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Monday, January 18, 2010
This year has been insanely busy so far, and amazingly fabulous as well. The holidays are always extremely active, but since the New Year started I have been running around on overdrive for weeks! First just a lil bit of information about the graph information I am cursing you with today. While most people only play SL, there are some of us that are intense gamers and play other MMOs that include fighting, leveling, crafting and for some, PvPing (player vs player). I've touched on it just a bit in the past but when someone came to me out of the blue and asked if I was a bad PvPer I was a little bit surprised. No one in SL really plays EQ2 with me, save for Sands of course, so I had to ask why they were mentioning it at all. When I found out why I had to laugh, some poor uninformed ignorant soul thought the best way to attack me was at my PvPing abilities. Even better, it was obviously a blatant story made up for attention! Sands and I had a good chuckle and moved on. Then, last night we had yet another fantastic PvP fight with our guild and I just had to share!   For the sake of the feeds I kept these graphs small, but simply click on them to see them larger and get a better understand of what the heck I am talking about. What we are looking at here are damage taken, and damage dealt, parses. Basically in a large battle you are going to have people that take the most damage (that would be Sands in this case (Zhouyu)) and those that put out the most damage...and that would be me. We had a pretty even fight, 19v19 though they did have a few people outside of their raid helping. Well, helping isn't exactly the word I would use for it since they lost! Oh yea, I love PvP in this form, a couple of large raids worth of people is far more organized than random tossed together fighting. These graphs basically show that we were both doing our jobs, and darn well. He took the most damage as the tank because he was doing his job of taunting and keeping people hitting him instead of the rest of the raid while in that graph I am pretty far down on the damage taken list because I was de-taunting and keeping people away from me with some of my spells. The damage dealt, well, that's pretty self explanatory. I hit hard, I hit often, I kill lots. Ahhh SL needs PvP.  Ok, back to Second Life. I've been working pretty hard with Kerra and Sands on our new blog lately, getting the template done and the rest up and running. Having had strep throat this last few days I do admit to slacking on blogging period. Going to see if I can toss up a few posts today to make up for it and just post date them. Shhh, I have a cold, be nice to me!! Oh the best part to the new year yet? On the 3rd Sands decided that we more than proved to the SLworld that we aren't just a quicky fling and that being partnered was long over due. Some people partner at the drop of a hat, they partner often, and they unpartner just as fast. We both had talked about what it meant to us when we first got together and waiting just seemed to be the best idea. Neither of us wanted people to glance at it and say oh yea, well, it wont last. We have proven without a doubt that it has, and will continue to last for the long haul. I do love opening up my profile and seeing that name there, poor guy is kind of stuck with me now though huh. You can send your sympathies to .... Thats as much of an updated blog post I can do for now. I'm fighting with just 4 hours sleep and looking forward to a nap! More soon though, the strep throat is finally starting to get better and I feel semi human again. Yay for me, aww for you. Again, send sympathies to .... oh shoosh, no one is forcing you to read. Well, except you, yea you have to read...and you over there, no behind...yea you. Other than that the rest of you don't have to. Ok you do...have an awesome day SLers!!! Its been a great year so far and wishing you all the best for the rest!! Dina's Duds: Hey, I am wearing clothing in that picture! Hair: Truth Skin: Belleza Jeans: Decoy Top: Bublee Bing Labels: Avanista, Belleza, Buble Bing, Decoy, iheartsl, Truth |
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Friday, January 1, 2010
 It's going to be a long morning if I keep writing, deleting, and rewriting this blog entry. I guess I figure since its the first of 2010 it should be special, and nothing is quite making me happy enough to hit publish yet. I glanced back at my first post of 2009 and saw that this party dress never really got worn to its full potential so it of course became my 2010 dress. The look is slightly different compared to then, a different skirt option, hair and shoes, but its still absolutely beautiful. My favorite part, hands down, is the low dipped back that leaves a perfect backdrop for the jewelry I am wearing. I should get back in world at some point to take an additional picture of that, you can find it on my flickr later. I've tried to not sit and ponder over the last year too much on my own, but instead while talking to some of my closest friends and Sands. Its been a crazy year for me, and never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined myself where I am right now, with such an amazing new year ahead of me. I've learned a lot. About myself, about others, and much of that has changed because of SL, plurk, blogs, the community itself. On one hand I found heart break, betrayal, devastation and moments of depression for a while with a few people that turned out not at all to be what I expected. Then I watch as that hand turns itself right over and lets those people and all the negative emotions that came with them fall away into a year that has forever changed me. Surprisingly I am able to be thankful for every experience that helped me grow and make me a stronger person and leave it behind me with no grudge, or need of repair. I can simply smile at the lessons I learned and look over to the other hand. New friends have been filling my spare time, new games, worlds, challenges. While I met some of the worst people and some bad experiences, I also feel like I met some of the best and thank goodness they out number everything else. So, just to touch on a few highlights here this morning. Ha, highlights. Anyway! I could spend pages writing about the people that are in my life now but goodness knows I would forget someone or leave them out and they would end up with hurt feelings so lets just sum it up. You know who you are, and how amazing I think you all are and I am extremely thankful to have you in my life. Yet, what have I been thankful for the most this year? Should I do it in pinpoint format?! I haven't done that in ages.
Its not often you find someone that will open up about almost anything and everything. When that person opens up and you finally understand them, you can see them differently. It takes a lot to even do that, but I am forever thankful that I did, and that he did as well. I'm far from being a saint, or easy to love. I'm not kidding when I say I am stubborn and difficult. He has to deal with all of my bad points as well, like my jealousy, moments of insecurity and emotional tendencies. Thank goodness he thinks my best is worth all of the trouble I cause him! People would be shocked if they got even a moment to sit and listen to our conversations on skype. I look forward to shocking you all this year. So what does the new year hold for us all? Well, for me and my own, that is. More work on Grand Illusion as a studio and shape store. Who knows what else I might take a hand in tinkering with. Kerra and I have big plans, always plan big. For some other friends and us, we hope to embark on new things in SL together. What that is yet, we aren't sure, you will just have to keep an eye on us! I also intend to start another blog with some friends as well, seeing as this one has become my rambling ground. I like it this way, so no there will be no changes to Grand Illusion. It will be whatever I want, when I want, and I will share fashion in it just as much as before. For Sands and I? We've talked about all the things we want to do this year, from more time in SL together, more pictures, more friends and a lot more raiding and PvPing in Everquest II! Never thought I would enjoy a game as much as I have been enjoying that one with him. We will also be watching the amazing set of videos he sent me for Christmas. He spent to much! What else? Its limitless, but for one we are going to hit the one year mark together. A full year I might add, nothing on and off. Who would have thought? I know some people have had a rough year this last year, and others that have had one just simply amazing. That is my wish for everyone. Yes yes Sands I am being a care bear, but you wouldn't love me any other way. I wish everyone a fabulous year filled with love, friends, and much success. I can't wait to see what its going to bring us all. Dina's Duds (links to be fixed when I am logged in, so so sorry) Dress: VictoriaV Fashions Jewelry: Alienbear Hair: WAKA & yuki Skin: Belleza Shoes: Maitreya Labels: Alienbear, Avanista, Belleza, iheartsl, Maitreya, VictoriaV Fashions, Waka and Yuki |
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Wednesday, December 30, 2009
 Its been a busy, but decent, couple of weeks since my last blog post. I have tomorrows blog post all figured out in my mind, though that is certainly subject to change, and its most assuredly going to be a long one being the last post of 2009. Today isn't going to be as much torture for you, honest. I was browsing the feeds, which I don't do nearly as much as I used to, when I crossed by someone wearing an amazing skirt. This of course lead to a shopping trip, as if my inventory could handle it, but I couldn't very well resist and, goodness am I glad I didn't.  This dress practically screamed at me from across the room as I loaded, I made it wait while I picked up a few pieces on the way to the back of the Bublee Bing store. As promise I included the first picture, a very unprocessed image almost directly from SL so you can get the real look of the dress without my usual modifications. There is a strip of ribbon on the bottom of the skirt that doesn't show because, for some reason, it was hiding in the floor but you can see the absolute beauty of this dress well enough. I picked up a few other pieces and happily filled up a folder of this designers work, very much looking forward to their future releases!  Since I was forced to be away for the holidays, I've been enjoying handing out gifts to my friends and loved ones in SL a bit after the fact. I got in with Sands last night (who simply doesn't join me in SL enough these days, determined to change that) and watched as he opened the handful of things I found for him. It wasn't much but I put a lot of thought into the things I got people this year, him especially since its so darn difficult to shop for men. I am hoping to log in with him again soon and include a bit of a review of his gifts because I thought they looked amazing on him! Overall it was a great night and boy did I need it. The end of the year always brings a bit of a roller coaster ride here as I try to sum up what I did or didn't get done that I wanted to, and look over the things and people that have come and gone from my life. Don't let me start rambling about that now though, saving all of that for tomorrow. Have a great hump day all! Its absolutely freezing here so I am off to find something warm to wrap my icey lil fingers around for a little bit. Whoa, I'm thinking hot chocolate or something, where is your mind! Dina's Duds: Dress: Bublee Bing Skin: Belleza Hair: ::69:: Labels: 69, Avanista, Belleza, Bublee Bing, iheartsl |
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Thursday, December 17, 2009
 I often wonder what someone else thinks when they see the word Cyberstalking. I certainly cannot be the only one sitting back and reading blog posts the last few months with pure disappointment in watching grown adults cyberstalking, or bullying, other people simply because they can. I woke up this morning to a plurk about a child being cyber bullied and thought really, how amazing it is to see the same type of behavior going on in an adult community like Second Life and how it has been deemed acceptable in some forms, for some people. I did a little bit of googling, reading on the Wikipedia, and am more convinced than ever that there are in fact some people within our community that very publicly cyberstalk people and are even supported for it. The question remains, why? At what point are we drifting over that line of justification to post and say whatever we want to being a harasser or stalker? A short quote that really made me think: "When identifying cyberstalking "in the field," and particularly when considering whether to report it to any kind of legal authority, the following features or combination of features can be considered to characterize a true stalking situation: malice, premeditation, repetition, distress, obsession, vendetta, no legitimate purpose, personally directed, disregarded warnings to stop, harassment, and threats." Even more interesting read a bit further down, about a cyberstalkers behavior: "Victims of cyberstalking may not even know that they are being stalked. Cyberstalkers may research individuals to feed their obsessions and curiosity. Conversely, the acts of cyberstalkers may become more intense, such as repeatedly instant messaging their targets. More commonly they will post defamatory or derogatory statements about their stalking target on web pages, message boards and in guest books ..." I think there are people who are cyberstalkers and don't even realize it. Running off and searching information about people online just to post it in an 'informative blog post' is, in the eyes of many, a form of cyberstalking. It isn't just about an obsessive ex who wont stop watching someone they want to be with still. Its also in the form of one person making very public statements about someone they really aren't involved with in order to obtain blog hits, encourage discussion about said person or even using the cover of calling it a vent. It never ceases to amaze me to find people you would otherwise think of as normal, mature adults participating in the ripping, slandering and hostile commenting about someone they in all honesty have absolutely nothing to do with. At what point will someone actually stand up and say 'No, this is wrong' and fight against this form of internet abuse? Is it an acceptable activity for certain people because they are better known, or popular in a sense, to the public? Is this what encourages people to come in and make comments thus adding to the abuse by participating themselves? Or have we hardened ourselves and forgotten the fact that there is indeed a person behind ever avatar and simply because we don't like them, approve of their choices, have an issue with their behavior or someone we know doesn't like them, does not entitle us to be cruel and harass them. Before anyone even tries, by the way, there is a very clear difference between letting the public know factual information and being outright hostile while doing so, this is where the line gets fuzzy for most. Do many of us have any idea the internal stress and anxiety that can be caused by being targeted by people in this way? Can we imagine how a person can be affected, or has human compassion and sensitivity to the well being of others been cut off once we sign on? Interestingly enough I have received a lot of feedback about cyberstalkers/bullies when I talk to people in world about it but it remains, people are actually afraid to stand up for others because they don't want to be the newest target. It sounds just like high school, doesn't it? Where does that activity of informing the public, sharing our own experiences or venting cross the line into cyberstalking and is there anyone left who is willing to speak up and say 'I think what you are doing is wrong!' Regardless of what the person may (or may not) be doing, the bandwagon has been making its rounds for months, stopping to run over a person here or there and very few have put a foot down to say, enough. I suppose when you get right down to it, we would only do that for our closest friends, those we have an emotional attachment to because, as so many put it so well, we just don't care about the other person being discussed. There are so many times, I am extremely ashamed to admit, that I have sat back and watched it in sincere pain while someone else is trashed at the enjoyment and delight of others. I've been here too long, maybe, and been harassed myself, and I internalize everything to the point of feeling what the person must be feeling upon reading the words of others. The year is fast coming to a close, 2009 is almost gone, breaking the silence and standing up for people when and where I can is going to be one of my biggest, and granted possibly the toughest, goal for 2010. Whether you think so or not, everyone matters, we all have feelings and instead of ripping someone down, you would get so much more out of life for lifting them up. Amazing to me, I am actually sitting here expecting someone to insult me or tear me down for saying much of what I have said, or intend to say in the future, but I guess this time I get to be the one that says 'I don't care....enough is enough.' Keeping with fashion, Dina's Duds: Hair (Dina & Kerra): Truth Sweater (on Dina and front model): Mischief Pants (Dina): Snatch Sweater (Kerra): Pacadi Pants (Kerra): Drawmachine Scarf (Kerra): Truth Hair (front model): Maitreya Labels: Avanista, Drawmachine, iheartsl, Maitreya, Mischief, PACADI, Snatch, Truth |
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Wednesday, December 16, 2009
![[42] & Grand Illusion holiday events](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2699/4190704537_4057a8d1aa.jpg) Tomorrow, December 17th, [42] and Grand Illusion will be hosting a duo of fun wintery holiday events for everyone to help us celebrate the opening of our sim. To help spread a bit more holiday cheer, we are having our first ever Frosty Find hunt! The above Frosty will be hidden all over the sim for you to find and will be filled with gifts brought to you by both [42] and Grand Illusion! Skins, a shape, eyes and so much more will be spread around the sim. We hope you will be able to join us for either our casual event at 2-4pm SLT or 7-9pm SLT for our formal holiday dance. Mandy will be DJing and taking your requests, come sit on Santas lap, skate on our rink and find as many hidden Frostys as you can! For more information and to be updated whenever we add an additional Frosty (they will be out until the end of the year and new ones may be added at any time!) please join the subscribo over at the [42] main store. Shoot me any questions you might have and I hope to see you tomorrow! Where? Morabeza When? 2-4 pm slt and 7-9 pm slt Why? Why not! Labels: [42], Frosty Find, Grand Illusion, Grand Opening. Avanista, iheartsl |
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Friday, December 11, 2009
 Sometimes a quicky is in order. A beautiful gown, one of many, by Nardcotix. I've blogged their shoes before, and a shrug, but love their gowns and other pieces as well. They also offer gift versions which is perfect for the holidays this year. Dina's Duds Dress: Nardcotix Glasses: Persenickety Hair: Truth Skin: Belleza Labels: Avanista, Belleza, iheartsl, Nardcotix, Persenickety, Truth |
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Thursday, December 10, 2009
 Simply put, one of the most beautiful dresses I own, if not the most beautiful. Created by Evie (Evie's Closet) this gown has been lingering in my inventory for a week or two and after listening to the video I've included in this post, it called for pictures. Most importantly, to be shared. If you haven't visited Evie's Closet, first why on earth not, and second get yourself over there now. Her gowns and other designs are breath taking and everyone should have at least one in their inventory in my opinion.  I thought the perfect location to do these images was, of course, the Oubliette sim. Winter has come to Oubliette and while the sim has always been beautiful it seems to have an even more magical air about it now. I could, and have, spend literally hours wandering around, lingering while I talk to people and just sneaking pictures here and there. Worth a visit as well and oh, how convenient, Evie's Closet just happens to be there as well. Imagine that! There are a couple of other stores you should peek into while you wander and explore, get lost in the beauty, its so easy.  Here is where I ramble with more personal things, right? Instead just listen to this song I chanced upon by Evanescence. I've always loved them, their music gives me chills and this one didn't disappoint. Sometimes there just aren't any words of my own to say it well enough, for now I will use theirs. Dear my love, haven't you wanted to be with me And dear my love, haven't you longed to be free Forget this life Come with me Don't look back you're safe now Unlock your heart Drop your guard No one's left to stop you Dina's Duds: Location: Oubliette Dress: Evie's Closet Jewels: Caithlin Carter Designs Hair: Truth Skin: Belleza Labels: Avanista, Belleza, Caithlin Carter Designs, Evies Closet, iheartsl, Oubliette, Truth |
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Wednesday, December 9, 2009
  So much to do, so little time, and the little bit of time I had last night was interupted by a power outtage. Luckily Kerra remembered it was out and gave us a call this morning to give us a kick in the butt and get everyone off to school. We never had power outages, really, in California, so this snow and freezing cold and no electricity thang is all new. I can handle all of it,but leave me my power, I had plans with Sands last night that I was exteremely bummed to miss out on! Tonight though, I don't care if I have to get out there and create the power myself, I'm not missing out on another planned evening. I hope you all are out there staying warm, and dry inside with your loved ones. To think, winter has only just begun! Dina's Holiday Duds: Dress: Ingenue Photoble: Mudhoney Shoes: =L+R+W= Hair: Truth Skin: Belleza Glasses: Persenickety Poses: Diesel Works, Labels: =L+R+W=, Avanista, Belleza, Diesel Works, iheartsl, Mudhoney, Persenickety, Truth |
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Monday, December 7, 2009
 I don't often have enough time in Second Life lately to go out all that much, but I do hear there are still clubs and dancing and even live performers! The dress released by SySy's tonight was inspired by a live performer that the designer is sponsoring this week. Lollo String, as well as his background dancers The Lollette's, have been entertaining the masses within SL since 2008 and have a large variety of music they are able to dazzle you with. SySy thought of them as she made this amazing dress, calling it 'Fluffy, feathery and sexy!' The dress comes in three colors, the blue shown as well as black and red. I figured the feed is always full of black, and tis the season for red, so blue it is!  I slipped on a new pair of fabulous shoes by Kilnins and my all time favorite updo by W&Y for this fancy night on the town look. SySy's dress makes me feel like twisting my hips and dancing the night away, seriously, just to see how the layers will swirl around me. I stepped out of my norm for this and put on a super sexy skin by Exodi and donned a beautiful Balderdash jewelry set. If you haven't taken the time to visit any of the mentioned stores, you need to this holiday season. There are so many parties to attend, events to be had and pictures to take and these designers will make you look amazing!  While it still takes me hours to complete a blog post, between chasing around kids and dealing with work etc, I love this part of my online time. Matter of fact, there really isn't anything about my time online that isn't make me extremely happy lately! The choices I thought I had to make about SL with the last post were undone, and it leaves me with the sim to work on and with for another few weeks at least. It was so hard to imaging all the work that had gone into the sim would have been gone next week, but a very dear friend swooped in to save us. I am so very thankful to him for doing so, and hope he enjoys his new home with us and we can make him proud. Back off to do a little bit of work while I want for Sands to get home tonight. It should prove to be yet another amazing night, I'm wondering when my luck will run out on those but so far so good! I hope you are all staying warm and dry tonight, its snowing again here and freezing. Cannot wait to snuggle up and stay warm...someone make the work day be over please! Dina's Duds: Dress: SySy Shoes: Kalnins Hair: WAKA & yuki Skin: Exodi Jewelry: Balderdash More information on Lollo String: SL MySpace Personal Website RL Band Labels: Avanista, Balderdash, Exodi, iheartsl, Kalnins, SySy's, Waka and Yuki |
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