It Came From Bellisseria Chat: Raccoon Abduction

 

 

From Traci Quandry-Marabana (Traci Quandry), who posted this in the Bellisseria group chat, "Things that happen when ya fish in Belli." One looked at the image, saying "Poor raccoon."

 

April Fools in Second Life

 

Some people love April Fool's Day. Others hate "International Crawl Under a Rock Day" as one called it. Either way, quite a number or pranks happen. Some go well. Some don't. And a few go truly epic. The Newser got into the act with it's April Fool article. But we weren't the only ones having fun. So were many others, including the Linden Lab Moles with their "UFO" stunt.

Read more in Extra.

It Came From Bellisseria Chat: UFO Sighting

Chats in the Bellisseria group are often interesting. You might hear a joke from a Linden or Mole. You might hear some useful information, especially if you're after a Linden home. Often, there's a lot of joking around. Like on the afternoon of Thursday August 25 when one resident reported a spacecraft sighting, with photo evidence. 

 

Read the chatter in People. 

 

Cartoon of The Day: Flying Saucer

 

Taken at the Happy Vixen. So how would a flying saucer end up in the hands of a working class human? Well, I could think of a few possible explanations.
 
By Bixyl Shuftan
 

Montecito Bay UFO: The Military Responds

Montecito Bay has seen no shortage of weirdness. But it was about six months ago since it's weirdest time, when one of the town's buildings was hit by what looked like a UFO. Following when the strange craft was removed from the building but before it was taken away, the Newser managed to get a closer look. It's being taken away and the weird building that appeared in the wrecked structure's place overnight might have been the last word on the story. But this week, the Newser finally got an explanation from the US Military about the incident. So did they give a reason other than "swamp gas?"

Read the story in Extra.

Update on Montecito Bay: The Holographic Tower

When I took a close look at the site of the UFO crash in Montecito Bay late last month, I expected the flying saucer and what appeared to be either a mannequin or a body that had somehow avoided decay to be taken away soon. And checking the place last weekend, as expected they were gone. But what I didn't expect was finding the site completely repaired and with a new tower that looked like it might have been made by someone not of this Earth.

The top of the structure was surrounded by what looked like a red holographic globe. Besides the structure was some bizarre-looking sculpture and unearthly-looking plants that had glowing leaves. Just beneath the top was a circular band that went around the tower, full of the same kind of symbols that were in club schedule updates prior to the Groundhog Day incident.

There didn't seem to be an obvious way up. I did see a pad that looked a little like those transporter pads in science-fiction shows. A way to the top of the tower? I hesitated to find out.

Another thing I noticed, or rather didn't notice, were the "street circles" in the pattern of crop circles that had been on town intersections for months. They were now all gone.

So what does this all mean? I had a few words with town mayor Lem Aiko (LemonPledge Resident), who told me that "Official statement, it was swamp gas," and wasn't in a position to say more. But he did get me in touch with someone who was willing to speak under a condition of anonymity, saying that they had been told to say nothing by the Feds, "I know what I know, and you saw what you saw. It was indeed E.T. but this time they waged war on our city. I was there when they shot the city up in their UFO's. why would they do that if it wasn't an act of war? We still don't know why the UFO went down, or even why they were here in the first place." Someone with him thought the saucer probably went down due to pilot error, though it was a guess. A second person joked, "I think they were going for the irresistible hot dog cart and totally missed, but that's just me."

Of the strange tower that suddenly went up, "The crazy guy who I made mention of before says the building was a peace offering. He was right last time, I would believe him about that. I just hope they don't do it again. It cost the city millions. That is also why we are redeveloping the area that was bombed. the UFO attack so severely damaged the infrastructure in that part of the city, it's cheaper to completely scrap the design and move on to something new."

So is this the last we'll hear about flying saucers around here? With that strange tower, I hesitate to say. Even so, Montecito Bay never seems to be quiet for very long. Something strange usually happens just after things begin to settle in a routine. There's already reports of strange small creatures that speak with a lisp and have a craving for clams and other shellfish. And of course, there's what will be going up in place of the torn town buildings, whatever it is.

Montecity Bay, signing off, for now.

Note: There was no actual alien attack, just people having some fun.

Bixyl Shuftan

Montecito Bay Update

Since my last look at Montecito Bay's damaged corner a week and a half ago, work has continued on the cleanups and repairs. The severely damaged buildings have been torn down. Although some of the area remains fenced off, a road and sidewalk now goes through what used to be rubble. While much remains to be done, much progress has been made.

But Montecito Bay being Montecito Bay, it didn't long for me to find some kind of weirdness. I noticed what looked like a severed horse's head in a burning bonfire. Was some mafia don wannabe trying to make an offer the town couldn't refuse? Or perhaps someone got the place confused with Nags head North Carolina? Since I didn't see who put it there, or who lit the fire, no idea, at least for now.

Running into Moff (MoffettMephit Resident), he did tell me there was an update on the "UFO crash site." "The Galleria site is cleaned up," he told me, "and the authorities are about to remove that thing." They still won't let the townsfolk what it is, "officially, we don't know what's going on at that site. But thankfully they seem to be finishing up and, we are hoping we'll have that part of our town back soon." As for their reaction to press coverage, "They did rough up Lem, tho, trying to figure out how the press got in (grin). Cuz, ya know, he's also the Mayor." He then backtracked a bit, "I'm sure it was just a thorough questioning with an order to never discuss what was said."

Stay tuned for more when additional information is available.

Note: The sim wasn't really griefed, or were any authorities for real involved. Just the people behind the sim having a little fun.

Bixyl Shuftan

Update on Montecito Bay Cleanup

Montecito Bay experiences no shortage of weirdness. But lately things have been getting weird and destructive. A few weeks ago, the southwest corner of the city was wrecked. Thankfully no one was hurt, and cleanup soon started. A few weeks later, the city is just about ready to rebuild. But the cleanup has also exposed some possible evidence of a previous incident, the crash of a strange craft in December.

Read the story in Places.

Update On Montecito Bay's UFO

It's been a few weeks since the Newser reported on the mystery craft that had apparently crashed into the side of one of the buildings in Montecito Bay. So what's happened since then? A little.

Dropping by one event there, I asked what had come about since the crash. Someone commented, "I saw a ufo fly over my house, was a silent wingless black thing." Someone else joked, "I heard that gosh darned Loch Ness Monster was tryin' to get minimum wage at the donut shop on the shoreline again. Gosh darned Loch Ness Monsters."

Moff (MoffettMephit Resident) went into more detail, "So from what I've been told, it's all top secret as far as I can tell. But they don't know what it is. Current prevailing theories are, it's a giant radio controlled model that went horribly awry, or perhaps a top secret military thing. Now the believers are showing up and pushing some alien/UFO theory. You can tell by the angle it hit the building that whatever that thing is had some reasonable altitude."

There was one other matter, the posters of their club events becoming increasingly marked by weird symbols, as well as announcements in Discord. Moff told me, "About the posters, I dunno what's going on there. We create them, they are perfect, and the moment we upload them to the places they go, they somehow get corrupted. I'm wondering about sunspots. I mean, they're uploaded, so there's a data stream involved, so yeah, I guess sunspots could interfere. We're not really finding anything else. Same with the radio streams. They're clean, but then that weird stuff happens."

Of the mystery patterns with a resemblance to crop circles that have appeared in the sim's streets, Moff replied, "The streets department tried. None of their strippers will touch that paint, or whatever it is." Talking to him later, he was saying they would only go so far in trying to remove the symbols as they didn't seem to be doing any harm, "We're still trying to figure out which solvent to use to clean 'em up. So far, none have worked. We don't want to cause an environmental crisis. "

 "This has been a very bizarre year here," Moff told me, then smiled, "I can't wait til the new year!"

Later on, there was a conversation about a NASA craft in development that would stop meteors. Some wag, probably referring to the situation in the city, commented it would be useless against aliens.

What happens next? Time will tell.

Bixyl Shuftan

Mystery Craft In Montecito Bay

Just a week after the Newser reported on mysterious circles appearing on the streets of Montecito Bay, more strangeness has happened. Their Oceanside Galleria building has what looks like a flying saucer of some kind having crashed into the side.

If anyone needs to take Flamingo Ave. East, don't bother, traffic is officially halted from the start of Mission and ends at Venetia. We're not entirely sure, but... there's been a massive..... object that's crashed into the Galleria. We're doing our best to sort it, but please, to avoid delays, simply go all the way around to Bayside Drive or Palm Drive.

Group chatter didn't reveal much. Two people stated besides the police, the FBI has gotten involved. But no one would would say a thing about what the craft was, except perhaps the person in charge of the community's Twitter page.

Traffic has been halted from the start of Mission to Venetia, as authorities investigate a vehicle crash in the side of the Galleria. Expect delays. ⌿⍀⟒⌿⏃⍀⟒ ⊬⍜⎍⍀⌇⟒⌰⎐⟒⌇
#SecondLife #UFO #Second_Life

So somebody called this craft a "UFO." What the strange symbols in the tweet, or those in the tweet of this week's club events mean, or if they have anything to do with the UFO or the strange markings on the streets is unknown.

Although the US Military has tried to develop aircraft that resemble flying saucers, so far the prototypes are highly unstable more than a few feet in the air ... so far.

Stay tuned for more information.

Source: Popular Mechanics

Bixyl Shuftan

Cartoon of the Day

By Bixyl Shuftan

The UFO

Gemma Cleanslate recently went to an exhibition by artist Betty Turead: The UFO. She created it with the intention to be thought-provoking. But with bright colors, and designs that change as the visitor walks through, this display of art promises to be a visual treat as well.

See Gemma's account in Design.