Interview With Emorald of Montecito Bay

By Bixyl Shuftan

Among the people whom make the sim and community of Montecito Bay run, Emorald Resident is one of them. Often mentioned in the same sentence as her partner Lem Aiko (LemonPledge) as "Lem and Em," she has been around since the start of the place. Recently, we met up at the sim's Magnum Opus and I had a few questions for her.

When we found a place to sit down, we attracted some attention from a few others nearby, including Emorald. When he was told what was going on, he chuckled a little, "It's kinda funny. Ya get an interview with one of us, and you get all of us at the same time. But we all family here." He smiled and let

When asked to describe what her role was here, Emorald answered, "Well, I am the head of Parks and Recreation (smile). Pretty much, I do the hiring of DJs and hosts." When asked how she found out about Second Life, she responded, "I had heard about it a few times. Never though much on it till .... oh .... I would say 2015. Then decided 'What the heck, might as well check it out.' And well, been on here ever since.

"It's a rather nice way to stretch my creative side," Emorald went on, "I was never a good painter or anything like that. But many people told me I have a decent eye for photography. So I have been using Second Life to take pics of the avatars I fix up." It didn't come about right away, "I had taken pictures in SL (early on) a few times and thought nothing of it. But I had shown some people what I took and some liked it. So as time went on, I began trying to get better at it. I do use photoshop to make them look a bit better (smile)."

Emorald does get other ways to stretch her creativity, "Little bits of role playing when I get a chance, but mostly in photography. Getting my AV pose just right, getting the perfect lighting, It's always fun (smile). I do a little building from time to timem but, nothing really amazing."

I went and asked Emorald just how early on did she hear about the planning of Montecito Bay. She answered, "I want to say I had heard Moff talking about doing it after he left Furry Fashion. He had always wanted to make something really nice. So Monticeto Bay came about. It's been through a few changes, and next year there is gonna be another change (smile)." I of course asked what the change was, but she just giggled, "Hehehe.... That my friend is kept under lock and key (smile). But I can say it should prove to be pretty awesome. Hopefully the upcoming change will bring about more and more people."

So what did she think was Montecito Bay's most noteworthy event? Emorald told me, "Oh man, the Alien Invasion was pretty crazy, and a lot of fun (smile). The NuYu that is coming up in December should prove to be a lot of fun as well. ... This entire month this sim has been busy setting up for (it). ... I really enjoy this place."

Emorald besides being in charge of hiring DJs does some DJing herself, "I do a bit of everything, to be honest. If I can find it, I will usually play it. I never try and stick to just one type of music. I enjoy pretty much everything. Today i did a Disco set (smile)." I asked which of Montecito Bay's several venues did she like the most. "Always did like Studio 86 and Envy Nightlife," she answered, "two of my faves, guess 'cause of the neon and such." She thought for a moment, "Really though Bix, I love ALL the clubs we have here a MB. I know this place here is Moff's baby (smiles)."

I went back to her earlier saying she liked taking pictures of avatars, and asked Emorald what inspired her particular avatar and outfit? She giggled, "Heheh, that is a story in itself. When i started Second Life, my first av was a dragon. I think I still have it set up, I forget. But as time went on, I just got more and more avatars 'till I ran across this otter av.

"This is technically one of Brae's old avs. But the more I worked with it, the more it spoke to me. It's been through a few changes. But this latest version has a bento head (smile). It used to have the old PAWS otter head, which *is* a nice head. But, I don't think it has the, expression, this head seems to have. With this head she looks more sophisticated, and, just as cute and sexy (smile). The head I have now is the Happy Paws Lionet head. I paid Brae to fix up the otter head texture to it, and I played around with the sliders 'till it looked right. The tattoos, I fixed them up to be on the skin and not just a layer on the Maitreya body."

So what are her future plans besides the NuYu and next year's "surprise?" Emorald answered, "To be honest I dunno yet. I just live life one day at a time. I do play on continuing to take pics in Second Life. Hopefully I can get more stuff to help me get better and better at it." The last thing she mentioned was the NuYu, "I hope to see a lot of people (there) ... gonna be several shows, plenty of vendors selling things, should be an awesome time (smile)."

It was about then we parted and went our seperate ways. For those looking for Emorald, she can usually be found at one of Montecito Bay's events, often with her partner Lem.

Bixyl Shuftan

SL10B Wrap-Up with KT Syakumi

By DrFran Babcock

I finally caught up with KT on the second to last day of SL10B, because she was so busy up until then. She was a blur the few times I saw her. Sure, I was able to corral Doc Gascoigne in the corn field, but KT was not only senior lead along with Doc, but oversaw a two sim stage build of The Reactor.  I was happy when she had the time to respond to my questions:

SLNewser: Well, now that SL10B is winding down, you have had a little time to reflect on the experience and this history-making event. What are your reflections? 

 KT Syakumi : Wow, reflections. Um, I’m reflecting on how nice it will be to start getting to bed at a reasonable hour. You’re in trouble when you start thinking of 2:00 am as an early night. I’m just glad that the general community enjoyed it. We started planning this in January, so it’s been a long road, but hearing the chatter in the group talking about their experiences at SL10B and over the last 10 years makes it worth it. It just feels like the whole SL community wanted to celebrate 10 years of SL.

SL Newser: What would you say was your greatest joy during SL10B? 

KT Syakumi: There were many. I worked by milestones. I have this huge spreadsheet programme thing with tasks and objectives to be completed and dates, etc. The first ‘joy’ milestone was when the sims were finally opened to the exhibitors to start building. These completely empty sims were suddenly transformed overnight. When I logged off the previous evening, the sims were bare and quiet. When I logged on in the morning, probably half the exhibitors had claimed their plots and started building. It was a ‘wow’ moment and was the point where I really knew that the event was going to work.

SL Newser: What was your greatest challenge during the event? 

KT Syakumi: Time-wise, the week after the applications closed was a killer.  There was only one week in between applications closing and the sims opening. I had 518 exhibit applications to process and to send out emails. Just the sheer number to get through meant no sleep for a week. The biggest overall challenge would have been managing and co-ordination of all the volunteers and exhibitors. Well over 1000 people were involved.  

SL Newser: Your amazing build, The Nuclear Reactor Stage, was the talk of SL10B. We would love to have a little peek into the creative process that went into it’s design and construction.  

KT Syakumi: Haha, yes I've heard some of the talk. To me, the SLB is not just about celebrating a birthday. Some people queried how a giant silo on a wasteland fit the birthday theme, and if you’re just having a birthday party, then it probably didn't. To me, the SLB is all about celebrating SL and the diversity in it. It’s about showcasing the best of SL and what it can do. And, it’s about celebrating the community of SL (it is the SL10B Community Celebration after all), and the variety inside SL. I realized before I started that it might not be everybody’s cup of tea, but it was important to me that all tastes and styles are represented. The Live stage and the Cake were designed to be the 'Looking Back' part - they were made using only prims and sculpts. And I think we all agree that they in no way suffered from that - they were both amazing. The DJ stage and the Lake stage were the 'looking forward'. They were requested to be full mesh builds, to showcase what can be done now with new building methods. I had the idea of a very game-like build, and you can see the influence of a few different videos games in it. It didn't end up anything like what was in my head at the start, and I completely ran out of time (thanks to Harlequin Rhode who helped me make textures when I sent her panicky IMs), but I think I got the overall feel fairly right.  

SL Newser: I think the lighting and the overall look of The Reactor was stunning. Anything else you want to share about SL10B? 

KT Syakumi : [Laughs] There’s not enough space! I’d like to thank all the staff I worked with—your dedication and ability to put up with me is astounding. I’d like to say a special thanks to the stage builders: Donpatchy on the Cake, Kazuhiro Aridian on the Lake, Toady and Flea on Live, who stepped in late and proceeded to just go beyond my wildest expectations, Aki Shichiroji who made the auditorium, and my unsung hero, Pygar Bu, who ran around making all the random stuff I thought of, as well as being responsible for the welcome area. It looked sparse, but he recreated it to look identical to the original 2003 welcome area completely from a few old photos - no easy feat. These people are the reason I wasn't reduced to a blubbering mess. Their ability and especially attitude made this event for me.

SL Newser: Pie or cheese?

KT Syakumi: Pie. I’m allergic to cheese. You wouldn't want to know me.

SL Newser: What would you like people out there to know about Second Life™? 

KT Syakumi:  Most new technologies seem to go through a few phases. They start off new and slow and build slowly till they hit a bubble and explode in growth. For Second Life™ I think that was 2006. Then, they become hyped and hyped and then over hyped, and suddenly people find that their experience doesn’t match the hype, and it starts fading. I think that is what happened to SL. The cool thing is that people then begin to discover exactly what is possible with the technology and they begin to understand it fully. I think SL is slowly headed into that as it evolves and grows. I’m hoping people will begin to see what SL is really capable of rather than what they’re told it is.

SL Newser: What’s next for you in Second Life™? What can the residents expect from you? 

KT Syakumi: I guess I'm fading back into obscurity again. I need to spend time on my business that I've neglected for the last 2 months - I also learnt a lot about mesh building from making the reactor and I want to put that into practice.

Fading into obscurity? I find that so hard to believe. Watch these pages, because I am sure one of us will be writing about KT soon enough.

DrFran Babcock