The birthday event, just like all volunteering, was a thankless job.  Sure, a few people acknowledged the time I invested in the project, and thank you for that, but many more didn't know or didn't care how it all came about.  That's fine.  If you thought this came from the Lindens, then we must've done an excellent job.

However, one person in particular invested more time into this project than anyone.  That was our event organizer/planner/coordinator, Tateru Nino.   She led the charge in this event.  She planned the whole shebang.  She organized, delegated, and made sure things ran as smooth as possible.  She's also received every complaint, and nearly no thanks for the job.

Tateru, I'd just like to say that you did an awesome job.  I thank you for including me in this project and I thank you for creating such a wonderful place for everyone to come and celebrate.  The party was a huge success and none of it could've happened without you.

Thank you, Tateru!

I made a little speech to thank our 3rd Birthday build volunteers, yesterday. It went a little something like this:

Hi everyone. Thank you all for coming.

About a month ago I had just revamped my little bit of property in SL. A few friends had gathered on my new patio and we were just shooting the breeze. Tateru was among us, but fairly silent. Nothing completely new there as she's often assaulted by endless IMs. She did take a moment to mention that SL's 3rd birthday was coming up and she had begun chatting with Torley about it.

Turns out we were witnessing the birth of the SL3B event on that patio deck. A day or two later, Tateru and Torley were still going at it in the IM world, deciding what would or could be done. I'd heard a few hints about what was being said, but nothing really major. Turns out the Lindens really had no major interest in a celebration if the residents didn't. That makes sense, we'd all rather have a party planned for us, than plan our own party. I, of course, volunteered immediately to help in any way I could.

Well, as it turns out, I was asked shortly thereafter to plan the design of the site. I jumped at the chance without really thinking it through, obviously. Turns out Torley and Pathfinder had managed to snag four sims for us to use. Sounds exciting, until you really think about it…which I didn't do.

So step one, I made a big map in the sky to build a scale model upon. Step two, find people to actually build. This is where our build volunteers come in. I grabbed a couple of people that I thought could help out and took them up to my skybox. A few of you were at that initial meeting. This is where it all really began. Lots of ideas were thrown around, some of which have made it into where we are today.

After that meeting, I returned to the planning phase and tried to hash out how/where things should belong. Time was getting short and it occurred to me that I was going about it all wrong. I didn't need to plan the specifics, just start with a general idea and let the builders decide. That's when I started inviting the builders independently to come up and try out some ideas of their own on the model.

The model quickly came to life and builds were assigned to builders. Things really looked like they may actually be doable. A week and a half prior to the event, we received the land. Terraforming began and areas were laid out. The builders were invited in to begin their creations. Before long, we had the basics of what is here around us.

During that time, I watched, threw out ideas, and helped in any way I could. But our volunteers did even better. They listened, they shared ideas, they worked together, and they built this place into what it is today. I did not receive a single complaint from any of our volunteers. I was reminded of why I loved SL. A group of people can come together and just make something awesome without worrying about their ego or trying to be cool before others.

This task is also a very thankless one. Many do not see what was accomplished. Many assume that Linden Lab simply pulled it out of the void. But there are a lot that do know, and often times they forget that a simple, "hey that was really cool, thanks for taking the time to do it" would go a long way.

So I'm here to say that. You know what, guys? You did an *amazing* job here. You donated your time and energy into making this a great place for the rest of the Second Life residents to come and celebrate the world that they love. For all of that and more, I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this all possible.

As a small token *cough*, I'm handing out a commemorative copy of the torches to each of you. There is a plaque on the front, which repeats our gratitude, and I will be placing that plaque with each of the torches around the event.
Thank you SL3B volunteers! And Happy Birthday Second Life!

I've made a lot of new friends during all of this and I hope we can do things together again in the future.

Ok, outright, blatant griefing at the SL3B event I expected. Instead what we get are self-righteous protestors who don't take off their clothes, don't pull guns, but disrupt nonetheless. What are we to do? The gut reaction is to eject and ban them. Did we do it? No. Should we have? The more I think about it, yes.

If you want to protest, more power to you. In fact, the center stage is wide open most of the time. Plenty of opportunity to schedule your protest /and/ we'll even make sure the Lindens you wish to contact attend.

If you've been following my blog at all you'll see that we've put together a fine group of volunteers who wanted to build a place that would appeal to the SL residents and give them a place to celebrate SL's third birthday. We invested a *lot* of hours into this project. We've received almost *no* thanks for it, from either the residents or LL themselves. So now a bunch of griefers, disguised as protestors, come in and ruin yet another event by excluding those residents who actually wish to hear about the past of SL and where things may be going.

Do I agree with your protest? Does it matter? I have my own concerns, yes. I am not attacking the issue, only the way in which it was brought forward. Do you realize that the SL3B party was *not* a Linden event, but a resident organized and run event? Probably not. Well, I *hope* not. If you were aware and disrupted anyway, then shame on you.

I hope that most of you are enjoying the event. That at least makes the work worthwhile.

Well it's the day before opening of the birthday site. Looks like we have everything in place. Boy am I ready for it to be done. Yes, it's been an awesome experience, but I'm definitely ready for a break. But there's still excitement in the air. Let's look at some more pictures of the goings on in the last few days.

Here I am on one of the train terminals, looking over the world. It's nice up here. Lethe made these terminals and they're awesome, as is all of her work.

Ordinal Malaprop has written some most excellent scripts for a train to run around Caledon. She was most gracious to provide those scripts for our own monorail to run the circuit. You can also see where the monorail is currently by checking out the status website.

Sly Axon is a member of the Alliance Navy and also came out to offer a hand. The Celebration dome had been completed and dance floors put in place, thanks to Jacek Antonelli (nifty scripted dance floors, I might add). But we needed something more to make it feel like a dance party. Sly made a few calls and not only got some lighting into the place (by Toma Nico), he also rounded up some fountain work for the center island.

Merle Widget showed up after a bit. He just missed Ordinal, once again. He's the designer of our monorail, which just happened to enter the station here.

I made some banners which tell you the area of the event that you are entering. I was having some trouble making a structure that would span the roadway, so I asked Lethe to jump in, which she of course did.

Timeless Prototype and Christopher Sterling were out setting up the Multi-Gadget history showcase. We've all seen Timeless's name, now I finally got to meet the guy.

I mentioned that Sly got some fountain work for me, but there's more to that story. You see, I wanted some fountains for Birthday Island, but I wasn't in a position to make any. I'd asked if Sly could make some, but instead he found a friend that's selling some. Next thing you know, we had a couple of fountains donated by Silas Sachs. Silas then contacted me to make sure things were the way I wanted. So, being who I am, I asked if he had anything bigger. I gave him the 20×20 dimension for the thing and he decided to build us something special. He pulled me out to his place before long to see what he had put together for us. It's most excellent.

I took him back to the island, in front of center stage, to show where I saw it going.

Before I knew it, Lethe had the banner structure all set up and in place around the event.

The center stage is dang pretty.

I managed to sneak up on Torley and pester her a bit. I think she's happy with our progress and setup.

We needed dancing in the Celebration Dome, so of course I thought of FireEyes Fauna, who made the synchronized dance balls that are in the shelter.

And all he asked in return was a dance. I always say 'no' to him, but I documented this so nobody can say I won't take one for the team.

The original time capsule has a spot in the history showcase, so I had to build it out a little bit.

Here's a view of the few historical pieces we have to come look at.

Silas Sachs and Astoroth Vega finished up their fountain for us. Astoroth provides the artsy stuff, so you can see the pretty topper on top of the fountain. That's some amazing work they did. Of course, I had to ask for more work, and despite the late hour, they built up a little sanctuary for me. You'll just have to find it.

I gave Carl Metropolitan, who runs NCI, a spot to set up…a really big spot to set up. So he took advantage of it.

My little sanctuary needed some water and waterfall, so I at least did that.

More Torley! It's always good to see her.

A very exciting request was made from Blue. He wanted to get some copies of our work at the site to help build the party on the teen grid. So I gave a copy of the large and small torches as well as my banners. Lethe provided a copy of her center stage as well. When the Lindens ask for things it really makes you feel good.

I'd just like to thank everyone that came out to help with this event. This has been a huge undertaking and I'm thankful for all of the hard work that each of our builders put into it. You sacrificed your own time, and did everything that I asked for without question. Your work is much appreciated.

Everyone come out to the celebration starting tomorrow. It's going to rock!

A lot has happened in the last couple of days on the Birthday site. Let's get started…

SL Kids got their showcase up in the Community showcase:

The Alliance Navy put their build in place:

I made my little contribution to the Historical Showcase by creating an archeological dig, revealing the mythical Telehub:

Seronis completed the party dome build. This thing is massive:

Here I captured Seronis about 100m away from the build:

A lot of the fun of this has been meeting and working with these great builders, who are also great people as well. Maxx is a great guy and a good friend. I had to snap a shot of the two of us up on top of the pillars surrounding his Historical Showcase museum (texture work in that provided by Neil Protagonist, a fact that Maxx highly stresses for us to remember. Awesome work, Neil).

Here Maxx stands over his domain.

Jacek Antonelli has been a great go-to guy for this event, providing support for anything that I've asked. Here's his community showcase build. I've got him working on dance floors for the party dome now.

As I mentioned in a previous post, it's high time I started planning the rest of this stuff and filling in with the details. So I started by creating some lamp posts and banners that are now running along the roadways:

I found that Lethe had built up the bridges into birthday island. I, naturally, had to throw some banners into them as well. Lethe is one of the best builders in Second Life, and I'm lucky to have her as a friend. Her creativity is endless.

I also got Lethe to tackle our monorail transportation tracks and terminals. They're floating about 50m above the ground.

It turns out there's a new bug in the system. Even though objects are shared with the group, they're not always editable by the group. Seronis was kind enough to give me modification privileges to her work so we could texture up the dome. Here's what I came up with.

Did I mention this thing was huge? Here are a few interior shots with Lethe and I.

Much more to come tonight, I imagine.

For the third birthday, I've been doing a lot of delegating and offering ideas and advice as it was needed.   I'm now realizing that I should do a little more in the leading department.  I think I started on that track in the beginning, but I've been trying not to make this into Mera's birthday party, so I've let the builders and folks involved make a lot of the decisions.  It's now occurred to me that as we approach the final days towards the event, I need to get back into planning so that this thing comes together.

It's also come to my attention that my time over the weekend will be somewhat limited.  This may mean a few more late nights.  That's ok, it's fun.

For those of you watching, expect to see lots of changes in the next couple of days as I go a little crazy on the site.

On a related note, Seronis completed her dome last night.  We now need to get it textured and finalized.  We also need to build the dance floors within.  Be sure to come by and see this stuff next week.  The work is pretty impressive.

If you're so far unaware, Second Life is having it's third birthday this month. I even got to make a sign for it. Maybe you've seen it around?

If you'd like some information on it, the SL History Wiki is being updated as things go.

Tateru is the event organizer and she graciously made me the building manager. If you'd like to see how the building is progressing, we have our own building page on the History Wiki. So if you haven't seen me around as much as usual, now you know why. How about we take a look at things in picture form now? Great, you say? Well come on…

First we made a model of the land.

I've looked and planned on that model so much from this vantage point, that I'd forgotten how large of a model it really is. It really doesn't even fit over my land. Thank goodness we were able to take it somewhere where it does fit. For a sense of scale, though, I took this picture with me in the middle…then had to zoom in to see:

Yup, my mini-torches are actually taller than me. In one of the pictures above, you can see a larger representation of the torches off to the left. That's actually the small size that will be placed around the event. Here you can see the center torch piece. Again with me to get some scale:

Saturday afternoon we were given the land for the event. We are using all six vehicle sims for this, although only four are planned to be built upon. The vehicle sims are very mountainous, which meant first order of business was to terraform.

Coal Nelson and Jacek Antonelli provided exceptional help in getting this done quickly. After a meeting with the primary builders, they were let loose onto the land. Lethe Naumova is building an amazing center stage area for us:

Jacek is building our Community Showcase (and you know, after building really big stuff, you just get kind of pooped):

We've got Maxx Mackenzie building the history showcase:

And Seronis Zegato quickly got into the party dome:

One of my favorite things to see so far, though, as been standing across the canyon to birthday isle and seeing the center stage and torches standing tall on the horizon. It's almost as I'd hoped.

Check back as things will be moving quickly. Hopefully I'll have more to show of the awesome work being done. We have other builders and work that I haven't had a chance to snap pictures of, but will!