My Little Place

My new little place...

I am sitting on top of the awesome TARDIS that Vixey gave me.
Note the CONE in the background!

Catching Up

Yes, I couldn't resist... the first thing I did when I saw this fountain was jump in and run around in it!

Need to catch up a little here. Last weekend was a busy one, with me still learning how to get around in SL, and 3 more Uru friends joining us (I am no longer the newest of the noobs).

Went shopping for clothing and hairstyles. I finally found a hairstyle that feels more like the real me (a messy short ponytail). Yay! I'm still working on the rest of my appearance; the face is not right and I am WAY too tall.

Found a beautiful dress at Nicky Ree's and bought it by accident (doh!). I misread "Deco" as "Demo" and before I knew it, I had purchased it. Considered returning it, but it is sooooo pretty (the green dress shown in the ballroom picture) that I have decided to keep it. Also bought some more items there - intentionally!

I tried to show off my new dress... and every girl's worst nightmare. The dress didn't load correctly so I looked fine to ME, but to my friend, I was totally topless. How embarrassing!!! From now on, NO changing clothes in front of boys, ever!!!

Visited the SL Botanical Gardens again and STILL didn't see it all. I am distracted too easily... Sumi showed me an interesting place called Numbskulla or something odd like that, where there is some kind of puzzle game with journals and clues and so on. Very cool.

I found a really great resource for SL (the official website is sterile and devoid of any helpful information at all). Natalia Zelmanov's Second Life Diary covers everything - getting started, freebies, nightlife, creating objects/clothing/hairstyles, animations, sightseeing, you name it. She makes entries regularly so there is always some new info there.

Can't... stop... dancing...

Wow, I wish I could dance like this in RL... sigh...

Swimming

Relaxed in the pool and hot tub with Cella and Gran this evening, just us girls, it was so nice...

And I have to mention that swimming backward is also very amusing!

Dances With Wolves

More dancing last night with my Uru friends in 2L...
Hey, what is that island in the background, doesn't it look familiar?

TGIF

Getting a lot of big fat nothing done at work this week, so glad it's Friday. I hope next week I will be more focused.

Back to 2L again last night, to visit with Uru friends at Zed & Peachy's house. That was cool, pretty mellow. We hung out and chatted and made bad jokes and danced and listened to music... (hmmmm.... sounds like Bevin to me... only we can dance a lot better!)

Callie and Cella gave me some more clothes (which I would prefer to try out in private), and later everyone taught me how to use some of the emotes there. Callie and Peaches even gave me ballroom dancing lessons - above pic is me dancing with Callie.

The emotes ("gestures") there are customizable and vary from weird and silly (boing) to fun (hug and dance and cuddle) to X-rated (don't know these, thank you). Some of them you have with you and others are anchored to a place, for example in the pool you can float.

The clothing there can also range from blah to superb... the best clothing even flows out when the wearer moves, the rendering is pretty amazing. Cella has promised to take me "shoe shopping".

Something new, something silly, something to tease my mind while I wait for the next URU "Episode"...

Second Life: Third time's a charm

Dear sweet Gran.... she would not give up until she found something in 2L that I would enjoy.

Last night she took me to some places that were beautiful and peaceful. It started out just she and I, and we went to the Botanical Gardens, which was absolutely beautiful and had music I really liked. When I went out over the ocean and saw this huge moon in the sky with its reflection on the water, tears sprang to my eyes. It was like seeing a Myst Age for the first time. There were fountains hanging in the starry sky, which we could visit. And the best part, we seemed to have the place to ourselves (thank gooodness)!

Oh... and from the arrival location at the Botanical Gardens is a circular fountain... I had an irresistible urge to jump in it and splash around... (hmmmm, I wonder why?) so I did!

Shortly we were joined by some others from Uru - Rin, Kxxy, Borg, Tana, & Annija (still a bit overwhelming, if I've forgotten someone please forgive me). Now this was really nice... all Uru friends in a beautiful place together, just hanging out (and all fully clothed!).

After that, Gran introduced all of us to several more lovely places... this is much more what I had imagined it should be like. Relaxing with friends in a nice environment. I really DID enjoy this very much.

Second Life: Second Try

Well, I gave it another try last night. There were a few people I actually recognized, and they greeted me, which was nice.

Once again I found myself at some kind of dance party, surrounded by people who seemed more sophisticated than myself and not knowing what to say or do. I am extremely uncomfortable in this kind of situation in RL, so doing the same thing in 2L is just torture for me.

(This is more like the real me: )

Then I went to another place to escape/relax, but upon exploring what seemed to be just a beach house, I found that everything in it was "adult-themed". Holy moley... I think 2L is just too fast and exciting for a girl like me.

A thousand thanks to Granelda and Cheyanne and Julee and Tana and all of you, for being so kind to me in my awkwardness. (Especially sweet lovely Gran , who practically babysat me for two days.)

BUT... I can't wait to get back to my familiar, beloved, fully-clothed Uru, where I don't feel embarrassed to be a geek!

Second Life: the beginning...

After seeing all of your pics from Second Life, I was drawn by curiosity and, I admit it, a feeling of being left behind, to try it out for myself. In my head I envisioned a gentle place where you can hang out with friends and be silly and so on. (With that thing that is missing in Uru, FURNITURE. I do get tired of sitting on rocks or my poor foot...)

The first time you play you are dropped naked and blobby looking onto a place called "Help Island", which offers no help whatsoever and feels more like Hell Island. I spent an interminable amount of time trying to make my avatar look even remotely human. In the meantime other people who also have no clue what to do are walking into me and pushing me, and saying weird things to me. Finally I sent a Yahoo message to Granelda in despair, ready to give up.

Granelda came and rescued me from Hell Island to somewhere calmer that looked like a vacation house. She looked like a supermodel and I looked like Mrs. Beasley. She gave me some new clothes and shopping money (this part is still a mystery), and helped me figure out the basics a bit, then whisked me off to somewhere with music and people dancing around in thong bikinis, all looking inhumanly perfect.

I stood off to the side in my Mrs. Beasley outfit feeling very awkward and overwhelmed. I couldn't figure out how to move around properly or even LOOK around (the camera is very hard to control).

Turns out most of the girls there were from Uru, and soon they all were raining gifts on me of clothing, hairstyles, makeup, etc. Trying to figure out how to put said objects on my avatar was sometimes hilarious and sometimes frustrating. By the time they were finished I looked pretty much exactly like a Barbie doll. Complete with sparkly things in my hair. I still couldn't walk or look around, but at least my avatar looked HOT...

I am still not sure whether the entire experience was fun, or traumatic... but ya know, they say that curiosity killed the cat. I will probably go back for another look to see if I can find the mellow place I had imagined. Meow!