Interview with Tuna Oddfellow

By Bixyl Shuftan

On Saturday August 15, one of Second Life's most unique entertainers celebrated his tenth anniversary, or rezzday, in Second Life: Tuna Oddfellow. A magician in real life, known as "Fish the Magish," he has distinguished himself in the past with winning "America's Got Talent" competition in Second Life, and over the past several years to today with his "Odd Ball" performances. which remain a one of a kind performance that has yet to be duplicated by anyone else. Recently I had a chance to interview him at the Odd Ball's location in the Dragonhenge sim. Tuna was speaking in Voice, so not every single word was written down.

"What's happened in Second Life?" Tuna spoke, "{I'd like to say my life is stranger than fiction, and that my Second Life is stranger than real life." He mentioned his partner Shava Suntzu as active with fundrasing and cross-training. He also expressed sadness for not being able to do his real-life magic performances due to health issues ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnRVNNL-xI4 ) , "My magic is something that I haven't done in a long time."

Tuna stated in real life, he lived in the town of Salem Massachussets, before that in Sommervile, one of Greater Boston's suburbs. "Salem was the great fort for coming to American when it was colonial times." he stated pirates figured into the town's history, as well as the witch trials.

Tuna also went on to say he had been a Freemason for five years, signing up during his "Second Life tenure." He had been friends with one, who showed him a lodge on the grid. Freemasonry, like so many other organizations, had made it's way here. He had met the person at the Second Life Convention in San Francisco, "It's funny how my Second Life, real life, and Freemasonry combined."

Of his newcomer days, Tuna remarked, "I was trying to figure out my place in Second Life. In real life, I was a magician. I did not see myself as an artist." But like others, he learned. He directed my attention to the set-up around me, "Everything you see here, I created. I've really come a long way in ten years." He had been doing the Odd Ball in some form since 2007, "What can I do to create a magical experience in Second Life."

His early days would sadly experience a tragedy. He had been dating a girl early on, and in October 2005, he was approached by her real life son whom had some bad news. She had complained of a headache, then passed out. It turned out to be an anerysm, and she died. Tuna ended up conducting her memorial service online. One of the people there was so impressed with how he did, Tuna was asked to do the person's wedding. So Tuna did the part of a rabbi, as in real life he was Jewish. He then set up a wedding business, "Magic Touch Wedding Makers." Many people called on him to help with their weddings. Tuna advertised his business as covering the wedding from proposal to the honeymoon. He worked on special Valentines Day experiences, one on one virtual light shows with his client and their love.

Tuna described the Odd Ball as coming from a tribute show, "The Residents." They were a performance art group going around, and they would pass around pens each with a giant eyeball on the top with a top hat. "Google yourself and see." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Residents) Tuna described them as being a band for forty years, "really, really weird." He found them a creative band whom combined their music with visual art displays. When he first began planning what would be the Odd Ball, he had the intention to create their kind of experience.

Talking about Shave SunTzu, he described her as among "one of the most transparent advocates of Internet aynomymity." Of his presence on the Internet, "As much as I'm well known here (as) Tuna Oddfellow," he's also known on a number of Internet pages as his magician name, "Fish the Magish."

Tuna's big break came when the NBC TV network did a show in Second Life. This was when they were running "America's Got Talent," and decided to do a Second Life version. They did a "cattle call" for entertainers, and ended up with different types of Second Life talent showing up (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTqAILJvxj0), which they narrowed down to ten residents, including Tuna. The inworld audience of the show was about 300 residents, "as packed as you can get." The celeberty judges watching the show did so from a sim apart from them. Tuna was among the five finalsts whom in addition to the 300 residents inworld was seen by the nationwide TV audience of "America's Got Talent," about 70 million people, who then voted as to who would be the winner. And it was Tuna whom won the title of the Most Talented Avatar in Second Life, with one million Lindens as the prize, or about four thousand US dollars (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAvFsYPNCYo). Tuna called it "one of the most wild experiences one can hope for virtual worlds."

Tuna then brought up his tenth rezzday shows. There would be two that day, one at 6PM SL time and the other at 12 Noon. The one at Noon would have the music done by Beth Odets, "The crazy violin player. Petlove Petshop would be at the 6PM one. He would be in another a few days later on Tuesday, with Jana Kyomoon as the musician. Tuna stated that his Rezzday Oddballs might go on for a while, "This is my rezzday celebration until I say it's over."

The only problem he forsaw for his rezzday performances was whether or not Shava would be there. She was not feeling very well. He noted she had not logged onto Second Life since leaving the Grid in October 2013 due to the controversy surrounding their change of the terms of service in regards to content creator rights (http://slnewser.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-odd-ball-closes-in-second-life-due.html ), soon followed by Tuna and the Odd ball, they taking their performance to the InWorldz grid.

Despite the Lab under Ebbe Linden changing the lines of the ToS in question, Tuna felt the issue still was not completely resolved. Tuna commented that he saw himself more as an enterpenur than an activist when he started the Odd Ball. But he felt Linden Lab's changing of the Terms of Service at the expense of the rights of content creators was a violation of what he called the "Oddball Principle."

Tuna stated information about the Odd ball could be found by all at http://www.oddfellowstudios.com/ . He mentioned science jounrals he came across seemed to be lacking about what they've found about how his kind of performances affect the human mind, Shava being especially keen in pointing things out. People had been telling him that the Odd Ball left them feeling relaxed. Tuna felt the special effects of his performance had an effect on human brain waves. He also felt there was a "Cathedral effect" of the huge space the Odd Ball was in, "For a moment, the brain just goes Woosh!" People seeing it for the first time would say things like "This is incredible, this is amazing." It made him happy to hear that those with Post-Tramatic Stress Disorder issues were getting some relief at his shows.

Of his accomplishments in real life, the one he was the most proud of was being the father of a 23 year old girl. He also considered himself an activist of a few causes. He had campained for gay rights despite getting ill in the middle of it, "part of who I am." He expressed pride at living in Massachusettes where the people were more inclined to side with such causes, "We fought City Hall, and we won." He told me he was transparent about who he was, seeing no need to hide his Second Life from his real life, and vice versa. He talked about what he saw as the "Theory of obscurity ... look at the art, look at the person ... Madonna, Michael Jackson ... part of the understanding is who that person was. .... When you understand the artist, you live the art more, or dislike ..."

"When people experience my art, The Tunaverse," he told, "When you first come and you see it ... " he described it as the "loss of the Odd ball virginity, 'Oh my God, this is unlike anything I've ever seen before.'" Tuna told he had yet to see or hear of anything like it in Second Life, InWorldz, or Opensim." He described himself as having "diversified" his virtual experience, having avatars in different places, as well as having his show outside Second Life. One of his more unique performances was at the Second Life Convention in 2010, when he did the show in both Second Life and in real life at the con, "I guess I could go on and on."

In creating the Odd Ball, Tuna says one of the challenges was that he saw himself as a performer and not a visual artist, "There were a lot of challenges." When he came to Second Life in August 2003, the virtual world had only been around for two years and had a total signup of about 30,000 people. It was a time when it was experiencing "exponential growth." By November three months later, the total number of accounts had doubled to 60,000. He was learning through tutorials, "I wouldn't call myself a programer, but I learned how to tweak the code." Pointing to the center of the Odd Ball set, "we call this device the 'hypercube.' " Tuna compared it to the holodeck in Star Trek, "being able to take a group of objects age get them in one prom." He credited its creation to another builder, getting permission to do his performances on it in Second Life and other places.

Another challenge was less about design than endurance. Tuna described himself as having, "fought from the begining for this art to be permanent." He wanted for the Odd Ball to "be able to be used in grids that don't exist yet." Also, he felt it should always be a live performance, "Perhaps it would be scripted, but that's not the direction I wanted ... it should be organic, live theater." One challenge was imposed by Linden Lab, the prohibition of megaprims, "can't create prims larger than 64 meters." The megaprims that can occasionally be seen on the very oldest structure were done through an exploit.

"Virtual worlds are a fantastic place," Tuna spoke, "being able to go beyond the limits. If you had told me ten years ago when I was a street magician that I would carry the same tricks to virtual reality ... How do you create an experience of wonder in a place where one of the first things you do is learn how to fly?" When he started, he didn't do all the scripts himself, and eventually had to learn how to do those. Another thing he had to do was learn how to promote himself. He had found it easier to promote the works of others instead of his own. But eventually he did, promoting the Odd ball

"I love what I do," Tuna told, "I love doing magic. It kills me that I can't do the magic I used to in real life. But I can so the virtual experiences.

When I had a chance, I asked Tuna about his white-skinned avatar. He explained when he first came to Second Life, a friend of his from New Orleans had opened up a vampire club. It had a reputation for being an avant-garde place for strange things. Tuna thought it had a "Dark Shadows" influence. It was in Collinwood, which Tuna called a great estate with a castle. The avatar itself, while inspired by it, really came from his imagination. For the face, he wrote to a content creator for help, purchasing the original rights to it. It's design was original, down to the testure. Eventually, Tuna replaced parts of it. Of the shape, pointy ears, and the white skin, "it just felt right."

Tuna really didn't like the idea of looking like anyone else, "not a cookie-cutter." He remarked that some Second Life anthro fans considered him an "honorary furry" with his desire to be unique. Of the top hat, that was from him being a musician in real life, "became one of my symbols here." His tip jar was also a top hat, designed by Alessia Stella, whom had created a line of tip jars, "she deliberately created this tip jar so it could be changed and personalized.

It was about this time Tuna had to take care of other matters. And we went our seperate ways.

A few days later, Tuna's tenth anniversary event took place. To his relief, Shava was able to attend the second one. It was quite an event, the two Odd Balls, attended by some dozens of avatars.

The Odd Balls continue in Second Life, IM Tuna or Shave SunTzu about being notified when they take place.

Bixyl Shuftan

Interview With Tuna Oddfellow and Shava Suntzu

By Bixyl Shuftan

For those not familiar with "The Odd Ball," it was one of Second Life's more unique shows (youtube link), run by Tuna Oddfellow and Shava Suntzu. Tuna himself described it as, "nothing you can ever expect. It is like no show in the metaverse. I have been called the Peter Max of virtual worlds. It is like the 60s but with much better graphics. The show is trippy. Some people consider it to be there tome to relax.  It is a mix of psychedelic graphics and experimental music. The audience is encouraged to be wild and dress crazy."

For several years the show ran performances in Second Life. Then earlier this week, Tuna and Shava closed the Odd Ball. The reason: Linden Lab had changed it's Terms of Service so that they claimed all rights to all content loaded onto the Grid. They made the decision to move their performance to the virtual world of Inworldz. Second Life Newser contacted Tuna, and a meeting in Inworldz was arranged. I met up with Tuna and Shava at their new club. Tuna's appearance was much as it was in Second Life, top hat and psychedelic collared suit with a mohawk hairstyle and pointed ears. The only difference in his appearance was his skin was less pale. Shava was all in black except for the whites of her eyes and a few places on her outfit, "(giggle) I'm all dressed in freebies!" Yours truly was without his characteristic "fox news" appearance, looking like a newcomer with only a few days experience.

"So this is home now," Tuna told me, "I have had an InWorldz presence since 2010, but my virtual life was tied to SL. I just purchased this club today from Maximillian Svarovski. It's going to take a little bit to get those crowds regular here I suspect. I will be starting events in phases. I will be rebuilding the new Odd Ball here and I don't want to perform before it is up to standards. So I am going to be doing my particle show here at my smaller club in Dolphin Bay. … I am putting together a collection of special effects - lights shows and sometimes fireworks. It's never the same show twice."

Of the smaller club, Tuna remarked, "I see this smaller space being used as a coffee house where anything is possible. When I did shows at my castle sometime the ceiling would open for an out door light show. - I have big plans for this place too. You need to wait and see but creatively I see this move as an opportunity to try new things. There actually three club locations that I am working with to get the show going in different directions. The Odd Ball that is."

It was at this point, we were joined by a friend of theirs, Madog Garsztka, "Hi Guys. Shava, its like I haven't seen you in forever." "Madog! Heya!" Shava told him, "Yes I haven't been haunting virtual space much." "I hope to get Shava haunting InWorldz," Tuna commented, "We have a lot of ideas to hash out." Turning back to me, "Madog is a member of the Tunaverse who came back to InWorldz following us for the show." "You Bet," Madog spoke enthusiastically, "Odd Ball is the best! Theraputic value too (smile)." "The community is slowly pulling together to make this transition easier. The land we use for this club is sponsored by Quadrapop Tree." "This is such a story of community," Shava told.

"… the virtual world community is long since broken out of SL," Shava commented, "it's in twitter, G+, Facebook, it's on blogs and has it's own metagame media, and it's own set of grids. It's time we broke free and started liberating ourselves of the mindset of the mothership. We have a multiverse, a whole Internet. Part of it is 3d, and all of it is us." "From the angle of some Second Lifers it is only there though.," Tuna added, "This needs to change."

"Ultimately we are the people behind the keyboards," Shava continued, "if it's our world, our imagination -- that world is the world we create where ever we go. It just takes a little more work. If you were in SL long enough ago, you remember how much work it was. We all started with a cube at some point. We're starting with a whole lot more than a cube here." "And we were all told what we did with that cube we owned," Tuna commented. Shava added, "And now we're told we don't own it --  someone else can sell it, re-sell it, and never tell you?"

"This is what the original vision was at Burning Man, right?" Shava asked. "That creators would be coming in and creating things that the Lindens never imagined, and the Lindens would not lay claim to, and that would enrichen the entire community. What happened to that? I think they left it on Linden Avenue. Maybe it left with Governor Linden and Pathfinder. So that vision gets to find a home elsewhere. If people want to stay in SL that's their choice."

So why did Tuna come to Inworldz and not somewhere else like the OSGrid? "I came to InWorldz in 2010 because I am a metaversalist," he answered, "I believe in the bigger picture of the metaverse beyond SL, and many of the former Lindens wanted to be bridges to the metaverse. And it never happened. (The) OS grid is something I am on, but it is less secure with content than SL. It has a huge learning curve to get it done. And if you hypercube well they have not gotten a way to secure assets owned by the avatar yet."

Of the new terms of service, Shava felt legally the Lab had covered its bases, "the law will support that TOS and the TOS says 'All your cubes are belong to us.' By the time anyone straightens it out, in the case of a bankruptcy, unless you do your own free legal work and don't value your time -- you will be very deep into buying a new boat for an attorney. And it won't be made out of prims." Tuna added, "I am friends with some of the owners of InWorldz there is no TOS here that is taking your work away from you and you are safer with your IP in InWorldz right now than any other grid. Sure that can change." "But this is what artists face all the time." Shava completed.

I mentioned the debate among Second Life residents about the new ToS, some saying this was no big deal. If Linden Lab abused it's authority, they'd be shooting itself in the foot. Tuna responded, "If Linden Lab was to go under tomorrow would they be shooting themselves in the foot to cash in on the assets we signed away Bixyl? If bad TOS happen in a virtual most of us wont read the TOS and then many will just follow as sheep. It's the way these things work. Shava and I are leading a movement to educate creators we have been doing things like this in SL our entire career." Shava added "If you don't stand up in numbers, they will smile and tell you 'Of course, we won't do anything to harm you. It's just a contract.' In my professional life, I'm the member of a writer's union. And I actually do sign contracts all the time that sign away perpetual rights to work I do on contract. But they PAY me!"

So did Linden Lab enact this change as a desire for greater control of Second Life? Shava commented, "Even if they aren't, you don't have to assume they are malicious. If they aren't they need to change it. But if they don't, if they don't change it, WHY NOT?? It's like I said on g+, they are either lazy, dumb, or malicious. They said to Hamlet that they wanted the same template for all their businesses. Sounds lazy. They wouldn't use the same policies for a trucking business and an airline would they? I'm pointing out a good case for why even if they have good intentions, it's not safe for them to leave it as is. If the company goes bankrupt, it's just not safe. So they need to change it to a limited license for SL for this one business. If they don't, then, we go from lazy, stupid or malicious to stupid or malicious. Because it's not just lazy, we've informed them that it's not just slack."

Of Hamlet Au asking Linden Lab about the issue behind closed doors, Shava commented, "So, we have Hamlet asking them, what about this case of going into receivership? Now, I like Hamlet but he tends to love the one he's with, do you understand what I'm saying? (a reference to his special relationship to the Lab following his time as their embedded journalist) So let's see what they say to him and what he comes back with. (smile) But I have a perhaps vain hope that Hamlet goes in, and we come out with a revised TOS. It could happen.  And then, I ride off into the sunset and say, 'My work here is done!' (grin) And maybe put out a tip hat... (smile) How do you do that for something like this…?"

Shava wasn't feeling that great, "Man, my stomach has hurt for days … This sort of thing used to be my main line of work back in the day... it stresses me out more than it used to. This sort of thing used to be bread and butter, Bixyl. This isn't exactly the NSA or the Arab Spring, heh." "It has been so hard watching things happen." Tuna commented, "This all came to a head for us a couple days before my 45th birthday, which is September 24th. 'Happy birthday you need to rebuild your show and dismantle your inventory.' " "Tuna handed me the TOS -- whose article was it, Jo Yardley? And I just said, 'Oh, no...oh, we have to pack out…' And then wrote the G+ piece, and told him, 'Don't mourn, organize -- well, ok, mourn, and organize…' And told him, 'You do the technical stuff, and I'll write and all.' " "We are struggling," Tuna commented, "and I had just gained momentum at doing multiple shows per week to pay the bills."

Of the issue, Tuna informed, "I am also doing a lot of community outreach and education." "I looked at it," Shava added, "and thought, they've already smoothed over one wave of panic. It's going to be hard to get people to understand that, no, this really is a problem. I have EFF, Berkman, LiberationTech, Ben Noble and other folks watching, but none of them are interested in getting involved, they are all watching it like a lab experiment. There's no case, nothing's happened. No one's brought a suit."

Shava commented, "We're an example of a virtual 'life, liberty, property' colonial rule situation in a virtual world. Essentially, the people are observing what we're doing, because no law has been broken. No case has been brought before a judge." Tuna spoke, "Many watch just to see if the community can convince the corporation to make the change." "Right, well, I don't think LL anticipated a former VP of Marketing from an Inc1000 entertainment marketing company with LIMA membership calling out 'WAIT! We don't all have to be SHEEP!' I mean the whole legal situation in SL is a little loosy-goosey at best anyway, it would give most real licensing lawyers hives. But this is just totally over the top. No one really understands the virtual goods market very well anyway."

"We are looking for more of us Bixyl," Tuna told me, "I spoke to Roxy Gellar who runs a music venue in Second Life. She was considering doing a blackout demonstration if she could get 5 other venue owners to do it with her." Shava asked, "ow do people take goods and achievements and whatnot from one game or one network or through a social network contextually by license or whatever mechanism without the lawyers killing each other or making the microtransactions not be worth the business itself? it's a bunch of hard questions. A lot of these issues in SL have been solved with the shakespearean gordian knot: First we shoot all the lawyers. That worked when the lab was small. So now, someone noticed and freaked out, and applied the gordian noose, which is now, we choke all the creators. Or hang them out to dry I guess."

I asked how many would join them, or at least take a break in making content. Tuna answered, "Too many creators are not going to notice and go about their lives. I met someone here today. Purchased the club we are now in. Gave him the article from SLNewser. After reviewing who I was, he said he was pulling his stuff out of SL. Another person who read my most a music who I know by his real life but not his SL name, he is pulling his media out of SL. People have short memories though." "But these things start somewhere," Shava reminded, "and where we are having an impact is on merchant forums, blogs -- the metagame forums, twitter, your article, Hamlet's article, buzz …"

Shava commented if the Lab changed it's Terms of Service back because of her efforts, "that's a good bit of influence right there. I have a lifelong ambition, Bixyl. I would rather be influential than famous. If I could fix this without getting any exposure or whatever at all, I'm fine with that." Tuna retorted, "I would rather be famous and influential." "Yeah, Tuna likes fame. Not me." "I am the brand." "I never saw fame make anyone happy when I was growing up. I think he's nuts." "Or odd?" I mused. Shava grinned, "DEFINITELY Odd!"

"But if we could fix this with minimal disruption that's fine too," Shava spoke, "What it does is it makes people think, well, some people, about what the future might look like. Even if this time this gets fixed, do I need a second grid home?" Tuna commented, "I can not imagine not playing in InWorldz too even if SL fixes tomorrow." "Exactly," Shava affirmed, "We're not going to get caught like this again. We're not going to think about the metaverse the same way even if LL fixes the TOS tomorrow. And I don't think anyone else should either." "II have had a place to keep as home in InWorldz since 2010 I knew I would need it some day for something."

Tuna stated he would still be on Second Life some, "I am guild leader of a Tiny Empires 3000 guild in SL, Tunaverse Immortals. I need to spend time in SL for my people." Shava commented, "I've always thought that the people who played games within SL were working extra hard -- it's not a graceful environment for 'MMO' style gaming. But the people who do it do it because of the community. If we had something that was more like Steam for SL chat and community to base out of so the community could become more multi-game, We might diversify more freely. I see more of people I know from SL on twitter and G+ and maybe even Steam on a daily basis than in SL. But I'm not as active in SL as I used to be for a lot of reasons. We are a tribe that is distributed across the net. I used to game with folks in various MMOs I knew from SL (that I) never met in real-life. But they seemed more like real life friends because I knew them from SL, than people who I just knew from gaming." Tuna added, "I share this experience in my MMO gaming. I have even brought people from SL to the MMO I was playing at the time. (City of Steam) Virtual worlds are something you just have to be part of to GET."

I asked Tuna how soon it might be before the Odd Ball gets to what it was in Second Life. He answered, "Once I have the rezzing device coded here I will be able to do a show that no one would recogize as anything but the best Odd Ball." "Depends on the code porting gods," Shava commented. Tuna then began to express some doubts, and Shava would hear none of it, "He's always like that -- he feels like that about most shows in SL anyway. Don't let him make you think that would be new here. He'd just have a new reason for it. He cusses at the screen all the time and everyone is jumping up and down and telling him how awesome the show is. And he's talking about how everything is going wrong. It's hilarious." "My cursing is your entertainment - humpff!" "When he's doing real life magic, he'll drop the cards sometimes, and pick them up and just say, 'This is part of the show I didn't plan folks -- the floor show!' And sometimes people will really think he did it on purpose."

Of their relationship in real life, Tuna remarked, "We are like an old married couple. Even if we are now best friends with me demoted to annoying little brother." Shava told, "Oh, we still live together but we aren't a 'couple any more. But we are still family. It confuses the hell out of people." "We were engaged in real life and married in Second Life. Our SL wedding made business week." "Most people can't see how we do it. But we love each other we just aren't in a lover-type relationship. It's platonic. We have another roommate, we just are best friends. And I tell people I demoted him to annoying little brother, because we are so obviously family." The reaction of most in real life has mostly been confusion, mostly.

Shava informed, "He has a girlfriend, and I think she's awesome and we get along great. And it confuses the hell out of his parents that we still are housemates. I guess I'm supposed to hate him because we 'broke up.'" "She saw the Odd Ball for the first time over my shoulder last week," Tuna told. "And our other housemate is in SL now, or I guess I should say in virtual worlds. She's more of a tablet sort of person than a 3D type." "She has a Mac though, she plays Minecraft." "I didn't know that. … That's right I forgot she has a Mac." Of Minecraft, Shava told, "My son's got a server and I got a license, but I haven't done anything with it."

It was about this time that Tuna and Shava needed to leave. So we went our separate ways, and me soon back in Second Life and my familiar foxy form.

Since the interview, Tuna informed me he should have a show of some kind in Inworldz by Saturday Sept 28. If all goes very well, it will be the Odd Ball reopened. But this time in a new home.

Bixyl Shuftan

Update on Tuna Oddfellow of the Odd Ball

Tuna Oddfellow, known as “Fish the Magish” in real life, runs the Odd Ball with the help of his partner Shava Suntzu. The Odd Ball show is a one of a kind place in Second Life in which the area are surrounded by dazzling colors and patterns described by some as like a psychedelic experience without the drugs, described by others as dancing in a kaleidoscope.

When I interviewed Tuna and Shava in May 2010, their situation was a troubled one. Shava did most of the speaking, describing Tuna as disabled due to medical problems and the pain that came with them.

Tuna Oddfellow: ... I'm not in pain for most of my day, which is better than it was. But I don't go through a day generally without hours of it in really bad pain.

Shava Suntzu: And he can't predict when. It makes it impossible to plan things. Sometimes he can muscle through it. He was in pain for most of every day until we started the new medication in January. But it seems to be plateau-ing. It doesn't cure anything, it just reduces the symptoms. ... There's nothing that fixes this -- it's a nervous system disorder that's recognized, but they don't know why it happens. And you can't use most pain meds for it because all the opiates mess with the function of the gut, and the disorder is already messing with nerves in the gut. So they just chock it up as "neuropathic pain,” which even his GI specialist admits is a "garbage pail diagnosis.”

Despite their troubles, the pair did their best to be optimistic, talking about the development of the Odd Ball, how in it’s first showing the audience found themselves in a “mild euphoric” state. When a psychologist looked at it, “he thought it was inducing theta activity in the brain” and were later told it seemed “that there was alpha too. That's typical of some kinds of deep meditation. So this was pretty exciting. We kept working to refine what we did ... everyone kept saying it felt like being stoned.”

Shava worked to find out exactly how the special effects worked, and in July 2009 had pretty much done so. “And now we're filing patents. We're so close to getting to the point where things could get better.” But Tuna’s declining health and then her catching pneumonia were pushing them to the financial edge, “I missed some deadlines and some consulting stuff, and lost some work, and now we're just hosed. ... I thought I'd find more work, but I haven't yet. What we do in SL, generally pays the rent and expenses here. But we aren't like the people who pull out money every month.”

I met up with them again earlier this month. Shava told me they had been to another doctor who made some progress in finding out what was wrong, and expected to hear more news in about a week. Checking later on, Tuna had been given some new medication that was working better, Shava saying, “Tuna's adjusting to his meds, so he's actually been able to work on Odd Ball stuff, but he's not very mobile. I’ll take it though. (smile) His schedule is set by when the pain's least. ... It's *really* good for both of us when he can be engaged.”

The Social Security office was reviewing his case about his benefits, but there was some bad news, “My landlord is giving us an eviction notice next week. In Massachusetts, that gives us 6 months to figure things out. But it stings. I've been all kinds of activist and entrepreneur -- intellectually, I know I always get through these things, but that fails to make them fun to go through. It does inoculate somewhat against despair though.”

“On one level, I can't complain. I've had a very adventurous life, and I would probably be bored stiff doing the conventional run of things. ... I figure Second Life drama is usually so tawdry, we get to raise the bar by doing the classic starving artist romance? It's like La Boheme, except Tuna has a beard.” She was doing his best to keep a cheerful face, “It's a survival tactic. If you don't, you stop moving, and that's when it catches up and eats you! “

The Odd Ball’s location is at the research center sim at (133, 133, 651)

Tuna and Shava have incorporated their business in real-life, Oddfellow Studios, and have a website at http://oddfellowstudios.com .

“Come, be odd.”

Source: SL Newspaper

Bixyl Shuftan