Happy Easter

 

 Originally posted in 2015, Valkyrie Ice was a choco bunny at the party one night, but someone bit off her hear.

 

By Bixyl Shuftan

 

 

 

Cartoon of The Day: Nice List Surprise

 

 Taken at Club Cutlass. Surprisingly, Valkyrie Ice, the resident sucubus, ended up on the "Nice" list. That might not sit well with all 'cubi, though.

By Bixyl Shuftan

 

RFL Announcement: Sunbeamer "Bid Me" Totals

 
The first round of "Bid Me" fundraisers by Team Sunbeamers has concluded. And here are the results.

Rita Mariner: Bid Me Tiny

Stay Bunny: 600L
Turn Tiny:   2500L

Liska da'Lantros (LiskaDaLantros Resident): Bid Me Deer

Stay Foxy:   550L
Turn Deer: 4000L

Liska turns doe for one week

Bixyl Shuftan: Bid Me Tiny

Stay Foxy: 100L
Turn Tiny: 1800L

Valkyrie Ice (Valkyrie McGill): Bid Me Jackal

Stay demoness: 0L
Turn Jackal: 4000L

Val goes jackal for one week

Total Raised: 13,550 L

Another Bid Me should be in the works soon. Stay tuned for details.

Go Sunbeamers! Go Relay!
 

Reader Submitted: Cows With Guns

 

From Cynthia Farshore. At Club Cutlass, Valkyrie Ice, in a bovine avatar, was sporting a BFG (Big Freakin Gun). That probably sparked a few "Cows With Guns" jokes.
 

Sunweaver Launches Gofundme To Meet Expenses Following Job Loss

 

Among the personalities at the Sunweaver community (and RFL Sunbeamer team) is Valkyrie Ice (Valkyrie McGill). She stands out as being a demihuman in a place full of furs, as well as having written for a futurist magazine (and the Newser a couple times). She's also has skills as an artist. And recently has decided to get back into her artistry. But, she needs a little help. She recently lost her job in real life, and made the decision to post a Gofundme.

I lost my job due to Covid, and I am wishing to concentrate on trying to make a living with my art. I need assistance currently with meeting living expenses, and keeping myself online in order to do so. I am diabetic, with peripheral neuropathy, and having difficulty standing for long periods. As I live in a very small town, my job options are very few. I am fortunate that my living expenses are small, and the amount requested would cover a couple of months worth as I try to start making a income with my art.

I need the funds within a month or so, so that I can apply them to my upcoming bills. I've had to stop working on my art for several years so I am having to reteach myself how to use the software, so any support would be very helpful in allowing me to begin producing artwork regularly.

And even if you cannot help me, I would like to thank all of you for even considering doing so.  

To make a donation, Click Here.
  

Reader Submitted: Review of the Legacy Mesh Body

  

For quite some time, the Newser has gone without a new article in the Fashion section. Recently, reader Valkyrie Ice (Valkyrie McGill) sent over a review of the Legacy mesh body (classic version). So what did she have to say? A number of things.
 
Read Valkyrie's article in Fashion.
  

Cartoon of the Day: Minecraft Madness

Taken at the Happy Vixen's "Game" event.

By Bixyl Shuftan

Reader Submitted: Space Engineers "The Walkyure"

Besides busy modding her outfits, Valkyrie Ice has been busy in the MMO "Space Engineers." Here is a work of hers that took over a year to make: "The Walkyure, an exercise in large scale ship building." But as the game is in early release in beta, it has been subject to change. Among the changes were some that made the ship impossible to finish as planned, at least for now.

Well, at least you can see what I spent over a year building, only to have SE's "PVP balancing" make impossible to finish.

The Ship made to use the Leviathan Engine wings, The Walkyure was supposed to be a massive carrier ship, able to support multiple fighters, manufacture more at will, defend itself against entire fleets of pirates, etc.

Instead, she's an unfinshed hulk that is likely to never be finished until Keen decides to make the game friendly to BUILDERS again, instead of PVP combat junkies.

Oh well. If you have any interest in ART instead of blowing each other up, feel free to load her. It's a world, and will load all mods. It's primarily Shao mods, with a few others for specific items. You can fly through most of her since the game has turned the majority of her into a ghost, and made it impossible to add any more blocks.

Valkyrie McGill Interviewed in Futurism Magazine

Valkyrie Ice McGill, a member of the Sunweaver community of which the Newser office is located in, was recently interviewed for part of an article in the online science news magazine "Futurism." Valkyrie, an advocate for "morphological freedom," was quoted in "Reproductive Tech Will Let Future Humans Inhabit the Body They Truly Want," dated January 9.

The article was about the possibility of uterine transplants for male to female transgendered, which are currently open only to women with damaged uteruses or without one. The subject is not without debate. In one survey, "nearly one in three obstetrician-gynecologists said they believe uterine transplants are unethical." One other person quoted stated, "A lot of people have questions about whether this is a valid allocation of health care resources." And some feel this level of surgery should be reserved only when someones life is on the line, not for quality of life.

But as surgery techniques improve and the risk becomes less, there very well may be some interesting possibilities. “We can rebuild every part of the human body: teeth, bone, just about anything,” Valkyrie was quoted as saying, “What we don’t know how to do at the moment is put all of this together into one single cohesive piece: the Da Vinci surgeon robot that takes a 3D map of your body and then plans a series of microsurgeries to slowly transform you from one thing to another.”

When I talked to Valkyrie, I asked her if anyone she talked to had reservations about her desire for people being able to change themselves on such a level on the grounds of being worried about "supermen," such as Khan and his followers in "Star Trek" and the gene-splicers in "Batman Beyond." She answered that hasn't really been the issue, "mostly it's been 'why can't you just be happy being what I feel comfortable insisting you be?'" One extreme example of this was recently when she had posted about the interview on Facebook, and someone responded with a death threat, "he basically said that my being transgender meant I was the problem with this country, that I was trying to tech his kids to be transgender, and that I should die. ... he claimed he wanted to (be) a girl as a kid, but 'wised up' and that I should too."

Valkyrie has quite a resume of online magazine writing, which include H+ Magazine, Acceler8or, IEET, and Transhumanity.net.

Bixyl Shuftan

Today Last Day Up For the Relay Sims

With the time until the Relay sims come down getting closer, many were taking some time, even if it was brief, to give then another look. I happened to catch this meetup between Trader Whiplash, Gem Sunkiller, and Aryon Dagger.

Fuzzball Ortega was also giving the track a look. As far as yours truly knows, he walked most of the way. Though word has it he was in a go-cart part of the way.

Among the people I ran into was Nancy Clowes, the head of the "Fun Rides and Amusement Parks" group. She introduced me to Pryda Parx, the producer of the Future Shock machinima series.

Valkyrie Ice found an Asian-themed build at RFL Journey. Since she couldn't take it with her, she took a number of picturesque screenshots with her in a Chinese outfit.

There were two announcements in the Relay groups today. One was the time for the "Flood Party, " which was scheduled to be between 5PM and 7PM somewhere in the Relay sims.

Location TBA on Wednesday
Join us one last time for a Farewell party to the Relay Sim.
Dance, party and share your relay memories!

Bring your inner tube to put on and wear your water proof clothes....just sayin.

The other announcement was a sadder one, that after Wednesday, the event would be coming to a close.

 Sadly the Relay Sims need to be returned. Campsite clean up must be done by Thursday June 21  11pm slt. We are not responsible for any no copy items left on the sims after that time.

Please try to leave the campsites /builds up until Wednesday night or Thursday if you can, as ppl are still visiting.

For those who want to see lots of screenshots of the Relay Weekend, there is the Relay for Life in Second Life Flickr page. Among the top contributors, Wildstar Beaumont, and IshtarAngel Micheline (Ishtarkiss)

Bixyl Shuftan

Cartoon of the Day: Shinny Armor

Taken at Club Cutlass. Valkyrie Ice shows off another set of bikini armor. While we've done this sort of cartoon before about armor that provides no real protection other than to distract the heck out of males, the joke she cracked led to the dialogue that made this different enough.

By Bixyl Shuftan

Guy Fawkes Day/Bonfire Night at the Happy Vixen

"Remember, remember, the Fifth of November." In Britain, Guy Fawkes Day/Bonfire Night. In 1605, a group of conspirators plotted to blow up Parliament and the King, with Guy Fawkes guarding the gunpowder. But the "Gunpowder Plot" was discovered and Guy Fawkes captured and later executed. The English people celebrated their king escaping harm that night by burning bonfires, and have been doing so ever since, with fireworks and the practice of burning effigies of Guy Fawkes later added. In more recent history, Guy Fawkes has become something of a symbol or anti-government resistance with the character "V" in "V for Vendetta" wearing a Guy Fawkes mask and it's adoption by "Anonymous" as a symbol of theirs.

Guy Fawkes Day/Bonfire Night was celebrated in some places in Second Life with numbers of British, such as London. But there's just something primal about a good roarin' fire, and others took the opportunity to celebrate as well. At the Happy Vixen in the Purrfection Estates sim a couple nights before on Thursday November 3, a bonfire was set up next to the beach club, with an effigy of "The Guy" going up in smoke, and the people at the party danced away in firey costumes, fire animations, and a few with Guy Fawkes masks or black hats and cloaks.

The music was played by DJ Serenity, with Perri Prinz and Valkyrie Ice sharing the prize for best outfit.

The Happy Vixen's sister club, Club Cutlass would also have a Guy Fawkes party, this one right on the day of the holiday. But no pictures were taken of the event.

Bixyl Shuftan

Minecraft Video: "Val-Halla 2 by Valkyrie"

(Click here if the video fails to load)

By Valkyrie McGill on April 28, Normally the Newser doesn't post videos from outside Second Life, but this was from Sunweavers' Valkyrie Ice/ Valkyrie McGill, whom has been building in Skylark Lefavre's "Feed the Beast: Infinity" mod of Minecraft. Here, she shows off "A hi-def walkthrough of Val-Halla 2 ... my underground city complex. Not quite finished."

Cartoon of the Day

Taken at Club Cutlass. Looks like Valkyrie Ice and Akea Grommet took the theme for the club's event a bit literally.

By Bixyl Shuftan

Cartoon of the Day

Taken at Club Cutlass, Valkyrie Ice shows off her succubus' "assassin's outfit." Skimpy outfits for women fighters, armor and otherwise, has become quite a cliche in gaming. Perhaps it's the result of perverted designers. Or maybe, just maybe, such outfits actually do offer some practical advantages.

By Bixyl Shuftan

Cartoon of the Day: Happy Easter

At Club Cutlass's Easter party, Valkyrie Ice (Valkyrie McGil) finds that while it might make you "sweet" to others, being a chocolate bunny has it's downside.

By Bixyl Shuftan

Back in FTB Minecraft Again

I haven't written much about the adventures of the "Furry Gamers" in Minecraft in quite some time as yours truly has not been there very much. Most of the activity has been in the FTB, the "Feed the Beast" servers. They do offer more variety than "vanilla" Minecraft, but without a more powerful computer the result is one can lag and hesitate quite a bit. Which at night can result in the zombies and creepers catching up to you and doing you in. That is, if you get in. There's a lot of FTB servers out there, and unless you get things just right, you can't connect.

Lately I decided to check out where my friends in the "Second Life Furry Gamers" have been focusing on. They got a server using the new "Infinity" mod, and they were in business. Jasmine Dawn, not active much in Second Life but still active in Minecraft showed me around. The entry location is next to a village, so there's a few tools available. There's also a monster-free zone there, so one doesn't have to worry about being assaulted by mobs if you're in the vicinity. Some of the trees bear fruit, such as apples, cherries, and plums, so food is a little less of a problem.

Jasmine showed me her place not far from the village, which was a windmill on a floating island one gets to via a teleporter. What got my attention was the detail some of the decorative objects had, cups and saucers, ships in a bottle, even a model of the Solar System. Not bad.

Others such as Valkyrie Ice and Nydia Tungsten are starting to build structures of their own. Skylark Lefavre and Kiwi have been doing things on their own server for a while, though I think they've been taking a look here as well. So far,  yours truly has just a "hidey hole" in a valley and a small farm at the edge of a pond. Perhaps I'll have time to write more about later on in the future.

Bixyl Shuftan