HI! challenge, day 01

FYI: Ariel challenged me to say hi and attempt conversation with one stranger a day in SL for 30 days and blog about it. Today is day 01. This fyi will appear at the top of each post.

For the first day of the challenge, I thought I would try accosting one of the many hunters who visit our sim. There are two mainstores on the Home Sim that participate in a lot of hunts, FireGOOD!!! and Sweet Antidote. I decided to position myself in a clump of poppies between the sim landing point and the two stores - I triangulated! Then I lay in wait, like a groundsquirrel waiting in her hole for an acorn to fall from a tree!

I think I triangulated awsumly! I waited and waited ... but nobody came.Which was weird, because we've had a steady stream of hunters over the last few days. Did the hunts all end!? What gives? Bah. Clearly, I was going to have to work harder to find a stranger to talk to.

While I was deciding what to do next ... someone tp'd in! 26m away! He landed at Ariel's shop, I rushed over ...

[12:38 PM]  Owly Indigo: hello sylver ;-)
[12:40 PM]  Owly Indigo Hoots!

I said hi, I hooted ... and got nothing in return. I wasn't quite prepared to IM, I wanted to see how saying hello in local would work first. Suddenly, he walked into the main part of the store. Sooo ... I am not a FireGOOD!!! CSR ... officially. Nonetheless ...

[12:42 PM]  Owly Indigo: sylver, please let me know if I can help you with anything ;-)
[12:43 PM]  sylver Shelman smiles "Thank you"

YAY! Response! And a polite one! I sat on the railing, not quite willing to push it. I mean ... he was clearly here with a purpose, and that was to find a hunt object, not to talk with the crazy eager bird lady on a mission to talk to a stranger. So I had a look through his profile while he had a look through the shop. And look what I found there ...

i talk to everybody almost i enjoy conversations and thought provocation. It is a really pleasure to sit and converse with others and enjoy a laugh. i joke and try to make people smile

Well, he did talk to me, briefly. And at 12:52 PM he disappeared, apparently having found the hunt gift.

I wonder, if I weren't feeling so shy and sensitive to the fact that he was on a hunt, what more might I have said to him? Would we have found common ground? He smiled at me ... could he have made me smile too, as his profile suggests?

Here's what I learned: people who are doing a hunt might not be interested in conversing, and they might not want to talk with unofficial CSRs. Also, politeness is very important - I was so happy he smiled and said "thanks" instead of ignoring me.

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.... 

For Rent on the Home Sim

There is a sunset-view island available for rent on the Home Sim. With or without structure and landscaping, just let us know what you'd like to do! 800 prims, 8000L/month. Sure, you could pay less on a homestead or mainland or something, but ... not to be rude, however ... it would be ugly. ;-) Several cottages are also still available, 100 prims, 1000L/month and 150 prims, 1500L/month. All the shops are full now, so please check back for some exciting changes in the marketplace!

Owly Gone Wild!

So I am preparing for another hunt at Fire GOOD!!! - and i needed a model for my new Can launcher and matching CANtlers.  Owly was free to help me out last night... and this was only like five fun filled minutes of madness, but the pictures turned out so silly i had to share.

We start off with a cool James Bond pose.  So far so good....oh wait...check out her EYE!!! hahaha (click the picture to zoom in for a better view).  Also...check out her grabby hand!

She takes a break to slam one down...

Here she looks a bit dazed and now she has one in each hand!

Launching madness ensues, there are cans flying everywhere...

...and then we clean up!

the end :)

Operation Squeegee

OH HAI. The Operation Squeegee (OpSquee) fundraiser is happening on the eastern edge of our sim July 1-15, 2010. Please click here for more information, and we hope you will be inspired to help however you can!

Pajama Party

Every Sunday night the party gets better! I never had doubts that a bunch of "fun" folks like us wouldn't continue to top it week after week.

Tonight's Pajama Jamming Party was one of the best. We had the awesome DJ Sweez, who is available for bar mitzvah and divorces? Great tunes, great friends and lots of costume changes...

Coyote and Cat discussing book club early...
Foxie watching TV in the pillow fort...
Lillith looking awesome...Kaydence and the best rollers I have seen...
Foxie testing out the sleeping bags too...
Coyote again...
Catalina was so tired from the set up, she napped during the party...
Me in the pillow fort, I want one in my room Cat! PLEAZE
Further and his sheep slippers... think they were made from Owly's last costume?
Catalina looking so sweet... (Don't be fooled!)
Sam and her friend who claimed not to have PJ's....

And lots of DANCING! and PILLOW FIGHTS!!