It's spring! Well, at least it is in SL. I'm excited to put away my SL sweaters, jackets, jeans and bring out my tank tops, shorts and flip flops! The sim I live on has been changed to grass, the snow has melted, and I've put in a pool!

I've been kind of playing with the idea of taking a trip to Heritage lately. While Misty will forever be my adorable child, she's seemed to have other RL priorities lately, and not logging in to SL much anymore. Which is perfectly fine, most of us go through this, and I hope she'll eventually come back to me. But, I'm finding some days difficult, especially around the holiday events (more recently, Easter) without a child around. No one can or will ever "replace" my Misty-child, she's a much better human being than I'll ever be, but I do miss the family RP. 

In other news, I've been really loving the photos that I can take now. A new computer really is amazing for the motivation and capabilities for SL photography. I really love taking the time in perfecting photos, and I really hope that other people enjoy them as much as I do.

I hope that I can continue to improve and get better with my photos, I really want to try actually hand painting elements like shadows, and maybe adding just little tidbits to make the photo really come alive. That takes quite a bit of practice though, and every time I try it, I'm happy with nothing. I won't give up though, I'm going to continue to try! Maybe a couple years from now, I'll look back at the photos I'm doing now, and be able to see how far I've come. Who knows.

I'm still here, still kicking. I've been working on my look recently, trying out different heads, skin combinations, and trying to find a 'new me'. However, I keep coming right back to my Catwa head, I'm not sure why. More options? More designers create for it? I've bought so many other heads, from LOGO, LAQ, Akeruka, and I've even spent a fortune at a Genesis gacha for a head. I dunno, but here we are. I do like this new-ish look I have going on now though.

I've collected so much makeup and head pieces (brows, freckles, blushes, eyeliners, lip glosses.... oh my gosh the list goes on forever) that I have yet to use. I've really been trying to experiment more, load some that I like into my HUD and attempt to use some of them. Recently, I went to check out the Skin Fair.... we aren't even going to talk about how much stuff I ended up from that event.

Hi all! It's been a while since my last post, and I'm so sorry! My laptop got really crappy, it used to be a good gaming laptop, but ever since the dedicated graphics card went out on it, it turned real bad... real quick. Buttons on my keyboard stopped working, it had some weird noises happening, the screen wouldn't stay turned on unless plugged in... ugh. It was laggy, almost impossible to do much of anything. I was done.

So, I recently bought parts and built my own gaming computer. While it isn't top of the line or anything, I took my time in choosing parts that I could possibly upgrade later. So, it works out I think. It was my first time in building my own, I've really only ever added simple parts, like RAM and graphics cards. Never an entire computer. I was nervous, but it was surprisingly easy. I don't think I'd hesitate again to build one.

Because of this, I am finally able to get back in SL, and actually enjoy taking photos again. I've been gacha-collecting backdrops, playing and experimenting with SL photography. It's been fun. It's amazing how much a laggy computer can suck the life out of SecondLife. Bonus is that I can play other games lag-free now too! :)

The day has finally come! I got my hands on the LOGO Quinn Bento head! When bento came out, I really, really didn't want to give up my LOGO Alex head. It was the head that I felt most comfortable in, and I had loved it so much. It was ME. I had hoped there would be a Bento LOGO that would come out soon, but it never really did.

A preview photo of a new head, Quinn came out on Flickr, and I drooled over this like crazy. I stalked the Flickr feed for weeks. And then someone asked me this morning: "Hey, did you get the new LOGO bento head?" My heart stopped, and the only thing that could come out of my mouth was.... "What?"

I acquired this head as soon as I could, and quickly set out to make Quinn my own. My favorite LOGO skin was applied, and it took me hours to get a shape that I semi-like. That's mainly because... I'm not a good shape maker. I've never made my own shapes, I really don't know anything about them. The only two things in SL that I can't do: making shapes, and scripting.

But all things considered, I think I did pretty good! Obviously, I'm still tweaking things (and don't mind my double ears, I didn't take off my Mandala ones before taking the photo), but it's a good start I think. Also, the head is in a closed beta, so it's still being heavily worked on. But, it's functioning, it just needs some bugs worked out of it! It's so great though, if I could get this head to feel like more like "Sai", it will likely become my daily head.


In case you're wondering, this Quinn head, still has such adorable expressions as my favorite Alex head. Not as many yet, but they are still very, very, cute. I love them! My absolute most favorite part of the expressions for me, are the big, wide, fun smiles. LOGO is the only head that I've found that has smiles that I could die for. So perfect!

Have you ever wanted to do something, and was so excited when it finally worked out? Yep, that was me last week, when I forced myself to sit down and learn how to make a bento pose. It was a little difficult, as there's not much 'bento pose making tutorials' out there, so I really had to just... figure it out on my own. I'm pretty good with doing that though, if I was to be honest. If there's something I want to learn how to do, or want to figure out, I will keep trying until I succeed. I can sure be determined when I want to be!

I mean, the pose wasn't really *spectacular*, but, I was so pleased with myself that I figured out how to move the fingers! It's not my favorite program (Poser), as I had to learn how to pose in Blender, which is not a strong point for me. But I'm learning. And I'm getting better with each pose.

If you're interested in these bento poses I made, I have listed them on the marketplace for rather cheap.

So, I've had my Catwa head for a couple months now, I switched when Bento came out. I have found a few skins that look nice, but honestly, I have never felt like "me" in them. I became so attached to how young my beloved LOGO head looked, Catwa skins are older looking, heavily contoured, never really felt like "Sai." I came across a gacha, It was a Catwa skin, but, it looked really young, which I really liked. I tried on the skin, and fell in LOVE. (Well, tbh, I put several thousand $L into the machine, until I got the rare, THEN I tried on the skin a couple days later). This is the *first* skin that I finally feel like myself in. It's been so long since I have felt like this with my head, I've forgotten how it felt, to feel at home. Weird, right? Only in SL. *laughs*

Maitreya also came out with bento hands as an addon to their body. I have had the Vista hands pretty much since they came out, so it wasn't such a huge deal to me. But, I took off the Vista, replaced them with the new Maitreya ones anyway. I don't notice much difference, but some people do. So that's okay. I spent the rest of the night, updating my Catwa head (switching all my saved slots to a new, updated HUD, I swear is the biggest nightmare of all, there has GOT to be an easier way, ugh), updating my body, putting all my body paint back on... LOL. It was a night, ohmigosh. I even switched out my Catwa teeth to the Lelutka Beast Teeth. My canine teeth are just a wee bit pointier than normal now, but the Lelutka teeth look SO much better. However, I can't be bothered to buy an entire Lelutka head, just to get human teeth. These pointy teeth are close enough, and I don't even think anyone would really be able to tell.

After all that, I really didn't even feel like dressing myself for the photo, so please excuse my comfort clothes. Mesh life is exhausting sometimes.

I'm learning to love my Catwa head, after all these months. I will forever miss the LOGO expressions, but the Catwa is growing on me. Besides, someone will eventually release an animation HUD that will give me better expressions.... RIGHT?!

A couple of months ago, I briefly dated a guy in SL who had a passion for sailing and flying. He'd take me around interesting places in the Blake Sea, and it really renewed my love of the beauty in SL. I had become so "mesh this, mesh that" that I'd forgotten the creativity of the people. When he took me around to interesting places on the Blake, there was a beauty in prims that I had forgotten about. From the mer-communities we visited, to the lighthouses and shacks on islands, I found that I had developed a love for sailing. I retained this interest in sailing after the relationship didn't work out.

I decided that I wanted to learn how to sail. Apparently, sailing wasn't as easy as it is to drive a car, or motor boat. It consists of trimming sails, taking note of wind directions, and a whole bunch of other complicated stuff. I purchased my first boat, the Loonetta. I learned how to sail using this boat, and it wasn't really a bad boat. However, when I went to my first "cruise" with other people, it gave me nothing but script errors. I was embarrassed, being "that sailing noob", so I TP'ed home, disappointed that I apparently, didn't know how to sail... despite all my lessons and practice.

This lead me to purchase a different, more expensive boat - the Bandit 60. It had been intended to be a "backup" boat, but ever since I took this boat out, I have never looked back. I heard that the Loonetta 31 is fixed with it's script errors, but I really haven't even looked at the Loonetta since I got the Bandit 60. (If you're ever buying this sailboat, I definitely recommend the skip hud, it makes it SO much easier to remember commands)

I love this boat, it goes so fast, even for someone like me, who is still learning how to sail, I feel like I could actually keep up with some of the more experienced sailors. I put the boat into auto-pilot mode for photo taking, but I usually don't like to make a habit of using it, cause manually sailing is so much more fun!


I've joined a particular group in SL where they send out a cruising "route" for the group to follow a couple times a week, and at the end of the route, is a party! Ever since my experience with my erroring Loonetta, I've been a little traumatized into going with them, but I usually go out within the next couple days and do the route myself. It's so beautiful and relaxing to get out on the water in a boat, seeing all the creativy in SL, and all the different landmarks that the lindens made many years ago. Tip: If you're joining these cruising groups, the Ultimate Sailor Buddy will be your best friend!

Yesterday was day number 6 of the Playdate Cruise, and we had arrived at the Mermaid Sea! I was AFK quite a bit yesterday, and didn't get to as many events as I wanted. But, we did explore Mermaid Sea, I helped a special camper find the hunt sticker, and the biggest part of yesterday - the talent show! I was one of the judges, and trust me, it was hard to judge all these adorable kiddos and pick a winner. But it was done, whew!

Of course, we had the obligatory camp fun before the talent show started! It was a fun day, I always love watching the talent shows, and the creativity that the kids have. The creativity these special kids have though was amazing, seriously! There was a video that the camper, Kit, recorded! If you wanna see, here is the link!


Day 7 was the last day of the Playdate Camp. (So sorry for the lack of pretty in this photo, there was ALOT of kiddos, and ultra graphics... just wasn't going to happen). We had to go to town today in RL, as we had tickets to see Beauty and the Beast, and had to do some shopping. So we rushed home, to try to make it in time for the closing ceremony. I was a little early, and got to do some "HECK NO!! WE WON'T GO!!"-ing with all the kids. Flag waving and all! After closing ceremonies, we did another bit of camp craziness!

Closing ceremonies was so touching, tearful, and such a beautiful sit down with the kids. They shared their feelings, how much camp meant to them, and the counselors did the same. I cried, they cried, it was emotional. But, camp is officially over, as sad as it is, we all go back to our normal SLives.

I will write more about camp, my feelings and how big of an experience this meant for me. But, for now, I think I need to get caught up on some sleep, relax a little and process everything. Oh, and I absolutely must sort through my post-camp inventory, omigosh, it's an official mess!

Day five of the Playdate brought..... The Land of Giants! I did the usual daily fun stuff, like getting the golden goat of the day, the daily theme hunt, and exploring the land of Giants. There was even a special hunt around the ship for the super-secret Clown Town pin for our lanyards! Every item was a clue to the next item, and we had to collect words in each item to unlock the chest the held our pin! It was great!

In addition, I attended a couple of events - Story with a Hole was fun, as you got a little bit of a story, and had to figure out the rest of it. It was fun, though it made me feel a little stupid cause the kids are so smart! Miss Late and Radio's Great Toyroom Escape was fun but really hard (it probably wasn't too hard, but with the amount of kids pushing each other off ramps and blocks, plus lag, it made it super difficult to navigate, Ohhh, the joys of camp!), Miss Jewel's Toypocalypse was super fun! She had all the kids make a base, and then made toys come to life and come after them! Miss Jewel has some of the absolute best events, they are always so thoughtful and focuses on teamwork. That's why she's so great at doing the Neverland Scouts!

And lastly, story time with Miss Allex. Even as a counselor, there's something soothing and relaxing about someone reading stories to you after a busy day of camp. Even if it's something as obnoxious as the entire book of Stinky Cheese Man. *laughs*

Yesterday we were at the port of the Dark Isles! It was filled with quite a few creepy things, and the port looked like we arrived at Heck itself. *laughs* It was good though. Misty was AFK whenever I logged in yesterday, so we didn't get to get our photo together yesterday.

That doesn't mean that I didn't get a photo! She just didn't know it. She leaves herself logged in at night while she sleeps, so I snuck into her bunk and took a photo with her. It was probably one of those embarrassing 'mom' moments, but, I needed our daily photo!


I didn't really go to many events yesterday, cause I was very tired, and feeling ill, but I did find the theme's hunt, the day's golden goat, and went to Scary Stories with Late and Radio! This event was actually one of the best, because it was actually Miss Late's birthday! We all surprised her by telling her Happy Birthday at the end of the event. It was amazing, extremely touching, and she rewarded us by singing to us! It was wonderful. I adore Miss Late.

Yesterday was day three of the Playdate Cruise 2017! Our port for that day was.... Unicorn Forest! It was such a beautiful place, lots to explore! There were unicorns everywhere, an abandoned playground, a little gnome village, caves and a gorgeous pond where the unicorns came to drink. Our hunt item prize was even a little carton of Unicorn Milk! I was joking around with one adorable camper, saying that someone should steal a unicorn and market this unicorn milk to sell in SL grocery stores! They'd make a fortune!

But, aside from unicorn forest... it was my first event - Paintball! I was so, so nervous going into it! I'm not a huge voicer, but I decided that I was going to voice to the kids during my event. Misty and I practiced, got my microphone working well, and I headed to my event, set it up. It went well, all things considered! Lag was bad that day, all around. Then when I added many paintballs rocketing off everything, lag got worse. LOL. But it's okay, all that is part of camp! The kids were tired out, so it worked out pretty well, I think. Misty said afterwards that I didn't sound silly or anything, and no one even seemed to notice that I was sick and only had half my voice, *laughs*

After paintball, we tried to save a unicorn who forgot he could fly, I made balloon boxmobiles with Miss Jewel, and tried to play "Funky Monkey" which turned out to be a fast paced version of Greedy. I, however, am stupid and Greedy never makes any sense to me... but it was fun to watch the kids play!

I found the day's golden goat, found the theme hunt diamond in Unicorn Forest, and tried really hard to stay up for Late and Radio's Fireworks and Fishing event, but I was really tired and couldn't make it. Being sick during camp is no good at all!