Feral Furry Theater Returns to Sunweaver Space

By Bixyl Shuftan

In the past, one of the weekly events in the Sunweaver community was the showing of movies by Shockwave Yareach at the Feral Furry Theater. Originally a screen on a skybox with a few chairs, it was later made into a place that resembled a real-life movie theater, thanks to Felina Fermi. But over a year ago, a viewer update "broke" this and presumably other movie screens. So the theater was closed.

But on Sunday January 6, Shockwave had an announcement in Sunweaver chat, "As it is now a new year, it's time for the return of an old tradition.... We *now have movies again!*" The Feral Theater was now open again. Dropping over, I asked him if the theater was truly back in business. "Yes indeed!" he answered, "New servers, new streaming solution, took a while to solve."

"What's the max number that can see?" Shockwave went on, "I have NO idea. 100M to the backbone.  Dual 3Ghz server. I can probably host a *lot.* So now we have movies again! And Spry.com can kiss my left one!" The wolf growled, "They cancelled me when they saw I had videos on board. Didn't bother to see they were 1/4 size, etc. So I have a new host. It's deliberate.  Can't pump the raw data here -- nobody would have the bandwidth.  So it's transcoded to 300kbps video, 96kbps audio. Fine for SL ... of course, everyone still has to have their media turned on in the viewers."

"I should update the movie posters out there," commented Felina Fermi, who was there. Someone else asked, "So Life Of Brian for Easter again?" "Yep!" Shockwave grinned, "Gotta get those traditions going again!" It was observed Rita Mariner wasn't there yet. Shockwave responded, "I've messaged Rita's phone to tell her." Of the theater entrance, someone had rezzed a number of chairs in front of the concession stand. Shockwave joked that was just one of the problems, " I know the popcorn is stale.  The theater's been closed over a year."

The movie shown was a recent release that was not a particularly big box-office draw. Shockwave commented he originally thought it would be mediocre, but he liked it.

The videogames in the front lobby no longer work, at least for my viewer. But the theater does have points of interest besides the main event. The projection room is accessible, and has a good amount of detail. The bathrooms however were always occupied. Of the seating in the theater, people have the choice of sitting in theater seats to watch the movie, or mats for couples.

The Feral Furry Theater will have events every Sunday at 6 PM SL time, baring complications. Upon hearing of the theater's opening, the Sunweaver venue that had been doing Sunday evening events, the Happy Vixen, rescheduled to 3 to 6 PM SL time.

Sunweaver Space (243,192,451)

Bixyl Shuftan

Felina Fermi's House

By Deaflegacy

Felina Fermi's house is as beautiful as Felina is as I was shown to her house in Sunweaver Space.  Bixyl Shuftan joined us on the tour.  He was welcomed.  Bixyl wrote about her place several years ago. Since then, she had moved her house to the Sunweavers community, where she had continued to make changes to it.

Felina showed us Panth's memorial before continuing on the tour.  It is a beautiful memorial. Felina and Panth met in MMO before they came to Second Life.  It is the memorial Felina made for Panth a few months after Panth passed away.  Before I continued on the tour, I looked at the memorial.  I don't think I'd ever forget it.

Felina pointed out that there are cats everywhere at her place.  As I checked her house out, there were cats walking by, cats running around, cats sitting down, and cats sleeping.  They are beautiful animals.  I am rather fond of cats as I used to have a few while I was growing up.  The cats, I believe, add to the beauty of Felina's house.  The house didn't even lag me out as I went on the tour.

Felina showed us the living room.  It has a big screen TV that takes up most of the wall.

"The place was really built to reflect US.... we loved cuddling and we were gamers so..."  said Felina.  She does not need to say any more.  However, she said that Panth loved to cook so she made the Kitchen in view of their computer room. In the living room, there is a beautiful Christmas tree 

"I try to cover all the bases; Living Room, Dining Room, Kitchen, Game Room, Bedroom and Bathroom." said Felina.

Felina's bathroom has a working shower.  This is remarkable.  There is something else to the room as well, which would be the washer and the dryer. I can see what Felina meant by warm and rustic.

Felina didn't change the house much after she lost Panth.  I sent her my condolences.  Felina went on to say that she built the house when Panth was still alive. 

"I valued his opinions." said Felina  "Something he didn't like, I would change it."

Felina recommended getting the furniture from Pamelas Store.  She's good friends with Pamela.

She went on to explain that the choice of textures is the real big part in building a house.  Felina is right as I was building a house myself.

Felina did create a really good house with a memorial in it.  I don't think I'd ever forget the house nor the memorial.  It is to be remembered always.


Deaflegacy

Club Cutlass

By Grease Coakes

One of SL’s oldest clubs is a steampunk/pirate inspired club. It’s been around for six years which is a long time for anything in real life or Second Life. Club cutlass may not be popular like IYC or SGB but it’s a long time staple of the Sunweavers. One day when I was djing Jenni Greenfield the longtime manager of Club Cutlass was a nice enough lady to tell me about her club. The Sunweavers are a group of furries that been around SL for a while headed by Rita Mariner who’s usually a bunny.


The Landmark takes you to a floating pirate base with a skull and cross bones dancing floor. In fact to dance you click on the dance floor and your avatar starts dancing in a complex series of dances. Not your average click a ball and pick a single dance ball, but instead a full set of dances to animate your character. Jenni says the club has been through many changes for six years. The newest design is simple and detailed for pirates and party goers of all ages.

One of the djs of Club Cutlass, Cynthia Farshore, likes to play rock music from old to new. Other clubs that came to mind were Dusk Griswold, Akea Grommet, and Shockwave Yareach. (No not the transformer the furry wolf named Shockwave).


Jenni said one of the cool things about Club Cutlass is how there’s little or no drama. One of the plaques I saw was “Drama Llamas will be and shot and mounted (not necessarily in that order).” Every week there’s three events as Jenni ask for DJs to fill those events. Each event has a contest for men and women to win a Linden prize of 200 or so. For example going through the alphabet one event was best in anything U. Lots of furries come to that event in their underwear and or an umbrella. Better ask quickly if you want to dj for one of these three events the slots fill up fast. I procrastinated one time and the next day the slots were all filled already.

I asked Jenni what she liked most about Club Cutlass and here’s what she had to say.

Jenni Greenfield: That we've lasted so long, while I've seen many clubs die after a few months.

That’s certainly true, I agreed. Not all clubs and hang outs stand the test of time.

Jenni said she loves Halloween events around Club Cutlass. I told her in real life that I have a velvet cloak so I never have to buy a Halloween costume anymore. She said something similar

Jenni Greenfield: "I have a black cloak with celtic markings!"

She also admitted to being a puppeteer for a long time like Dusk Griswold. I wrote an article about Dusk and her puppets in the SL Newser. Jenni says she has been puppeting since 2002, but hasn’t been practicing as much as her friend Dusk.


Jenni’s Club cutlass is certainly a neat club to hang out at. The music styles of the DJs are easy going and the conversation is laid back. Usually the DJs are good about music requests just ask and you shall receive. If you want a good place to relax and be a pirate Club cutlass is the place for you.

Club Cutlass is at Sunweaver Space (245, 88, 123), with parties on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 6 to 8PM SL time.

Grease Coakes

Shockwave Yareach’s Valentine Maze

By DrFran Babcock

 Do you know Shockwave Yareach, or Shocky, as his friends call him? Recently, he became the object of some controversy when his suggestion for fixing problems with SL land ownership were highlighted by Hamlet Au, and tons of comments ensued. (http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2013/01/second-life-land-solution.html ) This hunky wolf has been in Second Life for many years, and has become renowned for his scripting skills and diabolical mazes. I can understand confounding everyone on Halloween, but Shocky doesn’t even let up for Valentine’s Day. I was informed that the maze was up the other night, and figured I would go take a look.

First things first, I am not a gamer. My skills at Second Life took ages to evolve, and the thought of a maze—even one with such a loving theme—filled me with fear. I was not disappointed, nor will you be, if you take a trip to Shocky’s Valentine Maze at: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sunweaver%20Space/191/136/61

When you land at the teleport point you will be greeted by a riot of red roses, that make up the walls of the maze. Spend some time inside and you will become completely disoriented, as the walls pass around you, red and seemingly unending. However, the first thing you need to do is grab a HUD from the box to the left of the entrance. After you apply that to your screen display you will note that is ready to be filled with gems that represent the qualities of love: Strenth, Adoration, Faith, Wisdom, Respect, Patience, and Dedication. Aaaah, but how does one find these gems? Of course, the answer to that lies within the maze, and the wicked candy hearts that are traveling along through the maze, each heart corresponding to a colored gem. The goal is to find all seven hearts and touch them as you do. This will light up the gem on your HUD. One of the sophisticated features provided by our fearless furry is that the gems stay on the HUD, even if you log or teleport elsewhere. This means that you can finish the maze in more than one visit without any penalty. Sounds easy? Well, Shocky says: “Love sounds easy, too. at first (grin)."

This is such a perfect activity for couples. Run through the maze, search for hearts, and discuss the qualities of love, as identified by Shockwave. There are no prizes beyond the joy of completing the gems on the HUD, but who cares. Love is the greatest gift.
I caught up with Shocky as I was putting the finishing touches on this article and we spoke about his mazes and his love for Second Life. I had forgotten the famous Easter Maze in which you had to shoot the Alien Eggs before they killed you. Shockwave plans to run that again this Easter. “It’s a good excuse to shoot up the place with your favorite gun,” he adds.

I asked him what he liked about Second Life, and he replied: “Second Life is to me a graphical version of a Muck— a user created world where you can do anything, be anything, and push away all the limitations of distance. (http://en.wikifur.com/wiki/MUCK ) “My friends and my group keep me here.  I love these loons and I enjoy building fun stuff.  I build in Real Life, too, so the LEGO aspect is just as important to me as the socialization.  But honestly, it's my friends that keep me here.”

The geeks amongst you will understand this next part, even though I don’t. Shocky’s mazes are computer generated, and when he had a full sim to work with: “My gear can make a maze that covers an entire sim. You put a prim down at the Southeast corner of the sim, drop in a text file, and it rezzes the walls as needed. I could change it hourly if I wanted.  It's very fast.”

Thanks, Shocky, for your genius, and for what I know of you as a gentleman wolf and fine builder and scripter. Go visit the maze, and maybe you will be lucky enough to run into Shocky. Say hello for me!

DrFran Babcock