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Million Happy Endings

~ a sometimes intrepid exploration of a virtual world

Million Happy Endings

Tag Archives: awareness

Listening, Telepathy, Jumping to Conclusions and Evolution

01 Thursday May 2014

Posted by riverpearl in Life, Uncategorized

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

awareness, behavior, business

at fotoscope_01

One of the reasons I’ve been online less is because my time in real life has been wasted by the poor listening skills of others. Most of us have information overload and some tend to manage that by tuning out, interrupting others and jumping to conclusions. When we take a breath and let someone finish their sentences we might find they are wanting something different and going somewhere other than we thought.

In these fast-changing and chaotic times I find the need to step back from the rampaging agendas of others. Many think they’re brilliant multi-taskers but some are making increasingly glaring mistakes that are expensive, boring, painful and time-consuming to fix. There’s always been human error but whenever possible I’ve been opting out of doing business with people who simply don’t listen because I simply can’t trust them.

People sometimes complain to me about the economy and their business challenges. At first I just listen, not being called on for advice. When it goes on I gently ask what they’re planning to do about it. When it continues to be obvious that they don’t listen, I point that out once and then I’m done.

Sure lots of people don’t read the FAQ’s. There are people who want stuff without fair exchange, cheaters and takers; there are all sorts of reasons why clients and customers can be a pain. Often you might think you can spot them right away or immediately put them in some category based on a first impression. And you can be very wrong.

There are some businesses that are thriving and what I’ve noticed is that they tend to listen to what the client/customer is wanting. We are each unique people and often our concerns are nuanced, not some one-size-fits-all. Crappy customer service has been going on almost forever of course but it looks like the gap between those who can listen and those who are oblivious is widening temporarily.

The human race actually does evolve and we are becoming more telepathic. But we are all at different points on that spectrum and it isn’t happening gracefully or in a short period of time. I live in an urban area that isn’t densely populated. Several years ago, when people first began reading their phones while walking, I would get run off the sidewalk by people doing so as they wobbled and wove all over the place. It happens less often now as people are able to look at their phones, be somewhat aware of others moving on the sidewalk and even look up and nod or smile!

Hopefully communication will become more streamlined and people will give each other the chance to be heard and understood.   In the meantime, I can’t run in place and wear myself out by struggling to communicate.

We all want to be relevant but if everyone is yelling out for attention, broadcasting their agendas repeatedly and behaving as though things they say and do don’t count unless a lot of people notice, like and applaud, how can anything get solved?  Communication is not all meant to be a one-way street. This has all been said before but I’m astounded at the number of bewildered people who just don’t get that it isn’t all about them. And some of them are professionals in positions of responsibility.  Many are blocking out the very things they say they want because they hear a snippet and think they’ve got the whole thing.

I wrote this post for myself. When I run into this communication challenge again in the real world, I’ll quickly think of this post and just walk away when possible. I rarely write posts like this or use tags like “life” or “business”. So if you’ve actually read this far, just know that my blog is usually about something you’re likely not interested in.

at fotoscope_02These raw photos were taken in Second Life at Fotoscope Island, which can be found in the destination guide and in Search.

Yuko No Yume part two

08 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by riverpearl in Life, Second Life, secondlife, Uncategorized, Virtual Photography

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

awareness, virtual destinations, Yuke No Yume

yuki no yume_010

Gazing at the snow monkeys, I noticed the sim creator Jack Mornington in the area. He greeted me in a friendly fashion and I expressed my appreciation for his lovely sim.

My header photo for this blog was taken in front of this steaming pool where the arctic monkeys are.

yuki no yume_011

Every view here is lovely.

yuki no yume_008

 

One of “Those” People

07 Thursday Nov 2013

Posted by riverpearl in Life, Second Life, secondlife, Virtual Photography

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

art, awareness, blogging, virtual destinations

Romy_003

Here are my best photos from my visit to Romy Nayar’s Overto Omonto. May this serve as a reminder that you possibly intended to visit, either for the first time or to return.

A few weeks ago I went to see the insallation, more than once. Several well-known bloggers were posting about it then and I was busy with other things. My human has been writing a lot of posts in her head as she attends to her life. We keep thinking, “hmmmm better not actually post that.”

Romy_005

The colors here are soothing, there’s space and it was a refreshing break from the SL drama, the hunts that are too difficult, and many of the Halloween events that I felt too uninspired to blog about this year.

There is something to do here besides just look at art. You can collect a latin word by interacting with each lonely figure and make a sentence for use in setting the figures free. My sentence didn’t work at first; I soon discovered it was because I’d capitalized the beginning of it.

I’d made the numerous visits because I’d been getting interrupted with IMs. Sometime Second Life is a lonely place; other times everyone wants me at the same time. Today we had the thought that the installations are possibly available for two months only and we’d better post the photos soon.

Romy_006

I’m aware that I’m jumping around with “I” and “we” here but this is my subjective blog and I’m a little sad and annoyed.

Most of the difficulty in my human’s life is that she’s always embraced change and is hyperaware of what’s “wrong with the picture.” Most of the people in her life embrace the status quo and want things to go back to the way they were.

But here she is, dismayed with some of the directions things have been going in. These are our feelings; you’re welcome to your own of course, but there’s no time or energy for argument.

OO_001

My human attended college and had to live in the dorm her freshman year. At first she liked everyone; then came the weirdness of rushing sororities and fraternities. So maybe she’s a misfit and a contrarian but it saddened her to see what she perceived as the diminishment of uniqueness among the other students.

We aren’t a fan of blogging memes. That’s all that will be said about that.

Nayar_03

There are numerous reasons for blogging, no judgement, but some of the blogs we’ve previously enjoyed now have so much stuff on them that they take forever to load. Our computer is what it is but many other blogs don’t take for-frigging-ever to load and those are the ones we’re likely to read.

I still travel inworld and see many wonderful and empty sims. Many are loved and well thought out themes but they don’t have the very latest mesh creations that the famous creators have made. I’ve met store owners, many of them wonder why they should bother having a main store when avatars seem to want to flock to brief shopping events. I’ve gone to some of those events, or rather tried numerous times to get into them only to find people standing around and the region was about full.

I must be one of those old and cranky people because I’m weary of endless shopping and then listening to contacts complain about their bloated inventories. I too have been enthusiastic about new items, especially since much of what’s being created isn’t really to my taste, only to be criticized for the way it was blogged here. Seriously, there’s only a few of us who are good enough and doing it right?

A few of my favorite blogs are very well-done SL fashion blogs. The best have bloggers who actually interact with others here.

Romy_007

I’ll continue to find my way inworld just as my human enjoys life even though she lives in a materialistic, conformist, attention-whoring culture. I’ll float along on my little raft and watch those big ole glossy, trendy ships pass in the other direction.

I believe this installation in the photographs is made of prims and I really like that.

Each and every one of us is important.

Dance!

14 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by riverpearl in Life, Second Life, Virtual Worlds

≈ Comments Off on Dance!

Tags

awareness, destinations, One Billion Rising

morning on the One billion rising stage

morning on the One billion Rising stage

earlier during the wee hours of the morning

earlier during the wee hours of the morning

About 60 avatars within range of me and I’m not having any difficulties which is amazing in Second Life.

OBR Preview ~ part two

12 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by riverpearl in Life, Second Life, Uncategorized, Virtual Worlds

≈ Comments Off on OBR Preview ~ part two

Tags

art, awareness, creativity, destinations, One Billion Rising, Photos

Even more landscaping will be added

Even more landscaping will be added

The sim looks beautiful and more landscaping will be added during the hours it’s closed. Over 100 volunteers, both women and men worked on this project. The landscaping is by Heart Garden Center. This isn’t a fund raising event; it’s to raise awareness. Sixteen sponsors paid the tier for the week and I really wanted to make note of who they are. Their signs are tastefully displayed and everything looks really well integrated.

another view of the stage

another view of the stage

MadPea

MadPea

On Thursday at two scheduled, and also at random times, you can be photographed here and MadPea will make a stand of your avatar.

me and avatar stands

me and avatar stands

These are some previously made stands by MadPea. The signs have text and graphics.

Wall of Shame by US artist Lorin Tone

Wall of Shame by US artist Lorin Tone

The Wall of Shame is a multi-media build about Womens’ Rights issues focusing on recent developments in the US, which truthfully are not pleasant. It’s a very well-put together, awareness raising build.

Gracie Kendal ~ USA

Gracie Kendal ~ USA

This photo doesn’t do the art justice. One of the wonderful things about Second Life art is that you can walk around inside of it, as I did this colorful and beautiful work in order to experience it in many of its variations.

You can learn more about these artists here.

One Billion Rising Preview~Photos!~part one

12 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by riverpearl in Life, Second Life, Uncategorized, Virtual Worlds

≈ Comments Off on One Billion Rising Preview~Photos!~part one

Tags

awareness, destinations, One Billion Rising, Photos

OBR_005

For my non-Second Life readers, a 24 hour event to coincide with the real world One Billion Rising campaign is being held inworld on February 14th. An awesome video has been made, easily found on Youtube or if you explore the topic here at wordpress.

press preview on the One Billion Rising stage

press preview on the One Billion Rising stage

This afternoon the organizers invited bloggers and journalists to preview the event sim and I was fortunate I had time to attend. Here, the women and men involved made themselves available to answer questions and provide links and information about the event.

The stage for dancing

The stage for dancing

The stage is huge. There are no stairs; it’s wheelchair accessible. You can pick up an OBR goodie box at the base of the ramp. It includes t-shirts for both men and women in 3 mesh sizes, in black or white. There’s also an OBR rising gesture. I picked up my t-shirt yesterday evening in front of Prim Perfect Headquarters as well as a clickable poster that gives an informative NC. I searched inworld for the teleport to PPH and landed in the water nearby, but I’m a girl who feels the sea instead of getting wet so it was fine.

I had to try out the dance machine!

I had to try out the dance machine!

I really like the dance machine; it has dances for singles as well as couples, dances for tinies and there are dance balls in the water under the stage for MerPeople. The water below can be seen thorough heavy glass in the dance floor.

The 24 hour event will be photographed and it will also be live-streamed. The schedules and details are well-covered on the One Billion Rising in Second Life blog.

No giant avatars, rlv restraints or leashes; there are plenty of other places available for those inworld. The event is General Maturity so those who are 16 and 17 may attend.

resting after looking at much of the art.

resting after looking at much of the art.

Besides the stage, there’s beautiful open space. I rested to gather my thoughts in a quiet corner of the sim. There is a script counter nearby and fortunately I’m almost always very low in scripts. Lag is something we all like to prevent as much as possible, no?

you can follow the walkway to see the art

you can follow the walkway to see the art

There are 18 amazing artists who’ve displayed work here. The green kiosks,  like the one in the left of the photo, are clickable to get NCs with bios of the artists.

I’ve taken photos of some of the art but I was enjoying my exploring and need to check my info as I was being somewhat of a sloppy reporter. There will be another two, possibly three posts about this preview because I took a lot of photos I’d like to share.

The sim will be open from midnight tonight until about noon tomorrow for residents to look at the art.

Not Shopping Today Either

24 Saturday Nov 2012

Posted by riverpearl in Fiction, Life, Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Not Shopping Today Either

Tags

awareness, Consciousness, learning, Story Telling, values, Writing, writing

Not Standing Next To The Bullshit.

“Katia continues with her writing and the dishes remain soaking, the sheets remain unchanged and the time moves on. She actually has to remind herself that this is not a failure; she really cannot be in more than one place at one time. The horrors of taking on the energy of others, the horrors of people who felt overwhelmed by duties making her feel a failure because they focused on what she hadn’t done instead of what she had accomplished for them. It’s in her cells and nervous system now. Whatever choice she has made, a part of her could say that it was the wrong one; she has been programmed.

There are people and organizations she can finally see clearly as her oppressors, those she wanted to please and could be easily manipulated by with the withholding of appreciation and approval. They’d wrung everything out of her that they could because it was the way the world worked in places. They thought that they deserved it to make up for what had been done to them, for their losses and for their conditioning of overwhelm, for Katia’s stupidity for actually caring and mostly because they didn’t have the blessing and curse of feeling what it’s like to be someone or something else.

They give her nothing now; they do nothing for her but make noise in her life. She no longer cares what they think of her; she thinks of them rarely at all. What of value can they withhold from her now, when she turns and walks away?”

The Discerning of Appropriate Information

23 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by riverpearl in Life, Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

awareness, choices, Consciousness, learning, Story Telling, values, Writing

Time Out

“Right now it is shining more than the enormous amount of frightening, yet also dull information and the distractions and the conflicting opinions bouncing around her world. She can look at it and put it in a simple, beautiful container in her mind and practice—next step, next step, next step– and then move to play with the simplicity of another beautiful container that holds what is her own chosen priority.

Almost everything she’s been taught about living has been wrong. She has to write her own manual now and it is a great responsibility and a great adventure. It is clunky and awkward work. Many mistakes are made. It is like having to transform into another species with no appropriate elder to explain the process and the signs and gently point out the wheat from the chaff. She moves between feeling the trembling of her hands working with the material of the moment and pausing to listen to the soft voice amongst the cacophony and babble of the world. Sometimes, for a brief moment she can attend to both.  It takes a lot of energy yet it appears to look like nothing is being accomplished to those mostly focused in the third dimension. There’s no more time to try to explain.

She has been saved by her ego many times; she can see that now. That ego that has been pointed out with head shaking and frowning scorn by the well-meaning when she didn’t stay in the line, get with the program, keep up with the pace, do it the way it worked for them in their shoes and on their path with their resources.  Only one reality, they seemed to think, and the one belonging to the most intimidating, the most rich, the most confident, arrogant, complacent and smooth is the one that wins. Sometimes that looked like the only game in town.”

Changes Behind the Scenes

17 Saturday Nov 2012

Posted by riverpearl in Life, Second Life, Uncategorized, Virtual Worlds

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

awareness, Consciousness, life

Sometimes you just don’t have all the information and you have to be patient.

 

Sometimes Life Doesn’t Make Much Sense

02 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by riverpearl in Life, Second Life, Uncategorized, Virtual Worlds

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

awareness, behavior, Consciousness, Medieval

Reflection is important but there are things that need doing as well. Sometimes a girl is just walking along in her world, carrying an axe, minding her own business when she sees strange symbols near her path. Does she dare pass them by? If she gazes at them long enough will they divulge their mystery? Should she run like hell? Perhaps the symbols aren’t important.

She’ll likely use the skills and wisdom and courage that she has available and will do her best with that.

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