Saturday, June 8, 2013

Updated Schedule

We are still fine tuning a few of the times, but here is the current planned schedule:
(all times expressed in SLT/PST)

12 midnight to 2am  Meet and greet Merfolk!
2:00 am:  DJ Wazzas McMilan (Austrailia)
4:00 am:  Designer Showcase*(approx 45 minutes):  Theta Cooperstone (Singapore)
5:00 am:  Designer Showcase*(approx 45 minutes):  Tithis String (Greece)
6:30 am to 8:30 am:  Japanese Dance Event Hosted by Club Mermaid and Shinobics (Japan)
8:30 am to 11:00 am  Meet and Greet the officers of Safe Waters Foundation – the normal time for our regular Saturday gathering is 10 am– in addition to a normal meeting – this will be a chance to meet many of our officers and share your ideas for future growth
11:00 Designer Showcase*:  Zohee Goldshark (approx 45 minutes)
12noon to 2:00 pm  DJ Plastique Munro (UK)
2:00 pm to 3:00 pm Underwater Zoltan Mint (USA) will perform!
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm Introduction to Merfolk Life - Discussion led by GraceSWF Wrigglesworth
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm DJ Shay Sunnyside
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm DJ Cynthia Maine
8:00 pm to 9:00 pm Live Mermaid Performing:  Starrfish Ohmai
9:00 pm to 10:00 pm Live Merman Performing:  Greg (Canada)
10:00 pm to midnight – Meet and greet.  This is a chance to mix and mingle with all merfolk – lets celebrate a successful open house together!

*A designer showcase is when one designer comes to the SWF amphitheater with some merfolk dressed in their designs.  It is a great chance to get a unique view of their style, and then as time allows there will be also be some question and answer discussion as well.  Come and meet these great designers as they showcase some of the different merfolk looks!

Author: GraceSWF Wrigglesworth, SWF Founder

Thursday, June 6, 2013

International Open House 2013

ANNOUNCING OUR 2013 INTERNATIONAL OPEN HOUSE

Safe Waters Foundation is hosting an all day celebration on June 8, 2013 at SWF Headquarters. Because digital mermaids come from all over the world, and therefore from all time zones – we have arranged to have this one very special day where you can find other mermaids and information in your time zone.

Expressing this in terms of Second Life Time (SLT) it starts on Friday June 7th at midnight (which quickly becomes Saturday June 8!!) until midnight on Saturday, June 8th. We presume you can convert this to your time zone. There will be entertainment constantly – always something happening if things go as scheduled. Hopefully you will spread the word across all the international mermaid lovers and they will take this special opportunity to come in and get an introduction to mermaids/mermen and digital mermaids!

We are still fine tuning a few of the times, but here is the current planned schedule:
(all times expressed in SLT)
12 midnight to 2am (currently open – this may end up being “meet and greet” time!
2:00 am to 4:00 am: DJ Wazzas McMilan (Australia)

5:00 am: Designer Showcase*(approx 45 minutes): Tithis String (Greece)
6:30 am to 8:30 am: Japanese Dance Event Hosted by Club Mermaid and Shinobics
8:30 am: Designer Showcase*: Zohee Goldshark (approx 45 minutes)

10:00 am to 11am Meet and Greet the officers of Safe Waters Foundation – this is the normal time for our regular Saturday gathering – in addition to a normal meeting – this will be a chance to meet many of our officers and share your ideas for future growth

12 noon to 2:00 pm DJ Plastique Munro (UK)
2:00 pm to 3:00 pm Underwater Zoltan Mint (USA) will perform!
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm Live Mermaid Performing! Come and hear Porter Paquot (USA)
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm DJ Shay Sunnyside
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm DJ Mick Oxygen
8:00 pm to 9:00 pm Live Mermaid Performing: Starrfish Ohmai
9:00 pm to 10:00 pm Live Merman Performing: Greg (Canada)
10:00 pm to midnight – Meet and greet. This is a chance to mix and mingle with all merfolk – let's celebrate a successful open house together!


**A designer showcase is when one designer comes to the SWF amphitheater with some merfolk dressed in their designs. It is a great chance to get a unique view of their style, and then as time allows there will be also be some question and answer discussion as well. Come and meet these great designers as they showcase some of the different merfolk looks!

Author: GraceSWF Wrigglesworth, SWF Founder

Second Life, Linden, SLurl, and SL are trademarks of Linden Research Inc.
This blog is not affiliated with Second Life or anything else.

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Welcome to Digital Mermaids!

The concept is fairly simple. People adore mermaids. We certainly do and plan to make this a place to further enjoy them. Whether you call in your passion, hobby, or even career – there are a lot of opportunities to enjoy mermaids. We are emphasizing one approach to enjoying mermaids – being a mermaid ONLINE!

You can create a mermaid/merman avatar (or a sea monster if you wish) and explore the underwater world in virtual computer-created worlds. Imagine it – you can be sea creature of your dreams – swim, dance and make friends – in incredibly beautiful and unpolluted waters. Actually in computer worlds, maybe someone will make polluted waters to swim in also – thus far though we’ve not found that creativity expressed – and oh my, forgive us for suggesting it. We are going to start introducing you to the many ways of being an online, virtual mermaid – to coin a term – become digital mermaids! This blog will make it easier to get started and then and hopefully increase the fun as we gain experience This blog is dedicated to the exploration being DIGITAL MERMAIDS.


Terminiology: Merman versus Mermaid
Some clarification is needed right away – we do speak of mermaids as the group, or class/species. Indeed there are male (merman) and female (mermaid) of the species. Mermen exist in all shapes and sizes. The females are called mermaids – so you have the choice of being a merman or a mermaid. When speaking of the entire group – some use mers, merms and we also will also use mermaids here. So when speaking of mermaids we are probably not referring to only the females, but to the entire population. We will not nitpit and use them all interchangeably. So I guess if you want to refer to just one gender of us – you’ll have to be specific. So forgive us as we stumble bravely forward – you will see us referring to mermaids mostly but occasionally mers or merms. Lets just try to go with the flow for now

Virtual Worlds in the Internet?
There are, of course, multiple platforms, on which you can start your digital mermaid experience. One has to start somewhere, and we are starting this blog by focusing on one - the Second Life world.

Starting in Second Life Virtual World
Go to secondlife.com and you can download the free software. It is free to log in and choose an avatar in Second Life. And there is a lot of help there for getting started in Second Life. Use the help resources there. Hopefully we’ll get a guest blogger to write a better introduction into the second life platform soon. But for now – be independent and creative – the second life platform is very user-friendly. This blog is more concerned with helping you find the mermaid world.

Finding the Mermaid World in Second Life
2013 Sand and Sea Expo

Okay, you've arrived in Second Life with legs, arms and hopefully some clothes. Fortunately for you, the mermaids of Second Life have been working for some time to create a friendly place for you to transform yourself into a mermaid, and then to find others of the species and discover all the fun things to do and gorgeous places to visit. I helped start a group in second life called Safe Waters Foundation. Many have contributed, but at this point you need to know that it has developed to be really the best resource for getting started as a mermaid/merman. First goal for you is to find the Safe Waters Foundation Headquarters.

There are several ways to arrive at headquarters:
1. Try this Second Life URL (SLURL for short): http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mermaids%20of%20Phantasien/120/123/3

To use the SLURL inworld – you copy and paste it into the open chat area and then click on it to go there. If you use it in your regular browser, it will open up the second life program for you and take you there.

2. There is a search feature in Second Life. Find it, open it up and search for “Safe Waters Foundation” and it should open up a link that will get you there. If you search for mermaid – you will find a lot of other entries – more for you to explore later! Searching for the group name will get you there faster.

3. Well, the other ways is to find another mermaid and have them teleport you there. That will be hard to do unless you are really lucky or come to Second Life with friends already. So try the first two options first!

Once you have found Safe Waters Foundation Headquarters – you have found a great unofficial portal into the mermaid world of Second Life! For short, we call it SWF HQ. Here is a short list of things to do while you are at SWF HQ.

1) Find the welcome desk. There is a Welcome toolbox that will be very helpful. It looks like a big wooden toolbox sitting on the desk. Right click and buy it (for zero lindens) and you will have one. Inside are helpful notes and a few small gifts.

2) Join the Safe Waters Foundation group. There is a big blue SWF sign- left click on it and you’ll get help with joining. You can also use the SL search feature again, searching for groups this time and just follow directions. The group has open membership – anyone can join. The advantage to joining – is the group chat feature. Once you are a member, you can open up group chat – and put out a call for help. Someone always answers.

3) Also helpful is to find the mer mentor boards. They are over by one of the building entrances. These boards show you which mentors are online and helps you get in touch with them. These are people who want to help new folk so a great place to start.

4) Another suggestion: Come to a Saturday 10am (SLT) mer gathering. Every Saturday, the largest mer gathering in SL is held weekly. It is moderated, but we share news and get to know each other.

4) Check out all the walls! They are covered with mermaid places, shops and resources. Click on an interesting sign and it will usually give you a notecard that you can open up and read – but sometimes more than that. You will find so much variety to enjoy – your journey as a digital mermaid begins!

Author: GraceSWF Wrigglesworth, SWF Founder

Second Life, Linden, SLurl, and SL are trademarks of Linden Research Inc.
This blog is not affiliated with Second Life or anything else.