CHALLENGE

I have kind of a long story to tell you, but it ends with a CHALLENGE from Miss Ariel to me. I hope you'll bear with me and follow along with my challenge for the month of September.

So this summer/winter (north/south hemispheres), it's been a little quiet on the Home Sim. We've not been quite as active as we usually are, since many people were away or on vacation or just BUSY. Nonetheless, there has been a lot of activity related to various hunts and gatherings and new store openings, but ... yeah, since the end of OpSquee, it's been a bit honk shu.

Sometimes I like to just hang around by the aviary and watch the green dots pop in and out of various stores in the market for hunt gifts. I like to read the profiles of the people popping in and out - especially those ones that are all "nosy bitch get your ass outta mah supa private special snowflake profile!" or whatever. haha - those ones I look at VERY CAREFULLY and FOR A LONG TIME.

Where was I going with this. Oh yeah! So I see an av wandering around, and I look at her profile. Her name is Carrie Lexington, she has a blog, and she has a pick in her profile that says "How to Build Community in Second Life," IM me if you'd like to have a poster of this. And I think ... HELL YEAH! I want to get back to building community on the Home Sim! I IM her, she's supernice, and I get what is written at the end of this post on a prim. These are things I want to do and to encourage. I put the poster up in the coho. I am happy.

Then I IM Ariel (this is edited a lot):

[05:08 PM]  Owly Indigo: yay, I got something cool today, a "poster" on how to build community in SL, I put it up in the coho
[05:08 PM]  Owly Indigo: it is inspiring me
[05:08 PM]  Inventory item offered
[05:10 PM]  Ariel Wingtips: reading...
[05:11 PM]  Ariel Wingtips: step 1: leave skybox
[05:11 PM]  Ariel Wingtips: hahaha
[05:11 PM]  Owly Indigo: I am being like super friendly today, what's up with that
[05:13 PM]  Owly Indigo: I have a thingy I want to do ... I want to say hi to at least ONE new person in SL each day
[05:13 PM]  Owly Indigo: I'm sure it will wear off
[05:13 PM]  Ariel Wingtips: i dare you o do it for 30 days and blog the experience
[05:13 PM]  Owly Indigo: wah!
[05:13 PM]  Ariel Wingtips: doooooo it
[05:13 PM]  Ariel Wingtips: dooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo it
[05:13 PM]  Owly Indigo: that is QUITE a dare!!!!!
[05:13 PM]  Owly Indigo: girl
[05:14 PM]  Ariel Wingtips: yeah!
[05:14 PM]  Owly Indigo: I gonna do it
[05:14 PM]  Owly Indigo: I will start it Sept 1
[05:14 PM]  Owly Indigo: blog challenge!
[05:14 PM]  Ariel Wingtips: and then the rest is history
[05:14 PM]  Owly Indigo: good things happen!
[05:14 PM]  Ariel Wingtips: yes THEY DO
[05:15 PM]  Owly Indigo: if I didn't know you are so busy ... I would challenge you too!
[05:16 PM]  Ariel Wingtips: we can do it like a relay
[05:16 PM]  Ariel Wingtips: tag me at the end of september
[05:16 PM]  Ariel Wingtips: and i'll be next
[05:16 PM]  Owly Indigo: ok! yayayayay!
[05:16 PM]  Ariel Wingtips: relay for community
[05:16 PM]  Owly Indigo: and then YOU tag someone!
[05:16 PM]  Ariel Wingtips: then i will tag someone else

So there's my challenge - attempt to engage in conversation with a stranger each day for 30 days and blog about it. Starts tomorrow. Friendship starts with one person saying hi, and the other responding more or less positively; community begins when we start to take little steps toward being more friendly and open, just like in Carrie's list.

You know, in RL, I am not like this. I am not fond of talking to strangers. I'm not even that excited to talk with people that I know. But in SL I RP a friendly person! haha. This is definitely stretching for me, it is kinda risky, because I might tangle with some nasty people. But I might also meet some really really nice people. I am kind of excited to see how this goes.

If you're interested in building community in SL, read that post and follow along daily with this blog. Let's see how many friends and/or enemies I make in 30 days! ;-D HOOT!

Inventory Challenge and BUTT Talk

After almost three years of mad experiments, hunts, and shopping, I have created a mess of my inventory.  From what I hear, I am not alone.  I hear a lot of folks talk about needing to sort inventory, and they do it alone, most of the time, and then they also talk about wishing that that they were hanging out with friends.  So, last week, I was thinking "why not combine these activities?"  One of the reasons I sort inventory alone is to avoid the "accidental nekkies" that happen if you replace an outfit without taking care to keep certain bits covered up.   Also, I just need some silly motivation to stay on task.

Last week I created some ugly skins, the "HOMEsimLY" skin pack and set it out for free at the Albatross Coffee House on our sim.  This is the first skin I have attempted, it is just a tinted the free skin that I found on a tutorial site a long time ago so I take no credit for the cute shading and such, that was done by someone who actually knows what they are doing.  I only take credit for the HOMEsimLY features. 

You can use this skin in groups or individual inventory sessions:

STEP 1:  set your inventory sorting goal for the session – like “I will sort my stocking folder”  
STEP 2: wear this skin and whip off your clothes, and get busy sorting.  No need to worry about accidental exposure, with this skin, your bits are always covered.
STEP 3: don’t take the skin off until you have finished.

TIP: set realistic goals – chunk your inventory sorting project into bite size tasks.  Set goals like, “I will sort my socks folder” rather than “I will sort through and delete 10,000 items” (EEEEEK!!! Unless you want to wear this skin for a really long time, we don’t recommend that)


LOOK...we have COLORS!  (the colors are from the home sim logo - in case you were wondering)

Inventory Sorting Action
Friday night, we had a spontaneous inventory sorting party on the home sim.  The challenge was to set a simple inventory sorting goal, have fun socializing, but get R done.  OR just goof off.  There was a lot of goofing off.. launching, and some inventory was sorted.  I am thrilled to report that my own inventory, also known as "the Abyss of Madness,"  is finally under 40,000 items.  YAY!

Here's how it happened - I plurked an open invitation for an inventory sorting gathering and a lot of plurkies showed up.  Here are the action shots of the event.   (hint: click on the pictures to zoom in on all the awesome detail)

Everyone shows up and wonders what to do...Ariel and Cat model the home sim inventory challenge ugly skin.  ChatBrat Pippita announces that she is not going to sort anything.  Then folks start goofing off, sorting inventory, launching stuff, and talking about what they are discovering in their inventory, but mainly the theme of conversation centered around...you guessed it...BUTTS!

I am not surprised about this...cat made this prediction on plurk earlier in the week:

Here are the action shots:

and on and on...

[22:01]  Ariel Wingtips: hahaha

[22:01]  Ariel Wingtips: had to re-inflate my butt

[22:01]  Ariel Wingtips: i'm feeling SMURFY

[22:01]  Polly Paperclip: Yay for butt reinflation!

[23:00]  Grefan Miklos: That's what I thought, CB.

[23:00]  Grefan Miklos: CB stands for Chicken Butt.

[23:08]  Ariel Wingtips: P T !!

[23:08]  PT Beardmore: WORD!

[23:08]  catalina Mistwallow: hi PT!

[23:08]  ChatBrat Pippita: howdy PT

[23:08]  Further Monday: howdy PT

[23:09]  PT Beardmore: hello hello!

[23:09]  PT Beardmore: All the butt talk got me to log in

hehehe

Join us next time....