A Little Something Different

I was poking around on Flickr and happened to come across Berry's blog and her new meme featuring Ebbe Linden, which you can read about here. Which I plan to try to do in the near future, but meanwhile, another one of her memes/challenges caught my eye, and what I'm wearing right now in preparation for a new blog post... well that seemed to fit right in.

Here's her original post... but the challenge is to list five pieces of advice you'd like to give to newbies.

 

#1 - Don't believe everything you read. 

          I find that many newer "residents" come in with the idea that this is nothing but an endless sea   of pixel banging. And further, they seem to feel that this is so much the case that they don't need to do anything in order to get "ye olde sexy times."  Trust me when I tell you, Second Life is not actually populated by nothing but nymphomaniacs or victims of severe priapism. You'll have a lot more fun and maybe even get to that pose ball of your dreams if you'll approach both Second Life and other residents as if you happen to have met while exploring a new place. Because after all, that's what you're doing.

#2 - Know why you're here.

        What I mean by that is... because Second Life really defies description whether you call it a game or a social platform or what have you... I think in order to get the most from it - you have to know why you're here. There is a lot to do, to explore, to learn, to experience and so on here. Not only by yourself but with other people. Every day though, I hear complaints about pain and drama and rudeness etc and I think part of that springs from having expectations of Second Life and of other people that may not be really realistic or fair. Two people may come into Second Life with very different thoughts or ideas about what they want out of Second Life or what they want out of being here. The fact there's a difference of opinion can lead to a lot of heart ache.

#3 - Don't be afraid to ask questions.

        The learning curve for Second Life can be very steep at first. And even long time Residents can still learn new tricks. A lot of people get frustrated because even simple things can seem extremely difficult when you first get started. I recently helped a friend who was doing some interactive work in Second Life as part of her work as a Social Worker and therapist, and since she is not at all a computer person, even things like opening a box or sitting down and standing up seemed very complicated to her.  Eventually those things became old hat to her and she was even able to help some of her colleagues with similar problems. But without me to help her get started, she told me she probably would have given up and lost out on the coursework and training that was taking place within Second Life. 

#4 - Explore, explore, explore.

       Some of the coolest things about Second Life come in two categories. a) Things you can see and do and b) Things you can wear.  There's so much creativity, so much building, creating, designing, planning etc.. you really could never see  it all. But there's lots you can see. Undersea worlds, Caves, Cathedrals, Space, and it's always changing and growing all the time. So, get out there and check it out.  And as for things you can wear, I'm not just talking about what many try to do which is "Look like themselves" or "Look like a super model." You can be a panther. You can be a fairy. You can be a munchkin. You can be a robot. You can be a vampire. And on and on and on.  And yes, I know, I'm sort of on the super model track, lol. I guess it looks that way at least. But that doesn't mean I don't know there's other things out there.

#5 - Be excellent to each other.  The biggest thing, the most important thing is just kindness. There's a lot of generosity in Second Life. There's a lot of creativity and an ability to work together for common goals and the common good. But there's also a lot of petty drama and rudeness and general yucky stuff.  So please, don't leave your manners and your compassion behind the barn door when you sign on. Be kind. It will come back to you.

I did this shot to show that even when I'm being a super model, I can still get my demoness on sometimes.  I actually do have a post planned with this outfit so I won't say a lot about it now except to say that most everything I'm wearing is available at The 100 Block event. Credits will be on my post tomorrow and I'll link from it to here or vice versa. The chair I am sitting in is the Countessa armchair from Angelic Designs in black, a former 60L weekends offer.

Skin is by WoW

Top is by 1Hundred

Pants are by D-Style

Horns and Arm Bracelets by Arise

all at 100 Block

Clubbin' the Petra Way

As I said, I went out the other night... I don't know a lot of places to go really - and I'm not a fan of places where everyone is on voice nor am I crazy about being in a void where no one ever talks.

So I usually end up going to House of V, which is where I went. ...

Now, let me just say... I like V in general. There's always people there. There's always music and people *TALKING* in chat and those are big pluses. Nothing I hate worse than dancing in a club and nobody is talking. It's just weird. I really do not like voice, both because I have anxiety issues and because I really feel that when voice came along, it created a separation and people became either the voice people or the non voice people. And non voice people such as moi get looked at askance, as if we might be non voice because we have something to hide. Well no, I just have anxiety issues around being in voice and I don't need my relaxation time to have that on top of it.

Plus it just irks me for someone to feel entitled to my "proof" of what my gender is or whatnot before they will talk to me. "Well gee fella, I'm not tryin' to marry ya for a casual club conversation, okay?"

I do have some opinions on V and how they do things... that I don't really care for, especially the whole.. "Hi .. I am a solid gold DOM (because I paid 1k a month to be one) and therefore I am entitled to claim your butt if I so desire." BUT, since they also allow one to set ones own claiming limits, I've found it's pretty easy to get around that by simply saying that a claim does not entitle anyone to sexual favors from me. A guy can claim me all night long, he's getting a dance and conversation, that is all.

But anyhoo... it's a good place, spacious, adult verified, djs and so on. So I went, and I actually had a pretty good time. Met a few people that were new to me, had some decent conversations. Got to try out my dances that are in my new AO - Vista is really doing good work I feel with their recent aos and dance animations. I also found that I could add my own dances to the AO and have a ready built dance hud without having to add another hud to my view. That was a big nice thing, sadly most dances are no copy so when I switch aos I will have to move dances around but since I don't change aos around too often it's not too big a hassle.

Also kind of as a side note, I haven't been completely happy with either the Phat Azz ... which was a little too "phat" for my tastes... or the Cute Azz which was almost not big enough. (I sound like a butt Goldilocks right? This butt was too big and this butt was too small but this butt was just right!?)

In fact, I've switched to the Ghetto Booty and I love it. I really do think it's just right, and with just a little work all the Phat Azz appliers work fine. So... I said all of that, so I could show you this...*laughing*

So this is my top half as I was dressed for clubbing. I'm pictured in front of my lovely tropical oasis thingie on my sl land.  Super Huge size pic.

And these are the total look as they say on those top model shows. SHP

SHP 

SHP

Also just want to give a quick shout out to Label Motion. I've been really enjoying using their poses, especially because each pose set comes with a hud and a pose stand. I used the hud on these shots and as you can see they came out quite nicely.  More info on my outfit after the jump if you care.

And just as an added bit of detail, my landscaping here is all by Bee Designs.