Renaissance Faire and Hunt

By Grey Lupindo

      The second Renaissance Faire and Hunt is going on through the month of December at Mieville Lovelace (21, 185, 23).  This hunt is great for anyone who likes medieval items or simply enjoys the thrill of a hunt.  You arrive on board a ship, and a foot bridge leads to the village.  The village is very creative and captures the mood and spirit of the hunt.    

      You will hear the sounds of village life—pigs grunting, chickens clucking and townspeople mingling about—as well as medieval music played on instruments like trumpets, harps, and bells.  

    Tents and vendor stalls circle around a center pond.  Paths lead off to the docks, a tree house, and a jousting area.  Many of the shops have freebies or reduced price specials.  Everything from small candles to huge sailing ships can be found here.  I especially like the vendor who posted the “Will Work for Chocolate” sign.   Me too!

     Perryn Peterson has done a great job organizing this hunt.  Perryn is known for the Historical Hunts, including my favorite, the steampunk ones.  A notecard states that there are over 100 shops participating.  I’ve only been able to visit a few so far, but they’ve been good ones.   I especially like the fact that there is a list of participating shops and LMs.  This allows you to continue the Hunt and return later to any spot where the item stubbornly refuses to be found.     
       In addition, Perryn has set up a mini-hunt in the village that is separate from the Renaissance Faire Hunt.  Fifteen acorns have been hidden very well around the village.  So far I’ve only found 3 of them, but I intend to keep looking.      

       There’s also a make-your-own pottery vendor in the village at Renaissance Faire Isle (70, 148, 21).   This is the first time I’ve seen this type of activity at a fair.  A couple of pottery wheels are set up where you can throw a pot for 25L.  If you don’t like your creation, you can re-set and try again.   You don’t pay until you make something you well like enough to buy.    

       There’s also a tree house that is reached by climbing a rope.  You have a choice of climbing speeds, too.  There’s a great view of the Faire from here.  Check out the inside, too.   

       A faire isn’t complete without food.   There’s a tavern in the round here with free food and drinks.   Lots of tables are available, too, for you and your friends to relax and rest up for the rest of the hunt.   

Grey Lupindo

A Bay City Christmas

By Grease Coakes

Every year in Second life just like real life people get into the Christmas spirit, and Bay City is no exception. On December 8^th they held a Christmas party. From 1-4 PM there was an auction featuring incredible items for sale to benefit “Childs Play” the charity that buys children in hospitals video game systems so they have something fun to do. You can find more at http://www.childsplaycharity.org/ to bid on item all you had to do was pay a board and outbid the previous bid.

One of the featured items was a bomber plane from the 1940’s. Someone had a bid for 1,500L. By the design and detail of the plane they were getting a bargain the plane looked very realistic and fun to play with. The party was a huge success with popularity with over 40 avatars on the sim the Bay City sim crashed at least twice. The sim seemed very laggy, and at one point crashed. However that didn’t dampen the spirit of Christmas and the party. There were also fur coats and whole forests up for bid for Childsplay.

At the start of the event Gospeed Racer was playing Christmas music like “Twelve days of Christmas” by the Muppets and Alvin and the chipmunks music for the holiday season for children of all ages to listen to. By clicking one of the landmark giving prims you got a free pair of skates to skate around on an ice rink where the Christmas tree was. I tried it for a little bit watching my foxy avatar skate around.

Later on Grace McDonough a live singer sang for the party. Her voice was soft and graceful just like her name singing excellent Christmas music. Bluemonk Rau a singer from Gspot came on and sang after her singing live with a piano with a country folk voice he was very entertaining.

Around 3pm SL time they lit up the Christmas tree and it began snowing. Marianne McCann wearing a child avatar told me she did the set up and her buddy Kriss Kehmann made the tree himself for the event. He’s a tree builder/seller in SL. Kriss also made the mesh trees around the sim.

Gemma Cleanslate my friend and co-worker thought she saw a Linden Derrick Linden hang around the event. She may be right I remember seeing a blue dot on my mini map. Lindens show up as blue dots on mini maps. I was upset I missed seeing him I could have asked for his Linden bear Aargh!

All in all it was a fun event and the Bay City greeters did a wonderful job greeting people through the event.  The sim crash did knock people offline, but they relogged and came back. One thing this party made me think of was the Christmas season is commercialized with buying toys on TV and stressing yourself out buying gifts for your friends and family. I think what this event symbolized that it’s also about having a good time and to support those who are less fortunate then yourself. Enjoy the Christmas season with your loved ones and more and don’t get bogged down. There’s more to the season then getting gifts.

Grease Coakes

Fall Fishing Festival Screenshots

 Pictures by Gemma Cleanslate

This weekend, Gemma spent some time at the 7Seas' Fall Fishing Festival.  Having earlier sent a story to tell about it just as it was starting, she sent a number of pictures as the weekend went on. 

Much of her time was spent at Party Island in Osimia, There were "contests held at the party island which is built like children's school desks."

  Gemma in front of one picture on the island

 People were both dancing to the music ...

 

And quietly sitting down to fish

 

 

Gemma had a number of people competing with her. Among them was Holocluc Henley.

 

 

 Gemma won at least one contest. Her prize: a rare seahorse.

 

The location of the party island is: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Osmium/136/127/25/ 

Pictures by Gemma Cleanslate