Interview With Aldaris (Bawnty Resident) About RFL Team Scorn

 

 By Bixyl Shuftan

 

The Relay for Life in Second Life this year has been a big success, with over 462 thousand US dollars worth of Lindens raised. Behind it were over 180 teams. Some have been around for a number of years, such as Team ACTS, the Relay Rockers, The SL Cheerleading Squad, The Sunbeamers, and others. But there were also some new teams. Among them was Team Scorn, the team organized by the staff of the Scorn Rock club. I recently had a chance to interview their team captain, Aldaris (Bawnty Resident).

Bixyl : "To begin with, how did you hear about the Relay for Life, and how did the idea for the team come about?"

Aldaris : "Well, it was you! Or at least it was the close association of the Happy Vixen and the Sunbeamers team. I had no surrounding information other than the fact that there was a link to an inworld location to something called a 'campsite.' It wasn't the first I'd heard of "Relay Weekend" in the week leading up to that moment, but it was the first tangible lead I had to whatever was going on. So I followed it and there you were, at the Sunbeamers site. You told me people would be running by I might recognise and that you were going to bed for the time being. So I went and stood by the trackside and heckled/encouraged everyone and anyone I did recognise! So I took my time, looked around the Sunbeamers camp. I got to appreciate so many people's reasons for running, but still didn't have the greater picture of what Relay was, until Charlee rounded the corner, dashed to the next checkpoint, came back and told me to get running. So I did! I pretty mindlessly followed the track until I saw some eye catching campsites further along. I was taken in by how 'big' the event was - how many people were running by, how much effort had been put into camp builds. Then I slowed down, got to reading. I got to see what it was all for and why. I loved it. I kept on running. I got a little trophy at the end just for taking part. Bear in mind that this was the single biggest 'thing' I'd never come across in SL in terms of scale, participation, and general excitement about it in the run up.

"So I was too late to partake in it that year. But in the time between then and Relay 2024, I got made a manager of the still recently reformed Scorn (Rock Club). Thing is, we're almost entirely new faces except for the owners who've been there since forever. There's nothing particularly binding us as a 'team' except for the shared responsibility to the venue. I thought then that the conditions were right to do multiple things at once. I could unite everyone toward a noble, common cause to give us all a shared history we could be proud of. A galvanising moment to get us all working towards something good, togethe, be an inspiration of hope. 

 

"I fear that Relay is mostly attended by those - unfortuantely - most affected. I wasn't content to wait to be affected, so I was only happy to bring the message of Relay to those who might not have even known about it before now. I certainly didn't before a year ago ... and, give back. Because despite the overarching theme, despite the sad circumstances that lead to Relay being a necessary event, I very much enjoyed myself. Going around the track, seeing what everyone had built and all of the themed outfits being worn, was a hoot for me. I really wanted to come back and do it again, and what better way than by making my own team?"

Bixyl : "Very good reasons to Relay. About how many are in Team Scorn, and who are among the more active people on the team?

Aldaris : "I think I can safely say there were a core team of five. Of those the most active members we had were; I myself - co-ordinating efforts, performing the kiosk management and dispersal of information pertaining to the weekend. Gwen, who was very heavily into the fundraising side of activities, and the primary builder for our team campsite. And Charlee, who was very greatly involved on the Relay day itself in participation and provision of extra materials. Despite this, we absolutely would not have enjoyed the campaign we had without all members being involved, as well as all of those who donated towards making our team gold on our first ever outing."

Bixyl : "The team made Gold level this year, over 125,000 or $500 USD.  How much did you expect to raise?"
 

Aldaris : "Silver, at best. And I'd have been satisfied. For our first outing and for being a small team, I thought that was not just realistic but a challenge and one that wasn't entirely unattainable. Especially given the level of support I wasn't expecting. I thought this may well be me, on my own doing it all myself. That didn't happen, people fell in love with what we were doing. We were on pace for silver until we weren't and things hugely ramped up in the last third of fundraising season. We kept climbing. Gold was no longer a distant vision but very much in reach. With only days to go until relay weekend I was delighted to announce we'd surpassed the threshold. It was a wonderful symbol of how united we all were for a good cause and how far we could all go together."

Bixyl : "The team also had it's own campsite. Did anything in particular inspire the design?"

Aldaris : "We modeled it after a narrow slice of one of Scorn's own venues. Our beach stage is a popular one, and so we decided to bring forth a wedge of that with us to the track. Being that Scorn is what brought us all together, it felt only right that we brought a bit of it with us. Having seen other campsites before, I decided to roll in the theme with a grounded twist. 'Decades of Hope' became 'Decades of Research' and the information on display became mainly focused on the tangible efforts worldwide to identify, prevent and eradicate cancer in all of its' forms. An effort we're proud to have been part of."

Bixyl : "The team also sponsored one of the themed hours on Relay Weekend as well."

Aldaris : "We did! As relay drew closer there were five themes yet available to be sponsored: Rainbow of Ribbons, Ride For Research, Music Is Hope, Coffee and Pajamas, (and) Toga Party. Well I thought 'Ride for Research' was an immediately great fit with our camp theme so I went ahead and asked to sponsor it. Unfortunately it must've taken so long to finalise that we wound up sponsoring rainbow of ribbons instead. Not that it was a problem, everyone looked beautiful during that hour!"

Bixyl : "So you were aiming with Research?"

Aldaris : "Me myself, at least in my memory, could not think of anyone I'd lost to cancer. Overwhelmingly that seems to be what a great many campsites tend to do. It's a nice way to remember people, but didn't feel as appropriate for us, so I steered us in the direction of a more hopeful message - that there are very real efforts happening in the world to destroy cancer right now and the participation of the very people operating teams and running the track are the reason that effort is ongoing. A big thank you to everyone who takes the time to make relay happen, whether they're staffing it or participating. It couldn't happen without all of us."

Bixyl : "Which of the events by the other teams during the course of the Relay got your attention? Any other campsites get your attention as well?"

Aldaris : "Will I get laughed at if I say my jaw was on the floor when I passed The Adult Partnership's campsite? They had these two massive bunny girl silhouettes flanking their central stage. I think it was the scale of those that was very striking as well as that they'd offset their campsite from the track by quite a way onto the grass, so it wasn't right beside the track itself. Our campsite was right across from the 'Seekers of Hope,' they had quite a sprawling area as well which was a cityscape and an adjacent pool. I was glad to walk across the track and be at their pool party. On the Relay day itself I was glad to visit friends at other campsites; Sunbeamers, Roos with a Dream, Kitsunes for A  Cure.

"For outright events I might've been glimpsed at all kinds of places! Relaystock, Sunbeamer's Moon Party, Captains' Roundtable, Sailing.sl's Summer Sailstice, Road Warriors' 12-hour ride. I'm sure there were others too but those are the big ones that come to mind. It's been a long season!


Bixyl : "Sounds like you saw quite a bit."

Aldaris : "Things were pretty high octane from the word 'go'. The very same day I registered a team I was being contacted with everything I needed to know, and there were more events than I knew what to do with weekly ...even daily! Some days had more than one and I had to make some tough decisions about where I was going to be, when I wanted to be at everything! Not that it's a bad thing, it's great to see SL so lively."

Bixyl : "So what do you usually do in Second Life when not Relaying, both on and off season?

Aldaris : "Well on-season provides a deluge of events to attend and so I try to make as many of those as I can while still running our own campaign and club. But when the season closes up I'm quite in love with the expansiveness of the grid. I have a fondness for bike rezzers and cycling my way across continents, or at least as far as I can get until the bike despawns and I'm left hovering in the air on a sim boundary. In fact I love all manner of vehicles - hang gliders, sail boats. They usually all end up the same way but it's a wonderful mode of experiencing the vastness of Second Life. I adore Blake Sea especially for the open water to sail on there. I'm a big fan of interactive art installations too, the kind of art that allows you to walk in or through it, or have a tactile experience. I can't get enough of the works by Regi Yifu. I think some people's first exposure to him has been at SL21B this year in the house made out of tubes and rainbows. But really, anything that plays with perspective will draw me right in. Optical illusion exhibits are right up my street too, there's not many but I'm glad when I can find them. If I'm not in the mood to concentrate on steering, many places across Second Life offer hands-free tours you can take across a variety of mediums and vessels.  Trains, Submarines, Boats, Hot air balloons, Scuba Diving.. it's not an exhaustive list but there's a serenity to just hopping on a mode of transport and letting myself be taken around a space to be shown what a designer wanted me to see. Even if those aren't there, I appreciate any beautiful place and there's no particular genre for me, I love them all!"


Bixyl : "Sounds like you take the time to experience a lot here. What were your plans for next year's Relay for Team Scorn?"

Aldaris : "There weren't! The rush of relay weekend still feels fresh. Doing Team Scorn has highly experimental and we haven't had an earnest discussion about how the experience was for us yet. There's been some talk about what we could do differently so the interest is there. Now that we've had the experience of doing it once we'll be able to look at what we did, what we enjoyed doing and hopefully what we want to do with ourselves next season, knowing what we know now."

Bixyl : "Was there anything else you wanted to add?"
 

Aldaris : "I don't think so, that was a comprehensive look into the perspective and history of a first year Relay team."

 

 

 

People

Reader Submitted: Mourning the Loss of Two Relayers

“I don't think there's one word that can describe a man's life.”- Citizen Kane

This is probably the hardest post I’ve had to write. I remember when I was in the hospital, Henrietta stayed up almost every night with Sidonie and Cuddly. She always presented this shy demeanor, but beyond that was a woman who was deeply loyal, deeply committed to the causes she believed in.

 Sid, Cuddly, Henrietta and I talk almost daily. Three years ago we created a Facebook chat group that we just chat into, and no matter what we always talked through things. Hospital visits, strokes, dying cats, ferrets, movie quotes only Henrietta understood, and just life in general.

If there was one thing that I could always count on, it was my troupe of four. I recently went through a bit of depression that I could not explain- it happens to all of us. I must’ve chatted into the group at 3am my time and since we all have the group on our phones we all see the alerts. Henrietta woke up and kept me company through a time that was particularly hard for me.

Sometimes it is easy to forget but Second Life is not one dimensional- we are more than just the avatars we create.

Over time all four of our lives,  in world and out of it, became important. Cuddly got a live in boyfriend toy thing, Sidonie had new cats and Henrietta lamented about ferrets. We all know each other so well that if we met in real life, I don’t think we would even notice that we weren’t hiding behind our Second Life skins.

That’s what I love about Henrietta- she is so real, so true to herself that Sid, Cuddly and I had a shoulder to lean on to and rely on. She is always full of movie quotes and tv show quotes that none of us had heard of before but yet she persisted...

Henrietta Demina had many passions. Living life with a smile and laughter was one of them. She was dedicated to her real life family and friends and treated us SL family and friends just as she would in real life. She wrote about her Strange family on her website and was immensely proud of all of our accomplishments. Henrietta had her Demina family too, passionate about role playing as vampires. She was dedicated to the character she made on Second Life, changing only her hair to accommodate Relay season.

For the last five years she was deeply, deeply passionate about Relay for Life. She and her brother Hilshire made RFLSL as real as it could be- they collected monies in real life as much as they could and usually donated it in pieces.

Henrietta was the definition of a true relayer. She attended as many events of other teams as much as possible, slowly draining that chunk of change (which was easily in the thousands dollar wise) at each team event showing her support.

She volunteered to DJ at just about every single event possible. She was passionate about the Fantasy faire, Christmas expo, you name it she was there.

Quiet but steadfast defined Henrietta’s Relay journey- she was happy to let others in the spotlight even if she was more deserving. Most recently she was heavily involved with the Christmas Expo as a host and was happy to spend her entire week only at the Expo.

She became the Team Captain of Team Strange Journeys last year and held the baton with pride. She dedicated part of her sim to the team’s accomplishments and journey.

Above all, she was the Co Coordinator of the Castle Home and Garden contest. She retired a few years ago so she made the CHG her full time job, almost literally. She worked so hard that she worked herself into having a stroke right before the Opening Ceremonies last year. She was respected and loved by all of our contestants and our merchants. It was usually her that people would go to for support, and she was more than happy to give it.

It feels strange- life is a journey and I preach that, always. This week we lost both Henrietta and Hilshire Demina. They were killed in an accident early this week and it just doesn’t make sense.

I can see Henrietta standing in front of me, giggling, saying that sometimes life is funny that way. I can see her saying a quote from a movie she admired 40 years ago, and something about “don’t worry about it”. She would probably kill me if I said anything like “I can’t do the CHG without you”. She would want you all to smile and keep fighting. She would say, “don’t worry about lil ole me!”

Henrietta, you made a profound impact on my life and that will stay with me forever. You have made a difference and we won’t soon forget it.

Henrietta and Hilshire Demina, thank you. You can rest in your coffins now, and bite as many people as you want.

We will hold a memorial service and will send details when we have them.

Rowena Dubrovna

DJ Geerkil And The "Dragon Crew"

By Bixyl Shuftan

One of the more unique acts of the Happy Vixen beach club and Club Zero Gravity is DJ Geerkil and his "Dragon Crew." While there are plenty of DJs across Second Life, Geerkil Ziskey is unique that his avatar is that of a dragon. More recently, he's become the most visible part of what's known as the "Dragon Crew, which also includes his "co DJ" JB Raccoon, and often LS Raccoon, whom is often a hostess for her two friends.

DJ Geerkil, who pronounces the name "Gurrkel," first came to Second Life in May 2006, and has been DJing in Second Life for quite some time. For years, like most other DJs Geerkil just played music, explaining that when working alone he doesn't have much to say. Then in Spring of this year, JB Raccoon and LS Racoon first came to Second Life, April and May respectively. They are real-life friends of Geerkil, and had found out about the virtual world through him. At the time, Geerkil was working with someone named Dirty Dawg. "They did the Saturday show together and I would join them in Discord (a text and voice chat service)," JB told me, "but stay silent when they went on the air, until I got caught not knowing we were on the air (laughter)."

But sometime around late July or early August, Dirty Dawg left due to an issue. "JB was the only one who would chat with me (on Discord)," Geerkil stated, saying he talked JB into joining him on the air during his show. And the two of them just clicked, or as Geerkil put it, "the BS just started to spring out." On occasion, someone else would join in, "but JB was the one who kept showing up." Geerkil calls JB the brains behind the show, and credits him for the reason the show is what it's become, though gives credit to Dirty Dawg for helping out at the start.

Geerkil, JB, and LS invited me to listen in on their chatter through a program called "Teamspeak." Of his being a DJ, the dragon remarked, "Music is my life. ... Music can change the mood, enrich the soul." Geerkil doesn't really sing, though on occasion will end up singing to his music. He says he was fond of the "Monkeys" when young, saying of one of the band, "He was good looking as a young man, but he got old and turned slam ugly, like me." He says he has about two terrabytes of music in his computer.

Most of the time, Geerkyl is in his large Seawolf dragon avatar, although on uncommon occasions will be in an anthro dragon form or other avie. Because of his size, when DJing at the Happy Vixen, he does so from just outside the wooden deck, laying on the sand. He calls Club Zero Gravity his favorite location as he can sit behind the DJ stand. "I had the impression ... designed with Seawolf dragons in mind," he stated, saying it "popped my bubble" when that wasn't exactly the case.

JB Raccoon as his name suggests does have an anthro raccoon avatar. But he also appears in an avatar that looks more anthro husky with a raccoon's tail. LS describes it, and hers, as half raccoon, half wolf. He told me one reason for his online persona is that he once gave out what he called his home location on a Google map that led to a tree. LS Raccoon, described as a "taker of food," does not usually say much during the show, but instead as a club hostess she gives group announcements of the Dragon Crew's events in club groups and group chats, and greets people as they enter. When not at events, she is often playing games with friends, or just chatting with them.  She hosts for Geerkil and JB at Club Zero Gravity. At their Tuesday set at the Happy Vixen, the task of hosting is left to Kitacella whom had the job first. Geerkil feels she does a great job, and is happy with her performance.

The name of the team the Newser uses for the purpose of this article, "The Dragon Team," comes from Nydia Tungsten, the owner of the Happy Vixen. Geerkil and JB refer to it as "The Epic Failure Show," the dragon describing it as, "Those idiots get on the air, and they do the stupidest BS." He openly described his sense of humor as "warped," and in the banter between he and JB, the dragon describes the raccoon/husky as his "seat cushion." There's sometimes a few poop jokes by the dragon in the between the songs banter, Geerkil saying he can't pin down why he finds them funny, he just does. When saying he sometimes trains DJs, "It's something I do, do. ... Did I just say doo-doo?" We went on to say in younger days, he would have his kids do "poo patrol" in his backyard, "and now I have to do it myself."

There's also a few jokes about women and sex, Geerkil admitting it can sound like "barefoot and pregnant" to those with sensitive temperaments, "probably why I don't have a girlfriend." In one of the few times he changed from his dragon avatar, he had on something tiny and cute that could fit in someone's hand. He then offered his services as a "cleavage pet," saying his tiny dragon form could help keep a girl's bosom warm if he was tucked in. However he does not condone outright sexism, criticizing men in position of power in the news whom were exposed as bullying women in sexual manners, "I am very much against sexual harassment ... unless I am the one doing the harassing."

When I asked for examples of their craziest times, Geerkil laughed and told me it might be hard to pin down one. He then stated, "When JB was wearing his blue underwear, without his pants." JB brought up, "There was that one time you lit my a*s up," saying the dragon had caught his tail on fire. Geerkil responded, "That was an accident, sort of. ... I don't remember." "A memory lapse of convenience is what I call it." There could also be technical issues, Geerkil saying, "that's why we call ourselves the Epic Failure Show." LS has this to say about Geerkil and JB's act, "They're hilarious as always. They do a wonderful show, always putting effort into making sure people have a good time and to draw more in. (The) events are very much as fun as the skits, and we all enjoy having a good time as do others."

One of the last questions I asked Geerkil was about how he decorates his dragon avatar, which wears gold chains and has charms hanging from it's horns. Geerkil says he originally got the idea as dragons are attracted to gold, and it was originally for his anthro dragon form, getting a golden headdress for it. But it worked so well, he enlarged it and had it fit his full-sized form. He then decided to go further, "Why not get a custom outfit, something no one else has?" Since he liked gold chains, he had some wrapped around the avatar, with green cloth underneath in places, "to avoid chaffing my scales." The charms on his horns were tailor made, the design made by someone Geerkil offered to pay. He was so pleased with the results, he "overpaid" the builder.

The schedule of the Dragon Crew will be changing soon. When the Happy Vixen shuffled it's Thursday events from 6 to 8 PM and 8-10 PM to 4-6 PM and 6-8PM, they were offered a second set in the 6-8PM timeslot. Geerkil told me their Saturday schedule is likely to change. Of his real life, there has been some trouble as Geerkil is on insulin and other medication, of which he had trouble affording. Fortunately, he managed to get some help with it.

Be sure to catch the Dragon Crew at the Happy Vixen from 4-6 PM Tuesdays and 6-8PM Thursdays, and check the schedule at Club Zero Gravity for their appearances.

Bixyl Shuftan

The Wearers

By Gemma Cleanslate

Two of my oldest friends in Second Life are Kikas Barbenco  and Marmaduke Arado, partners not only in SL but also real life. They are performers of wearable art at many events  and regions around the Second Life grid. They also live in my home sim, Thorstar, where they have a home that I can only describe as a reminder of a visit I made to a  Mardi Gras float factory in New Orleans , LA, USA. There are items of interest that can be used to create their scenery for their plays waiting to be used. They have all the possible items you can find all around the sims mostly great freebies. Kikas wardrobe is the envy of everyone who watches the shows . Marmaduke has wonderful tuxedos and great bathing suits ... and physique. 

Wednesday I was able to attend a performance in LEA2. KG Shine,  titled, "Me Kikas, You Marma: The Extraordinary Adventures of Kikas and Marmaduke." All their art is put on behind a red curtain. When the curtain rises Kikas is usually in some difficulty from which Marmaduke must save her ... however Kikas is sometimes (mostly) the heroine of the story. Some scenes are frightening, some humorous, some that seem to be private and the audience becomes an intruder.  Their misadventures are often unimaginable except in the mind of the creators, but such fun. Peeking behind the curtain is frowned upon but is enlightening. 

The first few times I went to see their shows years ago they were so simple and cute with a few wearable art pieces and short in duration. They have progressed so far in their scenery and story lines it is amazing. I love to see their shows, always something new. Many artists attend to see the performances. The audience enters into the spirit of the show and expresses its thoughts openly which adds to the performance.Kikas and Duke enter into the fun with their responses. If you are interested in seeing their performances you may join their group for notices: The Wearers.

Gemma Cleanslate

Jessica Lyon Discusses Phoenix at Ambrosia Live

Last week, the head of the Phoenix Viewer team, Jessica Lyon, made an appearance at the Ambrosia Live Second Life talk show. She answered some questions from hostess Ambrosia Kamala, then took questions from the audience.

Jessica told Ambrosia that contrary to what some thought, she was no “coder genius” - “the team are the real geniuses. I’m just good with people.” She stressed that everyone at Team Phoenix was a volunteer, whom contributed without pay, including herself.

Jessica felt Linden Labs had the viewpoint third-party viewers, Phoenix included, were becoming more of a necessity. She brought up Viewer 2, having the opinion Linden Labs wanted a newcomer-friendly viewer, and about halfway through realized their efforts were leading to something quite different from the old viewer, and older residents would probably be hesitant to adopt it. She reasoned they went ahead, feeling third-party viewers would help “take up the slack” of the old viewer no longer being supported.

Someone asked of there would be a Phoenix viewer as an application for handheld devices like iPhones and iPads. Jessica responded that it sounded like a good idea, but their team didn’t have the time to both work on that and it’s computer viewers.

Jessica mentioned that the SpotOn 3D Grid, another virtual world much smaller than Second Life, had adopted Phoenix as it’s official viewer. Their dealings with Linden Lab were brought up. She explained that when the Phoenix team was first formed, it was a bit difficult dealing with them because much of the sense of trust had been “destroyed” from the Emeraldgate controversy. Time, however, was allowing it to slowly rebuild.

Talking more about Linden Lab’s motivations for encouraging the use of Viewer 2, Jessica felt the Lab has to convince residents to switch to a “2.0 base” before Second Life can truly progress. One example is the Mesh feature that was under development. It was designed to work only with Viewer 2. On Viewer 1, Mesh objects look scrambled.

She mentioned one disadvantage Linden Lab has when competing against 3rd-party viewers: expense. They had expensive overheard 3rd party viewer teams didn’t need to get. While Team Phoenix could just have a group chat inworld to discuss updates for the viewer, Linden Labs has to have a roundtable meeting in an office in real life, with developers paid $40 an hour.

With Jessica was Ed Merryman, another of the Phoenix Team. He mostly left the speaking to Jessica, though made a few jokes about the word “wiki.” He also mentioned that the source code of Viewer 2 was much cleaner than the old viewer. The old viewer, he commented, had been patched and updated so many times, it had become a tangled mess of codes.

Following the show, Jessica talked with a few of the audience, which was a diverse mix of avatars, including a number of ethnic human, furred, and tinies.

Ambrosia Live takes place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5 to 6 PM, located at the aMuse sim (32, 16, 2994). It's a fairly new show that's gotten some attention, including a media award.

Bixyl Shuftan