Great Dismal Grand Opening Event Scheduled

The Lake of the Dismal Swamp

"They made her a grave too cold and damp
For a soul so warm and true;
And she's gone to the Lake of the Dismal Swamp,
Where all night long, by a firefly lamp,
She paddles her white canoe.

And her firefly lamp I soon shall see,
And her paddle I soon shall hear;
Long and moving our life shall be
And I'll hide the maid in a cypress tree,
When the footstep of death is near."

Away to the Dismal Swamp he speeds,
His path was rugged and sore,
Through tangled juniper, beds of reeds,
Through many a fen where the serpent feeds,
And man never trod before.

And when on the earth he sank to sleep,
If slumber his eyelids knew,
He lay where the deadly vine doth weep
Its venemous tear, and nightly steep
The flesh with blistering dew!

And near him the she-wolf stirr'd the brake,
And the copper-snake breathed in his ear,
Till he starting cried, from his dream awake,
"Oh when shall I see the dusky Lake,
And the white canoe of my dear?"

He saw the Lake, and a meteor bright
Quick over its surface play'd,
"Welcome," he said, "my dear one's light!"
And the dim shore echo'd for many a night
The name of the death-cold maid.

Till he hollow'd a boat of the birchen bark,
Which carried him off from the shore;
Far, far he follow'd the meteor spark,
The wind was high and the clouds were dark,
And the boat return'd no more.

But oft, from the Indian hunter's camp,
This lover and maid so true
Are seen at the hour of midnight damp
To cross the Lake by a firefly lamp,
And paddle their white canoe!

Thomas Moore

Join ZATZAi Asturias in Lilliput Great Dismal on April 18th from 5pm-7pm SLT. DJ Frequency Picnic will be spinning Zydeco, Dixieland, southern rock, and a variety of other tunes. We'll be dancing in the cemetery and touring the gorgeous sim.

Fleet Intel from familiar waters

(written as part of a series for Zatzai.com)

It had been only 15 minutes or so since the yeoman brought the steam kinescopic device and accompanying envelope to my desk. I immediately recognized Bestoso's handwriting. Good- she had survived the trip back through the rift. Even better - she was alive and was able to get a report back through time to me. After I studied the information, I packed it up and walked across the yard to the Commodore's offices.

I found him standing around charts with CDR Murakami. They were speaking to Mr. Zatzai Asturias, the autocrat of these lands. Apparently updating him on the floating island recently found.

I cleared my throat and they all looked up.

"Lady, what do you have for us, then?" asked O'Toole.

I simply walked over to the drafting table and laid my folder on top of the charts. This picture was on top.

Of course Murakami and the Commodore immediately knew where this was taken. I could feel more than see the junior officer in the room shift uncomfortably in his boots. O'Toole's jaw dropped involuntarily, his pipe splashing into the mug of coffee he had placed so carefully on the edge of the table. Zatzai watched in growing curiosity...not quite worry...but concern.

"What else, Eva?" the Commodore managed in a quiet tone.

I handed him the brief note from LCR Bestoso and continued describing what appears to be a rebuilding of the fleet in Caledon.

"Well - obviously - we see in that last picture, the Guvnah's mansion in Victoria City, although it appears to have undergone significant changes since we were last in that time and place. As a side note, Bestoso did not give any indication if she arrived back through the portal at the same time/place she left it with us so many months ago or if time had advanced significantly for Caledon and the world as we knew it."

"This new class of ship they are building appears to be of a pre-dreadnought design of some sort. The power plant is large, but I cannot make predictions as to the fuel used based on our limited information. There are also at least 4 light guns and possibly a torpedo ram."

Fleet Intel Report

CDR Bellambi - I hope this kinescopic device and the few still pictures make it back through the rift. We have found what appears to be HQ for the rebuilding Caledon Navy. I am safe here back in 19th Century Caledon and will stay to provide future reports. Hope to have orders from you soon. Yours- LCDR Bestoso

"Good lord, woman! I've enough on our hands with this blasted floating island approaching. What do you think this means? Will the Caledon fleet now follow us into the rift of time? Do you think they want us back there? Or dead?"

"Hotspur, I don't think we can answer those questions just yet. We just don't have enough data....not by a long shot." I felt Zatzai and MrBunwah watching me closely as I continued. "Desmond does not seem to have more than this one ship at present, and it is still in the shipyard - such as it is. What we HAVE is a warning. Something to watch and be very sensitive to, because you are absolutely right. That floating piece of discarded ships and whatnot is a far greater threat to us right now."

I felt his resolve return as he picked his pipe up from the coffee and began wiping down the charts with his handkerchief. He straightened up and then...

"MrBunnnnnnnnnwaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!"

Zatzai jumped as did the young Commander.

"Yessir Commodore. I'm right beside you sir." He managed.

"Do you have the task force of Tyrians, Kotetsus, and Lavancos ready to go? We must get out ahead of this interloper...meet it along it's path. That will be our surprise for them."

MrBunwah shook his head and began to detail some delay or another when O'Toole interrupted,
"Well get a move on boy! We've no time to lose! Disssssmisssssed!"

As he ran out of the offices, I turned to Zatzai and Hotspur...."Now let's review the kinescopic data and see what else we may be in for..."

We huddled around the machine only beginning to digest what this all may mean for the Wrath Fleet and for Lilliput and surrounds.

Sea Fever

A lovely undersea scene - in fitting tribute to my late Cousin Kendra.
Blake's Kendra

As has been reported in several other journals including ZATZAi, Hibernia, and a Caledonian Journey.

Today, I found myself over in Roatan checking the progress on the docks and the sea was so quiet and lovely, I pulled my Columbia out of storage and went for a sail.

It was truly wonderful - and I barely scratched the surface of the available water.

Heading out to Blake's Kendra past Breaker's Rock

The open sea!

Vast and beautiful water

Approaching Althorn Point

Dropping anchor at Althorn Point

Sunset at Althorn Point overlooking my boat

Back in Roatan

Sea Fever

by John Masefield

I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a gray mist on the sea's face, and a gray dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
All I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the seagulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way, where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And a quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

Happy 3rd Anniversary Artificial Isle!

I was pleased to have been asked to assist in the coordination and planning of the Founder's Day events in Artificial Isle (Ai).

The event was to have been simply a fun party held in the Oceanside area of Ai filled with music and laughter. We had a live musician, harpo Jedburgh, for the first hour of the celebration.

harpo Jedburgh played a great set for the first hour of the party.

And DJ Frequency Picnic was at the turntables for the rest of the fun.

Frequency Picnic

Despite the issues with huge concurrency and bots, which made logging-in impossible for many, we had a nice crowd and quite a lot of fun.

ZATZAi dances (left) with the first resident, Dash, of the original sim.

some of the crowd listening to harpo's set

MarkTwain and Nber dance to the music

A member of the Royal Caledonian Air Force who enjoys flying in the area, decides to dance in the air as well.

(Wolf whistle) MarkTwain strips down to his...erm....valentine swim trunks...for the dunking booth fun.

The crowd lined up to ensure that Mark hit the drink.

ZATZ's turn

aaaannnnd....she goes under.

I've not been notified who won the tardis in the drawing at the end of the party as I had to return to the real.

I look forward to the next events in ZATZAi and Artificial Isle. Many more happy years!!

*

A Grand Celebration

Words cannot express how truly wonderful the event in Artificial Isle last night was (despite one very rude guest, who will be dealt with privately and with MI-5 tact, but deserves no more ætheric time here). After nearly one month of planning and work on the Military Winter Holiday Celebration, it was with great pleasure that I watched the magic of it unfold before my eyes last night.

I arrived in world about 45 minutes prior to the event announced start time and ensured that the grog had been adequately prepared by the officers assigned to such a chore. Really they do this with glee every time assuming that they will never be sentenced to such a thing. It was brilliantly sinister (zinfindel, whisky, rum, onion, sausages, meade, and several other unidentifiable ingredients).

I found when I arrived that ZATZAi and Hotspur were already there attending to various tasks before the guests arrived. The hall looked beautiful. Pray allow me to acknowledge the efforts of so many willing participants as this event was in the planning stages. Without their help, we would not have had the gorgeous setting.

• ZATZAi Asturias for asking us to host this event and for the use of his sim and amphitheatre; for creating a collaborative environment. He made working on this a true pleasure. He also provided the large tree, several presents, and furnishings.
  
• Kate Nicholas for allowing me to modify several of her textures for the walls of the venue, for making the fine tables and chairs as well as the parading animation.
  
• Kamilah Hauptmann for the grog mug and animation, Radslns Hutchence for the creation of the grog punch bowl.
  
• Christine McAllister for donation of cigars and brandy
  
• Ordinal Malaprop for the creation of the dinner roll thrower.
• Soliel Snook for her wonderful music program creation.

Of course none of the above would have mattered one whit without all of our guests and active participants (photos follow).

The ceremony was loosely based on the Military Dining In/Out ceremony. Adapting this to SL in a multisim/multi-branch military event was interesting. As I wrote the program, I carefully pulled what I could - what made sense - into our ceremony.

• President and Vice President of the Mess
• Honored guests
• Toasting which began with the countries and sovereigns or leaders represented.
• Limericks and grog
• Parading of the beef
• A guest speaker - telling a short story in this case
• Dancing and general frivolity after the smoking lamp was lit

Our President - Governor AngusGraham Caewlin
Mr. Vice - Commodore Hotspur O'Toole
Honored Guests - ZATZAi Asturias and Fanci Bebee from the United Sailing Sims
Honored Guests - Gregg Barrymore and Angel Magellan, Grand Duke and Duchess of Antiquity
Honored Guest - Kamilah Hauptmann, Vicereine of Caledon
Honored Guest - Sharrah Brendel, Baroness, Antiquity, partner of Governor Caewlin
Honored Guest and speaker - Breezy Carver of Babbage and Steelhead
Honored Guest - Commodore Scattered Sideways, Antiquity
Honored Guest - Colonel Exrex Somme, First Caledon Lancers - Loch Avie's Own
Honored Guest and Music Director - Soliel Snook, Marchioness of Bigglesford

Not only was the evening simply a pleasure, if very intense in management, but we met the goals we established at the outset with ZATZAi. We had a desire to bring several communities with like interests in naval and military activities together, building relationships and offering opportunities which are not always available to single RP or theme groups.

*smiles happily*

I do believe we did this.

This is only the first of many cross-sim events to come. Next? Story-telling and SPD ship battles.

See you there!!

Hosts and DJ confer

Guests begin to arrive

Angus and Sharrah arrive

A Room Full of Guests

Baron Wulfenbach and Miss Lowey of Europa (above)



The Grand Duke and Duchess enjoy themselves

The Head Table

ZATZAi and Fanci toasting

Our friends from the Prussian Navy, Antiquity

Colonel Somme parading the roast beef as per tradition

Alin Hendrassen takes his turn at the grog

Kamilah Hauptmann

The evening wanes as the last few couples remain on the dance floor

The Scene Is Being Set for the Military Holiday Celebration

I've been working for the last several days to check things off the project list as we make ready for the Military Winter Holiday Celebration to be held on Sunday, December 14th from 7pm-10pm SLT.

• Program created - check
• Textures made (thanks to Kate Nicholas for giving me some great wall textures to modify) and applied - check
• Tables and chairs placed - check
• Holiday decor - nearly complete
• Mistletoe - check
• Grog - check

Our setting in Artificial Isle
Slurl to the event

There is still work to be done, but doing this work is very pleasing. It is wonderful to have such a fantastic venue to hold this formal military-themed event. Thanks go out to ZATZAi for asking that we create a special event for these sims. He has permitted us to change nearly all the interior textures of his amphitheatre to make it feel like a ballroom in a 19th century Navy Base.

Many thanks in advance to ZATZAi, Hotspur O'Toole, AngusGraham Caewlin, Exrex Somme, and Soliel Snook for their work and efforts in this venture. There are many more folks from several sims who will also be a part (soon as I confirm them, I'll add them to my thank you list) of this fine event.



Even if you are not a part of a formal military RP unit, please join us. Dress Uniform or Black Tie please, if you have it. We look forward to seeing you there!

For more information on the history of a military dining out (formal mess) please see Hibernia on The Skids.