Back From the Bush for Cocktails

Tags

Storytelling

The streets had become crowded and rather noisy. So many people with so many opinions. I enjoy being social as much as anyone but it goes better when my heart is in it and it happens in an organic way–when I can just lean into it.

The suggestions to engage with more social networks made me tired. I balked. Of course anyone else can do as they like. Homes were lit up with the curtains open and people could look in as they passed by. I glanced in a few windows too; interesting.

As I went about my business, people on the same wavelength made brief eye contact. The newly awakened stared like deer in headlights. Others glanced away shifty-eyed.

Triviality became overwhelming. I longed to sit under a tree and listen to the birds, so I did. I questioned if what I’d been doing was a “hell yeah”.  So I went out into the bush for a while because I can. (It’s a privilege to be able to; I’m aware.) I felt that I didn’t miss much.

When the illusions fall away, you can’t unsee things. Drinking Moscow Mules, sitting in the yard and letting a lot of things go because the cost simply isn’t worth it.

*************

Dress from World Goth Fair: Mourning in Seafoam by The Muses.

Table and chairs: Languor Abbey.  It comes with a pewter tea set; the one in the photo above shows a cocktail set from POST.

Winter Moon

Tags

nature, Photos, virtual destinations, Winter Moon

My first visit to Winter Moon. The landmark was in my inventory; I’d picked it up somewhere, likely from one of the blogs here.

It’s beautiful, with many places to linger and lots of views to photograph. I had a nice dance and chat with stranger.  

It’s definitely a place I want to go back to.

A Glimpse Inside Pearl’s Brain ~ Part One

Tags

creativity, virtual destinations

And this is a photo I referred to yesterday, as a glimpse into my inner landscape. The other photos in the series may or may not ever show up.

This was taken at SteamRose, when I attempted to participate in the Historical Hunt. I learned I’m not good at hunts and I didn’t enjoy it. I grabbed some items and they sat in my inventory, unopened and unrezzed until I cleared most of them out recently.

I do have a project in mind with some of the items I found though. I got the tiny pirate ship and the tiny submarine; I also have a raven avatar and I’d like to do some photos and/or machinima with the cute, waddling raven in those vehicles. This involves location, time and privacy.

Creativity and play can be messy and often the results can appear a total waste of time in the eyes of the almost-ever-present “others”.

It’s nice I got to experience Steam Rose; it’s kind of close to home.

Aspirational

Tags

awareness, Consciousness, Health, learning

Our personal environments such as homes, desks and cars can reflect what our interior selves are like, whether it be our minds, moods, energy systems or some combination of them. Some organizational and de-cluttering professionals point out that much of our excess stuff is “aspirational”. We aspire to be the kind of person who’s into fine wine or the kind of person who productively writes or the kind of person who consistently takes care of our body with exercise and physical movement.

A dictionary definition of “aspriational” is rather limited, indicating a social climbing focus. Since we’re all so diverse, we all aspire to different things for different reasons, which may not appear to be social climbing to others at all.

The metaverse can be a playground and canvas for us to explore aspirational aspects. The above photo reflects how I’d like to have my interior self organized sometimes. I wouldn’t want to literally live in a place like this in first life for very long; my inner processing would quickly alter it.

This is my London skybox apartment in Second Life. It’s very tidy, serene, spacious and everything is in it’s place. It has little in common with my first life except for the white walls with lots of art. Tomorrow, I’ll show a photo that much better reflects the landscape of my mind at times. I’ve been sitting on it and three others for several months now and I wasn’t going to share because I feel it’s very revealing of aspects of myself, some that are often misunderstood and unappealing to others.

But what the hell; now I find it rather amusing. If you happen to read this post, maybe it will bring you to some reflection of your own life. And if you want to share, whether it be something about your first or Second Life, this is an invitation to do so.

Auspicious Re-entry

Tags

fiction, Pandemonium, RolePlay, Story Telling, Storytelling, Victorian, Wren Alcyone, Writing

London

May 27, 1850

The wind had finally settled down about mid-morning after keeping Wren awake most of the night with howling and the flinging of small pieces of debris against the windows of the tiny flat above the tavern.

Today she would venture outside after having kept to her quarters for most of two weeks except for forays downstairs to check on the staff, receive supplies and for meals and a bit of company.

She’d felt a bone-weary, soul-numbing fatigue and had waited it out–just a cycle such as occurs in the natural world. There were some moments when she’d wondered if she’d been poisoned, but she wasn’t important enough for that. She’d also considered whether she’d acquired the affliction that had been spreading around London for several years now, but the familiarity of her extreme languor and irritability called for dismissal of that possibility.

It was more than simple melancholy; she’d paced the floors, slept a lot, gazed out the windows and avoided her scrying ball and cards.

Today would be the day to coax and push herself back out into the bustling city even though she didn’t feel quite ready–in fact, she had a sinking feeling of dismay in her solar plexus.

Without a mental list of things to do or any plan at all really, she cautiously opened the tavern door and stepped out into the street. The air was damp and sooty; she was drawn immediately to the gentle and patient eyes of a horse attached to a nearby carriage. The driver was in the tavern having a quick pint; Wren whispered in the horse’s ear and scratched around his head–a perfect beginning to re-entry into the world.

Queen Victoria ~ May 24, 1819

Tags

history, Queen Victoria, Victorian

In honor of Queen Victoria’s birthday.

Some of her journals are freely available online to users across the globe for one month from now. After that, access is restricted to users in the UK, at selected Commonwealth libraries and in subscribing  institutions in the rest of the world.

Nature Coming In

Tags

houses, Photos

The missing walls and floors while things are first rezzing don’t always look this interesting to me.

A New Home

Tags

blogging, home, Linden Lab, Pandemonium, Photos, RolePlay, shopping, Victorian, Wren Alcyone

By now almost everyone knows about the new TOS from Linden Labs. I actually read some of it, since the last time there was a change I was only about three months old, wasn’t sure if I was going to stay and it hadn’t crossed my mind that I’d ever be blogging about SL.

Some of it was quite useful, leading me to Wiki pages about use of photographs and such, things I’ve been wondering about lately. I learned about looking at covenants to see if photography is allowed on a sim. It seems like there are so many mistakes a well-meaning person can make by blundering in and exploring things. I tend to err on the side of caution and it does hamper my fun and creativity.

I’ve noticed that many of the bloggers make a point of indicating that Second Life is trademarked and all that legal sort of stuff. What I do is very informal and I’ve never networked with SL blogger support groups; I think I’m all right though.Anyway once I got past that–earlier I’d realized my spring allergies would keep me from working efficiently–I distracted myself with moving home in my 1850’s London rp sim–the rp that’s going well. I am a witch and have recently begun managing the tavern in the top photo.

I had 25 land impact allowed and I used 23; I think I did very well. I bought three new items and otherwise used what I had. The fortune teller table above is by Mystique and is a 7 land impact. It has a candle, the two chairs, tablecloth and props of a crystal ball and tarot cards. The lovely ones I already had were too high in land impact. The Teal Persian rug came from the Fantasy Faire build that The Looking Glass had. It was the shop with the Asian furnishings–I liked almost everything in there.

The oval portrait of the Victorian couple is new as well. It is a 3 land impact but is so lovely it’s worth it. It came from Spargel and Shine–I love Tess Spargel’s homes–and that might be why “shine and sparkle” was going through my feverish head yesterday.

My character is illiterate but in the window is her inscribed copy of “Vampyre No More” that she received from an enjoyable IC reading and book signing.  The botanical prints on the wall are 1 prim each and I’ve used them in almost every place I’ve lived. The vanity is by [DDD] and I’ve had it a long time. It’s an amazing 2 prims and is actually medieval/fantasy but works for Victorian rp. It has 3 animations and one sit. The vase is from POST, one of my favorite shops, land impact 3. The bed is something I looked for on the marketplace; land impact 4. It was made by a Myfanwy McMahon and is meant for realistically scaled avatars; it can be modified but that may increase the land impact.

The Victorian beds I had in inventory were either high prim or low prim ones made for giants. I’m not at all knowledgeable or patient with modifying things. The sizes of everything here seem consistent with each other; my avatar actually fits the bed although it might not seem so in the photo.

So I’m feeling rather accomplished right now and know that when I’m feeling better I’ll be very efficient at my first world work. Here’s a final shot of the sim, using region settings and no post processing on my part.

Sparkle

Tags

Fantasy Faire, Photos

Anyone paying attention to the photos in this blog may have noticed I tend to favor muted and subdued vintage-look images. This build at this years Fantasy Faire was gorgeous in it’s rich color and intricacies. It was quite an experience climbing up the transparent stairs and seeing all that color and intricacy below me as well as around and above.

I’m not able to locate my notes about the name of this build right now and I want t to get this post published. Nothing has been altered in the top photo and I like it the best.

Sparkle isn’t quite the word I’d associate with this build but the words “shine and sparkle” are stuck in my mind this morning. Allergies have flared up and I’ve sneezed at least 30 times already but life is good.

More Photos Edited; Roleplay and Dancing

Tags

Fallen Gods Inc, Fantasy Faire, Magnificat, Photos, RolePlay, roleplay

Sometimes the hardest thing about blogging is coming up with a title. This post has photos–raw and edited, some observations on roleplay and a little about what I’ve been doing. Maybe I should have titled it blah, blah, blah.

These first three photos were taken at Magnificat at Fantasy Faire, which is now over. I always enjoy Alia Baroque’s work; there are ongoing changes at Fallen Gods Inc which I’ve been checking lately. Even the “work in progress” looks amazing.

The first three photos I just snapped what I saw. I played with changing them and liked the results, shown below. 

I like dancing in SL because my avatar is such an amazing dancer 🙂 and I don’t have to pay so much attention. It’s difficult for me to dance in real life and that’s also why I like it. I once was at an event where someone said there’s nothing more boring than dancing in Second Life. I think listening to strong opinions is more boring myself.

Anyway, someone asked me to go dancing yesterday evening; it was a country place–which I usually don’t go to–and it was fun. I changed out of my Victorian Witch dress and found some jeans in inventory. My feet, chest and hands looked royal blue on my viewer for a while at first. It’s good to have good company in SL, someone who can carry on a conversation and has some patience.

I’m not a long-time roleplayer, been doing it for less than two years and only in SL but have noticed a few things different in my experience lately. I’ve been in meetings talking about roleplaying more than actually playing. I guess that’s fine–being proactive instead of whining and giving up because it’s so hard to get people together. I like that it’s becoming more about the story and that all people’s stories are important instead of having a few players that want to dominate everyone else. 

There are two rp sims that I’m focusing on at the moment and one I’ve seen a few red flags about. While I like that sim owners keep people informed, the information was a little sharp when it came to the reasons why they had to move location and also why they changed furniture from something that didn’t work so well. We all get irritated, I know. And I say “they” because I’m barely established in it and don’t feel like a “we”. The person who approved my bio didn’t send it along to the other admins which has been inconvenient. (Well, I can’t find my NC copy either.)

During my first rp, there was a group of us and some nudity involved. I admit I was horrified when I got an offline group message that photos would be posted. When I looked online, they were taken from a distance and they were just inventory snapshots; I was relieved. Yes, it’s only pixels and no one else seems to care. I’m just mentioning that I have a funny feeling about it and I’m going to possibly be a fool and overlook that. 

My uneasy feeling was intensified when there was a group message about some sex rp that had taken place. Yes, it was kind of amusing. Yes, these players are not at all shy. Yes, I’ve been called a prude several times. Yes, it’s been mentioned to me a few times that sensitive people shouldn’t be on the internet. (What?)

There are all different kinds of people in the world. I’m not even comfortable mentioning the name of the avatar I went dancing with–he’s not likely to ever read this post even. So, this isn’t important to anyone else–just a little conflict I’m having. I haven’t expressed my concern anywhere else but here and haven’t decided if I’m going with or against my better judgement.

I’m pleased with these photos though, and I like blogging and I like when my avatar’s hands, feet and chest are the same skin color as the rest of her.