Reader Submitted: Not Quite a Pink Elephant

Taken at the Happy Vixen by Fortunas Sands. When someone says they see pink elephants, people think they're drunk. But what if they say see a pink dinosaur with wings and a pink top hat?

Cartoon of the Day

Taken at the Happy Vixen during it's "Fire" party, with DJ Fortunas Sands.

By Bixyl Shuftan

Cartoon of the Day: Happy Halloween

Taken at Furry Fashion's Halloween Party. With the rash of creepy clown sightings across the United States, it was no surprise that Fortunas Sands would unleash something far more terrifying: a "clownasaur," capable of devouring elephants, tigers, and guys who throw empty peanut shells at the animals.

Just thought when you thought it was safe to go back to the circus.

By Bixyl Shuftan

Furry Fashion Turns Nine

Saturday May 7 was the Ninth Anniversary party of Furry Fashion. Since April 30, the sim-wide store had been doing a hunt in which thirty free items were hidden, available for anyone who found them. And on Saturday was the main event, taking place in the Furry Fashion Lounge, an event going on for over ten hours from 12 Noon SL time to sometime past 10PM.

Amethyst Crystal, the owner of the store, was there, along with her longtime friend Fortunas Sands, who was one of the DJs at the event. Many of those there sported blue and purple avatars or outfits, and indeed the theme for 2-4PM was Best in Blue, and 4-6 PM was Best in Purple. 12 Noon's theme was for items bought in the store. 6PM was Come As You Are, a theme repeated for the "Afterparty" at 8PM.

 On occasion, a random prize giver would give someone an outfit or accessory at random. Yours truly ended up handed a couple of no-transfer skirts though. Fortunately there was a freebie avatar available for pickup next to the cake. And there was no shortage of avatars around, mostly furred, though a few dragon and human ones dropped by. And the prizes on the boards, originally set to 2,000 Lindens, swelled to larger size, the 6PM event's prize rising to a whopping 15,000 Lindens! DJ Scratchmusikatt spun the tunes for the prime time event.

The 15K prize was split between Emorald, who came in first place with 7500, Takuan, and Jyvris.

We here at Furry Fashion would like to extend a HUGE thank you to all of our staff and patrons for making the sim's 9th birthday a smashing success! Without all of you, we would be nothing, and you all turned out for the most epic party we've had yet and made it one to remember. Thank you all so much!

Furry Fashion is in the Furry sim, the lounge at Furry (167, 190, 59 ), which has events sis days a week. Tuesdays to Fridays from 6-8PM, and Saturdays and Sundays from 3-5 PM and 6-9PM.

Cartoon of the Day

Taken at Furry Fashion with the help of Fortunas Sands. Actually, there really is a breed of bunny this big, the Flemish Giant. Still, it's enough to give a fox a double-take.

By Bixyl Shuftan

The Furry Fashion Halloween Hunt

It's October, and that means for the Furry Fashion store, it's time for their Halloween Hunt. Running from October 1st last week until Halloween night, the event promises a new place to explore, freebies to pick up, and spooky Halloween-ish fun.

"We've been working on this all summer," Amethyst Crystal (Amethysia) told me about the event, "Basically theres a hunt in a special Halloween area, you get a hud as you go in and put it on and look for bats. the bats give out prizes as you find them and if you find them all you get a bonus gift box. there's also 'trick or treat' bats which will trick you but also give the chance to give a exclusive limited edition item too. There's also special halloween shops set up by various merchants."

Amethyst and her friend Fortunas Sands gave me an early peek at the Halloween area. "Theres a maze and graveyard, witch's house and petshop, along with a surprise or two," Amethyst told me, "And there's plenty of seats around the area for good pictures, including a deadman's hanging tree. ... This is all going on along side the Quest Fur Cover grid wide hunt Furry Fashion organizes .... So a very busy month especially since we're in the Twisted Hunt too."

"Ae plan to have security working shifts here in costume for the first few days," Amethyst explained, then mentioned there would soon be special costumes for the staff. Showing me hers, it certainly left a lot around her mid-section exposed. When we got to a certain hall area, Fortunas would show me his ghost T-Res avatar, then a "Clownasuarus Rez" look, a T-Rex dressed up in clown make-up.

Of the graveyard area, "we even have staff graves," Amethyst told me. They plan to have their big Halloween party there as well.

As for the Halloween hunt, after picking up a special HUD for the event, one searches for the small bats scattered across the Halloween areas. Clicking on them, there is a chance the player may end up "tricked" and transformed, "Patrons get to become part of the horror show. ... They're trick or treat bats for a reason. But there is a chance of getting a exclusive gift off them too, a limited ed that won't be sold or given away any other time. And if you do get 'tricked' by a trick or treat bat there is a un-deformer door in the main  vendor area."

Once again, the event runs the whole month to Halloween night. So come on over to Furry Fashion sim for some spook-tacular Halloween fun.

Furry (170, 90, 27)

Bixyl Shuftan

Fortaelia Club (2008)

In this look back at the articles by the Newser's predecessor Second Life Newspaper, we look at a club Bixyl Shuftan wrote about in early 2008: the Fortaelia Club. Owned by Caelia Bailey and Fortunas Sands, the club lasted only a few months, but had a good following while it was around, appearing in some SLN cartoons. But the owners, particularly the lady, would go on to grander things.

Read the 2008 article in Design.