Day 112 - Grudges & Kites

My friend Rob made these shirts for men, but he did a girl version as well. It made me laugh so much, I couldn't help but wear it today. :) Although...I would have liked it in pink!




If you can't read it because the pic is small, it says "There's nothing more to life than being really, really ridiculously good looking." It made me laugh because I think that's what some people honestly think I believe. And yeah, I love beauty, but I'm not THAT bad!! If you're a guy, be sure to go check out his store, FIR. :)

Last night I was talking with an old friend from high school. I say friend, because there's not really another word, but I don't really consider us friends currently. We've known each other since we were 15 and she's one of those angry, wants to control everything type of people. If she was in SL, she'd be the type who expects everyone to play by her rules. We don't talk often anymore, just because of this, but when we do talk, she leaves me almost as tense as she is. The one thing that really gets me is how she has held a grudge on people from YEARS ago. Every time we talk, she brings up how this person was mean to her in 1995 or that person was a bitch in 1997. And the biggest problem is that she expects ME to be still angry about it for her, too. Last night I asked her what did it matter anymore? A lot of this happened over 10 years ago. Was a guy not asking her out when she was 16, or a girl not wanting to be her friend when she was 20 REALLY matter anymore in the grand scheme of her life? Apparently it does, because she became incredibly defensive and hung up. I suppose I'm now on her grudge list.

It got me thinking, though. I'm not one to hold a grudge. I find it a waste of time and energy. Even more so if that person has not done anything directly to me. I'm not saying that there are not people that I dislike. No one likes everyone 100% of the time. But truthfully, I do not hold a grudge. If I don't like someone, I just ... don't pay attention to them, I guess. I don't read their blogs or shop at their stores or anything. Mute, ban, poof. But to hold a grudge...that takes energy, and I'd rather spin it around and use the energy for something better. But is it the right way to be? Do grudges have any purpose? I don't know. I don't think that they do, but maybe I'm wrong. I just know that back when I was doing the therapy thing, this was a quote that was on a card that I think kind of applies to this: "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned."

In other SL news... There's a little store that I like called Blackberry Jam. It's not a big store, at all, but the items there are totally cute! I love when creators do fun stuff rather than just fashionfashionfashion all of the time. Blackberry Jam is where I had gotten that cute red & yellow baby car a few weeks back. Today I stopped in to see what was new and came out with a kite.




The kites are $49L, but you have to buy the AO that goes with them for $199L. But still, I've been entertaining myself for over an hour with this thing, and that's pretty much worth any price.

It's Sunday, so it's grocery store day. *sighs* Hmm. I need to find an SL grocery store....

Day 111 - Yawn

I'm really tired tonight, so I'm just doing a pic and a quote I like. :)

If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies.

Just random thinking tonight

I'm a fan of countdown lists. Top 10, top 20, etc. The website LiveScience.com has some pretty good ones. I stumbled onto this one, 7 Thoughts That Are Bad For You, and realized that these are very much related to SL as well. One of them really struck a chord with me, as far as SL is concerned.

Lack of meaning. If you lack a sense of purpose, your stay on Earth could be truncated.

This is quite true in SL. If you come into SL and have no good purpose, you probably will have a pretty bad SLife. Pick a good reason to be here. It can be as simple as "I'm here to help my friends when they need it." Not everyone is a builder, or an artist, or even a blogger. There are those who are social, who keep conversations going, who make people feel welcome on the grid. That is a wonderful purpose. Make your purpose something that's for the greater good. Sometimes I think there are people in SL whose sole purpose is to hurt people, or upset them, or to keep them down. That is just as horrible as having no purpose at all, in my opinion.

While I was in the hospital with my mom last weekend, I had a lot of time to just sit and think in the evenings, when she was sleeping and I was watching the monitors. Right before all of that happened, I had spent a nice hour at the Isabel infohub one evening last week, chatting with some very new residents and a couple of the helpers out there. A couple of the newbies had asked "What can you do in Second Life?" The answer, of course, was "Pretty much anything you can imagine."

So I started thinking, what am I doing with my SLife lately? I've done many many things before. I do many many things now. But what HAVEN'T I done yet that would be interesting? I've never really scripted anything. I've never actually designed and created clothing, unless you count some prim skirts, which I kinda don't. I've never actually built a house, or made an animation, or created art, or really made my own sculpties. I've never had a family, or gotten married, or had the SL wedding of my dreams.

And some people might be sad about that. But me? Nope. I'm actually kind of glad that I still have a reason to log in every single day. And I'm going to. Every month, I'm going to try to mark something else off the list. Not that the list will probably ever end. :) As the saying goes...

Life is a journey, not a destination.

Day 110 - Jurassic Procrastination

I'm actually supposed to be finishing up my article for the March issue of VR Style, but I'm procrastinating. A lot. Normally I love to write and in my head, I have it written. But for some reason, this month I just can't seem to do it. So, as I'm procrastinating, I decided to hop on over and chat with Emerald's dinosaur.




Me: Hey Dinosaur, how's it hanging?

Dino: Low and to the left.

Me: ...

Dino: Ain't nothin' but a D Thang, babay!

Me: ....is this a bad time?

Dino: I'm sorry. I have a lot of time on my hands.

Me: No problem. Is it ok if I sit here? You're not going to toss me in the air and eat me like those dogs do with biscuits, are you?

Dino: Nah. I do that, and the next thing that happens is my dino ass is back in inventory because we can't find a place to live because no one wants a land owner eating dinosaur chillin' on the roof. But if it's eating you want...

Me: *sighs* Dinosaur.

Dino: Sorry, sorry. It's just that there are no girl dinos out here and I forget my social skills.

Me: Quite understandable. So, Dinosaur, when exactly did the Tyrannosaurus Rexes live? Was it the Jurassic time period?

Dino: No, that's a common misconception. I was down in the Cretaceous, yo.

Me: Oh wow, thanks for clearing that up! I'm still just going to say Jurassic for everything, though.

Dino: It's ok. Most people do.

Me: So, Dinosaur, what do you think of the 2.0 Second Life viewer?

Dino: Computers aren't actually my thing. They're hard for me to use.

Me: Why is that?

Dino: Look at my arms.

Me: Oh...right...

Dino: ...

Me: ...

Dino: ...so you smell nice.

Me: Thanks! Well, Dinosaur, I better get back to the other side of the island and finish my work.

Dino: You can come sit on my nose anytime, baby.

Me: ...thanks? Oh, Dinosaur, do you have a name?

Dino: Well, my friends call me D-Man.

Me: Uh...

Dino: But my name is Eugene.

Me: Eugene??

Dino: Shhhh, keep it on the downlow.

Me: Right. No one will ever find out.


That's when I got up and ran.

I really need to finish this article.

Day 109 - What's a budget?

I'm attempting to get my article for VR Style ready. It's due tomorrow. With all the family stuff, I had totally forgotten about it. :(

Trying to do budget looks when you don't really work with much of a budget any longer is kind of hard. Even Aidan [my boy alt] seems to be wondering what the heck I'm wearing.




He's one to talk. He just got his Musashi-Do suit last night. He was wearing some crazy freebie get up for ages. I don't want him to get TOO spoiled.

Day 108 - I wish I'd find these on the steps more often.

This is my new friend. I found him sitting on my front steps. He's pretty hot, huh?




His name is Sophia.

LMAO!!

I've already made her promise me that should I find a man and his shape is not exactly up to par, she'll give him that one.

I'm so exhausted tonight. I visited with my mom today, she's doing better, and asked that I thank all of you who sent prayers and good thoughts our way. We both believe that it helps a lot more than most of the medications they pump into her.

I have a blogpost in my head, but this is enough for tonight. I'm too tired. lol

Day 107 - The day we got hit with 2.0

Oh my goodness.... SL Viewer 2.0 [Beta] has come out, and it allows you to do web stuff on a prim! See?




Ok, so I went back to my normal browser to finish this up. :) But still, it's pretty neat! I had gone to the Second Bodies HQ earlier and Al had played a page on YouTube for me on a prim. HOWEVER...

I was standing there reading blogs on a prim, and I went away for a second. When I put SL back up...




Who knew you could change the URL on someone's prim! LOL!!!! Bad bad bad Fricker!!

That is, however, probably a bad thing, you know?

I didn't get mad at him, though. It was too damn funny and besides. He was a tiny kangaroo. Who gets mad at a tiny kangaroo?




Not me.

Anyway, I'm still getting used to this viewer. It's got some nice features. I don't like not having my fly button at the bottom, though, or the search button. I also hate how you have to go to a slide out menu just to delete something. It makes it clunky when trying to build. Also, the profiles... Dios mio, no. I like them BIG and in my FACE. Not all scrunched to the side and I can't see anything. Also, I liked my media stuff at the bottom too. The biggest problem for me is the snapshot issue. I believe it's just on the high res snaps, but if I go any bigger than the current window [which I regularly do because I like my pics big for editing], I end up with this problem.




That's so not good.

However, the tattoo layer is pretty cool, as is the alpha layer. No invisiprims on shoes? HELLO, SHOE WORLD! Oh man, that is all worth it for me right there! I hate invisiprims on shoes, especially the new trend of putting the shoe on the lower leg and and the invisiprim on the foot.

Like everything, it just takes getting used to. In a few months, people will be used to the new settings and layout, and some people will be here who never have known anything different. And of course, there will be all the people who do absolutely NOTHING but complain about it for months to come because complaining about SL and Linden Lab is their food and water. Like I mentioned in a plurk earlier, the Lindens could solve world hunger, and some people would complain that they hadn't solved cancer in the process.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to playing with the new viewer.

Day 106 - The weekend

So I ended up missing a couple of days. I have a really good excuse, though. And this is a whole lot of physical world stuff, so if you're just looking for an SL pic, scroll to the bottom of the post.

Late Friday night [or early early Saturday morning, if you want to get technical], I was hanging out in world and chatting on plurk and just enjoying my evening when my phone rang. I dread the late night phone call. The phone number wasn't one I recognized but in my area code, which I also dread. It was my aunt, calling to let me know my mom was being taken by ambulance to the ER with chest pains. I threw a quick note on plurk because I truly believe in the power of my friends' prayers & good thoughts [they have worked so many times before!], changed clothes, and took off to the hospital.

By the time I got there, my mom had been checked out, but she was waiting on results. My aunt was there, and then my sister, who I haven't seen or talked to in 2 years, showed up. To say I have a lot of anger towards my sister would be an understatement, but at that moment, I just threw my arms around her because she's my big sister, and I needed her. I always thought if I ran into her at some point, I'd punch her in the face. Glad to see that my anger wasn't as big as I thought.

Anyway, my mom's heart was fine, but her high blood pressure, low potassium, sleep deprivation because of the pain of her arthritis, and her anxiety had all mixed together into a big bad night. The doctor wanted to keep her overnight to get her blood pressure down and potassium up, but because the women in my family are absolutely quirky when it comes to medications, one night had to become two because nothing was quite balancing. I stayed by her side almost the entire time, only coming home once on Saturday night to sleep for a bit [maybe 4 hours in total], and going to my parents' house a couple of times to check on my dad, bring him food, and get things for my mom. At the hospital, the staff was really wonderful, except for one nurse, who just simply used the wrong tone with us and got the rough side of my tongue, and had to apologize to us. But everyone else was really lovely. One of the dietitians took a liking to me and brought me lunch on Sunday just to make sure that I was eating. [I wasn't.] But pretty much the entire time, I stayed by my mom, just to make sure everything was ok and that she didn't need anything.

She was discharged this afternoon, much to our relief. My dad really can't function without her telling him what to do, my mom was really sick of the hospital food & staying in bed all of the time, and I really needed to come home and go to sleep. If I've gotten 8 hours of sleep this weekend, I'd be surprised. I hadn't eaten in about 36 hours, until I was brought dinner tonight. [Which promptly made me feel sick.] I'm so exhausted, I can't sleep. Now ain't that a bitch?

I am, though, going to go attempt sleep. I think the sun is setting quickly in my brain. Maybe after a good night's sleep, I won't feel like a string that's been stretched much too tightly.

Day 105 - The family thing

I was out and about trying to find a place for a blog pic for My Second Closet earlier. I had taken pics in about 5 locations before settling on the one that actually made the post, but this one was one that I loved. So, it gets to be my picture of the day.




Over on plurk, I've been seeing a lot of "families" lately. It seems like a good number of people on my list are now brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and even moms and dads. I guess I kind of wonder how this came to be. How do you approach someone and say "Hey, wanna be my kid?" It's not that I'm against families in SL, not at all. It's just that I've never been actually part of one with defined roles. I've had friends that as a group, we have considered ourselves family, but... this whole thing with Auntie and Daddy, it's just unfamiliar to me in SL.

A few weeks ago when I was participating in a study on Second Life and the relationship I have with my avatar [which I never actually got around to talking about in here, now that I think about it], the professor conducting the study had asked me if I had ever been in an SL family. I guess it's something that I had never really thought about doing. And if you're in one of these families, what do you do? Do you have to hang out with your relatives? Or can you do as I do in my physical world and avoid most of them? What if you get involved with an SL family and decide you don't like them? You just leave? That seems a little harsh.

I guess a part of me is also a little bit jealous. I see these families on plurk and they have all these pictures together and they all seem so active and excited. It's a lot different than my own SLife. Not better, just different.

Of course, I'd probably just be annoyed if someone yelled ♦♦♦♦♣♣♥THAT'S MY SISSY♥♣♣♦♦♦♦ everytime I walked into a room anyway. LOL

Day 104 - The plague

I don't feel like doing much today. I have the plague and feel icky.

My friend Fricker put on a tiny av to make me smile, though. It worked. :)

Day 103 - Baby, we done moved on in!

So the big news today? The Linden homes registration is open! If you're a premium account holder and you have 512m of tier free [all premium members have it if they have not purchased mainland], you can sign up!

I actually had purchased a 512 a few months ago just to have it. So today I decided to get rid of it. I'm not hurting for money right now and had paid next to nothing for it, so I slapped a price of $500L on it and put it up for sale. Within SECONDS I was surrounded by landbots.




I got scared and ran. LOL

But with my 512m now free, I went to check out some of the areas where I could have my Linden home.

Elderglen is very whimsical, with fairies and big mushrooms and all of that. It's cute, but definitely not what I had in mind.




The Japanese themed area of Shareta Osumai is very very pretty, but I knew right away it was not for me.




The Tahoe area was very foresty and nice, but again, just NOT what I wanted. And I also didn't get a photo.

What did I want? Well... I have my tasteful pretty home on Bluebonnet. I wanted a home where it could just be crazy. And so? The Meadowbrook area is where I knew I could really let loose. Or as loose as 117 prims would allow me.

Hell yeah. Texas is in the house.




You do get to choose what style of house you want, but you do not get to choose your location, other than which region you'd like. I ended up on the Flageolet sim. By chance, my friend Rob is just a little ways down from me. We've already been shouting to each other...which is actually frowned upon. Oops.




I'm sure I'll have a blast decorating in a way I'd never do normally. I've even met the next door neighbor, and he didn't seem to have issues with my pool duck. I love having a new little place to play in!

Day 102 - I kinda suck at the social thing

The Mardi Gras party last night was fantastic! There were anywhere from 25-30 people there at the peak. I couldn't take pics until some had left, but here's one I managed.




So I was up late last night, as is my norm these days, and I had a chance to hang out with some friends. Now if this doesn't sound odd to you, let me explain why this is kind of important to me.

I have lost the ability to just hang out with people.

No, hear me out. You see, a couple of years ago, Cen and I used to hang out ALL the time at the Viper Pit. She and I were together, alone or with others, pretty much every single day. She understood that sometimes we didn't need to talk, or she was happy to drive the conversation forward, or we'd go off and do something fun or silly. After a while, after guys and land owning entered our SLives, things started to change. Then later, I retreated into a shell [most people know that story, I won't get into it again] and she left SL and now...I don't know how to hang out. I see the photos of people running around with friends, doing this or that, and I am envious. I have gotten so used to being alone in SL that I do not know how to just simply BE, unless I'm very close to the person.

For example: Last night after the party, I went to hang out with Ford, Chloe and Sarra over at Ford's new place. I was quiet. I was vaguely uncomfortable. Not because of who they are, not one bit. I think they're great people. But I always get the sense of "Should I be entertaining?" when I am around others. The worst thing for me is when someone says "Oh we should hang out, you are so funny/interesting/awesome in your blog/plurk!"

Oh god. No, honey. No.

I freeze when people say we should hang out. I immediately start thinking "Why do they want to hang out with me? What will we do? Do I need to be funny? Philosophical? Entertaining? Do I need to think of something for us to do? What do I need to talk about? Are they going to think I'm stupid? They are, they're going to think I'm stupidly boring! This cannot end well!"

What it comes down to is that I guess I don't feel like people want to hang out with me for me. They want to hang out because at some point, I made them laugh when I was writing, and that's what they expect.

Truthfully? I'm shy. I'm a little quiet. Unless I'm working a party, I'd almost prefer not to go unless someone goes with me. I can fake it sometimes. I can fake being outgoing. But when it comes down to it...I'm not.

So what do I do? I don't know. I've always thought of myself as a social person, but lately...I just can't do it.

Luckily, there are a few people that I am completely comfortable with, who have kind of pushed to get to know me past the blog or past plurk. I'll admit that I was probably very reserved and quiet with them as well at first, but eventually they managed to slip inside the shell I never quite realized was around me. My friend Marnix is a good example of someone who I feel comfortable hanging out with. He is most definitely good at keeping a conversation going, even if sometimes it looks like he's talking to himself. :-p




I don't know. I guess I'll just keep trying to push past this. I just feel bad that sometimes when someone asks if I want to go do something, I say no because I just don't think I can do it. I have to get over this.

Day 101 - Mardi Gras, baby!

Don't forget, there's a Mardi Gras party going on TONIGHT! Yes, we realize that tomorrow is the actual day, but who cares? PARTY!




The party starts tonight at 8pm SLT at Moodle. It should be a ton of fun!!!

But no, I most likely will not be flashing anyone.

Maybe.

Thanks & a party invite!

I hope everyone had a great day! I was very pleasantly surprised with some gifts from friends in SL!




Thank you Chase, Lexi, Margo, Marnix, Emerald, Aisuru, and Ford! You guys are awesome!! And yes, Ford is the handsome cutout guy. LOL What's better than a valentine that just keeps on giving?

Now that that's over with... Mardi Gras!! There's a Mardi Gras party happening Monday night at 8pm SLT over here at Moodle. Tymmerie has put together a fantastic party area, and I'm DJing. It should be fun!! I went over there tonight just to make sure my party outfit wouldn't seem out of place. I think it'll be good. The big scary face said it looked hot.




I hope you all can come!

I think it's time to start packing away my Valentine's stuff now. :)

Day 100 - It was a good day.

From now on, Valentine's Day will always be known to me as...

the day M Linden felt me up.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I wanted to wish all my lovely readers and friends a very very happy Valentine's day! Hey, guess what? I'm claiming you all for my valentine. :)

I was taking pictures for the FilterCam contest and this one didn't make it in to be entered for the contest, so I Photoshopped & Photoscaped it to death. LOL A little something different from all the hearts & pink & flowers that will be around today. :) If you want to see my entries for the contest, feel free to go to to my Flickr page.

*gives all of you huge hugs*

Day 99 - I am so bad at thinking up titles every day

So Valentine's Day is tomorrow. Whew. LOL I had a lot of different blog posts in my head for what I'd do for the 14th. I'd find a valentine and surprise them every day for a week with something cute, and then blog it. I'd set up a friend with someone that they may like, and then blog it. I'd check out all the "winners" over at AvMatch, and then blog it. But life and SLife happens, and none of these came to pass. And maybe that's for the best. I have been surprised with a couple of wonderful gifts from friends in SL, and that is more than I ever expected.

In my physical world, I do not expect anything tomorrow. I learned about 6 years ago that expecting anything was almost a sure sign I'd be disappointed, so I stopped. And although I do agree that nice things & feelings should be expressed all year round, the simple fact is that often, they are not. Sometimes you need that one day to remind your guy "Hey, I'm a GIRL. I'm a GIRL who likes ROMANTIC THINGS once in a while!" But anyway, that's a story for a different, and much more private, journal.

So in SL tomorrow I will settle in at home, perhaps work on my yard, or just enjoy the home I've created for myself. It's funny, but I almost never just sit in the one really decorated room of the house and just enjoy it. I'm usually stuffed away in my "dressing room" sitting on a posestand, surrounded by boxes. And well, that just shouldn't be.




Like my pic? I took that with FilterCam. I went to FilterCam class earlier today. I adore Codie, I would pay anything for an ounce of her brain. But I did discover today that if you use the Restrained Life Viewer thingy [I enabled it in my preferences on Emerald], then if you make a Windlight preset and name it after one of the FilterCam presets, when you go to that preset, it changes your Windlight setting too! So cool! And bless her, Codie probably told me that one night when she was telling me all about the features and how to change filters, but teaching me anything is not very easy. Anyway, the class was awesome, and I caught this photo. No fancy FilterCamming, just the default.




Don't forget, there's a contest going on using FilterCam too!

Last night I headed over to the aQuatria Gallery, which is own by my friend Raven Haalan. Raven was out there when I went, so he gave me the tour. I've never been a huge art girl. I can appreciate it and think it's pretty, but I won't say that I ever really GET it or look for deeper meanings. But, I'm trying to expand my horizons. The gallery is really awesome and there's a LOT of great art out on display. But my favorites were all in the "Mer" level, which is underwater. I was so so so taken with this mermaid sculpture by Risusipo Jun. It is just so pretty!




A closer shot of the face. She BLINKS!




You guys really need to go out there and check things out. You may even recognize some of the artists' names!

Day 98 - Is it the 15th yet?

I headed over to the Isle of View to just check things out today. The Lindens do a big valentine type thing every year and I wanted to see if anything was new. It looks like last year's sim. But hey, I'm a winner?




I also got to see Cupid Linden while I was out there. She was...very tall. And I guess she turned this guy down. See his poor broken heart?




I know everyone says that Valentine's Day is commercial and you should be doing the nice stuff all year long and blah blah blah blah blah. I get it. But it's still kind of a downer to not have an SL Valentine this year. I've been invited to parties that are for couples and ones that you're supposed to dress up as love story characters or famous couples, and it's just... blah. I can't wait for the 14th to be over. Although I love all the pink and hearts and flowers, since I am a girly girl, I don't love being reminded that I cannot be part of a famous couple for any party this year. Maybe next year. :)

Day 97 - Random stuff

It never fails. If you invite me to your house, I will make myself at home and find something to eat.




What? I like popcorn.

Earlier today I was having fun on plurk. When people ask, "What do you do with plurk?" Well, besides the fact that it's better than CNN/TMZ/SL blogs/grid status reports combined...stupid little conversations like this pop up.




I don't know what it was, but I laughed like a fool for about 10 minutes. But I had to stay quiet because of a phone call going on, so I *think* that's what made it worse. I love my plurk friends.

Not much else to say today. Oh! WAIT! Did you guys know that you can set up a Wishlist on XStreet now???? OMG, I have been waiting for such a thing for over 2 years! LOVE IT. In fact, I'm going back now to continue putting thing on it!

Day 96 - A true hump day happiness

I'll fully admit that sometimes I'm a "plurk first, think later" type of person. Almost all of my friends are on plurk, so it's just natural for me to rush over there when I'm sad or happy or whatever and bang out what's going on.

Last night after the trivia party, I decided to check out 69L Hump Day Happiness. I love sales, but like a lot of people, I get tired of all these daily sales. Even worse, I am starting to not find anything I like at all. So when I DO see something in the notecards that is actually cute, and knowing it's on sale too?? Well, I cannot run over fast enough!

Last night I saw some really cute shoes in the notecard from Adam & Eve. I skipped over happily to go buy them, because when can you really buy super cute shoes for less than $300L these days? Heck, if you can get them for under $500L, that's almost too good to be true. At $69L, I was excited!!

But then, not so excited when I got there and they were $269L. What the heck? It's $69L Hump Day Happiness, this does not make me happy! So I ran to plurk to whine. Yes, whine. It's not that I didn't have the money. It wasn't that I was even being cheap. I just didn't realize that those participating in this particular event could have something else up as long as it has 69 in the end, like 169L or 269L.

Luckily, it's a good thing I said something on plurk, because other people did not know this either! I wasn't the only one! Thank God! LOL :) Hump Day Happiness organizer Catty Loon is one of my plurk friends, and she explained it all out to me. Plus, my plurk was helpful to her because they are still ironing out the bumps in this event. Yay for helping!

When I logged in earlier, I had a really nice note from Damen Gorilla, the creator of the cute shoes. He apologized for the misunderstanding, AND he sent me a pair of the adorable Valentine shoes!




It is amazing when you receive such service from someone when you haven't even bought anything. Although I know many generous designers, one that goes the extra mile for someone that hasn't really been a customer is something amazing. In fact, I was so pleased, I went out tonight to check out more shoes and bought a couple of pairs. He's got a customer for life in me now, and for this hump day, I couldn't be happier. <3

Day 95 - It's anything but trivial!

DAMN. I missed Tuesday!! Well, according to SL, I have 8 minutes until Tuesday, so hey, let's go with that! LOL

We had a trivia party in one of my skyboxes tonight. So much fun!




I was so happy so many of my friends could show up. We had a blast trying to beat that darn ol' trivia bot! Nancy Lopez and Madonna FTW!!

A few more pics...

Sitting around the ball.




Heidi is giving Black the answers!!




The bedtime girls. :)




Lots and lots of fun. We will definitely do it again soon!!

Day 94 - She certainly is beloved

Do you like my pretty flowers?




These are made by my friend Aisuru Rieko of Beloved Custom Designs. Since the latest craze is to talk nice about people who brighten up the SL community, it seems only fitting that I feature her flowers in this post.

Aisuru is one of those quietly gorgeous people who doesn't seem to quite realize how awesome she is. We met back in 2008 when she sent me a cute little IM and a slice of cake with a sit pose that she'd made. She was one of the original members of the Ch'Know group [I think she was the 4th member, the 2nd to ask to join, actually], and as time has gone on, I've watched her grow as a very talented creator. She's quiet, but if you pay attention, she's incredibly funny! She's also really smart and has more style than should be legal. Although I wouldn't say we sit around and have heart to heart talks very often, she's definitely one of those people that when I see her name on my friends list, I smile. My SLife would be a little less cute and whimsical without the adorable Aisuru in it. :)

And she really does make awesomeness! I was on the hunt for trees and after being sticker shocked by the price of many many trees, and not finding anything I truly loved, I slapped myself in the head and remembered - Aisu makes trees! So I skipped out to her store and picked up her new Seasons tree. Absolutely perfect.




7 prims and color change, and only $500L for the mod/copy version. And it's not just leaves, there's flowers and bare branches too! Seriously, they are fabulous!

So that's my community highlight or whatever the challenge is. I guess it would be good if I'd actually go read the challenge post, huh? LOL But if you haven't gotten to know Aisu yet, you're missing out. <3

The answer to why you might not be getting blogged

Oh hey, look! A non-365 day post!

So, I have a lot of friends who create things in SL. Most of them I've met via plurk, and as such, they are more likely to talk and ask questions. One of the big questions I've seen is "Why isn't anyone blogging my stuff?!" And then of course, their blogger friends make up all kinds of excuses and tell them that their stuff is great and we'll totally blog it! [Yes, I do it, too! But usually I try to make good on it.]

Well, there are truly a lot of reasons why your item may not get blog exposure. I'm not a professional in marketing, but here are some of the reasons why I personally wouldn't blog something that I've received. And I gather if it's the same for me, it might be the same for several others.

I received a review copy through a bloggers group, and upon rezzing it, I realized it wouldn't make the blog for a few reasons.

1. It was completely not my style.

The item was a VERY short, tight, nipple baring minidress with a photosourced texture. [I'm assuming it was supposed to be a dress, although it might have been more of a shorts outfit as there was no skirt prim.] Although I'm not against sexy clothing, it simply was not my style at all. I love to play dress up, and I'd actually love to blog more things that are outside of my normal comfort range, like costumes and such, but if it's not my style, it's just not. Plus, I'm not down with photosourced textures unless blended with hand drawn to make something wonderful. That leads us to...

2. I didn't care for the quality.

I won't say that I'm overly picky, especially when the designer is new to SL [I'm unaware if this person is or isn't], but there are certain qualities I look for in an item. Are the hems too smeared on my arms or legs? Do the seams even meet? Does one strap look like it might tear apart? Do the prims match the rest of the outfit at all? Do I look like I'm wearing a photo of an item or is it hand drawn or a hand drawn/photo blended combo? Can I modify any prim pieces to make them fit or will I be stuck with a skirt that I can't wear? Is it just a recolor of an XStreet purchased template? If it's a non-fashion item, will I be able to use it ever? Are there texture glitches? Do the poses work properly? Are the prims lining up correctly? If I find the quality to be severely lacking, chances are, it's never going to be blogged. Maybe something might not be my style, but if the quality is there, I can't argue with it.

And the biggest reason in the world why something will probably not be blogged?

3. I had no idea where it came from.

Listen to me carefully: Bloggers get at least a couple of review copies a day, either through people dropping things on us, or through groups. If you do not LABEL your item with your store name, we will not remember where it's from. Just titling your folder or box with "Dress outfit" means it will get lost in my inventory and thrown out at the next inventory cleaning. I need it clearly titled, "MY STORE - Dress Outfit." Or even better? "Review Copy - MY STORE - Dress outfit." Then I absolutely know what it's for. It also did not help that in the group notice, the creator never said the store name either. Your store name, your brand name, can NEVER be said or shown too much when you are attempting to get noticed.

Upon further inspection of the item, there was not a store name on the vendor. At all. And when I opened up the colors of the outfit, again - no store name and no landmark. I need a landmark so I can come to your store and check prices and check out your other items if I plan on blogging it. Don't ever worry about someone getting annoyed that they have your landmark 50 times now. I can delete a landmark, I cannot make one appear out of thin air. Especially if I can't get to your store anyway because I have no idea what your store is.

These are just 3 of my biggest reasons. There's other smaller ones, like I think the item has been shown off much better in several other blogs, it's named after someone I don't like [shut up, yes I am that immature at times], the creator has been horrible in public forums, reviewing it would make it seem like I'm taking sides of some fashion drama, or...I just get lazy. Seriously, I just get LAZY. I try very very hard to show off each item I blog to the best of my ability and so this usually means I spend a LONG time taking pictures and looking for the best shots. I will never be one of those 10 posts a day, show everything with crappy lighting and too much blur type of bloggers. I don't think that does me, or the creator of the item, any good at all.

I'd love to hear more reasons why someone may not get blogged. I know all the bloggers are very different and some of them may have other ideas as well! :)

Day 93 - Thinking about V-Day

Again...almost missed a day. LOL




I've been thinking a lot about Valentine's Day coming up. I keep getting a lot of Valentine stuff to blog or just to have, and of course that means I keep thinking about it. I think I should just pick a random single guy friend of mine to be my valentine for the week. But one, I don't want to snag some guy that one of my friends may like, and two, I don't know if any of them would be willing. LOL! I don't like rejection!

But I do miss having a valentine. Someone to leave little gifts for when he logs in, someone to take mushy pictures with, blah blah blah, you get the idea. I think I'm just in a sappy mood tonight. I'll get over it.

Longer post coming tomorrow. Meant to do it today, but it just wasn't happening.

Day 92 - I didn't think I had much to say, actually.

An hour to go before Sunday and I almost missed day 92! Tomorrow will be better, because I'll have time to sit and write this big long thing I want to write about. And believe it or not, it has nothing to do with team shirts! LOL!

It was a good day for me. My parents [for those of you who ask me about them <3] are doing much better. My dad's lungs are getting a lot stronger daily, and my mom's health is remarkably improved over this time last year. Heck, even just 3 months ago, it's much better. She gave up smoking when she caught the flu back in November kind of cold turkey. It was hard, after a 40 year habit, but WOW. What an improvement to her health in just this short time! If you smoke, I strongly strongly urge you to stop now, and ESPECIALLY if you have children. You may feel perfectly fine right now, but I guarantee your quality of life will improve if you quit!

In SL...well, yes, there is some stuff going on. You don't need me to tell you about it. :) But there's the I <3 Originals fair that starts on the 8th, and I suggest you guys get out there and support some of these creators. I know, I know. Conspiracy! Secret agendas! Blacklists! Whitelists! Yeah, not everyone is part of that or knows anything about it. Some of them just want to create and sell in SL, and those are the ones I support. :) I was out there tonight for the blogger preview and I found a lot of old favorite and a lot of shops I've never heard of before! Good stuff, too. :)

While I explored out there, I had a nice chat with a friend who I haven't known for all that long, but I kind of hope as time goes by, we become better friends, because she's pretty much awesome.

My evening hasn't ended yet, there are blog pics I need to get done, but for day 92... I went out with one of my best friends tonight to listen to great music and just forget about things. :)




I'm using one of Torley's windlight setting for that picture, btw. It's called Heaven and it makes everything white around you. Pretty nifty, huh? :) I kinda had to do it, because this girl was dancing nearby in this like, crazy zebra dress and well...there's too much crazy going on around here anyway, I didn't need Ms. Zebra Formal 2010 all up in my camera.

Wow, I wrote a lot more than I intended. LOL I need to stretch my blogging muscles again. It's been 92 days of pretty much just some pics. I think I did need a break, but maybe I'm back now.

In the immortal words of one of my idols, Elle Woods, "I once had to judge a tighty-whitey contest for Lambda Kappa Pi. Trust me, I can handle anything."

Day 91 - *squeak squeak*

Yikes, just realized I almost missed day 91! Noooooooo! LOL

Good day today. A pleasant change after yesterday. How-freakin'-ever...I lost my voice this afternoon. Do you guys know how BAD that is for me?? I'm chit-chatting allll day long, singing, humming, laughing. As quiet as I appear in-world, I'm actually quite chatty in my physical world on a daily basis. Not being able to talk...so bad. LOL My throat doesn't hurt a bit, and I was talking fine this morning, I just don't know what happened. Now I can whisper and squeak.

Anyway, I do have loads to talk about, but I'll wait until tomorrow or Sunday.

For day 91, here's the view I had earlier tonight while in a photoshoot. I know people usually think of SL modeling as being this glam thing, but really? Photoshoots can be kind of quiet while you have your eyes clicked on a box & the photographer takes pics. I still love it, though. :)

Day 90

It was one of those days.




But even though some are down, they are not out, and never will be no matter how hard someone else pushes.

Day 89 - Threesome

Don't get the wrong idea, you perverts. I'm talking about just having my alts both in world with me at the same time.




I used Aidan in my last style post, so I decided to pull Piper in to dance. No real reason, sometimes it's just nice to see them. :) I don't work on my alts as much as others do. They took advantage of the LE Look thing, as you can tell. Poor alts. They're pretty much committed to a life of freebies & hand me downs.

Hmm. I just wrote this big long rant about how people should respect their avatars more, but you know...it's all opinion. So nevermind.

day 88 - Fireflies

When I fall asleep
Leave my door open just a crack
Please take me away from here
Cause I feel like such an insomniac
Please take me away from here
Why do I tire of counting sheep
Please take me away from here
When I'm far too tired to fall asleep
To ten million fireflies
I'm weird cause I hate goodbyes
I got misty eyes as they said farewell
But I'll know where several are
If my dreams get real bizzare
Cause I saved a few and I keep them in a jar

Yeah, lyrics just don't get much better than that. LOL!

I have had terrible insomnia lately, though. It's...bad. It's given me a chance to play and chat with a lot of people that I would maybe not have gotten to before, but it's getting a bit insane. Luckily I'm feeling really tired tonight, so hopefully I can get some sleep.

But because I am run down, I don't feel like doing anything in SL, and as such, this post is boring. :-p

Day 87 - Thinking and stuff like that

SL was having some massive issues earlier. I couldn't shop, teleport, anything. So that gave me a chance to just sit around and think.




What did I think about? Leaving SL. Oh no, not me. God, no! I'm in this for the long haul at this point. But I see other people say they're leaving. They write long diatribes on their blogs about how they're leaving, they hate SL, they hate creating, they're bored, they're reclaiming their "real" lives, etc etc etc.

I don't think that they really want to go when they do these things. I think they WANT someone to tell them, "Please don't leave."

Sometimes they do this to just feel like they matter. Hey, we've all been there, right? But sometimes it's just for the dramatic attention. If they didn't want someone to say something, they wouldn't bother sitting there and writing out why they're so upset/bored/whatever that they feel they have to go. They'd just...do it.

In other news... Well, there's not much other news. :) I'm trying to pull myself up out of my blogging slump. We need a good challenge or something. I'm also in a shopping slump and desperately need to figure out what I want to wear lately. It's been so so so easy to just throw on a t-shirt, jeans and sneakers and I find myself doing that more than anything else lately. I look at the feeds and nothing truly has been catching my eye. Not to say that there aren't GREAT things out there, but I'm not EXCITED about anything, and that's the difference. But it's winter blues, it really is. I expect in a month or so, I'll start feeling much much better. Being out on the island with all its green and springtime feeling has been incredible and as funny as it sounds, it makes me feel much better and as such, I've been spending a lot of time outside of my house, sitting in the grass. Of course, I'm still looking for the perfect trees and the perfect landscaping items, but that will all come in time, I'm sure. :)