Lovely girls

This evening I was over at my gallery when I saw two yellow dots I recognised over in another part of the sim. I wandered over to find Jewellah and Chry worrying over piles and piles of presents all gathered together under a tree.


They then presented one to me! To say I was overwhelmed was an understatement.


Given that tonight was my last time in SL for maybe a week due to festive travels the girls said I could open my gift there and then. Which I promptly did, to find myself bestowed with a shirt and trousers combo from Alphamale. I tried it on so they could see the visual fruits of their searching endeavours. Purple suits me, I think.


As well as the shirt there was also another small gift from the cheeky lasses. I tried that on too, as I think that was kind of their aim...


Thank you so much, Chry & J, for making me smile tonight. I totally wasn't expecting a Christmas present. But you surprised me with one. You're both lovely, whatever you try and claim.

Shameful

On Friday, in RL, I had the Christmas party for my team at work. Somehow during the course of the evening the discussion moved on to me and my love of spreadsheets. At this point Mrs Marnix revealed to everyone present that I keep a spreadsheet of sales of my art work in SL. (New range of work, entitled Symmetry, on sale now, btw!) Cue the usual "Second what?" questions.

I am not quite sure what I stammered and stuttered to try and explain what Second Life was, why I 'play' it, and how it quite works that I sell art I create in RL to people in SL to adorn the walls of their virtual houses and stores etc. but I am glad that the pizza restaurant was dark enough to hide my blushing cheeks. I think the end result was quite a few people not quite understanding the concept and thinking that I am perhaps even more of a geek than they already think I am because I know my way around a spreadsheet.

This whole experience got me thinking. Why do I, or even we, find the concept of SL such a difficult thing to explain? Why does the idea of meeting people around the world and making friends seem such an alien idea to others just because it exists through the medium of computer software and an avatar?

I really felt embarrassment at having to explain what I spend some of my non-work hours doing. I have really no idea why though. What is more shameful? That I have a Second Life, or that I struggle to talk about it?

Symmetry

If you've only been stalking my blog a short while you might not know this, but I have a gallery. It is filled with my fractal-based artwork. I filled a sim back in September at the launch party, mostly due to my lovely friends, but since then it has kinda stagnated. I've not changed any of the stuff on the walls since then.

Or at least I hadn't. Until yesterday. I felt inspired and created a whole new load of work and have revamped the gallery. I have gone with a theme this time, the theme of Symmetry, so if you need some new work for your house, you need a gift for a loved one for Christmas, or if you just want a nosey around, please come on down for a look around. Swirly Disco Flames is feeling refreshed.

Feeding the hungry

A friend came to visit me in my gallery today. She wasn't coming to see my work though. She was just coming to say hello. She came wearing a supermodel stick thin shape so I did what any generous host would and rezzed her some food.

She didn't look impressed.


Although her reluctance to eat could have had more to do with me watching intently to see if she partook of the culinery delights than a distaste for the cuisine on offer itself.


I am not sure she even liked the new ultra-violet club-style lighting I was toying with. There's no pleasing some people.

Keeping my head warm

There are four reasons for this post.

1. I am still feeling the wintery, festive mood from the other day and wanted to continue the fun
   
2. I am having fun messing around and learning PS Elements a bit
   
3. My friend Lolita has an SL Snowball fight group going on in Flickr that I wanted to post some more pics to
   
4. I have a lovely new bobblehat to show off
   

So, I give you, me, a bobblehat and a snowball fight:






Some are better than others. As I say, I am learning :)

Changing clothes

I bought some new clothes the other night. Three outfits from the same shop. This is not unheard of for me though. When I find a place I like I tend to buy the whole catalogue. But really the point of this post is where my mind wandered next, while trying on the new clothes. I just kinda got to thinking about how my fashion tastes have changed since I've been in SL and how I've gone through phases.

I guess when I first arrived I flitted around, not really knowing what was good and what wasn't. I didn't know what was quality, didn't know any of the big names in fashion, so just bought what I saw. I was not discerning in the slightest.


I even went through a stage of wearing my PJs everywhere I went.


But then, as I learned a bit more, started reading some of the male fashion blogs, and got more of a sense of what was out there I started being a bit more targeted.

I guess my first real direction was kind of a smart casual kind of look. AlphaMale was a shop where I spent quite a bit of time. And money.


After that I discovered less generic, and more targeted fashion, I guess you could describe it as. I loved what RFyre did but my big love was Silent Sparrow. It is definitely fair to say that this was my brocade period.


I have never really done anything rock-y or punk-y in my time here. Somehow that just doesn't feel Marnix. In fact I didn't even own a pair of jeans for months and months. I struggled to dress in anything less than smart casual. And even when I finally bought some jeans I paired then with a shirt and waistcoat. I just couldn't help myself.


And now I think I have reverted to my 'sharp' default setting, especially since my shopping the other day. I just think suits can look damn good in SL. Especially when they're done well. And now I have three that I expect to wear rather a lot over the coming however-long.


I have remembered I like to look sharp. And damn these suits are sharp.


With this sort of thing you can't go wrong, eh?

Feeling festive

After the other night and all that wintery behaviour I have been feeling decidedly festive in SL. I even went along to the Winterstock fashion show yesterday (mainly to cheer a friend on who was walking) and dressed in a nice warm jumper and coat combo to stay warm. Today I wanted to go check out a friend's place because I'd heard she's got a particularly nice wintery cottage chalet type thingy I wanted to check out and share with you all.

And so, I give you Velvet's place. It's pretty stunning really. It makes me pine for those European winters, those regular pre-Christmas visits to the markets of Vienna, those evenings spent huddled round mugs of mulled wine.

[Coincidentally, it's the same parcel where I used to live a while back, but that's by-the-by.]


After I'd finished taking piccies I saw a yellow dot on the mini-map so wandered over to say hi to a friend. What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than sitting on giant Christmas presents nattering about nothing, eh? All we were missing was the mulled wine and mince pies.