Bay City's Seventh Anniversary

By Bixyl Shuftan

Sunday May 17 was the seventh anniversary celebration of Bay City, the "first project of the Linden Department of Public Works," described as being built to represent the North American urban experience in the mid-20th century (1940s to 1960s), and the community behind it. Every year, the event is marked by a parade down several sims, followed by a music and dance party with tunes from both DJs and live performers.

As the clock ticked to 12:30Pm, the starting time of the parade, people gathered at Harwich.

The idea was for the paraders to be divided in groups, Marianne McCann and Pygar Bu at the lead of the first group.

The horse rezzed, but the car didn't in this screenshot.

Finally at 12:31PM, Marianne started things up, "Here we go! Happy 7th Anniversdary Bay City! ... er ... Anniversary! ... ONWARD!" The others cheered, and followed her and Pygar, "Hoooo!"

I ended up crashing, but teleported ahead to a harbor area ahead of the parade, and took pictures as the procession approached.

 Going down the road was an avatar Yoda, as opposed to a toy yoda.

Marianne and Pygar were whooping it up as they went down the road.

 Where did this guy learn to brake? "The Flintstones?"

I had a hard time focusing the camera so this mesh horse would rezz. In the end, I managed to avoid looking like a horse's ... well, you know.

 I went ahead and skipped ahead to the finish line at the Fairgrounds in North Channel. That's my friend Shadow with me.

And before long, the parade was in the home stretch.

And one by one, the parade's participants made it to the finish line.

Kenny Luckless, in a mesh tiny skunk. He was looking a little "pail."

A couple horses in the line-up were among the last to arrive.

The paraders were welcomed with music from DJ GoSpeed Racer, the first of the music performers.

GoSpeed's KONA stream no longer operates on a regular basis, but she plays it for special events, such as Bay City celebrations.

While no relation to the anime character of almost the same name, GoSpeed did have a cheerful "big eyes small mouth" cartoon on her stream info sign. Of her ethnic look, she commented at one point, "Everyone should have at least one ebony avatar (in one's inventory)." I responded, "Does a Luskwood furry black cat count?" GoSpeed laughed, "No!"

 And the dancing began.

Conga line, with a couple tinies mixed in with the normal human avatars.

Marx Dudek was going to DJ for the event, but there was a change of plans, "One of these days, I won't have a system that chokes."

Live performer Christov Kohnke followed DJ Gospeed, singing to the tunes of his guitar.

And we soon had a blue dot on the map, a Linden had showed up. April Linden, appearing in her old Lusk bunny avatar, came to join in the dance. The locals happily greeted her, "Welcome April..wonderful to see you!" She couldn't answer any questions about the Lab's policies, "I'm just an engineer." Someone asked if there were tours of the Linden Lab office building available. April answered no, "They only let me in because I have a key."

Following Christov was Oble (Obeloinkment Wrigglesworth), in his marionette avatar. His act had no strings attached, even if he did. Amforte Clarity (no picture) would be the last performer.

 Daniel Voyager, who can be seen here in his owl avatar, put the number of those at the party at 55 avatars.

At one point, Marianne told the crowd, "Hey all, I also want to take a moment to thank those who made the event happen today! Thanks to Kinn for helping to arrange the music, and for GoSpeed Racer, Chris Khonke, Oblee, and AMForte for performing! Thanks also to Marx Dudek who was originally going to DJ today Thanks, Marxie! Also, thanks to our parade marshals.... ADudeNamed Anthony, Rachel Seelowe, and Uncle Galaxy... er, Uccie Galway! Thanks to the Bay City Alliance for being here and helping to put on great events like this... ...and to Linden Lab - especially Michael Linden and Xiola Linden for help above and beyond. And finally, to BlueGin Yifu, Hyper Mole, and Ever Dreamscape for all the did, and for continuing to inspire today. Shine on!"

It was a party to remember as Second Life's biggest city celebrated seven years.

Bixyl Shuftan

The Skybeam Fox Hunt (Nov 2009)

By Bixyl Shuftan

 In late October, Second Life Newspaper had a new sponsor, the Skybeam Estates. It wasn't long before we had a chance to spotlight the community, their third anniversary on Saturday Nov 14. Among the events that day was the fox hunt. Maybe I was a little close to the subject, but it was the one that I chose to write on, the article going up Tuesday Nov. 17.

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Skybeam had a number of  events to celebrate it’s third anniversary. There was a “Worst Dressed” contest. There was a snail race. There was a spoof of “Wheel of Fortune” called “Wheel of Lindens,” in which I won a hundred L on. But what to me was the most memorable was the fox hunt.

No, they didn’t hunt yours truly. Amethyst Starosin, the Skybeam event manager, and Erix Oh, donned feral fox avatars, purple and red respectively, and volunteered to be the targets. There was also a third fox, Kiwako Snook, whom was the gray decoy. There were free horse mounts available to those whom didn’t have one, but as demos they were no longer redeemable once the player got off them, or 45 minutes had past. Anyone whom wanted the traditional red riding outfit, however, would have to get it themselves. To catch the foxes was a cager, just go in mouselook, aim, and click.

So at 10 AM SL time on Saturday the 14th, people began gathering. My presence led to a few chuckles, not just because of my avatar’s vulpine appearance but also the raptor-like mount I had for a “horse.” But no one tossed a cage at me. It was soon time to give the foxes a head start, and then everyone on horseback charged to capture them, or in my case on raptorback to “rescue” them.

But not surprisingly, I lost sight of them. I had heard all of Skybeam, not just that one sim, were open to the fox hunt. Peaking at the map, there were plenty of green dots here and there, so I wandered about, going through fields, over rocky hills, and by homes. I didn’t think I’d find the foxies, but I was having fun exploring around.

Finally checking the map, I saw that the sim the hunt had stared on suddenly had a mess of green dots. Was it all over. I ported over, expecting to hear that it was. Instead when things were rezzing, I saw people running around, and people shouting, “Some one get her!” The hunt was still on!

To my surprise, the purple fox darted in front of me. I promptly zoomed into mouselook, took aim, and ... nothing! As I had test-fired it once before, I wondered if it was a one-shot weapon, and went back to the starting point to get a new cager. But when I got it and turned my raptor mount around, I heard, “TWIZT GOT HER!!” “Yay Twiz!!” “CONGRATULATIONS TO TWIZT YING FOR CAGING THE ONE THAT COULDN'T BE CAUGHT!!” And so the hunt was over. twists response was simple, “Wow. I didn’t even see the cage.”

After that was the post chase chatter. Earlier on, Erix Oh had been caged by Neil McCullough. Amethyst had proven much more frustrating, “That was so frustrating having her right there in front of me and not getting her.” “I'm sorry ... but last year Neil had me in like 90 seconds ... this was great.” “Did anybody get a picture of me caging myself?” “... what'd you say, where I ‘rested’ on my sim, hidden in a hollow stump?” (decoy)“I almost morphed dragon a couple of times, just to give a horse a fright. :P ” “Eeeek a dragon!” “Oh my God!  Scarey dragon!”

Admist the laughter, there was talk of having another fox hunt in December, and Amythest the purple vixen getting a few belly rubs. And after a while, people soon left for the next event. And so ended the Skybeam Fox Hunt.

Among my furry friends, reaction was a bit mixed. Some thought it odd. Others joked about holding a different kind of fox hunt. Many thought it should be the foxes on horseback and hunting the “hummies.” But there was also one suggestion for a shy human guy being chased by a band of scantily-clad, giggly, vixens.”

* * * * *

This would be the only anniversary of it's new land sponsor Second Life Newspaper would cover, and there would be no fox hunt in December to cover. Still, it was a chance to get a peek of life and times at Skybeam.

Bixyl Shuftan

Final Day of the Fantasy Faire

By Bixyl Shuftan

Sunday May 3 was the last day of the 2015 Fantasy Faire, the yearly week-long fantasy-themed event that's both a fundraiser for the Relay for Life and a chance for builders to show off what they can do. And there were a few more events at the grounds before the event was technically over. This included an interactive roleplay in the Poppetsborough sim.

Apparently in the roleplay, a "Wizard of Knowledge" was responsible for chronicling wisdom and facts down, and some dark forces were after him to quite literally steal the knowledge from the people in the area. So they appealed for help. Avariel Falcon, who was there as I TPed in, told, "It's the dark claw of possible doom that is mostly dangerous and needs to be dealt with through charity and dance magic!"

Loki Eliot shouted, "COME TO THE CENTRE OF POPPETBOROUGH AND HELP US RELEASE THE WIZARD FROM THE GRASP OF DARKNESS! PAY THE KIOSK BY THE POND, WE SHALL WEAKEN IT WITH GOOD WILL!"

Loki and a number of others had on looks that made them look like human-sized versions of "The Littles," a cartoon from some years ago. "Look, I'm a Little!" one girl exclamed. But as they weren't a few inches high, they looked more like nezumi or the neko equivalent of mousefolk: human with mouse ears and tail. Another commented, "Maybe I should be my Mouseh fae self."

But eventually, they met their fundraising goals and declared victory, "MOUSE GUARDIANS RULE!"

The Mouse Guardians gathered their allies today at Poppetsborough and confronted the evil that had captured the Wizard of Knowledge. Though tiny demons circled about the hand wickedly and darkness fell over the skies of Poppetsborough they had found that charity, sharing, and love weakened and eventually banished the wicked hand that clutched the Wizard of Knowledge. The tears in Poppetsborough have closed and the skies are bright and clear. The Weasels, the Poppets, and everyone extend their thanks to everyone who attended their events and helped raise over 301,000 linden over the ten days to save Poppetsborough and to fund Relay for Life.

Read more on the event on the Fantasy Faire website (link).

Later on, there was another party at Poseidon's Abyss.

Among the dancers were two giant avatars, or Collossus, by Ceri Quixote. Ceri was the big girl on the right. While they might have a problem in any "Attack on Titan" areas, no one at the party minded them as they were just two more exotic avatars in the mix.

Trader Whiplash of T1 Radio was there in a Star Wars Jedi outfit. No telling if his dance partner asked, "Is that a lightsaber in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?"

A third Collossus also joined the party.

As the party went on, an announcment was made by Random Parr:

NON STOP WOW  Fantasy Fair just hit 30 THOUSAND US Dollars and 7.5 MILLION Lindens in less than 11 days!    A heartfelt Thank You to Zander Greene and Elizabeth Tinsley for all their hard work, To all exhibitors and designers Congratulations and THANK YOU FOR MAKING A DIFFERENCE in our fight against Cancer!

Shortly afterward came another:

To those of you involved with Fantasy Faire 2015, a very heartfelt thank you and congratulations from the bottom of my heart and soul. You showed the world how we can kick cancer out of the universe!

Vickie Maidstone, Captain Friends Fighting Cancer RFL Team 2015

And so, the Fantasy Faire began to wind down, with people continuing to check out the builds across the thirteen sims. Second Life Newser will have some pictures on them later.

Bixyl Shuftan