Tinies Protest at Governor Linden's Mansion

By Bixyl Shuftan

While some people have a distrust of certain others who don't look or act like them in Second Life, the "tinies" of Raglan Shire are usually greeted with smiles by all. With their cartoony appearance and whimsical way of talking, their reputation is that of a happy and friendly folk. So what would get them mad and angry? Not much it seems. But on Friday January 11, many went to protest at Governor Linden's Mansion in Clementina.

The reason for the anger, a bug in anupdate to Second Life in late November. Jira "BUG-225893" filed by Chaser Zaks described the issue.

Ever since 18.10.25.521081, Me and various other people have noticed that avatars that are full mesh and not normal sized (EG: BentBox Imp) are floating 0.2 to 0.3 meters off the ground. This was not the case a few days ago where the avatar would be much lower to the ground.
This is not a viewer issue because it happened overnight on various viewers, including the official viewer. No viewer updates were involved.
Did something get changed on the asset server, or did the physics shape server side get modified?

While hover height can be used to correct this, it shouldn't be needed. Expected behaviour of an asset being changed like this is a big deal.

The Lab didn't fix the issue. So preparations were made by the tinies to have their voices heard.

The tiny avatars of Raglan Shire along with Dinkies and Titchys around the grid will be marching in protest on Friday at 2pm, seeking a fast resolution for our inability to keep our feet on the ground!  The protest will take place at Governor Linden's mansion.

So on Friday January 11 at 2PM SL time, dozens of protesters headed over to Governor Linden's Mansion. The sim's 45 avatar limit was quickly reached, and those who couldn't get in headed to a smaller protest in the shore of the Taber sim to the north. Just to the west was Natoma where the Ivory Tower is, and a number of sims further west was Luskwood and Bay City. But that day, the Mansion was the focus of the news with dozens of avatars with protest signs and a few pitchforks.


     ??  What do we  want??   ??
 ??  TO GET BACK ON THE GROUND!  ??
 ??  When so we want it??   ??
  ???? ?? ??  ?? MEOW!!??  ????????

Many of the tinies were indeed hovering off the ground. Some stood on stilts so they wouldn't appear to float. They carried signs such as "I wanna come down man," "We want our paws back on the ground!", "don't wanna be High any more," "Let petites walk in Second Life like me" (carried by a prim tiny), "My body my hover height," "Let us Riverdance on the ground," "Lower Dinkies back to earth!", "Hover is over," and more.

Not all involved in the protest were tinies. Also there were normal human avatars, as well as ferals, a petite, and a Colossus avatar

"A hover bug that been going on since last year of November!" Nerxual Oh shouted, "This affects everyone, and we have to constantly change our over heights every switch we make! Second Life is fifteen years old, focus on us small people that make your dream a reality!" Linn Darkwatch yelled, "We can't even use hover height adjustment to fixt it because then we are messed up if we sit or lie down!" Bloodsong Termagant yelled, "New avatar makers can't make avatar rigs and animations properly!" "We opened tickets to LL, and we had no answer!" Mia Rose grumbled, "We want one!!!"

Governor Linden's Mansion was built by Stellar Sunshine, Second Life's first resident in the Grid's alpha days in 2002, and given to the Lindens before Second Life went to it's beta version. There were a few events here in the early days of the virtual world, including ironically enough protests on the issue of stipends.

On the issue of the hover bug, I was asked to talk to Etheria Parrott. She told me she had talked to one of the Lindens who told her it was a high priority issue and they were still working on it. She then showed me a group announcement, "Anchor Linden has found the root cause for the issue, buried in the Bake Service. He has a fix for the problem, and it will be going out as soon as possible after it has been through testing and QA."  Etheria went on, "Whirly Fizzle had hinted to me that it might have been that new bakes on mesh code since it contains both hover and shape information."

The protest would go on for about two hours before the numbers in the sim began to dwindle. There were still people left before I headed out just before 4PM. I never saw any Lindens there, though it's a sure bet they heard about the protest.




Nitwacket would make a video of the event. It would also be covered in the blog "Second Sighting."

How much longer the "Hover bug" will last is unclear.

Source: Second Life Wiki

Addition: shortly after this article was published, Linden Lab announced there would be an update the next day to correct "avatars experiencing issues with hover height."

Bixyl Shuftan

Madonna's "Cancer's Worst Nightmare"

By Bixyl Shuftan

Avatar challenges are nothing new for the Relay for Life in Second Life."Bid Me Bald" has been fairly popular among Relay teams for several years. Others have come up over the years from "Bid Me Human" in teams with furs, "Bid Me Biggie" among tinies, "Bid Me Pink" being a recent one for the Sunbeamer Team. But Madonna Daehlie, best known for taking part in Relay events, such as her DJing, in her distinctive rubber suit and tall blonde hair, took her avatar challenge to a new, and somewhat disturbing, direction: her "Bid a Nightmare to End a Nightmare" for Team Shadow.

Madonna has been injected with something awful and it gave her cockroach  arms like the woman/creature from "Nightmare on Elm street." What was the mad woman in the sweater said? "Live a nightmare to end a nightmare like cancer." So 20K for each week you wanna see Madonna bugged out cockroach style .We need to cure cancer more than Madonna needs human arms so let's put cancer in a roach motel and make Madonna creepy crawly to benefit Relay. Let's really BUG cancer.

The day of the event was July 5. I dropped by the Silver Creek sim where it was taking place.
Team Shadow. Madonna herself, the effects of the mutagen not having quite taken effect, yet, was bench pressing weights. Looking her over in a "Freddy Krugger" outfit was Rhea (rheata). Oldesoul Eldemar wasn't far away, and on stage were Gem Sunkiller and Sasha Fairywren along with Peter Savage (petersmith) and Shadow (victor.jaggernov), playing some tunes.

"Just in time Bixyl," Gem told me, "(It's) happening now." Rhea then told hold of Madonna's barbell, pressing on it, "Remember that shot I gave you some weeks back?" Madonna grunted as she struggled with the additional force on the weights. Rhea continued, "Well, that little beauty reactivates with exercise. Remember what I said about living a nightmare to end the nightmare of cancer?" Madonna nodded, looking fearful. Rhea then took hold of the barbell, and flung it aside with what seemed like impossible strength, "The nightmare starts now and lasts as long as the bidders have paid for. That's nine weeks with at least one more donations coming."

As the band changed their music to the theme of "Phantom of the Opera," Rhea shoved Madonna upright, and the transformation began, her arms turning lengthening and developing hard exoskeleton and barbs, resembling the limbs of a cockroach, "Eeeeeeek!! Owwwwwwww! Hey, Sis? We have a crazy woman on this team!" Sasha shuddered, "Look out, Madonna!" then after a pause, "Ohh my gaaahd ! She looks like a Nightmare!" The girl in the rubber suit looked herself over, "Geez, this is one hell of a makeover!" Looking at Sasha, "Well, uhhh, Sissy.. Thank goodness there's no tambourine in this song.. I couldn't play a tambourine now."

Commenting over a certain line in the "Phantom" song, Sasha commented, "Power over you? Yeahhhh. And I don't think ,it's all inside your mind.. looks like it's pretty much outside you, Sis." Madonna blushed and noded.. "I'd say so..." Peter commented, "Whoaaaa! Ya def gonna bug cancer, Mady.  And ya fightin' back. Daaamn."

In total, the "Nightmare" fundraiser took in 180,350 for Team Shadow

"Thank you again - for tonight, and all your help the last 6 weeks."

Bixyl Shuftan

Final Day of the Fantasy Faire

By Bixyl Shuftan

Sunday May 3 was the last day of the 2015 Fantasy Faire, the yearly week-long fantasy-themed event that's both a fundraiser for the Relay for Life and a chance for builders to show off what they can do. And there were a few more events at the grounds before the event was technically over. This included an interactive roleplay in the Poppetsborough sim.

Apparently in the roleplay, a "Wizard of Knowledge" was responsible for chronicling wisdom and facts down, and some dark forces were after him to quite literally steal the knowledge from the people in the area. So they appealed for help. Avariel Falcon, who was there as I TPed in, told, "It's the dark claw of possible doom that is mostly dangerous and needs to be dealt with through charity and dance magic!"

Loki Eliot shouted, "COME TO THE CENTRE OF POPPETBOROUGH AND HELP US RELEASE THE WIZARD FROM THE GRASP OF DARKNESS! PAY THE KIOSK BY THE POND, WE SHALL WEAKEN IT WITH GOOD WILL!"

Loki and a number of others had on looks that made them look like human-sized versions of "The Littles," a cartoon from some years ago. "Look, I'm a Little!" one girl exclamed. But as they weren't a few inches high, they looked more like nezumi or the neko equivalent of mousefolk: human with mouse ears and tail. Another commented, "Maybe I should be my Mouseh fae self."

But eventually, they met their fundraising goals and declared victory, "MOUSE GUARDIANS RULE!"

The Mouse Guardians gathered their allies today at Poppetsborough and confronted the evil that had captured the Wizard of Knowledge. Though tiny demons circled about the hand wickedly and darkness fell over the skies of Poppetsborough they had found that charity, sharing, and love weakened and eventually banished the wicked hand that clutched the Wizard of Knowledge. The tears in Poppetsborough have closed and the skies are bright and clear. The Weasels, the Poppets, and everyone extend their thanks to everyone who attended their events and helped raise over 301,000 linden over the ten days to save Poppetsborough and to fund Relay for Life.

Read more on the event on the Fantasy Faire website (link).

Later on, there was another party at Poseidon's Abyss.

Among the dancers were two giant avatars, or Collossus, by Ceri Quixote. Ceri was the big girl on the right. While they might have a problem in any "Attack on Titan" areas, no one at the party minded them as they were just two more exotic avatars in the mix.

Trader Whiplash of T1 Radio was there in a Star Wars Jedi outfit. No telling if his dance partner asked, "Is that a lightsaber in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?"

A third Collossus also joined the party.

As the party went on, an announcment was made by Random Parr:

NON STOP WOW  Fantasy Fair just hit 30 THOUSAND US Dollars and 7.5 MILLION Lindens in less than 11 days!    A heartfelt Thank You to Zander Greene and Elizabeth Tinsley for all their hard work, To all exhibitors and designers Congratulations and THANK YOU FOR MAKING A DIFFERENCE in our fight against Cancer!

Shortly afterward came another:

To those of you involved with Fantasy Faire 2015, a very heartfelt thank you and congratulations from the bottom of my heart and soul. You showed the world how we can kick cancer out of the universe!

Vickie Maidstone, Captain Friends Fighting Cancer RFL Team 2015

And so, the Fantasy Faire began to wind down, with people continuing to check out the builds across the thirteen sims. Second Life Newser will have some pictures on them later.

Bixyl Shuftan

Steelhead's "Sharknado" Party

By Bixyl Shuftan

The Steelhead community in Second Life is the source of many weird happenings. While many are caused by the mad scientists among it's residents, others are not as the place itself seems to attract oddness. On Friday Sept 6 came another strange event when a number of waterspouts, to those who don't know a tornado in open water, appeared at Steelhead Shanghai. What made it truly odd was that there were electric sparks coming from some of the waterspouts, in addition to sharks seen flying around in them. The locals promptly christened the event a "Sharknado."

So what did the Steelheaders do? This group of wacky humans, elves, weres, furs, and other folk did what they so often do in the face of weirdness: throw a party. And faster than one can say "da-dum, da-dum," people began arriving at the harbor's docks.

DJ Fuzzball Ortega, normally the town's sherif, was the DJ for the party. The pointy-eared were had managed to squeeze himself in a scuba outfit, with his charming partner Eugene in a bikini. They had on just two of the many costumes at the event, which including old-time diving outfits, shark costumes, shark hats, and more swimsuits, "I love Ma's get up, hehehe!" And of course the pet sharks from the 7Seas fishing game.

Besides the sharks flying around in the air, a couple "landwalker" sharks joined the party, "Watch out for the land shark!" But these "landsharks" weren't there to chow down on the Steelheaders, or look for bargain real estate. They were there to enjoy the music and dance along with everyone else. And with the sharkgirl fitting her bikini just nicely, no one seemed to mind.

At one point, chainsaws were passed around, "helpful if it starts raining sharks." "I knew investing in power tools would be useful someday." By accident, one was passed to one of the landwalkers by accident, "Thanks! This'll make chopping up the tuna a *lot* easier. … When you have a shark's body designed for a big brain and opposeable thumbs, well, your jaws aren't gonna be as strong."

At another point, Lelani took a gun of some kind to the flying fish, "Don't be alarmed, people, just taking a practice shot at some silly old sharks." She got a few curious looks, "alarmed of guns in Steelhead?" One of the landwalkers remarked, "Just don't shoot me. I came for tuna, not 'long pig.' " Someone else mentioned the possibility of a Telsa gun seen on "Facebook" as a weapon against the sharks. Another just remarked, "Hey, you wth the gun! Less QQ, more pew-pew." A third cautioned, "You shoot enough sharks and it will be phew-phew!"

Some of the women's swimsuits were more revealing than usual for Steelhead, "Okay Lumi, that's oddly hot, and not at all 'G' rated." The neko girl just giggled, "hee-hee-hee, thats me, accidentally perverted." Someone else remarked, "Who needs stinkin' G ratings on 'Sharknado!' night?"

Fuzzball's tip jar got a number of donations, "Thank you … Now I can bribe SyFy NOT to make a sequel." One of the landwalker sharks suggested, "maybe we in Second Life can make a better shark movie." Steelhead co-owner TotalLunar Eclipse suggested, "We should recreate some of the movies on MST3K." There were a few jokes about bringing back Saturday Night Live's "Landshark," "knock-knock. Candygram!" And there were other ideas for B-rated flicks, "Shark Bait II - Fishing Chums."

With all the sharks flying around, someone wondered about "shark poop" falling from the sky. One landwalker commented, "Don't look at me, I used the outhouse before coming here." There were a few jokes about a "sh**storm," and "where's the fan?" And of course, "jumping the shark."

Eventually, the party came to a close. Unfortunetly for Steelhead Shanghai, this event for the location would be it's last. While no Steelheaders were killed or seriously injured, the structures suffered serious damage. With Steelhead's city funds running low, it was decided to level the ruined buildings and close the sim. And so Steelhead's Chinatown area was no more. While only a few residents had to move, the community was sad to see the place go. Willow Leafstorm wrote a poem in tribute:

'Tis a day that is sad for all good things must come to an end.
We say farewell to a land that was a home and to some and a friend.
Tonight we dance and and make merry for old Shanghai,
Auf wiedersehen. Au revoir, sayonara , ciao, zài jiàn and goodbye

 A few pictures of Steelhead Shanghai can be found in Eladrienne Laval's blog.

Steelhead doesn't usually mourn for long, so chances are instead of the event being known as the end of Steelhead Shanghai, it'll be known fondly as the "Sharknado."

"Thank you all for sharing your sharks."

Bixyl Shuftan

SL10B – Ego-Tripping with DrFran

By DrFran Babcock

You know how when you see a group picture, the only thing you really look at is yourself? If you are being honest with yourself, you know this is so. That’s why I did a double take as I walked by one of the builds at The Second Life™ Tenth Birthday (SL10B) and ran right into a very old picture of me! In fact, there are three times I show up at the event, and I will tell you about them

Giant Snail Racing Throughout History

I imagine that most readers don’t know that I was an announcer for the Snail Races long ago. I was probably the grid’s worst snail racer, but I found a niche adding color commentary to the races. My favorite memory of that time was when I shared about the true fact that snails had both male and female reproductive organs, and could make their own babies without any help. It was the first time that Treet TV lost the focus on the race. I still smile whenever I think about it.

RacerX Gullwing is the founding rabbit of the Snail Races. He has been running these races continuously almost since he was rezzed in 2004. I know of no other Second Life™ event that has run as long as the Snail Races. They have been on various sims. When I first starting to attend, they were on the old sim of Montmartre. They are now housed on Devon Dreams, where RacerX lives with his darling bride, Safra Nitely. With Safra and Tindallia Soothsayer, Racer pretty much creates a new theme for the races, and holds the races every week. At the build here at SL10B you can learn a lot about the history of the races, and get many freebie snail avatars. I recommend trying to race if you have a pretty fast computer, and you have never tried it before.

By the way, while at the build, be sure you check out my Snail Race Trading Card, displayed prominently on the wall surrounding the display.

Visit Giant Snail Racing Through History: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SL10B%20Enchant/33/239/22

SL Newser Building at SL10B

This tall and majestic building, created by Qwark Allen, is the home of SL Newser for the duration of the celebration. You can take an elevator up to the observatory on top, where you will get a 360 degree view of SL10B. You can also see a recreation of the table around which we meet monthly to plan out story ideas and leads. It should not surprise you that this month we focused a lot of energy on SL10B.

SL Newser is one of the few remaining Second Life™ tabloids on the grid, and the reporters, my pals, are committed to bringing always the most recent, interesting, and informative news about ten-year-old SL.

While you are in the lobby, be sure to find the picture of me. That’s number two out of three.

SL Newser Building at SL10B: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SL10B%20Astonish/186/73/23

Now & Then – Avatar Portrait Project by Kristine Kristan

The final place you will find DrFran is at the photography build of Kristine Kristan—a display worth visiting for the build alone—not just to see the photos there. Kristine had the genius idea of doing photo-montages of residents with their old avatars and their current avatars. This was a stunning use of the theme: Looking Forward, Looking Back.

I caught up with Kristine and asked her how she got led to this project:

Kristine: It just seemed like the obvious choice. I’ve been having fun with SL photography and digital editing for a few months, and I did a series of staged portraits of myself for a project.  I never had others pose for me. Once I knew I was accepted I started planning the build and the sets, and getting  the word out that I needed willing models. I was lucky to have both very good friends and some artists themselves pose for me. I was shooting portraits right up until the morning of opening day. I’m really happy with how it has all turned out. I think people are having fun with the “Do-it-Yourself” section, digging out those old avatars. It was just for SL10B though, so once its over I think I will put all the portraits in The Time Capsule and find something else to do!

What you will see at the Now & Then exhibit is a series of creative photographs of avatars that shows what they looked like when they were newbies, and what they look like now. Kristane’s photography skills really shine, because each individual photo is a gem. There are pictures of residents that might be well-known such as Crap Mariner (who looked like Toulouse Lautrec when he was new), Marianne McCann, and many others. If you look at these and think that you wish you had one, too, despair not. Just go upstairs and make your own.

Avatar Portrait Project Then & Now: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SL10B%20Astonish/186/73/23

Oh, and before I go, please go see my exhibit. You will find dozens of free souvenirs from the history of this great virtual world.

Second Life™ Classy Souvenirs: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SL10B%20Stupendous/24/100/62

Happy Birthday, Second Life™

DrFran Babcock

Passionate Redheads' "Bid Dusk … Something"

On Friday May 19th, the Passionate Redheads held their second "Bid Me" event for the season. This one had a few interesting twists, including the subject: their new leader.

Dusk Griswold, the co-captain of the Passionate Redheads, was offering herself up on the bidding block for Friday May 18th. She wanted something different than the "Bid Me Human" event the previous week. Sunweaver leader Rita Mariner, whom had many of the Redheads living in her estates, joked the theme should be to bid her naked. Such an event would have been shot down by the Relay organizers, but the joke did promote discussion. It was decided that the event would have multiple kiosks, one for those donating to keep Dusk as she was, the others for each option as to what she should be.

Several options were suggested, including human and micro. In the end, the number of kiosks was limited to four. The first was for those wanting to leave her a vixen. The second was to turn her purple. The third was to make her a canine, the joke being Dusk had a dislike of dogs. And the fourth was an unusual choice of avatar: bird. And so, the following announcement was given.


RLF: Bid Dusk (?) event beginning in a few. 4 kiosks set up for you to vote if she stays the same, or changes to something else. 'Paint SL purple' theme, so get on your best purples!

And on Friday May 18th, a number of Redheads gathered at the Sunweaver Estates' Cutlass Club. There was a prize for "Best in Purple" to reflect it being "Paint Second Life Purple" week. But the real event was for the bid on Dusk, or "Ginger" as her display name has recently been, with it's four kiosks. For some reason, the bird kiosk took on an early lead, one that Rita soon cemented with some sizable donations. And soon the bird jokes began to fly, "Looks like Dusk will be a chicken soon." "Her goose is cooked." "I want some breast meat."

Yours truly wasn't able to see the whole event, having to leave well before it's conclusion. But I did hear of the results. The event raised less than the previous "Bid Me" event, but it did bring in about 5,000 more Lindens. And the winning kiosk? The team had given Dusk the bird, and thus made her the bird. Dusk would be a purple phoenix bird avatar until the next event.

As of now, the total raised by the Passionate Redheads is just under 140,000 Lindens. Other Relay events this weekend included an Elvis Tribute, and a "Poker" game by Sail 4 Life.

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Also on Friday May19th, there was an announcement from Daaneth Kivioq. "Effective immediately" he was giving up his leadership position, endorsing Dusk Griswold as Captain "for the rest of the season.  I will remain as active as I am able, and I will attend as many events as I can.  I am still passionate about my support for this wonderful team."

Dusk says she will hold onto her position until Sabine McGettin, whom took a temporary leave,  is ready to lead the team again.

Bixyl Shuftan

Luskwood's Skunk Party

Last weekend, on May 12th, Luskwood held an avatar-themed event: a skunk party. The event was held not at the Big Tree (one of the few spots in Second Life which always has some people there), but at "Pub Eltee Head" in the Perry sim, named after founder Eltee Statosky.


Luskwood's Skunk Party - Hosted by Drew Bhalti - at Pub Eltee Head in Perry. Come dressed in black and white; you don't have to be a skunk, but you might want to be! Music and prizes and more, Saturday 8-10PM SLT!

Luskwood wasn't doing an avatar release, or having any special occasion to celebrate. They just invited regulars, friends of, and anyone interested to drop by and dance. You didn't need a skunk avatar, or a furry avatar, though wearing something "monochrome" was encouraged.

Pub Eltee Head, so named as it normally sports a huge replica of the head of Eltee Statosky's avatar head on top of the roof, had been modified for the event. In the place of the Lusk founder's mug was a skunk avie's head instead. And the floors and walls had been decorated with skunk stripes, giving the place a "skunkified" look. The dance floor itself also had a outline of a skunk doing a handstand. The silver danceable shaped like a Lusk head (Eltee's?) remained unchanged.

Yours truly was a little late to the party, but getting there it was in full swing with over two dozen people present. Almost all there were in skunk avatars, Eltee being one of the rare exceptions, along with AnneDroid Lily whom stuck with her mouse av but wore a skunk costume over it. But there, the similarity ended. Each one of the stinkers was different in some way. A few wore hardly anything, some were decked out quite a bit. The plurality were Lusk skunks, but there were others from different avatar makers. Some where short while others were tall (I was the second tallest). A couple were hybrids with another type of avatar. And some were colored in red or other shades.

Music from the 1980's was what was played most of the time. At one point, the DJ began playing Michael Jackson's "Black or White." This got some chuckles from the skunks, "What if you're black *and* white? Hee-hee!" Presumably there were other comedic tunes before I got there. And of course there were a few "smell jokes" and wisecracks going around.

 On occasion, people were directed to a webpage, in which people were asked to vote on the winners of the contests, from the best (and worst) dressed, to the best hybrid, and more. I never got a notice on who won.

At 10PM, the DJ announced he was playing the last song. After that, he thanked everyone, and gradually everyone went their separate ways.

Skunk avatars are popular among those preferring furry avatars. Even those preferring another as their main often have one that they wear on occasions. Even some who prefer human avatars will "skunk out" sometimes. Just what *is* it that makes the little stinkers so popular, well, that's anyone's guess. Maybe it's because in a world where critters often blend in, they stand out with their distinct black and whites. Maybe it's the respect real skunks get, even bears standing clear of them. Maybe that it's one of the few wild animals that make fair pets (with a lot of patience involved). Maybe their famous (infamous) defense mechanism gets comparisons to geeks' reputation for infrequent bathing (pet skunks smell like whatever their bedding material does). Maybe those whom have trouble fitting in can relate to the solitary nature of real skunks. Or perhaps some combination of some or all of these.

In any case, it was a chance for skunk fans to get together, whether it be to share stinky jokes, or for the sweet smell of friendship. For those who missed it,  at least one club, Club Zero Gravity, held a skunk event the following week.

Bixyl Shuftan

"Bid Me Human" Passionate Redhead Event at Club Cutlass Raises over 30,000

On Friday May 11th, the Passionate Redheads held their first "Bid Me Human" event for the year. To those unfamiliar, the event is based on the "Bid Me Bald" events held in real life and later adopted in Second Life in which a volunteer (victim) gets their head shaved, or online has to do without hair, in sympathy for chemotherapy paitents. But when a team volunteer is covered in fur, well, something different is needed. In this case bidding a furry resident to "go human" for a while.

The first in a series of very fun events, the Redhead's own Gidget (Skylark LeFavre) will have her chance to be bid Human - or stay furry! If at least 5,000 lindens end up in the Human kiosk, the then human she becomes!  BUT! If there is even 1 more linden in the Furry kiosk, the furry she remains.  DJ Indio will be providing the rocking tunes! Come on down to Club Cutlass and help raise some money for RFL of SL!

Skylark Lefarve was the volunteer for the event. Many "Bid Me Bald" events are a simple "donate X amount of funds, and John Doe goes bald for Y amount of a week plus another week for every Z additional raised." And that was the case with some the Redheads held earlier. But then a change was made, partially to allow a way out for those not wanting the volunteer to lose her fur coat, and partially to increase the amount by creating the feel of a race. There would be two kiosks set up, one to donate to for those voting to make the volunteer go human for a time, a minimum of 5,000 Lindens needed, the other for her to remain furry. The highest of the two totals would win.

For two hours, those at the event danced and listened to the music provided by DJ Indio, including the Sunweaver Estate leader Rita Mariner. Some visitors dropped by as well. It wasn't long before the minimum 5,000 was raised, and the "Furry" kiosk maintained the lead throughout the event. Finally at the end, the totals were compared:19,600 for human, and 10,939 for Furry. A total of 30,539 Lindens raised. And so, Skylark changed over to a blonde human avatar. 

Chatting with Skylark later on, she was still getting used to her new look. She had used the skin itself before, but as part of a neko avatar, and the shape itself was new. She expressed a little worry if most furs would continue to see her as attractive, though was determined to continue on.

The Redheads are not the only team doing this kind of event. That night the Relay Rockers team started a two week "Bid Me Bald" event with Trader1 Whiplash as the volunteer/victim, with him going bald for one day for every 5,000 raised, "His haircut appointment  is May 27 at 4PM."

The event raised the Redheads' team ranking from Bronze to Silver, the total amount raised to over 120,000 Lindens. Other teams have also enjoyed success, the Steelhead Salmons recently achieving Gold status, and the Road Rash "Short Bus" racing event raised the team's total to over 128,000 Lindens.

Sky's human look is until the next major Redhead event, which is yet to be scheduled. There's talk of a date auction, which may or may not include other teams.

Last year, the Passionate Redheads held three "Bid Me Human" events, the most successful being Rita Mariner's which raised almost 75,000 Lindens.

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On another note, Edith Haldeman, whom did jobs about event notices and blog posts, has departed the team. Currently, a replacement is being sought for her duties, which include:

* writing up event notices for the  Team and the Volunteers

* posting those notices to the team blog, and wiring up event reports and other information of interest for the same

* creating write-ups for the event boards

Those interested in taking these positions are asked to contact Dusk Griswold at vixiefox@comcast.net.

"Edith will be sorely missed."

Bixyl Shuftan

The LEA Avatar Games

Recently, I decided to take a look at an event I heard about through some group chatter, as well as the Destination Guide: The LEA Avatar Games, also known as the “Art Games.”

Join the fun as the LEA Avatar Games (a.k.a. Art Games), held each Monday at 4:00 p.m. (Pacific). Watch as participants run through the obstacle course and the audience tries to to slow them down! Check out the sign-up sheet on Thursdays for contestants and audience participants. More info at: http://bit.ly/l30NvC.

LEA standing for “Linden Endowment for the Arts, I was expecting something conventional. Getting there, however, it was soon obvious the event was anything but conventional.Right away, I heard a familiar voice. It was Crap Mariner. He was moderating the games, along with Honour McMillian, describing what was going on from his slightly twisted point of view. Indeed the whole place could be called a bit twisted. The obstacle course that made up the maze looked like a surreal piece of art. There was something familiar about it. Then I recognized how the audience seating looked like that from a broken-down building, plus the metallic sculptures in a couple places, and then the “Daughter of Gears” and the “Rabbicorn.” Bryn Oh had made the obstacle course, whom stood on a platform over it as the “Platform Bastard.” No wonder these were sometimes called the “Art Games.”

Contestants were in a small skybox until called to materialize at the start of the course, which was littered with giant bones and the first half having a checkered surface. Then when the timer started, they would have to run a gauntlet of fire from the audience from guns provided by a dispenser, known as “The Grand Walloper.” While doing so, they had to get over a ditch of water, “The Cesspool. Then they had to get past a couple sets of whirling posts on sticks, “The Pefrackembacker.” And that’s just the first quarter of the course.

Turning the corner to get up the hill, they were now out of effective range of the whalloper guns, but had to dodge an avalanche of huge marbles that rolled down. Getting past those, the checkered surface turned rocky, and was half over. Then came another obstacle - a large wall of which the only way over was to wait for a set of blocks to arrange themselves into a staircase. Around the next bend was the final quarter of the course, which had cages of barcodes dropping onto the runners. Hopping over a couple bones, the last thing to do was to run under the lamp, and the course was over. The runners got two chances to run the course by themselves, then at the end all of them would race at once, free to use walloper guns on one another.

The course was a bit difficult to run, most of the contestants needing about four minutes to do so. Two runners just barely did a run in less than two. Crap Mariner changed to his Grim Reaper outfit early on, and yours truly didn’t escape his notice, commenting as press I was a non-combatant, and not shooting at the runners. Of the obstacles, the wall on the third quarter was the most difficult, a few runners kept stumbling as they tried to jump from a halfway completed brick ramp. A couple tried to climb up the cliff, which would get them both around it and skip the barcode cage obstacle. Only one made it through that way.

The fastest run on the day I was there was done by Theblackcloud Oh, who took one minute, 55 seconds. Afterwards, Crap Mariner and Bryn Oh were available for anyone who wanted to ask them anything about the race. At the end of the season, the best runners will appear in that show and compete for a prize.

Whether you like sports or art, this is an event worth seeing at least once.

The LEA games are every Monday at 4PM SL time at LEA3 (224, 127, 30)


Bixyl Shuftan

The Luskwood Skunk Update Party

Until a few weeks ago, it had been some time since yours truly had gone to where he had gotten his real start in Second Life: Luskwood. Well, I came back in time to find out about an event worth going to.

For those unfamiliar, Luskwood is the oldest furred area in Second Life. It also ranks as one of the oldest social spots of any kind on the Grid. The main area of the place is the Big Tree, or more specifically the social platform where people gather. It’s almost always occupied by some people. It’s near a newcomer entry place, so it gets some most every day. Luskwood also has a highly strict PG policy, so it’s a squeaky-clean place for residents to drop by and not worry about the friskier elements in other sims in the Metaverse. Many of the regulars are techies, so on a popular night, one may find help for some electronic problem.

Between the enviromnent’s detail and the other avatars, especially on a big gathering, the lag can be heavy. And occasionally the conversation can be a little flat. So Luskwood isn’t popular among everyone.

Luskwood is also the name of one of the oldest furred avatar companies in Second Life, based at the Big Tree, the vendors nearby. But in more recent times, there haven’t been as many new avies offered as earlier, and more people have been passing them by. When there’s a new avatar, or an update to one, the Luskies celebrate with a party. And on Saturday August 6, they updated one of their more popular avatars: the Skunk. Luskwood Founder Michi Lumin wears a Lusk skunkgirl for her look.

For those whom already had one, we got the new version of the avatar sent to us. It had the same features as before, notably the spray animation (which I seldom see used). But it also had some slightly different shading. Someone told me the males looked slightly more muscular on the chest. It had a tongue that could be stuck out (real fun when giving a bronx cheer). And it had a hinged jaw, so it was able to move it’s mouth while one talked. One slight problem, on my viewer, from a distance it looked like it was baring it's teeth a little.

After getting mine and adjusting the new avie to the height, eye color, and hair color I was used to, I ported to Luskwood to join the fun. As expected, the lag was heavy, and checking the map, I could see why. there were 49 people in the sim. Eventually, most everyone rezzed, and the clear majority had on skunk avatars. Striped, spotted, white, black with strawberry, brown, there were all kinds of Lusk skunks.

Never before had I seen so much black and white in one place.

We all partied on the dance floor, which someone lay a lit floor over, colored lights shining in a black field, which sometimes made the skunk dancers hard to see. As so often at the bigger Lusk parties, the DJ got a little tipsy, and would occasionally play some quirky tunes just to be funny, such as the old late 90's Internet tune "All Your Base." “Put Your Tail in the Air” or “I Like Big Butts” were not among those played while I was there, even though some jokingly requested them. He also offered trivia contests, with winners getting 500L for answering a question. Also offered, a free Luskwood avatar of any kind.

We joked, we laughed, we had a great time.

So just what is it about skunks? Real skunks certainly stand out with their black & white pattern and of course their weapon. In Second Life, skunkfolk lack such a potent musk of course, but still end up drawing attention. On those occasions I’ve worn it, it’s gotten complements from furred folk and normal human alike. Maybe with the smell jokes and their solitary nature, computer geeks relate to them easily.

In any event, whether people wore them every day, occasionally, or rarely, it was a chance for the “stinkers” of Luskwood to shine.

Bixyl Shuftan