As I’ve been playing in Photoshop this afternoon, I’ve had several folders of my music playing on shuffle in the background. I noticed that Second Life has influenced my playlists in a couple of ways. One, I learn about musicians in SL that I wouldn’t otherwise know about, and I get to go to their concerts and purchase their mp3s to enjoy later. Two, I’ve met friends in SL who mention songs to me that they think I’ll like or just remind me about songs by mentioning they’ve been listening to something a lot recently.

Attending concerts in SL was something I first experienced during the BlogHer conference in July 2007. Keiko was playing during one of the breaks between panels, and I was absolutely captivated. Her voice and her style really spoke to me, and I loved her choice of covers as well as her original music.

I immediately joined Keiko’s fan group, and for a few months, I attended her concerts whenever I could. At least once a week, I was hanging out in her audience and seeing many of the same faces every time. Then some other things started taking up more of my time, and I drifted away from the concerts. When I recently started finding the time to go to a few of them again, it was so nice to be remembered and to fall back into the general conversation with other Keiko fans. When I listen to the Keiko mp3s I have, I can still remember the first times I heard them in concert, and that definitely adds a little something to the music.

“Best Friend” by Keiko is probably one of my favorites even though I was initially confused by the lyrics “her big belly touching the ground”. It made much more sense when I realized it was “her feet barely touching the ground”. Thankfully, I also found out that I wasn’t the only one who started out hearing it the other way, so I didn’t feel quite as silly as I might have.

Another musician I found through SL was Marijke Freenote. I’m honestly not even sure if she’s still performing in SL. I lost track of her at some point, but I’m still listening to her music almost daily through my computer thanks to the mp3s I bought. She’s a Dutch singer who sings a mix of songs in both Dutch and English, and her voice is so pretty that I don’t really care if I can understand the lyrics or not. For someone like me who usually finds the lyrics the most likely part of a song to grab her, that’s kind of unusual.

Then in addition to these great musicians who play in SL, I’m constantly digging up old songs I’d forgotten or learning about new music because of friends I’ve met in SL. In recent weeks, the person other than me who has most influenced my playlists is probably Kavar. Thanks to him, Jordin Sparks and Westlife have found new life in my music line-up. The acoustic version of No Air by Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown and Flying Without Wings by Westlife are in particularly heavy rotation at the moment. He also hooked me on the American version of Queer as Folk a few months ago, and there are songs from that series that are among my all-time favorite songs now like Proud by Heather Small and Shine by Cyndi Lauper.

Do any of you have music to suggest? If there’s someone in SL that I absolutely have to see in concert as far as you’re concerned, then please let me know. I’m always ready to find new music.

The photo to the right of this paragraph was my 1000th upload to Flickr. These kinds of milestones seem like nice times to reflect, so I spent some time this morning looking through most of my photos on Flickr. I’ve been a member of Flickr for 10 months, and I’ve been in SL for about 16 months, so there’s a huge chunk of my SL experience documented there. I’ve seen and done so many wonderful things during these months, and I want to thank each of you who have been a part of those memories. Special thanks go to Kavar and Kere for being in that 1000th photo with me and for being amazing friends in general.

Another little milestone to celebrate is that my eyes are being sold at SL Exchange as well as OnRez now. I know both of those are working because I’ve had my first sale in each shop already. There aren’t even words to describe how excited I get about each sale. Me selling something I made in SL? It seems so odd still. I might even be trying my hand at making some other things that aren’t ready for public viewing yet. I’m finding the whole creation process a bit addicting.

Another new thing I’ve experienced today is transforming into my tiny polar bear avatar and flying in a tiny purple bi-plane courtesy of Wolf. Any reports of a tiny polar bear surprising Mr. Kere Delcon by flying into his home’s bathroom have, however, not been substantiated at this time. There are some indications I might have more tiny adventures this weekend, so I’ll keep you posted if I do. I definitely need more flight practice.

There’s so many happy things going on lately that I’m not even sure where to start. I guess that’s a big part of why I haven’t been posting to the blog lately. A lot of the good stuff has a common theme though, so I’m just going to start there. The common theme is Ivy Falls, a beautiful sim owned by Rekka Berchot and managed by Kere Delcon.

If home is where the heart is, then Ivy Falls is definitely home for me. Two of my closest friends live and work there, and now I also rent an amazing castle there as well. I still own my land in Winterfell and don’t intend to give that up any time soon, but I find that I’ve very much been in an Ivy Falls state of mind recently. You can see an outside shot of the castle to the right, and I’m sure I’ll do a post soon that’s a more involved tour. I’ve decorated it a bit more sparsely than my Winterfell house, but it also reflects a certain part of me that maybe isn’t quite as visible elsewhere.

Ivy Falls is also now home to some of my in-world photography in an exhibit at the Ivy Falls Gallery. It’s my first exhibit, and the whole experience has been really exciting. When Kere first asked me to share some of my shots there, I was honored but I didn’t feel like I had anything to display. He then spent some time with me going through all the photos in my Flickr stream and picking out a few of his favorites, and it was a really good experience for me to hear and see what someone else liked about them. Between that and the general encouragement from my friend Kavar, I’m noticing that I seem to have found the joy in documenting my experiences on Flickr again. A few people have told me I seem more myself lately, and I feel that way too.

You can see part of the Ivy Falls sim in the above screenshot that I snapped while playing with Windlight. I’m honored to say that shot is being used on a couple of signs within the sim and on the Ivy Falls website. It was also used in an Ivy Falls promotional video, and you can see Kavar and me dancing in the Ivy Falls Amphitheatre in that video as well. Kere made the video, and it’s amazing like everything else he touches.

I’m feeling this wave of positive and creative energy flowing around the people I care about, and it makes me so happy for all of us.

It began as just any other day in that virtual world that I may or may not be allowed to name here. And that’s a tongue-in-cheek reference to the trademark discussion that’s been discussed everywhere lately. I signed in for just a minute and then ended up spending the entire day hanging out. Good company always seems to just suck me right in, so my plans obviously got turned upside down a bit, but I was happy for the change.

Kavar and I decided we would check out some retro/vintage sims for screenshot opportunities and general exploring, but first we wanted to go gift shopping for some friends. We didn’t really know what we wanted to buy, but we started out by looking at Pillow Talk. That’s always a fun place, and the tire swing calls out to me whenever I’m there. We liked a few things while we were looking around, but we didn’t buy anything. One day, the big apple tree and tire swing will come home with me, but today wasn’t that day yet. It doesn’t really fit with the land and home I have now.

Then we did a big switch in themes from the country look of Pillow Talk to the much more urban Hysteria. There we found much to play with, and of course, we blended right in with everyone else in our outfits. It was the banana’s lucky day obviously to get such snazzy people for a visit.

So we dressed for a day of sophisticated retro exploration, and we ended up on tire swings and banana teeter totters. Can you believe the nerve of him getting us so sidetracked? No wonder we ended up having a huge argument at Hysteria. I’m sure it had nothing to do with me being insanely curious about what an “argue” poseball would do. A most random but thoroughly enjoyable way to spend the day.

Rosie posted another update about what’s going on with her and her mom. Lounge of Dreams had a benefit for Rosie and her family last night and raised over L$45,000 in addition to holding a few moments of silence to send positive energy together. There is still a donation box in the club for anyone who wants to donate, and anyone wanting more information about that can IM Camthan Hax.

I personally think the most amazing part of all of this is how so many of us who have been touched and blessed by Rosie are reaching out to our individual networks and asking for prayers, positive energy, meditation, candle lighting, etc. Rosie’s friend Marx Dudek has created a beautiful prayer and meditation garden dedicated to Rosie’s mom. You can go there any time by yourself or with groups of friends to pray or meditate, and if you’d like to join the vigils that Camthan Hax has been putting together, then just IM him to let him know. We all encourage you to take photos while you’re in the garden, and if you do, you can share those in a Flickr group called Prayers for Rosie’s Mother. It’s just one way for us to make sure that Rosie knows we’re here for her and will continue to do what we can.

I know that most everyone who reads this already knows and loves my dear friend Rosie Barthelmess, but on the off chance that you haven’t read her recent posts, I want to point this one out. Rosie is currently on an SL hiatus taking care of her RL mom in another state, and she’s asking for prayers, positive energy, happy thoughts, etc. Rosie has given all of us amazing amounts of love and energy in the relatively short time we’ve known her, and I think it’s the least we can do to share some of that back with her now. Please join us on the “march to God’s front porch” however you read that statement for yourself and let her and her mom know that you’re thinking of them. I’m slipping on my hiking shoes because I’m ready to do what I can to support my Rosie girl on the march, and I’m even going to torture you all by singing songs that include lyrics like “Second verse. Same as the first. A little bit louder, and a whole lot worse.” Seriously, if you have any good energy to spare, share some with Rosie and her mom. As my SL profile states, “Rosie is <3.”

I’ll be 32 on Sunday, and I still get excited like a little kid about my birthday. I cleared off all work and school responsibilities for today through Monday and gave myself the gift of a 4-day weekend. I kicked things off last night at Lounge of Dreams with an amazing Guilty Pleasures night with some of my favorite DJs – Camthan Hax, Rosie Barthelmess, and Kere Delcon. Guilty Pleasures is such a fun theme because it’s all the music that you dance around to and sing with when no one’s looking. Well, that’s what normal people do. If you’re me, then you just have no shame when it comes to music. I like what I like, and it covers a huge range of music types. It was also a blast seeing that so many of my friends like the same songs as me and finding some closet country lovers in the crowd.

Tonight is 80s night at Lounge of Dreams from 6pm-midnight SLT, so my birthday weekend continues in style! Rosie and Kere have amazing 80s nights every Friday at the club, and I’ll be debuting a very special outfit that a friend of mine will be selling in his store soon. So excited!

And let’s not forget that tomorrow (Saturday, Jan. 26, 1-3pm SLT) I’ll be hanging out at my house in Winterfell Ebonshire and hoping that people drop by for my chair series. I actually got some comments on that entry that I didn’t notice until just now because I’m not getting all my comments emailed to me for some reason and I don’t check the site itself very often, so maybe a few people will show up and keep me and Oscar (my Boxer puppy) company.

Oh, and I got an early birthday present from my friend Lico. Below is a pic of me and my new silly pet Licorice. I need an updated photo though. I changed his texture to pink hearts.

Thank you to everyone who made 2007 a little brighter with your friendship and support. I wish you all the very best of everything your hearts desire in 2008. At this time last year I had no way of knowing how many people would take up residence in my heart through my time in SL, and now I honestly don’t know what I would do without some of you.

I also don’t know where to start with how great my first New Year’s Eve in SL was, but I’ll try to do a quick chronological recap with the help of a few photos. I started the evening by going to Lounge of Dreams (What a shock! *grin*) and hanging out with Cam, one of the very best guys anywhere, until more people began to arrive. Hanging out with the whole group at the club is a lot of fun, but I have to admit that having Cam all to myself for a little bit was really special to me. Thank you Rosie for introducing me to Cam and so many other people who along with you have become my SL home. I wish you could have been there too, but I’ll just get all schmoopy with you next time. <3

I got to ring in the new year in my time zone with everyone at Lounge of Dreams, and then I ran out to spend some time with friends in Avilion. Yes, I got to wear two of my pretty pretty princess dresses in the same night, which just made me even more giddy. We started out in the drum circle where DJ Kere was streaming great music, and then we moved to the other Avilion sim where his stream was up to try to get away from some of the lag. It was a gorgeous winter wonderland, and we were pretty much the only people there most of the night.

After pouting a little bit about not having any special effects of my own, I got loaded up with a ton of them from my friends. With so few people in the sim, we all played around with the effects as we danced. My favorites were the white starbursts in the photo below and some lights that matched my dress and were titled “pwetty lights :p”. Perfect name if you ask me! We tried viewing the fireworks at midnight SLT in Avilion, but the lag just about killed all of us before a quick stop to listen to Moxy Barracuda at VLS before heading home.

While continuing to talk to my friends as we were hanging out at our homes, Kere mentioned his Rottweiler from Zooby’s and asked if I wanted to come see her. Well, of course I did! I’ve been going back and forth for months about getting a dog of my own, and that sent me over the edge. I had to go to Zooby’s, and while I was there trying to decide which puppy to take home, a friend asked for a limo to meet me there. While he picked out his new cat, I finally decided on my new boxer named Oscar. After walking Oscar a bit and taking a few photos, it was finally time for me to sign off at 6am my time. What a way to start 2008!

Something happened in SL yesterday that put me in a really sour mood, and I wasn’t going to write about it because I don’t like dwelling on those kinds of things. Then someone poked at me a little more this morning after I’d managed to get it out of my mind last night, so I think I’ll mention it here after all.

When I first came into SL back in February, I intended to focus on some of the educational communities in SL but never really found my place in them for whatever reason. Instead, I went exploring on my own and found other interests and ways to spend my time. I tend to be a bit of a loner at times anyway as I’ve mentioned here before. During all that, I did meet a few people who seemed interesting, and they were the first people added to my friends list. Our interests diverged over time, but we would chat every so often and sometimes go to events together.

You’ve never seen these people in my Flickr stream or heard me talk about them here because they specifically asked me not to do so. It’s not a request I really understood, but I respected it, and I’m still not mentioning names because this is about my reactions to recent conversations more than it is about them. Recently, these people elaborated on the reasons for not wanting me to mention them, and it hurt to know that they thought so little of some of the ways that I spend my SL time that they didn’t want their names associated with it. I pulled back from them a little, but we still talked from time to time.

Then yesterday they “staged an intervention” (their words) and let me know in no uncertain terms that they didn’t approve of how I was spending my time. They tried to make it sound like a good thing because I have so much more to offer SL than what I’m doing now and on and on, but it’s hard to sugarcoat the fact that they find my activities beneath them. It’s not a pleasant thing to hear from anyone, but at least it was all out in the open at that point. They laughably gave me a 2-day deadline to let them know my decision about whether or not I was changing my ways, and I probably surprised all of us by dropping them from my friends list then and there and asking them just not to contact me again.

Was I hurt? Yeah, I was. I won’t lie about that. Am I willing to become their obedient little clone so that we can pretend to be buddies? No, I’m not. My friends now and any future friends I meet are people who can see goofy me and serious me and flirty me and angry me and not lose sight of me. They’re the ones who make me happy to sign in to SL and who don’t think it’s strange that I want to be a drow neko one second and a proper Victorian lady the next. I’m fine with people deciding that I’m not for them, but there are certainly ways to do that without presenting me with an ultimatum that I need to change pronto or lose my friendship status. When it gets to that point, the status is just in name only anyway, so pulling the plug isn’t quite as traumatic as they may think.

So all that happened yesterday, and I was still in a mood about it last night when I went to Lounge of Dreams for the Atlantis Ball event. I played that dangerous game of self-talk and looked around the room and wondered how many of these other people I considered friends were thinking about all the ways I just wasn’t good enough. I was zoning in and out of the conversations, and I was feeling prickly. Then I started getting the sweetest IMs from people asking if I was OK and wanting to know if they could do anything for me and telling me how beautiful I was and how much they enjoyed having me around. People in public chat were talking about how I was family and joking with me, and as the event in the club was winding down and we moved to a smaller venue for the after party, I looked around me and thanked my lucky stars that I’ve found myself a really incredible home with a group of multifaceted brilliant beautiful people who care about me.

And that little personal realization was going to be the end of the whole saga for me until this morning when I received an IM from one of those interventionists in my email. She wanted to let me know that they’re not going to hold my hasty actions yesterday against me and will still give me a couple of days to think things over before deciding to cut ties with me. I happen to know that they’ve been checking this blog a billion times since yesterday, and I can only assume they want to see some mention of the whole mess here, so as one last gift to them, here it is. Thank you dear interventionists for proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that my “questionable” activity of hanging out in a club that happens to have stripping dancers has brought me better friends than you’ve ever been. You’re right that they’re not your kind of people, but that just means I’m not one of you either, and boy, does that make me happy.

More happiness:

Take a look at this photo and revel in the sweetness of a new couple.

The gorgeous avie on the left is Zin, one of my closest friends and someone who has been mentioned here a few times. On the right is her new girlfriend Brandy who you may remember me writing about when I was talking about two sisters looking for a place for some fantasy roleplaying. She’s one of those sisters. Being around friends who are falling for each other is happy just by itself, but there are some factors that make this even a little more special to me, and Zin and Brandy kindly said that I could share a little of their story here.

Zin and I have been friends for about 11 years. She’s one of those people I just immediately knew was going to be important to me as soon as we met. A couple of years ago, she told a small group of close friends that she had realized she was a lesbian. The one person who had a problem with that realization was her, and she started withdrawing from everyone. I reminded her that she had friends who were more than willing to talk with her when she was ready, but she just shut down her whole dating life completely. Any conversations about dating or even joining a gay and lesbian networking group were quickly shot down.

So please try to imagine my surprise when Zin told me last week that she felt like she was falling for Brandy and that Brandy returned her feelings. I was so freakin’ excited! They’d talked on the phone once at that point because Zin was a little concerned about Brandy possibly being a man in real life, and with that fear settled quickly, they could just focus on continuing to get to know each other. While they’re officially dating in SL now, their RL status is more up in the air until they meet each other face-to-face next month. Next month! Yay! I really hope this works out for them, but if they decide to just stay as friends, that’s great too because I’ve seen such a positive change in Zin already. She came out this week at her workplace and joined their gay and lesbian social group, and I’m just so unbelievably proud of her and happy for her. Seeing her falling in love with herself is even more awesome than seeing her and Brandy falling for each other.