I'm a BAD BAD Blogger

Ok I know I KNOW!! Bad blogger. Trust me I've been very busy. In a nutshell, until I can post more detail, built a couple of items for Bid4theCure auction, added finishing touches to Club Amor, my SL little brother, Arcadian, finally asked his long time SL girlfriend to partner, opened Club Amor (was quite a blast I might add), and been helping LauraJill work on wedding plans. Whew! Try to say all that in one breath! I promise, sometime this month *giggles*, to expound on each of these happenings as time allows. Just know that things are good. And look up Club Amor in world if you are looking for a nice place to hang out. Our events are listed in SL's event search and there is a schedule board on outside of club. We'd love to have you stop by sometime.

WE HAVE LAND!!

Well we now have a plot of land, the club is down, and we've been testing equipment, stream and such. I am just so excited!! It's like really happening!! I can't wait to get the grand opening planned and a simple schedule started. So far the build and location have been well received. We now have our stream and it works marvelously. Even yours truly is going to do her best at being a DJ, but is smart enough to realize she will never match muster with her little brother.

I'm just bubbling with excitement and can't wait til we are ready to go! It is open currently and there is radio stream going 24/7. Heck you may even walk in on us testing things and luck into a live DJ as well.

I will keep you updated on the Grand Opening event, but here is a slurl for you to come check it out if the mood strikes ya! http://slurl.com/secondlife/Ocean%20Estate%203/235/242/23

Bid4aCure

Ok, Arcadian has dragged me into another venture but this one is FABULOUS! DJ Jocelyn Sands spearheads the annual Bid 4 a Cure event. Arcadian paid me an ultimate compliment by asking me to build something for their annual auction. The project is finished and boxed and delivered ready for auction. What is it you ask? Call it a party in a box. It has a pavillion with color changing dome, benches, flowers, dance machines, and even some custom textures to make banners or balloons for whatever occasion that might be celebrated. It was fun to pull together and for a very worthy cause.

What is Bid4aCure? Bid4aCure is a group created to raise money for two member organizations of the International Diabetes Federatoin: Diabetes UK and the American Diabetes Association (ADA). Fund raisers are held in June, which include an auction for goods and services donated by various residents. To that end, Jocelyn is hosting a massive series of charity auctions of fine virtual goods and services from some of the best designers in the Second Life virtual world. The auctions are set up for the 15th and the 29th of June; additionally, there will be "insulin syringe" donation kiosks set up all around the virtual world. All proceeds will be donated to ongoing research to limit the effects of this illness, with the long-range goal to eventually find a cure to make the dreaded daily insulin shots a thing of the past.

There'll be 2 separate auctions, planned for 6/15 and 6/29. The venue has yet to be decided, although I'll have a SLURL for you as soon as that gets firmed up. I hope you too will make some time to support this very worthy and timely cause.

Well The Structure Is Built.............

For those who don't know yet, we are building a club! Who is we you ask? Lan, Arcadian and myself have joined forces to open a small, romantic club for friends and family and for anyone who wishes to come have fun with us. I miss the times all our old friends would gather just to listen to good music and have good conversation, well if not good, at least laugh a lot with each other. And by golly, it's long overdue for us to gather and have fun again.

It's been 6 months since I've been a part of any club atmosphere and, well, to be honest, I kinda miss it. Now don't get me wrong, this is not your dancer-stripper-escort kind of club. Nor is it all techno and hype with a focus big business and mall atmosphere either. Just a small, classy place to have a few themed, live DJ events for folks to gather and have some fun. It will have a radio stream for 'off' times so guests can come enjoy the club anytime they want.

Well I finished the build a couple days ago and have found all kinds of games and goodies for people to enjoy. We even had an impromptu 'event' last night with a few friends to test some of the gadgets and so far... so good.

I was struggling with names the other night. Had a list of them going and really couldn't decide what I wanted. Then something stuck with me. I wanted "Love" reflected in the name as that is what has quietly driven me to want to do this, the Love for my Friends and Family and for Love Itself. As I checked "Search" for names already taken, I found that Club Amor wasn't used. Actually after checking further, there is one close in name, but really is another language. I consultated with my dear friend, designer and fellow power shopper, Bobo Rosselsprung, and he concurred that the name was perfect. So Club Amor was born! Of course I went straight away to work up a 'logo', which I must say was a LOAD of fun. Feedback has been positive on the visual projection and build of the club and of my design of the logo. I am getting more and more excited each day.

Currently I am busy trying to find the property for us to locate the club and am actually considering *gasps* buying land again. All of these covenants are driving me mad with insanity. And trust me, at times that is a short trip. But we are shooting for an opening by end of May.

Stay tuned as there is much more to come on this.........

What a year!

WHAT A DOOFUS I AM!!! THIS HAS BEEN IN MY DRAFTS! HAHAHAHA WELL BETTER LATE THAN NEVER HUH?!

April 15, 2007, Lan and I swore our vows amongst family and friends. A year! Still amazes me. So many things have happened and changed since then. We've accomplished so much and yet there are many things yet to do. We have had quite the rollercoaster ride but through it all we are still together, a couple, a team. We've enjoyed such joys, like when we 'adopted' our SL bevy of children. We've suffered loss when we had to remove our association from one of them. We've enjoyed great friends. And we've mourned the loss of some friendships and ties. But all in all we are still the Lan and Olivia team.

It's funny. SL kinda speeds up time. A month in SL is like I dunno, 6 months it seems. Part of the phenomenon I think is the fact somethings are instantaneous. Look at how travel works in SL. You can teleport anywhere at anytime. And it's free. No saving for airfare. No planning trip wardrobe. It's 'Let's go' and boom you are there. So yeah what I'm saying is it feels more like 5-6 yrs together instead of one. And for my little brother Arcadian, I mean that in a good way! *chuckles*

Love ya Lan honey! Thanks for your love and patience, but most of all for the wonderful ride so far!! Oh honey, by the way, I need to do somemore shopping *pats him down for his wallet*

I LOVE my new studio!

I must admit initially I didn't understand all the hoopla over photo studios and their benefits. And I certainly couldn't understand spending so many lindens on such a device. I mean some fo these things go for upwards of $L5000. Do you realize how many hairs, dresses, or even textures (mmmm textures) that could buy? I mean to spend that for something SL already provides and so many beautiful backdrops from so many sims? Well I broke down and found a studio for $L300 and thought "Eh why not? Think of it as a gadget test." And besides they offered a trade in for when an update was completed. It was a bit clunky to use and it took 41 prim. But it was a bit cool. Went at one point to take the update, but I couldn't get it to work and never could get the creator to respond to messages I left so I chalked it up to a learning experience.

Well time went by and I shutterbugged my way around SL. But sometimes my pictures looked flat or just not 'sparky'. I never gave a studio much thought until I took a class to learn how to make textures, and in process learned a bit on how to work with photos and image manipulaton software, like adobe photoshop pro, GIMP and the like. Well the studio bug hit again for the ability to enhance the base picture in order to manipulate it further.

About 2 weeks ago or so, I was discussing with my SL husband my new 'itch' for a studio and he was so sweet and while I was using SL's search engine, he was using SLexchange, aka slex in our house, to give me some ideas where to go. At almost the same time we found one called SERENADE Photo Studio. Well I went to look at the store in world. Let me just say I was quite impressed. The pose stand was separate purchase but even together, their price was well under some of the other high end makers and did you notice that 13 prim? Oh let me add that the pose stand is 4 prim. So overall it's 17 prim. Prim are almost as tasty as textures and I value every one of mine. I hate to have something of 80+ prim taking up decorating prim or prim available for me to build. I was sold. I even bought a couple of background packs of some great shots around SL to save on 'gas' getting there. Ok fine, cause I wanted to try this baby out and all it's cool stuff, and it was a lame attempt to be funny, but I digress.

I have to say as far as gadgets or tools, it is one of the easiest, coolest ones I've used yet. The options are customizable for the shot and the HUD's make short work of setting up. Instructions are clear and concise and we were taking pictures almost immediately.

This was well worth the investment even if I was once a 'smirker' at the idea of such an item.

PS... It appears the creator of SERENADE has moved his listings to OnRez if you wish to browse his items on the web.

And since I am such a shortcut taker, let me paste here what it advertises its features to be:

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FEATURES
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Designed from the beginning for Windlight!
Studio and HUD are COPY/MODIFY.
Automatic, FREE UPDATES for life!
Photograph your subject alone or in GROUPS!
6 Lights for total lighting control.
12 Lighting Presets for inspiration.
Fog, Steam, Rain, Snow, and Bubbles particle effects.
7 Backgrounds Included, add your own.
Separate colors for the Background, Ceiling, and Floor.
Full featured HUD doubles as a status indicator.
Transfer version of the HUD for friends included.
Communication channels are notecard configurable,
Major functions accessible via chat commands.
Only 13 prims.

Found one of my all-time-favorite designer's blogs today!

If you have never been to Nicky Ree's then let me just say you are missing some fabulous designs. I had the honor of meeting her, now on several occasions, and she is just the nicest and most talented clothing designers I have had the pleasure of meeting. And out of the blue I have found her blog. I never claimed to be the brightest bulb in the box ya'know. I will try to attach the link as a link this time. I believe the last time I mentioned a blog here, aka my wovwy widdle brudder's to be exact, blogspot thought perhaps I was spamming.

Nicky Ree is also very involved during Relay for Life and this year I was fortunate enough that my sweet darling SL husband helped me obtain one of her limited edition 'Mara' dresses. It is absolutely lovely, as are all my pieces from her different lines. Her custom textures are fabulous and her clothing templates are some of the best, bar none.

When I went to her blog today, I noticed that once again, her design elements and textures have been illegally swiped, AGAIN. By the same person! All the more reason NOT to patronize the works of Annejoy Paine of aDiva. And to be honest what I have seen of this artist, wait she is not an artist, no, of this thief's work, it is clearly cut rate in comparison to Nicky's. Why wear something that is clearly a copy? Some would say cost, but honestly, even with some of Nicky's complete collections, which give you sometimes 6-8 different ways to wear something, you are looking at about $L1600? or the equivalent of $7 usd? Remember this is for a collection. Why buy something substandard or a copycat version (which when translated to SL looks like a Megalomart rip off) when the original is so much nicer? And when the original designer is so customer service oriented and gives so much to charities like Relay for Life, I say support the original! Sometimes in real life we have to go for the bargain, but why cheat your second life? Double jeers to aDiva for lack of originality and blatant theft. (And where is Linden Labs during all this? Nicky has now filed 2 DMCA's through all this. What is up with that? I guess another rant for another time.)

Ok so maybe this was a rave turned to rant but I really can't say enough on Nicky Ree. She is truly an amazing lady, a savvy business woman and a great designer. And I say bravo to her and all her works.

Hair and more hair....

I sure wish designers would make hair transfer. One of my first addictions in my shopping adventures in Second Life was hair. OMG I LOVE HAIR! And OMG I FAIL horribly at trying to make my own, so my inventory is SO packed with hair. But just as my player loves to play with cuts, colors and styles, I love to change things up too. So I've like tons of hair that I can say 'been there... done that' but that is still good hair. And with so many new residents I would love to go to help island and just gift newbie girls/ladies/women with hair from my inventory. I don't want to charge for it. I wore it. I got my use from it. It now clutters my inventory. And I just hate to delete it. Would be so great to be able to just give it away to some new resident and 'make their day'. I mean really. When I think back I had a few kind people, Arcadian one of them, that assisted me, but I was on help island like a week before I figured things out and looked quite, well let's just put it this way, 'right off the turnip truck'. Just wish I could give away old inventory, granting random acts of kindness on new residents. Just to make their day! Ok ramble is over... back to whatever you were working on.

I can't believe the turkey (my lil' brother) made me do this!

Oh sure... I have drug him here and there... But he started it! Told me how to teleport off help island and how to buy lindens and where all the stores were and how to buy things. Since then I've been trying to uninstall RL and just run SL.

And now? ... now? He has drug me to the world of blogging. (sighs with exacerbation) Word to the wise ~ Beware who you make family ~. You may end up with a music crunching, mind twisting, put-on-the-sunglasses- cuz-here-comes the-blond-changeling, pain-in-da-butt-little-brudder, Arcadian Vanalten. He was my first friend in SL and remains one of the dearest. And, who to be honest, I would be utterly lost without.

I can't say how often or what will appear on these pages. At least not until I figure out what do to here. It's the blonde in me. Takes me a bit to catch on sometimes. But in order to reply to HIS blog I had to make MY blog. I can't keep up with RL journaling. What makes him think I can keep up here? (makes note to kick his shins when she sees him again) And for those who might be curious to the musings of such idiosyncrasy that only he can pen, his blog is http://sparechangeling.blogspot.com. Tell him I sent ya! Kick his shins for me. He lubbers it so very much!

Perhaps I'll bring some of my shopping loves and share my exploration of SL. Expound on all the fun it brings to the mundane. I have learned a bit of building and scripting, which I love to torment friends and family with all my 'homemade' gifts. So maybe I'll torment anyone daring to peek in here as well.

Well taa-taa for now and hope life, in whatever form, is going FAB for you today!