Shopping and CNN meeting

I haven’t put a story in for CNN this week yet, I’ve got a couple in the pipeline and one nearly completed.  I interviewed a lady called Kimber Enoch who does wonderful work for charities whilst having her own problems with her health, she is a cancer patient and suffers from ME and dyspraxia as well.  Made me feel very humble, so full of life and cheerfully friendly to talk to, what a lovely person she is.  I hope I can do her justice in my report and also help to publicise her charity so that she will get lots of donations.  You can send money for the Cancer Research Charity straight to Kimber Enoch via her profile and it would be nice if any sl companies, who wish to donate any items to sell, could also contact her.   I am hoping to get my report finished tomorrow and will submit it to CNN then.   I met Drax tonight and he said he would like some new clothes, so we had a good time shopping.  He got a white shirt and a nice pair of jeans and looked really good in them.  I got a freebie outfit and promptly lost it in my inventory, no hope for me is there, lol.

                                         

We had fun looking round the shops and it soon took us up to 2pm sl time for the CNN meeting.   Drax had never been before and was interested in what goes on, so he came along as well.  My picture shows only a few in the audience, but more people turned up later on so it was quite a crowd there.  CNN want people to write about relationships and love in sl as it is coming up to Valentines day quite soon.  From the last two reports I did about marriage and adoption in sl, there are plenty of people who have stories to tell, so it will be interesting to see what people come up with.  The meetings are taking a new format next week when one of the reporters will be conducting it instead of the CNN reporters.  Jim Sella has agreed to take the meeting next week and I wish him well, as he is a good reporter and I think he will do a fine job.  I hope this doesn’t mean though, that the CNN staff themselves will not bother attending the meetings in the future as I think it would look pretty bad if we were all left to our own devices.  I find the meetings a little fragmented as everyone speaks at the same time, its awkward to plan it otherwise, but you always seem to get someone there who will take you off of the subject, taking the focus away from the real discussion.  Perhaps some proper agenda and people taking turns would work better, but I realise the problems with arranging this.

                                      

                                            

Indecent exposure and Poetry

The day before yesterday Pinkie and I went exploring, we started off in a club where there were lots of newbies and people camping.  A newbie Goth came over for a chat and we were telling him where he could get some clothes and other free stuff.  He was French, but spoke English well, but he was at a disadvantage as he didn’t see another newbie, who had his bits hanging out, coming up behind him, so he didn’t really know what was going on.   As the newbie with the bits was showing off for me and Pinkie’s attention, I decided to have a bit of fun with him.  I shouted out ‘hold that pose futti (not his name but it was something like that), let me take your picture and you will be all over the front pages tomorrow’ then I took the picture.  So funny, he turned on his heel and ran away as quickly has he could go.  He never did rez for us any more than the grey figure with the pink bits, so it looked even funnier.  Poor French Goth thought I was taking a picture of him and thanked me, I didn’t try to explain, it was all too late as the other guy had gone.

                                            

Must admit I have a bit of fun if I see anyone exposing themselves in second life, don’t know why they do it, but I always go over and say how hilarious they look, funny thing is they never stay around and fight back.  We decided we needed a bit of culture after that, so Pinkie took me over to a new club that has opened for poetry reading.  (Pinkie writes beautiful poetry and I have some of it displayed in my gallery).  They were having a dance at the club and it looked like a good group to be involved with, so we both joined.  Pinkie and I weren’t really dressed up enough to dance, so we decided to wander around the grounds and ended up sitting in the rocking chairs at the camp fire, nice place to relax.

                                          

                                          

In spite of the usual computer crashes, it was a good evening going to the Poetry club and looking round, and I hope Pinkie puts some of her marvelous work into the competitions they hold there, I’ll support her every step of the way as she’s brilliant at writing.  When Pinkie left I headed home  and sat on the beach for a while, I’m lucky that I have such a nice beach front property.  

                                         

However, nothing is peaceful for long, I’d had trouble with someone on the Island where I live, who had been pestering me a bit, and I’d banned him from my property some time ago.  There was a hiccup with the land details and my banned list had vanished.  Well the person came over straight away and I thought I’d see again if it worked just being friendly so I didn’t use the ban again at first.  Trouble is that he thought that gave him Carte-blanche to drop in any time he wanted and I really felt invaded again.  Luckily Drax came over and we were having a nice time when the neighbour dropped in without invitation.  Drax didn’t take any prisoners, he told him not to call without being invited and put him straight, I made it clear that Drax is my good friend and he would be at my property as much as he wanted to be, so I was not alone.

                                       

Like to thank Drax (pictured with me above) for everything, I owe him, and it’s so nice to know that he’s there for me especially when pests won’t take a hint.

Stef the show jumper and tinies in Murray

I had quite a lot going on yesterday, firstly my lovely friend Drax came over for a chat and I really enjoyed seeing him, he has a wicked sense of humour and is good company.  Regretfully he had to leave as real life was calling, so I wandered around for a bit then had an IM message from Aligontra, so I decided to go and see her in Murray as I haven’t been there much lately.  When I got there Ali was riding the slug I’d given her and there were a couple of other pals there as well.  I gave the others a slug as well so we could all have a ride, then I noticed poor Stef flaked out on the floor face down.  Stef has been a bit depressed lately and didn’t really want to join in the slug riding, so all the slugs were riding round and round her.

                                          

Ali had to go and we all put our slugs away and I went and sat with Stef for a while to see how she was.  I suggested getting some horses out and going for a ride, make a nice change as Stef seldom wanders far from Murray.  Anyway we went to the Lone Star ranch and got Stef a demo horse and I got Colin, my horse, out (Drax tells me that Colin is jealous of my new horse Megan, so I’d better make a fuss of him!).  We went to a place I found the other day where there are jumps set up for the horses and Stef took to riding like a duck to water.  I can’t get the hang of the jumps and knocked lots of poles down and when I did jump clear I ended up 20 feet up in the air, Stef however, mastered the jumps like a professional and made it look easy.

                                          

I spotted some people trying to ride a bull over the other side, so we went on over and said hello, and it looked like great fun, such a large beast and they couldn’t stay on it for very long as it bucked so much trying to throw them off.

                                       

Well Stef and I had to have a go, and it was really tough being shaken up so much, but we had a real laugh, Stef took a really good picture of me on the bull (not printed here) but I was amazed at the photography as I tried to take some pictures, but didn’t get very far with all the movement of the bull, think Stef should think a bit about photography in sl as she’s great at taking pictures.  We decided to head back to Murray afterwards and said goodbye to the cowboy and cowgirl we had just met.  When we got to Murray my mate Pinkie came on line and decided to join us and then Rubi and Dave arrived, but not in their normal av’s, but as two tinies.  Rubi was a Siamese cat and Dave was a little fierce looking bulldog, they looked really cute and funny.

                                         

Dave is trying to get the Lindens interested in creating a sim to help people with Autism and has written to them.  We all said we would support him and we’ll wait to see if Linden Labs actually get back to him, it will be interesting to see if they do, anyway that will be another story….

                                             

                                      

Spring back with new horse called Megan

Told you I’d be OK today didn’t I, dead daft to let things get me down, but sometimes, just sometimes, you have an emotional day and the least little thing upsets you, who said Second Life doesn’t feel like a real life!  I did buy a new horse yesterday, as my poor little horse Colin gets lonely and talks to statues of unicorns on Linc Island when I take him there, I decided to get him a girlfriend.  She’s small and beautiful, strawberry cream colour with a white mane and tail. 

                                          

                                          

I also got Colin out for a trot around my beach and he dangled his hooves in the sea as he loves to do, so he was quite happy.  Megan is a classy little AKK horse and Colin really likes the look of her.

                                          

I also had some lovely clothes given to me today.  I’d tried to buy a great purple top from LINC the other night and second life being what it is, had a blip and I only got an empty folder.  I contacted Violet Nishi and Arron Jacobus at LINC Island and they were really helpful and friendly.  As a treat Arron gave me another top and pants (silver and red stripes) to go with the purple one, well I’ve had the new clothes on all day, really great designs.

                                           

I’d like to thank my great friends for leaving their comments on my miserable blog that I did last night, they really cheered me up.  I did go to the CNN meeting with my pal Pinkie Delcon after all, (Pinkie is great company, making me laugh) and it was an interesting meeting, although I didn’t contribute anything there, sorry guys, but I’d like to thank Tyson from CNN for chatting to me and also making me feel better about things,  so I was glad I took the trouble to go in the end.  Don’t know about calling it quits, but I’ve had three different people contact me today to write stuff, so there is a call for newsy items, lots of stories to tell in Second Life.

                                          

                                                                                   

                                                   

Journalism, is it time to quit?

Seem to be having a negative approach to stuff today, I was really pleased with my latest CNN report about the AKK Ranch, but it didn’t meet to everyone’s approval there, so bought me crashing down a peg or two I can tell you, good thing I suppose, case I felt like I was getting good at interviewing, when all the time I may not have been.  (I do keep transcripts of all the interviews so I do know what people have quoted (between computer crashes!!!) even though they forget what they said on occasions, but I do get some things wrong sometimes I admit).  You come to the conclusion that you are working hard for nothing (you don’t get paid) and is it all worth it in the end.  I like writing and must admit I’ve had fun meeting lots of nice people, so perhaps I should put today behind me, but I feel like quitting.  There is a CNN meeting tonight, don’t know if I’ll go yet, might do.  Anyway I shouldn’t be using my blog to be a miserable cow.  On a lighter note here’s a nice pic of me trying to cross a bridge on horseback with a snarling beast in the way, he was a pussycat really, lol.

                                            

My computer crashed so much in sl last night that I used up all the five ‘trial goes’ on the pretty AKK demo horse within an hour or so, bit annoying, was nice trying him out though.

                                           

Promise I’ll be smiling again tomorrow 🙂

                                             

                                                      

Horse Riding at the AKK Ranch

In my quest for stories for CNN I thought a nice theme would be the growing interest in horse riding in sl.  I’ve looked at a few horse places and I’ve got my beloved Colin, my stocky little horse, that I travel about on.   I went over to the AKK ranch the other day and was thinking what a wonderful place they have, there is so much choice for buying horses from their range.   As fate would have it, and it has happened quite a lot in sl when I’m looking for a story, one of the owners Spritely Pixel spotted me and asked if I planned to write a report.  I told him that I was thinking about it and next thing he had kindly contacted his wife Kristivon Kolache, who is the other owner, and set up an interview for me.  I went along and had a really nice chat with them, and what interesting people, they are pioneers in the field of building and scripting and getting the animation into horses in second life, so I feel honoured to have met them, that’s them in the picture below:

                                            

                                            

They suggested that I tried one of the demo horses after the interview, and as I had wanted to go horse riding with my friend Drax Ember, because he had never been riding before, I decided to contact him and ask him if he wanted to come over.  Well he said yes and we set about putting the demo horses through their paces.  These are really elegant horses and they have a good menu of all the things they do, even racing mode.   Well we had to cross a narrow bridge on the ranch on the horse trail there, next thing Drax had toppled over the edge into the fast running water below, I laughed my head off till I tried to cross and did exactly the same thing.  After we reached the other side we had a great look round and it was really nice just trotting around on such lovely horses in such a beautiful sim. 

                                        

                                        

I tried to talk Drax into getting a horse as he looked even more brooding and darkly handsome riding about on the stallion.  I expect he’ll get a lot of attention from the ladies should he go on his nomadic travels on such a beast.  It’s certainly a lot of fun riding about and, as the horses fly as well, you can still cheat and get to places quickly (not to mention they teleport as well, problem with that is if you land in a crowd of people at the beam in point you can push into people, as I have with Colin a couple of times and quickly teleported out again to my embarrassment). 

                                 

Just to mention as well a very unusual horse that Kristivon and Spritely created, it’s a Gorean horse, a cross between a lion and a horse and it’s quite an amazing sight.  It’s called a Kaiila and it was ordered for the Gorean Red Savages tribe for their tribal chief.  Well I did my report for CNN and once again, just waiting to see if they publish it, had a great time doing the research anyway.  One good thing about being an sl reporter, I have met lots of really nice and interesting people and made lots of friends in sl.

                         

                                            

Artist Ali

One of my best mates Headburro contacted me to come over to Murray and see what was going on.  Aligontra Bade, one of the nicest girls you could meet and one of our gang had paid Murray a visit (she isn’t around much these days due to real life commitments) and she decided to show us the real Ali along with all her artwork she is doing at Uni.   Ali is a lot of fun to be with and her av looks amazingly like her real self, she is really pretty.   I knew Ali was artistic as she had designed some clothes in second life that people were buying because they were so well designed, but her artwork shows just how gifted she is.  Ali is on the right of the photograph in blue.

                                   

                                   

Just to make things complete my other best mate Pinkie arrived, not seen her and Head properly for ages, due to their busy real life schedules, so it was a rare moment when we were all together again.  Headburro had to leave shortly afterwards and second life being what it is, I had a computer crash and by the time I managed to get back on Pinkie had gone as well.

                                 

I took Colin for a ride afterwards to look at the other stables in second life, lots of lovely horses everywhere, and trust Colin, he found this little lady horse he fancied and I had a job making him come away from her, well at least he has forgotten the statue of the unicorn at Linc Island for a while.  Got chatting to a nice guy who was having trouble trying to decide between buying a horse and a Harley Davidson motor bike, I wonder what he ended up with.

                                

Headburro popped back over to see me last night and it was lovely to hear all his news, he had given me the little chick in the santa hat (the chick runs about in my beach garden and trips me up lol) at Christmas time.  He bought me two new little birdies last night, chick without the hat and a sweet little duckling, so Sammy the squirrel has plenty of company when I’m out and about.  Thank you Head, they are really great.

                                   

                                  

                                  

                                   

                                   

                                                               

New Gallery extension, but CNN let down

I really like my little gallery with all my bits and bobs of artwork, but my real love of all the painters would have to be the Pre Raphaelites, artists John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, I also like associated artists such as John Waterhouse and many others who paint in a similar vein.  I put up an extension to the gallery the other day, as I needed more space, then the thought suddenly occurred to me that I could go round sl and collect all my favourite paintings to place in there.  I was not disappointed as there are quite a few galleries that support all kinds of works of the masters, the prices ranged from 175L$ right down to lL$, what joy to find such a bargain that would give me so much pleasure.  I came home full of excitement and really enjoyed setting them all into place.  I even found, the painting I like the best, Ophelia by Millais, to see the real version took my breath away and you can only wonder at the poor model who posed in the bath for him to create such a masterpiece (she died later apparently of the consequences of catching a chill because of this)

                                           

                                           

My friend Drax dropped by and I showed him the Gallery and he was taken by the Lady Godiva picture by John Collier, a good pick, such a wonderful painting.  I had to leave for the CNN meeting at 10pm and was quite looking forwards to it.  The turn out was less this week, but we started the discussion and it was getting interesting as we had a question forum at the beginning for a change.   Suddenly disaster for me, in real life a powerful storm suddenly cut my electricity off and I crashed in sl.  Luckily the electric came back on after about 10 minutes and I was able, once again, to join the meeting.  Trouble was, I not only lost the thread after that, but the forum seemed to be taken over by someone who seemed to want to advertise her journalism courses in rl and didn’t seem interested in doing any cnn reporting anyway.  She seemed to monopolize the whole session criticising the content of previous reports.  Maybe I got hold of the wrong end of the stick with this, as I had missed some of the chat, but I sat there thinking I would rather be somewhere else as it all seemed a waste of time.  It’s true that I think there should be a bit more effort put into some of the reports other than two lines, but I’m sure everyone is doing their best and they will develop as time goes on.  Also I think the very big company cnn could afford to pay us a few Linden Dollars for our efforts, maybe that would encourage more writers, would be nice to help pay my rent anyway, lol.  But to come along without contributing and then criticise everyone else is a bit naughty.  I had to calm down after that and took Colin for a trot around LINC Island, did me good and Colin got to see the statue of the unicorn he likes again, so we both enjoyed it. 

                                          

Perhaps I got it wrong about the CNN meeting so if anyone wants to enlighten me about the Ladies intentions perhaps they would let me know, but might be a good idea if people, who do not intend to actually do any iReports themselves, just stay away.

                                           

Beatles songs and sword fights

Well I would have had a job being bored in Second Life last night, way too much going on.  I started the evening with my friend Drax, wandering around from city to city looking at all the sights, until Drax had to go back to the real world for a while.  I got a message from a group that I have just joined called ‘The Lift’ and they said there was a live artist Julian2914Hifeng playing there tonight and it was going to be a Beatles tribute night.  I thought I’d take a look and see what was happening.  The Lift is quite a big venue with plenty of room for people to dance and it is very nicely fitted out, I got there just as Julian was starting.  He was very good and played the guitar beautifully as he sang all the classic Beatles songs from the ’60s.  As I stood there I thought I might as well try to interview him later on and see if he minded me doing a cnn report on his performance.  I waited till he had finished his last song and IM’d him and he kindly spoke to me, which was really good of him, so I was able to put in a cnn report on the event, which I hope they will publish.  People really seemed to enjoy the evening, there was even a Paul MacCartney av there rocking the night away.  (cnn have now published see http://secondlife.blogs.cnn.com/  )

                                       

                                       

After the show, Drax was back in Sl, so I took him to the virtual reality room at LINC to have a look round.  It was getting really late for me, but I thought a good sword fight would be a great way to finish the evening.  Drax, who is a little mysterious and I suspect well versed in sword fighting, as his character is an assassin, agreed to go into battle with me in combat cards (the cards are new to him though, as he has only played once before with the robot).  Well we had a good fight and just my luck, me a serious combat cards player, was slain by this noble gentleman who was so pleased at my demise that he jumped in the air with delight.

                                          

                                         

Well, never let it be said that I don’t hold grudges!!  Once recovered I suggest a re-match and, although it was a close thing, I managed to slay the assassin.

                                         

                                         

Thanks for being a good sport Drax, hope to see you at Combat Cards evenings, would be good to see you taking on the champions like Pinkie (Destroyer) Delcon and Headburro (Headbutting) Antfarm, as for me, I’m going to hide in the bushes, lol

                                         

                                       

Red Light District and Linden bears

I have a few topics in my head for my next cnn story and one of them is about escort girls.  You see quite a few in Second Life and today I spotted one and asked if I could talk to her.  Well something delayed me and I said I would catch her later.  She went off line so I thought I’d have a look at a Red Light district.  I stood to the side of all the people, a little way away,  so I could observe.  There were mostly girls there and nothing much seemed to be happening.  A couple of them shouted, plying their trade, but didn’t seem to get any offers.  Don’t know why, but today I just couldn’t connect with people and never really spoke to anyone about the escort business, suppose sometimes I’ll have days like that.  I took a couple of pictures one of the area outside the cafe, where all the interested parties gathered, and the other of a poor girl who seemed to have come to a sticky end, although no one was taking any notice of her.

                                          

                                          

In the end I thought I’d leave things for a couple of days and see what happens, I’m interested to know, though why so many girls become escort ladies.  I got a nice surprise tonight, one of my best mates Headburro came back into sl and I went over to Murray to see him.   A lot of the gang were there and it was nice to see Sjet as well.  She told us that she had seen a great looking Linden guy and it was clear she fancied him a bit.  Anyway she collects Linden bears, I didn’t know about Linden bears, but will be on the look out for a Linden from now on, to cadge one off him.  Sjet let us see them and I took a couple of pictures. (check the lovely windlight effect on the sea in the first picture).

                                            

                                            

Watch out all Lindens, you’d better hide your bears from me, I’m on the case to get Sjet some more.