside of the Military community. I wanted to draw attention to them, as well as the World War II Memorial sims. ”

The World War II Memorial sims are home to the Flying Tigers, a military/ roleplay aviation group that is based on the real life Flying Tigers, the  American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air force. It is also home to a scale replica of the World War ll Memorial in Washington D.C. USA.

DecedentflyingPilot Decedent Chemistry joined the Flying Tigers in 2011: “ Well I have always enjoyed flying around in SL for as long as I can remember. I had even attempted to get into the field in real life but wasn’t approved. At the time I joined I was looking for a new place to fly that had engaging staff and members that got along well with each other. I gave it a shot and I’m still here a year later. “

Jessii comments: “ We are a newcomer friendly sim, any one who is interested in military aviation, weaponry or vehicles are welcome to join us.”

Check out the blog for more info on the  Fly Tigers and the World War ll Memorial Park and don’t forget to check out the Military Expo.

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The Torch RFL March Hare Madness

March 24, 2012 by Leave a comment

And so it begins, the first Torch RFL event. Jessii Warhol lends us Club Capital for a few hours of fun, music and good company… and donations.

RFL, for those who doesn’t know yet, is Relay For Life, a collection of organizations that comes together to collect donations for the American Cancer Society. By doing events and collecting small sums, RFL can donate massive amounts to the research about cancer.

This year, The Torch has a RFL team and will do events around one time per month, and first out is March Hare Madness at Club Capital.

What? March Hare Madness
When? 31/3-2012 10am-12pm SLT

Where? Club Capital

Filed under Helping Hand, Music Tagged with , , , ,

Types of Nekos

February 29, 2012 by Leave a comment

Types of Nekos

The lifestyle of being a neko is not an easy one, in fact being a neko is just like being a cat in the Real World. Keep in mind that because neko’s are so popular it has become very difficult to make a person stand out from the crowd because like cats in RL there are so many different ones out there to choose from and even then it also means that showing off unique you are is even more difficult. Below you will find a small list of some of the types of nekos there are out there.

First off there are the Steam Punk type nekos, who are much like the more modern version of the Victorian style clothing and have a bit more rustic look. It can sometimes be looked at as a as a modern cowboy/cowgirl style. It is simple to find things to wear in the online marketplace you can search for steam punk, Victorian, or even neko steam punk. These are just examples of ways to find great outfits.

The next great version of the neko is the fantastic post- apocalyptic type neko, who runs around with a mask on their faces because they cannot breathe the air. These type are often seen with grudge style clothing and will have tattoos and blood on them. Often they are wearing clothing that is torn, blood stained, and looking dirty. The best way to find these kinds of neko outfits is to look at the marketplace online and search just simply neko; this will give you the biggest variety that you can find on the marketplace.

The last one well discuss for this article is the cutesy type neko, these are typically children and can come a variety of different look from the dark and scary to the lovable little kittens many peoples see in Second Life. These little guys come in all kinds of shapes and designs with a number of different colors. The reason these are most often children is because they are often shown as much smaller than most other nekos and are often mistaken as a child av as well.  The best way to find these cute little guys on the Marketplace is to search under child neko, tiny neko, or just neko and weed them out for yourself.

These are the three most popular one that I have personally found and hope you enjoyed the little introduction on the styles. This article will have one more follow up for all those out there that have questions and need them answered please feel free to comment on this post or drop me a notecard or IM and I will post responses in my next article. I am planning on creating a few more articles for this series of articles on nekos but I need all my readers to take the time to let me know what you want to hear about. Thanks everyone, KittySmiles Soulstar, I hope you have enjoyed the articles so far.

Filed under Culture in Second Life, SL Experiences Tagged with , , , ,

The March Military Expo

February 29, 2012 by Leave a comment

Another part of Second Life Culture is honouring the heroes who fought for us during the wars. An article was written for the Torch SLG which showcased  the SL US Military Veterans group. Now we are proud to say, for immediate release  the World War 2 Memorial Park will be hosting the March Military Expo:

MARCH MILITARY EXPO

DATES:  March 25-March 30, 2012

LOCATION:  WW2 Memorial Park

PURPOSE:  The March Military Expo will feature a Merchants fair, where we are inviting all military, weapons, aviation, and similar merchants of SL to set up a small merchant tent in the WW2 Memorial park area for 5 days.  You will be able to bring your creations and services to a wide variety of people in SL!.  This event is in SL Destinations as a featured SL Destinations event!  To bring even larger crowds, we will hold all of Amelia’s events that week near the military expo.  So guests will have contests, music, live DJs, as well as other contests.  We will promote the event as much as possible, giving you and your business free advertising.

*There will be limited space available for military affiliated groups who wish to exhibit**

Cost:  This expo is free of charge to all approved creators and merchants.

If you are a merchant who is interested in taking part in the Expo, get in touch with Jessii Warhol2009 in world and she still provide you with a signup notecard.

In the mean time why not pop over to the WW2 Park and have a look around.

Filed under Culture in Second Life, News, SL Experiences Tagged with , ,

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