A Couple Humorous Stories (2007)

By Bixyl Shuftan

This was my very first article about Second Life, sent as a Reader Submission to Second Life Newspaper in October 2007. The picture is from September 17, 2007, possibly from New York City Block. The stories are a rather amusing incident just after I got my red Luskwood Fox avatar, and another when I dropped in on the New York area.

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Second Life has been full of funny moments. Here's a couple that stick out.

The first relates to my avie. I had started out with the ringtail foxfolk, partly to stand out, and partly as a reflection of my love of science-fiction. A friend gave me some cash to upgrade, but I postponed it for a while, giving some thought on what to upgrade to.

While in a store looking over options, I got the attention of a couple others, "I don't see too many still in their original skin," spoke one. I explained I was thinking over my options. "Well, I'd make a decision soon. The way you are now, people are going to think you're new. With a new avatar, it's going to change how people look at you."

A friend of mine had recently joined Second Life, so the next day I made my decision. I decided to stay a foxfolk, but with my family part redneck, and one of the online sci-fi comics I read it's red foxfolk were traditionally laborers, I got a Luskwood Red Fox avatar.

So did the way people saw me change? Well, the next day while exploring around, a woman walked up to me, and propositioned me! She was a cyberhooker looking for a few bucks.

I've never "paid for it" in real life, sour love life or no, so I politely declined. I guess since I was out of my "baby coat," she assumed I had cash.

A couple coworkers of mine had plenty of tattoos, piercings, odd hair, filed teeth, etc., and managed to find women to marry them. So perhaps it's not hard to imagine that some girls would go for a "foxy guy." ;-)
 
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 My second story had something of a somber beginning. It was Tuesday, September 11, the sixth year anniversary of that dreadful day. In SL, I stopped by a memorial to pay my respects. I was going to teleport out for the evening, but recalled a recreation of the Twin Towers next to the "New York City Block" area. So I teleported there to see if there was any memorial there, and landed in the middle of a conversation between two ladies, "Hey, there's a fox on your head." ;-)
 
I greeted them, and they welcomed me into the conversation. It turned out they were both New Yorkers, from Brooklin, and they were in on the design of the place, basing it on their home turf. We discussed 9-11, the ceremonies that day, and a third lady soon joined in.

In the middle of the talk, a guy ported in, and walked up to a couple of the girls. It took a few moments for him to rez, so we thought nothing of it at first. Then below his belt, a certain obviously male extremity appeared.

I wasn't sure what was going on. Was this guy last at a nude beach or somewhere and he forgot? So I typed the first think that came to mind:

"Excuse me, your fly is down."

And the girls burst out laughing. I wasn't sure how the guy would react. He reacted by porting away almost immediately. One girl spoke, "What happened? I didn't see (him fully rez)." We explained to her, and concluded it was some creep who was trying to get his jollies by shocking the girls. But instead got humiliated by my one-liner.

One of the girls and I exchanged friendships, and we've continued to keep in touch.

Guess my cheesy puns are good for something after all.

Bixyl

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The first story I continued to look back with chuckles. As it turns out, lots of girls in human avs don't mind a little hair on the chest when it comes to dating. Of the second, It was the owner of New York City Block Cheri Bing I became friends with. And we kept in touch for years until real life would force her off Second Life. As for me, this would be the first of many, many articles I would be writing about Second Life.

More New York City Block 9-11 Pictures

The 9-11 ceremonies at the New York City Block, the NYC sim, had a number of pictures taken of them. Here are several of them to help better show the events of the day.

A view of the permanent Twin Towers Memorial and the seating from above before the event.

A closer look at the memorial to the fallen policemen.

NYC owner, and native Brookliner, Cheri Bing and SLFRD firefighter Naxos Loon.

Taking the hook and ladder out for a test drive before the parade.

Another view of the hook and ladder.

Fireman Nick Pritchett gives a short speech after Chief JayFizzle McGinnis

Remembering the Departed

A bird's eye view of the commemoration.

The parade of fire trucks passes the corner.


Several firefighters gather after the parade to share stories.

Following the end of the commemoration, people continued to come over and pay their respects.

Bixyl Shuftan

SL Fire & Rescue Dept. Holds Fireman’s Ball in NYC Sim

On June 10th at 5 PM SL time, The Second Life Fire and Rescue Department held a Firemans’ Ball in the NYC sim at the fire department building. Keira Colclough was the DJ at the party in the Second Life version of the Big Apple. It was held across the street from the fire station, with it’s trucks on display, looking detailed and shiny.

“We decided to host a firemans’ ball and invite other fire and rescue departments from SL,” SLFRD chief JayFizzle McGinnis told Second Life Newser, “We actually opened SLFRD on the grid in 2008, spent time on other sims up until about January this year when we moved SLFRD here to NYC. We provide fire and rescue for the city, and plan to move in to EMS and soon possibly a police dept. here.” He went on to explain the group was a “fire and rescue roleplay.”

So were there any fires the group felt were extra memorable? “The time I lit the station on fire,” SLFRD member Tyler Molinaxil answered, then laughed, “Cooking fire, (we) left to go on a false alarm, and came back, and there was fire coming from the roof.” “Yeah,” SLFRD member Francisdom Weder laughed, “the whole place lit up.” JayFizzle added, “But we handled the incident, rebuilt the station, and have new policies in place to prevent it from happening again.”

How did the idea for the ball start? JayFizzle answered, “We are low staffed at the moment, and tried to think of a way to get people here to the sim and recruit. So we decided to have a firefighters ball and tout our department a bit to them and hopefully get a few firefighter candidates. ... we are always looking for new hires to start the training process.” JayFizzle thought there were 49 at the event at one point.

The party did have a change of plans early on, “We were supposed to have a live fire demo at 5. However the chief officer in charge of that, like most of us, is a RL firefighter, and had a guy he knows get seriously injured on the job today. And we decided to go without the demos. It happens as the job itself is a dangerous one. Here at SLFD, we are unique in SL for the fact we pride ourselves on real firefighting tactics, and ninety percent of my staff and mainly all my officers are real fire fighters. Frankie for a fact,” he pointed at Francisdom, “that man is amazing.”

Between answering questions, there was much joking around between the firefighters, and laughs shared by all.

The NYC sim is owned by Cheri Bing, a native New Yorker. The sim was featured on the CNN website due to it's 9-11 memorial.

Bixyl Shuftan