Some Relay Events This Week

This past week, residents by the hundreds have been heading to the Second Life Birthday. But that hasn't been the only thing going on. The various teams of the Relay for Life have been having a number of events. They had too many for this reporter to cover, but one could drop in on a few.

On the evening of June 18, Team Shadow held a "Masked Ball" above the Silver Creek sim, of which Victorian or fae looks were suggested, or a mask of some kind. I ended up wearing the glasses I had gotten from the SL13B from their Press Day.

Skylark LeFavre, the events coordinator for Team Sunbeamers, had been appearing at a number of events other teams were holding, especially those in which other teams were able to rezz their kiosks. The Sunbeamers got about a couple thousand Lindens from the event.

IshtarAngel Micheline took some pictures of her own, which can be read (here).

On Sunday June 19 from 3 to 5PM, Team Sunbeamers held a brainstorming meeting about what their campsite on the Relay Weekend in July should be.

On Monday June 2oth the Bonanza Country Club at Eternity Isle held a "Line Dance" party which was
"BYOK" or "bring your own kiosk." The Sunbeamers made a heavy presence there.

Wednesday June 22 at 4PM was the "Bid Me Bald" that week for the Relay Rockers at Arinultra Cay.

During this past week, I've been participating in the Relay Rockers' 'ORIGINAL' BID ME BALD Fundraiser to support The Relay For Life of Second Life & the American Cancer Society.  I would be honored if you would make a donation on my behalf to help. As a BID ME BALD participant I am offering my hair to help find a Cure For Cancer.  My haircut is today at 4PM slt!        
Come bid, com watch, come party to classic rock!

The event raised about 55,000 Lindens, which meant the victim/volunteer, Stevie Basevi, would be sans hair for 11 days.

June 24 was a much needed event for Team Spirit of Sherwood Forest. Last month, the team made news when one of it's officers, Nikolai Redmayne, had been among those killed in the plane crash in the eastern Mediterranean Sea last month. And on Friday June 24, starting at 12 Noon SL time, an event was held in his honor at the Skybeam Stowaway sim. Zander Greene was the DJ for the first few hours.

As time went on, the amount of Lindens in the kiosk grew. After just over an hour, 15,000 had been raised. By 1:25PM SL time, the season total had reached 75,000, "WE HAVE A NEW BRONZE TEAM!!!!!!!"

At 3PM, Amethyst Starostin took over as DJ. The event was attracting avatars of all kinds from Rowena Dubrovna's tiny otter to Oldesou Eldemar's Dinkie tiny, to Sidonie Carlberg's sugar glider, to Avariel Falcon's dark unicorn, and more. There were a number of subjects brought up, including when talk of 80s music led to what one girl described what happened to her in May 1980, "I was in Nebraska at the start. And then Mt. St. Helens blew its top off. And then a friend and I drove my old Ford up to Washington State to do some camping." "-after- the mountain blew?" "Yes. It was rather dusty up there. Spokane, Washington had several inches of volcanic ash on the streets."

Eventually, Amethyst announced, "Ok folks, I would read this to y'all but I'm crying and can't talk at the moment.  For those of you that did not see this notice from Aphrodite Starr, one of the captains of the team we're doing this for:  Aphrodite Starr - "I just got off the phone with Nikoli's husband, he was in tears about hearing of all of your kind hearts doing this today. the djs, those hosting, and all of you donating. he asked me to pass on that he loves you all and thank you so much!!  From our team, from the bottom of my heart and that of my teammates, thank you so so much!! GO RELAY!!"

The event soon had some visitors in the form of a couple workers from Linden Lab's Department of Public Works, Magic and Ancient Mole.

The event was a big success, more than doubling the team's total of the year, bringing it to 117,100 Lindens.

Later that evening was the start of  Team Harmony of Hope's third Annual Halloween Weekend. At 8PM, they held a costume contest/line dance party.

There were some spook-tacular looks there, from zombies, to sorceresses, to mummies, vampire bats, and more.

The winner of the contest got a 500L gift certificate.

Be on the lookout for more Relay events every week, to the Relay weekend on June 23 and 24.

Bixyl Shuftan

Lindens at the Cake Stage

By Bixyl Shuftan

There's been a lot going on at the Second Life Birthday celebrations, and so little time to write it. One of the more interesting events was when a number of Lindens dropped by at a costume party on Monday June 20. Officially, it was called "The Roleplay Mashup Meetup." But to most of us, it was simply Lindens at the Cake Stage.

My part in the event started about five minutes beforehand, when I dropped by the Cake Stage at 9:55 AM SL time just after logging in. "Hi Bixyl welcome to the cake stage!" Grease Coakes, whom had recently come back to the Newser to do an advertorial, told me as he was DJing there. I had gotten a message from him which I had read that he had filled in an empty slot at 10AM. As it turned out, Grease had started at 9AM, and his set was set to end at 10AM. Instead of early, I'd been late to his impromptu performance.

Among others there were Mikati Slade, the builder of the Cake Stage. She complemented Grease on his DJing. One lady would tell her, "I have to say...this stage definitely takes the cake."

A few of my neighbors were also there: Skylark Lefavre, the manager of the Happy Vixen beach club in Purrfection, Felina Fermi, and Tigerclaw Apps. Daniel Voyager, who does a popular Second Life blog, also came in, though for what was about to happen next.

We soon saw a certain visitor, in a mesh "TV head" avatar. "Welcome Governance Linden! Its so nice to see you!"

Then there was the popular Xiola Linden, whom is often seen at events when residents meet up with Lindens

Then came April and Alexa Linden, "This place is crawling with Lindens, yay!"

And there was Whitney Linden.

Derrick Linden flew in from above as a small dragon.

"There are Lindens here I've never seen before." "Linden Time!!! Linden Time!!! OMG It's Linden Time!!!"

Natty Linden, dancing in bare feet.

Besides the Lindens, there were a number of other avatars around.

"OMG a MONKEY of Sunflower!" "Ok! STOP monkeying around!" "Ok! waht is all this MONKEY business?"

Loki Elliot, a noted builder, was there as a chimney sweep. "Anyone got a chimney they need cleaning?"

Jo Yardley, the owner of the 1920s Berlin area, as well as a blogger and one of the interviewers at the "Meet the Lindens" events was there. "No setting people on fire, health & safety wont allow it," she told someone. When someone else told her, " Well Jo, if you use an older laptop at the Cake Stage , you might be," she answered, "Hahaha I'm on a 2015 Macbook! ... If only apple would make a gamers laptop, we wouldn't have to buy other computers on the side."

"Hahaha! Xiola you need more to live for! I'm not that good a dancer. I dance the Charleston to everything, seems to work, most of the time." Of the costume contest, "I've come dressed as a 1920s grumpy old drunk smoking barmaid from Berlin." When people rasberried her self-put-down, she responded, "Yes! I am not a a 1920s grumpy old drunk smoking barmaid from Berlin in real-life! In real-life I'm a 1930s grumpy old drunk smoking barmaid from Amsterdam. I was thinking of wearing my Brunhilde Shieldmaiden outfit, but then I'd be roleplaying a 1920s barmaid going to a 1920s costume party and it would take 24 hours to get into that corset."

When the DJ started playing "We're Not Gonna Take It," Jo commented, "This song is asking for a riot. ... We should have all brought a head banging animation gesture."

She ended up dancing with Loki, "Loki i have a city full of chimneys that need cleaning." Loki Mused, "Linden Lab has a lot of brick in their factory, perhaps they have a chimney." Jo countered, "Just go door to door and make yourself useful." "I actually have a theory that Ex Lindens have a great fear of exposed Brick." "Poor Linden Lab, can't afford wallpaper (grin)."

Their talk went on, Jo asking, "Loki did you have a birly wurly? or whatever that portable organ thingy is called?" A nearby vixen in a pilot's uniform asked, "Hudgy-gurdy, Jo?" "THAT is the word, ja! I want a hurdy-gurdy." Loki commented, "I will repay you by cleaning any chimneys you may have." Jo commented, "Skylar is a great chimney cleaner as well. He only fell off the roof a few times. He's a great chap. He now has two secret headquarters in Berlin."

"One day I'll come to your dance Loki, but I'll need to find someone to take over my shift at the bar."

"Foxes can dance wherever they damn well please!"

The winner of the contest was Deshar Au, whom won 5000 Lindens. "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for attending the roleplay mashup meetup!"

Madori Linden, whom was presumably busy with some duties elsewhere, was late for the dance and couldn't make it. She would later contact me, saying she was interested in the history of Second Life before her signing up with Linden Lab, and was happy to see records of it such as in the Second Life Newser archives.

And so, the Linden-filled costume party event came to a close. There would be much more going on at the Second Life Thirteenth Birthday celebrations, but this was the biggest interaction between the residents and Lindens.

Bixyl Shuftan

Scenes From the Sunbeamer Air Show

Saturday June 11 was the day of the Third Annual Team Sunbeamer Air Show. As before, the event was held at Farshore Field in the Pacific Waters sim.

The event would last for eight hours, from 8AM SL time to 4PM SL time. Being an airfield, the obvious activity was flying. People could BYOP (bring your own plane) or use the plane rezzer from Jessicabelle Dayafter. As these were VICE warplanes, they could be used in a dogfight.

Cynthia Farshore is the owner of Pacific Waters and the main organizer of the air show event, easily identified by her unique nanygoat avatar. Known as a DJ, as well as a builder, she had an ample supply of music from the 40s, in addition to 80s music and other popular tunes.

Shockwave Yareach, having a reputation in the Sunweaver Estates as a topnotch builder, helped Cynthia get the island and airfield ready for the event.

As the island had a roadway around it, another activity available was car and motorbike riding, which one visitor did.

Cynthia Farshore would display some of her collection of virtual aircraft.

 The planes had some information about them available, either on a sign or notecard giver nearby.

It wasn't just on the outside the planes were detailed on. The cockpits were well done as well.

Skylark Lefavre had her balloon at the show, and offered rides.

Here she is taking TS and Random Darrow for a lift around.

There was also a "Human Cannonball" cannon, which one could sit in, and once clicked would launch them into the air. "Trust the bunny, it works," Rita told, "*most* of the time." "Nobody who died has complained!" Shockwave added.

It was suggested one grab a parachute first. Trader Whiplash who gave it a try commented, "My head hurts, and back, and neck ... "

Some visitors brought their own planes up for display, such as these jets.

Trader Whiplash and Rowena Dubrovna brought a helicopter over.

But Rowena decided she "otter" stay on the ground.

Shockwave gives a British fighter-bomber a try.

At one point, Nydia Tungsten went up into the air in a Stuka, offering to donate 500L if anyone could shoot her down. To encourage things, she dropped a few bombs near the crowd.

Eventually, someone went up in a Wildcat and after several minutes of dogfighting, the Stuka went down. Nydia congratulated the winner, and as promised paid up the 500 Lindens.

Then Billy Ixito went up in his F-16 to do a little acrobatics.

Billy did some areobatics for a while, then kept going up and up, and up, soon out of sight even with my viewer at maximum range. Billy had froze up, and the plane kept going until he disconnected.

While we were all watching Billy in the air, something else was happening somewhere. Rita looked at the kiosk, which earlier was near 230,000 Lindens, and it had gone up, "301K? When did that happen?" "within the last 20 minutes, Rita." I answered. "Darn, Cynthia you pulled our team over the top again! ... We (were) 70K short last I checked, so some Angels dumped 70K worth of lindens into our kiosks in the last 20 min."

 With the air show winding down, Skylark Lefavre gave me a ride in her balloon.

The trip went around the main mass of Sunweaver community sims, Sunweaver Isle and Purrfection not connected to the rest.

 Going past the SL Newser office in HV Community.

The 301,000 Linden mark we'd hit was plenty, but not quite enough to reach Gold Level. But after a few more bucks were tossed into the kiosks, it was remedied. Like last year, the air show marked our reaching Gold level.

Beamers!  Today with the efforts of Cynthia, Shocky and many people bidding me PINK for 2 weeks, our team is now officially GOLD!  I am so proud of you.  Hugs and kisses all around!  To those of you who missed the Air Show, you missed one heck of a good time, lots of planes, cannons shooting parachuting, period music, good friends, aerial acrobatics.  Getting to the next level is NOT on my list, but we can still add to the pot and have fun while we do it.

And so, another successful Sunbeamer air show had come and gone. While this is likely the last of the big Sunbeamer events, there may be some smaller ones, in addition to the 'beamers taking a part in multi team events. And of course there is the Relay Weekend in July, of which among the teams with campsites will be the Sunbeamers.

For more pictures of the event, Oldesoul Eldemar would take a number and display them as well. 

Go Relay!

Bixyl Shuftan