Day 24 - Y U So Pretty?

I spent a lot of time staring at my face today. I know that sounds conceited, but actually it was because I was sitting on the couch for most of the day while I did other things and every time I came back, my camera was on my face. Changing my face shape was one of the better things I've done lately, I think.




I'll get over my face at some point. :-p

I'm thinking about having a trivia night soon. We always enjoy the game and getting together and it's been wayyy too long since we had the last one. But I think I'll need to get some new trivia cards. We already know that all the answers are Madonna and Nancy Lopez.

Bedtime!

Day 23 - Quickie

I told myself when I started this project that I'd never just throw down a picture and have that be it, but man, I am about to hit the keyboard with my forehead. So goodnight!

Day 22 - Quiet Time

Wow. What a day. If you're on plurk, you know it. If you're not...believe me, you probably don't want to.

It made me totally appreciative of spending a few quiet moments with Aldwyn tonight.




Yeah ... I was trying to think of more to say but to be honest, I am simply out of words tonight.

Day 21 - A New Face

People get pretty attached to their look in SL. I mean, what we look like is how we represent ourselves to SLociety! They always say "Don't judge a book by its cover" but seriously? If the cover doesn't look at least KIND of interesting, who bothers picking up the book?? I know I sure don't.

I've been a big "tweaker" of my shape for a while, although for WAY too long I was one of those people who refused to change my shape. So so stupid. I'd sit there complaining that all skins looked bad on me. Well geez, Biscuit. Maybe it's your dated old shape? :-p Of course, my tweaking was just little bits here and there to make me look better, but still basically look like me no matter what skin I was in. But over the past couple of months, I've grown increasingly unhappy with my face. It was starting to be a problem because I had basically made my face good for only ONE skin. Then last month when creators were giving great presents out, I was trying a skin on Piper [my alt] and realized she was TOTALLY FLIPPIN' CUTER THAN ME. NO!

I pouted about it for a bit. But yesterday I figured, why not? Why not go for broke, use some of Piper's numbers, and, in the semi-words of Ty Pennington - FIX THAT FACE.

Fix it enough to be cute but still look kind of like me, though.




I think it works. It's a little more...delicate. My initial reaction was "Holy shit, am I looking like some generic blogger?!" But my plurk friends said that until I had super squinty eyes and a really frowny mouth that looks like it's about to fall off my chin, I would not be generic looking. I still look like ME, but I don't have the fat head any more. It feels softer to me.

Yes, I really did just do a whole post dedicated to my face. Hush. LOL Aldwyn and Ulaa are off doing whatever it is they do and I'm bored!

Day 20 - I thought I was curvy, but...

I'm pretty slim in SL. I enjoy being petite, something I will probably never be in my physical life. I think my shape is fairly proportionate, or at least as close as you can get with the avatar sliders. I often think my rear end is even a little too big for my frame, although I like it.

Of course, then sometimes I teleport in somewhere and I realize I'm not nearly as curvy as I thought I was.




Um. Yeah.

Ladies, really. Rock the big girl shape. LOVE your curves. But can you please resize your shoes to fit your legs? 250 pounds of woman cannot teeter around on size 5 feet with 6 inch stiletto heels. I am a BIG GIRL in my physical life. I KNOW these things!

Just trying to save you years of pain.

Day 19 - Un-Anti-Social

I see the people on my plurk list getting together a lot. Well, maybe not a LOT, but more than I usually end up getting together with my friends. I rarely head to any events, but today I saw that a friend was DJing at The Folly and some of my plurk buddies were heading out there, so I put on an outfit that I threw together last week for a blog post [that never happened] and headed over to say hi.




It was really nice to get to finally meet some of my plurk buddies in person! I really should go out more often, but I'm such a bad conversationalist, it makes me feel bad that I can't keep a conversation going or jump in without sounding awkward. At least, I sound awkward to me. I don't know what anyone else thinks. I've never actually asked.

Hmm. I guess since I'm still dressed, I might as well try to go take a picture of the outfit and attempt to blog it.

Day 18 - Give Peas A Chance!

I'm really tired today. I was up super late because I cannot sleep during a thunderstorm. Don't give me all that nonsense about them being calming. There's nothing calming about "BAHBAM CRRRAAACKKKK BLAM!!!!!" directly over your head. Let me come into your bedroom while you're just drifting off to sleep and bang a metal spoon against a metal cookie pan and see how relaxed you get.

Anyway, I was on my own again tonight because Aldwyn seems to have gotten sick from some petri dishes that were in his house this weekend and I suck at asking anyone if they want to do anything. So I opened up the destination guide and ended up at the Give Peas A Chance hunt. I'm glad I did it because not only is the island incredibly adorable, but I got this pea avatar for free!




I will admit it! I practically laughed myself into an asthma attack while running around! I got some other pea avatars, and then some random stuff like jeans and a shirt, but this little pea avatar is AWESOME and my most favorite find in SL in the past month. If you have kids in SL or are just looking to go to a cute sim, head over!

Day 17 - "I so rarely get to do it!"

It's not easy being a blogger's husband. I mean, almost anything we do ends up in the blog. Almost anything funny he says [or that I think is funny] ends up in the blog or on plurk. Even worse, I'm a fashion blogger, so I usually do a lotttt of shopping before he's even able to get online. Well, not lately because of the fashion funk I'm in, but usually. So tonight I dragged him to Aura because Tyr has a new skin out for a pre-sale [the full line isn't out yet]. We took it home and I put it on and played with my shape and my hairbase and checked to make sure we could stand looking at my boobs [What?] and then I decided I did like it. He asked me how much it was. I told him and then I hear the money sound.

"Aww, thanks honey!"

"I so rarely get to do it!"




Then we sat while he insisted I had something dark on my arm, I insisted I did not, and then after he relogged, I actually looked at my arm and realized I had a prim on it.

Yeah...well... That happens.

Day 16 - Well, that isn't inspirational!!

As I mentioned on plurk earlier, I'm in a fashion funk. Nothing excites me enough to blog it. Hell, nothing really excites me enough to change my outfit very often. And while I get the whole "It's your blog, blog when you want" thing, it's more than that. I get review copies on occasion, but rarely full outfits, and while I might want to review a certain piece, the act of putting a whole LOOK together has been really really really really difficult for me lately.

Aldwyn said he thought we should go to some fashion places so maybe I could get inspired.




He's so totally fired.

Thank God he's cute or I'd be getting divorced tonight.

The fashion funk remains, though. I think I might need to find some new-to-me stores to shop at or something. Do you guys know any stores that maybe I might not know that I would like?

Day 15 - Looking For Fun

It was a lazy Sunday for me, so I figured I'd spend some time in SL just exploring around. Aldwyn & Ulaa were off doing whatever it is they do when they're not in SL, so I found myself on my own again. I figured I'd find somewhere to go and dance that wasn't a couples type place.

The big problem with a lot of clubs in SL is that they suck. Another problem is that if you don't already know the people there, you can't really break into the conversation [on the slim chance that one is happening], and it gets boring quickly. But there are a few clubs that are "newcomer friendly," and I've always found Toontopia to be one of those clubs. You won't get a lot of conversation really, and if you hate gestures it's not the place for you at all, but because the music is house/dance/techno, the gestures often blend in with the music easily enough. And, there's almost always people there, which is a big plus.




The music was pretty good, and even though no one was really talking except for gestures, it was kind of a nice place to dance and just hang out with some people that I didn't know.

Of course, after I crashed, I came back and thought I'd hit an event.

I didn't realize the event was in 2008.




Dios.

Day 14 - Surrounded By Sperm!

So finding myself alone tonight, I decided to pop open the destination guide and figure out something to do. The phrase "Testis Tour" caught my attention, so I ran right on over to get with the testis.

There are lots of rules for the Testis Tour, but I complied, even though Sunset is not my WL setting of choice.




I hopped up on the tour thingy and chose the audio tour. We flew up and off to the testis. There's a lottt of tubes up in this.




Immediately I realized I was not in any sort of learning mood tonight. It was made worse when I was told that SPERM WAS FLYING BY MY HEAD.




That's what the green stuff is.

But I did learn that sperm don't swim until they're starting on their way out. Mostly they're just floating. That's cool.

There's a tour for the ovaries too, but I figure I learned enough tonight.

I will say, though, that it's nice to find places in SL where you can actually learn something. I think I will probably try to visit more of the academic places because you're never too old to learn something new, and God knows I could use more education in my brain! Maybe not about sperm, but it might come in handy at a trivia night sometime, right?

Day 13 - Once Upon A Time

I was going to show you guys a picture of me building this really horrible house that I keep telling Ulaa I'm going to sell in her store [she threatened to cut me if I did], but instead a fairy showed up in my house!




Awww, adorable! That's my friend Wilma in her new form. Tooooo cute!! I really really think that I'm going to need one of these avatars [which are mesh, btw] because I don't dress up in costumes nearly enough anymore!! And who could resist such a sweet avatar?




I'm heading out to the Petite Avatar Kingdom very very soon!!

Day 12 - It's like old times

The inventory cleaning goes on. Today I put all my Truth hair in folders by month and year. I should probably just delete the 2009 hair, I'm sure he'd thank me, but I would have to go through it all first to see if I like any still.

Anyway, I stumbled across this gem in my inventory while I was cleaning.




If you're newer to SL, you probably don't know what that is, but the oldbies will know. It's a skydiving pod! You sit down, it starts up and shoots you up into the air, then dumps you out. If you're wearing a parachute, then you skydive down until the chute opens. We used to have a target that we set up on the top of one of the building at the Viper Pit and if you wore a jumper thing [it's been a while, I've forgotten] it would count how many jumps you did and how many times you hit the target.

What? It was good times. Don't judge.

Day 11 - Your love is my turning page

I'm not a fan of Twilight. I think the storyline is horrible, the books are pretty badly written, and Bella may be one of the worst female characters in all of literature. That being said, the movies always have good music, and I hate that I've been listening to her wedding song since yesterday. It makes me feel like a jerk.

When Second Life decided to slap some vampire avatars together for the Library, I was less than pleased. The last thing we need are MORE dumb girls walking around as "BellaSwanCullen Resident" or whatever variation they pick. But I guess whatever gets people here? And at least most of the starter avatars are way better than what most of us started out as. I will say that the vampire they have on the front page of the SL website is...not that great.




Is she a vampire in a snowstorm? Do vampires usually have big curvy teeth hanging out on their bottom lip? I just don't know. But what gets me is that with SO MANY amazing artists in SL, this was the best they could do? I mean, I don't consider myself all that fabulous at Photoshopping, but even I was able to slap together a kind of okay picture with the avatar in about 20 minutes.




I think this is the Vampire Xyla avatar that's in the Library. I didn't do anything to it, although I should have, since the terrible hair didn't even fit my head. And because the hair is pretty much all flexi alphas, in certain poses, the bangs disappeared because of the prim eyeballs. I know something is better than nothing, but couldn't the creator of this avatar at least have adjusted things to fit properly? I mean, if a newbie starts out with this, they're not going to know how to adjust their prims so their hair isn't all embedded into the side of their head. Shouldn't someone be in charge of quality control as far as Library avatars go? The outfit isn't that great, but the shape is pretty decent. It actually looked great in the face when I played around with some of my Curio, Belleza and LAQ skins.

So tomorrow is the blackout day for a lot of sites to protest SOPA/PIPA. You might find a lot of your favorite SL blogs that are on Wordpress are not going to be readable. Blogger, as far as I know, doesn't have a way that we can do that unless we just set our blogs to private. I still haven't decided if I'm going to do that. But if I do and you come here tomorrow and my blog is locked, it's just for tomorrow to protest. Some stores in SL are closing as well for the day to protest, so don't get scared if you can't go to some stores.

Some people are even taking a whole day away from the internet, but there's protesting and then there's crazy talk. So...yeah. LOL

Day 10 - Out of my jeans

I'm a jeans and t-shirts/sweaters girl. In the physical world, if I am not in my beloved stretchy yoga or pajama pants [which is often], I'm in jeans. And that is my normal style in SL. I just throw on one of 3 brands of jeans [Zaara, Mon Tissu or fri.day] and some top and that's me for the day. But tonight I thought I'd dress up a little bit. I even put on a dress!




Yeah, then I curled up on the couch after hitting up the Olive Juice closing sale. Baby steps.

Last night I was talking to the husband about how we [and by we, I mean us and most of our friends] never do anything because pretty much all of us have homes that we are settled into, and going OUT is unnecessary a lot of the time. He looked up Sanctuary Rock on the map, since that place is OLD and somehow always has people, and we took off over there to see what the people of SL are doing these days.

They pretty much look like you expect.




I really gotta say, I'm tired of men in SL walking around bare chested or with open shirts almost all of the time. Yeah. You have a chest. It was painted by Tricky Boucher half the time. I've seen it. Cover up. But that's just me, I guess, because in both lives, I'm a little grossed out when someone shows too much skin constantly. If you show it ALL THE TIME, then it's not SPECIAL. :-p But that's a post for another day!

Sanctuary Rock was...not bouncing. The music was not very good, the hostess [a neko, naturally] did nothing more than welcome people and then didn't talk. No one really talked. They could have passed as bots if not for the harsh "Haters can suck it, I hate people, I've been hurt before so now I'm a BITCH" profiles that we've all seen before. Seriously? That kind of profile does not make you seem amazing. It makes you seem like a high school loser with no real social skills and does NOT make people want to say hi to you!

We left there after dancing a bit and found ourselves on some gerontology island. It was... well, it was old, and there were lots of bots around but they were more of the NPC variety and some of them talked if you asked questions. The best part was that you could get a bike to ride, and we got to find some info on AARP for Al.




He's going to hit me. :-p

It's getting late and I'm getting tired, so I guess I'm off to bed.

Day 9 - I should do something!

My friend Adorkable made this really awesome Picture Window for her store and honestly, I haven't moved my butt off of it in hours.




I have REALLY got to start doing more in SL. I mean, I know I'm not alone. Most of my friends claim that they just stand on their platforms staring at themselves. People boohoo and whine about sims closing down in SL, but honestly? How many of us are actually going out there to SEE anything?? We don't. We stay in our own parcels, we plurk or IM, we shop on the marketplace. And it would be easy to say "Well, it's because SL is laggy. It's because people bother me when I go out. It's because the moon is in the 7th house but yet Jupiter aligned with Mercury instead of Mars and I'm fucked."

But really? I think we're mostly just lazy.

Back in the day, we went out. We found fun little clubs to go dancing in, even if it was just one time. We ran around sims just because. We dressed up like jerks because it made us laugh. It was work to get dressed and yes, sometimes we fought with people that we ran into because they were assholes. But that was part of the fun!

I kind of wish I had a hang out again. A place, like the Viper Pit, where I could just GO and sit and either chat with people or just sit quietly and sort inventory. It's funny, given that I have almost half a sim to play with, that I would want to go somewhere else, but that's how it is. Cen and I used to sometimes sit for hours just sorting inventory or blogging, rarely talking, until we decided it was time to play. I miss that a lot.

Maybe I just need to make a late New Year's resolution to go somewhere in SL at least twice a week to explore. At least it would give me better photos because I'm going to run out of places on Bluebonnet to take pics of myself soon!

Day 8 - I need to clean!

I seriously need to clean out my inventory.




Right now at 8:45pm SLT, my inventory is at 78,466. I know. I KNOW. I am so ashamed. But you know, if it was just organized, I probably wouldn't care about the number. The fact that it's a big mess of crap is what's really getting me. I will put on the same clothes and stay in them for ages, unless I'm style blogging, because I cannot for the life of me find ANYTHING in my inventory to wear.

Fashionista fail. LMAO

I know I need to just sit my ass down for a couple of hours and start putting things on and throwing things away that I know I will not wear again. A couple of weeks ago I had even started setting up more folders to help me! But that didn't last long.

Is your inventory organized? How do you do it?

Day 7 - Just Tired

I am so tired lately. Doing the smallest things, like cooking dinner or throwing some laundry in the wash is just wearing me OUT. Hate.




I know it's because I'm still recovering from being sick, and I know I need to move around to get my strength back up, but ugh!!! It's highly annoying when I start to get tired at 9pm SLT. Especially since Aldwyn isn't usually able to get in until after that and so as a result, we haven't seen each other in world in ages. But I just get so so so tired, I can't stay up until 1 or 2am [my time] like I used to.

I'm sure eventually I'll go back to normal, but for now, I'm just tired.

Day 6 - Getting the itch

I always know when it's going to happen. I start to get that itch. I wander around the house thinking, "No. No. Not enough." Then I sit. Then I think.




I really want a new house.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I love our house. It's about as perfect as can be. But I want something else now. I just don't know what I want! Usually I just get whatever new house Ulaa makes when I feel like this, but she's taking a well deserved break from building right now, so there's nothing brand brand new. She has new houses that I have never used before that I can get, or already have sitting in my inventory. But... I don't know. I don't know exactly what I WANT and that is the problem.

And yeah, there's nothing that says I can't use any house I want. She doesn't have me under some contract to only use her houses! I just like the styles she puts out, and she's as big of a stickler for quality as I am so I always know I'm getting the best when I use her houses. I mean, honestly, who hasn't bought some house that looked great in the ad but in reality, you spend a week just fixing all the texture glitches and seams? I don't have time for that!

But I totally need a new house.

Day 5 - I'm back!

I honestly didn't think I'd take so many days off right away! :( After my last post, I got a really bad reaction to the steroids the doctor gave me for the bronchitis. Crying uncontrollably, not sleeping, even a rash up my sides. I couldn't keep my shit together enough to call the doctor myself, so I blubbered on the phone to my mom, and she sprang into action. I was taken to the emergency room, and they told me while the side effects I was having weren't exactly uncommon, it was definitely NOT something I needed to be on anymore. Then they gave me some meds to calm me me down and take care of the rash and sent me on my way. But of course my parents wouldn't let me leave their house [and I didn't really want to] while I was that bad off, so I stayed with them for a few days while they nursed me back to health. I still have a bad cough, especially if I talk too much or laugh, and I'm blowing my nose like crazy, but I feel loads better.

And! Very happy to be back in SL!




I know some people get all burned out on SL, or they log in and hate it, but that's not me. Being in SL is like being home for me. I am always happy to be there. I miss it when I'm not there. Even if I'm just standing around just looking around or looking at myself, I love it. I guess maybe because I don't really work in there? I don't have a business, unless you count owning the island, and I don't really count that since I don't actually MAKE money off of it. I guess if I worked in SL, I wouldn't love it so much. But...I don't know. I really don't. I've been in SL for so many years and every day, I still love it pretty much as I did the first day.

And honestly? I hope that never changes.

I have the plague

It started with a little cough on Sunday. By last night, it was full on too much coughing, rubbing my throat raw, not letting me speak in my normal voice, oh my God I think I might have caught the consumption, I better go to the doctor sick. So I woke up today and, because I turn into a 6 year old when I'm sick, I called my mom. She sprung into "Supermom" mode and got me a quick appointment for the doctor. I don't have the Black Death, but I do have bronchitis. Awesome.




The nice doctor put me on antibiotics and steroids. I keep clowning around that I'm going to get roid rage like Ronnie on Jersey Shore and just start throwing stuff all over the place. That would be hot!

The good part is that after my meds today, I have actually started to feel a bit better, especially since the steroids are helping me not to cough so much. So I guess I'll survive. I'm really tired, though, so I think I'll be going to bed early.

Day 3 - Well, they WERE cool.

So yesterday on plurk, this inventory tip was being passed around. Basically, you go into your inventory Recent tab, open the filters, and filter back however many days old you are. Then scroll to the bottom and you have your earliest items. I did it and found these shoes that I bought in late December 2007.




[07:14] Ry Carling-Yangtz: I will personally come there and set them on fire

Mean! These are VINTAGE Kool Kicks! They used to be the best!

Of course, looking at them more closely, they have shine, the "laces" are basically square, and they're not that great. But for the time...they were hot.

I've been deleting a lot of things today, but sometimes I have to try items on just to see them again. Two things about this:

1. SL fashion has become so FREAKING AMAZING over the past few years!!!! I've deleted some items just because I know it would cause the designer great embarrassment if I were to keep them. Things that I thought were such amazing quality back in 2008 pale sadly in comparison to today's new mesh items. Hairs, skins, even poses, they are all so much better now! I have pretty much always been a stickler for quality items but it's fascinating to see how things have changed.

2. So many things I have in my inventory have memories attached to them. Especially these early items! I remember stalking lucky chairs with Cenedra, or having her IM me to say "This place has freebies! Let's go!" I remember decorating my little house next to Sam, and then of course all the fun we had at the Viper Pit. Although I am happier in SL now than I ever have been, I still miss these people. I don't know where our friendships would have gone in the long run. No one can ever know that. But I do miss them.

There are some things I cannot delete. I just can't. All the inventory cleaning in the world won't make me delete them. But maybe...maybe I can box them up.

Maybe.

Day 2 - The Secret of Decorating

So yeah, not to toot my own horn or anything, but I'm pretty decent at decorating in SL.




People who come over always say my rooms look good. When I show pics of rooms on Flickr, I get favorites. Certain people are jealous of how I have made a home. I've styled rooms for vendor ads. I even managed to get one of my bedrooms into a magazine. After years of wanting a skill in SL, this seems to be mine.

But I used to suck at it. Oh how I used to SUCK at it. I even lived in a furnished skybox for a while because it was way better for someone else to decorate than for me to do it. My decorating consisted of putting down a plant and putting pictures all over the walls. I never knew exactly where anything should go and so I'd either buy a set and set it exactly down the way the ad looked, or I'd just kind of throw things in a room, close the door, and sit outside.

However, I'll tell you a secret. It's easier now to decorate your home in SL than it ever has been before because there are so many fabulous decor creators out there now! Seriously, there are soooo many good places to go.

So here's what you do. First, go to any/all of your favorite furniture stores. Here I am at LISP Bazaar!




And then...?

BUY ALL THE THINGS!




No really. Buy everything! Buy anything you can get your hands on! If you think you like it, GET IT!!!

The real "secret" is this: The more you have to choose from, the better you can decorate simply because you have enough to choose from! It's easy to decorate a bedroom if you only have one bed, one matching nightstand, and one matching rug. But will it look GOOD? Will it be the kind of room that people exclaim over how it looks? Probably not. But if you have 10 beds, nightstands, and rugs, plus a lot of other things, you can mix and match and make it yours.

Oh. But if you really suck and just can't do it, IM a friend and ask them to help you. That always works, too.

Day 1 - Well hell.

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm restarting the 365 Day Project. But I'll admit it, I almost didn't want to do it tonight. I'm tired and I'm feeling kind of sick. Coughing, achy, you know the drill. I don't expect it'll last long because I'm religious about getting a yearly flu shot, but it sucks all the same.

So I figured I would do a picture of me relaxing in our tub, trying to sweat out the plague. But when I went into our bathroom, I discovered something.




I never finished the bathroom!!!

It's bothersome to me because I don't like unfinished rooms. But at the same time, Ulaa is making other houses and I know we're not likely to be in this house all that much longer. But ugh!!! I had ideas for this bathroom! It was going to be so cute. I cannot believe I never finished it!

You can bet your ass the next house we get, the bathroom is getting finished FIRST.