Some of you may be wondering why I’ve been featuring Jez so much recently. Well, the simple truth is, he looks a bugger, and when you’re surrounded by bods who make the effort it’s just not good enough:) I think the fault lies with WoW. I blame it for everything and as anyone who knows me is aware, the main reason you don’t see Jez in game is that he plays WoW more than he logs in to SL. This has led some people to think Jez is actually me..lol! Well can I just go on record as assuring you all that nothing could be further from the truth. Jez is not me. Jez is the character my RL fella uses in world when he bothers to log in, and think about it – if Jez had been me he’d have looked good from the beginning and we wouldn’t be having this conversation ;P)
SoI took Jez shopping, and boy did we have a good time! I’ve never really looked into men’s fashion before, seeing as I’m a girl and all, but there is just as much fabulous designer talent out there as there are for the ladies, and until now I was pretty ignorant of it, but I’ll certainly be following it a lot more now!
I bought Jez some corking outfits – he can be seen modelling then on my Flickr – but I’ve been looking for a coat for him. I’ve been glued all week to Mens’s Second Style ( http://www.second-man.com) and this has to be one of the best SL clothing websites out there. It’s an excellent substitution for my Linden Lifestyles addiction while the girls are away, but it’s definitely one that I’ll continue to read. The look of the blog, the links and the writing make for an excellent publication, and I have to say the clothes I’ve seen featured so far have been rather wonderful.
Anyway, I haven’t got him a coat as yet, because there are so many nice ones around that I may well have to buy him the lot. I’m especially loving the ‘Heroes’ inspired designs that I’ve seen, plus you can get ladies versions as well. Jez has kicked off and said that I can’t have one if he has one though. Big Jessie.
Lazy Kitty
I’d like to fill you in on my hot weekend of SL naughtiness..but alas, there is absolutely nothing to report. I’ve done nada, nuffink, nil in world this weekend. Well, that’s not actually true..I was sent to cover a story for ‘The Avastar’ but it turned out there was a mix-up and the event actually took place almost a month ago..so there’s me wandering around the sim like a fart wondering where everyone was and no wonder! I know we can fly in SL, but so far there isn’t a time travel facility, but I’m hoping that’ll be on the next release! I used my Mysti-tool to scan the sim and I wouldn’t have done that had I not attended the class last week, so it just shows that I’ve managed to retain some information in my pea sized brain! I was surprisingly restrained when it came to shopping as well over the weekend. That is until a notecard dropped into my inv from Goldielocks, and I saw the ‘Ophelia’ hairstyle….OMG utterly fabulous!!! Think Amy Winehouse meets Bet Lynch and you’ll understand the enormity of this hairstyle…it ROCKS. It would also make fabulous wedding hair, should you be so inclined……Anyway, the pictures of me modelling Ophelia in black are there for you all to see on my flickr to the right…..no excuses, go and buy it!
Mystical Cookies..
Interesting evening last night, a real mishmash of stuff. First off, I went over to the ‘Urbis’ sim to see an exhibition about that sadly missed palace of Madchester, The Hacienda. I was looking forward to it immensely because Sasha was supposedly doing a live set at the real Urbis concurrently and this was going to be streamed into a replica club. I simply adore Sasha. (‘Xpander’ is one of my fave club tunes of all time) Alas, either the dates were wrong or it just didn’t work, because there was no stream and no show. I was there for well over an hour, along with a few other avi’s who turned up for the event. Whilst I was hanging around waiting I got hassled by an utter idiot. I think I’ve been lucky in world because I haven’t really been griefed as much as some of my friends, who have really suffered. This chap was just plain rude. I say chap- I have no idea what ‘it’ actually was…a huge round type of ogre with no facial features and pink hair. I think it was someone’s lame attempt at making some sort of beast, but it actually resembled a somewhat deformed Eddie Large ( 80’s comedian in the UK) Straight away I noted said idiot had only been in game 3 days…and it explained *such* a lot. Cue a torrent of abuse ( “I’m just going to call you ‘My bitch’ WTF?” Are you 8 years old or something?) I finally had enough and left for pastures new…and found myself at aclass run by Mystical Cookie on getting the best out of ‘Mysti-tool’. Now before you get excited, said tool is not a pervy porn but is a must have item, and has achieved an almost cult-like status in world. It’s a HUD filled with a huge array of wonderfully useful things, from bug scanners to pose stands to emotes. Mystical Cookie, the creator, is *gorgeous* as well-a genuinely attractive avatar and a really nice helpful person. She’s also obviously uber-brainy, and explained the features concisely and patiently. She coped really well with loads of interruptions and questions from her audience, and I learned LOADS. I’ll be playing with some of the tools later, I’m sure. It’s a hugely worthwhile investment, not only because of the vast array of goodies the hud holds, but also because she upgrades it on a relatively regular basis for FREE. Before I realised it almost 2 hours had passed, and my brain was starting to ache with talk of scripting, something my head refuses to figure out.So I rounded off the eveiing at Moonshadow doing exactly what I had planned in the first place..dancing like a maniac. Only it wasn’t Sasha, it was DJ Jenns – a different DJ with a different style, but he raved us up as well as any superstar DJ!
Second business? Second thoughts..
Now, you’d be forgiven for thinking that my Second Life is spent shopping for clothes,posing for pictures or chucking a mental down at the-pub-that-I’ve-promised not-to-mention but hey, there is actually more to it than that! Granted, not much.. but I do try to add some substance to my daily adventures. Now, this is a bit of a shameless plug but as you’re probably aware I have an island for hire, so I spend a lot of time attempting to landscape and generally making it look very pretty. I’m not a scripter or builder so I use bought structures and nice things to make the Island look beautiful and I’m rather proud to say it does indeed look very lovely.
It’s actually a very daunting prospect having a large island space to fill, but it’s been a lot of fun making it look as windswept and interesting as I can. I’ve invested a lot of time and Lindens into it..now all I need are the punters!
And herein lies the rub..people think it’s really easy to establish a business in SL for some reason. The press hasn’t helped, a lot of newspapers and magazines have fuelled this perception and run features about making shed loads of dough in our world but not highlighted the pitfalls. For every Anshe Chung there’s a hundred less successful, yet equally hard working entrepreneurs. Then again, why do we assume that because it’s Second Life it will be easier? The mere fact that this is a virtual world should make people realise that it’s going to be more difficult. And yet more peeps flood the grid on a daily basis, looking for ways to exploit this supposed cash-cow. The harsh fact remains: an in-world business is not the same as a real world business, no matter how you package it. Even applying commonly used real life business models to Second Life does not guarantee you success. In the future I’m sure it will be easier to achieve, but for now (however much you’re tempted) unless you have financial backing and many hours to dedicate to the task, don’t even give it a second thought.
Kittywitchin' 