So Full

I took the weekend away from writing and now I have about a billion things to say. Isn't that the way it goes? :)

I had the chance to DJ the SL Bloggers Meet Up this Sunday. It was SO FUN. Unfortunately I was unable to actually catch any shots during the party and save them as I usually do, but I did manage to get a few pics in over at Snapzilla. I put them all in an photo album, and hopefully that link will take you right over. :) It was truly a blast and huge thanks to Tymmerie for organizing it and Noelyci for hosting us out there. :)

Since I keep getting asked, my little Holly girl is doing just great! Her spaying surgery went very well and she had the fastest recovery of any kitty I've ever had! Really, just a couple of hours after I got her home, she wanted out of her carrier, but I did as the vet said and didn't let her come out until after 5. She was stumbling and woozy, but so so happy to be home. I think we're going to have to get her those Soft Paws things, though, because she just can't control her claws and our legs are totally scratched up.




My friend Merrick has been learning Sculpt Studio lately, and again I am amazed at how freaking talented my group of friends really are. He hasn't been using it very long, but check this out. He made an awesome 1 prim table and a 2 prim matching chair. So cute!




Noel took me sailing the other day. I hadn't been sailing in SL in so long, so it was really really fun! I have sailed a little around Bluebonnet in my crappy boats, but I'm not a very good sailor, I guess, because I always end up crashing into something. It was nice to be out on the water with him.




Of course, sim crossings killed us and we ended up on the bottom of the ocean. But hey, it was still fun. :)

I'm really feeling the beach lately. Sophia was nice enough to drop down her cute open air beach cottage for me the other day, and I had to run out to Mudshake to get a lounger for it. I still need to decorate it more. Wow, that's the story of my life usually. :) But I love it.




But since I am so into the beach lately, I bought some of those "off sim" things. I love them! Some of the other Bluebonnet residents have had different ones over the past few months. I even have one that if I sit on it, I can be off world. It's really kind of fun. :) Sophia and I discovered today that if we are sitting on it, though, we can't chat in local. However, we can shout. It's really funny. :)




Speaking of Soph, she gave me a beating stick today. I freakin' love it. LOL I think I just love the face I make when I swing more than anything else. I did beat down her husband, though. Sorry about that, Subway.




Oh, and I also censored him.




But...well then he caged us. LOL! I think Soph managed to beat him with her bat through the cage, though. We're mean cholas, ya know.




I have more to say, about a few topics, actually, but I think I'm done for now. :) My SLife is so incredibly full and wonderful. Just when I think that maybe possibly I might be getting slightly bored [which is very rare for me in any life], suddenly there's something new to do, to see, new people to talk to or hang out with. It really is a wonderous world. :)

Inspired

This is a great little meme from the mind of Zoe Connolly, and since I have nothing else to talk about today, and I'm waiting for laundry to finish, I thought I'd get it done. :)

So who inspired my avatar?

I didn't really have an idea in my head of what I wanted to look like when I started on my shape tweaking. I wanted to be beautiful, I knew that much. I wanted to be somewhat petite [although I am taller than I was for months], and I wanted to be slender but still with some curves. Basically, I wanted to be what I have never been in my real world.

My face came about after many careful tweakings. I have never wanted the little pucker mouth that is so popular, although in doing that, I've given up the right to wear probably 75% of the skins out there because they are more designed for that mouth. When I put them on, I have huge Bratz lips and that's never good.

The funny part is that a few people who have seen my RL photo say that my avatar's face looks like me. I know they're being polite in not adding "if you lost 300 pounds," but it makes me laugh because in certain skins, my face looks like a much younger version of my mother. So I guess in a way, my avatar has been inspired by my desire to look more like the majority of the women in my family. Small, beautiful, delicate.

The clothing I dress my avatar in are much like I would [and sometimes do] dress like in my real world. The cute skirts, great jeans, t-shirts and halter tops, flip flops, etc. Although my avatar wears heels that I would certainly break my ankles in, and lingerie that I would be embarrassed to death to wear in front of anyone, the style really is my own. I prefer my Second Life to be better than my first, but still close to it, with bits of fantasy thrown in here and there. Unlike those who consistently are able to pull off the better fantasy look, I feel more comfortable simply being me, but a prettier me.

So I guess the real answer to the question is just that: The me I feel I am inside, the one that isn't easily seen in the real world, that is my inspiration. I'm not perfect, and neither is my avatar. There are times when I'm having body issues in the real world that I project upon her [usually seen through my "My avatar is fat" comments], but I'm able to work through them that way. I use her to do things, to speak my mind, to remember that I'm competent and intelligent. Through her, I have grown and become a better person.

Hmm...so really, who is the inspiration? Me, or her? I guess we're both just inspiring each other.

I just can't come up with a title tonight.

I feel like I've been blogging all day. LOL I did 2 posts for my review blog and one post for WTFug. Now I can finally come in here and write.

I gotta say, I am really loving having a review blog now. It feels like I can come in here and just write again the way I used to. It makes me want to write more, actually. That may or may not be a good thing. :)

Oh, so for those of you who asked, my little kitten came through surgery just fine. A couple of hours after I got her home, she was very ready to come out of her carrier and was starving to death. But I've only been giving her little bits of food every few hours. Tomorrow she can resume normal feeding, but we still have to watch how playful she is for a week, which is not easy because even though she's been unsteady on her feet, she's been happy and playful as ever.

I finally made my way into Hair Fair today. It took me about 14 tries before I managed to get into a sim that wasn't full, but then I couldn't move. What is the use of having this massive busy build if people are having to put down their graphics settings just to be able to walk or rez anything? And don't tell me it's my computer. My video card is amazing and my computer is pretty powerful. I've had no issues at all since getting the video card replaced. I spent about 30 minutes at Hair Fair trying in vain to get things to rez so I could even see demos [I bought several demos sight unseen from different vendors because I figured I might as well]. I ended up slamming my graphics down to the very lowest setting and turned off things like the sky and the ground. I managed to be able to rez a littttle bit faster after that. But then right before I crashed, my graphics exploded and went crazy all over the screen.

Needless to say, my Hair Fair experience has been crap. :-p Oh well... I did manage to see half of a sim and grab the demos for the 2 stores I really wanted to see. Thank god they were on the same sim or I would have been totally screwed. Unfortunately none of them looked good on me, but maybe I was just totally against hair at that point. LOL

I'm exhausted, so I think it's just about bedtime.

Blah blah blah. LOL

I should be working on a couple of review posts for my new review blog, but I'm tired. My first review post showed up on Avanista today, which was REALLY weird to me for some reason. We've had WTFug on the feed there since it started, so it's not like I've never see a post of mine on a feed before, but it was more like, "Oh, hey, look at me reviewing something like I know what I'm talking about..." LOL

Oh, I haven't done a chicken update in a while. Umm...well, there have been some deaths, some adoptions [not me adopting, others adopting mine], and some births. Duncan, the black chicken of death, grew to breeding age and killed one rooster, and then killed Pollos Rylan & Pumpkin. I guess they couldn't handle him? But Pollo Sehra, who was recently revived from an accidental starvation, has now had 4 babies from Duncan. Unfortunately, they were all Originals, much to my dismay. Nikki and Al had run away to the beach and have been living in a pen with Randy, and now Nikki's popping out babies like mad. One of her babies met a sad death when I was on the beach shooting an exploding trailer and it got caught in the fire. Oops. Yeah, I guess I'm almost kinda over the whole chicken thing, but not over enough to just give them all away or let them wander into the ocean.

I really didn't plan anything for a hump day party this week. My new kitten, Holly, goes in for her spaying in the morning [we have to be there in 5 hours, actually], and I have a feeling I'm going to be spending most of the evening making sure she's ok. She's barely 3 months old so she's going to be seen by the baby surgeon. My poor little girl. She's sleeping half on the keyboard and half on my hand right now, making typing pretty hard.

But, I am DJing the SL Bloggers party this coming weekend. I'm really excited about that!! I'm torn between trying to put together a playlist or doing what I do best and winging it. LOL

Ok, since I do have to be up in about 4 hours to get Holly ready to go, I guess I should get in bed. I was trying to put the pictures together for a Belle Belle review I'm doing and I thought this one was cute, so I had to doctor it up more. Noel had to pose with me for the review because I made him. ;) The review pics won't be this photoshopped up because I hate when people do that, but here I can play. :) Goodnight all.

Perfectly Imperfect

The day is almost over, but Happy Father's Day to all the daddies and to those who play a father figure in someone's life! I had an exceptionally LONG day that included my car dying, a ride in a stinky cab, a very talkative tow truck driver, and broiling in the sun.

However, I did get the chance to realize yet again how very blessed I am to have the parents that I do. They immediately took care of everything, loaned me my mom's car to drive [it was actually my first car, my graduation present when I graduated high school, but they bought me a new one in 2003 and my mom has been driving my old one ever since. In 3 years she's put 1000 miles on it. She doesn't drive much. lol], and told me not to worry about anything. I know what's coming soon. The inevitable call. "Mija, your daddy says he wants to trade in your little car..." I don't want them to buy me a new car.

Am I spoiled? I think I am taken care of, but I wouldn't call it spoiled. I have basically put my life on hold for them. Those who knew me well last year knew the craziness my mother put me through, and those who know me well now know that I start most of my days with my mother calling me to talk about whatever is on her mind, such as, "Do you want to be buried next to your sister?" LOL My parents are the most important people in the world to me. As they get older, the knowledge that I will not have them much longer terrifies me because I won't know what to do with myself. It's not that I won't be able to take care of myself, but I won't know what to do when I don't have them to take care of any longer. They are the reason I try to eat better, lose weight, exercise, stay strong. I am their rock. To them I am never upset, always calm, always polite. The perfect lady, with intelligence and poise and strength.

I know what you're probably thinking at this point. "What the hell does this have to do with Second Life?" Quite a bit, actually. It is in SL that I can let go. I didn't for a long time. But lately... I'm able to just let go. I can go in there and just BE upset. I can vent and scream and cry. I can allow myself to be taken care of. It's hard for me, because I don't know exactly how to let someone emotionally take care of me. But I'm learning. I'm perfectly imperfect and I'm starting to think that's ok. And it has done more for my mental well-being than any therapist I have ever been to.

Where else but in SL can I log in after a terrible day, vent about it, and then receive the teleport with the message "Come dance in the daisies?"




I thank my SL friends a lot in here, but it is sincere each time. My parents taught me how to be strong. My SL friends remind me that it's ok to be taken care of, to be imperfect. And for that, I have absolute gratitude.

Are you serious?

So of course the whole big hoopla this weekend is Hair Fair 2009. Hey, I get it. I like new hair too, and sometimes the gifts out there are pretty decent. But what ended up happening this year is that some bloggers got butthurt over not being invited to a preview day.

Wow. Really? I mean, REALLY?

From what I've heard, this wasn't even a blogger/media preview day. It was a day for the designers and their guests and the winners of some contest. Did some of the guests happen to be bloggers? Sure. We all have designer friends, show me someone in SL who doesn't. And I can understand feeling left out when you're in a group of fashion bloggers and everyone got in but you. But every other blogger - even the non-fashion ones! - getting all upset because they didn't get in first? Give me a break.

First of all, if you're a non-fashion blogger, just be quiet. You had no right to expect to get in on any kind of preview day. Maaaaybe if you write some kind of super current events blog, or a blog specifically for charity events in SL, MAYBE. But other than that, shush.

And as for fashion bloggers, well holy cow, the sims only hold so many people. You probably would have just been crying for lag anyway when the 500 fashion bloggers out there descended upon the place.

I am lucky to get "press passes" for different events once or twice a month. The phrase "press pass" cracks me up when I get it because I don't consider myself press. I'm just a girl with a blog. [Well, two blogs now that I moved my reviews over here. Three, if you count WTFug. Holy cow, I write a lot.] I've yet to really go to any of these events. The lag, the bitching, the bumping into people - it's kind of part of the fun of these expos and fairs. And it gives me an excuse for not spending too much. ;) I DO like getting unreleased stuff first, but heck, who doesn't? But as far as crying because I DIDN'T get it first? Yeah, you know... LOL

Look, this isn't elementary school. You're not going to always get a Valentine from each kid in the class and you're not always going to get invited to every party. You're just NOT. Why let it get you down? Just have fun and go later. You're not OWED anything. Besides, you know these things - fairs, expos, hunts - are always all chaotic and not fully set up the first day anyway. Save yourself the headache and just go later.

And that's my $2L for today. :-p

Kickin It 4 The Cure

I meant to blog about this yesterday but never got a chance to. This weekend is Kickin' It 4 The Cure, a weekend long fundraiser for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. If you're interested in supporting a very worthy cause, here's a list of events for this weekend. I'm starting with the one for tonight that you can still get to. I'm sorry I don't have all the SLurls. I tried.

Friday, June 19th
Go Bald 4 The Cure - 6pm slt - 8pm slt Jayce at Club Touch at Nspire Mall
Leave your hair at home and come party & make a donation 4 a cure for juvenile diabetes. The sexiest bald head male and female walk away with prizes from our sponsors Savonna Dinova of Dinova Designs and Aalionna Destiny of Millions Media


Saturday, June 20th

Reppin 4 The Cure - 6pm slt - 8pm slt DJ Barack in Diamond City
Make a pledge of 1000Ls or more and bring your clique, your coast, your family, your club i.e biker or chess..etc, or your soro or frat. The hardest reppin group in the buidling will walk away with prizes from our sponsors Daunte Disel of Spoiled Rotten and Savonna Dinova of Dinova Designs .

Bid 4 The Cure - 8pm slt - 10pm slt DJ Shan at Las Vegas City at Sin City
Ladies have you ever just wanted the sexiest men in SL to put on as little as possible or even get naked for you. Well, here is your chance! Tip the men ladies to get him to bare it all for you & then bid on the one you want to spend the evening with. Sponsored by Shaft Jackson of Shaftvision DVDs and Deetalz.


Sunday, June 21st Dj Buttaz at Cruiz's Cotton Club
Dance 4 The Cure - 8pm slt - 10pm slt
Make a pledge of 1000Ls or more & put on your best semi formal to formal gear & get your dance on at the Father/Daughter & Mother/Son dance. Parents bring those kids out and have a good time dancing and listening to the hottest tunes in SL.

All proceeds raised during these events will be donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research foundation & proof of the donation will be provided to all sponsors and all parties participating in these events upon request.



As most of you know, my good friend Noelyci Ingmann has Type 1 diabetes, and he did a really excellent radio interview yesterday as the kick off for Kickin It 4 The Cure. If you'd like to show your support this weekend and you don't have much to spare, think about going to his store, Ingmann Design and picking up one of his insulin pumps for just $1L. I'll be wearing mine this weekend!

The BBBC 2009 Wrap-Up

We did it! Final day and tomorrow we can slack off again. :) Or maybe some of you won't, maybe you'll keep up writing if not every day, then at least a few times a week. I hope that you do.

I had a blast this week! It was incredible to me how many people signed up, and how many kept going even though writing so much was totally outside their normal routine. I have met some great new people that I hope I'm able to keep in touch with. My normal blogroll will be going back in its usual place, but the BBBC Blogroll will remain, although not completely expanded as it is now. I'm not sure if anyone has ever really noticed, but my blogroll from this time last year is still in place at the verrrry bottom of my blog, and it includes last year's challengers. As you can see, we went from almost 30 challengers last year to over 60 this year! Quite impressive!!

So what did I get out of doing this a 2nd year in a row? Pretty much what I got out of it last year. I got the chance to meet some wonderful people, and I was inspired by all of you. You guys bring so much to the Second Life community, each in your own beautiful, inventive, creative, unique ways. I've heard people say, "Well, I don't really DO anything in Second Life." Not true! You do far more than you know! It has really been an honor to read your words, whether you stuck to the topics I gave, or you jetted off on your own thing. I am constantly amazed by the blogging community - the creativity, the passion, the style. I have laughed hysterically over some posts, and some have touched me so deeply in ways I never thought they would. Thank you, for everything.

Would I organize this again next year? You can bet your last $L on it.

But for now? Let's rest!!

BBBC Topic for Friday - FINAL!

Ready for the final one? :) This is also semi-kinda what we did last year, but I couldn't think of a better topic to do for this year's challenge.

If this is your first BBBC... What did you get out of your experience? Do you think it will change the way you blog in the future?


If you're a veteran.... Did you find this year to be harder or easier than last year? Did you enjoy yourself? Do you think you'd do it again?


End of challenge wrapup tomorrow evening! :)

Listless

I'm tired today. Or maybe not so much tired as just...well, there's not really a word. Listless? Drained? Lethargic? Maybe those would work better.

I've been working on my new review blog the past few days, just moving posts over and such. Anything that is there at the moment has been in here already, but you're welcome to go visit. :) I have 3 posts coming up that haven't been in here before, but the pictures aren't finished yet. Once I get those done, I'll see about getting it on a couple of fashion feeds. I don't want to go overboard. One of the reasons why I don't read many feeds is because I don't like seeing the same blogs on 50 different feeds. :)

I took some time the other day to go explore out at the new Zindra continent, AKA "Hey, you child avs ain't allowed here," AKA "Where's the porn?" After landing smack in the water with a few other avs, flying up, and following arrows, I found myself...in the middle of nothing. So I climbed up on my elephant from the Cicc..Cico...Chocolata hunt and wandered until I found the very beginning of the road.




We walked for a while. The funniest thing was when a plane showed up out of nowhere. It was seriously the most interesting thing I saw.




I did eventually make my way to the more populated area of Mosh, but even that was deadly boring. Tell me when the porn gets there.

And last night we had our rave. It was a BLAST. I really had so much fun. I wish all of you could have been there. :)




I guess I'll work on my review pics now. I just have no energy!

BBBC Topic for Thursday

Awesome Awesome party tonight! It was so much fun and it was great getting to meet a few of you from the challenge, along with seeing all my favorites! Everyone looked SO good and there was just color overload! You can see a bunch of pics I took in my Snapzilla account. I took a few more to my desktop, but I ended up crashing after a bit. lol

We did this last year, and so we're doing it again. :)

Your topic for Thursday:

Blogger's Choice! Write about anything you want!

Party tonight!!!

Tonight is our Hump Day Party/BBBC mid-week party! It's a RAVE, BABY! We'll be in the Bluebonnet Party Ball! 2 hours of thumpy bumpy music, pretty colors, and lots of fun! It starts at 8pm SLT as usual, and I hope you guys can make it!

A more Euro-time party is being planned as well, but more info on that as I get more info on it. :)

[PS: Half of Bluebonnet will be closed to the public for a while today while I do some stuff, so if you wanted to get into the ball early for pictures or whatever, I haven't banned you (probably), I'm just working. Residents of Bluebonnet are not affected by this.]

BBBC Topic for Wednesday

Please check the BBBC blogroll that's on my page to make sure that I put your correct blog up. I want to make sure everyone participating gets their link up! :)

The topic for Wednesday, should you choose to use it:

If there was someone you could trade places with for one day in Second Life, who would it be and why? Bonus points if you find this person and snap a picture with them!

Extension

If you are looking for the BBBC sign up post, click here. If you're looking for the topic for Tuesday, it's right here.

*********************

I've been kicking around an idea in my head for some time, but haven't gone through with it because I didn't want people to think I was getting too big for my britches [a phrase that still cracks me up] or that I'm just trying to make myself be something I'm obviously not. But you see, I've been doing reviews for a while now, and tutorials here and there, and I've been asked more and more lately to do these things. I love to do them, I really do. I don't think I'm exceptionally great at them, but love to do them. But although I have a fairly modest readership [average is about 300 hits per day on a regular week], I've always felt a little "off" about not having these wonderful things on any of the feeds. I think that does a bit of disservice to those who are sweet enough to actually want me to blog their items, and to those whose items I blog just because I bought them and like them. Plus, I feel it takes away from the more personal side of my blog. Does that make sense? I don't blog about just everyday stuff or thoughts or whatever as much as I did because I feel like I can't because I have a review to do. Oh, and sometimes I want to find a particular thing I did and then I can't because it's been surrounded by 20 other posts. LOL That's a bad thing too.

So in the interest of keeping everything together, maybe getting on a fashiony type feed [which I don't believe I should do with this blog simply because not all my posts are review posts], I've decided to start a separate blog just for reviews. An extension of this blog, if you want to call it that. I'll still be doing the same kind of posts I do now, there's no reason to change that. I'll still be reviewing everything from hair to furniture to random junk I just like. It's really more just for me to keep stuff together, and to feel like this blog is a place where I can just ramble as much as I used to. I have the blog started already, but I'm trying to post all my old reviews to it first - or at least the ones I've done this year. I have 3 new reviews to pop up there and that's when I'll give people the link. :) I'm actually feeling really good about this decision.

In other news... I adopted a kitten from our local animal shelter yesterday. :) [Um, physical world, not SL.] Her name is Holly and she's adorable. If you're on my plurk list, you've probably seen her picture already. She's about as sweet as can be, funny and playful, and has no respect for your personal space. So if I'm distracted in SL these days, there's a good chance there's a tiny kitten trying to stick her head in my mouth.

I'm off now to go see how much updating the party ball needs. Because tomorrow.... PARTY!!!!

BBBC Topic for Tuesday

If you are looking for the BBBC sign up post, click here.

I am AMAZED at the fact that there are over 60 people doing the BBBC this year!!! It's really been awesome reading your posts and getting to know new bloggers! If you still want to join us, you are more than welcome to sign up!

The topic for Tuesday, should you choose to use it:

You've been given a sim of your very own to use for free for one year. However, there are 3 rules. It cannot be residential, it cannot be commercial, and it has to be open to the public. What do you do with it?

The perfect day

If you are looking for the BBBC sign up post, click here. If you're looking for Monday's topic, it's right here.

**********

So I asked the question, "What would your perfect SL day be like?" That really got me thinking to what my perfect day would be like.

I'd wake up and check my email to find a note that says "Your tier has been paid anonymously." Wouldn't that be nice?! In fact, it's been paid for 3 months, that way I can give my renters a break too.

Then I would log in and magically, I have more money! And this is a good thing, since all of my favorite stores are having sales. Loads and loads of sales, and because they love me sooooo much, they close their sims for a few minutes so I can shop by myself. [I'm quick. I never spend more than 10 minutes in any store as long as it rezzes fast, and being that this is my perfect day, everything rezzes fast.]

There would be loads of time during the day, so I could blog all the things I needed to blog, complete with pictures. I feel like I never have enough time.

There would also be time to spend with my favorites. Running around, laughing, dancing and having lots of fun. We'd laugh until we cried! Not that that doesn't happen now, but not as often anymore, which is a shame.

The final hours of my day would be spent wrapped up in someone special's arms. :)

And that would be my perfect day.

Free Speerit Eyebrows!

If you are looking for the BBBC sign up post, click here. If you're looking for Monday's topic, it's right here.

************

I was contacted last week by the awesome Desidelia Vella of Free Speerit and she asked me if I'd mind writing up a tutorial for some new skins she's putting out. Well, not new as in a new line, but new as in these have eyebrows that can be tinted! One question that a lot of skin designers get is if eyebrows can be colored to match their hair. I know as someone who is primarily blonde, sometimes it is nicer to have a lighter eyebrow, and there are lots of redheads out there, and those who have pink, purple, or blue hair! But tinting eyebrows isn't something that we get the option to do a lot of the time in SL, so it's not a skill that most people just know. So after working a bit, I came up with this tutorial. It will be in the new skins that come out at Free Speerit, and I believe those come out this week. :)



Sometimes tinting your eyebrows when your hair is a different color other than brown/black [the standard eyebrow color in Second Life] can add a subtle effect to your overall look that is very fashionable.

** Not all eyebrows can be tinted! It is much easier if you have a modifiable hair/eyebrow base. **

To begin, make sure you create a backup copy of your skin and hair base by right clicking on them in your inventory and right click to paste. While you should be able to make changes again after you modify the eyebrows, it's always a good idea to have an original backup.

Now right click on yourself and go into Appearance Mode. Click on the Hair tab and then again on the Eyebrows tab. It will look something like this:



Set your Eyebrow Size to 100 for the best results when tinting your eyebrows. For more coloring, also set the Eyebrow Density to 100. If you want a lighter tint to your brows, then you can play with the Eyebrow Density to get the intensity of the tint the way you want it.

After you have set the Size and Density, click on the Color tab.



You will now be able to move all the sliders around and find just the right tint for your brows! As you can see here, when I move the Rainbow Color and Red Hair sliders to 100, I get a nice pink brow. But you can use all the sliders to match your brows for blonde, red, or even blue hair.



You might notice that you have a little extra untinted eyebrow near the inner corners. This is easily fixed by going into the Skin Tab and in the Skin Color, choose a lighter Pigment. I found that moving the Pigment slider to 30 takes care of the untinted part and does not change your color. See the example:



Once you have the color you want, click on Save and you're done! Have fun playing with your new eyebrows!

A little bonus for the BBBC!

Mr. New World Notes, Hamlet Au, burst into my IM box last night with a little bonus for the challengers!


He's got some some of his own topicsthat he'd love to read, and may even link to in NWN. Choose one to write about and leave him your link in the comments of that post! Easy easy. :) So if you've never been in NWN before and maybe you've always wanted to be, here's your chance! Even if you don't care about being in there, the topics are still pretty good and a nice change if you don't particularly care for whatever topic I gave out that day and don't have anything else to write about.

BBBC Topic for Monday

We have almost 50 challengers! That is just SO awesome! Still lots of time to sign up, just go over to the kick off post and leave me your blog URL. :)

So far we don't appear to have any RL bloggers joining us [at least, no one seems to be using their RL blogs], although we do have a member of the Teen Grid! So the topic for Monday will be SL related. :)

The topic for Monday, if you choose to use it:

Describe what your perfect Second Life day would be like.

Joy

I am overjoyed at how many of people have signed up for the BBBC this year already! Over 30 bloggers so far! If you're looking for the sign up page, it's on the post right below this one.

----------------

I was cleaning my physical world home today [oh for the ability to stand in one spot and click and move things around or just delete them!] and thinking about just this and that. RLBF and I had a minor spat last night, which is extremely odd for us. It led into him giving me the silent treatment for the rest of the night and for most of today until a couple of hours ago, which is even more odd because we don't really do that to each other. We might not TALK, but after almost 9 years together, sometimes you simply don't HAVE to talk. Someone thought it was weird once when I said that he'd come home and we didn't even say hi. Honestly, sometimes, you just don't need to say anything. Comfortable silence is nice.

That led me to my thoughts today about my Second Life friends, most of whom I consider "real" world friends by this point. I'll be the first to admit that trust is something I might give someone easily, but it's a half trust. It's the trust that they will not hurt me in Second Life. But I am lucky enough that several have gained the full trust. Sophia, Noel, most of my group, others that I talk to and never mention - The joy they bring to my life goes on my "real" world and I would not hesitate to meet them if I ever had the opportunity. [Well, ok, I might hesitate for a few minutes, freak out about not being the beautiful blonde avatar with the perfect body and clothes, and then get over it.]

It is with most of these people that I have the ability to have the comfortable silence with. We don't have to constantly be running our mouths. We can sit quietly together doing our own things, and simply be together. It is that kind of thing that makes Second Life so so so much more than just some computer program, some chat platform, some game, although I will never call SL a game.

Last night I came into SL with my feelings hurt, and believe me, it has been a while since I have had my feelings actually hurt since I have developed a fairly thick skin over the past few years out of necessity. Immediately the two people I trust the most were right there for me. They made me laugh in their own ways, they let me talk, and one sat quietly with me just listening when I wanted to say something. I went to bed feeling better, wanted, loved, needed, and special.

Yes, there is drama in Second Life. There can be anger and hatred. People can deliberately be cruel. But there is more to it than that.

There can also be joy.

The Big Bad Blogger Challenge 2009 Kick Off Post!

Welcome to the start of the Big Bad Blogger Challenge 2009!! If you are a veteran of last year's challenge, welcome back! If this is your first challenge, you're going to love it!!

The BBBC started as a way to give SL bloggers a little kickstart, and give people something to read. But it turned into a great sharing opportunity! We just had an amazing time last year and I know this year will be even better!! Just to save my fingers, I'll copy & paste most of last year's rules. :)


The Big Bad Blogger Challenge for June: Update your blog every day for one week starting June 14th, and the last challenge post will be June 19th.

Now don't get scared! I can hear the thoughts racing now.

"I can't update every day!" Sure, you can!!

"I don't have time!" You do. I see some of you in world for hours at a time, and not for business reasons.

"I won't have anything to write about!" Yes, you will. Every night before I go to bed, I'll throw out a question that you can answer in your blog if you choose to answer it. If not, just write about what you did that day in SL, or what you saw, or what topics interest you.

Your blog posts do NOT have to be well thought out and constructed professional posts, they don't have to be very long at all, and I think a lot of you are overthinking your blogs, which is why you do not update. Believe it or not, people enjoy reading just little personal things. Almost all of my posts are unplanned, and I write the way I would sit and have a conversation with almost anyone. I personally would LOVE to get to know some of you better through your blogging. Think of this as a writing exercise, like the busy work that your English or Creative Writing teacher may have given you, or like NaNoWriMo. There's no prize at the end, except for knowing you took on a challenge that really may be a challenge for some of you.

So there you have it, The Big Bad Blogger Challenge. Are you up for it? :)

If so, please sign up to this post with your blog URL so I can add it to the special BBBC Blogroll!!

Remember, you can always use your own topics to write about, but if you're stumped, here is your first topic. Since last year we had a few RL bloggers join in [you are always welcome to!], the first topic won't be really Second Life related.

How long have you been a blogger? How has it enriched your life?

BBBC 2009!! .... and go!!

Quickie Reminder

I'm running out the door, but I wanted to give a quick reminder that the Big Bad Blogger Challenge 2009 begins TOMORROW!!!! Later this evening, whenever I get home, I'll have the official kick off post where everyone who wants to do it can sign up. Anyone doing the challenge will be put on a special blogroll here, so if you're doing it and you want people to know....well, you better sign up! :-D Tonight's post will also contain your first topic, if you so choose to use one. If not, then just do your own thing, the topic is just there to help out since it is sometimes hard to come up with a topic everyday. :)

I'm sooooo excited about this! I just can't wait!!

Enjoy your last day of blog slacking!! :-D

Wine & Roses Pretties!

I've said time and time again that I feel extremely blessed to be friends with some extraordinarily talented people in SL, and today is just another one of those days. :) My friend Nika Dreamscape is an exceptionally talented artist [I never can resist buying a few of her works when I attend her shows!] who opened up a store in the past few months called Wine & Roses. She sells her artwork, mostly on vases and candles, but she's also created now a line of "windows" with her art behind them!

These are SO SO cute, and so perfect if you're living in a skybox without windows, or really for any room of your house. Check them out!










At only 3 prims each, you'll agree that they're a very adorable addition to any home! The windows are only $150L each, which makes them not only adorable, but affordable as well. There are several others at her shop, so you'll want to check them all out!

Wine & Roses on Byte Island - SLurl
New store at the Starlust - SLurl
Wine & Roses on Xstreet.


Also in this post:

Skin: Kimberly in Glamour by Free Speerit
Eyes: Open Ocean by Miriel
Hair: Chalisa II in Platinum [old texture] by ETD
Jacket: Stitched Suede in Burgundy by Malt [Malt review to come later today]
Shirt: amiYumi Halter in Whimsy by Novocaine
Pants: City Slacks in Espresso by Novocaine
Shoes: Starley pumps in Cocoa by ETD
Klein Sectional Sofa by The Loft
Taken in my home, Licia's Loft by Ingmann Design

Insomniac Blogging

I so should be in bed, but I'm not feeling so hot tonight. So...might as well blog. :)

My video card made it in! As my friends could tell you, it took me less than 10 minutes to get the package, log out, shut down the computer, install it, and run back in world. Oh so happy. Everything and everyone was just so much prettier. No more 3 FPS for this girl.

Noel convinced me that I had to give Kirsten's shadow viewer a try, at least for photos. I will admit, it's some cool stuff. Unfortunately the viewer doesn't seem to like me very much, even if the shadows are off, so it will be something I simply use for pictures and not for everyday use. We did a small photoshoot tonight and while I'm still sorting through some pictures I took, I stumbled on this one and liked it. It's not fancy, but for some reason it just spoke to me.




I guess I should get in bed. I have a big review to do photos of when I get up, and I've actually been hired to do a tutorial. I know, someone's actually going to pay me to tell people what to do. :) Plus the hump day party is Disco, Baby! and I need to put together a party room and get an outfit together. The disco theme was requested by a few people the past couple of weeks, but it kind of means a little more to me this week for personal reasons.

Ok...bedtime.

It's coming!

Oh the wait is almost over. My video card safely made it to my local UPS sorting station at 3:44am and it'll be here today!!!! People complain about lag and stuff in SL a lot, and I know sometimes it really IS SL itself, but sometimes it really is just you. Not that you should have to go out and buy a super computer just for SL, but...it wouldn't hurt. :-p

I really do want to thank my friends for putting up with my issues the past almost 3 weeks. They were so patient when it would take me 10 minutes to rez one store [for the love of Phil, designers, PLEASE - stop making every little thing sculpty! It looks horrible while rezzing and often takes a LONG LONG LONG time to rez! Prims still work and work really well for most things!] They were nice enough to just hang out with me at home when I couldn't go anywhere, they'd let me just go home to de-lag myself when I needed to, and they would tp me anywhere I needed to go directly to where I needed to be. In short, they were angels.

I am just so looking forward to being able to rez quickly. To see shaders and shiny and windlight again. To actually see the terrain without it being all blurry. To do reviews for my blog without crashing 50 times taking 3 pictures. To try out the shadow viewer thing. To see fug and know that's what it actually is, not just my computer making everyone look like hell. And most of all, to take pictures without photoshopping them to death just to look decent!!

Not that it's always a bad thing. :) At least, I sure hope it's not. I guess we'll see how this really looks tomorrow when I get set up again!

BBBC 2009 Is Coming!!

Time to flex your fingers, because the Big Bad Blogger Challenge is coming your way!! June 14th through the 19th, we'll be blogging every day!

Veterans of the BBBC 2008 can tell you, we had a BLAST last year! In fact, a lot of people thought it was almost like summer camp. We started out just kind of posting, but at the end of the week, we were laughing and hugging and promising to be blog friends forever!

What exactly IS the Big Bad Blogger Challenge? It's very simple. You sign up and then you blog every day! You can blog about anything you want, or you can use the topic I give out the day before. So next Saturday, I'll give out the starting topic for Sunday. Then it's up to you! It's really a TON of fun and you get to find out a lot about the bloggers in the world. Last year we even had a couple of non-SL bloggers sign up! It's meant for fun, so never feel pressured to post, but it does tend to drive traffic to your blog once other challengers know you're in it! I had an absolute BLAST last year getting to know everyone and I know this year can only be better because there's so many new bloggers!

The best part is that we'll have a mid-challenge party on Wednesday! Last year's party was CRAZY and soooo much fun! We practically crashed the sim with so many people!

So take this week to be blog slackers and rest, because next week....IT'S ON!

Parties and Pollos

I am SO excited. I got the tracking number and my new video card is scheduled to be delivered on Tuesday! Can I get a HELL YEAH?! It has been horrible working off whatever internal default piece of crap I don't even know what all card the past month. I'll be low lag again. I'll be able to go to stores with my friends and not have to say, "Yeah, I know we've been here 10 minutes, but I'm not rezzed yet." I'll be able to see dances actually moving smoothly, not the mostly jerky thing I see now. [Noel and I went to get some dances today. He wanted my opinion but unfortunately I couldn't really give much of one being that I was running at about 3 FPS at the time. So so sad.] I'll be able to see terrain and shiny and local lighting again! AND I'll be able to take decent pictures again without practically crashing after each one!! I am so happy.

Speaking of happy, we had a fab hump day party! When I brought up the Fairy Tale theme, I could feel my friends cringe. But they definitely outdid themselves on the costumes!! So many great great outfits and I hope someone got some pics. I managed to get one and I tried to fix it up in Photoshop to make it a little less icky.




The party was just so much fun and there was a BIG discussion about living in a place called Poon. I <3 my friends. They are seriously the most amazing people you'd want to meet. :)

And yeah...I went overboard on the sparkles again. I have a sickness for my sparkly stars!! They even managed to get into this pic and I swear they weren't there before. lol




Right before I was going to log off for bed, I went to check on the chickens. Pollo Sophia wasn't doing too well earlier because she forgot where the food dish was. Well, to be fair, she just got a little confused. We had 2 dishes out because Noel needed to upgrade his rooster, and after that food was gone, Pollo Sophia forgot there was another bowl. But she's doing way better now. [Pollo Pumpkin never ever forgets where the food is.] So as I was about to walk away, I noticed something running through the flowers.

WE HAD A BABY!




Meet Pollo Lola, the shankingest chicken on the block. I don't know which of my puta pollos had her, but I'm betting on Pollo Pumpkin since Pollo Lola seems to follow her the most. I'm just so sad I wasn't there for the egg hatching!! I didn't even KNOW. I was upstairs partying and there was life being done down below.

Ack, 6am!!

Sunday love

Truth Hawks is definitely one of my favorite designers on the grid, because not only is he talented and hard working, but he's very funny and kind. He always makes me smile when he pops up out of nowhere to call me stinky [I really don't know what that's about], but I smile even more when I find out he has a new release!

One thing that I adore for summer are pretty little dresses, and it's so hard to find cute ones in SL that aren't too dressy, or ones that don't give away the farm. The new Sunday dresses by Truth are just perfect!




I'm wearing the dresses in Aqua, Quince, and Pearl, but there are 10 yummy colors available. Each dress comes with skirts your choice of a black or brown belt [I'm wearing the brown on the Pearl color and black on the other 2], AND he's been thoughtful enough to attach and label the skirts for both the pelvis and the stomach attachments. Oh, I wish all designers would do this! It's so much easier to change or add items if you know where they are going. I absolutely fell in love with the texturing of this dress, especially the hem of the skirt. Possibly the only thing I don't like is that when I walk, it tends to fly up quite a bit in the back, but luckily the glitch pants underneath are more "panties" than pants, and I'm going to assume some people don't mind me walking around with my dress flying up in back. :)

Each Sunday dress is just $250L, a definite bargain for such an adorable dress. Be sure to also check out the other new releases at the Truth mainstore when you go to pick this up. :)

Also worn in this post:

Skin: Kimberly in Glamour by Free Speerit
Hair: Wendy in Platinum by Truth
Eyes: Open Ocean [standard size] by Miriel
Lashes: Diva lashes by LeLutka
Shoes: In the Pearl & Quince dresses, Beda sandals in Black & Brown by Periquita
In the Aqua dress, Devoue Sandal in black by Courtisane
Bracelet: Ribon Chain in Leopard by Mezzo
Poses by Imperial Elegance