Remembering Tai'lahr Winnikow

By Bixyl Shuftan

It was a few days ago that my attention was drawn to the Historical Hunts group. The reason for the announcment was that group founder Perryn Peterson had made a certain announcement.

I regret to inform you that Miss Tai' (Tai'lahr Winnikow) has passed away in RL.  This is the message I received from her RL husband:

"Tai'lahr left us this day without ever realizing how many people she touched and how much she was appreciated."

Please keep them in your thoughts.  A suitable exhibit will be established at the Mieville Memorial Gardens for Miss Tai'.

Checking the place at Mieville Lakes (127/203/22), I noticed a picture of a lady with a candle nearby, "In memory of Tai'lahr Winnikow, creative, clever genius." Asking around, Oldesoul Eldemar of the Relay for Life told me, "She was awesome and so helpful in (the) Fantasy Faire and Fallen Gods groups. She helped us moderate Fantasy Faire backstage and fans. She did the hunts for Mieville."

Oldesoul recommended I contact with Wyvern Dryke, also known as Wyvvy. "I was glad to call her one of my friends," he told me, saying she was here for eleven and a half years, "I knew her about five years of that." When I asked what she did, Wyvern answered, "Many things. She helped a great deal with the events in Mieville, including checking that the merchants were all ready for the hunts, helping hunters who needed assistance in the hunts, and creating games for the events." She had been doing so for about four years, "She was so giving, she said once she'd rather give things away then sell them. ... She also helped others create their own products.  She taught them scripts, among other things. She was very giving and generous. ... She is missed by all of the Mieville community.  Her absence leaves a massive hole which will not be easily filled."

Wyvern suggested I talk to Kerryth Tarantal for more information. As it turned out, she was a longtime friend who knew her before they both came to Second Life, "I must have met her in 2006 or 2007. We were in the version of Myst Online - Uru Live that was carried by GameTap at the time. We shared some of the same activities in that game. Like SL it had a lot of free form social qualities." They came here about the same time, "In February of 2008, GameTap announced that Myst Online, or MOUL, would close in two months. By that time, we had a close engaged community of several hundred people. We 'emigrated' kind of in a body. Some went to games like Eve Online or Lord of the Rings. But most came to Second Life who were old enough, beginning of April, 2008. Tai and I have rez days one day apart."

Of their first days, "I don't think we had a lot of contact in the early days. It was a large community. I was going crazy becoming a shoppaholic and going on hunts, and she was already building and inventing. There were a lot of parties. Hers were the most fun. Because there were so many of us from Uru, we all kind of cocooned in our group for quite a while. And we had a lot going on. The best memory I have is when she helped organize a box-bot themed party that was hysterically funny and almost the most fun I ever had in SL. She made costumes and cereal box bumper cars and playground equipment and rides and toys. This must have been late 2008 or 2009. I wasn't building then, and I was amazed at the creativity of it. People still talk about it. Someone brought it up today."

Kerryth told me Tai' was a source of her encouragement, "I started a little fractal art gallery around that time and started making clothes in 2009. She was the person who encouraged me the most. In fact, she got behind and pushed! (She) helped me organize a fashion show - right before I had surgery and couldn't use a keyboard for weeks. We got it done. The thing about Tai was that she was always like that. Encouraging, helping other people. It didn't always sit right with everyone. (smile) She was always creating and inventing, and it was all pretty much outside the commercial world of SL. She gave things away. She was embarrassed to sell things. She just wanted to give, so people could have fun. There was a spirit of exploration and discovery in those early years of SL that's kind of hard to find now. She was whole heartily into that."

While Tai' did a lot, she preferred to work quietly behind the scenes with no one else besides a few friends in the know. Kerryth told me she "Never wanted to be the center of attention. She hated it in fact. Very private." She then went on about her, "Excellent scripter. We used to brainstorm silly ideas. So much fun. I'm going to miss that very much." And what kind of ideas did they brainstorm? "Things I could make for my store. Or for Burn2 or events like that. I would create the objects, do the texturing, run the business. She was all about 'What can we make this thing DO?' That spirit has changed the direction of what I do. In the direction of what gives me joy and less concern about 'marketing.' Or she would make a mock up out of prims and I would make a mesh to do what she envisioned. But she was getting to be fairly good at making mesh herself these last couple of years."

So what next? Kerryth told me, "I'm going to bring some of her creations out for a retrospective, probably next month. Toys and gadgets. There are a lot of things around my store that we worked on together. Everywhere you look, in fact. But her greatest contributions were hunts and games for Mieville events. I have a gallery space at my store." She felt her best quality was, "Her generosity - I think I mentioned that. She was always popping up to offer help in hunts. She was passionate about Fantasy Faire, though she avoided any kind of limelight. I think Fantasy Faire appealed to her exploring, discovering side. It's like two weeks in a theme park for those of us who are involved! Her absence leaves a huge empty space in my work and in the communities she was part of." Of the attention now on her, Kerryth told me, "It would have made her terribly uncomfortable. We were reflecting today on how all this attention would probably have sent her offline. (smile) That's how she was."

Remaining in the Historical Hunts group, I would hear occasional talk about Tai', "Hope everyone is out crunching bones. There won't be any more of Tai's amazing fair games unless she passed the setup to someone else. (frown) Just one of the superb creations we have enjoyed over the years and won't have around any more." Only now is how much this woman meant is becoming more widely known, and it is clear she will be very much missed.

Bixyl Shuftan

Interview with Faust Steamer (Walton F. Wainwright), Builder of The SL14B Stage Left

 By Bixyl Shuftan

The Second Life Fourteenth Birthday was known for a number of great builds. Among them was "Stage Left" or "The Guardian," a huge three-headed Chinese-style lion that straddled two sims, carrying the stage where parties were held on it's back. It's size, detail, and moving heads caused numerous onlookers to go "Wow!" and marvel. It's creator was Faust Steamer, also known by his display name of Walton F. Wainwright. Recently, I had a chance to interview him, at the feet of his creation, "so the beast can have a listen in on it too, ha ha!"

"To begin with, how did you first hear about Second Life?" I asked, noting his entry was in February 2009.

Faust thought for a moment, "My memory may be a bit foggy, but I think I found Second Life through an ad online while browsing for comics to read. I saw it once, twice, maybe three times before I gave in to give it a shot. I thought it was some kind of customizable 'freeware' sims game of some sort, but it turned out to be far more complicated than I expected."

"What were you expecting?" I asked.

The builder answered, "I actually just expected some kind of online version of the sims to be honest, and I really wanted to play it, but at the time I couldn't really afford it."

I responded, "So you had no idea every avatar would have a person behind it at first?"
He answered, "At the time, I didn't really think about that. I just thought maybe it was a community game where you build houses with a set of assets, decorate it and show it off to people or something for the sort. I wasn't sure what the system would be like or how it'll happen, but my expectations thought it was a small game, not a creative platform with a vast learning curve."

My next question was, "And how did your view change over the first few days?"

Faust stated, "Yes, quite a bit. I started in Caledon Oxbridge and read over the tutorials and instructions there about how to work the viewer and understand the concept of an open virtual world. The learning curve was intense,and since I had no friends in game  to guide me coupled with a healthy dash of shyness, I isolated myself and eventually understood the idea of 'creating' on Second Life by pulling apart freebies and reading the boards at the place I first rezzed in. Eventually, I just got to building for fun - kind of like being given legos and seeing what I can do with it. I lived in a sandbox with a low return rate and stayed there with little idea on what the community was like."

I then asked, "How long did that last and what got you to change?"

He answered, "A year and a half. It wasn't until late 2010 did I start inviting friends from outside of Second Life to join me in appreciating the very idea that we could put together our roleplay characters and watch them come to life in 3D. One of them was far better at socializing than I will ever be, and discovered that there is a whole wide community out there dedicated to roleplay. My friends dragged me out of the sandbox, kicking and screaming. But we eventually settled in a 'Silent Hill" inspired roleplay sim. From there, I started learning about stores, Second Life shopping, and found a place camping for L$2 an hour so I could buy some neat things. Earning things that aren't freebies, I discovered 'sculpties' and saw how they could be used and looked into how those worked through a store's really detailed tutorial which expanded my interests in content creation. I mainly focused on creating things for my roleplay characters."

"What things did you create for them?" I asked

He told me, "Textured shirts, capes, hats, masks, claws, gloves, armor pieces...accessories, really. I really like plague doctors and at the time, those masks aren't made often so I tried to make my own, for example. When avatars could have alpha layers, I decided to find a way to create big, sharp gnarly teeth that would stretch across the face to work for a character of mine, and it worked out great."

"Plague doctor?" I asked in response, "Isn't that what's on your profile picture?  Or is is something similar?"

" Oh yes," he answered, "that's one of many I've made for myself, though, that one's made in ... 2014? 2015?. I've made sculpted plague doctor masks, beaked bird masks, even prim masks way before that. In general, I just really enjoy making masks and cover my face with them."

"Like the one you're wearing now?" I spoke, referring to his avatar's appearance.

"Yes!" he responded enthusiastically, "This one I made back in ... 2015 for an event, but it's inspired by similar cultures as our dear stage here, so I wore it for the occasion."

"We'll get back to that in a bit," I went on, "When did you start building other things beside masks and other things for you and your roleplay group?"

Faust answered, "I think when I started opening my store in 2011. It took a year's worth of encouragement, but once I got it going I needed to build myself a store building and other assets that would give my shop a certain look and theme I wanted at the time. I liked to make small things for a while, and I dabbled in larger builds, but often canceled or deleted them because they weren't good enough. I played around with furniture and decorations like interactive automatons and music boxes after seeing how far LSL (Linden script language) can get from a few amazing and intuitive stores I admire."

"Sounds interesting," I told him, "What kinds of larger builds were you making?"

The masked man answered, "I tried to find ways to make airships, better store builds, buildings. Especially after mesh came out,however, I couldn't quite wrap my head around the land impact puzzle so I tend to trash them all. When SL12B came around, I think that was when I started to make use of the 'freedom' I was given: to make an art piece within the theme and make it functional for what it needs to do for visitors. With a whole sim, I was able to experiment more. I learned a lot since then, though I still dislike building large things."

I then asked, "What happened between the SL12B and SL13B that got you noticed by the Birthday organizers?"

His answer was, "For Sl12B, I was invited to do the welcome area by someone in the works who was a collector of my musical machines. Between SL12B and SL13B...I have no idea. One day I was invited and was recommended to do stage left, so I took it up and just went to work."

I brought up, "As I understand, that got quite a bit of attention."

"Surprisingly so," Faust responded, "and I'm quite happy that it did. It was the largest piece I've built at the time. I think when I was brainstorming on it, I was just thinking, 'I want to build a really big music box'. I was also testing some new techniques with it as well."

"Yes," I told him, "I kept hearing "Oh my gosh, it moves!" from the people there."

"Ah yes," Faust seemed to smile underneath his mask, "our brand's specialty apart from the accessories are its interactive, moving machines, so we had to at least make the Storyteller stage move as well. Experimental, but turned out quite interesting."

I then asked him, "I take it you had your share of complements during and after the SL13B?"

"I suppose so," the builder answered, "I learned a lot while building the stage during SL13B, and there are a good number of mistakes from that too, which I've considered and brought over for SL14B.

Going back to subject of his current build, "When were you asked to be a part of the SL14B, and what gave you the idea for the Chinese lion?"

He answered, "I was asked to be part of SL14B late January or February -- somewhere around there, I don't remember exactly. I was very interested in southeast Asian culture and Indonesian styled beasts with their wild faces and did a series of illustrations based that for finals in college. I thought back on my research about it when the theme of SL14B was released, and wanted to do something inspired by the style of it. Originally the stage's name was 'Dance of the Demon', but I really didn't think the beast was all that much of a demon itself, so I called it the 'Guardian'."

I brought up the highlighted title over his avatar, "I take it that's what your title 'Guardian's Keeper' refers to?"

"Yes," Faust answered, "the sim's name is called 'The Guardian', and the title is just a cute little theme thing I wanted to keep up. I kind of like making characters or avatars that relate to the setting."

"So this is the Guardian of the SL14B?" I asked.

The builder responded, "I'd say he's the Guardian of the forest who came out from where he came to see the festivities and celebrate SL14B, yes. He's a bit scary, but he's a gentle creature, I assure you!"

I gave a short chuckle, then brought up, "I notice in one hand of his there's a flower, and then there's that the stage itself is on his back."

"Indeed," Faust described, "he's a gentle creature that only wishes to tend to the forest and let flourish. He can be quite frightening when his domain is under fire though, but that is not what he emerged out into SL14B for!"

My next question was, "Does 'The Guardian' have a future of any kind after the SL14B?"

The builder told me, "I've been told numerous times to make a miniature version of The Guardian. Other than that, I don't know if he will be rezzed out in full ever again after SL14B, since he would need two sims to be rezzed down. He will likely be put in a little folder within the depths of my inventory along side with The Station and The Storyteller."

I then asked, "Did you have any plans if you get asked to take part in another SLB?"

Faust answer was, "I won't know until the next theme's released, unfortunately. Whatever theme and what area I handle greatly affects what I end up wanting to do for the event. So that's a bit of a mystery for now, even on my part!"

"Did you have any other plans for the future?" I asked him.

"None that I know of," he answered, "I've been focusing a lot on my real life work as of late. I do wish to expand my store a bit and rework all of its contents, however. Other than that, if time permits perhaps I can try building sims and apply for the LEA."

"Oh?" I asked, "Have an art exhibit idea in mind for there?"

The builder pondered, "If I were to do an art exhibit I'd like to do something spooky, maybe involving the occult, or sim telling a story through visual clues littered throughout the place. I don't stick to plans until I end up needing to sit down and think about it proper when everything's ready to go. I do think it should relate to story telling, as you can tell, I'm quite a fan of that."

We were near the end, and to my last question, "Was there anything else you wanted to mention?"

Faust answered, "I'd like to thank everyone for supporting me throughout my journey as an artist in Second Life and all those who have supported my work and store all these years. I really appreciate all of you for keeping my hobby alive and encouraging me to keep it up. Never forget Second Life's supposed to be fun, because that is what we're all here for."

It was then that the builder of The Guardian and I parted ways.

There's little doubt Faust's creation will be a noted part of the Second Life Birthday history as the years go on, and one wonders what the man will build next.

Faust also has his own Flickr page at https://www.flickr.com/people/waltonwainwright/ .

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