The Best Month for SL Freebies

There are still a few days left in December, which is the best month for SL freebies. There are Christmas trees and Santas with gifts, Advent calanders – some of which go for the whole month, group gifts, new Lucky and Midnight Madness boards. The best gift of all though is the half-off discount for 3 months of Premium membership – active for the rest of December. – If you can afford to spend $ 11.25 for the 3 month package, it pays back more in lindens than what it costs. If you don’t want to pay the regular price after that, be sure to drop back down to the free Basic rate before your 3 months are up.

I sent Alycia around to collect a few Christmas gifts this year, though no where near as much as I’ve collected in previous years. Her hair above was a Christmas group gift (I’ll have to check from where) that came with several versions, including this one with a super low render weight. The antlers are last year’s gift from Blueberry, which I couldn’t resist using for this cute Christmas reindeer outfit. My best hall was from Reign shoes, where I got awesome color-change boots that fit the most popular mesh bodies and these cute Reigndeer slippers and thigh-high socks.

7 Deadly S[k]ins was again doing their advent gifts, but I couldn’t go in every day to collect them because I was busy working in RL. I had 4 days off Christmas weekend though, so I spent most of a couple of those days in SL.

One item I really liked was this gothic T-shirt and knit duster from an Oubliette hunt prize. I love quality gothic clothes for Alycia, and Oubliette seems to be one of the nicest shops for good-fitting, detailed, mesh gothic clothing. Of course I love the gifts at Sn@tch too, and with color-change HUDs for mesh clothing, even non-goth shops can provide some gray or dark colors that could be part of a gothic look.

I looked around for gothic hang-outs and found a couple nice-looking ones, but Alycia has an intense dislike of vampires, which sometimes frequent such sims. In the character backstory I created for her, she was terrorized by a man who thought he was a vampire, she had to kill him to escape, and then she ran into a Bloodlines player who wanted to bite her at a gothic freebies place, so she can’t stand SL vampires. She is also an eclectic dabbler in witchcraft who likes all things witchy and irreverent.

I bring up the idea of Alycia having her own personality and interests because having different personalities and interest for my avatars helps keep their inventories down and helps me remember which has which items. Alycia wears skimpy clothes in dark colors. Persephone wears more modest outfits. Alycia does 7Seas Fishing. Persephone has the buildings, landscaping, most of the furnishing, and most of the building materials. I can also play different characters depending on my mood. Alycia doesn’t try to fit in and be “normal”, she’s unashamedly moody, and she’s a tough and confident survivor.

Virtual Reality – Another Perspective

It’s overcast and windy today. Looking out to our backyard from the kitchen window this morning, I was reminded of being in Mendocino or Fort Bragg, the Northern California Coast. When I see the wild roses and green vines growing over the old wooden fence, the weedy lawn, the flat grey sky framed by the fence and telephone poles on either side, I feel like I’m there. In memory, for a moment, I’m there.

A few months ago I dreamt I was in Mendocino. I knew I was dreaming as I looked across from a perpendicular side street to the horizon before me. I couldn’t see the ocean, just the open meadow in front of Front Street that is the beginning of the Mendocino Headlands State Park. The land drops off here to rocky cliffs and sea spay below. Then there is nothing but open ocean for miles and miles, as far as the eye can see or the mind can fully imagine. I could feel the presence of the ocean in my dream. I felt cool air and open space, and knew I was not only next to the sea, but at this particular place near it.

These two experiences made me think that what makes reality “virtual” has nothing to do with computers. Humans have been creating virtual realities for as long as we’ve been telling stories, creating art, even as long as we’ve been able to dream. What makes something “virtual reality” is it’s ability to evoke a sense of immediate presence in our minds. Memories and dreams are not defined as virtual reality, because they exist only within our own minds. A read or spoken story isn’t defined so, because the part that feels real to us is also unique within each reader’s or listener’s mind. Movies aren’t defined as virtual reality, maybe because they exist on a flat screen in front of their mostly passive audience. When a digital creation seems to the viewer to exist in 3 dimensional space around them – and also evokes a feeling of realism and immediacy for them – then it can be defined as virtual reality. By definition it also has to be able to be experienced objectively by different people – even though the memories evoked for each person by this creation will of course be unique for each of them.

Technically speaking then a memory or dream is not “virtual reality”, though it is for the person experiencing it. It feels real, so to our mind it is real. When we get immersed in a book or movie, we also experience a kind of virtual reality. We are transported into a semblance of a world imagined by the author or director. Think of your own thoughts after reading a good book. Don’t you feel like you were just part of a different world than the one you normally live in? When you think back on a favorite move or movie franchise, doesn’t that world seem like it really existed or exists somewhere?

Even though I haven’t been in Second Life nearly as much as I used to be and haven’t been there lately for over 2 weeks, I still find myself spontaneously remembering places and people from that virtual world. These are memories without scent or taste, but they still seem very real to me – more real than memories of a book I’ve read or a movie I’ve seen. I feel like that place and experience was a real part of my life. It’s odd to be driving my car, look at a building in physical reality, and feel a longing for the virtual buildings of Second Life. I’d love to be able to stand on the shore of the real Pacific Ocean, but I also long to stand as a avatar on the virtual cliffs and beaches of Second Life.

Beauty is beauty, whether it’s created by nature or by the mind and hand of human beings. It calms or stirs our soul either way, and it resides in our memories as something real, whether it’s built from physical molecules or digital data, pixels and photons.

 

Elysion in Second Life

One of my favorite sims to visit in Second Life is Elysion. This gorgeous Adult-rated sim is owned, managed and seasonally redecorated by Syn Baresford, who has a beautifully artistic attention to detail and romantic atmosphere. Note that Romantic doesn’t always mean bright flowers and sunny meadows. It can also be a little dark and melancholy, as the current theme seems to demonstrate. As I walked though her latest remodel, I at first noticed that many of the old venues have a more decayed look, as of the passage of years. There are spring flowers blooming, fireflies and bees buzzing about though, so it has the air of renewal after a period of great change and loss. I was also reminded of The Shannara Chronicles TV series, in which a post-apocalyptic world is infused with fantasy elements such as elves, dwarves and magic.

The lighthouse is probably the most iconic feature at Elysion, so I had to include a few  pictures of it. The little river boat now lies broken and half sunk against the shore of the small island. Inside, the café has been replaced with old library cabinets, comfy chairs and other interesting bits of décor. (Exploring the little details on your own is one of the best parts of visiting Elysion.)

Inside the lighthouse, as in the other buildings, there are plenty of spots to chat with friends or venture into more romantic or adventurous activity. This is an Adult sim, but it’s for paid group members only, so it’s not the sort of Adult area that gives SL a bad reputation. People here tend to behave as mature, polite adults, sometimes with leanings toward BDSM and voyeurism, but often just interested in scenic views and romantic snuggling.

Most of the previous main building is gone, but a dimly lit, starry Observatory remains. The radio steam and dance ball rezzers throughout the sim encourage romantic dancing with a partner.

The decaying Pool House is gorgeous, with giant water lilies and fairy-like firefly lights.

The Luxe has seen better days, but still draws people for a quiet drink or an entertaining show.

The orchard paths allow one to find all kinds of interesting spots to enjoy alone or with a partner.

Though there is a nominal fee to join the group and explore this sim, if you can afford a couple dollars, it’s a group well worth keeping. There are regular Friday night and Saturday parties, and even when there are not scheduled events, the sim is seldom completely empty.

How to Live (almost) Free in Second Life (part 8) – Spring Break

I’ve been spending this afternoon looking for good freebies for Spring Break in Second Life.

Here Evan and Alycia are relaxing at CANNiBiA Beach (M) (formerly Black Basalt Beach). There is free rez here for taking pictures. Alycia is wearing the Maitreya Lara v 4.0 mesh body with Bento-enabled hands, the April group gift skin – Diana (Caramel) – from 7 Deadly Skins, the Sheena color demo hair from Lelutka, a March Twisted Hunt side hunt prize – “Rebel” shorts – from Anachron, the October group gift tank top from Blueberry and the Georgina work-out shoes group gift from Blueberry. Evan is wearing the Adam skin (Caramel) from 7 Deadly Skins (an old group gift), Rick hair from EMO-tions (not a freebie), a group gift T-shirt, shorts and leather bracelet from Cold Ash and the white mesh boat shoes group gift from Gabriel.

GizzA Creations is one of the better shops for free group gifts for both male and female avatars. Many past gifts are available and the group is free to join.

Here Alycia and Evan are in my skybox apt. wearing matching March group gift sweaters from GizzA Creations. The skin she’s wearing is Patience Christmas v1 from 7 Deadly Skins (a past Christmas group gift). The chair is Cooper’s Armchair, a former Fifty Linden Friday sale item from Consignment.

While my rental parcel isn’t free, it’s a very good deal at Happy Clam Island. The stipend I get from having 4 avatars with discounted SL Premium memberships pays for my rental lot with spending money to spare. My skybox is a customized mesh box with a Grim Death Co. Suites rezzer and some of the rezzer furniture replaced with nicer mesh furniture from my inventory.

This inexpensive low-prim rezzed room is the Grim Death Co. Manhattan apartment. I’ve modified some of the interior walls to windows and different wallpaper. If you have at least a square 1024 m parcel, a Grim Death Co. Suites rezzer will fit nicely on it and allows you to change your setting with the touch of a button.

You can even watch YouTube videos on the TV in some of the Grim Death Co. Suites modules.

 

 

 

Maintaining Order & Balance – In Second Life

Life is messy, frustrating and often annoying. Second Life (virtual reality) can also be messy, frustrating and annoying. We develop coping mechanisms to deal with real life problems. We can also develop coping mechanisms for dealing with our virtual lives.

One of the most common problems for people who play in SL is managing their inventory. Our real life equivalent might be cleaning our house, but in this virtual world in which we can have nearly unlimited possessions, the tasks of finding and getting rid of things can seem like the unending tortures of classical mythology. One rule of Second Life is that it’s always easier to accumulate stuff than to get rid of it.

I’m a Virgo, so I try to maintain some order in my inventory by creating folders and sub-folders for my stuff. “Clothing” is a pre-set folder. Some of my sub-folders within it are “Mesh Dresses – Spring/Summer”, “Tops”, “Pants”, “Lingerie” and “Historical”. I indicate outfits that fit my Maitreya mesh body by adding ” – M* to the end of folder titles. For my male alt, I’ve started adding “- O*” to the end of folders that contain Omega appliers. I have several “To Sort” folders that are always full of things I haven’t sorted yet, though. One of them is just for things I’ve accumulated on various hunts, each hunt with it’s own folder, and each titled with the name, month and year of the hunt. Within those folders, I now make sub-folders for “Clothing”, “Body Parts”, “Buildings & Furnishings”, and “Miscellaneous”. After I’ve finished a hunt and unpacked the prizes, these sub-folders can then be easily moved into their proper folders in the main part of my inventory.

Another common problem is finding balance between doing things we need to do in real life and spending time (and sometimes money) in Second Life.  Time, money and energy are the 3 main resources we need to balance in Life. Doing all work and no play is mentally and emotionally exhausting, so we need to find time for things we enjoy in our lives, but not at the expense of things that need to be done to maintain our lives. It’s nice to be able to spend money inworld – which helps support creators and sim owners, – but we may also need to budget how much we can afford to spend on leisure activities. I’ve been active in SL for enough years that I’m pretty much an expect now on finding good freebies and figuring out how to live nearly free inworld, but for people who are new to SL, it’s easy to spend more money than one can really afford.

Getting rid of old inventory – especially ugly clothes, sculpted furniture, and dead Landmarks – seems to be a good way to reduce the inventory nightmare, but sorting always takes time. Using the “Sort – by date” option at the top of one’s Inventory can help get rid of older items, but one will probably still want to pull items out or try on clothes before deciding if they should be deleted or not. Boxing up seasonal items is a good way to reduce inventory. Clicking on “About Landmark”, then deleting dead LMs without having to teleport to them is a great time-saver too.

One technique I’ve used is to focus on reducing the amount of one kind of item at a time. When you’re trying on clothes or skins, you’re avatar is probably going to be naked for a good part of that time. When you’re checking out old LM’s you don’t want to teleport naked to most places, so these types of inventory sorting and deleting need to be done separately. Once you have most of your eyes or skins sorted, it’s also pretty easy to try on just those items and just keep the ones you like best.

Another technique that helps me is to have several alts for different purposes, each with their own style of clothing. My main avatar is Persephone, who has something like 60, 000 items in inventory, including many unopened packages. Because she’s my main, she has most of my buildings, furniture, landscaping, textures and building stuff. Alycia is my goth girl, so I try to get her only clothes and items that fit her style. For instance, I tell myself she likes clothes in black, grey, and blue, tights and leggings, short dresses, long sweaters, and ripped ballerina outfits. She also likes witchy stuff, skulls and dark, ironic messages on shirts, but she doesn’t like vampire stuff. Tasha is primarily my wolf-girl, so she doesn’t need much clothing and stuff. Since I model her on my wolf-dog who passed, I try to get her clothes mostly in white, beige and fur, and nothing too sexy or revealing. These alts have pretty established looks, so Alycia only wears pale skin with dark or brightly dyed hair, while Tasha has pale skin and is blonde. Persephone uses a few normal human skins that fit a middle-aged look, but also wears non-human, wild-colored skin like blue or green when I feel like presenting as an alien.

If you sometimes want to get away from people inworld, having alts is a good way to do this. Maybe sometimes you want to be social, but other times you just want to build or explore. Your main avatar can have friends and be social, but your alt might be an animal who can’t talk or an antisocial person who doesn’t feel like talking to people. Animal avatars don’t need clothes, so an animal alt won’t need to collect a bunch of inventory. Segregating different alts for your different moods can thus help you to allocate and use your time in SL to *your* best advantage. If you design clothes, you may want an alt that’s your model. That’s how I ended up with a male alt. Going into SL as someone who’s different than your usual real life self, can also reveal parts of your psyche that may not otherwise be obvious to you. For instance, my main avatar tends to be more respectable and responsible, but Alycia says and does what she wants, doesn’t worry about seeming weird, has become a representation of my survivor side.

Maintaining order in our real lives often requires us to keep to a fairly established and respectable persona, but in a virtual world like SL, order can be established by segregating the more unusual or extreme sides of our psyche into different types of roleplay or visual self-expression. If you’re feeling alienated or angry in real life, it’s perfectly ok to dress as an alien or ax-murderer in SL. The rules of social behavior are different in SL than in RL. There are rules, but how we dress is far, far more open in SL. It’s still not ok to annoy or abuse other people, but within certain roleplay venues it is acceptable to play the role of someone who is annoying or abusive. Boundaries are more flexible in SL than in RL, but they still need to be established between the individuals involved.

If you play in SL or other virtual worlds, how do you maintain order and balance for yourself in these worlds? Please feel free to comment below.

Psycho Roommate Burning Stuff

Our psycho roommate used to be a fireman/ EMT. Maybe that explains why he’s been playing with fire, burning stuff and melting plastic. He may also be burning things he thinks will prove he’s doing illegal drugs. We’re afraid he may start a fire in the garage that could spread to rest of the house.

I found this bag of ash in the garbage today before putting it out for pick up.

This is supposed to be the recycling bin, but it has half melted plastic cups full of ash in it.

This ash outside shows where he burned something or spilled ash .

A scorched gas canister with which he probably burned stuff.

Besides this new phase, he’s still slamming doors, eating our food, and talking to himself in a low, creepy voice.

Six of Swords – dealing with loss

When I wake & start to write in my journal, I sometimes want to write something about Second Life, because for a long time this was my “happy place”. For years I struggled to survive on very little money while I was unemployed & looking after my mother. First she was in her own home, then she was in a care home. I didn’t live with her, but I still worried about her & felt responsibile for looking after her. I loved her & wanted her to be safe, to have healthy food, to be seen by her doctor, to take meds that would help her feel better. Even though she drove me crazy sometimes, argued with me frequently, & often hurt my feelings, I still loved her & cared about her. Even though she was an irresponsible, self-centered, narcissist parent, I knew she loved me as much as she was able & that she tried to help me sometimes.

When I was living with Kathrin, my last landlady/ housemate/ friend, we generally shared mutual interests & enjoyed each other’s company. I got her hooked on Second Life when she was recovering from surgery for repetitive motion injury. After she retired, she took to Second Life as her new virtual work & play space.

After she evicted me & put her house up for sale, I lost most of my possessions & was homeless with my dog for a month. I didn’t want to go back into SL for a while. Now I go in, but it doesn’t make me feel as happy as it used to do. I don’t lose myself in SL anymore, but it still gives me a little happiness. It’s like going to a favorite restaurant, but it’s not as good as it used to be. Even so, there’s no other restaurant that’s better nearby, so I keep going back.

This change is not because SL has changed, but because I have. My inability to enjoy SL as much as a used to is a double-edged sword. I don’t spend as much time inworld, which is good, but it also doesn’t give me the sense of freedom & joy that it used to either. I still recognize it as a wonderful platform for exploration & creative expression, but I feel like I’m sitting in my room & looking into SL, rather than living in SL & coming out occasionally to stay grounded in physical reality. There is no place in my life where I feel the kind of happiness I used to feel when I lived with Kathrin & we both played in SL, especially before the last year and a half, when Kathrin had to take in another boarder to make up for the rent money I was unable to pay her.

I accept my share of responsibility for losing my home, my possessions, & my best friend, but I can’t allow myself to feel guilty for being depressed & psychologically broken. – If you had a friend with a broken leg, would you tell them they should go to a hospital – or would you call for an ambulance? – I needed help & wasn’t able to get it by myself.

I still go into SL because it gives me some happiness, even if it’s not as much as it used to be. Writing this blog also lets me be creative with words & pictures, while also sharing what I know about finding good free stuff & places to explore in SL.

How to Live (almost) Free in SL (part 6) – Lumae group gifts & sale

* Note this sale has been extended one more week! *

There are many good skin stores in SL that have free group gifts, but my personal favorite is Lumae. All of the skins here come with appliers for mesh bodies. The newer ones have them for the leading mesh heads too. Some stores give only limited skins in their group gifts, but Lumae gives extensive packs with all kinds of variations & appliers.

 I also love their fantasy skins. I like each of my avatars to have a unique look & personality, so once I find a skin I like for them, I don’t often change it except to look non-human.

This weekend is your last chance to get these discontinued skins for $L 100 each or $L 400 fat-packs with multiple makeups. Whether you like pretty female human skins or pretty female non-human skins, you’ll likely love this store.

These lovely discontinued Niska skins in white work for a gothic vampire look, a porcelein doll, or a geisha. The mermaid skins here are gorgeous too.

*Note – Always try demos first before buying stuff.

 

How to Live (almost) Free in Second Life (part 5)

This is the last weekend for this round of the effectively free Premium account discount. If you like playing in SL and have $11.25 available to spend in PayPal, your bank account, or possibly a credit card account. I advise signing up for the 3 month half price deal before midnight August 1, SLT (Pacific Time). For $ 11.25, you’ll get spaces for 60 groups instead of only 42, an extra Picks page, access to Premium sandboxes, a Linden Home or free tier for 512m land, halfway decent customer support, $L 300/ week, and $L 1000 after 45 days if you sign up an account that’s never been Premium. To make this clear on why this is effectively free, you’ll get about $15.50 US worth of linden dollars even if you don’t get the $L 1000 first-timer bonus. Figuring in the fee for exchanging lindens for dollars, that still comes out as over $ 13 US.

Here’s a free Linden Home I got for my alt Alycia. Avatars can rez up to 117 land-impact of prims in these houses. This is the Tahoe style. You’ll have a few options for colors and textures. There are other styles available too. With these houses, you get fewer land rights than with leasing land directly from Linden Lab, but can set the parcel to keep out strangers and not let others see you or other avatars inside it.

For free low land-impact furniture for your home, I highly recommend these zerkalo group gifts. Check out their incentive for having the store in your Profile Picks too!

The “Infamous” sofa & chair set from the zerkalo group gifts comes in several colors, is modifiable, and has a land impact of 5 for the sofa, 3 for the chair. Their bean bag chair group gift (not show here) has a land impact of 2 and is also modifiable. The color-change gown Alycia is wearing is one of many, many free group gifts at Lavian&Co. The sandals are a free group gift at KC Couture (fitted for the Maitreya Lara mesh body).

I modified the zerkalo “Leather Couch” group gift by tinting the blanket & pillow red, then stretching it wider to look more like a bed. This couch has a land impact of 3, comes in several colors, and has both PG & Adult animation versions. The loft floor I made from 2 box prims has a land impact of 1 when set to Convex Hull, as does the ramp I made to walk up to it.

The Tahoe homes come with fireplaces or stoves that don’t add to your land impact, so the pieces I added total only 15 land impact points / out of 117 available for each home. This leaves plenty available for further furnishings and for rezzing packages to open.

* Remember though, if you don’t want to pay $ 22.50 for your next 3 months of Premium membership, either downgrade to a free Basic account or buy an annual Premium membership for $72 US before your 3 months are over. When your 3 months are over, you can exchange your lindens for dollars and either take them out of SL or save them for the next Premium account sale.

Ocean Breeze

One of the best blogs to follow for good SL freebies & discounts.

FabFree - Fabulously Free in SL

Well hi there Fabulous Readers!  I have a crazy night so I am going to keep this short and sweet, but I wanted to stop by and let you know about an awesome retirement sale at The Annex!  The sale was actually set to end yesterday, but the sale prices are still up today so you can take advantage of about half the store being priced at 50L per item.  All non fit-mesh/mesh body compatible clothing has been marked down to 50L.  I picked up this adorable windblown Ashley Dress for 50L, beautifully textured and works just fine with my Maitreya body!

My Nova Hair by Lelutka is available at The Hair Fair as a free colour demo – so you get the entire fatpack, priced for 0L!

xoxo  Night!
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Love is wearing…

Mesh Body – Maitreya Lara
Mesh Head – Catwa Candy
Head Applier – Bold & Beauty Kristina
Eyes – IKON Triumph Eyes Armor

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