Tag Archives: Socialite

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The ‘Avatar Pride Parade’ 2013

That wild and wonderful woman of the world Vaneeesa Blaylock organized an “Avatar Pride Parade” for Saturday morning SLT time. It was a chance for peeps to come and show some avatar pride!

Unfortunately, we crashed the starting sim before half the avies arrived. Heh. Nonetheless, shortly after the official start time our proud avies marched north into one of the mainland continents on a stretch of road that would take us on a tour through twenty regions.

This parade had all the potential for being another glorious triumph for the VB & Company group, but little did we know we were marching into a Second Life time warp, a technological leap backwards in time, all the way back to 2007. The lag came in torrents. The sim crossings would either hurl us forward then snap us back or just wouldn’t let us cross at all. As for crashes, of course there were. hehe.

By the end of the parade, someone declared, “It was more like a death march.” And we all laughed, even Vaneeesa.

Photographer Yordie Sands

It was the finish line for the Avatar Pride Parade 2013!
Organizer Vaneeesa Blaylock, bottom right.
(that’s me in the pink feathers, btw)

Nonetheless, this adventurous group managed to have fun. It is always hard to organize and hold a group together but it is its own reward.

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RFL 2012 – Remembering My Own

Stopped along the RFL 2012 track,
thinking about all these candlelit bags.

I’m in Relay for Life 2012 as I write this. I am standing beside the road. I just had to stop to write about my feelings. I’ve been to other Relay for Life events this year and in the past. And in the past, and to the extent possible, I tried to view the events through the lens of someone who has sympathy for those who have lost family. And I’ve managed to bury my feelings about my own family.

But this RFL was different for me. As I walked the track, I observed the little candlelit bags on the roadside. I saw the names of several people I know who had purchased bags, and I was touched and felt sympathy. In all the other RFL events, I’ve not allowed myself to dwell on the fact that my mother and father both died of cancer.

But here’s what happened just a short while ago. I bought a couple of these roadside candle lit bags. I bought one for my mom and one for my dad, and when their names appeared I found myself overwhelmed by memories and emotions. Both of my parents died far too early in their lives. I was only 22 when my mom died. All of these memories overcame me.

So I had to walk on.

I walked a little further down the road and remembered that I have an aunt who was very dear to me, and she died of cancer. So, I bought her a bag. There was an uncle too. And again emotions hit me.

These little roadside bags pack an enormous punch if you are trying to bury sadness in your heart.

These little roadside bags are a good thing because they remind you of the toll this disease we call cancer takes on a family. I’ve lived without my mother for over half my life and today I was reminded of that.

Maybe this post is just too emotional. And I don’t want anyone to really know this much about my real life. Maybe I’ll have to put it in archive tommorrow or the next day, but for now I need to make this statement. It’s a terrible disease and a lot of people here in SL have done a lot of work to make it easy for us to contribute money to help. Just sayin’

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SL9B: ELVIS Brings It Oh Home!

Leanna and I had no idea what was on the performance schedule, we just wanted to go to the Main Stage and take a look. As we walked in we were greeted with:

[ Ladies and gentlemen: On June 23, 2003 -- exactly 9 years ago -- Second Life was launched. Happy 9th Birthday, Second Life! Let's celebrate and party all night long! ]

On Stage: BubbaC John performing live as ELVIS!
Bubba "ELVIS" John Performs @ SL9B
Leanna and I jumped right into the show
not knowing who was performing.
Bubba "ELVIS" John Performs @ SL9B
Quickly we discovered that Bubba & the Bubbettes
were performing with Bubba singing
Elvis tunes with great realism.
Bubba "ELVIS" John Performs @ SL9B
Bubba was the real deal and really brought home
Second Life’s 9th Birthday with a feeling of
All Night Long!

I doubled checked with Leanna while we danced and pranced to Bubba’s tunes, I wondered if she was enjoying him as much as I was. She told me she was singing right along with him and I grinned because I was too! “Hallelujah!” This was one more of those unexpected events I’ve discovered every time I’ve been to SL9B. And that feeling I’ve been talking about was there by the ton!

I asked my SL New England neighbor, Coerl Onlyone, to describe his own experience at SL9B. Ceorl was also a builder and here’s his point of view of SL9B: “When I came and started building I felt a great energy and camaraderie… I really think it is the best birthday ever, and we residents can take ALL the credit for it.”

I think Ceorl is right, I think this is the best Second Life birthday ever, especially when considering the challenges.

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SL9B: Hanging Around, Listening

Yes, today is Second Life’s official 9th Birthday. And I’ve been hanging around observing things, sometimes from afar, sometimes right at the Welcome Area with greeters and I’ve done a lot of wandering around.

I actually climbed the hill behind Devet sim
wearing my high heel boots and no one was there.
It was a great place to just look at things;
well, as far as my 1024m Draw Distance.

Normally, I’m able to take on huge events with determination to see everything. But as early as the first day, Press Day, I found myself overwhelmed at the enormity of this event. I found myself lost. Of course I’ve done some cool things, like attending opening ceremony, dancing at the Egyptian nightclub and all that. But in general, I’ve felt lost, deliciously lost.

The feeling of being lost is the thing I’ve found to be the most wonderful part of SL9B. And standing on that hill with draw distance set to max and still not seeing everything, well, that’s a great symbol for what I mean.

So, by the third day I just accepted that I’d never see everything. And I started watching people, listening to them and every once in a while having a conversation. I wanted to know what people were experiencing.

This is a pic from my first day hanging out at the Welcome Area.
I can’t say I had any deep conversations but
I heard a lot of people asking questions and commenting.

I even came upon these SL media stars recording a program.
From left, Saffia Wildershinns, Pooky Amsterdam, Mal Burns,
Kinte and Honour McMillan. Apparently no Trolls at this one.

Everywhere I went I heard a lot of interesting comments but nothing that really stuck in my head, other than the rumors I heard about Philip Linden I mentioned yesterday.  And even though nothing I heard was particularly memorable, well, I’ve felt this way before when I’ve been enjoying myself.

I am going back to checkout my impressions one last time before writing a piece I’ve had floating around in my head for days now. I want to write a special post about my impressions, maybe something a little more intellectual, and also comment on Linden Labs distance from this event. ((I know, I know, Second Life socialite Yordie Sands and intellectual in the same sentence… lawdy, lawdy.)) It’s a long story but Vanessa Blaylock offered me the opportunity to write a piece for her blog, I Rez Therefore I Am. And me being me, I thought this would be a dandy chance to say hello to a whole new audience.

Btw, the rumblings about Philip in SL were confirmed. Here is part 1 of an interview Philip did yesterday which also confirms, “he is not actively involved in Linden Lab and doesn’t know what work is being done.” And here’s Interview – part 2 where we learn he no longers cares.

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Philip to Speak @ SL9B?

Ok, let me quash this rumor before it gets started. Now, let’s see if that actually quashes anything. All I know is, I heard somebody ASK if  Philip Rosedale is going to speak at SL9B. And the only reason this seems to be a topic is that apparently there were sightings of Philip at Burning Man 2. My knowledge of the question is first hand, my knowledge of the sightings is third hand. The reason I think the question of Philip came up was I was standing at the spot below at SL9B…

I was admiring the dashing & handsome young
Philip Rosedale (aka Philip Linden)
at a DreamSeeker SL9B Kyuu exhibit.
I happened to notice in open chat someone asked,
“Will Philip be speaking at SL9B?”

There are all kinds of things scattered around SL9B and if you just stand and listen for awhile you hear the darnest things. Now, let’s see where this little post ends up in the rumor stream. If you hear that Philip will speak at SL9B and you hear my name cited as the source, you’ll have some nice inside info to chuckle about. But hey, I’m going out looking for Philip, how about you? See you at the fair!