dirty pubs and talking crotches

Hey, in case you didn't know, it's St. Patrick's Day! Let's celebrate by looking at some stuff I found on Marketplace.


This Dirty Dublin Pub is a pretty sweet deal for only 10L. It includes a bar, tables, chairs, decor and a bunch of other stuff I couldn't fit in this picture. Here's the vendor pic for your viewing pleasure:


Get it TODAY because the price supposedly goes up to 100L after St. Paddy's Day. It's 36 prims without all the furniture. It's also fully modifiable, thank God, because you're gonna want to edit the linked parts and drop a scrubber script in the sign over the door outside. Otherwise you'll get smothered by big poofing cartoon shamrocks. They totally killed the whole dark, dive-bar vibe for me. C'mon, pub people! That's not dirty or grungy!

Buy it here: The Dirty Dublin Pub, 10L

Next.


This TALKING CODPIECE almost makes me wanna get an SL boyfriend so I can make him wear it and laugh my shamrocks off. Gosh, and look at all the snazzy extras you get with it! For a mere 111L, it's A STEAL, gentlemen!

Buy it here: Men's "RUB for LUCK" Talking Codpiece, 111L

Let's step away from the wild side and get domestic for a second.


If you read my post yesterday, you know that I couldn't rez anything for most of the day. That's why this post is sort of late and these are all vendor pictures. (That's probably sweet, sweet relief for you, actually.) Anyway, this cute chair is FREE and nicely done! I got it. I liked it. It includes a two-prim version and a four-prim version with shadow, and it's copy. Yay! Maybe I'll set out a bunch of them tonight and you can all come over and drink green pixelated beer with me in my badly terraformed yard.

Buy it here: Shamrock Porch Chair, FREE

Moving on.


I appreciate the fact that these shamrock eyes are the 2012 version, and I swear I'm not being sarcastic when I say that. Pretty! You get two pairs — Mint and Kelly Green — for 1L. They're more subtle than other shamrock eyes I've seen out there, so they get my seal of approval. ARF ARF! (That was a seal sound.)

Buy them here: Shamrock Eyes 2012, 1L

So hey, what're you wearing today? I'm pretty loyal to the store A Touch of Ireland on St. Patrick's Day. I realize they're not gracing the covers of high-falootin' fashion magazines everywhere, but I don't care. I'M A FAN! I love the colors and the textures in that store. And the whimsy. THE WHIMSY, I tell you! I'm wearing ATOI's Emerald Shamrock Dress in the picture up top. It looks way better on this chick, though:


I need a wind machine. Seriously, this vendor pic makes me wish I could learn how to take decent photos in SL. Beautiful.

Buy it here: Emerald Shamrock Dress, 375L

Or if you don't feel like getting all dressed up, you could always just slap on a giant shamrock:


That's not me; that's the vendor picture, and HELL YES I bought this thing! How could I not?? It's only 1L. I know you're looking at it right now and exclaiming, "THAT'S IT! THAT is what my wardrobe has been missing all this time!" At least that's what I said when I saw it. I'm being serious.

It includes pants, shirt, socks and that big damn shamrock. OK, technically it's a four-leaf clover, but whatever. SADLY, that hair is not included. DAMMIT!

Buy it here: Four Leaf Clover Costume, 1L

Or you could skip costumes and go with a completely new AV. I still can't decide if this one makes me happy or scared:


Look at his cool hat. He's 175L and includes everything you see here as well as "two silly leprechaun dances," according to the description on Marketplace.

There's also a female version of this AV. I'm not posting her picture because I care about you and your mental health. Suffice it to say, you're not going to see her as the centerfold in any leprechaun nudie magazines any time soon.

Buy it here: Male Leprechaun Avatar, 175L

The other day, my five-year-old niece asked me what the difference between a leprechaun and a fairy is. I told her fairies have wings and leprechauns have money. And fairies like flowers and leprechauns like beer. Then she ran away and asked somebody else. Oops.

I need a drumroll please for my final WTF item of the day. Or at least a suspenseful pause. Ready? drums and pause drums and pause drums and pause drums

OK. This, my friends, is called a Lucky Leprechaun Noob Pony w/Beer & Drunk MiniNoob.


"OH DANNY BOYEEEEEE!" "Now with animated barf, new sounds & green exhaust fumes!" and "still only 1L!" *gales of laughter*

I can't do the Marketplace description justice, so here it is verbatim:

"For your St. Patrick's Day pub crawl — Leprechaun Noob Pony will do the crawling for you! Hang on tight, though, he's had a few himself. Stand clear of the MiniNoob who's trapped himself in the beer-mug hat — he's completely trashed and blowing chunks. Both of them are full of beer and blarney, so proceed with caution as you ride off looking for the "end of the rainbow." NEW for 2011 — leprechaun sounds, animated barf, and green exhaust fumes added !! (Leprechaun Noob Pony is a worn attachment that you move with your regular walk, run & fly controls. Rub his feet or right butt cheek for luck.) Comes in a gift crate with festive bow."

A FESTIVE BOW! And YES, that is a PUKING NOOB in his hat:


I want my mommy.

Yes I bought it. And yes, I was slightly relieved when my rez problems prevented me from opening the "gift crate with festive bow." Maybe I don't want to see this thing in action. And maybe I secretly want to marry the guy who made it.

Buy it here: Lucky Leprechaun Noob Pony w/Beer & Drunk MiniNoob, 1L

I think I'm done now. That was a little too much excitement for me.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hey hey hey it's my rez day

It's my Rez Day and everything is going to hell.


(Hey, look at my cattle!)

It started this morning, with my RL cat Clover chewing through my laptop charger. Actually it was my BACKUP laptop charger, because she chewed through the first one a couple of months ago. So I had to drag myself to the Apple store to buy another one. Um, BAD DAY to go to the Apple store. There were about 9,000 people there buying the new iPad. OOCH. Calm down, people. SHEEEESH. You would think it was the second coming of Christ or something.

So an hour and $81 later I returned home with a new charger and logged in, only to discover that SL will not let me TP anywhere or REZ anything. Gosh, what beautiful irony. ("Happy REZ Day!") No matter how many times I logged in and out, I still couldn't rez anything. I found out the hard way by trying to rez a bowl of 1600L Meeroos food. It vanished with the message "Unable to rez an object."

**sigh and sad face**

Now I'm worried my Meeroos are going to starve and run away because I can't rez their food. That's sad, especially because when I went to check them I almost fell on the ground because OH MY GAWD THEY BAKED ME A REZ DAY CAKE!!!


They've been digging up little presents for me all day — even a birthday card! AWWW! I have to give the Meeroos creators props for that little trick. That's pretty cool.

I'm a little stunned that I've been in SL for FOUR YEARS — WOOOO! That's a little disturbing. I don't have any big plans for today, nor do I want any. Usually I go out and splurge on something fun and slightly expensive . . . LIKE OH MY GAWWWD THESE NEW UNICORNS FROM WHITE OAK EQUINES:


. . . but times are a little tight for me this year. It almost makes me wish I was one of those bold "Hi! I'm a blogger! Can I please have one of your unicorns so I can blog it?" bloggers, but I'm not. It's just not how I usually roll.

Oh well.

UPDATE: THANK YOU, MEARA!


She got me the unicorn! YAY! I love it SO MUCH! Now if I could just get rid of my robot face!

And that wasn't a hint up there, I swear!

Getting back to celebration ideas, I thought about setting up a stripper pole with a tip jar and putting on a little show for all my friends who have been begging to see me naked, and then everyone could drink champagne and hoot and holler and shove lindens in my G-string . . . but then I got scared that SL wouldn't let me rez — and would subsequently EAT — my sort of expensive stripper pole. Hey, don't judge! Every girl should have one!

So I nixed that idea.

Anyway. Enough about all that.

I had intended to include a bunch of trippy St. Patrick's Day stuff I found on Marketplace in this post but I'm just realizing that all those pictures combined with the above paragraphs full of hand-wringing would make this post 100 miles long. So watch for it in the next post, which I'll start in a second. I just need to run and make a cocktail.

ROLL CREDITS
• For my special day, I decided to deck myself out in this lovely Gentle Fairy Green Gown by Angelwing. I got it at Fashion For Life. It was a mere 100L. I love you, Angelwing, for making beautiful things that I can afford. The gown includes a head garland and wings (not pictured).
• Hair - Truth - Lykie w/Roots in Snow, rigged m*sh. I think this could be my favorite hair ever. It makes me feel like a woman. *cue Shania Twain*
• Skin - Belleza - Lily in Sunkissed (Christmas gift)
• THAT ROCKIN' UNICORN - White Oak Equines - get it on Marketplace HERE and inworld HERE. It's also available in Black and Palomino versions.

Shake your moneymaker

I found kind of a cool way to make lindens and see some of the, um, lesser-known parts of Second Life.


(We Travel wall decal by If Walls Could Talk. The "and lindens" part was added by me though. Contact me if you want me to come write that on your wall as well.)

OK, maybe the word "cool" is kind of a stretch, but if you're bored and you have time to kill, it's something. I found it while I was eating toast and trolling for free stuff on Marketplace. It's called the SL TRAVEL MONEY HUD ("Make Money NOW!!!") and it's sort of like a mobile way to camp for lindens. Go get a free one HERE and put it on.

Ready? OK.

Click the "Travel" button on the HUD and you'll get a menu asking you if you want to travel or cash out existing lindens you've earned. If you click the "Travel" menu option, you'll get a menu that looks like this:


Now for instance, if "Destinaton [sic] DanceFloor" doesn't look like your thing, you can click "Next" and it'll keep giving you destination options for varying amounts of time/lindens. (Once I clicked a 20-minute destination and crashed when I was on minute 18. I cried.)

Once you get to a place, you'll probably see other half-rezzed yahoos wandering around also trying to earn lindens, and you'll usually get a menu like this:


There is a little bit of a language barrier. I don't know what "be lock for visit" means, because it's not like you'll be trapped there if you click "Yes."

If you don't get that menu when you land, look for a kiosk that says "SLTB" and touch it (see below). That'll usually work. Sometimes you may have to follow a beacon to get to the exact destination. If you still don't get a menu, check to see if your HUD is counting down your time anyway. If not, click "Travel" and mosey on to the next place.


Note: You WILL get bitch-slapped if you get somewhere and try to just stand in one place. You'll get a stern message like the one above, telling you to "be active, walk around and discover the products within this place." So be active, dammit! Shake your moneymaker all over the damn place! Ironically, you'll also get reprimanded if you stray too far from the landing point though.

Some places have their own rules posted:


"You must Not turning in circles, Not going up and down, back and forth all Time!" That sounds like my whole life, actually. I need to make a sign like that and hang it in my real house.

(These photos remind me of the good old days of blogging as a noob, when most of my photos either showed the back of my AV's head or my AV looking warily at something.)

As I mentioned, your HUD will count down your time at each stop. When you're done, it'll tell you to click "Travel" if you want to go somewhere else. Many times you'll end up in empty clubs.


"PAY THE SPLODER!"

There are also many adult destinations, so just be aware. Once I ended up in a sex club for 10 minutes. After about 90 seconds, I wanted to yell, "I'M UNCOMFORTABLE! EVERYBODY PUT YOUR CLOTHES ON AND QUIT IT!" I need a T-shirt that says, "Kinda Prudish So Put That Thing Away and Cover Your Crack."


GOD. HELP. US. ALL. (Obviously this is not a sex club, but I really wanted to use and then quickly delete this pic I snapped of some chick KEEPIN' IT KLASSY at The Dressing Room Blue. Nice pants!)

Sorry. Back to traveling for money: One of my destinations was The All New Cheeky Mouse Club (it's all new!) and I found a box there with these HUDS. So if you don't use Marketplace, you can still grab one inworld — see credits at bottom.


I got my travelin' boots on! (Veracruz boots by Crazy. Insert "the M word" here.)

I cashed out after 6L. WOOHOO! Drinks are on me! And YES! I did get paid! It was kind of exciting! Now I only have to make 1494 more lindens and I can pay the rent on one of my farm parcels!

If you don't have the time or the inclination to become an SLTB travel ho, or "purchased visitor," as the Website refers to us, you can also occasionally make decent lindens by taking surveys about your time in SL. There are real scientist-type people out there who are FASCINATED by the fact that you live vicariously through an avatar!

— Join the First Opinions Panel in Second Life. I've been a member for a couple of years. They'll email you invitations to take paid online surveys, usually about your AV's habits in SL. When you're finished, you'll get a SLURL to a place where you can collect your lindens. Easy peasey. I believe each survey pays about 250L - 350L. If you sign up, please use my name as your referral — please, please, pretty please! If I refer two people by March 9, I'll get entered in a drawing to win 1000L. Hey, every linden counts! CLICK HERE TO JOIN.

— RTI International (in Research Triangle Park, NC) is conducting an online Digital Life & Wellness Survey, which aims to collect information about SL residents' health, wellness and medical conditions. If you choose to participate, first you'll take a screener survey to see if you meet their demographic. If so, you'll take a 15- to 20-minute survey (you don't have to reveal your RL name) and collect 1000L upon completion. I did, and it was painless. (I immediately went on an irresponsible shopping spree and bought the Print Dress in Teal shown in this post — it's by one of my all-time favorite SL designers Milla Michinaga of MichaMi.) Here's the link to the screener survey: CLICK THIS! If you use it, please send me your name so I can submit it as someone I've referred. I'll get 100L for every person I refer who completes the entire survey. (WOOHOO!) In turn, you'll be able to do the same thing once you finish.

All these fake clubs have made me yearn for a real cocktail, so I'm gonna go mix some mandarin orange vodka with some cranberry juice and have a happy moment in RL. Ciao!

VISIT INWORLD
- Get a free SL Travel Money HUD inworld HERE or on Marketplace HERE
- If you're a sim owner/merchant who wants to add your destination to the SL Travel Money HUD, visit the Website HERE.

ROLL CREDITS:
Dress - MichaMi - Print Dress in Teal
Boots - Crazy - Veracruz M*sh Boots
Hair - Shag - Pussy Galore in Butterscotch, Roots
Necklace - PurpleMoon Creations - Selva Necklace in Brown
Sunglasses - BOOM - lil bow peepers in Zebra Print
Leggings - Aura - Snug Leggings (Opaque) in Dirt
Skin - Belleza - Lily in Sunkissed (Christmas gift)
Wall decal - If Walls Could Talk - We Travel (menu-driven color-change)

The M word! (let's try this one more time)

(Edited to correct some big damn mistakes)


Have you ever taken a picture for a blog and then looked at it later and wondered how the bleep your shoe got cut off? That's me right now. Live it in the moment with me. Meanwhile I'll just keep smiling and pretend I cropped it this way on purpose.

Anyway.

I changed my AV's clothes. Somebody throw a parade!

I switched from the Emo Fashion Chicken look to this cheery Stepford Dress by Sugar and it made me feel a little better. ("I feel prettyyyyyy! Oh so prettyyyyyy!")

I took a course in color therapy in college. Supposedly, the color yellow lifts your spirits if you stare at it long enough. That's about all I remember from that class. OH and if you match the color of your shirt to the color of your eyes, people will perceive you as more honest and trustworthy. So hey, all you liars, grifters, scammers and crooks out there — choose that shirt carefully when you're getting dressed in the morning.

Now I feel like crime statistics just went up a little because of me. Oops.


I raved about Sugar creator Iokko Molko's skins in my last post. I didn't realize she made clothes too. I guess I'm flat-out obsessed with that store now. You're just gonna have to deal with it. You like this dress? You can get one of 10 available colors for a mere 75L at Depraved Nation's March Gatcha Madness event. If you're scared of mesh, the good news is each dress includes S, M, L and XL sizes. I'm wearing M. Click HERE to get a free box of standardized shapes that most designers use when working with mesh.

MESH!

MESH MESH MESH! I'm so sick of that word! Sick! Sick of it! SICK OF IT IN ALL CAPS!

Don't get me wrong. I like mesh. Designers are doing beautiful things with it (see above). It's hip, it's happening, it's now, I'm warming up to wearing more of it, and it's a helluva lot better than screwing around trying to adjust a bunch of prims. I'm just sick of hearing about it. Why can't it have a more attractive name? Take sculptie, for instance. Now that's a name that makes me want to bounce around and giggle. Or maybe even chortle. But "mesh," blah, it's only one letter away from "meh." Not only that, a local law firm where I live in RL keeps running a commercial looking for clients suffering from "complications due to transvaginal mesh implant" and, as such, I could be the only person in SL who thinks "transvaginal" whenever I see the word "mesh."

Consequently, it has officially earned a place on my list of "Words and Phrases I Wish People Would Stop Using for a While," which also includes "j'adore," "pop of color," "muah," "haz" (as in, "I can haz smack in face?"), "kitteh," "smexy," "hawt," "hun," "buttsecks" and "your bank account has insufficient funds," among many others. And I realize this is completely irrational, but I'm also sick of people who frequently! put! exclamation! points! in! blog! headlines! A couple times a month is cool, but several times a day? We get it! You're EXCITED about that free review copy! Blogging is fun! Blow up the feeds! Shout it to the world! Hold out your hand! Now swallow that Valium I just put in it!

Oof. I just can't seem to shake the bitchy these days. Sorry. Hold on while I go stare at a yellow wall for a few minutes . . . .

OK. Getting back on track . . . Henceforth, "mesh" shall be referred to as "The M Word" in this blog. Mainly because I'm tired of getting tricked into thinking about vaginas. Let's see how long that lasts.

Hey, look at this necklace:


(FREE SKIN ALERT: This Milena skin is another Mynerva group gift, available in store. It's dreamy.)

I met Elemental Earth Designs creator Sirena Penucca at Jewelry Fair a couple years ago and now I like to keep an eye on her work. Her Tierra Jar necklaces are cool. That's a little butterfly in there! And if it's raining or snowing in your RL (or in your head), you could probably Break in Case of Emergency.

(Is anyone else old enough to remember when they used to put a cigarette in a glass tube that said "Break in Case of Emergency" as a joke? Hell, maybe they're still doing it now and I'm just not paying attention. But anyway, I will never forget the day, way back when I was a wee child in the '70s, when my mom actually broke one of those things open and smoked the cigarette inside. She had recently quit smoking and had a brief lapse in judgment. Little did she know she was creating a warm, fuzzy memory that would last a lifetime.)

As long as we're on the topic of addictions, join me at the Breedabulls store as I chant . . .


"I DON'T NEED A ST. PATRICK'S DAY COW. I DON'T NEED A ST. PATRICK'S DAY COW. I DON'T NEED A ST. PATRICK'S DAY COW!"

They're 1100L each in a random-buy vendor, with three designs available. Trying . . . so . . . hard . . . to . . . resist.

VISIT INWORLD
March Gatcha Madness at Depraved Nation (through March 17)
Breedabulls cow store

ROLL CREDITS!
Dress - Sugar - Stepford Dress in Blue & Yellow Poppies (at Depraved Nation's March Gatcha Madness)
Shoes - MiaMai - DecO Miranda in Mango/Jeans
Necklace - Elemental Earth Designs - Tierra Jar Necklace in Fly
Hair - Truth - Felecia w/Roots in Champagne (The M Word! Includes flexi attachment)
Skin - Mynerva - Milena preview in Porcelain, group gift in store, 50L join fee
Eyes - A:S:S - Herbalist Eyes in Borago

it's the loneliness that's the killer

I found another skin creator I like. I know, you're shocked, right? Hey, I used to be someone who would never ever ever dream of taking off my RaC . . . oops, I mean Laqroki . . . oops, I mean LAQ Tasha skin. (Wow, I just dated myself big time.) So breaking out of my skin comfort zone is huge for me. I stumbled across the store Sugar during a recent Woeful Wednesday shopping hop and got all goo-goo-gaga over Iokko Molko's work. I also appreciate that she has a lot of great group gifts (like this Red Pill skin) and participates in a lot of bargain shopping events, like Woeful Wednesday and Stuff in Stock.

I'm not a hardcore skin reviewer (obviously). I'm pretty much all about the face and cleavage, and I tend to gravitate toward statement-making skins. I like when it's apparent that the creator approached the skin with something to say and the intention of making something more than just a pretty face. I like skins with creative makeups, even in this day of customizable tattoo makeup. Most of the time I prefer a face that reflects strength (and doesn't make my nose look wonky).

Those are my deep thoughts on skins. They probably could have been expressed more eloquently but unfortunately I have a pounding migraine today. Sorry about that. Next topic.


OOF. I ain't doin' too well these days, folks.

Here's the "Woe is RL Me" spiel in a nutshell: For the past several months I've been in this sort of alarming downward spiral of self-loathing and depression and more self-loathing. I look in the mirror or at pictures of myself and I just feel ugly and awkward and pathetic and sad and alone. And then out of the blue on Thursday, a cyst on my ovary ruptured (GAWD DAMN THAT WAS ITS OWN SPECIAL CIRCLE OF HELL) and I felt convinced that the blackness of my thoughts was getting so powerful that it was literally making parts of my body warp and explode. I feel isolated and frustrated that I seem to be unable to live a normal, happy, functioning life like most people. Meds make me feel foggy, and when I try to talk to doctors about my depression, I feel disgusted and ashamed. I usually try to cover it up by acting like a clown. Most people have no idea that the depression is often so bad it makes me vomit, or that I spend the majority of my time in bed, like those grandparents in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Although actually, a chocolate factory probably WOULD motivate me to get out of bed and sing a little song and dance a little jig, like Charlie's grandpa. So would a job, which I can't seem to find, and I'm convinced it's because blackness is radiating off me in waves and making job interviewers feel woozy the second I sit down in front of them. I keep bombing interviews big time. Ouch. I feel so trapped in this life that I have managed to completely eff up.

There you go. That was my pitifully raw segue into . . .

There are only a few more days left before the Back to Black mental wellness awareness event ends on Feb. 29. I appreciate the intentions behind this event. I appreciate the stories that some of the creators are sharing.


Bok bok. Here's another outfit I got there. Even though I'm on the blogger list for that event, this Flightless outfit by Rotten Defiance was not a review copy. I bought it (250L). So you can bet my bottom linden that my words of praise are bathed in the warm glow of absolute (Absolut) sincerity here. Let's all pause and bask in it for a moment . . . see, that felt good!

I really love Rotten Defiance for the imagination at work behind the creations as well as the quality of them. For fear of sounding like a pretentious "Project Runway" judge, I like that most of RD's designs, including this one, have a story to tell. And I'm a sucker for anything with feathers on it. And I like this color combination, even though we're supposed to be getting all springy right now. It's comforting to me. And I haven't taken off these Flutter boots by lassitude & ennui in weeks. Love the texture and the hassle-free mesh. That's my insightful fashion commentary for you. And don't ever let your English teacher tell you you can't start sentences or sentence fragments with conjunctions. You can do anything you want if you set your mind to it, kids. And then some. Especially in cyberspace. And America.

Because my pictures have a tendency to lack polish — oh God, and the whole "YOUR PICTURES SUCK, SO YOU SUCK AS A BLOGGER AND HOW DARE YOU POST THEM ON FLICKR" thing that seems to be popping up everywhere lately — I have started blog posts on that topic so many times; hopefully one day soon I'll finish one . . . . Shoot, sorry, I got sidetracked for a second there. I was trying to say, because my pictures aren't as stellar as others', I at least try to explain WHY I like certain fashions, skins and items here.

Imagine! Using WORDS in a BLOG to DESCRIBE things, instead of relying solely on photos! What a concept!

I'm not bashing the photo blogs by any means. Some people don't have the time or inclination to wade through wordy blogs like mine. To each his/her own. So can't we all just applaud each other's preferred methods of communication and get along?

Hey, it's Oscar night. And the award for jumping rapidly from subject to subject in a blog post goes to . . . *takes a bow*

VISIT INWORLD
Back to Black (through Feb. 29)
Sugar

ROLL CREDITS
Dress - Rotten Defiance at Back to Black - Flightless in Bronze (includes wings, stockings not included)
Boots - lassitude & ennui at Back to Black - Flutter in Cardinal
Skin - Sugar - Red Pill, Tone 2, Cleavage option, February group gift in store, 50L to join
Hair - MarieDoll - Sona in Copper
Eyes - Re.Birth - Bootiful Brown
Tattoo - DC Tattoos - Thou Shall Flock Together (I can't find this store or the creator in Search anymore *sad face*)
Poses - MiaMai, various
Photo location - La'Licious - Breathe Me - Inspired by Sia skybox for Spruce Up Your Space, available today for 150L (I really love that song, too.) 41 prims, includes bed with two poses.

Gettin' all pervy up in here!

Oh how I love this Glam Affair Linn Valentine Skin, available at The Dressing Room for a mere 70L right now. It manages to make a blood-spattered wedding dress look glamorous. If you love it too, run over there before the collection changes — there are also dark and pale versions available. I so appreciate The Dressing Room because I'm too damn poor to buy Glam Affair skins under any other circumstances these days.

And someday I'm going to write a post about how I used to be kind of "meh" about Finesmith jewelry and now I'm really warming up to it. I like watching designers evolve in SL. Or maybe it's my taste level that's evolving. Probably a little of both. That was a navel-gazing way of saying I'm diggin' that Love is in the Details necklace. When I get done wearing it, I'm gonna flip it upside down and plant it in my yard. (Not really.)


So, I had no idea the very talented Evie's Closet designer Evangeline Miles also makes furniture, builds and props. I saw this Le Petit Theatre in a store the other day and said, "I WANT THAT THING!" When I inspected it, LO AND BEHOLD, there was Evie's name as the creator! Apparently she's got a cool little store called {Mole End}@Wanderstill on Ode. I checked it out and got all giddy. Wanderstill has special meaning for me. I get happy to see people are still keeping it lovely over there.

OK, enough vanity and materialism. It's time to play one of my favorite games:

LET'S PERV MY NEIGHBORS' YARDS!

I rent a couple of farming-zoned plots on the Aura sim for all my damn animals. I've been there forever while strange neighbors all around me come and go. I recently got two new neighbors — one on each side of me.

One of them apparently is very considerate and polite:


AWWWW! Spelling aside, that is very sweet and somewhat hilarious, considering that my own parcel looks like this:


It looks like someone blew up a zoo-bomb in the middle of it and ran away. I feel like making my own sign now. "Please excuse the mess. Unfortunately it always looks like this. Thank you!"

And then there's the new guy (gal?) on the other side of me:


DAMN, IT'S A KICK-ASS CARNIVAL OVER THERE! I'm trying to get up the nerve to IM the person and offer to trade, like, a cow or a pig in exchange for photography rights on that carousel and in those creepy tents.

I'm renting one other parcel on the other side of the sim. One of my neighbors over there always has these bad-ass horses that make me wish — for a few seconds — that I was still breeding Amaretto horses:


OH MY GOD, YUM! I wanna steal your horse and ride it around and then eat it, lady!

That was probably one of those limited-edition, "maybe if you're lucky, your horses will breed a Christmas horse in December" horses. I kind of miss the anticipation and suspense of hoping my horse bundles might hold a surprise charmed or LE holiday horse. KittyCatS owners are just now getting a taste of that delicious "maybe you'll birth one, maybe you won't" agony with these LE Mardi Gras kitties:


YES! I got one! I have two more chances to birth one more before the magic stork stops delivering party cats at midnight tonight. I'm not being greedy — it'd just be nice to have an extra one to sell to help pay the rent on all these damn animal moshpits.

ROLL CREDITS!
Skin - Glam Affair at The Dressing Room - Linn Valentine Skin 01
Hair - Truth - Vicky w/Roots in Swedish (includes hairbase)
Eyes - A:S:S - Herbalist Eyes in Tussilago
Necklace - Finesmith - Love is in the Details
Dress - Chocolate Atelier at Bloody Valentine Market (through March 10) - Mirage Tears ("Bloody") dress
Pose prop - {Mole End}@Wanderstill - Le Petit Theatre, includes marionette strings for arms and legs
Breedables-friendly (and other zoned) parcels for rent - Paradise World Estates Central Office

Is your diabolical biological clock ticking?

This creepy little interactive prim baby looks like he's just waiting to grow up and hack off your head with a butcher knife.


But until then, you can cuddle him, breast feed him and satisfy all kinds of other menu-driven maternal instincts. Includes texture-change clothes, a stroller and a baby carrier that looks like a ghost . . . um, because this is a Halloween-edition baby. Thankfully, because we're in SL, you can be gruesome all year long and no one gives a damn, so go ahead and rock that ghoulish baby shower!

All that babbling was a long way of saying, "I WANT THIS THING! PLEASE COME SLAP THIS BOARD!" We only need another 164 slaps before we can all start scheduling goth-baby playdates!

Here's your limo to the maternity ward: CLICK THIS!

Q: Hey Emerald, what's a Midnight Mania board?
A: A Midnight Mania board is a very generous gesture extended by many creators, in which a free prize is distributed at midnight to everyone who Touches (or "slaps," as we MM board enthusiasts like to say) an in-store Midnight Mania board. When those prizes come rolling in at midnight, it's a little bit like Christmas or your birthday. Fortunately if you get bit by the Midnight Mania addiction bug, there are many inworld groups dedicated to calling out the locations of Midnight Mania boards throughout the day.

Cold heart, hot pastries

I'm not good at buying Valentine's Day gifts for guys. In RL, I'll usually just try to cook something. And then I'll usually fail and end up buying something at the last minute and trying to make it look like I cooked it. I'm such a romantic.

Maybe that's why I was charmed by this Teatime set by Baffle! (53 prims, five woods available, texture-change seats, 140L), available at Back to Black. It looks like a little romantic breakfast table I'd set to try to disguise the fact that I can't cook. ("I slaved away all morning on these croissants!") I even slaughtered some nonproductive breedables to make some prim space for it on my screened-in porch. Please pardon the fact that it's snowing out here. Wear a jacket if you stop by.


Happy Valentine's Day, Bunny!

When I saw that "Virgin" T-ball Jersey in the Sn@tch gatcha at The Love Gatcha event, it made me laugh. I totally wanted it, but my heart sank a little because there were 11 other shirts in there and I have wretched, wretched gatcha luck. To my great delight, I got it on my third and last try. Holler if you want one of the other two I got: "Erotic" and "Wet." I am neither at the moment.

Anyway.

I just got a package in RL from the guy I'm monogamously texting. I don't know what else to call it. We spent extensive time together over the holidays, but he lives in Florida so we're not really seeing each other on a regular basis. And we hardly ever talk on the phone. Which is good. I hate talking to him on the phone because he sounds exactly like Forrest Gump and it makes me want to start screaming hysterically after a mere 30 seconds of conversation. I keep trying to break up with the guy, actually. I'll give him a big speech about how I can't do this long-distance thing and I'm just not feeling it . . . and the next day he'll act like it never even happened and start bugging me about changing my FB status to "In a Relationship." I'll say, "I don't want to see you anymore," and he'll say, "OK" and then two hours later he'll send me a text that says, "Hi Sweetie how's ur day going?" So effing irritating. It's like being trapped in a bad "Seinfeld" episode.

So I had a little heart attack when I got the package because it said, "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL VALENTINE'S DAY!" in huge letters on it and I realized I sort of forgot Valentine's Day. I didn't get him a Valentine or anything. I opened the package — did you really think I was going to wait? — and it was a pair of flannel pajamas. If I gave a damn, this is the type of random gift that would have me agonizing for hours: "What does it meeeeeean???? Does he not want to see me in lingerie? Does he have a flannel pajama fetish? Why did he pick pajamas with little ice cream cones all over them?"

But my heart is as cold as my screened-in SL porch right now, so I just looked at the ice cream pajamas blankly for a second, put them back in the box and shoved the box under my bed. Ironically the only thing I felt was a huge wave of relief that it wasn't something fancy and expensive.

That's my Valentine's Day 2012 story. Exciting, huh? One for the grandkids.

VISIT INWORLD
Back to Black (thru Feb. 29)
The Love Gatcha (thru Feb. 14)

ROLL CREDITS
Hair - Truth - Alexis in Swedish, 250L per color pack
Skin - Mynerva - Caramel in Summer Nights, 250L
Shirt - Sn@tch at The Love Gatcha - "Virgin" T-Ball Jersey, 20L per try
Jeans - League - Garage Jeans in Cool Blue, 245L
Necklace - Ginza at Bloody Valentine Market - A Sinner's Pendant, 214L
Boots - Le Poppycock at Back to Black - Keep on Truckin' Endurance Boots, 149L
Eyes - Rozena at Back to Black - Lively Eyes in Violet, 90L
Wings - December - Cupid's Wings (part of a Cupid set for Project Themeory)