Scenes From The Relaystock

 

By Bixyl Shuftan

 

The Relayers had a lot of fun at the Relaystock Woodstock tribute from Friday May 12 to Sunday May 14. There were numerous teams taking part, as well as numerous live musicians and DJs. On Satutday night, it was the turn of two certain teams. At 6PM, DJ Cynthia of Team Subneamers would get on stage, dancing with a number of teammates, including team captain Rita Mariner, Nydia Tungsten, and Shockwave Yareach.

 

 

Like other teams the "Sunnies" had their campsite. 

 

 Some would hang out there for a while.

 

 

Team Captain Rita Mariner, in her "Bid Me" skunk form, demonstrates one new Sunbeamer item up for sale this year, "The Hindenburger," which floated around her. 

Nydia Tungsten had Internet trouble weeks, but thankfully was able to get online for the Relaystock.

Cynthia Farshore had gotten a temporary reprieve from her "Bid Me Ruth," back in her nannygoat form.

At the time, I was in a lapine appearance due to the "Bid Me Bunny" I volunteered for. 

At the nearby Meli's Maniacs' camp, Ginger (Dusk Griswold) would occasionally play the drums).

When not there, we were often at the music stage.

Among the DJs were some live musicians, such as Maxamillian Kleene. 

Team leaders Trader Whiplash and Arizona Ballinger were dancing away as well with the audience, sometimes on top of the nearby van.

On Saturday afternoon May 13, over time most of the more active members of Team Sunbeamers came to the event area. At first it was to dance in the mud alongside the others.

As 6PM neared, the 'beamers gathered behind the stage.

Practicing their dance moves, making sure everyone was coordinated.

Finally it was time to get on stage. Trader Whiplash joked, "Did you wipe your feet before you climbed up there?" Shockwave responded, "You all having fun out there in the mud?"

Cynthia started the music, and the Sunnies started to dance. They danced to a number of classic rock songs as Cynthia played them.

With the furry dancers on stage before a mostly human audience, Shockwave mused, "Everybody avoid the brown acid. Everyone on stage looks like an animal to me." There were other musing as well, "I don't know what the age of Aquariums was." When the song "Something In The Air" was played, someone commented, "Something in the Air?  Another darn Chinese Balloon?" "Would you like to spy, in my beautiful balloon?" "The thing with Chinese Spy Balloons, there is always another along in about an hour." "Chinese balloons are never full."

 

Eventually the songs took a break for a short announcement reminding people to not keep snacking while sitting at their computer. Then the music resumed with "Sugar Sugar," which got some people musing, "Good song to follow that announcement (laughter)." "Hehe funny, they say not to eat or drink at your desk then they put on this song (giggles)." When the song "California Dreamin'" was played, Valkyrie Ice, the team succubus, mused, "Val always thought it was 'Califirnia Demons.'" When Arthur Brown's "Fire" was played, Shockwave grinned, "I was tempted to rez a giant fire for this song." When the song "Eve of Destruction" was played, Ginger mused, "the time before I am about to cook." Then came "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)" by The Byrds. Ginger mused, "There is a seasoning for nearly all food. ... To everything I cook, burn burn burn."

 At one point, Shock challenged the crowd, "Okay audience!!  You got no L, but wanna contribute? Answer this question and you get 1K in the kiosk! ... What color is the Tamborine?" Several people answered "green." Shock grinned, "Damn all you know that song." Ginger mused, "We're old." Liska joked, "Listen while I eat my green tangerine." Cynthia would then play "My Green Tambourine," which Nydia Tungsten did a video of a few years ago to celebrate the team reaching Emerald for the first time.

 

When donations came in, the kiosk would give the following message:

Thank you for creating hope! Donations to this kiosk are distributed to the American Cancer Society IRL, and used to fund life-saving cancer research grants and patient services that benefit the entire world, including residents of Second Life through Hope Haven on American Cancer Society island.

Team captain Rita had pledged to match donations, and they kept coming in. Shockwave would soon challenge the crowd that if enough was raised, he'd wear a nightgown, looking like the "Big Bad Wolf" trying to disguise himself as Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother, "Anyone makes it 45K I'll wear the whole Grandma outfit." Well, the amount was soon raised, and he made good on his promise. Shock would muse, "People just don't understand the whole wearing grandma's clothes kink." Liska mused, "You should get back into World of Warships, Shocky, you could be a wolf in ship's clothing." Eventually, he heard the pictures being taken, "That better not be a camera flash I see in the back!!"

Ginger, who was in an anthro otter avatar, commented, "Earlier someone here told me I made their autistic son's day, as he loves otters." Cynthia's response was, "Well you 'otter' do that more often."

Then Nydia made her own challenge, shouting, "Tell you all what, if we get to 40K, I will go human for a week 50 K am I will go human for TWO weeks! For this cause, I will DO IT!" To her surprise, it was quickly matched. Shockwave groaned, "We just got her back!! And now she's gotta shave?!" Her response was to up the ante, " I am putting out here. IF we reach $100K I will go human for over 1 MONTH!" FluffyFoxy364 Resident offered, "I'll go Shark for a month if the Sunbeamers hit 1 Million." Someone responded, "We're gonna need a bigger stage"

The offers to match donations continued to come in, Brian (BrianL61 Landar) offering, "I will donte $L1000 if two people match me, I will donate another $L2000."

 

Finally Rita announced, "By the way, we hit 100K mudpuppies." Hearing that she had to make good on her promise, Nydia spoke, "Okay I love you ALL, but I'm a shut my mouth now. ... I will be Human until JUNE 15th!" Her friends cheered, "Go Nydia!"

At one point, someone rezzed a Volkswagon Beetle painted in 60s colors and started driving around. Eventually the driver lagged and spun out of the sim, crashing afterwards.

Among the funnery, some of the team would explain some personal reasons for why they were in the Relay for Life. Shockwave Yareach would say, "My dad and stepmom died from cancer.  I relay for them. ...  I hope we can find the magic bullet and stop this terror." Ginger would add, "My Mom died from cancer when I was 12, I mostly relay for her. ... My sister and sister in law survived breast cancer, fairly recently." Snowy (Skylark Lefavre) would say, "I relay for my 11 year-old (SL) daughter cancer took." Nydia spoke, "I survived cancer, but I relay for my friends and family and those I care for here in SL!" Liska remarked, "Resident): Been fairly lucky with family, I relay mostly for Fluffy.  Cancer went after him, and cancer got it's ass kicked."

 

Rita would say, "We relay for many of our friends and family who lost the fight against cancer." Ginger would say, "Our campsite will have items out representing those we have lost and those who are either fighting it or survived." Shockwave told, "Together, we remember them, and try to save the next generation!"

Eventually, the end of the Sunweaver's time on stage was in sight. Shockwave told the crowd, "We are grateful for your generosity.  And we hope you've enjoyed the trip down memory lane," then grinned about his outfit, "even if this is one memory I'll regret." Fireworks would soon be launched into the air, better visible when the viewer was set to Midnight. 

 

Finally, it was over, and time for the 'beamers to leave the stage.

From Cynthia Farshore

The team had done very well, that night, raising over 111,000 Linden dollars, or as Cynthia put it, "WWHHOOOOOOOAaaaaaa! Goat is going to faint!" "That was a lot of fun," Mato would say, "we raised a lot!"

 

An amount of a few tens of thousands would come from one generous donor who prefers to stay anonymous.

It was then 7:30PM, and time for the last performance that night, DJ Kayla with other members of "Roos With A Dream."

As the Roos' set wound down, they joined those of the Sunbeamer team that had stuck around.

From Cynthia Farshore

When the Roos' set ended at 9PM, they'd gotten another large amount of cash. They'd raised over 126,000 Linden dollars, even more than the Sunbeamers. For the home team, the Relay Rockers, they'd gotten the largest boost of all from the event. When the final performance on Sunday night, Trader Whiplash's, was over, the team had been pushed past the one million mark, and Emerald rank fundraising. A few days later, the Rockers would score more with the "Bid The Lindens Bald" event, which sent them past the two million mark.

On the last day of the Relaystock, Sunday May 14, Sunbeamer captain Rita would say, "I want to thank those of you that participated yesterday at Relaystock. It was a blast and we set a record for raising donations for the Sunbeamers. The ROOS beat us in total, but they loved our help.  Between the two of us, we raised enough to make a team go from zero to Platinum."

The last comment would be Trader Whiplash's who on Wednesday May 17 announced how much the events raised:

Final totals are in for the RelayStock weekend and today's  Bid Lindens & Moles Bald

L$1,825,179
$7,437 US

Thanks You to all the teams who took part in RelayStock and everyone who came over to enjoy the weekend and to those who took part in today's Bid The Lindens Bald.  You all rock !

It was one groovy weekend with lots of mud, rock n' roll, and fun Relaying.

Go Sunbeamers! Go Roos! Go Rockers! Go Relay!

Bixyl Shuftan

Addition: The lady who donated the few tens of thousands of Lindens was Charlee Amethyst.

DJ Cynthia Raises Over 40K Lindens For Team Sunbeamers At Relaystock

By Bixyl Shuftan 

The weekend of Friday May 13 to Sunday May 15 marked the Relaystock in Second Life. Organized by the Relay Rockers, this tribute to the 1969 music festival that became known as the "Summer of Love," is a multi-team event in which other teams are invited to take part. 

Numerous campsites are available, with either a tent or a bus, and a team can usually get one just by asking. There are also slots available over the course of the three days for DJs and performers. For Team Sunbeamers' Cynthoa Farshore, her slot was on Saturday at 2PM, following Keeba & the Tiny Maniacs.

 Nuala Maracas: 2pm - On the RelayStock stage - DJ Cynthia Farshore for the Sunbeamers Relay team.  It will be a groovy time !

But it wasn't going to be just any DJ session. Team captain Rita Mariner and several others from the team, Scout Snowpaw, Liska da'Lantros, Mato, and Nydia Tungsten, were going to be dancing on stage alongside Cynthia. Gathering at the Sunbeamer camp before the time slot, all were dressed in 60s-themed outfits, such as the flower-pattern bell-bottom jeans, and tinted glasses made by late Sunbeamer Alleara Snoodle. 

As the time got closer, we walked to the stage. Keeba and her band of whimsical tinies soon finished up and hopped off. Then Shockwave and the girls stepped on, the wolf soon stepping aside. For a couple minutes, there were some technical difficulties, interrupting the music. Then everything began running smoothly.

As DJ Cynthia did the 60s-themed music, all danced to the tunes to an appreciative audience. Every time someone made a donation, the kiosk on stage would chime, "Thank you for being a hero! Your donation makes it possible for us to provide support and services to cancer patients in Second Life at the American Cancer Society island." Behind the scenes, Shockwave Yareach, with some help from Nydia, was making sure all went smoothly with the music stream. "Why isn't Shock dancing?" someone from the audience asked. The wolf just smiled, "Oh, I'm just the recording engineer." One Sunbeamer in the audience having just arrived would comment, "My real life half-sister was a hippy, gods I so disliked her attitude (grin)."

Shockwave would express his appreciation to the crowd, "All of you, thank you so much for coming out.  We love entertaining you and fighting cancer." When a latecomer to the party asked what all the 60s decor was about, Shockwave answered, "This event is a recreation of Woodstock," then mentioning his furry friends, "with even MORE hair. ... I wasn't at the real thing.  But I love this one more, because all of you are here. We are getting close to a real cure for cancer.  So tantalyzing close. I may yet live long enough to see a cure for cancer and bases on the moon. My kids get to have the adventure I wanted."

Shockwave then brought up the team's weekly event, "For those in the audience, the Sunbeamers have a dance on the moon every Thursday.  Everyone is welcome. We have a variety of music. And the aliens haven't hurt anyone yet. Come join us if you want -- no pressure." Shockwave grinned, then noticed his joke about the lack of air pressure on the real moon might have gone unnoticed, "That pun was bad, eh?"

Among those in the audience were a few from team "Roos With A Dream." When one latecomer arrived, another would say, "Glad to see my Roolief arrived." Another would give the tail of a Sunbeamer in the audience a big hug. Then another turned to the stage, " 'roos love the beamers!" Then she would comment about the dancers, "Wow! its Cynthia and the Cynthettes!" Shockwave would comment, "Cynthly Irresistable!" "Ooh, I like that! Cynthia and the Cynthetics." "If you like the music of the past," Shockwave went on, "let's try making Cancer a thing of the past also. Jump in the mud! Kick up your heels! So this blast from the past is the next big thing -- Cynthia and the Cynthetics!"

(click here to see the video, from Nydia)

Cynthia being an anthro nannygoat in a group of foxes, wolves, bunnies, and felines got a small amount of friendly ribbing, Shockwave musing, "And her DJings not baaaaaaad." Another remarked, "Guess sometimes you gotta take, life by the horns." "You people are the best!" One of the 'Roos went along with the pun and with a compliment, "I think Cynthia is the Greatest Of All Time." Shockwave then smiled, " Look, she's blushing." "How can you tell?" "I can tell (grin)."

Shockwave would comment of his Relaying, "It's  a fun escape though. ... You guys keep me sane. Scary, huh? Hehhehheh." One of the Sunbeamers commented, "Not sure about 100% sane... there's always the inner mad scientist?" The wolf grinned, "They figured if I was gonna blow stuff up, make it useful. REmember, Cynthia and the Cynthetics are available for Bar Mitzvahs and Wine Stomping."

Earlier, Shockwave commented that he felt raising 15,000 Lindens was a reasonable goal. But as the event went on, the Sunbeamers met that, and then some, "We made the goal, and doubled it!" One of the 'Roos cheered, ***Wewtwewt *** "'beamers are over 600k." Shockwave grinned, "For that stretch goal, I will NOT sing for you now." Noted Relayer Bain Finch would comment, "Was just looking over the team leader board. WOW!" Shockwave would then challenge, "Anyone got a spare 10K to put a stake in Cancers' corpse?" To his pleasant surprise, the money quickly came, "All of you have contributed so much!!  Thank you so much! ... The sunbeamers have a small camp this year.  But you're welcome to relax with us."

Near the end, Cynthia would say, "Okay I'm wrapping with a more modern tune but has the meaning of what we are doing here!" It soon appeared, "I Run For Life."

I run for hope,
I run to feel,
I run for the truth, for all that is real,
I run for your mother, your sister, your daughter, your wife,
For you and me my friend,
I run for life.

"We  are the Sunbeamers!" Shockwave shouted, "Thank you all for sharing this time with us.  And Go Relay!"

By the end of Cynthia's session, the Sunbeamers had raised a total of 40,416 Lindens in their kiosk. "That's one of the highest amounts I've seen raised here so far," one of the 'Roos commented. "Thank you all of you contributing," Shhockwave told the crowd, "It means a lot to all of us -- we have lost SO many." Cynthia sighed with relief, "I can breath now." Nydia cheered, "Let's hear it for Cynthia! You did good." "And Nydia as choreographer," Rita told the crowd. One of the crowd cheered, "I loved your show. Who knew the beamers could do that?!" Rita would tell the dancers, "Mato, Shocky, Cynthia, Scout, Liska, Nydia we did good, thank you all." "Next year, we'll use my server though," Shockwave would comment. He would later say some were listening in from outside the sim, giving Cynthia a larger audience than anticipated.

There would be other events later that day and on Sunday, concluding with Trader Whiplash DJing the final event. 

With over 605,000 Lindens raised inworld, The RFL in SL site puts Team Sunbeamers at ninth place of 137 teams. But with the Winter Expo and Fantasy Faire counted as teams, Seventh Place might be a better assessment.

Next weekend is the Sunbeamer Air Show, at  Saturday May 21. The Sunnies will also be among those with a campsite on the Relay track for the Relay Weekend, Saturday June 11 to Sunday June 12.

Go Sunbeamers! Go Relay!

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Happy Rezzday Shockwave and Cynthia.

By Bixyl Shuftan

On Thursday October 3, there was a party at the Goblin Cave at Caledon Downs, in Caledon. The occasion, not just to celebrate the rezzday of it's owner, Cynthia Farshore, but also that of her friend Shockwave Yareach whom had his a few days earlier. Cynthia had come onto Second Life on October 03, 2009. Shockwave stepped onto Welcome Island on Sept 29 2006. Both are noted builders and members of the Sunbeamer Relay team.

As per prior notice, Rare Double Rezzday Party! Come join Shockwave Yareach and Cynthia Farshore as they both celebrate their rezzday. They are nearly to the day 3 years apart Shocky - 9/29/2006 and Cynthia  - 10/3/2009. Make your way to the Goblin Cave now at 6 PM SLT for around 2 hours of mixed music.

Both Shockwave and Cynthia are members of the Sunweaver community, but have ties to the Caledon one. And over the course of the party, people came by from both to wish them well. "It's a special bday for the Duchess," Shockwave told everyone, "10th Rezzday." "The Duke turned 13 (on) Sept 29," Cynthia responded. She played a number of songs, including a few birthday tunes like, "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen." She collected no tips, but there was a donation jar for Caledon Oxbridge University. There were also a few parodies such as "Born to be Mild." Someone wondered if a year in Second Life was equivalent to six in real life. One vixen grinned, "That would make me 69.  No thanks."

Someone mused about anniversary gifts, "50 = silver, 6o = gold, 75 = diamond, 200 = platinum, ... I guess?" He then corrected himself, 100 = platinum." Shockwave mused, "If I live to be 200, ugh!" Another woman giggled, "I had not heard about SL years.  But at 82, I guess that would qualify me as a greymuzzle."

At one point, Cynthia contemplated, "I wonder myself why the Guv titled us Peer instead of Duke or Duchess?" Shockwave wondered, "He misspelled 'Pier' maybe, meaning you're pillars of the community?" Cynthia's friend Liska Fuchs mused, "The drug store pharmacist is the 'piller' of the community."

At another point, someone crashed, came back, and commented he felt like kicking his ISP.  Spooked Dreamscape commented, "Give the ISP an offer they can't refuse, 'Weed.'" Major General Badger commented, "But read the fine print first. Contracts are not legally binding nor do magical badgers accept liability for flood, fire or theft." Someone else joked, "Consult a honey badger before making deals with badgers." "I thought honey badgers didn't care?" spoke the one who crashed. "You want one representing you in court." Badger mused, "Sign in blood - mwhahaha - oops, did I say that out loud?

There was a birthday cake available for anyone to get a piece, Shockwave saying, "Everyone can get a slice of cake from the cake on the bar." Someone responded, "Good, shows that the motto is true. Cake does exist in Caledon." Andrea Jones mused, "It's made of pixels so not filling, eat as much as you want." Liska joked, "The cake is a lie."

Over time, people came by, some to stay the whole time or most of it, some for an hour, others to just stop by to wish the two well, "It is always an honor to celebrate a RezDay!" Shockwave commented, "Always good to survive to have another." "May you both be in world for many more!"

As the party drew to a close, Cynthia reminded everyone of the movie at the Sunweaver's Feral Theater, "The movie The Nut Job will be playing at the theater in the Sunweaver Estates. Hopefully I can get the stream to also play here." Shockwave mused, "You'll go nuts for the movie."

Soon after, the party was over, and the people went their separate ways. But the Goblin Cave is still around for anyone wanting to stop by for a little music and maybe a game or two.

https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Downs/104/89/32

Bixyl Shuftan

The RFL Fourth Annual Farshore Field Air Show

By Bixyl Shuftan

Saturday May 20 was the day of one of the big events each year for the Sunweaver community and it's Relay for Life team the Sunbeamers: the fourth annual air show at Farshore Field in the Pacific Waters sim, owned by Cynthia Farshore.

The event has been called an air show and fly-in as people have been encouraged to bring in their own aircraft to fly, in addition to using the plane-rezzer at the place given by Jessicabelle Dayafter. Cynthia had put up most of the items up just for the show, along with Shockwave Yareach.

The event started at 8AM SL time. There were only a few people around at the start, but before long more came in. Some went to try the air cannon, seen on the left of this picture.

When fired, the cannon would launch whoever was inside into the air, such as this high-flying vixen.

But what goes up must come down. Cynthia demonstrates the limited edition parachute with the 2017 RFL in SL logo, which residents were recommended to take and wear before going up.

Nydia Tungsten was one of the pilots at the show.

 Giving the Focke-Wulf 190 a spin. While this WW@ fighter was not as common as the Messerschmidt 109, it was better armed, with options to carry bombs and rockets.

 Inside the FW-190 cockpit.

 Going up.

 And away

Zeroing on one of the target planes Cynthia had going in the air. After taking a number of hits, they would explode and plummet, only to be re-rezzed moments later.

While the airborne targets couldn't fire back, there was an anti-aircraft gun on the ground that could, which Shockwave tried out.

Cynthia had set up another gun, but not for firing into the air.

It was for firing shells at the dunk tank instead of lobbing tennis balls, with hits sending volunteers into the drink. But getting shots to hit the target could be a little tricky.

 Trying the planes myself, I ended up lagging and crashing. But there was something more my speed: an obstacle course set up by Cynthia and Shockwave.

 The course went into the next sim and back.

There was a contest for the best time made in the course, but to qualify one had to use these bicycle blimps. I guess I didn't do too bad on mine, but not the best.

 Wildstar Beaumont came by and took some pictures while yours truly had to take a break for lunch and errands.

Wildstar was able to get some great pictures of the clouds and contrails. More pictures of his can be seen on his Flickr album of the event.

 Some people preferred less conventional aircraft.

The event raised close to 22,500 Linden dollars. A good amount. There were a few whom had been hoping for a higher turnout, but a few people told me they had been preoccupied by real life matters that day. Otherwise they would have shown up. Plus several other Relay events that day cut down on those from other teams dropping by. Rita Mariner made an announcement soon after the event.

Beamers:  The 4th Annual Air Show, at Pacific Waters, we held SAT, May 20th, went off pretty good.  While there wasn't a huge turnout, we still did good regarding donations and Cynthia's and Shocky's efforts netted us a little over 22K Lindens.  Not shabby.  There were just too many RFL events going on to expect a huge turnout I am afraid.  Those of us that did show up had fun, mostly getting shot into the air, by the cannon! Others just enjoyed flying around.

Cynthia certainly kept the ball rolling. After the air show, more money continued to come in, as of the writing of this article over 40,000 Linden dollars since the event. There is some talk about making other teams part of future air shows, such as Fly for Life. But for now, the Relay season continues, with the Sunbeamers having their tributes to the late Artistic Fimicloud this week, on May 23 at the Happy Vixen and Friday May 23 at Club Cutlass.


Go Relay!


Bixyl Shuftan