Grass Stains

Today, I was feeling a little bad for mainland. Lots of people seem to look down on it. But, I think there are advantages to living on mainland. One of them is ...having neighbors! Even if you own an entire sim, you have neighbors.

Do they always build the prettiest things on their sims? No - but they are often interesting and I like the creativity. Living a sim over from the LOVEHO resort became a running joke for us. But they were peaceful neighbors.

And I like meeting people by chance. I have mentioned before that the sim Jerremy and I live near the Route 7 waterway. That means boats come by and people wander through. They are usually just exploring. Also, our house is sort of big, so sometimes people don't realize it is a house. I never mind giving a tour (unless I am undressed) if asked. I would feel left out of things if we owned a private island. I don't know why, but I would.

Anyway, I decided today I would roll around on the front lawn today to express my affection for poor, unappreciated mainland. Mwwwaah mainland....don't listen to the naysayers. You are ok in my book.

Cheap Date

I know several singles in SL who would SLove to have a romantic partner. So, in the interest of being nosy helpful, I decided that I will check out some singles' resources in SL.I searched for dating services. 

Let's start with one of the first to come up in search. It is called Alona. That seems not to be the best sounding name for a dating service, but I am not here to judge. Truth be told, I picked it not for it's interesting name, but because the phrase 'cheap date' appears in its search terms. I TP'd right over to take a look at the facility.

The process seems simple - you fill out a pretty straight forward bio card with information about what type of relationship you are looking for, your time zone and SL race (i.e., furry, human, elf, etc.) and other tidbits. Then you pay a fee and upload your card and profile picture onto one of the panels on the wall. Then, you can go to other peoples' panels and click 'like' if you are interested in them. People can click 'like' on yours, too. If two people click 'like' on each others', a match is made. I wonder how well this works. It kind of works like speed dating, with out the speed dates, if that makes sense. 

I'd actually be curious how well dating services like this do work. We'll see. maybe I will contact the owners and find out for you. Or I will get one of my friends to try it and report back. Hmmmm.

Stray Kitty

I was working on setting up our future rentals today, when I saw a cat floating above the bay. I went and asked him what he was doing there and if he realized that cats hate water. I got no response, however. So, I returned him to his owner. I just hope he didn't go potty anywhere. I hear cat urine is a biotch to get out of a sim. 

As a Matter of Fact

It was time for a Trivia Night Pajama party at Alicia's tonight! Woo hoo! This is a picture of some of the first people to arrive dancing to  Ice, Ice Baby - host Alicia Chenaux, Cole Kaestner, Aisuru Rieko and me.

By yelling out curse words at random times, I managed to distract the other players and answer some questions first. Yay me!

Jerremy got there a little later. OMG! Look how adorable we are in our matching pajamas! We were already well on our way to becoming the most obnoxious couple on the grid, but wearing matching outfits? That makes it a certainty. Yay us!

Boobquake! Make the prims shake?

This is my Boobquake photo - I am immodestly dressed today in order to test a very annoying theory that scantily clad women are causing the world's earthquakes and other natural disasters. (I was going to do it topless, but I kind of liked my outfit. Also, yes, you can come over and play in our slip-n-slide.)

Today, many women are wearing low cut tops in the name of science. You all recall learning about the plagues, fires and floods that cursed the earth when we got the right to vote in the U.S., right? And the reversal of the Earth's magnetic poles when the birth control pill was invented? [insert eyeroll here]  Was my high school pom pon uniform skirt so short that it caused either the Milli Vanilli lip-syncing scandal or several years of drought in the region? How can I sleep at night without knowing for sure?

When thought about in SL terms, perhaps Second Life slut-wear is the root cause of crashes, lag and the rush to roll out Viewer 2.0? I may have to strip down even more to find out! 

I am sure Jerremy will be happy report whether the earth moved for him or not.

Hot Spots and Idle Hands

Have noticed the new "Chat Hot Spots" tab of the showcase on search? What is a 'chat hot spot' in a virtual world where you can do so much more than IM? Apparently, they are the next step in LL's  ongoing efforts to make SL into a circa early 90's chat room. 

But in the interest of giving them the benefit of the doubt, I decided to check them out and learn more. I bravely turned on voice - which my friends can tell you is a big thing for me - and set out to discover what I hoped would turn out to be the virtual world equivalent of salons. 

I arrived first at Wengen, a charming ski village, with a skating pond and a small crowd of people. Alas, its charm ended as soon as I glanced at the chat screen.

[7:08] Female Avatar: tell me u ;ove me 
[7:08] Female Avatar: shove me 

[7:09] Male Avater: sure 

[7:09] Male Avatar: *beats you into a blodly pulp like an abused wife*:\ 

[7:09] Male Avatar: i hit you coz i love you 

[7:09] Male Avatar: dont tell the cops kay, or i;; beat you, but only coz i love you :)

And, it got worse from there. The one word they consistently spelled correctly? Anally. I kid you not.

I refrained from muting people using gestures only for as long as it took to take a photo.

[7:46] Annoying Avatar: Sup Pimp
[7:46] Annoying Avatar: Sup Pimp
[7:46] Annoying Avatar: Sup Pimp

[7:47] Annoying Avatar: Sup Pimp

[7:47] Annoying Avatar: Sup Pimp

[7:47] Annoying Avatar: Sup Pimp

[7:47] Annoying Avatar: Sup Pimp 

Interestingly, no one was using voice. Most had it turned on, but no one was talking. I could only hear one person breathing heavily and chewing as they typed. 

I have concluded from my brief visits to two of the listed chat hot spots that these are the places interesting conversation went to die - much like the original "chat hot spots": the Welcome Centers. 

Surely, there are better places for people to gather and meet one another. Maybe a place with a defined activity? Standing around with nothing to do actually do doesn't seem to be a fun way to meet people. The Devil's playground and all, you know? 

Actually, the Devil's Playground would probably be a better place to meet people. It's a zyngo parlor. Who knew?

No vodka was harmed in the making of this blog.

 Seriously. I didn't spill a drop while dancing at the SL Blogger Party today.

Chestnut hosted a great party!! I am so glad so many people could come. (I even got a chance to fangirl Salome Strangelove! Linden Lifestyles was my bible from my first day in SL.)

Eat Me

I am sitting here at the !Eat Me cake and party shop pondering the fun to be had at tomorrow's SL Blogger Party. OMG I seriously have no idea what to wear. (Rosie - I am totally going to request that Ke$ha Tik Tok song ...so be ready.)

At the party, I am going to bring up my idea for having an inworld HQ for the group - we could hang out there, meet each other, building/rezzing rights could a a perk of the group. I'm not sure what else. If we could find really cheap land, we could see if people could donate unused Premium tier to cover tier (and there could be some benefit for doing that, but I don't know what it would be yet.)

We could set it up in a gazzillion cute ways - like a newsroom or unisex locker room or AA meeting room or office space or club house or den of iniquity. Or a hat or a broach or a pterodactyl.

Maybe I am getting ahead of myself. Those are just my ideas and there are a lot of creative peeps in the group so I am sure they'll have a lot of wonderful ideas. 

Earth Girls are Easy

Actually, Earth girls are NOT that easy. At least not relative to the guys. (Kidding!) But, I wanted to get the word Earth into the title because today is Earth Day. I am doing my part to keep the grid beautiful. (You can get one of these litter-picker-upper things at RC Cluster - there is a Spring Cleaning sale this week.) This would go a whole lot quicker if people didn't leave their stray prims around everywhere!

I am trying to distract myself because there were no new shoes for me yesterday. There were some pictures of the anitcipated shoes on various blogs. However, I was hoping for really sexy, unique looking shoes. Something fresh. The shoes look an awful lot like one of the older styles from the same shop - but with a sock/tight option. I don't wear socks with open toed shoes except for rare occasions...but I have since stopped drinking before I get dressed in the morning. (Kidding!)

In reality, the socks and sandals look makes me flash back to two memories: 1) all of the tube sock and Birkenstock shod hippies running around campus back in college, and 2) a very dowdy girl from my high school who always wore nylons with open toed shoes and who looked down on people who didn't take Latin. 

Oh well, I shunned prim feet at one point and now I wear them all the time. We'll see what happens with socks and sandals.

Rumor has it...

...that there will be a new release very soon at a store that hasn't released new products in a while. I hope it is true. TYMMIE, NEEDS SOME NEW SHOES!!

I checked this morning and nada. But I am ready to load up my cart with newness when it appears.

Chic Peek

I went to explore the party venue for Saturday's SL Blogger Meet-Up Party so that I could get good inspiration for what to wear. After seeing it, I am thinking something Sex in the City*/art gallery opening -ish.

I hope Chestnut doesn't mind me posting pictures of it. It is a really cool space! It even has a little outdoor patio where you can sit and admire the skyline. Chestnut said she is still working on it, but I already adore it. I just hope the sushi she put out for us stays good until Saturday. (It probably will. Prim foods are like Twinkies -- 20 year shelf life and all.)

By the way, Chestnut wrote a detailed post about the party here!

*I meant to write it like that. That should have been the real name of the series. The few episodes I have seen showed the characters having sex while IN the city. There isn't sex and then a city way over there somewhere. Duh. It just makes sense.

April SL Blogger Group Par-tay

I feel your pain. I drive myself crazy when I type par-tay instead of party. But I just can't help myself. It's the same with peeps/people.

Speaking of which, know where there will be a lot of fun peeps (See?) At next Saturday's SL Blogger Group Meet-Up Par-tay. That's Saturday, April 24th from 2-4:30 PM SLT.

Chestnut Rau is taking on hosting duties this month and she said we will be in a NY city loft-style party room. That calls for City Chic party attire. (This is a picture of me trying to think of what on earth I will wear.) Musician Kyle Beltran and DJ Rosie Barthelmess will provide music and fun. 

Speaking of hosting - we need a group member to host the May, July, August, etc. meet-ups! (We have someone lined up for June.)  IM or email me for details about hosting.

I'm Game

I hadn't been to a game of Primtionary (Pictionary, but with building instead of drawing) in a really long time, but when I got a note card announcing a special game...well, I was game! It was Mature Primtionary night - affectionately known as Pr0ntionary. 

In Pr0ntionary, the words players have to guess are PG, but the clues are x-rated. It is a really fun time! (Just going to a regular game is a blast - you can just watch if you are shy. There is a game every day of the week.)

The note card said the game started at 7 PM SLT. So I recruited a couple of friends to go with me (Alicia Chenaux and Aisuru Reiko of Beloved Custom Designs) and put on some underwear. (On Mature game nights, you can wear lingerie, etc.) I TPd over early -- which was lucky since the game had already started. (Grrrrr...they started at 6, despite what was in the notecard.) However, the game lasted for a while longer so we still got to enjoy it. Both Aisuru and Alicia each guessed a clue correctly and took turns on stage to build. The picture above shows Alicia building...and swinging around a dance pole as the crowd looks on. That is a beautiful blue something, isn't it? 

Jerremy logged in just in time to see the last few people build. He was in a tux. He thought we looked funny, with him all dressed up and me in panties, so he took a picture of us. This is me, picturing him in his boxers.

Hey you gesture-bators! Get off of my lawn!

This is a picture of me at a Plurk party in-world today(Add me!). See adorable, blonde Alicia Chenaux dancing there? She was one of the few people from my friends list. This was really different from the last Plurk party! I only knew a handful of people. Last time, I knew most. But yay! Who can't use a chance to meet new peeps?

In other news, I looked at my mute list in-world this morning. It was HUMONGOUS! I hadn't cleaned it since I was first rezzed. Today, I decided to declare Mute Amnesty and un-mute my entire list. How benevolent of me!  

What gets people on my mute list? 49.9% of my mute list contains objects that I accidentally muted when I tried to click on them. The other 50% is made up of people who were muted for using gestures.

I'm not kidding. I cannot stand gestures. I don't think a giggling sound is cute. You're not clever for playing movie quotes as your part in a conversation. And, if I hear that stupid baby laugh one more time I will find him, take his juice box away and give him a very long time out. 

I think what bugs me most of all is that you are subjected to gestures against your will - unless you have all sound off, you can't escape them. I refuse to turn off my sounds just so another person can pollute chat. So, I mute people. And, I mute quickly and with no mercy. (Except for once every 2 1/2 years.) 

It doesn't look good for the next 2 1/2 years of my mute list, either. It has been 2 hours and I already have 6 people on it. 

Happy Anniversary, Margo & Night!

*cough* *cough* My friends Margo Sciarri and Night Singh (NightSong Lingerie & Babydolls) are celebrating their 2nd wedding anniversary today. Two years! That is a lifetime in SL! They are such a cute couple! I think one thing that must keep them together is all the hawt underwear Night makes and Margo models.

I'm getting all dolled up for their party tonight. *cough* *cough* No worries about the ozone, people - this hairspray *cough* *cough* is made of CFC-free, organic, hypoallergenic, free-range, dolphin-safe sticky stuff. *cough* *cough*  

ETA: Alicia Chenaux was at the party too and she took some pics and wrote a cute post on the party!! ZOMG look at her gorgeous dress!

Heavy Petting

Oh! A pen full of rabbits! What cute bunnies! Hopping all around. Wow there are lots of them. Where'd they get so many of them? Look how fluffy! That is a TON of rabbits. Hmmm...what's that on the sign above the nests?  Is that the Heimlich maneuuuuu...OMG!

 

Everybody needs a Molly.

Today is Pink Shirt Day an anti-bullying day. I was very fortunate as a kid and never experienced anything I would consider to be bullying. Pink Shirt Day is a reminder for me to look at the things I say and do and be a better person. I'll also try harder to be like Molly.

The only time I remember being teased by a peer in a mean way, I was very lucky to have my kindergarten best friend Molly nearby. I was five and had just started to wear glasses to school when one of the boys from a higher grade came over to where I was playing and started calling me four-eyes. Before I could react, Molly stomped over to him, gave him a hard kick to the shin with her Buster Brown loafers and yelled at him to stop. He never bothered me again. (Molly didn't get into trouble, either.) She impressed the heck out of me back then - and even now when I think back on it.

We should all be try to be Mollys and stand up for each other against bullying behavior. (But please don't kick people, if you can help it.)

The pinkish people in the picture from left to right are: me, SySy Chapman, Aldwyn Zanzibar, Harper Ganesvoort, Chandni Khondji, December Dollinger, Arcadia Nightfire, Gabby Panacek, Kyria Tomsen, Lavea Alter and Addison Mortlock.

Taste so good make a grown man cry!

I want something sweet to eat, but I have no groceries in my RL house. (I have plenty in my SL house.) So I got creative and I am cooking up some sour cherry pie filling from ingredients I have on hand. I know! I was desperate though. Not desperate enough to go to the grocery store, but that's beside the point. 

One thing I do not have in SL is a cherry pie. I have cherry cheese cake but no pie. For some reason this made me anxious and I decided that I MUST obtain some. So, I am traipsing through some prim food shops tonight. One shop I went to (Let's call it Schmaughty Schmibbles.) has the most confusing way of organizing things. I can never figure out where anything is and why certain things are next to each other. This makes it the last place I go look for food because it always means a complete tour of their building. Why is the chocolate cake next to the chili cheese dogs? And why is the chocolate pie on a different floor? And why is that pie a whole wall away from the blueberry pie? I don't know. 

OMG they have a roasted pig. I will come back for that later.

SL Sick Day

*cough* I am home sick from work today so I went in-world during the day looking for some relaxation. I went to Etopia Island for some Spring bike riding. You can get a free bamboo bike (isn't that what they use in the Tour de France?) and ride the bike trails. The trails are marked, but not well...that or I am a terrible trail follower. I kept losing the trail or riding on the edge of cliffs and into walls. Despite this, it was really mentally relaxing. 


In addition to taking relaxing bike rides, I'm trying to finish redecorating our house. Right now, I have black couches, black chairs, a black rug, black lamps and black tables in our living room. The only thing I have going for me at the moment is that everything matches. (Ok, except for the cuddle rug.) But I know that if I could just find the perfect coffee table and perfect area rug, I can make it work. So, I will keep shopping and shopping until I can't shop anymore.

I am positive that all of this virtual activity will make me feel well enough to go to work tomorrow. Really. 

B patient, that's B...patient...

I like finding new things to do or places to explore in SL. So a fair - specifically the Home & Garden Expo - is an ideal place for me to be. I was very excited when I saw a Bingo Hall at the Expo! YAY!! I want to play BINGO! (And they say SL is all about sex? Pffffft!)

I visited the hall yesterday and practiced holding my big marker, cussing and chain smoking -- vital BINGO skills which I am all too familiar with. My parents volunteered at the church BINGO hall for years when I was growing up. That is an unfiltered Lucky Strike in the picture. Just like the nuns smoked.

But there were no games yesterday. I was told that there would be games today, but so far...nothing. And I can't find a schedule anywhere. So I am sitting here on a wall across from the hall. Watching. Waiting.

Stop, drop and go AFK.

I know one big pet peeve of people attending fairs, popular stores, events, etc. is that people TP in and then do not move from the landing spot. This, as you know, causes pileups, pushing and people trapped on top of other avs. But, they might have a serious reason to leave their avatar there! Really!

A couple of weeks ago, I was shopping a big sale and just as I TPd into the store, I saw flames out of the corner of my RL eye. My toaster was on fire! Huge flames were shooting out of it as it sat next to wooden cabinetry in my kitchen. I jumped up and ran to extinguish the flames...or to evacuate. While I was AFK, my poor avatar sat at the landing spot. She probably got dirty looks and was called nasty names. Meantime, I was trying to put out the fire before it spread or set the sprinklers off. (By the way - baking soda smothers flames beautifully.)

All I am saying is that there might be a legitimate reason why someone has left their avatar in a busy place. And so, now whenever I land on someone when I shop, I think to myself, "OMG! I hope they get the fire out quickly and are safe!" and it makes me feel better about things.

You can lead them to water...

A new player wandered into my house, so as I like to do, I talked with her for a bit and welcomed her to SL. She had just rezzed that day and had apparently been dressed in one of the new avatars that are available now. (They're in your Library folders). This girl must have started out in the same avatar as selected by Alicia Chenaux when she went to Discovery Island a couple of days ago - I recognized the skin, hair and shoes. But she had done something that made me say, "Awwww!" - she made herself something sexy to wear! This reminds me of the first system bikini I tried to make mere moments after rezzing. It seems like only yesterday.

ETA: I have a suspicion that the clothing under her bikini is the baked on underwear that I have heard talked about that is on the new starter avatars. Interesting.

My mouse gives me my sexy wiggle.

WHAT?? Arrow keys? To walk?? What else did I miss?

Let me start by saying that I went to Orientation Island back in the day and I went through the entire thing just like the excellent student I have always been. But, I've always used my mouse and on-screen movement controls to walk. I can't recall a walking lesson back then, so already this is an improvement.

Today, I'm on the shiny new Welcome Island, where a crisp white and blue design should enhance learning, squelch libido and repel teens and tweens. 

I have been stuck waiting at the 4th of 6 lessons waiting a very long time for it to rez. I'm afraid to leave and miss another crucial SLife skill. Lesson 2 was how to zoom in to see things and Lesson 3 was how to calm an angry parrot who wants to eat your face. (I think that's what Lesson 3 was about. That never rezzed either.)

Today's the day to give a dam.

Just in case you were not aware, today is International Beaver Day! I've mentioned before how much I love holidays in SL and this is no exception! Just wait until I tell Jerremy that I brought home a brand new beaver for him to enjoy!

This is a picture of me spending some time admiring my beaver. I think it is very cute.  I think anyone with a beaver should be proud of them and be a responsible beaver owner.

Interesting fact about beavers: beavers are usually only seen at night. But if you are lucky, you can see one during the day. Your best chances for seeing one in daylight is about an hour before dark or very early in the morning. (Isn't that the truth!)

Green Energy Island

A long, long time ago I went to Green Energy Island (GEI) because they had a shop there. I decided to check back and see if there was anything new there since GEI is listed in the showcase under the Earth Day category. I sat and talked to some cows for a while. (Despite my pose in the photo, we are not comparing udders.)

I seriously don't remember how the shop used to be the first time I visited. I thought you could just visit and buy things with Lindens. But this time, you have to get a HUD and go to a bunch of educational stations on the sim and play games. When you have played the games, you get free items of your choice as gifts. They have a lot of things to choose from. There is a bucket hat, a cute green dress, butterfly wings, and a lot of other things that would not rez for me no matter how long I stood there. OK I'll be honest. I only think the bucket hat is a bucket hat. It was blurry. Same with the butterfly wings and the dress. So, it will be a surprise for you when/if you visit.

The first rule of the SL Bloggers group is...

...talk about the SL Bloggers group constantly!

Do you blog about SL? Then, you belong in this group! Why, you ask?

• We love blogging!
• We like encouraging  & supporting each other.
• We can debate the merits of WordPress over Blogger or of Blogger over WordPress until the cows come home. Good times!
• We do not enforce any type of celibacy. 
• We throw GREAT parties.
• And I am lobbying to have a secret handshake created.

IM, email or send me a notecard in-world for a group invitation. You can also join the SL Bloggers on Avatars United.

A Hoppy Couple

 As you can see in this photo, Jerremy is very good he to me. Never once did he complain about my poking him in the eyes. He just snuggled me. I love this man so much! (I will have to attend to his carrot later.)

hey! hey! where u from?

The title of this post was the favorite pick-up line of one guy I observed (the man in white in the picture above) trying to talk to girls at Discovery Island. His favorite compliment was a simple, yet ineffective, "u look nice." When I snapped this picture, he was trying to get a girl with the glowing hair to tell him if she had a boyfriend in RL. She finally duck walked away from him as fast as her little legs would carry her. The only thing he wanted from me was help finding his inventory folder so he could change his clothing. (But my bunny outfit did get his approval.)

If you haven't been there or seen other posts about it, there's a section of the island that is sort of like a three level mini-mall. The top level has free items like clothes and hair. The other two levels I don't understand at all. Level one has "scenes" showing different environments and cardboard cutouts of avatars dressed in different styles. Level two has examples of furniture set ups that could go into different styles of Linden Homes. Nothing is free or for sale on these two lower levels. The information board refers to search, but doesn't give any examples of terms to search for or a deeper explanation of Linden Homes. Maybe I missed something by not watching the tutorials offered there. 

By the time I was ready to leave, the guy in white was still trying to charm woman from around the globe and failing. Where is the tutorial for that??

Will *you* Bunny Hop with me?

I wanted to do something Easter-themed today so I could show off my chick outfit! Austie Pegler from Reasonable Desires is a friend of mine on Plurk  (Add me!) and she sent these as a treat to the first few people to respond to one of her messages. I added the hair feathers.

First I TPd over to a little party and egg decorating contest hosted by the SL Enquirer. When I got there, I found a shirtless Easter Bunny. (Is it just me, or does it look like I'm boring him terribly?) The contest appears to be free to join and has several categories to enter. You can pick up an entry kit here.

Next, I hopped over to Easter Spring Town. In addition to some holiday shopping, you can pick up free bunny ears and a tail, do the Bunny Hop, pick up a free Easter hippety-hop or do a short Easter egg prize hunt. There are 15 eggs hidden on some grassy hills and you'll get things like unisex t-shirts, a playable Tic-Tac-Toe board, a bunny band-aid, and more. (Many of the prizes, including some t-shirts, are not Easter themed.) 

I tried to get some of the people there to Bunny Hop with me. But no one was having any of it. Party poopers.

Pose-apolooza

I returned to preview the Pose Fair today because there was so much goodness, I didn't have time to see it all yesterday. I am flying high above the center courtyard with a balloon and pose that was a fair freebie at (xari). (I told you there were lots of cute gifts and special things!)

I also decided that I should find a way to honor the talented pose makers in SL...so I wrote this ode to them:

There once was a poser from Dover,

who wanted to make us bend over.

He twisted the torso

and moved the rest just so.

And now we can have SLex like Rover.

 And now we can pick a lucky clover!

Pose Fair opens at 12 am SLT on Friday, April 2!!