Interview With Snowy AngelBun Lefavre (Skylark Lefavre)

 
By Penny Shuftan

Earlier, I had a chance for an interview with a very successful DJ, and club manager, Snowy AngelBun Lefavre.  My first question was how long she had been Djing.  "Seems like a while, least over five years now," said Snowy.  

My next question would be if Snowy could remember where she was when she first Djing.  "I think it was The Happy Vixen," Snowy replied.  I then asked if she is a manager at any other club, and according to Snowy, she is a manager at Bouncing Bunny Beach Club.  That's where she also DJs. Snowy had been Djing and managing at the BBB Club for close to a year she thinks.

Snowy's favorite thing to do would be DJing. But the thing she enjoys the most is having people to share her passion with and enjoy her music that she plays.

I wanted to know something about Snowy being a very empathic caring furry with a big heart who has a very successful DJing and managing club.  "I would be flattered," said Snowy, "but I am just being how I was raised to be It's all I know how to be." 

I had been wondering about the fact that Snowy is one of the hard-working DJ and manager of the most popular clubs ever. How does she feel about being the most popular (in my opinion), especially with a very successful DJ career. "I never really think about any of that," Snowy said, "I just do it to have fun with friends and fans. I like to party and I like partying with those that enjoy partying."

According to Snowy, she's going to be around as a DJ, and manager for as long as she is wanted and needed. I told Snowy that since she is one of the most popular DJ and manager, I don't think that Snowy will ever stop being wanted or needed.  "I am pleased that I am still wanted and needed," Snowy replied, "I will continue making others happy." 

I pointed out that Snowy also has a kind heart, always helping people with their health problems. I was just curious to see how Snowy feel about people referring to her as someone they could count on when it comes to their health issues. "I help others so they can continue to be around and enjoy life. I don't think much except parental thoughts." said Snowy.

I did bring up something about people coming to Snowy's clubs.  From what I can see from my time at these two very popular clubs, many people are coming to the clubs, even deaf people.  That should tell Snowy about her popularity. "It says a lot," Snowy said, "but I also know DJing is more than just the music. It means interacting with the fans in a way that brings comfort and enjoyment." 

We started talking about goals for 2022. "Yes I plan on rebuilding my life so I can be here much longer as I have my own health issues to overcome. I hope to be around to keep being me," replied Snowy, "It would be hard to be here unless i take care of myself."

The conversation changed to the fact that Snowy had been through surgeries.  "I am thankful I survived my surgeries," she said, "But yes I am more stubborn as I djed while healing after surgeries cause I never wanted to let anyone down."

Snowy is happy DJing and managing at the most popular clubs.  She also try to help any place she works at to become a fun place to be.

Snowy has advice for anyone who wants to become a DJ.  "Everyone starts from the same place, no one is born good. We all work at it and it takes several variables to make a working combination," said Snowy, "but it is possible for anyone that puts their mind to it." 

We started talking about a club that used to be around, Castaway Cove Club.  It was a club built into a shipwreck of an old 18th century club.  "It was small, but we had fun there," said Snowy, who had been a manager until its' closure due to the sim owner, Sunray, giving up his sims.  He died shortly after.

I sent Snowy my condolences, and wanted to know about her role in Castaway Cove Club.  According to her, she was just the manager.  Snowy thanked me for my condolences, saying that Sunray was the sweetest guy she ever knew.  "He is missed," she added.  

As we continued to talk about the Castaway Cove Club, she said that Kitacelia was her only hostess at that time.  Now, right now, Kitacelia works for Snowy at two different clubs.  "I chose her because of Castaway Cove Club." Snowy said.  "Castaway Cove Club was a themed club, but it was fun."

As the interview came to an end, I did have one last question for Snowy.  I was just wondering how Snowy feels about being an inspiration to some people.  "It pleases me I am of such valued use to others in needs," she replied.

Here you have it, an interview with one of the most popular DJ, and club managers, Snowy AngelBun Lefavre.  I will be having a follow-up interview with her in January.  As I have looked forward to this particular interview, I am really looking forward to the follow-up interview.  Of course, I'd have to add that Snowy had inspired me many times, and will come to inspire me for many months and years to come.  After all, she's an inspiration.

Penny
 

Looking Back at ComCat Fenstalker

ComCat Fenstalker has died.

Yours truly knew her as an occasional visitor to the Happy Vixen and Club Cutlass, and some other Sunweaver events. Standing out in a bovine avatar when most everyone else was a fox, bunny, wolf, normal human, etc, she was certainly a unique personality around. It was unwelcome, sad news when word began getting around on the evening of Friday May 15. Her real-life age was 70, something not revealed to most until after her passing.

"Came as a shock," Dusk Griswold told me, saying she and Violet Solano, "were both good friends with CC. We were almost a team. I think I first met her at Amaranth. Amaranth was her home club, but I'd invite her to Happy Viven or Cutlass if nothing was happening there. One of those people who stand out. And very creative when it came to themes. We'd always look forward to how she'd dress for themes. Might show up at 'Come as your are' as an av of a U and and R, and an R, too.

"Always had a dance chim, I'd always wait for her to show up at the club before dancing, and she'd invite me and usually several others to the chim, so we'd all dance together. Her and Vi and I were kind of an unofficial team.

"One thing I know her player liked to do was give phone scammers a hard time. Her thinking was, the longer they were on the phone, the fewer people they could scam. So she'd waste as much of their time as possible.

"She was also good at modding, I learned some of my modding skills from her. Remember my Gazelle from 'Zootopia' av? That would not have come about without her help.

"Also, could always count on CC to attend RFL events. She was very popular, a lot of people will really miss her. ... overall, we have lost one of the nicest, most creative and funny furs I have ever known. We don't know what happened, and Vi does not plan to find out. ... It has really hit the Amaranth family hard.

"Know how sometimes we meet what we realize are special people? If that makes sense. CC was one of those special people."

I would later talk to Violet Solano. She told me she had known her for seven or eight years, "It's amazing how many people CC knew. FullAuto posted a notice in Raglan shire chat, and there was 15 minutes of river dancing and mooing. ... "It's amazing how many people she touched. I have people I never knew IMMing me, thanking me for the info."

Violet would tell me they met, "at a club in a now long gone vintage Los Angeles sim. I used to go to listen to swing music. (I) met her there, brought her back to Amaranth, and she was just part of the family in very short order. There was no place where she didn't get along."

As a member of the Relay's Meli's Maniacs team, she did much to keep spirits up, "and sadly there's no possible way to tell all her friends of her passing. And that's the saddest part of it. To a lot of people, she is just going to be one of the vanished."

She would go on to say she had fond memories of her, "running battles on the sim surface between her and her power shout and me with my dubstep. Or with tanks, guns, or getting a few of us in jex avatars and big game outfits going on the great jexpidition on the old Grendal's jungle sims. CC was  a silly old graymuzzle who only wanted people around her to have fun and be happy."

"As one of our other club staff, Kulara Darkstone,  posted in Facebook : "

In loving memory of ComCat Fenstalker aka CC. Our beloved bovine avatar friend. CC was a great friend to everyone. She was Funny, Smart, Clever, Kind, Generous and loved a good PUN and loved silly gadgets in Second Life. All she wanted was a "stable" home, and she was "udderly" bodacious 

Sadly, the story of a resident whom just wanted to make others happy, has come to it's close. What are left are the screenshots, tales, and memories.

Bixyl Shuftan

Interview With Nydia Tungsten: 11 Years, 11 Questions

By Cyfir (Cyfiremmerich)

Nydia Tungsten has been around in Second Life for over 10 years. In fact, her 11th rez day is coming up, so I thought that this would be a perfect opportunity to meet up with her and ask her 11 questions regarding her time in Second Life as well as her other projects.

Cyfir: How did you get started in Second Life?

Nydia: Someone I met randomly gave me the downloader. I forgot I even had it for over a year. Then I found it, BARELY remembered that it was supposedly a game, and tried it.

Cyfir: What initially drew you in to Second Life and why did you stay?

Nydia: I can't say anything drew me here but luck. I almost deleted the installer. What made me stay is I had found furry art on the internet, as well as furry comics such as "Sabrina Online." That kind of drew me to the furry fandom and I didn't even know it. Hell, I didn't even know there was a fandom until I came here and I met some many wonderful furs. THEY are why I stay.

Cyfir: What were your first few years on the platform like?

Nydia: I was shy, unsure of what to do, where to go. But that was only a few days. My first friends in Second Life were Skylark, Treminari, Limly,  Rita, Lomgren, just to name a few. They took me under their wings and helped me to grow here. They taught me about land, clubs, and tried to teach me building and scripting but, I don't have the mind for it. But they helped to mold me and helped me to grow here and to be honest I have grown a lot.

Cyfir : I understand that you are a sim owner. As I am a previous sim owner, I understand that there are many challenges involved. Can you give any aspiring sim owners any pointers for running a sim?

Nydia : Friends! Hee-hee. They are always a good thing, and are your best renters. I have known a few of my renters since they started Second Life and a few others since 'they have started SL. And don't be greedy. Be fair to everyone. Sometimes that’s difficult because it might be a dispute between your friends, but you HAVE to remain neutral or it could ruin everything. And each time has a good reason, and have people you trust completely as admins. Another trick is to create "Bank" accounts. That way if anything DOES happen to the AVI that owns the sim, you still have the money to take care of business, and have a "Sim owner" account as well. Again, to save your main account from Linden Lab.

Cyfir: What do you feel is most rewarding about being a sim owner?

Nydia: Helping people. Making sure they have a SAFE home, not just a parcel but a HOME they can enjoy and feel safe.

Cyfir: What have been your favorite memories thus far in Second Life?

Nydia: There are so many… Mostly, having fun with my friends. Sometimes making a fool of myself, *laughs* and yeah, I have done that a LOT. Oh, I have some doosies. *laughs* Like... I logged into a convo in the Hidden Vally chat, which is one of the groups I am in "Tiny Empires" and someone asked about watersports, and I piped up with “I LOVE water sports!" and the chat DIED and someone asked  "YOU like water sports?" and I told them hell yeah!  I LOVE swimming and fishing and the chat exploded in laughter. I had no idea why until someone explained what type of "Water sports" they meant. ... There have been others, but lets just say I was very, naive. And when people talk about "Scat" here, it is NOT the music genre.

Cyfir: How long do you think that Second Life will continue to stick around?

Nydia: I think it has a long life ahead of it. I know they were trying to get people to the other world they made. I went ONCE and I was shocked at how primitive it was. You could not interact with 99% of the stuff there. You had no volume control, no way of controlling where you could go reliably. It was just a new form of IMVU I think it is? So nothing new was done. They tried to reinvent the wheel and failed. So Second Life is going to be here for a good long while.

Cyfir: If Second Life shut down, where do you think that you would go?

Nydia:  I am not sure, to be honest. I have plenty of ways to keep in touch with a lot of my friends here in Second Life, mostly my Angels.

Cyfir: You mention in your about section that you run a radio station in Second Life. Can you tell our readers about that?

Nydia:  KVXN Internet Radio. It started as a kind of joke. I DJ'd for almost twelve hours just on a whim, and Rita said I should start a station in Second Life. So I did. *laughs* We are now a licensed Internet radio station.

Cyfir: You previously did Second Life music videos on YouTube. Do you plan to make any more in the future?

Nydia: Because of the latest “COPPA" debacle, I have closed my Youtube channel until the dust settles.

Cyfir: I understand that you’re also a novelist. Can you tell us about your previous novels and where to find them and are there any future novels on the way?

Nydia: Yes. I am waiting on my daughter to finish a family chart. Then I will be releasing the second book. Book two,  "Switched Destinies: Kevin's Return," continues with Kevin's adventures in his new world. (The synopsis of the story is) "Two souls, viewed by many of their kinds’ as eccentric lunatics, suddenly find themselves switched within their parallel universes. Now in strange new lands, each is having to learn about the other side of the mirror. In the all new Switched Destiny's.”

You can visit Nydia’s radio station “KVXN” here, and you can check out her latest novel “Switched Destinies” here.

Cyfir

Perri Prinz Talks About Her Livejournal Troubles, Facebook Suspension

By Bixyl Shuftan

Besides being the part owner of Club Xanadu in the Sunweaver community, as well as an occasional classic rock DJ, Perri Prinz is known as a writer. For years, she has worked on her serial online sci-fi novel "Spectral Shadows." But she had put that on hold a few months ago and began trying her hand at nonfictional opinion pieces about the furry community and society in general. But that came to a halt when Facebook suspended her account. Recently I went to her to give her a chance to explain what happened.

"What happened with Spectral Shadows?" I asked Perri. She answered, "What happened was that Live Journal and photobucket weren't broke.  So they fixed them.  And now they can't be used unless I'm willing to pay insane amounts of money.  So my site was destroyed." There had been no notice, and they demanded the cash right out of the blue, "and they put ads all over my pages where the background and pictures used to be." So on the front page of her story site, she posted that she was putting her writing on hold. This isn't the end of Spectral Shadows, though, Perri saying, "Niko is trying to build me a new site on Blogspot, but it's becoming doubtful I'll continue it. My heart isn't in it at the moment, and with the way the world is now, I don't see there being much positive interest in what I do."

I then asked about her writing commentaries following her decision to put her fiction writing on hold. She told me, "I've spent most of this year neck deep in the controversy that has pretty much destroyed The Furry Community." And why did  she think it was destroyed with so many fans of this genre of written and visual fiction and art, as well as the many users of furry avatars on Second Life. She answered, "To enjoy being a fan of anthropomorphic you have to leave the community. In the community is nothing but identity politics, hatred, and threats." Hadn't the community faced challenges before and more or less recovered from them? She told me there was one that it hadn't, "The only challenge that approached this magnitude was the Burned Fur War.  And the community never recovered from it.  We've lived in its shadow ever since, and it has a lot to do with why there are bad people in positions of power all over the community who look on this new attack on the community as a chance to finally have their way with Furry Fandom. ... The damage is permanent and will only get worse. You can look at Marvel Comics and any other company, fandom or web site that has been invaded by these same people. Their objective is to destroy, and they will continue to hammer away at the fandom until nothing remains but ruins."

As Perri continued her commentaries, they were less about the community of anthro fans and more about analyzing political trends. She told me, "What's happening to Furry Fandom isn't an isolated incident. It's part of a massive political movement that is causing irreparable social destruction all over the world. It would make no sense to try to address what we face in the Furry Community without dealing with the worldwide disaster that is currently unfolding. ... Much of Europe is already devastated beyond repair, but the same tactics that are being used against The Furry Community, most other fandoms, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook."

Perri told me the response she got was mainly positive, "I was mainly preaching to the choir. Those being attacked in the fandom looked to me as one of the few concerned who could write well and get their message out that they are not what they're being accused of. But those attacking them just call anyone who doesn't agree with them a Nazi, say Nazis don't get a right to speak, and they use every underhanded trick they can come up with to silence their opposition, as well as to close the ears of everyone else with treats of blacklisting, doxxing and real life character assassination. And every day another major Furry site falls under their agenda, Fur Affinity being the latest to implement their kind of censorship. Though we lost Flayrah and Dogpatch Press as far back as last year. So there is no longer any freedom of speech in The Furry Community, and everyone is under threat."

But why resort to calling someone you don't like a Nazi, considering the unofficial rule in internet discussion that once someone invokes the name of Hitler, the discussion is for all practical purposes over on the grounds there can be no further rational argument. Perri commented, "True, but there is someone worse than Nazis.  Someone who could be considered the parent group of Nazis.  The people accusing everyone who doesn't agree with them of being Nazis are Communists.  They march through the streets of America and Europe bearing the flags of Communism, while burning American flags, and turning our streets into riot zones. That is typical Social Justice Warrior behavior.  That's how they took down 2 The Ranting Gryphon, by accusing him of encouraging suicide with his free speech."

Perri believes what happened was that one or more of the people she was criticizing complained to Facebook, which responded by shutting down her account. She had gotten no warning about changing future or present content, "It just went poof." She felt there was no point in contacting them about restoring her account, "They won't talk to me unless I have some kind of official document with the name on the account on it to prove Perri Prinz is a real person. They don't have to show mercy to Second Life characters. I've been in violation of the TOS from day one. And I'm not going to be bullied into opening an account with my real name. It's not worth fighting. This is one of the things that makes Furries vulnerable to Social Justice Warriors.  All it takes is one well placed phone call and there's nothing we can do to defend our sites."

So as a writer, was what happened with Livejournal and Facebook hard on Perri? Not necessarily. She told me, "Actually, it was being involved in this situation that was hard on me. It's not easy trying to write things that will get through to people who openly reject common sense. I'm enjoying being out of the spotlight for a while." So she was taking a break from writing, "I think I've done enough preaching to the choir. It's going to take someone bigger than me to tackle this business."

So what were her plans now, in and out of Second Life? Perri answered, " I plan to be in Second Life as much as possible, with REC (Recoyote Mindes) being in such bad shape, and Erik seems to need me here as well to give him a sense of security. I may tinker around with Spectral Shadows over the next few months and come back next year on the new site Niko is building. That would be my plan. But The Furry Raiders are still after me to keep being their voice. I expect I'll be asked to write some stuff for their site. I'll do my best on that."

At one point, Perri slipped on a varriant of the "Furry Raiders" armband, one that was pink and blue, "Back in the 70's and 80's we used to wear these.  They were for holding cigarettes and other small items."

Perri and I talked a little longer. At one point, she expressed concern that Second Life's furry communities were not necessarily free of the threat of the radicals she had been criticizing. She felt they could easily come here, infiltrate, and try to cause division and discord. Part of their strategy of divide and conquer.

Spectral Shadows picture by Tigers Kitten

Bixyl Shuftan

Interview with Shockwave Yareach

By Deaflegacy


Shockwave Yareach and I met at his area at Sunweaver Space , high above the sim.  Shockwave said we are in space, that's why it is named Sunweaver Space. "One of us has to build in orbit." said Shockwave. He took a moment to say this, "By the way: we are a kilometer up.  So be careful of the edges of the platform.  It's a long drop."

"Thank you for the warning. I was afraid of going over the edge." I said.

He told me this was his development area. I asked him what he had built so far. He started by showing me what he called a prototype for their campfire in the Relay for Life. "Yes.  I've started playing with Neon," he told me when asked if he built it. It had various plasmas and electrical sparks.

He then showed me the meditation tube,"You just stare at it and relax." said Shockwave when asked what the meditation tube could do. When he was asked about the avatar jumping in the chair, he said that it cycles among animations. Shockwave also showed me the plasma curtains. "The plasma curtains are for walking through." he told me, "They are just decorations.  Most of the textures I use are Raytraced using POVRay - a very old and slow graphics program."

"I made this parcel.  But not the whole sim." said Shockwave when we started talking about Sunweaver Space.  "I WISH I had a whole sim - could put out some of my maze games.  They consume land area like you wouldn't believe.  In this parcel, I can only rez my smallest."

We started talking about his role as a builder. "The first thing was Squid on a stick." said Shockwave.  "It was stupid, but silly.  You waved at people and the tentacles slapped them."

"I have a partner, Cynthia.  We build together for Relay For Life and for our store as we can." said Shockwave when he was asked if he had an assistant.  "The past year we've both been busy.  So except for RFL, our production has been slow."

 "I help my team.  But I don't think I'm an advocate.  Others are more eloquent -- I just do what I am able to do." said Shockwave when he was asked about his work with Relay for Life, specifically Team Sunbeamers, the Relay team of his neighbors the Sunweavers. We talked about his role in RFL.  "I love how we can use the special abilities in Second Life to create special events that would be impossible in real life.  It adds a lot to the experience." said Shockwave. His work with the Relay eats about fifty percent of his inworld time, but Second Life is still mostly socialization and relaxation for him.

"Cynthia and I build stuff for steampunk builds and mad science looks." said Shockwave.  He and Cynthia have worked on a number of joint projects over time. When he was asked if he had ever build a store, he said, "Yes, but it is gone now."

Shockwave had been building on Second Life for a long time, as well as real life. "You've seen the Christmas lights dancing to songs?  I do that.  But I don't have the budget others have so I have to make stuff myself and with my own designs." he told me.

Shockwave had been on Second Life for over 10 years.  I asked him when his rezdate is and he said, "Sept 29 2006." Then Shockwave said something about his work in real life. "I used to work at Nasa." he told me,  "15 years. I did a good job."

When Shockwave was asked if he goes to any club, he said, "Cutlass and Xanadu principally.  Now and then I'll find a blues club here or there.  I'm usually in Sunweavers or Caledon territory." Shockwave added that he goes to the Irish club in Caledon. "Heh.  I'll pass your complements to the dance ball builders" said Shockwave when I said that Shockwave and Cynthia are amazing dancers.

I found out that Shockwave write filk songs.  Shockwave gave me the link http://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/shockwave77598/ where he has some songs. "Once in awhile someone at a club will come up with a silly idea.  And if I have the free time, I try to make it real." said Shockwave. "Zorro wanted the song CARS done about Tanks.  So..."  And with that, he gave me the link http://www.furaffinity.net/view/17593029/ . "I gave it a more Industrial twist." said Shockwave.

Shockwave used to write furry and Scifi, but he had not done much lately.  There was no time for him to write furry and Scifi. "Would you say that you are still a writer even though you don't do much of that today?" I asked. "I think so.  Out of practice is all." said Shockwave.  When he was asked if he has a blog, he said, "Alas, no."

Shockwave plands to continue coming on Second Life until the end.  Until then, he will continue to build things and maybe sell something.

Before the interview ended, we talked about my house-building.  When I asked him if he had ever built a house, he replied that he had built many houses. "I know you helped others build houses.  You've helped me with building a house.  Thank you." I said. "You are very welcome." said Shockwave with a smile, "Let me know if you need more help with the house building."

Thanks, Shockwave.

What I have learned from my time with Shockwave is that he is an amazing person, who would help people in need, like Relay for Life,  and someone trying to build a house.

Deaflegacy

Sunny Award

By Becky "Sha" Shamen

 By now, the word is out that local resident, RECoyote Mindes, has been helping out some members of the community. This story has grown on me and even made me a part of it. When I first began hearing of it, my friend and co-artist, Valkrye, announced that the coyote was sending her a powerful computer and a Wacom cintiq display/drawing board. Lucky Val! In my dreams, thought I, knowing how such a set up would aid my own art. After a week, I got an IM from REC, saying that he was also sending me the same equipment. I was stunned. Was this some kind of April Fools joke? Since I was now in the group of people that were being assisted, I began hearing details of how much and who was being helped. We were all being helped in real life, but the effects directly ripple through our SL community.

I contemplated that since he was helping Second Life residents, one could estimate the amount of Linden Dollars that would equal. Mind you, at the time I did the math, I only knew of a handful of cases, but it was adding up to over twelve million Linden Dollars. Now it was beginning to look like a news story that folks need to see. In a conversation with Rita Mariner, I half jokingly said' Maybe we should put up a coyote statue in the town square. She adopted the idea and we've played with building one. I think she wants to add pigeons to poop on it.


I have always been a big supporter of building healthy communities. If there are punishments for bad behavior, there should also be rewards for good behavior. Perhaps, like Oscars and Emmies, we could create an award for those that have given generously of their services to the community. I told Rita I was thinking of making such a reward and giving it to her to give out as she and or a committee decided. I made a walnut base and made the top design of translucent woven gold, which glows and gives off light. The gold forms a symbol, which is based on the universal thought-form that joy creates. The shape can be found in a smiley face, the SL hand logo and there is a hint of an all seeing eye, in the center. When the build was completed, I was delighted to discover that it seems to radiate joy, when you come near it.  I call it the "Sunny" award.

 So now I'm writing a story about a community hero, an award and a statue. Good heroes tend to be humble, so I think it best to go ask the yote if it's OK to write a story about him. I found him, relaxing at home with Perri. As I meandered up, shuffling my feet and clearing my throat, I made my request. His initial response was a heroic please no, but Perri quickly pointed out that, with the wide reaching benefits to community, having a "hero" will lift their eyes to the behaviors that lead to building a better world. With that in mind, he decided this article would be OK and I could ask him more questions.

   I began with my favorite question, "Was there a "spirit" or inspiration that led to his actions?". He just said, "I like to help". What does he do in RL? He drives a tank truck, hauling blood.  He said, "I drive truck. I love to drive, but hate driving". Driving is hard on the body and he's getting where he can't handle some equipment and climbing up in the cab is painful. Asked about the source of this new wealth, I learned it came with the sale of some land that had been passed down in his family.

   As we talked, we were joined by Niko and Erik. When I told REC that my artistic service would be freely given to him, the group began talking about how a coop of local artists would benefit them and the community. Pooling our talents, we could produce illustrated and or animated stories, with a potential attention and even income to the artists. I mentioned that Erik had also shown interest in creating graphic stories and could use Sunny Beach for "location" backgrounds for pictures and movies, a mini Hollywood.

 

   This is the ripple effect, which started with REC's help. Community members, joining to make a better world. I hope readers will join in honoring RECoyote, for his humble services to the community that loves him.

"Sha"

Interview with Lomgren Smalls (May 2009)

The following was originally printed in Second Life Newspaper in May 2009.

*  *  *  *  *


If you’ve ever been at Luskwood (or the Cutlass Club), you may have noticed a resident so small, it’s hard to find him without looking for his nametag. This would be Lomgren Smalls. Having long been known for his six-inch high avie, and to a lesser extend occasional custom work on micro (and mega) avatars, he has made a little real-life news recently. I recently had a chance to talk with him.

Bixyl Shuftan: Where did you first hear about Second Life?

Lomgren Smalls: Well, I had heard about it several years ago, back when I hadn't even thought of joining. Probably a good three, four years, maybe more than that. I think it was probably during 2006, because that was my first year being at the El Goonish Shive forums at Keenspot (El Goonish Shive is an online comic).

Bixyl Shuftan: So what got you to take a look?

Lomgren Smalls: Well, I joined the Trillian Astra alpha back in early Jan 2007, or maybe Dec 2006. Trillian Astra is the next version of Trillian, which is an IM client aggregator of sorts. It allows you to connect to multiple IM Networks. AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, etc. One of the first people to add me as a friend on the Astra network was a furry on here already, and finally convinced me to go ahead and try Second Life.

Thus, my born date is late January 2007 ... but when I tried it ... it was so laggy that my avatar never loaded. So I gave up on it again. I finally decided to try again on March 3rd, 2007. Made it in, things loaded, and from there, met new friends, etc, and haven't left.

Bixyl Shuftan: Sounds like things went well once you started.

Lomgren Smalls: *chuckles* As well as can be expected with SL.

Bixyl Shuftan: When did you first start building, and how did it lead to your work on avatars?

Lomgren Smalls: Heh. I started building and learning right from the start. My very first stop was Luskwood, on the recommendation of my friend from Trillian Astra. After a couple of days, I visited the Ivory Tower of Prims to learn about building. I remember thinking at the time that it'd be cool if I could build, but I never expected to be able to do this well at the time. I was building silly, simple little things at first for practice, like tables, chairs, the usual. And then I got it into my head to build something steampunk. So, me being the crazy kitty I am, I started on it as a major project, building in Perry. This actually took only a week for me to do, even back then ... and my first actual month in SL hadn't quite finished yet. Here's a pic, just check the date

Bixyl Shuftan: Thanks.

Lomgren Smalls: The picture was after it had been refined a bit and I was trying to package it for possible sale. But the last part of the original that I have was built and finished on Apr 1, 2007. I have tweaked it since then.

Bixyl Shuftan: Looks good

Lomgren Smalls: So, I was building from the very beginning. It took me about 6 months in SL to learn enough to make the original base of this av. But the main thing about me and building ... I love a challenge, and seeing just what I can do.

Bixyl Shuftan: Yes, looking at you, it's obvious someone did quite a bit of work on how small one could make an avatar. How did this begin?

Lomgren Smalls: Well, back to the El Goonish Shive forums, it was there that my online persona became a 6 inch tall male anthrofeline, if you want to describe it formally. So, naturally, one of the things I wanted to try and do in SL was make myself, well, myself. One of the first things I got was the original NorthStar micro, with help, as a kit. It was actually twice my current height, about a foot tall. But I customized it and eventually learned enough to make it move. I then took what I learned with that and made my own. Including my own animation and such to get it to work.

Bixyl Shuftan: How long did it take before it was fully ready?

Lomgren Smalls: Well, probably 20 hours at least, but I keep tweaking it and such. That was figuring out the scripting and figuring out how to shrink the head and tail down properly. The rest was me using the NorthStar micro as a pattern and trying to figure out how to improve upon it.

Bixyl Shuftan: I take it your micro was a hit with everyone on first sight?

Lomgren Smalls whispers: Hehe. A lot of people liked it, and I still get questions on "where did you get that?" and "how did you get so small?"

Bixyl Shuftan: *chuckles* What have been some of the more unusual reactions to your micro?

Lomgren Smalls: *chuckles* Well, they've ranged from the innocent to the adult... so... I've seen a lot

Bixyl Shuftan: Those who've read the paper for a while will recall you've also done work on macro avatars, super-large ones.

Lomgren Smalls: Yes, I've done some work on megas before, mainly to see just what was possible. Most people were saying even a 30 meter av was impossible. But, me being a builder, I knew what link limits and root prims were, and how they affected things. So, I was able to design and piece together a statue-style mega avatar that was ... a lot larger than anyone expected was possible.

Bixyl Shuftan: If I recall corectly, you built a mega-vixen about 224 feet tall

Lomgren Smalls: It was actually for Halloween, because I was becoming known as a micro ... and I built the vixen for a friend, and I made a mega version of my own regular av, around 65.5 and 68 meters tall, respectively.

Bixyl Shuftan: Did the work take about as long as your micro?

Lomgren Smalls: The vixen was built over the weekend before Halloween 2007, quite literally. My avatar was finished the Monday before. I recall Halloween being on that Tuesday

Bixyl Shuftan: Yes, I remember seeing her a few days later at Luskwood. Needless to say, she left quite an impression. ;-)

Lomgren Smalls: *grins*

Bixyl Shuftan: How easy is it to move in the megas?

Lomgren Smalls: Not easy. You literally have to fly them around. And hover, making them appear to stand on the ground.

Bixyl Shuftan: Do they lag a lot?

Lomgren Smalls: Not really. They are made of normal prims.

Bixyl Shuftan: So what other work have you done since then?

Lomgren Smalls: I do all sorts of work. I build stuff other than avatars. Everything here on my property, for instance. I've also built stuff for friends, castles ... let's see. I've done commissions, for micros, other avs... one of them was for The Phantom Creeps robot used by Rob Zombie in a few of his videos. So, just in general, a little of everything. Most recently, I've been finishing up some work on a couple of micros that I can actually sell, Relay for Life.

Bixyl Shuftan: What can you tell the readers about those?

Lomgren Smalls: Well, they're going to be based a lot on my current outfit ... because this is my "Relay for Life" outfit. The main difference is that the head actually is built by me, instead of being a shrunken version of the Luskwood Cat. I also have a female version of the av in progress, just needs a little more work.

Bixyl Shuftan: I've seen another micro done by you. About how many macros and micros have you made for others?

Lomgren Smalls: Macros ...  let's see ...  maybe 2-3, if that. Micros ...  closer to 8-10.

Bixyl Shuftan: Changing the subject, you recenly got a real life job through SL. How did you hear about it?

Lomgren Smalls: Well, I had been looking for a better job for a while. And my friends here in SL knew about it. So, through a couple of the online Second Life papers, they learned of an on-SL job fair being held by the state of Missouri. And they told me about it

Bixyl Shuftan: Yes, and your getting the job made a little real-life news as well. The articles stated your micro made quite an impression.

Lomgren Smalls: Yes. I know people probably think I'm crazy for going to a job fair as a micro, but to me, it makes sense. 1: it's who I am. 2: It shows what I am capable of doing. Of course, I was dressed for the occasion, wearing a dark gray tux.

Bixyl Shuftan: Have your new fellow employees spoken much about Second Life, considering how you got the job?

Lomgren Smalls: A bit, yes, as I've talked to them about it. They're happy with me working there, I'm happy working there, my boss/etc are happy with me.

Bixyl Shuftan: Great ... As I recall, you were also on local TV news.

Lomgren Smalls: Yes, a couple of times. Never expected to be on TV at all. *chuckles*

Bixyl Shuftan: Besides the RFL avatars, any future plans that you'd like to share?

Lomgren Smalls: Well, I plan on making non-RFL versions (of the avatar), and hopefully making a version 2.0 of the av someday in the future.

To those who haven’t come across them, articles about Lomgren getting his state government IT job can be found here: http://assignmentfuture.blogspot.com/2008/09/finding-real-work-in-virtual-worlds.html .

*  *  *  *  *

Lomgren would go on to put his "Lomtech" micro feline avatar up on the market. He also worked on an improved version of his existing avatar with more fluid movements, but whenever it danced, it would float a couple feet in the air. He never did find a way around that bug.

Lomgren remained a devoted member of the Passionate Redheads Relay for Life team. It's folding in 2013 was undoubtedly a bitter blow. He would go on to found another team, but shortly afterward, he took an indefinite hiatus from Second Life. I occasionally come across him in Facebook, Minecraft, and various Steam games. In the meantime, his neighbors in the Sunweaver community continue to talk about him, and wait for his return.


Bixyl Shuftan

Shockwave and the Sunweaver Movie Night

For a couple of years Shockwave Yareach has been treating the Sunweavers and any guests on their land to a movie night here in the land of Second Life. "Movies in SL? Never!" Well, actually it’s true. Shockwave every Sunday night at 6pm SL time, 9pm east coast time of the US, has picked a movie to show the Sunweavers. The Sunweavers being the furry group headed by Rita Mariner. I joined her group long ago and I never had a reason to drop them.

Long ago when I first learned about Shock’s movie night, the first movie I saw was the "Star Wars Christmas Special." I remembered a friend’s warning in real life to never watch it. Be warned though this movie is completely wretched I was only able to watch it with friends to make fun of it.  It also came complete with retro commercials. In Shock’s words it’s a neat time capsule, "Oh it's epically bad.  But it's so bad it's funny and with all the commercials, it is a great time capsule."

But don’t lose heart. Shockwave plays excellent movies as well as bad from new to old school. One time I mentioned I never saw the old animated movie “The Last Unicorn.” My friend Tantari Kim said it was a good movie that was a little scary for kids. Shockwave was nice enough to play that movie for me. I was surprised as it was like a bottle of old wine that aged well and was a joy to watch.

A couple other movies that come to mind was "UHF," the classic movie with Weird AL the oddball songwriter which makes parodies of popular songs. "Summer Wars" was an excellent Japanese animated film. It explored a near future where everyone had an avatar to explore the Internet, with someone’s avatar wrecking it. The animation was wonderful with amazing action. Shock also played “The Avengers” which just came out on DVD. I saw that in the theater recently and enjoyed watching it a second time.

Shockwave said the movie night for the Sunweavers was started by Jaxx Tardis. Sadly Jaxx was laid off in real life, so Shockwave took over. The pair still work together on the file conversions for every movie. I wished Jaxx good luck on finding a new job.

In addition to being the movie man for the Sunweavers or as Shockwave says “The Sunnies,” Shockwave also composes music parodies. Nydia Tungsen told me that he also wrote a funny song. Everyone might have heard the song “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.” Shock wrote a parody of it one Christmas season. All I can say was Grandma was drunk and regretted doing something with a reindeer. 

Shockwave has played lots of movies almost every week for his fellow Sunnies. If you would like to check out a movie night ask Rita Mariner for an invite to her group the Sunweavers. Shockwave has started a trend as the Disney cartoon movie "Robin Hood” was played at the furry club Anthroxtacy. Shockwave also takes requests. I mentioned not seeing "The Last Unicorn" and he put it as the movie the following week. He generally plays sci-fi movies, animated movies, and anything that goes with the season. Shockwave announces in the group chat what movie is showing and he’s a friendly guy to boot.

Grease Coakes

Editor's Note: Middle picture from the showing of "Madagascar 3." 

Dusk Griswold and Her Puppet Fun

It’s doubtful that anyone who has a TV has not seen Sesame Street. I as a child remember seeing Big Bird and the other various puppets. It was magical. As a kid, they seemed real. As a kid, we had no idea these were puppets and not real beings or people. Later on growing up we figured it out.

I recently talked to Dusk Griswold, another Sunweaver (the last article I wrote was about Nydia Tungsen) about her and her puppetry. According to Dusk, she says it’s a dying art. I’m not so sure. Puppets are still used today in shows for children. The movie “Team America World Police” came to mind too, but I can talk about that later. Also recently there was the real life movie “The Muppets” that came out last year.

Growing up, Dusk watched Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, and was always fascinated by the puppets, and knew one day she wanted to perform them. More recently, she discovered a show from Canada Ccalled The Longhouse Tales. While she said the writing was not that great, the puppets were nicely done, and the look of one inspired the design of her puppet, Vixie.  

Dusk seems very lucky too. She has admitted in real life to meeting one of the puppeteers named Terry Angus. As a puppeteer, he worked on various muppet projects. One thing Terry did work on in particular was the show "Fraggle Rock." I remember that show with Muppets living in a cave. Dusk says he is a talented puppeteer and craftsman. In fact, her puppet named Vixie was created by the same guy: Terry Angus. When Dusk showed me pictures of Vixie the puppet, I said it’s a huge puppet and very well detailed. Dusk Griswold answered, "Should be they were built by a former Muppet performer."

Amazingly Dusk also met a Pixar employee and has a very good drawing of Vixie by him when Dusk was describing Vixie, "One drawing was done by a Pixar artist." Pixar is the same company who made the "Toy Story" movies and other animated moives. In fact I remember seeing the first Toy Story in a movie theatre as a teen.

Dusk showed me a video of Vixie performing live. Well Dusk was puppeteering, and Vixie seemed alive above the table. Vixie looked almost alive by Dusk’s deft hand motions at a furry convention. It was a funny show with humor that you might see from a Muppet show. Dusk wanted Vixie the mad scientist to create a nuclear power coffee maker, commenting, "More like a nuclear powered coffeemaker." I chuckled, "That's one way to get hot coffee."

Dusk has also met other people from the Muppets in real life, "I have met Karen Prell, Mike Quinn, David Barclay, and Terry Angus." Sounds like the real life Dusk has gotten around meeting lots of neat people. She has met some interesting people. I commented the only famous person I met was Charles Feelgood, a real life house DJ from my area.

Ironically I mentioned the R-rated movie “Team America World Police” which features puppets which are designed to look like real people. The same people who created "South Park" made this movie poking fun at adventure/action movies with their twisted sense of humor. Dusk said she hasn’t seen it. I recommend it to anyone who likes South Park, or anything to do with puppets.

Dusk thinks Muppets/puppets are a dying art. Maybe it’s not amazingly popular like video games or the Second Life we all inhabit, but it still has some life to it in the real world.

Dusk has a Flickr account, where one can see pictures of Vixie the puppet's construction. 

Pictures from 2012 RFL Walk.

Grease Coakes

Xymbers Slade: Second Life Fortune Teller and Online Writer

Xymbers Slade is a resident with an interesting past and present. He was with the Second Life Mentor Volunteer group, until Linden Lab shut them down in November 2009. Another thing he did then, and still does today, is fortune telling.

Xymbers “office,” accessible from his dragon’s lair on Sunweaver Air, has a feeling of Medieval and the arcane about it, with the dragons, pentagrams and other mystical symbols, and more. He describes his business as “off and on,” getting a few clients a week.

He offered me a reading, inviting me to his place, “Have a seat... I'll go right into shuffling and we'll see what comes up here... one sec... “

After a few minutes of waiting, “I don't like the locations of some of these cards, they are not painting a pretty picture for 2011. A lot of this seems to want to focus on your own work and your own paper, too. I want to say some of these cards are more general, but a lot of them seem to be painting you with a pretty big target.”

“Six things stand out here. The first is that I got an upside down 4 of Cups (Apathy) as the ‘ best outcome.’ This is basically saying no one is paying attention to what is printed, or no one cares enough to take action if something ‘bad’ is brought up. Very tempted to say if Linden Labs wanted to pull something shady, this'd be the time to do it, and they'd get away with it.”

“The second thing that stands out here seems to be you. I drew you in three separate locations (yourself as the upside down King of Wands as ‘ next influence,’ you as the Emperor in the Past, coming off of a ‘ spilled milk loss ‘ and you as an upside down King of Swords ... someone up in arms here about something but completely lacking the resources to affect the situation). Have you recently come off of a time where you had to issue a retraction or a series of corrections that left your credibility stained? That 5 of Cups in the Past next to you would suggest so... a black eye that affected harder than it was supposed to.” To this I answered no, “All right, then I don't know what that ‘ crying over spilled milk moment ‘ would have been. Fortunately it's in the past and it hit you when you were strongest anyway, so it's a minor blip at this point.”

“The third thing that stands out here is that it looks like people's resources and dreams are far fewer in availability --- overall situation card is an upside down 7 of Cups (big dreams staying dreams) and we have an upside down Ace of Pentacles as the Emotions card (no profit in emotions/effort, or a lack of needed emotional resources to see projects through). Combined with that apathy card as the best outcome, this is looking ugly.”

“The fourth thing that stands out is that we have two rivals trying to discredit each other. There will be no peace, and if God put the peace branch out, they'd both set fire to it before turning back on each other. That could be a big problem. It will be something you need to stay out of, else they'll turn their viciousness on you. My guess is a possible story that hits about people being jerks to each other. This is Hatfield/McCoy fight levels here. Effort put trying to make things right or bring it to the attention of people is just going to turn a spotlight on you.”

“The fifth thing to stand out is just another ‘ lack of resources ‘ situation. Though this one seems to be pointed at you specifically. It's saying ‘ Ok, there's a lack of potential here. It's all said and done. No one cares anymore.’ And I think revelations are going to be had that put you on a horse off of SL in time. The center three cards on the right there --- 8 of Cups upside down showing lack of potential (combined with the big dreams staying dreams and lack of emotional resources to make things done right from earlier) Then the Moon showing secrets revealed... And then you as a very weak Knight of Cups... you go out on a good note, but off to where is the question. It all stretches back to that apathy. Less and less people are caring about SL in some form or another. It's an underlying current. After 6-7 years, even new twists on old novelties grow old and faded. So I would not be surprised if the paper or even SL ended by the end of the year. These cards want to suggest that if there's any time for it to collapse under its own weight or (given the presence of the Moon), more likely they'll shoot themselves in the foot and wind up having the bullet ricochet and hit them in between the eyes.”

“The final thing that stands out here is the final three cards. I have no idea what context these are for. Upside down Ace of Wands, suggesting growth but in the wrong direction... and right next to that is the Ace of Swords, the Excalibur of victory. So even though everyone goes in the wrong direction, their goals are still achieved pretty solidly. Justice, the card of Karma and of ‘ you get what you deserve ‘ is not liking this one bit and wants to make those victories moot. So I think while goals are achieved, they're like the pixels making up the program. They go away the moment you log off or turn away to look at something else. They're not worth anything if they're not looked at. If that makes any sense.”

“Other than that, that's what's standing out here in the cards. I would not be surprised if you were either out of a SL job or just off SL period at the end of December of 2011 or January of 2012.”

I asked if he meant superficial victories, “I think the word I'd use is that they're all mirages. They're not even superficial victories. Even superficial ones linger. These do not. Everything works well in that one specific moment in which it happens, but the moment it is put down it is forgotten. And no one cares to go back to it.” So he foresaw troubled times for the paper and Second Life? “In a nutshell, yeah. It's like you produce your material, people ‘buy’ it, but it either is not read, or not ‘absorbed’ or something. The stuff doesn't stick. At least according to these cards, anyway. ... Something needs to galvanize the people of SL into a collection of individuals, rather than the mess of things it is now. I -want- to say no organization. Not enough to get -all- involved, which is what I think is to happen. It's not even about ‘ toppling the 800 pound gorilla ’ even. Some grid wide mega event needs to happen free of Linden Lab’s mismanagement.”

“Anyway, those are the cards. Too bad they were not any better; this is one of the more negative reads I've had in the last few weeks.” Xymbers did admit he was wrong on a couple recent readings, “Things like that come and go though. The first couple months of a year are always slow and unfocused as the year gets underway.”

And when someone else did a reading on him, it turned out wrong, “It was mostly warnings about people doing power plays and how people have entered certain businesses only to lord over others, so ‘ watch yourself. ‘ A few things that were almost certain to happen didn't, which was a surprise to both of us. Now I have to go back towards the end of this month because one of the power plays was a few weeks ‘ late ‘ and I have to see if things have changed from its previous incarnation. ... Yeah, always more readings. But at least we act on the knowledge. The reading I got for you suggested no one cared enough to react about anything written or whatnot.”

Besides his fortune telling, Xymbers has also been developing a story for self-publication on the Internet. “People will get to decide how the story progresses at points,” he explained, “The viewers will have a say as to what the heroes do. And if the viewers make the wrong decisions, it might be a ‘Total Party Kill.’ “ He went as far as to have artwork for the original set of his characters commissioned, which are set up in his dragon’s lair.

The story is around several characters in a future Earth of which humans are gone and the world is populated by “Anthro-Kin,” living in a Medieval society of which those with the talent and patience can learn magic. He originally had nine characters, some heroic, some anything but. But the more he thought about the characters, the more he realized some would have little reason to stick around with certain ones, “that adventuring troupe was going to be the focus of the story but they wanted nothing to do with each other and I knew it was bad when my ‘self insert’ wanted nothing to do with them either. ... My characters actively fought me at every step. ”

So he chose four new characters whom could stick in a group, “I finally gave up and asked ‘who wants to come forward,’ and got four volunteers. I'm still banging things out around them though, so I don't have much more than that for now. ... it starts on the 1st and I'm aiming for a twice a week schedule.” Later on, he told me of a fifth character coming to mind.

Of the five characters, the first is Ameris the “bovine bladesinger” whom despite dressing up as a Valkyrie and carrying a long axe insists she’s no warrior, "I'm not a barbarian, I'm a mercenary!" Then there is Target, an obnoxious thin and wry wolf whom dresses in second hand leather outfits, "I'm either in trouble, getting in it, getting out of it, or taking credit for it." There is Soyal the sorceress, a white cougar whose real name is a mystery and dresses all in pink, and woe to those who laugh at her outfit. Fourth is Thrana, a quiet snowshoe hare whose oversize feet can do serious damage, "Actions speak louder. I'll let my paws do the talking for me." Last but not least is Zelda, a blue eyed vixen water sorceress.

Xymber’s story, currently with no working title, is on his Livejournal. More on his fortune telling can be read from the article on him at Second Life Newspaper, and he also does business from a website. His place, Wyvernhome, is at Sunweaver Air at (184, 87, 26).

Bixyl Shuftan