Happy Birthday, Second Life!

It's an exciting time in Second Life right now! June 16th will be the grand opening of the 10th annual Second Life Birthday! Lucky for me, I was given the opportunity to be able to explore these sims and blog about it. It's hard to believe that on June 23rd, Second Life will officially be a decade old! The event takes place in 21 sims and is comprised of many talented people within the Second Life community who will take you back in time and bring you right back.

I do know these sims will be packed and i'm not sure if this was the intention for these, but, there are pods that seat two people and as they move, they display a little bit of interesting history on some of the exhibits as they pass by. So if you have trouble walking around while in a packed sim or you just want a "tour guide", this may be ideal for you!
I was lucky enough to have a sort of "Personalized tour" by my good friend Christopher Organiser who is a moderator within the event.

One of the first parts of the event Christopher showed me was in the regions SL10B Spellbound and SL10B Impressive. The two sims are comprised of a giant turtle. This is actually one of several main stages (The A’stra Stage) that will include live DJ's and entertainment! He explained to me how it starts off with a cube, symbolizing how Second Life started. At the floor you can follow along the right path and you will see multiple structures. Just a recommendation if you come to this sim, max your draw distance for a bit to zoom out and you'll see how the sim is made up of a giant turtle! It is truly awesome! But if you are unable to max out your draw distance, I've taken a photo to show you :-)

One of my personal favorite parts of the whole event is the actual Welcome Area! The welcome area ranges from pre-history in 1999, the public beta version of Second Life in 2003, all the way to today in 2013. It's always nice to learn about the facts and things that happened throughout the years in Second Life, it's events like this that remind us of how far this virtual world has come since the beginning. I came into Second Life in 2009 starting on the teen-grid, the grids merged about two months after I transferred to main-grid. I never knew what the main grid had to offer and didn't realize just how small teen grid was until the merge. There are so many different opportunities in this virtual world and so many great people and bringing a lot of them together once a year to display just what Second Life is all about!

For all the Linden bear collectors out there, don't forget to stop by the region SL10B Bear Island. This region has the Linden bears! You are able to buy them for L$0 or simply take a copy! The set up for this place is pretty awesome! If you don't find your favorite Lindens bear in here you can also send them a message to get it. Personally, my favorite bear is the "Self Help Bear." I believe it was made by Molly Linden? I may be wrong though, but it is my favorite! But it isn't limited to only that one, I do like them all! Each bear is unique and special in their own way. I think it's a great way for the Lindens to express themselves individually.

"Nicole Linden began the Linden bear tradition many years ago and it carries on to this day with each Linden creating their own bear for residents to collect and enjoy!" - A piece of information/history on the bears found within Linden Bear Island.

I never knew about the Cornfield until one day I overheard someone talking about it. I looked it up and found information about it in the SL Wiki. Essentially if you were bad/naughty, your avatar would have been sent to The Corn Field! While there you would be cut off from any communication outside of that sim and you would have to sit there and "think about what you did." It was a region of mythological status. However, around mid 2012 it was removed! So now, during this event you can go there without having done anything wrong! Isn't that great? The Corn Field

The Event isn't only limited to what I've shown, there is so much more to the whole event and I recommend everyone check it out! It's an awesome experience especially if you are interested in the history of Second Life and how it has improved over the years.
Around the stages and sims I've pictured above there are sims full of exhibits that take you around the timeline of Second Life. I want to give a big thanks to Christopher Organizer for giving me the opportunity to be able create this post and share it with you guys. Above in the post, I have linked all the landmarks to all the places if you would like to visit them directly. The landmarks are colored pink, simply click them and they will open a new window for you to grab the SLURL or you can go to the map in-world and just type SL10B and it will show all the regions. 

The event ends on June 29th, so you have 13 days to explore all the sims!

For more information on SL10B check out this website: http://slcommunitycelebration.com/