Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Exploring and full of wonder...

The wonderful Sollie - bright, cute, smart and with such a great sense of humour!
It's wonderful when you meet someone amazing, and enjoying learning new things from them, and likewise enjoy showing them places they may not have seen before - basically enjoying their company. This kind of interaction makes SL come alive and enriches every moment.

Have taken on exploring and shopping anew, and cashed out over 11K of hard earned L$ - beginning earning with a clean slate and being determined to be more frugal in future! There's so much fun to be had exploring and seeking good bargains, in a free and nomadic way, no rents, tiers, L$ commitments - just careful earning and enjoying what you have!

Monday, April 4, 2011

Maia - beautiful name, heart and Avatar

Catching up with one of my oldest SL friends is always a welcome experience. A calm and gracious person with a good sense of balance between RL and SL, loyalty to friends and self-possession, Maia enjoys the beauty in SL and the fun of style and getting dressed up elegantly.



Saturday, April 2, 2011

Beauty - more than pixel-deep!

Playing with photography in SL I certainly see many "beautiful" places and Avatars, and love playing with Photoshop for editing. The "magic" of getting an Avatar's image just right, where the eyes seem almost to convey expression, carries with it an amazing sense of wonder - is it art? Or just luck?

But beauty of character, mind and heart, is far more prized. Photography always works well when you have a rapport with your subject, which is why I like to take the time to get to know anyone I photograph. It's funny but a few *stunning* avatars I have met - maybe their eyes or skin amazed me for a time and I thought they would be awesome to photograph regularly, soon showed such blandness of manner, even rudeness and lack of gratitude, that I realised their *beauty* was just pixel deep - I could have more fun making images of an Alt I made to order - that made me laugh a bit - because interaction and textual intimacy is part of what I also like about SL - but such is the way some people behave!

Beautiful eyes!

I have old friends I regularly see and photograph, others it's just once, a chance meeting that results in them getting a lovely profile image, or even help with buying a new skin or outfit, and the discovery that they had little beauty beyond the pixels in the way they communicate with and brush off the photographer! However, even short-term encounters can be inspiring, when a really fascinating mind is met even for a while, and the rapport helps create a more deeply artistic and expressive image, such as below:

Still one of my favourite image edits - where my work was greatly appreciated.

a "drama free" Second Life - it's a virtual world to enjoy

Second Life has a great freedom to it - a freedom to explore, imagine, create, communicate, follow interests, share with fascinating people. My reckless openness and generosity has naively taken me into some awkward situations though, and too close to some *psychotic* and manipulative people - but for the most part it's been a very positive experience.

The word "drama" crops up in this context. Where people get hostile, take offense, accuse and abuse - seemingly at the slightest provocation (or no provocation except the imagined), want to argue, maintain a grudge and particularly seem to have a short temper. Now people may have many good reasons for such behaviour - the may be just immature, be tired, have brought depression from RL into SL, or been abused in RL and want to take this out on anyone they see in SL. It may even be low-blood glucose, as obesity and diabetes seem to go closely together. It may also be an act of petulance to be manipulative and get their own way, even profit from the niave. Whatever the reason, you have probably seen such type in SL - and endured such behaviour.

I tend to feel sorry for such people - even try to reason with them. I've been generous to people who ultimately can't be helped, and bite the hand that offers help, enough times to realise when the mute-button, and backing off, is the only option. The familiar pattern of "dramatic" behaviour is now so obvious to me I understand why some Avatars have the "no drama" request in their profiles, though I wonder if that's a magnet for dramatic people or not. Drama is created by very selfish and immature people, who want reactions and attention - once you can see that about anyone it's best to remain calm and let them go off in their own world of self-abuse, offering help and keeping the door open, but never getting into their arguments. A favourite tactic of the dramatic is to use the contacts or friends list as a weapon - "I delete you" - I admit I find that amusing, I use the contact list to keep in touch with Photography clients, and long-term friends - and tend to clean up my list often when I don't see or talk to someone for a while - so if someone deletes me they are doing me a favor, and it's probably they that miss out :-)

So thanks to those who have helped me learn a bit more about "drama" and how to avoid it. All part of making SL a better place.