Sunday, August 31, 2008

Sometimes I laugh until I cry. LOL

[20:18] CeNedra Rivera: ok once upon a time I had tampons in my inventory, but I can't find them, does anyone have any full perm they can give me?
[20:18] Alicia Chenaux: LMFAO
[20:18] Alicia Chenaux rolls around laughing.
[20:19] Elora Henig: omg....LOL
[20:19] CeNedra Rivera: I'm serious
[20:19] CeNedra Rivera: LOL
[20:19] Aisuru Rieko: theres something I never figured I'd be asked for in SL
[20:19] Elora Henig: looking thru her purse....
[20:19] CeNedra Rivera: I know I had a box but now can't find them, I don't want to buy these cause they are 10L and no copy and no mod

[20:20] Alicia Chenaux: i have a tampon, but it's not in a box. it's not even in a wrapper. that CAN'T be sanitary.
[20:20] Alicia Chenaux listens to the door slam as all the men in this group run out.


The group chat got a bit worse after this. I'll spare you all.



I have no brain to hand ability!

I've mentioned before, most of my builds are happy accidents. I don't draw out my designs or figure out measurements. I don't sit there and use math. I grab a prim and I just...build. And usually I'm pretty happy with the result.

But the problem with this is that sometimes the picture I have in my head of what I want comes out completely different when I get going. Take this for example.

Not what I wanted.


When we moved from Orcas, we were gifted with the awesome tub that had been in our skybox. And I wanted to make a gazebo so we'd have this really cool hot tub thing going. But what I built is nothing like I had in my head. LOL So that's me, sitting in my hard hat and toolbelt, pouting because I have no one to blame for what I made.

And ok, it's not a BAD build. I have edited it since the picture and started to texture it, which of course helps immensely. [Seriously. Think of the most awesome accessory you have - necklace, belt, whatever. Then think of it in plywood. Not so awesome anymore, huh?] But the fact remains that my skill level at building the bigger stuff kinda sucks. LOL

Today I'm going to run around furniture shopping. Most of the girls in the Ch'Know group have raved about certain furniture designers, and I'm eager to go check out the stores. I've never had a reason to before because our skybox was furnished. Actually, what we have now is too, but we're allowed to change things and there's a whole open area for me to set up. :)

Maybe a shower first. Then shopping!

Saturday, August 30, 2008

What? Sometimes I don't blog. :-p

Ok ok, I know. LOL I think it's so funny when I get IMs asking "WHERE'S THE NEW POSTS?!" Maybe not all in caps, but you get the idea. ;) It actually makes me feel good, too, to know that people read still. :)

So where have I been? In SL, but there has been a LOT of stuff going on in the past few days. And I do mean a LOT.

Most of you know now that the Viper Pit is officially closing. But we will most definitely have a new place soon!! I already have a new place for my store, but it looks exactly the same as what I had. So if you've already seen it...well...there it is. LMAO

And as I've mentioned before, our lovely home on Orcas Island is going away. It was a wonderful time living there and I am sorry to see it go. I've been there since February and Levi moved in with me in April, so we've had many good months there. :) The funniest part was probably how we ended up leaving. I thought we still had the weekend, even though I knew that things would start disappearing soon. So we were chilling on one of our pillows, locked into a very intense discussion, when...poof. LMAO No more skybox. It was the funniest thing!!! I don't think I can show the picture here, but if you go to Levi's Snapzilla and scroll down to the 3rd pic from the top, you'll see how it looked. LOL It's the one titled "I guess we should take the hint." Sooooo funny.

But, no worries, we are not homeless. In fact...we have an abundance of home now. LOL I'm actually itching to go in world right now and start working and playing with our new land, but I know if I do now, I'll never finish this post. Or eat anything, and I do need food. LOL Stupid RL body...always expecting food & water & diet coke.

And in between all the moving, there's been other things going on, too. But I think everything has worked out for the best, most definitely. I'm starting September with a lighter heart. I hope to only build on that. :)

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Store Business

The Ch'Know main store is closed until next week for renovations.

If for some reason you just can't LIVE without something I've made [LMFAO], feel free to IM me and ask for it. :)

Bits of stuff

First, happy 2 months and 1 day anniversary to my sister Cen and my brother-in-law Dyami!! If you go to their blogs, you'll see a couple of sweet posts to each other. So cute. :)

Last night's hump day party was fun!! Lots of fab costumes, as usual. I didn't get pictures, as usual, but you can check out some pics on Levi's Snapzilla. I'm so lucky that he always manages to take pictures, because I really end up missing a LOT of the cool costumes because I'm buried in other programs. Cen had even recorded a message for me to play during the party, which was kind of cool. :) I know there's a way you can dual DJ with Skype and SAM3, but the instructions I've seen so far are complicated, so I guess I'll never dual DJ with anyone. LOL Although that would be fun.

Yesterday on SLX I found some full permission noobs. LOL It was so funny, I had to pass it out to people. Then I played with them at the pit. I danced around some, and I put one to work passing out landmarks. I even had one at the door of the party ball, sporting a party hat, a Blingis!, and a Hasselhoff sign. I forgot to get a picture of that one, though. I need to go back and do that.

Noobs!

put him to work.


I think it's time for a shower and some food [finally!], so I'll wrap this up for now.

Oh wait. LOL I wanted to thank the people who had time to IM and comment positive things on my double relationships post. It really means a lot to me that so many of you were understanding, and it made me feel good as some of you have told me that the post makes you feel a little less alone. There are many many many of us out there in these kinds of relationships and it does work for us. But I do agree, it's nice when someone speaks up and says, "Me too!" :) So thank you for understanding, and for reading. :)

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Party Tonight!!!!

Don't forget! Hump Day Party tonight at 8pm SLT!! The theme tonight is HAIR so put on that fun crazy hair that you never have a chance to wear and join us!! We'll be in the party ball tonight, so if you have the LM to that, use it! If not, there will be a LM giver at the Pit. Be sure you use the SLurl that's off to the side here on my blog because if you LMed it last month and haven't been back, there's a good chance you'll end up lost. LOL

Randomosity - Part 13 - Oh, more pics!

I was sorting out the stuff in my Hair Fair folder when I got the message that the region was restarting. So I figured I'd clean off my desktop and show some pics that never seemed to make it to the blog. When I take pictures, I often take a whole bunch at once, just in case eyes are closed or something decides to re-rez or whatever. So that usually leaves me with more pics than I know what to do with on my desktop, but I just can't delete all of them. :) Oh, and sometimes I don't want to just totally clog up my blog with pictures, even though I know I could if I wanted. So tonight...I want to!

Most of these pics are recent, but some are not. And some are just different shots of things I've probably shown before. The best is when I run across a picture that I didn't realize I'd taken. :)


Our friend Jet is an amazing creator. She made my most favorite geisha hair ever! Sometimes she builds just to build. This actually looks a lot better in world than it looks in the pic because somehow the picture didn't capture the glow.

Jet's build


Cen was trying on all the gifts she picked up at Hair Fair. Some things...well, they just didn't work.

Crazy


Tymmerie and me dancing at her rezday party. She looks like she's going to drill me!

Tymm's party


I met the Dazzle Dog while out at Archange. I wasn't scared by him at all. I don't think he's a very good guard dog. Although...I didn't buy anything. So maybe he was.

Dazzle dog


Across from Archange is the cutest little furniture store! I cannot remember the name of it right now, and I'm not in world to check, but it's adorable. But almost all the furniture is built for avatars my size, so if you're very tall, it might not really work for you. I think it's awesome stuff, though.

Cute little store


You know how sometimes when you stand up, you don't actually stand up, but you're stuck in the blue nothingness? I was trying dances at Henmations, stood up, and somehow THIS mess happened. I'm the one in the pink and white sneakers...if you can tell.

I ... Don't know.


Cen and I playing Deal or Decline. Well, she was playing. I was sitting there looking goofy.

Tiny Deal or Decline


Joodle has a cool boudoir photo set in her store, WigWamBam. I was out there today and had to play on it. But black pants on a black couch = fail. I look like I have no legs.

Boudoir pic @ WigWamBam


We were saying goodnight and goodbye-for-now before he left for his trip. I think the picture came out a little dark, but I really like it. :)

Holding


And tonight I was trying on some of my Hair Fair goodies. The cute Katat0nik dress that was a gift, and the totally fantastic Amy hair from Pixel Dust. Designer Autumn Hykova decided to indulge me with colors to play with. :) I love this hair. This picture came out dark, too. I'm beginning to wonder if it's my monitor...

Forest


My baby's coming home to me today...if the FAA gets its act together. lol But I'm really sleepy now, so I'm going to go to bed. Baby, if you get to read this before you get on the plane, be safe and I'll see you soon!! LY!!!!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Well there's a DUH.




You Are a Night Person



For you, there's nothing worse than having to get up and moving early.

In fact, you probably don't hit your peak until well after the sun has set.

So if your struggling to make it on a normal schedule, realize it's not your fault.

You just weren't meant to do anything during the day!



That book thing.

I'm lazy today, sooooo... here's that book thing people are doing!

Who chose these books, anyway? Because I've read a LOT in my life, and I feel like a moron with as many books as I haven't read!



Look at the list and bold those we have read.
Italicize those we intend to read.
Underline the books we LOVE

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Monday, August 25, 2008

Occupying Time

Today I had some hours alone, so I had to occupy my time.

I started out by building a posestand for the group. I used a free script and my lame building skills, but it works. :)

Built a stand


Then I went around looking at a sim where there were some houses for rent. There were also horses and a see saw. But well...I don't think see saws work very well when you're by yourself.

At least...this doesn't look right to me.

This won't work


I even cleaned up our skybox. It looks sad without all our stuff. :( I am sad about leaving it. I've spent more time in the skybox than anywhere else. It stopped being my skybox and became OUR skybox in April. We've had so many conversations there, and so many other memories. :) But I know wherever we choose to go, it'll be wonderful.

Still, sad to see it empty like this.

Cleaned


After all of that, I still didn't know what to do with myself, so I went to the library.

Just shows how awesome SL is if a girl like me can go to Princeton. Even if I do look totally bored.

Library time


Of course, Cen is always good at distracting me a bit, and we giggled and were boxbots.

BoxTwins


Then I no longer had to occupy my alone time because I was no longer alone!

Newness

Women in SL seem to go through new looks all the time. We change skins, hair, and clothes constantly. But hey, guys want to play too! Levi and I headed out to The Abyss tonight to check out the skins. I know, Abyss skins are everywhere. But there just aren't that many really great quality skins for guys. There's just not. The reason people buy Abyss skins is because they're great quality. At least, in my opinion. And since I look at him the most, my opinion counts. :)

He ended up buying a skin, with a bit of chin hair. I'm not one for facial hair, but I really liked this on him. And of course I liked everything else about the skin. :)

Levi's new skin


Doesn't he look great? He says now he has to do a bit of shape tweaking to fit the skin better, but of course we all do that with new skins, I think. I know I have a few different shapes with different facial features [usually lips] for different skins.

After the skin expedition, we had to go buy something else, and then back home to put everything all together. We'll be hitting up the Hair Fair this week when he gets back to see if there's anything I like...I mean, anything HE likes, that is different from what he has. Can anyone recommend some stalls to check out with male hair that isn't Bryce?

Speaking of hair, while we were at The Abyss, I tried on a demo hair and he convinced me to buy it. It's not blonde. :-O Don't worry, I'm not making the big switch. It's just something new to play with. :)

I think all the shopping wore him out, though. Wore me out too, so I'm off to bed.

Worn out


Sunday, August 24, 2008

Thinking

I was laying in bed a little while ago after hanging up the phone [can you really call it "hanging up" anymore? I mean, a button push is not the same thing.] and I was thinking about my next project. It's a bit different from anything I've done before, and if I can manage to do it the way that it is in my head, I think it'll be really good. Of course, what I see in my head when I think of these things and what my actual skill can do are two VERY different things. LOL It does mean that when I start working on it, there's a good chance I'm not going to be listening to group chat or IMs. Of course, since I do most of my building in the daytime when people are at work, this isn't usually a problem anyway. And yes, because people are at work or school during the day, it's why I build then. LOL Unless I'm bored in the evening and no one wants to hang out with me and we're talking in the group about people who talk to your boobs and suddenly I'm inspired to make boob eyes.

My eyes are up here.


But I was thinking about this article I read in an SL magazine a while ago...maybe January or February. I don't remember who it was about, but the article was about this designer who said that her time in SL was always spent working. I wish I had saved the magazine, but since I tend not to read them in SL since I figure I've already read things in blogs, I know I threw it away. Anyway, so the designer only uses SL to work. And I remember thinking at the time that seemed kind of sad to me. I wasn't any kind of content creator when that came out, so I figured maybe that's just the way it was. But now that I am kind of one, albeit a crappy one, now it's even sadder to me. How can you come into this marvelous world and only work? How do you not explore, meet people, have fun? It really makes no sense to me.

I am privileged enough to be friends with some extraordinary builders and designers. I know that they have hours where they are unreachable when they are in world because they are working. But they aren't constantly working. They take the time to enjoy themselves in SL. If SL is just your business...then isn't it really RL?



Saturday, August 23, 2008

A semi-quiet Saturday night

Long day. lol But a pretty good one. My morning started off with chatting with my sweetheart, which is always a wonderful thing. Then I spent the day with my parents, and came home and spent time with friends. Cen and I hit up that strawberry hunt and ran into a bunch of the group members. Sometimes I think about moving us all into a new group, one with a different name. But then again, I do use the group for store stuff too since the members are pretty much my guinea pigs with new junk I make. LOL

We spent some time at the pit tonight, just dancing and talking with some people. We haven't just hung out at the pit in a long time. Our involvement there is usually business related, or for hump day parties and even then, we're usually in the air since the ground tends to be a bit laggier.

But now I'm hanging out in our skybox, wearing something cute, waiting to see if Levi will log in before I get tired and head to bed. Not that I'm tired but my back is sore for some reason. Haha, no ideas. I haven't been doing anything on my back lately.

So we've been partnered for 2 months now. :) I can't believe it. Well, I CAN. I'd be freakin' crazy to let him go. But I've known people to be partnered and divorced 5 or 6 times in just the time we've been together [4 months exclusive, 5 months of knowing each other]. I'm a little bummed that we didn't get to see each other tonight, but I know he must be tired from traveling. I would be, anyway. When I get home from a trip, I'm just wiped out for the next week. So I guess I'll forgive him. ;)

I think I'm going to take a shower and see if I can't loosen up my shoulders some. Then it'll either be bedtime or more SL time. I haven't quite decided yet. :)


EDIT: I can't believe I almost forgot this. LMAO It's not me. And it's not Cen. LOL

Oh, Pooh.


NOOB

Cen and I and most of our friends have this thing we do where when someone wears a box, we yell "NOOB!" Somehow, it's translated over into when we chat too. LOL


[16:39] Alicia Chenaux: wb!
[16:39] Alicia Chenaux: oops
[16:39] Alicia Chenaux: wrong IM. lmao
[16:39] CeNedra Rivera: :D
[16:40] CeNedra Rivera: n00b
[16:40] Alicia Chenaux: LMFAO

Friday, August 22, 2008

Making a post out of nothing at all

I have a bunch of blog posts in my head. But with doing other blog posts, reading other blogs, plurks, parties, spending time with Levi & Cen, RL things, and a little detective work - well...who has time to write?

Plus, when I DO sit down to write posts, they end up being SO long. And I do mean long. So I've saved a couple, but I have to go back and try to revamp them to be shorter.

But until I do that, we'll talk about something else. :) I FINALLY managed to shove myself in to Hair Fair. I know, I said I wasn't going on opening day, but I just couldn't live another moment without THIS hair from Curio.

My new favorite hair!


This one is called Lovely, and it so is. The moment I had tried on the demo, I just couldn't get it out of my head. I also picked up Rabid while I was at the Curio stall, because I love love love it too.

The lag was, of course, horrific. And believe me, some of those women strutting around put the "HOR" in horrific. Just for fun, I had turned on the Avatar Rendering Cost thing before heading out there. I had an ARC of 1. I didn't have any scripted things, any prims, nothing. I get out there and the red numbers are ALL over. I mean, just flashing here and there. 2000, 3000, 5000... It was bad. Now I know that ARC isn't the be-all/end-all of lag measuring. But it was something to see, that's for sure.

So I make it over to the Curio stall, FINALLY, and then I decide to go look for the Pixel Dust stall. Well, lag starts getting worse and worse. I even resort to that box trick that everyone out there was doing, even though I'm pretty sure that might have been lagging the place out, too. But I couldn't walk, and I do have a pretty good computer, you know? I look out and I see a bright red ARC, and it looks really long. I think, "Oh, two avatars must be on top of each other." As I'm trying to move my box around, I stop and I cam over to the number. 132,051.

I almost fall off my box.

I rub my eyes, I stare more, and it doesn't change. Over 130,000 ARC!! How...how is that possible?! I'm staring at this guy and I take a picture, even though because he was a ways away from me and SL was making his eyes look crazy.

ARC of over 130,000.


I still have no idea how his ARC was THAT high. I tried to move my box a little closer so I could inspect his hair, just to see what was up. But unfortunately, I crashed trying to do that. And my box is lost at the Hair Fair. I think it's near the Hair Solutions stall, if anyone wants to delete it. lol

After that whole thing, I spent some time hanging out on a posestand, fixing my new hair and chatting with the group. Then I got really bored and I went shopping. I ended up buying the cutest lingerie at Insolence!! I cannot wait for Levi to get home so I can show it to him. :)

I guess I'll head to bed. I have some RL visiting to do tomorrow, and that usually requires at least 6 hours of sleep. LOL

Braving Hair Fair

EDIT: Gwyneth Llewelyn, who is a lot smarter than me, wrote a much better post about lag. But I still stand by what I say for myself because I know it helps me out. :) Your mileage may vary, of course!


If you are attending Hair Fair 2008 today for opening day, here's a few things you can do to help yourself and help EVERYONE. If you've never been to one of these things before, you need to pay close attention. Those of us who have gone to any of the expos or any of the treasure hunts already know the rules. You are about to enter into lag like you may never have had before.

1. Go in texture clothes only, or maybe with only a small prim attachment. Do NOT show up in a damn ballgown with 40 layers of flexiprim. No one is looking at you, and if you show up in that, the only reason people will be looking at you is to glare at you for being dumb enough to wear that much flexi in a place that is lagged out.

2. No super primmed shoes or accessories!! You may think you look fierce in your 250 prim boots, but you don't. You're not at the club. You're at a VERY laggy place hair shopping. There's no need for it. In fact, just go barefoot. Use the lowest prim hair you have in inventory, or...just go bald! Hey, it's Hair Fair! You'll get some more!

3. Sorry ladies, but you gotta take those AOs off. In fact, take everything scripted you own off. The lag is so bad, you couldn't tell a sexy walk from a noob walk anyway. And take off any of your facelights, radars, weapons, items with bling, or pretty much anything with some kind of script.

4. No poofers. C'mon, that's just common sense.

5. It's going to be slow to rez, so when you show up, walk politely to the side and wait for things to rez. Don't just go barreling through like a bull in a china shop, because a lot of people get bothered when someone smashes into them.

6. Speaking of polite - use good manners. Refrain from using many gestures [or any gestures], especially if they chat spam or make noise. Don't yell about how someone's hair sucks. The designers have put a lot of working into making NEW hair for Hair Fair [unlike at some of the other fairs/expos this year where there wasn't much new at all] so be polite. Maybe you don't like it, but someone else might. Maybe it's not really great quality, but...well, they might not know that. If you see a designer, thank them for their work, especially if they've put out a free gift. Gifts are not a right, they are a privilege.

7. Slam your draw distance down as low as you can. This is more for your benefit than anyone else's. 64m is much less of a lag to you than 512.

When in doubt, just use common sense. As residents of SL, we all know what lags and what doesn't. By doing just a very few simple things, you can make the experience better for yourself and for your fellow residents. :)

Thursday, August 21, 2008

A Trek Through Mainland

Back home, stuffed with fried catfish and other yummies, and with a new headset in hand. Or on head, I should say, since the moment I got home I had to break it out of the package [could they USE more glue on these things!?] and hook it right up. I love it! Cushy earpieces that block out like, every sound around me when the music is on, and the microphone appears to be working but I guess I won't really find that out until someone logs in that I can talk to. LOL But I'm happy right now. :)

Ok, so in the middle of this, I got bit by a chocolate bug. I am not a sweets eater ordinarily, and I almost never crave chocolate. But when I do, I give in, because it only happens every other month or so. So I ran out and bought a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. I'm happily sugar buzzing now. And now back to our show.

So finding myself alone for a while tonight since Cen is covering the Hair Fair pre-party and Levi is out of town, I decided to do something I haven't done in a long time. Back in the early days of my blog, it wasn't uncommon for me to go to a store, finish looking there, then just start walking. My pixel feet did a lot of miles back in the day. But doing that was only fun if I could do it through mainland. Estate land is usually pretty and taken care of, but mainland... oh boy.

The big problem is, of course, the massive ad farms all over. Does anyone REALLY get anything out of these huge spinning crazy signs? When was the last time you clicked on one to go to a store?

But the second big problem is that...well...most of the parcels have something like THIS on them.

Mainland - Crazy

Mainland - ...balls?


Well who the heck wants to live around that kind of mess? Not me.

But another thing about mainland is that since most of it is complete crap [unless you own a whole mainland sim and you have the room to dress it all up] is that things get lost in between all the junk. Like as I was walking tonight, I ran into this store. I've never heard of it before! But the little glasses were so pretty and well done. I didn't buy any since I don't really need this style of glasses, but I did get a demo set and they are very cute.

Mainland - A store I didn't know.


Something good about mainland is that sometimes you just stumble into some neat artwork that is just...there. Like this painting, and these mushrooms!

Mainland - Art?

Mainland - Mushrooms


Of course, when you're walking mainland, you're probably going to come to a sim crossing. If you're lucky, it won't make you crash. But sometimes you lag up so badly while crossing, you end up somewhere that you didn't intend on going. I crossed into a new sim without knowing it [there's rarely a sign!] and ended up inside of a forest medical center. It was empty, but it was for the Gor roleplayers.

Mainland - Landing in a forest hospital


Needless to say, I hightailed it out of there.

If you're very lucky, though, you'll run into something nice. There ARE people out there who take mainland and attempt very hard to make it into something nice. I totally respect those people, because I know that can't be an easy task to undertake considering all their hard work may be obliterated by someone's giant prim of doom showing an escort's hoo-ha spread open. Thanks to those who try to make it better for people and for SL!!

Mainland - Nice.


After my little jaunt through mainland, I popped over to the store Prettiful because I saw some charm bracelet that I HAD to have. I also joined their group [to get the discount!] and I got a photoHUD too. I've never used one of these before and I'm little mad I can't do a high resolution snapshot with it, but ... well, it's cute. I'll forgive it. LOL

Prettiful!

Piece of Me

I'm finally getting over the headache. I know, hours later. LOL I knew it was coming, though, as I am prone to migraines and know the signs. I've been so down the past few days, and exceptionally tired. I'm just glad it waited to really strike after last night's party. :) Oh heck, even if it HAD started during the party, I'd have kept going because that party has been the highlight of my week. :)

I'm heading out in a little while to go buy a new headset. My old one is pretty much biting the big one and it's completely trashy. LOL It's twisted and the wires are peeking out and lately I've had to pinch the wires to get sound out of both ears. Not to mention the microphone never ever worked with any kind of voice chat, from Yahoo to Skype to Second Life. In fact, most people would laugh to see my set up. I have this almost 10 year old freebie microphone that came with a webcam that I no longer even have, and I clip it to the microphone piece of my headset. So trashy. LOL But it works, and people seem to hear me just fine with the mic, so I haven't been worried about it. But RLBF noticed it the other day and laughed at me, so I'm self-conscious about it now. [This is how much he pays attention to me. I've been doing it like this for a couple of months at least. LOL] I'm not sure what I actually want, so I'll probably be dragging RLBF out with me to get one. If it's left up to me, I'll come home with just earphones and a $10 microphone that I'll end up duct taping to the monitor.

Since Cen is going to be a reporter tonight at a Hair Fair pre-party, and Levi is out of town, I find myself in the position of not having anything to do tonight. Why is it that the both of them ALWAYS manage to leave me alone at the same time? It's a conspiracy, I tell you. :-p I think I might do some inventory organizing tonight.

Or shopping.

Yeah. Probably shopping.

Anyway, I've had this song in my head since it was requested last night. It's not the official video, but I thought it was kind of cool too.



headache.

I hate waking up with a headache. I especially hate waking up at 3am with one after only a couple of hours of sleep. :( I keep hoping if I sit here it'll go away but no dice yet. So I logged in to read some group notices, get a group gift from Jaywalk, and hopefully catch Levi if he wakes up early. But it looks like he woke up already during the night, so I may not see him. :( If we don't somehow catch each other now, we might not see each other until the weekend and I'm telling you guys, I'm going to start to get really whiny. lol

So last night was Tymmerie's party and it really was an incredible event. Great costumes, lots of people, and even fireworks! I only was able to get one picture, though, and I'm too tired right now to resize it in photoshop. I will, though. I promise.

One of the funniest moments came near the end of the evening when we were talking about voice.

You: I saw a voice escort the other day.
You: She had a tag that proclaimed it.
CeNedra Rivera: I tell you I wouldn't have cramped hands so badly on Thursdays
Tymmerie Thorne: rofl!!!
You: LMFAO
You: wait.
Meara Deschanel: lol
CeNedra Rivera: um... that wasn't in reference to escorting!
You: LOL
CeNedra Rivera: omg
CeNedra Rivera: omg
Tymmerie Thorne: rofl!!!
CeNedra Rivera: that was about hostessing!
CeNedra Rivera: lmao
You: LMFAO!!!
Margo Sciarri is choking
You: SURE!!
Tymmerie Thorne: sure it was!
CeNedra Rivera: lmao
Margo Sciarri: lol
Dyami Jameson: wonders too???
You: that's so getting blogged.

Oh the conversations that spring up out of nowhere.

This headache truly isn't getting any better and the light from the monitor is drilling into my skull.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Shopping thoughts

I sat down to write a couple of hours ago, wrote and wrote and wrote, read it over, and realized "Hey...I'M not even interested in this." LOL It happens. :)

But I'll touch a bit on what I was talking about.

Shopping.

Yeah, I'm a girl, and I shop a lot...in SL. Most people would be surprised that RL me isn't much of a shopper at all. When I had to go out of town for the funeral this month, shopping for clothes to wear was pretty much the first REAL shopping that I've done this year. Buying 3 dresses and a pair of heels was odd for me in RL. But buying clothes everyday in SL is just...well, it's just an everyday thing.

And that got me wondering - Why is shopping such a huge part of SL?

Think about your inventory for a moment. No no, really THINK about it. How much stuff do you have? For most men, it's jeans, shirts, suits, shoes, and a variety of other little things but they have what they need. For women? Oh, forget it! I know that we're all carting around more than we will EVER wear and more than we will EVER need. You hear us moan about how badly we need to organize inventory all the time! But do we ever really stop shopping to DO it?

If you stopped shopping right this moment, and only changed clothes twice a day [as many of us do in RL], how many days would you be able to wear 2 different outfits without repeating? I know I'd probably be able to go more than a month. I'm not gonna, but I COULD. :-p And my inventory isn't even as large as some are.

I'm collecting, on average, approximately 3 outfits, minus shoes, a day. And that very well may be a low number. But let's say 3. That's 21 outfits a week. In a month of 30 days, that's 630 outfits. And half of those are folders with at LEAST 5 pieces... Holy cow, it's no wonder my inventory is ballooning.

And this of course doesn't take into account the fact that I need shoes to go with outifts [although I really don't buy many shoes at all], different hair styles to match, and accessories.

But again, the question is WHY we feel the need to shop so much. Is it that we love it? Or is it that we've been trained to do it? Think about it. For most of us, the first thing we learned in SL was that we HAD to shop to make ourselves look presentable. So we shopped, whether for freebies or not, we shopped. And we made friends, and our friends took us shopping, talked about shopping, wrote about shopping. A lot of us learned about fashion blogs, and suddenly we had these beautiful avatars telling us where to shop and what to buy. I'm not bad about it now, but in the beginning I was, as many were, just as trained as one of Pavlov's dogs. Especially where Freestyle and FabFree were concerned. They'd send a notice, I'd drop whatever I was doing and run and end up with 15 other avatars on my head who had done the same thing. It takes something pretty special now to catch my eye, but back then...if it was a gift, it was mine, even if I didn't really need or want it.

Thinking about all of this isn't going to make me less likely to shop. Not at all. LOL But it is interesting to think about.

Tymmerie's RezDay!!

Tonight's Hump Day Party is on the road! Why? Because it's Tymmerie Thorne-Darwin's Rez Day!!

[And yes, we all think of her and her hubby as the Thorne-Darwins whenever we see them together. But I think we've been doing that since before they got married. LOL]

The party is from 7pm SLT to 10pm SLT at the Absolutely Wonderful Estate. I get the honor of being the DJ tonight for the party!

The theme is, of course, Tymmerie! Her husband Jerremy posted a guest blog about the party, and gave some posts where you could get ideas of what to wear. But if you just can't think of anything, just come anyway! :) I already have my idea, but it's combining two posts of hers. :)

Annnnd.... here's a picture I took of us on the first day that we met face to face, when she introduced me to Primtionary, all the way back in January when I was still a noob. I was SO nervous to meet her. Luckily for me, she's incredibly sweet. :)

Waiting for Primtionary


Happy Rez Day, Tymmerie!!

Get Lucky @ Crimson Shadow

I was starting to get worried because the dress in the Crimson Shadow lucky chair had been scheduled to be taken down on the 10th, and here it was, well after the 10th, and nothing new! Although I guess that really worked out, since Laleeta hadn't been around to pick up the Midnight Blue dress and after what had to have been more than 15 hours stalking the chair finally got it. LOL

This morning Lokum Shilova dropped the newest lucky chair dress on me - The Crimson Shadow Webbed n Lace Red dress! :)

The dress is, of course, richly textured and came with a 2 different skirts so you could wear it a couple of different ways. Naturally I had to throw on the short skirt first, along with a couple of things that were not included in the folder just to give it a different look.

Crimson Shadow- Webbed n Lace - Short Skirt


I think it's adorable. I love the netted sleeves and the poofy shoulders. Most of the things from Crimson Shadow look better if you're more on the goth looking side, which is why I threw on some black hair for this picture. :)

If you take a closer look, you can see the unbelievably wonderful texturing that's going on. Look at the detailing on the corset front. It's excellent! Also, I'm not sure if you can tell, but there is a belt I'm wearing too. It's on the skirt layer, not a prim, so it may fit you different than it fits me.

Crimson Shadow- Webbed n Lace - Close Up


The dress also comes with a high collar perfect for the ballroom [or castle, or cemetery since I can totally picture this dress on one of you Bloodlines players!] and the long skirt is just swirly and gorgeous. The web overlay is just incredible!

Shoes and some cute stockings are included, but you cannot see them under this dress. I wasn't actually a huge fan of the shoes, but that's a personal opinion. :)

Crimson Shadow- Webbed n Lace - Long skirt & Collar


This dress will be available at the Crimson Shadow lucky chair from now until September 15th, so be sure to head on over and have some fun stalking that chair!


In this post I am also wearing...

Skin - La Sylphide Ingrid in Smoky Blood Red [group gift, unsure if it's available]
Hair - Both by Free Speerit, no longer available for purchase.
Stockings - Beloved Designs Lace Top stockings, available at the mainstore.
Shoes - Dolly Goth Pumps by Unique Needs, available at the mainstore.


Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Sisterhood

Sometimes I think Levi knows me better than I know myself. He logged off early tonight saying that girl time was needed. I pouted [mostly because he left before I could tell him to stay since I was off in another room not having fun with my dinner], but then Cen and I got together and he was totally right. I needed girl time. And I guess she did too. We love our men dearly, passionately, deeply. We love spending as much time with them as we can, and it's almost never enough. But we need "our" time as well, and I think we forget that because we IM frequently. It's funny how IMs and other forms of communication are not *quite* the same thing as hanging out face to face in SL. I'm sure all of you experience that too with people that you care about. Although Levi and I talk quite a bit during the average day, I always miss him until we're together in SL. I didn't realize I was feeling that way with Cen as well.

There's a quote I've always liked by Toni Morrison that says, "A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves - a special kind of double." That's the way I feel with Cen. We were kind of joking around tonight and she said that we have no need try to be exactly like each other. It's very true. She and I share many similarities, and people may have noticed that we often type the same thing at the same time, but our differences are what keep us together. It's that whole yin & yang thing. :)

Anyway, enough mushiness. LOL We had a great time tonight shopping [we both bought some cute pajamas at Nyte n Day!], hunting for poop at LAP, and just catching up. We managed to solve the problems of the world [well, our world] while sitting on a swing at Earthstones for over an hour. Of course I snapped quick pics of us.


At LAP. There was poop behind the stump. It was old, it didn't smell.

LAP hunt


And on the swing at Earthstones. Yeah, she's going for my kidney.

Swinging @ Earthstones


So thank you, sis, for a fun time tonight. :) And thank you, baby, for telling me what I needed. :) I love you both so much!

Why I'm not a fan of Locks of Love.

So a few of you IMed me yesterday and asked my why I wasn't big into Locks of Love. The main reason is that Locks of Love, or LoL, does not give away a majority of the wigs for free, preferring to charge the families on a sliding scale depending on their income. I know what you're saying. "But Ali, of course they have to charge SOMETHING. Those wigs cost a lot to make." Do they have to charge? Pantene Beautiful Lengths, Wigs For Kids, Wigs 4 Kids, and Children With Hair Loss provide their hairpieces at no cost to the family. Beautiful Lengths is just for those with cancer, though, if that makes a difference to you. And it provides wigs for adult women. Just because someone is an adult doesn't mean that they have the money for wigs, especially since the cost of cancer treatments is high and insurance doesn't often cover everything.

Going back to the other organizations I just listed - Have you heard of them? There's a good chance that you haven't. Locks of Love gets the most press time and therefore gets the most donations, both of hair and money. Wigs For Kids has been around for 25 years, and yet doesn't get as much press as LoL.

Most of the hair donated to LoL ends up sold to a wig manufacturer. So if you donate, there's a good chance that your hair ended up as an extension of some model's hair. Granted, the money from the hair sales does go back to LoL, but most people, especially children, who donate think that their hair is out there making someone without hair feel good about themselves. They don't think that it could be making a new wig for Tyra Banks. More than 2000 ponytails are donated to LoL every week. But since 1997, only about 2000 hairpieces have been provided. A lot of the hair isn't usable for these wigs, but a lot of it is. And LoL works with a company that makes the hairpieces at a vastly reduced rate, so it's not as much of a hit to the organization - even though they are raising quite a bit of money each year.

Giving to those in need is always a good thing, and will always be a good thing. And LoL has helped some people out. But before you go chopping off your hair, be sure to do your research. You might be better off cutting your hair and selling it to a wig manufacturer directly and giving that money to whatever charity you support. But in the end, it is up to you.

Explorations

Most nights I want to just stay at home, but tonight Levi and I went exploring. We went to some of the "older" parts of SL that are still super cool and fun. Everyone gets so caught up in new new new that we tend to forget about those places that have been in SL for years but are still holding strong. Tonight we checked out the gorgeous sim of Svarga, and played this game called the Pot Healer's Adventure. We didn't get all the way through the game, but we did pick up lots of stuff and so when we feel like it, we can go back and look around some more. It's kind of a fun game but also kind of hard. Luckily we were voicing so we could just run around and not have to stop to type all the time. Exploring together really can be so much more fun when you don't have to stop to type. :)

Of course I took some pics. Svarga is awesome in that you can drop poses there! Of course I tried to get fancy with the editing. I kinda suck like that. :-p

Svarga

Strong man :)

Just one in black & white

Holding me in Svarga

Stolen Kisses


Pot Healer's Adventure [Only managed one pic because we were running all over.]

Pot Healer's Adventure


And omg, I totally forgot. LOL There's a Back To The Future recreated setting in SL!! It's not absolutely perfect, but it's still not bad at all. It's Hill Valley in 1955. Back To The Future is one of my most favorite movies ever, so it was really great for me to go see this. I do wish someone would REALLY make a Hill Valley sim, maybe half 1985 and half 1955. I'd also like them to include the high school in 1955, complete with the gym decorated for the Enchantment Under The Sea dance. That would be SO COOL!!

But this is us in front of the clock. :)

Hill Valley Clock


I'm super sleepy now, so I'm off to bed. I AM definitely going to get my pancake makin' belt on the wall tomorrow at the store. lol I've been putting off doing it because I'm lazy with making the posters, even though compared to most people, my posters are exceptionally easy. And I need to post about the little project Cen and I did on Saturday. And... well, yeah, that's really all I have to do when I get up. LOL

Monday, August 18, 2008

Hair thoughts

I have blogs in my head to do. Cen and I took some pictures for a "project" yesterday. But I'm not feeling up to it right now. So I'm sitting here munching on cold pizza, watching Plurk, and scowling at the outdoors for being wet and yucky.

I do have a topic to talk about today. Hair. Why is it so hard for most designers to make a great blonde shade? ETD did it. Heck, she did in several awesome shades of blonde. I like the platinum blonde shade at Magika too. But there are some places where I LOVE the hair, like at Zero Style, but the blonde shade is so horrible on me, I can never buy any of the hair.

Also, why is it so hard to find a great ponytail? Yeah yeah, I'm still hunting. LOL I have a different ponytail idea in my head this time around but I have never seen one like it in SL.

I'm also getting pissed off at resizer scripts in hair. I NEED mod rights, ok? I NEED to be able to move the prims around here or there to make room for sunglasses or eyelashes or to get a lock of hair out of my neck.

But Hair Fair is coming up, and I'm very excited to get a chance to check out hair designers that I may not know about, or may have forgotten about. Plus I hear that freebies & dollarbies are being encouraged, so this will be great!! I'm not really a big fan of Locks of Love, the organization that the fair is supposedly raising money for. I did some research on them a few years ago when I was considering donating my hair and I'm not exactly a fan. I think Pantene Beautiful Lengths is more worthy an organization. But it's not going to stop me from going to the Hair Fair and checking it out. :)



Sunday, August 17, 2008

If I met the SL me...

Geo Fulton asked a Plurk question yesterday that didn't get too many responses, but it interested me, so I thought I'd ask it here.

If you met your SL avatar in RL, would you like him/her?

I responded that I'd be intimidated by her. But then I started to really think about it.

First of all, Alicia would stand an inch taller than RL me in her bare feet, but if she were wearing the heels she favors, she'd be several inches taller. And of course she's got a great body and amazing eyes in a brilliant blue, so already I would feel a little intimidated just by how beautiful I think she is.

Alicia also wears clothes that I couldn't possibly get away with in RL. The tiniest skirts, low cut tops and jeans that hug her curves, gorgeous shoes. And her hair and makeup? Flawless!

Then I would learn that she's creative. She builds entire rooms with her manicured hands, she makes her own accessories. Now I would start to wonder why she's hanging bottles of mouthwash and boxes of pancake mix off of her belts...but she's cute, she could probably get away with it.

And let's not forget that she has a tall, smart, funny, good looking partner who spoils her and cherishes her. I would be jealous...even though I do have my own RL boyfriend.

But then I'd try to talk to her and I'd find a girl who is fairly shy. I would almost think that she's standoffish, snobby, but the more that I talked to her, the more that I would find out that it isn't true. She just doesn't always know what to say. In her eyes I could tell that she was pleased that someone wanted to talk to her, but also a bit scared that someone did want to talk to her. She wants to be social, to have more friends, but is also very much a homebody. She enjoys staying in the skybox with her partner, talking to him for hours on end. With the people she knows well, she's loud and silly. The kind of person who says something just to make people laugh. She listens to her friends problems, sometimes offering advice but more often than not she just listens. She is a quiet person, but it doesn't take too much to make her laugh or draw her out of her shell.

I would stop being intimidated by her after a while. After all...she's just like me.

Just with a way better chest.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Sweet Afternoon

Despite what Plurkers may think, Levi and I are not all about the porn. :) We got to spend a couple of sweet hours together hanging out this afternoon over on Windsong Isle, which has to be one of the prettier places I've seen in a long time.

Late afternoon swinging

Sweet Glow


Why am I showing these pics? Well, today is one of our anniversaries. :) It's been 4 months since we became exclusive. :) But to make things easier on the both of us, we only celebrate our partnership anniversary, which is on the 23rd. Not that we really got to celebrate our 1 month partnering with all my random trips and junk. Maybe this month. :)

Calista's Questions

Being shy seems to be a topic of discussion lately, starting over in Cen's blog and now Calista has some questions. Rather than answer a novel in her blog, I thought I'd bring it over here to mine. :)


1. Have you ever had a time where you IM'd someone out of the blue and are really glad now that you did? OR vice versa.

This is going to be a long answer. :) First, I don't think I've ever IMed someone out of the blue, which really sucks, now that I think about it. LOL Well, I don't know. I may have IMed Calista first, back when she was Calaya. Maybe. I don't remember. But the two best relationships I could have ever asked for in SL came from out of the blue IMs, and I will be eternally grateful that they chose to IM me first. :)

Back in January, when I was doing my $5 A Day project and posting a million blogs in a day, I was terribly lonely. The groups I was in never wanted people to talk, and it's really like being the new kid at school in the middle of the year. Everyone has a friend already. I was *this* close to just packing it all in, because you have to admit - SL is loads better when you have someone to share it with. But then one day I get this random IM from Cen. She just wanted to tell me that she liked my blog, and she also was very budget conscious in SL, and did I want to go explore with her? This is a picture from the first day we met. We both look a bit different now. LOL

At the Winter Moon sale


I think that's the night we went to Avilion too, and I saw her nipples for the first time because we were changing into dresses and her top wouldn't rez. LMAO We've been close friends ever since. :)

The second random IM came from Levi back in March. :) I had dipped my toe into the SL dating scene and was kind of seeing this guy that DJed at the club where I was working. I wasn't all that into him, which Cen could tell you is very true, but he was ok. We'd gone out to Sine Wave one night after our shifts ended, and we were checking out dances when out of the blue, I get an IM telling me that my profile was funny.

Now you have to remember at this time, I had gotten used to random IMs from strangers telling me that they liked my blog. To have someone say they liked my profile was a novelty! I said thank you and then we...just kept talking. For over an hour that night. And really, we just haven't shut up since then. LOL The more we talk, the more we want to talk, I guess. I can't think of a better person for me to be with in SL, and I honestly mean that. We're just so compatible in so many ways. It's hard for me to even think about what my SL would be like without him. So thank you, baby, for being nosy with my profile. :)

2. How do you feel about privacy in SL?

I'm not sure that it's a big secret that I value privacy in SL and RL. As bloggers/plurkers/twits/what-have-you, we do tend to give up a bit of privacy for the chance to let our opinions known. However this doesn't mean that it should be a free for all. I'm also big on having private homes BE just that - a private residence. Everyone is entitled to have a space that is just for them, and anyone else that they choose to share it with. Levi & I are more than happy to have our friends over to our skybox, but we do not appreciate strangers in there. Some people in SL don't care if someone they don't know uses their home when they're gone. Some people do. If you're unsure, just use some good manners and keep out of a house that doesn't belong to you if it looks like someone's living there. If you DO end up in someone's house and they come home, apologize and leave. Don't act like a dick and tell them that it's SL, you have a right to go anywhere you want. You don't.

[Sorry. The "strangers in your home" topic will always be my hot button issue. LOL]

3. Is your friends list sacred to you? Or is it just filled up with people you know and some you don't?

I do sweeps of my friends list usually every month. I keep all calling cards, but usually only the people that I talk to, or want to talk to at some point, remain on my list. There are some that are there for sentimental reasons too, like people I met during my first few days who helped me out, and even though we never speak anymore, I can't bring myself to take them off my list. And I can't take off the people who are no longer in SL, like Sidonie. I'll wait for LL to do that for me.

4. Do you think a friends list has some sort of Social status to it?

I don't see how it could, considering no one can see it but you. LOL I do know that there have been times that people have added me just to say that I'm on their list. And I know it because they've TOLD me this, which amazes me to no end. I'm definitely nothing special. LOL Of course, those are the people who usually get cut off the list. I think maybe it's a status thing when you're new. I know I was thrilled when Tymmerie added me to her list because I considered her such a SLebrity. But as time goes by, you learn that status in a friends list doesn't count for much. It's more about the quality of the people you have on it. [Tymm is still on my list, btw, but I'm not starstruck when she signs in anymore. LOL]

5. And lastly, how do you feel about random friend requests? With not even a Hi first.

I REALLY would prefer for people to talk to me first before requesting to add me. Usually if I get a random friends request, I'll IM the person to ask who they are and what they want. More often than not, as soon as we talk for a couple of minutes, I approve the request anyway, so it's not like I'm super hard to get on anyone's list. LOL

Oh, and that really only goes for my SL friends list. I'll pretty much add anyone to my Plurk list. I like the karma. :-p


Friday, August 15, 2008

Library Shapes

Ever since playing with Ruth's shape last night [how dirty does that sound?], I started wondering about the new shapes in the inventory. So earlier today I put on the shapes for the some of the default avatars in the library. One word.

Ick.

I know that being thin seems to be the "wrong" thing lately, but what about women who WANT to be more delicate looking? Maybe someone wants to look like a Balanchine ballerina rather than a Denver Bronco with boobs? I dunno...it's all opinion, of course, and mine is no more right or wrong than anyone else's. I'm just busy-writing tonight to occupy my time. LOL

If you are reading this and you're thinking of coming to Second Life, and you are looking for a leaner avatar, I suggest the Professional Female when you choose your avatar. The body is more proportionate than the others appear to be. However, you'll probably want to run and find a new skin pretty quickly, as the default skins ALL appear to have undergarments painted on, and that can be pretty annoying when it comes to wearing new clothes. :)

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got more things in my library to play with. Ooh, scratch that. I have a new dress from Zaara that I picked up at the Velvet hunt to try on!! That's WAY more important than Library junk!!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Doing Ruth

Since Levi wasn't here tonight, I thought I'd play around with this project that everyone seems to be doing lately - The Ruth Project. Oh, you've seen it. People are taking the default Ruth shape and trying to make her look pretty. It's really funny to me, since everyone's always bitched about how ugly Ruth is and being "ruthed" meant something horrible. I think there's a contest going on, too, to see who can do the best. I'm not competing or anything, I just wanted to play around.

I put together 3 looks for good ol' Ruth - A neko, a casual everyday look, and a formal look. I have to say, it was harder than I thought. First of all, the girl has enormous feet. Size 23! Second, she has a longer torso and kind of fat legs. This makes putting a miniskirt on her, or low slung jeans, almost impossible. And I'm not getting into her eyes...they frighten me, quite frankly. LOL It also made trying to position prim lashes on her a trial, and I'm pretty good at getting those on quickly. I think I'm just highly picky, though. Well, I know I am. LOL

Anyway, here's her neko look.

Doing Ruth - Neko

Doing Ruth - Neko Close-up


I have her in the Ingrid skin by La Sylphide that was a gift for the CAL GAL group, and one I wear often when going around as a kitteh. She's also wearing hair by Deviant Kitties, and I think the big hair kind of made her shoulders seem a little less wide. The wide belt helps to give her a bit more of a break in her torso. I hadn't changed her foot size but the Glossy Ribbon boots by Shiny Things actually fit.

For the next look, I wore things that I wear quite often.

Doing Ruth - Casual Dress


Ruth actually looks pretty good in a babydoll dress. And my Free Speerit skin fits her face pretty well. But the Anime eyes by Miriel make her look...well, kind of spaced out. LOL I've been wearing them a lot lately and never look like that, but Ruth's eyes are very odd in my humble opinion. By this point, I'd given up on prim eyelashes. It was a lost cause. And of course everyone looks hot in ETD hair. :)

And the final look - Formalwear.

Doing Ruth - Formal


Before you say anything, let me just say that I tried on no fewer than 50 skins on Ruth. I am incredibly picky and wasn't really happy with how she looked in any of them. But I think it's because I know how they look on ME and because they didn't look the same on Ruth, I didn't like them. It has nothing at all to do with the skins themselves. This one comes from the 03 Collection at Crimson Shadow, and I have worn it myself and loved it. On Ruth, I don't think it looks very good. But who wouldn't look fabulous in that dress?! That was [and still is, I believe] the lucky chair dress at Crimson Shadow.

So...yeah. LOL I guess others can make Ruth look good and like it, but I don't care for the shape at all. It gave me a way to kill a couple of hours, though. I guess that counts for something. :)