I blog, you blog, they all blog

I've had private diaries with ancient instruments called 'pen and paper'. I've had a private blog and a 'friends only' blog. And now here I am waffling about SL because - in a nutshell, I like writing things down.

Lately, I've been doing a little othinking about 'types of bloggers', so here's a few thoughts.

Newbie (or just incompetent) blogger: full of enthusiasm and exclamation marks. Blurry pictures (often too big or too numerous). Links, what links? Possibly grammar- and spelling-challenged. Tends to come and go fairly quickly, although some get into their stride.

Competent blogger: great pictures, links in the right places. Interesting stuff to blog about. Doesn't lapse into hysteria. Is blogging for fun or to sell stuff.

Attention-getting blogger type A: controversial, often not too worried about facts. Attacks everything and everybody. Has a whole lot of time on his/her hands. Usually lacks humour. Sweeping, gratuitous hate that is so outrageous that it nevertheless sucks people in. Responds to comments by more vitriol.

Attention-getting blogger type B: can be controversial, but does his/her homework. Usually has a sense of humour. Innovative rather than dredging up the same old, same old. Takes time to actually respond to comments without resorting to vulgarity or counter-attacks.

Boring blogger: waffles about not much. Scroll-worthy. May have issues like incapacity to split a post into paragraphs, or to include useful things like verbs. May just be plain old boring despite being able to spell and punctuate, but if they're having fun, then so what. Let 'em blog.

And of course you get mixes: like the grammar- and photo-challenged yet far-from-boring newbie stuff, or beautifully written yet totally boring treatises on issues that have been done to death.

Me? Ermmm... probably boring.

OK, OK, definitely boring.

But of course I want to waffle and subject the world to my amazing insights or I wouldn't be blogging, right?

But I'm quite contented to make people exercise their scrolling fingers as long as I can kid myself that I might sell something one day thanks to using my blog as an amazing marketing tool (must take photos) or that I might make somebody (all one of you) laugh. Also, blogging delays that thing called making a living rather nicely at times. Like now.

Dear Ari

Dear Ari, how do I split up in SL?
Love,
Desolate Heartbroken Avatar

Dear DHA,

There are various alternatives, but it boils down to just two:

a) Say goodbye. Close or slam virtual doors, whichever is best for you. Mute if it helps. Block msn if appropriate. Move sims if necessary (and if you get a new place, examine banning possibilities).
Demolish things if it makes you feel better (but take copies, OK?). Buy a new dress / gizmo. Dress up, go out. Meet people. Cry in private rather than tell entire friends list. (Note: Whingers get irritating after a while)

Advantages: Shorter. Initially painful but ultimately can be satisfying.
Disadvantages: Moving can mean you lose things / money, but your real friends will still be on your list and are just a TP away.

b) Say goodbye. Then exchange dozens of notecards, offline IMs.
Mute, unmute, remove from friends list and add again. Have endless tearful online discussions about 'why'. Rehash every discussion endlessly with friends list (including vague acquaintances). Demolish things, but then rebuild them (but you forgot to take copies as you were crying and discussing). Mope around in same clothes. Haunt certain places. Rinse and repeat the IMs, discussions until... whenever

Advantages: OK, maybe it leaves the door slightly ajar. But not many ex-lovers are easily turned into 'friends'.
Oh, and could save you money on new clothes / gizmos / land / rent at least for a while.
Disadvantages: Tiring (for you and friends list). Painful for longer. Much, much longer.

Best of luck, Desolate Hearbroken Avatar. And believe me, you are not the first (or the last).

Ari

(and why yes, I'm busily scouring OnRez for a nice new dress, why do you ask?)

How to be an SL snob

I admit it - I am a snob. So shoot me. Well actually please don't as I have a lot of meals to cook for the family over the next few days.

Or maybe shooting me would be kinder because (so help me) I am not a great fan of this time of year. Tradition is nice. But it would be nicer if somebody else did the cooking. Or the decorating, the present-buying, the wrapping, and finding the decorations I packed away with glee and unseemly haste last year.

Anyway.

Pet elitist grumbles of the week:

- Please don't call me hunny. It is guaranteed to make me scrabble for the mute button.
- Please don't talk to me in SMS-speak or netspeak or whatever you call it. Why is it so hard to type 'you' instead of 'u' or 'before' instead of 'B4'? Please explain. With punctuation.
- If I have declined your group once, there is little chance I'm going to join it on your second, third, fourth or fifth request. My fault for forgetting the 'mute', I know.
- Please don't ask me to admire anything with bling. I can't. But I can give you the scrubber script if you like.
- Glow is often showy. Too showy. Think of figures starting with a zero. Like 0.05. And if you plant something glowy on your land, like a 40-foot glowy... something (usually so glowy you can't see what it is), then you should be shot. Good way of making sure all nearby parcels remain unsold, however.
- Think carefully about compulsive freebie hunting. Group gifts are nice... when they are nice (and some really are). But really... is it worth the trying-on, the eye-rolling and the inventory-sorting, braving the blingy fray, only to find a miniature... whatever filled with what turns out to be a pair of lime-green hooker boots or Yet Another Pie Frill Skirt? No, it is not. Go mad. Invest ten Real Life Dollars. Or at the very least get rid of the sense of entitlement.
- And for that matter, stop camping. Go without a coffee or beer or something and spend the time finding some designers worth their salt.
- Or spend that time studying your slide bars (unless you really, really want boobs you can eat your breakfast off).

Back to the kitchen. Not that I'm grumpy or anything :)

No, I am not going to 'check this out'.

Am I the only person who wants to wrestle that gizmo called a blog hud out of people's little mitts and trample on it?

Yes, I know I can scroll. I have a fast scrolling finger. I just don't want to scroll through the 'check this outs' with pictures of pretty disco lights or whatever ten times a day just to find anything with any content before it gets pushed off the page.

And why yes, I'm grumpy.

Baubles and mustn't miss the train

Copy

and mod

and

tiny, tiny

prices

There's a free no-copy standing candle in my subscribo-whatsits.

Also baubles and pretty swags and wreaths and light strings (also for silly prices and copy /mod). And the cutest line of penguins ever. And if I could find the snapshot showing that stuff I would be happy. Sadly, trains don't wait for me to find an SL photo. Back tomorrow night.

Go buy them. Please?

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Napoleons%20Empire/91/209/27

Back to the drawing board

Scripting to me, is one of those love-hate relationships.

Hate, because I don't do maths (US translation = math) but worst of all I have a problem with anything 'spatial'. Me on skis - bad news. I can't even follow dance steps unless I'm facing the same way as the teacher.

So, getting a pair of double doors to open inwards, together - well, think 3 days of SL time. But, in the end it worked. Joy, rapture! Much, much was learned about rotation. PIs and axes and path cuts and non-controlling... well, lots of things.

The scripts I actually bought, which said 'right in, left out' etc. seemed perfect for a dope like me but in fact were useless because a) they didn't work (and I know why now.... sort of: it's all about that little minus sign and get rot and get pos, yadda yadda) and b) they were no-mod. Hmph. I really really need a tame scripter. And an SL millionaire but that's another topic.

So it was onto the 'let's modify the freebie ones', and as I said, joy. Opening doors, sliding doors... truly a Major Step for Avatar Me. That's when I really LOVE scripts.

Is it pathetic when seeing a successful compile is nearly as good as yet another pair of virtual stilettos or Slow Dance No. 7?

Yes, thought so.

Equipped with this amazing skill, I linked doors to my brand new build (the fruit of... a lot of SL time), and that worked too. So did the rezzer. More joy. Must put it sale and on SLExchange with link to my place so people can see it rezzed and I can become rich and famous and do lots of other colours and versions and get even richer and...yeah.

A girl can dream. If I actually cover my tier one of these months (cue violins...)... The house looks cute in sand, or ochre, or old rose, though. Must go do that. Except...

Clearly somewhat too pleased with myself, I made the cutest trunk with an opening lid for a little R&R after the bigger stuff. Did the bit I enjoy (much fiddling with textures and tapering and more fiddling with textures), redid the axes of one of the other freebie scripts and... it worked! Wow. More megalomaniac dreams of conquering SL with trunks that open and close (along with the zillion that no doubt already exist but again, a girl can dream).

Rezzed another. Turned it a little...

Ooops. Backflips and various other fun effects. More work on the scripts needed. Something about a local position not just a 'get position'. Too tired to care last night, so back to the drawing board today.