nikadreamscape

28 January 2008 @ 12:49 pm

Alright, its official. I've moved my journal over to Wordpress. You can find my journal at the following link:

http://nikadreamscape.wordpress.com/

If any of you have me included on your blogrolls and could switch the link to my wordpress site, it would be much appreciated. Thanks, and hope to see you there. :)

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27 January 2008 @ 08:59 pm

(no subject)

Since I got into SL, I've spent so much time working on customizing my look.. be it my hair, clothes, skin, etc. My friends Salaamata and Abracapocus have been wanting for us all to go on a 'shopping spree' for awhile now so they could get some good 'upgrades' for their own avatars. We finally got around to it tonight. Here's their before shot, with the two of them in their 'newbie default' skins.

And after a trip to Calla..

Such a great couple! I love hanging out with those two, they're a lot of fun. :)

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26 January 2008 @ 07:02 pm

(no subject)

I finally got around to checking out the SL version of Slingo- Zyngo. I've been a HUGE Slingo fan pretty much since AOL introduced the game several years ago.. but I've never quite been able to get my fix since I hate AOL. I have in the past paid for an AOL account for the sole purpose of playing the multi-player slingo. Yeah, I know there are freeware versions floating around out there, but it just isn't as much fun playing solo as it is competing against other people. I guess you could call it my guilty pleasure, since I love slot machines, and I love bingo.

I noticed they had "Slingo' here on SL pretty much since the day I joined.. but I hadn't gotten a chance to experiment with any games yet. I finally got around to it the other night.. after doing a lot of scouting, I found a place where I can more or less play for free. ($1 games but $1/10 camping so it balances out pretty well.) Plus, they have a scoreboard that pays out every week.. I think top score gets $250L, and 5th place gets $50L. Something like that.. either way, not bad considering I'd play regardless. Who knows, maybe I'll actually win some money. I just played a couple games a little bit ago. The scoreboard reset today, so most of the scores are pretty low- but I managed to snag 1st place. At least, for now.. I imagine I'll be bumped way down the list by the end of the night. But if I'm lucky, I'll manage to stay at least in 5th place for the week. I snapped a picture since I'll probably never see myself that high on the scoreboard again.

I also noticed they have some reasonable rent on shop space at the boardwalk shops surrounding the slingo area. I'm really hoping to rent some shop space very soon so I can start selling my art.. I do have a free spot in the shops near where my house is, but those shops cater to the sci-fi/fantasy and dragon avatar related merchandise. I want to keep that spot there- I did manage to make one sale so far. But I'd like to find a decent shop in a high traffic area where people might be selling more mainstream items like funiture or clothing. I have a LOT of ideas kicking around in the back of my head as far as art and projects I want to work on. Too bad most of my motivation comes when I'm at work. By the time I get home I'm too tired, and on the weekends I'm usually busy or distracted. Still, my plan for this weekend is to do some scouting around and start making a list of possible places where I can rent. I'm looking to spend around $100/week.. I can't really afford more than that- I'll be hard pressed even to make that rent. At least, until I start making more sales to offset the cost. I assume I can rent shop space when I'm on a basic account. I do plan to upgrade to premium at some point.. but I'm not ready yet. I want to have a much better understanding about building or owning land before I shell out any real money.

The shop space by the slingo area I've been playing at has several options, but the one I noted was $100/week for 20 prims. I know 20 prims is probably really low for most people.. but considering my items are only 1-2 prims each, its a good start. Of course, that was the first place I checked out.. I plan to do a lot of scouting around this weekend, so maybe I can find a better deal somewhere else. However, I'd rather pay $100 for 20 prims in an area that packs in that much traffic, than pay the same for more prims, but in exchange for a remote store location. Too many times have I go to shopping regions and not seen another person anywhere on the sim.

Ah well, I'll have to see what I find. For now.. I'm just trying to get into SL with my hair intact so I can watch a concert.

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21 January 2008 @ 10:41 pm

(no subject)

My posts are beginning to fall out of order again, but I wanted to write about something that happened a few nights ago. I was wandering around on podcaster island, and Chugabug was nearby. She called me over to show me something that she said she hadn't shown anyone in awhile. It was something called a Paradise Blanket, and she said that it works sort of like a portable skybox. It has several 'destinations' programmed into the blanket. It allows you and a small group to all sit on the blanket and then elevates you into a skybox setting of your choice. She hadn't used it in awhile and it was lacking a few updates. But between her and Radar, they got it working again. No matter how cool I thought it sounded by their description, I was really impressed to actually see it. We played around with that thing for probably an hour or two.

This picture was from my favorite of the ones she showed to me. It sets you down on a small campsite, with a fire burning and a little tent set up nearby. Across from the tent and the fire is this gorgeous waterfall. I forced my sun to midnight, and it made even more beautiful than it already was. The fire was glowing and popping up sparks, and the water was luminescent. I've always had a weak spot for nature related settings, and anytime I find a cave or waterfall in SL I immediately go inside to look around. We found a blanket with some cuddle pose balls behind the waterfall for couples who want to be alone. It was really pretty behind there.

Arri Gaffner joined us a short time later when Radar sent him a TP. We were all huddled on the blanket in this picture, discussing where to go next. Those things are way too cool- I've got to get one, someday.

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20 January 2008 @ 10:08 pm

(no subject)

A couple of days ago marked my entry into Second Life.. my rez day was December 18th, and I've learned a LOT in the past month that I've been in world. Apparently though, I still have a long ways to go. Up until tonight, I've been blown away by so many of the graphics in Second Life. I've heard people talk about adjusting the draw distance so you could see further.. but I assumed mine was already turned to the highest setting. I always thought I could see as far as the game would allow. I didn't realize anything was wrong until I was exploring a garden sim on a cliff face earlier tonight. The sign by the balcony said to sit and enjoy the view. I stared out at the blank gray sky and thought, "What view?" It wasn't until then that I decided to go into settings to see what my draw distance actually was.. 64. I couldn't believe it! For just over a month, I've been playing on the lowest possible setting. I cranked it up to 512, and was shocked! I feel like I'm seeing Second Life for the first time. Even the colors are brighter and more crisp than they were before. I always had trouble finding my way around podcaster island because I couldn't see more than a half block ahead of me.. but when I went there earlier, I was for the first time able to see across the entire sim. Its so much smaller than I thought it was, all this time. But it also looks a lot neater, and is so much easier to find my way around now. I went to a few places and took some before and after shots.. the first picture is how I've been seeing the world on 64, followed by the 'after' shot on 512.

Podcaster Island - this is why I couldn't find anything!

I always thought Botanical Gardens were pretty -before-.

Even the water is a deeper blue.

I always thought there was nothing at all outside the back windows of my skyhouse.

So much for privacy!

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17 January 2008 @ 08:06 am

Breakneck shopping spree!

Time for a super quick post during my break at work..

Last night I decided to bypass most of the live music events in leiu of some serious shopping. I noticed it had been a few days since I've found a new outfit.. I do check the Fab Free website daily, but I'm so picky with what I wear, that I haven't seen anything in awhile that I really like. I decided to spend some actual money this time, so I was bopping around SL trying to find something I like when I got a group notice from Second Style Stylecast about a $100L sale over at Last Call. I grabbed the Surl and tried to go over there.. I have never seen so many green dots on a mini map ANYWHERE on SL. Not even in the newbie areas.. To make matters worse, I was able to see all really great clothing inside.. but I absolutely could not get to it! This was something beyond a lag. I've dealt with lag in SL.. its annoying, but never before was it physically impossible to move. I am not exaggerating when I say I spent over 10 minutes just trying to get away into the front door of the shop. All I could do was walk in place.. now and then I might manage to move a few feet forward, but then I'd be bounced back to my started point again. I even tried flying, thinking there were people unrezzed in the way. (I normally don't barrel through people, but at least move away from the door so others can get inside!) I don't think that was the case, though.. even up above the crowd,I could do nothing but fly in place. I considered trying to just camera around the store from where I was and to shop that way, but I really wanted to look upstairs and around the other aisles. Eventually I left with the decision to try back in the morning when it wasn't during prime time hours.

This morning when I logged on before work, I had another group notice from a cool shopping area called The Shops.. it said they had several gift boxes hidden around the mall contain free goodies- even entire living room sets. My house is still completely empty, so I dashed over there first and ran around finding all the boxes. I ended up with about 10 boxes of home furnishings, and a couple freebie outfits I didn't even look at yet. :)

Next, I tried Last Call again. Success! It was still packed, and still a bit laggy. But I was at least able to move around. I walked away with a gorgeous red gown that I haven't even tried on yet.. I ran out of time and had to go to work. But this weekend, I can't wait to start unpacking all those boxes to see what sort of stuff I managed to pick up. :)

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15 January 2008 @ 08:24 pm

(no subject)

Today was mostly uneventful.. I didn't get a lot of anything done. I had intended to park myself over at the Pharm and camp for some money during the day while I worked on some art for my shop. But I got sucked into the blogosphere, and whittled the entire day away by reading some of the SL blogs. I'm trying to figure out how to subscribe to some of them via an RSS feed.. I know how to do it on Itunes, but not so much for blog readers.. I think I have a couple on Google now. But honestly, I find it easier to just bookmark the ones I like and go back to them that way.

Speaking of blogs, I'm in the process of moving this one from Livejournal to Wordpress. It seems like a lot of people use either wordpress or blogspot, and LJ doesn't have some of the features I'd like to use for my blog. I was talking to GoSpeed Racer last night at the open mic on Los Arboles.. she noticed my Blogger tag and said hello. I was asking her a bit about wordpress, and it sounded like something I could use. I've been moving my posts over there throughout the day.. once its all complete and I have it set up how I like, I'll post the new link and leave a message up on this blog directing people to the new one. In the meantime though, I'll continue using this one until I have time to work out the other.

I knew PR Lovenkraft was going to be doing a show at an open mic later on this evening, but while I was hopping around trying to find something good to listen to in the meantime, I got a group notice from Rhythm Nation informing everyone of an open mic at Maximillion Kleene's hangout, The Zone. (At least, I think its his place.) Phemie Alcott was on the list of performers, so I decided to go over and have a listen. She's still coughing up a storm, poor thing. But she sounds absolutely amazing, regardless. She's probably one of my favorite performers on Second Life. The venue kicked ass, as well. It was an outdoor setup.. a series of rocky steps circling a huge bonfire.. it was a very chill, laid back atmosphere that I really liked. The last guy who went onstage was too cool. His name was Skinny Shepherd, and he would tell stories and talk about his life in between songs. I love that sort of thing, when the performers chat up the audience a lot. He has a website at http://www.alexbevan.com

I got a group reminder from PR (I really don't like calling him that, I'd rather call him Phil since thats how he's known by his other work. But I don't know how he feels about that, so I try to remember and address him by his Second Life name) that he was going on in a few minutes. So, I said goodbye over at The Zone and TP'd myself over to the Merry Prankster where PR would be performing.

He put on a great show. I was really glad to get a chance to hear him since I didn't get to the other time he had played back when I first started on Second Life. (Like that was forever ago, haha. It was just a few weeks, but sometimes it feels like so much longer.) In any event, he said this was his first performance of 2008. He did a great job. Watch for his shows on the music event list, or you can join his group by doing a search for Lovenkraft Music. He also mentioned a Myspace page: http://myspace.com/philrossimusic

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14 January 2008 @ 08:19 pm

(no subject)

Tonight, I attended another live music event. Every Monday at 6pm, there is an open mic night over on Los Arboles. It lasts a couple of hours, and the musicians are varied in their styles, and all very talented. Tonights lineup included:

Rich DeSoto http://www.richpalmer.com/richdesoto/
Joaquin Gustiv http://www.purevolume.com/joaquingustav
Rain Vieria http://www.myspace.com/vivemusic
Julian2914 Hifeng http://www.myspace.com/julian2914hifeng
Juel Resistance http://www.thesixtyone.com/JueLResistance/ or www.myspace.com/7juel
Jackson Oxberger (No site yet)

I really enjoy the whole open mic concept on Second Life, because its a good way to get to sample a mix of musicians without having to go sim hopping all over the grid. I've done that before.. played leapfrog from venue to venue to venue trying to find something I like, and it can be pretty tedious. Already, I found a few really good musicians tonight that I'll probably see again at other shows now that I've heard their music. I particularly enjoyed Rain Vieria, who had a really interesting and amazing style. You can sample his original music on his myspace page, where he has a handful of songs available.

Rain Vieria at Los Arboles open mic

As I was listening, I jotted down the people who performed so I could grab their websites from their profiles. But when the time came to sit down and write, I realized that Jackson Oxberger was the only one who didn't have a site listed anywhere. It surprised me because he's really good, he did some instrumental electric guitar and was very talented. He had mentioned at the end of his set that he had to go because he was playing another open mic somewhere else. I wanted to send him a quick IM and ask if he had a website he wanted me to include in this post, but I wanted to make sure he wasn't onstage performing at the time. So, I checked the events list to see where the 8pm open mic was at and saw one listed at Moulin Rouge. I popped over there, and wow! What a great venue. I think the only thing I don't like about live music shows is that it gets very crowded and its hard to see or move around. This place was huge, though. When you walk in, you're standing at the top of a roped off balcony overlooking the stage and dance floor which in itself is very spacious. I wasn't planning on sticking around, but I liked the atmosphere that I'm still there listening as I write up this entry.

As for Jackson, he said he does not have a website yet but hopefully he will in a couple of weeks or so. However, according to his profile you can see him every Monday night in Los Arboles, and weekly at the Merry Pranksters.

I'll end this with a photo of Mich Rumpler performing at the Moulin Rouge Theatre and Grand Ballroom.

I really need to learn how to post surls.

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14 January 2008 @ 03:30 pm

(no subject)

Just a quick note- I've added a listing of SL related podcasts, blogs and SL musician sites to my profile. I feel like I might be missing a few people, but I'll be constantly updating the list as time goes on. If you know me and I've forgotten you, just give me a nudge and I'll add you to the list. :)

Everyone else, feel free to take a look. There is some really good stuff out there that you might not have stumbled across yet.

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13 January 2008 @ 07:09 pm

(no subject)

Its funny how often times I really, really want to write in my blog. But for whatever reason, I can't seem to do it. Its not a matter of time, or material to write about. I think I'm just really picky about how I write.. I can't tell you how many times I'll start writing and get an entire paragraph or two out.. then just delete it all away. I love taking and posting pictures in this blog, but I don't want to let myself get into the habit of making this a photo blog. I'd like to have some good, solid content in here as well. I love pictures as much as the next person, but I like to read about other people's thoughts and experiences to go along with those pictures. I can only assume thats the case for most people.

I guess sometimes the words flow easier if I just open my mind and let myself write down my thoughts as they come to me, rather than mentally outline everything I want to talk about.

Having said that, now I feel like I can move on to the point of this post: Live music in Second Life.

When you consider that by the time I was a freshman in high school I started getting into independant musicians and started up my own fanzine.. later moving on to freelance journalism and music promoting, that I'd be more into the music scene on SL. The truth of the matter is, I've largely been missing out on most of that until recently. I briefly caught Phil Rossi (aka PR Lovenkraft) over at the Lonely Yak Club on one of my first nights on Second Life.. but I didn't stick around very long, so I'm hoping he'll do a show again pretty soon. I had not seen any other live music until a week or so ago when I caught the Maximillion Kleene concert on Podcaster Island. That was pretty much the turning point for me.. I wasn't planning on staying for his whole set. I had other plans to go dancing with a couple of friends over at Club Caramel at the Bellagio. The idea was to stop in and listen to maybe two or three songs by Max, then move on. All three of us (Salaamata, his wife Abracapocu, and myself) were so impressed, we ended up staying for the whole show and put our own plans off until it was over. I wanted to join his group that night so I could keep up to date on his upcoming shows, but the sim was so insanely packed that I didn't want to even try finding his group organizer or trying to get close enough to the stage to click his sign. So, I waited a day or two and joined the group later on. I was really happy to find out that Max plays a lot more often than I was expecting. I assumed I'd only be able to catch a show every now and then. As it turns out, he seems to do at least two or three shows a day. I'm pretty sure I saw him just about every night this past week. In fact, I had to really buckle down and do some serious camping and surveys yesterday and today to regain some of the tip money, since I now tip at every show I go to. I still can't afford to tip as much as some people, but I contribute what I can.

Funny thing is, even though Second Life is a virtual world in which we're all just people controlling pixels on a computer screen.. I noticed that a lot of the SL musicians seem to all be suffering the same kind of cold/sore throat issues this weekend. I caught Max at the Hard Rock last night, and he was really favoring his throat and clearing it alot between songs. He still sounded great, but I could tell he was struggling a little bit. I wasn't surprised to get a group notice earlier that he had to cancel all of todays shows. Its probably a good thing that he did, after singing at least two or three hours a day, he could probably stand to give his vocal chords a rest.

Since I wasn't going to be able to catch a Max show tonight, I did a little exploring on the live music search to find something else to listen to. I tried to catch someone called KevinMThomas Carpool, but when I got to the venue I heard them mentioning that he's sick, too. There was a woman onstage taking over his set by the name of Phemie Alcott.. She turned out to be suffering the same bug, because she coughed through her entire set as well. Still, she sounded great and I really enjoyed her music so I stuck around for the whole thing. You can find her at http://myspace.com/phemiealcott .

As for Maximillion Kleene, you can find his group by searching under groups for Rhythm Collective, or visit his myspace. http://www.myspace.com/maximillionkleene . From what I've seen, he's got to be one of the most popular musicians on Second Life. He does some really great covers, and I love his banter with the audience. Its a lot of fun to see him perform, so join his group or do a live music search to check out one of his shows. He usually plays around 6pm SLT most nights.

(There I go, promoting again.)

I'll end this post with a picture from the Podcaster Island concert where I saw him for the first time.

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09 January 2008 @ 08:44 pm

(no subject)

Just when I was starting to get settled into my new home... already, its moving time.

As it turns out though, this is a great thing! Even if it didn't start out that way. A few mornings ago I was doing a bit of practice building and furniture rearranging in my house. I heard one of my neighbors, Tiamet, shouting something in I think French.. I couldn't tell exactly what she was yelling, but I was able to make out the word 'griefers' somewhere in there. I wandered outside to see what was happening and noticed a small cluster of people over by one of the houses, but they were going inside. I sent her an IM and asked if she was alright, and she said no. I guess a griefer, or group of griefers came and was shouting some really horrible abuse at Tiamat and her friends. Later on I got a group IM from WaL Krugman saying that he was going to look into some sort of security for us so that wouldn't happen again. I heard later tonight that the griefers were also bothering Danvers and someone else named Tito.

Another group alert came from WaL tonight mentioning a Sky Village that he and Cunundrum were setting up for us, and that we should come check it out. I wasn't doing anything, so I went to go see how it looked.

I love it! This place is too cool. Its way up in the sky so we won't have all the foot traffic from people visiting the shop. When I first got there, the village was nothing more than a series of walkways in the sky leading to a cluster of round, wooden buildings with a lot of windows. There was a fountain in the center, and spinning planets orbiting around. They were still working on it though, and Cunundrum took out the planets and then she and WaL added grass, trees, a dance pad, and a swing. It looks amazing! Its really pretty, and I feel like its going to have a better community feel because of the way its set up almost like a little town square, with the fountain in the center. It'll be easier to see people coming and going that are actually supposed to be there. The way things were set up before, our houses were spread way out so I never really ran into anyone.

Since WaL and Cunundrum were working on the houses as I was there, I asked if I could pick one out. WaL said I could, so I spent several minutes running from one end of the walkways to the other and trying to figure out which one I liked the most. There were two I was torn between. One of them was on the very far end of the sky village, with a neighboring house on one side and just the open sky on the other. It was on the opposite end as the teleport pad, so I knew this would have the most privacy and the least amount of people around. The other one was dead center, right across from the fountain. This would have less privacy, but I'd be in a better spot for being social and more at the center of the action. It was a touch choice, but I ended up picking the house in the center. It has a prettier view, also. Most of the trees and landscaping were being put in closer to the fountain, whereas the house on the end basically just has grass for now. Another feature I love about these houses are that the windows have privacy shades. When you click them, it slides a panel over the window that looks like you are looking into a forest. The only bad part about this is that anyone can click any window to open the shade.. Cunundrum thinks there is a way to set it so that only the owner can do that, but right now we don't know how to set it up that way. We're having trouble with my front door, as well.. I can lock it, but for some reason it pops open again after about 5 minutes.. WaL is going to try to fix it during the night tonight. The only other downside to this house is that with a window on every possible wall, there is no space to hang my art. I suppose I could hang some over a couple of windows, but I don't know if I want to do that or not. I guess we'll see. In the meantime, its back to square one with the decorating. I tossed some furniture in to 'claim' the house so someone won't come along and think its available and move their own stuff in. Especially since I can't get my door to stay shut right now. So the pictures I took may look a bit cluttered, but I compare it to leaving a playbill on your seat to save it at the theatre, lol.

OH! And I forgot to mention, this house has two floors. :) Each level is only one room, but its a giant circular room and having a second floor is way cool.

On to the pictures!

My house.

Downstairs, and two front windows.

View of fountain and courtyard from upstairs window.

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08 January 2008 @ 06:47 pm

(no subject)

Second Life just crashed, but when I got back in I was teleported to my home. The region was dark when I got there, and I went inside for a moment and saw how pretty everything looked in the dark so I had to take a picture. The fireplace, my moonlight painting and the glow cubes put out quite a bit of light. It gave my house the same sort of peaceful, blue-ish glow you get when you keep the tv on with all the lights turned off.

You can see the rugs I made and put down, today.. although its dark. I'll take a picture in the daylight when I get more art up on the walls. The glowing red cubes I made after seeing something similar at a nightclub, so I duplicated it myself. And I broke down and bought the black and white coffee table for $9.

I'll have another picture up when the house is really done.

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08 January 2008 @ 11:24 am

(no subject)

I'm really enjoying having my own house to decorate. Things are coming along nicely, bit by bit I'm adding furniture and a little while ago I made a really pretty rug.. I was trying to delete a particle ball yesterday that was unleashing ghostlights all over my living room, and accidentally deleted a section of the carpet I had placed down. I was thinking of getting rid of it anyway, so I went ahead and took it all out and now I'm back to the stonework floor. I'd love to put down some white carpet, but for some reason that doesn't seem to be a color option with that texture. I always thought when I got my own house I'd want to have a ton of windows. Or even have an entire wall or two be made of glass, like so many of the really pretty homes I've seen have. I didn't realize how much the lack of privacy bothers me, though. I only have two windows in my house- both are floor to ceiling, but they're narrow. For some reason though, I'm having a little bit of a problem with peeping toms. It kind of freaks me out to see some random stranger flying around my house and peering in the windows. The first time it happen I backed myself into a corner and waited for him to go away, lol. Now I've added pretty stained glass to both of my windows.. and if someone gets too close, I'm able to quickly change to texture to poured concrete- ha! I dunno.. maybe this doesn't bother the people who live in glass houses. But I feel like I'm on display sometimes, and its kind of weird. One of my neighbors, Danvers, stopped by earlier this morning to say hello. She seemed really nice, and brought over some extra pieces of furniture she had leftover and let me take a few things. I put a curtain up over one window and shaded it a teal-blue, and its so pretty! Once I get things a bit more organized, I'll post another picture.

Even as I'm writing this, I just peeked into the SL window and noticed that the security lock on my front door apparently works, because someone is trying to get inside my house.. I really need to get whatever mysti tool Radar told me about that ejects someone from my house... There are two people outside circling it and trying to get in. My friend Keeme showed me a way to bypass the door and get inside right through the wall, LOL. I won't repeat how he did it here, but I think it may be time to shop for a security orb. Its a little bit unnerving to see people trying so hard to get inside.

Speaking of Keeme... he came online again the other day and we spent a few hours exploring and getting into trouble. It started off with a motorcycle ride around some sim..

After that, he bought a helicopter and we flew around for awhile.. until we got into a bit of trouble. Somehow, we managed to crash the thing. I had my camera on mouselook at the time, and its pretty interesting to see yourself plummeting from the sky and into the ocean, haha. On our second attempt, I wound up tangled up in some trees on the side of a mountain, LOL. It was a blast. Even if Keeme is a dangerous driver. ;) Eventually I started feeling a little bit of motion sickness, so we abandoned the helicopter and went shopping/exploring for awhile. He showed me some of his favorite spots and I showed him Botanical Gardens and the Bellagio. At the end of the night, he wanted to take the helicopter out for one last spin over a residental area. Apparently, ban lines and helicopters do not make a good combination. We crashed one more.. this time, the helicopter ended up wedged between a couple of buildings. Keeme and I landed in someone's backyard. We were just getting our bearings and trying to figure out where we were, when we were attacked by some small, flying security.. pixies, or humming birds, or something.. I'm not sure what they were, but they surrounded me and were making high pitched sounds. I kept getting the message on my screen, "Nika Dreamscape, you better leave!" I got scared so I flew away.. Keeme said they swarmed him next and chased him from the yard, screaming "You are not on the list!" Lmao, that was the best time ever. I hope he comes back again sometime soon. :)

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07 January 2008 @ 08:24 pm

(no subject)

Once again, I've fallen behind in my blog. I'll have to take the next few days to catch up with everything thats been going on- not necessarily in order.

Tonight was a lot of fun, though. The first Monday of every month there is a podcaster meetup on Podcast Island, and tonight Phil Rossi was speaking. He's a musician on Second Life, and also wrote the podcast novel, "Crescent". He spoke to us about his writing for awhile and then opened up a question and answer session. I was the only one without a mic set up tonight, but it was still really neat to listen to everyone. And I really liked the whole conference room setting. I'm looking forward to going to more of these meetups each month.

I have to admit, I was a little bit intimidated at the end when he opened the floor for questions. A few times they kept asking me if I had any, so of course I drew a complete blank everytime. There were a few people in the room I had not met yet, including Phil, so I was feeling a bit shy about asking anything. I managed to come up with a few towards the end, though. I had not heard about Crescent before, so I'm looking forward to subscribing to that on Itunes so I can start listening this week. You can find out more about Phil Rossi and his podcast novel on his website. http://www.crescentstation.net/

After Phil was done speaking, he stepped away from the computer for a few minutes. Apparently, he hasn't gotten the memo about going afk around Chugabug, so she was up to her usual antics. :)

We all got quite a laugh, unfortunately Phil somehow didn't seem to notice his location when he got back to the computer. He just said goodnight and left after that. Too bad- these pictures still make me laugh everytime I look at them.

I was pleasantly surprised when Will Pitre of the Traveling Avatar podcast showed up at the meetup. I had not seen him in Second Life yet, so I wasn't expecting for him to be there. It was really cool to actually meet him, because I have been listening to his podcast about Second Life for probably more than a year and a half. Back when I tried to get on SL on my last computer, I found his podcast on Itunes and started listening because I knew that eventually I would be able to get a computer that would run it. I hoped to learn a little bit about it, even if I wasn't able to play it, yet. I eventually unsubscribed a few months ago because it was hard to understand what he was describing without actually being able to see it. As soon as I got my new computer and got onto SL, I signed up to the podcast again. Sadly, I heard he just podfaded the Traveling Avatar. But he did say he's got something else in the works that should start up soon, called 118 Migration. I'll be keeping an eye out for that. I met a few other people at the meetup that seemed pretty nice, as well. I'm looking forward to seeing who will be speaking next month.

In other news.. I very recently got a complete makeover.. I'm now sporting new hair.. as well as a brand new shape and skin, thanks to someone very sweet.

I'll do the rest of my updating tomorrow. :)

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04 January 2008 @ 06:06 pm

Punk'd!

I had intended to write a little something about chat and SL etiquette.

See, here's my problem. For as much time as I spend on the computer, I tend to go away a LOT.. in fact, its rare for me to spend more than 20 or 30 minutes without wandering away from the computer for something or other. Usually, its more like 10 or 15. I'm not gone for long, but I do afk a lot. And even if I'm not afk, I usually have something going on in several other windows at the same time. In the past, this hasn't been much of a problem on chats or IM conversations, because all the text is still there when I get back. And its only that- text. But in Second Life, someone could come up and be talking to me while I'm otherwise occupied, and I'd completely miss it. Or, I might be having a conversation with someone and my afk-ness might take up their time when they could be going off and doing other things. The whole concept of literal 'face to face' chatting is still brand new to me.

So when I bumped into Chugabug over on Podcast Island a little bit ago, I felt kind of bad when I told her I had to run afk to heat up dinner. Its not a big deal to take a couple minutes to respond in text, but when you have an avatar standing there waiting for you, it just feels rude to keep them waiting. I hoped she didn't take offense or think I was blowing her off when I told her I had to go afk. As it turns out, she has quite the sense of humor. This is what I came back to, when I returned to the computer.

As far as I can tell, there were no canals anywhere near the bridge we had been standing on. How she got me off the bridge and at least a block or two away to a canal is impressive in itself. The cage was a nice touch. I'm still giggling over that.

And she always seemed so sweet! ;)

All you afk'ers out there.. Beware the Chugabug.

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02 January 2008 @ 07:23 pm

(no subject)

The decorating of my home is coming along, slowly but surely. WaL was nice enough to change the texture of my home, so I have nice stonework inside and out. The picture I'm showing here is not up to date, but I've finished putting carpet in.. I left the stonework in the entry to the 'foyer', but the rest has warm brownish-beige carpet. I'm still messing with furniture, I've found some boxes of free stuff that I'm shifting around. I'll probably arrange all that next weekend.

But most importantly, I created my first real piece of art! I'm not entirely sure if this is how the other art I see around SL is made, but I found a pretty picture on a random google search and slapped it on a canvas I made.. I had a candle in a freebie pack, so I made a copy and turned them into sconces by flattening out a couple of ovals and setting the texture to mahogany. I'm really pleased with how this turned out.

I want to start making and selling art.. I found a really cheap rental place somewhere.. rent I know I can afford. $50/week shouldn't be too much of a problem.. The question is, where do I go from here? How do I package things for sale?

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01 January 2008 @ 11:44 am

(no subject)

I usually don't like to post twice in one day, but I just had the most interesting thing happen to me..

I was doing my usual morning clothes shopping/browsing, and I ended up on a Sim called W&M designs. As I was heading for the clothes shop, I passed a billboard that said something about free homes, and to click for more information. I did so, and got the following notecard.

Hello There!

Thank you for visiting W&M Designs and we hope you will find what you need.
We are giving some free places to live around the store. You will get a place near the side walk (blue house) + 125 prims to decorate your house for free.
If you dont like the texture of the house or you would like to change it, then Just IM me and I will be more than happy to help you.
If you dont like the house which we have, then you can drop your own house (25 prims max) and (20m x 20m x 20m as max size) at no cost.
you will need to join a group so IM me if you would like to live here so I can add you.
If you are gone missing for more than 10 days without a notice, then the house will be given to someone else.
We know that scripted furnitures are nice, but we would like you to keep the active scripts to minimal so we keep the lag as low as possible.
I hope you will enjoy your stay here and Thanks again.

W&M Designs

WaL Krugman

I was pretty surprised to hear that, so I sent WaL an IM asking for more information. He met with me, and we talked extensively about the offer.

I have to wonder if he normally gets SO many questions, or if most people just say 'Sure, great!' and jump on the offer. I was pretty wary about the whole thing though, and I still am. I've been wanting to eventually get a house on Second Life, but thats something I thought might happen way down the road.. Months, if not longer. And I definitely have not heard anything about 'free' homes on SL. I felt like there surely had to be some kind of catch.. but after asking him many questions, it seems like its pretty much what the notecard said.. I didn't have to pay anything, or commit to any sort of agreement. All I had to do was join the group W&M Designs.. as long as I'm a member, I can keep the house, completely free. If I ever decide I don't want the house anymore, I just leave the group and all my items are returned to me. I asked him about security or what keeps people from just walking into my house.. in other words, what makes it mine? I know absolutely nothing about home ownership on Second Life, so I wasn't sure what kept someone from telling everyone that walked by that they own any particular house. Basically, he sold me a front door for $0 and it has a list of script commands that let me lock and unlock it, and add people to the list of who can access the house. I'm still a little bit nervous about it, but I figure its a great starter home that cost me nothing. And I don't need to pile a lot (or any) of expensive furniture or items inside. I think I may just drop in a few cheap or free items and give it awhile and make sure they don't end up stolen. But as far as I can tell, there's no way into the house as long as I leave the door locked. It isn't that terrific looking. Its kind of box-y and it has no roof, and only had one window. But he says I can send him any texture and he can change the texture of the house, and he added another window for me. I've seen a lot of NEAT houses out there, and I'd rather have something eventually that looks nice. But I figured since its free, this is a good way for me to learn how to furnish and arrange my own home and see what thats all about. Here are some 'before' pictures. I'm going to have the texture changed as soon as possible, and then see what I can do to start decorating it and fixing it up a bit.

Again, I really don't like the odd looking blue and gold design.. but I'm going to have him change that to something else. I do like the stone floor.. And the view outside my front door is kind of pretty. Also, the house originally came with a plain front door that was basically just a slab of light wood grain. But while we were messing with the controls, he rezed that pretty decorative front door so I got him to switch them.

Did I get a decent deal, or am I somehow getting scammed? It doesn't seem like a scam.. I didn't have to give any money and I can walk away any time I want.. I guess we'll see.

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01 January 2008 @ 08:39 am

(no subject)

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been doing a lot of camping and saving up some money so I can start to get some decent clothes pretty soon. I've been spending a lot less time in the freebie areas, and a lot more time browsing the 'premium' clothing shops and malls. I see a lot of really cool stuff out there, but one blouse in particular had caught my eye. I saw it on an advertisement somewhere for a clothing brand called Wrong. A lot of their stuff is really neat looking.. but I kept coming back to this one sweater that I had fallen in love with. It was $100, which to me is a lot of money right now. I decided to take some time and think about it- I'm not going to be able to drop that much money very often on an outfit, so I wanted to be absolutely sure I really wanted it. I ended up waiting a few days.. looking around at other shops to see if I saw anything I liked better for around that price. I really didn't, and I kept going back almost every day to look at this sweater. The other night while I was camping over at Freebie Zone, I was talking to my friend Salaamata that I had met while I was there. We got to talking about the sweater and he said he wanted to take a look at it. I was more than happy to get a second opinion, so I TP'd him over to the store and we talked about it.

He agreed that it looked pretty cool, so I made up my mind that I'd get it the next morning. I wanted to give myself ONE more night in case I had buyers remorse at the last minute. ;) I'm sure this is funny to a lot of people, and in a few months I'll probably drop three times that on a blouse without batting an eye, but this would by far be my first 'big purchase' on Second Life.

The next day was the morning of New Years Eve, and the first thing I did when I came online was to go straight to the Wrong store and made a beeline for the sweater. But when I tried to click on it to buy, I got a strange message that said something about my needing to have a store card. I kind of understood that this meant the gift cards most stores have, but I was a little bit apprehensive so I waited to get some advice from Daphne Abernathy before I went any further. I didn't want to screw up and end up losing my money, so I left her an IM and waited until I got back from dinner to see what she had to say. She assured me that while its not very common, some stores do business that way and to go ahead and buy the card. I already had a feeling that the gift cards would come in larger denominations than just $100, but by this time I was commited to paying whatever I needed to, as long as I had it. I -really- wanted that sweater. Sure enough, the smallest gift card was $250. I went ahead and got it anyway, and decided I'd just get the skirt that goes with the sweater. That took care of the balance of my card, and I haven't regretted it for one moment.

My next stop was to Freebie Zone so I could show Sal the outfit, and from there we did some club hopping as we tried to find the best New Years Eve party on the grid. We spent a little bit of time at some club, I can't even remember the name.. I think I checked out a half dozen places. But we stuck around at this one for a little while and danced- he changed into his cockatrice avatar that looks hilarious when it dances.

By the end of the night, we ended up finding the best party over on Edloe, where the fabulous Diva of http://slfashionpolice.wordpress.com/ was throwing a bash. All the usual... Edloians..? Were there, so Sal was able to meet everyone and we ended up having a great time. Hijinks and hilarity ensued.

And the perfect touch to the whole evening was a random act of kindness.. Sal and I were discussing my purchase, and someone dancing nearby overheard us. He IM'd me and commented that he noticed I was a fellow blogger. He said that camping is no fun, and that I should be out there exploring more so I would have stories to write in my blog, and he paid me the $250 I spent on my outfit. I'll keep him anonymous in case he'd rather that be kept quiet, but that was so very, very nice! If he's reading this, again- thank you so much! You really made my night. :)

Happy New Years, all!

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31 December 2007 @ 09:26 am

(no subject)

One thing I've really been enjoying about hanging around in Second Life is the amount of really cool people I've met completely by chance. It seems like I tend to make new friends when my original intention was to just find a quiet place to park my avatar while I go afk or do some work in another window. I was over on Podcast Island the other night while I was afk, and when I checked back again I noticed someone else was in the region. According to the mini map, it looked like they were coming my way, so I stuck around to see who it was. It turned out to be Keeme of the Keemecast podcast. I had actually heard of him before, his name pops up on other podcasts now and then. We got to talking and he turned out to be a lot of fun. He's a really funny guy. He asked if I wanted him to show me some cool places, and conjured up his magic carpet. The first place we went was a sim called Midnight City, that seemed to be based after NYC. That place is too cool! I loved the cityscape, and the design and architecture looked really nice.

It turns out they have a lot of great shopping also- I went back the next night to explore it further and ended up spending a lot of time there.
The next place we went was Limbo. Following a path up a mountain, we entered a large castle type structure where they have lots of dragon avi's. The people there were really cool, and it was neat seeing all the dragons. We hung around there for quite awhile before moving on to a huge conference center where he said some companies have meetings or training sessions. He was a lot of fun, and I ended up subscribing to his podcast the next day. Sadly, I haven't seen him online again since that night. Maybe after the holidays are over I'll bump into him again.

That encounter was pretty random. But when I want to make a point of chatting and meeting people, I love to camp at the Freebie Zone. There's an area right near where you rez in that has a few couches and chairs surrounding a green camping globe. Thats usually where I sit. Since its a high traffic area, its a great place to people watch and make new friends. I usually see some pretty funny stuff if I stick around there long enough. And since I haven't figured out how to build yet, camping is my only source of any sort of 'income'. Since I spend a lot of time afk or just chatting, I've managed to make a pretty decent amount so far. And even better yet, several good friends.

The payout at that particular camping globe isn't that great.. only $2/15 minutes. But at least there are places to sit down, so you can't get pushed out of range. If you wander too far, the globe uncamps you. So if I'm planning to be away from the computer, I have to find a place to sit. There are plenty of other globes around the freebie mall area that pay better.. one even pays $4/15 minutes which is the highest paying camping spot I've seen in Second Life so far. Unfortunately, the range seems to be within a few feet of the globe. And since its so popular, there is a lot of pushing and shoving. If you don't really watch the screen, you can get bumped out of range pretty quickly.

Still, its a lot of fun. Some people think camping is silly or a waste of time. I suppose if you have the skills and knowledge to design and build your own clothing or furniture, or if you have a hand in real estate, then it probably would seem silly. But to the basic newbie, its the only chance to earn money to get that really cute pair of jeans or better hair until you can figure out the more complex aspects of the game.

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29 December 2007 @ 08:21 am

(no subject)

I learned something interesting the other day, much to my chagrin.

You see, each sim in Second Life has a default spot that you teleport to. I think I've heard people refer to that as 128,128, but I'm not sure what that means. Anyway- you would think that if something was placed or built on that spot, that the system would automatically either place you on top of it. Or, move your avatar over a little bit. I discovered that this is not at all the case, when I popped into Podcaster Island the other night to find that someone had put the stadium seats up on the Podcast Pickle stage where I normally teleport in. I suddenly found myself up to my chest in brick, and wedged between a row of seats.

Could you imagine how embarrasing that would be if there really was a concert going in right then? Actually, the thought makes me laugh everytime. I'm not sure who would have been more surprised- me or the person sitting in that seat.

Speaking of Podcast Island- I was standing around on top of a building somewhere a little bit ago, downloading some podcasts onto my shuffle, when I got to talking to Gary of Podcast Pickle. He reminded me that the new Podcaster mall was up and has spaces available for rent. (I wish I had the artwork I'm trying to build ready for sale already- but I still have a long way to go to figure out how to do all that.) I hadn't seen it yet, so I flew over to take a look. It looks pretty sharp!

Its brand new - I think it only opened up a couple of days ago. But the layout is really cool. I'll have to take an 'after' picture when all the spaces fill up.

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