RFL Courage 2016: Null Aries' Designer Sim

By Bixyl Shuftan

The Relay for Life brings out many talented creators whom over the course of the season use their skills to create some very artistic and detailed builds. This is particularly the case for the Relay Weekend, in which not only the various camps show of what they can do, but also some artists whom get to work on special "designer sims," usually having a whole sim to work on. For this year's Relay Weekend, Null Aries got to work on the designer sim of RFL Courage.

With the theme being "Once Upon a Cure," I had adopted the look of a "dragonkin" fighter to look around the place that day.

RFL Courage was on the east side of the Relay Track, with the suggested direction of traffic going east then south.

Looking around on the right side of the tracks (right going clockwise on the course) was the "Lake of Despair." But where there is despair, there is also courage.

 Not far away was a small shopping area with a few wares.

The area had much detail in the scenery. I would check out things out in more detail later, but I had heard about a cavern I wanted to explore first.

On the left side of the track was a stairway leading up the hill to the "Trail of Tranquility."

 The trail itself is a peaceful one, a path through some woods.

 Next to the path was a hole, which led down to the "Cave of Unknowing."

 At the bottom of the entry ladder, things seemed a little slimy and sluggish.

The cave was very detailed, with features such as mushrooms and this fountain, fed by water coming from above.

 There were dark, misty, passageways between rooms.

 "Courage to be aware."

In the middle of this cavern of fungi, a monster lurks.

 And the monster has a name: cancer.

"Courage to find out."

 The monster can take different forms, and names.

 "Courage to fight."

Fighting cancer isn't easy, needing the right medicines and care.

It's a disease that can strike both the old, and young.

 "Courage to Triumph."

 What everyone fighting cancer thinks of is the victory, of finding out the monster is defeated.

 Support, Courage, Faith, Determination, all are needed to beat the monster.

"Courage to Endure," After the victory, it isn't necessarily easy going on.

 "Courage to Accept." One has been through a struggle.

It soon dawned on me the journey out of the caves looked just like going in.

In the aftermath. one looks back at the journey they went through, but one finds the "Courage to Survive."

And the caves end like they began. It probably was"U" shaped with two mirror ends, with the other sides of the passage signs with a different set of letters

"Immerse yourself in our fairytale quest. Locate a book. Then travel the Trail of Tranquility. Help us give courage in Second Life and real life."

 Getting out, it was back on the trail.

The Cave of Unknowing was worth an article in itself. But there were other sights in the sim yet to see.

 The Brook of Encouragement.

 Nearby. also on the left side of the track,  was a small village.

One could pick up a notecard with a small Fantasy tale.

Back on the right side of the track, I decided to check the trail up "Triumph Mountain."

Like most everything else about the sim, the trail up was well detailed.

 At the top, I found a heart, and a little something else.

There was a freebie display case for a hunt. This was for nine geodes hidden about the trail. I just had to find them.

 So I began looking.

 And I began finding them

 At the base of the mountain was a farmer's building with a few piggies.

 Sometimes you wonder what else is in the area besides you.

 The search for the geodes continued.

 Eventually, I would find all nine geodes.

The 2016 Relay Track, and its RFL Courage designer sim, are now gone. But I still have the the nine geodes as a souvenir. For now, they're on display at the Newser office building.

Go Relay!

Bixyl Shuftan

Hair Fair 2016

By Becky "Sha" Shamen

When our Editor, Bixyl, sent out a list of possible stories to report on, it included the Hair Fair 2016. Sha has a large collection of  hairs and is always on the look-out for new, unique, high quality hairs. In her early days as an exotic dancer, she had spotted an avatar with a beautiful long braid and spent months tracking down the shop it came from. The Hair Fair includes many designers, with new creations, that would give a percent of the profits to "Wigs for Kids." We copied three possible SLURLs and took off to find our next "to die for" hair.

The first attempt to TP did not work, informing us that the sim was too full to allow any more to enter. Our second SLURL got us in and we land next to a large "You Are Here" map. The Fair was spread out across multiple sims and the street layout reminded us of the Nazca lines, in the deserts of Peru or the swirls in a finger print. We selected a path that would cover all the shops. Unlike the RFL Walk, there were no arrows on the street, to keep us on our selected path. At ground level, we would need some help navigating. The map and mini-map were no help here, because they didn't show the streets. We soon came up with a better way to check our progress. At the end of each block, Sha would stop and panned her cam to directly over head, high enough to see which direction to head next.

The next thing we notice is that this is like a suburban housing development. All the houses look alike and there are few landmarks to tell you if you have passed the same place before. Each vendor is set up in a garage, so it's like being in a town that only allows garage sales on one Saturday each month. I spent four hours at the Fair and managed to see all the vendors.

There are a few landmarks, scattered about the Fair, that created a secondary background theme. Here and there, we find film crews and their equipment. If you live in Los Angeles, this is a common sight (left), but here it kept me from going in circles, in a sea of ticky-tacky, at several street corners.

Scattered around the fair, we find several shops that provided head-wear for bald avatars, We wished we had known of them, during the month Sha was bald. The other shops displayed every style you can imagine. They also have hair for both women and men and even beards. In a shop, called Bizarre, I spotted one that would be perfect for Valkyrie, with bird wings on it.

All of the styles had free demos to try on before you buy and if you like a store's designs, you can also get a LM to their main store. Each time we tried a demo, we also added our Kemono head, to see if it would also work with all our mods. It was also fun to watch others trying on the demos. You could almost hear the sound of their minds, being made up, as they admired themselves wearing the demo. If you like the style, you then pick a color, like blonde, brown, red, etc. and it will come with a HUD for changing shades. Many were also available in fat-packs, with all the colors.

We had set a budget for this adventure and Sha managed, after four hours of shopping, to escape with two new styles that she could not live without, while staying well within the budget. Our new number one is this blonde, multi braid hippy look, which also has a base piece to adapt it to my Kemono head. We also got a blonde, straight, floor length style. I'll probably be wearing one or the other, next time you see me.

First impressions are lasting and the face and hair stand above in our display. If you want to change how people respond to you, a good looking hair style covers a multitude of sins. If you want to be "saved", come to Hair Fair 2016 and while you're at it, you'll also be helping those poor bald kids get wigs of their own.

Platinum (220/128/23)

Sha

Mysteria at the Oval Theater

By Gemma Cleanslate

I spent Monday at the Oval Theater watching their new show, “Mysteria.” The invitation said, “Let your imagination soar as your reality merges with a world of wonder and whimsy in an enchanting production that is sure to leave you spellbound” and it did. It is a perfect description of the performance.  The show is an eclectic collection of scenes ,  each with dance and song.

Othon Weiland-Nootan (Othon Weiland) greeted everyone as we arrived and settled ourselves in the comfortable seats around little tables, set in groups of four in the theater. It has seating on several levels so it is very perfect for viewing the stage from all angles. The scenery is a show in itself. Each scene has a setting that fits the performance going on and each is fabulous.

The choreography is an art that must take so much time to prepare with so many styles of dance.  The music is a fitting choice for it or vice versa . It all works beautifully.  The costumes are beyond description. The entire performance is over an hour but flows so evenly with costume changes going on behind the scenes with pleasant break music for the short changes. The entire cast is to be applauded for all their work with many appearing in more than one scene in various roles .

I am happy to tell you that the show will be performed two more times. July 21st and 23rd at 1PM SLT so you will not miss it. Enjoy! 

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Devils%20Cave/145/80/21

Gemma Cleanslate

New Species of Lindo Virtual Flowers

By MajikVixen (Bluevioletvixen Lorefield)

This week, on July 11th, 2016, marks the new and very exciting release of the Lindo HUD v5.29 and new Seed Dispensers v1.6 for Terminal Owners.  This allows Players AND Terminal Owners to gain MORE Lindens!  Yippee! 

To recap on what Lindo actually is, it is a relatively new game designed to increase traffic and earn L$ very easily.  The HUD was made very simple and is beautifully flawless in its design and function.  You just add it, and click the watering can to water your virtual flower.  You are able to water flowers, in areas wherever the sun on the HUD is shining.  If the sun is not shining, you just click the "Get A Location" link on the HUD to teleport to a different place that has the sun shining, so you can water your flower.  One will earn L$ as it grows and reaches full maturity.  Then you verify a simple mathematical equation to start growing another seed.  The HUD does come with a few free seeds, but eventually you will need to buy some or pass a copy of the HUD to your friends to earn some free seeds (currently inactive, but will be brought back for a limited time).  When you withdraw funds, they come straight from your HUD, there's no need to visit an ATM.  This is a reliable game you can feel secure playing, as it is Alt and Hack proof!  Store owners set up a Terminal and Seed Dispenser, wherever they want to increase traffic.  They can set it to SIM or Parcel and add pretty much any amount of L$ they would like to, into it.

So how many lindens can you actually earn with Lindo now?  It varies according to conditions, but when one grows a flower by watering it regularly, earnings are between L$5-13 within an hour.  Current minimum earning ratio is L$ 0.02-0.08 for each growing step.  A player can earn more lindens by attending multiplier events, listed on Lindo's Locations part of their website.  A Terminal Owner can set a multiplier very easily, and it will be announced in group chat.  One can also improve their Experience Points with the release of the new Golden and Silver Seeds feature.  A regular seed gives a player 1x Experience Gain and currently costs L$2, which gives a Terminal Owner a L$1 kickback.  A Silver Seed gives 2x XP and currently costs L$4, which gives the Terminal Owner a L$2 kickback.  A Golden Seed also gives 2x XP, but it additionally grows your flower faster.  Golden seeds currently cost L$6, which gives the Terminal Owner a L$3 kickback.  The Weekly High Ranks have also been brought back.  1st place Player earns your regular rate of pay, plus a 50% rate increase of earnings (so if you made L$8 for one flower, that would be L$8 + L$4 = L$12).  2nd place earns regular rate of pay plus a 25% increase of earnings, and 3rd earns regular rate of pay plus a 10% increase of earnings.  Players can check their status on the Ranks part of their website.  As the week goes by, anyone in these ranks will get the increase in pay all week, as long as they stay in the ranks (loose the spot, and lose the increase).

Lindo certainly has come a long way since my husband JonCernunnos and I first discovered the very colorful Lindo Headquarters, neighboring our home in Bonita Beach, back in May.  As for our bet on who is making more money at their game, I reluctantly agree that Jon is winning.  Even though I have been playing for close to two years now, after deducting the cost of all my fishing equipment, Jon is at least, an astonishing, 5,000 up on me by having played Lindo in just these three months, ha ha!  Jon and I have continued to love working very closely with the friendly and professional Lindo team.  I am the Official Article Manager, and Jon helps test new improvements while participating in group chat and events.  Lindo has a great team of support agents who always seem to be showing up at events to greet the patrons and help support the shop owners' advertising and questions, in many languages. 

Lindo was created by a Turkish gentleman, Sofistik, about a year and some months ago.  He says he it took about four months to release beta tests and about two months of a stable version, and that people knew about it in the 4-5 month range.  He says it all started when he was trying to write some scripts for a girl and her roof-opening building.  A friend of his saw the roof prototype and told him it looked like a flower, which brought the totally unique Lindo project of increasing traffic, to life.  Now about 400 unique players join, weekly.  Sofistik noticed a few months ago, Russian, Turkish, German, and Italian people started playing.  Mainly, Lindo goes by word of mouth, as passing a copy of your HUD earns you free seeds (currently inactive, but will be brought back for a limited time).

Sofistik is always improving his products.  He deems himself "obsessive about the design to make things as perfect as they can be," and rightly so.  The future of Lindo is here, and it's great to be a part of it, as Player or a Terminal Owner.  Upcoming for the future of Lindo, Sofistik is considering allowing players to grow their own flowers to be rezed inworld.  We will keep you posted on new developments, but in the meanwhile, here's wishing you a green thumb!

Additional Information:
SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bonita%20Beach/22/51/23
URL: http://www.thevirtualflowers.com/
ADDITIONAL URL: https://www.facebook.com/lindovirtualflowers/
Group: Lindo
Preferred contact: Sofistik , Jenni Witherspoon is the English Helper, Xaria2016 and many other helpers can be found at their HQ's SLURL too

MajikVixen

Addition: In December, the Newser was told that Jenni Witherspoon is no longer with the company.