ImmA Bee-After that last post I just had to do it!

I'm A Bee from Kara Trapdoor on Vimeo.

To be or not to be?

Dear Diary,
The other day I was thinking about my rez day and some things that were going on, like realizing for the 100th time SL friends may or may not really be like RL friends and some can just come and go without much care. I started to contemplate my very SL existence, to be or not to be. Some SLer once said, "To live in RL is to die in SL". I'm not sure I subscribe to this theory, as many of my SL friends and acquaintances live in RL BECAUSE they live in SL or rather have SL products and services they make a RL living on or are trying to anyway. I, however, am NOT one of those people, and find myself spending i.e. wasting tons of my RL time in SL.

As William Shakespeare once said, "I like this place and could willingly waste time in it." But I don't want to turn out like another of his quotes, "I wasted time, now doth time waste me." I've always felt I've been a pretty hard worker but now find myself rushing faster through RL obligations even as basic as laundry just so I can have more SL time to waste. I've seen many people in SL for the wrong reasons such as escape from RL problems, depression, porn addictions, etc., but I've seen much more good including SL/RL education, fundraising, religious support, etc. So after I allowed myself a bit of sadness over SL losses, (things, places and people that come and go so quickly and easily) I justified again my SL by calling it my well earned recreation & social time.

I love SL and so far it still seems to mostly love me even after more than a year. For now I will carry on in both worlds and if something productive crosses my SL path I will consider learning about it as a way to further justify my extensive SL time and expenses. Sure I could just cut back on SL time, you know, "Everything in moderation", but I know those SL producers really need us consumers, or at least I tell myself that. Maybe I will go explore some amazing RL place in SL that I could never really visit in RL now.. just to further justify my SL existence. Signing off, Kara

The Choctacular Experience

I think the RL work layoffs and implementation of a new computer system is really getting to a bunch of Ladies who are going home at night, doing some major therapeutic baking, and bringing all their goods to work for what appears to be a daily bake off competition at the commons snack table. This is doing nothing for my annual "January, try to look hot for summer" diet that I am thinking about starting... tomorrow. But during a break I found the Avatars Events blog mentioning a thing called The Choctacular Experience that is at Trendone Trend 42.3 Discovery Center in SL through April 21, and since my sweet tooth was primed I made note. Tonight I was on a mission to find this place.

I stepped through the doors and was greeted with The Candyman song as I eyeballed a table with a cake on it. Of course I clicked the cake, I click most everything, and it handed me chocolate recipes that can be used in RL. Yay! Off to a great start. I voted for my favorite type of chocolate before I jumped in the big chocolate bath. It was so smooth I could almost feel and taste it, but it was really a tease. My imagination is great, but sadly not so good that I could actually taste, feel, or smell this SL chocolate. There is one pro for SL chocolate though, and that is the 0 calories. O, maybe it isn't really. I know I was almost drooling, does that generate calories? I picked up some cool freebie chocolate things but I won't say what, as that would be giving away some of the fun. Then I read a bunch of humorous and informative signs about chocolate before I sat down to eat some in front of the videos about chocolate including some Willy Wonka videos that I love. While there I also learned about chocolate and Easter and read an abridged history of chocolate and some chocolate funnies including one of my personal favorites, "Milk chocolate is a dairy product", is that funny or fact? I go with the latter. All in all a sweet place to visit. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Trendone/14/105/55 O, by the way, I understand there is also some interesting body chocolate and whipped cream around SL somewhere, but I think that is for another blog.

New Skin?

Ok, so a few people have seen my blog. I guess mentioning it on Avatars United might have had something to do with that.. or maybe the fact that I shouted it down some people's throats in there might have also. Come see what Kara did!!! But now my sister who has blogged for years tells me my urls, surls, html, SLurls, whatever she said... are kind of messed up in some places and I need a new skin. My avatar happens to have great skin I am very proud of.. but.. she said for the blog. So I went in search and found some amazing backgrounds, AKA skins. I read a little about them and some comments were saying people couldn't make them work, they messed up their whole blog, widgets were not working, etc. without doing x number of amazing steps to make them work right. (widget.. what the heck is widget? Sis, you are probably the only one who will read this and I'm sure you think I jest, but I kid you not, I have no clue. I need some help!) Anyway, that was when I first realized I really am in over my head. I am NOT a computer person and before I discoverd Second Life a little over a year ago I really only wanted to be sitting in front of a computer to collect the necessary email as infrequently as possible. I had a REAL life then. Well I still do, but SL turned me into a SL junkie and with it comes a bit of the internet. So now I am daily amazed with the computer and internet. I am learning.. slowly. I want to have lists and links and all kinds of cool things and of course a non-noobgeneric "skin". But that will come in time. When sis has time to sit down with me I guess. (hint hint) In the mean time.. yeah yeah.. I know, and sorry I can't link you up etc. or whatever. I would if I could. Some day soon, I'm sure.

Easter Bonnet

Ready for Easter!
Champagne Glacon dress
Tres Beau "Easter Candy" Bunny shoes, hat and basket
Location: Zweet ZurroundingZ

Passover to be celebrated at Eternal Creations Sim 3-28-10

Sunday March 28th at 6pm SL time there will be a Messianic Passover complete with scripted Seder plate, video, and parting of the Red Sea build area that can be walked through. This event will be held in the Eternal Creations Christian sim at You Are Loved Ministries. Passover marks the beginning of the harvest season in Israel however, the primary reason cited for it's observance is related to the Exodus of Hebrew slaves from Egypt after generations of slavery. The passing over refers to the fact God "passed over" the houses of the jews while afflicting Egyptians with the tenth plague. Many Christians also celebrate Passover as Jesus was the sacrificial lamb of God that delivered all mankind from slavery of sin. Passover is around the same time of the year as Easter, because the "Last Supper" that Jesus and His 12 disciples were celebrating was His last Passover meal He shared with them before His death, burial and resurrection. This was actually a "memorial" meal as others in Israel sacrificed their Passover lambs the next evening when Jesus was offered up on the cross. 22:32] http://slurl.com/secondlife/EC%20Beach%20Community/122/157/2091

Eternal Creations is a huge area and the event will also be near a cool game area that has many life size (well, av size) games including a soccer field and paint ball area. I watched a round of paint ball there the other day and found it to be very entertaining to see the participants running around hiding behind boulders, etc., splatting each other with paint from their paint guns. The sim also still has the Christian contest builds up and the winning build initially just looked like a huge cross to me, but when I sat on the tiny bench in front the of the cross that says "sit here" I was in for a very touching surprise I hope a lot of people experience. Please check out this sim when you have a chance. There are a lot of good people in the area.

Svarga is Back!

Today I visited the reopened Svarga sim that has a rich history in Second Life, but had been closed for a period of time.

As I took a sim tour on a giant wasp I was told it's building began in 2004 with nothing added since 2006 at which time there were no flexi or sculpted prims. All content remains original build with basic SL prims. Some artificial life experiments were conducted there with plants that grow and multiply.

The sim includes elven instruments, SL books, and there are hopes to bring back the chat to sound experiment. In ancient European mythology Svarga or "Heaven" is the residence of the god, Svarog. The island is formed by the collapsed caldera of a old volcano. It's my understsanding Linden Labs recently bought Svarga which is again open to the public.

The Follow 3-22-10

This evening at 7pm SL time my friend Troy Shoreland, lead singer for the 3 member band, was interviewed on The Cypress Rosewood show.

Troy talked about the band and their upcoming world tour scheduled for Friday, March 26 beginning in Australia at 4am SL time at Ned's Aussie Pub and ending in the USA at 8pm SL time at Gwampas. The band will be in 5 different sims representing 5 countries on this day. The Missouri group began 20 years ago in RL and today enjoy both real life and second life success, with many shows in SL including a March 11 performance and interview on Spotlight TV. They have the sound of a larger electro/rock style group that reminds me a bit of the old U2 sometimes. Their music hub in SL is located in the Aisling Myst region at Mysts of Forzane. Check them out at this link. and they can also be found on My Space, Facebook, Avatars United and Youtube.

Flickr Collaborators and Posers 3-21-10

One of my favorite SL groups is FCP, which can be found inworld via search and also in Flickr here.

This group usually meets inworld twice a week, Fridays at 2pm and Sundays at 12pm SL time to do a themed group photo shoot. The theme is predetermined so that outfits can be planned by individuals if desired and theme and location suggestions are often solicited. It's a come as you can event. In part due to time differences around the world most people chose one or the other date, but some try to attend them all because they are so much fun with great results both in the pictures produced and the social contacts and often hilarious play time.

This group is open to all SL residents who join the group from newbs with no photo skills to long time professional photographers. Many members make beautiful photo shopped works of art that I am proud to be a part of and then there are others like me who don't use Photoshop, but along the way have produced a few cute pictures. The group is very helpful with tips and generous sometimes with free poses, skins, props and other things many of them make. There are currently 235 members in this Flickr group where most of the resulting pictures are posted. This is a great way to get to know some fun, amazing and talented SL avatars. Check it out and join us some time. Sunday's theme was "Neko", shot in Creamshop, another great SL location.

Relay For Life and The SL 2010 Clothing Fair: My Sunday 3-21-10 in Second Life

Sad but true, I went shopping with myself Sunday. Well actually with MAlt, my male alt who rarely gets out and needed some inexpensive clothes.

MAlt was made for videos and whatever other reason might come up, but I can't have the poor guy looking cheap. The perfect opportunity arose this weekend when I finally made it to the 2010 Clothing Fair to benefit Relay for Life cancer patients.

The 2010 clothing fair ran March 13 through 9pm SL time March 21. It has been in SL for the past 3 years and this year covered 9 sims, 8 of which were for shopping. Relay For Life has benefited in the past over 11 million Linden from this event and I was told at the close this year, they were at 4.1 million Linden. Officials were saying they averaged about 30k traffic on all 9 sims. There were over 150 designers and the theme was "fashion Cities of the World" with amazing landscaping and sculptures that alone were worth the trip for this explorer. The fair also included fashion shows, photo contest, treasure hunts, parties, live music and djs, tons of quality shopping and of course the freebies.

While shopping for MAlts freebies I took pity and let him buy a few hot guy clothes and of course found some nice things for myself, no expense spared. When we finished shopping, my rl/sl sis wanted to see what I was up to so I tp'd her in to the dance area and another friend joined us for a bit of dancing and socializing for an all in all good time. At that point poor MAlt had to go home, as there is no need to dance with myself unless it's by myself.

I donated again at one of the Relay for Life boards and was provided some information about the program I had not previously paid much attention to, although it's hard to miss in SL, but I usually only toss a few Linden to the many "good causes" without knowing much about them. I feel some of this information is worth sharing here. My own grandmother died from cancer left untreated far too long, and I'm sure most everyone has friends or relatives affected by cancer. The information provided stated the Relay For Life is the signature event of the American Cancer Society and in Second Life is the largest, most successful fundraising event in the virtual world, raising more than $650,000 since its first event in 2004. There is a SL RFL volunteer group and if you would like to become more involved in Relay For Life of Second Life you can contact: Tayzia Abattoir, Event chair, tayziaabattoir@gmail.come or MamaP Beerbaum, Event Co-Chair mamapbeerbaum@gmail.com or Nuala Maracas, Event Co-Chair, nuala.maracas@gmail.com.

Real life information about RFL can be found here.