The Caledon Oxbridge University 10 Year Anniversary Ball

By Bixyl Shuftan

On Saturday January 26, the Caledon community held a celebration. Their Caledon Oxbridge University had turned ten years old, and they were throwing a party in it's honor: The Caledon Oxbridge University 10 Year Anniversary Ball.

The COU Anniversary Ball will be this Saturday 1 PM and 7 PM. DJ Cynthia Farshore providing the music .More information will be coming out Wednesday or sooner.  Not to be confused with Ms Nyree Rains Caledon Anniversary Ball in February.  ... theme to be announced. If you have anything commemorative that we could give out, it would be much appreciated. 

 Linden Lab had ended it's support for newcomer welcome areas in communities, or Community Gateways, in 2010. Despite that, Caledon Oxbridge University, or COU, continued. The value of the program was proven when the Lab restored the program in 2017.

The website of the group (http://www.caledonoxbridge.org/) describes it's purpose as "a place to learn basic skills for the aetherial world of Second Life. Oxbridge provides a complete Second Life tutorial for new residents. We also have live, walk-in classes (free) and a number of other 3rd-party interactive tutorials. In a setting based on the theme of an old English university, the orientation tutorial is spread over six "Colleges", each covering a different area of the Second Life interface and world: Avatar Motion, Camera Control, Communication, Finding (Search and Inventory), Avatar Customization, and Money and Commerce. The tutorial experience includes not only traditional orientation posters, but also interactive exercises, free full avatars, and prizes."

Cynthia Farshore was the DJ for both the 1PM and 7PM events, playing on her "Farshore's Fabulous Fidelity Factory." A number of songs from across the past several decades were played, including Ray Stevens' "Vacation Bible School" and "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl."

There were a number of people over. This included some of the University staff, such as Chancellor Wordsmith Jarvinen and Dean Phrynne Resident.

Carl Metropolitan was the Oxbridge Chancellor from 2009 to 2012, "An anniversary should be about the future more than the past, and for Oxbridge I am the past. So I think I will say goodnight and go offline and read a book. Thank you all for making me irrelevant. I really, truly, non-sarcastically mean that. I love seeing Oxbridge thrive with me gone completely. I do promise to show up more than annually now that my real-life is not so stressful."

There were also a few people from the Sunweavers community who dropped by.

Some wore badges with the University seal as a sign of support.

There were stories from a few about how they came across COU, "I went thru the newbie friendly gate on social island, then hopped around newbie friendly Destinations. But I found Oxbridge before I actually made it to oxbridge, from one of the other newbie areas who recommended y'all. A couple actually. figured if everyone was suggesting it, I should check y'all out." At least one was a newcomer himself, "It's places like this that make newbies like me want to be premium members."

People talked about a number of subjects, such as Second Life in the past, "Linden Lab doesn't understand us or why we are still here despite their best efforts." As well as computers and computing in the days before Internet and the early Internet.

At the end of her two hours, Cynthia told everyone, "Caledonians please stand." Then she played the community's unofficial anthem "Caledonia."

Andrea Jones took a few more pictures of the event, which can be seen on her Flickr page.

And so, Caledon celebrated ten years of it's place for new residents welcoming and educating newcomers about Second Life.

Correction: A few times when I wrote the article, I put "Oxford" instead of "Oxbridge."

Bixyl Shuftan

The "Christmas in August" Fundraiser Party in Caledon

By Bixyl Shuftan

Christmas can be such a fun holiday, some look for reasons to throw a "Christmas" party in the summer months. So when some people looking to have a benefit event for the Caledon Oxbridge University, a "Christmas in August" theme was soon settled on. And on Friday August 31, people met up in a decorated skybox high over the Caledon Oxbridge Village sim to listen to enjoy the music and scenery, and have fun.

For those who don't know, Caledon Oxbridge University is best known for its orientation classes for new residents. Details about the classes can be read at the university's website at (http://www.caledonoxbridge.org/) As for the party, the scenery around the skybox was quite Christmasy with a frozen pond in the middle, a merry-go round, stands where people could grab a cup of coco, a gazebo meant for Santa Claus to sit in, though this being August he was absent, with a sack people could grab a present from, a smaller pond where a few mechanical carolers were dancing, a red house in the middle of a white picket fence all decorated for Christmas, and plenty of reindeer and other critters. There was also a campfire somewhere.

From 3 to 5PM SL time, DJ Nyree Rain played music for the crowd. There was a number of traditional Xmas tunes. But there were some other songs. After a one hour break, DJ Cynthia Farshore took the music stream. She played songs such as, "A Pirate Christmas," Mannheim Steamroller's "Coventry Carol," "O Holy Night" sung in Navajo, the "Grinch" song by Boris Karloff, Queen's "Thank God It's Christmas," and others.

"Lovely place!" Shockwave Yareach commented as he looked at the scenery, "I'll have to finish my Xmas lights soon." Cynthia chuckled, "like Wal-Mart, not even Labor Day and he's putting out lights." When Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Wizards in Winter" started playing, Shockwave commented, "And EVERYONE asks me to have this song in my show!"

Stereo Nacht wondered if her outfit was more complex than her avatar, "Hm. I worry the snowflakes with my dress are rising my complexity. It's not often I get about 100k as a Tiny." Liška Bystrouška (Liska Fuchs) brought up Shockwave's buck goat avatar, and Cynthia's vixen, "One week, and Shocky and Cynthia will be their old selves again (smile). Andrea Jones (andreajonesms Resident), whom was in a taur avatar that had a few teddy bears on her back, responded, "Aww, I like them this way Liska." Shockwave joked, "Well I'm tired of can food." Andrea countered, "But don't you enjoy being nimble footed Shockwave?" He answered, "I miss having soft toes to wriggle ..."

Cynthia was saying, "Wow! Showing ... some one in Rajagiriya, Sri Lanka is tuned in to the stream." "A Ceylong way," Liska mused. It was at this time Weird Al Yankovic's "Christmas At Ground Zero" began playing. Cynthia joked, "Now to make them in Rajagiriya, Sri Lanka really go HUH?! with this tune." It was brought up two of the small country's bigger neighbors were nuclear-armed rivals.

It was probably inevitable, but eventually someone got a snowball thrower and started tossing. "Oh no!" Andrea commented after getting hit, "Snow Balls!" The frozen missiles zipped around for a couple minutes. Then something new was added: frogs! "Frogs .. is we in Egypt now?" Leelee Blessed asked. Shockwave chuckled, "Toadly in theme." "Did somebody croak?" I asked. "Or did they just get frog in the throat?" Shockwave joked, "Coming soon to your freezer - frozen frog legs." Other things were soon tossed, from turkeys to rolls of toilet paper, to pies.

Then the "Doctor Who" music began playing. Which at a steamlands party often means some certain metallic company is not far away, "Get yer guns ready!" And then came the Daleks, the infamous robotic villains from the sci-fi show. "A Christmas Dalek I love it!" Peter From New York called out. But if they hate anything more than humans, it's other factions of Daleks, Renegade versus Imperial. So most of the robots wiped out one another, and the two left were easily overcome by snowballs, or "exterminated." Andrea sighed at the mess, "Daleks, always leaving a mess for someone else to clean up."

Eventually, the two hours came to a close. "Thank you all for coming," Andrea told everyone. When asked about the event's fundraising totals, Wordsmith Jarvinen commented, "I'll count it up in the morning. If we did as well as earlier we'll be out of deficit. My goal is to have a constant buffer in the account after paying all instructor stipends and tier quarterly." He went on to say their fund hadn't been in the positive since January, "Keeping Oxbridge runs about 107k $L per quarter, about 75k of that tier. ...I'm very hopeful that tonight turned the trick. ... I always feel very humble about the willingness of many to keep Oxbridge afloat."

It was a fun event that this summer helped us keep our cool.

Bixyl Shuftan

Creative Challenges and Innovative Ideas at the UWA

The University of Western Australia (UWA), founded by Sir John Winthrop Hackett, is a leading Australian research university and has an international reputation for excellence, innovation and enterprise. A member of the Australian 'Group of Eight' research universities, it is also among Australia's leading research universities. Sitting on the banks of the Swan River, the UWA Crawley campus is the oldest in Western Australia and among the most picturesque in the nation with its grand sandstone and terracotta buildings sitting among elegant heritage-listed gardens. The UWA in SL consists of three sims, including UWA, University of Western Australia and WASP Land.


Two competitions are running simultaneously through August 2010, the Imagine Challenge and the Flagship Challenge. The Imagine Challenge focuses on Arts and Design, while the Flagship Challenge focuses on Architecture. The competitions are taking place monthly with prizes awarded each month.

I recently visited the 3D Art & Design Challenge for the Imagine Challenge segment of the competitions. Even the landing point is unique in it's design with a swirling circle of color and an image resembling an eye. The Imagine Challenge focuses on limitless imagination. The challenge is to create a work of art using any form, shape, influence or medium. Awards are given in multiple categories. All non-winners will receive a share of the monthly pool beginning with $L6000 and increasing with donations to the tip jar at the Imagine Gallery.

The artwork is absolutely incredible! The designs range from ethereal to surreal to abstract. Skillful use of color and sculpties applies to these magnificent creations. There are sculptures both real and abstract, 3D pictures, a solar system complete with rotation and sound, and a piece which at first looks like colored pole lamps but is really shapes connected to five the effect of flowers in glass--at least that was my interpretation, perhaps not the intention of the artist. There is even a cosmic egg with what looks like an circular embryo in the center. All are very ingenious and creative pieces of art and a must see for all.

Shellie Sands