Day 142 - Um...excuse me?

Dear Linden Lab,

We're friends, right? I normally support most of what you do, and I'm really a big fan. I don't fangirl you anymore, but in general, I'm a pretty big fan.

You decided today that rolling out the new Viewer 2.0 to everyone, along with a new Terms of Service agreement, would be a pretty good thing to do. The biggest thing, and the one that I think a lot of us are upset over, is the new issue with the 3rd party viewers. Hey, I get the point. A few bad 3rd party bad apples ruined the bunch. The viewer code that you allowed people to use and fix and make into wonderful was used to make horrible viewers that ripped off other peoples' work. So you don't want people using those viewers. I totally totally get that. But Viewer 2.0...well, it's a bit hard to use!

The big side bar thing is kind of clunky. Pulling a bunch of profiles out, as I did often to find stores, isn't happening anymore. But hey, how did I get all those profiles anyway? By inspecting other residents' items. But in 2.0, we can't inspect anyway, so I suppose the profile thing doesn't matter? I *need* to inspect. Need to.

Also? What is this mess about? If I attempt to take a snapshot to disk with a custom size, as I always do because for blogging, I like to work off of a bigger shot, it comes out like this.




Do you see the problem there? I'm not the only person having that issue, either. It's fairly unacceptable.

I didn't want to bring it up, but since we're here, have you noticed how it's easy now to miss group notices and IMs and inventory offers? And unless you pop out another inventory window, you can't add attachments to group notices. And our profiles...oh, our profiles. All smashed over there to the sidebar like an afterthought. It's just...clunky.

But, I do really love the alpha layer, the new tattoo layer, and my anti-aliasing seems to work well. So...yay for that.

I'd really rather use the Emerald viewer, though. If you wouldn't mind. I think a lot of people are feeling the same way.

In the words of Tim Gunn, "Make it work."

Love,
Ali

Day 141 - Revisiting Svarga

Like a lot of people, I was kind of sad when the Svarga sim closed down last year. The sim meant something to me for a couple of reasons, and although I didn't really visit often, I always knew that I could go if I wanted a quiet place to reminisce.

When I heard that it had reopened, I was glad. Today I decided to head out there to see if it was the same. I took a ride on a giant wasp all around the place.




But it wasn't the same. Not by a long shot.

Oh, some of it was. The textures, the random people wandering around. That was all still there.




So much was different, though. You can no longer rez, so buying bird seed is useless since you can't drop the seeds on the ground to let the birds come. You can't drop your own poses for photos or to cuddle. The chat to sound area was gone [but they were hoping to get it back, so said the wasp]. As I walked around, I was looking for one very specific area, one that now just exists in my memories, but I never stumbled across it.

But I suppose that's the point, right? Svarga, at its heart, was supposed to be its own ecosystem. Ever growing, ever changing. And it has. And I have. In the years that have passed since my first encounter with the island, I've changed, and grown, and become a stronger person. So perhaps I don't need to return to remember old times. On my next trip, I'll stand and look at something different, and remember that moving forward is a good thing. Because if nothing ever changed, if people never grew, what would be our reason for getting out of bed in the morning? Things change, people change, and sometimes...that's the best thing that could ever happen.

Day 140 - Just an ordinary day

So, I've been around for a while. But it never ceases to amaze me the old old stuff that people still wear. Like bling when not for comedic effect, or system shoes. SYSTEM SHOES! As in, no prims on your feet! Even the default newbie avatars have real shoes these days. System shoes...in 2010. What the hell.

I found myself missing our old party ball earlier today. That was such a wonderful, happy place. I think I want to reconstruct it. I know I still have the items...all clumped together, hiding somewhere in my inventory.

There's not much else to say today. :) One day I'll get back to blogging the way I used to. Today is just not that day.

Day 139 - Someone left the cake out in the rain

So for a long time, I've had a huge open spot on my parcel. A long long time ago, it used to be a small hill/island. But last year I leveled it down and since then, it remains open, except for seasonal things - like the ice rink & Santa's house of the winter, and the haunted castle for Halloween, and even the Fiesta Zone for the summer. But since Christmas, the area has remained open, mostly just used by me or others to ride vehicles or rez houses. But lately I've been thinking that I want more. I wanted a peaceful place where my friends and I could come and sit and hang out. So after I was given a couple of huge trees, I knew what I wanted. A beautiful park setting! I've been collecting more trees, digging things out of my inventory to sit on, and I'm on the hunt for some great swings and stuff like that.

No great pics of it yet, but I'm really in love with it. If you stop by the island, you can see it. I'll show better pics once it's all finished. :)

Day 138 - Pondering

Long long day. I'm tight and tense and feel like a string stretched to the limit. But it happens.

Question of the day...

When you're always the caretaker...who takes care of you when you need it?

No response really required, just something to think about.

Day 137 - Only Hope

Not too much to talk about today. Well, that's not true. There's probably tons I could say! But I'm choosing to keep my thoughts and opinions to myself for the moment. Not for any other reason than the fact that I can. :) Oh, and because some people are whiny and if I said what I thought, they'd get more whiny, and Dios mio, who wants to see that?

Sometimes songs get in my head while I'm doing photos [No, not The Jeffersons theme song this time!!!] and today I was doing this picture and the song "Only Hope" by Switchfoot popped into my head. I haven't heard it in ages, but it's always been one of my favorites. :)



Sing to me the song of the stars.
Of your galaxy dancing and laughing and laughing again.
When it feels like my dreams are so far
Sing to me of the plans that you have for me over again.

I suppose it's time to tuck my pretty black & white skybox away and go to bed. Saturdays are my busy days during the daytime, and I need my sleep.

Day 136 - Blue

I'm kinda feeling blue tonight. I have no idea why. Tomorrow will be better.




Blue, here is a shell for you
Inside you'll hear a sigh
A foggy lullaby
There is your song from me

Day 135 - TEEEEEEEEEEEEETH!!!!!

Ok, let's start with the good. I took this picture earlier tonight sitting in my backyard and chatted with people in IM and Skype and Plurk. It's been quite the lazy day for me in SL, except for chatting. :)




And now for the bad.

What the hell? Can the "teeth skin" thing just DIE? I was shown this skin earlier in plurk, and I had to run and get the demo because the shape that it was on wasn't very good. I thought maybe it would look better on me.

Nope.




The lips without the teeth weren't much better. In fact, they were very very Bratz. But maybe not actually Bratz. Maybe whatever the knock off Bratz is.

No. Teeth. On. Skins.

If you can show me one with teeth that doesn't look deformed, I will eat my words, but dios mio.

I'm going back to chatting.

Day 134 - They are lovely, aren't they?

I am SO TIRED. I'm actually starting this blogpost while trivia is still going on just so I can get it in before the night is over. :) I'm sitting here playing music and laughing with some of my favorite people on the grid... This is what SLife is about.

Earlier tonight I attended the commitment ceremony for Sonatrix Dench and Spudgy Dean. It was just beautiful. I took a bunch of pics, but I still have to resize and make pretty. But here's one of the couple. :)




And here's one of me wondering why I never think to make someone be my date to these events. LOL




But truly, it was a beautiful ceremony, with just their friends and their vows to each other. And tomorrow Sona heads off for a "honeymoon" in the physical world with Spudgy! :)

The trivia party tonight was loads of fun, and oh my god. I must have some of the smartest friends on the grid! They were just on FIRE tonight with answers! And of course they were full of jokes and laughs. :) Someone told me tonight that I have lovely friends. Don't I know it? :)




I am truly exhausted, so I think it's most definitely bedtime.

Day 133 - Blessed

As most people know, I do a fair amount of care for my elderly parents, which is also why I do not work currently. Part of this care means that I'm available by phone 24/7. My mom took full use of this today when she called me at 6:30am freaking out because she woke up disoriented and thought it was Sunday and wondered what happened to my dad. [Nothing happened, he was at work.] She goes in for a stress test tomorrow and she's been freaking out all weekend, which I keep telling her is not good for her heart. But she's a natural worrier like me, and we get anxious fairly easily. 4 phone calls later, I managed to get her calm enough to eat and laugh. It's what I do.

However, this left me pretty edgy and itchy on my own. And it amazes me that without having to say a single word, my SL friends manage to make me forget all about that for a few hours and make me laugh so so much. Where would I be without them?

So what happened?

Well...

This is Ford. Ford is the newest resident of Bluebonnet, and he came over earlier to pay rent. [I don't believe in rental boxes since I figure it just takes up a prim & there's not that many of us over here anyway.]




He's working on his new house, so he had to have the hat and tool belt on. It's how it is, yo.

Later, I was taking Nigel on a spin around the island and we traveled past Ford's new place. He, however, was sitting in the grass, the big Away sign glaring over his head. Well, you just never know when a storm or something will hit, so I pulled out my old AFK House and put him in it.




Then Nigel and I paddled away like hell!

A little bit later, Sophia IMed me laughing, asking if I'd heard him scream. Hehe. Nope.

He came over to yell at me.




But I welcomed him to Bluebonnet. I don't think he was mad anymore after that.

Who would be?




Later, I was up in the fun skybox, chatting on Skype, and making sure all the trivia cards were working in the trivia ball [Party tomorrow night at 8pm!!] when Sophia asked me if I wanted to see her dance in her 2006 glory. Hell yes.

I tarted up too, and just as I did, Fricker came by the island to say hi. So we danced in front of the trailer. You know how WE do.




I couldn't stop laughing, as my Skype buddy would tell you. He must have listened to me giggle incessantly for 30 minutes. I'm sorry.

I caught this photo. I think it's perfect for my 133rd.




Oooh gurrrrl...that's some HAIR.

Later, Gos stopped by to see the island and to see Soph and me looking horrible. But I don't have pictures because... well, because I don't. :-D

I am so so blessed in Second Life, sometimes I can't believe it. :)

Day 132 - Where my party people at?

I'm not really much of a party girl in SL, being that I'm mostly an introvert and I'm also fairly shy. But today I've been party hopping. I went out to the sim opening party at Rigby and it was really fun. :) Good music, good people. I wasn't able to catch a photo while I was there [thank you, SL, for being horribly laggy today] but there were a TON of people there.

I hopped over to the Second Spaces party later. As you can see from this photo, which I caught right before I crashed, it was also packed. :)




But like I said, I'm mostly an introvert. Large crowds can drain me quickly, especially if I'm not familiar with the majority of party people. I do very well one on one, usually. And parties that I throw with all my friends do not wear me out often. At other parties, however, I just tend to stay quiet and observe. So if you ever see me at a party and I'm not really saying much, don't think that I'm not having fun. I probably am, I just have quiet fun. :)

There's another party tonight that I'm going to, so until then, I'm sitting on Nigel and catching up on plurk and IMs.




Oh, by the way. That trailer behind me from Belle Belle? You can't really sit on the bed or in the chairs without using the poseball menu. If you try to, there is ONE spot you can always sit.

The toilet.

Sophia found that out earlier.




She probably should have turned her AO off first. :)

Day 131 - Chunky Saturday

Bless me, Father, for I have sinned....hey, is that coffee I smell?




I don't get out exploring very often. It's not that I don't enjoy it, but I just stay home. It's a rare treat when I get to go exploring a sim and have the sim creator as my guide! Gospel showed me around the Fat Tuesday sim tonight, since I had yet to visit and the sim is going away this week. I totally suggest you guys go visit soon before it goes away for good. It is a fantastic representation of New Orleans!

We stood around in Preservation Hall for a while chatting, so I managed to snap another photo while we were there. :)




Be sure to get some beignets while you're there, too.

I've been on my [yearly] hunt for simple sundresses again. Sophia found this one I'm wearing in the pictures from Armidi. But I need more more more. So hey, designers? Get on the ball. And I say that with love. :)

Day 130 - "would you like to feel the awesome power of a duck between your legs now?"

Hey, check it out! A guy in my blog that ISN'T my boy alt! LOL!

I went duck racing today with the super cute super tough Gospel Voom. He has a duck racing track on his sim and since I had yet to go play with the ducks, he teleported me out to go play.




[11:51] Gospel Voom: There's a very famous racing circuit in the UK called silverstone..
[11:51] Gospel Voom: so naturally I called this quackerstone

It was really fun! I am not any better at driving ducks than I am driving cars, so I didn't QUITE make the top racers list, but I'm sure I'll make it some day! Probably when Gos isn't around though. He cheats.

The duck racing track is open for everyone to play with. I think a big group of us need to go racing one night! But um, not with this duck. He appears to be having issues.




Sophia and I are thinking of having a Spring Fling party tomorrow night. I'll let you guys know if it's going to happen or not. :)

What IS going to happen is Trivia Tuesday this week! Tuesday night, at probably 7 or 8pm SLT. We'll be in the same skybox as last time and I'm hunting for more trivia cards for us, and fixing the one that I wanted to use last time about 80s TV shows that somehow was broken. Yay trivia!!

It's supposed to get cold & rainy here tomorrow, so I need to go hit the grocery store now. I don't go out if it's cold & rainy if I can help it. I'm sweet. I might melt if I get wet out there.

/me rolls around on the floor laughing like a hyena.

Day 129 - Blah blah blah

I hate when I come home and there are just balls everywhere.




I went to go see the new Alice In Wonderland movie today. I was less than impressed. It was pretty, but I was bored through most of it. However, I really liked Alice's costume changes. I'm kind of hoping some of my favorite designers will be inspired by the movie and do some dresses like the ones Alice wore. Not the exact ones, of course, but inspired by them.

Oh, but no skins inspired by the White Queen's big huge black eyebrows, please. Because for real? I was so distracted by her huge black Peter Gallagher eyebrows, I couldn't handle it.

I really really need to get some blog pics done tomorrow. But for now...bedtime.

Day 128 - Awakening

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I'm not Irish and I don't really celebrate it, but I do make sure to wear green just to avoid pinches. Hmm...maybe next year I'll rethink this. I ran out to get a green shirt for my male alt for a post on the style blog [I wanted us to match] and so I figured since I had him on, I might as well take a pic for this blog. Lots of green in this photo!




Last night I received Dragon Age: Awakening, the expansion pack for Origins. I've put in a bit of time playing so far [I'm worthless without a walkthrough, I've discovered] but it's been ok. There's a lot more fighting than in DA:O, which I suppose for some would be a plus. And there's a bit less interaction with the party members. And yes, I completely miss the romance aspect, as it is not in DA:A.

The worst part is that I had to uninstall my mods to get the game to work properly. With the mods installed, the darkspawn wouldn't look at me. They were just hanging out. So after I uninstalled the mods, I went back and imported my 2nd character, Alyssa, because I had gotten the closest to her and she had become queen at the end of DA:O. This is what she looked like when I played through with her before.




Unfortunately, with the mods uninstalled, something happened. And my pretty character... well, she ended up like this.




I don't get it either.

I'm eager to get through the game, though. But I do hope there is a patch at some point so that I can keep my mods & still play correctly.

Ok, I feel nerdy writing this post, so I'm going to go stare at my clothes or something.

Day 127 - This is so not cool.

I feel like someone's run me over with a truck and I've been feeling this way for days. The worst part is that I feel too lethargic to do anything in SL. I have loads of unopened boxes. I don't shop. Taking a pic for a blog is tiring. I log in and stand in one spot unless someone drags me out of the house. How can a person be too tired to drag a box to the ground and open it? It makes no sense.

I'm hoping it's just the time change and my body will hurry up and get used to it. Because seriously? This sucks.

Day 126 - It's not that different to me

Dear LeLutka,

While I totally appreciate the super cute belts you sent the group, I don't appreciate that every time I get something clothing related from your store, I feel fat as hell.



The back of the belt is so well embedded into my waist, I almost can't see it. I'm not a large avatar, but goodness. How big are the LeLutka models?!

Anyway, today I spent some time in the physical world with my bestie of almost 15 years. It's amazing to me that I've had her in my life for almost half of it, with a few breaks here and there. It's always nice when we can get together.

But you know, as much as people yell about how hanging out with friends in SL is not the same thing as hanging out with them in the physical world...sometimes it kinda is. I get the same safe, warm, happy feeling when I hang out with people I love in SL the same as I do hanging out with someone in my physical world. Maybe it's because my local friends aren't very touchy feely? But I laugh and laugh with them the same way I laugh with my SL friends. I don't know, maybe because I love SL so much, that's what makes it just about the same to me?

Just something to think about, I guess. But not tonight. I'm feeling pretty tired and I have to get up super early.

Day 125 - Drained

I've been really drained today. I'm not quite sure why. If I could have one full day, with no interruptions or anything... I think that would make all the difference in the world right now.

But, wantin' ain't gettin', as a friend of mine used to tell me. So I'll deal. :)

Day 124 -

I feel really bad right now. You see, I should be blogging Clothing Fair items. And I AM going to. But just not this weekend, most likely, unless I can find some time. I feel terrible, like I should just be cranking out the posts, nice pics be damned. lol But hey, the fair lasts all week, plenty of time.

I'm exhausted tonight. It was a good day, but tiring. So I think...tonight...I won't do anything at all in SL. I'll just sit around and IM. Or not.

Day 123 - Hey...I can't see Russia from here!

I really want to extend a very grateful thank you to my plurk buddies for having to deal with The Saga of the Pants today. And last night. LOL! I don't know why it's not acceptable to wear stretchy yoga pants everywhere. Gosh.

Anyway, after a very long, busy day, I took advantage of my press pass and hit up the SL Clothing Fair, which opens tomorrow!! This year, there are 8 sims [and one central sim] that are all kinds of fashionable places, like New York, Milan, London, etc. The builds are pretty cool! But immediately upon entering the central sim, I was lost.




So, I just started walking and ended up in London. Well, first, I crashed. But when I came back, and changed my clothes, I ended up in London.




After running around London for a time, I somehow managed to make my way to Milan. I crashed when I headed in. But that's ok, because an outfit change and a relog later, and I was happily in Italy!




I was promised a McDonalds. :( Oh, but that's ok, because hey! There's my friend Shiryu's store!




Wow, who's the hot girl he got to model the bikinis? I wonder...

From Milan, it was a quick hop over to Rio de Janeiro. Who knew you could see Milan from Rio??




I am learning geography!

I'm also learning that something is wrong with my computer, because I crashed.

Visiting Rio needs a fun dress, so I stopped at Mischief, which is there on the Rio sim, and picked up this colorful little number. I think it's perfect for partying in Rio, don't you??




Hey, I know that store! That's my new friend Twinky Jinxing's place! I love when I discover my plurk friends' shops!!




I guess I partied a little too hard in Rio, because somehow I managed to find myself in Paris.




But then I crashed.

I guess tomorrow I'll hit up New York, Tokyo, Melbourne, and New Dehli. I always did want to travel!

Day 122 - Day in the life...

Have you ever wondered what goes on in the course of a day for me? No? Too bad, find out anyway.

* I woke up at "stupid o'clock" because my allergies are so bad, I couldn't sleep last night. Immediately I started plurking because that's how I roll.

* Texting with Sophia.

* I made my normal breakfast of an egg sandwich on toast with a big cup of coffee. Two creams, two sugars, thank you. I'm not an animal.

* Texting with Sophia.

* While I ate, I plurked and started to get ready to take pictures for my blog, and I IMed with my local best friend of almost 15 years. We decided to update our Facebook statuses every hour to annoy her husband because he said she updates too much.

* My mom called. My coffee got cold.

* Another text to Sophia.

* I downed the cold coffee because there wasn't enough to bother warming up and found a good place to take my picture, Sophia's yard.

* Oh. Flowers are floating. Time to terraform!

* Plurk, plurk, plurk.

* Facebook time. What? My farm is ready.

* Photoshop time. I spend about 5 minutes writing the post, and the next 20 minutes getting SLurls for it. Pain in my...

* More plurk.

* More Facebook.

* Go to the Accessories Fair to pick up the new sunglasses at Gos. Hey, cute!

* Oh, I need a shower. Warm Vanilla Sugar is my poison of choice today for lotion.

* Photoshoot with Shiryu for his new RFL items. Hey, Clothing Fair is coming up!

* Back home to get redressed for a meeting.

* Plurk, plurk, plurk.

* I take photos of the new glasses for the blog. Soph comes up and shows me her new AO. I want it. LOL

* Ok, no, really, taking photos.

* Go to Burger King, because that's how I roll.

* Receive review copies from somewhere I've never heard of. That's cool.

* Photoshop. Blog. SLurls. Go to Gos. Post the blog. Plurk the blog.

* More review copies. Oh snap. I'm going to have to be doing a lot more blogging soon.

* Plurk.

* American Idol. Grey's Anatomy.

* Plurk.

* Thursday Night Dance Party at Rouge! I love it!

* Home at last. Whew.

And...that's my day.

Day 121 - I need a clue.

I was in the middle of trying to take a really cute picture for today, but then I went to play Clue with some friends.




I don't know how to play Clue. I've never played it before in my life. But...this has been fun. :) We're still in the middle of the game. I'm just...multi-tasking, because well, that's just what I do.

I'm lagging horribly in SL today unless I'm on Bluebonnet, so I guess I should close my browser while I play this game and see if that helps any.

Day 120 - They were There, now some are Here.

So as most people have heard, There.com is closing their doors tonight. Bone is going to attempt to live blog the last few hours of it tonight, so be sure you check out his blog.

I've heard people in SL grumbling. Noobs, more people, more competition, etc etc etc. But I don't think that way. I feel kind of sad for those of the There regulars who are having their place taken away from them. I've been in online communities before that have closed before. And as much as you tell people that you'll keep in touch, it's often like summer camp - you hug and cry and exchange addresses and promise to write, but in the end, you lose touch with some people who were, for a while, very important to you.

I just keep thinking, "What if it were us?" What if SL shut its doors and our virtual world was gone? What if we had to go to ... *whispers* Blue Mars? We'd be uncomfortable. We'd hate it. We'd probably lose friends. We might not find our niche again.

Although I know a few people who started at There and came to SL long ago, some people from There may never have come to SL before. Things are going to be so different for them. We don't need to make it worse.

I'm very sorry you guys are losing your virtual world. I hope you enjoy SL!

Day 120 - You don't own squares!

What? Like you've never stood on your mantel while you build something you saw in a magazine?




I don't really have much else to say tonight. I'm feeling a bit quiet.

Day 119 - Glitz & Glam

I DJed an Oscars party over at my friend Gwendolyn's sim tonight. It was fun! Unfortunately I wasn't able to get many pics at all [my first attempt led to a crash] but I did manage to snap one of me.




Gwen did a great job, asking people who they were wearing and providing some free swag for us. Lots of fun and everyone looked soooo good!!

Then I got home and Heidi helped me keep it classy.





I love how she always thinks about me when she's out and about. <3

I'm bored with writing. I think I'm going to go spend what I made tonight.

Oh, guess what?

About 2 years ago, I was working at a club called Liquid Rage and an IM with a gift popped up out of nowhere. I didn't know the person IMing me, but I had just started getting a few more readers and random IMs weren't unusual. The girl told me that she'd read how I had been having kind of a bad day, and she wanted to give me a gift because she enjoyed my blog. She also went on to tell me a few other things about herself - more than most people usually did at that time.

She would IM me, once in a while, almost always when she thought my posts sounded sad, and almost always to drop something sweet on me. That's just the kind of person she is - generous. I didn't add her to my friends list. I don't know why, but I just didn't. There was something a little too strong about her personality that I wasn't quite ready for. I started to think of her as my angel, though. The one who just popped up in the hard times to put a smile on my face.

I didn't hear from her for a few months, months that I know now that she was battling something terrible. She happened to come back around the time I really needed a friend. One night she needed to teleport me over, and that's how she ended up on my friends list. And once she was there, I couldn't imagine a time when she wasn't.

Do you know who I'm talking about? Of course you do! It's none other than my best friend, Sophia Harlow! And guess what?





So happy birthday to my best friend, the yin to my yang, the Melina to my Lida, the loca with the gassiest pugs around. I love you muchly!!

Thank you for being a friend
Traveled down the road and back again
your heart is true, you're a pal and a confidant




And if you threw a party
Invited everyone you knew





You would see, the biggest gift would be for me
and the card attached would say,





Thank you for being a friend.

Sophia Harlow: you are a good friend!
Sophia Harlow: you really thought I was that dumb
Sophia Harlow: and didnt laugh at me
Sophia Harlow: <3
Alicia Chenaux: <3