Caledon's Fourteenth Anniversary

By Bixyl Shuftan

Wednesday February 26 was the fourteenth anniversary of the founding of Caledon, Second Life's largest steampunk community. It should be noted though that the partying began a few days earlier on February 22 with their Mardi Gras celebrations. There was a "Skull and Bones Revelry" at 1PM. And at 5PM was a parade consisting of a train, numerous floats, bicycles and other vehicles, and people just walking. The parade ended in Port Caledon, where there was a dance party, with generous amounts of beads thrown.

Then came Wednesday, and the main events.

It's Caledon's Fourteenth Anniversary, and we're having a Ball!  Come celebrate the founding of Caledon.

 Our wonderful nation, Caledon, was founded 14 years ago.  Come help us celebrate on Wed. Feb. 26th, in the Dragon Ballroom at the Rain Estate, Caledon On Sea, from 7:00pm to 9:30pm SLT  This is a good time to dress up, perhaps in the Caledon Tartan, or just our nation's colors.  Expect other events such as the Catgirl Ball and the Rose Hunt which also happen around this time, and let me know if you are planning a special event for this week

The Catgirl Birthday Bash will immediately follow the anniversary ball and run to midnight.

The Dragon Ballroom was high above the Caledon by the Sea sim. And the party started at 7PM SL time. The human, demihuman, furry, and tiny avatars present wore Victorian outfits, save for the feral deer which just pranced with a Caledonian flag in it's mouth. Among those attending were Steelhead's Fuzzball Ortega and of course Caledon's Governor Desmond Shang, affectionately known as "The Guv." Someone (not the Governor) had a gesture, "Governor Desmond Shang has entered ... all hail." Desmond apologized for being slightly late, "I've been stuck in this, surreal, 'reality' recently. (laughs)"

In the party chatter, at one point someone asked how Caledon got it's name. Another person answered, "we had a contest our first years and a submission by Junie GInsburg called 'Mighty Caledon' was selected as the winner." Of it's anthem, "If I recall, there was ONE vote separating the two anthems. So we said the winner was the national anthem and we called the runner up the Civic anthem." There were also people remembering it's growth, "at least once a month, somebody popped up wanting to join their regions to Caledon." "I remember IBM wanting to connect and we collectively said Hell No.  A lot of Caledon at the time did not like the corporate interest in Second Life around that time." "I remember a dangerous meteor shower that hit Caledon.  A huge one fell right behind my shop in the park in Kittiwick."

Eventually the formal ball ended, and the people moved on over to the Catgirl Dungeon in the catacombs beneath Caledon. For those outside the community, officially it doesn't exist, "There is no Cat Girl Dungeon, this is clearly a mass delusion." Unofficially, a number of women showed up as catgirls, furry and neko, one cyborged catgirl, and one mousegirl. "Cats like being sneaky," one commented. There were dancepoles for the catgirls, as well as a scratching post, and danceball rezzers and refreshments for everyone.

There were comments about real-life homes having their own, secret areas, "I too know more the a couple people with in-house dungeons." "I wasn't shocked at the idea of them doing whatever, in a dungeon," Desmond remarked, "What shocked me, was getting FIT doing that."

Other topics discussed included Sansar, which the Lab recently announced it was looking for someone to buy or help them run, "I think LL doomed Sansar when they said 1) No transfer of inventory or L$ and 2) No adult content. Between those, they were screwed from the beginning." There was Pooky Amsterdam's "I'm Too Busy To Date Your Avatar" song, which was among those played. There was some talk about Dungeons and Dragons and other roleplaying games. There was talk about creepy guys who didn't have a clue how to treat women. There was discussion of Japan's low rate of men and women getting together. There was talk about Chinese factories and those who worked there. And more.

Just before Midnight, as the catgirl party was about to wind down, fireworks began going off in the air above the city. It was a great end to the fourteenth anniversary of the large steampunk community.

Bixyl Shuftan

Caledon's Thirteenth Anniversary

By Bixyl Shuftan

On Tuesday February 26, Caledon celebrated it's thirteenth anniversary. Caledon enjoys the distinction of being the largest Steampunk-themed community in terms of land area and residents. And on this day and evening, it would be celebrating it's birthday.

At 1PM and 4PM SL time, there was the "Party at the Pub" at the Book and Tankard Pub in Victoria City. At 7PM, the celebrations moved to the Dragon Ballroom hundreds of meters over the Caledon OnSea sim for the 13th Anniversary Ball.

The ballroom had a decorative fountain in the middle. It was fitting that there were lit candles for a birthday celebration.

Caledon's governor Desmond Shang, known locally as "The Guv," was among those there.

He had a dance animation that made him look a bit whimsical.

There were a few conversations on the dance floor, "No the church invented shame, the Victorians added to it." "The Church invented shame. The Victorians made it a sexual fetish." I thought it was, 'Gotta have my corn pops.'"

As it turned out, someone's pet in real life was having a birth on this birthday, "Tonight, one of my guinea pigs gave birth. We wanted to name the pups after Caledonian regions. ... One of them is albino. I'm gonna name that one Desmond." That got the attention of "The Guv," "Does he have glasses?" "Not yet, but piercing red eyes."

At 10PM, the Anniversary Ball wrapped up, and it was time for the "Late Night Caledon/CCB Birthday Bash." The location of this last event was "sooper sekrit," so it wasn't revealed until that evening. As it turned out, it was underground. I was shown a secret entrance to some passages, and went down.

I had to go past a fancy doorway or two. As one put it, "Wow, it's a real secret lair, it has one of these iris doors!"

 Since part of the fun of secret passages is the location of the entrances being secret, readers will have to ask the Caledonins where one is. Someone would later say, "I got VERY lost and ended up in Kamilah's secret ballroom instead."

Eventually I noticed activity, and it was inside this rather catty underground secret venue.

Desmond joked, "Shhhhh! this is the catgirl dungeon!"

The floor had a symbol of a black cat over a gear, over Caledon's colors.

Some of the people were a bit on the catty side as well.

Including one taur. "Trilby, you have the cute centaur on."

And a neko. "You're the cat's meow yourself."

And of course in a Caledon anniversary event in a feline-themed venue, Vicerine Kamiliah Hauptman showed up.

Lady Aev (Aevalle Galicia) remarked, "I've had so much fun putting this place together." Another lady responded, "I love the cat tree next to me here too (grin)." Lady Aev grinned back, "There's also the trapeze hoops above us, if you want to play on those."

JJ Drinkwater was joking about, "Killer warrior catgirl fembots from Mars."

There were a few jokes about mindwiping the guests to make sure the location of the place stayed secret. That of course never happened. Just a "gentlemen's agreement" to keep quiet about just where it was.

There were a number of conversations about Caledon and things. Lady Aev was saying she was writing a book, "It was a good way to work out my rage during NanoWrimo. (laughter)" Someone responded, "Should have a book club and meet every week when it comes out." JJ Drinkwater suggested, "Would Madame The Author consider doing a reading?" Lady Aev answered, "Probably wouldn't be a good idea, JJ. Southern drawl meets Sidhe. Not a good match. (grin)" One lady joked, "Well, as long as you don't go 'pew pew pew!' to imitate clashing swords, you'll do much better than some narrators I've heard." "Swords don't pew!" "'Pew! Pew! pew!' is a raygun sound." "Depends where they've been." "Just say your from the Appalachian."

"And all those people calling me weird and confused and I say how dare you say things about me that are completely true!"

Eventually, the hour got late, Desmond himself saying, "I'm getting even more giddy, almost never stay up this late ... so if I'm acting weird that's why." And soon people started leaving. "Happy 13th everybody, thank you Des for making our realm, and we're teenagers now!" "I was expecting the 13th Anniversary seal to say 'You don't understand me!' and recite emo poetry when clicked."

Before I left, the place started changing color. With the jokes about memory wipes, I figured it was time to make my exit.

 I looked around the underground tunnels a little first. Here was a nice little rest stop.

Two days later, the celebrations continued at Cynthia Farshore's Goblin Cave in Caledon Downs.

Yours truly was too busy to attend, so I sent Rezzdammit to get a picture.

Due to events elsewhere in Second Life, Rezz couldn't stay there for long. Cynthia would send me this picture of the party at another time.

On Saturday March 2, Caledon would have it's last anniversary events, both Mardi Gras themed. At 1PM was the "Skull and Bones Revelry." At 5PM was a parade.

 The parade would go across fourteen sims. starting in Caledon Kittiwickshire.

There were a number of vehicles, floats, balloons, and more in the parade.

As well as horses.

And horse-drawn carriages.

The parade would go down the route through the sims.

The parade ended in Port Caledon.

Following the parade was a party for both participants and watchers.

A fun time was had by all.

Happy Anniversary Caledon

Bixyl Shuftan