Day 321 - All Packed!

Camp officially starts tomorrow! It seems like I've been talking about it for a long time, huh? :) But the bunks have been made and the cabins have been assigned and the clothing and skis and other things have been bought. Tonight we got Abby all packed up. Look at how excited she is!!!




I'm so excited for her to get to go and have fun with her friends, and make new friends, too! Sometimes I feel like we've been in our own little world with the Oleanders for the past few months and we haven't let a whole lot of people in while we have adjusted to life as a family. Which isn't a bad thing, not at all! If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll remember that Aldwyn and I did that after our wedding, too. However, eventually you have to rejoin SLife. :)

But until tomorrow, we're still in our bubble.

Day 320 - Well, that's romantic.

I've been pretty bored of our house lately. After I took down all of the Christmas stuff, it's been pretty bare. In fact, the best room in the entire house is Abby's room. She's has the cutest room!





She asked me earlier if we could re-do her room after she gets back from camp, and I said that I was thinking about getting a whole new house. We headed out to Roost on the recommendation of some plurkers and totally fell in love with one of the houses there! It's a little smaller than what I have had in the past, but I think that it might work better for us. But it's pretty and green and each bedroom has a balcony. Plus there's a little closet that Abby already claimed as her own reading/nap room.

Since she went to bed early tonight, I took Aldwyn out to Roost to check the house to see if he liked it. He did, of course, because he obviously has good taste. We want to get the garage for it, too, if we do end up buying it. After I showed it to him, we went wandering around the sim. It's really a fabulous sim and we enjoyed our walk.

We did have a little trouble on the boat, though.





Me: Why am I up in the air?! This is like Shallow Hal!
Him: Hey! This is romantic as shit!
Me: Oh my god, why are you fat?!

Romance, y'all. We know how to do it.

Day 319 - Chillin' In The Bunk!

I really should be in bed, but after I sent the family to bed tonight, I hopped around the grid looking for a few things. Abby got her camp list tonight and while she has basically all the essentials, there are a few other things she'll need. And things we just want her to have because ... well, just because. :)

Her bunk is pretty much finished, though, so when I came back from shopping, I sat in it for a little while. It's awfully cute.




Abby has been helping her cousin, Raven, with his bunk, too. A lot of people make their bunks into almost miniature bedrooms with tiny beds and dressers and stuff, but Abby and Raven went more traditional. I really like what they've done!

This week, we have to spend lots of time together and with the family because we've never been separated for a week before! Of course, Aldwyn and I DO have plans while they're gone, but we will miss our little one and our family while they're at camp!

Ugh, it's 3:15. I REALLY need to get in bed. One day this insomnia will stop, I just know it!

Day 318 - I had it... until I didn't.

Lolita and Takeo are counselors for camp and since all of the counselors have to come up with activities, Aldwyn and I have gotten to play with all the games they've come up with. Beta testing, you know! None of our little campers have seen the games because they want them to be a surprise!

I TOTALLY rocked one of the games we played tonight, but another activity... It didn't go quite as well.

[And nope, no spoilers because where I am in the picture is different than what will be at camp!]




Of course, I don't think the kids will be covered in bling and facelights like I was, but you know, for beta testing, you have to do all kinds of crazy stuff to make sure everything works!

Aldwyn has been yelling at me about sleeping like a normal person [which I have not been, lately] so I guess I better take off all my bling and go to bed.

Day 317 - I guess cows need baths, too?

Even though Abby has been with us for a while, the 19th marked our one month of being her official parents. We're all still learning about each other, and Aldwyn and I are learning about being SL parents. It's really been amazing and fun and I've loved every single moment of it.

But well, there are some experiences you just kind of don't expect...




I'm not quite sure what I'm more curious about at this point - how she managed to get the little cow in the bathtub, or how she managed to get the cows up the stairs in the first place!!

Day 316 - Bunk Makin' Dance Party!

So now that Abby is an official camper, the next step in her journey to camp is to make her bunk! This is where SL camp is different than RL camp. In RL camp, you go and there's a little cot waiting for you. But in SL camp, the kids all make their bunks, so they're totally personal! [Or they have the bunks made for them. People sell them, too.] The bunks have to fit within a certain size, and they only have 50 land impact to play with. Luckily with mesh, you can fit a lotttt into 50 land impact! The main part of Abby's bunk is a bed we found and she was able to mod it down to fit the size specification. I think the whole thing is only 4LI, so that's going to leave her with a lot of room to personalize it!

Of course, while we were working last night, we had to have a dance party on the platform. [Um, this was after I accidentally deleted the platform and sent us all tumbling towards the ground. Note to everyone: Lock your platforms!]





And nope, you don't get to see her bunk until it's all done!

I do wish that I knew how to do mesh, though, because she's looking for some billowy ceiling curtains and there's nothing like that out on the marketplace. If you guys have any idea where we might find some, or any cute, low land impact, fairy items, please let me know! Preferably in purples because purple is her cabin's official color.

So since I have you here, let's talk about something. Yesterday in the SL Secrets, there were a lot of butthurt camp secrets. It's expected every year. People get mad that they couldn't register for camp, they get mad because they don't get off the waiting list, they get mad because other people are having FUN and we can't have THAT. But then came a lot of "I think kid avs are creepy. They don't take care of their own families. They're weird. They're stupid. They're disgusting."

First of all - how dare you presume that because someone is a kid in SL, that means that they do NOTHING else except that. In the past few years that I've been in SL, the people I see neglecting their RL kids are the ones who spend most of their SL day looking for a boyfriend/girlfriend/one night stand. The kids I know in SL work and take care of their families before doing ANYTHING else in SL.

Being a kid in SL is no different than pretending you're a cat, or a model, or a slave, or a vampire, or a stripper, or a wife to someone you're not legally married to. You might think that YOUR SLife makes you better than someone else, but honestly? At it's base level? It's all the same. All. The. Same.

I get it. I do. Years before I got involved with the family community, the impression I had of kid avatars wasn't good. I thought they were weird. I thought they were scam artists. I assumed that they forced people to take care of them. I thought all of them were baby talkers.

I was wrong.

I'm not saying that there aren't kids out there that aren't like that. Our own family had a little shake up recently when we discovered someone had been running 60 alts over the past few years, hopping from family to family. There are some that give the whole community a bad name, but isn't it like that in EVERY section of SL?

But the kids I'm closest to are nothing like that. Abby has never asked anything of us. She pays her own way in whatever she wants to do. If we gift her with anything, she's extremely appreciative, no matter what it is. She doesn't baby talk. She isn't creepy. She has her reasons for being a kid in SL and I understand them. We are, outside of our SL family, actual friends. And you will find that that is the case in a lot of families. We're friends.

It's strange to me that a lot of people on plurk are very hypersensitive to "bullying" or how someone chooses to live their life RIGHT up until it's something they don't agree with or understand. Someone wants to be 200 pounds overweight with pink hair and an atheist who posts nothing but porn gifs from Tumblr all day? Go on, girl! Do yo' thang! Someone wants to put on a small avatar and not partake in the XXX rated side of SL? OH HELL NAW. STOP. GROSS. CREEPY.

K.

People are definitely entitled to their opinions. But if you'd ever like to maybe change your opinion on kids and family in SL, contact me. We'd be happy to hang out with you so you can see that it's not gross and that it's actually a ton of fun! Like I've said before, THIS is honestly the happiest I've ever been in SL. I can't wait to log in every day and talk to my family and friends. I want to learn things to help them. I want to do things to make them happy. I see people all the time talking about how their SLife isn't fun and that they're lonely, and it doesn't have to be that way. Not one bit.

Day 315 - Happy Campers!

Camp letters were sent out!! Abby was sooo excited to get her letter, she couldn't wait for us to help her get to the mailbox. I came home to find that she enlisted her cousin Raven to help her out.




Yep! The letter was there! She's an official Camp Hardknock camper!




Of course, being my child, she snatched Raven's letter and started running.




She looks a little too thrilled with herself, huh?




I'm happy for both the campers. They're going to just have the best time! If you're going to camp, be sure to stop and say hi to them! ♥

Day 314 - He Hasn't Left For Cigarettes Yet!

I'm still on an inventory cleaning binge. I'd LIKE to get under 70,000 items in my inventory. Yes, yes. I realize that 70k is crazy high to some of you, and to others, it's half of what you have. But for the past year or so, I've stayed almost consistently around 75-80k. When I get to around 80k, that's when my inner "Oh my god, why are you carrying around all this mess?!" voice goes off.

Unfortunately, it's getting harder and harder to delete or box up stuff. The problem with having a lot of really nice stuff, I guess. :) But I have to try, because I can tell a difference in performance as I delete items. When I go on my male alt, Aidan, who doesn't even have 4000 items, I don't have quite as many issues. It's still not perfect, and that's on my end, not SL's, but it is a little easier to walk around and do things. Of course, no matter what I do, I'll never ever have less than 5000 items in my inventory. And truthfully, I wouldn't want to. I don't have a problem deleting stuff even though I paid for it. I DO have a problem getting rid of items that have meant something to me. I don't mind suffering through freezes and crashes to hold on to certain things no matter what.

Like...my super crazy blingy jewelry set!




I think Aldwyn took one look at me and then turned back around as I spun around and fell down while blinging like crazy. He never even said a word. I know I've said this before, but I swear the day he "goes out for cigarettes" and never returns? No one will blame him.

Day 313 - Colorful!

I hate being sick. Like, truly hate it. I do everything in my power to avoid catching any kind of illness. But sometimes it's unavoidable and I've spent the past few days playing caretaker until I came down with something, too. Grrrrrr! Luckily all my preventative measures have helped in making my illness not that bad, but still - Grrrr!!!

But I felt well enough tonight to come on because I missed my family! Plus we had to go to my sister's goddaughter's surprise birthday party! It was fun and Lolita had a great playlist, but we couldn't stay too long because it was camp registration tonight!

If you're not familiar with Camp Hardknock, it's basically a week long RP thing for the kids in SL. Some adults also go as counselors and other camp staff. I REALLY wanted to sign up as a counselor this year, but my computer is not up for the task and I didn't want to be the counselor that was frozen or crashing all of the time. But it's a great time for people. The kids get to meet new friends, reconnect with old ones, play games, tell stories, get homesick, not want to leave, etc. There's a parents day so parents can come visit. They really try to make it very camp like! I've always LOVED seeing all the camp plurks! This is my first year as being a camper's mom, though! Abby was able to register!! Oh, did I neglect to mention the Hunger Games that goes on to GET to camp? *laughs* Okay, it's not THAT bad...

Because only 100 campers are allowed [I think it's just 100], the race to get registered is FIERCE, y'all. I promise you, there has never been a sale in SL that is like the fight for camp registration. They throw on their plain skins, strip off the AOs, and fight to get in to register!





Abby managed to get herself in this morning [my poor little girl, having to do it alone because I was sick!], so we were preparing to fight for Raven to get in. Luckily, someone else can register FOR you if they get in and you do not, because they were having nooooo luck getting there! I didn't even try because I knew I'd crash immediately. But Raven has a nice friend and so he got in! And I'm very thrilled because with Raven going, and Lolita and Takeo being counselors, my Abby won't be without family at camp. I know she's a bit nervous because this is her first camp in a while, but I also know that once she gets there, she's going to have so so much fun and not want to come home!

But she will come home, if I have to go there and drag her home by her ear.

However...as much as I'm thrilled that she got in, and Raven got in, and Lolita and Takeo will be there... what the heck am I gonna do for a week?? I guess Aldwyn will have to go back to entertaining me. *laughs* Or...well. I'm sure there's SOMEthing I can do while they're all gone.

Now the next thing is for Abby to get her camp letter, which of course I'll take pics of when she gets it! Then we have to work on her bunk [they all decorate their own bunks with personal things, pictures and whatnot] and make sure she has everything she needs for camp. Fun times!

Oh, btw, if you're interested in seeing a bit of camp, this is a video of winter camp from last year. Looks like a good time, huh? :)

Day 312 - Learn Something New Every Day!

Happy new year, dear ones! I hope you all have had a great start to the new year!

So, I'm not a mesh maker. At all. Seriously. I've dabbled in Blender and made a mess. Aldwyn bought me Hexagon for my birthday and I promptly made a mesh penis that looked okay in the program, but was totally sad when I uploaded it into SL. [And trust me, not many things are much worse than a sad penis.] I've wanted to learn how to do my own mesh items but my brain doesn't quite understand it all.

But! I'm making it one of my 2014 goals to learn new things. Some time in the past week, I saw someone on plurk mention that you could export your prim builds [full perm ones that you made] as a .dae file. [If you're less of a mesh maker than I am, .dae is the extension of a mesh model file that you upload to SL.] I didn't have a chance to read the whole conversation but I filed that tidbit away in my brain under "Ask about this later." I thought that maybe it would be of interest to Ulaa and Abby since they both are pretty good builders with prims, but haven't quite made the transition to mesh yet.

Today I asked on plurk about it and was given two links to read. One about how to do it with Firestorm and one about how to do it with Singularity. I use Firestorm, but you don't get to keep your textures with it the way you seem to be able to with Singularity.

And before anyone starts screaming about copybotting, you can only do this with things YOU made. Although, I think if you use sculpts like from sculpt kits, you have to have the full perm sculpt map still in your inventory.

I wanted to play with this to see if it worked, so I pulled out the AFK House I made several years ago to put on someone. It's just made from 6 plain prims, and not very well, but it's 100% mine. Left click, Save As, Collada, and even though it said PNG, when I went to save, it saved as a dae. I imported that dae file into Blender, and holy cow. There was my dumb little house. If I wanted to edit it in Blender, I could have, but since I suck at that and I just wanted to see what would happen, I just exported it as a dae again, and then uploaded it into SL.

AND IT WORKED.

My dumb little house was 3 land impact now and considered mesh.

So then I got fancy. I opened up the file in Blender, this time saved it as an OBJ file, opened the OBJ file into Hexagon, got crazy on it, saved it, put it back in Blender, saved it as a DAE, uploaded it into SL and....




Well. That happened.

But, I learned something, and I taught a few people something on Plurk, so all in all, it was a good day.