Dim Sum wakes up and wonders why there were so many people around. All she remembers was napping on a big metal block with a strange shape right next to a nice warm bonfire amid a sky full of beautiful jewel-toned boxes hanging from large chains. "What's with all these crazy people?" she thinks as she listens to them talk about a "quest" and dig through the ashes....
I found this nice quiet spot the evening of my last post. I found an anvil with an axe over it, right next to a fire. I could click on it, but it didn't do anything. And I couldn't sit on it either, so I tried just floating over the anvil.
That was the night I clean reinstalled a new graphics card driver prior to clean reinstalling the new Firestorm, and all that took six full hours, so it was early morning when I started playing with windlight, then I had to go without finishing.
RL was crazy busy yesterday and I heard that the Fantasy Faire hunt had started. But I didn't even think of it when I logged in at the same spot and people were coming to where I was. What on earth?!? Would I have to derender all these people?!?
Then someone told me that I was sitting right next to one of the hunt items. So that explained everything.
Anyway, two versions today. I love the night version because it focused on the lovely jewel tones. But the day version showed more of the delicious details. The sim was sponsored and built by the magician Elicio Ember.
And, go to the bottom for my response to Strawberry's new meme about blogging. (Warning: It's long.)
location: Titans Hollow at Fantasy Faire 2013
Technical notes
windlight (day): [TOR] BIG SUN - Slips through walls 5 (modified)windlight (night): Phototools- Lo Music Light
water: Default
Strawberry's memes - Why do you blog?
I almost forgot the weekly meme! I was browsing through the blog's visitor stats and clicked on to Cajsa's blog, which sends visitors my way. She says the sweetest things about Dim Sum! And, btw, I learned a new word! Peripatetic. Maybe it'll be useful in Scrabble some day.Anyway, from Cajsa's blog, I clicked over to Strawberry's meme of the week. The theme is about blogging. And, like my alts, my blogs are numerous. Again, like my alts, each blog has its own purpose. I swear, with just a little bit of investigative sweat, someone could easily write up my biography just based on all my online presences.
1. How long have you been blogging?
(Before you click on any of the links, I have to warn you that my blogs are generally boring.)
RL journal: I started my very first blog in November 2003. (OMG, almost ten years!)
RL travelogue: May 2005
Opal's blog: I started Opal's blog in September 2006, soon after I joined SL. I couldn't write about my SL adventures in my RL blog after all! My friends already thought I'm crazy; there was no need to give them more evidence to prove them right.
Treasure's blog: Treasure's very sparse blog started in July 2007.
Brand blogs: The Mer Betta blog started in March 2008; Ancient Visions in March 2008; Ms.O.Lei-ny in July 2008; Cross-Eyed Beauties in September 2011; Love, Like Dim Sum in December 2011.
Dim Sum's blog: January 2013
2. Why did you start blogging?
RL journal: I can't remember why. I think it came up in a conversation with friends/coworkers, and I figured, "Why not?" I was always journaling both on paper books and Word docs. Doing it on the web seemed like a normal next step, but I resisted blogging long after it became popular. At that time, most blogs were personal journals, and I thought, why would anybody be interested to read about me? I still ask that question.
RL travelogue: I was halfway through my MBA program, and my summer was packed full of travel plans. When I drove from Seattle to Minneapolis a year prior, I was too nervous because it was my very first long-distance road trip and I was driving alone. And besides, I was running late. So I decided that, in the summer of 2005, I would do some sightseeing and stop for at least two nights in each state that I passed as I drove from Minneapolis to Seattle through the northern states, then down to the San Francisco area, then a flight to the Philippines, then back to SF, then to Lake Tahoe, then east again to Minneapolis through the middle states. Well, it was an adventure and I just had to journal it! :)
Opal's blog: Second Life was another adventure that had to be documented! :D Actually, it was supposed to be another personal journal, less of the events themselves and more of insights and lessons learned.
Treasure's blog: This was supposed to be a business blog, talking about my views on the virtual world marketplace and business to show the potential of the platform in terms of access to international human resources and its possible effect in global ecommerce. But the blog fell to the bottom of the priority list. :(
Brand blogs: These blogs were more for communicating with customers and documenting the history of the brand.
Dim Sum's blog: I really didn't have to do this blog, because I could have just kept the pictures in Flickr. But a lover said he couldn't access Flickr unless he signed up, which he didn't want to do. And when I was doing a lot of the stereoscopy pictures, I documented my processes and techniques in Flickr with the pictures themselves, and there was no easy way to refer back to those tutorials, which were buried in descriptions and comments. So I decided that this time, I would document my processes and techniques and settings all in a blog.
3. How many times a week do you post an entry?
Dim Sum's blog: Almost daily, which is when I create the daily pic, because I committed to that.
All the rest: Only when I have something to say.
4.How many different blogs do you read on a regular basis?
First, let me tell you a story.... My late grandmother had plants at my uncle's home and she asked him to please water them regularly. When she came back to visit, all the plants were dead. When confronted about it, he said, "I watered them regularly! ... Once a year!"
So, unless you define "regular" the same way my uncle does, I must admit I'm really a browser. I browse blogs and Facebook and tweets and G+ posts and Flickr pics and pins, when I have time and something catches my eye. At that point, the train starts and goes on for hours and hours. By the time I'm done, I've gone to several entirely unrelated topics.
5. Do you comment on other people’s blogs?
Rarely, I'm a lurker. Same with other social media, I tend to fave, plus, or like, more than comment.
6. Do you keep track of how many visitors you have?
With Dim Sum's blog and Opal's blog, I check the stats -- not really the number of visitors, but what countries they come from and what webpages brought them there.
Regarding my RL blog, ... well, ... after my first year of blogging, my sister actually contemplated getting me a t-shirt from ThinkGeek.com as a Christmas present. She showed me the picture of the shirt, which said, "Nobody reads my blog." (And my parents wondered why I wanted to kill her when we were preschoolers!)
7. Did you ever regret a post that you wrote?
Oh, too many of them, but I figured that, at least, nobody can blackmail me anymore, because it's all out in the open. ;) I've deleted only one post, which is too bad because I included a cute limerick that I composed for someone.
8. Do you think your readers have a true sense of who you are based on your blog?
A true sense? Yes. A complete sense? No. Am I complete? No, and that's why. ;) I mean "I am not complete" as in "not finished." Although some friends would mean "not complete" as in "a few cards short of ...." (Did you read the third line under Question 1?)
9. Do you blog under your real name?
Treasure's blog started out with my real name and Treasure's name, because Treasure has never been anonymous.
Dim Sum's blog started out with my real name and Opal's name, because I gave up Opal's anonymity since before I released the book.
All others started out under a nickname or under my SL name.
10. Are there topics that you would never blog about?
If I think it's worth talking about and I have a strong opinion about it, I will blog.
11. What is the theme/topic of your blog?
See Question #2.
12. Do you have more than one blog? If so, why?
See intro before Question #1.
13. What have you found to be the benefits of blogging?
Blogging (and writing in general) is therapeutic for me. It's like talking to a shrink who doesn't wonder if you're solipsistic (All religions that believe in universal oneness are solipsistic!) and doesn't ask if the voices in your head tell you what to do (Of course, they do! They're characters for a future novel! They tell me what to write!).
14. So, why do you continue to blog?
In my first year in SL, a very close friend asked my permission to send Opal's blog to another friend, because he said that she was going through the same things that I had written about, and he thought that reading my blog would be a solace to her, because she would know that she wasn't the only one who was experiencing them. That kept me writing on the blog. Later, I heard similar sentiments from other people.
But, in general, I blog (and write) because I can't help it. In spite of how I seem sometimes, I'm actually sappy and sentimental. Writing down my experiences and feelings and insights somehow make them more tangible and less transient.
Like photographs capture a memory of a scene, a journal captures a memory of things not visible.
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