The Costa Rica sims hosted a Phantom of the Opera masquerade ball tonight, so always being up for an opportunity to dress to the nines, I wanted to go. While I was frantically surveying xstreet for suitable attire, a notecard from LVS dropped into my hands.
LVS just introduced a series of 7 gowns based on the 7 Deadly Sins and they are ALL gorgeous. I couldn’t pick just one, so I bought the Vanity and Greed dresses (I wish I had the lindens to buy all of them).
By the time the ball rolled around I had settled on the Vanity gown, hair from Truth (Wendy in Auburn), and the mask and jewelry from Illusions.
My dancing partner had to bow out early due to a 5 am start to his workday on Sunday, but I stayed until the chandelier crashed. Unfortunately I have no pics as the Ball was packed and many of the costumed revelers remained greyed out. I do believe Phantom Republic will have plenty of pictures on his blog as he put the fabulous party together.
After I left this Ball, I headed over to the Agnes Finney sim for yet another Ball. Being lazy, I wore the same dress, and I won the best dressed female contest! As most of my friends would attest to, I am entirely too fond of ballgowns (I’ve never owned one in RL so why not indulge myself in SL?). One very special friend of mine has nicknamed me “Swishy Skirts” for good reason. *smirks*
So all in all it was a lovely (and profitable) evening. I kept on the lookout, but I still didn’t find the Phantom.
Guys, here’s the ultimate bouquet (imagine the look on your sweetheart’s face at this..maybe someone should start a biz). For perspective, I’m flying in front of the lower left flower.
This next build was one of my favorites. The color and movement is spectacular. The creator owns a store where he sells fractal art and clothing. I’m not in world at the moment but I believe his name is Kenneth Tarantal (the spelling is likely wrong on that, so my apologies). There’s just something about being surrounded by light and color while listening to music that almost sparkles itself.
From there, I ventured inside one of those mysterious boxes and found myself under the sea:
Another of the mysterious boxes with an absolutely stunning interior…
Others have blogged this incredible, immense stage. I have to agree with everyone else on how amazing this structure is.
Then I went flying with an immense metal bird:
And my last stop for Burning Life 2009, this elegant structure..where I also happened upon one of the drumming sessions for which Burning Man and BL are so famous:
I guess it’s safe to say that no matter how much we suffer at the fickle whims of human nature, one of the safest ways to fill our gaps is through art.
After a great deal of thought, I have decided to return to blogging. It’s not that I believe my presence was missed in the blogosphere, but more that I have things to say and pictures to show.
I’m not one to air my dirty SLaundry (or even my clean SLaundry for that matter), so instead of ranting over what happened recently, I’ll discuss the philosophical topics the experience brought to mind.
It would seem many of us come to SL because we have gaps in our lives. I am the first to admit I have many. I work…A LOT. I don’t have much time for a social life, and the man in my (real) life lives 90 miles away. We see each other maybe twice a month at best. My RL besties live all across the United States, from California to Michigan to Tennessee to Virginia and New England. I met them all through our shared love of Big & Rich, but now that our guys are off exploring solo careers, we do not get to see each other very often.
Out of this group, I was the first to join SL. As of today three of my BFFs are now also in SL. When we have time, we’ll gather at my house in the Costa Rica sim and sit around and carry on like hens. Due to all of our hectic schedules and the vagaries of life, this doesn’t happen frequently.
I can occasionally entice my RL guy into SL, at least when we’re both NOT playing World of Warcraft.
But something is still missing so I look to SL to fill those gaps. I’ve got a lot to say about the subject and about how I see others dealing with their own gap effect, but it’s not going to be tonight. While Burning Life is still going on, I’d like to share how I’ve filled one particular gap in the past week. There will be a lot of pictures, and I should probably make a slide show, but I like giving my readers the option of clicking on the pictures to see them more true to size.
So away we go to Burning Life:
The Entrance (in most of these I’ve used the Sailor’s Delight windlight setting):
The tunnel leads the visitor into an explanation of the history of Burning Man and Burning Life, and is quite informative.
It also gives one the opportunity to take a nap in a ruby slipper (might as well, there’s a lot of exploring ahead):
There are really too many amazing builds to share them all, so I’m just going to highlight the ones that caught my eye enough to stop and take pictures.
There are all sorts of cool freebies scattered around all the builds. I loved this cool solar system table lamp:
I fear this build may prove to be more prophetic than most people would wish to contemplate:
There’s some free kitschy wall art at this build as well.
All sorts of transportation devices await your visit:
Straight out of a Johnny Cash classic:
To a little pink golf cart (pictures taken at the DMV Diner):
The cook must have been on break, but at least he left a plate of burgers behind the counter.
Next I played the Mouse Trap game…(a lovely builder here but most of the builders in BL are quite friendly and willing to talk about their creations):
I loved this area with the ridable ferris wheel, hot air balloons, and climbable ladders. One of the ladders will take up some 300m into the sky to a giant tree with cushions to rest (and there’s supposed to be some sort of freebie up there, but the day I went it wasn’t set for “sale” *pouts*):
Be sure to look inside of rather innocuous looking objects. You might find yourself inside a beehive:
Time to break this up into more segments. More to come…
It is 3:30 am and the rain keeps falling, in more ways than just literally.
I created this blog for reasons that no longer exist.
Back in August, I had a health scare that left me both afraid and angry. I realized just how meaningless Second Life can be, how for me anyway it had devolved into nothing much more than playing paper dolls, buying pretty things, and spending 99% of my time alone.
I almost quit SL then. I do alone in RL and do it quite well.
The scare proved to be a false alarm, but it had me questioning every aspect of my life, including the one you see in pixels.
I recently took a chance and believed in something that turns out to never have existed. Yesterday I discovered that RL and SL are mirror images.
I had a dream last night that a tornado came and wiped away everything that makes up my life now.
Now as I sit here, I have a tornado in my soul, and my weather radio just broadcast a RL tornado warning not far from where I live.
I won’t delete my SL account, but I am walking away from it. SL was supposed to be my refuge, and the storm wiped that away yesterday. I have discovered it does not pay to take anyone at face value, to believe in their words. Their words failed me, and now mine fail me as well.
I suppose it’s a good thing this blog was still in its infancy. It won’t be missed much.
11/26/19 Note: The photos that went along with this post vanished, so only the text is shown. It’s a real pity because there were some really interesting things in them.
I had a post planned for today, however it seems that subject was a bit too precipitous of me.
Then I thought perhaps I should write about my love of words. The one constant in my life over the past couple of years has been the power of words. My ability to write and write with passion and clarity (and occasionally humor) is the one indestructible conceit I allow myself.
Armies have power. World leaders have power.
But without the written and spoken word, armies and leaders, both good and bad, would not not have any power at all.
Love has power as well, but without the words it is meaningless. The human mind is fallible after all. Sometimes we fail to see what is right in front of us or misunderstand the actions of others and then mourn the missed opportunities over a lifetime.
Living in the lands of What If and If Only is heartbreaking. Words are the ticket out of there. But we are so often afraid to say what we mean and say what we feel because then sometimes we wind up heartbroken anyway. Those pesky words definitely get in the way, either by being present or unspoken.
But where are the words in Second Life?
Then I remembered visiting the Burning Life installation in 2008.
*Photo of an exhibit consisting of only words suspended from the sky. The words looked like rain.*
So stark in its simplicity and yet so complex…just like the words themselves.
When I feel most adrift is when the words leave me.
Today is one of those days. I can’t speak of what is truly on my mind.
So instead I will share other loves, of photography and nature. I will allow the silence to fill this blog today and maybe these photos of mine will bring a moment of peace to those who might need it.
*Instead of the photos that originally were loaded with this post, I’ll include a couple more recent ones*
Nature allows us the privilege to enter its world, to admire its beauty, to capture its essence in a non-harmful way and to leave it better for the experience. I consider it a rare gift for a butterfly or a hummingbird (or a friend) to grace me with its presence.
I was out shopping for a SL TV last night. Who knows? I might suddenly develop a desire (or a reason *wink*) to stay home at my amazing little beach front property in the Costa Rica sims.
So while I was browsing through the store, a video came on the display models.
If you read my last Love Thursday post, I mentioned a love of Big & Rich. Cowboy Troy tours with Big & Rich, and his video for I Play Chicken with the Train came on. I LOVE this song. I dare anyone not to get up and dance while listening to this song, even if the idea of rapping in country music makes you break out into combustible pustules (I just like the way those two words sound together).
For some odd reason the video glitched and kept playing over and over again for a while. I was happy (especially since Kenny and John are in this video, along with other Muzik Mafia members James Otto, Shannon Lawson, Max Abrams, and more…have had the pleasure of meeting all of these guys many times).
For an even odder reason, I decided to wear that new free skeleton avatar that everyone’s been either blogging or wearing or both when I went shopping.
So I give you this…I Play Chicken with the Skeleton Train:
Yes, that is me doing the chicken dance whilst wearing a skeleton avatar. I’ve been having a blast the past few days, and I’m finally feeling more like I did before I got so deathly sick in July. The reason for that knows who he is. 😉 Muah!
I’m not much into doing LOTD, but ever so often (about once a week LOL), I see something on the grid that inspires me to a)run and buy it and b)take pictures of it and c)post it on my blog.
A notecard from Malt Fashions dropped on me a short while ago, and I immediately had to TP over and snag a new shirt and pair of slacks.
Yes, I’ll figure out how to post SLurls sometime this century, but most of the stores I frequent are easy to locate in search.
Being obsessed with purple and all its various hues and fond of any clothing item which demonstrates SWISH, I had to have the new Allyn shirt in Lavender Field. Here I’m modeling (well, wearing…I’m no model) the long-sleeved version, but the shirt comes with a short sleeve option as well. It can be worn with or without the sculpty bottom portion (which also has a cute little transparent area to show off a sexy tummy). It’s 285L for a single color and 1995L for the fat pack of 9 colors: Snow White, Liquorice Twist, Forbidden Apple, Sticky Toffee, Morning Breeze, Kiwi Crush, Misty Grey, Lavender Field & Pink Passion.
The Willow Pants come in 7 shades: Silver, Raven, Navy, Smoke, Evergreen, Chocolate & Straw. I paired the silver pants with the Allyn top. The pants are 250L each (I forget what the fat pack costs..bad blogger).
Other great finds:
Hair: Evie in burgundy by Truth Shoes: Janie Heels by Dilly Dolls (gotta love color change shoes) Jewelry: The Blue Pearl Amethyst Drops (if you went to the recent jewelry fair you likely spotted this small booth full of gorgeous creations at ridiculously low prices. Everything 20L or less! The creator is Pheonix Piek, so search for her and her store is listed in her profile picks). Skin: Kimberly Pale in Abyss from Free Speerit.
I’m going to wait a few days for the furor to die down at the skin and shape fair before I pay it a visit. I can’t afford to purchase a large number of them, and I wouldn’t inflict pics of me in demo skins on the 3 readers I have. Well, I might inflict them on Marnix since I did it to him in person last night. 😉
I’ve been AWOL from SL for the most part for the past few days.
I’ll get through the sad part first. Four pets own me, or shall I say now three pets own me. I had the unfortunate task of having one of my cats put to sleep yesterday. He had kidney failure and a couple other things wrong with him that are too graphic to detail here. Suffice it to say, I am saddened he is gone, but I could not keep him alive in the condition he was in. I have a 17 year old dog, a 15 year old cat, and an 8 year old dog remaining. I’m not looking forward to losing the remaining two senior citizens in my house.
Hope you’re having a great time on the other side of Rainbow Bridge, Jazz.
And for those tightasswads out there who don’t believe in the afterlife for pets, go chase your own tail or something.
As for better news, I’ve moved! I’ve lived on the mainland since my earliest days in SL, when I picked up my first 512 and plopped down a tent.
It wasn’t much, but it was mine.
The neighborhood was rather nice to begin with, but almost immediately after I bought my tiny plot, the neighbors who had set up their land so beautifully sold out and moved. There was a progression of new neighbors, some good, some bad. I wanted more prims to I slowly started acquring more lots until I wound up with over 8000 sq. m. -.- Silly me.
Then a neighbor made an offer I couldn’t refuse. He is building a resort on one side of my property, and I had this view on the other side of my house.
Now I do not think of myself as a snob, and I can understand when one is a builder that this construction has to take place somewhere. I have to draw the line at this though. The house’s roof has been hovering a few feet over the house for MONTHS. The house’s parts do not even match (and yes, people do “live” there), there’s furniture in various states of construction (or deconstruction) all over the yard, and yes, even a Cinderella’s coach I do believe. Needless to say, they junked up the neighborhood.
Then last week the “FREE HOLY BIBLE” people moved in. It’s a pity there are no zoning laws on the mainland.
I’ve been eyeballing some plots in the Costa Rica sims for quite some time, and as it so happens, a beautiful piece of property became available last week. While the tier is rather pricey, it’s not going to cost me any more RL money than I was already paying Linden Labs for my maintenance fees, so I figured wth. It’s obviously a successful community, with over 60 sims, a shopping complex, all sorts of recreational activities, and a nightclub soon to open (or so I saw on the Fashion Feed this afternoon). What’s best about it..no more tacky neighbors.
So without further ado, I said farewell to my old home:
And said hello to my new one:
I’m temporarily recycling my previous beach house from O-Magine Homeworks until I can find a nice villa.
It’s still early on in the landscaping process so things are a bit bare, but I love my little corner of tropical paradise.
It was really this waterfall (and its twin right around the corner) that sold me on this lot. The waterfalls and treed area are all owned by the sim owner, so it will stay exactly as it is. /me hugs her waterfall.
So that’s it for now. I miss my cat. I love my new place.
I’ve noticed over the past year and a half that I’ve been in SL that many people do pictorials of their evolution from noobitude to the incredibly hot avatars they are now. *smirks*
I always find these displays fascinating. Considering that LL has in recent months at least started offering somewhat better noob starter avi materials, I think it’s safe to say that anyone joining SL heretoforward will shudder in complete disgust at the pictures we old-timers post, but hey..I’m going to share mine too!
After perusing my photo album and seeing my earliest efforts at putting an avatar together, I may sleep with the lights on tonight. *shudder*
And away we go…
All you recent SL residents can thank your pixel stars that “system
hair” is no longer a torture you will have to bear until you can escape
to a freebie store. This was my first avi after I escaped Orientation
Island and started the desperate search to look…less like something
from It Came From Outer Space.
Amusing anecdotes:
The first time I tried changing a skin, I was HORRIFIED by that
blurred face we’re all now accustomed to. I thought I’d done something
horribly wrong and swore to myself I’d never change skins again! LOL
The above picture was taken at Free Dove, which of course still
exists but the stock doesn’t get refreshed very often. I did feel like a
kid in a candy store there though.
As you’ll be able to tell after the next shot, I was rather obsessed
with that butterfly chair. I thought it and the purple tree in the
background were so pretty.
Here I had my first introduction to dressing rooms (or in this case
tents) that anyone could just barge into while I was changing. I think I
also had my first stalker there.
WTF would ANYONE stalk an avatar that looked like…THAT? *giggles*
NEXT! (before I find a way to time travel back to smack myself for ever looking like that)
YAY! The helmet hair is gone. I had already started learning how to tweak my shape (although really, that shape was hopeless). At least I found a skin that looked less like I had a contagious disease. Whew. *wipes sweat off brow* The sad thing is, to this day I still see people wearing this sort of skin and shape, even after they’ve been in world for months.
I don’t think I’m smarter than the average bear, but I found Free Dove because I used this wonderfully cool tool called GOOGLE to search for “free items in Second Life.” I think I figured that out after the first day. Don’t ask me why people are in SL for 6 months or a year and still look/walk like they just fell off the duck truck. There are so many wonderful blogs dedicated to promoting fabulous items for noobs. Hell, I’ve even created an alt just for the challenge of never spending one linden on her. She looks pretty darn good too. Maybe I’ll introduce her sometime.
Now for version #3 of myself:
I think my avatar had Grave’s Disease for a while…look at those bug eyes! Or maybe I had just seen my first freenis.
I don’t think I’ve been that flat-chested since I was 2. Someone give that avatar a sandwich.
By this time I’d found Sirena’s hair store (via finding her blog, natch) and bought quite a large amount of it. Yep, I’ve been a redhead since day 1, and although I occasionally play around with being blonde or raven-haired, I always come back to the red.
In case you haven’t noticed, I also didn’t fall into the “blingtard” trap early on. Of course I had blingy items as the free stuff was full of it, but I didn’t want to be mistaken for an airport runway.
The beginnings of the fashionista? LOL I loved this dress, and I think I kept it just for nostalgia’s sake. I remember being fascinated with this sim because of the floating particles.
And it took me a while to take that hair off.
Now some progress began to occur:
I changed hair, and my then SL BF bought me my first PAID skin (from Laqroki). It was and still is a very pretty skin, and I wore it for a fairly long time, just tweaking the shape now and then.
I also started getting a bit better at taking SL pictures around this time.
Yep, still wearing Sirena hair…
Jump ahead a few months…I’d discovered Lemania and overdosed on glamourpuss potion. I found hair somewhere else (don’t remember), picked up my first photorealistic skin from Extreme Reality..and I discovered free photo studios….
I think my dishwasher was backing up when that shot was taken.
And then I found ETD! And Free Speerit! And apparently hadn’t yet found a 12 step program for evening gown addictions.
This first free gift skin from Free Speerit led me to own half of her Kimberly line now. -.- I may venture off to Rockberry and Cupcakes depending on if I need a tone that goes better with blonde or black hair, but I always come back to Free Speerit (my wallet hates me).
Forgive me, Father for I have over-teased…
Yep, it’s big and so 80s, but I love this hair. I’d use it as a blanket in RL if I could. I’d hug it and squeeze it and call it George.
I need a vacation.
FYI: It’s by Calico Ingmann (and another case of the group gifty traps the unsuspecting hair-obsessed avatar in its diabolical clutches).
And finally (hold your applause) we reach the current day…the current incarnation of Lysi.
And I finally hopped on the bandwagon of Truth. Thank GOD he only does new releases once a week.
Skin by Cupcakes
Flower Choker by Bliss (who says I can’t remember where I bought stuff?)
Yes, I’m in a cage in this pic, but I put myself in it.
Location of said cage is Omega Point (good luck finding it..the place is huge)
You can’t see it but the fabulous outfit is the new pirate outfit by
RFyre. It competes with that hair to be my blanket most nights.
And being the self-absorbed, ballgown/hair/boots/beds that make
themselves-obsessed fashionista I am, here’s a pic of me taken just a
moment ago.
Ok, I lied about not posting LOTD. This is my LOTD. Don’t expect LOTD every day.
And yes, Marnix, I talk a lot. You’d talk a lot too if you worked at
home and your only companions 24/7 were a rottweiler-attacking chihuahua
and a cat who apparently is trying to teach herself to swim in her
water dish.
Hair: Maddy by Truth
Jacket: Aoharu (everyone’s already blogged this jacket..there’s a
reason why. It’s FABULOUS and reasonably priced considering you get the
jean jacket or no jeans jacket options with it). It’s also fabulous
because I didn’t have to resize the damn thing. Yay for designers who
create for non-glamazons!
Jewelry: Zaara. The bracelets have been out a while but the
amethyst necklace is new. It’s a stunner (475L). Go buy it. You’ll
name it George.
Boots: Nova (this was a random find in my inventory… I assume the store is still open..love the plum color)
Tank top: PixelDolls (hey, 25L separates sale as we speak..these tanks make great layering pieces)
As a new blogger, I thought I should jump right in feet first.
While I’m not going to be a fashion blogger, per se, I do have certain favorite designers and stores I can’t resist visiting. I don’t plan on doing LOTD or providing SLURLs for everything I show, but I will try to at least give the names of the designers for most items. I’m also a rank noob at SL photography so bear with me while I experiment with lighting. I’d much rather shoot “in the field” than in some sterile green screen studio anyway (not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I’m just more of an “organic” photographer).
So what should I talk about for my first Love Thursday?
After getting a surprise delivery from one of my favorite artists in SL (and artist she is), I had to blog this yet to be released creation from Evangeline Miles at Evie’s Closet. This ensemble, known as “Fable” comes in several color variations. The red and black combination is simply stunning:
Notice the adorable little sculptie tie on the bodice? It’s finishing touches such as this (and the ruffles across the chest) that really sell an outfit to me.
The dress comes in 3 skirt options. The first is the two-tiered ballgown skirt.
The second is the multi-layered (and gorgeous) ballet skirt.
The third is the lingerie option (I should remember not to shed skirts around leering skull-headed sim guards).
Now for the skinny on the other items–jewelry is a free gift from Kyccie. This store is going out of business and this set of necklaces, earrings, and belly gems which was to be her Jewelry Expo offering is now a gift. It’s sad to see a designer I just discovered close. The detail on this set is fabulous. I’m wearing the Haides & Persephone set in all of these shots.
Boots are the ubiquitous (uBOOTquitous? LOL) creations from Bax. I can’t seem to take the things off! Who needs a teddy bear when you snuggle with boots as comfy as these? Everybody’s blogged them. I’m going back for the other colors in about 5 minutes.
Hair is “Peaches” by Truth. Everyone knows Truth. ‘Nuff said. A friend of mine in SL nicknamed me Peaches, so naturally I bought this one. All of the skins in this post are by Free Speerit (Kimberly in Pale in Abyss and Watermelon).
Locations for the above shots are Omega Point (highly recommend visiting here although there appears to be some reconstruction going on at the moment–you can find it in search) and the second two were taken at the sim owned by the above-mentioned friend who calls me Peaches.
Now for another ensemble by Evie. When she has a sale, the place gets packed in a hurry, so naturally I joined the stampede. I already own a large number of her dresses, so I restricted myself to just one purchase, but oh, what a purchase..and for 175L too!
This is the Chimaera ensemble in green (I’m sure it has a fancier color name than that, but I’m not in world to look it up at the moment..bad Lysi). It just seemed made to swish around in the Alirium Gardens sim (most everything you see in the background is available for sale in the sim’s shop).
Hair is by fri.day in the “happy blonde” tone. I know fri.day is a new store, but the hair textures are some of the most realistic in SL (and they KNOW how to do redheads. I love Japanese hair but I think red hair confuses them somewhat as their reds rarely look realistic or even red). I snagged several fri.day hairs during their recent Labor Day sale.
The only thing I wonder…why do I have so many ballgowns when I never go dancing? LOL
Whilst it’s lovely to go swishing through a sun-dappled forest in a ballgown, it’s would be better to have company.
Now, for a RL LOVE_LOVE_LOVE of mine, I’ll close out this post with two men who pretty much saved my life a few years ago. Some people hate them and credit them with destroying country music, but they are two of the funniest, most talented men in the world. They’re best known for the famous/infamous song Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy), but there is so much more to them than that. I’ve met them on numerous occasions and I consider them family. Love ya, Kenny and John!
I present to you country music without prejudice..Big & Rich style (and yes, these photographs are my work).
The Good, the Bad, and the Pixelated 