Welcome to de swamp!

My sweetie was in a meeting. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I got an IM from my friend Aki Clutterbuck asking if I wanted to come see her new store, Au Jus. Sure! I beamed over there to find her with our friend CodeBastard Redgrave, taking a tour of the shop.

(Yes, I know, I'm wearing the same clothes as I was wearing the day before at the Hell Bop Bar. What a faux pas!)

The house is really a Victorian mansion, and it's mostly empty at this point, except for one set of poses, but soon that will change. The house has some great features and nice detailing—and a tower room! As a kid, I always wanted a tower room.

Equally cool, literally, is the land surrounding the house. It's next to a small inlet that is below a cliff, so it already has the feel of a "holler." And to enhance that feel, Aki has put in plants such as mossy trees and ferns. It's so different from the typical tropical paradise or Japanese-themed parcels that are found all over Second Life, and I loved it.

There's an island out in the bay, and our friend Jacek Antonelli, inventor and lover of all things tentacled, seems to be setting up a new Cuddlefish Junction there. And there was a Bubble Ride thingie! I'd read about this and seen a machinima that Codie made of people floating in bubbles, but it's way more fun to use than to read about or even see a film of. Naturally, I took tons of pictures of my own, but I won't bore you with more than one. All I can say is, check it out and have fun!

I floated in my bubble all over Dynamism sim, which has the kind of topography that I like, very hilly with lots of water inlets. I'm afraid I was taking more pictures of me in the bubble than of the landscape.

Bubbles rides aren't all that Jacek has come up with. She recently made a sculpty octopus. I couldn't tell you what it's for, but it looks cool out there in the bay, grabbing onto what seems to be a lighthouse.

I'm not sure if the new Cuddlefish Junction is open yet, but I'm sure it will be soon. I don't know when Aki is opening Au Jus. But keep an eye out for it.

Bop till you drop

Due to the eight and nine hour time difference, I hardly ever get to see my European friends. Weekends, however, can help to bridge that gap. I can't remember whether it was Saturday or Sunday afternoon when I popped into Second Life and got an IM from my friend Peter Stindberg. I thought he was going to beam me to his house, but he said he was at a club. I asked what the music was like, and he said psychobilly and rockabilly, so I figured I didn't have to change from my punky camo skirt and pink pseudo-Chucks.

The Hell Bop Bar was new to me. The decor is pretty much standard rock bar. Peter was there, dancing with a friend. My friends Caterin Semyorka and Therese Carfagno were dancing in a line with their friend Cake Kidd, whom I'd met only once before. They called it dancing anyway. They were pretty close to each other! I chatted a bit with Cake, and she offered me friendship, which I accepted happily. I love reading about their adventures in Cat and Tess's blogs. I'm guessing Cake has one of her own. I'll have to find it!

Recently, I've been dancing off my own Huddles, but this place doesn't allow scripts, so I had to click on the ball. Fortunately, the dance ball has some pretty cool animations in it. It was funny to hear someone saying she was getting drunk while I was sipping my afternoon coffee. Being in the same place at different hours of the day can be disorienting.

I don't know yet whether the Hell Bop Bar operates on only on European time or if it's open during North American prime time too. I want to go back anyway, whenever it's open. The music stream was great!

The Second Life aquatic

I was busy with the usual first life stuff on Friday and Saturday night, but Illya and I managed to get together last night. She took me sailing. I'd been sailing before, but that was only around Iron Fist, and there wasn't much water to manoeuvre in. Last night, Illya took me to a marina on Nantucket sim.

She changed into a swimsuit. I was hunting through my swimwear folder, wondering if I had anything that wasn't somewhere between small and minuscule (trying for some propriety for a change), and I found a tankini that I'd bought in that flurry just before the closing of Last Call (for all I know, it's not closed yet). Perfect!

We boarded her yacht. I think it would have to be called a yacht. I'm pretty ignorant about sailing vessels. I just love to get out on the water, real or virtual. I should learn how to tell one craft from another. And when it's virtual water and virtual sun, you don't have to worry about virtual sunscreen!

I clicked on the "crew" ball, but I was more passenger than crew. Illy says she has a crew HUD, so hopefully I'll learn how to manipulate the sails. There really is wind in Second Life, although she says it sometimes acts weird.

We did get under full sail, however, and sailed around the whole area—Nantucket, Block Island, Gloucester, and a few other places with names from my native New England. I went into mouselook for most of the voyage, something I rarely do, and it was great to watch the shores slip past, and look at the cottages, lighthouses, and vegetation along the way. I don't even have a good graphics card or the Windlight viewer, and still things looked really cool and very realistic. Or maybe I have a good imagination.

We managed to make is safely through several sim crossings, but one gave us a spot of trouble. I found myself suspended in mid-air with only the sails and the steering wheel left from the boat. I managed to stay online, but Illy crashed. When she got back online, we managed to get reset and continue the journey.

We were still sailing, still taking in lovely scenery. Illya spotted a whale off the port bow (I do know my directions). I couldn't resist manipulating the camera to get a picture. Whales don't spout when they're underwater, but it was still a cute shot. SL, and the things people do it in, still surprise and delight me sometimes.

It got late for me. I had to take my leave from a perfect evening. I can't wait to go sailing again.

Expect the unexpected

It was the evening (at least in my time zone) of April Fool's Day. I was doing a rare DJ gig at the Velvet, thanks to Jasper. We had a pretty good crowd there when the sim restarted after the usual five minutes notice. Some left, some stayed until, boom, everyone was blown off. But I did not lose the stream, since that's not part of the sim. I logged back in to my home, kept cueing up songs, and tried to teleport to Romero repeatedly until the sim finally let me back in. I was the first to return. Pretty soon, we had a pretty good crowd again.

She was among the second wave. I'd sent out the usual Velvet announcement, but either she hadn't received it or she'd just gone in world. At any rate, she came by to listen to the rest of my set, to dance, and to chat with me.

I've known her for quite a long time, in Second Life terms, and we've talked from time to time. I had never had a chance to know her well. She was often busy doing her job. I would flirt with her when we'd both be at the Velvet, but it never went very far. Yes, I know, I was married at the time. Bad me. She didn't go for that sort of thing.

I've been single for many months now, but I've been busy with first-life school, turning myself into a real counsellor. It's only recently I've had much time to spend in world. I've been kind of lonely in SL, but I wasn't looking for love. At the Velvet on April 1, however, something was different between us. Our chat was playful. Hers seemed to suggest more than I thought would ever happen.

After my set, we spent time together, mainly talking, and holding each other some, staying up way too late. After that, we made contact on and off, more off than on. I thought maybe something wasn't going well. In first life, I'm pretty self-confident, but in SL I'm often insecure. She's a bit of a mystery, and I don't always read her very well. Days would go by without a peep. My friends had to put up with my self-pity.

Then, two days ago, I saw her on Gtalk, and I rang her up. The response was cheery and inviting. She's also a DJ, and she was doing an early set at the Velvet. I popped over there and danced for a while with her and some friends. It got on toward supper time for me, so I had to leave. Just before I left, I heard it: I love you.

I was floored, in a good way, but floored nonetheless. I said it back, because I really meant it, but had not dared say it before. What had been very tenuous became much less so. There has been more talk, more dancing, more sharing.

I am very happy. I am intrigued. This woman is very intelligent. She is not easy to get to know. There's a lot going on with her, and she is not the open book that I am. (She thinks I'm not, but I am.) I want to know more, and I will be patient in getting there. I want to share myself with her. She says she's not special. She's wrong. I wouldn't be with anyone who isn't special.

This isn't head over heels. We're both still cautious, despite what we each blurted out that evening. We're testing the water, feeling our way forward. I think about her a lot. It's good. It's scary. It's exhilarating. I feel vulnerable, and wonderful.

I finally buy a new skin

I've been slacking on blog writing again. And just when I got inspired, the blog strike started up, and I ain't no scab. But now, even though I still have no idea whether I violate you-know-who's trademarks, things are supposedly clearer and we can blog again.

Not that I've been having any great adventures that I can blog about, but I have been spending more time in world. And without any advice from friends I was hoping would give me a third-party view, I bought a skin.

Deciding on a skin can be agonizing. I haven't found a single skin yet that I love all the features of. It might be out there, but I haven't seen it. The one I chose is from Celestial Studios, by Starley Thereian, from the Charmed line, tone 70 (second darkest). I actually bought two: Drama, which is my day look, and Rubies, which is for nighttime. I thought about a four pack for less money per skin, but I didn't go for all four of any single pack. If I could do my own custom four, well, that might be a different story. What say, Ms. Thereian?

I like a lot about this skin. It has one of the best eyebrow arches I've found, and I'm fussy about eyebrows, in Second Life as in first. I quite like the face in general. It enhances the way I have my eyes set, and the mouth is a lot less pursed than my old skin.

I like the shading a lot, definitely better than my old skin. The colour is adjustable, which is quite lovely. The profile photo above is a bit darker than I've since set the colour, as you can see at left. I'm trying to match my old skin tone. I do like the quality of this dark tone. It's not too yellow.

I don't know why skin designers so often make the nipples with soft focus, but they do. I appreciate that the navel is not a black hole. In fact, it looks like there's a piercing in it already! The kitty is nice, if not outstanding. I can put up with the landing strip, but I'm going to miss the completely bald option on my old skin. I'm less fussy about the naked parts than I used to be.

I was with my wonderful friend Tatsuko on Thursday, and she gave thumbs up to the new look. I value her opinion. I'm happy with it for now. Let's see how long that lasts!

Fiery red

I have been terribly, terribly remiss. I was not writing any blog entries because of a lack of time to spend in Second Life and thus a lack of adventures. But I let an offline event slip by with only one meagre passing mention. And I could have been tooting my own horn!

Twitter draws people from SL, often as their SL avatars. Not only do I keep up with SL people in Twitter, even when I'm not in world, I've also met Twitter friends in SL. Cross-pollination!

One such lovely friend is CodeBastard Redgrave. Codie is unique in SL, which is saying something. If you ever meet her, I think it's safe to say that you won't have met anyone like her before. She's pretty wacky, but she's also warm and generous and a loyal and loving friend, as well as a scripter—her main product is the MachinimaCam—and photographer. In not much more than a year, she has had a big impact on SL. Many have noticed her fine qualities and her talents, enough so that she was voted the Avastar of the Year.

A while back, Codie shot some boudoir photos of my friend Leticia and posted them on her Flickr site. They were an instant hit. From there, she created a project called Boudoir Rouge, for which she has photographed dozens of SL women in provocative outfits and provocative poses. All in the best taste, of course! These are classy boudoir photos, not smut. Not that there's anything wrong with smut!

I managed to get myself included in Codie's series, even though I am among women who have much more of an impact on SL than I do, even when I have time to go in world. I am a mere counsellor (in training) with a dearth of clients! I suppose I might qualify as a raconteuse when I'm at the Velvet, since I seem to be able to keep people amused with witty repartee. And I have been a DJ and hope to be one again when I can make time for it and, er, update my music library.

So check out my ass, and check out the other photos that Codie has posted. I bet you'll be marking many of them as favourites, as I am doing!

Forward into the past!

I had some actual down time last night. Sure, I should have been working on one last paper for this term, but I still have time for that, and I really needed a break. So I went in world and went to the Velvet for the first time in ages, the first time for me since it returned to the surface of the grid.

I'm in world so infrequently, I'm always afraid when I go to the Velvet that I won't know anyone there. It has happened before. Last night, however, the night started good and just got better. Leticia was there when I arrived, as were IsaDaft and Woody, and Therese Slade was streaming the tunage. Mischief came over a while later, and then lots of people showed up—Sarah, Qualsha, Freqout, Haedon, Wade, Natalie, even Push! It was like old home night. I'm sure I'm forgetting many names too. There was even a hoverjet lying about, one of the first toys I ever had in Second Life (and still have), courtesy of my dear friend tree. Jasper came by to take the DJ reins from Therese and gave us some splendid music.

The open chat was hellafun. It's one thing I've always loved about the Velvet, especially when someone like Mischief is there. The chat can be silly, of course, but it tends to have a level of wit that is quite enjoyable and stimulating. And of course I had a few IM windows going as well. I so needed that hour and a half.

Thanks to all for such a fun night! I need more!