Get Lost! (another stealth blog)

I'm typing in The Numbers! I'm saving the world!

(We'll get back to that in a minute.)

Actually I'm stealth-blogging from work again.

The Online Gamers Anonymous (OLGA) Web site -- and hell no, I'm not linking to it -- lists "unable to stop thinking about your virtual character while at work" (or something like that) as one warning sign that You May Have an Addiction. I know because my parents sent me the link and gave me a pamphlet.

SCROOOO YOU, OLGA! Yes, I'm at work. But a) I'm supposed to be writing a pamphlet on Sexual Assault Awareness Month (April), and b) I have Sexual Assault Awareness writer's block, so c) kiss my ass. Anyone who's a friend of the real me on Facebook can hopefully see that I'm not a socially isolated, troll-like basement dweller who can't pry myself away from my computer. I'm tired of feeling guilty about my affection for SL and the Metaverse.

Sorry. Had to get that out of my system.

I really want to talk about the show "Lost" and its incarnation in Second Life.


(In SL's version of the Sydney airport, waiting for the doomed Oceanic Flight 815 and practicing my pose for the poster. Any minute they're gonna ask me to join them -- I can feel it!)

Sorry about the "dead space" -- I just couldn't crop out my beloved Sayid.

I'm a Lost geek -- that, I will willingly admit. And many of you who survived my last attempt at Plurk, as well as those of you who are my real FB friends, know that I've been on this frenetic quest to finish all five previous seasons and then get caught up on the current one. DONE! WIN!

Of course now that I'm watching the final season, I can see the parallels and clues linking back to earlier seasons . . . so now I'm watching all the previous seasons AGAIN!

My friends gave up on this show a long time ago. "They lost me around Season Three" is the most common reason I get. So, sniff, I have no one to geek-out over this show with.

(WALT GOT SCREWED OUT OF A STORYLINE!!)

Until now. IMAGINE MY DELIGHT when I discovered that there's an SL-Lost group for fanatic fans like me!!!!

You have to request an invite, so if you want to join, check out my profile and grab the group link from my list. They're nice -- you don't have to pass a trivia test or anything to get in.

Once you're a group member, you get access to The Island, which I have to say is a pretty engaging place considering that the "Laws of the Island" warn you that it was not created by professional graphics artists/builders.



Don't forget to grab your free Dharma jumpsuit when you arrive!

Wander around the island and you'll find The Hatch, the beach campsite, the Caves, plane wreckage . . .



. . . The Temple, Mr. Eko's church, the graveyard and more. You might even run into Vincent!!

[shoot there's supposed to be a picture of Vincent here! WTF?]

and . . .


(Looking 'hot' in Jacob's Cabin)

I pretty much stumbled across all these places while I was searching for my TV crush Sayid.

"SAYIIIIIIIIIID!"

If you don't have time to wander, don't fret -- you'll have the opportunity to pick up a list of LMs to all these places and more near the beach. If you can't find it, I have one for you.

There's also a store there that sells Lost-themed AVs, T-shirts, prefabs, props and more. I grabbed a DriveShaft T-shirt and a big box of Lost-themed freebies which I have yet to check out.

Again, you have to wear your SL-Lost group tag to gain access to the island, and the group meets at 2:30 p.m. SLT every Sunday (I THINK -- have to double-check when I get home) for trivia and to discuss the most recent episode. They also have impromptu parties on the beach.

This was my first week to be a member and unfortunately I didn't get to check out the discussion. I was too busy trying to hit my favorite spots on the Steam hunt, which ends EOD March 31.

[See those prizes HERE. Get a list of hints and location SLURLS (alas, not cheats) HERE.]

Hey, I'm on a bike:



"Can't . . . reach . . . handles!!"

Sorry - that was random. I bought that posing bike (23 poses!) for 99L at Phoenix Design and Firefall. It may have been half-off over the weekend though -- I have to check.

If you're wondering what I'm wearing, it's the Asuka Steampunk Set ($765L) from League -- comes with two styles of pants, two styles of corsets, bolero jacket, skirt, two styles of gloves and so much more that I'm already too damn exhausted to type it all.

I'm wearing it with the League Asuka Boots (325L) because I'm matchy-matchy like that.

I got the Hedera Vine "jewelry" at the Illusions booth at the 2009 Jewelry Expo.

My hair is Emerald by Truth. :D

Skin is Alyson by Belleza.

I mentioned Sayid up there. GoSpeed Racer recently dragged me out of my house to a party on someone's beach . . . and I think I saw him there!!!!



Rock.

Here's a really bad pic of me and GoSpeed at that party, by the way. She's one of the few people who can talk me out of my hermit shell, mainly because I can just hang out with her and I don't think she really expects me to say much, which is awesome. Plus, she takes me to cool places.



Yes, I am available to photograph your SL weddings.

And yesterday I logged in to this. Maybe you heard my scream. I guess it's the new way to "get Ruthed":



Oof, I'd better get back to work. This is not the final version of this post. I may jazz it up when I get home -- if any of my brain is left.

Have a great day!

Noob time-traveler

I've been away for awhile, not because I'm being emo, but because in real life I'm trying to find a place to live. Looking at apartments and condos and trying to decide if I should rent or buy and blah blah blah. Boring. And draining.

For those of you who know my real-life woes, I tried dating Stupid RL British Ex-Boyfriend again and it only took about three dates for me to remember why I CAN'T STAND HIM. Ugh.

So yeah, I've been a little preoccupied and now I'm FREAKIN' CRUSHED to discover that I missed the whole RFL Clothing Fair. EXCELLENT news for my Visa balance but HEART-BREAKING news for my inventory. It looked so COOL this year -- not a pirate to be seen in the place! *weeps*

Speaking of hot men (oops, I edited out that paragraph, but let's pretend we were), Prad sent the real me an invite on Facebook to join the fan group of Heritage Key, and even though I had no clue what that was, I would pretty much do anything Prad asks me to do -- so I joined.

HEY, IT'S A SECOND LIFEISH GAME!

Right now, I *am* going to refer to it as a game because it's a lot more educational, involving teleporting to various historic sites and completing tasks to earn cool things for your inventory. (Oh, and to learn things.)

Maybe I'm the last person around here to discover it, actually, because the AV skins are designed by Ryker Beck -- UPDATE: Actually the more I play this game, the more I see that many objects are "given" to me by Ryker; if I weren't so lazy, I'd ask her "What up with Heritage Key?" -- and apparently Rezzables own/created it (?). It uses the old-school opensource SL viewer, except I can't find the Advanced Menu, which is bugging me. And yeah, this info is sketchy because for once I didn't feel like acting like a journalist and hunting down the story behind this game's 2009 inception. The FAQ page is HERE, though.



Like a girl, I'm sort of stressing because the clothes and hair options are limited and my AV isn't that stylin'. After you choose your noob avatar during registration, you can go to the Avatar Center after you log in and choose a different shape, skin, hair, clothes, etc. THANK GOD you can also pick up a decent AO because you've got that stupid duck walk as soon as you rez. Everything there is free and pretty decent . . . but the selection is small.

"No shopping for YOU!!"

Then you can hop over to a travel hub and choose a historic time and place, like King Tut's Tomb. I couldn't get there though. My TPs kept failing. So I settled for . . .



Stonehenge, bitch!

None of those men are real!

Looks like they're eating sushi!

I got some druid clothing when I arrived, so maybe that's an incentive to get the girls more involved. Free clothes at each location! Woot!

I earned that druid staff as a reward for building a wagon and the falcon as a reward for completing a historic nature walk.

Um, so yeah, my greedy competitive side likes to hang out there and finish challenges to get stuff. I crash frequently though and the place seems like it's still a work in progress. It's also pretty isolated -- I've yet to run into anyone else there. And I only have three bad photos here because I got stuck at Stonehenge in 2400 B.C., when they were supposedly building it.

(I still think aliens made it though.)

If you're comfortable with SL, it'll be easy for you to hit the ground running in HK -- controls, menus, etc. are pretty much the same, albeit more limited.

What's better, so far I see no need to use REAL MONEY there -- every inventory item I've found has been free, and I can't find any options to become a premium member or anything like that.

I don't know -- if more people got involved and there were more options for AV customization, with time it might become a pretty cool place: sort of a Second Life for history buffs, with a lot of RP potential.

I have no friends over there. I can't find a Search feature. I did get to choose my own name, so of course I picked Emerald Wynn just to keep my virtual self real throughout virtual history and all that.

I'm going to keep exploring there, but have no fear -- this isn't going to become a Heritage Key blog. It's a nice change of virtual scenery though. I'm curious to see if and how it evolves.

Ugh, this post is flat and lifeless (like my real hair these days!). I blame Welbutrin. It keeps me comfortably numb.

But thank you, Prad! I had writer's block (not that this post is going to win any literary awards) and I needed a new diversion. (Actually Prad kicked me off his blog roll, so I don't even know if he swings by here anymore.)

Stop! Sandwich time! ♥

It's my rez day and I'll laugh if I want to

Hi from the land of Bored Off My Ass at Work. I'm in kind of a bad mood because I'm groggy, not feeling so hot and I have to take my client out to dinner tonight, which is always fun. *cough*

So unfortunately you probably won't see me in world today, but toss back a shot or do something wild without me in celebration of my REZ DAY! And yours too, EVA BONNER!! Woo HOOOOO! (Eva and I both got up early today to log in and wish each other a happy rez day. Awwwww!)

I thought I'd post the very first pic I ever took at . . . um, I think it was called Orientation Island back then, and you had to walk around a big ugly castle and complete tutorials and stuff.

The final step was to sit in that chair and get your profile picture taken. Back then, SL gave you your first profile pic for free. Mine is so damn sexy up there!

I made that hairstyle ALL BY MYSELF!

Here's how I dressed the next day, on St. Patrick's Day:



THAT IS SO HOT!

Get it? Green is for Emerald!!!

And this was my first attempt at being fashionable:



Hell yeah, my hair matched my dress. (I'm pretty sure that pic's gonna turn out to be too big for this blog, and I'm SO NOT editing it on my work computer -- sorry.) Nice system shoes!! ("Stand Up!")

I still have that outfit in my 2008 noob folders and it's totally in the "My High Fashion/Couture" folder. Bwahahaha!

This is my first attempt at being hot AND using a pose:



HAHAHA: belly piercing -- I didn't realize you could move jewelry around back then. And you bet your skinny legs it was BLANGIN'!

And uh, I used to earn lindens by winning "best of" contests at clubs. Like "Best Tattoos." I guess I decided that ABSOLUTELY NO CLOTHES was the way to go. Note that I hadn't really grasped the whole "hey, you can actually mod your hair to fit your head" concept yet:



Oh Lord, those shoes. There used to be a place called Club Serena that included a shopping center with a giant sandbox and places to camp and earn money. They had a space set aside for noobs, with those "100 Free Shoes!" and "Free Business in a Box Sunglasses!" and "Free Ronja Wear!" boxes stacked up in huge piles. I can't really mock it because if it weren't for that place, I wouldn't have had any clothes or hair or a place to unpack boxes or even friends. As cheesy as it was, the people at Club Serena were really nice and I eventually rented a Club Serena skybox -- my first rental and I felt so into the SL scene after I got it. :D

On a nostalgic whim, I looked for Club Serena the other day -- I found Club Serena Rentals but it's not the same anymore.

Then I found a blog called SLFix (now Moonletters), thought it was totally cool (I still do) and started doing everything that Shauna Skye and Paypabak Writer told me to do. (Their posts are still so kind to new people -- check out that blog and you'll see that they're still bending over backward with their totally hip yet instructional posts to help new residents.) Then I found New World Notes and got the newsy, intellectual side of things from the full-of-win Hamlet Au, and that's when it started to dawn on me that Second Life could be so much more than just making your avatar fly around and buy things.

And then I started reading What The Fug and SL Fashion Police and realized that everything I was doing fashionwise was sort of wrong. So I started paying more attention to my clothes.



Um, well kind of.

Honestly, I didn't think of clothes that much when I was new -- I just spent a lot of time wandering around in wonder, talking to people and hanging out with my one friend Jon, who didn't give a damn what my AV looked like (*sniff*).



(I liked weird bikinis back then.)

My very first favorite stores were Callie Cline's Calliefornia, House of Nyla and UK Couture. They all have a special place in my heart even now.

I met a woman named Hermit Barber who told me about a group called Ode Butterfly Hunters (or something like that -- wow, I've been a member for so long, I don't think about the name) and there I met some lovely people and fell into fondness with jewelry designer Random Calliope and his touching generosity. I don't know where he is these days. I miss him.

(This chronology of my SLife is SO DAMN EXCITING, huh? Don't worry - it's almost over.)

I believe I was truly rescued the day that Alicia Chenaux and her friend CeN stumbled upon the first incarnation of the Emerald's Eyes blog (that v1 was deleted in 2008 in a spontaneous combustion of SLangst), took pity on me and introduced me to their circle of friends, almost all of whom I still love dearly to this day. About that time I also met this lovely girl Laleeta through her Baking Cupcakes freebie blog. She gave me a hot air balloon and taught me that I could get cute free stuff from generous designers and lucky chairs, not boxes for noobs.

Then I discovered the blog of the highly hot and insightful Prad and got my first avatar crush.

(Hahahahahahahaha - I swear I'm just messing with you, Prad. Kind of.)

(Prad thinks I'm a stalker.)

And meanwhile, I was making friends, real friends, not that the people at the clubs weren't cool and nice, but you know, REAL friends.

And then my Second Life got really happy.

And OH MY GAWD, now I'm totally sitting at my desk at work getting TEARY. (Thank God I have my own office, even though closing the door is considered rude.) "Oh gosh, these allergies are kicking my ass today!"

And here's a picture of the Kool-Aid man:



So looking back and particularly after writing this blog post, I guess after two years, if I could give only one piece of advice to new residents, it would be to read the blogs by other SL residents. And when you find some blogs you really like, let those bloggers know, particularly if they've helped you or made you laugh or touched your life in some way. I was so scared to do it at first (I'm still painfully shy around certain bloggers, actually), but when I did manage to get up the nerve to reach out to them, some of those bloggers became some of my best friends.

Oops, I forgot that a couple of Lindens read this blog (you poor things), so um, don't get me wrong, the official SL Wiki and Second Life blogs are GREAT, but I got my SL street smarts by learning about things through the words of other residents, sharing their explorations through their stories, discovering writers who spoke to my heart or made me laugh, looking at pictures they took of great sims and

LOOKOUT HERE COMES MY BOSS!!!

***blush***

Almost every week, a sexy guy drops a "New Releases" folder in my inventory, and honestly ladies, that's about the only action I'm getting from a man these days. Sad but true.

This week when I opened that folder and saw this Emerald hair by Truth, I got a little sniffly.

It's been a really crappy week — not to mention one of those times when you don't realize that it's been an eternity since anyone's done or said anything nice to you until they do, and then it takes you by such surprise that your initial reaction is to get all shocked and touched and weepy and such.

(HELL YEAH, that sentence sucked. Read it 10 more times in a row to feel the full force of my big damn dangerous "I can't write for sh*t these days!!!!!" POWER!)

Shoot, now I lost my train of thought . . . .

OH, the hair! So yes, that was an extraordinarily kind gesture and I really love it. It means the world to me. I'm not really the kind of gal who inspires people to name things after her — mainly because, you know, my name is, well, sort of GREEN . . . but also because I'm kind of boring and I don't exactly have a face that could launch a thousand ships or anything like that.

Thank you, Truth. It is so me, it's almost eerie. I look at my AV in this hair and it reminds me of better times in my real life, as weird as that is.

And because my real hair is finally growing out of [insert Samuel Jackson's voice here] THIS MOTHER-EFFING GRADUATED BOB, it even gives me hope that it won't be too long before I'll be that Fun Messy-Ponytail Girl again.

I wanted to pair it with a skin that's also a little more like me because — and I know this revelation is gonna shock you — as much as I love those sultry Curio Cupid skins, I don't actually look like that in real life.

Not that I look like that Belleza Alyson skin up there either . . . well, actually 10 years ago I kind of did! But with a wonkier nose. And thinner lips. And no freckles. But the rest of it? Spot on, baby!

OK, I have to wrap up this Pulitzer Prize-winning blog post and get to bed.

So, drumroll please, that hair is Truth's Emerald in Almond, which is pretty close to my real color. So just call me "Emerald 'Keepin' It Real' Wynn," please. Actually make that, "The Reverend Emerald 'Keepin' It Real' Wynn."

Now if I could just get Prad Prathivi to wear this hair in a picture with my dinosaur, ALL my wildest dreams would come true.

(My rez day is in three days.)

And that "Pure Sweet Hell" T-shirt is from Terri.Tees. The next time you see this post, the SLurl will be HERE.  I don't know you, Terri, but I love you. Your T-shirts make me laugh so hard. I promise I'll do them justice in a totally normal and sane post in the near future.

But anyway, I meant to write Truth a really sweet public thank-you note here, but unfortunately it turned into kind of a rambling worst-post-I've-written-this-month thing, but, um, the sentiment is still there.

I haven't been this moved since the Emerald viewer came out. *sniff*

Don't you have an off switch?

So this Beta V2 — it makes me feel all giddy, like a noob. Figuring stuff out and all that.

I was gonna write this really amazing post about it.

But damn, I am so tired these days.

Instead, I guess I'll just say, "I hate the new camera and motion controls."

Other than that, it's aiight.

And that dress by Zaara up there? Yep, it's gorgeous. But what people aren't telling you is . . .



FLASHER!

It doesn't walk so well.

If I would've known everyone was gonna get all up in my glitch, I would've worn decent underwear.

Thank you for all the dinosaur love. I'm really touched. I had no idea so many people would show up and take photos with my dinosaur. I'm thinking of putting a dance floor up there now.

I would show you some dino pics, but damn, I am so tired these days. Next time, I promise.

Instead of doing anything productive, let's play . . .

WHO'S HANGIN' OUT AT STILETTO MOODY? :D

Crack



Crack with attitude.

(Hahahaha — those two are awesome though. I don't know where they got that diva AO but it was spectacular.)



. . . and a woman, her latex-clad slave . . . and their child. (Sorry I couldn't get a shot of the ball gag.)

YOU THREE SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES!

That's sick.

You know, when I saw that threesome I almost went off on an unholy rant with this whole, "You need to keep your kid out of your kinky sex life!" thing . . . until, um, I remembered that it wasn't REALLY a kid.

But it's still sick.

Plus, I had to hear about all the whipping and the shocking and the "yes Mistress" in open chat. I get it, you guys are kinky. And pedophiles. Now slowly back away from the shoes and go home please.

As long as I'm speaking to people who can't hear me . . .

Dear Stiletto Moody, I love you and congrats on your new baby but . . .



. . . Roll
On Floor
Laughing.

There's no way in hell I'm ever wearing these new heel-less shoes. I don't care how Emperor's New Clothes-ish everyone gets about them. NOT WEARIN' 'EM!

And what really depresses me is that soon I'm gonna have to watch a bunch of bishes walking around everywhere on their tiptoes.