"The Man" Statue Turns 20

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By Bixyl Shuftan

July 19 was a day to celebrate in the sim of Natoma. One of the oldest objects in Second Life, "The Man" statue, would be turning twenty years old that day.

So with Second Life having celebrated it's nineteenth anniversary last month, how could anything here be twenty, some might ask. The answer is the virtual world was in alpha and then beta for a time before it's official opening. So there are a few items, and residents, older than the official opening of June 20 2003.

A look at the statues age shows when it was created. It was made by Oldjohn Linden. It ended up in the hands of Avi Arrow, the late manager of the Ivory Tower of Primitives.

"The Man" statue is one of the only surviving objects from the original "Linden Town" area that was developed in Second Life during the earliest Alpha stage of it's development.

 

At times, The Man has served as a shrine where miscellaneous offerings were left, and a celebration of the creativity SL was founded upon.

The Ivory Tower itself was decorated for the occasion.

  

 

Nearby, a place had been set up for a party, with DJ GoSpeed Racer playing the music.

Avatars of all kinds took part.

Including a large gryphon, "Summon all the griffons!"

There were a few Lindens and Moles present, such as Oatmeal Linden. "'Oatmeal? Oh, emm, gee, what a cute name!" The Linden just smiled, "I'm not even a year old in this avie."

Wendi Linden was also there, "Nice to have some Lindens visit us for today's occasion (smile)"

And there was Abnor Mole, looking a bit bookish.

Someone came by in a huuuuuuge mega-macro avatar.

It was someone named Fop (Kingforri Resident).

The avatar was well over a hundred meters tall, "Here comes Fop, the fop. What's a fop? It's a fop, or a pizza bat."

One thing that came up was how many longrime residents were around here, "Is less than a week from his 18th SL birthday himself." "Look at all the other oldbies"

The gryphon soon changed to a Chickenzilla, "Now Psyra is a giant cock." "The feathered kind." "I want to speak to this so-called Colonel!"

Eventually came the end of GoSpeed's two hour set with the playing of "Man Or Astroman - Mystery Science Theater 3000 End Theme." Then the place fell apart around us!

"Wheeee! Explosion of the ancients!"

"Well, that was a rememberable ending!" "What a fun day!"

"Yeah nice ending." "That was cool"

"Ok, now rebuild it."

Someone had the idea of a group photo.

"Everyone to the Man statue! group photo!"

"Great shot Ancient Mole!" "Let's do it again in another 20!" "Thank you so much for organizing the party." Kennylex Luckless would say, "Marianne McCann was big big help." "Sorry Marianne missed this today." "Happy 20th Birthday Man statue!"

Someone would rezz a huge corkscrew.

Then rezz a hollow ball, invite people inside, then drop it inside and let it roll down.

Before leaving for the day, I would see someone rezz a firestorm tornado.
 

Coming back later, I see a party hat had been placed onto the statue, owned by Kenny Luckless. 

 

It was quite a celebration for this old icon of the earliest days of Second Life.

 

Bixyl Shuftan

The "Eggfigy" Burn

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By Bixyl Shuftan

Lately things have been more than a little complicated for Second Life's Burners. A tribute to their early days, Burn ONe, turned into their gathering place when the leaders of the Burn2 team shut down the Burning Man Deep Hole sim for what they stated was a temporary time period.

On Monday July 11, a few of the Burners decided to lighten things up, literally, by constructing something to burn and set it afire. This was a giant egg-shaped effigy, or "eggfigy" as it came to be called.

It was made by Jeff Olhoeft. I would later hear from him, "I build it last Easter when for some egg themed antics on the Burn2 region. Brought it back out to the beach for fun."

"Eggfigy burn in a few minutes. (teehee) Come to the beach."

 I went there, along with a number of Burners. Someone asked, "Can't remember, does this build explode?" And the puns started, "No, but it gets scrambled." "Good, no hard hat required." "Not exactly, although does tend to toss embers far." "Yes, you're egg-xactly right."

And before long, we noticed smoke coming from inside, "Does anyone smell smoke?"

And then, the underside went aflame, "Fire fire fire."

The fire slowly worked its way up.

And the whole structure was afire, "Smoked omellette?"

Panning inside, it was an inferno in there, "and hear the crackling."

As the fire blazed on, the structure started to become charred and brittle.

Then pieces started to flake off.

And as time went on, more parts were flying off.

Some pieces were getting a little close to the Burners.

There were more egg puns from Mrs. Mia Wallace (Mia Quinote), "Terreggific. EGG-cellent!"

Before long, pieces had scattered in all directions, "I'd say this event went, 'over easy'." "Yeah, getting past hard boiled now too." Mia remarked, "Everyone 'scrammbled' here very quickly."

They ended up redoing the egg burn.

One guy took a "Bobcat" and moved burning pieces away.

Some of them into the water. 

Before long, not much was left. 

Not everyone stood around. Some were dancing.

For the Burners, it's been a turbulent time as there's been some trouble behind the scenes. But events like these allowed them to put aside their worries and relax for a little while. 

Bixyl Shuftan