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Tuesday, October 28, 2008

It all started with a bed

Sorry these posts are sparse these days.

I am still laden with real-life woes.

This post was inspired by a bed.

A free bed, to be exact.

Yes, Prad! It was free! **GASP!!!!!!**

Kidding. Prad knows I'm a fangirl of his.

Many of you have probably read Prad Prathivi's "I Can Haz Freebiez" blog post by now. It caused a bit of a brouhaha. (Actually, I just wanted to say "brouhaha.")

I thought Prad made some valid points in his post about SL freebies; HOWEVER, I do believe we all missed the most crucial issue of all when we read that post:

WHO THE HELL STARTED THE RUMOR THAT CATS CAN'T SPELL OR USE CORRECT GRAMMAR?

I'm not even a Neko, but on behalf of cats everywhere, I'm asking all you LOLCat people to
QUIT IT!

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"I CAN HAZ MACHINE GUN?"

Oh yikes, and almost everything in that photo right there is
FREE! 

**ducks and hides from Prad's scorn**

Those ears are Kitteh Earz from Sn@tch. The shirt is Sexy Back in Black from Meh. Why is the shirt called Sexy Back? I'm not gonna tell you. I'm gonna
SHOW you:

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Ohhhh yeah, baby! (Hey, check out my new aquarium!)

Shoot, I need to pump up my booty slider a little.

Anyhoo, I got both of those things on the gridwide Vain Inc. Ghostbusters Hunt. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, you really need to get out of the house and get your spook on a little more. The hunt runs through Halloween, I think. You still have time. Go, go, go . . . HERE to look for the first ghost. (Don't worry -- it's big.) Open it, get a gift and use the landmark in it to TP to the location of the next ghost. And so on and so on and scooby dooby dooby . . . 113 times to be exact. 

WOO! The loot you'll get!

THANK YOU, Ghostbusters Hunt contributors! I ROCK now because of you!

(Although sorry, but I would like to lovingly slap the owner of Lookr with a big foam hand for forcing me to cam in ways I have never cammed before.)

Speaking of hunts, the hair is Cyberpunk in Black, from The Stringer Mausoleum ghost hunt -- another hunt that's totally worth your time and energy if you like funky hair and fun stuff. Pink ghosts for girls. Blue for guys. I likey. It runs through Nov. 1. Get started and get the details here.

And that skin is called Halloween Special 08 in Light from the Deviant Kitties pumpkin hunt. I don't know if that hunt's still going on or not. I was too busy scoping for pumpkins the size of walnuts to read the details.

OK, so, as usual, it's taken me a while to get to the point of this blog post, but here it is:

I moved recently in SL and that was a HUGE DAMN DEAL for me because I was somewhat attached to my cozy little beach shack, courtesy of Faith Homes. 

However, I am much more attached to my friends, and some of them are living over on Alicia Chenaux's Bluebonnet Island. Since she happened to have a house available for rent, I decided to snag it. 

Now we are a big happy family over there. In fact, I think she should rename that sim "The Island of Hot Chicks." 

I'm not being conceited. I'm being CONFIDENT and, as such, mentally healthy.

She has some space available, I think. You should holla at her if you want to join our nonstop party.

LOOKIT MY NEW HOUSE:

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Nice, huh? I got that tree in the Passionate Nekos booth at the Costume Fair for UNICEF. It has poses in it. It costs $200L in case you want your own. And yes, I'm taking it down in a few days. It's taking up 1/6 of my prim allowance.

I needed some kind of Halloweenish decor because my next-door neighbor and dear friend Sehra's house is PIMP
ED THE HELL OUT:

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KENNY! Turn off your Roasters sign! 

(Some of you probably won't get that reference.)

Talk about keeping up with the Joneses. Just WAIT until Christmas though!

Anyway, this is the first time I've rented an empty house. Usually I go for furnished. So THANK GAWD I also got this ROCKIN' free Intimate Bed No. 5 from Instinct on that aforementioned Ghostbusters Hunt:

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(Fuzzy the Bunny is so damn happy to be in a spacious house, BTW. And I'm an idiot who didn't realize I've been running around with a tank top on under that Sexy Back shirt. Not so sexy. Oops.)

OK.

So.

I had a bed. I just needed more stuff. So yep, I designed the whole house around that bed. The bed is worth it. The bed is inspirational. And yep, in case you're wondering, it IS designed for intimate moments. Not that I've taken it for a test drive yet or anything. I am, however, accepting applications.

So then I bought this living room set at Mudhoney. I like you, Mudhoney. You are OK in my book:

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Actually that's a mash-up of two different living room sets. I couldn't decide, so I bought them both. And for those of you who are wondering why I didn't return the generosity and spend my lindens at Instinct, I tried. It was laggy and impossible. I'll go back though. I promise.

Then I wanted a splash of color, so I added this aquarium and a coincidentally perfectly matched painting:

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But then that green started blinding me, so I took that stuff away.

So I don't know why I just felt the urge to show you that badly cropped photo.

(Maybe I just wanted to make this blog EVEN LONGER than it already is!)

I got another aquarium -- the one in that picture way the hell up at the top of this blog. I wanted an aquarium instead of a television -- you know, feng shui, getting back to nature and the joy of watching trapped little fish and all that.

Now I can sit on my (free) fake kitteh tail on my fake couch and stare contemplatively at my fake fish for as long as my fake heart desires.

And now it's time for a part of my blog that I like to call:

RANDOM-ASS STRANGERS WHO TURN OUT TO BE DAMN COOL

I was in Sn@tch the other day and I saw this chick, who blew me away with her awesome skin:

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Her name is Malign Magic, and
YES my photography skillz suck 99 percent of the time -- and the above picture falls in the sucky percentage. 

Anyway, I said, "HAY, where'd you get that skin?" and Malign told me that she made her Clown Stitches skin herself.

Damn.

Then imagine my delight when she gave me one:

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RAWWWWWWK!

I'm clothed so this photo isn't even doing it justice. But you don't get to see me naked on the first date.

Those are steampunk goggles on my head, BTW. They come with that TSM Cyberpunk hair. But you don't have to wear them if goggles aren't your thing.

Hey, I'm a creepy, stitched-up clown now and I'm watching you:

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Those eyes are the new Stoned Eyes in Turquoise at EarthStones

Hey Prad, they're free!!!!

(I keed, I keed. Prad's a tough guy. He can take a little jesting from a creepy clown.)

The End (finally!)

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Woman of Few Words

Sorry I've been quiet lately. I am laden with real-life woes.

Here's a little game I like to play called "Yes and No":

YES:

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The Reaping hair by Sinsation, bought at Hair Fair.

Hey, that skin is FREE from [the obsceNe] Update Group, BTW. It's called Baku. A baku is a Japanese mythological creature that eats nightmares. I collect them in RL. I wish one would eat my whole life right now. So anyhoo, I was DAMN DELIGHTED to learn that someone named a skin after them. 

It's hard finding [the oBscene] Update Group in SL's oh-so-friggin'-sophisticated Search engine. Grab it from my profile -- QUICK! -- before I get CRAAAAZAY and start screwing around with my groups again. They change every other day. I ration my meager group allowance thoughtfully and often.

NO:

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Voodoo hair by House of Heart: Been there, seen it, worn it. 

**shakes head with deja vu**

But if you want this hair, it's free. Look for it near the pumpkin display.

I realize that I haven't changed clothes in days. Shut up.

YES:

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Biddle Boots in Electric Pink. Do I want them? Yes. Can I afford them right now? No. So I stuck a bunch of knives in my head in a fit of shoe agony. (Hair: The Assassin by The Stringer Mausoleum)

OK, and drumroll please because I'm probably going to be the only one you know who will say this publicly but . . . .

NO!!!!!:

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Maitreya's new Billow Boots. Is everybody KIDDING ME with these? What 1981 episode of "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" did you GET THESE BOOTS from???

(Hell yes, I watched every episode of that show and hell yes, I ended that last sentence with a preposition. I make no apologies.)

And here's a little game I like to play called, "Bitch, put some pants on!"

BITCH, PUT SOME PANTS ON!

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This photo sucked too much for me to officially submit it to What the Fug?

Yeeeeeah, they're leggings or stockings or something but they still look . . . off. I could see way too much, um, detail. I just don't want to see the division of your butt cheeks during my shopping excursions. Sorry.

And actually I think she's wearing those Billow Boots too! I'm not one to really talk about shapes since I'm currently sporting "bony stick figure," but honest to gawd, they look like Cankle-City Chunk Calves! With holes in the back!

**Emerald slaps a "bitch" label on her forehead and wanders off in search of a chill pill**

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Hope blooms in the Garden for the Missing (redux, updated)

(This is a repost -- with updates -- from my previous blog [you know, the one I smashed with a wrecking ball]. The cause means a lot to me, so I wanted to post this info again. Thanks to the lovely and talented Asha Brim for helping me find the original material.)

My friend CeN recently introduced me to a place called Garden for the Missing. Since I'm only seven months old here I was previously unaware that such a place existed in SL, but then again, SL never ceases to surprise me.

The Garden for the Missing features 170 posters of missing adults and children throughout a three-story greenhouse garden, which includes outdoor areas, a beach playground and places to sit and reflect.

All posters are clickable for more extensive background info on each case. There's a New Cases section to keep the garden current, as well as donation kiosks throughout. Each floor of the garden is decorated in a distinct theme.

SL resident Ronnie Rhode opened the garden in September 2007 and updates it with new cases frequently. As I learned when working on this blog post, she's happy to answer any questions if you IM her. She covers land costs with the donations she receives at the garden as well as with all profits from her stunning home decor store, Bright & Shiny Moving Art. 

Here's an example of some of the striking pieces at Bright & Shiny. Many of the works include the added sensory experience of subtle motion in the design:

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Rhode also supports the SL Project Jason center, named after Jason Jolkowski -- who disappeared at age 19 in 2001 from Omaha, Neb. -- and the RL nonprofit organization Project Jason, which aims to support the families of the missing.

You'll find Ronnie's dedication to this project also reflected in the Jason's Angels section of her Bright & Shiny store, which includes angelic pieces such as this Jason's Angels Gold Star Angel Fountain. Again, all sales proceeds go to these nonprofit causes:

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There are angels to fit every budget (I bought some smaller versions of the fountain) and most pieces have reasonable prim counts. You can also pick up $99L Jason's Angels necklaces in gold or silver in the store:

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(BTW, sorry for this quick digression but I'm wearing the BP* Update Group's latest free gift . . . PRIM LIPGLOSS! . . . in that pic. It's like body oil for lips! Whaddya think? Fug or not fug? That group is tricky to find in Search but if you want your own free lipgloss, search for "BP* Update Group" verbatim in Groups -- or just steal the info from my groups in my profile. Yes, I'm giving you free rein to pillage my profile. If you read my blog, you deserve it.)

Anyway, after my initial visit to the Garden for the Missing with CeN, I've returned there on my own a couple of times. It's one of those places that you can't really absorb in just one visit.

During my last visit, I was shocked to see a poster for a kid I knew as a child, Johnny Gosch:

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Johnny Gosch vanished at age 12 in 1982 from my grandparents' neighborhood in Des Moines, Iowa, while he was on his daily paper route. He was older than I was and I only knew him vaguely through family, but when this tragedy happened it was shocking, obviously. And as time stretched on and police were unable to locate him, the situation became increasingly sickening. It was the first time the dangers of being kidnapped became a reality for me as a child.

Even now, his mother is still searching for him -- I believe he would be 39 years old today.

When I saw his poster in the Garden for the Missing, my stomach dropped all over again. I can't imagine anything more horrible than going to sleep every night without knowing where your child is. I don't know how I would breathe.

Kudos to Ronnie for her hard work in keeping these cases alive and in the public eye. I encourage you to visit, drop her a few lindens if you can spare them and share the location with your friends. 

As the Garden's welcome note says, "The more people who see the garden, the greater the chance that some family will finally get some answers."

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Junkyard junkie (or, Get that Unicorn Outta Here!)

(Frankly I'm just slapping something down here to mooooooove my Republican blog down the front page and eventually off it.)

It started with a quest for Last Call.

I had heard rumors about how fantastic the clothes were. I had won a few outfits at a charity auction. I got a taste . . . and I wanted more.

So I started hitting the yard sales.

I never know when a new SL resident will be reading this blog and not understanding stuff, so let me quickly break it down: In Search, go to the Classifieds tab. Search "yard sale." Bingo! Have fun. 

I'm not going to tell you to search "Last Call" in the Places tab because I don't want you to find my favorite Last Call resale shops.

Oops.

Once I started going to yard sales, I sort of forgot about Last Call. Instead, I got
FASCINATED with all the junk there! Soooo much stuff for sooooo few lindens! WOOOOO!

Take this yard-sale unicorn, for instance:

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Yeah, that's me wearing the free Halloween afro group gift from
Mayamaya Creations. And NO! You don't get to blog about it, What the Fug? bloggers! You got me once this week. No more exploiting my holiday cheer for the delight of all your bad-fashion-junkie blog readers, myself included. 

Those Black Kitty Platforms with Color-Change Eyes are from She's So Unusual Shoes. The top is from somewhere. Sorry, I'm spacing on the store. What counts is that it's orange.

Anyhoo, I saw this yard sale unicorn sitting calmly in the middle of a bunch of junk and I felt really, really sorry for it. It was destined for greater things, not a life lying amid used sexual pose balls and weathered bondage gear.

So I bought it. Never mind that it has about 900 prims and will never, ever fit in anyone's prim allowance. At least it lives safe and sound in my inventory now, right next to This. Big. Ass. Hello. Kitty. Balloon:

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Yes, I bought that too. Never mind that my friend Laleeta gave me a perfectly awesome (and better) balloon that she made with her own hands. I wanted this one too. Surprisingly, I screwed around with it in my yard for a while and never got one "litter" complaint from my landlady. (If you didn't read the post before this one, you didn't get that reference.)

I did, however, refrain from buying this penguin living room set:

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. . . and this fishy seating arrangement:

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But my obsession with yard sales continues. I doubt it will die for a while. I find it soothing to sort through junk while I wait for my evening dose of Ambien to kick in.

Speaking of surreal stuff, look at this trippy picture I accidently took of me and my friends
Laleeta (l) and Ali (r) in a weird rainy alley somewhere in Japan:

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Eat your heart out,
Prad Prathivi. The composition and the lighting is stunning, if I do say so myself. So sure, Prad, I'm more than happy to be your backup if you ever have to bail on one of your Photo Institute photography lectures. 

I'll even bring the unicorn.

(I like the way I just assume that Prad is reading this crap.)

I don't really have much else to say, except that I got in a public smackdown with this chick today --

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-- over some goofy camp chair pumpkin hair at
::69::. And you know what? I feel really sick about it. I got caught up in a Mike Tyson moment and got carried away. It's not my style to get into public fights, especially over hair. Especially over HALLOWEEN hair. I feel ashamed of myself. Causing a scene, picking on . . . Ed McMahon in a sweater dress, dragging friends into it, all of it. Not classy. Unforgivable. What would Audrey Hepburn think?

I'm sorry, Universe.

I'm sorry, Ed.

I'm sorry, Audrey.

And now, for another installation of
A Shout-Out to a Designer Who Is Damn Cool.

I usually avoid those hunts where we all run around and search for several individual pieces of ONE damn outfit. I suck at hunts in the first place, so there's a 99 percent chance that when the sun sets and this type of hunt is over, I'll be running around without a sleeve or a shoe.

Somehow, however, I got caught up in the Manhattan Sophisticate outfit hunt the other day at
Prim & Pixel Paradise. The mission: Find 15 golden apples to assemble one striking outfit.

I found 13.

I thought maybe I could wear the outfit anyway . . . but I was missing the shoe shape and, um, a cuff or a collar or something.

The clock was ticking and in desperation, I called out to designer Mairead Fitzgerald for a hint, just a tiny hint, Mairead, PLEEEEASE! I need Apples #5 and #12!

Imagine my delight when she dropped the apples in my inventory! "Aw! Forget the hints, just take the apples," she said.

Thank you,
MAIREAD FITZGERALD!! That was Damn Cool of you! You complete me!

Thanks to Mairead, I'm now stunning and sophisticated. I have to say that everything from the jewelry to the shoes is just gorgeous in this ensemble. (And the fashion writers scream in jealous agony at my fashion-writing skills.)

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That photo was shot in Emerald's Rented Beach House No. 1. 

The "I'm cool - get the hell away from my outfit" pose is courtesy of Trin Trevellion's new Play AO from sinDecade. You may notice that I give Trin a lot of love in this blog. It's because she shocked the hell out of me once by being humorous and good-natured the ONE TIME a long time ago when I accidently dissed one of her sinDecade skins. I didn't diss the SKIN . . . I dissed the way it looked on ME, but still. She laughed -- probably AT me, but it felt like she was laughing WITH me, so now she's my hero. It's also why she now sends me sneak preview skins before they hit the shelves.

(Kidding, she doesn't do that.)

My boobs are abnormally pumped up in that pic, BTW, because I had just changed out of a beach party bikini. Hey, if they're gonna be out there, they might as well be OUT THERE, if you know what I mean. (Emerald longs for a RL boob-slider.)

And unfortunately I still have that "I just bitch-slapped Ed McMahon and am ready to do it again" look on my face too.

Sigh.

Hey, the drugs are really kicking in, if you haven't been able to tell yet, so I'm gonna wrap up this post with another shout-out (shot, shot, shot!) to a reader I met in world the other day, Kareem Glas. 

Hi Kareem! Hope the skybox decorating is going well! Holler if you want to go yard-sale hopping! Thanks for reading my blog!

The End

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

The politics of dancing

Contrary to the title, this post has nothing to do with dancing, actually.

But I was worried no one would read it if I called it "Don't hate me because I'm a Republican!"

**ducks as rotten tomatoes fly**

I was all set to write an enriching and educational blog post about how to get involved in SL with your U.S. political party of choice, but I decided, HEY! You're all grownups!
(Or at least you're supposed to be.) You're perfectly capable of searching for 'Republican' or 'Democrat' in Places in the Search engine and finding your SL party headquarters if you feel so inclined.

You don't need me to throw a list of SLurls at you.

But if you need help, IM me in world and I'll point you in a direction. (That's me! Always willing to help.)

I WILL say that from the brief research I've done, it looks like the Democrats are having a helluva lot more fun than the Republicans in SL. Sigh.

Speaking of politics, I want to give a shout-out to a sometimes reader and a favorite blogger of mine, The SL Diva Ms. Elizabeth Hallstrom, who
AS WE SPEAK, is posing in a Barack Obama T-shirt over on her fantastic blog.

So see, we can all still be friends!

**runs to check to see if Elizabeth is still on my friends list**

Here's me in my shirt of choice. She looks way better in hers. Sigh. Then again, I'm just a
wannabe diva. Plus, she has a cute face, and I always manage to effortlessly look like a spaced-out robot with a cold:

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(Yep, that's my sultry red-and-gold beach house SexGen bed behind me -- the one I never use.)

If you checked out Elizabeth's blog, you saw that even her T-shirt is more hip. At least I'm striking a pose, thanks to sinDecade's new Play AO, which rocks, BTW. Love the stands, love the walks, love the sits, love the handstands, love the dolphin swim, etc. Best thing I've bought in a month.

As for the skin I'm in, I got that Love Me Tender skin in Ivory for $5L at Domestic-V. (ALL of them are $5L! Run!!!) I have mixed feelings about it. All my skins seem to make me look like I have a bad cocaine habit these days . . . not that I would, um, know what that looks like.

The hair is Kinka in Black from Diversity Hair.

Anyhoo, politics aside, I had big plans for this post. I was gonna discuss my sudden obsession with yard sales and give some more shout-outs, not to mention use the word "shout-out" a few more times, if only so you could turn this post into your own private drinking game.

But as always the inner voice said, "Edit, Emerald, Edit!"

So I did.

I'll stick to politics.
BUT NOT SO MUCH THAT IT WILL DIVIDE US AND CAUSE A BIG BROUHAHA!

(Wow, my spellcheck actually didn't even bat an eyelash at "brouhaha"!)

If you know me well, you know that to me the inventory is all about
COLLECTIBLES! Invest, my friends, invest! Capture your special SL moments in time with limited editions and commemorative freebies!

Even if you don't want to parade around in them, grab a couple of political T-shirts for the hell of it. That way, when your slightly annoying talking fetuses pop out and eventually become your SL grandchildren, you can rock back and forth in your pixelated rocking chair and hand them an [Insert Political Party Here] T-shirt and say, "I remember this election!"

A good place to start is at the aptly named 
Free 2008 Election Swag store at The Shoppes at JGoode Designs.

The swag store is bipartisan. You'll find it neatly divided down the middle and full of a
PLETHORA of free T-shirts for each party:

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And if that's not good enough, next to it is the
PENGUINALITY STORE!!!!

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Hell no, it has nothing to do with politics, and hell yes, my spellcheck hates the word Penguinality. But damn, I was amused that there's a whole store out there devoted to penguins! I didn't grab the LM for it -- just TP to Free 2008 Election Swag and you can't miss it.

Speaking of can't miss, I can't remember if I got this McCain/Palin yard sign (below) at the Swag Store or at the
SL Republican Party Headquarters. 

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As you can see, the neighbors were not happy about it. Look closely and you'll see that one chick in this pic even has
A GUN! I cammed out and snapped this shot when I heard these lovely ladies out there bitching about it.

Tonight my landlady returned it to my inventory. I happened to be there when she did it. The conversation went a little something like this:

Me: Hi! Is there a problem with my sign?
LL: Hon, if you read the notes that came with your rental, you'll see there is a 'no litter' policy here.
Me: Would it be considered litter if it were an Obama sign?
LL: Hon, rules are rules. I'll let you keep the pretty pumpkin out though.

Of course you will.

(While you're at it, could you get rid of the tacky renter "INFO" box that kills the whole "beachy" ambiance out there too? And never call me "hon" again?)

(I hate, hate, hate it when strangers call me "hon" in SL -- do they not understand how condescending it sounds? . . . or is that the whole point?)

She continued to explain that she was concerned that my sign would make people think the whole sim was voting for McCain. Hey, not my fault that no one else is utilizing their
RENTED YARD PLOTS around their homes to express political pride!

It
IS her land though, so I guess I'll stop bitching about it. In a fit of huffy, I did go run and rent another house on another island though. Both of them are now paid a month in advance. I guess I have two homes now . . . one for love and one for work. Laugh. Right. Like I have either.

Forget the pettiness. The important thing, kiddies, is that you get out there and get cra-zaay in that ballot box on Nov. 4 if you live in the good old U S of A. I'm not going to tell you how to vote; I'm just going to tell you TO vote: VOTE!

OK, so I'd like to wrap up this rather pointless post with a hopefully regular feature:
A Shout-Out to a Designer who is Damn Cool. (That's right, drinking-gamers! Do another "shout-out" shot!!)

I went to
Vanity Body yesterday to pick up a surprisingly beautiful free witch skin. I say "surprisingly" because you'd expect a green witch to be ugly. Not so with this one! I snagged it, put it on and stared at myself in awed fascination with my witchy beauty.

Creator Mina Spicer happened to be in the store and gave me a hat and a broom to go with it. Thank you, Mina! That was
Damn Cool of you!

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Granted, I forgot to put on hair for this pose and it's not the most ladylike position, but the hat is floppy and the broom says things to me when I'm on it. (Not that. Get your minds out of the gutter!)

Jeans by
Zaara. T-shirt by Callie Cline. Shoes: Android Ballerina Ballet Flats by Bliensen + MaiTai.

Thanks for reading. Maybe tomorrow I'll give some more shout-outs to readers and designers and talk about my obsession with old yard-sale junk. (And no, do not insert your McCain jokes here.)

Love, Em