Landscaping is work!

I'm taking a little break from landscaping. I think things are coming along nicely but there's still a lot of work to be done.

 


The more I do, the more I find needs to be done.  I wish SL had better terrain editing tools.  Getting things as smooth as I want is not exactly easy.  It would be nice if when I was editing one small part, the land around it wouldn't go all crazy, too.  Maybe there is an easier way, but I sure haven't found it.

But wow, how grateful am I for Ulaa these days??  She's taking a lot of weight off my shoulders with the decorating parts.  She's building not only my reception gazebo, but the pergola for the altar and the benches for the guests, too.  It's a huge relief because I am so picky and shopping for these things would most likely drive me insane.

[4:37:42 PM] Ulaa Coronet: We need to work on wedding stuff
[4:38:01 PM] Ulaa Coronet: see like how this is my project now?
[4:38:01 PM] Alicia Chenaux: LMAO!!
[4:38:11 PM] Ulaa Coronet: just show up ok? thanks 

I will say, though, it's times like this that I wish I had an SL dad so I could just whine and have my dad fix things for me. :-p

Back to work.

No me gusta terraforming

Last night I started on making my parcel wedding ready. For what I have in my head, this requires a LOT of terraforming. But you know what?

 I don't like terraforming that much.




Seriously, it makes me want to cry.  Or have a tantrum.

But I got the basic shape down.  It's kind of hard to get the big picture because of the sand.  Seriously, think of most beachy sims you know of.  They're usually fairly flat because terraforming sand pretty much sucks.  Once we go back to grass next month, it'll be a lot easier for me to see what I'm doing.

I wish I were better at it, though.  I really wish one of the super land workers I knew was still in SL!!  I would have paid him pretty much anything to make my dream come to life, but alas. :(  Oh well, it'll get done.

And omg!! Y'all should see the AMAZINGGGGG gazebo Ulaa is building for the reception!!!!  I was like, "I want a gazebo with like...tons of lights."  And she was all "I got this."  It's awesome!!

So I have my dress.  My hair is being styled.  The reception gazebo is almost done.  We're pretty sure what tux Aldwyn is going to get.  Ulaa and I have to go maid of honor dress shopping.  Everything is progressing really well.  Now we just need a DJ, an officiant, and...oh yeah... TO SET THE FREAKIN' DATE. :-p

Haaayyyy...

With all the crazy of the summer, I haven't had a chance to just chill with Ulaa and Aldwyn the way we used to do. We used to spend hours and hours on Skype every night while we played games or ran around SL or just hung out together. But honestly, I couldn't think of the last time we'd been all on skype together for longer than a few minutes. But since everything in our lives are settling back into a more normal routine, we had a chance tonight to hang out and chat.  We talked wedding stuff for a while, and then I made them take some pics with me.

Being us, of course they couldn't be normal.

Haaaaaay BAYBAY. Haaaaayyyyyy....





Yeahhhh.... you gotta lick it before you... Oh.

[I was also tempted to draw in some armpit hair for her.]




But then we settled down and I got a decent picture.




Love them so very much. :)

I think I'm going to begin the terraforming tomorrow on the sim.  We haven't set a date yet. [I KNOW.]  But soon, we will do it soon.  Ulaa is going to possibly make my big dance floor gazebo thingy I require [because a good maid of honor comes with building skillz!] and .... yeah. :)  It's 3:30am and I've been awake for about 20 hours so um... bedtime.

Will the real Lexi please stand up?

This is my friend, Lexi Morgan.




Lexi has been in Second Life since 2004, as you can see. Although she'd added her partner's last name to her display name, if you look her up in search, she is still Lexi Morgan. There might be 10,000 other Lexis out there, but as far as Second Life is concerned, she has always been the only Lexi Morgan. At least...she was.




This is Lexi Morgan #2. Her username is beth36. If you don't have display names turned on in your viewer [a lot of us do not], she looks like beth36. But she's walking around with Lexi Morgan proudly as her display name. Even worse, when you go to look for Lexi Morgan in search...




When display names were first introduced, MANY people were upset. The content creators - you know, the people who make us look good and generally pay a lot in fees every month for sims and marketplace and uploads? - were especially worried. What would keep someone from using their name? Would that be possible? WHY would it be possible? But they were assured that no, that wouldn't happen. Linden Lab would help protect them, protect all of us with legacy names.

Turns out? Not so much.

When Lexi was notified by someone that another account was using her name [she'd gone to search for Lexi and that is what popped up], Lexi was, rightfully, very upset.  She filed an abuse report, and this morning she contacted Linden Lab.  After all, they had promised this sort of thing would not happen, and unlike in the real world where several people could have your name, it was always a bonus in SL that our names were OURS.  So she did what any of us would have done and called Linden Lab.  And that's where things really went wrong.

Lexi spoke with someone at Linden Lab who told her - get ready for this - to just keep filing abuse reports until it was fixed.

Wait.  What?

Now she has to take time out of her day to just keep filing abuse reports, when one has already been filed, when it would be easier for the person she spoke with to fix it right then and there?  Where is the protection that was promised when Linden Lab decided to charge ahead with the ridiculous AOL-esque usernames and display names?  [Don't get me started on what I think about the username thing.  But you can vote in this JIRA if you feel the way I do.]  Shouldn't there be some kind of customer service for someone who has been using a service for over 7 years?  Just keep filing abuse reports? That's IT?

When Lexi told the person at Linden Lab that she was under the impression this sort of thing was never to happen, the person replied, "Yeah, I can see how that would cause a problem for you."  Lexi also asked what would happen if this account never logged in again, and was told "You should AR separately with those concerns and be as specific as possible."  Because calling and telling them isn't specific or good enough?

Nice customer service, Linden Lab.

So now the real Lexi Morgan has to waste her time filing abuse reports and hoping that her customers read far enough to contact her and not Beth36 if they need customer service.  Beth36 can wander around happily with a name that is not hers over her head.  And Linden Lab proved, once again, that they truly do not always listen to their customers.

Edit 8/26/2011:  Lexi confirmed yesterday that after approximately 25 Abuse Reports, phone calls, etc, that the name was finally changed.  Beth36 is now Beth Morgan.  Oh, and she's no longer an out of work exotic dancer, just in case you were worried about that. :-p  

He was always there

Back in January 2010, I was doing weekly photo diaries for a research project a nice professor from one of the local universities was doing.   Tonight I was thinking back on it, and I remembered that Aldwyn had actually been in one of my diaries. He'd invited me to the sim to come dance since I was upset over something or other.  It just said "Stressed about RL issues" in my diary. 

 


 [2010/01/21 22:01]  Alicia Chenaux: lol...you know, the funny thing is, this is kind of what i needed tonight.

[2010/01/21 22:01]  Aldwyn Zanzibar smiles

[2010/01/21 22:02]  Aldwyn Zanzibar points to his profile..the part about being psychic

[2010/01/21 22:02]  Alicia Chenaux laughs.

[2010/01/21 22:03]  Aldwyn Zanzibar smiles as he dances with you...

[2010/01/21 22:04]  Alicia Chenaux: so you psychically thought i needed to dance? lol

[2010/01/21 22:05]  Aldwyn Zanzibar: no, I needed to dance

[2010/01/21 22:05]  Aldwyn Zanzibar: and a little plurk birdy told me you were in a mood...


Awwwww. :)

The funny thing is that at that time, I half thought he thought I was stupid, and half wondered if he was ever going to hit on me.  I was WAITING for him to hit on me and he didn't!  So by the time he actually did, it was like...a huge surprise. LOL

Soooo.... I got my wedding dress todayyyyy!!!  Oh gosh, it's so beautiful.  It's elegant and simple, with a great fluffy but not too fluffy skirt.  It's just exactly what I wanted.  I twirled and twirled up on my posestand after putting it on.  I didn't want to take it off!!!  But if I did that, Al wouldn't get to see me until the wedding, and you know, that won't do.

Okay, this blog won't be the All Wedding, All The Time blog.  But since it's the main thing going on in my SLife right now, I can't seem to help being totally into it!!  I just want it to be so beautiful and so right for us.  I keep joking that it's all about me, and he's so nice, he agrees with me on that, but I know it's really about US.  I can't wait to really start decorating!  I was going to wait to get started on terraforming until after Labor Day when the island goes back to a grassy sim, but I may end up getting started in the next week or so because I just can't wait!

I have to take my pore strip off now. Don't you just love those things?

And we're not setting things on fire either.

You know... people tell me that they like my style or they like the pics I show on the style blog. I have to laugh and laugh because I don't really have much style and if you guys knew HOW long it takes me to put something together, you'd take away my fashionista card. It's even funnier when I do a photo and then realize I'm wearing something crazy that never shows up in the pictures. Like when I did today's picture and then when I went to sit at my house to do the blog post, I realized what shoes I had on underneath...



Fab. LOL

So Ms. Kouse showed me a prototype for my wedding dress today. I swear, tears came to my eyes. She and I are plurk buddies and all, but we're not close close, and yet she managed to design me the perfect dress. I had showed her pictures of dresses I liked, but I had shown so MANY, I didn't know what exactly she'd end up doing. It's just...oh I can't wait to show you guys. But of course it stays hush hush until the wedding. :) Well, I'll probably show Ulaa. But she's the only one!!

Nowww....I need to start thinking about wedding shoes!

Actually, I need to find an officiant and a DJ. I kind of have an idea of who I'd like to ask to DJ the event, but unfortunately I also LIKE them, and I don't want to piss them off when they realize how very Bridezilla I'm going to be about the ceremony music. But I have NO idea who we would possibly get as an officiant. Do you guys have ideas?

All this wedding planning has made me really emotional lately. It's kind of funny how that happens. I keep wishing there were 2 people I could share all of this with. Cen, of course, because I still miss her every day of my SLife. And then another friend that I haven't talked to in years. I helped her when she got SL married, and we had so much fun... I really wish she were here to make me laugh while the planning was going on.

I have to go convince Al that we don't need a Luby's style buffet for the reception now.

Hit all the things!

Plurk was down again for a while today. If you notice a sudden rush of blog posts, it's because people get productive in SL when it is down. LOL! But truthfully, plurk is like constantly having your buddies with you, and for those of us who use it happily, it's harsh when it's just torn from us. WE CRY AND HIT ALL THE THINGS. Or just do pics. Whatever.



That's the new Padded Room by aDORKable Poses, btw. I wasn't sure how I'd feature it in a blog post when she was first talking about it, but it worked well today!! I always feel like I can photoshop the hell out of the pics I show here instead of the ones I show on the style blog. I hate when fashion bloggers overly photoshop their pics, but it seems to be the standard lately. Not that the pics aren't extremely lovely, but you know. You want to actually see the items shown, not sit there marveling over their use of shadows and the liquify brush. It's hard because I'm not extremely skilled at photoshop or anything, so I often feel like my pictures are lacking when I see them on the feeds in between all these really exceptional photos. But I suppose they get the job done. :)

Not too much progress on the wedding yet. EXCEPT... My dress is getting worked on already!!! Kouse Singh of Kouse's Sanctum is making me a custom dress and I could NOT be more excited!! I showed her some pics of styles that I like, and I'm just letting her do her thing. I know it will be AMAZING. I have blogged a couple of her wedding dresses before and when she volunteered, I was like... holy SHIT. LOL!! I think the main problem will be the guest list. I mean...well, see...not everyone I like likes each other. And I KNOW they would put their differences aside for one evening so they can share in my day, but I just hate thinking that there are going to be uncomfortable people sitting there who might just bolt after the ceremony just to get away from this person or that person. Or who might just stay to spite someone else. I know that not all of my friends are going to, or have to, like each other. Obviously there are a few people I dislike in SL who are friends with my friends. But...ugh. I don't want to have to worry about it, and it's really been bugging me the past few days. Sometimes it makes me not even want to have a wedding and just get partnered quietly. But I would really regret that in the long run. I guess we'll just send out invites and see where the chips fall.

 Of course, at some point we also have to set a wedding date so that we can make invites. I suppose THAT would help, right? :-p

It was a blingtastic time!

We had our Old SLchool party last night. Check out how HOT I was!!




I fucked up the picture though. I had my antialiasing turned ON. :-p

It was a REALLY fun party!! We chatted and laughed and played sploder. Evie was the biggest winner of all of us, I think, but she does dirty things to sploders when no one is looking. Check out a few pics!!

People doing super old dances.




Ulaa being cochina on the pole.




Aisuru on the pole!




Lexi totally forgot how to use a lucky chair.




Aldwyn had to go AFK. This pic came out really well considering I was lagging and dancing and stuff. LOL




More dancing!





I really really need to have parties more often! I love hanging out with my friends and so often we don't because we just talk on plurk and forget about hanging out together in world. And plurk is cool and all, but nothing takes the place of actually being together. :)

Old SLchool, baby!

Hey...hey buddy. WAKE UP. Don't you know there's a party tonight?!




A few weeks ago on plurk, I mentioned that I wanted to throw an old SLchool party. People could bust out their old old skins and their bling, and we'd party it up in a "club" with a sploder and all that. Most of us don't go out to clubs in SL anymore, preferring the company of just friends and family and our own lands. But how are we supposed to get to know people if we don't get out?? Not that going to an SL club now would probably work, but you know what I mean. :)

So luckily for me, my Aldwyn was a hoarder on his first account, and had many many things I needed for the party place. I had some stuff - the club build, particles, old dances. But he had the other good stuff - like the old school sploder, old couples dances still inside poseballs [my couples dances are in the intan and most are fairly recent], and dance poles. Because seriously? It's not a party without dance poles.

We needed outfits, though, so we headed over to Freebies Dungeon. If you want to see ACTUAL NEWBIES, not just people alting, go there!




The moment we landed someone asked if they could bite me.

[2011/08/02 20:58] Bloodlines Lycan Claw 1.2: Faithes Resident has offered you the power of a Lycan warrior. This will register you with The Bloodlines system, and you'll get a FREE Lycan wound attachment. Say Yes to accept!

[2011/08/02 20:58] Alicia Chenaux: Not bloody likely, asshole.


Then, of course, some girl got all up on Aldwyn.




She IMed him first and he told her "Greetings." She basically acted like she'd never heard that before and said only gentlemen say greetings. Then she had the good sense to read my profile and lit on out of there. I could have certainly taken her in an ass kicking contest. She didn't have any feet.





SO. Dig those old skins that you couldn't throw away out of their boxes, dust off your old shoes that made your feet look like pancakes, and come join us tonight at 8pm SLT for an Old SLchool good time!! If you have lag issues, you might need to turn particles off, but hey, that's pretty old SLchool, too!