AudSLife

Moving On

2011-07-26T23:31:00.003+10:00

Good Bye Audrey
I think it is over.
My RL is looking good. New job and the new home well on the way now.
I think it is going to be good times for a while now. Cross my fingers
Good bye to all who made SL a very special time for me
x

Hiccups

2011-06-11T09:32:00.003+10:00

Ahhh I have the hiccups... so I am bobbing in my chair as I type today! Are they a metaphor? In a little while will all the hiccups go away if I am patient?
So it is Saturday morning:
I have sent my dear Taz off to bed and am now fiddling with blogs, bunnies and will soon join D2 in Wizard 101.
I spent a little time at the Pirates and Zombies RFL dance but I simply couldn't locate the donation jar. No idea what kind of blindness I was suffering from!
And now I am uploading a few photos of the progress on the home front. I still haven't received my settlement but the builder has started without even waiting for his payment. Trusting fellow. It is totally exasperating that I can't pay him. I am trying to view it as a hiccup. It will all be good eventually and won't kill me in the meantime!

RL and SL

2011-06-07T20:49:00.007+10:00

Welcome to Suburbia!

This has been excruciatingly slow. I guess everyone who has done it will have their own stories about the difficulties of separating from a spouse. No need then to catalogue mine here. Today I got served notice by the government land authority to finalize the sale in 14 days or else. It's not my fault
sigh

Never the less! I am feeling optimistic! I think I should have things sorted before 14 days. I really do! And the builder isn't even going to wait for the land to be in my name! He has paint marks on the ground and an excavator booked to come dig my block.

My dining room is now more than 2 layers deep. I really am ready now. The time it will take to build will be exciting and agonising because I am so ready for the next thing.

SL is really about my 6th life these days. I check the bunnies and pay tier and that's about it. Taking this photo caused me to crash twice.
I gave another online game a shot. This is me as a wizard. It held my attention for a couple of days but honestly without the building component, it just doesn't ring my bells. I have run up and down streets fetching messages for the wizard world and casting spells but... it isn't SL My name in there is Grace Spellsomething or another. Should be Ghrace Spell Badly

Judo

2011-05-23T21:58:00.003+10:00

Hello!
Well over the weekend, I think it was Friday I got a tap at my IM window and it was Miss Magz. She wanted to know if I was still making tiny clothes and if she could commission a tiny Judo set. I just can't make myself say no as I do love a project. I knew I would be too busy with RL for the first day or so, but come Sunday I was ready to flex my stiffened building muscles. I crashed around about 14 times.

sigh

but finally the tiny Judogi was made. I am putting it out as a Swagtastic offering in Raglan this coming weekend and then it will join my regular stock

Pendulum Swings

2011-05-19T20:18:00.002+10:00

Sighs heavily. I was 5th out of 42 for the job I went and interviewed for. They did say it was for several positions, but they have offered and have been accepted the first and there is no talk of any more immediately.
The land sale has hit a snag. The property settlement for me to leave this house to be able to buy the next has gone a lot slower than my lawyers could have expected and so it isn't ready. i face large penalties if i do not have the funds.
It is rather exasperating.
Add to that a full moon that is making the vast majority of everyone round me (and including me) act like lunatics....
I bet one day the only time I will blog will be full moons!

Oh!
Turn your blog into a book
My friend Sylvia has turned a year worth of her blog into a book. It is completely sensational. I so badly would love to have this blog made into a book! Mostly the early times before I lost some of my SL Zing! but it would be lovely to be able to pick it up and flick through all the photos and stories.
Sylvia is the queen of blogging. her book is full of the most wonderful photos of food, friends and stitching
Sylvia's Blog

Today

2011-05-12T22:16:00.000+10:00

Today I have had good news. My land is ready and I have some days to find the money. I will try not to think how worried that makes me.
And I got great feed back from the interview. I got to read the report and as my Taz said.. I might end up with a big head as a result (actually he didn't say 'might')
So that leaves me feeling a bit dazed and enjoying.....
What I am listening to.....

Rio Bravo

2011-05-01T20:11:00.005+10:00

Ah... well... the land diet? Well I have had to do something.

I haven't had enough prims to rez a skirt, so I checked the profile picks of Syn Short and found a little corner of SL for me to rent at a good price. For fun over Easter I set up with bunnies again. I don't plan on the full on obsession this time and after a little while I will remove a few. I allowed myself $20 holiday spending and when that is done, it will be byebye bunnies. Once they are gone, then I will furnish the house and start dress making again. I have a notion to make tiny wedding dresses. I have two stores now and thought one might become the formal wear store? Dunno.. just thinkin'

But it is nice to have a place to call home

uh oh

2011-04-23T11:30:00.002+10:00

I have a long weekend... it was an April long weekend that got me hooked in bunnies last year! I gave myself $20 to play with and bunnied....and now it's a long weekend again...and the ozzie dollar is looking mighty powerful... and I have bought 6 so far and run out of prims.... gulp

2011-04-22T23:19:00.000+10:00

Dear kids
You are what keep me here
Love Mum

Mark!

2011-04-21T21:28:00.001+10:00

Second Life Nesting

2011-04-10T19:24:00.003+10:00

Today I did what I have needed to do for ages. I persisted against the evil lag and finally settled into Glengary. I have turned the shop round and added a garden. I have installed the platypodes

I got to thinking while in SL for a longish stretch for the first time in ages...
I miss the old folk
I want Zealot making me laugh
I want Gabbi and Hotspur sparing
And the dances where people talked in open chat
And scandal rocked our world from time to time
and the widows rocked while lamenting lost loves
When all the old folk would M'Lady and M'lord and in cultured tones say the naughtiest things
And I could build and build and build
Idon't like to lament the passing of time, but I do miss these things

More real life nesting

2011-04-10T00:06:00.003+10:00

Today I finally paid off my Mastercard with all ts accumulated goodies... even left a little bit of positive there.. and then swiftly went about buying a little more..

While I was in Sydney I drove down Parramatta Rd looking for 2ndsworld...
Parramatta Rd must simply be the Mecca for the home builder. My eyes boggled at all the places I wanted to stop and shop but I was so nervous with the traffic I didn't dare stop in case I could never pull out again. As it was, when I stopped at 2ndsworld, I couldn't actually head off in the direction I was planning and so had to go back down past temptation.
I found myself in the middle of a cluster of lighting shops. I wandered into the first one which was about as big as a shoe box. The man was friendly but nothing was priced so he followed me round the shop with a calculator and pencil and made up prices as I cooed.

I could have bought loads. I bought 6. He didn't have one style in store so he promised to post them to me for $15. Not even covering his cost.

They arrived in the post in just day!.. I can't find a photo of them on line, but they are sort of like this:

Black cane, but mine are not vertical lines, mine are horizontal ones.

The next set were a drum shaped light fitting. Sort of like this:

I bought the cane ones for the family room and the drums for the lounge. However the cane ones hold just one globe each while the drums hold three. I am thinking it would be better to have more light in the family room so I will now probably go the other way.

Well.. the debt from my light fitting jaunt was cleared.. long enough for me to go and investigate the Harris Scarf store that has opened and low and behold they had massive reductions off cutlery. Well I have been trying to get Taz interested in my plannings but I think the talk of the cutlery purchase might have been the last straw (taps were the second last one).

Anyway.. these are they! 12 persons worth at about 1/5 of the price. Well we all know they mark things up to reduce them, but they are a nice classic style with enough pieces for me to have guests.

For the foreseeable future, Audslife will become my building and home planning blog. Taz is tired of the stories already so I am going to bother myself with them instead :P

Progress

2011-04-08T23:09:00.004+10:00

It's been quite a week!
I went to Sydney to help open the new store. The store there will eventually be the Big sister store and the one I run will have to toddle along behind. Something my pride isn't too easy with. However the first day's trade pretty much said it all! Nice to be able to say that I helped.

And as if timed to perfection, the public service department that interviewed me phoned and arranged a conference call with Chris my boss. I hear on the grape vine that they said something like "She sounds like just what we want" when Chris described how I have managed things here in Canberra.

I will miss this job so much. I love it. I do it pretty well. There are days I feel like the swan.. gliding smoothly across the Hobbysew waters while the feet are paddling like mad under water.
But most of all i will miss the Hobbysew family. I don't think any one could ask for a better group of people to work with. Sometimes the closeness is half the problem, but they have supported me through the 4 toughest years of my life.

I suspect I am going to cry when it is time to leave. hmmm make that "know" not "suspect"

The contracts on my new home have been exchanged but it seems the government has not progressed with the land development so it is not ready for release yet. Goodness knows when.

They had better hurry up as my dinning room has run out of room. I have added 6 boxes of light fittings, three boxes of pantry containers, 3 boxes of 800x 800mm tiles.

I have been having fun on EBay buying "art". Once you have seen too much of them they start to not lok so much like art as photocopies, but in isolation, I love these purchases. Am now plotting getting them framed.

sing in my chair

2011-03-28T00:14:00.001+11:00

I dance in my chair when I hear....

I guess this is not to everyone's taste.. but this is just so happy i can't help wanting to hear it again

Relay for Life

2011-03-25T23:10:00.004+11:00

This time last year I was helping build for the Caledon RFL team. This time, with full time work I don't have time to contend with the lag that is SL. So I haven't been even reading the IMs on the subject let alone joining in.
So I was kinda chuffed when Autopilotpatty asked me to build a lantern for her as part of the RFL activities.
I built the lantern... eventually and Patty was very happy with it and asked if I would be happy to put it in a RFL vendor. Well of course!
Only thing is that I was then sent the vendor to set up! Well with my lag it tool three crashes and the better part of an hour to get it all happening. But it is happening and you can buy a set of three copyable lanterns in the three shades.

The Interview

2011-03-25T18:05:00.002+11:00

I arrived on time (no thanks to the traffic) and sat waiting, preparing myself for the written part of the test. It had said I would be given material that I would then have to produce a document from. Potentially a letter.
Well, the kind fellow took me in 5 minutes early and I am sure he gave me extra time. And the task was so easy that I fear I have misunderstood it. I spent 5 minutes working on perfect formatting.

Then on to the interview!
I was given the three questions and 20 minutes to prepare. I had some answers semi prepared, ready to adjust to the exact question. I decided to go with one whole new example of "seeking help from a colleague".
And I thought hard
Sent a txt to my tiger to tell him that I had finished part1, then wondered where the toilet might be in time for a smiling young lady to come shake my hand and lead me off to the interview.

The room had three people. Two younger ladies who smiled, and made eye contact and an older gent who did not make eye contact after first shaking my hand. I had been told not to expect any eye contact but just hurried scribbling, so two smiling ladies put me at ease. At one point though I wished they would scribble something. I hoped I was saying something worth recording.

At last I said something magnificent and they cooed and made notes so I did at least something right. Actually, I think I did as good a job as I could do. I suppose with practice I can do it better, but for the time being I don't regret much from that interview.

We got through to the end and I was elated and could have hi-5ed when the older guy looked up and barked
"but are you comfortable with a keyboard?"

What do you think? I told him I was and didn't let on that actually I am obsessed with all things keyboard :)

Looking for a Job

2011-03-15T21:28:00.002+11:00

There are somethings about my job that are simply great. The people.. the environment, the things we get to deal with every day. It is a wonderful lucky thing. But at the bottom of it all, it is retail. My experience is that in retail everyone thinks you are a bit more stupid than they they are, unless you own the business, which I don't. As a result, the pay is not so great, your successes are attributed to people higher up the food chain and there is no "career path".

So I am looking for another job. I am aiming at lowly levels and the pay there will be several thousand a year more than I currently get. 10 days ago I was requested to do some on line testing as the second round to an application. I was excited. I rather like testing.

Well... oh boy! I managed my time badly and didn't come close to finishing the tests. The first one I could have finished if I had more time and if I had managed my time better. But the second one was plain old hard. By the end of the time there, I wasn't finished but my brain hurt so much it wasn't in the mood to go any longer anyway :)
So I figured I had flunked. I imagined all the youngsters who were still in the exam mode blitzing past me.

Today I got an email.. I am on to the next round! I am above average in the Inductive Reasoning part and well above for Verbal Reasoning. Yay! My brain isn't too old after all.

If I actually get the job, I will die of fright. I do love my job. There are aspects about it that are not so good for me. But I do love it.

oh!

2011-03-14T08:11:00.004+11:00

Hello folk
Sometimes I forget that people are out there listening and I was very pleased to hear your voices after my last post. It was brief but there is a much fuller story behind as you might guess.

In SL I have two corners of land still. A shop in Raglan and a home in Glengary. I think The Glen is a laggier place than Downs was. Don't know why, but the 5 bunnies I have there don't seem able to breed without me interfering... so they don't breed because right now I am not so much into bunnies.
I did say no more bunnies but it seemed too still and lonesome without something bouncing round. So I have a few who insist on hopping out onto Des's land and then autoreturn throws them back into my inventory. Sometime I will build a new shop and a garden so that it all sits better with the landscape.

With less land, my sales of bits and bobs, mostly tiny clothes, are seeing my linden balance actually grow a little so I am self sustaining once more. That means when I get my Internet speed fixed at my new home, I might be able to enjoy SL again.

Meanwhile I am amassing a collection for my new RL. I have been on-line shopping. I have been ebaying and researching. Not all things end up being an EBay purchase but I usually begin there to get an idea of the going rates for things. I pick on a subject then chase it to a conclusion. I have bought two beds and mattresses, 6 chairs, a desk, two sofas, a fridge, a washing machine, a house worth of door handles, kitchen containers, a Christmas tree, doonas, pillows, kitchen utensils, bed linen, a vacuum.........

My current projects are 800mm square tiles for a kitchen splashback and bathroom vanities. The builder's allowance for these is pitiful and unless I shop elsewhere I am going to have less than I want ;)

The result of all this squirreling is that my dining room is now all but inaccessible and my lounge room has two sofa pillars at one end wrapped and ready for the move.

It is fun and it is also a distraction from the more distressful side of my divorce. This is frivolous but there is the underlying sadness and worry. But there is also the core of hope and dreams of what comes next. I am building a nest of dreams.

No Blogging.. No 2nd Life

2011-03-09T06:25:00.002+11:00

A whole month and more and no posts!
My SL has crawled to a halt. The lag is now so bad I can barely move. Building is an exercise in frustration. Now and then I open up to check that things are where I left them, but that's about it. I open Caledon chat and watch but even he names there have changed so that an entire conversation can be carried out by people i have never heard of and who don't respond to anything I have to add.
So times have indeed changed.

I don't lament too much as I am so focused on RL now that I don't haven any time for SL angst.
So don't worry about me :)

What is Blog

2011-02-04T14:12:00.002+11:00

How long have I been blogging?
I think this one began in 2007.
Yesterday a work colleague gave me some lip as she was to prepare a blog item for the enterprise. She insisted a blog entry has to be 250 words and include a photo.
That's what a blog "is"
Well epic fail to me!

(I am amused that Blogspot's spell check doesn't recognize any word that includes the base "blog" or even the word blog itself!)

Pippa Moppet

2011-02-04T14:08:00.004+11:00

Each week I put up a Moppet item for the Swagtastic weekends in Raglan. This week it is Pippa Moppet.

I have lately been astounded at the way time has been passing by.. The Swagtastic weekends have been going on for months and I haven't had to repeat anything yet (Though there have been some weeks I simply didnt get in world on time and long enough to put up a new one)
Anyway, if you are wandering around Raglan, drop into my store as there will usually be a new 50L offering available each week

pfffft

2011-01-30T17:49:00.004+11:00

I am incorrigible
My state of homelessness lasted a fortnight!
I asked Des... and he happened to have a tiny little block to spare. The rent is only 475L$.. so I have paid up 13 weeks of rent!
I think with that much time up my sleeves, I should easily have more tier earned before my next payment is due
Not many prims to use... but somewhere to get changed. Rez a box. Make a skirt.
It's in Caledon. In fact it is in the first sim I ever watched being born. I am sure I blogged about it way back when
Huzzah!

Where am I?

2011-01-27T08:30:00.002+11:00

I am homeless in SL!
Finally I did it! I stopped the hand wringing, the moaning and procrastinating and gave up my last bit of Caledon. I miss having a home... but not so much as I would have. I open SL, check my Linden balance look around for three minutes and leave.
I may find a quiet, small block somewhere. Since abandoning bunnies, cats and tier for my big block, my funds have actually been increasing.. so perhaps once i have a good number of weeks saved, I will hunt down a small block with enough prims for me to rez a tiny skirt, or build another house.....

and two days later

2011-01-10T17:04:00.003+11:00

they are growing so fast
2 weeks and two days old

and the most recent addition to the family...

2011-01-09T17:47:00.003+11:00

I find RL pets more satisfying than the SL ones
More and more RL seduces me away :)

Birds

2011-01-08T13:35:00.004+11:00

Dad's mother and father lived at the bottom of our street, his mother's parents lived on the same street until they retired and my great grandmother lived down the back lane. It was a small country town and we all grew up wandering between houses.
When Dad was little, his mother would pin a label to him advising which ever house he turned up in, where he was supposed to be.

My earliest memories was wandering down the road to my grandfathers house to visit him and help him feed the birds. He had three aviaries. One had a flight passage that he could drive his car under. We are talking about serious bird keeping here :)
Before he retired to the coast, he began to build an aviary in our yard so that we could take over his many parrots. He was taking the finches and Cocky with him.

Each afternoon for some months in 1977, I would come home from my new high school to see what progress he had made. We were very close and I would sit with him on the grass as he tied wire, cemented the bottoms of the long sheets of wire into the ground, installed the concrete bath and so on.

Finally the cage was built, the parrots installed and he and Nanny moved to the coast. There he built another aviary for the finches and installed Cocky in his own cage.

Every holiday he and I would spend hours sitting in his aviary feeding the finches, following their lives and I have no idea what else we talked about but we spent hours together. It was only a matter of time before he offered me a couple of his canaries, and built me a small cage to keep them inside.

Mum got quiet tired of the mess so for my 17 birthday dad built me a cage...
well blah blah blah...
what I am saying is that from as long as I can remember, keeping pets, particularly birds, was intricately entwined with my sense of family and home.
(At this point the tally was something like one dog, two cats a tank of fish, 18 parrots + budgies+60 finches and a dozen canaries)

My grandfather passed away in 1986 and my grandmother gave his birds away.

On and off through my adult life I dabbled with birds but when my children were born and we moved a few times, it was too hard to keep them.

Last September we were at the coast and I happened to drop into a pet shop, saw canaries and a longing to tie myself back into those memories tugged at me hard!
I didn't resist!

I never imagined how much the kids would enjoy them.

For me it is the memory of my grandfather that is so strong. It's in the smells, the sounds... its very comforting. I wish I could share it with him.

2010/2011

2011-01-02T00:11:00.004+11:00

Otenth mentioned in Plurk-land that he had taken time to look at his year and his outlook for the next (Otenth's Blog) so maybe I should give something similar as shot?
2010 RL: A balancing act has been played between the happiness of my children, my (estranged) husband, my partner, Taz, my work and colleagues and myself.
Over and again I put other's happiness before my own and then found that life was not going to be survivable if I didn't insert my happiness somewhere into the equation. Then when I asserted my own happiness I felt so selfish I could barely move.
So I thrashed around in indecision.

My parents reached out to me with an offer I was too proud to accept. Finally though, I confided in a good friend of mine who put a simple notion to me: If my children were ever to find themselves in my situation and I had the capacity to help them, wouldn't I want, and insist on giving them that help?

There was only one answer to that and I asked my parents for their help which they have readily done and their generosity makes me proud to be their daughter.

And so my marriage is over.
First time I have ever typed that. It's not easy but it is a relief. I regret for my husbands sake that it has come to this. I think I expected too much and he too little. And neither compromising.

There will be definitely some who will see the causes as SL and my partner. I get a feeling people think I should not want to admit the truth "yes" which in part it was. But it certainly is not that simple.

Before SL I felt emotionally dead and essentially worthless. There I found out that I had value somewhere and that there was a chance to aim for happiness. SL didn't break my marriage, but it did give me confidence and reason to leave the broken marriage behind.

So 2010 has been a year where my past has been in my head constantly as I have tried to be objective; when I have had the care of many people in my hands; where I have had the plans for my future and my kids and my work and my husband and my partner Taz; concerns for parents who are making a sacrifice for me. No wonder my brain gave up dealing with it and wrote those tragic blogs a couple of months ago.

So!
2011?
Well if I can get this arranged, the plan is to build a new house near this one so that my kids can move freely between homes.
The plan is to go to full time work
The plan is to see how many Tiny dresses I can sell and each time I get a little more money, I pay a little more tier, and when the money runs out, then I will become a homeless SL vagrant :) But this doesn't worry me like it once would have.

My SL was because my RL wasn't.

I am frightened and excited. I will be poor but I will explore who I am. I look forward to being a better mother to my kids as I embrace my life again.
I hope I am on the right path

Real Life Births on Christmas Day

2010-12-27T14:48:00.004+11:00

The babies are not beautiful yet... but we are all very proud!
So far we have three hatchlings. The fourth egg seems to be stubbornly staying unhatched so I guess that means three is our lucky number

funny

2010-12-27T10:55:00.002+11:00

Christmas Lights

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T12:57:00.003+11:00

Merry Christmas to you all

Tonight's the Night!

2010-12-21T16:25:00.000+11:00

Look at the sky!
Enjoy the moon!

Full Moon Warning

2010-12-18T18:20:00.002+11:00

OK... I warned you... full moons mean mischief..
The next one is going to be a doozy.. due on Tuesday and some kind of special eclipse going on with it too... Can't wait!
(Checks prescription to make sure that she has all necessary cheerying drugs to survive it)
It's going to be a total lunar eclipse, and had I been having my harbour cruise one day later, I could have watched the eclipse from a boat while sipping fruity cocktails celebrating Christmas in Sydney.

Switch to Summmer

2010-12-12T20:08:00.001+11:00

While Caledon is snow bound, in RL it is summer and I had to do something to celebrate....We have had lots of long awaited rain and the air is filled with butterflies and bugs...

Mr and Mrs Claws

2010-12-07T07:31:00.001+11:00

more Moppets

School Girl Moppets

2010-11-29T14:47:00.002+11:00

I was in the mood to build and was thinking about some of my cute biggee outfits...

2010-11-26T23:04:00.002+11:00

In RL

Today I have been so busy in RL. I had a class on tonight and I had to get this finished. I have been really dragging my feet lately getting things done but today I was on full steam ahead.

Taz fell asleep while we were talking. ( I fascinate him, can you tell?) So while he slept, I wrote up the class notes for tonight. He woke just as I was nearly done so then I was able to run back to the sewing machine where I stayed all day except for a slight diversion to rescue a beaten up canary.

(Canary now sleeping in an upside down shopping basket to give him a chance to recover from the bullying)

Finally, with 20 minutes to spare, I was done and the above is the finished product. It's called
"Who's Who"
Pretty cute! We have been advertising the pattern through the store and it is doing quite well which is gratifying and will contribute in a small way to my great plans to build a new home.
Happy day

Feeling Cheerful

2010-11-24T21:40:00.001+11:00

Uhhu.. that's right.. cheerful and positive and maybe even relaxed....
Still dont have the answers but I will go and watch House and not worry for now
:)

Hunky Dorey

2010-11-21T09:41:00.002+11:00

I have woken hunky dory
What a phony I am!
Not that I want to be consistent with the kind of misery that was my last few days and what a blessed relief!

Today's thought:

I love living "these days"
I love living with a mobile phone that can call most places on the planet at a moment notice for a price that isn't ruinous.
I love living in a time when you can chat and play with other people anywhere... and time.
I am not a political beastie. I am not at all into nationalism. I think it stands between good people and common sense. I love the Internet's multinational forum. How it equalises. Where only someone's behavior is their marker, not their wealth or their colour. I love that.
I love that we can meet and make friends of people anywhere. I love that we can fall in love anywhere.

More and more I hear people say they met on line. My mother is terrified of it. Ax murderers and all. I do remind her that as many poorly behaved people - more- can be found at a pub.

I know it isn't all roses. I know it is open to fails just like the old lives we knew. I actually pity those who haven't experienced it and judge from ignorance. It's not just on-line dungeons and dragons (no malice intended to all D&Ders), a special niche for a special group, I deeply believe that this is the path to our future.

I don't think this is the end point and I don't have so much imagination that I will try to predict where it is going, but this is the path to the future.

Exciting!

Half a tablet later...

2010-11-20T17:28:00.001+11:00

Ok.. so I took it.. (the pill as mentioned earlier)
turns out it isn't a silver bullet. It hasn't frightened the spooks out of my head. I don't feel any change yet and apparently that is to be expected. Up to 6 weeks the pharmacist told me it could take before I feel the effects.
Crikey.
There is no way I will be able to pretend to RL that I am hunkey dorey for that long

Attention Seeking

2010-11-20T10:03:00.004+11:00

Something you see a fair bit of in SL is attention seeking. I think I know what it is. I think it is me too.
Feeling hollow and wanting to be filled.
I guess the trick is to fill yourself.
Some trick
I hate having a clear vision of myself. It would nice to be attention seeking and not realise it. Just go out, make a fuss, enjoy it and move on to the next bout.

But I do see myself fairly clearly. Maybe a little unkindly. But I would rather add a few warts to my "warts and all" view of myself than wander around blaming everyone else for my current state.

I took myself to the doctors this week and have come up with a trifecta. Depression, stress and anxiety. Slightly less anxiety but a goodish portion none-the-less.

I have a prescription for anti-depressants. My first. I walked round with it yesterday without getting it filled. It was a comfort to me that it was there.. That it could help if I needed it. I thought maybe carrying it was all I would need.

Today I need to go fetch those drugs. Today I relied on some one to fill the hole and he couldn't. How can I say that is his fault? Should he have tried? Is he just tired of trying?
I don't know. But I do know I need some help and I need to be responsible. So I am waving good bye to the high happies. And I am hoping so much to say goodbye to the lows.

Next piece of AudSLife is going to be MedicatedAudSlife :)
I grin wryly

(and I wonder.. how is it possible to swing so vastly over hours. Is this what depression is supposed to be? Aren't I supposed to curl up into a ball and not move from my bed? How come I can get up go to work, crack jokes, then curl into a ball and sob, then get up and do it all again?)

Heart of Gold

2010-11-19T20:29:00.003+11:00

This morning I walked into SL to make a very hard thing happen. I was coming to pack up my homes. I wandered round Brissa (the cheap one) and decided that it was cheaper than anywhere else and if I could possibly afford to stay anywhere, I could perhaps keep that... So I went to Caledon Downs to pack up there. My bunnies hopped round me, the butterflies flittered round... and before I knew it, I had paid my meters another week.

I couldn't do it.

I hopped into ISC and confessed that I hadn't been able to pack up after all, and that I would remain landed for another week.
A voice popped up on screen and a sum of money tumbled into my account. I have an anonymous donor. Some one who would like me to stay a little longer. The sum of money passed back and forth for a while. I am not comfortable with such generosity. It is not like I am poor at all. It is just that I need to use what I have in RL now.
So I am the humblest person in Caledon and thank the anonymous donor from the bottom of my heart

Warning

2010-11-19T20:27:00.002+11:00

Alert
Warning
Take Care

I have officially had my melt down this week, so I don't need to worry about it, but for the rest of you.. the full moon is about to arrive. if you are feeling itchy and unsettled, now is the time to go find a quiet and comforting spot to go sit this one out

Two years

2010-11-18T16:00:00.003+11:00

Two years ago, plus a few weeks, I went to a dance to celebrate the launch of Soliel Snook's new garden centre.
I was with Eleanor and I remember lamenting that there wasn't a whole lot of chat in local chat. We decided that most of the conversations must be going in IM. Eleanor and I spied a new comer to the ranks. Tzaiqan Belgar.
This avatar was dancing with Autopilotpoppy Patty. The assumption that Eleanor and I made was that no two week old newbie was going to make it to a dance in the thick of Caledon company, and escort one of our grand ladies. He had to be an alt.
At the time there had been a run of Alts messing round with people so we were not being quite as nuts as you might think making that assumption.

I was therefore even more mystified about who this Tzaiqan really was when a few days after the dance he IMed me with a "hello, I noticed you at the dance". My suspicions ran over time but I was most curious to discover who this person really was.
Well. It wasn't at all what I thought. Instead what I had on my hands was a charming and flirtatious pom who didn't quite know the way we did things. Following his own rules, he read my profile, decided he would like to say hi and did.

We enjoyed our company for a few weeks. I don't know what Taz was expecting, but I wasn't thinking of much more at the time. we chatted about partnership and what it was. My opinion was that it was an agreement between two people. It is whatever they want to make it as SL was not the real world, defined by RL laws.

We spent more and more time together and finally found ourselves at a dreadful Elvis impersonator's dance. A third party decided to cause a fuss and somehow I was put under pressure by the fuss maker to choose Taz.. or not. Well one thing.. I shouldn't have felt that pressure. Second thing: I have never regretted making the decision.

Taz and I partnered: a commitment to get to know each other better. We did, and we still do two years later

For taz

2010-11-17T18:34:00.001+11:00

for taz

hello

2010-11-16T21:52:00.002+11:00

hi!
This weekend is looking like packing up sl weekend
Bye
I will wander around a while yet but ...

Guess I should do a goodbye to my homes photo spread but I can't muster the energy

I will let my mind carry the images maybe

Why I have lost my Mojo

2010-11-13T17:44:00.006+11:00

I loved building in SL but some things have changed how I spend my time
I have been busy in RL
The bunnies over ran my mind for some months ( I am cured now)
At home some one decided to put me at the end of a wireless modem instead of plugged straight into the phone line and now i lag a lot more
Worst of all has been the change of screen since the new version of SL viewer came in.

Before:

After:

I am not one of those who resisted the change. I took it up as soon as it became available. I didn't moan. I went about getting used to it. And now I have to say... I loath the way my screen is filled with clutter that used to all fit nicely.

More Moppet Time

2010-11-12T23:11:00.002+11:00

This morning, when I had promised myself I would clean the house or something.. I noticed that I hadn't made a vendor of Christmas Moppets. The Vendor is a one-prim, 9 item one, and I only had 7 Christmas items so far.. so I figured.. time to make another couple of Christmas outfits
I also figured that something winter and general would do better than Christmas specific

So here we have his and her snow suits

playing with the mob

2010-11-08T22:09:00.003+11:00

I remember seeing a photo Edward Pearse made of his household with Christine. I wondered if it was a large collection of friends or cleverness and photoshopping
I have spent some time tonight, a little short of cleverness, but playing with images none the less and here is the Fotherington Family
On the left is Devon. Devon Berliner. Two sandwich meats here in Australia. Stupid name, ugly avatar. He is a poor cousin to the girls. He wears freebies form Oxbridge and his one quality, if you can call it that, is his height.
When Audrey builds stairs, its his job to check it for height. He gets to wear the bruises to prove that the clearance wasn't high enough. In return he gets very little but an outing now and then. Poor fellow
Little Audz Mubble is a fashion conscious young lamb. She has a full wardrobe of Moppet fashions and her job is to try them for size and test their permissions. Audrey has been a bit mean lately though and is having all the dress up fun alone. Bah says Audz Mubble.

A few years ago Audrey was having a rough time and it seemed she would never know a moments peace. Heppi was her quiet space. Des let her buy our first home in Caledon- CaledonSouthend. Later when she lost her home in Fathom, Auds bought the two blocks next door from Wrath and lived there very happily for a long time.

Heppi found life in SL a little peculiar. She is Audrey. Just as Devon and Audz Mubble are...The typist is no sort of actress, so they are all the same. However Heppi has a different AO to Audrey
The typist found herself in the position where one particular person liked Heppi and did not like Audrey. it was totally perplexing. And it all boiled down to the AO. Heppi is demure, and Audrey is not :)
If Audrey wasn't having such a lovely time fetching new clothes and skins, it might almost be time to take Heppi shopping. She could do with a few new things.

Oh!! But what wonderful things the inventories of Devon, Heppi and Little Audz are! After 3 years of littering in her inventory, Audrey now has 32K items. Mostly not filed.
The spartan splendor of the cousins' inventories makes me want to play in there with them til they are just as shambollick as Auds :)

Home

2010-11-08T18:36:00.004+11:00

A lot of my writing over the last three years has been about home:

At the moment I feel like I am in my end days with SL mainly because I will have to stop owning land for financial reason. So for now i am throwing a bit more time and energy enjoying my SL homes properly before I have to leave them.

This is where my bunnies used to live. The bunnies have all but gone now, so finally i am moving prims, and getting myself comfortable.
This sim is amazing. Syn does wonderful deals with land and these prims cost me only 1.18L per prim per week.
I just might be able to afford to keep this one block when it is all said and done, but I am torn then because my Caledon land means a lot to me, even though it costs more. It means more for several reasons, and not the least has been the care that Des has taken of me at a few difficult times. I will continue to procrastinate over the decision for as long as possible. Fortunately, without those ravenous bunnies chewing up my money, rent in SL doesnt seem so bad.

Runs Cold

2010-11-07T13:49:00.005+11:00

My blood runs cold when I see the games some people play with the lives of innocent and trusting people.
In Rl and SL I watch as people are manipulated. It's hard to know what to do. Do you mind your own business? Is that what a citizen of the world does?
So far I have no proof that interfering helps at all, so I stay uninvolved, but feel guilty.
When I first joined SL I felt there was an interest in the social development inside SL. There was discussion about immersion and role play. Society and peer pressure to behave appropriately. I haven't seen much of that lately, but maybe I haven't been looking.
I have a lot of time for the way SL helps people bond and interact. I am interested in how we behave with each other.

I have heard often enough people seeking to avoid "drama".
I guess I am not one of them exactly. Drama is life to me. It is feelings and emotions. It is what happens when people interact and things don't go perfectly. And how can they?
I wish to be involved in the lives of people. I feel dead when I do not share the emotions of anyone around me.

But I draw the line at creating dramas.

Drama creators:
Two sorts that I know of:
Attention seekers who are crying over one thing or another. I have some patience for these. I feel sorry that their lives need this drama to fill an emptiness. I try not to be one of these but maybe I am too public with my hand wringing at times so I won't pretend to be above this category.

The one I have no time for is the one who uses other people to create situations. That person gloats like a puppet master, messing and deceiving. Lies and more lies. Drawing in innocents in a greedy bid to make their false world bigger and bigger. This behavior isn't a game, it isn't role play because only one person has the whole truth. It is manipulative and it is a disgrace.

a facade

2010-11-06T07:31:00.002+11:00

On my budget, it could look like this. Not grand, but it has a roof. Now to get the builder to come in on budget with his quote

And Comments are Back on....

2010-11-06T07:27:00.002+11:00

After a small break to let a matter settle, comments are now back on the blog :)

Leaving Downs

2010-11-05T17:08:00.003+11:00

It is close to time: Time for RL to get my attention. It is tinged with sadness, but as I build a new home in RL I must close my homes in SL. I am putting my lovely home at Caledon Downs on the market. I would like to find it a new owner. One who will be faithful, and tasteful and creative and a steady payer of tier and otherwise a genuine right sort for Caledon!
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Downs/121/127/44

something clever from Reghan

2010-10-29T22:01:00.002+11:00

left or right brained?
http://www.ataliba.eti.br/files/u1/giragira-21102007.gif
which way does she turn for you?

So
Anti Clockwise?
How does this match you?
uses logic
detail oriented
facts rule
words and language
present and past
math and science
can comprehend
knowing
acknowledges
order/pattern perception
knows object name
reality based
forms strategies
practical

Clockwise?
uses feeling
"big picture" oriented
imagination rules
symbols and images
present and future
philosophy & religion
can "get it" (i.e. meaning)
believes
appreciates
spatial perception
knows object function
fantasy based
presents possibilities
impetuous
risk taking

Halloween

2010-10-29T21:06:00.003+11:00

It is almost that time!
I am not really much of a Halloween person.. but as my last hurrah with the bunnies, I have set them all breeding to see if we can hatch some special treat bunnies.

So far I have kindled a dozen nests I guess and have managed to get three elite bunnies. Two are frankenbunnehs and one Jack-o-bunneh I have a few more bunnies to get to nest but as each pair does, I have packed each of them up. This is the end.. or close to for me and the bunnies i may keep just a couple of special ones out for decoration, but the rest are going into hibernation for a while.

Last Volare-Gray BBB at Caledon

2010-10-27T14:07:00.005+11:00

Fogwoman and Vivito

Here is an upside to being sick... I was home for the last BBB held by the Gray-Volares. Seeing lots of the old faces of Caledon. New ones too!
Dancing and chatting to my old friend Eleanor, talking about Caledon's olden days.

What a shame I am not home during the US evening more often.

It has been things like the BBB that have been the glue to hold Caledon together.

Blog Comments

2010-10-26T21:59:00.002+11:00

The full moon has passed.. and though I have got a cold, some of the bad juju I was experiencing has eased off a little.
Thank you very much for the comments left to cheer me up. They did help a lot.
I am sure in previous bloggings I have mentioned my moon issues... hence the moon chart on the side bar :)

Not Quitting

2010-10-24T08:34:00.004+11:00

Yesterday I wrote a sad piece. I debated leaving it so public and exposed. I nearly removed it because I worry what people think. But in the end, because this is my space for me, I left it there. It is where I am and maybe in the future I will look at that day and be grateful it is behind me.
This morning I decided to close this blog down.
I have spent 30 minutes trying tabs to find one that takes it off line without losing what this is to me: my diary. Just keep it, tucked away and private. Not to be added to and not to be lost.

Then I read my post about learning to make my googley eyes blink from back in April. I remembered the pleasure that gave me.
And it has made today possible.
So Audrey's blog lasts another day... and maybe I won't leave SL today

Real Stuff

2010-10-23T07:57:00.003+11:00

In the last week there has been about 20 minutes of Second Life.
This month I am house hunting, job hunting, making a quilt for a class and making one for a magazine that saw the first few blocks of the class quilt and wanted me to make a project for them. Oh! And I have to do my tax in the next 6 days! And have mum come to visit.
So far I have ticked 4 of 6 boxes.
It has meant a weaning.
Audrey stands along in SL in the background while I have spent time at the computer attending to some of these things. Poor Auds.

The house hunting has been fun. I half considered building a house in sl to the scale of my real life imaginary, best case scenario house. Still mulling it over.
In the last few months it has been really tough for Auds and for me. Seems to most intents and purposes Auds' life is over. Thought maybe mine too. The rush of things to do has given me a bit of a future. Not sure if it is enough.

So what happened?

2010-10-06T21:37:00.004+11:00

Poor old blog has been so neglected.
What happened isn't just one thing but a number of things.
Firstly: the rabbits. Time consuming, thought consuming, money consuming and ultimately unsatisfactory.
I was addicted. Every day hatching a few more, pairing them, looking forward to seeing what new traits I could unravel. Basically, over the course of time I spent a huge amount of money, unravelled the gene pool and then looked at what I had and it isn't worth it. It has not been an artistic endeavour. It hasn't fed my soul. It didn't enrich my life with interesting people.
I am deleting bunnies now. Hundreds of them. I have a few left. But as each pair nests and goes back to breeding cool down, I look at them and ask.. do I care what offspring they have? The answer is almost always "no" and then I pull them into inventory and let them hibernate.

Second? RL. Three years of sitting at the computer and it is time to step out again. I have joined a gym, work more days a week and simply don't have the time any more.

Third? I can't be bothered starting again. So many of my friends in sl have also pulled back or moved on and I can't muster the energy to explore new relationships. I tried back tracking to an old one but that didn't work either.

Fourth? Now that I am working more days, I am not often on-line when the rest of the world is, so it is the lonely ozzy hours that I walk around.

So I think I can see my time in sl drawing to an end. Slow and gradual. No bitterness and just a little sadness. I am hosting a Quilt Exhibition in Caledon this coming weekend. After canvasing for entries for a month, I have received two. In my opinion, that reflects the community that was once was Caledon. I don't know what people want from Caledon any more. It doesn't seem that they want the community that was once there.

As I said, I am not bitter about this at all, but a little sad to see the passing of something that was so important to me, a life line for me in its time

In my bones

2010-09-27T00:09:00.001+10:00

I can feel it is time to change

Mum's not too bright.. but look at dad!

2010-09-15T07:46:00.000+10:00

Relay for Life

2010-07-12T08:23:00.006+10:00

It's that time of year again! Caledon's Relay for Life build team is being lead by Mr Volare. A wonderful bunch of builders have been attending meetings... and I have not. 5 am ozzie morning time!

So while I was invited to join them, as time passed it seemed less and less likely that i would be able to contribute.
Finally I was free of other commitments and on line at the same time as the rest of the world and I contacted Miss Fog and Mr Volare and was encouraged to take on the forecourt for the build they had begun up on the platform above their sim

It seemed a huge job.
Especially when I wasn't feeling up to speed on the big picture. I re-read all my note cards and blundered around with prims for 36 hours. I managed to build a gazebo but little else that was inspiring me.
Finally I went to the actual Relay for Life site and saw our place and was both excited and devastated to see we had topography!
Ditch all original plans. no loss they were dull
.
As it is, what I have built isn't exciting... exactly... but I think it does what it should. Welcomes and entices. Yeh?
Pond

Bridge

Water fowl

Looking after things

2010-07-06T22:01:00.003+10:00

Today I made a new frock

I haven't been building much lately. despite me trying to be an advocate for the new viewer... the bottom line is that I can not get the junk out of the way to see what I am doing. It drives me crazy!
And this is not just a quick reaction. A need to get used to it. Instead it is a dawning realization that the came when the newness left.
Mainly it is local chat that bothers me. When it isn't docked.. which it isn't any more.. it is a plain old bloody nuisance!

Anyway.. I did make a new frock.. and I did play with the bunnies...

Where am I?

2010-06-30T22:14:00.005+10:00

All over the place! I am here then there then here again then somewhere else!

Bunnies at Rocabranagh

Caledon land is simply too dear to use exclusively for bunnies. It is a great price to commit to have a lovely neighborhood of good people and community and I don't regret it at all and worth every cent besides.. but for sheer volume of prims, I needed an better option. I started hopping here and there. At first I thought I could just rent any prims, that it wouldn't matter what it looked like. So I ended up on mainland. Well after 2 weeks I confess... it does matter what it looks like and what it feels like. So I have moved out of one and into another.

Bunnies at Bashkortostan: Note giant for sale banner

I have also started renting by the beach. It is winter here in oz and I am freezing. I can't tell you what a wonderful thing it was then to sit with Xavier and Taz for an hour of chatter before heading off into a frozen morning on my way to work.
Bunnies by my cove at Hurricane

I whistled for the rest of my RL day because it was just sooooo lovely
All set to have a great day after sitting on cushions chatting before work

Strawberry Festival and elite bunnies

2010-06-30T07:38:00.004+10:00

The Strawberry Festival week is upon us. I have no idea, at all, what that means.. except that to celebrate, the makers of our bunnies have deemed that a random number of them will be born "special". There are a few special series out there already. There are alien bunnies that were launched as part of a fundraiser. There are half wrapped in gold foil bunnies from Easter. There are a special elite bunny that only arrives in the last 3 litters of a rabbit. There are hardly any of those around. Every time one of my girls gets to that certain age.. i cross my fingers but so far, I hadn't had a single elite. Then low and behold! I got one yesterday morning! how lucky I thought! So I went into a hatching frenzy.... now I have 7!

Caledon Tanglewood

2010-06-19T08:30:00.002+10:00

I have passed the Caledon Tanglewood property on to a new owner. With Bunny food and so many bunny prims to pay for, I needed to cut back. Tanglewood isn't one of my most expensive places... but with fewer prims it is less economical. Always those few left over prims that can't be utilized. Anyway, a parting photo of Bunyip Bend

Spamming Comments

2010-06-16T13:50:00.001+10:00

I am hating these Chinese spamming comments.
I look forward to seeing who said what when i see a comment posted. It s such a disappointment to find " I love your business" or something I can't even read!!
Sighs and wastes 5 minutes deleting more stupid comments

Oh I do like to be beside the sea side

2010-06-10T18:51:00.002+10:00

When I run out of things to do in SL.. I build

Tonight there is uproar as Lindens get sacked left right and centre.
Is this the end? The beginning of the end?
Don't ask me, I can't be bothered worrying about that now.

For me it is creating blue skies and sunny seas.... and escaping reality

A result!

2010-06-08T22:09:00.003+10:00

So I bought the bunny warren...
and I fed the bunnies for weeks
I have given them all the surname Heath so I can tell which come from the warren quickly without having to remember. Heath because they sit on hay, which reminds me of Famous 5 who were forever making beds of heath...
Anyway I got a common gem here, the occasional half lop there... and a whole host of bunny genetic mess. And I was having to hatch lots of nests just to keep the boy:girl ratio sorted. I have been trying to give away all the boys i have accumulated but the action there is slow.
Anyway, a diamond eye came up a few days ago. Thats a bit better than the amethyst ones I had been getting.
Then yesterday I got a full lop, amethyst eyed, radiant amber dutch. Dutchies are my favourites.. but I have a trillion of them already... but still it was a good one.
Cute, huh?
I didn't dare think that my bunnies were warming up to anything but still I held my breath as usual today as I did the rounds....
Lexi Heath, a first generation warren bunny was sitting with a nest......
(that's Lexi in the front)

and nearby lurked a second generation bunny, Rusty. Clearly tuckered out form messing with his aunt!

I touch the nest... and...

Mother: Lexi Heath
Father: Rusty Heath2
Fur: Argent - Creme d'Argent
Eyes: Dark Pink
Ears: Half-a-Lop
Shade: Classic
Creme d'Argents are rapidly becoming common, but are the last rare-ish thing left now. And besides that! they are sooooo pretty.. don't you think?

Above Caledon Downs

2010-06-03T23:22:00.002+10:00

A new space I have created-very restful

Bunny Mania

2010-06-03T22:51:00.004+10:00

Now I explained that some rabbits are rarer than others?
Well I think the truth is.. nothing is rare enough! Or not long anyway!
I got keen to be ahead of things and bought the warren. I couldn't breed those bunnies fast enough and so far the best they have come up with is a bit of a lop and a diamond eye.
Quite unimpressive.

So I put my hand in my pocket and bought two Hotots.

The Eyeliner Bunny
So far my experience has been that buying without research has meant a lot of wasted money as bunnies have thrown random babies. So I chose bunnies with a good background. ~Foggy~ and ~Henrietta~.
These two little bunnies did what they should and after they turned 7 days old, they mated and I added Hot to Trot to my warren. He is a charming boy, just like his dad. No naughty recessive.
I placed him for sale and in a week I haven't had one single interested buyer. Sigh
Now his sister has arrived. I have decided to rent a place in a more populated place but I have this sneaking suspicion that all the markets are populated by people just like me.. people trying to sell bunnies that started too late.
As soon as I can gather enough strength of mind, I will gather my bunnies and pop them into inventory. No point giving them away at the poor prices that bunnies are now attracting.
The up side has been that in the last month I have seen more of SL than in the two years before.
Also I have seen a lot of better building. I think the places I have stayed have become complacent.
I am going to have to figure out how I am going to do better sculpties as the world is marching on!

So, anyway!
I have put Hot to Trot and Hetty Trot for sale together as sibblings.

When you mate siblings you can get mutants so it can attract a premium.
They are up for offers at Moon Rise.

I have a stall there and have peppered photos of the sim here.
It's a cute place :)

The very longest time....

2010-05-21T16:08:00.006+10:00

I guess this is the longest stretch I have gone without blogging. It has been an odd few weeks in SL for me.
During the ANZAC long weekend, at some point, I gave in and bought a bunny. Jay had been talking to me about them and I had tried hard to resist but somehow I ended up at Soliel Snook's and bought a bunny.
It needed a friend.
I wanted to see what would happen if they mated.
Turns out they weren't due to mate for a fortnight. I didn't even know that was possible.
So I bought a second pair.
Then I discovered bargains..
Then I found out that there are common and uncommon..
By the end of the first weekend I had about 10 bunnies...
By the end of the first week I had over 30..
then 40....
then I stopped counting

Then I rented more land...
ahhh well.. and that is how it has been...

What do you know about bunnies?
Well these virtual pets come in several varieties. The varieties are released by a company called Ozimals. You buy a nest and kindle it.
Out pops a baby rabbit. It will have a certain fur shininess, certain eyes, certain floppiness of ear in the variety of breeds. Only by breeding through the new nests can you find new breeds and traits.

Audrey's Nests

However the in-world bunnies can be breed to make more bunnies and their genes refined so that the desirable traits can be stabilised, though never 'pure'.

Then I decided to be a lot more selective

Then I bought a warren hoping to breed into my gang some of the special new varieties. (Warrens are packs of bunny nests from the original source rather than the ones bred in-world)
Then there was a population explosion of very common animals indeed without a trace of anything exotic.

Slowly I sifted through the mountain of rabbit and I found some better at giving me good babies and some bad.
So far my greatest success has been with a pair of Black Havana bunnies who continue to put out silky gem eyed full lop black babies. And then today a motley pair gave me this little ripper. Radiant gem eyed (peridot) and lop. Only downside is that people are not so much into her breed. I actually prefer it, so it suits me fine!

Duchess Miles

There is a lot more to this story.. which is why I haven't blogged in such a long time and one of the bits is that I have met people and chatted and it has been such a breath of fresh air to have company once again.
The building at 1000m, as I have often said, is quite lonely. One person I have met is Spikie. She has taken me round hundreds of stalls looking at bunnies telling me about their qualities and what I should be looking for. I will blame her for my Hotots.
She also told me i should be keeping track of the breeding and give pedigree with my animals.. I do with the more significant ones and came up with this little sign....

Anyway.. enough of the rabbit stuff.. I have been.. rabbiting on?? (groan)

Meanwhile I have been on the land list in Raglan. I have long had a little shop in Heron Shire. Most of my in-world income comes from my tiny stuff but almost none of it is sold in that store. So I was watching for a store in the main sim and watched and watched. Turns out it is a waiting list arrangement there. So I got myself onto it and received an IM the other day to say that a space had come up.

I looked at the space.. it is a burrow. Bright green burrow. Nice burrow, but not exactly my colour scheme. I asked if I could build my own building like the other artisans.. but apparently the burrow is a fixture.

Well that's ok! I set to lining the inside of my burrow.

Bought a 1 prim easel to put my vendors on as the curved walls are too challenging to put things up on nicely.

I brought in a pair of bunnies to liven the place up and planted a big flower out the front and that was the end of my 100 prims :)

What do you think?

Story so far

2010-05-06T22:59:00.003+10:00

Land.. more land
Bunnies.. more bunnies
Tonight my first white nest was made by a pair of my white bunnies
Here we have a pure bred Holland white

A picture of me surrounded by more bunnies

Bunnies, kittens, cats

2010-05-03T16:55:00.002+10:00

mhmmm Lovely Tzaizqan came to visit with my new bunny friends. All concerned were very comfortable with the arrangement.. He fell asleep in the water and Zombie bunny came to sit on his gorgeous face...

Bunnies For Sale

2010-04-26T22:44:00.003+10:00

So.. I spent the weekend obsessing about rabbits The bottom line is.. I now know a bit more about it, but the pricing seems quite inconsistent across the grid. Tonight I just TPed over and again. My goal was to try to understand how the prices apply. What the hierarchy of rareness is. To find a pattern. Didn't discover it. There are a couple of things that were obviously highly sought after such as HOTOT (eyeliner bunnies) and Castor.. and a couple of others that I couldn't afford even think about but after that.. then what? Seems two floppy ears are more valuable than one. So I go home .. and I have some. White shiny bunnies attract more advertising... have some of those... A few colours in the Rex line.. tick Jewel eyes.. almost a compulsory for me after my first reckless purchases. I see that black has been retired so maybe it will be scarcer.. they certainly look stunning. So I invest in a couple.. get home to find I already had some. I didn't spend much on any of them except one white so I don't know. Maybe I am just an exceptional shopperer?? I have littered my sims with bunnies. I think I will have to build some kind of book case as I am now completely confused about what I have and where they are :) meanwhile, you can find bunnies for sale at Caledon Downs and Caledon Southend

Moving.. Again..

2010-04-25T22:27:00.003+10:00

The more I move, the less it seems an upheaval!

Back when Victoriana perished, I was suddenly homeless and just a tad freaked out.
I threw out my arms looking for somewhere to clutch and scrambled. First thing I heard was that Caledon Rocbranagh was in the making, then I left a note card with Des asking about land in general and Rocbranagh in particular, then I heard that there was a block going at Tangelwood. I know I have mentioned all this before, but really, I am making excused for what is going to seem like an unsteadiness of mind!
Anyway!
You know I bought into Tanglewood and then Caledon Downs? And I am all settled into each?
I built a house for Tangelwood. Fooled around, re-textured it. Settled it into the landscape and now I need to sell it!
Because:
Rocbranagh is almost ready!
Des called for Magdalena's attention in chat yesterday... and then mine. Turns out we were 2nd and 3rd on the list of names for the new sim. Martini, the one designing the sim was first.
At first I was thinking "Oh no, what if Magda chooses the one I want?". However after a fly round the island, I could see that 1st and second choice would be so close in attractiveness, I wasn't in need of worry!
In fact, Magda didn't pick either of them, so I got my first choice. Huzzah

Bonus! Magda was in two minds about needing a full block, so the deal was struck. She was to have half a block and i am to have 1.5 blocks! Even better, more prims!
So I am ready to pack up Tangles and not completely mortgage myself for Caledon Tiers :)

The thing I was looking for was what I loved most about fathom and then Southend... sun and moon sets....TICK!

Very happy arrangement.

Bunnies Take Over My Mind

2010-04-25T20:32:00.004+10:00

I said I wouldn't
I did
It began like this

Now...out of control

Bunnies Everywhere!

I am now breeding and selling the babies off cheaply to try and pay off an expensive Saturday!
Photo coming of bunny stall!

Gardening

2010-04-20T18:32:00.003+10:00

I have been pottering around in Second Life today. Not rushing to finish a project but just having a bit of a mental wander. I have been doing some gardening at Caledon Downs and I think that the block is really looking quite nice now.

Down by the house, below the veggie patch I have a workspace where I can propagate seeds and pot up the iris when they need to be split form the sets in the garden.

I have been spending quite a lot of time lately on Moppet dresses and in my absence, a spider took up residence on my trowel. Taz, being a pom and unused to their company, has a reluctance to share his spaces with spiders but I am quite happy with them. I left the spider alone and went about my business.

I will wander round the garden tonight, check that all is in order, then head down to Tanglewood and finish the house there.

Tentacular Moppet

2010-04-20T17:11:00.002+10:00

All that scripting fuss for this.. worth the lesson at least....

grinning

2010-04-19T14:14:00.001+10:00

The silly eyes are out of Synch again :)
sighs and goes hunting for scripts once more

Not a Lot..Actually this gets quit long..but not Much of Interest

2010-04-19T07:04:00.004+10:00

What's been happening?
Not a lot.
I have been away and working so my SL has been more like my 3rd or 4th

But I am holidays now for a few days, and while I still have to make a block for this month's MBOM quilt (it will have owls.. lots of them) I do plan to spend a good portion of time in SL.
Yesterday I decided it was time to work on some scripting.

I have made a tiny dress with flowing tentacles for the skirt and decided it needed something to wear with it on my head. So.. Googly eyes on curly eye stalks seemed the way to go!

More and more I am working on going a little further with my building. Keeping up with the crowds of people in SL making things. The people I admire are constantly moving the goals and while sometimes I don't feel in the mood to keep learning, essentially I don't want to be left behind.

So! If I am making googly eyes, simple balls on sticks are not going to be enough. I wanted them to wink.

Ahhhh well I could skip the bit where it took me hours. Looking up scripts in the wiki, going through all the scripts in my inventory and trying to see how I might do this. But then there really wouldn't be anything here to read.

A fun script I have used in the past has a torus close its hole on touch. What I wanted was a sphere that opened and closed its dimple on a timer. What I hadn't realised I wanted was for that to happen simultaneously for as many eyes as I chose to give myself.

So I needed a script to control the parameters and a script to act as a timer. And to work out how to put the two together as I don't understand the grammar of LSL. (Jo: if you are still reading this blog, scripts are the programs that make the chunks of graphics do stuff in SL).

I stared at a lot of scripts. Trying to find the patterns. Trying to see what I needed and where I should substitute. The change params was in the LSL wiki and was much more useful than the torus one I stared at for ages.
I needed that timer still. Finally after a bit of browsing I ended up at a site I have been to before

http://www.3greeneggs.com/autoscript/

that generates a script on demand. There are only a few options but one, "move an object" sounded like I would easily be able to identify the timer part of the script and the "move" part and swap in my "change parameters" script.

Blow me down! It worked.
I had a blinking eye.
I copied it.. I had two blinking eyes...... that didn't blink together.
sigh

I linked, saved to inventory and hoped that when I rezzed them, they would blink together.
Sure enough they did. Amazing!

Fiddled with the timing to get the blink faster and lost the synchronisation. Bother. Somehow I had deleted the saved working copy. And then spent another hour trying to insert a line of "reset script on rezzing". Which promptly killed the whole thing every time.
.........gnashes teeth.

I came back to SL a few times between domestic chores and finally decided to unlink and relink. One eye had been the prime prim just by accident. I linked it with an unscripted prim being prime, took to inventory......
...... and they are blinking together at last!

I know this stuff is easy for some folk. And I am not writing these things from scratch so I am not any version of a genius. But I do take quite a lot of pride in these achievements. When I went to Uni, the computer sat down the hall in a few rooms by itself. It was a DEC-10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-10

Truth is I had the very slimmest of understanding what I was doing. We were programming the simplest adding of columns of figures. And I was way out of my depth. To me, it was a very inefficient calculator.
After that the nearest thing to a computer in my day to day was an autoteller. I left work after a while, had kids and returned to work which had been transformed in my absence.
Fortunately... very fortunately.. I had got into quilting while out of the workforce, which has a very strong on-line community. So I started playing around on a computer at home. I published patterns which required me to teach myself Word and how to use a graphics program.
So slowly I have been exploring and learning this world that my kids have grown up in and take for granted.

It feels pretty good to make eyes blink.

Dancing in my chair

2010-04-15T21:40:00.002+10:00

Sometimes i just like to dance in my chair while I am building in sl
Sending you to Muse

Gardening in Caledon Downs

2010-04-13T21:03:00.005+10:00

When Des passed the parcel to me, he indicated that the block should have a forresty feel to it. That suits me fine though the orignal placement of the trees didn't work for me. The houses seemed to sit separate to the garden rather than in it.

As they were not my trees, I couldn't shift them, so I have returned a couple and replaced them. I am not finished with this place yet but I have a beginning to the kind of place I want it to be. Last time I got to this stage, Victoriana vanished. I hope this time my garden lasts long enough to finish. Long enough for me to spend some time there. Maybe long enough to coax the tiger to visit.

More Sci Fi

2010-04-07T06:51:00.002+10:00

This is Si and Fi....

Sci Fi Weeks begins

2010-04-06T22:27:00.003+10:00

I am still hard at work making Sci Fi tiny stuff.
(That's a joke... there is nothing approaching work about it. I am having a ball!)
Today I made a Tiny Darlink Moppet.
I think the source of my inspiration is clear.

I stood next to some wild space mushrooms thinking about bed for the night and along strolled Gadget Jun. we admired each other's creativity and then I ran home to see myself popped into bed by 10.30. it is 10.29 now, so we will see how long it takes to load a picture and spell check !

Good night!!

Under Instructions

2010-04-05T20:17:00.008+10:00

I have been told i must post a blog! His regal Highness, the tiger Tzaizqan has insisted that I must blog while he suns himself.
hurrrumph!
I actually have been so busy I do not have time to blog.

I have been busy making things for the Raglan Sci Fi and Space 4th Birthday celebration. And that means I haven't made any progress at all on the new blocks and moving in and making them look inhabited.

I thought I would for the sake of history, show a shot of each of the places I currently have an interest and why I am chasing my tail!

Raglan's 4th Bday
Because I have a shop in Heron Shire, which is part of Raglan, I get to put a vendor up when they hold special themed events. This works pretty well for me as a tier offset as the sales are generally quite good. The Heron Shire shop is slow business so I am looking at relocating within Raglan. Fingers crossed!!

Heron Shire
Today I was busy building tiny things (Tiny Arthur Moppet and the Balmain Space Buggy) at my completely under-developed block at Caledon Downs. It's my main prim home. Lots of prims to play with.
1100 prims
yum

I still haven't done anything but plonk a house there so that it doesn't look abandoned and I am feeling a little guilty about the look of the place. Still, I was building like a demon to get my tiny things done when I got an IM from Kaye Robiani inviting me to join her new sim Honfleur Harbour.

Honfleur is based on a French Provincial feeling

She has let me set up shop in the store, second from the right. It is very lovely and I am again crossing my fingers and hoping that this is another great opportunity.

I have hardly even had time to whizz by Tanglewood, though I did have a long talk with my neighbour from there, Newbitt. And have had many a chat with my next door neighbour, Valerian. It is very very nice to have chatty people round me once more.

And finally I flew by my home, Caledon Southend to take a photo. I still have it set as home. Funny. A sentimental accident. My original home sim in Caledon has stayed my home sim since I first bought land there as Heppi.

Right now I am chatting away with Muse.. and you know.. it is good to be home

A tail

2010-04-02T10:50:00.007+11:00

In a land called Hierophant there was a ram called Ewan.

Something of a talent, he had tried many original and novel ideas with great success and now he had come up with an ambition to become a world explorer.

His many friends encouraged and stood behind him. Ewan, mistaking their enthusiasm for intelligent consideration, was swept away with his plans.
All he needed was a boat and an imagination for the possibilities.

As luck would have it, on the stillest of evenings, under the light of a full moon, a boat washed ashore.

Ewan's friends gathered round while he scuttled on board. His hooves slippery and rattling against the boards of the boat's bottom.

At last he sat while his friends gave him their farewells. Not for a second did he mistake their "bahs" for nay-saying.

Finally, ready to commence his journey, he took a last look at the crowd gathered in the beach and realised that just as there were no hands in that dumb mob to raise in farewell, he too lacked hands to put to the task of rowing.

His friends continued to wish him well as he drifted out into the great blue yonder.......

There are morals here about mobs, sensible ambitions and trusting the bounty of full moons.
:)
Happy Easter

P.S
There isnt a hidden story here, I just saw a sheep in a boat and it struck me as wonderful

Tangled Home

2010-04-01T23:29:00.002+11:00

I am Making a new home..a nest.. In Caledon Tanglewood. Known as Bunyips Bottom or something

Very Happy

2010-03-29T18:08:00.004+11:00

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
prims!
Rolls round tossing them in the air!

I landed in SL this afternoon and saw that Des was about and hoped that maybe my Tanglewood transfer was about to happen. Usually though he is drowning in IMs and requests, so rather than jumping on him with another request for attention, I gave a wave to ISC and wondered if I should get into some dress making while waiting for my tiger to stir or prepare a RL meal.
Next minute, Des says to ping him.
Ahah! I think he is ready for Tanglewood!
Nope, that notecard hasn't made it through .. instead he is looking at a couple I sent him about my prim lust and he has a couple of options for me!
He mentions a very delish quantity of prims in Caledon Downs. Downs is right next door to Southend and I have always had a soft spot for it. He TPed me over, and it was a done deal!

Next I send him a copy of the tanglewood notecard, we zip over there and it is all sorted!

Final step is to show the now awake tiger our new home!
Done!

I am happy. Really very happy!

Another Next

2010-03-27T07:31:00.001+11:00

Tanglewood

Possible "what's next"

2010-03-25T17:58:00.001+11:00

Clears throat...
Caledon Rocbrannagh
.. clears throat more thoroughly

Over

2010-03-23T23:07:00.003+11:00

Well... I didn't see that coming. I honestly didn't!
I went back in world to see if the afternoon's shocking news was still true and was told that the good citizens of Victoriana were packing up.
I am doing my best to be a good one, so I dutifully went about the business of packing my prims.
It is all done now. Finished. Over.
I want a sl home so I feel I belong there, but maybe this is time to reflect. Maybe now I simply don't belong. Not sure but perhaps what I needed SL for has passed?
I have had a quick wander round this afternoon looking for a primmy place for me to set up and build and I haven't found anything approaching charming.
Do I regret selling Southend? Absolutely. Do I want to go back there? Not really.

I am ready for what comes next.
I am not frightened of change.
I am not frightened of the future.
The past is wayyyyy more frightening :)

As I said when Fathom disappeared beneath the waves.. "Onward and forward"

Completely and Utterly Gobsmacked

2010-03-23T15:36:00.003+11:00

I am homeless
LBD, without warning, is shutting us down. I knew the Lindens had been stuffing him round, but I didn't see him pulling up stumps so swiftly.
I have worked so hard the last couple of months moving everything over to Victoriana.
I want to write so much more but for now what I want to say is best not recorded.

Is not Bothered

2010-03-18T17:49:00.001+11:00

I am building
I have a telescope going up and down and the roof of the observatory will go round
and I am happy too

Bothered

2010-03-15T07:25:00.003+11:00

I don't want to do the maths. I spend a lot of my days waiting. Waiting bothers me. Gets right up my nose. If I worked out the percentage I suspect it would bother me a bit more.
To pass time, I build if SL is available.
When I don't have a project to take my attention, I get very bothered.
Right now, I wish I had a project as I am tired of being bothered.
I am thinking I might make an observatory. Not sure though as I am not up to the scripting for the telescope, up down and round.

Last Of St Patricks Day's tiny making

2010-03-12T22:43:00.003+11:00

Tiny Shamrock?... Tiny Clover? Tiny in green for St P's day....
That's enough for 2010
:)
All three outfits should be in my three stores. Lidl Auds Lidl Kisses is at Tinytoriana, Caledon Southend and Raglan Heronshire.

next....Leprechaun's for St Pat's Day

2010-03-12T12:43:00.003+11:00

Work in real life has been busy but at last, I get to have 2 days off in a row. So I have dedicated this morning to wasting time, having fun!
This moppet comes with short and longer pants, waist coat or jacket option, hat and pipe and clumpy shoes!

Not Enough Time

2010-03-11T22:54:00.004+11:00

I have plans for tiny St Patricks day.... but not enough time...
here is the beginning
(P S thanks to Peaches Latrell who has helped me with a better pose at last!)

Auds N Ends & Lidl Audz Lidl Kisses

2010-03-08T22:33:00.004+11:00

I have been busy and by now I feel thick and foggy.
However I have done a complete renovation for the new block at Southend.
Sent a note off to the Victorian Shopkeepers and blogging should just about tick the last of the to-dos. I even re-boxed all the houses there with the correct up to date note card. (What a bore!!)
Feels satisfied with self :)