Still no Inventory

It's been a month since my inventory disappeared. I tried everything I could think of to fix my inventory and even submitted a ticket on the SL website, but nothing worked and no one replied. I'm close to accepting that my inventory will not be fixed. Sure, I'm upset that I spent a lot time building, sorting, and spending L$ on my inventory and there's some things in there that I'll miss, but I'm more upset that I didn't receive any help from the SL customer service.

I've been spending less time in SL because I couldn't do much without crashing. I have alts that I can use, but it just isn't the same as using my main account. I used to not like the idea of the new display names feature, but now I'm looking forward to it. Once that feature is released into the main viewer, I'm going to create a new avatar and will change the display name to katfancy Kiergarten. It will kind of feel like I'm still using my original avatar, but with a fixed inventory.

Inventory

I crashed earlier today and when I logged back on my whole inventory was gone! The Inventory folder doesn't appear and I only see the Library folder. Although, the top of my inventory showed that most of my items were fetched. I cleared cache and tried logging in using Emerald, version 1.23, Version 2.0, and the Beta viewer, but nothing would show my inventory. Actually, I'm able to log on using Emerald and 1.23, but I can't log on using 2.0 or Beta (I get a Runtime error and then it crashes and I can't log in at all). I only have this issue with my main account because everything works fine for my alt (inventory loads and able to log in using any version).

I pretty much can't do much in SL without my inventory. I would crash whenever I tried to take an object or accept a notecard. I also crashed whenever I tried to open my map. I submitted a ticket earlier, so I'm hoping the inventory issue will be resolved soon.

Step up!

The RL step aerobics class I'm taking started today. It was mostly an orientation, since it was the first day, but we did learn some steps during the last 5 minutes. At first, I was intimidated by a routine that the coach showed the class, but once I started doing the steps myself, I was smiling and having a lot of fun.

Earlier this month, I saw an aerobic step at a store and I thought about purchasing it. I may really have to get one now to use at home. I sometimes use the stairs at my home to exercise, but all I do is go up and down several times, which gets boring after a while. The step aerobics class is much different than that because I'm learning different and new moves, which I'm loving!

I'm already planning what exercise class I want to take next and I'm thinking about Tae Bo. I have a couple of Billy Blanks' Tae Bo DVDs, but I haven't done them in a while. I'd like to see what it's like to take it as a class with other people. I imagine it to be more fun and motivating.

Pageant

Just finished watching the Miss Universe Pageant tonight. My favorite part was the Q&A. Congrats to Miss Mexico for being crowned Miss Universe 2010!

While I watched the pageant, I made a Second Life ribbon.

katfancy Kiergarten, 2, Second Life :)

Coexist

The CVL Coexist Discussions began this month at Peace Park on Info Island. The discussions are held every Thursday at 6pm SLT. Everyone is invited to these discussions to share their thoughts and experiences. The topics discussed so far were: Bucket Lists, Aspects of Compatibility, and Living the Good Life. The upcoming discussion will be about how we handle emotions (let it all out or keep it bottled up inside).

Someone from the previous discussion mentioned that she still continues to learn something new about herself every day. Myself along with several others that were present agreed with her. I want to continue learning for the rest of my life. Not just about myself, but pretty much about anything and everything. Someone else mentioned that when she was younger, her mother would ask her at the end of the day, "What did you learn today?" I think that is a good question to start asking myself daily.

Millennium Trilogy

Last night, I finished reading the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson. The trilogy consists of the books (in sequential order): The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire, and The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. I heard about the first book in the trilogy from the CVL book discussion group and I later found out that the story continued with two other books. I enjoyed the first book, but the parts that caught my interest the most were the ones that involved one of the main characters, Lisbeth Salander. I liked books two and three more than the first because it gave more information on Salander. I also loved how Larsson used strong female characters in the books, especially in the third. I watched the Swedish movie version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and I thought it was OK. I always think that a book is better than a movie. I am interested in seeing how the US movie version will be though. I would definitely recommend this trilogy if you are looking for new titles to add to your reading list.

While reading the books, I thought of pictures I could use with my avatar for this post. I started playing around with the book titles and here's what I came up with.

The Girl with the Dragon Avatar

The Girl who Plays Second Life®

The Girl who Kickboxes

Passport

I took a new passport photo in RL today. Now I'm stuck with it for 10 years, but I don't think it came out that bad. Believe it or not, my driver's license photo is still from when I was 16 years old. I may have to go to the DMV to renew it next time, so I can get a new photo for it too.

Play-Do'h!

I'm in the kitchen cooking up some...avatars? If my avatar wasn't just pixels on a screen, I imagine her to feel just like dough or clay. Her arms would flatten if pinched and they would stretch out if pulled. I'm much more flexible and limber in SL. I can bend and twist in many different positions, which makes me think of clay. The youthful look of many avatars and colorfulness on the grid also makes me think of play-doh.

Whenever a deformer is used on my avatar, I have to relog because I think that I will be walking around all twisted and stretched out even after I use a stop all animations rose. This long arm can be convenient to reach things from far away though and my stretched out torso will finally make me taller in-world!

Back and Comics

I haven't blogged for about a week. I started to type out blog posts and even took some snapshots, but I never got around to clicking the "publish post" button and I ended up deleting them. I lost interest in this blog during that week, but I feel my interest slowly coming back, so I'll get to those posts again soon. I also have an idea for my next machinima. I already have the props and I'm still deciding what type of location/setting I want to use. I'll probably have the video done by the end of this week, hopefully.

This evening, I went to the Library Art Gallery on Info Island for the opening party of their new exhibit by Gracie Kendal. My favorite pieces from the exhibit were the comics from The Gracie Kendal Project. The comics show pictures of Gracie in both RL and SL. When I started to use SL more after my newbie days, I formed a connection with my avatar and now I love to hear about or see when others have a bond with their avatars as well. Make sure to visit the Art Gallery soon to see Gracie's exhibit and check out her blog for more comics.

80's child

Last night, I decided to finally unpack the prizes I got from the Trapped in the 80's hunt, so that I could find something to wear to the TX950 party that happened earlier this evening. The party was held at Info Island International and it was a 1980's theme. I had a feeling that I was going to be someone's twin at the party and I was with Hollyjean! We even chose the same leggings option and wore similar colored shoes!

I rarely have my sound on in SL, but at the party I had the music on the whole time. I loved all of the 80's music that the DJ played. My favorite part was when everyone did the Thriller dance when the DJ played Michael Jackson's Thriller. Only in SL, I can still dance with MJ! That's Timo dressed up as him. Congrats to Timo and Galia for winning the costume contest.

On a Mission for Watermelons!

When I logged in today, I received a message from [S2] about the Kimodameshi hunt. I quickly teleported over to the shop because I saw that the prize was a watermelon gun! At first, I thought that I just had to look for objects in the shop or sim, but I read through the instructions and saw that I had to complete 6 missions to get the prize. In my previous post, I raved about toys and launchers in SL, so I was determined to complete the missions. The missions were fun and they were fairly easy. Some places were scary, especially the ones with zombies that can attack.

I got some small prizes throughout the missions and at the very end I found the watermelon gun! Of course, I already tried it out on a couple of avatars who shot at me earlier when I was unarmed :).

Toys

I love the toys in SL! The majority of what is in my inventory is either toys (cars, bikes, launchers, shoulder pets, funny wearable things, etc.) and clothes. I love the clothes in SL too, but lately if I'm just spending time alone and not taking pictures, then I won't even bother changing clothes. The fun hula hoops that I'm using in the above picture are from DeminAtions.

If I'm in the mood for cuteness, I'll take out one of my shoulder pets or dolls. If I feel like relieving some stress, I'll go in my skybox and take out one of my launchers and start shooting random objects (I particularly like my cupcakes launcher) at the walls. If I'm bored of walking or standing around somewhere, I'll ride around in a car, motorcycle, scooter, or bike. The toys are great to get away from the seriousness for a bit!

She Bangs and Color Coordinated Chorus Line

Last night, I picked up the freebie (Posh) hairs at their shop on The Rumor sim. I tried on all of the hairstyles in jet black and I came across the one pictured above called The Affair. I cut my bangs a couple of months ago in RL, but the weather has been hot lately, so I've been pinning my bangs up and they have grown out. When I comb them down, they look just like The Affair. Time for a trim!

On one of the days at Jazz Cat last week, we started off dancing in a line. I love "line" dancing! I thought it would be funny if the line kept growing, but we ended up in the usual dancing circle. I've also noticed that there have been several days when a lot of us would show up wearing similar colors totally unplanned! Something about seeing avatars move and pose in a synchronized way can make me laugh all day!

Mysterious Door

A couple of days ago, I received a group notice about new prizes in the lucky boards at D!va. I stalked it last night and I took a seat on one of the chairs close by to wait for my letter. The chair had various poses, so I clicked through them and chose the one pictured above. I couldn't stop laughing when I noticed the person sitting next to me also chose a similar pose and then another person came up to me and asked if I was asleep! There isn't much I can do when I'm stalking a chair or board, especially if it's a no rez area. Some of the things I do are: read profiles, chat and read IMs (rarely any other stalkers close by chat in local), and cam around the shop or sim.

While I cammed around the shop, I noticed a small door in a corner. I've heard someone mention these doors in a group chat before, but I haven't seen one until last night. They are teleporters that people can crawl through to get to another destination. There wasn't anything labeled that shows where it will take me and I was curious about it, so I clicked open the door and crawled through it.

I ended up in the shop's attic area that had a couple of chairs overlooking the gorgeous view of the sim. It's a somewhat private area because I can see outside, but people outside can not look in. It was a fun little adventure and I ended up winning two prizes!

Health is Wealth

I love being in Second Life and surfing the internet, but that involves sitting in front of the computer. I always make sure to get in 1-2 hours of exercise in my day. This summer I am taking a cardio kickboxing class twice a week. When that class ends, I am already signed up for a step aerobics class next. Whenever I'm not taking any sort of exercise class in my day, I walk/jog a 10k on those days. I take the classes for motivation and walk/jog outdoors to feel free and for fresh air. I don't like the excuse of not having time.

I used to obsess over weight, but now I don't stress over it too much because I've learned a lot about size acceptance. My main focus now is health. I've mentioned before that one of the things I look for in people that I meet is to see if they are LGBT friendly. I also look to see if they are fat friendly.

This is something I'll be doing for the rest of my life. This is the rule I go by: Work my [butt] off and eat whatever I please, but also understand my limits. Meaning I won't do a marathon and eat buffet style every day. I was always told that, "your health is your wealth." Sure, people with a lot of money are seen as wealthy, but none of that money will matter if they don't take care of their health.

Relay for Life in Second Life

Thank you to everyone who volunteered and donated to Relay for Life 2010 in Second Life. I just checked the The American Cancer Society website and saw that the total donations received was L$53,008,234, which equals $221,503 USD!

Yesterday evening, I stopped by the Infomaniac Racers campsite again because they had a party. By the time I got there, most of the people already left and the things were taken back to their inventories. The hug ring was still there though, so Bud, Waldron, Timo, and I joined together for a group hug before saying farewell to RFL this year. A little after our group hug, Hollyjean showed up and one thing she mentioned was that it's an emotional time because of the ending of RFL this year. I can see it as emotional: months of planning, events, remembrance of those we lost, and the culmunation of the opening and closing of the RFL sims where everyone gathers to share their love and support.

Cat on Kat at Jazz Cat

Do you like my hair accessory? It isn't something I bought and it definitely wasn't a freebie. It's actually priceless and not an accessory at all! I can only style my hair this way when I'm with my friends. The cute little ball cat on my head was Jecy. He was jumping onto random people's heads at Jazz Cat today. At one point, he said that he hoped no one was getting mad. Of course, I replied that I wasn't mad because how can anyone get mad at a cute furry cat?!

Infomaniac Racers

I visited the Infomaniac Racers build on the Relay for Life sims today. I tried to look for it by doing a lap last night, but I crashed. I always loved their RFL builds and their build this year is great too. The theme is hugs and around their campsite are various couples and group hug pose balls for photo opportunities.

When I visited, Hyacinth was there and we definitely couldn't end our visit without giving each other a hug!

Around the build, there are also small posters that show people's memories and thoughts about hugs. I came across the one I contributed and now I want to offer each and every one of my readers a virtual hug!

This is the last weekend for the RFL events in SL this year, so visit the sims as soon as you can. During my visit on the sims, I received a notice that the total donations received so far was $214,211 USD! I am sure the donations have gone up since then.

Ice Cream Social

Earlier this month, the Community Virtual Library (CVL) had their opening of the CVL Book Fair on Info Island. At Rainbow Gardens, we decided to be a part of it as well, so we made a Pet Book Fair Exhibit, which is located at the gardens. Today, we had our opening for the exhibit by having an ice cream social. It was a fun time dancing, eating ice cream, riding the merry-go-round, and chatting with everyone that came. The exhibit will be up for a while, so feel free to visit the gardens to grab some notecards of pet books. The ice cream cart, decorations, and merry-go-round will be out at the gardens too. Thanks to everyone who attended!

Pride!

I'm looking forward to the weekend because of the local annual Pride parade and festival in RL. One of the things I look for in people that I meet is to see if they are LGBT friendly. If they aren't, then there is no chance that we can be friends. In the photo, I'm at the Stonewall Learning Center on Info Island. Visit the center for many LGBT resources!

Fishing

I'm still enjoying 7Seas fishing! I realized that I don't always have to use bait to win certain prizes. Without bait, I can catch rare, common, and uncommon prizes. Lately, one of my favorite fishing places is Sn@tch. When I logged in today, I received a group note card that said there was a new fishing outfit. I teleported over with my fishing rod and started fishing for the outfit pieces. From a short distance, a group of people started to gather around the lucky chairs, riot vendor, and lucky fortune. From afar, I thought the llama was someone's avatar, but I later found out it's a design that people can sit on. I felt like gathering with the group, so I took off my fishing rod and put on the invisible one with no animations. I changed the configurations to make my catch announcements quiet. Now I can stand and walk around without looking like I'm fishing when I really am! I had a good afternoon at Sn@tch!

7Seas

I never got into the 7Seas fishing game until yesterday when a friend of mine took me fishing. First, we fished at *katat0nik* and I got some cute Merkats. I also collected some blueprints and salvages, but I didn't catch all for a main prize.

Afterwards, we played a couple of 7Seas fishing contests. I remember one was at Adam n Eve, but I forgot where was the second contest. Since I was still a beginner I didn't win any prize in the contests, but I did catch some bikini pieces at Adam n Eve. By the end of the day, I was already in Level 4!

I also heard about the Gone Fishing Hunt, so I stopped by some of the locations to fish for their prizes. I ended up catching some cute bracelets from Lorimae's Catbox and a nice bedroom set from Swayland.

BBQ, Art, and Spain

Yesterday, I attended the Company BBQ of -RC- Cluster. I had a fun time playing the BBQ Collection game. I didn't win the grand prize, but I got some nice BBQ accessories, food, and gifts. It was a fun party!

I also stopped by the party at the Library Art Gallery to check out the new exhibit by Aethan Blaisdale. I enjoyed his artwork and one in particular that I liked was "Desert Sky." Stop by the Art Gallery to see the exhibit soon, since I think exhibits are there for less than a month.

Congratulations to Spain for winning the 2010 FIFA World Cup!

Sun

I found the Sun! It was hiding in my inventory! The weather has been cloudy lately in my RL. This is unusual weather during this time of the year. I have been looking forward to sunny and warm weather, but we haven't gotten that yet this summer. For now, I'll just enjoy the weather in SL. It's always sunny for me there!

I unpacked all of the prizes from the Mellow Yellow hunt today. I liked a lot of the prizes and I had a fun time hunting. When I was a noob, I used to do each and every hunt I found out about because there weren't very many then. I stopped doing hunts for a while, but now I'm getting back into them again.

In the photo, I'm wearing the mellow yellow hunt prizes from Love Zombie (hoodie) and VISION (eyes). The sun is also a hunt prize and it's from Hearth & Home.

Bananas!

I love bananas! I was especially excited yesterday when the MM board at Razzberry locked because the prize was the nuclear bananas hair! Also, I finished the Mellow Yellow hunt yesterday and one of the prizes I found was the banana poser from Tuft!

Catch Up

It's always hard for me to catch up in SL whenever I take a break from it. Even when it is just for a couple of days. I don't receive a lot of my messages, notices, and inventory offers because they cap, so I have to look in my email or open each group individually and check the notices tabs. Usually if I took a break from SL, that means I also took a break from the internet. I read a lot of SL websites, so when I'm back online I try my best to read all of them or at least skim them to catch up. I'm mentioning this now because I was offline this passed weekend celebrating the Fourth of July. If you celebrated it too, I hope you had a good one!

I crashed while doing the Mellow Yellow hunt last week, but I was pleasantly surprised with some gifts from Greenies when I logged back on. The Greenies Home isn't in SL anymore, but I will definitely make a Rezzable account to see them again. Thank you to RightAsRain Rimbaud for the presents.

One of the notices I received yesterday was about The Alphabet Soup Bazaar. There are some nice things at that bazaar and I had an easy time browsing each booth because there was no lag. One of my favorite things I got from there was the shoe box shoes from Stinkeye. It reminded me of The Office (US), which is one of my favorite shows. In one of the episodes, a character's shoes were thrown away, so he had to wear kleenex box shoes to a wedding!

There was a picnic next to the Jazz Cat yesterday evening. As usual, it was good times and it was a nice way to end the long weekend.

Independence Day!

At Jazz Cat this evening, we celebrated an early Independence Day (US). Here's a link to a touching video that Amalia shared in chat earlier. I love the USA! Happy Fourth of July!

Strawberry Twilight

Today I went to the Magic of Oz and Ozimals sims for their Strawberry Festival because there was a strawberry hunt going on at both sims. I picked up a basket at the landing point and found a spot on the Magic of Oz sim to look for randomly appearing strawberries. If you want to win all of the prizes, you have to collect 6 strawberries 16 times.

After collecting the strawberries, I went to each of the 16 participating shops to eat cake! It was fun! I love the Magic of Oz hunts!

Twilight: Eclipse was released in US theaters today. Anyone see it? I'm in no rush to watch the movie because so far I'm loving the books more.

Attempted!

Earlier today, I thought of an idea for another machinima I wanted to make. When I got in-world, I looked through my inventory, searched and teleported to places, and rezzed stuff out. I got sidetracked by IMs and SLURLs though, so I ended up doing other things. I'll either film later tonight or tomorrow.

While I rezzed and set things up, I received a group notice from -RC- Cluster. In celebration of the store's 3rd birthday, there was cake, balloons, and gifts at the main store. I quickly teleported over because it's one of my favorite shops. Congratulations to the creator, Redd Columbia!

Afterwards, I teleported back to where I rezzed stuff and I received a group IM about the CVL Volunteer meeting on Info Island. I love to know what's going on at the CVL, so I had to attend. I knew I was going to make it back late, so I just started taking things back into my inventory.

Also, I'm sad that the two teams I rooted for lost. I'm still enjoying my vuvuzela though!

SL7B: Enigma and Absurdity

Last night, I finished exploring all of the SL7B sims that have exhibits. There are more sims, but they only have stages for concerts. I was only interested in checking out the exhibits, so this will be my final post for SL7B.

There was one thing that was definitely present on all of the sims I visited and that thing was cake! One of the last cute and delicious looking cakes I saw was the strawberry cake by AliciaKay Kilara on the A Touch of Ireland exhibit.

I ate so much strawberry cake that I turned into a strawberry myself! I felt like taking a swan dive into the big blueberry pie by Holocluck Henly and Snurky Snoodle. It's located on the Me, Yourselves, and Pie exhibit and you can get the strawberry costume for free there. Right next to the pie is the Stilt Beaches exhibit with the big sheep where you can pick up a free pair of stilts. They are hard to walk in, but they are very fun!

If you like seeing your avatar contort into different poses, then visit the Bodied Words exhibit by pallina60 Loon. Just sit on one of the pose boxes and scroll through the letters and numbers for different poses. There are several boxes lined up next to each other, so you can bring a group and spell something out. While you're there, don't forget to pick up the free rideable pen!

I loved all of the artwork on display by Kerupa Flow. I couldn't stop looking at the artwork pictured above. Looking at it straight on makes it look like it's going in, but when I put my camera at an angle I saw that the prim is actually sticking out!

I enjoyed the SL7B sims this year and I'm looking forward to many more SL birthday celebrations!