We're off to see the wizard...

Tori Landau reports on the latest themed party on OUtopia

Our usual party venue is OUtopia’s green, so as instructed I arrived at the green just before 8pm on Saturday 8th May expecting to possibly see the Emerald City. Our Events Officer, however, had other ideas so below me and leading away from the green towards the Exhibition Hall was a yellow brick road. Following the yellow brick road I soon heard voices and began to question my sanity but inspection of the road revealed it to be the source of the audio clips from the film ‘The Wizard of Oz’ with “I’m melting. Melting! Oh, what a world! What a world”, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain” and my personal favourite given that it was a university party, “Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking!” The road’s ultimate destination turned out to be the OUbliette which is below the Exhibition hall on the seaward side and so after seeing that it was being guarded by flying monkeys I took a deep breath, readied my axe (I was a tin woman) and ventured inside.

As a lot of regulars were either busy in real life (tsk!) or having problems logging into Second Life, for a short while the party was a bit on the quiet side but thankfully some new students turned up and ‘got the party started’. Whilst admiring Jadis’s decor we instructed the new students on how to hear the music, dance and as Linden Labs new policy had come into effect there was an extremely useful exchange of information regarding how to update 3rd party viewers such as Emerald and also Viewer 2 of the standard viewer. It later transpired that out of date viewers had been the cause of the late appearance of some regulars.

Though not compulsory, some of us had dressed for the occasion with Quentin as the tin man, Jadis as Elphaba, Titiana as Dorothy, Angel as a beautiful blue-haired witch, and Rocky not only dressing as but behaving as the lion. GiroBatol fitted in perfectly as a wolf and by bringing on his alt we then had two wonderful sentient wolves bopping away along with the DJ’s very cute dance–containing wolf. Not wishing to disappoint (regulars will know that I nearly always change outfit half way through a party) I changed from being a tin woman to Dorothy and then much hilarity ensued when Xara and Kered arrived – both as Dorothy though Xara had black hair. With Xara’s dog Cassie doubling as Toto for the evening all that missing was the Scarecrow. The conclusion regarding the lack of a scarecrow was that perhaps he had been used by Kickaha for a real life barbecue... a raven’s revenge?

As we had new students to educate some absinthe was handed out ensuring that drunken dancing was again a feature of our parties. Quentin as always played great music and it was wonderful to see so many new students attending the party and having a great time.

When gently asked about the night’s festivities Rocky responded with, “I was vvvvery nervous going to the the Wizard of Oz ppppparty. The music was vvvvery loud and scccary but everyone was very kind and caring - apart from the nasty things behind the ccccurtains. I particularly enjoyed flying round the dance floor. Yours, The Cowardly Lion (please don't yell at me if you don't like these comments)”

Eshala's 2nd rezzday party

Four Daleks and an Engagement by Tori Landau.

Sunday 2nd May and busy with finishing articles for the previous edition of LOL! for publication on the following day I sent some inventory items to Eshala... and then noticed that her rezzday was the following day. Initially, the thought was to have a surprise party so on Sunday evening Hatshepsut distributed note cards, QC was booked, Jadis enlisted to assist with decorating and I came up with a ruse to ensure that Eshala would be on OUtopia at 8pm the following evening. Monday morning arrived and realising that it was the official May day holiday I saw an opportunity to ensure that not only could Jadis and myself decorate throughout the day but that we could contact everyone about the party and so it became a May day party with a Doctor Who theme (Eshala had suggested having a party with this theme). Decorating began around lunchtime and thanks must go to Umbra who made a delightful dalek and to DavidMike who left his TARDIS as part of the decor. Jadis managed to find posters of the Ood, Cybermen, Daleks, K-9 and made a very clever sign that could be changed from reading Happy May Day to Happy Rezzday Eshala. Along with a weeping angel doubling as the dance ball and a spinning vortex dance floor the scene was set to spring the surprise.

The party started promptly and soon there were three sentient daleks (Prash, Joie and Johnt42) ‘ex-dance-inateing’ (thanks to Johnt42 for that!), three 10th Doctors (Kester, Jon and an unidentified someone) a 5th Doctor (QC), a 4th Doctor (Jonno), a weeping angel (me) and glamorous assistants of both genders all bopping away together in peace so it could be said that OUtopia lived up to its name. The rezzday girl arrived slightly late due to changing into a cyberman but thankfully she had not been fully assimilated as her emotions showed through when the true nature of the party was revealed to her via the sign and she was presented with her rezzday cake. “I forgot it was even my rezzday so the party came as a huge, and very lovely, surprise to me”, Eshala commented when armed with my sonic screwdriver I cautiously approached her for a quote.

A sentient K-9 then appeared in the form of Rocky who decided to guard QC’s TARDIS tip jar and threatened to bite the ankles of people who didn’t tip our wonderful DJ so it wasn’t long before the total reached $1000 at which point K-9 was happy enough and went off to dream and count electric sheep no doubt. Several new students came along so it was an opportunity to teach them about the OU in Second Life and there was also discussion of the Doctor Who and Torchwood sims.

A couple dance ball was then requested which proved very popular, caused me to become human and gave Lilac the opportunity to announce her SL only engagement to Kester much to the delight of the assembled partygoers. Lilac and Kester are having their SL only wedding at Kester’s home on 3rd July but there will be a party on OUtopia on 4th July. On behalf of everyone I would like to extend my best wishes to the happy couple for their SL life together.

After that the three sentient daleks started fighting and armed with sonic screwdrivers the rest of us attacked; the result being that the daleks blew up and Breen was hit on the head by a dalek part. And so, after a very eventful evening, the party ended in true Doctor Who fashion with the daleks defeated, Breen recovering from his battle wounds and the rest of us heading back into real life once more to sleep.

Happy Birthday OUtopia

Tori Landau reports on OUtopia's big day.

Difficult to believe but one year has flown by since the excitement and fun of having a social island began. To mark this auspicious occasion we did what we do best – have a party!

So on Saturday 10th April at 8pm I meandered over to the green to see rezzing in front of me a striped circus tent complete with beautifully written sign saying ‘Happy Birthday OUtopia’ above its entrance. The fun began and since this was a fancy dress party some of the fun involved playing ‘guess the av’. For a start there appeared to be no sign of our wonderful Events Officer until a pink iced cupcake (complete with candle) was spied zapping a dance ball. The little cupcake had been busy as the interior of the tent was furnished with straw, rotating lights and an upper walkway.

The outfits were brilliant and while the gents chose outfits of power as Quentin was King Henry VIII, Jonno was a knight, Kered chose to be a Sheikh, Lazarus wore his devil avatar and Kickaha, who had returned to being a raven after spending several weeks as a red-haired woman, turned into a large, spider type monster. The ladies, however, were either clad in something fun such as the aforementioned cupcake, cowgirl (Eshala), a chick (me), Bender the cartoon robot (Squiddlenuts) a fairy (who else but Elsa) or in elegant spring outfits such as Firestone, Jasmine, Lilac and Jen.

The great music provided by Quentin included the Open University’s anthem, ‘Crazy Nights’ along with popular oldies and contemporary tunes. As usual some mayhem ensued although for once the absinthe was not consumed. When the raven disappeared for a while Jen attempted to set fire to the tent, but thankfully for all of us the tent had passed the latest British Standards in fire safety and stubbornly refused to ignite.

One of the new students, Jasmine Pheocene, said that, “I would just like to say that it was a great party! I really enjoyed myself and everyone was really welcoming! Roll on the next one! Oh and thank you to everyone who made it happen xxx”

Follow the yellow brick road

The first of our new monthly party nights takes place on OUtopia on Saturday 8th May.

Partying for the Saints

St Patrick’s Day and St George’s Day parties by Tori Landau

17th March and 23rd April were St Patrick’s Day and St George’s Day respectively so as OUtopia’s representative I decided that we needed to learn about and celebrate the special days of Ireland and England (as if OUtopians need an excuse to party).

With the help of Kickaha, Hatshepsut, Kered, Kira , Jonno and Arthur Arkright, decorations and outfits were found, megaprims supplied, levelled and transformed for the dance floors, dance balls given and cunningly disguised, the Irish jig dance transferred to everyone, St George’s flag vendor made and very importantly music supplied via a music url.

On St Patrick’s Day R2D2 became an honorary Irish droid whilst supplying drinks to fairies and leprechauns who had been busy taking chocolate coins from the pot of gold while spinning through the shamrocks. PDunstan and MDunstan engaged in synchronised dancing as a couple but perhaps the Absinthe had effected Kered and Xara as several times Xara was caught on camera giving Kered a kick making me wonder what the usually impeccably behaved Kered had done. To the sound of Riverdance belting across the dance floor, harmony was restored as couples and singles alike joined in a group jig on the gold floor. Of the evening’s shenanigans, Elsbeth Biedermann commented, “"it was a fantastic party, and we all had a wonderful time, to be sure, to be sure ;-)".

On St George’s day, 3 avatars met on the green for a chat at 5pm and then the idea of a party was raised (talk about last minute) but with the wonders of modern communication contact was made with a good number of people and lots of fun had. Oddly enough dragons and knights were popular attire although the dragons veered on the side of caution and not only wore armour but air danced to avoid Sir Rocky’s swinging sword. For the first time ever that your reporter can remember she found herself wearing the exact same outfit as a guy (Prash) although I quickly managed to find shiny boots and belt. Several ladies (Xara and Elsa to name several) came as elegant maidens prompting queries from the male knights as to whether or not they needed rescuing. With the flags fluttering in the breeze and roses wafting past us, we partied to not so late as usual but, Hatshepsut Linette said, “The venue was resplendent with flags of St George around the perimeter of the dance floor, which was itself a giant flag. Fabulous idea. Unfortunately, I was not able to stay to the end, but gather all those present had a fantastic time.”

February parties

With a Valentine’s Ball and the FELS (Faculty of Education and Language Studies) party for new students the week from 13th to 19th February was a busy time for our Events Officer Jadis Mai and DJ Quentin Calvert.

The theme for the Valentine’s Ball was ‘Enchantment under the Sea’ from the film ‘Back to the Future’ and Jadis built an amazing set on OUtopia’s green that would have been fit for a film itself. With sharks circling above as opposed to around us this time, jellyfish floating about, wrecks and treasure on the sea floor and some residents dressed as mermaids (Jadis and Xara) or other sea creatures (Kered), we really were transported into another world. Other residents chose elegant attire with Lilac looking radiant in red and Elsbeth shimmering in silver. Our DJ was clad in a white suit for a while before changing and revealing that his true love was the England Rugby team by wearing their t-shirt and playing ‘Swing low sweet chariot’ by UB40. Hennamono meanwhile rezzed a cube, river danced to cover it up and then proceeded to raid the treasure chest! “It was pawsome!” according to our publican at the time, McDude Snoodle and although I was only there for the 2nd half due to an electricity failure in rl (yes, that place!) I wholeheartedly agree!

For the introduction of the language students to SL Jadis decided on ‘Alice in Wonderland’ for the theme which took me back to when I first came to the OU sims and talked to a raven and a tiger cub at the sandpit. With the green covered in giant mushrooms, a caterpillar doubling as the dance ball and butterflies flitting about it was up to some of the councillors to fill the roles of Alice in Wonderland characters. Alice was provided by Elsbeth with Jadis being the Chesire cat and your reporter as the Queen of Hearts... there was only one person who could ever be the mad hatter of course and the role was duly filled by Kickaha. The overall effect was slightly hallucinogenic with fairies appearing, our DJ as Willy Wonka, a wolf bopping around, an ‘Avatar’ avatar appearing, a pipe smoking multicoloured owl and to complete the effect, Titiana’s head appearing under a mushroom although thankfully she was back together shortly afterwards. Of the night’s festivities, pdunstan Greymoon said, “Was the first party I managed to get to. Had an awesome time, with a great DJ playing cool music. Haven't missed a party since!!”

So that no-one has an excuse to miss our official parties from now on the second Saturday of each month has been designated as the party Saturday with the next party being on 8th May at 8pm on OUtopia’s green and the theme is the Wizard of Oz. Hope to see you all there and that you give me plenty to report on for LOL!

Grease is the word

Tori Landau tells us about the latest themed party night.

Saturday 5th September saw the village green transformed into the beautifully balloon bedecked wooden dance floor of Rydell High. Residents had obviously done their homework as T-Bird jackets, tight black combinations, bright 50’s dresses and hairstyles were de rigueur. Most residents took to dancing immediately at 8pm whilst others decided to observe first from the safety of the benches.

Our delightful DJ, Quentin Calvert, provided music, including Ernie (The fastest milkman in the west), fly dancing moves and narration until 1:30am on Sunday when everyone staggered home, with one in particular still recovering after imbibing a potent brew that Kickaha had distributed. This had resulted in some avatars lurching about and collapsing onto the dance floor much to the amusement, or possibly bemusement, of onlookers.

The movie screen displaying images from Grease assisted residents in voting for the male and female best costume competitions which were won by Jonno Stromfield and Tori Landau with DeeDee Bookmite kindly sponsoring both prizes.

Of the night’s event, Quentin Calvert commented, “The OU crowd always enjoy themselves and like to dress up. Of all the people I’ve DJ’d for, the OU are the best - most fun, pleasant and encompass the true spirit of SL.” Whilst Jonno Stromfield added, “The party was a great success. It’s always nice to catch up with people and bop the night away.”

Party on dude!

No OU event would be complete without a party and the Sun, Sand and Second Life event was no exception.

The normally lush and, well, green village green was transformed into a palm-tree covered beach complete with waterfall for a beach party to celebrate a successful day’s event on OLiVe. Having spent the day in the ocean and on the beach with the Beach Boys greatest hits providing an apt musical backdrop residents came out in force for the latest OU party night.

Our regular DJ Quentin Calvert provided the tunes.

Surf’s up

LOL! donned its boardies and headed for the beach for OLiVe’s first ever summer activities day.

On a bright and sunny Saturday in August one of the best places to spend the day has got to be the beach - even if it is virtual! So that’s exactly what residents did on August 15th as the Open Life islands hosted a day of fun in the sun.

For those up and about early a champagne breakfast was served on the magnificent HMS Primafore berthed in the harbour. On a number of occasions the cry of ‘avatar overboard’ was heard as the champagne kicked in but everyone seemed to find their way back onboard for more.

After having a tour of the HMS Primafore it was time to take to the water. Still full up on champagne LOL! decided to sit back and take it easy with a leisurely trip on the African Queen. This beautiful vessel took us round Open Life ocean allowing us to relax and enjoy the tranquil beauty of the ocean.

Once back on the beach at OLiVe an array of wacky ways to navigate the ocean were found. First up we found the octopus and took her for a trip out; next we hopped aboard a seahorse (as you do); an eel provided us with a way to slither through the sea; and finally, our personal favourite - a turtle. Where else but SL can you honestly say you sailed round the ocean on a turtle eh?!?

Once we had been round the ocean a number of times on the various creatures we decided to do a spot of sunbathing. This did not last long however as we spotted......surfboards! Having no sense of balance in real life surfing is one of the last things we would attempt but in SL anything’s possible so we grabbed a board and paddled out to sea. The waves were perfect for surfing and after a few gentle rides through the waves we even decided to try a few tricks - not always successfully I might add.

No sooner had we put our surfboard down than we were out in the ocean again - this time windsurfing. Amazingly we didn’t fall off despite colliding with the little island in the middle of the ocean at one point. Filled with confidence from our surfing escapades we next decided to get ourselves a jetski and race round the ocean. Thankfully no-one else was in the ocean at the time else there may have been a few injuries. For our final trip we headed under the ocean in the automated submarine. This was one of the most relaxing trips of the day as we simply sat back and let the sub take us round the ocean while we admired the fish and flora.

After another spot of sunbathing and sitting in the beach huts we found the energy for a game of volleyball. After a few false starts and cries of ‘has anyone got the ball?’ and ‘why do I keep hitting fresh air?’ we got the hang of it and managed to have a good game. We did however have a headache from being hit on the head with the ball during those early ‘what on earth is going on’ stages. Despite our best efforts we were defeated in the volleyball game although as we all know it is the taking part that counts!

As the afternoon turned to evening we reluctantly rolled up our beach towel and trundled off home to get ready for the evening party - but not before we had our picture taken on the event surfboard stand to prove that ‘we were like THERE dude’.

ABBA party

The dancing queens (and kings) were out in force for the Abba-themed party on Saturday 8th August. White was the colour to be seen in is as residents got into the spirit of the party by dressing up in Abba-style clothing. Unbeknown to everyone a resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, had donated prize money for the best-dressed avatars! First prize went to Titiana Haystack and second was Leornian Naidoo.

The backdrop for the Abba-fest was the village green where a venue had been specially built (in white of course) by Kickaha Wolfenhaut. In one corner of the venue a photoboard allowed residents to put their head onto pictures of the members of Abba which caused much amusement! For four hours residents bopped around the spacious dance floor to the tunes played by DJ Quentin Calvert before heading off - some of us still humming Abba tunes to ourselves into the early hours!

T175 festival

LOL! went along to check out this years event, which naturally ended with a party!

The annual T175 festival took place in the events space on Open Life running from Friday 10th July to Sunday 12th July.

LOL! editor and T175 cafe mod Eshala Tabacznyk decided to take a look round this years offering - especially as she had somehow managed to agree to doing an hours stint in the inworld cafe on the Sunday. The first thing to check out was the location of the cafe - on the wing of the lovely pink T175 plane hovering above the events space of course!

Back on the ground below a fairground had been set up with a big wheel, bouncy castle, dodgems and a carousel ride. Candyfloss and ice-cream were available to quell an attack of the munchies while a dog-petting zone provided much entertainment. For those feeling creative a tutorial was available providing a set of materials and instructions for how to make a gift box, a digital frame and a bouncing eyeball! As well as the fun stuff on show, a stand with course info cubes on it was set up. These cubes showed details of courses in similar areas to T175 and by clicking on them you could go the relevant course page of the OU website. A presentation area and discussion circle was also laid out for the scheduled activities.

Over the course of the event a number of presentations and discussions took place. First up on Friday night was a talk entitled The Banana Game: Fair Trade?. This was given by Sleepylittle Thing and was about the issues surrounding fair trade, particularly relating to the banana trade. On Saturday morning PsiRan Boucher was inworld to answer questions about the Open Degree, while throughout the afternoon T175 tutors Rocky Joans, lizit Cleanslate and Minnie Atlass each took turns being inworld to provide course support and general SL chat. In the evening Kickaha Wolfenhaut chaired a discussion focussing on the T175 block 4 GPS activity.

On Sunday morning Kickaha was back inworld and up on the plane wing to man the cafe, In the afternoon Gann McGann provided a talk, with streamed media from YouTube, on his Theatron project. (Theatron is a virtual reality tool for teaching and researching theatre history). Later on in the afternoon it was Eshala’s turn to take to the plane wing and try not to fall off mid-conversation. In the early evening lizit Cleanslate and Elsa Dickins (both T175 tutors and Virtual Worlds researchers) were inworld to answer questions about the future of teaching and learning in Second Life and other virtual worlds.

The event ended in traditional style with a party on the village green with music from our regular DJ Quentin Calvert.

Open Life events space: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Open%20Life/202/122/27
Theatron: http://www.theatron.co.uk/

Happy Birthday to yOU

Party time on OLiVe to celebrate the Open University’s 40th birthday.

27th June saw every students favourite occurrence - a party!!

To coincide with the celebrations taking place at Walton Hall throughout the day, a party was held on OLiVe village green on Saturday night. Regular OU party DJ Quentin Calvert provided music from 1969-2009 and partygoers were invited to dress in costume from the 60’s, 70’s 80’s and 90’s to go with the spirit of the party.

The dance floor's dazzling colours lit up the island and no-one could surely complain about being unable to hear the music given the size of the speakers on display! The wide range of music provided something for everyone's tastes and no party would have been complete without our anthem “Crazy Nights” getting at least one airing. As the night went on students and tutors alike showed off their dancing skills with everything from complicated club routines to basic ‘wiggle-from-side-to-side’ movements on show. Glow sticks, sparklers, refreshments (alcoholic mainly) and dubious sweets were passed around among revellers throughout the night.

A funfair was laid on for partygoers to take a break from the dancing if they couldn’t stand the pace. The dodgems provided some ‘interesting’ displays of driving skills as people piled into the cars to wreak havoc. One particular tutor who shall not be named (you know who you are!) managed to send his dodgem flying out of the dodgem arena and proceeded to zoom round the island in it much to the bemusement of onlookers. Those looking for a more sedate ride had a choice of the giant Ferris wheel or the merry-go-round. The Ferris wheel allowed for some great views of the village with the party in full swing.

Snapshots of the evenings events were broadcast on a giant photo board throughout the night giving late-comers a chance to see what they had missed.

At the end of the evening a spectacular fireworks display took place illuminating the dark Open Life skies.

New beginnings

The opening of the new village gives residents a place they can call home.

After weeks of standing at the sim border between Open Life and Open Life Ocean gazing wistfully towards the “under construction” signs surrounding the new village, residents were finally able to set foot on OLiVe at 8pm and survey their new surroundings.

To celebrate the event an Easter-themed party was held on the village green with our regular OU party night DJ Quentin Calvert providing the music from 8.30pm. A treasure hunt and a fancy dress competition added to the fun. The treasure hunt provided us with lots of new things to add to our already-bulging inventories while the fancy dress competition was jointly won by a couple of cute Easter bunnies and a bemused tiger cub!

On landing on the new village the first thing many residents did was excitedly dash round the island trying to look at everything at once and wondering which of the pretty houses was going to be theirs. Thanks to the efforts of the village designers/builders there were plenty of things to see and places to explore.

One of the most exciting parts of the evening came when the boards informing residents of their OLiVe addresses were displayed. Amid cries of “Which way is Lower Lag Street?” and “Anyone know where OLiVe Green is?” those lucky enough to be allocated a house went off in search of their new homes. Later in the evening residents were able to ‘buy’ their land and officially claim their home.

The music and dancing continued long into the night until one by one people headed off safe in the knowledge that after being homeless for so long following the demise of our previous base we all now have a place we can call home.