The first bit of February has really flown by for me. It feels like the first of the month was yesterday, and I’m not sure where all the days have gone. I guess a bit of it has been eaten up by my Ozimals bunny addiction. They’re so cute that I just couldn’t resist any longer and had to get a few to keep me company.

I originally intended to just have a couple as pets living in my house, but then I decided to let them breed, and I needed a new plan. For now, I have a very simple meadow area set up in the sky for the bunnies to roam, and then I thought it was a perfect excuse for me to actually use one of the many prefabs tucked away in my inventory. I wanted something small and cozy and immediately thought of the red bungalow from Chez Toi.

You may recall that my last post highlighted a little beach cottage from Chez Toi, and at that time, it was the only item in the store. Now I’m happy to say that the shop has added this bungalow, a mattress covered in pillows and blankets, and a small cabinet to its inventory. I like mixture of colors on the mattress, and it also comes with 5 poses scattered in 3 parts of the set.

As I spend time with my bunnies, I keep going back to comfortable separates that seem good for spending lots of time in the grass and flowers. My Fusemelon sweaters in a variety of colors are getting a lot of use as well as these sweat pants from Cynful. The purple camo is a February special, available for just L$1, and there are lots of other colors in both solids and the camo pattern. The pants come with a low-rise option as well as 2 types of tube tops, but I find that the high-rise pants here are perfect for my casual days.

Body
Hair: Exile Ada / astral
Skin: Pink Fuel Skye – Girly (Valentines Bazaar)

Clothing
Lazy Places Jax Feathered (feet parts only)
Fusemelon Vneck Jumper Licorice
Cynful Sweat Pants Camo – Feb Special

Props
Chez Toi Floor Matty 3 person, 5 animations
Chez Toi Red Bungalow

After a few dormant months, the Ivy Falls sim has reopened temporarily as a winter wonderland. I’m not sure how long this version of Ivy Falls will be around, but I say we enjoy it while it’s here! As you explore, keep an eye out for 20 little collectible toys scattered throughout the sim. Click each one, and you’ll get toys of your own to take home with you. If you want a fun overview of the sim, then hop on board the Ivy Express with some friends and sit back and enjoy the ride.

One of my favorite parts is Santa’s toy factory. All the giant toys would make terrific backdrops for dolly-themed photos. Note to self – Come back for dolly photos!

I tried blending in with the angel choir, but I think my antlers had them worried that I played for the other team. Antlers and horns are totally different things though. I should know. I have both in my inventory. Oh maybe that’s what had them concerned.

I spent a bit of time digging through this big sack of presents. I was sure that with all those presents falling from the ceiling, at least one had to have my name on it, but no luck. I’ll have to go back to check again.

My antlers led to the local reindeer inviting me to join their family portrait. They were so sweet, much nicer than that angel choir.

Even though I highlighted the toy factory and Santa-themed area, I’m leaving you with this last photo to show that there are some lovely general snow areas to explore and photograph at Ivy Falls too. And please don’t overlook the ice skating rink, the ice bar by the amphitheatre, and the lovely warm tavern to warm up with some Guinness or hot chocolate or both.

Burning Life offers a massive amount of things to do and see, and there’s just no way I’ll get to explore it completely before it ends on the 25th. With that in mind, I scanned the Burning Life Flickr group for interesting locations as starting points for my travels, and I also hit up friends for their suggestions of course.

My very first stop at Burning Life was The Zoo by my good friend Kere Delcon.

Kere has created a build that places humans on the endangered species list. He asks how evolved we can consider ourselves when we still fight against not only each other but Mother Earth herself. This is a great place to just sit and think during your Burning Life exploration, and I’m sure you’ll come across fellow travelers while you’re there.

Kere pointed me to my next stop, the Temple by Damanios Thetan.

Inside the temple, you can leave messages for other visitors to read, which is a nice touch. The messages range from silly to profound, and the build makes you consider what message you want to leave in your wake as you travel. This is a great place for photos as very subtle changes in your Windlight settings make dramatic difference on how the temple looks.

Marcus Inkpen has created a dreamy mix of nature and machine in his Burning Life installation. Is time spiraling out of control? Are we simply watching as everything flies apart? What is our place in the world we’ve created? I’m a big steampunk fan, and this build appealed to that part of me.

Another build that takes my breath away is the Berlin Plaza. Kazuhiro Aridian created this as a DJ stage, but it is so much more than that and should be explored in its own right.

”

And what would Burning Life be without a bit of dancing in the flames?

I still have so much to go back to see, but I hope this gives others some ideas of places that might interest them. If you have suggestions of places that I shouldn’t miss, then please leave a comment here.

I rarely get snow days in my first life, and I miss them so much. I guess that’s why I find myself wandering snowy sims in SL, and I thought I’d share some of my favorites with you. None of these are big secrets, and I’m sure you’ve already been to most of them if you’re a fellow snow freak, but just in case you’re looking for snow, here are some sims you might enjoy.

These aren’t in any special order except for the first one. I can’t talk about snow without mentioning my home Ivy Falls. There’s ice skating, shopping, festive train rides, ice fishing, and a mix of fun seasonal freebies from wooden toys that are hidden around the sim to a frosty breath attachment and snowballs that can be found over by the fishing area in front of Exile. And if you get too cold doing all that, then maybe you’ll find the hidden underground fountain room with the heated pool.

Cu Mara is a magical snowy sim that seems particularly well suited for night photos and quiet reflection.

Oubliette is home to three great shops: Balderdash, Evie’s Closet, and Winx Home and Garden. There are a few sitting areas scattered around the sim in addition to a skating pond for both singles and couples. And if you really fall in love with the decorations around the sim, then it’s likely you can purchase them there as well. What’s not to love about such a pretty place where you can get a shopping fix at the same time?

The Refuge and Expansion by AM Radio is so well-known that I almost didn’t include it here, but the list wouldn’t be complete without it. I’m fond of the brand of nostalgia and retro details that AM Radio seems to bring to every build. There’s always something familiar yet not quite that familiar about these places.

Magic of Oz is a beautiful sim to explore any time of the year, but I have to say that I really love the way winter has arrived there. From the holiday carousel to the reindeer resting by the yellow brick road, there are lots of special areas to find and enjoy.

The last sim I want to mention, silent sparrow, is actually in the middle of some renovations, but Hyasynth is redoing the sim as a year-round winter sim, and there are already some nice nooks to discover. I’m happy to know that there’s going to be such a nice snowy sim available to us beyond the current snow season.

I signed up for the SL Bloggers Mix and Match a bit ago, and as a result, I’ve written a guest post about paying it forward in SL (topic suggested by Ganymedes Costagravas) for Living in the Metaverse. The topic I suggested – the impact of socialization outside SL through sites like Flickr and Plurk on relationships within SL – is being tackled by Uccello Poultry on the official SL blog. The guest writer here today is Quaintly Tuqiri of Quirky Quaintly, and the rest of this post is her detailed look at keeping new male residents engaged in SL as suggested by Eliza Wrigglesworth.

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How many of you remember your first week in SL^®? I vividly remember bumping into people all the time and apologising, “Sorry, I’m new, I can’t walk straight yet.” Everyone who heard that laughed, not at me (at least I hope not) but with me, because they’d all gone through it themselves and totally knew what I meant.

When you’re new in SL, there’s this learning curve, especially for someone like me who’s never played computer games before. No MMORPGs, no nothing, the only thing I used to play regularly was Minesweeper. And occasionally Solitaire. Oh yes, and back in my previous office we’d play Yahoo’s TextTwist. But all those hardly count, next to SL (okay, okay, I know SL’s not a game! Give me a break, will ya? )

Right, where was I? Oh yeah, the learning curve. I’m supposed to be telling you about “The lack of encouragement for new male residents to stay in Second Life”, but since I’m, err, female — does a quick check, right, okay, definitely female — I decided to conduct an Extremely Unscientific Survey among male residents to see what they had to say.

16 male residents responded, and the general consensus is that… [drum roll] … friends are generally the greatest form of encouragement for new male residents to stay in SL. “I came and went my first year. I hung around when I finally started making some friends and started going places and doing things with them,” says Dyami Jameson.

Adds Jerremy Darwin, “I think to stay interested in SL one needs to start making friends. The most wonderful places or builds don’t mean a thing if you don’t have friends to share it with.”

Guys need friends to monkey around with

However, at least two of the guys also noted that SL functions more like a social network than a game (okay, okay! I told you I know it’s not a game!). And, err, unlike women, most guys aren’t that much into socialising. Hold the rotten tomatoes! I didn’t say this, they said it! I’m just quoting! I’m not the one stereotyping and being sexist here!!

“I think men in Second Life are more motivated by ‘goals’ and scoring systems, which makes SL less attractive to them than women, who are more attracted to the social aspect of the metaverse,” comments Prad Prathivi. “Guys are naturally competitive and aim to lead the pack, which is harder and less obvious to achieve in SL.” I’m imagining all the guys reading this flexing their muscles now…

Peter Stindberg explains it this way: “Males want challenges, tasks and goals — all this is not apparent in SL. You need to find your own purpose in SL, make your own goals, find your own tasks. This makes SL less attractive compared to a kill-all-enemies-grab-all-gold type of game.” He suggests converting orientation stations into games which might offer a reward, perhaps a small amount of L$ or some sort of avatar clothing or equipment.

“It’s a stereotype, but give each new male resident a fishing rod and a shotgun, fill the Linden seas with fish and the forests with deer, reward each trophy with L$1 or status points or gadgets, and the crucial first days and weeks will pass more easily,” adds Peter.

Other suggestions included sending male avatars to a different starting location, for example a space/sci-fi sim, or one where weapons were welcome and combat enabled. Some of them come from MMORPGs and are used to shooting things, going on quests, having a goal. Let them shoot things! Give them a comfortable, familiar environment to start with! Lure them in, and before they know it, they’ll be stuck here like the rest of us. Muahahahahah!

It was also noted that there is not enough information about all the other things going on in SL apart from clubbing, “playing house”, and sex. “A quick look at the SLCN website reveals a lot more than you find on the main [SecondLife] website. For example, I discovered there was a football tournament,” Ciaran Laval says. Oooh football. As a mere female, I’ve never understood this fascination men have with that tiny round thing they go chasing around the field…

This difference in male-female perspective leads Jerremy to believe that there should be different types of marketing strategies targeting different demographic groups. Ads targeting males should focus on things that interest men more: “The power to control their world — building, scripting. The ability to watch or participate in unique sporting events. Machinima. Role-playing. And, as these are men, hot sexy women can’t hurt,” he grins. Of course, some… um… many males might enter SL for the sex, but that’s bound to pall after awhile. I think. Does sex ever get boring? Err… lemme rephrase. Does pixel humping ever get boring? Is that a resounding “NO!” I hear? o.O

The sex thing is part of the visual aspect of SL, though. If SL weren’t so dependent on visual content, and weren’t so open-ended, things might be different. But because visual content is an important aspect of SL, the avatar’s appearance is one of the crucial factors that will encourage a new male residents to stay on. Girls want to look pretty; guys want to look hunky. Or at least, they don’t want to look like ridiculous newbies. If they have to look ridiculous, they’d rather not be there at all. I mean, come on, if I had to stare at an ugly avatar on the screen all the time, I wouldn’t want to go inworld, either.

“There’s a certain ‘Ken & Barbie’ aspect to SL that seems to appeal to both sexes, and I find that most male residents enjoy ‘fixing up’ their avatar with the best-looking and highest quality items just as much as females,” Merrick Thor comments. I’ve seen Merrick as Captain America, the Human Torch and Bob the Builder, so I’m not sure what he’s referring to when he talks about fixing up his avatar with “the best-looking and highest quality items”, but never mind XD

So the prevalence of the fashion industry and the corresponding difficulty of finding good — or any — men’s clothing can be a stumbling block. “On the surface, SL seems like a place for women to buy clothes,” jokes Bone Mosten.

In fact, the lack of clothing for men is what has led Rik Pfalz to, more often than not, socialise as a female alt, Osiris Pfalz: “Although she was initially somewhere to hide out when I didn’t want to be disturbed, I soon realised that with so much more content in SL designed for women, Osiris became the obvious choice for parties and socialising. Well, that and I do have an interest in fashion, so was happy to have the excuse to buy more clothes!”

Men rarely get to be this pooped from SL shopping

However, Gahum Riptide, self-confessed male fashionista, notes that men’s fashion “has really begun to take off in the last year”. Male fashion blogs have blossomed, among them Winter Jefferson’s blog,
In Cold Blood; Lawless McBride’s blog, Half Arsed; Takeshi Ugajin’s blog, Shop with Takeshi; Lustinian Tomsen’s blog, Second Life Male Style and Fashion; Monta Horan’s blog, Monta; and Oscar Page’s blog, Oscaresque. Of course, one can’t leave out the collaborative blogs Men’s Second Style and SL Men, and now there are even two blogs covering male-related freebies: Free Finds for Men and Free for Men.

Having tried my best to help by fixing you guys up with these blogs, sometimes no amount of encouragement is going to get a male to stay (they’re stubborn that way). “Some guys won’t see any appeal in SL as it’s not a proper ‘game’, so they’re always going to be a lost market,” shrugs Prad.

**This post was brought to you by Quaintly Tuqiri of Quirky Quaintly. She would like to thank the other respondents not named/quoted here for participating in her Extremely Unscientific Survey: Tiyuk Quellmalz, Arne Lauridsen, Fricker Fraker, Crisitaly Pennell, Aldo Zond, ArminasX Saiman, and Bon Berman. She would also like to thank her photography models Merrick Thor, Elora Henig, and Immortal Wingtips for their patience

**This topic was brought to you by Eliza Wrigglesworth of the blog Free Finds For Men.

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!

Winterfell has a party on the 13th of each month, and last night we had a lovely spring fling in the palace gardens. It was my first time at a Winterfell party as Serra’s assistant, so I’m doubly glad that it all went so well. I finally got to meet DJ Star Fairymeadow in person after working with her via IMs to confirm the gig and theme and set up the stream. She was absolutely delightful, and her mix of love songs was not your typical love song set. I loved the variety, and I’m looking forward to hearing more of her sets in the future.

And trust me when I say that those of us in Winterfell know how to throw a good party. Where else would you get two giant goats as dance floors? A two-goat party means you’ve really made it, and obviously, Winterfell knows that.

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.

Well, I have a plan, and I need all of you to help me out with it. Some of you may have seen what I’m calling my “chair series” over on my Flickr stream. I’m one of those people who can create a collection/obsession out of just about anything, and I love the idea of having shots of me in the same chair in my home with a variety of people. You can see a shot of Rosie and me in my chair from Rustica below.

So now that I’ve decided I have a chair series, I need more of my friends to visit! And I’ve been needing to have a housewarming party anyway. And my RL birthday is coming up on Jan. 27, so that’s even more of a reason to spend time with my friends and have fun. It’s like the universe is saying, “Brandy, this is the best idea you’ve ever had!” Well, really, it’s just me being excited and thinking that to myself, but moving on.

On Saturday, January 26, I’m planning to be in my house from 1pm to 3pm SLT. If you’ve been to my house before, then feel to drop by without announcing yourself during that time, and if you haven’t visited yet, then just IM me, and I’ll send a limo directly to you. Don’t feel like you have to stay a long time or anything. It’s fine to just pop in for the photo and pop back out. These aren’t going to be photographic masterpieces and will just take a minute or two of your time. I just want some quick snapshots to celebrate my new house, my birthday, and the people who make SL wonderful.

There’s no dress code, and really, I’d love for you to come the way you feel most comfortable. Tinies can stand in the chair instead of sitting, and if you have families that want in on the action, feel free to bring along the kids and partners too. I guess the one requirement is that you fit into my house, so really big dragons and the like might not work, but we can certainly try!

In fact, any time on January 26, feel free to IM me to set up a photo for the series. I just might not be around during other times and/or I might be busy at that exact second. We’ll figure something out though. If you’re an old friend, new friend, friend I haven’t met yet, IM friend who I haven’t met in person, gorgeous friend who I miss super amounts (*cough*Izzy*cough*), blog friend, or just someone reading this post who thinks it sounds fun, then you’re invited. And the three people already in my chair series are most definitely invited back for another round of course.

If anything happens to change my plans on the 26th, I’ll post here. Mark Jan. 26 on your calendars!

Last night was Fantasy night at Lounge of Dreams, and while the crowd was a little small, the fun was huge as usual. Cam and Rocky brought out a variety of Final Fantasy avatars, which were a real trip down memory lane, and at one time or another, we had demons, mermen, vampires, dragons, and pixies. I went as the “Brandy likes fantasy too much to pick one thing” choice of neko drow fairy snow princess, and then Lico bit me to make me a vampire neko drow fairy snow princess. Can you tell we get a little silly?

All those people I bugged to come party with us last night are in big trouble by the way! I guess you’ll have to make it up to me by coming to 80s night tonight from 6pm-midnight SLT. If you won’t come for me or for the great music, then come for Kere Delcon’s yummy New Zealand accent. By the way, I took over 200 photos last night, and a few of those are up on my Flickr account now. To see other photos of the fun you’ve been missing visit the Lounge of Dreams Flickr group. Do you really want to miss any more?