Echovets: Band of Brothers

 

 By Bixyl Shuftan

There's a new sim and group in Second Life for veterans: EchoVets - Band of Brothers

A place for Veterans by Veterans.  Newcomer friendly, VA Information, PTSD, Suicide Awareness, education, dance, free, gardens, fountain, games. Camaraderie with those that speak your language.  ALL are welcome, Brothers and Sisters.

I was told a little beforehand about the lady who ran it, Stacy Maracas. She has been in Second Life since Oct 2004, almost 18 years, and in real life works at a veterans center, her profile stating "ANYTHING a Veteran may have a question about, I am your resource, and if I do not know the answer, I assure you I will get it."

I contacted Stacy, and a meeting was soon arranged, "Been working my butt off," she commented when we met up, "I love busy.  If I didn't I'd be screwed, I wear too many hats to not like it." I mentioned that she had been a longtime resident, and asked how she got here. "I was apart of Second Life through friends in 2003," she told me, "I borrowed a friend's alternate, and came here as a lady named Kiwi." She chuckled, "I fell in love with it here, so first of October 2004 I created me. I like my name better. So next month, 18 years," she smiled, "I'm almost officially an adult in Second Life!

"There was no islands or anything then, only mainland, very small very cool. Also no skin, prim hair, and really bad clothing. But we ll thought we were the hottest things ever. HAH!"

I asked her how things went after her entrance. She answered, "It was well, a learning curve.  I was a Mafia Godmother here, roleplay etc.  It was a lot of fun to be honest, but the longer I was here I could see potential in just being myself here. I have always been myself, but I mean no roleplaying etc, just good 'ol Stacy which is my real-life name as well. I have been much happier since making the decision, have met some amazing friends here, and many that I came here with 18 yrs ago. I am still very close too and stay in touch here and in real-life. That is what kept me coming back, now that. And this sim is what will keep me here for a long time to come."

I then asked her what gave her the idea for the Band of Brothers sim. Stacy told me, "In my real world job, I work for the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, at a place called The Vet Center in Lake Havasu, Arizona.  My proper job title is Veteran's Outreach Program Specialist or VOPS.  MY job everyday is to help Veterans.  I am a female combat Veteran myself (Desert Storm), so this is my passion and who I am.  I had reached out to the Lindens to ask them to put me on the destination guide and the itty-bitty land I had.

"Madori Linden reached out to me and asked me to have a meeting with her, and she is very passionate about Veterans, and suggested this sim, as a non--profit.  The non-profit I am President of in real-life is EchoVets.org Band of Brothers.  I got our EIN (the letter of proof from the IRS that the organization is a legitimate and registered Non-profit 501 3C) from our President to show off to Linden Labs of our legitimacy as a non-profit, the President wrote them a letter approving me to work on behalf of our group, I was given the price for a non-profit sim, and here we are.  Idea in full and now a reality. so to speak. Ha!"

Stacy went on, "There is a kiosk near the gigantic photo album that tells you about our real-life organization.  Also behind me is the kiosk of my military story, I remain transparent for trust purposes, as many Veterans in SL (including myself) have had their trust broken by others, and I refuse to be that person to them as I am here to help everyone. ... With Veterans, we have trust issues to begin with especially after combat or MST, so Second Life can be a very rough place at time when not everyone is honest.  However its also very healing on the other end of the spectrum as for many of our Veterans this is the only socialization they get."

Of the sim, getting a wide-shot of the whole place took a little time so things could rezz, but it was soon done. She stated she "wanted it to be a nice place, not only for education but to hang out as well." She did note one corner didn't have much on it for the time being, "and as you can see, one small area I'm waiting for items for to finish."

I pointed out the large building near us, which was close to the landmark location I was given. Stacy smiled, "This is the grand hall. Inside we will hold classes, Q & A's, Suicidal Awareness training for Veterans and people who work with Vets, PTSD classes, and a plethora of other things to aide in helping our Veterans AND their families and friends. (We will) have guest speakers, some from the VA, the President of the organiztion will come, and other guest speakers."

She pointed out the kiosks around the area, "Each of these kiosks out here have notecard information in them, we will actually have classes on each of them as well, with room for Q & A, etc."

At one point, Stacy had to take a break in the interview to take a phone call. She came back, and I brought up other places on the sim. "A club too, some small homes," she told me, "all of it to make it feel comfortable and a fun place to hang out/ We will do some club type events etc as well, but definitely not our focus. Our focus is socialization, education and helping one another."

I noticed a Vet Center. "Yes it is the main center," she told me, "set up as a familiar place to Veterans, and for future of what is to come, possible one on one counseling from our employees and simply being available in either world." She pointed out other places, "There is also a very large soldiers memorial fountain. I tried to have nice spots throughout to see and check out." Of the one corner that didn't have so much, "The last open spot net to the fountain will have some military vehicles displayed ... prior to the grand opening, just waiting for delivery."

I asked if anything inspired the particular designs of some of the places on the sim. Stacy answered, "When I found the hall it reminded me of the large place we would have our military training in, in Europe. So I had to have it and decided that would be used for the classes.  I wanted the Vet Center building to be professional yet welcoming as the Vet Center is in real-life and found that building it was perfect, the rest honestly no. I wanted memorial to my fallen brothers and sisters, hence the fountains. 

 

"Small items will be added here and there, but for the most part, the rest of the design was just what was in my head and what I know Veterans will want as a place to come and hang out. ... that is all that matters, and of course, breaking down some walls and making my brothers and sisters get off their butts and come socialize, and come seek help even if they don't know they need it."

Near the end, Stacy would say, "We all have two most important days of our lives.  One is the day we are born, and second is the day we figure out why. This is my why. I had REASONS to not take my own life, my children needed me, etc, but I had never found my WHY.  EchoVets.org Band of Brothers is my why, having the 'six' of my brothers and sisters and helping them thru their journeys so no Veteran ever has to be in a dark place again." She thanked me for taking the time to ask about the sim and reporting on it.

On a final note, while Stacy and I were talking, one of the Vet Centers counselors came by and noticed the computer screen. Seeing what was going on, she asked if "Fox News' had arrived.

The sim is located at: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EchoVets%20BandofBrothers/166/212/23

Bixyl Shuftan

Interview With Australia Sim Owner Whelan Ferraris

Last month on May 25th, it was announced that the Australia sim would be closing. The decision was made by its owner, Whelan Ferraris. When I dropped by the sim that day, he was there and greeted me with a polite, "G'day." Asking him about the sim closing, he explained money was part of the reason, having spent 12,000 Australian dollars. He handed me a copy of the statement he made for the sim's group.

 Well folks, I hope you have enjoyed the little that we've been able to offer at Dingo Bay, it has been a pleasure to put it all together and make a little slice of 'Australian' fun available for friends to meet and relax. You may or may not be aware that another six Australian or Aus-related sims have ceased in the last month. Sadly, we must follow that path. Gem and I have enjoyed seven years in SL and the last couple of years have been part of a dream to keep Australian presence in SecondLife. We have viewed this sim set as an iconic representation of real life Australia and have continued to extend an ambassadorial face to the rest of the world. Unfortunately the private purse is now empty and our desire to have these sims at least meet us halfway has not come through. After tonight, Australia and Dingo Bay will dissolve. Gem, Whelan and Raven extend our wishes of continued health and good humour to yourselves, friends and family.

He explained to me he was presently busy explaining the bad news to people, and would be available later for an interview. So later on, we met again. This time, the once filled sim was now close to empty, with Whelan sitting on a chair on a beach. "Still taking down things?" I asked him. "All done," he answered, "its pretty desolate with exception of couple of locals putting structures up. I'll need to revoke rights soon and clear it up." He then expressed his willingness to talk more, and passed me a chair.

"Did you know I also ran a newspaper?" Whelan asked me. I told him I hadn't, and he went on, saying it was an Australian-centered Second Life publication, and passed me a copy, "Was in its sixth year this year, unfortunately several of my advertisers went down too, otherwise would have a new issue right now. I'm an old hand at this, in real-life I had my own urban/rural weekly for 17 years on the fringe of Melbourne in Victoria." "Sounds like you have quite a bit of experience with print media," I told him, "what did these two papers generally cover?" "Fairly typical of most suburban or small community weeklies, faces and places, local government activity, local sporting etc etc. I am a printer by trade with extensive experience in advanced print technology (although that aspect has changed so much) and several years in management of all areas of print and publishing. I sold out back about 1999 then went back to the trade operating and supervising a small factory near where I live. (I) Retired about 18 months ago."

"How did you find out about Second Life?" I asked.

Whelan answered, "My internet service provider was BigPond, a trading name of Australia's major telcom, Telstra. They were advertising low cost entry into this SecondLife realm and that caught my interest. Like many other Australians at the time we took the bait and arrived by the truckload! (laughing out loud)"

"Heh heh, how did your first days go?" I asked.

Whelan Ferraris told me, "I was like a kid in a candy shop. Like everybody else, had to try everything. Of course most of us reverted to our teen years and performed as though we were bullet proof. Its been a fascinating trip, so much one can learn and if keen enough can keep on learning in Second Life. Of course, like everyone else, went through a period of maturing. We wre pretty brash and got away with so many things one would not consider in real life. But I guess the same applies now too, Most of we older SLers frown on the antics of the newbies."

"When did you first hear about this sim?" I asked.

Whelan answered, "It came to my notice just a couple of months before 'The Pond' went down. The Pond was the simset established by Telstra's BigPond I mentioned before and was the gateway through which many of us early arrivals entered. I arrived March 2007, The Pond was abandoned by BigPond in November 2009. So I came to Australia and built a large house on one of the three sims that comprised the set, Top End."

"There were three here then?" I asked

Whelan nodded, "I shifted around a bit after that, had probably four or five other locations before returning to Australia for good. I leased the Top Dingo sim and shifted it from the Eastern to West side of Australia and renamed it Dingo Bay. Was about 12 months later I bought Australia from Pants and Mahala. So its about 3 years now since I came back here permanently."

"Where they having trouble keeping it up?" I asked.

Whelan Ferraris answered, "Pants and Mahala were very attached to their 'baby' so to speak, but their creative talents won them a lot of sim development work, particularly for tertiary educators. This took them away from the sims quite a lot but it was a need they had to fulfill after all, this was earning more reward than the sims."
 
"Were there many changes here after you began running the sims?" I asked him.

"Considerable change," Whelan answered, "I went about systematically replacing many of the old 10m x 10m prims and reducing prim count thus enabling me to become very familiar with the layout and everwatchfull for ways to 'value add'. in the long run I had doubled the commercial floor space and added more small features as one would expect a developing city to go. The Opera House became more effective as a potential entertainment centre. In the Northern end I developed a large auditorium capable of seating 200 avs."

"What was it's biggest event?" I asked.

"It never really got to do anything," Whelan explained, "we had appointed Sammy (Fairlady) Diaggio as our Entertainment Manager and she had her plans for bringing us up to disco style entertainment six days a week and a monthly live event in the town square or up on the Uluru platform. The largest events brought in consistent 40 to 60 avs through the duration of performance. We just fell victim to diminishing crowds and also ran out of time and money. Didn't get a chance to use all the development."

"What were some of the more memorable events here?" I asked him.

"Australia Day was good," Whelan answered, "couple of charity events, always when live entertainment was in the offing, we could attract fair crowds. We were getting used to all the small detail one had to attend to, we still had a little to learn but we could see the possibilities. Better operators than us have gone down so not too ashamed of our efforts."

I then asked, "What was the most hilarious thing that happened here, either deliberate or accidental?"

Whelan chuckled, "Crikey! There are many! One never tires of the spontaneous mirth emitting from many of the regulars. Some have been critical of the ribaldry to be found in much of the Aussie humour but thats all part of the atmosphere. One can get a bit too tight over people being coarse in conversation but really, what does it matter when it brings a good belly chuckle?"

"Heh, true."

"I get a bit cranky when some of the guys are making over the top sexual remarks or derogatory comments to the girls, there's no need for that! We are all made equal and when a guy believes his appendage proves him superior, I have a tendency to reach for the ban/eject button. I have banned a few, but it has been following a warning generally. However, if somebody was blatantly disgusting or abusive, there was little or no warning, I believe there is give and take but if you cannot act decently among others you are anti-social, thats psychotic behaviour in my book for we are social animals in the highest order."

My next question, "About the sim closing, was there anyone coming forward to keep them going?"

Whelan had this answer, "I didn't give too much warning, I think I had proven beyond doubt the current climate is impractical to run sims of that nature on a small loss or break-even basis. I also didn't want Aussies who had already gone through a doubtful period before I took over to be placed in that situation again whilst I was paying for it. I could not afford the time.  It was a strictly commercial decision and such decisions are acted without fear or favour."

"Mind you though, I'm bleeding over it now after making so many good friends and putting so much work into the sims, I really enjoyed it."

"Yes," I told him, "I've seen people talking about the sim, pictures on Facebook, there was even a video of the sim that was done as a tribute."

Whelan rsponded, "Yes, a nice bit of footage by a well known Aussie Mudslinger Ning, that guy had his heart in Australia too!"

"So you feel the sim will live on in peoples' memories for years to come?" I asked.

Whelan answered, "Yes, particularly among the Australians, like me, many of us regarded the sim set as the closest iconic representation of our homeland and we felt our role as ambassadors for RL Australia. We are a diverse nation like the USA, built on the talents and aspirations of people from many other origins but united under one flag."

"So now what are your plans for the future?" I asked him.

"At this point, my real life needs some concentration," he told me, "I have exhausted considerable real life savings on the SL venture so I must realign. I have also real life commitments this coming year as my membership of Rotary organisation has me taking Presidency of my local club and there are considerable challenges ahead."
 
"I can't see me coming back to re-establish Australia again in Second Life. However, I may consider doing the same again on another grid but that is a dream that may not be fulfilled, few of us can predict the future. SecondLife still holds so much of me. I will keep a presence but to what extent is yet to be seen."

I nodded, "Was there anything else that you thought should be mentioned?"

Whelan spoke once more, "I would extend my thanks to all who's path I have crossed or who have crossed mine, this has been a unique experience that has not flagged since I arrived in 2007. As everyone knows, inhibitions are lifted, restraints are cast aside and the real personality is freed. It takes some time to get used to that but those who do go on to enjoy the company of some very precious souls. My thanks and good wishes to all of you."

It was about this time we bade each other goodbye, and we went our separate ways.

 Bixyl Shuftan

More on the Mos Espa "Star Wars" Sim Closing

Last week on Nov 26, it was reported that the Mos Espa sim, a location for roleplaying by several "Star Wars" groups, would be closing down in two days. Daniel Voyager wrote that the sim owner stated the reasons were "due to real life and Second Life issues."

Mos Espa in the "Star Wars" movies was a small city on the desert world of Tatooine, where the young Anakan Skywalker lived in "The Phantom Menace" (In "A New Hope," Luke Skywalker and  Obi-Wan Kenobi get off the planet through Mos Eisley). A notecard from the sim described the town in it's RP with the following: "Mos Espa is only one town on Tatooine, it is known to be a dangerous place under control of multiple Hutt Clans. With one of the most harsh environments for a planet, the sun is burning hot. Temperatures are high and storms blow up with winds of sand ripping through the town slowly eroding all in is way. Residents of the town are often seen in basic style robes and hoods to protect themselves from the sand storms and sun."

The role-play is described as taking place long after the events in the movies. Under the rules, the Nasiri Clan was the only one open to players, the rest being represented by NPCs in plots. Among the groups in the sim were the Nasirii Hutt Clan, the Nasirii Enforcers (guards and security), Nasirii Entertainment (dancers and staff), and Nasirii Hutt Clan Contracts (smugglers and freelance traders).

Going through the sim, there were a number of buildings around the place, some more detailed than others. In one corner was a Jawa sand trawler with a few banthas (beast of burden and meat source). One building I came across was a bar, the "Last Shot Cantina." The Star Wars Roleplay Wiki describes the place as having had different people employed as managers, but all having failed to make enough money to please its Hutt owners. Looking around the place, there was a working music player. Two special events the notecard described the role-play as having time to time were Pod Races, and "Miss Galaxy" beauty contests. As for how to end the RP, Daniel Voyager wrote that the last act had, "The role-play will be about a Sith betrayal in the city and the destruction of Mos Espa."


One resident whom built much of the place was Glitch Tennant. Second Life Newser contacted him about the closing, and he responded, "I helped to build the sim. I got to play a bit, and be part of some good fun races. I was lucky to be asked to help build Mos Espa, and jumped at the chance. Really thanks goes to Wittsofwanda Zapatero, it was her sim she paid the bills and gave us all place to play."

"It's a shame to see the sim go, although thats part of Star Wars Roleplay. Players will continue on in story, and find other places to make home. I wish 'em all well, and it was a joy to see some of the stories made on Mos Espa. The players bring the life to any sim, and that's just magic. Happy RP to all."


Sources: Daniel Voyager, SWRP Wiki

Bixyl Shuftan

Dahlia's Second Life Adventures

One thing about Dahlia Jayaram, she loves Second Life Adventures. Should you choose to interview her you will be doing it from a hot air balloon.

Dahlia completed the tour of the Blake Sea and Island communities in January and February. It's her favorite location because of the beauty of the sims she passes. She flew us past one of the bigger airports in SL. I leaned over carefully, not afraid of heights, just sim crossings.

"My first adventure was the Great Sailing Adventure in late 2009. It went from August to October of that year," she said while we hovered over Hollywood Airport. "I sailed from the southeastern most aspect of the Blake Sea and Island Communities around all the connected continents. I sailed everyday for six weeks."

Dahlia navigated the hot air balloon south toward Fort Sumpter stating that this was a very active travel area and that the Blake Sea was created for this reason. She began her balloon adventure in Jan. 2010 after finishing the sailing adventure in Oct. 2009.

As we fly over a popular pirate hide-out she jokes about the cannons facing toward the sea and that the pirates never thought about an attack by air. She navigates the balloon NW at speed 5 and tells me that like her sailing adventure, she'll write an Second Life book that covers it all while she continues her exploration on with the seventh continent of Corsica. She's written seven adventure books already.

"Have you ever seen the 3-sim long sailing boat, the SS Galaxy," she asks me, while directing the balloon southeast. "There are wedding chapels, exercise rooms, ballrooms, rental cabins, retail, helliports and I can go on."

Dahlia informed me that others have been inspired to have similar adventures. She considers that a great compliment and is happy that she's encouraged others to open their eyes to see beyond their usual boundaries.

Dahlia notices storm clouds and lightning ahead. She cautiously changes her hot air balloon's speed.

She tells me that after her sailing adventure, she wanted to find a way to include all of Second Life's regions that the sailing one could not. This is because not all continents are connected by a common body of water.

We hear the thunder as we enter the Temasek sim and we're hovering over the SS Galaxy again. A few sim crossings force me into the sea and we seek a more secure area to continue our conversation.

"The balloon adventure began Jan. 1, 2010," she begins to explain. "Because the Great Sailing Adventure could only include five of the 11 continents, I wanted to find a way to explore them all. Air seemed the next interesting way for me. I wanted to know more about the development of SL, so I wanted to start at the very oldest/first sim ever made and then fly to each continent in the order of their creation."

She considered it would make a natural progression. While she was still in the middle of one of the continents, a new one was created. It was established for new residents who wanted a free house and was named Nescera.

She anticipates her balloon adventure will be completed by the end of 2012. She has six more continents to explore.

What's next? Maybe a long distance swim. She's not sure.

Netera Landar