My Dirty Little Secret

I have a secret, shhhhhh!

Every Monday morning I get up at 6.30am, grab a cappuccino, stumble into my study and turn on the computer before I conquer my work day.  Half-asleep and looking absolutely non-fabulous, I click in to SCD for my dose of delectable drama SL style.  I confess, I have been doing this since it started even during my long Sabbatical from SL.  Why?  Because I am a drama strumpet once removed.  I admit, I like reading about who hates who, who hates what and who's doing who but my desire is essentially not to stir the pot despite the fact that I did lapse once or twice, it is simply that I love to be in the loop. 

I assume it is a character flaw that I need, no want, to get the juicy goss on those in-world.  I rather enjoy it from the sidelines but have no wish to be the instigator.  The tale inevitably stops with me as I don't use networks such as Twitter, Plurk or Face Book to communicate...I want to know then I'm satisfied to leave it there.

So there you have it.  I'm a SLecret addict in addition to any piece of news that is remotely drama-laden.  Am I really that different from most of you?  I tend to think not.  Isn't that why God invented the humble glass tumbler?   To hold it up against the wall to hear whats happening next door?

Anyway keep it up SCD and others who feel the need to share SL tales of drama, intrigue and tantalizing tid-bits.  Oh I can feel the wrath of you all now tutting at my confession.  My intellectual, empathetic side tuts along with you but it's the paparazzi loving, dish-the-dirt side of me that seems to surface in SL.  I'll say five Hail Linden's and rezz a rosary for my sins.

 In the meantime, I'll share some SLecrets of my own.

Don't forget to check your tyre pressure :-)

Saying No To Content Theft the Artist's Voice Way

CONTENT THEFT.  Two words of late that have some SL creators reeling in the wake of numerous content thieves who have been passing their wares out with full permissions.  If you believe what you read, content theft appears to be on the rise and has done some serious damage to those who have contributed to the fashion industry of SL. 

Vultures and parasite's they surely are but the buzz on the grid is that LL have been very inconsistent with the way they have been dealing with the problem which is no doubt very disheartening for those who have poured their creative soul and RL dollars  into Linden Land.

SCD have just blogged about the attempt of Artist's Voice to raise awareness of this issue with residents and LL alike.  Whether you agree with the plan or not, to me doing something is better than doing nothing.

I personally will not accept any items offered to me in case they are stolen and I encourage you all to do the same and tell your friends as well.

In thinking about content creators and their contributions, I imagined what SL would be without them.  This prompted me to put my thoughts into a couple of pictures because I consider our world, the world we all chose to visit for it's ability to bring color and movement into our lives in a way not always possible in RL, would be dull and empty without them.  So for that I feel we must band together and say NO in as many ways as we can.

I'm going to take a 48 hour stand even though I know it will hurt the creators in terms of income but then I justify that having your SL's work stolen from you with little recourse could be more damaging.  Wanting to be a responsible blogger, I wanted to use my humble site to add to the message.

Go Artist's Voice...I admire you for your proactivity...damn, is that actually a word?

Hmmmm I'm sorry AGAIN.

Why did I just resurrect 'Chalice In Wonderland' from the dead blogger's graveyard? I swear I can't believe I just did that.

OK...let me analyze this a moment.

• Retired from SL check
• Not been back in save to check that my stuff had been returned...no interaction check
• No playing around on alt's check
• A little lurking around blogs but no commenting and the amount of lurking reduced steadily over time check
• No withdrawal symptoms just an occasional desire to see what was going down check

In all honesty, I have thought about SL. Sometimes a lot, sometimes a little. I hope that's normal given the amount of time I had been involved in it. I think it is. That said, I didn't like the way I left. I didn't like the way I did it. I didn't like what I said. I think that who I am as a person was for the most part reflected in my in-world interactions with people but toward the end something in me snapped.

This post is really not for anyone but me. It's cathartic to at least put my thoughts down on here and say what I wished I had said immediately after my departure. Is it important to anyone but me? Absolutely not. No-one will care which is fine and right and normal. In fact, no-one will remember any of the mini-drama at the time and given a day in SL is a year in RL, no-one will even know who I am...haha.

First of all, I want to apologise to Iris Searle of SCD fame. I was absolutely wrong to call her names and I had no business even going on her blog bagging her. IRIS I'M SORRY. Now Iris will in all likelihood never read this and somehow I get the impression my outburst was like water off a duckies back to her. She's had people dig at her before and unlike me, she's probably far too philosophical to let it bother her but it really bothered me. I just shouldn't have done it, plain and simple. Wrong, wrong, wrong on my part.

Dancien, in responding to my initial post, made a good point I guess. SCD is just another facet to this crazy on-line environment. Of course there is a place for nasty blogs, nice blogs, drama laden blogs, crazy blogs, boring blogs, expose' blogs, fluffy blogs and informative blogs blah blah. It's like a menu and you just pick what you feel like, you don't have to eat everything.

I'm not going back in-world to play around as I did but at the same time, I'm not deleting my account...JUST YET ANYWAY. There is definitely a strong pull associated with this game and I can't pretend I didn't have lots of fun and got to do things that in RL I'd love to do. I'm heading off on an amazing world trip that I organized with a suitcase full of gorgeous clothes, money in the bank and a head'n'heart clear of crap to fill up on wonderful experiences. I swear I don't think I would have had the clarity to do all this if I had been in SL. I know there are people far more focused and clear headed than me able to marry the two lives but for me it was becoming one or the other. If I struggled, surely other people have and do also. I think that is the thing that has been niggling away at me. That I let SL become so much more than it actually is. I just wanted to say it...out loud. Someone else might feel the same and it's ok. Just don't let it overwhelm the life you can have if you let SL be what it is...just something to do when LIFE lets you.

It's strange that the very thing that drove me away is what now, after the benefit of time, I love about SL. All the weirdo's, of which I include myself, mulling around in that micro-world just putting it out there. But there is danger and I wanted to say one last thing. It's something that I forgot about in my own SL experience and it dawned on me that I saw a lot of this with people I met.

So I will just keep CIW going for a bit longer. Kill me, lick me, hate me, love me....I am who I am and I'm just doin' my thang.

*When SL crawls in to your dreams or you start seeing SL in your RL, take a break.
*If a real person walks into the room when you're in-world and it annoys you, take stock.
*If the phone rings or someones at the door and you don't answer it, why?
*If you are hungry or thirsty sitting at the computer but you don't attend to your basic needs, that's ridiculous.
*If you start looking after your avatar better than you look after yourself, look in the mirror and say "I love you".
*If you prefer to hug a pixelated image instead of a flesh and blood person, switch off the computer and disconnect from your ISP for a while.

These things are not normal, healthy or conducive to a happy life.

Just sayin.......