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Sunday, July 12, 2009

Braving the ice storm

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So . . . hey, it's been a fun weekend, huh? :D

I've been hiding in this fantastic Couch Cushion Blanket Clubhouse ($175L for the three-people version) from RC Cluster, waiting for everyone to calm the hell down.

I'd like to thank my friends, who not only have been extremely forgiving of some stupid things I've said and done in the recent past, but also for coming over and keeping me company today. (Shown above, Ali and Sehra)

I wondered why I got blitzed by IMs from angry Lemania Indigo fans today (instead of two days ago), but I now see that she finally commented on That Post over on Shopping Cart Disco. I said it in a lengthy comment over there and I'll sum it up briefly here: I didn't send my letter to Shopping Cart Disco. Apparently Tenshi saw this post mentioned in a Plurk.

I don't have any personal beef against Lemania Indigo. In fact, I shop at her stores. I've showcased some of her clothes in blog posts here. I'm not out to "chase a designer off the grid," as one person accused me of today. I just hated the concept of her current hunt. All I did was write her a letter and state my opinion in my blog here. I didn't throw a massive hissy fit.

And along those lines, sheeeeesh, remind me never to express my opinion in a public Second Life forum again. The formative years of my RL career were spent in newsrooms across America. I don't think a day went by when we didn't have an amicable debate about something. Yeah, occasionally those debates got heated, but they never got personal, with name-calling and "you deserve to die" type stuff.

I've been kind of astounded at how nasty some people get here if, God forbid, you have a different opinion than they do and you've got the balls enough to express it. I'm all for intelligent discussion or humorous satire. But during the past 36 hours, I've experienced some of the most childish insults and vile language . . . all because I simply stated an opinion. I don't expect the world to agree with all my opinions. But I also didn't expect the whole situation to SNOWBALL into a bunch of frenzied people who apparently get off on hatred and conflict.

So speaking of snowballs, I finally started chasing a dream today -- the dream of living in an icy SL paradise.

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Yeah, that's not my cow.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

It started with me finally getting off my tush and packing up my little rented beach house. I was sort of sad. The aquarium came down. Fuzzy the Bunny got tucked away in my inventory. My landlady came over and helped me find all the random little prims that I'd unwittingly scattered all over my yard somehow.

My next-door neighbor threw a pie at us from her upstairs window, then came over and watched as I fiddled around with a bunch of snow patches.

The next thing I knew, Ali was making a radioactive taco:

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Girl is talented. I'm gonna try to get that from her. And pass them out to my now-five loyal readers. (Sehra, sorry your hair was gray.)

Then my once-enemy-and-now-friend (does that make us frenemies? I've always wanted one) Sophia came over. If you're one of those brave souls who've stuck with this blog for more than a year, you may have caught some pained references when Sophia and I had a falling out a while back. I'm glad we finally patched things up. It's been a weird year.

Hell yes, Second Life is a soap opera and we're all livin' in it. (Thanks to Arabella for inspiring me with that analogy.)

So, um, Sophia came over and suddenly a Nativity, a bunch of other Christmas chaos and . . . a cow got involved:

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Nice taco.

I set my stream to Christmas music and we partied like Clark Griswold.

People started stripping:

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(Sorry Sophia, you never rezzed back there behind Sexy Sehra.)

Somebody had a MONSTROUS animated "give Santa a lap dance" thing. I so wanted this picture to turn out, but alas, Ali never completely rezzed either. She will definitely get what she wants for Christmas this year though:

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She's the grey blob standing on Santa's lap. Everything can't always be black or white, you guys. These days, I'm walkin' in the gray areas.

Seriously, I blame my blotchy vision on all those GAWD-DAMN CHICKENS on our island. I'M SORRY, chicken people, but I never had this problem on the island before those chickens came along. Fashion shows, yes. My own house??? NO!

It turned out to be a fun day. Simultaneously during the impromptu Christmas party, I was watching the Chicago Cubs game (victory!) with my dad, and that was a happy moment too. Rarely will my father tolerate both me AND my laptop in his presence, but I think he was kind of touched that I sat down to watch the baseball game with him.

Sorry this post is kind of a gratuitous "hey, look at these really bad photos of me and my friends" post, but wow, I really needed one for a change. Today felt like the good old days, and I've missed those. I do not deserve these people in my life, but I'm so glad they patiently waited for me to return from my trip to Bitchyville.

Call me a sap, but today I learned that although friends may go through changes, those changes won't crack the foundations of a friendship -- at least not the good ones. There was a time when I believed my friends had moved on and left me behind. I was wrong. They were always there. I was just too stupid and self-absorbed to see it.

(And those of you who have this blog in your Google readers -- and wow, according to my stats there are 59 of you, WOO HOO! -- unfortunately got subjected to an even longer and more self-flagellating post, now set to private, on that topic yesterday.)

Anyway.

Come on over and see my icy wonderland sometime. It's still a work in progress. (And my neighbors are probably annoyed as all hell.)

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Comments are being moderated for a while, but opposing opinions and/or random observations will never be turned away. As long as you don't insult my readers, you're all good. Anonymous comments also are allowed now. I didn't realize they were banned before. Oops.

10 comments:

Amie Adamski said...

Ha cute, I want an winter wonderland. I can't wait for Christmas because I want to decorate the hell out of my house. Sure my couch and bed will go away but will I have a 10 foot Snowman Hell yeah!!! (Maybe I should start saving my lindens).

I'm glad your blog is back up for people to view when I went to go look at you blog earlier after not being on SL all weekend (stupid rl homework) I had no clue what happened. I like that your blog has an opinion. I hate that people can't just let people have an opinion and leave it they have to come out and name call and just act dumb.

Cristopher Lefavre said...

Hi Em,

So glad to see your blog back up! I love the blog partly because you write so well, but mostly because you have opinions and are not afraid to air them.

As for the Prozac rants: I read the post thinking "yes, one can certainly feel that way, but for a lot of people joking about it can be a kind of relief." We are all different, and I totally agree that you must have the right to write how it makes you feel; if people don't like it they should just stop reading your blog and turn to "www.oh yet another mindless fashionblog.wherever.com" instead:-)

Keep it up and have fun Em!

Casandra Shilova said...

Journalists use words in a different way; they love words for their own sake. Debate with others in their own profession - quite enjoyable and sharpens their wits.

Ms Indigo also sent out a notice to her group yesterday. There are die-hard fans in the group that will jump to her defense before even reading the blog posts and responses. SL'ers that follow designers remind me of intensely loyal fans of any well-known athlete or TV/movie/music celebrity.

Wow! Christmas in July complete with Santa! That explains the snowball thrower! I was not paying attention to group chat. Poooo on me. I certainly missed out on some fun!

Cas throws a soft snowball at Em and gives her a big hug.

Asthenia said...

*is one of the 59 special peoples* :))

*sends hugs*

Heather said...

Hugs Em! Glad you're feeling better! Taking the high road is always a win. :)

ARIADNE KORDA said...

Glad to see you back.

I thought the Prozac hunt was tacky. Mind, I'm not a fan of hunts anyway but that's MY opinion, which - like yours about the Prozac one - is just that.

The bitchfest? Ouch. Been there when I organised a hunt (one reason why I dislike them now, because the entitlement crowd drove me insane - to the point that the disgust outweighed the good parts).

Gossip rags? They're gossip rags. A bit like reading tacky magazines at the hairdressers, it sucks you in. Yes, me too.

But when you're the one getting the flak, it changes your perspective somewhat. Some charming soul recently did a 'secret' using my logo and spreading (completely untrue) shit about me.

I sat on my hands, I typed up about ten responses, and deleted them all. And decided to get a lot of mileage out of purely and simply refusing to take the bait. Mud may stick, or may not. But ranting about why it wasn't true would have made it worse. I think.

Which has very little to do with what happened to you this weekend, but... yeah.

Not saying you shouldn't have responded - it was something of a miracle I managed it because I was alternately upset, furious and hurt. But that's SL for you. It gets to you. And probably for the first time when it REALLY got to me, I refused to react.

Fortunately, and with some good friends around (love the taco...), the latest scandal is pretty soon 'old news'.

(and no way would I trade your winter wonderland for my nice bit of provence with dried-out grass and a somewhat unpredictable swimming system... )

Hugs.

Isle Lunasea said...

I think you should continue to feel free to say whatever you feel, when you feel it.

Yes, it went a bit mad for you over it, and I feel badly for you.. but your way of stating your feelings about the situation was well worth reading, and gave many people something valuable to think about.

If you didn't speak on anything controversial ever again to avoid a similar situation, I think it would be a loss.

Added note.. *THAT's* where the taco dancing was! aHA!

Great pics, rezzed or not, looks like it was a blast. The fort is awesome, must check it out.

Winter however, as I have 8 months of it in RL, I can live without in my SL :)

Good post.

Khargo said...

Your blog, your opinion. I love your blog cos it's more than just a fashion blog. You call it like you see it and I admire you for that. Glad to hear you are feeling better too. SCD *and* NWN - in the same week! Go Em!!

Natasha Burke said...

I'm so coming over to your house. <3

nimil said...

i think SCD should add something in their post stating that you did not send them this note. its not right that you should have to put up with hatemail when you didn't do anything...