Plans and Profiles

I was writing a list of ideas, things to write in this blog, while I was in the (eventful) process of coding the whole platform. Nowadays I'm not sure if I want to bring those topics up. It feels like their time ran away despite I haven't written about them.

One of them was the always present topic of profiles in SL, from the perspective of a chat that was held nearly three years ago in Basilique (my, time flies!) There were three main questions. What impressions do you get? Do you judge? Do you care?

I'll begin by saying that I started filling my own profile in ways that nowadays make me smirk. I tried to sound unique and I ended up copying a lot of cliches from others' profiles. Not so bad for consistency. With time, I filled it with the main store and contact details, and left some space for personal details in a few of my picks, not caring if I sounded unique or not. I decided against defining myself, that is the only rule in my profile.

I see so many profiles, no, SO MANY profiles, in caps, full of people saying that they're basically the best person you'll ever find in earth. Honestly, I prefer if you let me decide how I feel you are. Specially because all the backstabbing creatures that I've found in SL had in their profiles that caring, honesty, and loyalty were their things. I've come to distrust profiles, unless they are humorous. Those I take more seriously.

What impressions do I get? That we're the worst judges of ourselves. We don't have the needed self criticism to either be sincere and say that we're people you shouldn't trust, or simply not say a thing at all. Instead, most profiles are full of caring, loyal, honest... you name it... people. I have a simple question then. If everybody is so wonderful, where does all the drama in SL come from?

And oh, the drama. You say "no drama" in your profile, in any form? I don't believe you. I know you will create drama. I will try to stay away from you and save my jokes. Drama is a part of our lives, in case you didn't know, so your "no drama" claim only makes you suspicious of being the center of it.

Do I judge people by their profiles? Of course I do. I'm human, I judge. I will not believe anyone that says that they don't judge. We all judge. But that doesn't mean that I won't interact with you. In the end, your profile is the image you see of yourself, but I'm interested in the picture that I can get on my own. So even though I know it's risky when someone believing to be caring, loyal, and honest approaches me, I'll interact. At times I've been wrong, and met wonderful people in the way.

Do I care? Depends. If you say you share logs because entitled, bad reading skills or your mom needs them, I know I can't trust you, so I will take care of not telling you anything private. We will never be friends. If you say you'll harass me if I say something to your family, well, it's good to know. I don't use the mute button often, but I won't mind to use it once your babbling stops to amuse me. If you say you're a Dom, I will smile and let you live in your bubble of innocence. And so on. So yes, I care, even if only because your profile is actually telling me a lot about yourself. Probably not what you expected, but a lot anyway.

And you, what do you think? What impressions do you get? Do you judge? Do you care? Feel free to share, and have a great day :-)
Posted by: Auryn Beorn on 18/01/2018 at 12:00:00 - 0 Comments

Introspection and silence

It was mid-May of the last year when I started a bullet journal. I grabbed an empty notebook I had at home, read the directions from the official website, and went with it. The first advice came from Zee, and it was wise advice: do not look for bullet journal in Pinterest or in Instagram.

I saw why, quickly. There's a huge community highly skilled at the artistic, and they regularly post pictures of their journals. They're often masterpieces but they're also discouraging for the newbie that just heard "this is a system that will help you organize your life".

My goodness, and all the pretty is mandatory?

That was one of the first questions I asked. The answer was obvious: the pretty isn't mandatory and indeed, with few exceptions in a few pages, I'm quite minimalist. I just write the day, what needs to be done, and I'm done with it. I spend some time planning because events and scripts aren't as easy to plan as laundry and cleaning the bathrooms. I have to make a plan of meshes to do, scripts to use/code, time for UVs, for LODs, for texturing and baking textures, for packaging... if it's a script, there's also documentation to write, which often needs of its own companion mesh release to have a suitable sample object to show how to work with it. All this is just to say that my planning isn't as immediate as much of what I've seen. It doesn't mean that my planning is better or worse, just that my life is different than the lives of those who show their bullet journal to the community, and so I plan it differently.

I confess, though, that I like the pretty. The colors, the washi tape, the stamps, the stickers... There's a whole world I didn't know of, and while I may not be too artistic myself, I've found a new hobby in watching YouTube videos of people showing how they prepare the planning pages of their journals. It's like watching porn, but in stationery version and with better dialogue. If you like stationery as much as I do, you know what I mean.

I will confess more and I'll say that I use stamps in my weekly pages (the weekly pages aren't part of the original system but they help me) and from time to time, I draw. Stationery. You have to understand me.

The first months I read a lot of their blogs, and you can see that not only they make things pretty, they also follow many routines to help them stay organized. They also follow other routines, more spiritual ones, let's say. One that caught my attention was the morning pages. The morning pages are explained in a book that I do not recommend if you're allergic to new age and spiritualism (I am, but I can read one from time to time). This book is called The Artist's Way and, as I expected, it was a mix of things that make sense with downright pseudoscience in a neat package that many will buy in hopes that it will make an artist of them.

Then why did I read it? And more importantly, why do I write morning pages since now three months ago?

My curiosity is huge. I read about things that interest me, and about things that I know beforehand I don't agree with, but I want to see their point of view. This keeps me focused in the idea that we live in a huge world where there are people with ideas different to mine and I shouldn't be closed to at least listen, whether I believe in it or not. I found some interesting passages in the book, and I found a lot of nonsense. I take the good with me and ignore the rest. And I can tell you, the book didn't make a "recovered artist" from me. I don't think I haven't changed at all in these last three months.

Except for a little detail.

Since I write the morning pages, I feel that I do a lot of introspection and, at the same time, that I don't need to talk as much as before. It's been noticed at home that I don't talk as much, and I really don't feel like it after I've written those pages.

Then again, why do I write them?

There's something in writing them that relaxes me. Problems that need my attention appear on the pages. Possible solutions, ideas, appear on the pages. Ideas for writing. Ideas to solve scripts. But I don't know why, I'm even more quiet since I write them.

Maybe now that I've noticed and said it loud voice, the problem will get to an end. I wasn't even sure of writing this. But here it is.

In other news, I did NaNoWriMo this year again, and I swear I'm going to kill that story. I tried rewriting the story I wrote the last year from a different perspective, different situations, a different conflict... it was a whole different story except for the characters and the end. Well, even though this year's story is better plotted (it makes more sense, there are no major gaps that make me shake my head, etc.) ... I still don't like it!

It's my baby and I don't like it. So much could be said out of this.

The good thing is that I've learned a little more about the craft and it's been quite fun to share the journey with Zee. The bad thing is that I'm not sure if I'll be able to write a story that I don't end up hating. At least the morning pages keep me in the habit of writing daily. Mostly uninteresting events, but I show up and write. I'm now planning to write a story a week for the next year and so far I've only gotten an outline. I'm fifty-one outlines from my goal. Help.

This is not by far everything that goes in my head lately, but they're probably the topics I've mentioned the most.

Oh and in other news! SL met RL! I met with the lovely Froukje Hoorenbeek in Valencia, and I hope she had as much of a great time as I did. It's the first time I meet with someone from SL, and I hope it won't be the last one.

That's it for now. Have a great day and share your thoughts if you like :-)
Posted by: Auryn Beorn on 10/12/2017 at 19:00:00 - 0 Comments

Denial (A set of poses with a story behind)

The Trunk Show is an event devoted to weddings, and I'm participating in this round. They suggested to make Halloween related items and I had one idea in mind since long time ago.

When Ansel and I say good night, usually I close first. That wasn't the case in one occasion nearly three years ago, and what I saw made me observe for a while before I closed. I was alone in bed, holding no one. I changed the pose, to continue holding no one. I thought "this could make for a pose set called Denial". I never made that pose set.

Until now.

I thought of making cute couple poses and then split them, as if each one of them were holding a ghost. Surely fitting for a Halloween theme. So first things first, I made the five couple poses in Blender. I'm showing three of them.


I uploaded the poses normally, but instead of making couple pose balls, I made two separate sets. One called Denial (Her), where she still can't believe that her husband is gone, and the other one called Denial (Him), where he still can't believe she's gone. The result, in the right setting, turns out both sad, dark and artistic. Exactly what I wanted:


The moral of the story is, pay attention to every little detail and thought, no matter how silly it looks like. Write it down if needed. You never know when it will turn into an idea you can materialize!
Posted by: Auryn Beorn on 18/10/2017 at 12:00:00 - 0 Comments

The Zodiac challenge

This week's #SecondLifeChallenge is the Zodiac challenge. Now, full disclaimer before diving in. I don't believe in astrology. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy inventing stories where astrology could be used, or wear a necklace with my sign (or other), or that I would never ever bring up the topic. I don't believe in it but I don't close the door to the people that believe in it and want to talk about it with me. I don't share their belief but I respect the people. This said, on to the challenge!

• What is your Zodiac sign?: My birthday is quite close to the end of the year, so that means that not counting the phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes, which moves the whole zodiac band, I'm a Capricorn. But if we count this phenomenon, then I think I'm Sagittarian. Or Acuarius. One or the other, but not the one that typically would be assigned to me.
• Do you believe in Astrology and read your horoscope often?: Like I've said in my disclaimer, I don't believe in astrology, for many reasons.
  
  The first one is that don't think we humans are so special that the planets are waiting for us to be born and print in us some characteristics.
  
  The second one is that I think that reducing the human being to 12 categories is simplifying too much the human complexities - not to mention that there never seems to exist a sign for the murderers, the thieves, the rapists... What do we do of this? Why those traits never appear, why only the good ones or the mildly good ones?
  
  The third one is that I've met with many people that don't fit in their horoscope. I refuse to say that someone is not a true Pisces. If you're born under Pisces, you're Pisces, period. If you aren't the way you're supposed to be, the problem isn't in you, the problem is in the astrology. (I know, one can tell me now about the ascendant as a modifier of the behaviour - been there, done that, still doesn't fit the people I've met.)
  
  The list is longer, but you get the idea.
  
  Now, do I read my horoscope? Sure, from time to time, why not? To me, astrology belongs to the realm of fantasy, and I have no problem with reading fantasy. At times I read my horoscope, more often I read others. In any case, they always predict my day! I find this highly amusing, and it's because of the vague language used, which allows that you fill the gaps so the prediction matches your expectation of your sign. (Ever seen a horoscope predicting a broken bone? Imagine 1/12 of the world population breaking a bone the same day. Now that would make me consider.)


• What are some of the traits of your zodiac sign and do you feel they reflect who you are?:
  This question is interesting, not because I'm going to list my traits, but because I'm going to claim that we don't know which are our traits. Let's face it, we humans are quite bad at judging ourselves honestly. We may believe we're honest, but then a complicated situation happens and bam, where did our honesty go? We may believe we're loyal, but then we're faced to decide between that loyalty or something dear to us and again, bam, where did our loyalty go? When life is good, we're all good people, and that's what we believe we are all the time. But when life brings trouble, the real us surfaces, and that's the one we don't pay attention to, they one we don't really know.
  
  What good do I do to myself or my friends if I tell them that I'm always there for them, and when I have problems I leave them aside? It would be more honest if I said "I try to be always there for you, but when I have problems I have to look after myself first." Horoscopes will try to cover this with vague expressions that give us always salvation. "You're brave except when you're not". No kidding! This is why I think that it isn't really relevant how I think that I am. I will always find that in my horoscope either in the you're X part or in the except when [the list of excuses] one, so I will always fit in my horoscope. Or in any other one, for that matter. Ever done that experiment? I have, and I recommend to do it with an open mind.

Posted by: Auryn Beorn on 17/10/2017 at 12:00:00 - 0 Comments

My seven Second Life facts

Yesterday I read colleen Criss and I see that Strawberry Singh's Monday challenges are back!

These are good news to me because, selfishly, they provide with a much needed break from everything going on in my life. The theory is that I had made a blog calendar with topics, but the practice is that those topics would need work, and hence I was in this limbo. Strawberry has saved me providing guidance while I continue working hard in you don't want to know how many things, both RL and SL. So let's stop with the self pity, and on to the challenge we go!

This week we have "My seven Second Life facts". I'll use Strawberry's as a guide.

• My Second Life Fact #1: I have purchased lindens in the past, but not anymore since I started teaching. Then it came the store and then I had to make a small purchase because it has lost my payment info data. Or I deleted it one night being tired. Who remembers that?
• My Second Life Fact #2: I don't have a premium account. My 42 full group slots continue telling me to change that. I know I'll eventually end up with a premium account. I own land, the store must be somewhere!
• My Second Life Fact #3: I don't hate notecards but I prefer a long detailed IM than a notecard. The reason is that I can respond to IMs from e-mail. You have no idea of how many customers have received help while I was in bed because I opened my eyes at 4 AM, couldn't sleep, and took the phone to find their requests in long, clear IMs. I love long and clear IMs. I can answer them basically anytime if I'm offline. Notecards force me to log in to read them, and at times that can mean many hours from the moment the person sent it, until I can log in.
• My Second Life Fact #4: I can quote this from Strawberry's post as being true for myself: "I love it when my Second Life is quiet and peaceful. I prefer to be alone in Second Life and explore it on my own and learn about new products on my own." I'm an introvert and while I enjoy talking to (some) people, I enjoy my alone time too. I spend almost all my time at my platform, and even there I can't escape from drama at times! (I have an ex that deserves some writing because laughs, and while I could mute him, that would fix nothing because he comes with alts, and I confess, it's more amusing letting him go ahead with the drama and whatever populates his mind. At least I can say I too have some drama in my Second Life!)
• My Second Life Fact #5: Before mesh heads, I was quite attached to my shape. I remember preferring my system body because the Slink body wouldn't achieve my curves. I was quite attached to those curves. Then it came Maitreya's Lara body and I haven't detached the body except to attach the new updates that have come along. I was also lazy to change skin. I could spend two years in the same skin, if not more. Then mesh heads came... and it was like having me in a stationery store (I have so much to confess about watching stationery porn.) They were so smooth and pretty and photography-ready. I've swapped between mesh heads and my system head a lot until the Trinity head from LAQ came along. It wasn't my usual look, but I loved her smile and the way it made me look. Then Bento heads came and now I switch between them and Trinity. I have a couple of Bento heads. For now. Yesterday I was trying Ana from LAQ so that may change soon. I've been a long time LAQ user, so you can see the pattern, and just yesterday I bought the April skin applier, used it on Ana, adjusted the shape... Yes, I can see another mesh head in my future.
• My Second Life Fact #6: Once upon a time I managed to have my inventory under 29000 items, which is not bad at all considering I like shopping and I produce an average of six new items every week, with lots of assets in. But one day I was at 50000, planning to purge old items, when the new Marketplace system came and my inventory made boom since now all the items in Marketplace count in your inventory as well. I cry with every weekly release because my inventory grows a lot with all the meshes, textures, poses, and whatnot. I also cry because I try to stay current with Marketplace so again boom. I have to find the time. I'm telling myself that phrase since I don't remember when.
• My Second Life Fact #7: I have never been bored in SL. It's impossible to me, there's always something to do for the store, for events... and the rare times I'm not working, shopping or with Ansel, I go explore places, mainland, and have a good time out of it.

So those are (some of) my facts. Which ones are yours? Do share!
Posted by: Auryn Beorn on 10/10/2017 at 12:00:00 - 3 Comments