Let me state at the beginning of this short post that there isn’t anything fashion-related here. I know I’m on one feed that’s tilted heavily to SL fashion, but I hope you’ll indulge me this once so I can briefly try to put into words why today is special to me.

I don’t remember a lot of what I was doing in SL back in December 2007, but I can piece most of it together from old blog posts and photos on Flickr. My account was about 10 months old, but I’d only be in world for about 6 months, and everything still seemed new and fresh.

I met this great guy named Kere Delcon around that time, and going by the creation date on his calling card in my inventory, we friended each other on December 11, 2007. At some point in early 2008, I did a purge of all my calling cards, but I kept his and one other for no other reason than I had this feeling they were going to be special to me. Three years later, they’re the only ones from that time to whom I talk regularly, and we co-own a sim together. I should trust my instincts more often!

Kere is one of my dearest friends in all lives. I love sitting at my computer in the evenings and getting a random video link from him as he’s working. He’s one of my favorite excuses for staying up way past my bedtime whether it’s because of SL or WoW or just chatting. Even when I’m completely disillusioned with SL and not in the mood to deal with it, it has a special place in my heart in part because it’s how I met Kere.

This was us 3 years ago. He’s outlasted the land, the house, and most of that furniture. I’ll gladly sacrifice more pixels to the inventory gods if that’s what it takes to keep him around.

And here we are earlier this month as he showed off one of his new builds to me. Kere has been building for a long time both for joy and for pay, and I think 2011 might be the year we finally see him set up shop to sell some of his creations. If you’re a prefab addict like me, keep an eye out for Kere Delcon. Maybe I’ll even get to do some previews for you when he’s ready to go.

Thank you Kere for being in my life, and you better stay there!

I think I’m a bit late on this Community Spirit challenge, but really it’s never too late to highlight a wonderful person like my friend Phire Zuhra. Phire blogs at Style Genesis with her best friend Sakuradawn Lei, and I grabbed the cute photo of her from her Flickr stream.

Anyone who knows Phire knows that she has a wicked sense of humor and is quick with a hug when someone is feeling down. These things are all part of what make her amazing, but the reason she came to mind for this challenge to highlight someone who builds community and encourages people is her support of creators. She’s guinea pig extraordinaire for Lazy Places, the shop owned by Sakuradawn and her partner Sven, and that’s a very important part of the process that keeps bringing Lazy Places cuteness to our inventories. We all owe a debt of gratitude to Phire for that alone. Phire is also friends with Lola79 Heinrichs of Lolapop!, and I know from seeing them on Plurk that Phire encourages and supports Lola through praise, suggestions, and blogging.

I also have to say that Phire has been a huge supporter of my shop Shine for ages now. She was at the Covet sim grand opening and was one of the first people to buy jewelry from me, and then she was the very first person to blog my jewelry. I’m not a prolific creator, but with every release, Phire is right there with kind words and great ideas like adding more rings to my sets. Phire’s enthusiasm is contagious, and I think any community should honor those who bring so much joy to those around them, so I hope I’ve done Phire some justice with this post. Thank you Phire for all that you do for us.

I’m skating in under the wire with my daily post for the week. There’s not a whole lot to say about today that’s worth getting into here, and it’s been a long day in SL in so many ways, so my brain just isn’t up for answering today’s suggested prompt though it’s a good one that maybe I’ll address tomorrow. I’ve had a few thoughts about what I’d do with a full sim that didn’t need to bring in money to support itself, so I’ll probably come back to that one.

So when SL is your escape and it gets you down, what is a girl to do? If you’re lucky like me, then you have a best friend who cracks jokes and threatens elephant stampedes to make it all better. And you know what? With the magic of SL, flying elephants and good friends really do make it all so much better. Don’t let SL get you down, and have some fun. Blow off some steam and do something silly for no other reason than it’s silly.

I bet my elephant can jump over more giant teddy bears than yours anyway! And right now, I’m letting Ellie fly me all the way to dreamland. Tomorrow is another day, and I’ll make it a good one.

Today is SL Love Thursday as you may have seen around other blogs and Flickr streams today. I haven’t blogged here in a couple of weeks, so I’m using this weekly meme to jump back in and just throw love all over the place. I don’t think it’s any secret that my best friend is Kavar Cleanslate. It might seem like overkill to focus a Love Thursday entry on him since I go on about him all the time anyway, so I’m including a few other love targets too. The main focus though is Kavar because I love him to pieces.

Kavar has been a huge impact on my SL from always being willing to dress up for my photo ideas to encouraging me to try my hand at building whatever my mind can imagine. I’m not sure I’d still be in SL at all without him being there. We’ve been friends over a year now, and I still marvel at how quickly he became a very important part of both lives. When I need to talk or cry or vent or rant or all of the above plus anything else I can think of, he’s always there for me however I need him.

I know Ingrid Michaelson’s “The Way I Am” is more about romantic love, which is most definitely not the kind of love I have for Kavar, but I love the song, and its core of “you take me the way I am” is exactly how I feel about him. I’m a fairly private person with most people, but he knows everything there is to know about me by now, and he takes it all in stride. I trust him with everything. The song is also great because of the line “I’d buy you Rogaine when you start losing all your hair.” A certain SL hair designer is very fond of his real life mane, so it just seems like the perfect teasing line. By the way, I love this video too.

In addition to being my best friend, Kavar is also one of the guys with whom I share the beautiful Covet sim, and I love the other co-owners Kere and Ju, and I love the sim itself. In the photo of Covet, you can see signs for my shop Shine and Kavar’s shop Exile, and I love both of those too. I fell in love with Exile long ago and haven’t worn any other hair in over a year now, I guess, and Shine might just be a glimmer in my eye still without Kavar’s nagging encouragement. It’s just a big ol’ love fest in this short little post today.

Kavar, even though I’ve tried to hit a few highlights in this post, I really don’t have the words to thank you for who you are in both lives or to tell you how much you mean to me, but I hope you know, and I figure you do since I babble on like this a lot, and you seem to always be able to read my mind anyway. You’re my best friend anywhere. It’s as simple and as complex as that.

I probably spend more time being silly on Plurk these days than I do in SL. Plurk is my background distraction, and there always seems to be something going on to catch my attention for a few minutes. I’ve met new people there and gotten to know some people a bit better, and it’s all been fun for the most part. The different challenges even make me blog more though they tend to be fashion related so I post them over at the Exile blog instead of here. Love Thursday from Strawberry Singh is one idea I want to incorporate over at this blog though, so yay for that.

There’s a lot of love in that photo up there. I was hanging out with 3 of the people I see the most in SL (Kavar, Kere, and Ju from left to right), and it was a really perfect day. We were all excited and talking and just enjoying some down time together and daydreaming. Anyone who even glances at this blog or knows anything about me knows that Kavar is my best friend in SL. He’s the one who believes in me even when I forget how to do that myself. Kere is another of my closest friends, and he is always making me laugh because we can be big kids together. Ju is a newer friend but still really special, and I feel like we’re getting to know each other better all the time.

Then in addition to these people who I adore, that cool rainbow and clouds pose set we’re all lounging on is by Dove Swanson of Long Awkward Pose. I’m always using her poses and props for different things, so I want to make sure to include her in the love fest over here today. She makes a huge variety of useful and fun poses, and she’s been sweet enough lately to fit a few poses to my shape, which I really appreciate.

My friend Chloe celebrated her second rezday last week with a great rooftop gathering. I was really glad I could be part of the celebration, and it was fun to share our various SL beginnings with each other and to see the mix of people who care about Chloe. You can see in the photo below that Chloe, like most of us, has come a long way in refining her look over the last two years.

The party also reminded me that Chloe is just a week older than me in terms of SL, so my own second rezday is coming up this week. I’ll do a state of the Brandy post later about some of the highlights of my second year in SL. Since Chloe’s party, I’ve found myself trying to figure out where all the time has gone. It seems like the last year has passed in the blink of an eye, and sometimes, it feels I’ve done a lot, and other times, it feels like I’ve done nothing at all.

One of the things that I love about SL, however, is that I get to learn about people and events in a way that makes the world seem a bit more like that global village people discuss. I’m not sure I’d know much about the ongoing Victoria Bushfires in Australia for example if not for my friends in SL. Thankfully, all the Australians I know and care about are safe, but through them, an international news story feels like it’s happening in my backyard, and we can all do something to participate in the relief efforts.

Thanks to people like Autumn Hykova and Dakota Buck, we can easily donate money within SL to help with the relief for those people who have been affected. If you’re interested in contributing to their fundraiser with an item you’d like to donate sales from or through setting up a donation kiosk on your land, then IM Autumn Hykova for more information. Check out Achariya’s post We’re saving our own lives for some photos and slurls of fundraiser items already up for purchase, and I’m sure there will be many more such items soon.

Below you can see the set of eyes that I created for the fundraiser. Buy them at Shine located in Exile in Ivy Falls, and all money goes to the Victoria Bushfire Relief Fund.

We’re all in this together, and SL is one way that I’m reminded of that everyday.

That whole blogging mini-challenge didn’t exactly work out as planned, so my first post for it was also my last. Oh well. Maybe the next one will be better for me. I’ve been kind of busy this past week finishing up some things in SL and in my regular life and preparing for a trip. I’ll be spending some quality time with family for a week or so starting this Wednesday, and I definitely won’t be blogging or in SL during that time. You might see me pop up in Plurk, but I’m not sure.

Of course, there is a ton of stuff happening while I’m gone, but luckily, I can do most things either before the trip like Burning Life or after the trip like the Jewelry Exposition. My main reason for posting is actually related to Burning Life. I know there are tons of things to do and see there and that all of you will be running around trying to cram it all into a week, and I just want to suggest that you take time to check out Kere Delcon’s Burning Life installation.

Nga Kaitaki Whenua – Guardians of the Land is based on a selection of myths, legends, and customs of the Maori people of New Zealand, and it’s a visual treat. It’s also a great place to relax with your friends and take some photos. Walk all around the installation to check out the poses that Kere has placed in various locations, and you can also stand in the rings scattered around the area for more information and for free gifts related to the installation. You can see 2 of the 4 available T-shirts in the above photo of Kere and me.

In my SL profile, I mention that I’m generally quiet except for a select few who basically get to hear my entire brain just dumped out into text and/or voice without a filter. Lately though I’ve been thinking that the parts of those friendships that often mean the most to me are the times when we’re just quiet together. Quiet pauses can make me nervous with some people. I wonder what they’re thinking or if I seem boring or aloof or uninteresting, so my mind races ahead to try to come up with things to keep the conversation going. It stresses me out, and I know it’s all in my own head anyway.

Having friends with whom I can just be quiet and never feel that stress is a blessing. Sometimes we’re in the same space but working on separate projects and we’ll break the silence to show off or to see what the other person thinks. Other times, we’re just IMing and one or the other of us will wander away because of something in real life grabbing our attention, and it’s not a big deal. The conversation just picks up again later. Sure we have our times where it’s rapid-fire chatting, but those times where it’s kindred spirits quietly taking up some virtual space together are special to me. Even with all the things we can do in SL, simply sharing the quiet with someone else and knowing I’m not alone is sometimes exactly what I need.

And somewhat related to that, there are also people with whom I rarely exchange IMs because we each assume that the other must be busy with a million other things, and yet those people are some of the very ones I’d miss the most if I stopped seeing their names pop up in my friends list. I enjoy the talks we do share, but the quiet times in between are fine too. We’re always able to pick back up again wherever we left off last. They get that struggle I have sometimes when I feel lonely but don’t feel like being social.

Thank you for the quiet times because they speak volumes about how important you are to me.

“Silences make the real conversations between friends. Not the saying but the never needing to say is what counts.” –Margaret Lee Runbeck

Here it is Tuesday, and I still feel like I’m processing everything that happened last week. There’s Hair Fair 2008 of course, which I mentioned a bit in my last post. All kinds of good stuff happening there with lots of money being raised for Locks of Love.

This weekend was also the opening of the Wetherbee Gallery, featuring sculpture from Wolf Hartnell and sculpture and SL photography from Teal Freenote. There were so many tinies present at the opening that I actually changed into my tiny polar bear for the first time in public, and the time I spent there was a blast with the chat window just zooming by with everyone talking.

I had to leave that a little early to make my way to the grand reopening of Winterfell. The Winterfell Palace is no more and in its place is Taure En Lor, a beautiful gathering spot that one might describe as elvish steampunk. All I know is that it’s pretty and a wonderful spot for big parties like the one we had this weekend!

As the Winterfell party was winding down, Kavar mentioned that he was looking for something to do to unwind after all the hair fair madness, so we decided to go exploring and take photos. Of course with us that starts with an hour of trying to decide what to wear as we throw on this shirt that reminds us of those pants that leads to that hair that leads to this other shirt that… Well you get the idea. That’s half the fun of hanging out though, so it’s all good. Once we were finally on our way, we ended up in Templum ex Obscurum and then Tempura Island for just a bit before changing yet again to catch the art gallery show of one of Kavar’s friends, Gwen Carillon.

During most of this time, I’d also been talking with Kere about some building he was doing and assumed that he was working at Ivy Falls. Nope! It turned out that he’d been building an absolutely amazing underwater forum in Winterfell Sonnet! It was such a surprise, and I seriously love it. I hate that there’s a bug with high-res snapshots to disk not showing the glow so that I can’t show it off to everyone. By the way, I’d love for you to all vote on that one in JIRA here. I’ll have to get some more photos of it without the high res snapshots enabled so that you can really see how gorgeous it is.

Then on top of all that, Kavar made this great rocker hairstyle for the guys with dreads and a texture-changing cap, and I loved the textures so much that I swiped the dreads for myself and begged for a girls style using the textures. This morning I signed in to see City Chic all finished, and it has even more great textures for the hat. I’m totally in love. I put it on my head, finally picked one of the textures to stick with for a bit, changed clothes to match, and then ran off to snap photos. It will be at Exile soon!

I want to write about this past weekend before it gets too far away because it was such an incredible one. Saturday started with my first Winston Ackland concert at the Ivy Falls Cafe. Anybody who covers both Blue Oyster Cult and Carl Perkins well gets a gold star from me, and he had some lovely original songs as well. The best part is that along with his great voice, he has a sense of humor that keeps the entire set fun. While there, I started chatting with two people in the audience about various things and found out that one of them was actually Winston’s RL and SL wife. I’ve joined Winston’s group now, and I’m looking forward both to hearing him and to hanging out more with these new friends.

Of course the big event of the entire weekend was the party for Phoenix Ellsberg‘s 2nd rezday. Finally, I got to meet the rezday girl in person after quite some time counting her as a friend after commenting on each other’s blogs and Flickr streams. Wolf was the DJ and party planner, and he did great getting us all together to celebrate a wonderful person. New friendships were formed, and old friends got to reconnect. You really couldn’t have asked for a better time. By the end of the night, we were all christened as party animals, and there was so much positive energy that’s still flowing all around us and connecting us. Beautiful evening with beautiful people, and we’re definitely going to be getting together again soon.

Then Sunday continued the theme of excellence as I got to see the Changhigh Trinity Sisters yet again at the Ivy Falls Amphitheatre. I always love watching them as they dance with various props and gorgeous particle effects. Later in the day there was a Keiko concert to make sure that the weekend ended on a high note. A weekend with music and friends is really hard to beat in any life, and it has really recharged me.