I went back to grab an LM so i could show my partner a particular place and the rest of the sim; as soon as i landed i remembered why i fell in love with the island – who would have thought that pixels could evoke such emotions? i felt calm, in love with the atmosphere and i wanted to share it with my girl.

The entire sim gives off an essence of peace (Sounds like a perfume!)  - the bird song, the music, and the buildings made of stone.

‘Where is this place?’ i hear you ask, this place is in my heart and because it’s so special i’m going to leave it a mystery.

Maybe you have a place like that too – a place in a virtual world that brings forth real physical emotions.

After not being able to attend the services for a while due to rl commitments, i returned a few weeks ago to find it  has now become a playground, where a child avatar runs around during the service sometimes accompanied by their ‘Sister’ & there are prim babies that leave comments in chat: ‘(Name) frowns because he wants attention’ or ‘(Name) is happy to be feeding’ – along with sound effects – this was a minor annoyance that i think should not have been allowed to take place, it is a church after all, despite being a VR one myself others go there to listen to the word of God; it was however, a minor annoyance.

Yesterday tho, things got out of hand, 2 prim babies were baptised, not rl babies, but prim ones & i was absolutely amazed & pretty angry that this mockery was allowed to go ahead. i could understand if the ‘Babies’ represented rl ones, but this was not the case & i felt it was wholly inappropriate.

Throughout the service i tried to concentrate, but i couldn’t really & i managed to speak to a friend who saw my point of view & without knowing it she helped me feel a bit better about my anger (i hate getting angry, it’s a horrible negative emotion – i’m pleased i rarely feel it).

After the service a lot of us stood outside the church, i really should have left, i’m not sure why i didn’t. i felt a little angry towards the ‘Family’ of the ‘Babies’ but not angry enough to not want to help one of the ‘Fathers’ who was suffering from lag – i tp’d him out of a corner.

One of the prim ‘Babies’ made a noise & its ‘Mother’ delightedly exclaimed in chat that it  said ‘Mom’ – this confirmed that it was all just roleplay & my anger levels grew & even more so when i was asked to ‘Step aside’ by the Pastors wife while the families of the baptised children had their picture taken – this was the last straw, so i politely excused myself & tp’d home.

i don’t think i’ll go back to that church, they made a mockery of God & his teachings by blessing prim babies; i have tried to see this from the Pastors point of view – perhaps he’s happy to do this in the hope a bit of God’s teaching will get through to people some how, but although sl is a great place for those who want to role-play (& i have nothing against this, apart from child avatars that is), a place of worship be it real, or be it virtual is where people go to hear God’s word & not struggle to look past the scripted comments (Perhaps i should have muted them), but this was just beyond a joke, & it was my poor partner who had to hear all about it & put up with my distant behavior (i felt drained & had a bit of a cry).

i’m not going to name the church & the people involved, i am still fond of the Pastor & his wife, i just think the whole thing was totally inappropriate & it left me feeling angry, miserable & drained.

 You are great.

Thank you for being a most excellent mate & Editor, thanks for being sweet & kind & building an awesome sim full of fabulous places to shop & ride around stuff on.

I love it when you party with us & I love it when it’s just us chatting about whatever.

So, without further ado I wish to say (Once again) on behalf of moi & maaaaaaany many others: You are great.

Thanks for being you.

xoxoxo

I’m very good! Life has been busy of late – rl that is (See my rl blog here for reasons why: http://rachelellie.wordpress.com/2010/07/20/guess-what/) But I’m still around just not so much until sometime next month, all being well.

Maybe see you in-world soon!

jellie xoxox

I recently had a bit of time away from SL, ok so it was only 4 whole days, but in SL terms that’s like, forever!  I got to thinking about WHY I was in this addictive and wondrous existence; I know a few people who have gone on a real life vacation and despite returning they have failed to log in to the grid, did I intend to do the same? No! I love SL and joined because I wanted more than the limited chat room experience and I’d heard and seen some pretty cool things about it.

But what keeps each of us here, returning again and again to a world where we can be anything and anyone we want?

For me, it’s about three things: Friends, Work and Music:    

I am fortunate, I have a lot of lovely friends, including a few who have made it thro’ to my real-life ‘List’, these people keep me coming back and are as important as those I see in the flesh.

There is of course a certain lady that I can’t get enough of, who makes my in-world experience so much brighter – yes Miss Paypabak Writer, I’m talking about you!!!

I met Pay thro’ Moonletters while partying at AAi (An alternative indie club – see my write-up); working for the website and the club respectively, is a lot fun but something I take very seriously, I can easily spend hours trailing the plains sussing places out or discussing club issues – a labour of love I guess you could call it.

Talking of clubs, it’s also the music that brings me back, my taste is exponential – the amount of  DJ’s and clubs that play all genres is one of the beauties of Second Life.

(That’s me below, contemplating, aww my old haircut!)

I asked some friends what brought them to SL and what they like the most about it:

Cisa Batista:

To be honest I refused this experience for a long time. Last November internet arrived at my home finally so I decided to join and see why a lot of people were talking about it. And here I am, glad ‘cause I’ve joined it!

What do you like most about it?

Hanging out with my friends, DJing (At AAi and Ooh La La), listening to music and shopping.

 Liela Core:

Why did you join SL?

Just a friend talked to me about it and as I’m curious I wanted to test it.

What do you like most about it?

Exploring, shopping, sharing my time with my partner, DJing to some clubs (I have heard Liela play at AAi – her sets are always rockin’!)

 Cosmic Beres:

I joined SL after playing another game called Guild Wars, most of the people I played with in GW were here already, it took some adjusting as it’s not really a game in SL unlike GW, after about 8 months I drifted away from SL. 3 months later I started getting back in to it, whilst I could be good at building (I programme for cnc machines at work) and possibly some basic scripting I decided DJ’ing (At the Pig and Whistle) might be more fun in the short term at least so that is what I attempt now.

What do I like most about it, well the usual I guess, it’s fun to come in here listen to a DJ and join in the chat have a laugh take the pee and as long as no one gets offended it’s all good, disruptive or offensive behaviour annoys me most, fortunately haven’t seen much of it so SL seems to police itself fairly well, then again I may just not go to the right places:)

 Maybe I look too deeply into things, but whatever our reasons behind signing up, SL can be a great escape from the pressures or monotony of real life, it’s what you make it and if we’re fortunate the two can merge to create something quite unique.

Special thanks go to Graz Firecaster for spinning  tunes & Meri & Thom for letting me have my party at their club.

jellie xoxoxo

I am 1 & what a year it’s been! Full of laughter, dancing, more laughter and meeting the woman of my dreams.

My noob days consisted of looking for a club, I found one called ‘Alt 7’ and hung about there for a bit, a few days later I returned to sl remembering the ‘Alternative’ part of the club name, so I typed it in & came across a little place called ‘AAi’. ‘Cute club’ I thought; River Cartauld was spinning some good tunes & someone called Danana told me I needed new clothes & hair.She  & Thiara took me to freebie places & Danana gave me $50L to get some new hair – Not many people would do that, & from that moment on she became special to me & has remained that way since.

In September of last year Graz Firecaster asked me to be Assistant Manager of AAi, I was blown away & accepted immediately – He gave me a toothbrush & told me to clean the floors, somehow that job ended up on his ‘To do’ list while I proudly began working for the best little club in Sl that has a team that’s just as great.

Fast forward a couple of months & Shauna Vella comes to a Mod night at AAi, profile snooping as I do when I’m at my place of work, I perused Moonletters website a number of times before plucking up the courage to ask Ms Vella if she was looking for a Writer. After interrogating me to within an inch of my life & 2 weeks at Moonletters boot camp to see if I was up to scratch the Godmother, I mean, Shauna welcomed me to the team.

Thro’ Moonletters I met Pay and she has made my Sl a brighter place, I am so proud to be her wife.

I have many friends, those who I speak to everyday and others now & then, they all make my time here special & I am grateful to each and every one of you.

Sure there can be drama, there can be those I would quite happily push off the edge of the virtual world, but I don’t let them bother me and concentrate on the good stuff.

So, without further ado I (Accept this award and) would like to thank all of the AAi team, the Moonletters crew, my friends & my Pay for a wonderful year – here’s to many more good times. xoxo

Article also published on Moonletters.com

There’s a guy on my friends list who unticks me when he doesn’t want me to see when he’s online, he does this to others as well - someone else asked him why he did it, he denied it  & stopped unticking her. His reason was that he wanted privacy; buuut isn’t that what the ‘Busy’ thingameebob is for? Maybe in IM he could say ‘Brb’ or ‘Sorry a bit busy just now…’ etc etc.

‘G’, as I will call him, cos, er that’s his initial  knows full well the emerald viewer shows when someone has unticked you.

Quite simply, if you don’t want me to see when you’re online delete me.

I got sick of G doing this, so I did the same to him, he’d probably wondered why I hadn’t been online for at least a couple of months, but I really don’t care, it all came to ahead yesterday when he pulled the stunt again – he ticked me before he logged out, so…. as of now he’s no longer on my friends list & I have kicked him out a group, if he asks why I shall tell him.

OK, so maybe he wasn’t a great friend after all, & the fact I didn’t tell him where I was in SL so he didn’t tp on in was maybe a factor!  (You try to be nice & say you’re busy & he would just come along & join you & start IMing, but that’s for another blog!)

I think you get to a stage in your RL where you don’t worry so much what people think of you – probably a confidence thing & that has crossed over to my SL too.

Ok, moan over, just want to assure you that I’m nice most of the time!