If you had a chance for your avatar to get on TV, it would be a great day. But that was just one of a few things that made that day one to remember. I ran into an old friend, and also met a Second Life celebrity - Torley Linden.
I had recently gotten a message in a stored IM from Sean Voss, the first I had heard from him since he went on hiatus after suspending his SL Tours. He told his group, me included, that he was going to be on the Discovery Channel, and invited us to join him.On Tuesday Sept 30, I logged in and got another stored message from Sean Voss. He had started about a couple hours ago. Porting to Landmark Island, it was empty. But after IMing him, he soon appeared. Things were a bit awkward as my voice was off at first, (I had turned it off while in a place where it was causing trouble), and a few other details. But after some minutes, he asked me to invite some friends over. Most were busy, or too embarrassed, but I was able to get Firehorse Rearwind and one other friend over. I introduced them, as they had never met, then Sean asked us to port over to Paris, so we did.
And as things slowly rezzed, I heard voices, and it was soon obvious we were in a group. As Sean showed us around, it soon became clear a couple avatars were with Discovery. There was a Linden in the group, one whom had a watermellon-colored necktie and a very familiar voice, but I didn't recognize the name. When someone called him “Torley,” I knew whom it was, the guy whose made a name for himself with his helpful videos for SL newbies and more experienced residents alike. He was using an alt account for this event.
Sean described the sim, focused on Paris as it looked around 1900. He led us to the Moulin Rouge, where we were invited to dance. One lady invited me to dance, and it was one that had us strutting about like chickens, which had us chuckling. After that, we headed to the Eiffel Tower, went up to the summit, and parachuted down. Once we were all down, the two with Discovery told the rest of us they had enough footage, thanked us, and ported out.
Sean Voss and a few others left as well (Sean still had yet to tell us when the footage was likely to be shown), which left the rest of us with Torley Linden. Torley was happy to talk with us, talking about in his early days of SL people would often charge ridiculous amounts for lessons, and making a promise to himself if he ever had the power, he would show people what to do for free. He also talked some about the development of Windlight. When he began talking about his cat, I rezzed a SL pet pug dog that a friend had given me, which got a few chuckles from Torley, him telling us he had yet to see one of those in Second Life.
Eventually, Torley had to go, and we all went our separate ways. And so ended a very interesting afternoon in Second Life. Thanks again to everyone.
Bixyl Shuftan
