March 2008 Archives

Both IcyQueen and I are having RL issues right now with a ton of stuff going on. I'm being buried under mountains of work and killer deadlines (which is my fault for being on SL too much :P). I'm gonna try to spend less time in-world for the next 2 weeks till my deadlines are over... and then after that I'm moving house. (Really REALLY wish I could just "take" stuff back into my inventory and then rez it in the new place!!!) So expect intermittent posting for awhile...

Also I can't figure out what to post since all the freebie blogs are already blogging about the freebies, and fashion blogs are blogging about the non-freebies. -_-" And it's not like this was meant to be a fashion blog anyway. But I'm a girl! What else would I be interested in apart from clothes and hair?? (Don't answer that!! lol)

I was soooooo pleased to discover that Filigreemotion's Easter egg hunt had prizes for men. Some of the eggs had two prizes, one version for men and one for women. Since everybody's been blogging the girly gifts... and Alicia noted that there was hardly any guys' stuff on the Vain Inc grid-wide hunt... I thought I'd show off Immortal's loot :D

(By the way, I got Immortal a new shape -- please tell me he looks more manly now! lol)

All items are from the Filigreemotion hunt unless otherwise stated...

Hair: "Chris" in mahogany

Hair with cap: "Billie" in blonde

Hair with cap: "Aaron" in Black
Piercings: Steve lip piercing
Neck thingy: Spaghetti Collar men
Shirt: Men's tee from Emery - Vain Inc. grid-wide hunt

Men's low shoe 'Sirius' in Choco

Co-sneakers male - plaid red

Funky accessories and fingerless gloves: Torture me! Set for men
Tattoo: Black star & arm band tattoo, part of March free outfit from
AnnDe's Designs (this store offers a free monthly outfit for men, and one for women as well)

Altogether not bad, eh? Immortal was pleased as punch. It's seldom a guy can get such freebies ^^

The LVS & Co hunt on Cassiopeia Isle also had prizes for men, but they were mainly tees and not really to Immortal's taste. But you can see pictures of the gifts here. I love LVS & Co hunts, they usually have a fair number of guys' prizes and the other designers on the sim often have dollarbie gifts in their stores too (including the awesome SySy Chapman of SY Designs!).

My inventory is back, but I am pooped from too many Easter egg hunts lol. We Malaysians have a word to describe this - it's called being kiasu. Hard to explain, but generally kiasu (a word from the Chinese Hokkien dialect) refers to someone who worries that she'll miss out on a great deal, someone who's afraid that others will grab that great deal instead of her and that she'll wind up on the losing end. People who are kiasu tend to do crazy things like... stay up all night to finish Easter egg hunts on SL. *looks around furtively and pretends she's talking about someone else*

Some people are even kiasu enough to send their ALTS on Easter egg hunts, and after making their alts try on everything, they then send their main av to go get the best of the booty. *rolls eyes*

I think I need therapy. Hello, my name is Quaintly and I am an SLholic. Help!!!

I logged on today and went looking for a landmark to a hunt I wanted to do.

NO LANDMARK.

I ran a search.

NO LANDMARK.

And then I realised... my inventory says 8,000 items. Yesterday I had 19,000.

HALF OF MY INVENTORY HAD DISAPPEARED.

I phoned IcyQueen.

"Not again!" was her response. Oh yes, again.

I checked the folders of the clothes and shoes I was wearing.

THE RELEVANT FOLDERS WERE EMPTY.

"Why is this happening to you again?" IcyQueen asked. I wanted the answer too.

I logged out, cleared cache, re-logged, waited five minutes (recommended by Linden Lab to allow your inventory to reload), and NOTHING HAD CHANGED.

Okay, so I'm hoping this is a temporary glitch. I'm going to log in tomorrow and see whether my inventory is back. How can I keep losing the clothes I'm wearing???

The only thing that comforts me is, the last time, textures remained but the prims disappeared from my av. This time... prims and textures are both there. So it is slightly -- SLIGHTLY! -- different.

I swear, an online world is not worth this kind of aggravation. If my inventory doesn't come back, I'm done with SL. Finished!

UPDATE: IcyQueen logged me in from her laptop and it appears my inventory is back! But I'm not going to log in... I'm going to sleep. Too much drama lolol

Hey guys! Only SIX votes??? Come on... poor Immortal is feeling neglected and overlooked... *grin* Vote here!

****

A friend of mine joined SL about a month ago but has had problems ever since she first rezzed in-world. She figured it was due to her laptop (old and cranky) but now she's got a shiny new one and she can't even log in; SL crashes every time. Linden Lab support suggested that her graphics card might not be compatible with the SL viewer.

This prompted me to take a look at the specs for my own computer, which I got way back in 2005. Turns out my specs don't even list a graphics card -- it was probably bundled with the motherboard. Also, I have 256MB RAM. The minimum requirement is 512MB! No wonder my PC is laggy! Sheesh!

I guess I'm darned lucky that SL works on my PC at all. Especially since it wouldn't work on my friend's old laptop, which had waaaay more RAM than my PC. If you want to know what went wrong... for some reason, the laptop wouldn't render textures on her av, but prims were perfectly fine. So she'd always appear topless in-world! Hair and skirts rezzed fine, but tops played peek-a-boo. IcyQueen and I told her she's destined to be an SL stripper lol.

We figured it was her laptop that was the problem cos when I logged her in from my PC, her av became fully clothed and perfectly presentable. Only now am I realising what a miracle that is! Amazing! But still, I guess I'd better upgrade the RAM just to be safe. *sweats* (This is why ignorance is bliss, I suppose. lolol)

...well, they called it "a gesture of goodwill", but if you were to see $10,000L sitting in your account you'd think it was compensation, too.

Thank you for your patience in this matter. I appreciate it has been a long time and please accept my apologies for that.

Following a review of the situation, it appears that there is no way to recover your inventory. I acknowledge that this is an unsatisfactory outcome but as a gesture of our goodwill for the inconvenience that has been caused to you I am crediting your account with 10,000 L$.

This is an exceptional situation hence the reason for the credit and we do not normally offer this. I hope it will go some way to getting you back on your feet in Second Life and enjoying what the world has to offer.

I'm very sorry for the inconvenience.

Just as well that I wasn't banking on them getting back the inventory. But do you notice that they didn't actually come out and take responsibility? And didn't tell me what went wrong? Maybe they don't know either. But how comforting is that?

Anyway, I guess this is the last chapter in the saga. Quaintly Questi can be laid to rest now.

****
PS. I have put a poll in my previous post - please vote!!

It's official. I either need to:

1. Get a job,
2. Learn how to build, or
3. Spend less time in SL.

So I created two alts. Yep, that's right... two.

Since I don't like to experiment as Quaintly, because I've already had enough trauma with her to last me a lifetime, I created an alt to experiment with. Morpher... morphs. She's a mermaid, neko, goth, fairy, elf, dragon, kajira, drow, angel -- whatever. Basically, anything and everything.

Reactions to Morpher were varied.

Friend #1: "'Waco'? You're wacko all right."

Friend #2: "There's a name for this. It's called 'schizophrenia'."

Hey, I have seven blogs, each with a specific purpose of its own. Why wouldn't I have avs for specific purposes too?

And so we come to Immortal, my guy av. He was actually born at the same time as the original Quaintly. When Quaintly first came into being, there were problems signing in with her account (looking back, that probably was a SIGN which I, in my n00bness, completely ignored). As a result, I created Immortal instead. But then the problems with Quaintly's account got solved and poor Immortal got shelved. Till now.

I blew the dust off his account and logged in, and then I had the devil of a time trying to get him to look manly. *sweats*  Who knew it'd be so hard to mod a male shape?

Which is where you come in, my dear readers. I need your help and unbiased opinion. IcyQueen insists that Immortal looks gay (not that there is anything wrong with that, but the poor guy is straight, and he doesn't want anyone to get the wrong idea, y'know?). Another friend put it this way: "He looks like a drag queen between shows."

Please tell me: Does this man look gay to you???

UPDATE: IcyQueen said I should have a proper poll, so here it is. Also, a friend corrected me, "It's impossible for a person to look gay... but Immortal looks like a transvestite." O.O

Do be kind in your comments... you know what they say about male egos! -_-"

"Oh, I don't need such a big house. I'm only one person. This is too much space for me."

Famous last words. *grin*

I loved my little cottage the first time I saw it, but now I'm realising I actually DO need more space. Ideally, I'm thinking, I'd have a double-storey house with the lower ground for entertaining visitors and the upper ground for personal use -- as a changing area, to store boxes, and so on.

Not that I entertain a lot, but I'm kinda tired of apologising for the mess every time I invite anyone home :P

So this is one of those live-and-learn situations. I bet this is exactly why my landlord rents houses to newbies FOR FREE... because you don't know what you need until you've tried it! (Three cheers for IBME Swindlehurst!)

I'm still on my treehouse kick -- I just think treehouses are so picturesque. Browsing SLexchange, I actually found a treehouse for free!

IcyQueen gave me some land on which to rez it, and ta-dah:

It is really amazing, I can hardly believe it's free. Windows can be set to transparent or dark with a click, the door is scripted so you can lock it and put in your own access list. Rich textures and easily rezzed with a rezbox. But... it's single storey. *wipes tear from eye*

On goes my search for the *perfect* treehouse...

Meanwhile, I found this on SLexchange too. *clears throat*  "VRS Treehouse - tree not included!"

My question is: How can you call it a treehouse if there is no tree???

So now IcyQueen has moved yet again, and I got infected with the "itch" to move too. I'm not in the market for a house yet -- still have more than 40 days on the lease in my current place -- but I thought it'd be cool to stay in a treehouse.

Away I went searching for treehouses, and then I realised I had a VERY BIG PROBLEM: I have no land. Where am I going to put the treehouse??!?

"Okay, Quaintly," I told myself, "if you can rent a normal house, I bet you can rent a treehouse too." I scurried over to classifieds and found some treehouse rentals being advertised.

So I arrived at Sicily Beach Resort and flew around but couldn't find the treehouses. I'm a great believer in asking for help, so I IM'd one of the guides who was online, and said I'd like to view a treehouse if there were any available.

He promptly turned up... lo and behold, he was a dragon! That was rather disconcerting. The first dragon I've ever talked to in SL! Was he going to breathe fire on me? Would he gobble me up if I decided not to rent the house??

But noooo, this gentle dragon was very professional and answered all my questions patiently. Before I knew it, he'd rezzed a saddle for me so that he could bring me to the treehouse. I was a bit scared, not sure if it was going to be disrespectful to ride on his back, but he told me to get on, and you just don't disobey a dragon you know...

Wheee! We soared through the air and I couldn't believe it -- I was riding on a dragon! ZOMG!

After concluding our treehouse rental business (no, I didn't rent lol), I asked him about being a dragon and he brought me to the Isle of Wryms, where he'd gotten his dragon av. I'm tempted to get one myself, it is soooo cool! Here he is standing protectively behind me... yes he changed his skin lol.

What an extraordinary encounter -- and all because I was looking for a treehouse!

Today -- well, technically yesterday... but I haven't slept yet so I still think it's Saturday -- my country went to the polls. And I am so proud. We have finally denied the government a two-thirds majority in Parliament! Among other things, it means they cannot amend the Constitution willy-nilly (it has been amended 377 times since Independence in 1957, and the most recent one was for something as trivial as.. wait for it... allowing the current Election Commission Chief to serve until the age of 66 instead of 65. Why? Because he was due for retirement and elections were to be held this year! So if anybody tells me the Election Commission is neutral and not corrupt... you gotta be kidding me!!!).

Anyway, politics, politics. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten this is an SL blog ;)

IcyQueen and I have been so swept up by patriotism and rejoicing that she made a banner. I put it up on my house:

The top portion of the banner is our country's flag and the words below say, "The people have spoken!" (literally, "rakyat" means "citizens" in Malay, our national language)

Today we are proud to be Malaysians, proud to have given the government the message that they cannot mess with the people of Malaysia anymore. We see through their rhetoric and their excuses and all that has GOT TO STOP. We will no longer tolerate their nonsense!!!

****
Can you believe I used to be apathetic about politics and current affairs lol...

With all the excitement about the Skin Fair, I knew I had to take a look. I kept telling myself, "Quaintly, there's no hurry. It ends on April 5, for crying out loud. Everybody and their mother is going to be there now that it's just opened. And you hate lag."

But I went anyway. -_-

That irritating voice in my head went, "Quaintly, why do you do this to yourself?"

I told it to shut up. :P

After nabbing the freebies, I walked around a bit to see if I could find any affordable skins. I still get a heart attack at the thought of paying 1k for a skin... but Wax Poetic's 250L skins seemed affordable, so I bought the pack of demos to try.

Oh. My. God.

Gogolita posted the UP skin demo and said there were too many demo labels on the skin, which was a distraction from the skin itself. Oh yes. Distraction, let me show you DISTRACTION:

Yep. I SO ain't kidding.

The first time I tried on one of the demos, I was like, "OMG don't tell me this skin actually has a moustache!" I actually had to TP back to the skin fair to look at the ad display and make sure that the real skins were minus facial hair -_-"

I can tell that the designers have a quirky sense of humour, but how on earth do you expect me to buy any of the skins after seeing this??? I'm having such a lot of trouble imagining it without the moustache, even if I do buy it, my memory of that skin will be tainted for life!!!

***
(L-R from the top: Cupid, Diva, Ferosh, Firestarter, Java Joe, Mermaid, Oceanic, Pinup, Rainbeam and Rio)

For an overview of the skin fair, go here.

I take her arm, and away we go. When we get to the edge of the Meadow I say, "Shade or sun?" and she answers, "Oh, sun, to be sure," and so we take the path that cuts through the middle of the Meadow, that leads to the clearing. As we walk, I describe.

How could I possibly escape? I got tagged TWICE! By Sidonie and Alicia. Woohoo I guess that means this blog is getting famous!! *grins*

The passage above is from The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. It's a beautiful love story (no, not the sappy kind lol) but be warned, it'll boggle your mind. Because, as the blurb on the back of the book says:

This is the extraordinary love story of Clare and Henry who met when Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-two and Henry thirty. Impossible but true, because Henry suffers from a rare condition where his genetic clock periodically resets and he finds himself pulled suddenly into his past or future.

You'd think this kind of story would never work, but then we also do all kinds of things in SL that should never work in RL! lolol

**PS: Sorry IcyQueen & I have been so quiet... we've been having issues with our Internet connection -_-"  And when the connection has condescended to work, we've been in-world!!! *grins*

You know you have been on SL too much when...

• You are moving house in RL and wish you could just "take" all items into your inventory, TP to your new location, and rez them there.
• You look at people walking around you in RL and think, "I have a dress like that in my inventory!"
• You go for business meetings and fidget, because it's such a waste of time when you could actually be in SL.
• You are caught in a traffic jam and find yourself wishing you could just TP back home.
• You seriously consider going to a coffee house with free wifi to SL since your home Internet connection is down. And it is nearly midnight.
• Your friend asks what you've been doing today and you tell him what you've been doing in SL today.
• You pick up your phone to call a friend, and automatically search for her SL name instead of her RL name.
• You walk into a clothing store and think something is missing... then you realise there's no sign for you to touch and join the designer's group.
• You wish you could try a demo of a new hairstyle before allowing the hairdresser to cut your hair.
• You start referring to Lindens as "dollars" ("That dress cost 250 dollars!").
• You can barely find time to blog because you are spending every free minute in SL.