It was so easy.

I was sitting around this afternoon after a good laugh and a long talk with a good friend, just thinking about stuff.




My SLife is so so good right now. It's like almost everything I ever hoped would happen in my SLife is going to happen, or has recently happened. And the funny part is that I didn't have to work for it nearly as hard as I always thought I'd have to. I thought to get what I wanted I'd have to fight for it, log into SL for hours and hours daily, give up huge chunks of myself just to make others happy, even if I was crying on the other side of the screen. I didn't think that I would ever be enough. And it turns out? I was wrong. All I had to do was be myself, good, bad, and all the quirks and crap in between. If I don't log in for a day or two, it's okay. If all I want to do is sit and be quiet, or run around wearing something crazy, or bounce around being obnoxious and laughing until I snort, that's okay, too. It's really freeing to know that. I'm really grateful to my friends for teaching me that. I just can't believe it was that easy all this time and I never really knew it.

In other news... I've been asked a lot when the wedding is. I really don't know yet! July is going to be fairly busy for me and the fiancé [hee!] because my daddy is having surgery probably within the next 2 weeks and I'll be away from the computer, and Al has RL commitments as well. So I wouldn't expect any major planning to happen until late July, early August. But despite what people might think, I don't really want for us to have some massive wedding. I want it to be amazing, obviously, but not huge. So really, you all are spared from my bridezilla wedding planning for probably a month. Be happy! :-p Just kidding. I don't see myself going too bridezilla because Aldwyn is totally easy going and pretty much what I want is what we'll do. See? I'm totes marrying the right man!

Oh, and yes. I do plan on staying partnered until the wedding day. :-p

Speaking of which, my wife wants to play Rift, so I'm off!

“What is the difference between exploring and being lost?”

So Aldwyn and I were talking last night and I mentioned that a long time ago, there used to be a place in SL that did pizza deliveries. I know, right? But you'd IM whoever was on duty and then they'd show up at your door with a pizza. I was curious to see if the place was still in SL. I don't think that it was, but I did find another pizza place and we went off to check it out and ended up on mainland. But not just mainland. It was like the mainland that someone forgot. I mean, look at this.




What the heck? LOL

Oh, and might I just add that HE pointed this shop out to me? I was busy looking at pizza and bears.




During this time, he mentioned that he'd never been to Da Boom, Second Life's first sim. Well, no one should ever be in SL for years without having been to where it all started, so we went off to check it out. While we were running around, we wandered into a neighboring sim and into a marvelous dance club.




None of the dances in that dance machine were made after 2006. Hell, maybe even 2005. We did the classic noob dance. You know the one! You touch each opposite foot and then turn around in a circle kind of shaking your hands. Fab! I don't know how this place wasn't more crowded!!

It was really fun to get to explore these old old places with him. We didn't meet until 2009, although both of us have been in SL for years, so it's really kind of fun going back to these super old sims and places so that we can both be "noobs" together. I think next time we get a chance to go exploring, I'm going to take him to the big beanstalk and we'll see who is the better jumper. I think it'll be me!

“In this world of change, nothing which comes stays, and nothing which goes is lost.”

A few years ago, almost every man I met in SL inevitably said, "Let me take you somewhere amazing!" And if we didn't land at Inspire Space Park, we landed at the Lost Gardens of Apollo. And every time, I acted like it was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen.

But, the last time I was dragged to either of those places was probably in 2008 [maybe 2009 for Inspire], and I'd pretty much put the places out of my mind as newer places took over the grid. When I read that the Lost Gardens of Apollo is scheduled to shut down this month, I was surprised but not surprised. I decided to go over one last time.




When I saw how very much the same it still was, I was surprised but not surprised.

The dance floor where someone once took me to proclaim his feelings towards me was still the same. The floating tubs where a friend would take me to float in the water when I was stressed were exactly the same. Newbies doing tai chi or relaxing on pose balls were still there. I even took a picture of myself laying on the same chair, in the same position, as I am in another picture I have from years before. Old flowers by Fallingwater Cellardoor are around, along with old chairs by Baron Grayson and old statues by Starax Statosky.

Some people are upset over this. They shake their fists at Linden Lab and yell, "Why are your tier fees so high that people can no longer afford sims? Why aren't you listening to us when we tell you that we're angry?" And I get it. As a sim owner, every month I have that little fear that I may not be able to pay, even after all the rents are collected. It's a pricy hobby. I'd love to have a sim to myself one day, but that is a dream and I can think of other things to do with the money that would cost.

But at the same time - when these sims close, most of the time there is a great group of people who have never heard of these places at all. Considering the lack of advertising most of the sim owners do, there are people who have no idea what these places are. And if they go, they wonder why the sims are not as well kept, as updated, as other places that they may venture.

Someone mentioned that there should be an SL Historical Society for the preservation of these old sims. Would that even be financially doable? Think about other historical places in the real world. How many times is a person going to actually go to the Alamo, or Stonehenge, or even Graceland? How many people go to old sims when there are so many other places to go to? Tell me the last time that you actually went to Apollo before the story of their closing came out?

I suggest you go visit, though, either for the first time or for the last time.

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.”

WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!

So Aldwyn and I have been together for one year today. One year!! Can you believe it? No man has ever been able to stand me in SL for that long! :-p

We'll be having a party soon, to celebrate our one year and my one year partnership with Ulaa. With all my RL issues lately, we just haven't been able to settle on a date or theme. So today was kind of just passing like any other day [well, except for me sitting in a hospital for hours while my dad had a stress test, but if you follow me on plurk, you know about that].

Belleza has a new group gift out for the guys, so I was making him change skins and teasing him about his Peter Gallagher eyebrows and making him wear a different eyebrow base. Basically being my obnoxious self. Then he said, "Now you can do something for me."

I turned back to the screen.




I believe my exact words were.... "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

But then of course I said yes. :)

I'm so excited!! I've never been married before, in any life, and this is just so amazing to me!

Of course, he might dump my bridezilla ass before the wedding, but we'll see! :)

I still got invited back!

Pretty much won SL today. Truth covered Sophia and me with his peen. :(

:(((

I'd show a picture but I like to keep my blog family friendly and work safe. If you follow me on plurk, you got to see the picture. We got him back, though, when he went AFK.




He's pretty with his cracker crown, gold wings, and blonde pubes, right?

So I had a conversation a couple of days ago that got brought up again today. When did people forget that creators in SL are not just brand names?

I'll admit, I used to fangirl certain people in SL, usually designers, but occasionally bloggers. It's hard not to at first, especially when you're really in awe of how talented some folks can be. But as you grow in SL, eventually you really get to know people, either because you're good at chatting in world [I'm not.] or you're good at social networking. [Plurk FTW!] The fangirling ends real fast when you really get to know people. Oh, you still like them [Umm... Usually.] and you still appreciate how talented they are, but it's hard to remain in awe of someone who just said that they peed in the shower or ate too many marshmallows in a row. In fact, most of my closer friends told me that at one point they fangirled over me too, until they got to know me.

I'm still not sure if that's an insult. :-p I kid, I kid.

But, what my point is here [I swear I have a point] is that some folks have honestly forgotten that behind the talent, behind the skills, behind the prims and textures, are actual PEOPLE. Yes, they can whip up a hair or a shoe in Maya or draw a face or a shirt, but they're just people. Creative, yes, but mostly kind of goofballs. They laugh over flexi-peens. They give you virtual hugs if you're sad. They sit in sweatpants eating Snickers bars while snorting over some silly video on YouTube. Just people.

I mean, seriously. We're all on Second Life. How cool can we really be? LOL!

Anyway, speaking of social networking, I have a 2nd Hub! I like plurk a lot more because conversations seem to flow better, but 2nd Hub seems okay too. If you join it, you should totally add me. I don't post much there, but maybe that's just because I don't have all my buddies on it.

I have a pretty busy day tomorrow, so I really should try to get some sleep.

Biscuit & Me

I'm still totally in love with my Meeroo. I think I just like the whole vibe of the thing. Everyone I have talked to is really relaxed with it, hardly anyone is all "OMG IF I JUST HAVE A GOOD ONE, I CAN SELL IT AND RETIRE FOREVER!" with the money thing. Most people are just happy and having fun. And I'm still just totally in love with the cuteness!!




I realize SL breedables have a shelf life of about 3 months before people get bored/tired/frustrated with them and move on to something new, but while I'm still into it, I'm having an awful lot of fun!

Ulaa decided she needed a meeroo, too. I made a little island on my parcel and now our meeroos [Biscuit, Gravy, and Buttah] hop around happily on their own little island. I love it. I sit there and just hang out with the meeroos happily. We even have a fellowship - Lima Heights Adjacent. Our meeroos will endz you.

I guess I'll go back and play with my meeroo.

Fresh!

Over the past week or so, I've had black streaks in my hair whenever I try to take a picture with shadows. Someone on plurk said they had the same issue and a fresh install of SL fixed it. Thinking about it, I realized that I haven't done a fresh, clean install of SL in WELL over a year. I just keep installing new viewers and updating on top of everything. Back when I used to help run a little browser based game site, once in a while we'd do a complete fresh install of the game. It made everyone lose a lot of what they had earned, but it's not like anyone paid to play, and we always gave them some game money to replace things.

I set out to uninstall ALL the viewers on my system today. I had SEVEN different viewers. Seven!! After uninstalling, I went into my program files folder and my documents folder and deleted all the folders that were left over. I installed one viewer [LL's beta viewer] and guess what? No black streaks in my hair, and everything was working pretty flawlessly! I didn't crash when taking shadow pics even once, and was able to keep running around and all! So if you're having loads of issues, copy your windlight settings to another folder [something you should do anyway if you have ones that you don't want to lose] and do a fresh install. It might clean up some problems for you!

I've been working on the island today. I remember when I used to be more scared of terraforming and I didn't want the island to change too much from how it was when I first moved there. Not so anymore. I have gone nuts on my parcel. Does it look good? Well, time will tell. I'm not done yet, and still need to invest in more landscaping items. Once I get my new house, then I can really finish up. But since I don't have my house, Biscuit and I have been camping out in my trailer. At least, until today when I picked up the trailer and put down this taco stand.




Butterdish used to be one of my favorite places to go for pictures, but once I got over how pretty it was, I was also amazed at the funny little builds that were sold there for so very very cheap. I picked up that little stand last year sometime and once in a while, I remember that I have it.

Biscuit wasn't that impressed. She fell asleep while ordering.




Did I mention that she dug up a 500 regard point arrowhead last night? LOVE HER.