Network Woes

I'm at work. For LONG periods at a time - we'e talking weeks, not hours here.

And when I'm at work, I can't get inworld.

Thanks to Ajaxlife I can still stay in touch with my friends, but being a blind immobile clot of fog isn't really what I come to SL for.

Especially not when I have a new land to build!

Here's the story: I decided that my neighbours and I had sufficiently little in common that I wouldn't miss them, and vice versa. Yet having a neighboring sim does have some practical uses, especially since Lawria is on an old "Class 4" server and ideally should be restarted at least once a week. Just strolling across the border to wait is rather nice.

But then they decided to change their rating from "mature" to "adult". Now I do understad the reasoning behind this - or at least I'm perfectly willing to assume that there is one. But since well over half the population of Lawria are Europeans, that effectively closed the borders for us. The verification system is not very practical for most off us - the amount of information they ask for could even be in violation of EU laws!

That made the decision to move a lot easier - and as they had also finished building their "internal access route" (formerly, the only route from the market to the rest of the sim was through my market, a trip involving two sim crossings - often rough), I decided that I could leave without inconveniencing them unduly.

Now moving a sim to a different location costs money - real money. And I had nowhere to move to either, only from.

Also - having another sim to stoll across to is very conveninent.

I did a little thinking and a little support chat, and discovered that since adding to the land in the current location was blocked by Linden Labs, I could get the sim moved for free IF I had a location to move it to. That made it easy to buy a homestead - a kind of "quarter-sim" with the same land area but only a quarter of the capacity - and move Lawria alongside that.

So that's what I did.

And then the phone rang, and I find myself here at work with a pristine new land to play in - and I CAN'T GET IN!

C-c-c-changes

I'm making changes. Whether I'm making any difference is still to be seen, though.

The first change is that I changed the name of my sim from "Tetrapoli West" to "Lawria".

I began to consider this in the time when it seemed as if I might have nothing to be west of - and when that situation was resolved, it still seeemed like a good idea. I have begun to realise that the name "Tetrapoli" has been used on one GOR book or another, and that some of the more by-the-book Goreans therefore assume that my sim is Gorean. Nothing could be much farther from the truth, and to be honest I have had quite enough of explaining that. This alone is worth the price of a rename. Add a dollop of vanity and a preparation for a possible future "continental drift", and it was a no-brainer to me.

The next change will most likely come in the next few days, as I leave my adopted family to enter an alliance with them instead. I have a sim, they have a sim. They run theirs, I run mine. They have the Moirai Family, I will have Lawria Family. Much simpler for all parts, I think. Or hope, at least...

And my sub? Seems to have been a fundamental misunderstanding there which he was afraid to tell me about in fear of hurting my feelings. Now I have to figure out how to make it absolutely clear that he must never do that to me again...

Back in the blog!

"Last entry 20th June"...

JUNE??? Oh my - so much has happened since then that I don't really know where to begin, much less end!

Well - some of this has been mentioned over at my other blog, which however is generally a less "open" whatsit than this one. But that one also suffers from infrequent updating. Here will be general musings, there will be more personal things.

Good news first: I own a sim, and I own the sim I have loved since I first saw it. Buying that I also saved my adopted family from dissolution, at least temporarily.

More good: I have a wonderful devoted girl living with me. And a wonderful devoted boy too, more about which later.

Less good: My stalker still hasn't given up - but still doesn't realise that it would take a complete personality transplant for me to begin to like him, and if he gets one of those he will no longer be my stalker. Hope he gets one - he may actually turn out to be nice after that...

Not so good: With any change of neighbors comes a change in the neighborhood. I sometimes think my neighbors thought they were getting a meek malleable submissive as a new neighbor - but since they are my family, I can't imagine they could possibly have been that deluded. Personalities sometimes clash, strong personalities clash stronger. Sigh.

Judging by Appearances

While scouring the net for anything remotely interesting, I came across this blog entry.

I ties in neatly with my own way of thinking - I assume that behind every avatar I meet is a 5'3" male who has long ago relinquiched the dream of a sixpack for the reality of a beerkeg. And probably has unpleasant personal habits as well.

What this means is that I do judge the people I meet by their appearance - their appearance as avatars in SL. Equally important is their behaviour - again as they behave in SL. Maybe that makes me shallow, but in this world of appearances I find this the only viable route.

So here are some "Basic Rules, Mistress Lawra, for the Interaction with":

Pay attention to how you look. Jeans and a T-shirt wouldn't attract a second glance from me in RL; it won't in SL either. Stick-figure bodies with DD cup breasts would get a second glance from me in RL, but only to decide whether disgust or pity should take the top position. Eight-foot tall and six foot wide with muscles that would get you tossed out of a Mr. Universe competition on suspicion of stereoid abuse? oh come on - get real! I adjust my "typist-height-estimate" to 5'1". :D

Not that this means you have to look human - I have met enough furries, nekos and other "just plain weird" avatars (including one very nice luminescent green lady) that "human-looking" is not a prerequisite.

Maybe I'm becoming speciesist? Since we can look like whatever we want, I feel that those who prefer to resemble humans should at least make an effort to look a little like RL humans? I know I'm not setting such a shining example myself - last I checked, I was 6'9" in my high-heeled boots. That's a bit much, even if my typist really is unusually tall. I'll chop some inches off my legs as soon as I can log on again...

The other important factor is communication. Do make an attempt to write whole words and complete sentences. Don't attempt to communicate with me in "txtspk". I am fluent in two languages, decent in three more, and could probably get by in another four if I really had to. Txtspk is not among them. "Standard net abbreviations" like lol, afk and brb are OK (unless overused), witing "r u" instead of "are you" is not. I don't want to hear your voice; I don't do voice myself and most of the time the sound is off on my typist's PC. Add to this that my typist is a trained singer and very difficult to impress. ;)

Which leads to the third point: Be polite. Rudeness gets you only rudeness; politeness can get you anything.

So what is this SL thing anyway?

I think every single SL blogger has tried to answer this, as well as several scientific publications and the official SecondLife wiki.

So I will say what it is to me: It is a stage.

A stage where you play your chosen part in a play without a script, where every action or inaction of every player affects every other player - although only the actions of those close to you are immediately obvious.

Some "players" only dip their toes in the waters, preferring to skim lightly across the surface. Others dive deep down, and are absorbed in the ocean. There are those that use SL to play games, others who use it to make artworks, there are even theater performances within the fictional world.

For my own part, I live here. I do not play a role, I am that role - that of Lawra Idlemind, Mistress of the Moirai family. When I stare frostily at an offending slave it is not an act, it is my own reaction. When I smile sweetly and forgive, that is also totally real to me. When I was commended for my "good role play" recently I did a double-take - I hadn't been acting at all!

This makes it all the more enjoyable to me: The challenge of living the life of a Mistress is far more interesting than merely acting the part. So even if I am fully aware that I am a fictional character controlled by a person behind a keyboard somewhere in Norway, I am still totally convinced that I really am - myself.

I have discovered that how I react ("play my part") is very much influenced by the costume I wear. As the tall blonde in the virginally white outfit I am sweet, caring and forgiving. In full spiky goth armour, skin and hair, and riding Spike (my Gothic horse) I am cold, cruel and utterly unforgiving. My dark-skinned wide-hipped big-bosomed form is unabashedly erotic, and can make any outfit from bikini to ballgowns look sexy enough to border on the slutty.

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:

Horsing Around

I mentioned the ponyboy who brought me into the Family, didn't I? Yes - I did. We had many enjoyable rides over the next few weeks, and he was very impressed when I turned up for a ride wearing a full classic riding costume - complete with helmet and (non-functional) crop. We rode all over Tetrapoli and much of FFF where he had his home stable.

Whenever I log on, one of the first things i see is an IM with "Greetings, Mistress" from him. That really makes one feel appreciated!

But one day the IM held sad news - for me. He had been sold to a new mistress, who forbade him to ride out with others for the first week or so. He explained that this was his Dream Mistress who he had long wanted to be owned by, so I am happy for him. But sad for myself.

Out of the blue I received an IM from one of the first friends i made in SL, with an invitation to come look at some horses. She TP'ed me over to the AKK stables. Just as I arrived and things started clearing up a little I saw her TPing out, but by then I was fixated on the horses. I promptly picked up a demo horse (good for four uses) and went back home to gallop up and down the main "street". :)

And then it turned out that most of my Family had horses already, but had avoided using them when the ponyboy was around - and we were usually there at the same time...

They were all riding horses from S Haras though, so when I gave in to temptation and bought myself a horse that is where i went.

S Haras has a habit of running occasional online auctions to pay his tier fees - and what is sold there is a more-than-complete set of all his horses. Late one night I decided to bid in one of these auctions, and lo and behold - I won! Suddenly I had not one, but sixty-odd horses, including "regular" horses, battlehorses and pure fantasy creatures. And five to give to friends...

The first gift horse went to someone who had supported me when the auction was re-run after complaints that bids had been lost due to lag. I started off by resubmitting my initial bid, and noone dared bid over. :D

So what do I do with all these horses? That remains to be seen, and could be a good subject for a later blog entry. I do have a horse to match nearly every outfit, though - ballgowns excepted.

Long time no Update

Strange. I blog only when I cannot log in.

Or perhaps it isn't that strange - if I could log in, I would much rather be running around in SL than sitting here blogging...

Of course a lot has happened since my last entry. Most significantly a love affair went sour and turned into a nightmare, complete with stalking. There will be no more details on this, except to say that I am now a LOT more careful - and sceptical of unknown avatars in my home sim. In the case that my stalker reads this - yes. It's you. We all recognise you by your style now. Go away, and don't even think of returning.

In the course of the next few days I intend to write a little about several other events - all minor compared to this, but all important in my life. And every single one positive. :D

Oooh -shiny!!! :D

I confess, I caught a bad case of "Oooh - shiny!". ;)

I ran (or jumped) from shop to shop, buying all the flashy shiny stuff I could find, shopping like a lunatic on speed with an unlimited account.

After a while, as lag increased and my inventory began to increase to where I now longer knew what I had bought already, came the sobering thought: When am I going to wear all this? And what happened to buying new hair and skin??

A quick search for "latex fetish" showed me there were lots of venues where my new shiny clothes wouldn't be out of place. Back to jumping about again. :)

In one of these places I bumped into a small ponyboy who promptly invited me for a ride. I took him up on his offer - which turned out to be my smartest decision to date. After a few days of occasional rides, he invited me to meet one of his other Mistresses, the Goddess Moonwolf of the Moirai Family. After a long and entertaining chat she invited me to become a Mistress of the Moirai! I accepted quickly, before I had time to think too much about the concequences. :)

Oh - in the meanwhile I had been able to find some non-shiny clothes too, including some stunning outfits from Mystic Paradise. I owe a lot to their L$50 bargains, especially my "Snow Queen Costume"!

Out and About, or the Birth of a Shopaholic

Continuing on the previous post, it was obvious that to find a secluded spot for the more serious changes - like making my body into something I would actually want to be seen in - Help Island was obviously not the right choise.

I can't recall where I ended up, but it must have been somewhere on the Mainland, in a PG area - I was still a virtual newborn and had no money nor proof of age. But there are empty spots to be found, at least around noon European time.

After half an hour or so of fiddling with the sliders, I began to resemble myself enough that I would risk being seen in public- so it was time to go shopping. For freebies.

There are lots of freebies around, but as I discovered the majority are close to worthless. I picked up far too much "worthless", some of it not much better than my own first dreadful attempt. But I did manage to find a free skin without the censored undies, at least! But it also became painfully clear that without money, it was going to be painfully difficult to find anything I liked wearing...

So how to get money in SL? A quick glance at the help files convinced me that earning money takes an investment - you don't get a modelling job without a nice body and good skin, building something and selling it takes time, effort and practice, and "escort"?? That's OUT you hear, OUT! Silly human...

Eventually I managed to convince my typist that I needed money, and that life would be ever so much more interesting with payment-info-on-file so I could get into the "mature" areas. :D

Time for shopping! Wo-hoo!

Hello, I'm Lawra

... and I'm bored.

My typist is yet again AWOL, so I have no idea what is happening in my life. Just as things were going from "interesting" to "really fabulous", too! So I decided I might as well start a blog to keep myself active while I wait...

Anyway, I suppose introductions are in order?

I am Lawra Idlemind, an inhabitant of Second Life(TM).

I was born a few weeks ago, springing into life on the "Help Island" - possibly the least helpful place I have ever been.

Looking at myself I saw an archetypical "Girl Next Door", and found a secluded spot to do something about that - or so I thought in my newborn naivety. :)

After stripping down to ugly censored undies, I started playing around with the "clothing" controls, and made myself a rather clumsy pair of leather jeans and a red top. Baaad idea!

New Male: Hi!
Lawra Idlemind: Hello there.
New Male: U are beautiful!
Lawra Idlemind: Thank you.
New Male: Will u be my friend?
Lawra Idlemind: Why?
New Male: U are beautiful!
Lawra Idlemind: Ten seconds ago you tried to strike up a conversation with someone who was quite obviously busy getting dressed, and you think that is a great way to meake new friends?
New Male: Yes!
Lawra Idlemind: No.
New Male: Bitch!

That's when I found out how to TP away. :)