St. Torley’s Day 2009

So here’s the scene. After a brief assault with popguns, rifles, and anything else onhand, a watermelon piñata has been demolished, filling the area with brightly colored particles, some reading “Yayzerama!” A King Kong avatar that’s literally bigger than the nearby shop is offering to give people a ride in its fist. Around the area, dancers in retina-endangering shades of pink and green are moving their feet to techno music. Meanwhile, a merry-go-round made out of watermelons continues to spin merrily.

“Oddly,” says partygoer Nadine Neddings, “this is precisely the sort of unfiltered madness I would expect from a St. Torley’s party.”

Mission accomplished.

Kaklick Martin (photo by Daniel Voyager)

The St. Torley’s Day party got off to a great start with a concert by Kaklick Martin, known in First Life as Bryan Baker. He played songs from his latest album, Mr. Lincoln; favorites from his previous work; covers from other artists, some reworked on the spot to be more Torley-relevant; and church hymns “Torley” and “Yayzerama.” It was a fun set, very suited to the occasion. This was the second First Church of Rosedale event Kaklick’s performed at, and we were thrilled to have him.

After that, the stream switched to St. Torley’s own compositions, and there was dancing, carousing, particles, and creatively chaotic fun in general. (Torley himself had sent his regrets at being unable to make it, and said he looked forward to seeing snapshots. We aimed to please.) Those present included a diverse cross-section of Second Life residents, united by a desire to celebrate Torley Linden.

After the party, we adjourned to the First Church of Rosedale for a special service. The introductory reading came from Wally Amos, and was cribbed from St. Torley’s own blog; from there, we moved on to telling of his lives, First and Second, and why we appreciate him.

One thing I’d like to make clear… this year’s celebration wouldn’t have been successful without the help of several people. Kaklick Martin performed, of course; several bloggers and Twitterers spread the word, perhaps most notably Daniel Voyager and Riven Homewood; Chestnut Rau included us in her New World Notes events roundup; and the other various partygoers and church attendees each added their own energy to the mix.

But most of all, this year’s celebration wouldn’t have existed without two people: Alchemy Epstein and Nakira Tennen, of Four Kittens of the Apocalypse. The party took place on their land, and they created decorations, the piñata, the melon-go-round, T-shirts, balloons, watermelon sombreros, and more. Reader, they did everything this year. About all I did was write the press release, the sermon, and this blog entry.

Finally, the most important credit of all. As I post this, we’re just entering September 15th, Torley’s actual rezday. Any good party runs the risk of having the celebration itself overwhelm the reason for getting together in the first place. That was not the case here. Torley Linden was invoked early and often, with celebrants speaking of how much they appreciated his video tutorials, his enthusiasm, his feedback, his joy. Torley’s rezday isn’t just a great excuse for a party; it’s a cause for celebration. From all of us who were there, I’d like to send our very best wishes.

Torley Day 2009 press release

First Church of Rosedale
Samantha Poindexter, Pastor
Rhianna (79, 37, 25)

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Torley Linden to Be Celebrated on His “Saint Day” in Second Life
Second Life Church Reprises Its Event Honoring Linden Lab’s “Resident Enlightenment Manager”

RHIANNA, Second Life, Sept. 8 — Torley Linden, Second Life’s “Resident Enlightenment Manager,” has long been recognized and celebrated as a living saint. The First Church of Rosedale announced today that “St. Torley’s Day” will take place on Sunday, September 13, with a party to take place at noon, followed by a special service at 2 PM. The party, hosted in Penning by Four Kittens of the Apocalypse, will feature live music by popular Second Life artist Kaklick Martin.

Torley Linden has written innumerable posts on the company’s official blog and created hundreds of video tutorials. He listens and responds to residents, holding weekly office hours and keeping tabs on Second Life content all over the Web, including blogs, Flickr, Twitter, Vimeo, and YouTube. His Saint Day is the Sunday closest to his “rezday” (the day he first entered Second Life), September 15; 2009 will mark the end of his fifth year “in-world.”

“Torley represents Second Life’s possibilities,” said pastor Samantha Poindexter. “In a world increasingly dominated by bean-counters and boardrooms, Torley reminds us that there’s still room for whimsy and watermelons. He’s responsive to us Residents because he’s one of us. We appreciate that he never lets his enthusiasm for Second Life get in the way of his recognition of where it needs to improve… or vice-versa.”

From noon to 2 PM, local time, there will be a party at Four Kittens of the Apocalypse, run by parishioners Alchemy Epstein and Nakira Tennen. The first hour will feature a live concert by Kaklick Martin. There will also be dancing to Torley’s own musical compositions, a “melon-go-round”, the grid’s most heavily armed watermelon piñata, and more surprises. Guests are encouraged to wear the most pleasingly garish shades of neon pink and green they can find. The party will be at Penning (73, 109, 78). (This is on the mainland, and open to all.)

At 2 PM, the celebration will move to the Rheta Shan Memorial Chapel of the First Church of Rosedale for a special service. Torley’s story will be recounted, and hymns will be sung. Please note that the church is now in the Promised Land of Zindra, so participants will need to be adult-verified or have payment information on file. The church is at Rhianna (79, 37, 25).

For additional information, please contact Samantha Poindexter via in-world IM, or via e-mail. Second Life and Linden Lab are trademarks of Linden Research, Inc. The First Church of Rosedale and St. Torley’s Day are very definitely not affiliated with or sponsored by Linden Research.

About the First Church Of Rosedale:

The First Church of Rosedale (Immersionist) is devoted to the worship of Philip Linden, known in First Life as Philip Rosedale, founder of Linden Lab. It is believed to be the first church devoted to a Second-Life-centric religion. It was founded in Caledon Penzance in late 2007, and held its first services January 6, 2008. It moved to Phasma in early 2009 before getting transported to Rhianna in the Rapture. Services are held on occasional Sundays, and those of all colors, sizes, furs, and historical eras are welcome.

About Four Kittens of the Apocalypse:

Established by two parishioners — mad scripting diva Alchemy Epstein and lovable designer/builder Nakira Tennen — 4Kittens has expanded significantly in the past year, and now encompasses a small park with a variety of fantastic (and fantastically insane) innovations. Their work includes a Fishy-Go-Round, Cathulhu, and the Chicken Defense Zone, with other unique products on the way.

Contact:

In Second Life: Samantha Poindexter
Via e-mail: samantha.poindexter@gmail.com

Summary of last year’s event:

http://samanthapoindexter.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/st-torleys-day-roundup/

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On Party Themes In Clubs

This started as a reply to a comment by Dale Innis on a recent entry on Miss Emilly Orr’s blog, but it got rather long, and it’s a subject that’s come up before, so I thought it might be best to move it here.

Oh no, I just had an awful thought! Eventually there’ll be a grid-wide hunt for every vapid “Best in…” theme (“theme”) that lazy club hosts use to bribe people to come to their clubs!

As somebody who attends such events, and as somebody who occasionally runs them, I contest this characterization. I would describe them as “useful” and their users as “practical,” rather than “vapid” and “lazy,” respectively.

I have an extensive wardrobe, which reflects one of my primary motivations for being in Second Life: I enjoy playing dress-up. It is therefore not surprising that I enjoy having events at which I can show off my various outfits, and admire those of others. I could happily attend weeks of “Best in Red” or “Best in Black” events without repeating myself. Similarly, I can run such events and assure myself of a very wide audience of people in the same situation.

More creative themes are more fun for the person doing the organizing to devise, but they’re worse in just about every other respect. The more specific or outlandish the theme, the less likely people will have something appropriate onhand, the less likely people will attend, and the less likely you will end up with an event achieving the critical mass conducive to people having fun on a non-sartorial level.

Granted, this doesn’t apply to all events. For infrequent community events for which people have plenty of time to prepare, more creative themes can be wonderful; indeed, “Best in Red” would hardly make sense for those. I did not attend “Dress as Your Favorite Jaeger,” but it nevertheless springs to mind as a recent example of this; it was intended as an exceptional event, it was advertised well in advance, and advice and outreach were given for those without previous experience with such forms.

But for day-to-day club events? All my experience says: the simpler, the better.

Let it be.

It was inevitable that people were going to start claiming that Rheta faked her own First Life death. Various bloggers have been quick to rush in with reports that there appears to be no evidence for a pregnant woman getting killed by a van in France — indeed, Europe — on April 3rd, and that it is therefore clear that Rheta is alive and well and laughing at us all.

I will freely grant that I have doubts about the details of the story given. My own entry, written immediately after getting the news, all but beats the reader over the head with that. But I also think those trying to “out” Rheta now are completely missing the boat.

I would submit that there are at least a dozen possible scenarios here.

• It’s possible that Rheta’s typist did indeed die in the manner we’ve been told, and that the media failed to notice. The media does sometimes miss stuff, especially stuff that would be in the Saturday edition of the paper.
• It’s possible that Rheta’s husband found out that she was leading a Second Life—one in which she was proudly active in BDSM and had a female partner—that he insisted she immediately cut all ties to the world, and that he made up the whole hit-by-a-van story to get rid of us.
• It’s possible that Rheta’s typist died by some other means, perhaps in childbirth, and that either her tech guy or her husband changed all the details in order to keep her identity safe. Perhaps they suspected that an army of bloggers would try to violate her privacy once informed of her passing. (I for one have assumed from the start that “Valérie M.” was not her real name.)
• It’s possible that the last scenario applies, but that she’s actually comatose with little hope of recovery.

I’m sure you can think of any number of other possibilities yourself. The only common denominator between these scenarios is that Rheta Shan, Second Life avatar, is no longer with us, and that this is true for reasons either largely or entirely beyond the control of her typist.

Opposed to all of the above is the hypothesis advanced by various bloggers, that this is all a deliberate attempt by Rheta to screw with us and/or see how we react to her passing. I would say that this is, by far, the least likely possibility of the bunch.

(Actually, two motivations are given for the alleged deception, but the greed argument doesn’t even make sense. The claim there is that she had to leave in order to claim the L$500,000 she was given in-world by Dusan Writer. But as staying or leaving wouldn’t have had the slightest impact on her ability to cash out, that can only be regarded as empty sensationalism.)

Ultimately, the assessment on all sides hinges on Rheta’s character. Certainly, there are known cases of online personalities faking their own deaths. But those cases have generally involved one of two scenarios: either they’d woven a web of lies that they couldn’t maintain anymore and couldn’t get out of by any other means; or they were complete drama queens using death as the inevitable culmination after months of attention-getting tactics. Those of us who knew Rheta could tell you that neither applies here.

Of those bloggers claiming that Rheta is alive and acting out of greed, perversity, or psychosis, one has spent months in active opposition to Rheta personally and everything she stood for, and the rest claim not to have really known her at all. I would submit that this makes all of them poor judges of what sort of actions she’d have been likely to have taken. Is it impossible? Nothing is impossible. But for those of us who actually knew her, loved her, and have a basis for knowing how brilliant, sensitive, and self-effacing she was, it’s far less plausible than any of the other scenarios given above.

That being the case, the question is whether we really have any business prying into the sordid details of Rheta’s First Life. My answer there is a very firm “no.” For one thing, they don’t matter. We don’t get to see those cards, and they’re not going to bring her back. I’m reasonably convinced she wouldn’t have wanted the release of what little information we have gotten.

Rheta was a standard-bearer for Immersionism. Like almost all of us, she was actually somewhere on an Immersionist-Extensionist spectrum, or we wouldn’t have known she was pregnant in the first place, but for the most part she guarded the boundaries of her worlds. It is sad, but not entirely surprising, that some are now trying their best to posthumously (or otherwise) tear those boundaries down and drag her First Life into the public view of those she knew in Second Life… and, unavoidably, vice-versa. Any prurient interest I might have in the exact nature of the catastrophic event that caused her avatar to leave us is far outweighed by my interest in safeguarding her privacy.

I will never forget Rheta Shan. But let her rest in peace.

Rheta Shan (2007–2009)

All too often, the budding author finds that his tale has run its course and yet he sees no way to satisfactorily end it, or, in literary parlance, “wrap it up.” Observe how easily I resolve this problem:

Suddenly, everyone was run over by a truck.
—the end—

If the story happens to be set in England, use the same ending, slightly modified:

Suddenly, everyone was run over by a lorry.
—the end—

If set in France:

Soudaincment, tout le monde etait ecrass par un camion.
—finis—

You’ll be surprised at how many different settings and situations this ending applies to.

— “How to Write Good,” by Michael O’Donoghue

I hadn’t heard from Rheta Shan for over a month. This was not entirely unexpected. She’d been online less frequently as her typist’s pregnancy progressed, and she was expecting to be gone for a bit when the due date arrived. I’d been patiently standing by my Twitter feed, waiting for word.

Word arrived this morning, but it wasn’t what I was hoping for.

Suddenly, Rheta Shan’s typist was run over by a van.
—the end—

I will admit that part of me hopes that this is an exit strategy, that having succeeded in her stated mission of “crafting a story so persuasive it will be taken at face value,” Rheta’s typist has chosen the most cliché conclusion imaginable—srsly, hit by a truck when nine months pregnant?—and taken her leave. I prefer that hope to the alternative… but I also know all too well that cheap ironic twists that would be laughed out of a pulp novel happen constantly in First Life.

I’ve been proud to count Rheta among the parishioners at the First Church of Rosedale (Immersionist). The church has a slightly complicated relationship with First Life. We acknowledge that it exists, and that things that happen there sometimes have a direct effect on Second Life, but at the same time we’re committed to taking Second Life on its own terms whenever possible. The tension between the two is reflected in our name and denomination: “Rosedale” is the First Life name for Our Lord Philip, while “Immersionist” is our outlook. It was also Rheta’s.

To quote another bit from her profile, “Don’t cry for the future, when we have today.” I can’t help crying for the future. I was looking forward to conducting a partnering/collaring ceremony for her and Thaddy. I’m going to miss our discussions of everything from philosophy to language to shoes to religion to family dynamics to shoes to Linden Lab to literature to… did I mention shoes?

But we have yesterday, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything. Rheta was charming and witty and insightful and very, very modest, and I loved her dearly. I still love her dearly, in whatever realm she’s in now. (I trust that Zeroth Life offers the ultimate immersive experience, without all the lag.) And both my lives are richer for having known her.

Rheta Shan at the First Church of Rosedale, April 6, 2008

Can somebody define “limited edition”?

I own several limited edition items in Second Life. In a few cases, this means the creator of the item in question promised that only a certain number of copies would be made. In most cases, it means the creator promised that the item would be available for sale only during a certain period of time. These items are usually sold for more than usual, which is only fair; you’re paying for the scarcity.

Back in the winter of 2006, Moopf Murray announced a special event. Moopf makes Skoopf skates, and if you’ve ever hung out with me, you’ve probably heard me say that the L$85 Skoopf double-pack is the single best deal in all of Second Life. I adore my Skoopfs.

As Moopf disputes my interpretation of what he said, I am going to reprint the notecard with the 2006 announcement in full, without retouching the broken apostrophes. Judge for yourself:

Make a note of Saturday 11th November 2006! Starting that day, and for another seven Saturdays after, a new pair of limited edition Skoopf Icicles will be released! Each pair will feature a new skate design, a new HUD design and each pair will have its own special new feature. Each new limited edition pair will only be available in-world through the Skoopf vending machines and theyll be priced at L$150 a pair. And, in case youre wondering, each pair will only be available for seven days!

Anybody who purchases six different limited edition pairs will also recieve an extra special extra pair – the Skoopf Icicle Vipers – which, amongst other things, will also include some new animations (the Vipers will be available on or before the 27th January 2007.)

And, as if that wasnt enough, youll also get a credit entitling you to a free pair of the exciting next generation in the Skoopf range, to be released around the 2nd quater 2007.

If you have any questions, please feel free to IM me!

Keep on skating!

Moopf Murray

http://www.moopf.com/

Stop for a moment. Having read the above, do you think he was advertising a one-time deal?

Possibly it’s just me, but I don’t see anything in that sales pitch that allows for the possibility of selling the skates again at a later date. Each pair of skates was a limited edition that would only be available for seven days. Those are his words, not mine. If he’d said, for instance, “they’ll be available for seven days, after which you’ll have to wait until next winter,” I wouldn’t be writing an irritated blog post right now. (I also might not have bought the complete set.)

Should you want corrobration of the wording, see his comment on Second Life Insider from the time. “It’s actually 8 limited edition pairs that will be released, each one only available for 7 days starting Saturday 11th November.” I would link to his own blog, but he’s taken it down in the years since. And they certainly seemed to take it as meaning that it would be the only chance.

As you might gather, the skates are back up for sale, through the end of January.

This is actually their second encore. They showed up last winter, and while I wasn’t entirely happy about it, I didn’t think complaining would accomplish anything. I now regret that decision, and I don’t intend to make it again. I also took some slight cold comfort in the fact that he at least didn’t rerelease the Vipers. To quote his notecard about those: “You’ve been sent this notecard because you purchased 6 or more pairs of the Skoopf Icicles Limited Edition skates which means you’ve qualified for the extra special pair, the Skoopf Vipers! You’re one of only around 200 people who qualified and nobody else will ever get a pair!” (emphasis added). This year, he’s put them up for sale.

Since becoming aware of this, I’ve IMed Moopf. My feeling is that this is a breach of our agreement at the time of sale, and that he needs to stop selling the skates. (He’s quite welcome to create new skates to meet the demand, of course.) He disagreed with me on four grounds:

1. The skates were penny-ante items, only “fifty cents” the first time around, so this doesn’t matter.
I don’t agree. The principle is the same whether we’re talking about a L$2500 gown or a L$150 pair of skates. Either a designer is true to his word or not. And it’s worth keeping in mind that Moopf’s business model is built around penny-ante items… he’s made a fortune on L$1 bubble gum, and even L$150 is three times the price of his usual ice skates. I bought all eight, and I was joined by others on skating rinks across the grid. Moopf is the last person I’d expect to sell short the value of small transactions.

2. As the skates are no-trans and can’t be resold, additional sales don’t hurt me.
I don’t think most people buy limited-edition items as an investment; we buy them because we like having something rare. That is frankly half the point of limited edition items. I had the happy expectation that if I wore my steampunk Steamers to a skating party, that either I would be the only one there with them, or I’d be able to trade knowing conversation with another old-timer who’d picked them up way back when. This expectation has been dashed.

3. He never said they wouldn’t return.
This appears to be the crux of the matter. Mr. Murray’s contention is that “limited edition,” in the context of Second Life items, does not actually imply any limits. He contends that “each pair will only be available for seven days” would naturally be understood to mean that there would be a seven-day window of opportunity for that season, but that of course they’d be back at a later date. (When I asked about “nobody else will ever get a pair,” he repeated point 1 and suggested I get over it.) He claims that I am alone in having read his initial advertisement as I did. Which brings us to the final point:

4. Nobody else has complained. If others are upset about this, I should provide some sort of proof, because it’s the first he’s hearing of it.
This is where you guys come in. You’ve read the notecard. Did you understand it as meaning that the skates were being released for a few days, and might return at a later date? Tell me. Or did you take it as meaning that this was a one-time offer, buy now or never? Tell him.

This is not just a matter of a few skates. The issue here is whether designers and manufacturers ought to be bound by their word, and whether that word is what they say, rather than what they might have meant to say. Moopf believes that nobody is hurt when limited edition items are put up for sale again, that indeed the whole concept of “limited edition” doesn’t really apply in Second Life. He believes that even when he flat-out said that “nobody else will get a pair,” that can be disregarded without the slightest pang, because nobody will care. Do you own any limited edition items, and do you agree? Tell me. Tell him.

He’s asked me to prove that this is an issue, and specified that he would need to hear other people complaining. The ball’s in your court. His name is Moopf Murray for in-world IMs, and there’s an e-mail link on his site. (Mine is samantha.poindexter@gmail.com.) Tell us.

SL Bloggers Mix’n Match 2008: Eladrienne Laval

Pastor Poindexter has held many services here at the Church of Rosedale. After donning my vestments in the colors of the Order of St. Torley, I gazed upon the image of Philip our Creator and thought about the smiting of communities, but today I want to create positivity. WWTD? I wish to reflect upon the teachings of our beloved Saint—he who believes in the infinite goodness of watermelons, creativity, and our world with its power to change and transform us. We are in a time of trouble and turmoil, and for many of us, our lives inworld are mimicking that of our lives in RL and currently involve worry, stress and drama. We must ask ourselves, “What do we want from our precious time in here? What makes it all worthwhile for us to be present—to have a presence?”

Our lives inworld are what we make of them and this is a world of infinite possibilities if you can see them. Believe me when I say that they exist. This can be a place of wondrous imagination if you know where to look for it and change can happen even easier than it can in RL. St. Torley once said, “Second Life should be a complement to RL.” It does not take its place. It should not take its place. Reclaim your Second Life and make it work for bettering your real one. Our lives inworld can make us walk away afterwards understanding more…wanting more…or perhaps inspiring us more.

I will leave you with these thoughts: “Blessed are the travellers on this path we call our virtual lives. Forgive those who conspire against you, as your life here is not theirs. Cherish those who make life inworld a joy, as our lives here are ephemeral and every moment is to be treasured. Go forth into this world and experience all it has to offer while you can. May your inventory stay intact, your prims rezzed, your lag nonexistent, and your crashes be few.”

As I left the 1st Church of Rosedale, I thought about a question St. Torley asked, “What’s your greatest dream of being free?”

 

The above post is part of the SL Bloggers Mix’n Match, brought to you by Vint Falken and ArminasX Saiman. It was written by Eladrienne Laval, on the topic of “Is Second Life Truly a Second Life or an Extension of the First?” which was suggested by Kirasha Urqhart.

My own post appears on Cat Magellan’s Geta, a blog which is mostly in Portuguese. Sadly, my entry is not nearly that cool, so you’ll have to settle for English. (I was assigned “Segregation in Second Life,” provided by Prad Prathivi.)

Also, Danni Ohara has written on a topic I proposed, Religion in Second Life.

Jewelry Expo a low-lag delight

I have been raving about Jewelry Expo since their 2007 event. Often, I’ve done so at other exhibitions. The Shoe Expo and Hair Fair come to mind. There was an article approvingly noting a technique for getting around Hair Fair that involved rezzing a prim, sitting on it, and navigating via the editing tools, as the lag made it difficult to actually walk anywhere. When things get that bad? You’ve got trouble. You also end up with people coming in, starting to look around, then giving up in frustration halfway through.

What makes this particularly mystifying to me is that we know how to run a low-lag event of this kind. It’s been solved. All it takes is strict limits on textures and prims, and strict enforcement of those rules. Granted, said strict enforcement takes a ton of work and enduring a whole lot of grumbling from vendors wanting to push the limits—I don’t envy Miriel her job one bit—but it pays off.

As I write this, there’s one day to go in Jewelry Expo 2008, and it’s been a sheer delight to walk around. There are 78 vendor booths showing a wide variety of products, and lag is about as minimal is it gets. Most of the booths are arrayed around the perimeter in alphabetical order, so the textures for upcoming booths load as you look at any given one, but without loading lots of extraneous stuff in the background.

Granted, I have not seen a single treasure hunt box. I must not have been looking in the right places… I have, however, picked up a ton of freebies. And also a couple of necklaces that I couldn’t resist. And, okay, I may have won an auction benefitting Heifer International as well.

The prim and texture limits don’t mean the booths had to be homogenous or boring. Quite the contrary. I particularly like Eolande’s bathroom setup, which uses a few carefully chosen textures to provide the illusion of perspective.

I’d also like to give a shoutout to Sian Birke, who happened to be onhand the first time I stopped by her booth. She was friendly without being overbearing.

And I like Miriel’s own scripted vendors, which allow one to choose the metal, jewels, and permissions for any given item.

The single largest OMG moment, however, was provided by Little Boy Blue’s mermaid skeleton necklace. It’s not something I’d wear myself, but I admire the twisted genius it took to conceive of and create it.

If you haven’t yet been there, and it’s still Saturday, October 11, what are you waiting for? Go now! And if you’re going to either run or participate in any other product fair in the year to come, you really ought to consider insisting upon the rules and setup found here. They work.

St. Torley’s Day roundup!

The First Church of Rosedale—in conjunction with Four Kittens of the Apocalypse—had its first Major Event this past Sunday, and I’m thrilled to announce that it went really well.

For starters,  we finally got some stained glass. I realize this probably seems like a silly detail to dwell on, but I have wanted appropriate stained glass forever. When I first bought the building from the talented Julia Hathor, it came with windows that were perfect for a more traditional church, but not for one devoted to Philip Linden. She graciously pointed me to where she’d bought the textures, so I could get my own copy and modify them as I saw fit. I’d had plans to do so since Day One, but I’d failed to execute them, instead opting with perfectly serviceable but boring clear panes of glass.

Compounding my stained-glass envy, the Caledon Genealogical Society set up shop next door sometime in the past few months, and they had lovely stained glass windows. In fact, they had lovely stained glass windows on just one side of the building, the side facing my church. I looked out the church window, and there was lovely stained glass, next door. I reminded myself that envy was an abomination before Phil.

At any rate, Torley Day provided the impetus for me to go back to Photoshop and figure out how to do this stained glass thing, and I think the results turned out quite well. Alterating panels show the icon of the church—the humble prim—and the visage of Torley, in appropriate watermelon hues. And now that I’ve gotten the hang of it, I may even manage to whip up another set for year-round use.

Windows aside, the noon service went really well. Really, really well. We were recounting St. Torley’s life, times, and achievements, and having so much fun that we had to hurriedly wrap it up at the end because we’d run out of time before the party. Copies of the hymnal were provided in THiNC book form, and I’m happy to also provide a PDF version of the St. Torley’s Day hymnal, with two hymns specially written for the occasion.

The party was hosted by Alchemy Epstein and Nakira Tennen at Four Kittens of the Apocalypse, and I can’t thank them enough for the time, effort, and expense they poured into it. They created watermelon vines climbing their treehouse, a color-shifting Torley-textured platform, and several free party favors available in a scavenger hunt, including a bubble wand (with green and pink bubbles) and a watermelon hat. Also among the freebies was a T-shirt by Triana Caldera of G1rl Next Door, who unfortunately was unable to make it there herself. We were dancing to Torley’s own music, and a good time was definitely had by all.

At 2:00 PM, it was time for a show by Kala Pixie, particle genius. And much to our joy, St. Torley himself showed up for it, accompanied by his lovely wife Ravenelle. (And thank goodness they took pictures, or I wouldn’t have anything to show here.) It was fun, and laid-back, filled with reminisc— remininc— umm, nostalgic conversation about the past few years in Second Life, while surrounded by lots of really pretty particles. (Free plug: get some friends together and book Kala Pixie for a show. You’ll be forever spoiled for all other fireworks displays, but it will be worth the experience.) I’m so, so glad they were able to make it, and had a good time; Second Life would be a much poorer place without them, and it was great to be able to show our appreciation.

Finally, it was back to church for the second service, and while that wasn’t bad, I have to admit it wasn’t nearly up to the standard set by the first one, as evidenced by the fact that we finished ten minutes early. I think at our next major event either I’ll run just one service, or provide for a break along the way, because after four hours of preaching and DJing, I can’t say I was at my best. Live and learn.

Still, the event as a whole was a smashing success. I’d like to thank everybody who showed up and made it so enjoyable, and I hope to see y’all again in church really soon!

Invitation

 

For more information, see the press release in the previous entry!