June 2008 Archives

Does anybody want to hear more about my furniture and my prim count, really? Nope? I guessed as much! lol

So I have something slightly more interesting. Introducing my new landlord, Ciaran Laval:

OMG he's a wizard!! O.O

The first time I met him and he turned up dressed like this, I blinked. But you must remember I once met an estate agent who was a dragon... so I wasn't as taken aback as I might have been. One of my friends says someone she knows has a bunny landlady... I was like, how could you ever take a bunny seriously? A dragon, now, that's serious business, and a wizard is not someone to mess around with lest he turn you into a frog, but -- a bunny???

Like in RL, a great landlord can make all the difference. I was really happy with IBME Swindlehurst [his last name always makes me giggle, not exactly a reassuring name for a landlord to have, lol] and so far I've had great experiences with Ciaran too. Very professional, quick response time, always ready to help... can't ask for more :)

Some of you asked how I found this land. Actually, I found Ciaran's blog first, where he was talking about land prices and rentals, and then remembered seeing his name as one of the regular posters on the SL Forums. This told me that (1) he had land for rent, (2) he's probably a reliable landlord (folks who hang out in the forums normally have been in SL for awhile and aren't the kind who'll screw you over or be here today, gone tomorrow).

So I checked out his profile and TP'd to his office, went to the vendors to see which plots of land were available. Sent him a notecard because the vendors didn't provide LMs and I wanted to go have a look at the land. He responded as soon as he got the notecard. Aureis and I went over to the land... we saw, we liked, we rented. As simple as that! XD

I'm really so so sad about my lounger :(

Isn't it lovely? So plush and velvety. It's in my favourite colour, too! But OMG it's 77 prims! *dies*

Part of the reason I wanted it is also... it would be a great place for Darla and I to chill out and have some 'us' time together. It's got some nice cuddling poses... but it's way to primmy and I couldn't bring myself to try to mod it, coz it's no-copy and if I mess up the modding, the whole thing goes bye-bye. So I went around looking for an alternative.

Found this one, it's 50 prims, but at 700L the price is a bit steep. Moreover, it's no-mod, so I can't change the colours or adjust the poseballs. Aureis and I stood there looking at it and I was like, "I'm not so hot about the colour." "Neither am I," she replied. (Aureis shares the land with me, so I need her okay before I simply plonk anything out there :P)

Next we went to look at this Bedouin tent. The awesome thing is that it's scripted and pre-loaded with 18 cuddle poses. Plus it's 42 prims and 395L, good price! But Aureis and I tried it out and somehow... it's really hard to see anything once you're sitting inside there. I don't know how to explain it, just that trying to get your camera to focus on yourself is a bit tricky, I think maybe because it's rather narrow. We decided it was a no-go.

Finally, we went to see this "Bed of Dreams". It's sooooo pretty, scripted with 3 cuddle poses, and only 13 prims!! I waaaaant! But it would look completely out of place in our garden, especially next to the wooden caravan that Aureis is staying in. Can you imagine??? :(

I think I might go looking for a lounger or a rug, and then buy a tent, and just put it inside the tent. That might be easier than looking for an all-in-one. We'll see...

There I was, doing some shopping, minding my own business, when I crashed. Spectacularly.

Tried to log back in. Guess what? SL wouldn't let me! Got this message (click for bigger image):

59,928 residents inworld is considered "higher than usual"??? Thought that was about the average number on any given day...

This waterfall is 32 prims... it was a 1L special (which explains why it was in my inventory!). I'm wondering whether to replace it with another waterfall, but on the other hand I've also fallen in love with this koi pond, which is so pretty and only 16 prims:

Or... I could replace it with this fountain instead, also 16 prims, except that it costs 1000L *winces*  But I would prefer something with stones that people will be able to sit on, lounge around and chill out, y'know? Although of course I could add benches nearby. Hmmm...

As an alternative, I'm looking at this Nomia Forest Waterfall -- it's 24 prims, which is still 8 prims less than the original waterfall. Only thing, they didn't have an in-world demo, so I don't know exactly how big it is, or how it'll actually look like in my garden. Still, the other waterfall that they did demo looked pretty good; I think the texturing and stuff shouldn't be a problem.

I'm such a girl -- I can't decide!!! Koi pond - waterfall - koi pond - waterfall - koi pond...

Can you tell I've been shopping the whole day? I've seen so many waterfalls, I swear they're gonna haunt my dreams tonight! >.<

This is my third home, I've had it for a day, and already I'm all primmed out. I have 6 prims left out of 233 o.O

I've never paid much attention to prims, coz with the other two places, I didn't do much decorating. At my first home, a cosy little cottage provided free of charge by IBME Swindlehurst, I started decorating, then gave up half-way because the cottage was so small. Every time I stood on my pose stand in the corner, and tried to cam around myself, my camera view would whoosh outside. In the end I got rid of all the furniture and just positioned the pose stand right in the middle of the house! lol

At the second place, the land which I just left, I guess I felt uninspired because of the ugly adjacent lots... I didn't like the fact that I had to put up screens around the boundaries... they made me feel caged, somehow. It's stupid, but that's how I felt. I couldn't really be bothered, I plonked down a $1L prefab I got from Enkythings, didn't even fix the door. Anybody could've walked in on me whilst I was changing XD

Sooooo... at this new place, I'm so happy that I immediately started putting things down and decorating. Also I'm the kind of person who MUST do it while I'm still in the mood, coz once the mood passes... well... let's just say procrastination is my middle name, and I might only finish decorating in the next century :P

Boy have I decorated! I don't even have a house yet -- my friend Molly is helping me to build one, she's such a sweetheart -- so I don't have furniture, but even so, I've already maxed out the prims on my parcel. Oh dear.

You see the wooden caravan at the left? That's made by Molly too :)  My friend Aureis lives in it -- she's gonna be sharing the parcel with me. Then next to the caravan, that maroon canopy lounge thingy with cushions? THAT is the culprit. That thing alone is 77 prims! But it's so pretty! *pouts*

Next you have the gazebo, with some wrought-iron furniture... and then a waterfall... and then a temporary house I put there, just to get a 'finished' kinda feel. ZOMG 227 prims -_-"

Ladies and gentleman, you see before you a convert to the Low-prim Mantra. I probably will end up taking away the canopy thingy... but... but... it's in my favourite colour!!! *wails*  I want! I want! *stamps foot*

I just rented a new plot of land, so I went over and I thought, wow! This overlooks the ocean! Let me take a picture!

Then I thought, hey, let me try to see if I can turn windlight on. Maybe I could take a nice sunset picture or something.

So I went into my graphics preferences, fiddled with them, couldn't figure how to turn windlight on. (Maybe I'm in the wrong viewer? But isn't Windlight incorporated into 1.19.1(4)?) Changed "quality and performance" from "low" to "ultra", just to see what would happen. Draw distance went up from 64 to 256.

o.O Ooo-er. WHAT IS THAT THING OBSCURING MY VIEW?!!

Decided that was too much. Turned it down a notch... draw distance at 128.

Okay, now there's stuff floating in the sky... -_-"

Down it goes again... 96.

Finally, something I can live with.

The conclusion, folks, is that a low draw distance is a great thing. Ignorance is bliss!

Fell asleep in the afternoon and woke at 4:30am. Woohoo way to go messing up my sleep schedule :\ So what does one do at 4:30am? Go online, of course.

Only to be met with the message:

Logins and In-World Services are Intermittent for some residents

We have reports of sporatic unavailablity of some services such as login, teleport, and rezzing objects. We are aware of the problem and are working to bring these services back online as quickly as possible.

Meh!

Meanwhile I'm clearing up my application invites list on Facebook, going round the SL blogs, and stalking the SL forums. Hrrmph.

Really exhausted, been sleeping much too late these days but I wanted to put up a picture:

She & I. Her name is Darla :)

Tonight, something happened which I was completely unprepared for: I met someone in SL.

I felt an instant connection with this person and we talked and now are exploring a relationship together. Yes, it was that fast. I still have trouble believing it -- I wasn't looking, and never expected this to happen to me. All I did was TP into a marketplace area to pick up a freebie, and next thing I know, wham! I'm in a relationship... *blinks dazedly*

The second surprise? She is female :)

Actually there is a third surprise, but I'll keep that to myself for the moment.

In so many ways this is completely not what I expected, and I'm a mash of emotions right now. Awed, bewildered, giddy, shaken, happy, excited, nervous, doubtful, humbled, touched, everything. I look at her and want to say that I adore her, even though we've only just met and we're still at the beginning stages of getting to know each other. It scares me a bit. I didn't know I could feel this way this fast.

As for what I wrote last week about SL relationships? ... I'm eating my words. *rueful smile*

I had a WTF moment when I typed Blogger's URL into the address bar and their homepage came out in Japanese. Come on, hitting me with that at 9:45am is not nice... especially when I'm still half-asleep. ZOMG been up too late on SL again! Bad girl, Quaintly!

Went looking at houses together with Nika last night, just having a look-see. Ideally I'd rent land, I like the idea of having extra space around me, not just a house. In SL I like space, lots of space... houses with big halls and high ceilings. Not so into apartments or condos for that reason.

Anyway, you don't get pictures coz I was tired and forgot to snap any :P

I (Quaintly) am finally going to start a job on Monday... isn't it funny how I've to qualify whether I'm talking about SL or RL? I'll be working for Baby Monkey as a sort of greeter / sales assistant. Hopefully, with this will come a sense of purpose for being in SL rather than being aimless and bored. I think I'm much more of a goal-oriented person than I realised.

I started a new job today (after a six-month break) and am not sure how much time I'll have in-world from here on in, let alone how much time I'll have to blog. In fact, I can't decide which is my higher priority -- to blog or to get in-world! :P

At the moment I'm looking for land to rent which isn't too expensive... I love my landlord but the plot is surrounded by other people's land which has ugly stuff on it. I put up screens, of course, but I don't like having to do that. On the other hand, the rental is cheap and my landlord is a doll... hmmm decisions, decisions!

Other than that, nothing much has been happening in my SL (and this is news? lol). I'm still dying of boredom. It's a slow and steady ebb...

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to all the fathers out there!! :)))

Since I commented on Oz's poll... I figured I might as well comment on Cen's poll too :P

Today I'm celebrating six years of blogging, RL blogging. I'm 30 this year, which means I've lived one-fifth of my life on the Internet, which also means there's a lot of stuff about me out there, if you know where to look ;)

In all this time, I've met up with many other people whom I knew through their blogs. I've only good experiences to report :)  In fact, IcyQueen [the absentee co-owner of this blog] and I started out by reading each other's blogs, met in RL, and have since become good friends! She's the one who introduced me to SL -- if not for her, I wouldn't be in SL today. (Ironic that she's hardly in-world anymore...)

Can't see why meeting up with someone from SL would be any different. 'Course, for the first meeting especially, the standard safety procedures apply: arrange to meet at a public place, watch your drink at all times, make sure you come with your own transport so you can leave at any time, preferably don't go alone, but if you do, arrange for a friend to call you at an appointed time (not just to make sure you're safe, but also to give you an out if you're bored out of your mind and want to leave early! lol).

I once met someone on a forum, began chatting with him on ICQ, and we were talking one day at 3am when he said he was going to get a bite to eat, asked me if I wanted to join him at this 24-hour restaurant. I turned up at the place and got a shelling for being so foolhardy. "What? You're the one who issued the invitation! If you didn't want me to accept, why did you ask me to come here?" Sheesh!

[Note: I did actually follow all my own advice, except for having a friend call me. Nowhere in the above did I say you shouldn't meet a complete stranger at 3 in the morning!!]

[...Ok, I admit that was pretty crazy. I have never ever, before or since, done anything as crazy in my life]

Today, this guy is a very good friend and hosts three of my blogs for free, in addition to playing the role of unofficial tech support. Whenever some computer thingy refuses to work, he's the first person I call. Bet he regrets even more now asking me to come out at 3am :P

Look! A website that gets users to tell you what they think of your picture. "It's like market research for the individual," says FaceStat. Um... okaaaay.

Tiessa Montgolfier sent in a picture of herself. When I saw the results on her blog, I thought, why not give it a go too? Apparently people out there think the person behind Quaintly is a twelve-year-old pimply boy:

How funny is that? They also think she's 23, definitely straight but a doofus. Poor Quaintly. I wonder if wearing glasses would've helped? (A RL male friend once told me that a woman's IQ automatically drops by 10 points the moment she dons contact lenses. Yes, I have friends like that. *rolls eyes*)

Today I got an IM out of the blue, from someone I don't know. Saying that they know what it's like to be someone else and then having that person get killed.

I was like, "Huh? What?"

Turns out it was a response to my profile. The first part of my profile reads:
Formerly Quaintly Questi but LL killed her *cries* [Note: I changed my profile this afternoon and it no longer says this, lol]

This is a reference to my first account which somehow got borked... to the point of ending up with no friends, no groups and no inventory! Just like a newbie! O.O  (That was 28k of inventory gone bye-bye ok... I was very upset!)

Anyway, turns out this person was talking about RL. About liking (or rather not liking) who you are in RL, and about using SL as an escape, or a truly 'alternate' world -- a place to do stuff you wouldn't or couldn't do in RL. To the point when maybe your SL becomes your life and RL recedes into the background. Reminded me of another conversation I had with Peter recently on a similar topic.

I'm pretty happy with my RL and who I am, what I'm doing, where I find myself at this point in time. That's why answering Oz's poll (on the sidebar) was so difficult. I play SL because it is something to do. I don't RP, I'm not here for cybersex, I don't have that many friends in SL, I don't run a business, or plan to. What's left? "Escape from RL"? But... I'm not really looking to escape anything!

...or maybe that's not really true.

There's been a lot of talk about SL relationships and partnering recently. Alicia's Tuesday "Blogger Challenge" question was, "How hard do you think it is to find a relationship in SL?"

How about, just as hard as in RL? lol

But, being a woman, I changed my mind. It depends on what you want, really. Just like in RL.

See, getting into a relationship is not hard. If it's just about hooking up with someone, anyone would do. Problem is when you want more than that. Like, you know, you want a meaningful relationship with a decent person and yadda yadda yadda. Now, THAT'S the difficult part. I haven't figured it out yet in RL, so I doubt I'm likely to figure it out in SL either!

It's very tempting though to look for one in SL where it might seem 'easier' to meet someone who's on the same wavelength. But in the end I want to live in RL and not SL. So even if I had someone in SL I'd want the relationship to eventually move to RL anyway. Which then brings up all sorts of interesting issues :P

I know others can and are doing it, they leave SL relationships in SL and have separate RL relationships. It works for them. I just know I'm not wired like that. Plus, you know, there's no need for me to do that, since I don't have any obligations in RL that might prevent SL spilling over into it.

Some days I'm lonely and I log in to SL and wish someone would be waiting for me. But ultimately I'm going to log out and I'm going to be just as alone as I was before. So this is really not the answer -- not for me, anyway. Although when I read about friends getting SL partners it does make me feel extra alone in SL. But the same thing happens in RL anyway, when I hear about RL friends finding boyfriends or getting married and feel extra alone in RL. It's not something that I can or should run away from, so none of you ever need to worry about mentioning your partners to me, ok? ;)

Okay, why did nobody tell me my RSS feed isn't working?? I only realised when I went to Oz's blog, looked at his sidebar, and realised my blog was the only one there without any updates. -_-"

I'm not all that tech-savvy... I know just enough to be dangerous. I think I've figured out the problem: the background image blocks the Blogger bar at the top of the screen. This somehow affects the RSS feed. I'm now in the process of trying to get it to move down, which is a royal pain.

Otherwise, I guess I'll have to change templates, which is ANOTHER royal pain. Gaah!

 
Edit: W00t! I am awesome!!! Problem solved!! It was a matter of certain itty-bitty meta tags having gone walkabout...

Omigosh Cen's birthday party was AWESOME!!! And I discovered something... I suck at multi-tasking lol. I was so busy taking pictures, I couldn't keep up with the conversation. As Alicia said, "I go to look at something or pull up a song, and 2384729 lines of chat have gone by." So true!

I took a ton of pix at the party. You want the low-down? 227 shots -_-"  In fact I took so many pix that I began to feel I was perving on people :P

That's the birthday girl, CeNedra herself, dancing on "stage"...

 

And that's the birthday girl having a good time with Dyami (I did say I was perving on people, didn't I? :P)

 

Our wonderful DJ, Alicia (who has such a cute voice!)

 

...and more evidence of perving: Ali & Levi XD

 

...and even MORE perving! Meara and the Captain Oz, who stayed close to each other all night! (Sehra is in the background) Oz obligingly stripped down to boxers in keeping with the party's theme, despite feeling a bit self-conscious... hehehe

 

A close-up of Sehra, because she deserves a pic all her own ;)

 

I tried perving on SLebrity couple Tymmerie and Jerremy too, but all my shots of them turned out terrible, so they ended up safe. But I did get a shot of newlyweds Creag and Jenn -- they put the honeymoon aside for a moment to come party with us. Congratulations, you guys!!

 

My long-time friend, Nika Dreamscape, who was reading this blog way before anybody knew it existed...

 

Kharisma Llewellyn, who has the most gorgeous, glowing, lustrous skin... where is it from, Kharisma??

 

QueenKellee, whom I don't actually know, but have heard of through Ali's blog... (see, I don't just perv on people I know. It's equal-opportunity perving :P)

 

Rylan Carling. The party theme was 'sleepwear', and now we all know what very sexy sleepwear Rylan favours! *grins*

 

And finally, myself. I didn't come dressed in theme coz I don't have any sleepwear, and I'm deaaaaad broke so I couldn't buy any. But I dressed down to make up for it :) Also, I decided I wanted to look Chinese today (I am of Chinese descent in RL), so wore a skin I just got as a gift from Less Than 3 which seems to have that effect.

 

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CEN!!!!

(And OMG can I just rave about my new graphics card... no one was ruthed, no one stayed grey, I had no lag, OMG OMG OMG!!!)

I can't believe I'm considering getting a job in SL. When my friend IcyQueen first introduced me to SL and told me that some people work there, I was baffled. "Wait a minute. We all have to work in RL, we have no choice. And then these people go to SL... where they have a choice... and they CHOOSE to work there? What are they, masochists?!"

But since joining SL in Dec 2007 I have put nearly 800 dollars of REAL MONEY into this game (yes, I still think of it as a game... *looks apologetically at Peter*). 800 dollars! *faints*

[In Malaysian currency, of course. Which would be around USD245 or EUR158.]

Now I'm renting land at 200L/wk. This means I'll need to regularly pour money into this game unless I figure out some way of making money inside SL itself. Hmmm... can't build, can't script, can't DJ, what's left? Oh, dancing and escorting. *wince*

I'm sitting here listening to the song All I Ask Of You (Phantom of the Opera soundtrack) on repeat. It's my favourite song from the muscial, I just think it's really romantic.

I'm a hopeless romantic, I've also always loved gowns and love to see what actresses are wearing to the Oscars or Grammys or whatever. Funny thing is, although I could, I don't wear gowns much in SL, although I do have a few (mostly freebies)...

 

Drew, from Last Call -- I don't normally like black gowns because every woman wears black, but the gold detailing makes this one stand out

Guess I just haven't found a good reason to wear gowns in SL. It feels funny to walk around in gowns all the time. Plus with the flexiness billowing all around the place, it kinda gets in the way. Apparently this is one instance where practicalities in SL are just the same as practicalities in RL... or maybe that's just me lol.

Speaking of gowns... WHY is it taking so long to fix the issue of disappearing system skirts?! I don't understand how, in the midst of adding bells and whistles to the viewer, LL has managed to bork something which always worked perfectly before. And something as basic as an item of clothing! Makes me scared to put on any dress with a system skirt. I occasionally forget to check the folder before I put on the outfit, and then end up with a WTF moment when the skirt doesn't show up.

Take this Nicky Ree gown, for example. When I first put it on, I looked at it and thought, hmmm Quaintly are you sure the waist is supposed to look cut off like that? And then I realised: ZOMG it's the disappearing system skirt! -_-"  I logged out of the official viewer [1.19.1(4)], logged into the Nicholaz Bleeding Edge viewer and got my skirt back. [EDIT: I hear this issue has been fixed in RC 8 but... I also hear the RC has all kinds of other bugginess and I'd rather not mess with it if I can help it. Guess I'll just have to wait for the next official release. Eep!]

 

Kathy (in aqua) by Nicky Ree -- this is my absolute favourite cut for a gown

Luckily, most gowns don't rely on system skirts. I think I love them so much because they make me feel like a princess. Yes, I read way too many fairy tales as a child ;)  Well, I have the gown, the shoes, the hair, the skin... all I'm missing is the Prince Charming! lol

 

Blood Red Parfait by Defleur Fashions -- I had to feature this gown because it's in my favourite colour!

So, my housemate was supposed to help me install the graphics card when he came home, but he normally comes home past midnight and I was impatient. I was chatting with a friend on MSN when I realised just whom I was talking to: she's the editor of an IT magazine, PC.com, and she's hands-on, worked her way up, so she knows her stuff. Who better to help me fix the card??

I'm sure she rolled her eyes when I asked, because she knows about my, err... SL fascination (obsession? Addiction? lol). But she came over to my place, and that's when the drama started.

After putting the card in and installing the drivers, the screen went BLANK. I quietly started taking deep breaths while my friend fiddled with settings and stuff. At one point she asked for the motherboard manual and checked the instructions there, then googled to find out whether the motherboard was compatible with the card. What did people ever do before Google?!

Later the screen had strange red patterns on it and I closed my eyes coz I couldn't bear to watch... but in the end she got everything to work. I tell you I was sooooo thankful I hadn't tried to do it myself like Sai did. I'd have freaked out big-time!

Well, now everything works, and boy, is there a difference! Before, I used to be fighting with my camera all the time. I'd click the arrows on the camera controls several times and grumble, "Move! Move!" because it was so sluggish. Now, I just have to click once, gently, and the camera is so responsive! And my av walks smoothly, turning this way and that! I'm sooooo happy :D

Haven't tried Windlight yet but I'm not so bothered about pretty graphics, I'm just glad to have better performance and less lag. Couldn't stop smiling the whole day :)))

[Sorry to be picture-less but I'm soooooo tired. Need to sleep! Tomorrow, folks ;)]

It pays to read blogs! See, I was reading this famous Malaysian blog, KennySia.com, and he was talking about this new website Mudah.com.my, which is sort of like eBay except the items are for sale, not auction :P

eBay has a Malaysian site too, but Mudah (which means 'easy' in Malay) has listings by state, so you can look for sellers located in the same state, which makes it easy for you to get your stuff. No more shipping charges! Plus, like Kenny says, how could you possibly ship a live cow? Or a house?

Ok, so why am I so all-fired excited about this? Because I found an ad for a second-hand ATi 9250 graphics card at a very affordable price, and of course I pounced on it first thing and called up a perfect stranger to ask whether it is still available. Guess what, it is, and I'm meeting him tomorrow morning to finalise the transaction (do I sound like the Mafia or what?). Man, the things I do for SL!!

 

If all goes well... meet my new baby

So tomorrow I could be walking around and seeing sculpties rez instantaneously instead of having them stay as round balls for 2 minutes. How awesome is the awesomeness??? *crosses fingers and prays hard*

I have this weird rule about not posting twice in one day. So shoot me, I just don't have enough ideas, I need to save them for the other days!! (Virgo, remember? Worrier? Hello???)

So I went for the Truth sale and bought EIGHT hairs. As if I needed any more hair. I dare not count the hair I already have! And I haven't even bought back all the ETD hair I lost after my Great Inventory Crash. But it's hair. How could I say no to hair? (Ok, am I setting a record for the most number of times to say 'hair' or what? lol)

But you know the really sad thing? I bought eight hairs and I'm still trying to decide whether to get another three. I'm trying to talk myself out of it though. Helped that last night the asset servers borked again (LL called it a "hiccup" -- and didn't you love it a few days ago when they said the database was "sad"? Bet they never saw the irony coming!).

Err, where was I? Oh yes, the asset servers borked again, and a friend of mine was unable to purchase a store card, so I gave one to him. Yay this means I only have to decide whether to get TWO hairs now, instead of three! ...or I could get the three in fewer colours. No! No! Bad Quaintly!! Go sit in the corner for 15 minutes!

Here's what I got. Please excuse the fashion faux pas of un-matching hairbands -- I found out I can't just change the colour, I have to change the texture, and it doesn't come with any other textures, so I will have to MAKE some if I want the hairbands to match my clothing -_-"

Amy Jane

Antonia

Gwenevere

Chelsea

Montague

Wentz 2

Lucy

Berri 2

Yesterday, SL cutie Alicia Chenaux suggested that other bloggers might be overthinking our blogs. I'm going to do something I've never done before and can't stand others doing... I'm going to blame my star sign!

Hey, what are star signs for if they can't take the rap once in awhile? :P  Never mind that I don't believe in all this astrology stuff. Whatever works, I say!!

Sooooo... I'm a Virgo. We're analytical. We can't HELP overthinking! See? It's not my fault! It's totally the stars' fault! The constellations in the sky, they conspire against me *sniff*

Of course, if you want to talk about Quaintly... she was originally born on Dec 17, 2007, which would make her a Sagittarius, but then was reborn on February 13, 2008, which would place her under the Aquarius sign instead. So I'm confused. Which is she? Does it matter though? All that matters is that the Virgo is ANALYTICAL! teeheehee

Having said what I said yesterday, I'm not rabidly secretive about my RL. I often do tell people what kind of work I do and which country I'm from. (No point telling them the state, since not many people know where Malaysia is in the first place lol)

 

The Malaysian flag, also known as "Jalur Gemilang" ("Stripes of Glory"... yes, it sounds much better in Malay lol) 
 
 

The Malaysian coat of arms, bearing the motto "Bersekutu Bertambah Mutu" (Unity is Strength)

The thing is, like someone mentioned, you go to a club in SL. Or let's say you don't even go to a club, but you're in a store, and you're talking to someone. Socialising! What is the first thing people ask when they meet new people in RL? Yes! Their work! In my country, we also ask where the person is from, because people are so mobile and travel to different states to find jobs.

In SL, you can't ask each other about work, because not everyone in SL has an SL job. And you can't ask where they're from, because it's not like anybody will know the different SL regions. So what do we do? We ask about RL.

And I can see where people might get miffed if they ask and the other person doesn't want to reveal details. Because they're trying to make conversation, small talk, and you aren't cooperating. They're trying to socialise, but they're not getting very far. lol

I think that if we're going to socialise in SL but don't want it to spill over into RL, we need some different socialising strategies. Especially strategies to strike up a conversation. You gotta have something to talk about as a starting point. Problem is, SL is so two-dimensional that it's hard to dig for something to say that the other person will likely relate to. If you wanna stick to SL references rather than RL stuff, pretty much the most obvious thing would be the other av's appearance. You could also refer to the place where you both are at (like admiring the scenery, you know) or something the other person is doing in-world at the time (if they're building, for example -- but lots of people hate to be disturbed when they're building!) but I still think appearance is the easiest.

Unfortunately, as we've seen, commenting on an av's appearance can be taken the wrong way :P  Especially if it's a male making a comment to a female! I dunno if this can be gotten around by making a comment specific to one aspect of her appearance. Like, for example, "That's a beautiful dress, I love the colour." [You can also try, "You have such luscious lips, a really delicious red," but I GUARANTEE she will take it as a pick-up lmao]

If anyone has any other ideas on this, I would welcome them. I ain't that great at socialising in RL either ;)

Not sure whether you noticed, but the guy I was talking about yesterday? He asked a whole load of RL questions. Where are you from, are you married, how old are you, how close is your avatar to your RL look...

Someone on the SL Forums said they draw a thick line between SL and RL. I dunno, to me it's not so much about "drawing a line" ... it's more about personal safely. I don't give out information I'm not comfortable having a stranger know. It's that simple.

If we've chatted awhile, gotten to know each other a little, that's slightly different. I'm talking first encounters here. I respond the same way in SL that I would if a stranger were to IM me on MSN or Yahoo Messenger. If you wouldn't give out personal info on MSN, why would SL be any different? Because you can see that person's av on the screen?

The added dimension of visual representation might make things feel a little more concrete -- not so much a disembodied voice anymore. Makes for an interesting psychological study, if you ask me.

Every time a guy walks up to me and says "hi", I freeze for like 5 seconds.

Should I reply? Should I not reply? What does he want? Is he going to try to hit on me? is what streaks through my pixel brain.

Not that being hit on is such a bad thing. It's just that getting hit on by men with no finesse gets old really fast :P

So this guy comes up to me when I'm building in a sandbox one day at 8:30pm SLT. "Hi there," he says.

I think, okay, that was a relatively normal opening, let's see how this goes. I like to give others the benefit of the doubt :)

Next he says, "You are very pretty. So what's up tonight?"

I know it's hard to be imaginative, but still! I decide to be accommodating and reply, but stop short from being encouraging. "It's morning," I tell him. (It really is.)

"Oh sorry. I'm in XXX," he says, naming one of the states in the USA. "That is one great avatar. Very sexy. Maybe the best I have ever seen."

Every girl knows better than to fall for this line. If I'm truly the prettiest avatar he's ever seen, he's either been going to all the wrong places or needs his eyes checked. Seriously, do men expect women to fall for this kind of bullshit? lol

"How close is that to real?" he wants to know.

I'm thinking, firstly, why should I tell you, and secondly, what's the point of asking when I could lie and you'd never know? But I decide to humour him. "Close enough," I say. This is called the art of replying without revealing anything.

"OMG. You must be married."

Does he know how young and gauche this makes him sound? I decide to be obliging and tell him I'm not.

Then he asks me which state I'm in.

"I'm not even in the USA. I did tell you it's morning," I remind him.

"Really? Where are you? I need to get on an airplane."

I cringe at the cheesiness, but he hasn't said anything offensive, hasn't been obnoxious or pushy... I see no reason to be cruel, so I reply vaguely that I'm in South-East Asia.

Next he tells me his age and asks how old I am.

"Don't you know you should never ask a woman her age?" I chide gently, not replying his question. He apologises. That does win him a number of points, but not enough for me to want to tell him my life story! XD

Eventually he excuses himself, but not before telling me I'm very nice and sending me a friend request. I accept, knowing I can remove his name from my friends list later if I want to. Having chatted with him for the last 20 minutes, it seems churlish and unnecessarily mean to reject his friend request.

I'm trying to decide whether my encounter with this man was better than my encounters with other men who would just walk up to me and ask me to have sex with them out of the blue. Those die a quick death, whereas this was long and drawn out. I almost felt wicked because in a way it was like playing a bit of a cat-and-mouse game with him. But you know, a girl can tell when a man's really interested in her (as a person) and I didn't think this one was. I don't think he was looking for sex either because he didn't come off that way. So why did he bother? I really don't know... maybe he was just bored?

I was thrilled to find out today that shoe store Basevi Moda has 10 lucky chairs with letters changing every 2 mins. Awesome!! The chairs are offering the same shoe in a gazillion colours. The designer used to have two pairs of this shoe as a freebie, in apricot and rose... now apparently she's decided to give away ALL the colours for free! Whooooo!

Many clothing designers give away great clothes for free, but free shoes used to be harder to find. Now, thanks to the generosity of Baby Monkey, Baroque Shoes and Basevi Moda, I am overflowing in shoes ;)

Shoes from Basevi Moda:

Shoes from Baroque:

(Monthly group gifts: Top row, L-R: March - Super Cannes, Emerald; April - Destiny Doll, Acid Daze. Bottom row, L-R: May - Complicity, Crazy Daze; June - Cupido, Tarnished Steel. Join "Baroque Shoes" to receive a monthly gift.)

I can't seem to find the latest Baby Monkey gifts in the mess of my inventory, but I featured some of their shoes before here. Of course, talented designer Pixieplumb Flanagan has released loads of new designs since then - go check them out!

Ah, sex in SL. Apart from fashion, what else is there to talk about? :P

Two bloggers discussed this recently. Well, not like I'm much of an expert... I lost my SL virginity quite soon after I first rezzed, partly because I happened to search for "freebie" and got directed to Neva Naughty Freeporium, which is just next to the Neva Naughty Orgy Room, lol.

Of course I wandered into the orgy room just to see what was going on, and ended up following a strange man home o.O  You know what they say -- curiosity killed the cat!

Well, that was once and then a few days later I tried it again, with the same guy, cos I'm faithful like that, you know? Left me wondering what all the hoo-ha is about. People like to do this stuff? They do it a lot? They go on SL just to do it? Huh???

Looking back, I suppose it was my fault for picking up a perfect stranger. No emotional connection! D'oh! I didn't feel a thing. So there was the poor guy, huffing and puffing and emoting away, and me dispassionately typing in the appropriate responses where necessary. I've read a lot of erotic stories; it's easy enough to go, "Yeah baby! You feel so good!" *rolls eyes*  In between typing, I checked email and played Scrabble on Facebook.

Guess he must not have noticed, since he came back for seconds. *grin*

After that I kinda swore off sex and that was the end of my sexual adventures in SL. But then I got bored and decided to try again. Hope lies eternal in the human breast... or some people never learn, depending on your point of view. I sent my alt to go find a male escort. He was much better at emoting and a lot more caring about my pleasure (I should hope so, I was paying him!!) but I still couldn't figure out what all the fuss was about.

In my highly biased and thoroughly prejudiced opinion: SEX IN SL IS OVERRATED. (Sour grapes, you say? What grapes? Where?? *looks around innocently*)

The big question on many people's minds seems to be: Does your av look like your RL self?

Hmmm in RL I am of Chinese descent with raven-coloured hair, whaddya think? Does Quaintly look Asian?

Quaintly's mostly either a blonde or brunette. It's interesting that I tend to think of her as a white chick. I totally don't think of her as a representation of the "real me" and I haven't tried to make her look like me at all.

In personality, though, she's fairly like my RL self. It's my belief that if you're controlling the av, then the av is gonna reflect your RL personality & characteristics. That is, unless you purposely choose to be different in SL, and even then I think the essence of the real person is bound to leak out. Or, of course, unless you have some sort of split personality thing going on, which would be rather scary.