Tales From Steelhead: Interview With Tensai Hilra (2011)

In the second of our stories about the Steelhead community's past, not long after Franq Blackheart did an  interview in April 2011 of estate owner TotalLunar Eclipse, he did another of his partner, Tensai Hilra. Tensai had a few things to say about Steelhead, and her relationship with Lunar.

Read the interview in People.

Steelhead Celebrates Qixi Festival/ Owners' Anniversary

 Last week on August 8, Steelhead's Friday Night Dance had a rather Eastern atmosphere to it. The there was the Qixi Festival, also known as Chinese Valentine's Day.

 also known as the Oiqiao Festival is a Chinese Festival that celebrates the annual meeting of the cowherd and weaver girl in Chinese Mythology. It falls on the Seventh day of the Seventh month on the Chinese calendar. Also known as Chinese Valentines Day.

 The party was a double celebration, as the owners of the sims had a real life anniversary to celebrate, "It is also 16 years ago that Tensai and Lunar tied the knot." The Steelheaders wished the people behind the avatars well. 

A good time was had by all there.

Bixyl Shuftan

Mount Saint Helens Erupts in Steelhead

Last week in the Steelhead sim, there were some signs that the highest mountain in the region, Mount St. Helens, was due for an eruption. And on Friday May 16, it blew.

And what did this motley group of mad scientists, elves, faries, weres, and others do when the mountain blew it's top, exposing a lava dome? They threw a party. Fuzzball Ortega was the DJ for the event. The lava and rocks were not static. Once in a while, a dome would bubble up, followed by a mini-eruption, "Oops lava bombed again." "Dang eruption threw me off my nifty steps."

The partiers wore some red and orange dresses, or at least some pretty thick shoes. Well, most of them, "I really wish you'd have given me fire resistant shoes before I plopped here." "(laughing out loud)  my feet are hot." "We test our fire-resistant outfits!" There were also a few firey avatars as well.

At one point, someone joked, "Now may I ask why we are all sacrificing ourselves to the almighty volcano god when really only one would suffice?" Someone promptly answered, "cuz no ones a virgin?" The result was chuckles, followed by more jokes, "Takes more sinners I guess." "We ran out of virgins. Hope the volcano's satisfied with lots of salmon meat."

Among those attending were sim owners Totallunar eclipse and  Tensai Hilra. Lunar told, "May 18th is the anniversary of (the) Mt St Helens eruption and coincidentally Tensai's real-life birrthday." Tensai joked, "the explosion was a warning to the world of my being born." There were a couple cakes, one chocolate, one a pile of waffle on a stick, that one could snack on.

Everyone had a good hot time.

The mountain is at the Steelhead St Helens sim (128, 131, 38)

Bixyl Shuftan

Steelhead Winter Festival

Last Friday over Steelhead Nevermoor, there was a winter-themed event at the fairy dance circle, their Winter Festival. The circle was all frosted in ice and snow, and a number of locals showed up for the event.

Steelhead leader TotalLunar Eclipse, and his partner Tensai Hilra, were among those who took part, dancing in the cold, snowy scene.

Fuzzball Ortega did the music for the event for the first couple hours. Willow Leafstorm, the location's owner, performed for the third.

Volcano Party at Mount St. Helens

Last Friday was an annual tradition at the Steelhead Community. May 18th is the birthday of local Tensai Hilra. It's also the anniversary of the eruption of Mount. St. Helens. And with Steelhead having their own St. Helens and a population of mad scientists, the result was the biggest lava lamp as part of a party for Tensai.

Read more in Events.

Explosion Emminent at Steelhead's St. Helens?

In Steelhead, there have been rumors of mad scientist activity at Mt St. Helens. Rumor has it one of the local madboys plans to crash the birthday party of Tensai Hilra with a volcanic eruption. Sheriff "Fuzzball" Ortega assures nothing will go wrong, and even if it does Tensai's birthday party tonight at 7PM SL time will go on as planned.

The mountain is at the Steelhead St Helens sim (128, 131, 38)

Get a Home at the Steelhead Estates

Each sim has a different theme. Please take note of the theme of the sim you wish to rent from. RP and period clothing is not enforced but building code is. No modern buildings or gothic spire of doom. Read the covenant agreement for more details.

Land is parcelled as either residential/commercial/or mixed use.  Parcels beside each other can be grouped together to create a larger parcel. If you have questions regarding zoning in Steelhead please feel free to IM TotalLunar Eclipse or Tensai Hilra.

Found the location you like? The rental boxes are locked. All land is in Steelhead group and you need to be in the Steelhead group to rezz objects and begin rent. IM either TotalLunar Eclipse or Tensai Hilra to unlock the rental pole and begin rent. Drop them a notecard if they are not online.

512 sq m 234 prims L$450 per week
1024 sq m 468 prims L$900 per week

From all of us in Steelhead city Welcome home,
 - TotalLunar Eclipse.

RFL Walk 2012: Steelhead's Exhibit Comes Down

Friday July 20 was the day that the RFL track was officially on borrowed time. Despite the previous day being the Teardown, many builds were still up. Peeking in time to time, there was little activity, an individual here or there. At around 9PM SL time, I took another look, and saw a gathering at Steelhead. I headed there, and found several of the Steelhead Salmons team, including Tensai Hilra, who greeted me hello. And around them was wreckage.

The team was joining those ending their exhibit with a bang - literally. They had stored the original exhibit, and were re-erecting copies of the larger parts, such as buildings and towers. Once the individual prims were unlinked, physics took over, and the structure came down in a crash, bricks, springs, wall sections, scattering all over.

It wasn't just towers that were rezzed. At one point, a cloud of prims came down around me. I then found the ground around us littered with fish! Salmons to be exact, steelhead salmons, how the Steampunk community, and the Relay team, got it's name. At another point, simple two-prim sheep were raining down from the sky, "Ba-a-a-a-a-a!" One of the Steelheads wolfed out, and looked like the sight of all the sheep put him in shock, like his dream come true had materialized and couldn't believe his fortune at seeing all that mutton.

Besides the Steelheads, I saw a couple other people. They were using the time the track still had to run a few more laps. Their reasons, unknown. Maybe they were enjoying the sights while they were still up, or perhaps running laps for a late friend. They quickly came and went, their images fading away into the distance.

Eventually, it was time for us to part ways, and the Salmons logged off or headed back to Steelhead.


And so, one of Second Life's biggest yearly events truly comes to a close, with hundreds of participants, notably the Passionate Redheads of Sunweavers/HV Community/Angels Estates where the Newser has it's office and neighbors, and the Steelhead Salmons of Steelhead whom have been happily sponsoring the paper. Thank you for the complements of our coverage.

For the Newser, it's the end of a particularly busy time, starting in early June with our Second Anniversary, then the Second Life Ninth Birthday, then a couple important weddings at HV Community and Steelhead, and then the Relay for Life Walk. There were a few things in the news that coverage had to wait on, but we'll get to those. With the SLCC kaput, it'll be some time before our next event that gets the attention of the whole Grid.

The Relay Walk may be over, but the news never ends.

Bixyl Shuftan

St. Helens Erupts in Steelhead

On Friday evening May 18th, Mount St. Helens in the Steelhead Estates erupted. The event began sometime around 7PM SL time. Eugenia Burton, a resident of Steelhead, provided the following picture, showing huge, billowing clouds of ash rising into the air, and the skies a striking shade of blood red. The mountaintop was gone, and much of St. Helens scarred, blackened trunks of trees on the sides of the volcano knocked over.

Yours truly wasn't able to get to the event, or the volcano party that was planned to take place by the lake near St. Helens (provided the ash cloud didn't blow their way). But stopping by the following morning, there was still an ash cloud over St. Helens. The event was more ash and less lava than a similar eruption in August 2011.

May 18 is the anniversary of the 1980 eruption of the real-life Mount St. Helens, as well as the birthday of Steelhead resident Tensai Hilra.

Bixyl Shuftan

Steelhead's Mount St. Helens Expected to Blow Today

Sheriff Fuzzball Ortega relayed to Second Life Newser that their nearby dormant volcano, Mount St. Helens was expected to erupt sometime today, "maybe twice." By some errie coincidence, it's also the birthday of Tensai Hilra. There will be a party held in honor of both the birthday and the "bewm" at 7PM SL time near the mountain. The scientists (or madboys and madgirls, depending on who you ask) assure nothing will go wrong.

The mountain is at the Steelhead St Helens sim (128, 131, 38)

(In real life, Tensai Hilra's birthday on May 18th is the date the real Mount St. Helens erupted)