30 Thursday May 2013
Posted in Second Life, Uncategorized, Virtual Worlds
≈ Comments Off on 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.
27 Monday May 2013
Posted in Fiction, Second Life, Uncategorized
≈ Comments Off on Auspicious Re-entry
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.
24 Friday May 2013
Posted in Second Life, Uncategorized
≈ Comments Off on Queen Victoria ~ May 24, 1819
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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.
09 Thursday May 2013
Posted in Second Life, Virtual Worlds
08 Wednesday May 2013
Posted in Second Life
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.
06 Monday May 2013
Posted in Life, Second Life, Uncategorized
≈ Comments Off on More Photos Edited; Roleplay and Dancing
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.
04 Saturday May 2013
Posted in Life, Second Life, Uncategorized, Virtual Worlds
Tags
Magnificat
The ongoing Second Life “improvements” are affecting my experience lately. I still believe it’s all worth it but I’ve had frequent crashes, new purchases vanishing into the virtual ethers, gotten stuck inside objects and I’ve been unable to use SLurls or log in from my dashboard. And then there’s the length of time for things to rez. With first life becoming busier, I haven’t been able to justify logging in so much this week.
I did find time to make a rather quick visit to the Fantasy Faire and took photos between crashes and inability to move. I’ve been playing with editing them and that has been quite satisfying to me. Fantasy Faire is over and no one will see these and then join Second Life and have their experience ruined forever because things don’t look like the photos I’ve embellished.
These were taken at Magnificat, which was an amazing build. There was not much skill involved in editing, I simply had the patience and focus to click on different things in picmonkey and choose what I like.
Experimenting is good. There is no better or worse, just different. Personal tastes are valid. 
I’d like to add how much I appreciate the friendliness and responsiveness of the Second Life WordPress community.
I have a few more before-and-after photos of Fantasy Faire to post here during the next week for my sort-of-album. In the meantime, I’m having some roleplay difficulties but I’m not close to giving up.
