Some places just aren’t meant to be visited.

Ok, so: I check out Snapzilla fairly regularly, and I keep a list of interesting places I see in other people’s pictures, places I’d like to visit.  One place I’ve seen several fascinating images of recently is Virtual Decay Quarantine.  It looked like a really well-made, detailed, dark post-apocalyptic place.  Just the sort of place that I love roaming around in, so tonight I teleported over.

After making a few wardrobe adjustments (too many scripts, whoops) I moved out into the outer room of the entrance area, grabbed a visitor tag and pulled up a list of sim rules.

Problem: they only allow human avatars.  I can understand wanting to keep to a certain atmosphere within a RP area, but the only nonhuman things about me are my horns, and I’m sorry, I’m not going to remove them just so I can go sightseeing in a nearly empty sim. If this place is post-apocalypse, maybe I’m a mutant, ya know?  That’s no more weird than zombies, which are allowed.  Besides which, I tend to avoid people when I’m visiting a RP sim and not RPing, so I can’t imagine I would have offended anyone.  Since I wasn’t willing to comply, I left.  Oh, well.

Mini-rant: my horns are part of me, I wear them all the time.  Okay, almost; the only time I remove them is when going to a concert at which no prim attachments at all are allowed, and I feel weird without them.  I could understand removing them to visit a sim that was trying to adhere strictly to a historical period, but I’m sorry, they’re easy to explain in a post-apocalyptic setting.

Next, I headed over to Bay City Imaginario.  I haven’t been to Bay City in ages, and I’ve been wanting to look around again.  I teleported over, and within five minutes, I froze and crashed.  (Oddly, this is also what happened the last time I tried to go there.)

Oh well… I guess the whole exploration thing wasn’t meant to happen tonight.  (Insert irritated grumble here.)

Edit to add: Your thoughts, please; am I being stubborn?  Should I just break down and make a human version of my av to use in situations such as this?

No, I won’t be there.

Well, I guess I’ve seen what happens when I get too happy about something… it gets taken away.  Explanation; I’ve had to pull out of Burn2 this year.  It wasn’t my idea, and I’m not happy about it, but I didn’t have much choice.

RL circumstances beyond my control made me think I was going to have to close my account, or at least drop down to basic and leave for awhile.  So, I reluctantly dropped out of the event and removed all my objects from the land holdings where I had tier.

As it turned out, the RL threat didn’t happen after all, but the damage was already done.  I’m upset, I’m depressed, and I’m angry.  Truthfully, losing the land doesn’t bother me as much, because we were thinking of moving anyway, but losing Burn2 hurts.  It’s really come to mean a lot to me, and I was excited about getting in again this year.

I’ll be back in SL after my dark mood has calmed down, but not till after Burn2 is over… I don’t even want to visit other people’s builds this year.  Call me overemotional, but it hurts too much to know that I was part of that and had to give it up.

I’m burning again!

Greetings from my Burn 2.0 plot!

On the playa, that is.  There have been some big changes this year, but Burning Life – or Burn 2.0, as it’s called now – is still going strong.  I was lucky enough to win a plot again this year, and I’m really excited about it!

I’ll admit, it’s sort of intimidating to stand in the middle of a bare patch of flat, parched desert with only a sketchy idea of what you’re going to build, but that’s part of the fun of it.  The event has an almost carnival-like atmosphere, preparations are just beginning, and you have an empty space of your own with unlimited potential… it’s like opening your painting kit and uncovering a fresh canvas.

Burning Life – Burn 2.0 – is starting to become an important part of my SL year.  Not just going to see it as a visitor, but participating as a builder.  It’s the thrill of being part of something big, an artistic community, a modern-day tribe  building in the desert… it’s the thrill of being allowed to express myself in any way I’d like as part of a huge group art installation.

Anyway, I think it’s safe to say I’ll be spending a lot of time on the playa in the weeks to come, getting my virtual self sunburned and dusty as I bring who-knows-what to life.  Watch this space for updates!

All is Vanity: Hair Fair 2010 purchases!

OMG, not more hair...!!

Okay, just in case someone out there is interested in this type of thing… here’s what I bought at Hair Fair 2010!  (Please, try to contain your applause and cheers.) And in answer to your question, no, I don’t have enough hair already!

Top row, left to right: Curio, Louise – this is exactly the sort of retro haircut I wish I could pull off in RL.  Hairoin, Tricksy – actually a men’s style, but hey.  Rapidly becoming my new favorite.  MINA, Thulani – the curls are a bit over-the-top, but that’s what I like about it.  Bliensen + MaiTai, Absinthe, and Bliensen + MaiTai, Opium – how could I resist these two adorable vintage styles?

Bottom row, left to right: Sari’s, Winged Clips Dreads – sort of a dressy updo, if that’s possible with dreads.  Sari’s, Summer Vine Dreads – I like the Woodstock, summer day, field-of-flowers feel of this one.  Analog Dog, BAM! – I just love the way Analog Dog does waves.  This is the sort of sexy, luxuriant hair I wish I had in RL.  Tekeli-li, Carcosa, and Tekeli-li, Thasaidon – a little weird, but really, how could I not?  They both have lots of color-change options, and they’ll look awesome with some of my space-armor type outfits.  (I’m looking at your section of my closet, Bare Rose.)

So, yeah… that’s this year’s Hair Fair haul, and I’m pleased to say that now I’m done with it for another year.  The demo group is something that I’ll definitely be joining again next year; having all the demos ahead of time saved me from the lagged wandering, trying on at home, more lagged wandering routine.  Big thanks to whoever created the group!

What Fresh Hell: Hair Fair 2010

It’s that time of year again: Hair Fair!  Ah yes, that two-week (approximately) period when most of the grid’s females converge on one multi-sim spot and battle crippling lag in order to stuff their inventories with more hairstyles.  Hey, I’m not complaining, I’m including myself in that number!  (Plus, the event always benefits a worthy charity, so you can’t go wrong there.)

So, this year the Hair Fair sims are built to look like a sort of campsite; dozens of identical square white tents with sculpted flaps, surrounded by wide walkways and lots of trees.  There are even electric fans inside the tents.

Now, all this looks amazing, but all the textures and sculpties and whatnot take forever to rez.  When you add in all the wandering avatars, the resulting lag is beyond belief.  I was wearing minimal prims and teleporting as close as possible to the booths I wanted to see, and I still could barely, barely move.

(I always wonder why the builders don’t keep the Hair Fair sims almost totally blank; maybe just a plain white wall with partitions and very simple vendors and signs hanging up, nothing else.  It’d rez a lot faster!)

One thing that helped me immensely this year was joining the Hair Fair Demos group; Participating designers started sending group members demos of their included styles ahead of time.  I went through the demos, made a folder of the ones I wanted and deleted the rest; this saved me a ton of time pushing through four sims worth of molasses.

I’ve already bought several new styles, which I’ll show off in an upcoming post.  I’ll probably make at least one more trip, because there are a few designers whose Hair Fair styles I haven’t seen yet.  (Some of them didn’t send out demos, or perhaps I missed them; that’s very possible.)  This time though, I’m going to copy their booth locations from the official Hair Fair blog so that I can teleport right there.

Coming up: what I’ve bought so far!

Good news, everyone!

Things might look strange and different….

I’ve moved my old blog here to WordPress!  Same old blog, new look, new start.  And I really will try to post more regularly… really!  Don’t look at me like that, I will, honest.

Check back for my ongoing impressions of Burn2, this year’s incarnation of Burning Life… I’ve got a plot again this year.  It’ll be a lot smaller, which is sort of a drag, but I’m pretty excited just to be a part of it again.

Plus, I’m sure, all sorts of other random stuff about the current builds in Kishijoten, my explorations, and so on and so forth.  Stay tuned, it’ll be all kinds of exciting!