Building Community – Freddie Harrington | Embassy Opening in CDS | Out & About | Events & Announcements | New Locations
04/29/2023
BUILDING COMMUNITY – FREDDIE HARRINGTON
This is the fifth and final instalment of our Building Community series. We have looked at some of the people who help us build community and connect with each other. This is not an exhaustive list, but we have covered the Bellisseria Citizens chat group (founded by Gingir Ghoststar), Special Events by the Hammies, the Bellisserian Birthday Events (by PrudenceAnton) and DJ Far’s weekly Friday parties.
There is one more person I want to add to this list: the BBB’s own Freddie Harrington. Freddie is Ambassador to Nautilus, but he is so much more than that. He is a DJ and frequently throws dance parties at various locations in Bellisseria. He also organises vehicle tours in Bellisseria and elsewhere. His main objective is to have fun and get everyone else having fun along with him.
It's a great way to build community, so I hunted Freddie down and asked him a few questions:
Could you please tell us a bit about yourself?
My Real Life name is Freddie. I like boating, driving and flying in SL as well as exploring all the new places I find from The Gazette's passport stamp location listings. I like to have fun and dance, and I am a DJ. I am the BBB ambassador to Nautilus. In addition, I like to help people here.
I understand that you organise some kind of rallies. Could you tell us a little bit about them? How did you get started organising them?
My SL sister Dulcinea and I decided to start a new parade group to replace the (sadly) now defunct Bellisseria Boat Parade group. We decided we would make routes for different vehicles, not just boats. and not just in Bellisseria. Also, we schedule them a bit later in the SL day to appeal to more people in world. We also don't have any regular schedule so it's all done on the fly! we usually have a little dance afterwards too – because I love to DJ and love to dance.
Please share how you become a DJ or what gave you the idea of DJing?
In real life I used to DJ at various bowling alleys on a Friday and Saturday night. So, I thought it might be nice to play some music here too. I just play music, I don't chat but I think that appeals to some people. I mainly play pop and dance and some cheesy stuff but people seem to have fun.
I mainly do some of the events at the fairgrounds, sometimes at Bellboy's house, and frequently at the community spaces in Bellisseria. I really enjoy seeing people have a good time.
How often do you end up DJing at assorted Bellisseria locations?
Very frequently. Sometimes I randomly decide to do a party out of nowhere. I just get the urge to do it and go with that urge. My favourite places to DJ are at Campwich Community Center and The Drunken Mouse.
Do you have a favorite type of music? If so, what is it?
80s and 90s pop and dance. Also, some 60s and some 70s disco. I am not a huge fan of modern stuff. I do like my cheese as well.
What is your favourite thing about Bellisseria?
Oh, the community is number one! The fact you can drive from one side to the other uninterrupted is a close second. I also love the flying and the sailing is pretty nice here too.
Is there anything else you would like to share?
Yes! I'm so excited about the new Belli hub – it's awesome! The beach and the bowling are spot on. and I look forward to playing some music there.
Article and Photo by Teresa Firelight
EMBASSY OPENING IN CDS
There was a large attendance last Sunday at the opening party for the Bellisserian Embassy to the Confederation of Democratic Simulators (CDS).
The event took place in the MarktPlatz (Market Square) at Neufreistadt, outside the Rathaus (City Hall), where the Embassy is based. There was much to celebrate as the CDS – SL's oldest democracy – joined Bellisseria and the Mainland Continents in issuing passports based on BBB (Bellisserian Bureau of Bureaucracy) technology. Now its citizens can join those of the rest of our virtual world in collecting unique and hand-crafted passport stamps as they explore.
Moon Adamant, Chancellor of the CDS welcomed the guests and Jezebel Bailey, CEO of the BBB, congratulated the citizens of Bellisseria and the CDS on their new cooperation. Sandy Burgess, accepted her appointment and was officially installed as the new ambassador.
The event is reported in more detail by journalist Gemma Cleanslate over at the SL Newser. Gemma has promised her readers more reports from the CDS as she explores all of its regions in future.
OUT & ABOUT
Teresa Firelight's excellent article on the history of Bellisseria was reproduced in full with her permission as part of an article by Gemma Cleanslate on the Linden Continent's 4th Anniversary in the SL Newser.
Your editor would like to congratulate Teresa on a wider readership for her work and the SL Newser for its excellent taste! Erudite Teresa, starship captain, park ranger and BBB official, is a regular contributor to The Gazette on a wide variety of topics. She also writes about SL interior design for our sister publication, Parade of Homes Review.
EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
Passport Collecting tour by seaplane!
Your host is Yukiko Yeshto. We will meet up at the BBB Headquarters in Swordfish from where we will start our tour by seaplane. This is subject to alteration, depending on the actual number of tour participants. It's important for a comfortable trip to detach any unnecessary HUDs, attachments and scripts to avoid issues with region crossings.
Stamps can be collected by everyone! Whether you are a Bellisserian, mainland resident, CDS citizen, private island-dweller or even homeless, everyone can have a passport! Visit the info corner at BBB HQ and find out how to obtain yours. Stamps are transferable between different V3.00 passports now, so if you need to wait for your application in Bellisseria or the CDS to be processed you can get a temporary generic passport at any Embassy (SLURLs in The Gazette side-bar). When you get your permanent passport, the stamps will magically appear from our database.
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An Apology
There was a mix up with the issue of new stamp terminals last week. One terminal was issuing the wrong stamp and another was mistakenly reported as being in place. We work hard every week to check that new locations are correctly announced; reminding and helping new issuers to install the terminals on time. On this occasion, we failed.
The error was entirely that of the BBB and nothing to do with the location owners. We can only apologise to them and to our passport holders.
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Farewell to Robert Rhodan
It has been an honour working for BBB in recent years. I leave with the knowledge that I've found (and kept) many good friends within the BBB team, and am thankful for the kind feedback our clients gave on the tools and stamp designs I made for for the community.We are grateful to Robert for all he has done (and continues to do) for the BBB and wider SL community. We're glad he will continue to help us out and wish him all the very best in his other ventures.*****
StampsOnPP HUD Update
Since last week's scheduled database sync 1,336 additional stamps have been collected by our valued passport-holders, making a total of 21,947 stamps collected on all of the version 3.00 passports. Most passport holders have now upgraded to the latest version and gone through the amusing – but very clever and innovative – process of sitting on their old passport and visa HUDs to transfer the stamps they've collected using their avi's body as a conduit to our database.
However 151 people have yet to upgrade from version 2.00. We invite them to do so soon. It really is a great improvement and much less fiddly to use. The StampsOnPP HUD is available from BBB HQ in Bellisseria.
As of this week, 532 unique stamps have been hand-crafted for our passports – not all of which are still current of course. If you've been with us since the beginning and have been diligently exploring Second Life® with us, here's the Maximum List of what you could have collected.
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The Bellisseria Diplomatic List
In the wake of all the new appointments and the opening of our Embassy to the Confederation of Democratic Simulators, there's an updated list of our Ambassadors in the side-bar. Please feel free to contact your continent's ambassador about your events, news and ideas.
Our embassies are public resources open to all in SL and our ambassadors aim to provide useful information. They may also be happy to post information about your local events too.
NEW LOCATIONS
The Limoncello Art Gallery has opened a new location in the city of Neufreistadt in the Confederation of Democratic Simulators. The Limoncello Kunstgalerie on the MarktPlatz near to the Rathaus is the latest of the gallery's places to issue a unique passport stamp.
The second new location this week is also connected to the Limoncello Art Gallery. New Zealand artist AmandaT Tamatzui (well-known to BBBug users as a designer of our passport stamps) is staging an exhibition at the LG Tower – the largest of the three Limoncello gallery locations. The special event stamp will be available during the exhibition, which will run from 28th April to July 31st this year.
If you are an SL time lord you can land at either of this week's new locations in your HOO or Novatech Tardis. Check out your destination database!
| Limoncello Kunstgalerie PE | ||
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Event: April 28th to July 31st 2023 |
Thanks Boo. Yuki's tours are always great. I was sorry to miss this one, but I had another engagement. It would be great to publish an account of it, if anyone would like to volunteer one.
Posted by: Dave | 05/02/2023 at 07:21 AM
Yuki's stamp collecting tour was great fun and informative, even if it had to be cut a little short. The Sea of Fables area is really interesting.
Posted by: Boo Rojyo | 05/02/2023 at 07:05 AM