Wednesday, August 19, 2026

Walk Around the Grid: The Willows Cartoon Night

 
By Netera Landar

I don’t know about you, but I used to love watching cartoons. That meant fighting for control of the dial on the old TV that my brothers and I watched after school and on Saturday mornings. That was way before cable. We were actually one of the first families in the neighborhood that had a color TV. 

I loved Scooby-Doo, The Jetsons, and The Flintstones. So, when I learned that The Willows was hosting a Cartoon Night on Friday, July 31, I had to put on my pop-culture cartoon dress and TP over there.

It was no surprise when I reached the landing point and found a giant Fred Flintstone with the biggest smile on his face. He was standing next to his human-powered stone-and-wood car. Inside the venue, everyone was having a great time dancing to DJ Sylvie Zaftig’s tunes. 

On the dance floor were Shaggy Rogers and Velma Dinkley from the lovable mystery-solving gang; Maui from the cartoon movie “Moana”; Mario from the “Super Mario” movies; Flintstone characters: Pebbles, Fred, and Wilma; the Pink Panther, Strawberry Shortcake; and other interesting characters.
 
 
Maui from "Moana" and Suri Rochelle Cassady.


 
Willows DJ Sylvie Zaftig.

 
Mario: Dylan, and Alesandra.

 
Pebbles and Fred - Faleen and Steverino.



 
Pink Panther – Pk Bluemoon, Strawberry Shortcake – Kylie, and Wilma – Star.

 
From Scooby-Doo - Velma and Shaggy - Bobbi Sable and Brent Sable. 

 
From The Flintstones - Riley and Spence. 

 
Yep, that's me with Fred Flintstone. 

 
Aodhan and Brian. 
 
It was a blast. Until next time, "stay tooned."
 
Netera Landar 
 

Tuesday, August 4, 2026

Discussion on Tactics At Aether Salon

 

By Bixyl Shuftan

This is one of my "better late than never" articles that temporarily got lost in the reporting about the SL23B and then Rita Mariner's passing. 

Besides being the last day of the Second Life Birthday, Sunday July 19 was also the day of July's Aether Salon discussion. 

Today at 2PM SLT: The Aether Salon presents TACTICS! with one of the founding Salonistas, Jedburgh Dagger. Sneak in unnoticed, steal a seat and brace yourself for further instructions.   

One of the central points of the discussion by Jedburgh Dagger of tactics was what face a commander on the field: "the three 'Cs,'" Command, Control, and Communications."Command, go there. Control, stay together. Communications, tell them to go there too." And in ancient times with no radio, communications wasn't easy, relying on visual signals, horns, and messengers which took time to reach where they were going and vulnerable to being killed. 
 
 
Jedburgh noted that tactics pretty much stayed the same for millennia. Even when firearms first appeared in European battles in 1419, they weren't a significant change at first, until "in 1525 the first battle that was pivotally decided by firearms was fought in Italy. Battle of Pavia, when the cavalry found out that you can't run pell mell at a block of musketeers. But even so, guns ended up not changing the formations a great deal."

Real change would have to wait until King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, "known as the first modern general, and the man who started the widespread use of 'combined arms'.What he did was use cavalry, artillery, and infantry together, each using their strengths to offset the weaknesses of the other."  

Still, the practice of men in lines marching in formation toward each other continued, even in the early and mid 19th Century that saw developments in firearms and ammunition that made rifles more accurate and quicker to reload. But then came Maxim and his machine gun, "it took Maxim's gun to provide huge amounts of fire that ended the large unit use of line formations, and also killed colored uniforms for that matter." But line formations didn't go away entirely, "even today, the riot squad and the infantry squaddie still do the same thing their Greek ancestors did."
 
There were some amusing moments with the occasional joking remark, such as someone responding to the comment "the same thing their Greek ancestors did" with Tepic Harlequin going "drink too much and fight the locals?" He would also man the machine gun on display. There were also fireworks unleashed at one point. 
 
Ceejay Writer, who organizes Salon events, would say, "we do not have a speaker for next month, but we do for the rest of the year," and invited people to sign up to be one.  
 
The Aether Salon discussions are announced in the New Babbage group inworld, and on it's Discord. They take place at Babbage Canals (195/63/105).
 
To read the group blog, including this week's transcript, Click Here: https://aethersalon.home.blog/
 
Bixyl Shuftan 
 
 

Monday, August 3, 2026

Walk Around The Grid: Pet Pharmacy's Sixth Anniversary

 
By Netera Landar 
 

Anniversaries at Pet’s Pharmacy are always well-attended events. 
 

The proof is a step away when you enter the art deco venue and take a long look at the dance floor. Everyone is dancing to popular swing songs in their flapper dresses and suits.
 

The venue’s sixth anniversary on Saturday, July 25 featured both DJ Loren and DJ Suzie Cummings on stage, 
 




with 65 people dancing for hours.
 

 
You had to adjust your camera above and look down to see who attended. 
 

Pet said the venue was on loan. It was beautiful. 
 


 

 
 
To read more about Pet's Pharmacy, Click Here to read the article from November.
 
 Netera Landar
 
Events 

Monday, July 6, 2026

Wedding Bells

 
 
 
On Friday June 26 came a special occasion: The wedding of Lilybeth Patterson (LilyBethPatterson) and Ardo Topaz.
 
You are all cordially invited to attend the wedding as we are excited to see you all there.  Please see the attached program ... 
 

The happy event occurred at WolfTail Inn, near Club Balance, with Maliit Uzz-Shirki (MaliitCoyote) and Bellslayer presiding. 
 
The event was attended by numerous friends, including some from the Sunweaver/Angels community. 
 

Following the event was a reception with much dancing, 
 

 

And the tossing of the bouquet by the bride. .The fun went on for a few hours, with DJ Frost, DJ Erika, and DJ Squeaks playing the music. 
 
Congratulations to you both,
 
Bixyl Shuftan 
 

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

RFL Sunbeamer Carnival

 
 By Bixyl Shuftan
 

 On Saturday May 23, The Relay for Life's Sunbeamer team would hold it's Carnival event. Taking place in Sunlight Bay, there were a number of activities.
 

 There were rides such as the "Tornado."
 

 There were Shockwave's Bumper cars, with an added challenge this time. There was a hand cannon giver that a co-rider could shoot. 
 

 Take too many hits, your car would turn into a barbecue.
 

 There was a small roller coaster.
 

 There was the Bicycle Blimp Challenge, which was a race against the clock. 
 

And many others such as getting launched into the air from a cannon ...
 

 Bouncing off a target
 

 And then plummeting down, hopefully with a parachute from the giver next to the cannon (or an older one from previous years).
 

 But the main attraction was the music. DJ Cynthia would start things off at 9AM SL time.
 

 The dancing to her tunes, which included some videogaming songs from the 80s, and a number of jokes in response, went on to 11.
 

 After an hour break to enjoy the games and maybe visit the restroom, at Noon, DJ Primi Giles-Harding-Ronin, representing Team ACTS, got up on stage.
 

 And more people dropped by, including Wildstar Beaumont, who has some pictures of the Fantasy Faire on his Flickr
 

 At 3PM SL time was DJ Kayla and the Roos, who this time arrived via Cynthia Farshore's balloon.
 

 The Roos dancing as Kayla spun her tunes.
 

 Including a Bowie song, which had an effect on one Roo.
 

 The event would raise tens of thousands of Linden dollars for the three teams. The Sunbeamers themselves are as of the writing of this article a little over 1,215,500 Lindens, not far from Ruby level. 
 
Go ACTS, Go Roos, Go Sunbeamers, Go Relay!
 
Bixyl Shuftan