Mephiliskos, We Barely Knew You.

Today we are closing Mephiliskos' parcel on the Seoraksan sim. Even though the land was a *very* good deal, and I am very proud of the builds we made on such an awkward bit of land, the idea was to keep it as long as we could sustain it out of pocket.

We can not sustain it out of pocket, The gentleman who owns the land was very kind in accommodating us several times, as we needed more time to come up with rent money. But this time, already four days in arrears and no resources, he deserves to have his land to rent to someone else.

I could give you all the sob stories (i.e. Moving costs set us back, we had to purchase appliances, They moved my husband's pay schedule to once a month), but I want them to be circumstances rather than sob stories.

Parcel/Sim/Land management is not something we are prepared to do. I think all of our residents have homes elsewhere, and places they can go. So I don't think anyone is left high and dry.

As for my Second Life activity... I expect it to increase now that things are calming down for us some. However, since Korinna, and her children's identity were *so* entwined with Mephiliskos, that putting Mephiliskos in Semi-retirement, means that those characters are also in Semi-retirement. It is one part emotional attatchment (it was her home.) and another part Storyline (She's a Dryad, bound to a tree, she can't keep moving it.)

When I am on as Korinna, it will be to build. You can drop me a line of you like, but I may not get back to you right away.

Keeping the Group open if people want to Text RP. Will open the group so anyone can do group announcements for RP reasons, or whatever.

I may be seeking RP opportunities on other sims at some point, with other avatars. Even though there are so few that accommodate a European/United Kingdom time zones. We'll just see what the future holds.

The Vicious Texture Cycle.

Spendin' some time today working on the tree village. Not that you could tell by looking at it, considering that I have been working on some new ideas in the sky. I am pretty much satisfied with a proto-type for a new building shape I want.

But damn it, it is always the textures that hang me up. I have a lot of textures. I have spent more money on textures than I really want to think about over the years I have been in Second Life. I end up using a very big handful or two of good reliable textures (I think every builder does, or so I have observed) But damned if you don't get a new project, and nothing you have works.

I would really like for the Tree Buildings to match, but all be a little different. From interiors to exteriors, because why wouldn't they be? But to keep it from looking like a train wreck, I have to be careful to make sure everything co-ordinates. This is no small task.

I have a growing list of uses for the various buildings. For instance, I want to build a Tavern, and have a little infirmary. Places for trades people, and of course, places designated for homes. The smallest building nearest the dock is destined to be a fish monger (at least, I think. I could change my mind.)

There is one thing I am growing very irritated with, and that is Foliage. The foliage that comes with the tree houses we have used as a base, is your basic, 1- prim plant sculpty. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but when you get it in Megaprim form, It intersects objects, and makes it hard to touch things that need touching. Like doors. Re-sizing and repositioning these HUGE prims tends to leave the tree looking awkward, and the buildings over exposed. I really want the tree village to be un-obscured while you are in it, but fairly well hidden when you are on the outside of it, with a few rooftops and structures peaking out here and there.

Also, by un-linking and moving all the foliage so I could build, I more or less lost the ability to control the textures in the trees. It kind of defeats the purpose.

So I am not sure what to do about all of that. I do know that I think the foliage that came with the tree is needlessly primy., but I may find that I have to re-rez them in their original form and add them back to trees after the building is done, in hopes I can make it work. But before I can get rid of all of the foliage, I have to get those buildings perfect.

Which brings me back to textures. A vicious cycle.

Limbo

Even though I still check my mail daily, I have not been in world for days. I hate to admit that the reason is probably because I ran out of lindens, when some building projects got stuck. Sad, because those are the things I log in for now? Where are those days when I logged in, in the morning, with a sense of purpose? And again in the evening to reap the benefits of a simple, but sweet, social life and RP life?

I find myself asking, if those days are gone, and have been since January 29th, 2012.

Even though I have land (which I intend to keep) and (we) have put a lot of work into putting an RP worthy space up there, I am feeling numb about it right now. I have no intentions of getting rid of my land, or taking down the build.

But lets face it, the only thing that is there right now, is that build, and probably some confused people. I am not "physically" present, but I am also not present mentally or emotionally.

I am starting to wonder if I just need Asterinissa (what was formerly known as The Seven Isles) to "exist" even if I can't seem to make it live.

On a personal level, It's not a lot of fun, anymore. I love my friends, and enjoyed their company so much I couldn't let go. But so much of that doesn't exist in world for me, so the rewards I felt are non-existent.

Things (in world) are pretty lonely now. I still love Second life and do not intend to leave. But I just don't know if I can run a decent RP on my own. I have to be delighted by it, and inspired by it.

It has been hard to let go. All the work, and creation, and such, it is so precious to me. But where is my inspiration, and my passion? Is it going to come back?

I don't know. In the meantime, I will keep the land and see if it does.

Of Skin and Trees

When I am depressed, or stressed I either build, forgo logging in, or build avatars just for the sake of building avatars.

This time I am doing a mixture of the three, so the Tree village is going slowly.

And I have been distracted by some avatar building. I've not opened any new accounts, I am just using somewhat neglected alts to try and build 3-d versions of the people that live in my head. (most of whom have never seen the inside of Second life. You see, after years of role-playing, and being a lapsed writer, I have many people I love in my imagination. There is something rewarding about watching them move.

I was pretty successful in making a beloved Argyria-stricken Mountain Elf of my husband's. Said husband then asked if I was going to do his counterpart.

So I thought I would give it a go, and I have learned a few things on the way.

1) I only use two basic skins for my female and child avatars. (one is a template I can make my own from. The other, an awesome group gift.)
2) Most of those skins (that I make) look quite different, as I put them on differing faces. The templates allow for a lot of tinkering and results. However...
3) Those skins are starting to look to much alike.

You see the character I am now trying to build bears just enough similarities to Korinna, (being that they are both female.) that my template made skins look too much like Korrinna to work. No matter what I do to them, when I put them on this girl's face (she has an entirely different face structure on the sliders) she looks too much like Korinna to be individual.

It is very frustrating. I hate the skin shuffle, once I got Korinna's skin down perfectly, I was majorly relieved. People who used to actually read this blog must have been relieved too, because it was all I bitched about.

Which leads me to something else I have learned.

4) While it used to be the other way around, finding skins for females is WAY harder than it is for males.

Do you know why? The products for males caught up just enough that the stores and creators are well known. Most male skins are high quality, realistic skins.

But the female skin market has become so saturated, it's hard to know where to start. And the usual cliche's apply. Loads and loads of makeup, big faking looking bewbies, and lips that are bigger than the bewbies.

I'm really stumped as to what to do, especially since I don't really want to spend any money, and the one skin mall I knew of that had good mania boards has gone the way of many sims... offline.

Anyway, back to the tree village project.

Husband is working hard on making a lift, I have some textures that need making, and to re-texture every poorly textured house. I have neighbors across route 9 now, that also have a tree house. Theirs is better... for now. ::rubs hands together:: I have far more buildings than I shall ever need, but if I want it to look village-y I think I have to keep them.

But in terms of progress, I had a beautiful pirate move a beautiful ship into my little bay, which is a serious boon! I have a zip line to purchase, and many roofs to make. It is coming along, but very slowly. This morning I will head in for a little bit to try and work out some of the issues.

One thing I dread, is I have to take all of the foliage off the tree houses in order to build for now, which is the opposite of what I *wanted* to do. But, there is no way to work around them. After that I will have to replace the foliage a piece at a time. Hopefully this will be a way to reduce prims, I just hope I can do it realistically.

zomg

My dream tree village is real!

6 Fictional Places You Won't Believe Actually Exist

Where's my passport?!

Giddy

Giddy is the only word to describe how I feel at this very moment.

After rambling on and on, I decided to give myself permission to go ahead and do a tree village build. I have enough prims, why the fuck not? While it is far from finished (it has barely begun!) I have had my first taste of that tree village of my dreams, and it feels so good. Not only that, as I tried to ambulate through the foliage and platforms of the prefab Oiolairë Tree House I am modifying for the village, I got lost and disoriented.

Exactly what a new comer should feel! What a giddy feeling. Like stepping into your best dreams and getting lost in them.

The road and the under water tunnel look a little silly, but I don't care.

At the moment, nothing is connected, everything is a mess of miss textured prims and wonky trees. But all that will change, and I want to do it as close to how my tree dwellers would have done it themselves.

I reckon, that buildings would be placed in the most suitable location of the tree for adequate support of the structure. The Oiolairë Tree Home (which Eaken purchased nearly three years ago) already does that for me. So by rezing multiple trees, scattering them around, and rotating them, that much is provided for me.

However, this does not make for neat little rows of suburban cookie cutter buildings. (and who would want that anyway?) Thus, bridges and lifts would be put in to accommodate the houses, not the other way around. Making for the feeling of winding paths high in the sky.

Tree dwellers, loving their trees very much would want to save as much of it as possible... so the foliage would only be removed as needed to clear the walk ways and the homes.

So in essence, I am rezing tree houses, building bridges to connect them, and picking out the plant prims and moving them to where I need them to be.

One thing I am surprised with (so far) is that the trees provide a pretty good privacy screen on their own. They will of course, be aided by more landscaping on the ground to help hide the uglyness of mainland, but that alone is a boon I had not expected!

Perhaps, if this all goes well, I shall also be able to use my tiny bay of water. Water on the Mainland is hard to come by. I am lucky to have it, how grand would a majestic ship look next to a tree village? Pretty fucking grand. I know people with majestic ships, but whether or not they want them on the mainland, I do not know.

My inspiration for laying out the trees, was the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.





Because a build like this could only be better with some Esoteric elements. Unfortunately, I found that I would need a much larger piece of land and more prims to do that well, so I made a template of the Tree of Life, and used it as a rough guide for placing trees and future platforms. Even though it is not my initial plan, it has served me well so far.

For you tread on my dreams...

Ever since my husband described a special town during a D&D game, I have been in love with the images it left in my mind. Soon, this place became the birthplaces of nearly all of my D&D characters.

It was an elven tree village. The concept of an Elven Tree village is not a unique one, from it's beginnings in modern fantasy fiction in Lothlórien, to the cliché it has become in many Fantasy stories. However, one could say that humans in cottages is a little cliché too. So why shouldn't elves live in trees as a stereotype?

There is something about this elven tree village that is close to my heart though. In my early days of Second Life, before I settled in the sim that would become my home, I had a little dream of building a tree village on a parcel. Not just a tree house, but a full tree village. We had a tree house for a while, and I loved it but it also stuck out like a sore thumb in the sim we lived on, and as many people pointed out, Centaurs don't climb trees. I always wanted to put Tree houses in TSI, but there really wasn't a good place to put any of them except in Skyboxes. A few people did enjoy renting them. But when it comes to RP housing most people want to be on the ground level, where the action is. Skyboxes are for people who seek solitude.

I thought of putting tree houses in the new RP skybox of odd proportions (that yes, I am still waiting to reveal to the world. I'm busy these days.) but they couldn't be very high with our enclosed ceilings.

But, I do have this hunk of land on the ground just sitting there doing nothing. And I have some prims to burn. Sure, it's also mainland, and one of my neighbours is a big ugly mall in a big ugly box you could not miss if you tried. There is a modern road beside the parcel with tanks, cars, and hover craft that drive over it all day long. Not exactly in tune with the theme of a remote elven tree village.

But even if I never used it for anything, I think maybe I would like to build that tree village anyway. Just so I can fulfill that little dream. I am a capable builder now. The difference between now and then is I can actually do it. So why Shouldn't I?

Truth be told, I don't like the majority of elves in Second Life. My philosophy on elves is, that age brings maturity and mental and spiritual growth. Maturity brings acceptance, and love, and humility to those who posess it. Thus, the lofty, effete nature of most elves (particularly the ones in second life) don't make sense to me. How is it in touch with nature to think you are better than someone, or never be willing to get your dress dirty?

I like my own elves. Humble, wise, tribal, good humored and skilled. So given the reasons I dislike most elves in Second Life, perhaps it is best that I should have a quiet, undisturbed place to think of my own.

And I can have the other sim setting too. I don't see the point in having a cake if you are not going to eat it.

There's No Place Like Home.

So that other thing I was going to get to.

Why, when we can only afford a 64 x 256 metre of mainland, would we want to continue. When everyone (who belonged and RPed in more than one sim) had a place to go, why would we even bother trying to keep the dream alive?

I have asked myself this a lot. The only thing I did know is I felt a nasty gap in the place my Second Life once was. While everyone else was moving on, I had never felt so alone in-world. You would think I would log out and do something else. But when something has been part of your daily life for so long, it isn't so easy to do. Home is a complicated issue for me in both on and off the Grid, and I admit that this is factoring heavily into my real life at the moment.

So I went looking, at all the many fantasy sims that I could find. (Fantasy is the only thing I am interested in when it comes to Second Life) I found plenty of good RP sims, maybe a couple where we could fit. Either with alts or with seriously modified story lines.

But the reasons I couldn't settle was more than my snobbish frowning upon sims with furry and child avatar hatred. The reality is, I don't have any alts so crucial to my happiness that I could depend on them solely. And editing people out of our main's joint storylines was sort of like erasing parts of their own character's core personalities. Basically, making them different characters.

I don't think it is a secret that the conception of The Seven Isles and it's vision predated me, nor was the philosophy of family and acceptance my own. Except I knew when I found it I had found home. Because I knew when I found it, that this is what I would do, if I were to start a community in Second Life. You could say, that is why I joined up on staff when the opportunity was offered to me. The Seven Isles wasn't just the perfect sim, it was practically my real life dreams of Utopia.

A simple life, something no one has in the real world. Epicurus called it Ataraxia. Ataraxia is very important to me in my personal life as well. I have mentioned before that RP was my Ataraxia.

What I have learned is that out of all of these good RP sims, We actually did provide something unique. No classes, no cliques, no guilds or factions. Instead we had equality, families and trades that helped us express and celebrate our individuality. I have always known that we were never a big and as bad ass as a lot of these other sims, I never really wanted to be.

Uniqueness is not what people usually want, no matter what they say. People want familiarity and mainstream for a reason. One knows what to do and what to expect in those situations, and that is understandable. People like structure and leadership. But for me, those are "chains" in a way. there is a Jim Morrison quote that sums it up for me,

"People are terrified to be set free – they hold on to their chains. They fight anyone who tries to break those chains. It's their security"

What he is saying here, is people can not always feel safe enough to do something with out some firm parameters. Perhaps that is why our community in itself, was unique people without parameters. I can not speak for anyone else but myself, but this is why I felt so lost.

So I guess you could say, our very humble (and perhaps doomed) desire to rise from the ashes are for selfish reasons. However knowing that we had something that others did not, I can not help but think there are others out there seeking what we had. Perhaps it *is* a minority (and Gods know lower numbers don't pay the bills) but I think it is a minority worth at least trying keeping alive.

I just need a world where things made in imagination are flesh. I need a world where children play and explore. I need a place of growth, and intrigue, and peace. If I want to beat the shit out of something I'll play Dungeon Siege

What's new with me?

In reviewing my last post, I realise that there are a number of items that deserve updates.

I am no longer at my adorable little Mainland parcel I wrote about before.  Instead, Eacen and I have secured a much bigger parcel, with more prims, just down the road. What are we going to use it for?  Why, RP of course!

It is no small challenge, however, to build a space suitable for RP with friends in a skybox.  It takes forever to rez all those scultpies.  And if your draw distance is set below 256, all of our smoke and mirror tricks become glaringly obvious.  Mind you, we could build on the actual land below... but being next to a modern road, and most of it being submerged under water is even more awkward than a skybox.

Working on this much more humble project (yet to be announced) is not the only thing I have been up to. As you probably know I have a Second Life Toddler (who I alt. A challenging but drama free way to SL parenting).  Her name is Kraneia Taurus, though her nick name is twig, since she too, is an Epimeliad. I have always done the best I could with her, with limited options in Second Life.  Most prim babies wouldn't work for something that needed custom body parts and clothing. I went through a lot of work and lindens to make her prim baby as acceptable as possible.  But, when it came time for her to be less script-y and inanimate... I put her in a tiny avatar.

Beautiful in her own way,  but Tiny avatars have a lot of limitations.  Crunching an avatar into a bunch of sculpted prims, and then trying to animate is a nightmare.

But now, thanks to mesh, and the wonderful Yabusuka Baby Avatar I "Got myself a crying, talking, sleeping, walking, living doll"

I am truly sorry for the terrible song quote. Thankful, these wonderful baby avatars that allow for (almost) regular animations, and proper proportions and moving parts. It's also mod so I was able to do something that I love to do; customize the hell out of her.  I'll let the final product speak for itself.

I made her skin so she has a good family resemblance, and she gets curly hair like her mama.  She gets to wear real Greek-inspired clothes. The only way this could be more perfect was if Radegast (the program I use to double log my child avs) supported mesh. There is no logical reason for a text based viewer to support mesh.  I just never realised that the viewer you log in with is as important as the one you view through.  I suppose both have to be enabled. (It's still a great program, and useful for when I need Alekos to tag along.) I need to find a second lo-resource-using mesh enabled viewer if I am to double log.  I have a good computer, but it just doesn't handle two instances of Phoenix at the same time.

So anyway, that is what I have been up to the past few weeks. I have more I would like to discuss, but I think this post is long enough.

The Elephant in the Room.

Before I can use this blog for anything else, I suppose there is an issue that needs addressing.

On January 29th, 2012 We made the very difficult decision to close the Seven Isles. It wasn't something we wanted to do, especially not the way it was done.  But we felt as if there was no other choice.  It is a long story, if asked in world I will give it to you, but I don't feel like going in to it here.

It's been just over two months since, why haven't I talked about it yet?  I wasn't ready to, I guess.  I spent some time and energy trying to maintain some form of it, but that didn't work out.  It might have done, but Real Life has been harsh to my family. We are barely getting by, and if it were not for in world services, and favours (such as Eaken's DJing) We'd have no in-world income at all. We don't have much, certainly not one to start a new sim.

Though for now I am able to afford a cute little parcel on the mainland, 300 prims for 300 lindens a week is a hell of a deal,  Just enough prims for building, and since it is on "forgotten" mainland there is no lag!

Besides, Where else can you find automated tanks and ice cream trucks in a neighbourhood, if not on the mainland?

This is by no means what I consider home in the Role-play sense, though.  I don't really know what to do. A huge part of me is relieved to be free of the financial stress that came from running the sim. There is a part of me that just wants to find somewhere else suitable to live out our RP days in peace.  Eaken and I have alts that can find RP, but my little fake family means a lot to me, more than I ever realized until the place we could be was gone.

So, I am on the search for somewhere to rest our branches and hooves. So far I can only search groups, since out internet connection here at our new RL home (which is temporary, thank gods) is *terrible* but I am so discouraged at the amount of innocuous sims that do not allow youth avatars, or furries.

What should stop me from resettling in a place where furries are not allowed?  Call me a snob if you wish, but I have always judged the quality of a sim based on Furry discrimination. A lot of people say theme has something to do with it, but I don't see how a Furry dressed in theme is any different from a Centaur dressed in theme. In fact, there isn't much of a difference between the appearance of mythological creatures from furries. I don't understand why one is acceptable, and one is not. It's fantasy, we're supposed to use our imaginations.

But I digress, my point is, the perfect place for me to call home, *was* the Seven Isles.

Both in Second Life and Real life finding a new home is tough.  I don't really have a place to fit in and settle in world, and our current home, well, we don't fit in much here either.  That doesn't stop us for looking for the right place in both worlds, though.

People ask us a lot if we ever plan to open another sim.  There is such a huge part of me that wants to, to let the stories, the atmosphere and the community to live on.  But I have to be honest, there is a part of me that never wants to stress again about those issues again. I did it because I loved it, but I must certainly did not thrive on it.

So my answer is, I don't know.  I would like to think of that world just being on pause. The things that went on there are still going on in spirit, just as they were.  It's just like that tree in the forest, no one  is "there" to hear it, but it is still making noise, with the sounds of life carrying on as usual.

The Eternal Dance of the Weeping Cherry

In my house my mother stands,  skin of bark, muscles of wood, hair of weeping cherry branch.

But she was not always this way.

It is often said that the Dryad or Epimeliad is bound to her tree.  This is true, but never as extreme as the bond a Hamadryad has with her tree.  Some Hamadryads are part of their tree, rooted and unable to move.  Others are made of flesh as warm and soft as any woman's, and they dwell inside their tree.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="414" caption=""A Hamadryad" by John William Waterhouse"][/caption]

My mother, was the latter. In the hollow of an abnormally large weeping cherry that was her own.  The hollow itself was not very big, but she had enough room to sit, sleep, and take her meals. Over the course of her young life she had polished the walls smooth with little bits of stone that birds would drop.  She had bathed her walls in the oil extracted from cherry pits until they shone and gleamed. A carpenter could not have done better even with superior tools.

She baited fire flies with cherry juice for light in the night. My mother, she had a lot of time on her hands.

To you and yours we wish you...

Happy Holidays!
Love,
Eaken, Korinna, Kraneia, and Alekos Taurus

Don't update this much, do I?

Ya know...  if you want some awesome blog posts... you need to check out Anthemei's blog.  Not only is she quicker than us,  she writes a pretty awesome tale!

 

And she is much more reliable than I am!

I think maybe it is because, while WordPress is a great place to host The Official Blog for the Seven Isles I don't think it is so great for my own personal expression.  Then again,  I sort of ignore the DeviantArt account I made.  And the In-character Tumblr that I made has sort of evolved into a mish mash of me, more than Korinna.

But it is odd, because in my Real Life before Second Life.  I used to blog the shit out of things.

Anyway, I am considering a Dreamwidth Journal, as I am comfortable and familiar with the format.  I am as likely to be followed there as I am on Tumblr (one friend there) but, who knows maybe I will blog more. Or not.

We just finished another Arc, and I am quite pleased with the process.  There are a few untied ends, but left over string always helps with future stories to be woven.  I am pleased with the way people pulled together and dug us out of a financial slump (thank you, so, so much!) and I am pleased to see people throwing their characters and their own stories into the mix, building other stories.

I like it. I like it so much, I want MORE. So don't give up okay?

October is a busy, busy month for all of us in real and on the grid. but it is always worth the fun at the end of the month! It is Autumn again in our lovely home, and soon it will be my favourite time of year, winter.

Motivations For Child Avatars Do Not Need To Be Creepy.

I am sort of depressed about my SL lately, I admit.  I find there is always so much to do, and yet there is nothing to do that really inspires me.  Maybe I am having one of those bored-of-Korinna phases, but actually, not really.  I feel sort of limited by Korinna.  I have (what I think) is a cool back story idea, but I would need the help of one of my children (the ones of TOS age.) and they're just not into it.

Lately,  and perhaps oddly, I have been more into playing my Character's daughter, who is only 11 months old.  I am sure plenty of people think I am a freak for that,  but I think I have a very valid (and sane) motivation behind it.

It's really not that I want to be eleven months old again, but there is a certain giddy remembrance of my children when they were that age. Sometimes, we are *inside* of our avatars, but sometimes, we are watching from Camera view, and when it comes to a smaller avatar, the default camera settings always look down,  giving me the feeling as if I am looking down upon a child.

My kids are far from infants now, one is 20 in two days. One is nearly 18, another is a short 13 months younger than he. And my baby is a 13 year old young women. Don't get me wrong I adore my children now that they are older,  we have stimulating conversations, and can share in adult humour.  I love that about us.

But those years when a child is young and innocent truly do not stand the test of time, and memories are precious.  Even though I can not have any more children,  I am one of those crazy ladies who is always a little baby hungry.

So, when I am playing twig,  I find inspiration for her emotes and actions in what I remember my children doing. She is an avatar and a character, and yet she is based on all of my children. When I am playing that avatar, I am having fun, and remembering.  My strange overbearing mothering instinct is fed. I love to dress her up in pseudo classical clothing. and make her toys, and decorate her little room.

My only problem is,  no one is around to baby sit me. And the mother in me who believes in supervised children can not fathom an 11 month old running around without someone to keep an eye on her.  Even if I don't really need it.  Even in the safest place for kids in the world.

I realize now, it was the same when I had my Centaur kid when it started out.  When he was young. I had him at my other favourite age.  I should have kept him there, but at least there I have some closure as I came up for a suitable storyline to write everyone out neatly, and without disrespect to anyone involved. The one benefit of having the older child, though, is I would have had a baby sitter. hehe.  Now I have to find creative excuses when my baby is not around...
When I was SL pregnant,  I didn't do it out of a yearning to be pregnant again.  I did it, really, to prove a point.  That it lasts longer than six days, or six weeks, that pregnant bellies do not talk, that no one puts your pregnancy at risk for standing in your whispering range. That your body tells people when your baby is kicking,  something you can do with your own mouth.  *and* that you could do it for free without loads of scripts that lag everyone else into 2006

Honestly, the limitations and costs of prim babies was a pain in the ass.  This is why I got a Tiny toddler avatar for her instead. Far cheaper, and customizable. When my computer feels like double logging, a mommy follower is all I need, and a gesture that allows me to chat (emote) for her if need be.

But, I digress. I am thinking maybe a smarter-than-the-average- goat and herding sheepdog might make decent baby sitters, in the land of make-beleive.

When Anti-theft Measures Discourage Sales.

/me drags out soap box.

I love my hair,  but I have been wearing it every day for over a year.  I thought maybe,  Just maybe a little variety is in order.  My character is supposed to have Curly hair, and try as I have most Curly hair on SL looks as terrible as dread locks. But, on the lookout I remain.

I came across this on SLex  Xstreet the Marketplace  last night, and thought it was worth a shot, I picked up another while I was at it.

I wait for my delivery (an awful long time these days) .  I unpack my delivery like a good girl should, and I try on the hair,  lo and behold, this is what happened.

 



The hair attempts to Rez on my head, but then quickly disappears, and I am told  not once but twice "[02:19]  [DEMO] Action Womens Hair Debbie - Candy: This DEMO can only be worn/viewed on the Action sim, you can get their by clicking the SLURL--> http://slurl.com/secondlife/Action%20Surf%20Sk8te/39/180/24"

Hmph.  Now, I am not normally one to complain on something that cost me nothing,  but since this touches on a bigger issues, I left this one star review:

So, I admit upfront I didn't read the description all that carefully, because for a freebie demo, I didn't think it would be so complicated.

But, since my connection is super slow of late, I opted not to go to their sim in person just to try on the hair.  As it is very difficult to teleport much less go to a sim with a lot to download.  So I didn't even get to *try* the hair which means lost sales. (at least two)  Downloading this Demo, and searching for it on the Market place actually wasted my time.

Theft paranoia is getting in the way of customer service. I can't support that.

Looks nice from the pictures though!

Protection from theft is a good thing,  and I find it especially admirable to take a proactive step to do this. I once downloaded a hair demo that was "No modify" in my inventory, but very modifyable on my head.  I could have said and done nothing,  I could be wearing it right now! But I did what was right and contacted the seller.  (didn't buy the hair, though.  It was everything I hate about curls in SL) so no one can tell me I am okay with stolen hair.

But it's getting out of control when measures to deture theft make it so inconvenient for your potential customers that they don't buy the hair.  As it turns out, I got lucky with the second Demo, and it let me try it on.



I like it, a lot.  But alas, I can not support such disrespect for customers with my buisness.

Especially since, trying on the hair in the store wouldn't stop a copy bot.  A copy bot steals the *whole* item, with full permissions, so it ends up being worn off the sim anyway,  the big ugly demo box is removed.

It used to be, that the big demo box was a great big source of shame that you were too cheap to buy the hair.  That was deturant enough (even if it is a sort of walking advertisement)  Apparently, "Demo" Images on strands of the hair are not enough now, either.

/me puts soap box away

 

What The Seven Isles Means To me...

Can be summed up in the lyrics to this song.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NV_VWTp1qE]

 

"Utopia"

we'd gather around all in a room fasten our belts engage in dialogue
we'd all slow down rest without guilt not lie without fear disagree sans judgement

we would stay and respond and expand and include and allow and forgive and
enjoy and evolve and discern and inquire and accept and admit and divulge and
open and reach out and speak up

This is utopia this is my utopia
This is my ideal my end in sight
Utopia this is my utopia
This is my nirvana
My ultimate

we'd open our arms we'd all jump in we'd all coast down into safety nets

we would share and listen and support and welcome be propelled by passion not
invest in outcomes we would breathe and be charmed and amused by difference
be gentle and make room for every emotion

we'd provide forums we'd all speak out we'd all be heard we'd all feel seen

we'd rise post-obstacle more defined more grateful we would heal be humbled
and be unstoppable we'd hold close and let go and know when to do which we'd
release and disarm and stand up and feel safe

this is utopia this is my utopia
this is my ideal my end in sight
utopia this is my utopia
this is my nirvana
my ultimate

(The singing and the arangement are so beautiful too. Alanis is one of my very favourite artists,  I don't understand why she is slagged off by so many who have never really listened to her entire catalog of music.)

If I had to do it all again...

Eacen and I were in our kitchen cooking dinner together a few nights ago trying to brainstorm some ideas to give our main accounts some new direction or new life. Eaken and Korinna are a little stale, at least for us, but we want to keep our characters fresh and relevant, truly.

I asked him -- just for fun -- What he would do in Second Life if he was given the chance to start over. His answer warmed my heart as well and got me thinking. He said. "I'd like another shot at being a Centaur. I feel like we started admining before I got the chance to do that."

He's right. While we were able to come up with a back story for both of us, it was heavily influenced by needing to help the RP, in fact they were quite different characters when we started (Hence the name changes).

He wouldn't want to be anything than an retired officer turned blacksmith, but he would have liked do it differently. He didn't know how, I mean... he's just a bloke, really. *ducks*

It occured to me the other day while browsing over character applications, that a lot of people who come to RP to a sim, have a great opportunity to present themselves to the group as they want to be presented. Don't get me wrong, presenting one's self can be intimidating and difficult. But it is an opportunity that one should seize, because it is here where you get to set your own momentum.

I can not help but notice, that people take advantage of the flexability of second life, move on and reinvent themselves constantly. People who are not tied to one sim, have a lot of room to reinvent, or go with a different character entirely. Sometimes several at a time.

So now I find myself, asking myself what would I do if I had the opportunity to walk into my own sim, and start our character(s) over fresh? Now that the sim is settled, the sim is full, and the sim has the capacity for Role-players; what would I do, if I could?

I find that, like Eaken, I would still be Korinna. An Epimeliad coming back to her birthplace in the Seven Isles, after years wandering around in a retinue of revelers devoted to the Wine God, until she settled down with a Centaur officer. I'd have let her be a priestess in a small humble temple where she learned the rites that called to her. I would have them come by ship, Korinna Ill and weak having been separated from her tree for so long, with or without her infant daughter.

We could come in Armour for him, and full Chiton and Himnation robes for me, before we traded them for aprons and heavy gloves.

I would have roleplayed her recovery, and being reunited with her sister who was raising her kids there. I would have confronted her with the mystery of her mother going from Hamadryad to full tree. I would have spent more time cuddling with my Centaur, had more intimate time with him (Not sexual. We have RL sex with RL privacy!) I would have gotten to know his Centaur while he got to know him too.

We could Roleplay choosing our home, and setting up from humble beginnings.

And maybe, more of the real Eaken would have been able to Roleplay his own experiences, coming to an island much different than his own, one that lacks laws and the level of civilization he was used to. Maybe more people would have seen he has a gentle soul behind that crass and bad sense of humor. Maybe we'd see a fierce side of him that emerges only when his family or land is threatened.

If I had the opportunity to do this months back, I could have re-roleplayed her pregnancy, this time as a first time mother with grave concern how a Centaur pregnancy would turn out. I could be inexperienced, but gaining confidence. More approachable, less authoritative.

But most of all, I would like to have loved the time to be absorbed in my Centaur partner, A knight of a man who needed no horse. Strength, with Honour as well as thought and skill.

The Centaur and the Epimeliad
The warrior and the Maenad
The Officer and the Priestess
The Potter and the Blacksmith
The Mother and the Father

We could have been all of these things. Perhaps we should have. Perhaps we are in our pasts, but to feel them as our present... it could have been wonderful.

Upgrading the Sim: One Year Later.

It's been a year now since three elders sold a homestead, scraped together an additional $1000 USD and called in a favour or two in order to upgrade our Homestead into a full sim. It seems such a long time ago that we (the three of us) did this, and I can not imagine life on a homestead anymore. How did we ever manage with so few prims, and without all that scripting power?

Not very well, actually. Don't get me wrong, we hung in there and we made do, because that was what was required for the sim to be born a few months before Eacen and I arrived. We did the best with what we had to keep the sim alive. Because, we three have a deep love for our land. We took the (current) Seven Isles from a flat piece of land, made peaks and valleys, found water, and raised trees and plants.

Hard to believe this is what the Sim looked like at the begining.

Hard to believe this is what it looked like during it's birthing process...

We used to be so tight on prims, that at any given moment, someone could have rezzed their hair to make a copy, and sent belongings back to their owners. Believe it or not, around the time we upgraded we were down to one hundred available prims. One Hundred!

Up until that point many visitors moaned that we lacked the power to run a proper RP, and they were right. Of course, we were also lacking in many other things that makes an RP successful. We had a plot but no other admins, no committed players. People have a way of volunteering for things like administration, and showing up to play... and then not following through.

Initially, The Seven Isles saw a fantastic jump in participation, a few weeks later we were awed and humbled by being featured in the destination guide. Winter was very quiet, and so slow that many people (myself included) worried about the Sim's demise. But we pulled through, and then *finally* kicked off the skeleton of the RP storyline. People were a little slow to realize that disasters were happening right in front of their eyes,  but once they did It was epic, and beautiful and it really showed the potential we have as an RP sim. Many people came to us and said it was the best they had ever been in. It was the best I had ever been in, too.

But it was very hard work for us three elders, (who also build, socialize, and organize events when we have the time) to run that start on our own. After all, we all have families, and jobs, and lives outside of Second Life. By the time we reached the peak of the story, we three were left exhausted, but optimistic that now the ball was rolling  and the players now had a ball to play with.

If only someone would... you know... bend over and pick up the ball now that we got it rolling, and maybe throw it to one another and Roleplay without our constant guidance and direction. I will be blunt. I am dissapointed that all that work has changed very little.

People (bless them) seem to want us to hold their hands, but our hands are already *so* full just keeping it all running.

I was told recently by a member (who has actually done something to spark activity on the sim without our prompting, which is most awesome) that this has been a common rp sim problem in many sims he had visited. Everyone stands around with their thumb up their bum, waiting for something to happen, and when it doesn't they find something else to do. It means they miss the opportunities To RP when something *does* happen, or those opportunities just don't happen, because why do anything when no one is around to see it?

It is a frustrating cycle. I wish more people understood that if they want to RP, (on any sim, not just ours) they have to take some initiative to engage, interact, and allow themselves to grow.

Now, don't get me wrong, I do not intend to give up on The Seven Isles, but any Sim owner(s) who does not question whether things will be viable in the long term when they do not make tier that month, is lying.

Once again, I am going to be blunt: It is a lot of responsibility for me (I won't speak for the other elders, they have voices of their own) to log in and find that what members we have that are willing to stay around and RP, still depend on us for everything.

I do not think that what we need is a bunch of admins herding players around like sheep. We are often commended for our lack of Drama, No intimidating authority and lack of rigid rules, probably because we do not have a lot of Admins.

But I have to say, with some disappointment, that I thought providing our people with a full sim, objects to perform their trade with, and plenty of things to do most people still want us to hold their hands and tell them a story. No one wants to make their own story, and allow others to make a community story with them.

I also have to say this. I know it can be done. A few weeks ago Eacen and I took a break from our main avatars, and jumped into two child avatars we created to help with a project that (surprise) someone abandoned. We wanted to see just how much RP one could create for themselves with little or no help.

We had a blast! We built a steam powered wagon that we drove around the sim at high speeds.

We took a row boat to the top of the lighthouse, and jumped off the top. We flew kites, coloured, climbed mountains, discovered treasure under the sea.



(it was a crate of mayonnaise, sadly) We swam, and banged on drums.



We quaked in the fear of an Unseelie Fae visitor, and ran away from a strange man speaking a language that frightened us. We even "borrowed" items from the blacksmith's right under the noses of people waiting for something to happen.



Pete, who is always there was even game.  We played a drinking game with him where 1 shot with our toy arrows, meant we would buy him 1 shot.  He loved it!

Not content to play darts, we put our own spin on the game



We even RPed our afternoon nap.



In a week, Eacen and I created plenty of RP for ourselves, and this was without interacting with one other person. (not a single adult stopped us to warn us we were up to no good, or could get hurt.) Imagine what could have been done if people just engaged, and added their own elements that week. Now, keep in mind that the child avatars have *less* to do than the adults in our sim, and yet we did so much that week. Surely, the grownups can too. Can't they?

and on that, I will end with a rhetorical question.

What do you want to do in the Seven Isles?

What is stopping you?

Certainly not the Elders.

Peace and love,
Korinna.

Second Life families should be ridiculous.

But they're not.

I try not to talk smack on blogs, as is tasteless, and no one wins, but it looks as if I am about to walk a very fine line.

I've been thinking a little bit (not a lot) at the blow my little Second Life Family took when a member decided to "leave" second life. Not that they did not have my best wishes, and understanding, I find myself bitter about the non-confrontational way it was handled, (or not handled?) and, the contradicting pieces of gossip that indicate that what I was told from the horses mouth, is not what the horses mouth says to others.

News flash: I'm too busy. New Flash: They knew that going in.

It has put me off of all ideas of adopting or expanding my SL family with children. Prim babies as weird as they are to some, don't leave without warning. I've noticed some child avatars I have known go through parents like some people go through boxes of cereal, and vice versa. It's madness. No wonder so many people think it is dysfunctional and weird. Dysfunctional and weird families are making our reputation here.

(It's always the ones that talk like infants, coincidence? or are they driving their new parents crazy with age inappropriate speaking?)

But that is neither here nor there. I used to feel as if the "leaving us hanging with no explanation or story closures until confronted" was the part that irked me. But there is something else. That, said person, was made into the center of the family. The stories were retro-written to make sure that this person (who's company we did enjoy during the duration of the family-ship) and then they were left with a gap.

So I spackled it shut, job done. People understand when you IM them OoC and say "dude, she's got a real life where she is a grown up." I've stuck together a drama free prim baby with spit and glue, and I know the person who is playing my first child in real life, which rules out a lot of drama.

My first child in Second Life, was an alt account. I felt that my husband and I were not a complete family, and could be nice to have someone to look after, even if it were one of us. Then, I was fortunate enough to get a pretty awesome SL kid (She was, after all a good kid during the time she was with us. I think that is what made it all the more shocking when she disappeared) One who I felt was worth these rewrites, so we cound completely integrate her. So I don't regret any of it.

I do regret my decision to inflict my First Child with a case of SORAS (Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome) and bump him from six, to twelve. I only did so, because the roll of the younger, playful child had been filled, and... an older, protective brother was desired.

That older brother possition was filled by one of my friends (as mentioned) Since then, my main character has fretted and fussed over the fact he is responsible and polite. Something no parent would ever complain about. Then I think, why *shouldn't* he be responsibile and polite and smart. We do, after all, strive to be good parents (in character, anyway. See: Too busy)

I think it is because she lost that young child not just once, but twice. Because I aged him up, and because she told us, she belonged to someone at a level that did not allow her to be someone's fake kid. And that it had all become a chore.

Even though it is all RP, I think that my character wants to know what happened to her fucking young child. In her story line. It *officially* never happened, but I couldn't rewind my eldest child's age.

So thus, I resist the temptation to turn one of my many stupid alts that do nothing, into the middle child. It would be too much explaining to do anyway. I need to embrace my child free alts, and just buy fucking horses.

Not the breedable ones. And not to be kept in the Second Floor Room of the Tavern.

On Unions and Names

Of all people who should have given a recap of Fadrienne and Thyul's wedding, it is I. I did try, but had a lot of technical difficulty getting Flickr and Wordpress to work together.

So, instead, I will share the link to Chern's retelling on the official blog, which is better than I could have done anyway. And, share Bleizdu's wonderful pictures, as well as my own. (some harmless nudity, so view in an appropriate environment.)

<3

In other news, I too am taking advantage of the display name feature, and turning my name Corinda/Korinda into it's greek root name Korinna. Which allows me to exploit Ovid's lovely poem "Love in the Afternoon" even more than the corruption of it I use for my blog(s) title(s).

Naturally, there has to be some story behind this. Since it is a root name, (no pun intended) I have decided this is her name. With spring approaching, and a little one of her own starting life, she has decided to return to it after long using the knick-name "Corinda" Given to her by old revelry friends, who by now, have pickled their livers.

Why? Well, Corinda is a fantasy Character I have from a Forgotten Realms-esque setting. When my husband found the Seven Isles so many moons ago, I decided it might be a good place for her to live out another tail. The reality is, the avatar/character has evolved into her own person. They both deserve distinction.