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January 2022

Final days of BBB2B | Our diplomatic mission | Satori Embassy opened | The Art of Travel | New Locations

01/29/2022

FINAL DAYS OF BBB2B

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The BBB bureaucrats and Bellisseria's diplomats hope that you've had as good a time at BBB2B so far as we have. We've been delighted to see so many of you at the Bellisseria Fairgrounds to enjoy our wonderful Winter-scape. The event continues until 31st January, so there's still time to catch it if you haven't already.

We have received many compliments about the build and you seem to have had a great time at our various events. Thank you all for your company. Gemma Cleanslate, over at the SL Newser, wrote her own account of our festivities and seems to have enjoyed them too. Thanks, Gemma!

Today and tomorrow Her Excellency Yukiko Yeshto will lead two more of her celebrated guided tours. Both begin at the Fairgrounds and will run from 10am to 12 noon SLT. Travelling for both tours will be by bus, train and mini helicopters. If you join a tour, please consider detaching all unnecessary attachments and scripts. More information will be available at the fairgrounds today.

Tomorrow is the closing party for the event. Your hosts will be the entire BBB staff and music will be provided by DJ Stephanie. Please join us to bring the celebrations of our 2nd Birthday to a rousing close!

On Monday, January 31st, it's Staff Assist Day – the final chance to collect those elusive personal stamps, to ask us about the BBB's services, stamp-issuing locations and of course Bellisseria's diplomatic mission to the other seven continents of Second Life®. The full programme is reproduced here and can be found on notice boards around the fairgrounds. We will be clearing the fairgrounds on 1st February.

BELLISSERIA'S DIPLOMATIC MISSION

For Ambassadors' Day at BBB2B, we created poster maps of the mainland continents where Bellisseria has opened embassies. In conversation with many of our visitors, we've found they were intrigued to learn about SL's geography. Many simply didn't know much about its continents – old and new. It is one of many reasons to promote travel in SL and we believe our new embassies can help with that.

Bellisseria, the still-new Linden Homes Continent, with its beautiful landscapes and community infrastructure, has given rise to many interest groups among its residents. They engage in social activities, build galleries and cafés and stage regular events. They always seem excited to mix and share their discoveries. It is a spirit of community that can also be found elsewhere in SL and for us represents the common ground that unites us, whether we see ourselves, primarily, as Bellisserians or mainlanders.

Everything we do – both in the Bellisserian diplomatic corps and in the BBB bureaucracy – is designed to encourage SL'ers to visit each other's places, make new friends and get to know each other (and SL itself) better. Many Bellisserians love the cheerful anarchy of the other mainland continents and admire the efforts of those who make beautiful places there. Many mainlanders enjoy the landscapes made by the Moles in Bellisseria and the communities that have formed here. We hope to establish new and fruitful relationships between SL residents on all continents and to build on existing friendships.

Our ambassadors have been entrusted with the task of supporting those efforts to make this thriving virtual world an even better metaverse for all of us. All but one of them have their roots on mainland and all of them are active members of communities and projects there – as well as in Bellisseria. This allows them each to bring their own unique approach to their diplomatic mission. We at the BBB look forward to supporting them in their endeavours; cultural, social and touristic. We hope you will do so too.

SATORI EMBASSY OPENED

Opening Ceremony at the Embassy to Satori

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Last Wednesday, as part of BBB2B's Ambassadors' Day, Bellisseria's final planned embassy to the other mainland continents of SL opened. Her Excellency Bijoux Barr, the first Hon. Ambassador to have begun her Second Life® in Bellissaria before expanding into Mainland, welcomed guests to her new embassy in Satori; founded in 2007 as the Japanese Continent.

Abnor Mole did the honours in presenting the key to Bijoux, saying:

Bordered on the south by Bellisseria and to the north by Nautilus and the Blake Sea, Satori has always been one of my favorite continents, and not just because I got to build most of the roads there (and yes, I know many of them are a bit quirky). The rolling green hills and sandy beaches have always been a big draw to the continent. And now it joins Bellisseria as the conduit from three great continents to three more. Bijoux is unique among the Bellisseria Ambassadors in that she started in Bellisseria and then discovered the mainland, rather than the other way around. This perspective should help greatly in her efforts to help Mainlanders and Bellisserians to recognize and appreciate the unique opportunities, benefits (and quirks) each provides. We wish her the best in this task and know that she will do her best in her endeavors. And so with that, I declare this Embassy open and, Bijoux, I present you with the key.

H.E. Bijoux accepted the key and responded:

Thank you Abnor and everyone! I am excited to welcome you all to the official opening ceremony of the Bellisserian Embassy in Satori. My name is Bijoux Barr. I have been a resident of Bellisseria since April of 2020. Since I started, I have grown to love the people and the beautiful builds that the Moles have done for us. I was often found exploring the roads, rails, waterways and skies in Bellisseria, all while admiring the cool and peaceful surroundings. And then I dared to venture beyond...

Originally created as a Japanese continent, Satori was the first within the East continental group and forms a supercontinent with Nautilus in the north. Drive along the roads, discover the wonderful builds and communities here. Sail along the coast, or take the views from the sky, It's all an adventure! Discover RP communities, art communities, music and even our very own Mole Village!

I plan on contributing to Bellisseria - Satori relations by means of art and music, with exhibits to feature artists from both Bellisseria and mainland, to establish connections with gallery owners, artists, musicians, etc. while having fun and sharing people's creativity. It's an honor and a privilege to be able to represent this vibrantly rich continent to our beloved Bellisseria and vice-versa. Thank you so much for being here and sharing this momentous event with us!

After warmly applauding these speeches, the large assembly of guests toured the new embassy and its beautiful Japanese gardens before entering a portal back to BBB2B at the Fairgrounds, where composer/musician Bsukmet Stormcrow put on a wonderful live show for them.

Grand Opening Ball with live music from Bsukmet

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THE ART OF TRAVEL

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People seem to be enjoying the art exhibition at BBB2B themed on our own raison d'être, travel. On Tuesday contributor Michiel Bechir met a very erudite group of visitors, many of them artists in their own right, to discuss his own artistic approach. A fascinating and lively discussion ensued, which all present enjoyed. Our thanks to Michiel for an excellent BBB2B Fringe Event.

Frank Atisso featured the show in his weekly recap of SL Art. Thank you, Frank.

NEW LOCATIONS

We break our record this week for the number of new Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW) locations added. You can now pick up passport stamps at four new Mole-built places, which are planned to feature in a new tour organised by their excellencies Yuki and Freddie, Hon. Ambassadors.

The other new location is our Embassy to "the Japanese Continent", Satori. Stop by to pick up your entry visa. If you want to visit any of our embassies, post offices or other locations you can find them either in the Online Travel Guide or in our useful directory of BBB SLURLs. Both are to be found (along with a ton of other useful information) in the sidebar to the Gazette (to the left of this article).

Hot Springs, BE
The Grand Ladies, BE
Molehenge, BE
Die Betrunkene Maus, BE
Satori Embassy, ST

Posted by Dave at 08:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

BBB2B Special Supplement | A Brief History of the BBB | The BBB2B Movie | Boat Rally/Opening Ball Report | Fringe events | Your cut out and keep checklist of stamps to collect

01/25/2022

BBB2B SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT

Zoe & Dave at BBB2B

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Regular readers will know that the BBB Gazette is published weekly at one minute past midnight SLT on Saturday. The copy deadline is midnight on Thursday. As there's so much to tell you during BBB2B however, we are publishing this special BBB2B Supplement. Enjoy.

The pictures feature Zoe and Dave holding their SSiDs – the tablet computers that apply their personal stamps to your passport when you click them. Nineteen Belli diplomats and bureaucrats are carrying them at BBB2B so say hi when you see us and collect all the stamps!

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BBB

Picture the scene. A cold January evening on a Houseboat with the Light of Aurelia Lighthouse flashing across the cold water. Boo was pondering the opportunities created by the fresh little community of Bellisseria. His previous exploit in Bellisseria, contraband, was a dismal failure. His creaking inventory was full of unused 'House for Sale' signs. Similarly his store of 'illegal house colour paints', his 'terraforming bulldozers', and 'Low Lying Skyboxes', all gathered dust. In a moment of epiphany he decided to leave the dark side.

One day these Bellisserians will leave their happy homes and travel. Why should they have all the fun, and no consequences, why should they escape bureaucracy? So in an atypical frenzy of activity Boo produced the very first Bellisserian passport, number BE100000101! The paper was cheap, it was clunky, it was ugly, but it was a green shoot of Bureaucracy! What better name than the Bellisserian Bureau of Bureaucracy to oversee this new venture? Such a snappy name.

Surprisingly folks liked it. Very soon Boo was joined by Bel, Sun, and North in this shared madness. North made the passport more than an ornament; you could actually collect stamps. Sun made terminals and stamps. Bel made passports, and told everyone about it whether they were interested or not! Gingir let the madness creep into the Citizens of Bellisseria group where it gained momentum. Happy days, little did they foresee the monster it was to become.

Soon driver licenses and plates were added to the offerings. Stamp terminals turned up everywhere. Even Patch and the Moles got in on the act. The weirdest thing was that the most talented folks actually joined this crazy band of bureaucrats. Fenella (since sadly deceased but with us in spirit), the awesome Prudence with her Parade Of Homes, the industrious Zoe, the enigmatic Ghost, Teresa our photographer and 'all rounder', and then Dave, who took the reins of the BBB Gazette almost seamlessly from the departed Fenella.

The first BBB HQ

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Boo's beloved Fiona too, thought why suffer his meaningless ramblings about the BBB all day, I might as well join him! Coal arrived, with awesome scripting talents, and brought us over to Discord, which is in equal measure our slave and master! Then Syvalin arrived to focus Coal! Sceneris came with those unprecedented video skills, Lilla became our mesh designer, and most recently Amanda arrived to give Sun her talented assistance.

Then came the embassies. A tiny embassy in Corsica had been our refuge in the wilder Mainland for some time. Today though we are spread through seven continents, with the assistance of our talented Honorary Ambassadors, Jack, Freddie, Charley, Yukiko, Bijoux, Ghost, and Fiona. If they can cross-fertilise the community spirit in Mainland with that in Bellisseria then they will be a success!

Then there's Mr Beeb. The less said about him the better! What next after two years? Well there's still no shortage of ambition. We have both technical, and exciting practical plans, and the enthusiasm to carry them out. Stay around for the ride!

Article by Boo Rojyo, founder & CEE

THE BB2B MOVIE

Pring Productions – the production company of our very own Pru and Sceneris – premiered their movie of BBB2B yesterday at the Fairgrounds. Here is the link to it on YouTube for everyone to enjoy. We hope you enjoy as much as those involved in building the BBB2B venue, for whom it is a fantastic souvenir of a lot of hard work! Work that was worth it though – it looks fantastic in the movie!

BOAT RALLY/OPENING BALL REPORT

BBB2B got off to a wonderful start with the Boat Rally from Springhurst Gulf to the Fairgrounds last Sunday, the opening day. There was a great turn out and much fun was had. Thanks to all who took part and in particular to Yuki, who organised it all so well. Here are some pictures Yuki sent us to give you a flavour of the occasion. Many thanks to Gemma Cleanslate for additional photos in the gallery.

Boat Rally Pictures

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Don't forget that you can do this trip and collect the six special stamps from the magic buoys until 31st January. After that, the buoys will self-destruct! You can pick up the navigation HUD to guide you around the course from the BBB2B noticeboards at the Belli Fairgrounds.

The opening ball was great fun and also well-attended. There were over fifty avatars present at one point! The fireworks were amazing too!

BBB2B CONTINUES UNTIL 31ST JANUARY: COME JOIN IN THE CELEBRATIONS!

The full schedule is below and can also be found on noticeboards around the Bellisseria Fairgrounds. Today DJ Giselle will be bringing the music to a dance event at the event space in front of the Bellisseria Fairgrounds Embassy. Come dance with a diplomat or a bureaucrat (or with each other, if you prefer) from 3.30 to 5.30pm SLT!

Tomorrow is Ambassador Day. The final Bellisserian Embassy – to your editor's home continent of Satori – will open and the post-ceremony dance will take place at the Fairgrounds Event Space, hosted by new Ambassador Bijoux Barr. There will be live music by SLebrity musician Bsukmet Stormcrow and the fun will be (as we bureaucrats love to say) mandatory.

Don't forget the BBB2B Fringe events either. Teresa Firelight's Send Your Friends a Postcard workshops, for example, take place at the deck next to the BBB2B post office. They will be on Thursday from 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM SLT and on Friday from 11 AM - 12 Noon SLT.

Another fringe event is Freddie's Pop Party, hosted by H.E. Freddie Harrington on Saturday 29th January. It runs from 10AM - 12PM SLT at the Bellisseria Fairgrounds. Come dressed in retro clothing or formal or come as you are for two hours of fun music and dancing with your diplomatic host, Freddeh!

Finally, Michiel Bechir whose travel images feature in our Art of Travel exhibition at BBB2B will be available for a meet and greet at our art gallery in the cave at the fairgrounds to discuss his work at 11:30 SLT today.

YOUR HANDY PERSONAL STAMP CHECKLIST

There are so many stamps to collect for your Belli Passport during BBB2B. Here's your handy cut out and keep checklist to use as you roam the oceans of Bellissieria and the Fairgrounds in search of stamp terminals and buoys, and as you stalk our diplomats and bureacurats with their SSiD tablets. Enjoy your quest.

STAMP	TYPE/LOCATION	⎷
BBB2B event stamp	Stamp Terminal at the Info Centre, Bellisseria Fairgrounds
Boo	SSiD Personal Stamp
Beeb	SSiD Personal Stamp
Dave	SSiD Personal Stamp
Fi	SSiD Personal Stamp
Ghost	SSiD Personal Stamp
Midnight	SSiD Personal Stamp
North	SSiD Personal Stamp
Pru	SSiD Personal Stamp
Sun	SSiD Personal Stamp
Zoe	SSiD Personal Stamp
Yukiko	SSiD Personal Stamp
Freddie	SSiD Personal Stamp
Charley	SSiD Personal Stamp
Sylvalin	SSiD Personal Stamp
Bijoux	SSiD Personal Stamp
Coal	SSiD Personal Stamp
Jack	SSiD Personal Stamp
Teresa	SSiD Personal Stamp
Amanda	SSiD Personal Stamp
Winters Elm Dog Park	Stamp-issuing buoy
Boat Bar	Stamp-issuing buoy
Bellisseria Drift Ice	Stamp-issuing buoy
Mermaid Shoal Grotto	Stamp-issuing buoy
Light of Aurelia	Stamp-issuing buoy
Java Sprockets	Stamp-issuing buoy

Posted by Dave at 08:01 AM in Second Life | Permalink | Comments (3)

BBB2B at the Belli Fairgrounds | Sansara Embassy opens | Satori Embassy will open next week | New Locations

01/22/2022

BBB2B – THE SECOND BIRTHDAY OF THE BELLISSERIAN BUREAU OF BUREAUCRACY CELEBRATED AT THE BELLI FAIRGROUNDS!

The BBB2B celebrations begin tomorrow. Work is underway at the Bellisseria Fairgrounds to put in place horse rezzers, bike rezzers and a narrow gauge railway to transport our guests around the events and attractions. There will be a BBB information centre, a special Embassy, a working BBB post office with BBB2B postcards to collect and send, an outdoor art gallery and other delights.

Here is the full final programme for the event, which continues through January 31st.

As you can see, the programme begins with a boat rally led by H.E. Yukiko Yeshto, Hon. Ambassador to Sansara. The starting point will be at the Bellisseria Fairgrounds at 10am SLT tomorrow Sunday January 23rd. Yuki will hand out the navigation HUDs there. They will take you to Springhurst Gulf, where you can Rez your boats and from where the fleet will set sail.

In an exciting innovation for such a boat rally, the Moles have kindly agreed to place temporary stamp terminals in special buoys along the route. You will be able to pick up unique stamps for your passport as you sail by! These buoys will self-delete at the end of BBB2B so don't miss your chance to collect these rarities!

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Don't worry if you can't make the rally itself. We know that time differences get in the way sometimes. You can pick up a navigation HUD at the Bellisseria Fairgrounds from the Information Centre or the temporary Embassy. You can then sail the route at any time before the buoys self-delete on January 31st when BBB2B ends.

The stamp locations will not appear in the Online Travel Guide, so sailing the route is the only way to obtain them.

Here are a couple of examples of the special stamps by way of a taster.

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During the tour you will learn some interesting facts about the history and background of the places en route as you sail towards the opening party at the Bellisseria Fairgrounds.

Your editor is particularly looking forward to hearing an explanation of the fascinating phenomenon of the Bellisserian drift ice! However many times he sails by, he is always surprised to see it in what seem to be mild weather latitudes.

Another special attraction at BBB2B is an exhibition called The Art of Travel, which features works by well-known SL artists Michiel Bechir, Sisi Biedermann, Melu, Bif Mopp & Amanda Tomasoa (aka AmandaT Tamatzui in SL). The exhibition is curated by AmandaT and your friendly Gazette Editor Dave. It is set in a snowscape so wrap up warm! If you are an SL Time Lord, you'll find that the art of time travel is also possible. Set your Tardis's navigation coordinates to "BBB2B Art Exhibit" to land at the exhibition.

In addition to the scheduled programme there will be "fringe" events popping up from time to time. For example our own dear Teresa Firelight will organise two Send Your Friends a Postcard workshops at the deck next to the BBB2B post office. They will be on Thursday from 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM SLT and on Friday from 11 AM - 12 Noon SLT. If you're not yet familiar with the BBB Postal Service, this will be a great opportunity to get to know how it works.

We are excited about all of the events at BBB2B. It's an ambitious programme and we hope to see as many of you there as possible. We plan to party hard to celebrate two years in which we have issued hundreds of passports, licences and registrations and issued visa stamps for 300 SL locations in Bellisseria and beyond. The 300th stamp, in fact, is the one you can collect at BBB2B itself! To be honest, that took some bureaucratic planning to achieve, but it's an index of our success that we originally intended to issue the 200th stamp at the event!

You can also collect stamps from personal passport controls by BBB Bureaucrats and Bellisseria Diplomats at the event. Watch out for us carrying our SSiDs – Single Stamp Issuing Devices – in the form of tablet computers. Click on them while wearing your Passport HUD and we will apply a personal stamp with our own logo and signature. These are ONLY available at BBB2B so be sure to collect them all.

There are nineteen personal stamps to collect from: Boo, Beeb, Dave, Fi, Ghost, Midnight, North, Pru, Sun, Zoe, Yukiko, Freddie, Charley, Sylvalin, Bijoux, Coal, Jack, Teresa and AmandaT. If you're shy, you can click and run, but we hope to get to chat to as many of you as possible. It's nice to get to know the citizens we serve for their fun - and ours!

By the way, if you don't have a Bellisseria Passport, you don't need to miss out on the fun of collecting the special stamps available at BBB2B. A special HUD will be available for you to use.

If you are a Bellisseria resident (or the officially-registered partner of a resident) you can later trade the special HUD in for the real thing. Our staff will transfer the stamps on it to your shiny new passport when your application has been approved!

You can pick up the special HUD from the info centre and embassy notice boards at the Fairgrounds.

SANSARA EMBASSY OPENS

Opening Ceremony

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Bellisseria is finally represented on the old continent, Sansara, where Second Life® began. On Wednesday 19th January at 12 noon SLT Abnor Mole presented the keys of the embassy to Her Excellency Yukiko Yeshto, saying;

Welcome to Sansara.... the cradle of our virtual civilisation. Nearly two decades have passed since shock waves from Da Boom echoed across the grid and we have spent much of that time watching and riding the tsunami it initiated. We've watched the grid grow and evolve and we have grown and evolved with it. Many things have changed since those early days. That's what happens as things evolve. But as much as they change they also stay the same. The lessons of that evolution seem to prove something very important. "Build it and they will come?" Yes... but how will they get there and why will they stay?

We built roads and bridges to connect a continent. We built Bellisseria to connect those continents. And now we build these embassies to connect the communities on those continents. For the truth of the matter is (whether you like it or not) we are all ONE community.... one big, scary, sometimes dysfunctional community. Exploration leads to connections. Connections lead to friendships. Friendships lead to community. No one knows more about the importance of exploring than Yukiko. We wish her the best of luck on her new expedition into the stormy seas and uncharted waters of intercontinental diplomacy.

She is going to need it... for here there be dragons. (no, really... actual dragons). And with that I declare this Embassy open.

Accepting the key from Abnor, the new Honorary Ambassador responded with a speech in which she announced that one of her main focuses will be organising tours to encourage community connections and build friendships.

I am happy to announce that such tour events are not only already planned but actually scheduled. In the context of the grand BBB anniversary festivities, we will host a boat rally tour this Sunday, January 23. Today's Embassy Opening has a special twist. Instead of a ballroom dance, I decided that I wanted to give you a little idea what awaits you in regard of hosted tours. I invite you to follow me over to the entrance to hop on the bus that will bring us to the Snowlands of Sansara. We will also be able to collect some of the recently released stamps. I hope, you didn't forget to bring your passports! -- And as soon as I turn the bus keys, this marks my official declaration that the embassy is opened!

After inviting her guests to add the new Sansara entry visa stamp to their passports, she led them to the bus park outside. Acting as both driver and guide and with two other buses in convoy, she took her passengers to Cape Blanco Truck Stop & Café, the Bridge of Light, Chalet Linden and the Kanin Chairlift – pausing at each for them to stamp their passports! It was a fun, funny and delightfully sociable experience.

Good friend of the BBB – all-round good egg Becca Ordinary – wrote about the trip at her BBB-licensed publication, The SLuggle. Gemma Cleanslate of long-running virtual newspaper the SL Newser published a more comprehensive account, which really gives a good "feel" for what fun it all was!

Sansara Bus Tour

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The tour was a good taste of the many delights the Old Continent has to offer and we look forward to many more in future.

Additional Photos © Margo Heartsong

SATORI EMBASSY WILL OPEN DURING BBB2B

Bellissaria's final embassy to Mainland SL will open as part of the Ambassadors Day programme during BBB2B. The formal event will be at 12 noon SLT on Wednesday, January 26th day . Watch out for the official invitation in BBBug, Bellisseria Citizens and our other usual group channels. Alternatively you can pick one up at the temporary embassy building at BBB2B itself.

The key ceremony will be preceded at 11am SLT by a Meet & Greet at the Satori Embassy with H.E. Bijoux Barr. H.E. Yuki will be organising a Bus Tour to arrive at that time. After the Embassy Opening at 12 noon SLT, there will be a short tour around the embassy and then guests will be directed to a teleporter to the Dance Garden at the Bellisseria Fairgrounds for an After-Party featuring a special performance by famed SL composer and musician Bsukmet. If you don't know his music already, you are in for a treat! Your editor is both his friend and his fan.

Her Excellency Bijoux looks forward to welcoming you to her embassy, which completes our diplomatic representation to the rest of SL. Our still-new continent now connects the mainland continents geographically and we at the BBB hope our corps diplomatique can help bring SL together in other ways too.

WELCOME NEW BUREAUCRAT AMANDAT TAMATZUI

The newest member of our staff is artist AmandaT Tamatzui, who will be assisting Sun in the design of future passport stamps and other art/design endeavours. We welcome her to our shiny-trousered, paper-pushing band of virtual apparatchiks! Please make a point of saying "hi" to her if you see her around BBB2B.

NEW STAMP LOCATIONS

There are many new stamps to collect as from tomorrow, but they're not all at locations. They are mobile stamps issued by Bellisseria's diplomats and the BBB's bureaucrats from SSiDs. These are tablet computers we will be carrying during BBB2B at the Bellisseria Fairgrounds that will apply a personal, signed passport control stamp when you click on them.

You can also collect the event stamp from BBB2B, which is the 300th passport stamp we've issued. You can get your entry visa to the Old Continent, Sansara, from our new embassy there.

Finally, there's a wonderful build to explore at No Excuses. Check it out and collect the new stamp.

BBB2B Event Stamp (January 23rd to January 31st)
No Excuses, PE
Sansara Embassy, SN

Posted by Dave at 08:01 AM in Art, Second Life | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jeogeot Embassy Open | Final two embassy openings soon | BBB2B | New Visa Stamps

01/15/2022

BELLISSERIAN EMBASSY TO JEOGEOT OPENS

The official opening of Bellisseria's Embassy to the mainland SL contintent of Jeogeot (sometimes called "the Korean Continent") took place on Wednesday 12th Jan at 11:50 PM SLT. Abnor Mole was unable to attend at that hour, so Boo Rojyo, Founder and CEO of the Bellisserian Bureau of Bureaucracy presented the keys to the embassy to Her Excellency Charley Mayne, saying;

I know Abnor Mole would have liked to have been with us today but even Moles need their sleep. I know he wishes Charley well in her duties as the Honorary Ambassador for Jeogeot.

Jeogeot, at the furthest South of SL, is a starting and an end point for many in their travels through our continents. As a direct neighbour of Bellisseria I do encourage Bellisserians to see more of this large and varied continent, and likewise the residents of Jeogeot to visit their recent neighbour too.

I myself have lived in Jeogeot and was surprised to find that my home on the northern tip of the continent was actually further North than some parts of Bellisseria! For the intrepid amongst you there's possibly some point in Tully Low to begin that epic journey to the Western reaches of Gaeta. The BBB really must make a medal for that feat!

After Boo declared the Embassy open and presented the key, H.E. Charley responded;

It is a delight and an honour to receive this key and formally begin my service as Ambassador to the continent of Jeogeot. It is a pleasure to have the opportunity to bring people together, whoever and whatever they are, wherever they live: when all's said and done, we are all Residents.

Much like northern neighbour Bellisseria, people of all descriptions have thrived here, and I have seen first-hand what a dazzling array of places have been created. From the urbanisation of the north to the vast open plains of the south, there is room for every kind of Resident to find somewhere they can call home.

In fact, when I first came to Jeogeot a year ago to ride on a narrow-gauge railway, I didn't even know where I was. But since then, I've found myself coming back, riding the pod cars, driving along Wellington Road, visiting airports, finding something else to see every time I've been here.

But, as we all know, speeches should be short. So, ladies, gentlemen, and friends beyond the binary, let's head inside and start the party!

As has become the custom for these events, the ceremony was followed by a formal but fun Grand Ball at which the assembled dignitaries celebrated the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two continents with dance and lively conversation. The formal portraits of H.E. Charley in the photo gallery below were taken by one of our staff photographers, but we are grateful to H.E. Fiona Jogiches, AmandaT Tamatzui and our CEO himself, for their photos from the event itself. AmandaT took many more photographs of the event and you can see them in her Flickr Photostream.

Opening Ceremony & Ball: Jeogeot Embassy

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REMAINING EMBASSIES OPEN SOON!

Bellisseria's Embassy to the Old Continent, Sansara, officially opens on the 19th of January and the Embassy to Satori – the Japanese Continent – will open on January 26th.

Both of those events begin at noon SLT. The key to each of those embassies will be presented by Abnor Mole.

There will be the usual formal ball after the opening of the Satori embassy, but the Sansara opening ceremony will be followed instead by a one hour bus tour beginning outside the embassy gates. Your driver and guide will be the Honorary Ambassador herself, Her Excellency Yuki Yeshto. Details can be seen on the poster above (as usual, click to see full-size).

Please watch out for your official invitations to both of these events from the BBBug and other groups. We hope to see you all there!

BBB2B

Preparations continue apace for the celebrations of the BBB's second birthday (BBB2B) at the Bellisseria Fairgrounds. The party will run from January 23rd to February 1st and will open on the 23rd with a boat rally and DJ dance event, followed by a grand Opening Ball and fireworks. The full schedule of events will be published in the next edition of the Gazette and will include (among many other things) an art exhibition on the theme of travel.

NEW LOCATIONS

There are only three new locations this week where you can collect visa stamps for your Bellisserian Passport. This is the calm before the BBB2B storm, where you will able to collect not just the event stamp, but personal stamps from all BBB staff and Bellisserian Ambassadors! Also, to be honest, we are holding a few stamps back so that the Event Stamp for BBB2B can be the 300th issued!

The entry visa for Jeogeot is now available from the newly-opened embassy. There's also a new addition to our list of many travel hubs - an airport and marina. Finally there's a limited-edition stamp for the Winter Wonderland Ice Skating event, which runs from January 20th to March 3rd.

Jeogeot Embassy
Branwen Airport & Marina
Winter Wonderland Ice Skating

Posted by Dave at 08:01 AM in Second Life | Permalink | Comments (0)

Happy New Year from the BBB | BBB2B | Reach out and Touch | Gaeta Embassy Opens | All other embassies to open soon | New Locations

01/08/2022

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM THE BELLISSERIAN BUREAU OF BUREAUCRACY

We are back from our break to wish all our readers a very happy New Year. We have big plans for 2022 and look forward to involving as many of you as possible.

If you have qualifying friends without a Bellisseria Passport, we hope it will be one of your New Year Resolutions to take them to our HQ. All they have to do is fill out the simple form. This movie, shot at our previous HQ, will guide them through the process.

It's all just for fun of course. You don't need our passports to travel or our driving licences (and vehicle registrations) to drive but users seem to love the concept. Many say it encourages them to explore and find places they'd never otherwise see – not just in our home continent of Bellisseria, but across the whole SL Grid.

If you enjoy it, please encourage your Belli friends to share the fun.

BBB2B

The Bellisserian Bureau of Bureaucracy was founded two years ago this month, when the first passport was issued by our founder to our founder! This month, at the Bellisserian Fairgrounds, we will celebrate that second birthday - BBB2B. Of course, the event will be commemorated with a special visa stamp for your Bellisserian Passport. By happy coincidence (not) it will be the 300th stamp. How many of them do you have?

All our staff and all members of Bellisseria's Diplomatic Corps will be carrying SSiDs (single stamp issuing devices) in the form of tablet computers. Visitors to BBB2B will be able to collect individual signed stamps via a personal passport inspection. We've been having fun devising suitable images to feature on our personal stamps. They will be revealed at BBB2B and will only be available there.

We thought you'd be amused by this behind-the-scenes image from the photo-shoot for your editor's stamp!Dave thought Mercury - wing-footed messenger of the Ancient Roman Gods - would be a suitable emblem for his role in BBB communication!

BBB2B will run from January 23rd to February 1st, 2022. It will open on the 23rd with a boat rally and DJ dance event, followed by a grand Opening Ball and fireworks. Watch the Gazette in the coming weeks for more details of the planned events.

Make sure you have room for all the stamps! If you haven't obtained the latest HUD for your passport, now would be a good time to go to our headquarters to pick it up!

REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOMEONE

Remember the old AT&T jingle that goes Reach Out and Touch Someone? Well, let's make this our motto in Bellisseria for 2022. It is amazingly easy to do.

When you are at your Belli home, if you see someone on the Nearby tab (People window), try IMing them and saying “hi”. It is really simple to do and most people love to get this type of IM.

For example, the other day I was at my Trad home and saw someone on nearby. I cammed to them and discovered they were only 2 houses away. So I sent them a simple IM:

Howdy. I am your neighbor (two houses down) and I just wanted to say Hello. I think we have both lived here for a while, but this is the first time that we have happened to both be online at the same time. I’m glad that our paths finally crossed.

Or if someone new moves to the neighbourhood and I see them on nearby chat, I say something like this:

Hi there, my name is Teresa and I am one of your neighbors. I see that you have just moved here and I wanted to welcome you to the neighbourhood.

In case you did not know this, you can do an About Land on their parcel and look at the General tab. Near the bottom, it will tell you when the home was claimed, which gives you an idea if they are new or have been there a long time. If the date is near today’s date, they are newish. If the date is from 2019, they have been there for a very long time.

Most people love to get this type of friendly greeting and usually respond in kind. Often it leads to interesting chats. Sometimes they want to friend you. Sometimes it leads to long term lasting friendships. I met one of my best friends in SL this way. We were immediate neighbours on Pier Stilts and I happened to greet her. We started chatting and found we had a lot in common. We continued chatting and got to know each other very well and our friendship grew.

Sometimes you run into people who really want to connect to others in SL but have no clue how to do that. That is when you can tell them about the BBB and all the fun activities it offers. Also tell them about the Bellisseria Citizens because their friendly group chats are another awesome way to meet people.

Anyhow, I encourage you to be proactive – make 2022 the year we Bellisserians reach out and touch our neighbours.

REPORT ON OPENING OF GAETA EMBASSY

The Key Ceremony

click to enlarge and scroll | All photos by Teresa Firelight

The Key Handover Ceremony at Bellisseria's new embassy to the mainland continent of Gaeta took place last Wednesday. Abnor Mole did the honours, handing the key to our new Honorary Ambassador Fiona Jogiches, after making this speech;

What can we say about Gaeta? The kidney bean of mainland. I once had a home in Gaeta and one of my fondest memories was sailing and being able to circumnavigate the entire continent with lovely wide beaches and sandy green hills in the interior reminding me of a tropical island.

At the furthest point of the contiguous mainland, it is the starting point of the adventurous wishing to embark on a challenge to go from the one end of SL to the other.

Fiona is embarking on her own challenge of sorts, to be a beacon guiding residents of Bellisseria and Gaeta to one another and avoid the rocky shoals of drama, bringing them together in the spirit of mutual understanding and admiration. It is no small task indeed, and we wish her the best. And so... I declare this embassy open and, Fiona, I present you with the key.

Her Excellency Fiona responded;

Firstly I would like to thank Abnor Mole for opening the fourth Bellisserian Embassy here today. I will be honored to be the Honorary Ambassador here on Gaeta V and Gaeta I and look forward to meeting and working with the community. Gaeta is one of the lesser known continents and it will be my pleasure to do what I can to raise its profile in Bellisseria and SL generally.. When not working here you can find me in my deep sea diving suit at Squall Public Beach (free suits provided by a well known celebrity.

Secondly I would like to thank you all for coming and welcome you to look around the Embassy and collect the latest Passport Stamp. We have dancing and champagne in our separate Embassy Ballroom to the rear of the Embassy.

After the speeches were over, the assembled dignitaries retired to the embassy's splendid separate ballroom, where much virtual booze and a classic music playlist animated much virtual dancing. There was a lot of sparkling conversation to which the Bellisseria Slenderman contributed – as usual – only by his stimulating presence. Your editor was more than usually un-nerved by the Slenderman's appearance at the ball as he's working on his tax returns at present and Slendie always reminds him of his tax inspector. Brrrr.

Don't forget to click and scroll through our photo galleries. There are more images than you see in the previews. If you would like to see all of our own dear Teresa's splendid photographs of the occasion, you can find her galleries on Flickr here and here.

The new Ambassador told the Gazette afterwards;

I am really looking forward to mixing with the local community and chatting with them about the Gaeta Embassy, its purpose, the BBB and Bellisseria.

If you couldn't make the event, we hope you'll visit the new embassy soon and get to know this continent better.

Grand Opening Ball

click to enlarge and scroll | Photos by Teresa Firelight | Additional Photo by Dave

ALL REMAINING BELLISSERIAN EMBASSIES WILL OPEN THIS MONTH!

Mark your diaries, get your evening wear dry cleaned and bag yourself a glamorous date! Following on from this week's opening of our embassy to Gaeta, all remaining Bellisserian Embassies to SL's Mainland continents will open this month. Given that BBB2B and its many events are also in January, we hope you will agree that the BBB is getting 2022 off to a highly-sociable start!

Mr. Beeb remarked that we'd save a fortune on alcohol as so many people have a Dry January detox after the holidays. Such cynicism! We assure you that the pixellated bubbly will flow freely so prepare for a virtual hangover. Don't forget that all SL food is not only meat-free but calorie-free. To be fair, SL dancing doesn't burn any calories either, but you can't have everything.

Her Excellency Charley Mayne will welcome her first guests to the new Embassy to Jeogeot at Midnight SLT on Wednesday 12th Jan. We hope this will allow some people from different time zones to attend. H.E. Yukiko Yeshto's Embassy to the Old Continent, Sansara, officially opens on the 19th of January. H.E. Bijoux Barr's duties as Hon. Ambassador to Satori will begin with the opening of our embassy to the Japanese Continent on January 26th – actually during BBB2B. Both of those events start at noon SLT.

Abnor Mole will attend all three events [STOP PRESS: correction — he won’t be able to come to the Jeogeot opening after all because of the time zone issue] to present the keys of the new embassies on behalf of our dear Moles. We hope to see as many of you there as possible. As usual, evening wear (tuxes/DJs, ballgowns/national dress/dress uniforms) are recommended but not required.

The Gazette interviewed H.E. Bijoux Barr, Hon. Ambassador to his home continent of Satori, in advance of her opening and she said;

In my SL exploring, Satori is the continent I spent most time. Driving along its roads and discovering wonderful builds is very relaxing. Sailing along the coast and seeing so many hubs, airports and seaports brings a whole new sense of adventure. It has many RP, art and music communities and even our very own Mole Village! It's an honour and a privilege to represent this vibrantly rich continent to our beloved Bellisseria and vice-versa.

Please watch out in the BBBug group for your official invitations. We hope to see you all there. Even if we do say so ourselves, for a bureaucracy the BBB throws a pretty good party!

NEW LOCATIONS

We have three new LDPW locations this week. To hell with Dry January - two of them are inns. In the Meauxle Bureau complex in Satori is Ye Olde Abnor Mole Pub. We assume that Ye Olde refers to the pub, rather than the gent himself. As you will have seen at recent embassy openings, Abnor is quite a youthful-looking chap!

In Nautilus, there is the End of the Line Inn. There's a sign outside that will give you its interesting back story before coming into LDPW ownership. The third location is a beach, which – along with End of the Line Inn (above), Seven Chickens Bridge and Dead Moles Curve – completes all the Route 14 Landmarks in Nautilus.

Our fourth location is a Sansaran roadside facility: The Cape Blanco Truck Stop & Café, which bills itself as;