Harassment

Experienced personal harassment by someone connected with a neighbor at my SL home lately. I don't know if each incident was the same person or not.
- oven door left open
- texture on the cuddle rug was changed
- cuddle rug active poses were switched from male & female chat poses in chairs to "getting into it" poses on top of the rug
- three large posters of the fun had by two people in the shower were left on display in the bedroom

The picture of the rug is a bit confusing. There is a large rug with a design on top of the cuddle rug. At that time the cuddle rug was sized to cover the entire floor and was a solid green shade. The picture shows it as a bear skin rug.

I have always had locks on my doors, but anyone can get maneuver around those. I changed the permissions on the cuddle rug to owner, and must remember to change perms when I have company so others can select sits. But most of the pose balls don't have controls. the shower doesnt'.

I really don't understand why people enjoy doing this. I have never even met her! Much less intruded on her space.

My landlord was able to track down which person she was connected with and kicked her out of the land group. He felt that she would probably create an ALT and continue to plague me. He recommended a move, which I did. I filed an harassment report complete with pictures. The one for the posters shows the owner in the edit window.

I'm a Cupcake

You Are Not Destined to Rule the World

You are destined for something else... Like inventing a new type of cupcake. You just don't have the stomach for brutality. But watch out - because many people do! Take the quiz here

Shoes! OM ! Shoes !!!

My name was drawn for a free pair of shoes (my choice) by a designer for having the shop in my "picks". The demos for the two pair of red shoes I narrowed it down to were broken. I dropped a note card asking about it. There followed some very slow communication. I never received my shoes. I probably took too long to make up my mind.

I decided to expunge this memory, I was going to splurge on a pair of red shoes this week and started thinking about where to shop.

I am NOT a shoe whore. Don't get me wrong; I am picky. I have weeded my newbie shoes out of my closet. I own shoes from most of the best designers. But except for the cute brocade flats by Fallingwater Cellardoor (Shiny Things), I buy shoes as I need them to go with my clothes. I don't buy fat packs.

Before I left the house, I read a blog. and....I flew to R2!!! I tried on the Konase demo; they looked good on me and not just in the photo. For the first time ever, I looked for a fat pack. :( Oh well, there are very few colors available, I didn't wear my finger out clicking.

Back home I happily stood in my undies and HAWT new shoes trying on everything red in my closet. Much to my surprise, my wardrobe failed me! I have one, only one dress that goes with the shoes and it is too casual. For the first time ever, I must go shopping to appease my sense of style that revolves around a pair of shoes!!

It's finally happened!

Relay For Life of Second Life Feedback

I filled out the "American Cancer Society Relay for Life of Second Life Feedback" questionnaire. It was sent out today to the SL Team Captains group, which includes other people that worked/rezzed things on the Relay sims.

I recorded portions here, so I can look back on it next year and remember to pass along suggestions for a handout and how I felt about the Relay. So you'll probably want to skip over to the next blog you read. :D

MC Estates team raised L$579,700!!! inworld and offworld combined - approximately $1,700 USD in their first relay year! Way to go team!!!
The last figure I saw was for the Second Life RFL grand total was $200,011 USD WHOOT!!!

The picture is myself (currently a baldy) and Ishtar, our terrific team captain.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The questionnaire -

How likely are you to come back and participate next year?
Why?

It's something that I believe in strongly.

At a business lunch last year, I realized I was the only one at the table that had not had cancer!

Now that a team has recruited me, it would never occur to me to not pitch in next year and every year.

What was your favorite thing about the event?

By far the outpouring of love and concern and support that was overwhelming throughout the preparation and the relay. Much of which I would not have been aware of if not for the non-ceasing chatter of the Team Captains group.

That sooo many people native to countries other than the United States get deeply involved in the American Cancer Society Relay For Life - Wow!!!

The incredible generosity of talent, time, and money that pours into this event each year. Especially through a virtual world.

Listening to a very somber Brit get punchy from the number of hours he had worked (DJ) the event. At least part of the time he was walking too!

What was your least favorite thing about the event?

The lack of communication on a very basic "how to" level. My team captain was brand new to it and she did a great job. We raised L$579,700 including out of world donations!!

A notecard written & distributed to team captains with instructions to hand it to everyone detailing "what you need to do/know" would be sooo helpful. How to make your laps count, do you need a sponsor, do you have to contribute to participate in the run, is a lap the full course or a one hour time frame, can the hour start any time, or is it the top of the hour, if you crash do you have to start the lap over, does only time spent moving count, or does simply time on the track count and do you have to stand on the track or can you move off of it to look at something and it still count, and anything else someone can dream up. Write it for someone that walks in the day of the relay and has no clue. And make it a billboard along the track.

If I could change one thing about Relay, I would:

Restrict the builds to a certain number of prims per site. It would help with the awful lag encountered during laps. Yes, the builds were absolutely wonderful, quite impressive, but....

Sorry, 2 -

Find a way to get the word out more uniformly. There were still plenty of people who were not aware that the Relay was going on.

Misc Stuff & Junk

Wow! I've had so many hits today for an unknown, unpublicized blogger! Wonder why? Probably someone linked me for some reason! Maybe someone added me to their side bar of blogs they read. Hope they come back.

I wanted to post my RFL pictures last night, but I was just so wiped out. I haven't discovered how to make the layout of each post do what I want yet. Sometimes the pictures and text are just where I want them, and then there are the times they aren't.....

I need to find out how to make the site counter work right. It's recording people, but not the amount of time they spend on the site! A friend told me he had been on quite a while and read the whole thing and was down as 0 time! While other people have time listed next to their visit. *frowns* I'm confused

Everybody have a good week. Hugs and smiles all around :D

Relay for Life

A few pictures from Relay for Life, starting with the spectacular fireworks display that wrapped up the rally.

I am constantly overwhelmed by how generous so many, many people are in Second Life. They give of their time, energy, creative talents over and over again - to all kinds of fund raisers and special projects to help others. Relay for Life in it's fight against cancer is by far the biggest push with the greatest outpouring of generosity and love.

I was placed in the all SL Captains group so that I could decorate the dance pavilion pictured below in of one of the RFL sims. It was amazing and inspiring to be privy to literally hundreds and hundreds of lines of chat throughout the final week. These people care so very much for each other - their efforts towards the rally, someone's own fight against cancer. I'm certain lasting friendships were formed; I know there were tears shed over the messages.

A screen capture of the sims dedicated to the walk in the "H" of Hope. It was amazing to think that throughout the entire 24 hour walk there were always this many dots representing individual people! (click for large view) Several walkers stayed up all night placing one foot in front of the other showing incredible dedication.

Poo - I didn't get any pictures of my friends that joined me on laps. Our team belly danced sometimes waving flags. I'm in purple flowered silks with my friend Katana, who came to support us that day.

The last picture is of the team opening fund raiser. The MC Estates team name has been changed to Ministry in Dance for next year's effort.

Nika's relationship Questions

As requested in Alicia's blog, I copied these relationship questions from Nika's blog.

If you have a relationship or partner in SL, how does that extend into FL? Do you consider yourself just friends, or something more?

I consider myself to have a relationship in SL, although he is logging on very seldom these days. I can't turn my feelings off and on, so I care for him a great deal in life - period. I feel we are very good friends in FL. We share the small stuff along with the big things that happen to us in FL. I am a very loyal friend, and it is not easy to become a friend of mine in FL. Many more people feel that I am their friend in FL, than I would list personally. I might call them a coworker, or a friendly acquaintance, or a casual friend and they would consider me the next notch up from there! So you could probably kick him up a notch from very good friend.

How often do you talk to your partner outside of Second Life.. be it via email or IM?
Do you ever talk on the phone?

We have chatted on rare occasions via SL/email. We do leave IM's sometimes when one of us is on and wants to say something that are then usually referenced and sometimes expanded upon when we are both on SL again. We haven't exchanged phone numbers etc.

If you could meet your partner in person, would you? What do you imagine that would be like- where would you go, or what would you do?

No. We have not told the other person who we are in FL and we are respecting each other's wishes by not using the information we have exchanged (which is sufficient - & includes first names) to track down the other person. If we did meet, I could imagine going to a park or the beach to talk and walk.

If we saw each other from time to time, I think we would enjoy going to a few science or flight oriented museums, gigs/concerts and movies. But we would probably just go to the beach, movies or have something to eat while we talked even more and hugged; mustn't forget the hugs :D

Our AV's look as much like us as possible so we wouldn't have "you don't look like yourself" to get past. We know each other's general location, which is about a 3-4 hour drive in the same time zone. It is feasible that we could bump into each other at a gas station or fast food restaurant. I would probably be panic stricken because my AV is younger than I am (he knows, but still...); my next reaction would be "am I wearing something I look good in?" - lol. We both think we would be tongue-tied at first.

Do you feel like having a relationship in Second Life is similar to having a long distance relationship? Or is it a different type of relationship, entirely?

It is both to me. We have exchanged photos of ourselves and our pets. I even sent him one of my glasses (lol) they are shaped a bit differently than the wonderful oval ones I was gifted with in SL. To me notecards are the SL equivalent of letters and I've given him a few when I wanted to go into depth on a topic and knew we would get side tracked during a conversation.

I am married in FL, my husband knows, and is encouraging regarding an SL relationship for me. He plays, but not as much as he used to, and we lead totally separate lives in SL. We see each other occasionally in SL - have you seen this? or I think you would like this! or I broke ____, can you help?

I have a very social job. Co-workers and customers are constantly telling me what is going on in their lives. When it is pertinent to the conversation, I do refer to my SL bf and other SL friends as "a friend" (leaving SL out of it) that is ____ (going to the same concert in a different city) or is going through _____ (the same or similar things as the person I am talking with).

But at the same time, we are very connected to our AV's. So it's more than just a long distance relationship, because in a sense you are right there with them. We have voiced a couple of times and I believe we will do it more regularly. Voicing makes your contact much more immediate. You hear the emotion. He gave me bad news about his dog, and it was all I could do to say something. I could have responded by typing much faster, but he wouldn't have realized how much I care (I'm such a softie).

New Question -

If you met through an online chat, do you feel you would have developed a relationship? or the same level of relationship?

I am very visually oriented, therefore I never understood online love interests through chat. I could make friends via chat, but don't believe I could develop a gf/bf relationship without the representation of ourselves through AV's.



Since I didn't answer on my blog the first time,I copied my response from Alicia's blog in case anyone read my answers to Niki's and was curious.

July 12, 2008 4:06 PM
Casandra Shilova said...

If you are in a relationship in SL, where did you meet?

I am in a relationship. We met on a beach in during my first successful attempt at camping! I've only done it a few times. He was in the adjoining lounger - friendly, bright, unintentionally funny. He is the first person that I didn't know that I accepted friendship from - a comment about my patriotic swimsuit did it!

Do you think if you'd met the same person in a different location in SL that you'd have gotten together?

I don't think it would have mattered where we met.

If you're a woman, do you regularly get hit on when you're in world?

I do get hit on, but not regularly. I'm pretty much girl next door material.

If you find out that the person you're talking to has skills that you may not, does it intimdate you?

I struggle with PhotoShop, while he is a graphic designer comfortable with 2 versions of PS, but it doesn't intimidate me.

I have a couple of good male friends I hang around with too. One I met through a dance group I'm in. One picked me up at an animation store by inviting me to go sailing! The latter is very analytical and has a better vocabulary than I do, which keeps me on my toes and occasionally intimidates me. During conversations, I sometimes look words he uses up online (Merriam-Webster).

Do you think being bloggers has affected your relationships? If you are with a blogger, does it change how you are with them

I'm blogging now, he doesn't. He doesn't pay attention to SL on the internet. I don't think it will have an affect.

Country Hoe Down

Viper Pit Ranch was the place to be last night! I didn't know I could enjoy country so much!

A few pictures - cowgirls doing the splits among general mayhem, great outfits, Alicia and Levi celebrating their three month anniversary (her skirt didn't rez for me), and lastly what's country without line dancing?

I had a terrific time. I don't know if that's because of how everyone got into the theme, or if I've been going long enough now to start loosening up a bit and talking some. I think it was one time Dyami urged people to at least go once that finally persuaded shy me to give them a try :D

Successful Devastation

Real life - I am a department manager and buyer for one of the largest fabric shops in the United States. We had our once a year MEGA Sale lately. Imagine the second photo x 30 and that would be the devastation in my department.

First things: putting up the Christmas in July sale table, inventory of the batting (packaged and rolls) left on the sales floor and pulling any stock from the back. Deciding how many kits, whole group packs were purchased and filling in my boss on that, helping the office person assess what fabric I will reorder that is on the website so she can put "out of stock" on it vs. what I won't reorder that needs to be deleted.

Add bringing the entire back wall of already discounted fabric in that section back out from the stockroom (approximately 60-72 feet of shelf space), collecting fabric that belongs in other departments (only one shopping cart worth this year!), creating fat quarters from yardage that is too small now to stay on the bolts and you will get an inkling of what greeted me when I walked back in two days later.

It takes me a solid week when I don't have help and 3-4 days when I do. Thankfully my top assistant returned from Alexandria for the event, stayed an extra 2 1/2 days to help. They don't tell you it's in the fine print when you sign the contract that you have to continue working the sale even if you move away! (just kidding) Two employees that moved this year came back to help.

7/18/08 - Edit

The 42 bolts of remnants under my table have been dealt with. I can walk around my table! I had help with the back wall - yay! It all looks pretty normal again - just in time for someone to bring in their entire class on Thursday to pick from blender groups for a specific project!

Next week - batting orders, Kona cotton & Fusion orders. Oh, and an all day meeting with a fabric rep, who couldn't believe that we couldn't see him a couple of days after the sale!! I'm going to send him a couple of pictures so he might be able to understand a bit - lol.

Yet Another Quiz

Found this on Cailin's blog.

Men See You As: An Attainable Challenge

You know how to make your man crave more of you But you also know when to show some interest back You're good at keeping your guy guessing And over time, you'll let him know how you really feel

I'm procrastinating. What better way then filling out a quiz or three?

Reverse Order - Another Quiz

Another quiz.

What Your Fridge Says About You

You like to be surrounded by things you love. You aren't exactly greedy, but you can be materialistic at times. You tend to be a fairly thrifty person. You splurge occasionally, but you're mostly a saver. You are a very adventurous person. You love to try new things, and you get bored very easily. You try to be responsible, but you don't always succeed. Your heart is in the right place though. You are likely single - and a workaholic.

Pretty spot on - except I'm married.

Puzzle Quiz

Saw this quiz on Alicia's blog & had to try it.

You Are a Jigsaw Puzzle You are a complex person, although at first glance you seem quite simple.
Your personality is comprised of many interesting and distinct pieces.
You are captivating and often visually interesting. You can be seen from many angles.

I think most of us are made up of contradictions and have facets to our personality that are a surprise to others when they discover them.

Fashion Disaster at Viper Pit

The Fashion Disaster party for Hump Day was sooo funny! I looked so innocent farm girl sitcom dorkie! I thought probably most people would show up with short tight revealing clothing that they wouldn't normally be caught dead in. So I decided to do something different. Stone washed denim - short skirt with 2 rows of white eyelet lace, matching vest, tin foil cowboy hat and way too much large turquoise jewelry (oh, and matching nails). Then I stood there thinking I should have done the bling. It took a lot for me to actually hit the TP button! But that's just because I'm a new kid on the block and don't really know anyone.

I didn't take a good picture of my disaster either. So this is a shot of the corner I gravitate to as seen a bit later with myself, Dyami, and Cen. That corner always seems to be empty when I arrive and a good spot to get out of the way of both the people who are already there and new arrivals.

Wedding in Gamilia

I left the Fashion Disaster Hump Day party at the Viper Pit in a hurry when the announcement came through that Gamilia's big wedding was imminent.

Princess Chrystinah and Prince Wolverine wed at midnight last night in a middle ages ceremony. The setting was a platform in the sky decorated with garlands.

Stature

I am in a medieval re-enactment group. A few times a year someone asks me to make garb for them. I took the measurements of a lady I think of as "large" yesterday. That's it, just large. And discovered much to my surprise that she's 12" larger in the bust, 17" larger in the waist, and 11" larger in the hips than I am! She's 1/2" taller.

Amazing what a difference nice wide shoulders make in how well you can distribute weight and carry off a larger stature.

I been told I'm wrong, but I think of myself as having an "average" build. I'm not little. I'm 5' 8-1/2" and just a tad under optimal BMI. I need to lose about 5 pounds in the right place (stomach) to be my "ideal" which is shapely, but not thin (won't happen - weight loss always shows in the bust first).

Medieval Fireworks!!!

The High King of Gamilia put on a wonderful display of fireworks on July Fourth!! I suppose it could be considered an extension of the Opening Day Ceremonies held mid-week. His majesty seemed quite pleased with how well it went. Approximately one quarter of the population viewed the display.

I am continually amazed at the variety available in SL. I will confess I went expecting to see modern firework devices, but even the equipment had a wonderful old time feeling!

I have given up looking through folders on my hard drive for the pictures I took. I will undoubtedly stumble across them someday in whatever folder had my prior attention that night.

Site Ping

I think I've really started blogging!! I won't promise to keep it up, but some of the people I've met are good at it, maybe they'll rub off on me - lol.

The site had gotten a few hits by the time I got around to a site counter. They are an essential feature for a detail-oriented person. I checked a friend's site, who is more technically able, to find out which one she uses and installed it.

My first official hit was more of a ping!! Long enough to register the contact, but not long enough for the time to be shown! aaawwwwh :(

A Dream

I had this totally weird dream the other night. I've never dreamt about anything connected with Second Life before.

This dream is set forty years in the future. Picture a bedroom, an angel in white with wings enters and speaks to the person lying in bed. They exchange a few sentences, during the conversation, the person gets up and takes a few steps. The angel turns to face that person and says something. End of dream. I heard the conversation, but don't remember it.

I woke sobbing. Correct rendition or not, this was the RL person behind the SL AV! The angel had a Roman Catholic background as a nun! I guess the nun was so good she made angel when she went to heaven :) Although at peace, the person didn't realize that the conversation was about their imminent death. I still tear up recounting it! I am such a softie..

Fae to Human in 0.6 seconds !!

I logged directly into Gamilia all set for the king's ball last night and discovered my boy friend had been online waiting for quite a while! So I humanized and hopped home for some much needed private time.

We had the good talk we needed and he logged off for bed just as the ball wrapped up. I had assured Creag that I would be there later never dreaming that I wouldn't make it. Since he was falling asleep over the keyboard waiting for me, I expected to be at the king's ball about an hour late. He revived! I would hope to have that affect on him after a month's absence *grins* But I hated not being there to lend my support of the effort that went into the event and meet a few more residents.

Desks for Gamilia's Opening Day

My contribution to Gamilia's Opening Day prizes. Two library desks - one maple and one walnut. So if anyone needs a good sturdy wooden desk, join in the festivities - and who knows? Maybe you'll have one all of your own. :)

Fae? Who Me???!!!

Not sure what to say, but since Creag linked me on his blog, I thought a new post would be in order - lol.

Before I ever logged on the first time I decided I wanted to see myself having fun in Second Life. So I'm set up as a regular person - what you see is what you get. Cas is me - height, build, soft red hair, personality.

There is so much of SL I haven't tried. So much fun out there just waiting. hmmmm......should I try Hogwarts? Dragonriders of Pern? a Battlestar or the Star Fleet? Be an elf or a fairy?

And just then Alicia posted about becoming a fae in response to Creag's post on becoming a fae king in Gamilia. She said "And I think all of you who have free time should come be fae, too." And the timing was right.

I put in my application at for the Kingdom of Gamilia, and with Creag's guidance, I was granted citizenship. Now how do you role play a fae when you aren't a silly person?

I am a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism It's a medieval re-creation group. So I am familiar with courts, tournaments and display of pomp. But I'm mainly involved with creating arts, displaying them, judging them, giving classes. Rather than role players, I would consider most of us medievally courteous.

I think a fae would hover for court, rather than stand. Flit around and land on the tops of odd things - hay bales, castle turrets - not chimneys (too dirty!!), tease the cattle, sit in the middle of flowers to day dream of handsome fae to share their lives with.

So, we'll see how I do. If anyone happens to read this, and wants to say anything - please do :)