Sharp and pointy

Aswell as getting some guns during my freebie shopping expedition I also picked up a sword. I needed one to go with my samurai outfit, y'see.

Again, it's really just an excuse for some pose photos.


The samurai au repose.



Just don't make me angry.


You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.


Whhhhhhhhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?!?

Licensed to kill

The other day I was freebie shopping on XStreet. Whoever persuaded me that would be a good idea wants shooting. Which is very handy, because one of the free things I picked up was some guns.

Now I'm not in to RP and stuff so I don't think I'll particularly use these out and about, especially since I've been told they damage chickens, but they make for some cool photos poses.






Kids, it's not cool to play with guns. However cool it makes me look here.

Party on!

Yesterday I went to a party. It was the joint birthdays and anniversary of Faerie and Dunan who I met a couple of weeks ago.


Unfortunately I had to leave pretty much as soon as I'd arrived due to the germs that have taken up residence in my head deciding to throw a party of their own, and unfortunately that meant leaving before one of the birthday girls arrived. But I did manage to grab a couple of quick shots of their beautiful fantasy garden.


Faerie and Dunan, happy birthday and anniversary and all that stuff. I hope you had a good one, and Faerie, I am sorry for leaving before we made your grand entrance.

Further Whimsy

After the previous day's explorations around Whimsy I decided to head back yesterday to try and find a couple of other bits we'd missed.

I had read a little while back about geysers on the neighbouring sim Whimcentricity and I knew I had to find them. Logging back in to find myself still on Whimsy seemed like the pefect opportunity.

And I arrived in perfect time, with one of geysers just about to blow.


Another part of Whimsy that I have been told about but never quite managed to find were the lava caves. Fortunately when I logged on yesterday Cheyenne was online so I bothered her and interrupted her conversation with friends to give me pointers as to their location. She was very obliging, as always. I even took heed of her advice and donned the protective boots and scuba gear provided.

There is a way in to those caves...


...but no way out!

A magical mystery tour

Whimsy is one of my fave places in the SLuniverse. It's just so imaginative. It's building just for the love of it. And that really shows. The immense detail and care taken in everything is inspiring, it really is.

I've been over there a few times, as well as to the nearby Robot Sanitarium, but I always find myself drawn back, just to see what new goodies Chey & Xubi have cooked up.

The other night I took a friend there to explore. We fancied exploring a little, so I suggested Whimsy, she'd never been so over we hopped. After she'd put on her exploring boots and backpack of course. She is never one to caught unprepared. Oh and I apologise for the lack of decents photos. I was having issues that meant that pretty much anytime I took a shot I crashed. So I gave up.

I don't want to say too much about the place really as I don't want you to feel you no longer need to go there but I just want to give you enough of a flavour to entice you.

We started heading up hill towards the volcano . A real live working volcano that erupts and with a goddess that accepts sacrifices. The quickest way to get down from there was the zip line, of course.


Uphill from there, after a photo-related crash around about the sight-seeing binoculars, we came across a temple to the drinking bird that donimates the Whimsy landscape and down the hill from there there appeared to be an orca whale swimming in the air. I am sure it had a very good reason.

The highlight for me of any trip to Whimsy is always the train ride. If there was a prize awarded for the longest train ride in the SLuniverse the one on Whimsy would surely come close. But be sure to either take a deep breath or wear the scuba equipment provided as this is an amphibious train. Caves, mountains, dolphins, squid, lave beds, ... this train ride has them all. And much more besides.

A new addition I'd not come across before was the log flume ride. Down a lava river. Unfortunately it was closed. Like any good theme park there are always rides closed to entice you to return.

If you do follow my advice and head on over to Whimsy, please be careful when yodeling. The signs about falling rocks are not just for show.

The evening ended with us dancing through wild flower fields. Round Alicia's backpack, of course.


All in all it was a particularly fine evening. Exploring is so much more fun when you don't do it alone.

Easy Rider

To be honest, I've not done much in the way of Midnight Mania before. Nothing's ever particularly grabbed me. And when it has and I've slapped the board I've usually got a message telling me not enough other people did the same.

But this week was different. This week I heard about a sparkly little chopper. I reckon all men need a chopper in their inventory. To be honest, I think most lasses need one too.

I arrived at the store in question (sorry, no slurl as I'm rubbish, and no store name because I'm forgetful - but they make sexy bikes f'sure) and saw the board was up to about 105/140, I think. By the time I left after having a quick squizz around it was up to 125 or so. Man, I was excited.

And my excitement was not misplaced. I logged on the following day to find this little beauty in my inventory.


For moments like these everyone needs some Steppenwolf. /me sings "Get your motor runnin',..."

The only issue with the bike is that I have to rez it off my mudmound. I don't have enough prims left. But that's not an issue so long as I clean up after myself, right?

The monster lives

Almost three months after life was first breathed into the behemoth that was the 'Nekkid but Tasteful Buttpic' meme (and exhibition!) the restless monster has stirred. It was not so much dead as just sleeping it seems.

Thank you, Melissa and Maggie. Better late than never, eh? ;)

It's a small world after all

SL is a big place, right? There are loads and loads of possible places to go and things to do. And with a limited friends list the chance of TP-ing into a place and seeing a yellow dot on the map is pretty unlikely, right? (Yes, unless you're going somewhere specific for a party or something or have been TP-ed in by a friend or live close by friends and are heading home or something. OK)

I had thought that too. Until last night that is. Last night I TP-ed places alone, not once but twice, and both times saw a name I recognised on my radar and a little yellow dot on my mini-map?

I know!

The first time was when I was being a male guinea pig in Nuuna's photo studio (more about that later). I noticed that Asthe was on the map and shouted hi. The conversation then took a strange direction with talk of pink boxer shorts and kidnapped elephants in protective custody, but I won't go into that now. For your sanity.

The second time was just after I left Nuuna's and went over to LAP to check out some male poses Nuuna had. LAP, in case you didn't know, is close to a hair place called Tiny Bird (I think that's what it's called). And in there were Faerie and Dunan who I met last week in Mont St Michel with London and Quaintly. Again, I IMed to say hi. Well you would, wouldn't you?

By now this TP-ing and bumping into friends was getting a little freaky (but in a good way) so I did a few random TPs around LMs from the bottom of my inventory just to see if it worked again. It didn't.

All in all it was a varied evening really. The evening had begun with me accidentally ending up in a team for a quiz show. And it was accidental. Chry invited me over to where she was, a sort of tv studio for a rock quiz, and once I arrived I saw loads of people 'in the audience', a wolf quizmaster in a bloody labcoat, and two benches for the teams, which were empty at that stage.

I was just there to observe really and as the preliminary round began I realised that as a member of the audience got a question right they won the right to pick a spot on a team bench. One by one the spaces filled up until question 8. "Was (not was) sang about which big animal?" No-one answered. Seconds past and no-one answered still. Cautiously I typed "dinosaur" (as in "everyone walk the...") and was invited up to grab the final spot on team two. Oops.

As I said, it was accidental.


The outcome of the quiz, in case you're interested, was a whupping. My team, team two, were handed our asses on a plate. I blame the overly heavy weighting towards Aussie questions.

So yeah, after that came my modelling debut. Nuuna has done some awesome portraits of some lasses I know and I volunteered the other day to be a male guinea pig if she wanted to try out blokes for a change. The result is below. And as you can see I'm a swan! No more ugly ducking syndrome for me :)


The final part of the evening will come as a shock to a few of you that know me well. And again, this part of the evening was totally accidental. If you've ever hung around me before you may have heard the words "hunt" and "schmunt" echo from my lips in close proximity. I don't do hunts. I've mentioned that fact before on these very pages. Some friends often try to provoke me to hunt. But, for various reasons, I won't.

Or, at least, I should say "I haven't". Because last night, I am horrified to admit, I hunted.

While I was in LAP I noticed a sign on a wall about some pose hunt. And the upstairs in the store I noticed a poster with a corresponding logo. Ooh, a freebie, I thought. Let's have a look. But inside the freebie, as well as 4 free poses, was a landmark. To the next hunt site.

I am ashamed to admit I could not resist :(

The way I justify it to myself is that most hunts are girls clothes, with a tiny smidgin of male stuff. Poses are a bit more universal, on the whole. Yes, as excuses go, that is weak, I know.

Now I have the dilemma about whether I head back to the start or just continue from the point I reached last night. Maybe it depends on the quality of the stuff I pick up in the meantime. I'm in emotional turmoil.

Isolation

Whatever can be said in favour of SL and our SLives here and our virtual friends, it does cause problems.

One particular problem I have just been presented is distance. We meet people from all over the world in here. We develop friendships. And then something happens to the other person in RL and there is just nothing at all we can do to help.

When a friend is unexpectedly told she's got health issues and SL becomes an insignificance to her, how can I help her when we're over 8,000 miles apart?

You know who you are. I'm thinking of you.

Knowing my place

I learned tonight where I fit in the grand scheme of things. My place is currently between cake and icecream. That's not a bad place to sit now is it?

Like Thursday

I’ve not ever entered into this whole Love Thursday blog thing before, mainly because I’m almost a day ahead of everyone else and my Love Thursday would be everyone else’s Humpday and it just would get confusing and stuff. But I decided this week, sod it, I’d give it a go. Plus there’s something I’m kinda keen to write about that’s been preying on my mind for a couple of days, and this will give me a good excuse.

Oh, but it’s going to be a Like Thursday blog post, rather than a Love Thursday one. Because Love is a very strong word.

So, what do I like? What do I like so much that I wanted to write about it? Well, I guess the answer is a friend. Meeting friends, making new friends, hanging with friends, chatting with friends. Sure, that’s all good. But that’s not what I’m on about here. Here I’m on about one friend in particular.

Certain events caused us to cross paths. More by accident than by design. Sort of. But I am so glad we did.

Over the past few days we’ve logged quite a few hours sat around just chatting, shooting the breeze, sharing stuff. Basically, I’m really enjoying getting to know her. She’s fun, has a wicked sense of humour, is easy to talk to, intelligent, down to earth, independent, straightforward (mostly!) and fiercely loyal to her friends. These are just a selection of her characteristics I’ve had the pleasure to glimpse in the short time I’ve known her. Oh, and she’s pretty too. If I forgot that, she’d kill me ;)

Sure, the significant time difference between us is a small concern, but we seem to manage to cross paths often enough and plurk certainly helps. And even if I’m just a minor distraction to fill the wee small hours of her mornings, heck, I’ll take what I can get, quite honestly.

At this stage it would be, I think, untimely to name the object of my affection, for a raft of reasons. But, to be honest, close friends might be able to work it out and I’ve not written anything above that I’ve not said to her in person.

So, to wrap this all up, Like Thursday is this week devoted to a friend. Someone special.

See you at the pub after work

I was chatting to Alicia yesterday. We spoke about a lot of things but one thing worth mentioning was regarding guys with guy friends. She beat me to a blogpost about the subject but I think it's probably still worth sharing my perspective for what it's worth.

I guess I'd not really thought about it at great length but on my friends list of maybe 25 friends only 2 are male. Alicia said that she knows of male friends who "outright dislike other men in SL." This shocked me actually.

For me the lack of males on my friends list is not so much a dislike of other guys in SL, but more just a lack of opportunity maybe. Most of my friends have arisen through the world of blogging - me reading their blogs and somehow getting people to read my spurtings. And that environment is massively weighted towards the oestrogen-heavy sex. As such most of my friends are female. And then I hang out with those females and there are other lasses around and then we become friends. It's kind of self-perpetuating in some way perhaps.

And when I do hang out in a mixed group often it would seem premature to offer a guy friendship. Maybe we just take longer to accept one another than lasses or something. Which is weird because in RL I am positive this is different. Guys bond so easily over talk of sport or lasses or whatever in RL whereas lasses sometimes...erm...take longer to bond. But why is SL different?

Somtimes when I have tried speaking to guys in SL I have found that a lot of them are overly macho - wanting to 'impress' the women maybe, or just wanting to be the alpha male. Maybe it's because so many men in SL are trying to get with the scantily-clad hoochies that any other guy is seen as a threat muscling in on their territory. Maybe.

At other times I have had some great chats with guys. I remember when I first arrived in SL hanging out at the Pond (finally some people nearly on my timezone!) there were some great blokes there. And they even spoke to the other guys rather than simply directing talk to the group members with boobs. I remember one time when I was exploring and I came across a guy with a t-shirt/bike shop and we had a long chat and he even let me take his chopper out for a ride (no, that isn't a euphemism!).

So for me, and definitely for some other guys around the place, we are not averse to male friendships. We just don't come cross paths very often.

My aim for this week is to increase my male friend quota. If nothing else, it'll keep Alicia quiet ;)

Gutted

I was surfing that XLStreet..., er... XStreetL..., er... SleetRX or whatever it's called last night (I always forget its name) and came across something that made me sad :(

There is someone else out there who is selling artwork generated with the same fractal mathematics program as what I have been using :(


Is there room in SLuniverse for both of us do you think? I went and checked out her stores - both the normal one and the Zindra one :o

It seems that she's actually not selling that much of fractally stuff inworld at all. It's all on StreetRacerXS or whatever :&

As such there probably is scope for my stuff after all :)

I just have to get off my arse and do something about it :p

While I'm here I just want to very quickly mention one Ms Julis Pausch. I needed somewhere for photos and stuff - a photostudio with posestand, if you will - but something quite simple but functional. I came across the Photosphere made by Julis. Normally for this sort of thing I wouldn't use the blog as an advert site but I wanted a couple of amendments making to it and she was, quite frankly, so helpful and friendly that I couldn't let it go unmentioned. If you're looking for this sort of item you could do a lot worse than checking it out.

Skin trade

A few days ago, Quaintly came over to see my new abode and somehow it came up that she didn't like my skin. This kinda made me antsy. I'd had one skin for quite a while and was never totally 100% satisfied with it so getting a second corroborating opinion made my mind up. I was determined to check out new skins.

I've never really done the whole skin shopping thing before. I had some free ones when I first arrived, and then ended up with my current Adam and Eve one maybe by accident, or perhaps Banana had taken me there at some point, but I decided going back would be a good place to start - a kind of a brand familiarity thing, I guess. I went and grabbed every skin demo pack in the store practically. I TPed home and began trying them on.

Ploughing my way through six skins with four tones each with four or five facial hair arrangements each was taking a large chunk of time. I needed a second opinion. Given Quaintly had begun this whole sorry experience I decided she needed to be part of it. So I IM-ed her, but she was busy.

However she suggested I TP over anyhow to her garden and then bore both her and her friend with multiple slighty different skin configurations. So I did. And what would you know, her friend was only London Spengler, a participant in the buttpic thingy I set rolling a while back. Someone I've never met but admired from afar. London is the developer of the pretty awesome Pandora HUG and I do not have enough good things to say about it, especially since I got a free lesson from the creator!

Well, I'll be honest with you, the whole skin thing didn't go amazingly well. I think my problem began when I decided to ask two women to help me decide. London and Quaintly basically struggled to come to a consolidated viewpoint. One liked darker skin with ripped abs while the other liked lighter skin with a more toned look. Women, eh? Where did this leave me? They both vote for a smidgin of facial hair though so at least we had one thing they agreed on. And before you ask, I kept my pants on at all times! I'm just that sort of a gentleman.

London then had to leave so I was about to nip back to Adam and Eve to pick up the skin we all sort of finally agreed/compromised on when Quaintly suggested I head over to a skin place she favours. I can't remember the name right now, and heck, it doesn't matter, this isn't a fashion blog, but it had a two word name with the initials DC I think. Dernier Chi? Does that ring a bell.


Anyhow, enough of that, Quaintly will comment later and correct me, I'm sure. The bottom line however is that I found a skin. A skin I liked. And Quaintly liked. And more to the point, I liked. It's important enough that I liked it to mention it twice, I feel.

Have a look below. One the left, the old Marnix. On the right, the few and improved Marnix. Better dya think?


Next up Quaintly took me over to Aisuru's store. I don't know her personally but she's a really good friend of a few friends of mine so I was interested in seeing her place. She's recently released some new eyes that to be honest are the mutt's nuts. Quaintly was going over to buy some and they were some damn lovely I picked up a pair or two too.


The evening was not yet complete because a short while later Quaintly got a TP from London saying that she was with a couple of friends and could we come over. One electronic leap later and we found ourselves in the rather spectacular Mont St Michel.


And with London were Faerie and Dunan, two more buttpic laydees. They'd wanted to meet the infamous Marnix, supposedly. It's hard not to feel just a modicum of self-pride when something like that happens, y'know.


All in all it was a pretty damn awesome evening. I found a new skin. I got some new fantastic eyes. And I met people I'd never met before who'd joined with me in the posterior extravanganza. Does it get much better than that?

Boots!

I went shopping the other night. For skins. I decided I needed to check out new skins at least, for various reasons. I've had this current one forever. I'm reluctant to change it though. It so many ways it feels Marnix, y'know.

But anyhow, more of that another time. I didn't get as far as the skin section of the shop I was in because I arrived at the shoes section first.

And I found something I just had to have. These are my "Hey, I've got new boots" boots. Wow, eh?

Sleeping dogs

Sometimes, you know, it's best just to let them lie. Sleeping dogs, that is.

Sometimes you wanna say something and put the record straight. Or tell your side of a story. Or clarify a misunderstanding.

Sometimes it's best to turn around and just carry on walking. Sometimes it's not worth the hassle it would cause or the angst.

More than a game

It still always amazes me when I hear people refer to SL as a game. Sure I guess, for RPers as such, it can be a game to some extent. But for the majority of people inworld, I would imagine that it is just so much more than a game. I fit most definitely in that camp.

And what, for me, makes it more than a game? Well, it's relationships isn't it?

As much as I have loved playing Football Manager for hours and hours (and days and days) in the past where I have control over the lives and careers of virtual sportsmen I cannot develop a relationship with them. They do not interact when I act (other than developing a virtual huff if I stick them in the reserves but still tell them they're a key member of the team, of course).

But SL? Well so much of it is based on relationships. Relationships between people do exist. Relationships start. And they end. They develop and flourish. There are friendships. And romances. And one-night stands. And love.

You can have regrets over something said or not said. You can be elated when a friend simply IMs to say hi. You can have butterflies as you sit next to some-one hoping with all your heart, fingers-crossed, for that first kiss.

Whether the AV is a true(-ish!) representation of the person typing at home or not really does not matter in the slightest way. Through the medium of those AVS, be they human, neko, furry, elf, tiger or terrier, people interact and develop relationships. What I say and do impacts the thoughts, feelings and actions of real people on the other side of the world. For that reason alone SL, to me, is not a game.

Wrong directions

A little while ago I bought a chair in a furniture store. I also bought a water wall. But it's the chair that was particularly lovely. Last weekend, when furnishing the new abode, I decided I'd head back to said store to try and pick up some equally lovely stuff. I didn't have an LM so I had to be a bit more devious, I thought, and looked up the creator of the chair and searched her profile for a pick.

And what would you know, I had success. One TP over and I had arrived. Only it wasn't quite as successful as I'd hoped. The furniture store was not quite how I remembered it. In fact there was no furniture for sale at all anywhere.

There definitely wasn't a moonscape last time I was there. The giant floaty robot creatures were new too, I think. And the gaseous atmosphere had replaced kitchen and dining department.


Is it a sign you've been in SL a while when shops you go back to no longer exist?

This story does have a happy ending however, you'll be pleased to hear. I'll come to that though as first there's a doh! moment. Reinvestigation of the creator lady's pick revealed some text about the shop closing. Maybe I should have read that before I TPed, eh? That'll teach me.

The doh! moment also lead to the good news though, so it's not all bad. The pick also mentioned a new outlet store in place of the original full sim store. It's not quite the same but it still has lovely sofas and a really cute little bed. Maybe when I'm feeling a bit richer I'll venture back.

Hair flair

I was messing with hair last night night. Not sure why really. I just was. It was a quiet night.

I guess when I find a hair I like I stick with it and it's all I wear. But every now and then I like to revisit my other hair, just to convince myself that I am wearing the right one. And then I go and buy some more colours of that same hair. I did that last night.

But then I decided to mess with poses a bit. And ended up with a chorus line of male-strippers. Somehow.


See? This is what happens when I'm left on my own.

They're an investment

Over the weekend I sat and watched The Last Samurai. I was reminded what a good film it was and as such felt moved to find myself a samurai outfit in SL. You know, for wearing when you nip to the shops and stuff.

A few helpful plurkies turned my head towards BareRose and off I trundled.

What a mistake!

Other than the lag which was, to be honest, horrific and caused me to crash four times before I got what I went for, the shop was great. The choice was immense and the quality pretty great too. But that's the problem. I've realised that with Ls in my account I'm a compulsive shopper. It's not good. Especially when my landlady won't take clothes in lieu of rent payments.

OK, so I found myself the samurai outfit I was looking for. Major win with this one, I think.


I also found another samurai outfit. This one a little more relaxed. Like the samurai at home, sort of thing.


And then I found another outfit I just needed. And another. And another. I won't bore you with them all but I do just want to show you this one. You just never know when I might this sort of thing.


At this point I would like to ask someone to please host a masquerade ball that happens sometime around maybe 2am SLT and to invite me. I have the most perfect costume already sat in my inventory, as you can see.

Li'l doggy

Another 'investment' I picked up in BareRose the other day was this awesomely cute terrier av. So cute is this av that it caused my landlady to squeal. It really is that cute. He's got a little cap and suitcase and wiggly walk and everything. Aw, bless.


I thought it might be a nice idea to take him to meet the chickens, given they're on the same eye-level and all. When I first arrived in terrier form the hens all crowded round me trying to get a closer look. But then they got bored and moved towards the back of the coop. I am sure they were talking about me because they kept clucking away quietly to themselves intermittently glancing in my general direction.


I thought I might have more luck with another canine so I wandered outside of the coop to find the Buckley. He, it is clear to see, was fascinated, although I was sure that at many moment he'd decide I was a toy to pick up and throw around. I concluded into would be prudent to move along so went to visit a neighbour.


Once she'd finished squealing how cute the av was we agreed to see what happened when my mini terrier av partook of a danceball. Cue one long thin bug-like terrier. With some moves. Definitely less cute than before.


At this point I noticed a pole in the corner of the bar we were dancing in. This is where things got a bit silly. And more than a little freaky. It really was quite disturbing to see a pole-dancing terrier-bug. I think we'll both have nightmares and have agreed never to speak of the incident again.

Safety first

The other day I mentioned that I'd been banned from the parcel of one of my neighbours on the island. An overzealous accelerator pedal, a grunty V8 and an uphill slope were jointly responsible.

I felt like I was flying until my Mustang remembered it was wasn't a plane. The slow-motion barrel-roll and subsequent carnage was spectacular.

Sitting down and contemplating the wreckage I realised that I'd been silly by taking my life in my hands and risking my neck by driving without due care and attention.

Next time, I aim to be better prepared. Or at least, better attired.

Crying fowl

Is there any more distressing sight than to log in to SL and, while everything is rezzing around you, notice one of your chickens taking a flight towards the moon? It's one giant leap for avian-kind...


To infinity, and beyond! Or, right back to your Lost and Found folder. One of the two.

Finished...I think

OK, I think I'm about done. Want to see some pics of the new pad then?

Your wish is my command.






How is it we never have a big enough prim allowance?



And and the inside...




Oh, and I've just been banned from somewhere for pretty much the first time. I kind of was driving my Mustang around the island and got a good bit of air and then the next thing I know, I've been banned. Sorry, neighbour. It was an accident, I promise. I didn't mean to land in your house :(