Scenes From The Sunbeamer Air Show

By Bixyl Shuftan

On Saturday June 16, Farshore Field in the Sunlight Bay sim was the setting of a key event for the Sunbeamer Relay for Life team. It was the day of the "Fifth Annual Farshore Field Steampunk Air Show Fly-In."

The event started at 8AM, and lasted until 4PM, with activities taking place all day.

Cynthia Farshore, the owner of Farshore Field, had a number of replicas of WW2 aircraft on display.

There was some information on each of the planes.

The Superfortress heavy bomber would continue to serve long after the war, not being taken completely out of service until the 1960s (photo by Wildstar Beaumont).

 Not all of the planes were from the Second World War. There were others such as this B-2 bomber, made for a different kind of fighting. While the bombers of WW2 weren't cheap, the stealth technology made this plane cost about three times as much as a B-1.

Skylark "Snowy" LeFavre was offering balloon rides. She would later tell me she raised several hundred Lindens for the team this way.

 Another attraction was the "Take a Trip to The Moon" cannon. The idea was the cannon would shoot you up to a platform resembling the lunar surface. But one could easily bounce off of it and come back down.

It was highly recommended that you grab a parachute before going up, one provided free of charge (guaranteed your money back if it failed to work).

There was also the water dunking, where someone would fire a German 88 at a target on a dunk tank to try and knock off the vic-er, volunteer.

To make it more of a challenge, you couldn't go into mouselook while on it. So aiming it was tricky.

And being an air show, people could take off planes from the airfield.

Cynthia Farshore, whom was looking foxy after the results of the "Bid Me" event she was in, tries her hand at a Corsair.

Going up ...

 And away.

 Shockwave Yareach, whom looked like someone had "gotten his goat" thanks to the "Bid Me" that ran next to Cynthia's.

 Real-life called me away at one point, and I was gone for a while, missing part of the action, such as when Wildstar Beaumont appeared.

More pictures by Wildstar can be seen on his Flickr page (here).

 I arrived to some big news. Team Sunbeamers had finally hit 500,000 Lindens raised, which this year was Sapphire rank. I had promised to go purple for a week (under most circumstances), and so I did.

I wasn't the only one who went purple, though.

Among those there was Astra Noctura (Silverskyranch, the maker of the "RFL Rabbit V2." which Deaflegacy wrote about.

Following the air show, from 4-6PM there was a party in the Goblin Cave, inside the hill near the airport.

Once again, the Sunbeamer's air show was a big success. "The little team that could" had done so once again, thanks to the efforts of Cynthia Farshore.

Bixyl Shuftan

Afternoon With The Lindens at The Castle Home and Garden

By Bixyl Shuftan

On the afternoon of Wednesday July 26, there was a fun event at the Castle, Home, and Garden contest. There would be a "Meet and Greet" with the Lindens. They wouldn't be answering anyone's questions. They would just be there to have a little fun.

Get all your friends, family and join us for an afternoon with The Lindens!
?·2PM to 4PM SLT
?·Dunk Tank 50L a ball to dunk a Linden!
?·Wrestling Arena
?·Hugg a Linden
?·Much More!
Come and spend the afternoon with the Lindens and contribute to fighting back to find that cure for Cancer!

There were a number of Lindens there, such as Tommy Linden in the picture above. "Hmmmm, Tomas is in a cowboy outfit," I observed, "Can we expect a mechanical bull?"

Sid the sugar glider spoke out, "Step closer my friends! Don't be shy. These Lindens have been fed so they wont bite, but they are for you !" Dee commented, "I make no promises of not biting." Someone responded, "Oooh can we bites a Linden?" Keira Linden responded, "You mean I had my teeth sharpened for nothing?" Tommy Linden asked, "Wait, the other Lindens got fed?" Sid then conceeded, "Okay, no promises of no biting, but I have band-aids."

"Invite your Friends, Family, Enemies and all those who would LOVE the opportunity to dunk a Linden! Take on a Linden in the Arena! and or even hug one!"

Dee Linden got in the wrestling ring, which was not made for actual wrestling, but had still poseballs for poses. The lady Linden tried to encourage people to get into fight scenes with her, "Come on gang, I'm wimpy, y'all can take me." But when tiny Sid got in the ring, she didn't seem to know what to do.

"Get your photo taken beating up a Linden!  Now you can frame that and put it in your SL Home as proof!!" The poses could make you look like you were beating up a Linden, or getting beaten up by one. I imagine after certain articles I wrote, this is how some Lindens felt like responding.

And there were a couple kissing booths, "Bianca is ready for kisses!!!!!!" But when a certain stinker hopped in, she didn't seem to know what to do, even though skunks and kissing booths are nothing new.

Of the dunking booth, "Let's celebrate our precious Lindens! By drowning them!" when Keira Linden was sitting there, no one could thrown any balls. By the time the sim's permissions had been adjusted, Tommy Linden had taken the seat, and found himself unable to stay on the seat for more than two seconds for a while as he was constantly being knocked into the water. "Does it work now?" Sid asked of the booth. Tommy Linden answered, "Oh it's working all right." "Is Tommy clean enough now?" iSkye Silverweb asked, "maybe needs another dunking or two?"

Tommy Linden then decided to dry off in the wrestling ring, but he was still getting piled on.

Tommy then decided to give the kissing booth a try, " Alright, if this booth ain't safe, I am blaming Sid." Then Sunweaver chieftess Rita Mariner stepped up, "Who's manning the Kissing Booth, I am here to plunder some booty."

But she settled for a few ear rubs.

Mikati Slade, the "baker" of  the Second Life Birthday's "Cake Stage" was also there. Here, she prepares to lob a baseball at the dunk tank with Kristen Linden on the seat.

Kikas Babenco, half of the "Kikas and Marmaduke" comedy act, was there too.

Kona Linden was also there.

As was Shanian Linden.

"The Strange Wolf," just being strange around Tommy Linden.

Tommy Linden fiddles with the kissing booth. His efforts would get him cartooned. 

Catfight! Rasberrykiss shows a few moves she picked up from the Roman RP.

 A hungry dino looks at Kristen Linden's bony avatar.

Not sure what Mikati was doing here.

It was a fun time that afternoon when the Relayers and friends got to have a little fun with the Lindens.

Bixyl Shuftan

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