Mythica Woods

By Becky "Sha" Shamen

Last February 20, 2016, we published an article on the Sunny Beach sim, which this reporter played a major role in remodeling, for it's new residents, Erik, Lilly and Edwyn Mouse. We met and became friends with Erik years ago, when he lived in a one room burrow on the North side of Sunweaver Bay. For years, Erik was just another name on Sha's large list of friends, until something sparked his interest in improving the quality of his virtual life. As a SL Newser reader, he knew that Sha was very interested in improving life for the community and it's residents, so he began to seek her help to find ways of improving his life. As a teacher of Ancient Wisdom, Sha recognized this as a sign that Erik was taking the first steps in becoming a "Seeker of Knowledge."

Every new step is always preceded by a point of tension, but the pressures can be a bit easier to handle if you have a good guide, helping with good directions to your upward evolution. We assured him that he could always find peace and help at our home and even provided a private room in the castle, which would be a safe home away from home, should the pressure become too much and slow his search for joy. Sha is always quick to point out that a Teacher/Student  relationship does not imply a higher or lower step on the evolutionary ladder. In fact, the teacher and student will often switch roles and learn from each other. For years, Sha has been developing a list of virtues or qualities that lead to greater Oneness within one's community. As we began preparing this article, it dawned on us that we had been given such a list of virtues in our childhood, having been a member of Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Sea Scouts. It was called "The Boy scout's Motto".

   A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent. It seems that we have created SL Scout Troop 101. Let's see what our scouts have been up to, this year.

During the recent RFL walk, Erik had tracked Sha down and came to the Sunbeamer's camp, to stand on the sidewalk and cheer for the runners. While we stood there, he panned his camera to  the camp on the other side of the street. He loved the dense woods there and asked if we could make the woods on Sunny Beach look more like that. We both inspected the area, to find out the maker of the mesh woods. Sha told him, if he got the kit, she would help him to fit more trees and landscape the ground to fit them. The result was the East side of the sim is now heavily wooded and fitting of the title, "Mythica Woods". Now, even more than before, the best way to navigate your way around the sim is to first enter Mouselook. The local animated critters now enjoy an endless game of Hide and Seek in the dense woods.

Inspired by his own creation, Erik  now wanted to attract more visitors to Mythica Woods and connect it better with the local community. Part of our initial remodeling was to make the sim a good place for people to enjoy sailing around it. To accommodate the tall masts, Rita raised the inter-sim highway bridge to 32m. To allow visitors to walk or drive from bridge to ground, we provided a spiral ramp. Since Sunny Beach was now too wooded and hilly, for wheeled vehicles, Erik decided to replace the ramp with a staircase with railings, to promote "walk-ins". Sha let him do most of the design and work, himself, helping only with fine tuning the position and textures. We are very pleased with our little friend's developing skills as a builder.

   As Erik was building the stairs, one trial position  pointed the lower section North, towards the proposed new dance floor, but Sha pointed out that visitors  would be blocked by one of the hobbit homes. Changing it to point West would cause visitors to see more of the sim, on their way to the gathering areas. When the stairway was finished, we arranged the welcome signs and build an arched gate, which, without words, invites visitors to enter the woods here.

 As you meander through the sim, when you get to the twin waterfalls, head East and you will arrive at the area that I called "the local watering hole". This is the central gathering area of the island. Here, you'll find a spring fed fresh water pond, a bonfire for telling stories around, a star gate portal to places around the grid, a fairy ring teleport for group members to local favorite spots and our new Cuddle basket, with seating for regular and tiny avatars. 

If that's not enough to get gatherings started, we have also just added a dance club, with a working DJ booth and a contest board. The view, behind the DJ, includes the Sunny Beach surfing wave. To help promote the wave attraction, I named the club, "Surf City". Unlike many SL clubs, Surf City will not have a regular weekly schedule or a paid staff. Instead, it will be available for private events, like group celebrations, weddings, and other small gatherings. Contact Erik, if you would like to book an event. Sha has the DJ board set up with a pre-programmed set of music stream channels. We have already added our first DJ's stream, with a channel for Skylark Lefavre. If you are a DJ and would like to have your stream added, contact Sha with your URL and she will add you to the board. Djs will be paid for each event that they work. For those that just want to dance and socialize, we have provided a dance ball and will soon add ones for tinies and ponies.

Ready, set, go, Sunny Beach, a.k.a. Mythica Woods, has fully upgraded to become a great new place to gather in Oneness. We hope you will join us in our joyful celebrations of life in the virtual world.

"Sha"