December 25, 2009 Friday

With my free time today, I thought I would bike on Route 1 (Heterocera Atoll (mainland)). I wanted to use a chopper, but it's too fast and out of control for me. I want to see what I'm driving past. So I'll stick with my hobo bike. I am at the Tuliptree SL Railway Consortium parcel, driving down railroad tracks until I really get to Route 1. Love the railway and station buildings. Route 1, by the way, is cobblestone overgrown with vegetation. I have yet to come across anything remarkable (a few slightly interesting builds here and there-- a giant daisy, some Dutch windmills, and so forth), Route 1 is (so far) quite nice in that it isn't as garish as other mainland areas -- no blighted business areas and clogged 512s. I've even passed by some reasonably priced, pretty, high prim rental homes that are vacant. I diverged from the railroad some ways back -- kinda wanted to see where it went (a lot of it parallels Rt 1), but I can only be in one place at one time, so I'm sticking with the road. And it has gotten too laggy even for the bicycle, so I'm walking now (eventually taking to flight), which is fine, because the greenery and lovely homes are sweet to see.

I came across Pit's Truck Stop, which was an interesting re-creation. There was a semi truck getting gas at a gasoline bay. There was a laundromat, diner, and convenience store among other things. Also discovered a cute little place called Virtual Reality Learning Institute which had some information as well as a cafeteria and dormitories. But it was rustic, not modern. Cute, simple, informative.

Other places worth a peek: Spini Reservoir, Edison Shores Towers (spacious apartments), Rivula Park (good for kiddies), Citrago Cornfield and Zombie Shooting Gallery, Newbie World (amusement park), Zygaena Crater (lake in the center of Heterocera), Age Verification Test Zone and Information, Rocky Top (mountain in Arches), and herd of yaks (you heard me!) in Immidae, The Peach Pit (a pastel diner in Peach), a green house by the side of the road in Clearwing, the Duchy of Darkmere, Washburne (a town), The Bluffs Nature Preserve and Center for the Arts (including the Lodge), Lacamas Reading Hall (which is conveniently near Jackson Street Books), Cafe Wellstone, Meowth Manor and Gardens (although don't go near the house -- gardens PG and free), Volunteer HQ or Resident Help Network (for volunteers across SL, it says--awesome auditorium and forum areas, not to mention a mountain-sized robot man), Tikva's Beautiful Tara, and Hagen Forest.

Route 1 basically ended into nothing -- grass -- except the railway was there a short distance away, so I walked along it for a while til it ended also. I regret to say that I really haven't met a solitary soul on my Route 1 adventure. Only a small group near Zygaena Crater, who actually returned my greeting in German, and a Turkish gentleman near the old site of a femdom who did not answer me. Ah well.

I couldn't leave Heterocera without a stop off at the Temple of Iris (Linden Historical Site).

December 9, 2009 Wednesday

I have a lovely little -- well, not so little; it's very spacious, 2 stories. It's a beach house on a private island called Ceridwyn Isle resorts. I love it here. Nice neighbors, yet they don't bother you either. I shopped until I got the prims I wanted for a great price (400 prims, 600 a week). The squarage of it is very generous -- I have a nice-sized private beach, plus a little front yard facing the interior of the island. I gave up my 200 prim Sunset View apartment for this place.

So, I've slowly been decorating. It's just my relaxing house. I've been landscaping and gardening a bit at a time. Found a cute 12 prim herb garden at Luna Bliss. Perfect. Oh, and I have my Christmas tree up. When I was shopping for the herb garden, everyone has their Christmas stuff out for sale, so that is fun.

I started taking pictures of the clothing line I've been working on, although I didn't get it done to be a fall line. Any way, this involves me on a pose ball with a modeling animation in front of a backdrop I created. Also I mix and match skins, poses, and hair plus, of course, the dress I made to sell.

Then I did my first ice skating of the season! *Gives a wonderful sigh . . . Anyway, the people that are my landlords on the island I live have a winter wonderland area right now, so they have a rink. So fun . . . leaping . . .

August 18, 2009 Tuesday

At the moment, I am touring Costa Rica. As I walked along, I met a very nice young lady who was a resident there, a new one she said. She was riding a horse and showed me where to get one. So we both rode throughout the sims. I have to say I have rarely seen SL nature so pleasing . . . palm trees and sea, yet green and wildflowers and aspens. The homes were more like estates. There were cows and horses, yet luxury. Very nice. I haven't even seen it all. She gave me a "taxi" HUD that I can use to make sure I don't miss any of it.

August 15, 2009 Sunday

Today I attended a ballet by Ballet Pixelle telling a story about a Nepal goddess.

Last night I worked more on my Spiral Dynamics Integral exhibit, making some signs, writing a notecard about Dr. Graves, etc.

August 15, 2009 Saturday

As of the 6th of this month, I have been on Second Life for one year. This week upcoming will also be a second billing of my yearly premium account fee. I didn't realize that I had made the decision to go with a premium account that quickly. But it has been a good idea. I get 300 L a month and I finally have my 512 tierless piece of land I'm working with. I also have had occasion to use the live chat support capability.

Today I took a peek at SL's quarterly economy report and apparently user-to-user transactions have doubled over the last year. I found out they also categorize SL users with a 50 hour a month line -- over or under. I'm definitely over 50 hours. 18 percent of users "play" 50 hours or more, but they drive 87 percent of the economy. Cool.

I'm still working on my Apricot Apartment complex. It is still not ready for renting. But I've continued to enjoy the process. I continue to work on my fall lines for Aileen's Fashion & Furniture so I can have an unveiling in September.

Two big changes. I gave up my apartment and found an utterly lovely two-story beach house at Ceridwyn Isle. Very nice neighbors, had a chat with a couple. I just decided I needed 400 prims instead of 200 and this place just fits where I'm at right now. I don't really want to buy my own land for this particular purpose, I'd rather rent. This was a gem steal for the price. Anyway, I'm by the shore, yet there is room for the gardens I'm going to plant and the pets I'll have.

Second big change is that there is upheaval at my beloved Runningbears and I'm not sure how its going to settle. I still have some lifelong friends there, but I'm not sure if there will be a mall and club etc anymore. So I am in the position now of looking for another main shop for Aileen's Fashion & Furniture (and which by the way may affect if and how I throw my Fall Line unveiling party). I have had fun the last few days looking at locations and think I have found the place I want but haven't rented quite yet. There is a short list.

I also met a gentleman at a place I help out newcomers -- he was one. He's just one of those people you click with, and so we have been IMing and doing this and that. It's always nice to have a companion to enjoy the amenities of SL with.

I continue to work on smaller projects as well -- still decorating my house -- the beach house now. Still working on setting up to give classes on subjects such as the power of belief. Still helping out newcomers. Still stopping by for a hockey game here and there. It never ends.

I've been on SL a lot this summer, but in a week I'm going to be in another semester of college (RL) so although I will probably check in each night, my time is going to necessarily be a lot less. But I'll make do. I like that what I learn in SL -- to create -- inspires me to create the life I want in RL also. So it enriches my RL as I realize what is most important to me and I work hard so that I have a great family life and reach my professional and personal goals in RL.

Today I turn my attention to my community of Al-Andalus. I started by riding a horse around the CDS sims and see how they connect. I have been around before, and even now of course I do not know every nook and cranny. But I am feeling comfortable with the lay out now. (This would be Alpine, Bavaria, Locus Amoenus, Colonia Nova and Al-Andalus.)

July 22, 2009 Wednesday

I have continued to work on building the Apricot apartment complex, as well as creating items for my shop. Steven B. (who I met some time ago at Runningbears and is an ongoing friend) has helped me with the rental boxes. I went ahead and applied for the Fall Frenzy grid hunt -- we'll see if I get in. But it fires my imagination to create some fall clothing lines. So I spent most of today creating my Manhattan Peasant Dress. It really is going to be an ensemble with a hat and bag and everything. I'm going to make at least three versions. I really am bumbling along with this -- clothes making. I haven't got the right tools and even though I downloaded Paint.net, the learning curve for something like that is tremendous for someone like me to be able to make clothing. So I am just making them right now from the "Edit Appearance" features, full perm examples, and I even made a prim item from a torus today. But it is fun, period.

So there is a poverty vowed sufi who is running around Al-Andalus these days and I spoke to him again. He was floating (you heard me) around my house. Ha ha. He seems very nice, and I hope to get to know him better.

My neighbor at my Sunset View apartment saw all the remodeling I have been doing (oh! I found a lovely Georgia OKeefe to put up!), and he begged me to decorate his place. So one night I burned the midnight oil putting up walls, floors, tile, and a couple of chairs. It will take me a while to complete it, but it gives me another project. My apartment is all lavender and sage and country feminine. So now I am trying to make something masculine for my neighbor. I am going for deep colors. I gave him one brick wall. A wood floor. I want it to be fun for him, not stilted, but not juvenile either. So we'll see.

I have started building my second apartment complex. I haven't got land, but I'll have a prefab ready to drop. I am calling it Cucumber. It is kind of Greek classical feeling fused with modern.

July 13, 2009 Monday

Oh, my gosh.

Where to start.

I have been BIZzy!

First bit of news is that I procured my first 512 sq m of mainland -- my free tier parcel due me because of my premium account. This is a big deal. I finally have wrapped my mind around the rules and the system, and now, of course, after all it's not that difficult.

I want to make the 512 pay so I have been building an apartment complex on it -- 3 apartments -- and will thereafter hopefully be able to fill them (rent them out). We'll see. I want to charge enough rent so that it will cover tiers for a second piece of land (1024) and I can keep getting bigger. I don't know. It sounds good in my mind. But I'm not sure the rent market will allow me to do that. We'll see. In any case, building is really jazzing me. I have created the whole building. The furnishings I have been buying. I know I can't pay my tier with lindens, but I still want it to represent the amount needed for covering. That way, I am ONLY paying tier with my real life money, and all the rent and such is covering my inworld expenses. We'll see.

I tried my hand at building a 3 prim bed, and for the prims, I must say it looks pretty cute. The secret is in fabrics for the bed spread and pillow. Now I want to create a 1, 2 and 3 prim furniture store. Dreams for now. My Aileen's Fashion and Furniture at Runningbear Beach Mall is looking cute now -- they dropped a new mall design. But honestly, traffic for my shop is 0. I paid for a classified ad, and I'm going to try to do some more things with this, so we'll see. I want to plumb the potential of this shop and then I will get a 2nd place for the low prim furniture, but of course link them with notecards, landmark givers and such.

I thought I had a lot to say. Ha ha. I guess not. My apartment remodeling is looking awesome. I've been spending more time helping newbies. I guess all the apartment shopping (the one I live in and the one I'm building) make me feel busy.

June 29, 2009 Monday

I started the SL day by listening to Philip Linden's closing remarks for SL6B. He is giving statistics and is saying that the 20 sims for the Bday exhibits are bigger than the original Second Life.

June 27, 2009 Saturday

Well, just a few thoughts.

I love my Al-Andalus home, but I think I am going to have to get used to the fact that I get a lot of drop-ins. People exploring and they enter my home. In one way I don't mind, as I love to look inside people's homes too (when they aren't there) and see how they have decorated and such. But it is starting to make me nervous at Al-Andalus as the traffic seems to be very high (good for the sim) and with the Islamic Center next door, high traffic. And I never know who will be there when I myself arrive, ha ha. (I almost always wear a radar.) I say hello to the person and welcome them to my home. Most look about and leave. But a lady came again today, it seems like she is being a stow away in my home. Or maybe she just likes me, as we did converse a while yesterday. She seems very nice. It's just an interesting effect.

I do want to say here that I mourn Michael Jackson's death for many reasons. I happened, in my SL travels, to come across a music video playing We Are the World and it was a very good/grief feeling. All of SL is tributing Michael, and I even wore my tribute tshirt (of course!) for a while yesterday.

I went to Helen Keller Day for a little while this morning; happened to be there when Pathfinder Linden was speaking. He keeps office hours, so maybe I will go by there.

I started building a house today at a sandbox. But after I made part of the floor, I couldn't think of the layout, so I got off SL and started drawing it on a piece of paper. I know I want a farmhouse, but I can't see the details yet.

Jun 26, 2009 Friday

I just wanted to note that in my creating and positioning objects I am finally becoming comfortable with using the X, Y and Z coordinates to match things up. Up until now I have relied on just eyeing things carefully. And things like have 6 digit numbers with decimals in three different values is a little overwhelming to me. But now I have decided I loved it because now I can match things I am trying to line up to the exact coordinates of each other. It's simple, but I still had to get used to the idea. Woo hoo for me!

At 10:30 a.m. I decided to return to the Titan information center at SL6B so I could take the 35 min tour of the SL6B. I was directed to a start point (teleported) and then I took a tram. All was well. It was interesting. Everything was on midnight settings, although I eventually chose Midday. Until about 5 minutes in I got stuck in a weird way. Couldn't figure out what went wrong, what happened to my tram, when I "reset view" I couldn't locate my avatar, what happened to the land form, whatnot, ha ha! Couldn't teleport back to Tritan. Couldn't get out of the weird half-way teleport. Decided to quit. I'll try once more to see if the tour will work. Good news is that lag was down in general, not too many people about this time of day apparently. This second trip I had a companion passenger. BAck to midnight. All seems to be working.

Jun 23, 2009 Tuesday

Today I thought I'd better check out SL6B (Second Life's 6th Birthday). Today is probably the laggiest SL day I've ever personally experienced -- all over. I really didn't get much farther than the Titan Information Center at the birthday sims. Oh, and the initial teleport in had whirling planets around in midnight, that was pretty cool. Each of the planets was a teleportation device also.

I spent some time on my shop, setting out an SL6B freebie and also my country stools. But now I've reached my prim cap, ha ha. So I don't know what I'll do next. I hope Tri can finish the new mall soon.

Now I am at Saminaka, looking at beautiful photos of RL Nigeria. This is supposed to be an experience about how it must have been to be in Africa and then find yourself a slave and across the ocean and such. We'll see how it goes.

June 22, 2009 Monday

I logged on and started working on (creating) a "country stool" I started a day or so ago. In remodeling my apartment, I feel driven now to learn to create what I want. So I am starting with something easy. I'm still going to buy things for my apartment, but if I ever get good at it I could remodel something in the future. Plus, I will sell my furniture things of course. We'll see where it takes me.

Trident Runningbear and I also finally connected this afternoon. He has been working on a remodel of the Runningbear Mall for a while, and has been wanting me to select a shop. So I did . . . saw the mall (in the air while under construction) which is awesome . . . and picked an upper level corner shop that had the colors I want -- a rose. You know, I really have a vision of a shop that has feminine clothes, jewelry, furniture, home decoration. Most of what is in SL (but not all) is sexy but lacks femininity, in my opinin. Some notable exceptions, such as Coconut Ice. We'll see.

This weekend has been bad for the Lindens -- "emergency maintenance". So far nothing bad has happened to me, but I keep losing my face as it is. So I am thinking of writing a ticket for it. But I'm so lazy about things.

June 20, 2009 Saturday

I just wanted to say that my neighbors across the road (path), the woman's name is naima Lupindo and she and a partner are running a center for Islamic teaching out of their home, which I think is awesome. We met today and peeked at each others' homes.

June 18, 2009 Thursday

Well, the most recent reportable thing is that I am now being driven to consider alternate viewers for Second Life. I'm not the biggest fan of change, but the newest update to Second Life's viewer has made me lose my face -- you heard me -- and made me lose my bottom half of my body. When I lost my face, I had black and yuccky eyes twitching around. When I lost the bottom half, it was just invisible. Then things like the fire grate I bought with a certain metal texture just aren't showing up right. I've read through a lot of alternate viewer stuff and what makes me not choose to get one yet is that none of them really grabs me as something I might want to do, that I might be going from the frying pan into the fire. So we'll see. I'm sure I'll experiment with at least one some time.

I'm still laboring to remodel my apartment. I think I am now satisfied with my wall paint and my tiled floor (textured, stretched thin prims -- I can't really change the existing walls and floors), but I may keep changing things around as it is to work all together, so it depends on what else I can find. But I tried to get the wall and my existing rugs to work together. I spent a lot of times shopping for textures, and I still will. This all started with the new 6 prim kitchen I bought. It was good, but now I don't think it goes, so now I'm back to shopping for another kitchen. I think I found one for 17 prims, which is reasonable. So you see what I'm up against. Ha ha. I think this remodel is just going to be an ongoing fact of life.

The official announcements for Zindra, the adult continent, have happened recently, with a welcome to explore. So I did. I am not into adult "entertainment" -- in fact, I barely understand the appeal of it -- but what I do like is a new, untouched continent. So I visited the safety hub and Kama City. Of course, none of the adult stuff is there yet as the "land swap" hasn't happened (can you say blood bath?). So Kama City's structures were light and airy (can't wait til the neon hits) -- beautiful but then again, rather unremarkable. There is a city square with a huge monument in the middle.

June 14, 2009 Sunday

I started out with OJ and a bagel breakfast at the Constellation Lounge on the SS Galaxy.

Later I had a dolphin ride. This was around Nautilus City. The dolphin was fun -- the scenery was just okay.

I was going through old landmarks to see if they were still any good and I wound up at Seacliff and I almost started crying because when I was just a day or so old, for a few days I spent the nights in chairs at a high balcony in Seacliff. I had no idea what was going on half the time in SL, and Seacliff just seemed so beautiful and peaceful.

On June 15, I had the lovely first experience of having a large art piece I set to decorate my stateroom on the Galaxy be auto returned to me. Frustrating! The antidote to that is to set the group on the object, which I'm sure I hadn't checked. Ha ha, just the fun part of SL.

June 13, 2009 Saturday

Let me tell you a few things from the past couple of days.

The Nautilus City Festival is Saturday and Sunday. It started at 9:30 with a "Grand Sail" from one Yacht Club to Nautilus City Harbor. I showed up and had the pleasure of being on the crew of one of the sail boats (thanks to pose balls). It was a blast. The wind blows through my hair. I had my little puppy on my shoulder even, who I have named (appropriately) "Magellan". (Did I tell you I got my puppy? It actually comes with two . . . I named the gray one Faust and the brown one Magellan. Usually I just have Magellan, but the other day I had them both out together . . . cuuuuuute.)

One Friday night I was invited to the Japanese Restaurant on the SS Galaxy for a brief performance (Japanese dancers). I gasped when I entered the bamboo sliding doors. It was like entering a whole other world . . . the walls of the ship fell away and the walls were night sky filled with stars. There was a tea house where we went to.

I have continued to knock myself out trying to furniture shop for the apartment remodel, and meanwhile it is just bare. I actually decided that the look I am going for is mostly French country, and I did find one shop like that! So when I get some more lindens next, I will go get a couple of rugs I found there and a gorgeous lavendar, flower painted cabinet. I even know what flowers I'm going to put on top . . . I'll find a good bowl for them. I have decided I am buying "probably" stuff (that is not overly expensive) until I find my "oh wow! that's it!" stuff. I do have a settee (wood a little darker than I wanted but still pretty AND the lavender/periwinkle cushions) set out. I like the breakfast nook shape I have, and the wood color, but I still have my eye out for different fabrics. If I find the right fabric, which I think is my highest criteria, then the style may not be as important.

I stopped by Sunshine Therapy Garden and did a chakra light meditation they advertised in events. They had chakra colors that I was able to focus on (RL) and audio tones. It was a nice RL meditation too.

I tried to figure out Linden land. I am due a free 512 parcel on the mainland. But I am so nervous about where, when, how, how much to buy. I haven't needed it really, but I would like to take that step . . . I'm sure I could figure out how to use it, lol. Eventually when I'm RL rich I'm sure I'll buy a lot of already there FOR SALE sims so I can make it MY Second Life kingdom, ha ha ha. I have neverending ideas (SL and RL and RL to SL and SL to RL).

Oh, I also got myself age verified, ha ha. I dunno why. But it's done.

June 11, 2009 Thursday

Man! What a Second Life day! Ha ha. Where to start.

Well, I am officially remodeling my Sunset View apartment. I even took out my piano and harp which felt weird. Possibly they'll come back. But I decided to start with -- believe it or not -- my kitchen! I got a low prim kitchen set that I am satisfied with at the moment; light oak. I went shopping and found a breakfast nook I like. I went rug shopping, both inworld and xlstreet. I wanted a light colored braided rug, or anything that hit me just right. I found a periwinkle that will do for now. All the rugs I have been finding are dark colored or too rich colored. It's odd. I hope I will stumble across just that right shop. Or it gives me visions of learning to make (and sell) my own stuff of what I can't find. Now I am trying to find lavender (periwinkle) pieces for a living room that works seamlessly with my kitchen -- the entire apartment will be open and light. Not sure if I'll do a bedroom here or what. Oh, I also have a blocky wood table (darker, will look for a lighter) and a kitchen stool. Anyway, I like the spirit of it. Most of my back wall is all window. Before I had it curtained off because it was my bedroom area. But with the kitchen it can remain open. Only in Second Life does the view change. Before I was looking at a huge side of a mountain 2 inches from my back porch -- in other words, no view at all. Now there is a new sim owner of the sim behind the apartment complex (a woman I have met), and she has created already a lovely little coastline, still with a mountain more distant. So that is what I see out my porch now. Also, I have a notecard where I list my houses and the prims I am using versus the total prims. I thought I was doing pretty good with my cumulative math, but I had to do an entire prim recount on the apartment. Of course, it is the new stuff now.

Which brings me to the fact that a day or so ago I made my first xlstreet purchase and although I really enjoy the sensation of shopping in inworld shops, I simply can't always take the time. So I usually find what I want on xlstreet and then if they have an inworld shop I go there. But sometimes they don't. In any case, Aileen Aquila (my alt) is the one on xlstreet, and she keeps sending Aileen Zessinthal (my main) the gifts.

I started the morning doing aerobics on the SS Galaxy. I really did follow along by doing the aerobics at my desk. Awesome. Later in the day, SS Galaxy hosted a cheerleading practice, the Second Life Cheerleading team. Talk about getting to do what you've always wanted to do! Ha ah (not me, them). Anyway it was a practice so it was mostly talking, but I did get to see a huge pyramid of cheerleaders.

I also watched a hockey game. Cobras v. Whales, 4-0, go Cobras! Ha ha. This was in the evening about 7 p.m. It makes me wonder how close a real life rink is. Oh, also, just as the game ended, got "flashed" by a man in boxers. On the ice with a winter hat and not much else on. It was just funny.

I went to go see some sky diving, but it was something nobody really showed up for so I browsed through the nearby mall still on my quest for the perfect rug for my kitchen. And even though I did buy the periwinkle, I still am on the lookout, or wonder how I can make it.

I went to an exhibit, I think it is called Abandoned America. Some gorgeous photos of abandoned houses across the US. Really above ordinary, whoever had the eye for the art in the abandonedness.

Okay. I broke down. I bought my tiny puppy. He's going to go in the apartment too. I also will probably get my turtle out again -- I had my turtle in my long ago Runningbear cabin.

Finally, I stopped by another business discussion and learned about StumbledUpon. I'll let you look that up yourself online. I won't explain it here, but it was a new thing to me. So I learned something.

June 10, 2009

Today was special in that I was deeded land in Al-Andalus. Now I have my beautiful home in a beautiful village outside the beautiful castle fortress and city of Alhambra.

I was doing the cupcake grid hunt, and found a cute shop with some fire pieces -- such as a wall stained glass and fire grate. I knew I wanted them fro the Al-Andalus home. So as I was purchasing, the owner and creator of the place came and said hello and thank you. She even showed me right where the grid hunt items were (shhh! ha ha). Anyway, now we are on each others' friends list. She even went and visited my shop and bought the black brocade bracelet. She is a kind and bubbly soul.

I spent a lot of the evening decorating at my Al-Andalus home, setting out my art work and such. Rose, who sold the land and who is a friend, told me 173 prims would be plenty . . . she doesn't know me, ha ha. But seriously, I don't just like to furnish my homes. I like to create a setting. For example, there is this cute little incense burner box. It's just perfect. Tiny. BUT it is 14 prims. Can I afford to do that? Ha ha ha. I set it out for now. It may have to go in the future. Thankfully most art and pottery is 1 prim. My highest thing is a 40 prim fire pit. It may have to go also, and use it in the future somewhere else.

I also was reading in the magazine Perfect Prim and they had a funny quiz but one of the questions was hilarious (several were quite funny). "How many prims do you use in your home?" or something like this. Multiple choice answers were: a. What is a prim? b. 150 which is a perfectly reasonable number. c. I am a little over my limit, but my landlord hasn't seemed to notice. d. I've never heard a server cry. Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

I also did find a gorgeous lamp for my SS Galaxy stateroom. Makes a sound when it clicks on and off. It seemed a little small, but thankfully allowed for stretching until I got the size I wanted. It is a rectangular tubish floor lamp with elegant dark etchings on the white background. 200 L, so I had to make I found something that really would speak to both me and my room.

Okay, I really have been thinking more about land for my Peace Sanctuary. I have been wanting land on the LDS sims (Adam ondi Ahman and similar). Since Al-Andalus was a discount, I could apply this toward this goal. But then there are still tiers. And the time it takes to create. So I still think this is going to be a 2010 goal. I am still working on several (non-land but involvement) projects that I want to give my time to.

In the interest of full disclosure and for any readers to get a full picture of my Second Life experience, my 16 year old daughter expressed her anger at me yesterday as she believes I am on the computer too much. Now, I do my dishes and my laundry. I take the kids and we go do activities. But a lot of the rest of my time this summer has been Second Life. All of her points were valid, but I'm still justifying my activity in the sense that once fall hits and I am in school again and starting a RL business . . . I think I can pretty much kiss my SL good-bye (although I still think I will, but I think I'm kidding myself). So right now I'm just immersing myself in it. Anyway.

June 9, 2009 Tuesday

This morning I started out at Virtual Ability Island. While it is an orientation for anyone, an entry point in SL, it also specializes in helping the disabled enjoy their SL experience. I suspect I will get more involved with this, as I like anything that intersects SL and RL for the good. I am still trying to effect my idea about Hockey and the disabled. Making a little progress, I know who I need to speak to now, so I will send her a notecard.

I also decided to spend some of the morning at the Land Expo at some of the exhibits of my favorite places: Virtual Ability, Bay City Alliance, New England.

So I got a larger room (stateroom) on the SS Galaxy. I won it as a prize, but when the prize runs out, I'll pay. I also decided it is going to be my office executive type place. I put a laptop out on the balcony table. While the SS Galaxy isn't role play per se, I have the feeling of putting together an elegant persona. I also might create a fictional backstory if anyone does want to roleplay. But even using my real essence, I am going to dress a certain way here and I'm sure it will affect my actions. In any case, I am working on developing some more goals and projects in SL and RLtoSL, so sitting on the private deck in the night working on the laptop, he he.

June 6, 2009 Saturday

I am just going to blog about various Second Life experiences in the last few days -- no particular order; just whatever hits me.

I have written a great deal -- not quite finished -- on a notecard called something along the lines of "Aileen's tips for getting lindens". It's quite fun to put all my suggestions together. I hope in the future it will help people.

My alt, Aileen Aquila (recall that I am Aileen Zessinthal), is starting to come into her own. She is going to town on the Storybook Gridhunt. She is going to take care of the Live Music attendance for me. She is probably going to be the one doing the hockey, VSN and Nascar stuff too. It's funny because I am talking about her in 3rd person, but it is me. I do feel different when I'm using her, though. And it is hilarious because she will send notes to me and I will send notes to her. As if it wasn't the same brain doing both. It's insane. But I kind of like the effect.

I couldn't help it. I paid for a cabin on the SS Galaxy (cruise ship) for four days. I toured the port we are docked at -- Rotterdam. It was okay. But it is a different dress up feel for me when I'm part of the cruise -- a little more elegant, silver spoon feel. The atrium is the best part of the ship. I probably will pay for a stateroom forever from now on for as long as I can afford it. If I can't, I won't.

I have continued to play Obscure Reality. I had a couple of misadventures learning how to use my DCS. And the werewolves scare the crap out of me! For a while I wasn't sure I could continue playing (I don't enjoy being frightened; some people think that is fun -- I don't) AT ALL. But I decided to get back on the horse so to speak, and I enjoyed myself intertwining in the story. I attended a funeral there. Visited a friend in the hospital (werewolf attack). Met a few more people. I'm still not sure if I can handle the emotion, but for now I'm hanging on. There was a new entrant that arrived wearing old clothes -- early 19th century maybe, aristocratic -- and we began an interesting possibility. But I haven't seen him since, not when I was on anyway. What I do like about OR is that there is always plenty of action -- quite a few people are always on the sim, the story moves along. I also can tell that they have a fun time together from the OOC chatter in the group chat. I guess in my mind I can't differentiate that the werewolves aren't real and it is a play; and also that I don't like failure (getting eaten). So I guess I will play a helpless, fearful Angel, ha ha.

I also started at a new roleplay sim called Avilion. It is Medieval/Fantasy and what I like about this is that there is no sexual play and the basic premise is that all races are brothers and sisters (although there are arena combat possibilities). I spent a little time there last night. We'll see. I had the hardest time figuring out a character, but I finally think I have one. I'll be a human, of course. I thought about transferring my character that I have for Elven Country (where there is a paucity of actual roleplay) to here so I could play it, but in Avilion I am a "Lady" which my character definitely is not. So I finally came up with a "Lady" I could live with. Ha ha.

Al-Andalus, a sim I love and hope to make my home, is merging with the Confederation of Democratic Sims. Now is the time for me to buy my land. So I went there believing it couldn't be that bad. But it was. A land space of only moderate prim is a 35 to 50 real USA dollar initial price and approximately 20 real dollar a month tier. (Could I apply my free 512 m to this? Probably not.) This takes my breath away. In the end, it is probably worth it because of the community. But the first thing that came to mind is, "I can't pay $50 for a cartoon!" Ha ha ha. So I still decided no at this time. But some things are changing in my RL finances, so maybe I will take the plunge (if there is still a house available) in the next little while.

June 3, 2009 Wednesday

Over the last couple of days I have joined a roleplay group and sim called Obscure Reality. We'll see how this goes. This is my first time to actually purchase and use a DCS2 system (Dynamic Combat System). I am of the race of the Angels. Obscure reality is a sim all in grayscale; so cool. Again, I'm a little nervous, I hope there isn't too much combat and not any sex play that is required. I just want to play a play with being in a different character, that's what I want out of it.

Runningbears held a Medieval dance which I dressed up for and attended. But what was significant was that Wayha showed up as a dragon -- yea, a huge one. He was rideable, so I was able to ride a dragon in a short circular but nevertheless amazing ride about the skies of Runningbear sim. That was one of my "Second Life is the BOMB!"moments.

May 30, 2009

I visited the Sunshine Therapy Garden (again). I see they have added new things, expanded the space. There is a Virgin Mary shrine/ open air church. Also there is a magic carpet that takes two people up into a galaxy ball (very nice) for some cozy time. The rotating galaxy was very cool.

I was going through some old landmarks. I landed at one that the art gallery was no longer there. However, I noticed an interesting build close by. The builder, DB Bailey, happened to be there. He was very friendly and invited me on. I found out he was a RL architect and he showed me a RL architectural project he was doing (model in SL) up in the air. It was a GORGEOUS mall --I should find out where it is going to be and visit it in the RL. Anyway, SL is the best with these kinds of moments, to see the creators and the creations. Also you can see another great idea about RL to SL.

At noon I went and watched half-pipe simboarding. Okay, I'm addicted. The peeps were very welcoming (VSN, or Nexus Sports).

I also found out the Galaxy cruise ship just opened a Medical Center. While diagnosis and treatments are of course not possible, it is still being staffed by real medical personnel and is to be used as a resource (not merely roleplay).

I am at an anniversary party for a restaurant that as been around for 2 years -- that is quite healthy in SL terms. It is called the Arbor.

I also stopped by to get a peek at a Japanese performance to celebrate the opening of a new India themed sim.

May 29, 2009 Friday

I toured New Orleans this morning. It was quiet, which I enjoyed. Although I wish I had a companion for these tours. Someday. I landed in the church yard and went through the church. At the moment I'm sitting at a seaside coffee shop. The town is non-residential, all commercial spaces. Not too large, which means just the right size. I might like it as a second spot for my shop. There was a trolley (not able to ride) and the HUD said there was a steamship, but it was missing when I looked for it. Chatted a bit with a person there, he found out and told me that the trolley was 96 prims. Wah!

Next I hopped over to Raglan Shire for their Artwalk that they've been having for a while.

I've been taking a look at the May 2009 issue of the SL home and garden magazine, Prim Perfect. I saw advertised a gigantic, luxurious and residential!!! cruise ship -- the Galaxy in Sagittaria. I have added this to my wish list of where I want to live. It's midnight on the ship now. There is more to Sagittaria's (multi)sim besides the ship. It will take me more than one visit to explore. There is first class sights and service here. The pool area has a waterslide. I found the dance floor and danced with peeps for a while and got a group tag.

By the way, at the moment, I have an apartment at Sunset View Apartments in Adam ondi Ahman. My next home purchase will be somewhere in Al-Andalus. But I think I just put the Galaxy Ship at number 3.

Later in the evening I stopped by GOHA to watch hockey -- people were just practicing for the moment, scrimmaging. They do hold games.

I watched the dress rehearsal of a drama group. They were doing several scenes from a few Shakespeare plays -- Caeser, Midsummer's Night Dream.

Late at night, starting at the Warmouth Infohub, I did some biking on the mainland routes. They are empty, not eerie, but so empty and strange. But the terrain is beautiful. I want to become familiar with the mainland and the other continents. Warmouth is on the far side (east? I don't know) of Sarasa (the first continent).

May 28, 2009 Thursday

I started off this morning by practicing with my Winamp and my DJing skills at Runningbears. It's quiet in the morning. I was both heartened and discouraged. I was glad I even was able to log onto the stream. But my Winamp skips and fails easily and my mic has to be switched in a weird way, plus it's hard to keep looking on the SL viewer. So I'm not sure what I'll do.

I walked around Kijiji. They advertised as having an "art expo" in Events. It is by the sea (as most of SL is), and there were bumper boats you could rez. Also there were a couple of lions wandering around the cobblestone streets. I recall being here before, actually.

I stopped by The Grand Planetarium at the Ginsbert Art Center.

I decided today to look into some more roleplay sims. I checked out Kingdom of Sand. It was mostly about being prey or predator (sexual). A little too much for me, although the Arabian setting was gorgeous. Obscure Reality was black and white, alternate urban reality. I think that one will be cool. I hope to do it. I want to be an Angel (one of the races). The only thing is I will need to turn a new leaf and carry a gun. I think I am ready to do it. I don't know if I will like that change in me. Nevertheless. There was Incorrigible, which is sort of a decadent medieveal Goth, yet not dark, just -- indulgent and fierce. I dunno. I may do it, depending on how the actual people are in it. I did spend time on Thassa Island where I already have been developing my roleplay. I wrote some of the story line for it. Now if I can just get anyone to play it with me.

I wrote a notecard to Rose at Al-Andalus with my idea of how to connect with some university sims. We'll see what she and the other citizens say. I really would like to get more involved with Al-Andalus, so I guess now I will. I am going to have to lay all these things back down again when school starts. Maybe not. We'll see.

May 27, 2009 Wednesday

A day or so ago I created a second avatar. The main reason I did this was to have more groups. But it was interesting to go through the initial process again which had changed since I went through. I entered Second Life at a welcome community. That was only an option, so I don't know what would have happened if I hadn't chosen a welcome community. But I started out at D.C. District Community. It was a very nice place. The learning was very clear and simple. I have ended up meeting some people and answering a lot of questions myself. D.C. District is actually a huge mall with tweaks. But newbies enter at a special area with the learning information. It is a lot better than ending up at an infohub, that's for sure. But maybe if you don't choose a welcome community, you get an infohub. I don't know. The only drawback to being at D.C. District is that it is self-contained, so after you go through the learning and explore the entire mall (which takes some time), there is no further sense of where to go, unless people realize that they can use the Search. Which is good. There was another half a sim near the mall, with some cool buildings, but a lot of them were banned space. Which makes sense if you are near a place with a lot of newbies. Anyway.

I attended the Al-Andalus citizens meeting. I gave them my RL to SL update, and listened as others started planning to host a Middle Earth party or event. Awesome.

I re-worked the wording on my Profile.

I decided to go ahead and get into another Gridhunt. This one is called Discovery.

I should say that I don't post every little detail of what I do in this blog (of course). I try. But I meet people, do details of my business, dance a little here and there. Ha ha. No one could keep up.

Today was a Health Expo at Health Commons. I stopped by.

May 25, 2009 Monday

I started off the day by doing some tasks for my shop (business). My shop landlords (and they are my friends, too -- the Runningbears) are expanding and re-doin their mall, so it is exciting times. So I talked a bit with Steven about some ins and outs of stuff. I took pictures of my avatar in my new "unofficial" Runningbear bikinis that are my new creations and products, and got them set up as sales posters and got them on my shop walls. It was nice that Steven came and sat on my new comfy chair in the shop to watch me a bit. By the way just this week I found out that these "sales posters" are called vendors. I've got some pre-made vendors in my Inventory I want to take a look at now.

Danced on the beach at Runningbears, of course. Dj wawa.

May 22, 2008 Friday

This afternoon I showed up at the Bay City Airport Grand Opening. They have a nice little place. I even got myself a free parachute that I am looking forward to trying the next time I'm falling from great air heights. Apparently it was also the 1 year anniversary of the Bay City Police Department, so I stopped by there too. It wasn't overly exciting, but I did listen to a few moments of a machina interview of a RL cop who did some RL Hell's Angels under cover work. You'll be hearing more about Bay City from me in the future.

There are two gridhunts (that I am aware of) starting on June 1, so I got a little information on them. One is called "Bedtime Treasures" and the other is "Fun in the Sun".

May 18, 2009 Monday

Each morning I am and have been working on what I call a Real Life to Second Life project. I am volunteering my time and my know-how for a Real Life organization that I believe in to have a Second Life platform. I'm not going to say much about this until it gets much farther along, but I do spend a lot of time on it.

When I log back in to Second Life in the afternoon, it's "me" time. Ha ha.

I asked my friend to come help me test out some technicalities of sales posters in my shop. But then we got to talking and just chatted at the shop, my apartment, and then we went and listened to a piano musician at the Greek Harbor's Theatre in the Clouds. We ended up exploring all over the CDS sim (democratic sims) into Rome and Bavaria and so forth. We followed a huge, long waterfall way up into the mountains. It was an awesome time.

May 17, 2009 Sunday

This afternoon I started out at War Child Canada's center. They have a lovely formal ballroom, but today we are out on the grass on big, puffy pillows listening to the live artist (singer-guitar player MarcusAurelius Merlin). He just finished a fine acoustic version of "Stairway to Heaven". For every minute a body is on a pillow, then sponsors donate to the cause, which is to help free children from having to live a life of being a child-soldier, or rescue those who already have had to be.

Since it's a Sunday, I like to take it a little easier and I don't do work projects. So I love the relaxed feeling I get.

I got a notice for a live musician at a mall, so I thought, What the heck. I'll go check it out. I'm not completely lindenless, but I am trying to conserve for my two rents (my apartment and my shop). It's not shopping money. But you never know, people come up with cute architecture and things like this that are fun to see. So I'm listening to a female crooning love ballads. The mall is called Grafton's, and it's meant to be a little upper class. They do have a large dance floor in the center. Always nice. I also liked the dolphin pool, and that there was a couples hand-in-hand pose ball for walking around the mall, window shopping.

I did the Beach Babe thing at Runningbears for a while, of course.

I looked on Showcase for a tour to go on, and ended up at Wikitechture. The parcel was only so-so thus far as far as "cool looks", but it their real life idea -- which they explain on large boards with photos -- about collaborative archictural design seems great. And it is just one more example of Real Life to Second Life. I wandered around the whole park (sim), too, it was themed on real life architecture. Some nice business and design and and education and consciousness ideas.

Later, I spent time at the AofA Sunday Social.

Then listened to Niles Compton singing live. I try never to miss him if I know he's playing. This evening was at The Gaslight. He does mostly country, but he gets in some of my other favorites, like Snow Patrol's "Run".

February 26, 2009 Thursday

This evening I have decided to spend at least part of the evening in Etopia (Island). I can't remember where I first heard of it. Perhaps my memory will be jogged during my exploration; perhaps I've been here briefly before. But I have had it on my list of things to do with the notation, "bike ride".

I used the Search to look under "Etopia" (using the All category) and selected the teleport that has landed me in front of a little bamboo bike shop. I'm going to keep things on Midday for the time being. Etopia is all about sustainable and green living, so there is a big poster explaining about bamboo as a material. Then there is an SL bamboo bike that can be bough for zero Lindens. I see the bike trail just beyond.

The bike trail is slightly confusing to follow, as it is not a trail marked on the ground. Rather you keep going from one sign that says "Bike Trail" to the next. Which is a good idea, except they are sometimes far apart, too far apart to see the next one, as well as being the same format as signs for other things. So I was doing a lot of guessing until I realized the main idea was to bike around the very outside of the island (that is, on the coast by the water) and just get a general look see at the lay of the island (had to drive on the train track for a bit, and later signs were closer together for an inner island way, crossed a few bridges). There were a lot of things I saw I will go back and look at in depth. I heard streaming media explaining about the perils of human consumption and I heard a llama and whales singing. I stopped from time to time to look at a distance at houses as well as the wind and water power projects. There is a huge waterfall with a wheel; and several turbine wind mills -- awesome.

When the bike trail ended, I chose another landmark teleport from Search that looked central to the Island so I could board the (eco-friendly) train -- "Train Station", so I could take a look at the Island that way. The train "clang" was a welcoming call. When I got on and selected "sit here", I received a RIDE option. Also it put me immediately into mouselook and I heard the train engine hum. The windmills were in sight again. I can hear ducks. We went up the mountain top to a smaller waterfall, the sound rushing furiously, and across a mountain bridge. I could see a sign for a hiking trail, although I don't think I'll do that one. There were several smaller stations the train stopped at from time to time. I saw a swan swimming. I saw the whale as well as the underwater power station (?). I don't know what it was, but it looked cool. There was one spot where trees didn't rez fast enough, but for the most part the train tour was awesome.

I went to a stream and road a simple boat a short distance to the large waterfall. It was not really a tour. I got off at a dock there and went up a trail which took me to some area with shops and whatnot. I felt a little lost so I took the teleport back to the central area in order to ride the Gondola.

The Gondola had a "ticket" stand, although it was free. This is an air Gondola. It was cool, but not really any better than the train ride. It was actually better to pan the camera around without Mouselook. At the top of the mountain with the small waterfall was call Eagle Station. I didn't realize I had to get off there to switch to another Gondola down another way, so I rode twice up. While I was waiting for the second Gondola at the Eagle Station, I walked up some stone steps and I explored around what was probably the hike trail. I saw a fire circle at the tippy top of the mountain, and an eagle almost flying in my face. I saw a boarded up old mine, although it wasn't something you could go down into (I don't think).

I do remember that Etopia had one of their stores in the February (Valentine's) Kiss Gridhunt.

I think that is the end of my adventures here in Etopia (for now). But for anyone truly interested in sustainability, or just a beautiful, educational place -- there are so many things here, buildings, gardens, projects, etc.