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.