A little Tantric action for ya.

I get a little giddy when I get to review something from Belle Belle because I always know I'm going to love it. I had seen the photo for the new Lucky Board gift before I was asked to review it, and I had already planned on stalking the board.

The Tantric Lovin' gift is so so cute! A pretty little "snowglobe," it's the perfect place to relax with somebody special and just get away from it all. So I grabbed my somebody special and forced him into posing with me. [Actually, I think he was making dinner as I moved us all around, but that's ok.]




Coming in at 62 prims, it's filled with pillows and candles and I just love the pretty beadwork around the base. The inside of the globe has very light sparkly particles, so I set us up in a "space" type box along with some super cute stars I stumbled across in my inventory and now can't stop playing with.

But of course the best thing about the globe is that it's menu driven, with 4 poses for you and your special someone. When you first click on it, choose the option to Rez Hearts. That will put the poseball hearts outside of the globe so you can easily sit before moving inside.










I did get a comment out of that last pose. "Flexible!" Hehe, yes.

While you're out stalking the Lucky Board at Belle Belle to get this fabulous gift, be sure you also hit up the Midnight Mania board. I think that the Luna set is almost complete, and I know I can't wait to see what's coming up next because Leyla is ALWAYS super super generous in her gifting. And if I'm not mistaken, you can still look for the hunt gift from the Discovery Hunt, that amazing BBQ patio set I blogged before.

Have fun stalking the board! Believe me, it's worth it!

Also shown in this post:

Skin: Kimberly in Natural by Free Speerit
Eyes: Open Ocean by Miriel
Lashes: Diva lashes by Lelutka
Hair: Amber in platinum by Truth
Dress: Sunset Boulevard in purple by Armidi Gisaci
Shoes: Pinup in black by Stiletto Moody

I'll probably get this wrong, but I think Noel is wearing a Cambridge shirt by Armidi, the winter coat by Alphamale, jeans by WMD, shoes by Soreal, skin by Redgrave, and hair by Naughty Designs. But who's really looking at the guy anyway, right? ;)

Probably NSFW - Tasteful booty shot!!

So Marnix started a blog meme. And the meme? Tasteful naked butt pictures.

I don't know either.

I've never shown a lot of nudity in this blog. I don't think I've ever appeared in less than a bikini. In fact, I remember dying during the Dress Me Up Challenge because the first picture was in my underwear. [Don't give me that BS about it just being pixels. I love and respect my pixels because they are mine.] And there were other reasons why I have always been reserved.

But, times they are a-changin', and after thinking about it, and being encouraged by my friends [the girls more than the guys, if you can believe that. Well, if you know my friends, you can believe that.], I decided to do it. So I set about taking a photo that I believed was tasteful, but showed off my backside.

I'm sorry if you didn't want to see the picture. But I did warn you in the title. :)

Love Thursday

So Love Thursday... I kinda forgot about it last week. Well, not forgot so much as just didn't get to it. :) And I don't really have a specific theme this week, so we'll just do this:

I love the first IMs of the day.

I love when certain names pop up on the right hand bottom of my screen.

I love sitting quietly with someone, knowing that words don't always have to be spoken.

I love being told, "You have to see this!" and getting teleported out of nowhere.

I love random gifts that pop up out of nowhere for no other reason than the giver thought it would be something I liked.

I love parties with all my friends.

I love crazy Yahoo conversations & Plurk conversations.

I love how I'm inspired to build crazy things based on something silly my friends have talked about.

I love how I end my evenings loved and safe. <3

And that's my Love Thursday, the random things that I love that make up my SLife. :)

Anti-Inspection Gear

Wonderful Tuesday. :) I am waiting on someone to get back to the computer, so I figured I'd blog while I waited.

So did you guys see Aisuru's post about anti-inspection measures being taken by an avatar who really, honestly, although she was cute, her look wasn't so awesomely unique that she needed to HIDE it. Plus, most of us who know somewhat about fashion already knew where she got half her items. So...way to go?

That led to this stupid item for sale on XStreet. Really? People are honest to god buying this? I can slap some transparent prims on myself for free. Supposedly it sends you an IM saying who clicked you, but only if you've been left clicked. And who left clicks when inspecting??

I have, as many of my friends have, found loads of stores by inspecting prims. That girl Aisuru caught...I *might* have liked her shoes and I may not have known where she got them from. Although I'm absolutely awesome with a camera, I probably wouldn't have gone through the trouble of finding out where she got them, therefore I may never have found the store, and so the store owner wouldn't get my $L. And when I wear something cute, usually my friends want to know where it came from, because that's what we do with each other, and so there's more money that the creator is not getting. Do you see how that ends up working?

Anyway, so as stupid as I find that item, some of the girls were at a store earlier and the store's owners were there also wearing anti-inspection devices - even though they were wearing their own creations. What the HELL? How idiotic do you have to be?? It's your own stuff, it's in your store, you WANT people to have that look, right? Or am I just completely wrong?

Of course, we laughed about it and how we didn't want anyone to steal OUR look either, so....






That's right! The Anti-Inspection Gear will keep your fabulous fashionista look a secret! No one will know your soopa speshul soopa sekrit pants are from Armidi! There's a transparent prim over the face hole too, just to keep those fashion burglars from trying to figure out where your lashes are from.

You can pick yours up at WTFug HQ for free, because there just can't be a price on protection.

Memorial Day

I just wanted to take the time this Memorial Day to say an enormous Thank You to the men and women in the armed forces.

I was watching the news a few years ago when the face of someone that I knew from school flashed on the screen. My initial thought was, "Oh great, what trouble has someone from my hometown done now?" But it wasn't anything bad that he had done. He had died in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan on his second tour of duty. It was then when everything became a little more real to me. Although we weren't friends, I knew him. Had cheered for him at football games, passed him in the hallways, knew members of his family. It was a little too real.

It was natural for people in my school to join the military after graduation. We knew the recruiters well enough to wave and joke with them. We grew up just down the road from what was first an air force base, later becoming a joint reserve base. In fact, if I go to the end of my parents' front yard, I can see the air strip. Planes blasting over my head never bothered me. Most of my classmates came from military families. It was just natural for most of them to follow in their parents' footsteps, or join their friends to sign up. I never even thought about it when they talked about it, or did it. To me it was just something they'd do. Although it was never anything I wanted, I just didn't think about it. But that day in November 2006 changed me. It became real. It slammed it home that people I knew, had grown up with, laughed with, performed with...it could be them up there on the screen.

Last year another face popped up on the tv screen. Someone younger than me, someone that I had JUST seen his MySpace picture. He was gone too, leaving behind a young wife who had just found out she was pregnant. I called my best friend, who knew him, and we cried. We cried for the loss, but I cried with her because suddenly, it was finally real to her as well, and I knew how hard that was.

Sgt. 1st Class William Brown and 1st Lt. Robert Vallejo, Jr - you are remembered. Thank you for serving this country.

To those who have fallen, have served, or are actively serving now ...

Thank you.

Blah.

Ever have one of those days where you feel like nothing you do is right? I'm having one of those days today. I just woke up feeling really ... icky. Like I just need someone to stop my brain from spinning and tell me everything is fine.

As requested, chicken update. Pollo Sophia & Pollo Pumpkin, and Noel's Randy Rooster, are all doing well in my pen. They're getting bigger by the day and eating well. For those of you with fresh hatched chickens, don't get worried if they don't eat right away, or even move much. They're very very tired when they're born. I put Elle in the pen with them so she could run around, too. I know, they should be enemies, but my animals all love each other. I said I was developing a farm, but Noel says I can't be a farmer because I have too many skirts.

Also, if you haven't read Nika's chicken blog posts, you need to.

I went on a mad freebie gathering on Xstreet the other night and I STILL have no idea what all I got. I'm trying to still sort through, but it's not working very well.

Oh, we were talking about this a while ago, but I never brought it up in here. As some of you remember, last June we had a week of doing the Big Bad Blogger Challenge. Is anyone up for it this year? I thought we all had a good time last year, especially the party in the rave ball where most of the challengers came. I'd love to do that again this year if anyone is interested.

Ok...I'm really NOT in a writing mood. I think I'll log in and dig into my objects folder again and sit with the chickens.

Nothing graceful about this.

So the big chit-chat today in the fashion world came about when Grace Winnfield put out a call for models, or "muses" as she calls them. What's the big deal? Well, Grace had very specific body measurement requirements. And unfortunately, those requirements are just crazy thin.

Height: At least 75 but preferrable is 80-85 or so.

Body thickness: less than 7
Body fat 0 preferred but no more than 7


Whoa, what? Even as a slender avatar myself, the body fat to 0 thing scares me. Hey, even in the physical world, you need body fat to, you know, LIVE. In the SL world, you need it to not look so freakishly scary because of our avatar mesh. And at that height, the body fat to 0 and no more than 7 as thickness is going to look scary.

She went on to give more measurements:

Torso Muscles should be less than 40
Shoulders should be proportionate but usually less than 50.
Breast size: LESS THAN 40 PLEASE

Wow. Even my smaller av has boobs of 55, and 50 is usually as small as I'll go because anything else looks wrong on me. And my torso muscles are around 45. I'm starting to feel like a cow!

leg length.. LONG!! somewhere between 80 and 95 is usually good... mine are 89.

Oh holy.... what?? You want someone that tall with legs THAT long?! I'll admit my legs are long, 75 on the scale, but that's so certain boots fit properly. If I had a leg length of 89 on my normal avatar...yikes.

So Gogo, who was the first person to point this out, did a blog post showing some avatars in their new Gracie shapes. I got it in my head to do one as well, since I don't actually tweak my everyday shape all that much, but I do have a number of different sized shapes.

Using the Gracie measurements, this is what I ended up looking like. My regular avatar is next to it.




As you can see, on a regular basis, my avatar is slender. Honestly, I've made her body almost as "average" as possible to avoid having to adjust clothing too much. Plus, when I was much much smaller and shorter, I had a number of things custom made to fit my body, and keeping these proportions meant that I didn't have to adjust too much. It's laziness on my part. ;) But on the whole, I believe that my avatar is fairly in proportion and I'm quite happy with her.

Putting on the Gracie shape scared me. As someone with RL eating disorders and body disorders, it scared me to death. Suddenly I felt fat. No, I literally FELT fat putting on my everyday, slender, fairly proportionate shape. I had to sit and think and calm myself back down. Luckily a friend of mine had decided to come over to check out the chickens, and we sat and talked for a while about other things and that distracted me until I felt better again. But even now looking at the photo...

I understand modeling. I understand modeling in SL. I know that when choosing models, designers probably do want a specific sized avatar to best show off their clothing and so that they won't have to do too many adjustments. But this? Very very tall and very very thin? THIS is what will fit your clothing? Well I'm sorry, but that's not an average body shape in SL. If I hadn't been freaking out, I would have done a side view shot so you all could see how the Gracie shape is not allowed any kind of butt due to system skirts. I have a skirt shape too, but it's still not this thin. And if that's the only kind of body that will fit the clothing, then I'm afraid that this is a store that I could never shop in. Not that I think I ever have before.

I have friends of all shapes and sizes. Most are shorter than me, [I'm 6'1 in barefeet these days], some are much taller. All of them have curves.




I guess by Gracie standards, none of us could be her models.

Yes, I am a slender avatar. But I have body fat. I have body thickness. I have boobs, and butt and hips and love handles and saddlebags. I like my avatar. She doesn't make the RL me feel ashamed of my body [well, usually. I have my moments.] and for someone to come in here with their anorexic, out of proportion models...it doesn't sit right with me.

You can be slender, petite, curvy, tall, whatever - if you keep it all in proportion, it's all beautiful.

I have to go shake off this icky body feeling now.

Chicken Frenzy!!

I heard tonight that Miriel Enfield is packing up soon, shutting down her store, giving up her sim, the whole thing. I'm terribly sad over the news. I have been wearing Miriel eyes almost exclusively for at least the past year. Her "Open Ocean" color is one that I've probably worn the most in my blog posts and out on the grid, just because they are clear, bright, and get me noticed. I have almost every color of hers, and what I don't have, I hope to get before she closes her doors for good. I like to match my eyes to my outfits. If you've never bought Miriel eyes, you owe it to yourself to go pick up at least - at LEAST - one pair. Inexpensive and gorgeous, you won't be sorry. I wear her Standard size, but if you prefer a smaller eye, she does have the Realistic size. Oh, and the Anime eyes, which are huge and gorgeous and I wore those for quite a while in the early summer last year. And you absolutely MUST see her sim. It is unbelievably natural and beautiful. I'm hoping my new video card comes in before she shuts down for good so I can run out there and take photos.

So we've been getting chicken crazy over the past few days. You see, Nikki [yes, I'm blaming her] mentioned one night in the group that she had won some chicken eggs from a Midnight Mania board, and the chickens eat food and grow and lay eggs and whatnot. I can't resist useless stuff, so of course I had to get them, as I mentioned in the blog before. And then it was chicken frenzy!!! I swear, everyone is getting them! But gosh, they are just so fun. And not fun in the sense that you have to do a lot for them. But just fun in general.

Nika and Keeme got their chickens, which produced a couple of awesome blogposts. Rylan & Aldwyn got their baby chicks, which sent Rylan into mommy mode and they even had a family portrait taken. Sophia is living with her kitten and 2 chickens in their skybox [I'm not sure Skyhawke knows this!]. And tonight Noel got his eggs and came over to hatch one in my pen with Pollo Sophia & Pollo Pumpkin. We're hoping for a boy.




As we were sitting there staring at the egg, Pollo Sophia & Pollo Pumpkin started going all crazy. Pumpkin wouldn't get her ass off the food dish, even sleeping in it, and Sophia started freaking out and pacing back and forth really really fast. We moved the food out from under Pumpkin, which sent her into a freak out. But I managed to click on both crazy chickens, tell them where their home was, and they were fine again. If for some reason this new egg is a girl, I'm naming her Pollo Lola, the shankingest chicken on the block!

I need to go to bed. All this chicken excitement is too much for me.

Just a normal day :)

I thought I'd have time to blog today, because I'm trying to make at least 31 posts this month, but I sometimes just get distracted or busy or a combination of the 2. Plus, I also get very distracted late at night with infomercials. Does anyone have the InStyler?!

So how did I spend Tuesday?

I spent some of it making threats to Rylan to either shank her, block her from my plurk list, or kick her out of the group because of her love for Adam Lambert. I'm lucky she's such a good sport. LOL

I watched my chickens. Pollo Sophia & Pollo Pumpkin are almost always hungry, but they won't eat as much as they could eat. I keep telling them we're not that poor, they can have food, but they want to keep their figures. They're such chicks. Haha, do you see whut I did thar?

I went shopping with Noel, because for some reason, he likes to shop even more than I do. :-p Ok, I'm probably kidding on that. Probably.

[OMG, how much do I want to buy the Time Life 153 Rock Ballads collectors set?!]

I discussed WTFug with Meara, who is coming back to us after a bit of a hiatus. :) People tend to think WTFug was my idea, but it wasn't. Meara is the actual creator of the blog.

I talked smack with Sophia, because that's what we do.

I hit up a Midnight Mania board with the girls...only to be disappointed at midnight. But I guess I can't complain. It WAS free.

I started building something for a party that's happening in a week or so.

Ack! I just realize I need to start clearing a spot and decorating for Thursday's party.

Ok, I'm sleepy. I'm sorry this post has no pictures. I'm STILL waiting on the new video card. And I'm sorry it's probably boring. But people ask me what I do in SL. There you have it. It wasn't an exceptionally exciting, crazy day, but it was a normal one. And that is what keeps me coming back. Because I do so love just the day to day SLife. :)

I'll leave you guys with a song that probably most of you remember from Napoleon Dynamite. But it's meant quite a bit to me since October 1997 when I was in college, and some of my best guy friends serenaded me with it when I was in a really really bad mood. :) WHY they picked this song, I couldn't tell you. But I still love this song, so it's sending me to bed with a smile.

Chicken Update

Ok, I'm going to bed after a pretty good night [made better by a snuggle from someone I was missing!] but I wanted to do a chicken update.

My eggs came to me early, around 5ish, and I know for a fact that there had only been 56 people on the board because I had JUST come from the chicken place. But I'm not complaining because I so wanted my chickens! I made a little pen for them, since Nikki said her chickens kept trying to drown themselves and I sure didn't need them going overboard and falling down on the beach. Supposedly if you put them back in your inventory, they die because the weight of your inventory crushes them to death. I know, right? :-p So I made a pen, set my eggs out and waited.

And waited.

Annnnd....waited.

About 2 hours later...





Baby chicken!!

I ended up with 2 girl chickens, which I named Sophia & Pumpkin. I figure if I name them after those 2, I'll be less likely to kill them. Um, kill the chickens. Not the girls. :-p Of course, if the chickens do die, I'll feel really bad.

They are very cute, and run around the pen trying to get out when they're not sleeping.





If you didn't know, you have to buy food to feed the chickens. If you don't feed them, they die. I bought a food set on Xstreet for $240L and it came with 4 dishes of food. I gave one to Soph so her chicken, which is named after me, won't die. Of course, her chicken is a rooster. Do you still call a rooster a chicken? A hen is a female chicken, right? Or... oh, hell, I'm such a city girl. I don't know jack about chickens.

But I do know these 2 chickens of mine need to eat more. They're always hungry, but only one has eaten a bite. If I log in tomorrow and their anorexic asses are keeled over in the pen, I'm going to be mad.




Thank god I don't have to feed the kitten or she'll die. She'd have been dead a long time ago.

Oh, but you do have to bathe the cat. For a couple of days I'd logged in and wondered why she was no longer bright. Then I bathed her. Ohhhh.

Yeah. On second thought...maybe I shouldn't be a prim pet mom. I don't seem to be that good at it. Thankfully I'm not into prim babies, or you'd see my baby crawling on the beach after falling off the sky platform, diaper full, half starved, while I sat up in the skybox admiring new shoes and wondering where the baby had run off to.

Here chick chick chick....

I love prim pets in SL. Yes, I am totally the queen of buying stuff I don't need and that serves no actual useful purpose to me. :) Everyone knows how utterly in love I was with my kitten, Elle, after I got her. Elle hasn't been seen because while we were living like hobos on my sky platform, somehow she fell off and I didn't see her again. Luckily, she was [or her replacement was] in my inventory. Now that we have our fabulous new home, I could finally put out her food dish, bathtub, and house.





Now she can just hang out again in our big beautiful new home, and not fall off and into the great unknown.

But last night, Nikki mentioned that she won chickens from a Midnight Mania board at the Lavish Chicken Shop. And not just chickens that wander around. Oh no. You get the eggs, they hatch, you feed them, and watch them grow!




I so so so want these chickens. So if you have a chance, run over to the shop and get on the Midnight Mania board today please!! I need chickens for my front yard. I'll probably forget to feed them at some point and they will die, but...chickens!!

It's a lovely day here in my physical world, so I think I'm going to make some iced tea and enjoy the rest of the afternoon.

Doing Laundry the Belle Belle Way!

My furniture hunt has momentarily stalled because 1, my video card sucks and it's hard for me to get around to too many places, and 2, I'm not actually home all that often these days. :) But when I saw the new Laundry Set from Belle Belle, I *knew* I wanted it for my home! And lucky for me, I get to review it!!

[Please excuse my pics if they don't look as good as the actual set looks in the store. I try to up my settings for review pics and sometimes I'm not sure if that's as great as the items really look.]




92 prims of cuteness, this set is just the perfect little addition to your SL home. Everything is just adorably detailed, from the rack to dry your sweaters to the laundry tumbling inside the dryer. You can almost smell the fresh laundry scent!!

Along with the set comes a cute ironing board and an iron to hold.




What am I ironing? Well...I don't know. Curtains or something. :) It's just precious and I do SO love just cute things in SL that really are just for show but bring just a touch of realism to the SL home.

Speaking of realism, does clean laundry turn you on? Because if it does, this set is totally right for you.




Huge thanks to my buddy Aldwyn for posing with me for this since I couldn't run 2 SL windows to bring in my male alt. Rylan, please don't shank me for making your man pose with me. LOL!!

The Belle Belle Laundry set is a combined 109 prims of laundry fun and goes for $490L. I think it's worth every prim and every $L if you love that cute home look. Be sure to hit up the Midnight Mania boards and check out all the other goodies at Belle Belle when you go to pick this up!

Also worn in this post:

Skin: Kimberly in Candy by Free Speerit
Eyes: Open Ocean [standard size] by Miriel
Lashes: Diva lashes by Lelutka
Hair: Willow by Truth
Shirt: White top from the Where The Boys Are set by Sn@tch
Skirt: Naive Ruffled skirt from the Punk Angel swag bag by Sn@tch, sent through DSN
Shoes: Baby Pink flats by 50 Flats

I couldn't tell you what Al's wearing. Sorry about that. LOL

New Truth!

It's no big secret that I'm a huge fan of Truth Hawks and his hair designs. I would never have agreed to pose for his store if I wasn't. Along with being a fab hair designer, and a great clothing artist, he's also a pretty decent guy who takes a fair amount of ribbing from a bunch of us. :)

Truth is also quite tireless in his work and releases new items frequently. [Seriously man, take a break once in a while!] But I'm glad he works like he does, because he keeps us all in awesome new hair! His latest 2 are just cute cute cute for summer!

The Linda




A mass of soft flippy waves, this hair is just too cute for words! It's exactly how I'd want my hair to be, if I could get it to be anything more than straight without the use of multiple styling tools and if I could stand short hair on myself. :) But I just loveeee it! $225L for a pack of colors, and believe me, it's totally worth it.


The Jess



The Jess is a very posh style, sleek and feminine with an edge. I just adore the little bobby pins holding the side. And the best part of this style? It's FREE. Oh yes, you read that right. FREE. Amazing!! It's Truth's appreciation gift to customers and bloggers. Generous!! :-D

Be sure to head out to the store to pick these lovely styles - and many others - up soon!

Also worn in this post:

Skin: Kimberly in Ocean by Free Speerit
Eyes: Open Ocean [standard size] by Miriel
Lashes: Diva lashes by Lelutka
Dress: Aphrodite Cocktail in Faschi Pink by Armidi Gisaci
Lip Piercing: Delicate Fae by Otaku Designs
Poses by Imperial Elegance
Shoes: [cannot be seen] Patent Rose Grapefruit by 50 Flats

'Cause you're a dream to me...

Happy Sunday everyone! I got up a little earlier than I needed to so I could finish a review post, but I think I'll save that until later this evening because I woke up thinking about something.

Do you dream about Second Life? No, not dreams of no lag, the pie menu on the new RC being made back to normal, and island tiers being lowered. But just dreams in general about it when you sleep. You see, I do. I'm wondering if it's as common as I think.

In my dreams, SL is physical. My friends' avatars come to life before my eyes. Sometimes they look like their avatars and sometimes, if I have seen their RL pictures, they take on those traits as well. Sometimes I am my avatar, and sometimes I'm just me.

What happens in my dreams? Well, we don't fly. We don't teleport. Often we're just running around, shopping, eating at restaurants, having silly conversations. Sometimes places I visit in SL come to life, which is really strange because everything is so big in SL. The dreams are very rarely fanciful. It is often quite realistic. Sometimes, just to prove that it is an SL dream, I can see my $L balance and the land I'm on over my head, as if I were in a huge viewer. Friday night I dreamed of a guy who threw $2,000,000L in my account. [You know that was a dream! However, if anyone ever feels like throwing money in my account, please feel free. I won't stop you. LOL!] I even sometimes dream about Plurk and SL at the same time! Nothing like stopping what I'm doing in my dream to plurk about it with my SL friends. :) But for the most part, my dreams about Second Life are quite real, and my friends are not just pixels or cartoons - not that they ever are to me.

[Want to piss me off? Tell me that we're just pixels, cartoons, or avatars only. SL isn't a game. You want a game with just pixels? Go play The Sims.]

So tell me...do you dream of Second Life? What are your dreams like? Do you dream about it often?

I'll leave you guys with this song. It's been one of my top favorites since it came out and I still love it to this day. Have a great day everyone!

little lamb

I'm on my way to bed, but I couldn't resist showing you all this fabulous group gift that Lamb Bellic put out tonight!! It's called Teased Up, which I don't quite get the name since it doesn't really look teased at all, but it's just soooo pretty!




I am DEFINITELY going to have to get this in my color. Love love love. :)

It was a wonderful night, and this pretty hair just made it better. :) But now I MUST sleep because tomorrow I'm going to go celebrate my daddy's 71st birthday. Goodnight, adorables!

Appreciation

When I first heard about the whole "blogger appreciation week" thing, I thought, oh, that's a cute idea. Certainly there are many many wonderful SL bloggers, and several really good fashion bloggers. They deserve to be recognized for all the work that they put into what is basically just a hobby. [Don't get your panties in a wad, you know you don't get RL rich off of SL blogging, and if you do...well, come tell me your secret. :) ]

I didn't really think that much about it again until a few days ago when suddenly some of my girl friends were exclaiming over group gifts from some group I'd never heard of before. I'll be the first to admit that it is VERY rare that I read the fashion feeds, and only have a few fashion blogs that I enjoy, so I miss quite a bit of the fashion gossip unless someone points it out to me. I missed the boat on the group that you had to ask to be invited into to get gifts from designers for appreciation week. I chose not to ask to be invited because I don't consider myself a real fashion blogger. I'm an everything blogger. I write mostly about my SLife, and while I do reviews, they aren't primarily fashion. I like to do reviews, whether it's clothing, furniture, poses or whatever, and whether I buy it or receive a review copy of it. But they are part of my blog as a whole, and not the primary focus. So quite honestly, I didn't feel like asking to be in some group for fashion bloggers was something that I should do. And yes, I was slightly annoyed. It's Blogger appreciation, right? Not just fashion blogger appreciation? Where does that leave other bloggers who never do reviews but are still vital to the SL blogosphere?

I was just going to put it out of my head when yesterday Maeve Mortlock, Ear Candy designer, dropped a gift on me. Her notecard said that she was dropping gifts on bloggers that she personally reads. I was so touched! THAT is what I thought it would be like! Her gift meant more to me than any gift I probably could have received in a group because she has taken the time to read my blog, and remembers that she has done so! Then this morning I received another gift from Miranda Tretiak of Kiss This in appreciation. Oh ladies, you have no idea how grateful I am. Not because of the lovely gifts, but just because you take the time to read my crazy rambling little blog.

I am always grateful and appreciative of the content creators who give so generously throughout the year. I attempt to drop a notecard or IM anyone that I blog items for to thank them for allowing me to do so. You guys really are the foundation of the SL community, and without you, we'd ... well, we'd look pretty bad. :)

But an equally big thank you goes out from me to the other bloggers out there. Not just the fashion bloggers, but the everything bloggers. The ones who share their lives, introduce you to new places, keep you up to date on what's going on in SL. The ones who help, the ones who teach, the ones who fight to keep things going smoothly. Even if you never receive a gift, or a notecard, or an IM, do not think that you are any less appreciated. If the content creators are the ones who shine, you are the ones holding the spotlight. Gracias, merci, danke, arigato, thank you.

Uh..what?

A friend of mine posted this, and I can never refuse a quiz, so...

Your result for The Social Persona Test (What kind of man/woman are you?)...

The Rarity (QTAF)

Quirky Traditional Alpha Female

You have an unusual and unbelievably precious combination of traits, especially in a woman. Not only are alpha females extremely rare, but traditional ones with nerdy/geeky interests are even more scarce. Unlike the other types, I can't give you a description because I'm not sure if you actually exists. I know this is not a compatibility test, but you are the girl of my dreams. (Assuming, that is, that you are also in your twenties and live in New England). Please, oh please message me!

--Bookwyrm85

You are more QUIRKY than NORMAL.

You are more TRADITIONAL than LIBERAL.

You are more DOMINANT than PASSIVE.

When picking a date, consider: Lord of the Misfits (QLAM), The Late Bloomer (QTAM), The Snowball's Chance in Hell (QTBM), or The Manga Geek (QLBM).

(Image from http://folk.uio.no/thomas/lists/amazon-connection.html)

Take The Social Persona Test (What kind of man/woman are you?) at HelloQuizzy

Designer Showcase Network

I've been meaning to blog about this for the past week, but all the non-picture posts were stressing me out. I cannot WAIT to get my stupid new video card. But for this, I upped my settings a little and prayed not to crash while I took a picture. :) Hopefully a little Orton Effect and a little liquify will mask how badly I'm seeing the world these days. LOL

Do you like my skirt?




That skirt came to me last night from Sn@tch, via the newest and most awesome thing in SL, the Designer Showcase Network. Haven't heard of DSN yet? You are missing OUT!!

Created by the brilliant Rika Watanabe and my good friend [and equally brilliant] Peter Stindberg, the Designer Showcase Network takes us back to a time when designers who chose to give gifts did so generously, and not in desperation to drive traffic to their stores. After all, what good is traffic if no one is buying? I maintain that gifts are truly one of the best marketing tools in SL, if used correctly, not as an attempt to force people into wandering aimlessly around your store searching for a gift they may or may not even like in the end.

DSN is really really simple to use, especially if you're a subscriber. All you have to do is go to a place with a kiosk and sign up! Oh where can you find a kiosk? Well, you can head right on over to WTFug HQ and go inside. It's on the wall by the scale and looks like this:





[There are also lots of other places to sign up as well, and you can find SLurls to on the DSN website if you didn't want to visit HQ.]

Like any regular subscription kiosk, just click it. It'll ask you which channel you want to sign up for to receive gifts. There are 9 channels:

* Female fashion
* Male fashion
* Skins and hair
* Jewelry and Accessories
* Home and Garden
* Gadgets, Vehicles and Weapons
* Animations and Poses
* Business, Tools and Services
* Full avatars

Currently I'm signed up for every channel, but you can choose one, two, or all nine. Just whichever you're interested in! There isn't a "Subscribe To All" button that I'm aware of, so just click again when you want to sign up for another channel.

And then? You wait for gifts!

It's been SO AWESOME to get gifts, both from the designers I know and the ones that are new to me. It's been great to check out new stores, too! The pretty skirt I'm wearing in the first picture was a gift from Sn@tch, which I think gets overlooked all too often as being just a "punk" store. [Although it did come with pink skully top, which I'm not wearing even though it was cute.] My adorable friends Aisuru, Laleeta, and Lola are also all part of the DSN. You can find a full list of DSN designers on this page.

If you're a content creator and want to join, it's very easy! There is a one time fee for your starter kit, which you can buy at the Clever Things store or on Xstreet. There are some rules, but it's nothing that you probably wouldn't agree to anyway. :) If you're interested in having just a subscription kiosk on your land, you can pick that up for free.

I really hope you all subscribe, or join if you're a creator, because I think this is really just one of the most marvelous things in SL these days. Thank you, Peter and Rika, for putting it together. And huge huge huge thanks to the creators who have been so generous to put out samples of your work. Everytime I get a gift, I am amazed at the talent & creativity that is in Second Life, and I get excited to go see more of your work. You are the ones that keep this world wonderful!

Love Thursday

This Love Thursday post is without pictures, but hopefully I get my point across without them.

This is dedicated to the men in my life. I've done countless posts about the women that grace my life. They are my jewels and my flowers, my strength and my inspiration. But so often the men get overlooked, or at the very least, they don't get as much blog time. They are the foundation, the ones who support and encourage so often from the sidelines while letting us shine.

I've been unbelievably blessed to have some amazing men in my life, both in the physical world and in Second Life. My father, who still works a long long day at almost 71 [71 on Monday, actually], so that he can make sure that I have anything I've ever wanted. My RLBF, who even though our relationship is not your typical romantic thing and he annoys me to death 95% of the time, has been there for me and taken care of me through some of the worst times of my life. He is the one who has literally picked me up off the floor when I thought I would die. My two "best gays," the ones who have been with me since high school, the bravest men I know. They came out to me in such a way that was gentle and kind, letting me know that although they had both tried to be with me in a romantic sense, I was in no way at fault for "turning" them.

And my male friends in SL. Where would I be without them? It is not a secret that over the past year, I had pushed so many away. To my surprise, some would not let themselves be pushed. They waited, quietly supporting me, willing to be there in whatever capacity I wanted them. They are the ones who accepted my apologies without question, told me that they were unnecessary [they are necessary], and took me back without judgment. Some did not, and I do not blame them. They are equally important as they have taught me a life lesson that I believed I learned as a teen, and somehow forgot along the way.

The men in my SLife are amazing, brilliant, funny, talented, sometimes without filter but never cruel, and loving. They are the kind of men that your mother always told you that you should meet. I love each of them in their own unique way, and I would never change a thing about any of them. Some I have known for long time, some have recently worked their way into my life, but I appreciate and cherish each one for being exactly who he is.

So there you have it, my Love Thursday post, complete with tears because I am a girly girl. Not that they would have it any other way.

Birthday Baby!

Come celebrate Bone Mosten's birthday with us tonight!! He's 29 and feelin' fine...or something, I dunno. :) I'll have the SLurl to the party room later, or just IM me in world. Party starts at 8pm SLT! We hope you can make it!

Still waiting.

The wait for the new video card continues. But I've discovered that I'm fine on my island, and on Conatus, where the WTFug HQ is located. So I can be on either sim easily enough and with minimal lag. Other sims...well, it's a bit of a trial, but I'm muddling through. I even managed to complete the Keys To The VIP hunt. I know, I know, I wasn't going to do it. To say that I've been VERY pleasantly surprised with the gifts in this hunt, and the fact that MOST of the designers participating haven't been complete asses and hidden their keys in impossible locations, would be an understatement. Did I get help with it? Hell yes I did. But only in the worst spots. Hello? Stupid video card. Even when the key was right in front of me when I landed, it took ages to rez.

I also had the chance to be an extra in a video shoot with some of the girls. I can't wait to see it because with my settings turned as low as they are so I can walk, most things never rezzed all the way for me. It was loads of fun and if anyone needs extras in their machinima...call on us. We love it.

I'll end with this expressing my condolences to the friends and family of Rheta Shan. I only had the opportunity to meet her once, and reading all the beautiful tributes to her today, I wish that it had been more. There is a guardian angel watching over you now, and you will meet her again in a world far more different than the physical, or the virtual.

No pretty pics for this post

So a few months ago, after bitching and moaning about my water being black and the whole palletized textures debacle, I got a fancy pants new video card. And man, was I in heaven. Lag was so so so LOW. Everything was smooth and beautiful. My SL experience was instantly more awesome. And it hadn't been that bad before, but I'm telling you - if you have a lot of issues in SL, look and see what you're running. Chances are, some of your issues are because of you. [Well hell, that could be said for almost anything, huh?]

About a month into my awesomeness, I turned on my computer one morning and it started to make noises at me. Immediately I shut it off, and on restart, no more noise. It went like that for a couple of days and then I figured, oh, maybe the fans are dirty. It happens, right? So I got in there and used the spray air and cleaned everything.

Nope.

My RLBF, who is my tech geek, said that it was the video card fan and it would probably need replacing because eventually, it was going to die. After attempting to contact the company a few times [this is why I hate buying online. The customer service is almost always crap.], and getting no response, we just kind of...left it. Restarting or smacking the front of the computer always seemed to fix it. But as time went on, I noticed more and more issues. I just chose not to do anything because I know flip about hardware and he didn't seem that concerned.

This morning the damn thing wouldn't fix. It was time to put it to pasture. RLBF called the company [why he didn't do that ages ago, I don't know] and the guy said he'd email the replacement forms. So now I wait.

But while I wait, I'm working off the ... default? I don't know. LOL All I know is that I'm semi-housebound while I wait for the new card. All the settings have been moved to the lowest, except for local lighting. But it's still not good. And my WTFug pic taking will probably be put on hold until I get fixed up, unless it's glaringly bad, since I've turned off particles and won't see bling. Speaking of which, who the hell told Paper Couture to put bling in their shoes and no option to turn it off?! I felt so so so bad for Sophia when she put on her shoes and was blinging like a Vegas hooker. Her feet looked so sad.

Hopefully I'll be able to be in SL and DJ this week, since I've got 2 parties this week to do. I guess we'll see. :)

I've had this song on repeat for a few days. Enjoy!

Busy busy busy

I really should be in bed but I'm a little too bouncy at the moment since I had a fabulous night. I know I did say I was trying to post every day, but I actually have been quite busy recently.

The main part of what's keeping me occupied is scouting furniture locations. Yes, still!! I ended up just typing "Couch" into my inventory and throwing down several couches I had.




The bad thing? [Well, besides the crazy amount of bad quality furniture I possess] I found one that I liked, so I thought "Oh victory is mine! I'll go to the store and get matching stuff." No success. The store is closed. Dammit!

Luckily for me, the Home & Garden Expo is this week. I went out there to play around and even found things here and there that I liked. I bought a bunch of stuff from Second Spaces, which I had heard of before but had never seen any of the items. I got a precious pink vanity from Second Spaces from their RFL vendor. So way to go! I helped charity AND I got something I love. My big issue is that I don't know how to mix and match furniture so it looks like it works. Decorating fail. But I'm trying.

The other part of my whole busy thing is that I've been setting up the new WTFug Headquarters location.




We were on one sim, but some things changed and now we're happily on the Conatus sim, which belongs to my friend Noel. I'm telling you guys, that place is going to be AMAZING. Stores are moving in this week, there's going to be live music I think at least 3 nights a week, it's just awesome!! I'll even be out there hosting a party every other Tuesday! Nardcotix, Phoenix Rising, Cheap Love Song, and several others are scheduled to move in this week, which makes me weep for what's going to be the loss of my $L. LOL! There are still stores open too, so if you're looking for a satellite store or just store space in general, you've GOT to go over there. We were already out there tonight shopping in one of the stores that moved in! :-D

Oh, so HQ! Sorry, got distracted thinking about all the shopping I'm going to be doing out there. Some people have asked "Ali, why a HQ?" Why not? :-p Actually, once things settle down, I have some plans. Like....WTFug Approved stores, style consultants, fun free gifts, parties, and just general fun and help. Contrary to what some people think, we're not just about mocking outfits. We DO want to help. That tutorial I did for tinting prim feet has seriously been popular and I've gotten many IMs from people thanking me, which is awesome. :-D I wish I could take credit for the entire thing, but the tip came from Claire Harford, via Honey Hoffman of Virtual Freebies. But I put pictures to it. LOL I want to do more things like that. Yeah, we're still going to giggle over bad fashion. That's the basis of the blog and we're popular for that. But in between, I want to help too. :)

Feel free to stop by HQ. It's mostly set up right now, and we have fun hanging out there in the evenings, and I'm in and out all day. I even have a scale out there so you can measure yourself, and some posestands. Oh! And we even have fishing out our backdoor too! I'm going to see about getting us some custom fishies. :-D I'm just so incredibly excited about it, and I don't think anyone wants to hear me ramble about it anymore. LOL! My poor friends. They humor me so.

Ok, my eyes are starting to glaze over, so I'm off to bed. :)

Error & Thinking

Last night my friend Bon dropped a landmark on me for the Error sim. I've heard a lot about it but hadn't yet made the trip out to visit. Bon is really good about dropping LMs on me to new places, since I really do like to explore, but don't often know where to go once I get the time to do it.

Error is unlike any sim I've seen before yet in SL. It is stark, but beautiful. I didn't get a chance to explore the entire thing, but I do plan on going back.

It's amazing what you can do with windlight & a little photoshopping. So while I show you these neat pictures I caught out there, I'll talk a little about something that's been on my mind. If you don't want to read, you can just look at the pics. I don't mind. :)




Last night I was chatting with someone, and he mentioned that sometimes when he's in SL, he just goes off somewhere alone to just sit and think or listen to music or stand around. And I started thinking that rarely am I alone anymore in SL. For months, I was. I wanted to be. I would sit up in my home on the island and just be alone. At least, I thought I wanted to be alone. I set up my little world and I blogged my random things and I played with windlight and I just stayed there.

But the thing is...I'm happier in SL when I have more than just the sky to play with.




No, I'm not alone often these days. I go and sit and watch my builder friends work while I pay attention [sometimes] or I blog or do photos while they do their thing. I invite people to my home [or they invite themselves, which makes me laugh, but I never mind it]. I drag people out to shop with me, or they drag me with them. And on the rare occasions that I am alone, I have my group of fabulous friends right there in the window, ready to chat at a moment's notice.

After so many months of being alone, and now rarely being by myself, shouldn't I crave it more? In my physical world, I relish my alone time. I look for any brief moment when I can be by myself, think about things, and just breathe. I have to wonder if I'm not allowing myself much alone time in SL lately because I don't want to think too much. I keep going and going, moving, laughing, running, dancing, just to not let my mind wander to things that I've already thought too much about in the past.

Or maybe I just enjoy my friends for being who they are, my strength and my inspirations, and I don't feel the need to be left alone when I could be with them.




That concludes my thoughts for today. :)

Oh, but while at Error, this guy landed near me. We said hello and talked about how nice the sim was for about a minute, and then he wished me a good day and left. I thought his avatar was awesome for Error. I didn't get his permission to take his picture, and I don't remember his name, but he has a store where he sells steampunk and post-apocalyptic items. Hopefully he won't mind that I took his picture.

Just writing

I almost didn't get a post in today, and I'm really trying to blog everyday. Not that I have that much to say. :)

I'm still furniture shopping. I've been to all the "big name" places and found nothing I really like. So now I'm trying to just hit up smaller stores. Not finding much there either. It's way sad. Weep for me. :-p

Lots of time spent with the friends lately. I am grateful, or I think I'd go crazy. lol

Speaking of which, I'm actually banging this out while we all dance at the fiesta zone in one of our impromptu parties, so I better get back to them. :)

Oh, but earlier today I was playing around with photoshop and did this pic of myself. Last Call...still the best for cleavage. LOL!