Scenes From The Relay Flood Party

 

By Bixyl Shuftan 

It's a Relay tradition that happens every year and has been called a number of things. It's been called the "Sink the Sims" party. It's been called the wrap-up party, although it shouldn't be confused with the official "Relay Wrap-Up" party in July to mark the official end of the season. Others call it the name yours truly prefers, the "Flood Party."

 

Rain and Flooding in the Forcast, "Sink The Sims" Wrap Up Party

 

Relay 2023 WRAP Party... Wednesday 06/14 @ 4pm SLT...
Join us on RFL Research as we "SINK THE SIMS" and wrap up another record breaking Relay Season... We will be handing out the Spirit of Relay Awards and the Gordy Klatt Award among others... 

So how did it start? In 2010, one of the sim managers decided on a whim to flood the place full of water. But someone saw it and told others in group chat, and it wasn't long before people were showing up in swimsuits and inner tubes. So next year, people were asking "where's the flood party?" It would take a few years, including one year in which the "flood" was just a few inches, but eventually the Relayers would get their annual flood party in which the water would rise past their waists and up to their shoulders, and often deeper. 

This year's Flood Party was on Wednesday June 14, scheduled to start at 4PM SL time. I went onto the track as my alt Rezzdarnnit. 

Checking the map, I noticed RFL Research, the sim the event was scheduled to take place was jam-packed with a hundred avatars. It looked like I'd be on the outside looking in this time.

 

I was going to walk/teleport over, then I ran into a surprise, the "Party Bus" which offered me a ride.

Inside, Silver Howler was DJing to other canines on the bus's small dance floor. 

We soon got to RFL Remission, the sim south of the one to be flooded. I could see a number of clouds, meaning people gathering at the sim boundary.

 

 But when we got there, and I got off the bus, I noticed our sim was starting to flood as well as the one to the north.

Panning ahead, I saw RFL Research was just starting to flood.

 

 Not everyone was rezzing, but it was still signs of a big party.

The water continued to rise.

 

 

Some people were putting out rafts and floaties, including some that resembled octopuses.

The party bus did a transformation, inflatable floaters people could stand on appearing.

Then came Rita Mariner, the captain of Team Sunbeamers, and her US Army DUKW. Aboard it were some of "Roos With A Dream." 

The water was starting to get a little deep.

With only a little room left on the amphibious truck, I hopped onto the party bus's inflatable.

 

 The water rose in quick spurts at times.

And it would take a moment for what could float to catch up.

I can't recall how many were in both sims combined, but with people going in and out, it may have approached 150.

This pizza float was almost good enough to eat.

Eventually, the numbers in RFL Research began to drop, so I headed over. By this time, the water was deeper than I was tall, so I floated over.

The water was just starting to drop once more, but some floaties didn't. 

While there, I checked out the water slide at one camp.

After a while, it was over. The water levels were back to normal, with the rafts and other floaties being the only evidence of the flood party. 

 

In group chat, there was a joke or two about people grumbling their campsite's sim wasn't flooded. There was also talk of some times at the edge of making another level having one last bash to bring them over the edge. This included a few small teams which were getting "Bronze Parties" so they would get to a level.

 

Once the Flood Party was winding down, some people would head on to scheduled events elsewhere. Others would check out the track for one last time before the Takedown, which was starting the very next morning, or light up the last few unlit lanterns.

Officially, it wasn't the end of the Relay. Team ACTS was due to have an equestrian event later in the month. And there was the Relay Wrap-Up in July. But for most, this would be the de-facto end of the Relay season. This included the Sunbeamers, who would pack away the kiosk at their main club.

It was a great 2023 Relay season.

Go Relay!

Bixyl Shuftan

CDS and Sunweaver Communities At the MoCA Fimi Exhibit Opening

 
By Bixyl Shuftan

On Sunday May 2, two communities took part in an event for three artists, notably one whom had been part of one and had fans in the other. This was Artistic Fimicloud. Known as Stephanie Koslow in real life, she passed away thirteen years ago this month from cancer. So while the event was also for the other two artists whom had pictures at the exhibit, Sanjeewa Kumara and Sujeewa Kumari from Sir Lanka, it was a chance for people to look back at memories of the little pink fox whom had made her mark through artwork and her efforts at the Relay.

The event started at Noon SL time at the CDS' Museum of Contemporary Art (also known as MoCA) in the Neufreistadt sim. Fimi's art, retrospective paintings, was on the ground floor. Kumara and Kumari's art was on the second floor (European first floor), provided by Asmita Duranjay. Sunweaver Shockwave Yareach was the DJ for the event. He took no tips for playing music. Instead a RFL kiosk was set up for the Sunbeamer team, the Relay team of the Sunweaver community. "We are supporting the Sunbeamer team for Relay for Life of Second Life," the current CDS Chancellor Kyoko Furse-Barzane (Samara Barzane) explained, "So love MoCA and CDS too, but hit that kiosk hard." One guy whose viewer was taking a while commented, "Well, currently I just see "Paintings from the Grey Period" until the textures will be loaded, then chuckled. Kyoko mused, "Ah yes, the specialty of many museums.

There were a number of Sunweaver and CDS noteables. Besides Kyoko, other locals included (but not limited to) Lilith Ivory, Callipygian Christensen, and Rosie Gray. Rosie was in a tiny raccoon-like avatar, commenting with a grin, "so glad everyone wears nametags in SL." "Rosie, you are adorable," Kyoko woud later say with a smile. Besides the journalist, other Sunnies there were Jenni Greenfield, Dusk Griswold, Cynthia Farshore, and Sunweaver chief and team Sunbeamer captain Rita Mariner. Dusk was in the poodle avatar she wears most of the time these days. She would comment, "I was trying to figure out why a poodle seemed to fit me, then my real-life sister gave me a possible answer. I lost my Mom to cancer when I was 12, so a lot I didn't remember about her. My sister told me her nickname was 'Poodle.'"

Kyoko would say, "I meet Fimi when I started exhibiting at her Park Galleries. After we lost her in May 2008, I took over Park Galleries and ran it until December 2011. Fimi was very special to a lot of us, the cutest, feistiest little pink fox, and I miss her terribly still." Rita would say, "We still relay in her memory. We have a pink fox statue we put out in our Campsite every year, just for her." "The (Redheads) hadn't been a group long when we lost her," Shockwave commented. Kyoko went on, "We were all on the Passionate Redheads in 2008 and 2009. ... We were the first furry/human Relay team. "Freaked people out I think," Shockwaved mused. It was brought up that around 2009 a number of people in the team split away to form their own, Inspired Dreamwalkers, and the Passionate Redheads were mostly people from the Sunweaver community until it's closing in 2013 just before the season started. "I was a Passionate Redhead till the bitter end and it was disbanded," Rita stated.

Shockwave would play songs such as "Mad World" by Tears for Fears, "I Will Remember You," by Asia, "Love Will Find A Way" by Yes, "Fly Like An Eagle," by Steve Miller, and "Learning to Fly" by Tom Petty. "I can't help it," he would say of the last one, "I love Tom Petty. (I) wanted to see him in concert, but wasn't able to swing the cost of tickets.  Two weeks later, he was dead. Was my hint to QUIT (my) job -- no future in it." Dusk commented she would be retiring from hers in several more months. Rita added, "Bunny has been retired for 12 years plus, Love it." Shockwave would later play what Rita called, "one of the funniest songs I ever heard," which was "Viagra in the Water." "Listen to (the) words," Shockwave told everyone, "it's hilarious. I'll bet Fimi would have loved it." "Hungry like the Wolf" by Duran Duran, got a few jokes about "sheepishly made videos" and "not what I expected when they said the film was catered." "You don't need them the way you wolf it down."

At another point, Rosie in her little tiny was wearing a tall hat that changed colors. "Rosie, you are glowing," Kyoko laughed. "It's the only sombrero I have," Rosie responded, "it's a good party hat, especially if you're really small." There was a joke about hat tricks, to which Dusk commented, "Rabbits are good at hat tricks."

There was some talk about movies as well, notably "The Dark Crystal." "I was really disappointed in it," Dusk commented, "I am a big Jim Henson fan. I got into puppetry because of Henson. But sorry, Dark Crystal was bad." Shockwave nodded, "It was difficult to follow.  That's the directors fault." "It is because of how it was made," the puppeteer commented, "He approached it backwards. He created the world and characters first, then made a story to fit them." She did say there was nothing wrong with how the puppetry and props looked, "looks good visually." Cynthia would say, "have to remember it was long before CGI and to get the puppets to act so well was craft."

The talk about puppets went on, Shockwave saying with a smile, "I played with puppetry because of Dusk here. Those were fun years." "Yeah, we had some fun performing at cons," Dusk responded. Rita added, "I got a puppet caused it looked fun at the cons." "Dusk is a wonderful puppeteer," Kyoko commented, "I saw her give a class, learned a lot." Rita added, "Dusk and I were even on the Dave Glover show a couple times, with our puppets." Shockwave had one story, "At the second TFF (Texas Furry Fiesta), a daddy with his cheerleader daughter was having conniptions that all the weirdos were sharing his hotel. I asked him what was wrong, automatically using the puppet. And to my surprise, the man was arguing with the puppet!!" Several people laughed, Shockwave commenting with a grin, "That was when I knew I wasn't bad at it." Cynthia remarked, "Sort of talk to the hand , with a cover over it." Shockwave chuckled, "I wish I had thought ot that then, that would be a good ending. My closing line was 'We may be wierd, but you 're the one fighting with a puppet.'" Kyoko had a good laugh, "Nice one Shocky."

Shockwave had another story, "We had a teams meeting.  And one of my group was on the island, from home. The joke was made, 'Is the SS Minnow fixed yet?' Everyone laughed but one guy. He said he was googleing what the SS minnow was. I NOW feel old." we all chuckled, Kyoko commenting, "I remember before dial phones."

Talk turned back to Fimi and two of her friends, Rita saying, "She was very close to Treminari," a female red Lusk fox whom was part of the Sunweavers until around 2010. Shockwave commented, "Don't know what happened to her. I know there was a falling out, yes. Well, I wish her the best wherever she is." I myself would say, "Tremi never forgot Fimi, saying she had with her some of her best times in Second Life." Rita would add, "Still hoping Lommy finds his way back," referring to Lomgren Smalls who was known for his six-inch tall avatar. Shockwave would say, "In Lom's case, I didn't KNOW he was sick. ... Lom I sense now and then here and there." Kyoko mused, "Check Rita's cleavage."

Eventually, things were getting close to the end. Rita invited, "You know Kyoko, you are still more than welcome to come visit us." Kyoko responded, "I will. I had forgotten how much fun you all are. The younger furs, too yiffy for me. But you guys and my vintage, and really intelligent." Rita offered to show off the demolition derby the Sunbeamer team made part of an event a few weeks ago, "I figure we will use it again later this month." Shockwave, whom made the derby with Cynthia, mused, "All those years of chasing cars." Dusk commented, "A poodle proved to be the most destructive." Cyanthia joked, "that kind of driving just seems to come natural to you." "I have driven a mail truck for 33 years," Dusk joked, "what do you expect?" Kyoko suggested, "Should I introduce Shocky to my exploding sheep?" Rita joked, "You know the sound a sheep makes when it explodes? 'Hiss BOOM  Baaaaaaa!'" Kyoko chuckled, "Good one Rita." Dusk changed to her sheep avatar, "see if I explode."

Finally came the last song of the event, "Together in Electric Dreams" by the Human League. Kyoko told everyone, "This exhibit will be up into June. So please bring friends over." She also invited the Sunweavers to explore the sims, "By the way, we will have a quad horse in our Representative Assembly next term." Cyanthia mused, "Well guess better than an ass at the Representative Assembly." Dusk joined in, "Horses always depress me, all those long faces." 

The Relay kiosk took in 5000 Lindens for Team Sunbeamers.

With the end of the event, people began going their separate ways, some after looking one more time at the paintings, and one quote of Fimi's.

"My art, my life, is about looking forward, never looking back. Looking back serves no purpose but to break one's heart when you're walking a path as difficult as some of us do. So instead, I look forward, to that next beautiful sunset on the river."

Bixyl Shuftan
 

RFL Events At Farshore Field and Rita's New Monorail

By Grease Coakes

One of the many social groups of Second Life is the Sunweavers headed by Rita Mariner is still going strong as there's always something going on in her network of sims.

On July 12^th Rita told me there was going to be a RFL event at Farshore Field, named after everyone's favorite goat Cynthia Farshore. The general theme was miltary with a plane race and a dunk tank you try to hit with a cannon. But the dunk tank and plane races weren't free. One had to pay for shots at the dunk tank or lindens to race in the clouds with one of the planes. But the Lindens you pay go directly to the RFL team the Sunbeamers. Rita is well known as a bunny rabbit, but for RFL she was bid to be a male skunk. I saw her in a "Pepe LePew" avatar from Looney Tunes cartoons.

The event took place 8am-5pm SLT Saturday at  Pacific Waters 140/74/32 . The first class consisted of motorcycles from 8 AM to 11 AM. The second class would be automobiles 11 AM -2 PM SLT. It made me think to look around for the car I purchased for charity a few years ago. The third class was "whatsits," which was driving whatever one wished.

The entry fee was 500L for the first five laps and only the best time counted. If someone wanted a second try, 200L for another five laps.

There was also a dunk tank with an 88mm cannon instead of tennis balls. One could take 3 shots for 100L or 10 shots for 250L at that nasty furry within the Sunweavers you wanted to get back at for putting worms in your bed, or some such. There was also a balloon ride from Skylark Lefavre for a donation to RFL to see the mad chaos of the car race.

Another neat feature I noticed on Rita's Sim network was the monorail I saw going through her lands. Thinking of the first Linden bear I found which was Simon Linden's where he didn't directly hand me the bear I had to go on a mini hint quest on his land to find it. One of the things he had was a train which led you to the next clue. As the legend goes any time you meet a Linden ask him or her for their bear and you get one.

As I write this article I'm riding around on Rita's monorail seeing the various sights and a mechanical humm. Anytime the railcar stops you hear a tone to announce the rail stopped. You also see in green bold letters what stop you're at. For example, "KFStationMarker: SUNNY BEACH STATION" showed up as one of the stops. 

In regards to the monorail I had this to say and Rita agreed with me.

Grease Coakes: "You know life whether it's Second or first, life tends to go at a fast pace. It's nice to slow things down and take a breather on a monorail or blowing up a dunk tank."

The monorail, which took two weeks for Rita to build, is well done. One of the stops happened to be the SL Newser Building. In fact one of the end points happened to be "KFStationMarker: PACIFIC WATERS STATION," Where Cynthia held her RFL events today.

The other end of the rail happened to be Holmes station. After the monorail ride, I went to get food in real-life, and came back in time for the car race.

I had fun racing against Kiwi and Skylark and Rita Mariner. I found out the trick was to slow down when my car hit the turns. If I drove to fast I ended up in the water. I went splash a few times which slowed me down but I just jumped out and re-rezzed my car.

Bixyl Shuftan, in a skunk avatar from his own "Bid Me" event, came on later and raced on his motorcycle. As he was the only motorcycle driver he won the top prize for motorcycles. According to Shock I won the top prize for cars with the fastest lap at almost a half minute with my sports car I bought for charity.

Lap2--Grease Coakes last lap was 31.317260 seconds!

A great time was had by all as a pony tried to run me over with her and people were dunked by cannons. Rita herself drove a batmobile and lost a wheel. Give credit to the furry Sunbeamers as they raised over 215K Linden for the fight against cancer.

Not only was the day fun, we came a step closer to defeating cancer, and everyone wins.

Grease Coakes

*Editor's Note*: Grease did better with the sports car than I did with my "Hercules," my top speed being about 55 seconds. Attendance was somewhat small due to other Relay events that day, such as the Breedables Fair. Even the season's longest cross-sim Giant Snail Race had a smaller than normal turnout of it's kind than normal. And some were out doing real life work, were on summer vacation, or otherwise unable to show up. But enough people and donations came in, especially one generous one from Raschid Marenwolf, to put the Sunbeamers into Gold Rank. That evening, Skylark LeFavre's "Bid Me" event came due, and she was "Bid Mousie" until after the Relay Weekend.

Sundeamers at New Bastogne

By Bixyl Shuftan

On Sunday afternoon, April 8, 2013, the "Sundreamers" Relay For Life team hosted a cancer fundraising event at New Bastogne. The sim is one of three for the WW2 Combat RP, where residents fight one another in tanks and planes in addition to small arms on several teams on two sides: Allied and Axis. Visitors are limited only to a small shopping area until they have joined the roleplay group for all players. Rules of protocol normally restrict how the two sides can interact other than shooting at one another, but on special events they can freely mingle.

Such a special event took place last weekend, this time a Relay For Life event. New Bastogne has no team of it's own. The team that was there were the Sundreamers, the team made up mostly of residents of the Sunweaver Estates, and one of two teams made up of former members of the old "Passionate Redheads" team.


Relay for Life is the signature fundraising event of the American Cancer Society, and has been active in Second Life since 2006. Since then, RFL in SL has raised over US$1.6 million to help fight cancer!  Join us today in New Bastogne at 4PM SLT (PDT) for today's Relay for Life Event! This is a multi-team event, so if you wish to participate, feel free to join in. We will have dunk Tanks, where you get knocked down using WWII AA guns, theme music, fly WWII aircraft. Vendors. Costumes. Come have fun!


Dropping in, I was greeted by one of the Luftwaffe sergeants, and the Sundreamer leader, Rita Mariner. The purple kani was wearing a US Army uniform with a general's helmet. Most of the German teams were grouped together and chatting, but some were talking to visitors along with a few Allied players. Some residents were exploring the area. The church got complements on it's appearance and design. All the while, music of the era played from an old time music station from Portsmouth Virginia.

 German leader and RP administrator, Vickster Khun, was among those chatting with visitors, dressed in a dress instead of a uniform. Visitors were invited to take planes up, and at one point one of the Germans took up a Heinkel two-engine bomber to give them something to shoot at. There were also tanks set up on the end up the airfield as ground targets.

Becky Shamen was the first volunteer for the dunk tank, and she sat over it, in a bunnygirl avatar in a swimsuit and cap. There was a wire mesh around the tank, and the seat on one end of a beam that had a target on the other. Some distance away, the Sundreamer's RFL kiosk had been placed next to one of the 88 artillery guns. For a suggested donation of a hundred Lindens, people could take shots at her. Some did, but the first residents took some time to zero in and hit the target, sending Becky to a bath. Eventually Rita did, and got her with only a few shots. Then Vixie Valiant came in and took a seat on the gun when it was her turn. The vixen hit the target on the first shot, with reactions of surprise from those nearby, "Damn!" "One shot! ... I'm going hunting with you." "Nice going!" one GI commented, "We're gonna draft you for th' Allies!"

In was then Vixie's turn to sit on the dunk tank. And with that, the Sunweaver chat got more lively,"someone shoot that annoying vixen!." A few more Sundreamers came on to try to knock her in, and they were taking fewer shots than with Becky. Eventually, it was soon Rita's turn. And more residents came on to try to knock their landlord into the drink, who taunted, "No wonder the Germans lost, you can't hit anything." Just for fun, more weapons were brought in to knock her down, such as a small tank, and a Nebelwerfer infantry rocket launcher.

After about a couple hours, the event wound down. One of the Luftwaffe leaders, Jessicabelle Dayafter, suggested future events could be arranged. This time there could be drones that visitors could shoot down. And Rita soon agreed to an event next month.


Sunnies:  The Relay for Life Event yesterday was alot of fun. A lot of real estate was torn up as the gunners each took their turns blasting away at the victims on the Dunk Tank, until they hit them.  Planes were buzzing around and bombing and strafing the targets.  We are planning a second event, May 7th Tuesday, 4-6 pm slt. New Bastogne sim, WWII theme.


In the meantime, the Sundreamers and other teams continue to hold Relay events. And of course New Bastogne is always open to new players whom are team oriented and fight fairly.

For more Relay events, check their website at http://rflofsl.intuitwebsites.com/ .

Bixyl Shuftan