When a woman named Thursday finds out she is going to be reincarnated as Tuesday, her attempt to cheat the cycle of reincarnation unleashes a terrible beauty that leaves the other days of the week in turmoil.

Thursday's Fictions, a 52 minute surreal dance fantasy film with Edwardian Gothic stylings, has won three awards, has been a finalist for four more (and the book for the Kenneth Slessor Prize), and is tonight a finalist for "Best Experimental" at the 2007 Enhance TV ATOM Awards, taking place in the Plaza Ballroom, Regent Theatre, Collins St in Melbourne, Australia.

Thursday's Fictions is not only available on DVD (USA, Australia/NZ, UK/Europe/Asia) - you can experience some of the magic in Second Life as well, as constructed by The Project Factory's Gary Hazlitt. There is also a trailer to whet your appetite for the experience, though it may not be suitable for work, including artistically contextualised partial nudity.

The still image you see above doesn't do the place justice. Turn the sound on, and walk through the place. Experience it first-hand and in motion.

Literature Alive! (disclosure: I am an owner of this group and have been involved in these developments) is running two events over the next few days.

On Saturday at 8am SL Time students from De Sales University will be judged on their material for the "Literature of the Progressive Era" display in a funfair on land contributed by Finger Lakes Community College. From tomorrow you can judge which of the elements you find meets the criteria best - you are not judging the build (most of it is bought from in-world or created by people other than the students), but the content in terms of how well it teaches you about the era in question - a era of significant social change. You have the chance to vote for the best group, who will win a RL cash prize and leave feedback for the groups via an anonymous web-form.

Literature Alive! has also converted the British Gothic Literature classroom into a haunted house, with some help (and extra prims for a while) from out hostess, the Alliance Library, on Eduisland 3. As well as giving you the chance to learn more about gothic literature and the British authors, there is a hidden red cauldron. Find this to win a small L$ prize. There are other games and activites too, and no commercial activity, just fun for Halloween.

John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Go, and Charlie's Chocolate Factory, spent 30 minutes in Second Life on August 20^th, answering questions about his upcoming film, The Nines. The movie plot explores the intersection between the real and the virtual, while the promotional methods are heavily using transmedia to engage fans into alternate reality games. August announced that he is hoping to release a version of the movie that would allow fans to re-edit it.

The premiere for the The Nines is set for August 31^st in New York and Los Angeles, and September 28^th in Austin, TX.

Our host, in the shape of avatar JohnAugust Tomorrow, greeted the handful of media guests in a replica of his real-life home, also used as movie set for The Nines. Regarding the autobiographical aspects of this film and his past creations, August offered, "Honestly, a lot of my work has big autobiographical elements. This is just a little more honest about the source". The atmosphere was informal and pleasant, although there was a lingering feeling of surreal coming through from the light outside. Looking around, apart from furniture and beautiful artwork on the walls, all objects seemed to hide a story or clue, waiting to be unveiled by a keen eye.

The conversation revolved around virtual mediums, how August would have integrated the Second Life medium had he known about it earlier, etc. He explained, "I was more of World of Warcraft addict, so I didn't do a lot of socializing online. But I definitely found myself getting lost in the world." He ventured that a good place for Second Life in the production of a movie would be in creating better storyboards and pre-visualizing scenes. August was also enticed by the possibilities of machinima, but he was swamped with questions before he could expand more on these thoughts.

For those interested in participating in the alternate reality game, Metaversatility, the company who brought The Nines to Second Life, offers some hints as to where you may wish to start. There are clues in the YouTube trailerof the movie, on the movie blog, inside the house on the Meteversatility sim, and in various forums and blogs around the web, tagged with "look for the nines". Exclusive clues have also been revealed on UGO.com and Comingsoon.net.

The Blog

The First Clue

About the Movie

• W-Hat
• McDunnough's Relay Gang

• RFL Racers
• TOC All Stars
• Passionate Redheads
• Purple Tears the Children Cry

• The Block Party
• Transylvania 4 Felicaa Feaver
• The Dirty Dozen
• Friends Fighting Cancer

• Ubuntu
• The Guardian
• Mad Menorcans
• Relay THIS!!!

• Relay Raiders
• Team Trifecta
• Spirit Chasers 1
• Spirit Chasers 2

• City of New Babbage
• Team EROS
• Caledon
• The Shelter Cares

• Meet the FOCers
• Alternation
• Pixels in Pink
• Dixie Rebels

• Destiny's Children
• Furs for a Cure
• Casablanca
• Relay for the Cure

• Shopaholics for a Cure
• Relay Rockers
• Shopoholics for a Cause
• Health & Wellness Center

• Phat Cats
• Groovey Kinda Quest
• Creatives for the Cure
• Team Vivian

• TVCH/3 #1
• TVCH/3 #2
• Circle of Life
• Relay Roadies

• 12:00am: Midnight Madness - Fireworks, and a PG Pajama Party Lap!
• 2:00am: Rep Your Country Lap (Wear an outfit or item that you feel best represents the country you are logging in from!)
• 4:00am: PG Beachwear Lap
• 6:00am: Bald and Beautiful Lap
• 8:00am: Formalwear (Don your best outfit and honor those that are fighting cancer!)
• 10:00am: Closing Ceremony at the Ceremony Centre, featuring Thank Yous from Candy Antonelli, a survivor, Award Presentations for the Top Four Fundraising Teams with Fayandria Foley, Survivor Awards with Poppy Zabelin, and Designer Awards with Christopher Sterling. Fayandria Foley will also be providing the closing remarks.
• 11:00am: FIREWORKS across all 32 sims!

Eyewall Paine is proving that you can still gain fame overnight in SL, if your talent is impressive enough.

This new resident is already enriching many live music performances with his passionate voice and the unique lyrics he composes. If you like David Gray, but with a deeper and more touching vocals, you should give Eyewall's mellow set a chance. He will charm you.

Eyewall, or Jeremy Gilchrist in real life, is joining us through the mentorship and support of friend Cylindrian Rutabaga, a renowned live musician. He is currently attempting to put out a real life CD with his music and is performing in Second Life in hope to obtain some financial support for his album. You can sneak a listen of his music on his myspace page and join his fan group (Eyewall's fans) for updates on upcoming events. So far, you can take it for granted that he'll be performing every Monday at 2 pm SLT at Galveston Island.

Many thanks to JueL Resistance and Dolmere Talamasca for the recommendation.

This is the fifth in our 'Adjusting to a New World' series of articles for beginners - although some intermediate and advanced Second Lifers are also finding little tidbits that they didn't know in them. We've talked about movement, communication and clothing. We're going to divert a little and talk about places to go when you're new.

For a new resident (and even for people who have been around for some while), the sheer size of Second Life can be daunting. Where should one go, what should one do, when one is not familiar with what is available? Below I present (in no particular order) a small selection of useful and interesting places to visit.

NCI - New Citizens Incorporated

Kuula sim - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kuula/45/144/124
Hamnida sim - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Hamnida/128/128/0
Fishermans Cove sim - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Fishermans%20Cove/78/177/124
Dream City sim - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dream%20City/231/193/401

NCI is a fabulous place to start out as a new resident. There are all sorts of tutorials available to help you get oriented in Second Life, there's lots of free stuff to pick up, classes are run that cover the full gamut of topics from basic appearance settings to advanced building and scripting. Social events are run regularly. On top of this, there's often a group of friendly people hanging around to socialize with and to ask questions of.

The Shelter
Isabel sim - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Isabel/50/229/81
Swinside sim - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Swinside/221/104/42

Much like NCI, The Shelter has a long standing history of being welcoming to new residents. The Shelter also has freebies, classes, and social events. Both NCI and The Shelter have their advantages; it's worth checking out both to make sure that you're not missing out. If nothing else, the crowd tends to be different.

Svarga

Svarga sim - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Svarga/128/128/0

Svarga is a wonderful land of spirituality and serenity; Svarga means Heaven in several different religions. It has its own functioning ecosystem: flowers grow only under the right conditions, when there has been rain and sunshine; bees pollinate the flowers, then the bees are eaten by birds.

Nexus Prime
Gibson and Bonifacio sims - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Gibson/192/233/106

"Cyberpunk City of the Future." However hackneyed the phrase describing it, the city itself is decidedly worth a visit or two. You will find that it consists of several levels, each quite different from the others. If you are able to get into the sewers under the city, you may be able to find some of the secret rooms tucked away down there. If you go for no other reason, at least go to admire the craftsmanship, and the planning that must have gone into this city's manufacture.

Independent State of Caledon

Caledon sim - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon/128/128/0

Once a single sim, Caledon has vastly expanded to cover sixteen sims at this time. Here you will meet some of the most well-spoken people in all of Second Life; it's not a place you can just nip into and out of, you will find that due to excessive politeness on the part of the residents here it may take you quite some time to say farewell. The overriding theme of the Caledon sims is "steam-punk", so you can expect to see all manner of amazing gadgetry and folks kitted out in long dresses and fine suits.

Abbotts Aerodrome - Cubey Terra Aeronautics
Abbotts sim - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Abbotts/128/128/0

Cubey Terra has been a part of Second Life since the middle of 2003, and since then he has developed all sorts of fabulous flying vehicles. It's well worth stopping in and trying out your skills as a test pilot; it things don't go so well, you can always bail out and try your luck at sky diving with one of Cubey's parachutes!

International Spaceflight Museum
Spaceport Alpha - http://slurl.com/secondlife/SpacePort%20Alpha/23/51/22/

Stop in here to see the replica space rockets - all made to scale. This sim is also part of a large complex of sims, all devoted to science and education.

Info Island

Info Island sim - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/89/122/33

Info Island and its neighbor, Info Island II, are packed full of learning experiences. Each features art galleries, libraries, and a host of other repositories of knowledge.

Ivory Tower of Primitives
Natoma sim - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Natoma/210/164/27

The Ivory Tower contains an entirely "self-paced, self-guided, comprehensive building tutorial." It won't tell you everything you need to know about prim torture, but it will give you a solid background to work from.

Particle Laboratory
Teal sim - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Teal/180/74/21

Like the Ivory Tower, the Particle Laboratory has a vast collection of information, this time about working with particles. New scripts and tutorials are added at regular intervals.

The Lost Gardens Of Apollo
Apollo sim - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Apollo/128/128/0

A romantic garden sim in which to roam, or to spend time chatting with your nearest and dearest, significant others and friends alike.

If you visit these places, you'll have definitely gotten a good grounding in Second Life, save only that you keep your eyes and ears open, and that you are willing to explore and discover.

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Virtual worlds division of Dutch media company Boom BV, 3Dutch.com, have announced that they have purchased Amsterdam from Stroker Serpentine.

Stefan Waydelich, an avatar of a Boom BV representative said "We acquired Amsterdam to gain experience with the virtual 3D environment on the internet which is a completely new addition to our existing internet activities. With the acquisition of Amsterdam, we can expand and built[sic] further one of the most exciting and entertaining platforms already out there on Second Life."

"The early stages of Second Life can certainly be compared with the early period of the World Wide Web in 1993. Already, the current number of activities and entertainment on Second Life is enormous and wild. We expect that Second Life will improve further, with better images and even more opportunities for its users and inhabitants," Waydelich said. Boom BV does not expect to realize profit on this acquisition in the near term, considering this a long-term investment and learning opportunity.

For his part, Serpentine seemed happier with the sale partners, presumably having learned a few lessons from the failed sale to Nedstede Groep. The failed Nedstede deal was for $50,000USD. We do not know, at this time, how much was paid for the property by 3Dutch.

[Thanks to sharp eyed reader Vint Falken, who has translated the Dutch press-release on her blog]

Geocaching has been around in First Life since the year 2000. This sport is essentially a treasure hunt: for a traditional cache, you use a GPS to determine the location of the cache, inside which you will find a log for recording your details, and often some small item which is of small absolute monetary value but highly prized by geocachers.

slgeocaching.com (JavaScript required) a site that deals with geocaching in Second Life; it is associated with the "Geocaching in SL" group. This group began geocaching in Second Life during this year, 2007. Obviously, in Second Life, no GPS is required, but based on my experience, there is still plenty of time spent seeking caches, particularly the difficult-to-find ones.

The website is not overly fancy in design; it is sleek and lightweight visually. Photographs add flavor to the bare text and are not spread about too liberally; they are restricted to news articles, cache information pages, and to a gallery in the corner of the page that displays player's pictures. As a registered user, you have access to all the facilities you need to play: hiding and seeking caches, logging finds, blogging experiences, forums, and statistics, both your own and those of other players. The pages for hiding caches and seeking caches are easy to use, though they take quite some time to load.

However, it is not all intuitive to use. There is not an obvious section available for new players to help them get started and understand what the sport is all about; this information is hidden away under the forums. This is a piece of information that should perhaps be available right up front on the home page, so as to entice new players; it puts people off if they have to search for information, no matter how committed they are. There are several different ways of getting at news, via the "Recent News" and "Popular lists", but there is no easy way to delve into older news, or to get a list of all news.

I decided to try out geocaching for myself. I'd read about geocaching in First Life some years previously, but had been kept out of the sport due to a lack of a GPS. "Now," I thought, "Here is my chance!"

At first I ran without the instructions on how to find a cache in Second Life (I admit, I couldn't find them). The first cache was of difficulty level "easy", was a "traditional" cache, and named "Second Life's 1st Geocache" when I arrived, the giant fish shown in the cache description was missing, and I assumed then that the cache had gone along with it. Secondly I hit the cache named "Camlann", and with a little alt-mousing found the cache. At that point I took another look at the website and located the information tucked away in the forums on how to search for caches; ironically, it was after that that I had my second and third failures in finding caches. Fortunately, when I visited the "Antovic" cache, I found it almost immediately; that was a decided relief. With that, I returned to the sites of my past failures and had another bash. This time ... success!

If you like a good hunt that you can conduct from your computer chair, and want to add something to your touristy experiences in Second Life, I can thoroughly recommend geocaching. You will benefit, and the community will benefit from your participation. Also, if you have land in Second Life, consider becoming a host for a cache - what better way of getting people to visit your residence or of getting a little free advertising?