Guest Post

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    Just Like A Cartoon

    Byaemeth Friends, Guest Post, iheartslFeed, JuicyBomb, Mesh, Second Life
    0 Comments

    Like Tom and Jerry

    Hi everyone!

    So today I wanted to show off some Arcade previews, when I assembled everything and realized… oh! I’ve got sort of a Looney Tunes vibe going on. You can see what I mean by looking at this picture.

    Featured in this photo are two brands: RC Cluster, who makes my favorite humor items ever, and Zerkalo, who’s really good at creating lacy/vintage things. The gloves and mannequin are from Zerkalo. The cat litter box, painting set, and the Dizzy Dazzle Circle Spin are from RC Cluster. All of these can be won at The Arcade starting tomorrow! (Kittycat not included).

    Are you excited for the new Arcade round? I still want the disinfectant spray from RC Cluster, so I’ll be looking for that next!

    RC Cluster Gacha Key
    Zerkalo Gacha Key
    Visit The Arcade’s shopping guide here!

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    Sword Art Online

    Byaemeth Friends, Guest Post, iheartslFeed, JuicyBomb, What I think
    0 Comments

    Sword Art Online

    I’ve been binge-watching Sword Art Online lately. An anime about players who are unable to log out of an MMO until they defeat the final boss, it explores all kinds of philosophical subjects that have to do with online gaming. That’s right up my alley! I love deep things like that.

    Here’s a paraphrased quote someone says in the series: “The choices you make in a video game can affect who you are in real life.” This quote doesn’t mean simple tasks or clearing levels, but how you treat other players. I agree wholeheartedly with this.

    Second Life is especially prone to this because it has no end goal unless you create one. If you attack the grid like it’s a game, manage your business like a ruthless CEO, or discard of people you meet in rp sims like they’re little more than an NPC to be used, you’re going to change irl if you aren’t that way already. You can become someone you didn’t think you would ever be. You will slowly but surely become a low-key sociopath. I’m not kidding.

    Sword Art Online

    The power anything in this game can grant you can end as soon as the grid itself goes away. Do yourself a favor, and always remember what’s really important in life. Your happiness. Your sanity. Your friends. People who love and care about you. Power and cash are not the end-all. Don’t let a lust for these things and the setting of a virtual world turn you into someone you don’t recognize anymore.

    It might be a strange word of warning all of a sudden, but let’s get real: Sansar is something LL is creating because it needs to retain its users, or else the company may flop and both grids can be lost. We’re looking at a possible endgame here with our surroundings. But don’t let that take away what’s important. Love conquers all, and will be there when all your virtual swag has disappeared.

    That’s all for now!

    What I’m Wearing
    Verve – Coco Skin
    Logo Alex Mesh Head
    glYph – Acolyte Hood and Skirt*
    Bliensen + MaiTai – Viper’s Nest Necklace*
    Empyrean Forge – Borealis Sword*
    JIAN – Wolf Companion*
    Moon Elixir – Mira Tunic*
    PEQE – Trumpet Sleeves
    Wicca’s Wardrobe – Joyce Necklace*

    *available at We <3 RP until the end of the month!

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    Life2 versus G&S

    Byaemeth Exploring SL, Friends, Guest Post, Home & Garden, Hot Tips, iheartslFeed, JuicyBomb, Second Life, What I think
    3 Comments
    Life2 versus G&S
    G&S shots of weaving and farming.

    I love farming and fishing. When I was a kid, my father took me fishing all the time. My stepmother kept our backyard filled with plants, and taught me the importance of keeping a garden. I love both of these so much, I’m more likely now to play video games that feature these two activities.

    Imagine my joy when I discovered both the Life2 and G&S systems in Second Life. Although clearly meant for different time periods, both systems feature cooking, gardening, and eating to keep your energy up. Life2 is more for the modern period, geared towards city sims with families. G&S is created with Gorean and medieval sims in mind, expanded to include mining, crafting, carpentry, fishing, and raising animals.

    For the player who wants to invest and bring more entertainment to their SL experience, the task of figuring out which system is best for them can be daunting. Which one should you pick? Thankfully, I’ve shelled out the cash on both of these so you don’t have to–read on to check out my comparison of both.

    Read More “Life2 versus G&S”

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    Formation

    Byaemeth Exploring SL, Fashion, Friends, Guest Post, Hair, iheartslFeed, JuicyBomb, Mesh, Second Life
    2 Comments

    Formation

    Did you know I’m a queen? No. Really. Let me explain.

    Every Mardi Gras, the following Sunday is Super Sunday. At this time, Mardi Gras Indians come out to show off their costumes, which they painstakingly made over the course of a year, leading a tribe of people along with them to battle with others for superiority on the streets. The “battle” consists of song, dance, and the costumes themselves. It’s a dying tradition–which is why I’ve been trying to take up masking these past few years.

    It used to be that Mardi Gras Indians created their costumes with whatever they could find. Sequins, beads, whatever they had. Over the years, costumes became more and more elaborate until it became a financial burden to create them. Feathers are going to cost you hundreds to make a proper costume now, beads another couple hundred. And everyone is always trying to outdo each other. This was a problem for me. How on earth could I even justify spending so much on plumage when I had bills, you know?

    I figured I could replace the beads with clever painting (easy to do), but the feathers? That was a problem.

    That changed with the help of some cosplayers, who showed me how to create faux feathers with spray paint and thick enough card stock. Thanks to them, I can carefully construct my cultural costume over the course of a year as tradition dictates.

    Heads of tribes or Big Chiefs or Big Queens. Hm… Big Queen Cake. Do you think that’s a nice name?

    GEMC Trawler at Half Hitch (Blake Sea)

    Today I’m at Turnbuckle Island! I know Gogo was seaside recently too–this is also what I do on my spare time, I come to Turnbuckle, rez a ship, and sail on the Blake Sea. I just got this awesome trawler from GEMC, which is very fun to drive, so you’re welcome to come along whenever I’m sailing! I’m hoping to get a Bandit 60 soon.

    What I’m Wearing
    Exile – Bond Girl Friday
    !gO! – Cosette corset and skirt*
    Empty Pockets – Sunnies – Stay True

    *available at We <3 RP.

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    I Follow The Gods Of Chaos

    Byaemeth Exploring SL, Friends, Guest Post, iheartslFeed, JuicyBomb, Mesh, Second Life, Uncategorized
    0 Comments

    I Follow The Gods Of Chaos

    We <3 Roleplay is back for another round of awesome stuff to make your SL more fun! Because of the inevitability that I won’t be able to showcase everything, I advise you to check out this shopping guide and see what’s for sale. Some of the really cool things that stuck out to me immediately, I’ve included in this shot. I’ll do another post with dresses later.

    For now, though, I wanted to show off these awesome weapons from BAMSE and Empyrean Forge, as well as the animal skull from Yummy. I combined these with a cool armor set from Heretech for a look that lets me blend in with a battle sim like Chaos Indivism‘s (btw they’re recruiting right now).

    With so much that We <3 Rp is offering, battle sims are something I’m becoming interested in. When I’m not golfing in SL, gardening, or sailing a boat on the Blake Sea, I like running around and blowing people up in combat. Think of combat sims as a neverending game of paintball, but with bombs. You don’t have to become a part of an SL military group to shoot people on a sim, but you should observe the rules when you visit one.

    My top advice for engaging in combat in SL is: it’s fun, so don’t get angry if you die a lot. Everyone dies. Then they respawn and come back again. That’s video games for you! So if you visit a combat sim, set your home to the spawn point and remember to laugh.

    What I’m Wearing
    Heretech – Sororius Armor
    Yummy – Faux Animal Skull Headdress*
    Jack Spoon – Creepy Mask (Speak No Evil)
    BAMSE – Steam Crusher Axe*
    Empyrean Forge – Borealis Sword*

    Furniture:
    22769 – Street Kitchen (background/food vendor)*
    Souzou Eien – Apothecary Set (scales and cauldron)*

    *available at We<3RP!

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    Double Love

    Byaemeth Friends, Guest Post, iheartslFeed, JuicyBomb, Mesh, Second Life, What I think
    17 Comments

    According to some people, I’m an “online crossdresser”, most likely because they don’t understand how Second Life works for those who are nonbinary (meaning, a gender identity which doesn’t fit with just “male” or “female”). If you want to understand a bit more, listen in on my story and see how this might stack up against your original opinion of nonbinary users in SL.

    Back in 2003, I didn’t know what being genderfluid was. I do, however, remember making a beeline for the men’s section in a department store and buying slacks and oversized shirts to hide my figure. I had no idea why I was doing this. I was just doing it. Before I had a name for what I was, I did it and was happy, not caring about the weird looks other people in the store were giving me.

    About ten years later, I began “masking” (as my people call it) for performance art and to play with gender again. I liked the way I felt when people said, “I can’t tell if you’re a man or a woman”. It made me feel powerful, like I had defied something and become a completely new person entirely. I took it and ran with it–it was my life, my rules, but those were not the things I practiced in SL yet. When a newspaper asked me to talk about my work, I talked about shifting genders when masking. I was proud of who I had become and you can find that article to this day. Read More “Double Love”

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    We Need To Talk About Racism On The Grid

    Byaemeth Friends, Guest Post, iheartslFeed, JuicyBomb, Second Life, Uncategorized, What I think
    40 Comments

    Note: Plurk images have been moved to a mirror blog.

    The man in this picture could be anything. He’s got fair skin and light eyes. His long hair are put into braids, and his cheekbones are prominent. Even if he didn’t match the race you think I said he was, he is that because I deem him to be.

    He is me–as a male, in the grid. I created him to be more creole-looking than my female counterpart, which I still think doesn’t look that Caucasian to me. Before I donned a mesh head with either gender identity, my avatar resembled my grandmother–a creole woman who would probably cut her hair short and dye it bright red if she were the age I am now.

    Even if I change bits of myself in the game, I carry my heritage with me. I know other black users who along with me, mix and match hair, eye colors, and skin tones. We don’t do it to escape–but some black users do. I don’t fault them for it because I understand the grid isn’t very tolerant of us.

    Second Life has been used as a means of escape for so many people. In the end, though, we’re just that–people. It’s inevitable that things like civil rights would rear their head here after a while. Especially when you get incidents of users being silenced when talking about racism. Read More “We Need To Talk About Racism On The Grid”

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    Goodbye, Art Farm! Hello, Wanderlust!

    Byaemeth Art, Exploring SL, Friends, Guest Post, iheartslFeed, JuicyBomb, Second Life, Uncategorized
    0 Comments

    [vimeo 150441347 w=500 h=281]

    One Last Look at Edie’s Art Farm from Veyot on Vimeo.

    The project I mentioned participating in earlier this year, Art Farm, is now coming down so the sim can be handed off to the next LEA project. Although I joined this collaborative late in the game, I’ve had a ball and will miss our home terribly.

    Here’s one last look at the sim and everything we created–thanks to Veyot Resident for recording it all! If you want to see more pictures of Art Farm through all of its semesters, click here.

    Where will we go now? Some of the involved artists are taking a break from SL and will return later in the year. For some of us, though, we’re simply going to move to a new home. After a round of voting, we’ve decided to set up house on the same parcel where my mainstore is. I’ve cleared out a gallery space for art shows and have a bar set up for events. We’ll be teaching classes and hosting workshops there in the future. Anyone is welcome to join!

    Please keep your eyes peeled on this blog for future announcements on workshops and classes. We hope to meet you!

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    Birthday

    Byaemeth Exploring SL, Fashion, Friends, Guest Post, iheartslFeed, JuicyBomb, Second Life
    0 Comments

    Birthday

    It’s my birthday! I have successfully completed another orbit around the sun. Yesterday I was admittedly freaking out and wondering if I had accomplished enough this year. I may be lazy when it comes to other areas of my life, but art? I’m one of those overachiever kids who can’t get enough.

    I’m at the Blithe sim today, which just opened yesterday for its new winter phase! Both of its sims have been turned into an icy wonderland. It’s absolutely beautiful, so you should definitely teleport there to take a look! It costs 250L to join the sim and access Blithe, but it’s very worth it.

    I’m dressed in more amazing clothing from We <3 RP, which opens today! I feel so beautiful in this, like a goddess (feels like a theme this week). Zenith really outdid themselves with this dress and matching sleeves. And Enfant Terrible’s halo headpiece is amazing.

    I still have more things to share, including furniture, so please keep your eyes peeled this weekend and next week!

    Birthday

    What I’m Wearing

    Logo Alex Head
    [ a.e.meth ] – Gemini Skin (Fair)
    Enfant Terrible. Emma`s Halo Gold *
    Enfant Terrible. Emma`s Veil Gold *
    Zenith – Time Traveler Dress with Belt (Milk) *
    Empyrean Forge – Archimedes Astrolabe Necklace *
    Eudora – 3D Eos HeadPiece *
    Exile – Songbird

    * available at We <3 Roleplay!

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    Birds And Flowers

    Byaemeth Fashion, Friends, Guest Post, iheartslFeed, JuicyBomb, Mesh, Second Life
    0 Comments

    It Doesn't Interest Me

    These beautiful head branches from Naminoke are amazing! The birds not only are animated on the branches, but they sing, too. You can turn their sounds on and off with a single click as well. This is yet another awesome product you can find at We <3 Roleplay beginning tomorrow.

    And yet, still more products from this round I want to show off! Also, thank you to Torley for this photo’s background! If you visit his Flickr, he has lots of textures available for use. Check it out here and download some stuff!

    For those who are curious, here’s a low-res gif of the Naminoke birds moving around on their branches:

    When I was taking this picture, I teleported my boyfriend in and he walked past me until I spoke. Then he turned around in surprise and said, “Holy shit, I thought you were a painting!” Maybe I should do that as a prank. 😀

    What I’m Wearing

    Logo Alex Head
    [ a.e.meth ] – Gemini Skin (Fair)
    Naminoke – Fairy branch (Red) *
    TKW (tukinyantoto) – Carole hair
    The Sugar Garden – Luminate – Deep Blue Eyes
    Axix – Wukong Mask [Old Silver]
    PEQE – Royal Neck (Black)

    *available at We <3 Roleplay

    Taken at the LEA Art Farm photo studio.