Chestnut’s Magic Build

Chestnut transformed Thornbridge into a magical wonderland.

Chestnut made the most incredible build for my rez day party. Gorgeous. Magical. FULL of flowers (because I really like flowers). Beautiful trees too (Chestnut, unlike SOME of us (me) KNOWS how to make a tree). Colors and flowers and lights and flowers and a moon and more flowers. Did I mention that there were lots of FLOWERS??? She turned Thornbridge into the sort of fantasy that makes SL so special. It was breathtakingly wonderful and happy and light-hearted and magical. I guess, really, the only word that truly describes it is “neat”. LOL. Okay – there is someone now reading this and blushing like crazy. The rest of us are laughing. Ches unveiled the build to a friend and asked for feedback. *grin* The verdict? “Neat.” /me rolls eyes and starts laughing again. Ah Chestnut – it was so far beyond neat – it was everything I could have hoped or wanted. I loved it. Every single prim. I don’t know how long you can leave Thornbridge like that, but we need to go back and picnic and meditate and chase butterflies and stretch out on a blanket and simply revel in the beauty.

My rez day party was fantastic. The build, as I said, was neat. No – you will NEVER live that down. But Chestnut had the best possible music as well: Kyle Beltran. I LOVE Kyle. I have posted about him before here. He puts on a fantastic show. He sings, plays the piano, covers other people’s songs as well as his own compositions. Kyle is so witty and articulate and funny. We were laughing the entire time. I love Kyle’s shows; I was delighted at how many of my friends were IM’ing me to tell me that they, too thought he was great. That even though they really needed to log, they couldn’t because they didn’t want to stop listening to Kyle. If you’ve never heard Kyle – remedy that. He has CDs for sale, performs regularly in SL and is a wonderful talent. Thank you SO much, Kyle, for agreeing to perfom. I had a wonderful, wonderful time listening and laughing with you. *hugs*

Thank you to all my friends who were there to help make the party special. I was so touched and honored that you came. I love the work I do in virtual worlds. I love the mental stimulation, the challenges, throwing myself under the bus again and again. But mostly – I love you. I love laughing and talking and sharing our lives. I know that for so many of you it was an effort to be there. Natalya and Hell – you are amazing. Staying up til 2am your time to come party with me. You are wonderful. I know at least 2 of you were SUPPOSED to be working. *grin* So I won’t mention your names, but you know who you are and so do I. To all of you – thank you and thank you again. Seeing you and partying with you was the best rez day present I could have. *hugs* to you all.

I took a million pictures. Okay, about 60, I suppose I DO tend to exaggerate on occasion. *grin* They are up on Flickr, of course. I am including several of them here as well. This way you can see the gorgeous build, and my wonderful friends. Hell also took pictures. He has a wonderful one – imaginative angle, framing. Check it out. That is how SL photography SHOULD be done. Thank you, Hell!
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Chestnut – you are simply amazing. Thank you my dear dear friend. You went so far above and beyond anything that I expected. You created a magical SL wonderland. You found the best entertainment. You even put out food!!!! *grin* yummy! I think this may have been one of the most special, incredible things anyone has ever done for me. Thank you. It was perfect. I love it. I love you. I am so glad that we are friends.

Shades of Beyond Blogging Conference

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I gave Oura a copy of my “dancing in my chains” ribbons and she did me the great compliment and honor of wearing them. And Calli, beautiful Calli. It was SUPPOSED to be all about ME. ME = Ahuva!!!!! LOL. Your dress was stupendous. Breathtaking. We all inspected the information and did a search on the creator. *grin* We will all be Calli-wannabees.

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Of course, after the party, I had to relax and go over the whole thing again. So I stretched out on my carpet, pose courtesy of the talented Bailey Longcloth, wearing my new teddy bear slippers from zazek, and discussed the party, art, life and SL with Oura and Calli. All in all – a perfect perfect night.
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Happy 2nd Rez Day, Chestnut!!

Happy, happy rez day, Chestnut!!!! I hope you have a wonderful, fun, perfect day and a great year to come! I know that this is an “old” look for you, but it happens to be one of the best shots that I have. I suppose I could have gone to your blog and lifted some pictures (gee, I wonder where I got THAT idea from ????) but since I had so much fun at the Rave of Aquarius – I decided to use my pic from there.

Chestnut was one of the first “names” I learned in SL. I read her blog, learned so much about what was what in SL. I remember the first time that she commented back on MY comment on her blog!!! I was so excited. We began talking through our blogs and then became friends inworld. Chestnut always was helpful and upbeat. She helped save me when I threw myself under the bus at work, volunteering to make trees for the upcoming major conference. Over time we became closer, giggling together as girlfriends do, sharing confidences, catty remarks (okay, that would be me *grin* , I would never claim that Chestnut would make snarky remarks), life observances, RL occasions. We have been fairies together, danced together, Rave’d together, listened to music together, and provided tissues and comfort to each other.

I love you, Chestnut! Thank you for turning me on to live music in SL. Thank you for all your posts about sailing – I never would have known/tried it/loved it without your posts. Thank you for introducing me to the world of blogging. Thank you for all the friends you shared (one of the biggest blessings you ever gave me was introducing me to Honour). Thank you most of all for being you, in all your wonderful warm, talented, giving, imperfect, understanding, embracing-life self. Thank you for being my friend.

I wrote this for you before, and it is still true for me:
Warm, thoughtful Chestnut
Always a hand to help friends
Giant, noble heart.

But also:
Giggles and laughter
FUN to be silly with you
Your friendship warms me

Friends at the benches and beyond

First a shout-out to Chestnut!! What a FANTABULOUS link!!!! Ches blogged about Hocus Pocus’ Halloween hunt. You MUST get there! I went with 3 other friends last night and we had a total hoot!!! The streets were packed with people knocking on doors, getting unexpected results – some yummy, some very NOT yummy! LOL And that’s all I’m going to tell you – go experience it yourself! Good friends find you fun links!!! You’re the best, Chestnut!

My friends do like to change shape and size. Makes life much more interesting that everyone isn’t as boring as I am! Darcey showed up as a Totoro.

I don’t think these benches are going to hold up……

Speaking of which – did I ever show you the new benches? No more “bring your own chair”! Yay!

This last is not a friend. This friendly cow was floating in the air at a site I visited during a business field trip in SL. If I ever do decide to rent a place and call it home, I want a cow floating above MY house!!! Landlords, beware!!! (I’ll need to check the zoning laws…. )

Thank You

Behind every successful woman there stands…… a group of wonderful, supportive friends. It appears that the Great Tree Saga has drawn to a close. The conference will have trees, flowers, bushes and fountains. How? Because I have wonderful friends who have wonderful friends. Chestnut introduced me to Honour, who came up with a plan. I arranged a meeting with Honour, J and myself. Nothing could have happened without Ches and Honour. Had Chestnut not concerned herself with my problems, I would not have met Honour. Nothing could have happened without Honour’s talent, kindness and generosity.

I want to thank Bailey as well, who was IM’ing me often, offering support, advice and encouragement. Here is where SL falls short for me. In RL I could figure out some way, albeit insufficient, to thank them all. Some favor or gift, some action I could perform in thanks. But in SL – I know of nothing that I can do. They have all been inworld far longer than I. They know much more than I. I wouldn’t even know how to begin to find gifts for them inworld (LOL – I’d have to IM them and ask for more help! ) No way to move my pottery or food inworld. Nor flowers. So the best I can do is to thank each of them personally, here, in my favorite form of expression.

Chestnut
Warm, thoughtful Chestnut
Always a hand to help friends
Giant, noble heart.

Honour
Generous artist
Bringing beauty to the world
Sharing it with all.

Bailey
True SL mentor
Full of ideas, connections
Failure not allowed!

Important Announcements

While many people who read my blog will already know these important things, there are a few who may not.  So here you go:

From Shenlei Flasheart:   “… my company, the Fashion Research Institute, Inc., has developed the Shengri La Vintage Marketplace on Shengri La .  We will provide vendor space for 20 emerging avatar apparel designers on our Second Life Shengri La sim for six months free of charge.  The designers are encouraged to build their brands, to sell their products through both their vendor prims and through the use of our catwalk system, and to grow their business. We are pleased to announce Michele Hyacinth as Curator of the Shengri La Vintage Marketplace for emerging avatar apparel designers in Second Life. Michele is responsible for managing the design selection process and overseeing the marketplace. For more information and details about the program, please contact Michele.

And check out Chestnut’s blog for more fun happenings at ShengriLa this week:

• Wednesday, September 17th, the butterfly hunt for butterflies containing Ode jewelry
• Friday, September 19th, the Pirate Rave (the universe rave was a blast! don’t miss this one!)

Sitting Pretty

YES! FINALLY!!! All the pieces have come together and last night was what I thought hanging out in SL would be!! Although first I had to be scared silly before it all worked out.

My new router came 2 days ago. I left work and headed straight home to get it installed. Installing things like this are so NOT my forte! But I’d consulted with my co-workers, had all sorts of hints and tips and moral support. So I gave it a try.

It seemed to be very simple. Plug one computer directly into the cable modem, start the CD that came w/ the router. NBD. But then this software install popped up as well. I didn’t know exactly what it was. I let it unzip and install, but then attempted to back out. I could do that, but then my network wasn’t up and running. So back in I went and stumbled about, trying to get the machines in the house back online. Long story short, I got 2 machines up and on the internet. Seem to have knocked my printers off the network. Could NOT get my new laptop onto the wireless network. Still don’t know why. But I didn’t care because I had and have it hardwired directly to the router. So I was good to go for the Grace McDunnough concert!! I had new equipment, I had a body, I had inventory. Home stretch!

So I went to login to SL. I could NOT get logged in. It was 7:10 pm and the concert was at 9 and SL was not letting me login. I WANTED to scream and freak and hit the computer. But there was no one there to hear and I thought that perhaps breaking the pc was counter-productive. So I checked one of the new things I’ve finally learned: SL Grid Statistics. And look at that: SL was having login issues. It wasn’t me – it was THEM! So I puttered about for another hour.

Around 8:30 I logged in successfully. I saw other friends starting to come online too! Such fun – everyone IM’ing and chatting. I was hanging out with my usual beach crowd, catching up on the news and listening to the banter. It was nearly concert time. I met up with a friend and we tp’d over to the landing spot.

Ches had confided earlier that there would be a boat to take everyone across from the landing spot to the island. And there was! The island was gorgeous. For all the details about how it was created and by whom, check out What a Day! There were lots of people there. Very exciting for me – I got to meet so many people whom I’ve only met through blogs. I needed an AO that would let me jump up and down for joy! Grace gave a wonderful concert. She has a warm, rich, semi-throaty voice. It was a pleasure to hear her. All my hardware was working great too so I could hear perfectly. (So it WAS the router!!!) I pushed my rez back up to high and the water was stupendous. Shengri La may very well have the best water inworld.

It was a fantastic evening! Kudos to Chestnut & Zha for hosting it, to Shenlei Flasheart for building it, and to Grace McDunnough for the entertainment! You can see Michele, Dale and I sitting back and enjoying the evening!

JUBILATION!!!!!!

YES!!!!! I’m me again!!!! I’m not a cloud!!!! I LOVE YOU KATE LINDEN!!!!!!! WHEEEEEEE!!!!!!! Look out world – here I come!!!!! (good thing I wasn’t venturing out of my hideout however – Kate confirmed my suspicion that I was indeed unclothed. oops.)

with apologies to Simon and Garfunkle:

Oh SL, you’re breaking my heart
You’re shaking my happiness daily
Oh, dear SL, I’m down on my knees
I’m begging you please, no more clouds!

Changing clothes back on Monday night
When SL did crash, I’m in such a plight
I logged back but cried out loud
When I got inworld
I found I was a cloud!

Jubilation, I’m human again!
I jump in the air and I’m laughing!
Jubilation, I’ll party tonight!
Dear Chestnut please send the TP!

Okay, so what really happened? Beats me. SL had major problems back on Monday night. Tuesday night I tried tech support. I did get my inventory back, but I still couldn’t rez, couldn’t edit my appearance, couldn’t change clothes.

Foolish me – I waited patiently, hoping someone from tech support would contact ME about my open ticket. Hah! I do 3rd level support in FL. (by the way, I’ve decided I prefer First Life to Real Life – deal with it – ) I know how these things really work. If it matters to you, follow up.

So today, on my lunch hour, I logged in and opened a chat. This time I knew that my issues were inworld and clicked the correct link. Almost immediately Kate came on the line (so to speak). I explained my issue. We went through the now familiar steps – change your preferences, check mesh details. yeah, been there, done that. Then Kate told me to tp to a region where there wasn’t much going on so there wasn’t much lag effect. She met me there. She agreed that I was a cloud. We stood there a bit as I ran through my inventory. And then Kate said: now I see your avatar. YES!! Except I still saw only a cloud. And I was definitely naked.

I told Kate that I was glad I actually still had a body, but that the naked part was a little uncomfortable. So she built a box around us! Now THAT is what I call Very Considerate! We tried re-baking me. Nothing. Then Kate had me go to the Test Female Avatar on the Help menu. And THAT worked!!!! I had a body, I had clothes!!!!! I looked nothing like myself, but I was THERE!!! Hallelujah!!!!

Kate stood by patiently while I pieced myself back together from my inventory. She had me go into Edit Appearance and do a Save As so should I lose myself again, I can recover. My hair is not exactly right (I think I had let it grow out a little from my original cut, LOL) but otherwise I seem to be me!!! Which means with any luck I can get to Shengri La Love and hear Grace McDonnough play tonight

WHEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In Awe of Chestnut

I was directed to this wonderful website – someone blogging about her life in SL.
Secondlife of Dreams

I liked her recent posts so much that I went back to her very first entries. She too is intrigued by the impact RL has on SL and SL on RL.

And I realize I have no idea what SL is about. So far all I’ve done is get dressed. Apparently there is music, there are parties, there is more social interaction and TALK than I have yet found. It’s time to move out of my beach chair and the dressing room and find the world.