Surround Me With Music

Sometimes I go on music posting binges on my social media.  I’ll sweep in with a string of YouTube videos and post songs I love, or things that I like and just hadn’t heard in a while, or things I think people should hear. Sometimes people interact, usually I suspect they scroll past and go about their day. For the most part no one seems to notice, a few might like a post, but in general I feel like the meme with the little otter holding his tiny guitar: when you show your friends something you love and they just say ‘cool’ and change the subject.

Usually it’s when I am feeling depressed or lonely, and I’m attempting to reach out to others and find some common bond that I start spamming my socials with songs. November, December, and January have been rough months for me personally for the past few years since I lost my husband, and 2020 did nothing to help the feeling of isolation and loneliness that hits this time of year, so I suspect my music binge was right on schedule. 

It’s not quite as easy to do this in Second Life, so instead of shouting my music suggestions to the world I just quietly fill my profile with lyrics and references, and take pics of musical things. Or, as I did back in 2008, build a model of the college radio station studio where I worked and made some of my best friends. Then, as now, music was one of the primary ways I found to bond with others.

Even though my little studio is very dated and incredibly primmy, I still like to rez it when I have the land available, sit my avatars in the studio, and surround myself with music.

And then, of course, I have to share it. 

At the Stroke of Midnight

What can I say about 2020?  It started me off with with some costly home maintenance issues, added in car repairs, and just as that was getting itself resolved, tossed in a virus and closed the world down. I learned things about other people and their viewpoints that I would never have expected, and I realized I’m not as big of a hermit as I’d always thought because I missed being able to go out and just sit quietly in a bookstore reading or people watching.

Still, this past year was not a total dumpster fire, there were many good moments.  I found a lot of ways to enjoy myself without needing to go out. I spent more time listening to music and discovered new artists to obsess over, I worked on my Minecraft building skills, and I managed to follow a much healthier eating plan and drop quite a bit of weight that had been aggravating my back. (We won’t discuss what the holidays have done to that eating plan…)

I also spent time rediscovering how much I love taking photos, both in Second Life and IRL. I realized I had let my creativity fall by the wayside because I saw so many other people doing the things I loved to do, but doing it so much better than me, that I decided I probably shouldn’t do the things. I still haven’t fully managed to knock the idea out of my head that just because someone else is good at photography (or drawing, or crafts) it doesn’t mean that I should throw in the towel, because there’s not a quota for how many people are allowed to do art. Kind of a hard belief to shake, it’s lived in my head for a few decades now, but I’m working on it.

So here we are, in 2021.  I don’t usually make New Year resolutions, but I will try to make this my year to do the creative things. Write more. Do more art. Make the things.

Happy New Year, friends.  May you have success with whatever resolutions you make, and may this year bring us love, joy, laughter, and healing.

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas…

And all through the blog, not a creature was stirring. Not even the dog… (Possibly because he’s static mesh, but you know, details…)

As part of my easing back into this bloggy thing, I thought I’d leave a little Christmas greeting.  This year Christmas in RL is as quiet as quiet can be, as not only should we all be cautious about travel, but also I had a potential exposure to our friend the virus. While I’m fine I still have 3 days to go on the self quarantine thing. Yay 2020, I hate to see you go…

So today I’ll celebrate a virtual Christmas eve, and send out my wishes to everyone for a wonderful holiday.  May all of you have an extra special Christmas dream come true.

A is for Aaaaugh! I haven’t blogged in 4 years!

A is for Aaaaugh! I haven’t blogged in 4 years!


I’ve missed blogging.  I’ve often thought about diving back into it and writing to my hearts content. I looked at it now and then, I contemplated, I moved on to do something else. The other day I ran into Vanessa Blaylock, whom I first met when she had a LEA installation back in 2013 and I signed up for her blogger crossfit challenge. Back then I was busy taking pics, and playing with a number of blogs, and I was having a blast. Then time passed, RL happened, I spent less and less time in SL, and less time writing. All my beloved little blogs fell by the wayside, but I never deleted them. There was always the hope that maybe I’d start writing again… maybe I’d have a sudden burst of inspiration.

We chatted a bit about blog challenges, and how they could be a lot of fun, and suddenly boom, here we are! Vanessa has issued a challenge to “Write a 26-line blog post creating your own “Alphabet of SL”  Of course I knew I had to do this, but my annoying need to have everything just right before has resulted in me spending almost all of my Saturday blowing the dust out of WordPress and building a new theme and then trying to figure out something for each letter of the alphabet. It’s been more fun than I’ve had in a long time 😀

So here we are, a brand new blog post to bring me some cheer, and to perhaps puzzle all the folks who once subscribed to this and now wonder why they are getting a notice for some random blog they’d forgotten about.  It’s just me, having fun getting back into the swing of things with my own ABC’s of Second Life!

A is for Alts. I am my own best friends.
B is for Bling that twinkles and shines!
C is for Calas Galadhon, such a beautiful place.
D is for Dancing the night away and not getting even a little tired
E is for Events to shop till you drop
F is for Flickr where SL photography thrives
G is for Gachas. I want to say no but they suck me in…
H is for Hunts to find fabulous things
I is for Inventory, that grows and grows and grows
J is for Jams, where performers and music fans in the SL live music community gather in real life.
K is for Kannonji, where I made wonderful friends early in my SL.
L is for Land Impact, which I am forever trying to reduce so I can fit as much as possible onto my land.
M is for Mesh, which has completely transformed SL.
N is for Notecards, filling up my inventory with sales notices that I forget to delete.
O is for Object– I have accumulated a lot of things named Object. I don’t know what 99% of them are.
P is for Profiles, what I l love to read whenever I’m in a crowded area
Q is for Quiet, which is me most of the time ’cause I just don’t know what to say to people
R is for Raglan Shire, filled with Tinies, fun, and waffles
S is for Shopping. I mean Duh, it’s like 90% of my Second Life.
T is for Teleporting. What I wish I could do in RL to save time.
U is for Ultra, what I usually run my graphics on and then wonder why I lag
V is for Vehicles. Almost 14 years in and I still can not keep my SL cars on the road.
W is for Wild Witch Glen, my own little shop, long gone but one of the most fun things I’ve done in SL
X is for xylophone. I couldn’t think of an X, but I’m sure there are xylophones in SL.
Y is for Yay – what I said when I saw a blog challenge 😀
Z is for Zazen. Taking a break from the day to sit in meditation with others in SL is a wonderful thing.

Thanks for the prompting, Vanessa!  And now my challenge to myself is to not let this be a one time thing…

 

Hooray for mesh!

Recently one of my friends has been amused because I have a huge crush on my guy alt. She can’t giggle too much though, she fell for him too. I can’t help it. I made him way too cute, I have to log him in and admire him on a regular basis.

Now, I think I’ve made it worse on myself. I tried to resist getting the Slink Physique Male body for him. I tried, I really did. I was going to save money. I was going to budget. And besides, he’s usually dressed in tee shirts and jeans, and I told myself, “Hey, he doesn’t need a mesh body if you never actually see it.” Right?

Then I tried a demo and, well, so much for that budget.

Now I just stare at my screen and make little squeaky noises. All the times I heard men say they ran a female av because they just enjoyed looking at her more than they would a dude? Totally getting that now, I’m not sure I want to log my main in, it’s way too much fun to watch this guy walking around.

I really like the way this body is shaped. It smooths out all those odd chunky spots that plague the default body, and it’s a really nice average sized guy body type, rather than an unpleasantly overdone muscleman. The HUD is very similar to the one for the female body and is easy to work with. The body also has Omega applier support, (you do have to pick up the Omega activator HUD) and the hands and feet have been updated to include Omega compatibility also. When I picked up the skin applier for the Nivaro skin I typically keep him in I found that it applied the skin to body, hands and feet all at once, which is handy if you switch skin tones and don’t tend to save copies of your body parts for each skin you use.

The boxers he is wearing were included with the body, as well as a pair of stovepipe jeans and a basic tank, and all fit very nicely. I tried on a few of the mesh clothes in my inventory and found them to be a bit hit and miss so I think he’ll continue to spend most of his time in his default body; his normal wardrobe covers so much that it seems pointless to wear a mesh body and then alpha out everything but his neck and throat and forearms. Of course I remember thinking the same thing about my main’s Lara bod, and I realize I’ve been wearing it more often than not these days, so I’ll never say never.

Overall I’m really delighted with this body, and three cheers to Siddean Munro! Woot! Now I’m looking forward to seeing fitted clothes designed just for this so I can dress him up!

Okay, mostly I’m just looking forward to logging him in and swooning. That’s good too. 😀

 

other things he’s wearing:

Shoes: Phunk Lowtop Sneakers
Skin: Nivaro Cunov Summertone, Omega appliers available in the main store

 

How to Relax

Relaxation level: 100%

For the majority of my Second Life I have been extremely fortunate to be associated with Kannonji Zen Retreat, a beautiful little sim that holds daily meditation sits, occasionally hosts talks from RL Buddhist teachers, and is home to two live music venues. Over the years I watched with great joy as my late husband and his close friend, Kannonji’s founder, shifted prims around, reshaped the landscape, occasionally battled over some feature one of them wanted to add that the other kept returning, and did their best to make Kannonji a beautiful place to visit. When the current owners, whom I’m lucky to count as my best friends in Second Life, gave me a free hand to do any updating I wanted I was delighted.

Life’s a beach \o/

Much of the sim remains as lovely as ever, and I admit there is still a lot of reluctance on my part to delete anything that my husband did before he passed, but it was fun to add new little touches. In the past couple of weeks my offline life seemed determined to throw stress at me right and left, and SL has been a refuge. Coming in world and having the opportunity to create spaces where others can hopefully escape a little of the daily stress of their offline lives has just been wonderful. Landscaping has to be one of the best forms of relaxation I have ever found. It will always be at the top of my list of things I love to do in world.

Finding the quiet spaces

I wouldn’t begin to put my efforts in the same category as those of SL’s many well known, talented sim architects, but I’m still quite proud of my modest little spots. Creating a hidden beach here, a quiet little camping spot there… bliss. Hopefully others will stumble across these little spots and it will erase a little of the stress of RL for them as well. 🙂

Visit Kannonji Zen Retreat at Snowlion Mountain