Trading places

Hey, I finally changed clothes!

In other news . . .

I came to a startling realization the other day when I suddenly caught my mind doing flip-flops on me.

I've been honored to become RL Facebook friends with a few of my Second Life friends during the past year. I say "honored" because it's a privilege to be allowed to look over the border, to see who people really are behind their avatars, to see photos of their families and friends and to read their status updates that reflect their real lives, not their prims and pixels.

It takes a certain level of trust to let our Second Life friends see us without our masks on, and I cherish these 360-degree friendships as some of the most important things that Second Life has given me.

The flip-flop occurred when I was reading one such friend's SL blog the other day and realized I wasn't thinking of it as "[avatar's name]'s blog" . . . I was internally referencing it as "[her real name]'s blog about Second Life."

Maybe it's because these days I'm spending more of my social networking time, when I even have it, on my real Facebook page than in Second Life, but in my mind this friend and a few other people inworld have solidified to the point where I see their avatars but I picture their real faces and think their real names. In that respect Second Life truly has become a social networking tool in that it allows me to connect further with people I have come to know and care about on a number of levels, not just socialize with ambiguous and ultimately anonymous avatars.

(ugh that sounded like a paragraph in a book report. sorry)

Granted, they're still virtual friends in that I've never met them in person -- they just have a few extra dimensions now.

And does that mean that I need to see your real face and/or know your real name and/or some of your real story to be your friend? No, but I'll admit that if I don't, there'll probably always be a little bit of a wall up between us. Not a big scary wall. It can be, like, a pretty glittery pink fiberglass wall if you want.

But I wonder if I'm the only one who does this -- mentally replacing AVs with real faces and names if I know them -- or if it's just another tactic that the stubborn "I refuse to take this place too seriously" part of my mind utilizes in my never-ending quest to always keep it real.

Just curious.

I'm having a hard time writing this blog these days because my mind is now cluttered with a real-life to-do list that grows with every beep of my Blackberry.

I used to have a decent to-do list in Second Life before I gave up and abandoned it. Among the many items:

-- Make a chim that doesn't completely embarrass me at parties
-- Get inventory down to, um, 75K (baby steps!)
-- Thin out the "to blog" folder to a manageable 25 items instead of 300
-- Create a "Gifts for Friends" folder that has a healthy stock of cool transferrable items since I can't make jack but love giving gifts
-- Start a Freebie Blog Feed for people on a budget, since there are now so many great blogs about free finds out there
-- Do something with my 512 parcel (is that what it's called?)

I doubt any of those things are gonna get done.

But speaking of that parcel . . .

A while ago someone in the Fashion Bloggers group was selling her 512 parcel (or whatever it's called) for a linden, provided that the new owner wouldn't resell it and would take good care of it. I grabbed it with visions of a chicken discotheque dancing in my head.

ALAS, since then it's sort of been sitting there looking fugly. I went there today and put up a snowman-shaped house and a giant tree. I think they really helped the overall aesthetic of the place:



Roll on Floor Laughing -- note the awfulness all around me. Ugh, all these little parcels crammed together with everyone desperately trying to create boundaries -- like that ATROCIOUS GIANT BLACK PYRAMID NEXT DOOR.

I tried to make some walls (pretty glittery pink fiberglass ones, in fact!). The result is laughalicious. I like the walls around the parcel behind me. I want those. There's also a cute little store there. I keep meaning to go check it out. I wonder if she'll sell her walls?

(Is there some kind of control I can use to cover that parcel with SL snow, or do I have to use snow prims?)

OK, so the point of all the rambling: My parcel is your parcel. Here's the SLURL. If you're homeless and need a place to unpack boxes or just hide, feel free to use my land and the snowman house. Don't make an ass of yourself like I did and fly smack into the circle in the front of the snowman thinking it's a door -- that's a window. The door is in the back.

(Snowman House, 300L, and Strange Tree, 80L, both from RUJIMEAL. Be warned that they are both freakishly tall -- can you find my AV in that pic?)

I put a couple of chairs on the second floor of the snowman. I didn't put a sex bed in there, but if you need to use my house for those purposes, you can rez your own. The land is set to return stuff to people after three days. Just mop up with Lysol when you're done, please.

And if any of you lovely readers really need a place to live, contact me -- I'm happy to rent that parcel to you for cheap. I'll clear out all my silliness and you can put up your own house and walls.

Now I have to return to getting mentally and emotionally pumped up about wireless service providers.

I will not hide under my desk at work tomorrow.
I will not hide under my desk at work tomorrow.
I will not hide under my desk at work tomorrow.

Ciao!