BoobieThon 2012 - Week in Review Part II

$208,746L

$841.72 USD

This is the continuation of the review of the first week of our 2012 BoobieThon.

On Saturday afternoon, October 6th, there were some very fun & creative events.  The first was the En Garde Tournament held at the Prop Spinners Flight Deck and hosted by Miss Stereo Nacht.
Miss Nacht develped the tournament with a mind to fun and fund-raising - registration fees split between the winner and the BoobieThon donation kiosk, strip play, and creative awards.
A wonderful time was had by all participants.

Podrully Pecable listens to the BoobieThon report at the Winterfell Moot

Laird Neill, Eva, & Scout

Wildstar Beaumont

Later that evening, Miss Zanya hosted a lingerie event at the Charity Way with music provided by DJ Piper Steampunk.

 I was unable to attend either of these events due to real life commitments and am hoping that someone captured some photographs that they would be willing to share with the readers of this journal.

Sunday, October 7th found the Chess Garden in Winterfell filled with activity. BoobieThon Chess Tournament! Six hardy players sat down to the chess boards at the beginning of the tournament as onlookers filed into the gallery.  It was a lovely event.  I believe it may have even inspired several of us to dust off our chess pieces at home and prepare for next year!!  :)

Later in the evening, Co-Chairs, Rowan Derryth and PJ Trenton, opened the 3rd Annual BoobieThon Art Auction at RoHaus Gallery in Magna Carta.  The event was well attended and the bids are already beginning to soar for many of the fabulous original & limited edition art pieces.  The last bid will be taken on October 12th!  Please don't miss your chance to own one or more of these fantastic pieces - and support the Feel Your Boobies Foundation while you are at it.

Finally - we must mention that Scout Danger has done a remarkable job of coordinating, maintaining, and managing the BoobieThon Vendor Faire in Winterfell.

For the first week, the Second Life login page featured BoobieThon and this vendor faire location specifically.  Thankfully that increased the traffic to the area for sales and education about the work of the Feel Your Boobies Foundation.

BoobieThon 2012 - Week in Review Part I

$192, 942L

$779 USD 
Current totals as of 9:00am 10-8-12

What a wonderful week it has been thanks to our generous donors, hosts, vendors, and artists!

BoobieThon has been quite fortunate to have the opportunity to work with so many wonderful people from all over the globe.  This year, as you may recall, we have expanded the 'thon to two weeks for a variety of reasons.  This has offered us the chance to expand the number of events and locations - sometimes quite spontaneously!

Thus far the events have been as follows:

Opening Night in the Garden of the Fæ - Hosted by Eva Bellambi with music from Icarus Ghost

Otenth Paderborn generously added BoobieThon to his normal Terpsicore Tuesday event on Day 2 of the BoobieThon.  We are so grateful for this spontaneous event and the generosity and caring of those in attendence.

On Wednsday, Magdalena Kamenev hosted and provided music for Salome's Dance at the Blue Mermaid in Caledon on Sea.  What a fantastic night it was!  Everyone in attendance was in great spirits and many shared stories about how breast cancer has effected their lives.

Thanks to PJ Trenton for the photographs. PJ's BoobieThon Album is here.

On Thursday evening, the Poetry Slam at der Hut held a breast-themed night.  It was great fun according to all in attendance and it helped push the dollars-raised up even higher.

Friday was a busy evening which began with the placement of the Venus di Milo from last year's art auction at the Consulate gardens in New Toulouse. Music provided by Radio Riel

The party then moved to the Steelhead Ballroom where we all celebrated life in shades of pink.  Over $75,000L were raised at this particular event!!  Many thanks to Lunar, Tensai, and Fuzzball for hosting and providing the music.

Part II update will include the Saturday and Sunday events ending week 1 of BoobieThon 2012.

BoobieThon 2012 Revised Events Listing!

The BoobieThon 2012 dates have been revised.  What has traditionally been a week-long fund-raising event will now last for 2 weeks, October 1-13, 2012!!

Here is the current listing of activities:

October 1st-12th

• Merchant Market, Winterfell

October 7th-12th

• BoobieThon Art Auction, Magna Carta (Avalon Town)

October 1st, 7p-9p SLT

• Opening Night - Heart of Skye, Winterfell.  
• Music by Icarus Ghost
• Theme - Gaia and the Fae (Mother Earth and Faeries)

October 3rd, 7p -? SLT

• Salome's Dance at the Blue Mermaid, Caledon
• Music by Magda Haiku (Magdalena Kamenev)

October 4th, 5p-7p SLT

• Poetry at der Hut, Winterfell
• Poetry Slam - BoobieThon Edition

October 5th, 6p-7p SLT

• Placement of last year's BoobieThon Art Auction consortium sculpture
• Europan Consulate, New Toulouse

October 5th, 7p-10p SLT

• Pink in Steelhead (BoobieThon at the weekly Steelhead Dance)
• Music by Fuzzball Ortega

October 7th, TBD

• Art Auction opening event at RoHaus, Magna Carta (Avalon Town)

October 7th, 1pm SLT

• Chess Tournament at the Chess Garden, Winterfell

October 12th, 2-4pm SLT

• Art Auction FINAL BIDS and closing event
• Music by Walt Vieria

October 13th, 12p-2p SLT

• BoobieBall European Time, Winterfell
• Music by Gabrielle Riel

October 13th, 6p-8p SLT

• BoobieBall American Time, Winterfell
• Music by Gabrielle Riel
• TOTAL DONATIONS will be announced

BoobieThon in SL 2012 Starts on October 1st

It's that time of year again!  Time to focus on education, prevention, and research around breast cancer.  Time to do our part to save lives!

What is BoobieThon in SL?  
This year marks the 5th year that Lady Twilight, Serra Anansi, and I have been leading wonderful groups of volunteers to raise money to help in the fight against breast cancer.  It all started 5 years ago when Serra happened to IM me about a very funny product for which she had just seen an advert.  That product was called, Boob Lube.  Go ahead, search for it. The product is promoted by several breast cancer awareness groups in an effort to help women remember to perform their monthly self breast exams.  Anyway, Serra was enjoying the ad for Boob Lube co much that she had to share it with me.  She and I talked about that for a while and I told her that it reminded me of a tongue-in-cheek approach to breast cancer research fund-raising called BoobieThon.  This was a group of bloggers who had been raising money for a few years by posting pictures of, both covered and uncovered, breasts online for the first week of October.  All proceeds were sent to Susan G. Komen Foundation.  It was at this point that we began to hatch our plans to be a part of this irreverent and fun approach to raising money.  We we do so in-world.  There are quite a few places to read about our BoobieThon events - I will simply direct you to a couple of links on my own blog and on the BoobieThon page.

• Once Again We Work To Save Second Base

• Amazing BoobieThon in SL

• Boobie-thon.com

We have recently begun sketching out plans for the BoobieThon in SL events for this year.  Oct 1-7 remain the dates.  Due to changes at both Boobie-Thon (in RL) and Komen, we have changed our named fund-raising beneficiary this year.
Our charity is Feel Your Boobies Foundation. 

This foundation happens to be local to my typist and was created after the founder discovered a lump in her own breast at a very young age while performing her monthly self-exam.  This saved her life.  To quote the foundation's website:

THE FOUNDATION & MISSIONThe Feel Your Boobies Foundation focuses on one simple mission (and we have since 2004): using media and other unconventional outreach to remind young women to ‘feel their boobies’. Over the past few years, provocative breast cancer slogans have become more popular…and while we’re all about a good chuckle, we’d like to make sure our supporters know that we’re more than a funny slogan. Feel Your Boobies® is a call to action that reminds you about a habit that can increase your chances of early detection and potentially save your life.
Why focus solely on the use media to spread or message? That’s simple. Since 2004, this campaign has run out of our Founder, Leigh’s, home in a small town in Pennsylvania. With a shoestring budget and a few dedicated volunteers and workers, Feel Your Boobies has reached an international audience with its message and saved lives (read our testimonials!). Media (social media specifically) makes this possible. With over 300K “likes” on facebook and more than 1Million Cause supporters…we’re certainly making waves from this tiny PA town.
Why focus primarily on young women? For women who are pre-mammogram age (under 40), “feeling your boobies” is one of the primary ways to get to know your body and detect changes in your breasts. Even as you get older, this habit can help in making sure you identify a change in your breast as soon as it occurs and bring it to your doctor’s attention. Should the change be breast cancer, early detection is the primary way to increase your chances of surviving this disease.

Their focus on the use of social media and unconventional methods as well as their focus on education and prevention makes this a perfect charity for a community of people who come together from all over the world in a virtual space.
We hope that you will join the fun - and the hard work - again this year to raise money for BoobieThon in SL 2012.  Please notecard either Serra (Serra Anansi) or me (Eva Bellambi) in world if you would like to volunteer to create or host an event during this week of fund-raising.  Whether you can volunteer in that capacity or not, please do plan on attending several of the fun events during the week (a preliminary list of events may be found below), bring friends, and bring your spirit of giving.  

Let's educate men and women about breast cancer and about how they can save their own lives by the simple act of feeling their boobies at least once a month.

See you there!!

Preliminary Events Listing (final event schedule to be determined)

• Opening Night Party 
• Art Auction  (all week)
• Poetry Slam
• Limerick Contest
• Educational Salons and Static Displays
• Special BoobieThon Product Vendors
• The 5th Annual Boobie Balls 

My 6th Annual Beltane Celebration - May 1 at 7pm

Here is the carriage to the event:  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Magna%20Carta/53/214/37


Music to be provided by the fabulous Icarus Ghost!

As is my custom, we will begin the evening with a celebration of my Clan and the Knights of the Order of the Red Rose, and then lighting of the Beltane Need Fire. Each guest will also be offered a Beltane lamp which will light as s/he approaches the Need Fire. This light should be taken to his/her own hearth at the end of the festival.

As is always the case, I invite you to let go of the formality of day to day life and celebrate freely the renewal of the earth, the fertility of your lands, your livestock, yourselves. Release your inner, May Queen, Green Man, White Lady, Blue Man, Roman God/Goddess, or Færiekind. Dress is quite relaxed - and clothing generally becomes optional as the fever pitch around the fire grows. There will be discrete areas available for your own fertility rites to be celebrated.


In Scottish Gaelic the month of May is known as either (An) Cèitean or a' Mhàigh, and the festival is known as Latha Bealltainn or simply Bealltainn - meaning ‘bright/sacred fire’. The holiday was held to mark and celebrate the blossoming of spring, and coincided with the ancient pastoral event of moving livestock into their summer grazing fields. It did not occur on any fixed solar date (the tradition of solstices and equinoxes is later in origin) but tended to be held on the first full moon after the modern 1st of May. Some sources suggest that the blooming of the Hawthorn was the primary signal for the event before the development of centralized calendars.
It was nearly entirely a celebration of the fertility of the land and their animals. The main traditional element which was common to all Beltane festivals was the fire which gave it its name. All the fires of the community would be extinguished and a new, sacred ‘Need Fire’ was lit by either the village head or spiritual leader. From this source one or two bonfires were lit, and the animals of the community would be driven through or between them. It was believed that the smoke and flame of the fires would purify the herd, protecting them in the year to come and ensuring a good number of offspring. The inhabitants of the village would then take pieces of the fire to their homes and relight their hearths, and dance around or near the bonfires to ensure good portents for them and their families.
This spring/summer rite was celebrated in many ancient cultures. Some continue it even in modern times. In many traditions the focus of Beltane is on the battle between the May Queen and the Queen of Winter. The May Queen can be recognized as Flora, the goddess of the flowers, and the young blushing bride, and the princess of the Fae. She is Lady Marian in the Robin Hood tales, and Guinevere in the Arthurian cycle. She is the embodiment of the Maiden, of mother earth in all of her fertile glory. Beltane has a long history. The Celtic fire festival is celebrated with bonfires, Maypoles, dancing, and lots of good old fashioned sexual energy. In Ireland, the fires of Tara were the first ones lit every year at Beltane, and all other fires were lit with a flame from Tara.

The Romans celebrated the Floralia, or festival of flowers, which consisted of three days of unbridled sexual activity. Participants wore flowers in their hair (much like May Day celebrants later on), and there were plays, songs, and dances. At the end of the festivities, animals were set loose inside the Circus Maximus. Land owners would have often have sex in their fields to ensure the fertility of their lands.

The entity known as the Green Man, strongly related to Cernunnos (The Horned God), is often found in the legends and lore of the British Isles, and is a masculine face covered in leaves and shrubbery. In some parts of England, a Green Man is carried through town in a wicker cage as the townsfolk welcome the beginning of summer. Impressions of the Green Man’s face can be found in the ornamentation of many of Europe’s older cathedrals, despite edicts from local bishops forbidding stonemasons from including such pagan imagery.

A related character is Jack-in-the-Green, a spirit of the greenwood. References to Jack appear in British literature back as far as the late sixteenth century. Sir James Frazer associates the figure with mummers and the celebration of the life force of trees. Jack-in-the-Green was seen even in the Victorian era, when he was associated with soot-faced chimney sweeps. At this time, Jack was framed in a structure of wicker and covered with leaves, and surrounded by Morris dancers. Some scholars suggest that Jack may have been a ancestor to the legend of Robin Hood.

This festival is also seen as a time when the veil between worlds is a bit thinner - a time for the faeries. The appearance of flowers around this time of year heralds the beginning of summer and shows us that the fae are hard at work. In early folklore, the more helpful deeds of the fae should always be acknowledged and appreciated, therefore, Beltane offered a good time to leave out food and other treats for them in your garden or yard.

Right! Let's Go Adventuring!

Slideshow from the Steamlander Expedition to the Mainland, April 13th.

The Royal Society & I were pleased to be part of this new adventure from the Steamlands to the Mainland.

Our group was led by Scripted & Magda Haiku (Madalena Kamenev), who prior to our departure gave us the following description of our potential adventure:

We'll cross the Sea of Fables and perhaps even make it to the ancient and mythic Linden Village, where it is said the Lindens themselves walked among us. Along the way, we might just see some SL celebrities, and perchance we will plant a flag or three from our own Steamland nations. But we will most definitely have a grand time together!

We all dressed in our favorite adventuring gear, whether dressing like the mainlanders or in our favorite Victorian clothing (which by the way included a new ballgown thanks to the inevitable wagering and daring that happens amongst brave and bold companions).

Sincerely,
Eva Bellambi
Duchess of Loch Avie, Lady of Skye, Fellow of the Royal Society

*******************

The Royal Society for the Advancement of Knowledge in the Natural Sciences, better known as the Royal Society, serves as an academy of sciences for Caledon, and the World at large. Membership ("Fellowship") is granted by election by existing Fellows. The Society is based in Caledon Tamrannoch, and welcomes all scientists, explorers, academicians et al. who wish to forward the state of Victorian-era scholarship.

Finally! A full set of pictures from the Snowflake Ball

I suppose we all go through phases where we are highly motivated to blog and others where we  lose all motivation.  I have been writing occasionally in other blogs in SL (and the typist in RL), but The Realm of the Red Rose has suffered horribly.  Apologies!

So today, I will at least begin anew with pictures from the 6th Annual Snowflake Ball.  The following post will showcase pictures from a latest adventure.

Once again the Snowflake was a meaningful and precious evening.  I am so glad that everyone was able to join us High in the Cliffs of Skye.








For more fabulous photos of the night, please see PJ Trenton's Flickr set.