Thanksgiving in Second Life

 

I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.

Henry David Thoreau

  

          Summer is becoming a distant memory as autumn wraps itself around us here in Real Life (RL). 

          (At least here in the northeastern part of the United States (US).  Significant Other is already checking to make sure the thermostat is turned up.  Apparently, I’m no longer trusted with this duty.  It was only one mistake, admittedly a cold one, but still only one mistake!)

          For the first time since I’ve been blogging about Second Life (SL), I have an opportunity to write about Thanksgiving inworld. 

          Thanksgiving is the annual US holiday celebrated on the last Thursday of November.  It commemorates the feast held by the Pilgrim settlers in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621 after a bountiful harvest. 

          They had arrived on November 11, 1620 off the coast of Massachusetts after a long and difficult voyage from England which they’d left because of religious intolerance. 

          The first winter was difficult and between it and the voyage, fifty of the original settlers and ship’s crew had passed away by the spring of 1621.

          Their celebration marked the survival of their colony and their thanks to God.

          It took a few centuries, but Thanksgiving eventually became a national holiday in the US. 

          My three loyal readers (The third one is actually sticking around!  And no, contrary to what Significant Other implies, I’m not paying him!) may recall my recent meeting with Lora Chadbourne, my new friend in SL and an accomplished builder.

          I’ve blogged about her builds of the Garden Tomb in the Holy Land and the Simpsons’ home. 

          Lora had told me that she would be reinstalling her Mayflower build for the

Thanksgiving Holiday in the US and I promised to visit and to write about it.

          An interesting fact about Lora is that she’s a descendent on her mother’s side of one of the original Mayflower settlers, James Chilton. 

          James was probably the oldest settler on the Mayflower.  He was also one of the forty-one signers of the Mayflower Compact, an agreement among the settlers as to how their new colony would be governed.  Sadly, James passed away shortly after their arrival. 

          Well, folks, here’s the story! 

          Rezzing into the sim where the Mayflower is moored, (Like that use of nautical terminology!  OK, I would have said “parked” but for Significant Other’s shoulder surfing.) I’m in front of the gangplank leading aboard her. 

          Lora says that there are no contemporary paintings or drawings of the Mayflower so she had creative license while designing and building her.  She did try to stay true to what an English ship of that time would look like and what she could research from passengers’ accounts. 

          The Mayflower as envisioned by Laura is a small, three masted ship with fore and aft structures at either end which sheltered crew and passengers while at sea.  A jib mast is at the bow of the ship. 

          Except for the aforementioned structures. There are only two decks on the Mayflower.  The main deck and the lower gun deck.  (Guess what they kept down there?) 

          Boarding the ship, I take a quick tour which given how small she is, it’s about the only kind to take! 

          Lora has done her usual exemplary work in designing and constructing this build.

          I’m able to access all parts of the ship, going up ladders and through hatches and

doorways.

          The sense of how small the Mayflower was comes across. 

          Then when I think of how 102 people comprising passengers and crew were aboard her for sixty-six days of rough seas and illness, claustrophobia begins to settle in!  (Not only that but three women were pregnant and one delivered on the voyage over!)

          Lora’s usual attention to detail is evident in the jackscrew holding up the main support beam which was pressed into use when the latter began to crack after the stresses of a storm avoiding having to return to England.

          One interesting fact that I learned from this visit is that ships of this period did not have wheels for steering.  Instead, a tiller staff was moved by the crew from side to side below decks as the captain yelled down instructions from above. 

          (Wouldn’t want to try that in a bad storm!)

          Disembarking from the Mayflower, I see a sign pointing in the direction of Plymouth settlement. 

          I wander down the path as I tend to do inworld.  (Significant Other mutters something about my doing that in RL as well.)

          Lora has recreated the homes and other structures from the original colony here. 

          Particularly impressive is the meeting house which also doubled as the colony’s fort

and dominates the Settlement. 

          Religious services and town meetings where held here. 

          In the event of an attack by either Indians (This was their thanks for helping the settlers!) or other Europeans (Remember this was about 400 years before the European Union!), the settlers would gather here for safety under the protection of the cannons mounted upstairs. 

          Outside the meeting house, Lora has the first Thanksgiving meal represented. 

          On the other side of Plymouth Settlement is a recreation of an Indian village which adds to the character of the entire sim. 

          Lora has done her usual exceptional and thorough job in recreating the Mayflower and Plymouth settlement. 

          The Mayflower took Lora two weeks to build and another week for the Settlement. 

          As always when visiting her work, I enjoyed myself and learned a few things that I didn’t know before!

          I encourage everyone to visit and take in this incredible sim!

          But hurry!

          It probably won’t be there much past Thanksgiving as Lora needs the space for her next build! 

          The Mayflower can be found here.    

          Happy Thanksgiving!

          One final note, because this build was so prim intensive, Lora didn’t have any space for a tip jar.

          So, if you’d like to express your thanks and help Lora defray the costs of her builds then please send a small donation to her directly inworld! 

          Oh, and whatever became of the original Mayflower in RL?

          She returned to England in the spring of 1621 to resume her life as a merchant ship.  Sadly, after a year of lying unused and in probate after the death of her captain, she was dismantled for scrap lumber in 1624 in London. 

          Additional pictures from my visit can be found on this flickr page. 

          I’d like to thank Lora for her great work and her contributions to the SL community!

          I’m grateful to her for helping me with this story!   

As always, I’m grateful to all inworld for their kindness and time in stopping to talk with a stranger who was passing through their lives

My Twitter handle is @webspelunker.  Please feel free to follow me and I’d be happy to follow you.

I can be found on Google+ as webspelunker Ghostraven.

My flickr Photostream is located here.

On Skype I’m webspelunker Ghostraven.

I welcome feedback from readers, please either comment on my blog or e-mail me at webspelunker@gmail.com . 

          If you would like to read about my other adventures in Second Life please click here.

          Open roads and kind fires!

The Holidays Are Coming to Second Life or Are They?

I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up - they have no holidays.

Henny Youngman

 

          I hope I haven’t seemed too self-absorbed lately.

          My last two posts to this blog have been about life and living in Second Life (SL).   Why?  Don’t worry I’ll avoid the snarky reply of “because it’s my blog”.  But I have been engaged in a bit of navel gazing as of late (Significant Other smiles and says why should SL be any different from Real Life (RL).) and this story may be in the same vein.  (Spoiler alert!)

          So, back to the question, why? Maybe, and this may sound lame, it’s because the end of the year seems to be approaching too quickly again and with that the Holidays. 

          For me as an American, that means I’ve just gotten past Halloween and Thanksgiving is staring me in the face and Christmas is not too far behind and how did Hanukkah sneak up right after Thanksgiving this year?  (Why can’t all holidays stay in one place and play nice like July 4^th does? BTW, be warned, this story is going to have a very strong American, NYC bent to it.  I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam as Popeye would say.)    

          I’m sitting here, immersed inworld, thinking big thoughts about the convergence of SL and RL, and just over the horizon is the oncoming freight train of the yearend Holidays. 

          In RL, this means getting together with family and friends, turkey (especially the drumsticks), the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (Yes, I am a sucker for sentimentality.), shopping, gift giving, and everything else that the Holidays represent to us in our late consumerist society.  And, in case, you’re wondering, I’ll be charging off at midnight on Thanksgiving to hit the stores.  (Don’t worry, I’m only there as an observer.  Online shopping and gift cards have been a godsend for me. Did I say that I was a traditionalist?)

          Back to SL.  Do we experience all this inworld?  Do we have holidays in SL? At one level we do.  My good friend, Perryn Peterson, hasn’t met a holiday he doesn’t like and can’t pull a legs up social event around inworld.   

          But are we really having holidays inworld?  If Perryn and his merry band weren’t there, would we be celebrating inworld? 

          Yes, I know, if we wander through SL, we’ll come across any number of sims that have Christmas trees, lights, Yule logs, and a Santa Claus somewhere.  But, that’s like the department stores that trot out their decorations every year.  For me, this is the virtual equivalent of kissing your sister. 

          I think what I’m getting at here is along the lines of what comes first the chicken or the egg. (This is where Significant Other’s eyes roll and I’m reminded of Freud’s old dictum that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.  But, I digress.)  Would we have holidays inworld except for the efforts of a few? 

          Granted that many are too busy with their own RL lives to go carousing inworld during the Holidays but do we, can we truly experience the Holidays inworld?  Some might ask if we even should.

          Are we merely mimicking our RL Holiday traditions inworld or are we actually engaging in community activities which have a life of their own?  Of course, one might argue that a party is a party and to just get on with it.  But, there’s more to it than just that.

          Traditions and oral histories are important part of communities and pass down from one generation to the next.  There are minor changes along the way.  (Like, thankfully, eggnog seems to be going away along with the unfortunate demise of mince pie.)  But, they are self-sustaining. 

          A few times in my blog, I’ve talked about SL’s long term viability.  Whether it can be something more than just a cyber haunt for those lost in the Metaverse or can it become something more.  Celebrations and festivities will need to be part of that, IMHO.  RL holidays needn’t be brought over, SL could evolve its own. 

          I hope I haven’t gotten too heavy as the Holidays approach us but I like to call out what I see as anomalies from time to time because they will be important to those of us who reside inworld and want to see SL live up to its promise. 

          I’ll be wandering around inworld as the Holiday season approaches this year and will report back on the festivities.  If you’re sponsoring or participating in any Holiday functions as we approach the New Year then please give me a shout out and I’ll do my best to join you!  (Or, if you don’t want me hanging around then either tell me outright or don’t tell me about your fun stuff.)

          Happy Thanksgiving! 

As always, I’m grateful to all inworld for their kindness and time in stopping to talk with a stranger who was passing through their lives.    

I welcome feedback from readers, please either comment on my blog or e-mail me at webspelunker@gmail.com . 

          If you would like to read about my other adventures in Second Life please click here. 

November Events at Tribute City in Second Life

 

The true harvest of my life is intangible - a little star dust caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched.

Henry David Thoreau

           My good friend, Jessii Warrhol, in Second Life (SL) recently sent me a list of Tribute City Harvest Month events which will be taking place in November.  They will run from November 1 to 30, 2012 in Tribute City. 

          Details are as follows:

Celebrate the harvest and Thanksgiving in Tribute City, with 30 days of great events and of course fun! Events are below.

 

November 1, to November 30, 2012 - Tribute City Carnival

November 2, 2012 to November 4, 2012 - Ozzy Osbourne Tribute Concert Weekend

November 5, 2012 to November 30, 2012 - Harvest Month Merchant's Fair

November 5, 2012 - 6 HOUR Guy Fawkes Day Party

November 16, 2012 to November 18, 2012 - Red Hot Chili Peppers Tribute Concert Weekend

November 23, 2012 - 4 HOUR Thanksgiving Party

November 24, 2012- Black Friday Party

 

          Of course do not miss their regular club events in Tribute City’s club calendar and they can be checked out on the web here and here.  As always, for questions or comments, please contact jessii2009 Warrhol, Co-owner & Operator of Tribute City.

          Jessii and the team always put on fun events in Tribute City and I heartily recommend dropping by during November to get into a little premature Holiday spirit!  Tell ‘em web sent you!

          I’d like to thank Jessii for sending me her list of events and thinking of us as the Holiday season comes upon us. 

           I welcome feedback from readers, please either comment on my blog or e-mail me at webspelunker@gmail.com . 

          If you would like to read about my other adventures in Second Life please click here.