A Look At A Linden Houseboat

By Gemma Cleanslate

I thought I would bring you up date on my new Linden Houseboat.  Finally I was able to acquire one on the last release day. It was hard work as many hundreds who did not make it will attest. I actually brought my laptop to work to check on the release. There are many left waiting again so I consider myself so lucky!

I love the location too!! It is in the far northeast corner of ... right next to a spit that is unoccupied. It is next to ... beach . To the west of my boat is the bay. It is almost like a private island!!  I can hope over to the spit and take my horse for a ride all over the peninsula and check out the decor of the other decks.

I started with one model and was decorating a friend came to visit. We talked about the model and the sloping back wall. After going over and checking out his model I thought about it and decided to change. There is a lifesaver on the dock next to each house that gives one the option of 4 models. Just press and voila! Of course I had to move and reinstall all my furniture but I managed it.

With the prim allowance I have two boats in my boat slip. I rezzed some things I really like but don’t have room for at my other home in Thorstar. I found an SL14B kittycat in my inventory and rezzed her too!!  I had a few issues with finding her swimming under water when she was tiny but now that she is over 5 days and larger she seems to be stabilizing on the floor of the houseboat. My other kitty , Puffin, won’t be jealous since she lives at Thorstar.  I still have some prims to play with  when i can look at all the decor I have saved .

I know that the Moles are overburdened right now with the SL16B and  getting more Linden Homes ready for those panting for them.  Ihear that there is also a new model of Linden Home to be introduced at the SL16B Have faith and maybe some patience! It is worth the wait! The community is forming groups for various activities I must check into. My home is called Peace.  If you would like to visit let me know.

Gemma Cleanslate

Furry Fashion's Halloween Area

By Bixyl Shuftan

Furry Fashion is going all-out for Halloween. Besides being part of the "Quest Fur Cover" shopping hunt, they also have a special Halloween area above the sim. Besides the frightfully fun scenery, it also offers a Halloween Hunt with thirty items to find.

I had a few words with the owner of Furry Fashion, Amethysia (Amethyst Crystal), about their display. She told me, "Albright and I are both pagan and adore Halloween, witchcraft, etc. And we went to the occult shopping event a few months back and got the idea from buying way too much there, heh. Then she managed to get hold of a rare DRD mansion from a gacha that was just perfect as a witch house. And we just built around the house using it as the centrepiece. Over the years we've done everything fr a sim wide maze to a zombie game map to a asylum so we wanted something we hadn't done before. It's getting quite difficult to come up with new ideas after so many years.

"There's not only the witch house, but a skeleton basement (decorated by Klomonx), and a graveyard and a maze hidden under the basement. The hunt objects are red balloons - inspiration taken from the new "It" movie and encouragement from FF Admin I might add. And as usual QFC and Sim Merchants got offered free shops too for displaying their Halloween/fall products on top of the hunt. We'll be having a full weekend of Halloween parties in the Halloween area for the final October weekend."

Asking about the influence of the movie "It," Amethyst told me, "Yeah, 'It' is the new remake of the Stephen King movie. (I'm) not a clown fan myself, but several of the staff got hyped about it and when the suggestion of balloons was made for the hunt item, I was encouraged to use it, heh."

So what was the feedback from those who braved the area? "Most enjoy it," Amethyst answered, "Some say it's too scary, especially with windlight, heh. I plan to add extra prizes towards the end of the month as we get closer to Halloween too. Security have been doing shifts up there to make sure cheaters don't win. They've got to dress up in  Halloween avatars and outfits, and I think enjoy it." I asked what kind of Halloween avatars, and she pointed to the small avatar near me, "Rick behind you has been making Halloween stuff too. That's a mod he made that he's wearing right now. It's a Halloween pup version of the Crux. Rick's one of my staff leads." The pup's ears showed a definite Crux style, but the modded avatar was less strange and more cute in appearance, "He might even get me to wear it," Amethyst told me with a smile.

Amethyst reminded me as a business, Furry Fashion had multiple openings for jobs, "I've been pretty busy anyway. We're open for every position right now, and all staff are pitching in (smile). (It) always gets this way for Halloween. It's our favorite time of the year. I'll do a Xmas thing as expected, but Halloween is everything for me." Amethyst stated she wouldn't play Christmas music until well into December, "I was in catering, in a hotel kitchen, the same Xmas CD on repeat Oct to Jan., 7AM to Midnight every day..." One of Amethyst's staff spoke up, and that led to a conversation on the subject that lasted a few minutes.

Finally someone came over inquiring about where to find the Halloween area. Amethyst mentioned of the people doing the Halloween hunt, "we've had over 500 hunters so far." She offered to show me the place. Looking around, what I noticed the most was the darkness and fog, which gave the place an erie spooky air. There were various stalls, made to look like old buildings, where various merchants had their goods, outfits, avatar mods, and other goods.

There was also the witch house, which had a few cats and a "broom parking" area on the outside, in addition to a spooky cemetery next to it. One could open the door and to inside, looking among the rooms. Some rooms were stranger than others, one room full of books, another with ingredients, another with scrolls. Underneath was the cellar, which had a few skeletons and the entrance to the maze. I had my headphones on, and could hear various barks in the distance, screams, cries for help, and near the witch house cats meowing.

In places were various tombstones of the Furry Fashion staff. The first I noticed was Amethyst's: "I told you I was sick." I asked her about it, "Yeah, I let all staff pick their own graves, heh." She pointed to the one for Minty Melody: "Rainbow Overdose." Amethyst explained, "Minty is a unicorn in SL and rainbow addicted." She showed me a few others, which included, "should have gotten decaf." Amethyst grined, "I take no blame for the sayings, they all picked their own." She did say they tried to be fairly PG about their epitaths. Other than that, they all had a free hand with them.

Remember, there are 30 red balloons around the Halloween area to find, each with a free item. Looking around I found a number in less than a half hour. While many are just for women, some can be used by the guys. So visitors get some treats along with the tricks.

To get to the Halloween area, head to http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Furry/217/197/3501.

Happy Halloween from Furry Fashion,

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

Virginia Alone

Earlier this summer, Bryn Oh had a new art exhibition at her Immersiva sim, "Virginia Alone," which is about a lady, Virginia Blakely, her house, and how she coped with a mental illness she tried to understand.

I went to the sim. At the entry point, there were a few signs, including one describing her exhibit. I found a path marked by posts, and began walking down it, soon seeing telephone poles and birds. I then saw a figure nearby, wearing a rabbit mask with a hole cut over one eye and cheek. It was Bryn Oh. She greeted me, "Just building a tree. (smile)" Talking about the house, "The only thing to know is to click the cassette tapes inside the house, and letters. It is the story of a lady I know in real life, who has schizophrenia, and is blind. It is a recreation of her home." She mentioned the sky would change for those using Firestorm, but in my Cool LV, I could see clouds moving.

I asked how she met the lady. Bryn answered, "I met her estranged daughter, and through her discovered Virginia. So I asked to meet her. … She knows she has issues, but she is not aware they are called Schizophrenia. For example, she says in one tape that she discovered her mouth open and saying some words. So she wrote down what she was saying, and tried to figure out why she would say those things and what made her do it. She is quite rational, rational in dealing with the irrational. … She is someone who lived alone, away from society, and fought against an illness that she refused to let overcome her."

The area has some subtle sounds of being in the countryside. Getting close to a tree with some plastic bags stuck in it, one can here them rustling in the wing. I also came across a couple visitors whom were just leaving after taking a look inside, a reminder Bryn's exhibit is still getting traffic. The building itself had a look of age, made of unpainted, fading, wooden planks. The first room one steps in is the one Virginia had been spending almost all her time in. She was nearly blind from cataracts. There are cupboards, a sink, and a representation of Virginia sitting in a chair listening to the radio. And in a corner are some of the items she collected over time.

The rest of the house, Virginia seldom ventured to. There is a basement, which with it's flooded floor and network of pipes is artistic creativity on Bryn's part. And there are other rooms, with boxes and bags, and 20 year old cobwebs. Some of the boxes are clickable, as Bryn described, leading to pictures, or links to recordings on Youtube. Stairs lead to a few more rooms. One had a music box, when clicked, was about Bryn Oh's "Rabbicorn."

  Sits forlorn
  The Rabbicorn
  A robot gift
  Set adrift
  In settled dust
  With spots of rust
  A once treasured toy
  Of a boy

The house is just one corner of the island on Immersiva. I spotted a couple round structures in the water that I couldn't identify. I also saw what looked like a frolicking fox, frozen in time. At the entrance is a teleport to a store area, an unearthly white region with a number of small exhibits up for sale, and at least one not so small.

I asked Bryn if Virginia knows anything of what she made here. "Oh yes, she is very excited about it. I went to visit her a few weeks ago to update her on the amount of people who have come to see it. And to give her messages from guests who wanted me to relay things to her. She was touched. There have been around 12,000 to see this (exhibit) so far. … The most impressive thing to me, that people from around the world who have completely different cultures or environments in which they live can look at this house and landscape, look at the life of a Canadian woman and associate, even though so little overlaps between them."



"Virginia Alone" is at Immersiva (21, 127, 21) One can read more at Bryn Oh's blog post here, and a little more at her "Piano" post.

Bixyl Shuftan