Dec 13, 2020 | Blog Challenges, Chatter, Images
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…
May 9, 2016 | Chatter, Fashiony, Monday Memes
For Strawberry Singh’s 9th rezday she is doing a yearbook photo challenge! Happy Rezday Berry!! She’s three months younger than me. Hard to believe I’ve been wandering around Second Life for nine years now, and despite my aging and increasingly grouchy laptop it’s still just as much fun as ever. 😀
Lately whenever I am logged in as Ravensong I have been sticking to tiny-ish avatars, most recently the unbelievably cute patchwork toy elephant from Abranimations, but I thought I’d be my old self for a few minutes to get a good pic. It was a bit odd to put the regular av form back on, lately I’ve felt a bit disconnected from Ravensong. I’m not sure what it is… though I suspect that part of my reluctance to be in world is that in recent months I’ve had the occasional mildly flirty guys begin to chat with me, and while they’ve all been unfailingly polite for some reason it freaks me out. I do occasionally enjoy having a nice chat, but it still makes me want to log off and hide (or I start talking nonstop about my late husband until my conversation partner finds a reason to dash off.) I’ve no idea why I am this way. Perhaps I associate this account so strongly with the time my hub and I spent in world that I can’t ever consider interacting with someone who might flirt, even in the most innocent fashion. A good friend once told me one of the reasons she chose to avoid human avatars in favor of being a full time tiny was because she had no interest in getting hit on. I suspect that’s what is driving my desire to find cute little avatars. I can log in, talk to my friends if they are on, tend to my landscapes, and all is peaceful.
On the other hand I can’t give up my shopping addiction, so I have been spending far more time in world with my alts, who have no friends beyond my RL connections, and who spend most of their time at shopping events, or standing around the house looking adorable, or trying out dances. 😀 They thought, since this was a yearbook meme, that they’d throw in their go at a fabulous shot, and said they were off to the prom. I hope they don’t stay out too late.
Credits…
The yearbook pic
Hair: Dura Boys & Girls 48
Skin: League – Erin Medium
Sweater: Purple Moon Creations
Eyeglasses: K_gs
Eyes: Ikon
The Couple:
Him:
Hair: Mina – Gael
Suit: Deadwool – The Dandy
Skin: Nivaro – Cunov Summertone
Eyes: Ikon
Her:
Hair: Magika – Honey Whiskey
Dress: Candy Doll Lara
Necklace: Maxi Gossamer Alexa black pearl choker
Body: Maitreya Lara
Hands: Slink
Skin: League Isla Medium
Eyes: Ikon
Aug 19, 2015 | Chatter, Images
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
Jul 10, 2015 | Chatter, Images
It’s been rainy today. It seems fitting, because it’s been a melancholy day so far. Ten years ago on this day I was on my first date with my late husband. We’d talked online for a couple of weeks, but it was the first time we’d met in person, at a bookstore coffee shop. Every year we marked that day, either by going back to the bookstore, or stopping off for burritos at the site of our first dinner.
I’ve been going in world quite often in the past few weeks, I’m not sure why but I’ve felt a need to rejoin Second Life after keeping it at arms length for so long. For much of that time when I did log in I did so as an alt, wanting to distance myself a bit. Ravensong was tied so closely to NaturesZen, my husband’s av, that seeing her in world without him around was actually depressing and stressful. It was like going to our favorite places in real life alone. It just wasn’t the same, I missed having him with me.
Lately I’ve been logging in with Raven again and rediscovering my bond with her. I’m trying to be more social. I’ve been feeling driven to start taking pics again and remembering how much fun it is. I’ve also been logging in one of my hub’s alts simultaneously, I’m not sure why but just having his alt online is comforting. Maybe it makes me feel that my husband is still with me, even though his alt looks nothing like either my hub or his main. Maybe it’s just that with that other avatar there I can enjoy the illusion that I’m a little less alone in virtual space.
I was laughing with one of my friends the other day that I feel like I’m up to something because I’ve stolen my alt’s partner so I can enjoy cute cuddle poses. I have no idea if this is just a random distraction as I move through the second year of grieving, or if it’s helping in some way. I know there must be many, many people who’ve gone through similar things as me… other SLers who lost a partner who they shared both their real and virtual lives with. I often wonder what their journey is like, how they view the world now, how they move forward.
For now I think I’ll just go out for my first date anniversary burrito.
Contemplating this whilst visiting Leka.
Jun 22, 2015 | Chatter, Images
Night writer…
Where did the time go? It seems like I rezzed my little studio at Medici University only a few days ago, and now it’s near the end of the MU year. I wish I’d attended more events and made an attempt to interact so I could have met my talented classmates and perhaps made some new friends, but I was just a little too distracted by RL to visit SL very much. It’s still all good, and I’m glad I’ve tried to take part.
Even though I wasn’t in world very often, I did my best to log in now and then to visit the campus to see what others were creating. When everything was quiet I’d wander around and look for interactive things, as one does. 😀
Taking a break from writing to be fashionable on Paypaback Writer’s pose stand 😀
Most of the time I parked my avvie at my desk, and while SLme typed away on a virtual laptop, RLme thought I’d work on my creative writing. I didn’t manage to take part in any of the programs on campus, yet just sitting in the little gazebo I found myself rediscovering my muse. I pulled out old stories, I rewrote, I explored new ideas, I lost track of time as I recaptured the joy I used to feel in creating something.
My little corner of the world
Even if it’s currently for my eyes only it has reminded me just how much I love making my own worlds and filling them with people. As a source of creative inspiration I’d say MU has been a resounding success for me!
Thank you Izzy and Vanessa and all the amazing and talented folks who built such a wonderful place!
Yay, MU!
May 2, 2015 | Blog Challenges, Chatter
I’m the worst learner at Medici University. Seriously. I signed up, rezzed my little gazebo studio, wandered around for the first week to a couple of events, then I got distracted and wandered away.
Okay, some of it may have had to do with various aspects of RL distracting me so much that I couldn’t focus on SL. Some of it has to do with my laptop suddenly deciding that half of my favorite sims are going to send me into a downward spiral of lag that will seize control of my viewer and kick me out if I so much as dare to cam around looking for good camera angles.
But even with somewhat valid excuses for not logging in, I’m still the worst learner at MU. I signed up for creative writing, but I’m barely writing. Well, I take that back, I’m writing a lot, but it’s mostly been journaling in notebooks, I’ve been bad about keeping up with blogging. To to remedy this I think I’ll make an attempt to do Ryan’s May 1-2-31 challenge. A blog post every day? Related to numbers? (Which I presume should be in sequence…) Ahahahahahaha! I’m completely insane. But hey, I’ll give it a shot. I want to be a good student who participates in something before the term is up.
Now, of course, I have a month worth of posts to consider and I haven’t the foggiest idea what I’ll talk about. I’ve read a lot of advice about finding your blogging niche, but I’m still adrift here. I think my biggest challenge when blogging about SL is trying to stick to SL topics. I often struggle with whether or not I should blog RL thoughts here because I still see so many people talk about keeping a strict divide between SL and RL, and I find that when I’m not sure what to say I just abandon my thoughts entirely. I really suck at splitting my interests up between different accounts so I have SL here, RL there, music to the left, crafts upstairs, and spirituality down the hall. On the one hand, I enjoy reading blogs that pull everything in, because it’s an extension of people watching for me, and I enjoy writing about whatever pops into my head. But, on the other hand, I know that not everyone wants to read about Every Single Interest you have.
As if trying to figure out what to write about isn’t enough, lately I struggle to figure out my place in Second Life. Sometimes I feel like I cling to SL because my late husband and I shared so many happy adventures there, and I’m not ready to let experiences like that go. I’m beginning to wonder if I keep this blog going because it anchors me to Second Life and gives me a reason to keep going back in world on a regular basis. I still love being in world, I still lose hours just wandering around, or trying on outfit after outfit, but occasionally I feel like I should be doing more, I should be having adventures, I should be taking advantage of all the fun and exciting things people can do in SL,
Maybe I need to stop trying to figure out the right way to do Second Life, and the right way to blog, and just go merrily forward being me, one step at a time.
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