Berry’s Memes: Double Threat Meme

April 11, 2015July 13, 2015 by Lisa Millar ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Time to take a break from blogging skins because I’m fair exhausted by it all (Did you spot what I did there? I have no shame..) and let my mind wander over to that special place where Strawberry Singh’s Meme Challenges reside. I haven’t done all of them yet but I do try to and I particularly like her latest, the ‘Double Threat Meme’. Here are my answers!

Two online screen names you’ve had: Well, my very first name ever online was Ookster. I had a cat named Ook, so I added to it and used that. I used that name all over the place in the early years of the internet on programs such as Pirch and ICQ, that kind of thing, so if you ever saw that name it was possible me! I don’t use either of those applications anymore, and over the years my online identity morphed into ‘Ookster the Kittywitch’, and now more often than not my online name is Kittywitch.

Two video games you’ve played: My favourite game ever was Superfrog on the Amiga. I could still play that and get happy today, it was just beautifully done and tons of fun to play. As for another game? Well, in my house there are currently 28 arcade machines, so as you can imagine I’ve played a lot! I guess my second favourite game would be Gauntlet II. We have a cracking example of of those and I always play Valkyrie as my character. Incidentally, I am USELESS at it. (Can I have a bonus? I love playing the Baby Park on Mario Kart. It’s just the whizzing round and throwing eggs and shells at people, such fun!)

Two things you love about Second Life: Dressing up and decorating my space. I love making Kitty look good, and I find the process very relaxing and enjoyable. It’s definitely therapy for me!

Two things you’ve done in Second Life: Gosh I’ve been here a while and done a lot of stuff! Two things? I was present for the last night of The Three Lions . (Stop the press, that was 8 bloody years ago!! It only feels like yesterday!!) That was a very entertaining, although poignant, night for all! I hung out with Richard Hawley when he played a gig in-world too. He said I looked good, which was nice. (I’d dressed up all Rockabilly style)

Two things you still want to do in Second Life: My ambition is to have my own pub/hangout ! Ah, if wishing made it so because I need the land and the cash to start with, but I really want to resurrect the feeling of The Three Lions again. I want a really good quality mesh build, it has to look right, and I want it to be somewhere that people come for music and dancing and frolics just like The Three Lions of old. As you can tell, I miss that place such a lot, and I know my pub would never be the same but I wouldn’t want it to be. I would want my venue to be inspired by the original, but to build on the community which that founded with the friends that I miss terribly. Sadly this is a complete pipe dream because it’s not something I can afford to do, so I live in hope of finding the perfect pub in-world still that will recreate the feeling I used to get at 3L. The second thing that I would like to do in Second Life is to help a designer craft a capsule wardrobe based on Kitty’s style ethos. That means plain but well-textured jersey frocks in great colours, shirts and denim skirts and leather and denim jackets, boots, sneakers and such BUT with one proviso: they MUST feature cats! (Dream would be that I would do this with Nylon Pinkney and Polyester Partridge. Can you imagine how fabulous that would be?!)

Two things you like about your Second Life avatar: like Kitty’s face. I do think she’s a very pretty avatar, and I also like the fact that her weight fluctuates just like in real life, so sometimes, depending on ‘her’ mood, she’s a bit chunkier on some days. I love the mesh bodies that are available now too, so often times I’m just lounging around in my virtual abode in my undies throwing outfits together and enjoying the view, as it were!

Two of your Second Life Pet-Peeves: Inflated egos and drama-llamas. Anything that ends up on SLSecrets really, ’nuff said!

Two things you did as a newbie that you’re embarrassed by: My original shape was ridiculous. Top heavy, super thin and hands like shovels. I thought I looked great but I looked a proper chuff. Also, I liked face-lights a bit too much. I’m not sorry. (In other words YE GODS THE EMBARRASSMENT! I AM SO SORRY!!)

Two of your closest friends in Second Life: Two very special friends are London Callin’ and Cyclic Gearz.

Two of the most beloved things in your inventory: This is a very tough question to answer. At the present time I have almost 58k inventory items which is an utterly ridiculous number, so thinking of something precious out of that lot is a hard task indeed! I’d be distraught if I lost my inventory, I really would and I’ve suffered that once before. It was few years ago now (fortunately it wasn’t as big) and it really did upset me very much. The thing is we invest emotion and money into our virtual things, so losing them can prove as hard as losing something precious in real life. I’m avoiding the question, can you tell? OK, I guess if I lost Kitty’s shape (her face has always been the same, apart from a few tweaks here and there) I’d be gutted because I’d feel like I’d lost ‘her’. As for something else? Well, anything cat related is pretty important to me, my collection of Chibi Cats made by Allegory Malaprop take pride of place in my virtual kitchen cupboards so losing them would break my heart!

Thanks again for a challenging Blogger,erm, challenge Berrycakes!

Berry’s Blogger Challenges: First & Recent Challenge

March 19, 2015July 13, 2015 by Lisa Millar ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Just taking a wee break from the Skin Fair 2015 posts to indulge in one of Berrycake‘s recent photo challenges, and chuff me it’s a bit of an eye-opener!

How much have I changed since 2007? How much has Second Life changed since 2007? SHEESH!! Confession time:this isn’t my first picture, but it is one from 2007 when the blog started. I wanted to feature something that included some similar colours to what I’m wearing in my more recent shot, but boy oh boy, we have textures and materials now! Look at the mesh tee; it’s creased and tied and looks practically realistic, whereas my frock back then has no definition at all. I mean, look at those cap sleeves *shudder* Thing is, I thought I looked ruddy amazing! (Stop laughing at the back, how dare you!)

Some things never change though. I still love my bobs and my eyeliner and my trinkets. I haven’t got such a wide mouth anymore, and although I’m a slim avatar I don’t suffer so badly with lollipop-head syndrome. I also had hands like plates of meat, I really did, and no manicures either. HOW DID WE MANAGE BEFORE MESH?!! Having a better graphics card in my PC also helps but wow, it’s amazing how we’ve evolved as avatars.

It’s good to look back and see how much Kitty has grown. And here’s a thought, if I’ve changed this much in eight years, well, where will Second Life be in another eight?! YIKES!

If you want to see how much further Kitty has changed over the years feel free to rummage through the archives of this blog. You never know what you’ll find, you’ve been warned!

BERRY’S MEMES: Yearbook Smile Challenge

January 8, 2015July 13, 2015 by Lisa Millar ♥ 1 Comment

The ever fragrant Strawberry Singh ( I bet she tastes of Strawberries and her farts smell of glittery rainbow sparkles, but that’s a conversation for another day I feel) has relaunched her Blogger Challenges and she’s started with an absolute stonker!

The latest challenge is to create a Yearbook style photo of your avatar. Berrycakes has created a Flickr group especially for these pictures and there are some fantastic images in there from all sorts of avatars in Second Life. There are even a few Linden contributions too! Of course mine had to mention cats in some way. I was going to write “Most likely to die alone and be eaten by her cats”, but Jez had an epic sad when I wrote that and said I wouldn’t die alone because I’d have him, which was rather sweet really. He’s clearly after something…

Anyway, if you want to take a picture and contribute to the rogues gallery then read all the instructions here on Berry’s Blog. Thanks for a corking meme challenge Berryburps!

FLAT EBBE LINDEN MEME

April 16, 2014May 5, 2014 by Lisa Millar ♥ 4 Comments

When Strawberry Singh released her new meme this week I knew that I would have to partake. But I’ve been so busy with real life that I figured I wouldn’t have time, so imagine my surprise when I logged in-world to find Ebbe Linden waiting for me! He was all snuggled up under my duvet with my hot water bottle wanting some Kitty cuddles. Apparently he’d heard that I’m incredibly good at the cuddling malarkey, I wonder who told him? Anyway I said Ok, just this once, as long as he didn’t make it a habit. I shuffled in beside him and propped myself up on some pillows…

Ebbe snuggled up beside me and asked me to tell him a story, so I decided to tell him what changes I’d like to see him bring to Second Life. This is what I suggested, in between offering sips of lovely warming hot chocolate and stroking his hair softly while he happily sucked his thumb.

1. Work on the Second Life pricing model from the ground up. It needs reconsideration, land prices are extortionate and so are tier fees. These need to be examined and reconsidered. It’s my firm belief that there could be so much more achieved in our virtual world if land were more reasonably priced.

2. Work on the Second Life image problem. Too many people think that Second Life ended years ago. It’s utterly ridiculous! If I could count how many times I’ve heard the phrase “Second Life? Is that still going?” I’d be counting for a very long time. For me it’s always felt as though Linden Lab isn’t very supportive of the environment that it’s created, does anyone else get that vibe? It’s almost as though we’re begrudgingly tolerated sometimes, and that’s not a good feeling. People in charge should be PROUD of our virtual community. What we need is Linden Lab to be more vocal about Second Life and what it has achieved. They need to be extolling the virtues of our community and work hard to really publicise the strengths of it in the media, rather than let them paint us all as sex-mad depraved perverts. (Well, some of us are of course, but not everyone!) We have such a rich, vibrant user-created world here to celebrate, not condemn. Let’s see if Ebbe really will support the residents and gain back some of the reputation that Second Life has sadly lost.

3. Make premium membership more inviting! To encourage sign-ups the Lab really do need to be more generous. A good start would be to increase weekly stipend payments from L$300 to L$500, and increase the prim limit in Linden Homes to 500 prims. Admittedly the introduction of mesh has made them easier to furnish but 250 prims doesn’t really allow for the frills and frippery that we all like to adorn our virtual homes with. In fact, perhaps it’s time to remodel the homes? Why not install mesh housing for a start, and get some of the best content creators in-world on side to help re-invigorate the living areas and give them all a fresh, new look. Linden Homes has always felt like a missed opportunity. It’s almost there, but not quite. It could be so much more, so could Ebbe be the CEO to sort it out? I hope so, I really do!

And with that, I covered Ebbe up and let him drift off to sleep as I sang the haunting lullaby, ‘Soft Kitty’, gently into his ears….ahem.

(PS I refuse to think I was the only person on the grid to think of THIS when I saw the words ‘Flat Ebbe’ on Berrycake’s blog!?!)

(PPSS Am I the only one who think Ebbe’s avatar looks like Todd from ‘Breaking Bad’?)