New Jeogeot Ambassador | Licence Plate Renewals | Birth of a Group Gift | Mt Campion Guided Tour Today | Spelunker's Stamp | Events & Announcements

New Jeogeot Ambassador | Licence Plate Renewals | Birth of a Group Gift | Mt Campion Guided Tour Today | Spelunker's Stamp | Events & Announcements | New Locations

10/01/2022

NEW AMBASSADOR APPOINTED TO JEOGEOT

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Her Excellency Jezebel Bailey (known to all as Bel) as Honorary Ambassador to the Second Life® Continent of Jeogeot. She takes office immediately.

Bel used to run the offices of the BBB so is well known to many of our readers. Her former colleagues are delighted to see "one of our own" honoured in this way and are happy to have her back among us in her new role.

The Diplomatic List has been updated and the Embassy has been fitted out. Welcome Your Excellency and good luck in all your diplomatic efforts!

BELLISSERIA LICENCE PLATE RENEWALS

The licence plates for SL motor vehicles issued by our Traffic Department (BBBTD) are valid for one calendar year. Please always apply for a new one before year end. We don't want anyone driving illegally and giving Mr. Beeb the chance to call the police! Please apply in good time as BBBTD has only one employee.

We also have big news about the plates. We plan to give them a total new look each year, beginning with 2023. The design has been the same for some time now, using the pretty Bellisseria Citizens Group logo. So we decided on a makeover to provide citizens with the chance to collect a new design every year. The new plates will also feature the name of your home region.

We know some of you love to play Game of Homes so must limit you to a maximum of two plates per year, allowing for one change of address. There is no prison in Bellisseria to which we can outsource the production of licence plates and we don't want to over-work our solo bureaucrat. She is, after all, a volunteer. So choose your region of residence carefully!

You can apply from today for the new 2023 plates. We have adjusted our application forms so you can indicate if you want this year's plate or next. Our one-person production team will make sure all applicants receive their 2023 plates in time. If you don't have your 2022 plate yet, with the original design, then be sure to apply soon. They will no longer be available once the year ends. All plates are sent out as a full perm texture, for your own personal use.

Article and Photograph by Zoo Suki, BBB Traffic Department

BIRTH OF A GROUP GIFT

I lived in Bellisseria almost from the beginning. I had a home there that changed whenever a new theme was released. After a while, I tired of the Game of Homes. I had the crazy idea of building a bigger place on Mainland, with fun things to do for all to enjoy. So, after spending all my land allowance on my ongoing Angel Canyon build, I found myself without a Bellisseria home.

There I was – a respected BBB bureaucrat – homeless in Belli. I moved from one bridge to another when the weather was good and crashed at friends' homes when it was cold outside. I think I was the only BBB official without a Bellisseria home. I had been staying for quite a while at Boo and Fiona's when, early one morning Boo stormed in. He kicked me off their couch and said;

Have you seen the news? Linden Labs released Premium Plus!

He hastily stuffed my scattered personal belongings into my backpack, which he put out on the front porch. He shoved a piece of paper in my hand with the address of an internet café, told me to go see what it was all about, escorted me to my pack and closed the door behind me.

What the @*!% just happened? I stood on the porch, rubbing my sleepy eyes and looking at the paper in my hand. Oh well, I thought, it couldn't hurt to take a look. I was overdue for a cup of coffee anyway so off I went to the internet café.

Pretty soon, steaming hot coffee in hand, I was reading up on the perks of Premium Plus. Upgrading not only meant free uploads for all the stamp textures I make but – yay! – an additional 1024 square metres of land. Not only could I look for the perfect home in the perfect place, I wouldn't have to play Game of Homes. As a Premium Pluser, I could put in a request for the vacant home I wanted!

It would be nice to have a Belli home again and I knew exactly where to start looking! When visiting the Sakura Community Center in the Shobu region to design its passport stamp, I had fallen in love with the Asian theme. The beautiful surroundings, serenity and peacefulness of the regions around Mount Sojisan stole my heart, I began my search there.

After touring a few regions house by house, I began to think that there must be an easier way. I rang North, the BBB's Chief Scripter, to ask if a script could detect vacant parcels in Bellisseria. His positive response and a lot of clever work on his part led to the birth of our lateest BBBug group gift – the HomeFinder HUD (available now at BBB HQ)

With this nifty new gizmo on my screen I went back to my search. In each region I visited, every vacant plot now appeared in my local chat with a SLURL to take me there!

It didn't take long to find a little spot by the canal. With views of Mount Sojisan and surrounded by blossoming sakura trees, it had a boat rez zone in front and a vehicle rez zone behind. It was perfect!

I quickly opened the Linden Lab support ticket system and made a house request. I had to wait a while – hoping that no GoH player would beat me to it – but LL contacted me within 24 hours. The land was put in my name and I'm a Belli resident once again. It's good to be home!

Article and Photographs by Sun (Dark Sunflower)

MT CAMPION RANGER-GUIDED TOUR TODAY (1ST OCTOBER)

Today (October 1st) at 9am SLT there will be a guided tour of Mount Campion National Forest. It will be led by Ranger Hex Shining North Star and other Mt Campion rangers. The tour will begin here and is expected to last about 90 minutes. Please try to arrive 10 minutes early if possible.

This is the park’s Main Tour. It takes you to 50 locations in the park, including serene trails, scenic lakes, streams, waterfalls, etc. It also ventures briefly into Mt Campion’s massive underground cave system. It addition, for BBB and CPCB passport holders, there are two stamps you can collect during this tour. Bring your hiking boots, because you will be doing a lot of walking.

Ranger Hex will provide information in both SL Voice and in local chat. Most people find it easier to listen via SL Voice so they don't have to read local chat as they walk -- but hearing SL Voice is not entirely necessary.

This tour was offered once before, on July 30^th, when Honorary Ambassador Dariah Raynier arranged a special tour of Mount Campion National Forest. The Rangers thought her idea was so good that they decided to keep offering this tour. If you are unable to make the scheduled tour time, there is also a self-guided version of the tour that you can do on your own. The self-guided tour starts from the same location as Saturday’s Ranger-guided tour.

Mount Campion National Forest is over 240,000 sq meters of park land connected over seven sims. Mount Campion is the highest mountain in SL. Mount Campanula is the second highest and both are in the park, which has miles of trails, caves, canyons, lakes, streams and waterfalls, and an abundance of beautiful scenery. It is definitely worth coming to it and checking it out.

Article and Photo by Ranger Teresa Firelight

SPECIAL SPELUNKER'S STAMP

Avid readers will remember my announcement in the 17th September edition of the collaborative Spelunker's Map project. This is a simple way of charting the huge cave system beneath Mt. Campion in the Campanula, Spinach, and Highflyer regions.

The idea is crowdsource a map from contributions by adventurers exploring there using the SL coordinate system. The manual for the project is here.

As an incentive for contributors, I created a rare stamp for your passport that is bound to be a much sought-after item. To win it, you'll need to add at least ten new forking points and connecting paths in any one of the four maps. There will be no other way to obtain this very special stamp!

Article and Picture by Robert Rhodan

EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

If you have one of our stamp terminals at your place and you're having an event there or would like to make any other announcement, just let us know and we'd be happy to feature it here. Please drop a notecard on the Editor Dave (Lord.Junibalya) in-world or use the Email the Editor link in the sidebar to send us your information, posters or photos.

If you'd like to promote The Gazette at your venue, you're welcome to ask the Editor for our special newsstand, which takes up just 3LI. Just click on it for a link to the latest edition in your web browser. Here you can see it in the library at SL Vegan HQ.

The Nature Collective's Fall Hunt starts today, October 1st, and will run to the end of the month. We are also hosting a photography contest to run from October 1st-21st, with cash prizes of 5500L, 3500L, and 2000L for First, Second and Third place, respectively.

Winners, and an honorable mention, will be displayed at CK's Corner - Guest Gallery from November through December. Any of the sims in the Fall Hunt are eligible for the contest.

Our website has a wealth of information about our many wonderful member regions, news, and more.

The Nature Collective was created with the goal of cultivating a community around regions, spaces and projects which share a common focus on nature. It is our hope to foster a movement to help people engage and reconnect with the wonder and joy of nature, in the virtual world and beyond.

It is a pleasure to work with you to help spread our message and bring awareness of the importance of preserving Nature in all spaces.

Please feel free to contact me, Kes (Kestrel.Evergarden), should you need any further information.

We've featured several special tours and events at Mount Campion National Park of late. Thanks to Ranger Hex, here are the details of the regular weekly events held there. There's a strong community in the wilds of this park. One of its residents told The Gazette

There's more going on in this natural wilderness than in many small towns!

So check out an event or two and make new friends in one of SL's great natural environments.

MT. CAMPION NATL PARK SCHEDULE
EVENT	DAY	TIME (SLT)	SLURL
Feel good Sunday	Sunday	10am - 12 noon	Garden
Ballet Monday	Monday	10am - 11 am	The Nature Center
Game day	Tuesday	10am - 11 am	Maggie's Farm \| The Cavern
Spa Day	Wednesday	10am - 12 noon	Mt Campion Spa
Movie Day	Thursday	10am - 12 noon	Indigo Lake Amphitheater
Bowling Day	Friday	10am - 12 noon	The Cavern Club
Belly Dancing	Saturday	11am - 12 noon	The Shack
The Cavern Club Saturday	Saturday	1pm - 3pm	The Cavern Club

NEW LOCATIONS

We have three relocated stamp terminals this week. The details are below.

Sometimes stamp-issuing locations are closed or terminals removed without the owners notifying us. We can only apologise if you are ever disappointed in your search for a stamp. If it happens, please let our colleague Robert Rhodan know by way of an IM or notecard in-world so that he can update the Gazette Online Travel Guide and the StaFi HUD accordingly. It will spare your fellow passport-holders the same disappointment. Thank you in advance for your help with this.