What's your story?

Hey, I'll take your fancy, trendy hair and raise you this most awesome of the awesomeness of the awesomest color-change Strawberry Hair ($150L) from Malizz Yiyuan Creation.

Second Life is the one place I know where it's acceptable to be a little conceited because when we are, we're paying homage in large part to the very talented work of designers and content creators.

Granted, you could line up five avatars and give them all the same skin and outfit and you'd see varying levels of beauty. Some of them would definitely wear those dresses and some would unfortunately let the dresses wear them. There's a lot of work that goes into an AV beyond tossing lindens around to outfit yourself in fabulous threads. ("Threads" -- laugh -- please join me as I grasp at random '70s slang. And NO, I'm not even that old.)

That's why I have such respect for people who go to the trouble to tell a story through their avatars and do it with such creativity and flair. And maybe that's why I'm always on quests and never satisfied with mine. Emerald is still a work in progress and possibly will never reach her full potential, much like the Erinn behind her, or at least that's how I'm feeling today. *plays the violin and tries to breathe through today's attack of the Mean Reds*

I'm a storyteller by nature -- it's a gift I acknowledge with pride and gratitude and one of the few things I can say about myself without feeling guilty or worried that I'm being an arrogant ass. I prefer to use this talent to tell other people's stories, and maybe that's why I had such a successful career in PR/journalism, yet I suck so much sometimes at shaping and telling my own story.

And maybe it's why I'm so disappointed in Emerald Wynn. She should be so much more than a pretty face in pretty clothes. My original concept for her was a mischievous little Irish sprite who dressed in varying shades of green, made people laugh, loved everything, loved life, brought joy, cared for people. I wanted her to be like a magical little character in the books I loved as a child -- one who healed hearts and fixed things.

Instead, I became a very human and, as such, very flawed AV: kind of an SL introvert, prone to bouts of catty, all caught up in the gimme gimme gimme and the "look what I bought today!" and lurking the fashion scene.

It's not that those characteristics are entirely bad (well, except for the catty) -- it's just not what I planned. And if my AV evolved into this type of person, I worry that my RL tendencies toward greed, vanity and materialism are more dominant than I thought they were, to see them manifest so effortlessly in this character I've so far unsuccessfully tried to create here.

Ah, anyway, I didn't mean to get emo. I really just wanted to say hail to the people who came to SL with a vision, a backstory, a creative blueprint and tell us such beautiful tales, often just by standing still.

My friend Aisuru Rieko is one of those people. She embodies a love for Japanese culture and is constantly working to perfect her message, whether it's through tweaking her shape, creating pure joy at her store Beloved or just exuding peace. She is small and quiet, but her boundless beauty -- in her thoughtfully crafted avatar, her work, her calm strength and her quirky, lovely personality -- makes me catch my breath sometimes. I feel really blessed to have crossed paths with her in this virtual world.

Maybe my admiration for such souls is why when I TPed in today to help someone lock down a Midnight Mania board, I landed next to this guy and developed an instant crush on him:



HA HA! Sorry -- time for shallow stuff!

My AV is so shameless in the way she just blatantly checks out men. I pranced around that guy for a while, shaking my wings in his face and flashing my strawberries at him, but he just stayed there motionless like that until I gave up.

Maybe saying "Hi" would have helped. :\

I dig those Anime-looking dudes.

I'm wearing the Wicked Fairy outfit from Evie's Closet, if you care -- it was a gift from Evie's Lucky Cupcake. When Evie puts that cupcake out, it is GO TIME, kids, and believe me, I battled the crowds and took many many fruitless noms before I finally won that cute little getup.

And back to the hair, I have a passionate LOVE AFFAIR with Malizz Yiyuan. Every morning I swing by there and slap the Midnight Mania board, even though it hardly ever locks down. I don't even care what's in it. Everything in that store is SO DAMN FUN. I encourage you to check it out. The outfits are silly and joyous and even if the style is not your thing, I'm pretty sure you'll find something in there to make you smile.

If you go, be sure to grab the box of free gifts while you're there -- it's jam-packed with laughs, including this Cloud Cake -- or maybe it's Cake Cloud.

Regardless, it's raining cupcakes, y'all!!



I'm off to find Storm from X-Men and challenge her to a duel.