Weird Questions Meme

Last week's meme challenge by Strawberry Singh was so much fun and wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be; this week's is a little more mellow.  Before I get into answering Berry's "weird" questions for us, I have to say that I was really inspired last week.  With the closing of my two favorite pose stores (aDORKable Poses and Glitterati) within such a short time span, I have been quite saddened.  The discovery of photography was something that happen very early in my slife, and as any Second Life photographer knows, you need poses!  Berry's challenge last week prompted me to attempt to create my own.  I didn't expect to be very successful (I do well to "build" a box in world), but it was a lot funner than I imagined.  I had so much fun that I made a few more poses and got this crazy idea to open my own pose shop!  I'm sure mine aren't the best on the grid at the moment, but I'm having so much fun practicing and hope to have a small store up and running by July 1st!  In the meantime, SeraphimSL.com is celebrating its second birthday, and I have made a small pack of three poses plus mirror as a gift.  They are free at Seraphim's headquarters through July 19th.  You do have to be a member of the in-world -Seraphim- group with an active group tag to receive the gift.

Now, on to Berry's questions...

1. Which was the last sim you visited?  (Other than your home) The Slums

2. Does your avatar look like the real you?  I do have brown hair, blue eyes and very pale skin, but that's about where the similarities end.

3. Do you wear underwear/panties underneath your clothing when out and about on the grid?  Since I wear mesh clothing the majority of the time, I really don't see the need of wearing underwear since I'm wearing an alpha layer to cover those bits and pieces anyway.

4. If you won a million linden dollars, what would be the first thing you buy in world?  I would probably cash out and pay a few real life bills.  Lol  I do think I would eventually like to own a few sims and have rental units.

5. Have you ever bought something in SL and then realized afterwards that you had already owned it from before?  I've done this more often than I would like to admit.  It's usually happened with poses during sales.

6. Have you ever done anything in Second Life that would be considered illegal in real life?  When I was a newbie, I didn't realize you could double click clothing layers to remove one and add another.  I thought it was like real life and you had to get completely undressed first.  I would try to find trees or other objects to hide behind in public so I could change my clothes.  I was actually banned from a sim once (I was less than a week old) for public nudity.  LOL

7. If you could go on a date with any other avatar, who would it be?  My husband, Dryden Macbain.

8. Who, in your opinion, was the greatest avatar to ever slive?  I don't think I've known enough avatars to make a valid decision.

9. What is the most embarrassing thing you've ever done in world?  I went to a shop when I was a newbie to pick up a Christmas present.  You had to sit on Santa's lap to get the gift.  Let's just say that Santa would have been put on the naughty list.

10. If your avatar had a mind of its own, what do you think it would say to you?  Please clean my closet!!

Credits

• Clothing: [Top] Cary Double Tank in Stripes-Mint and [Shorts] Briony Shorts in White by erratic New
• Shoes: Ilena Sandals in White by Slink
• Feet: Women's Natural Barefeet by Slink
• Hands: Mesh Hands Relaxed R and Elegant L by Slink
• Nail Applier: French Nails by Izzie's
• Hair: Enjoy in Brown 08 by [elikatira]
• Skin: Lulu 07 BR by Glam Affair @ The Arcade
• Skin Applier: Slink Hands and Feet Skin Applier America by Glam Affair
• Makeup: Black Eyeliner in Gentle Fume by Acid & Mala
• Eyes: Ardent Eyes in Skyfall by IKON
• Lashes: 2011 Lashes Curl by LeLutka
• Pose: Seraphim Turns Two 2 by Flash Friendly Poses @ Seraphim HQ Free
• Location: Seraphim HQ

Lashae or Someone Like Her

This past Monday Strawberry Singh posted her latest "Monday Meme Challenge" which was a bit more challenging than her normal.  Berry challenged her readers to recreate a movie poster inspired by the original.  I had to do a small Google search for movies beginning with the letter "L" and came across Life or Something Like It staring Angelina Jolie and Ed Burns.  I've never actually watching the movie, but I will definitely be adding it to my Netflix queue.

This blog post was honestly the most fun I've had blogging in a long time.  I didn't really want to search through thousands of poses to try and find one to match the pose in the original movie photo; that would have taken a lot of precious time that I don't have to give up at the moment.  So I instead did something that I have been wanting to do for a long time... I made my own pose!  I always thought that it would be extremely stressful and agitating, but I ended up having such a good time that I plan on doing it more often.  Who knows, perhaps some day I will gain the courage to open my own pose store.


Credits (Lashae)

• Hands: Mesh Hands Relaxed Right by Slink
• Nail Applier: French Nails by Izzie's
• Hair: Teddy in LightBlondes01 by TRUTH
• Skin: Lulu 07 BL by Glam Affair @ The Arcade
• Skin Applier: Slink Hands Skin Applier America by Glam Affair
• Makeup: Black Eyeliner in Gentle Fume by Acid & Mala
• Eyes: Ardent Eyes in Skyfall by IKON
• Lashes: 2011 Lashes Curl by LeLutka
• Pose made by Lashae Karsin

Credits (Dryden)

• Clothing: Shaw in Void by FATEwear
• Hair: Aiden in Sable by Exile
• Skin: April Group Gift M in Tan by Filthy Skins (No longer available)
• Eyes: Eternal Eyes in Olive by IKON
• Pose: Pencil 1 by aDORKable Poses

My SL Pet Peeves Meme

This past week I came across the Meme Challenge blog posts by Strawberry Singh and thought that it would be a fun way to get back into blogging on a regular basis.  Her latest theme is SL Pet Peeves; I try not to complain too much on my blog, but I suppose that we all do need a release every now and then.

1. Designers who do not offer demos or who charge for demos.  Nothing annoys me more as a shopper than designers who do not offer demos for mesh clothing, shoes, skin, hair or poses.  Since each of these items works very differently with the many different body shapes of the second life avatar, it is really important for me to be able to "try before I buy."  I hate wasting money even if it is only a few Lindens.  More annoying than no demo is a demo that I have to pay for.  To me, asking a customer to pay for a demo suggests that the designer doesn't have much confidence in his or her product and must make Lindens wherever they are able.  In each case, you are most likely not going to get my business.

2. Designers who do not put their store name in/on their vendor or in their profiles.  As many of you know, I have been blogging for the Second Life event and sales coverage blog SeraphimSL since it began in the summer of 2011.  It has been very surprising for me to see how many designers do not include the name of their store somewhere in or on their vendor or even in their profile.  Do you not want customers to be able to locate your store?  When it takes me five plus minutes to simply try and figure out what the name of your store is, I'm more than annoyed and would never search that long as a customer.  You're losing business!

3. The ever expanding unorganized mess that is my inventory.  No matter how good my intentions are, I can never seem to be able to completely organize my inventory.  It has expanded to the point that I have almost lost hope in it ever being under control again.  I seem to accumulate items much quicker than I sort them and put them in their place.  I did purchase the Visual Inventory Organizer Wardrobe a few months back and was doing really well with photoing and sorting, but like with all other plans... it kind of fell to the wayside.  The biggest thing that annoys me about not having an organized inventory is that I really have no idea what I have.  Over the past three and a half years I have easily spent hundreds of real life dollars on items in-world... perhaps even into the thousands.  It really bothers me that I cannot find items or even remember what is there.  I suppose I should start blogging weekly installments of my Pieces of My Closet series once again to motivate myself to sort through this mess.

4. Designers who add me to their subscribers without my permission.  The first time I got a notecard from a designer I didn't recognize, I thought that perhaps I had just forgotten about the store or they had rechristened themselves.  However, the more often that it happens, the more convinced I become that some designers actually are adding residents to their subscribers.  I completely understand that designers want to advertise themselves and get information out about new designs and sales, but I feel this method is a bit tacky and unprofessional.  Flickr is a great way to connect with people in Second Life and gain potential new customers; send me a contact request... I'll be more than happy to add you!

5. Grid lines and disappearing shadows in my photographs.  I thought all my photography woes had been solved when my husband and I were finally able to purchase a high functioning gaming computer.  I was finally able to see shadows, but I came to realize that there are so many glitches with the actual software that it is almost impossible to take a photo without some type of flaw... be it the ever dreaded grid lines or complete blocks of shadows missing from the picture.  I use the Firestorm viewer and have heard that grid lines are a thing of the past with the latest official Second Life viewer, but I have yet to try it for myself.  Perhaps I should put that on my list of things to do in the near future!

Credits

Clothing: Morning Tank in Solids (Texture Change) by DRIFT

Hair: Tymber w/Roots in Toast by TRUTH @ FaMESHed

Skin: Asia Skin Light DB by Izzie's

Eyes: Ardent Eyes in Pewter by IKON Group Gift

Lashes: 2011 Lashes Curl by LeLutka

Pose: sweet.sour pose 2 by fri.day @ Pose Fair 2013

What I Love

Blogger Challenge from StrawberrySingh:

"This week's challenge is blogging about what you love about Second Life. Is it something in your inventory? A person? A feeling? What makes you log back into Second Life everyday?"

Clothing: *Milk Maid by Siss Boom @ L$100
Hair: Kitty in Mocha by TRUTH
Skin: Ania 2 (Peach) by LAQ
Pose: Glitz 2 by !bang
Background by RubyBlossom


What I love about Second Life has changed so much over the course of the past thirteen months. When I first joined, I loved going to parties and participating in dress up contests. I 'made' my real life boyfriend join so that we could dance the night away. We live nearly six hours apart in real life; so, Second Life was an easy way for us to spend time together without really being together. Of course I always prefer to have the real life version of him with me, but for the time being, Second Life Dryden will have to do.

I have never been a big shopper in real life, but from the very start I have loved to shop on Second Life. I am awed and amazed that people can create designs in a virtual world that look so real. I suppose my love for fashion is what eventually lead to my love for photography. Looking back, my first photographs were in all honesty rather horrible. I had no clue as to what windlight settings even were or that I could edit them. I didn't have any poses, and, of course, I most definitely didn't have my own photo studio then. I started posting pictures on Flickr for the weekly contest Lemania Indigo Designs had to win copies of her new releases. I was beyond elated the first time I won. My techniques eventually improved and somewhere along the line someone gave me the suggestion for my current love in Second Life.

I started blogging in June of this year, and while I did take a short break, I have fallen completely in love with it. It enables me to combine my love for fashion and photography and has also allowed me to meet a lot of amazing and extremely generous people along the way. I do not know where I would be without the blogging tips from SweetDeb Kips and Tapika Tomsen or the photography advice from Vanessinha Vectoscope. I know there are many people who do not like to share their secrets, but these three ladies have always graciously answered any question I had. I could not thank them enough. I also could not have done without Lanj Plasker and Rachella Rossini cheering me on the entire way; both of these ladies are always so positive and send me all the amazing sales they hear about and new stores they discover!

So what is it that I really love about Second Life? I can't just boil it down to one thing... It's the time I get to spend with ♥Dryden, the priceless friendships that I have made and the endless and oh so amazing fashion and photography. This is what keeps me coming back.

* Denotes item provided by designer for review.