Kotalicious

Creamy Mushrom Stroganoff

2009-03-01T19:21:00.031Z

I've seen lot's of people doing recipe blogs recently, so I decided to do my own. Tonight I made Creamy Mushroom Stroganoff for me and Tene. The recipe is supposed to feed 4, but I think you'd need a lot of rice for that!

Ingredients:

3 garlic cloves
8 spring onions
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
250g shittake mushrooms
125g button mushrooms
125g chestnut mushrooms
Large handful of chives
Tarragon (I used dried stuff!)
400g can chopped tomatoes
1 tsp smoked paprika
150ml stock made with chicken Bovril
Salt and Pepper
200g very low-fat natural fromage frais
Boiled rice

1) Peel and crush/chop the garlic cloves.

2) Chop the spring onions into 2.5cm pieces.

3) Deseed and cut the peppers into bite-sized pieces.

4) Chop the mushrooms (Halve the button ones and quarter the others).

5) Finely chop the chives (and tarragon is using fresh stuff).

6) Heat a large pan or pot and add the garlic, spring onions, peppers, mushrooms, herbs, tomatoes, paprika and stock.

7) Season well and bring to the boil.

8) Reduce the heat to medium, cover and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

9) Make rice as instructed.

10) Remove the stroganoff from the heat and stir in the fromage frais.

11) Serve with the boiled rice and garnish as desired.

The Lovers

2008-09-04T12:09:00.000+01:00

You are The Lovers

Motive, power, and action, arising from Inspiration and Impulse.

The Lovers represents intuition and inspiration. Very often a choice needs to be made.

Originally, this card was called just LOVE. And that's actually more apt than "Lovers." Love follows in this sequence of growth and maturity. And, coming after the Emperor, who is about control, it is a radical change in perspective. LOVE is a force that makes you choose and decide for reasons you often can't understand; it makes you surrender control to a higher power. And that is what this card is all about. Finding something or someone who is so much a part of yourself, so perfectly attuned to you and you to them, that you cannot, dare not resist. This card indicates that the you have or will come across a person, career, challenge or thing that you will fall in love with. You will know instinctively that you must have this, even if it means diverging from your chosen path. No matter the difficulties, without it you will never be complete.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

New Skin

2008-08-14T08:22:00.002+01:00

I've been wondering recently why my nose looks odd.

It just doesn't seem to look as good as others that I have seen - it's blurry and oddly mis-shapen. I found out why last night: i have a strange skin.

The lovely Laura Leandros sprang to my rescue and I am now the proud owner of brand spanking shiny new skin :D and I LOVE it!

More photos will no doubt follow soon!

What Be Your Nerd Type?

2008-08-11T21:57:00.001+01:00

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Science/Math Nerd (Absolute Insane Laughter as you pour toxic chemicals into a foaming tub of death!) Well, maybe you aren't this extreme, but you're in league with the crazy scientists/mathmeticians of today. Very few people have the talent of math and science is something takes a lot of brains as well. Thank whosever God you worship, or don't worship, so thank no deity whatsoever in your case, for you people! Most of us would have died off without your help.
Musician
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Social Nerd
Literature Nerd
Drama Nerd
Anime Nerd
Artistic Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

Live Like You Were Dying

2008-08-05T19:58:00.004+01:00

Recently I’ve been thinking about my life. Well, to be exact, I’ve been thinking of my lives. Both of them. First and Second. Lot’s of things have been happening in and around them that have both initiated and then fueled this period of self-examination. People have been talking about big changes to their First Life: going back to work, kids taking their first steps, big major life changing events that have a huge emotional impact on the person. Similarly, people have been talking about quitting their Second Life, or taking a long term break from it. Some have been getting married in it, or deciding that their partner isn’t really the one for them and have been splitting up. Again, huge, Second Life changing events…. Same huge emotional impact.

Maybe I’m, a bit of a stick in the mud, but these things are quite scary! To me it’s a big deal to give up something that has been a major part of your life for so long and similarly to commit yourself completely and utterly (well, as completely and utterly as you can in Second Life) to one person. It isn’t something you can just suddenly wake up one morning and “do”. You have to think about it. Consider the options. Evaluate potential outcomes. Break it all done into teensy ickle pieces and then obsess about them like some sort of deranged psychopath. Each and every negative must be prevented, whether it be by building emotional barriers or by simply kicking them to pieces. Literally.

Is this just me?

Does anyone else do this?

Can you make a snap decision and know with 100% of yourself that you’ve made the right one?

Even when it’s something I know that I want, I still have to know every single tiny thing that’s associated to it and how it could possibly impact in the larger scheme of things before I can actually make the commitment to do it. I may not be the most emotionally stable person out there, but I think I am reasonable sane. I know right from wrong and I usually know when I’m being rational and when I’m not. But this is different.

How do you make these big, life-changing decisions? Do you follow your heart and throw all worries to the wind? Do you write all the options on bits of paper and pick one out a hat? Are you like me?

I’ve reached a conclusion. It doesn’t tell me what to do. Doesn’t quell my fears or relieve my stresses. It doesn’t make my choices any easier or cushion any nasty side effects, but it does give me a great big shove in the right direction.

My gran used to say “you’re a long time dead” (well, to be honest it was more like “yir a lang time deid, hen, a laaaaang time deid” but you get the idea). So when I heard this song the other day, it struck a chord. A big, huge, shiny yellow one.

Tim McGraw - "Live Like You Were Dying"

He said I was in my early forties, with a lot of life before me
And one moment came that stopped me on a dime
I spent most of the next days, looking at the x-rays
Talking bout' the options and talking bout' sweet times.
I asked him when it sank in, that this might really be the real end
How's it hit 'cha when you get that kind of news?
Man what did ya do?
He said

I went skydiving
I went rocky mountain climbing
I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu
And I loved deeper
And I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness I'd been denyin'
And he said some day I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dyin'

He said I was finally the husband, that most the time I wasn't
And I became a friend, a friend would like to have
And all of a sudden goin' fishin, wasn't such an imposition
And I went three times that year I lost my dad
Well I finally read the good book, and I took a good long hard look
At what I'd do if I could do it all again
And then

I went skydiving
I went rocky mountain climbing
I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Shu
And I loved deeper
And I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness I'd been denyin'
And he said some day I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dyin'

Like tomorrow was the end
And ya got eternity to think about what to do with it
What should you do with it
What can I do with it
What would I do with it

I went rocky mountain climbing
I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu
And man I loved deeper
And I spoke sweeter
And I watched an eagle as it was flyin'
And he said some day I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dyin'

Las Vegas Party

2008-08-03T17:35:00.004+01:00

Last night Tenebrous and I went along to the latest of the SL Plurkers parties and as usual had a fantastic night. The venue was the home of the fabulous Tiernan Serpentine and her slinky sidekick Kitty Lalonde and the theme was Las Vegas. In the true style of the Nevada resort, Tie and Kitty had the neon up full and the dance poles slicked and ready.

With feathers ruffling and sequins shining, we shimmied and wiggled the hours away, listening to music supplied but the simply divine Jun Kuroda and later by my very own sexy Tene.

After the poles were worn down to nothing and the cocktails turned to pure liquor, we stumbled and swayed over to the SLopoly table, where I proceeded to go around the board 4 times before managing to successfully buy a property. A big thanks to whoever it was that took pity on me and donated me some property... I was too busy drinking Malibu and singing along to see who it was....

I think we can honestly say that Johan won the SLopoly, since after a while he was the only one paying enough attention to know what was happening. Although the Yak and the Bear that were designated replacements for the absent (yet present in spirit) Willow Caldera and Osiris Pfalz seemed to be holding their own.

I still have no idea why there was a fish swimming under the table... or two dogs having a little too much fun beside us... and that cock... (get your mind out the gutter... I mean a cockerel!).

We then transferred over to the Tringo area where Tene found a new love and I manged to win on a few occasions! Willow Caldera eventually arrived and for some reason so did a trash can.. which became the bottom of a rather cosy Kota Sandwich.... Tene started playing old TV program themes and a round of Name That Show ensued.. I think I lost :(

The evening was a great success and I'm sure we'll be repeating it again soon!

You can see the remainder of my photos here!

SL Plurkers RL Meet-up

2008-07-28T21:13:00.009+01:00

On Saturday night, Tenebrous and I ventured into big bad (and WAY too hot) London to meet up with some of our closest (both geographically and in a friendliness sense!) SL and Plurk friends.

We met up with Vint in Leicester Square, where she was being chatted up by two rather inebriated guys celebrating a stag night. When the stag decided to drop his jeans and show off his rather sparse women's underpants and garter, we decided it was enough time to get out of there and Tenebrous's timely pretend phone call and "oh, we have to go!" was a life-saver!

We were joined a little while later by Willow, Johan and Oliver, who had been to see The Dark Knight (and they all recommend it!) earlier in the day.

We headed round to Hamburger Union (which believe it or not, sells hamburgers) where we were joined a little while later by Osiris and Danni.

We tucked into some HUGE hamburgers and fries while everyone got to know each other a bit better and trying to get Tux the Penguin drunk and high. Poor thing didn't know what hit him, but he certainly took a shine to Vint!

Poor Johan was wedged in between a pillar and the table and was the victim of a rather unfortunate (yet extremely funny at the time) incident involving replacing his chair with a baby's high chair.... and the addition of an extra burger...

Tenebrous decided this was a good time to start handing out his bacon salt sample pots... I think his plan is to get everyone hooked on it (including Tux!) and then start charging... I have already heard that Osiris has become fond of cheese on toast topped with bacon salt! And so it begins...

After the food was devoured, we headed round the corner to a pub (no idea what it was called.. I was too busy randomly chasing after a bin lorry....) where Johan did NOT get asked for ID despite the fact that Tenebrous (who is 13 years older than him) did! Scandalous! I was happy to show off my drivers license pic since it's actually quite flattering :D

The conversation and the drinks flowed and Tux set about impressing Vint, although she quite rightly commented afterwards on his lack of drink-buying. Take a hint penguin dude! Buy a girl a drink!

I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised buy how comfortable I felt around so many people I have never met. Within minutes of meeting people I felt totally at ease and probably talked WAY too much about absolutely nothing at all. Everyone was so nice!

Unfortunately, I doubt I'm going to be able to attend the next meet-up due to conflicting dates, but I'll definitely try to make the one after that!

Click here to see Tene's photos, Vint's photos and Osiris's photos.

Doctors and Nurses Party

2008-07-20T13:55:00.003+01:00

Last night I attended a Doctors and Nurses party with Tenebrous. Originally it was supposed to be held at Rouge, in order to keep it alive in the absence of it's inspirational owner, Codebastard Redgrave. However some unforeseen issues led to a last minute change in venue, but true to form, my plurking friends turned up en masse to Nexeus Fatales' club "the high" in Skiddaw.

"the high"

The theme was Doctors and Nurses and as expected, there were some stunningly sexy nurses on call. Of course, my Tenebrous was the only Doctor I was examining (and may I say phoar!). The DJs for the evening, Nexeus himself and Amanda Shinji did a grand job of keeping us dancing and our charming host, Queen Coronet was on top form.

DJ Nexes Fatale

Host Queen Coronet

The first casualty of the evening was Kitty Lalonde, who at one point lay down for a quick nap and sunk halfway into the floor. However, the vast array of medical expertise on hand proved adequate to deal with her discomfort.

Kitty's Medical Emergency

Janica Schonbrun

Me and Dr Pau

Kitty Lalonde and Tiernan Serpentine

You can view the rest of my photos here.

RL Adventures!

2008-07-16T20:09:00.003+01:00

Tenebrous and I took a well earned break in the New Forest for a few days to celebrate one year to the date we met IRL. We stayed in a lovely little village called Burley, in the heart of the National Park. The hotel wasn't quite as good as I'd hoped it would be (raw chicken for dinner is NOT what I call enticing!) but the staff were all nice and it turned out ok in the end.

We visited the New Forest Otter, Owl and Wildlife Sanctuary and Beaulieu Estate (which hosts the National Motor Museum) and also managed to fit in a trip to the cinema in Southampton to see Hancock (well, Tene saw Hancock, I saw most of it but also fitted in a much-needed nap).

The village itself is host to some very interesting shops, including A Coven of Witches and The Sorcerer's Apprentice, all of which pay tribute to the village's history of dragons, smugglers and witch-craft.

You can see the rest of my photos here.

Loco Pocos

2008-07-10T19:44:00.006+01:00

Last night was the Grand Opening of Loco Poco Island and the launch of a simply amazing range of avatars called Loco Pocos. Loco Pocos are "an entirely new level of avatar customisation to Second Life™" and they are so cute you just wanna pick em all up and hug em!

There are currently 10 avatars to choose from (5 male and 5 female) and heaps of accessories, including T-shirts, skirts, hair, shoes and hats. With the avatar comes a HUD, with gestures and expressions that are extremely well suited to the avatars.

For the Grand Opening, Washu Zebrastripe and Damien Fate laid out a scavenger hunt around the island. Each participant received a HUD with 5 pictures on it and was tasked with searching for the matching item on the island. I started off thinking "wow, this is gonna be easy" but after 40 minutes of searching and finding only 1 of my items.. I quickly changed my strategy!

As a result, I don't have too many pictures of the island itself, I was too busy looking for an anchor! So you should definitely go there and see it for yourself!

A HUGE congratulations is due to Washu and Damien for the sheer dedication and effort that they have put into this range and I'm sure they will be tremendously successful!

You can see the rest of my photos here!

The Almost-But-Not-Quite-Latest 5 Word Story

2008-07-09T19:29:00.005+01:00

By now I'm sure I don't have to say anything other than here's the original plurk, here are the contributors:

Tenebrous, rotemu, Bugburd, Dannilion, supacrip, TimothyL,
MadameMaracas, ZipporaZ, Teeg, Eladrienne, CoyotePace,
Skinkie, and me!

and here's the final story:

"Finally", she exclaimed, as she
opened her eyes to see
a big can of worms
which had been opened by
a mysterious yet cute cat.

The evil Earl of Scarborough
had just bought himself a
bicycle that had purple and
green little wormies on sand.

These were not his favourite
flavour but he ate them
between two slices of thick
yellow custard clumping messily around
his big fat sausage fingers.

It was unusual to have
such a view right when
the sun was rising over
the pink and purple clouds
of noxious gasses emanating from
Tenebrous' wild and spiky hair.

"Oh my god!", shouted the
old lady as she saw
a green elephant robed in
tartan trousers and a shaggy
yet rather smooth coat of
black satin and lace strings,
which was odd because usually
he was wearing green striped
mud-caked, cloak & pantaloons
of silk. Today was special because
it was the fourth of
February. Meanwhile, the evil Earl
of Scarborough was laying in
wait for the hero, who
was supposed to ride down
on his grand white steed
and save the day, but
unfortunately fate had other plans
in the form of a
huge green penguin who
landed right in front of
the building and then said
"Can you take my wrapper,
I am kind of wet
and scared of the polar
fleece inside it freezing me."

The end was nigh, and
Tenebrous' karma was over 50,
much to the chagrin of
his insidious Plurkian rivals, who
offered up a prayer to
the Queen of Bongo Bongo
who loved to dance with
the King of Bongo Bongo.

Tenebrous' 1 Word Story

2008-07-07T20:36:00.002+01:00

Following on from his previous 5 Word stories and the one with all the characters, Tenebrous started a 1 word story.

Here's the final story:

Once a pon a fridge, there lived a huge Tenebrous-shaped leathery guitar.

This homo pathic pathology of my hub-like router delightfully tasted like roasted chicken, which clicked like three instrument mice on speed.

Suddenly a small guinea pig jumped over the couch onto TimothyLs hair, skidding loudly down his locks which uncurled ravishingly, until suddenly the ferret (who had a bouncy banana yet it wasn’t the strikingly horrid sound), jumped out of rotemu’s bag of gummy bears and nomnomnomnomnom'd them until they screamed!

Meanwhile, in another dimension torn from ours, filled with blue alien babies called Mr Blobby Jr and his bike called Frank “Sparkley” Sparkles and then says “tragedy!!”

The KoolAid spilt granite all over the ground. Hair tumbled through sticking mud filled tubes vibrating slowly, rotating hypnotically counter-clockwise contrary to most tubes because gravity wells suck on clockwork springs, rusty from being licked by an over-amorous frog that wanted chocolate covered flies.

Later on, a mermaid called Faustus, surprisingly shy about toe matoes picked freshly in sunny Madagascar, although curious events transpired to end this story forever. Unless the happily marrieds didn’t want this end to come again.

Hmmm......

We have Tenebrous, Katharine, tmcamp, Rammi, rotemu, Dannilion, MadameMaracas, TimothyL, CoyotePace, ZipporaZ, Washu, gabbypanacek, iAlja, Keeme, Sougent, Vint, spiderkitten, ArminasX, and tiessa to thank for this one!

Code Red; Rouge - Opening Party

2008-07-06T15:44:00.006+01:00

I had the awesome privilege of attending the opening party of Codebastard Redgrave's new sim; Rouge. The actual sim itself was sculpted by Eshi Otawara and is a representation of Codie herself, complete with stilettos and boa. It truly is an awesome site, both from inside the Code Red lounge and from the air.

During the 15 hour (ish) long opening party, over 700 unique avatars visited the sim, entertained by 9 DJs and cooled off by leaving a huge pile of clothes all over the dance floor...

You can see the rest of my photos here and also the main flickr group here.

My Flickr Meme Mosaic

2008-07-02T20:51:00.009+01:00

I've seen this on a few other people's blogs so I thought I'd share mine.

What you do is type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr search and using only the first page, pick an image and go here. Then, copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into this Mosaic Maker.

1. What is your first name?

Dakota - Badlands National Park, South Dakota

2. What is your favorite food?

Chocolate - 14th August 2007 / Day 226

3. What high school did you go to?

Coltness - Ford Fiesta ST

4. What is your favorite color?

Purple - Purple Haze

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

Johnny Depp - Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow

6. Favorite drink?

Irn Bru - Irn-Bru

7. Dream vacation?

Alaska - Canada-Alaska Highway

8. Favorite dessert?

Vienetta - Bonfire night: sparklers + Vienetta

9. What you want to be when you grow up?

Lawyer - Hell lawyer / El abogado del Diablo....!!!!

10. What do you love most in life?

Tenebrous - Tenebrous Pau Day - 2Feb2008

11. One Word to describe you.

Me - I once was yours

12. Your flickr name.

Dakota B - Day2-35

My Tarot Card

2008-06-30T05:59:00.006+01:00

I saw this on Roxette Wise's blog and since I've always been a little curious about tarot cards and all things related, I was interested to try it myself.

I think that it's actually surprisingly accurate...

You are The Empress

Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.

The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight.

You may be good at home
decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.

The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love.

Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Tenebrous' 5 Word Story - With Multiple Characters!

2008-06-29T13:19:00.004+01:00

Tenebrous shared a new kind of 5 word story. In this version, people’s names were part of the story. You could type as much as you wanted, but you had to start with your name!

Here's the finished product:

Tenebrous looked around. He was alone. Suddenly, the phone rang. It was
tmcamp calling to say that he'd just talked to
Damien Fate. He asked “Hey, have you seen
Tenebrous? – but I am he! Maybe you’re thinking about
MadameMaracas, she’s been plurking up a storm?”
tmcamp laughed at the story, and wondered if
Damien Fate had gone on a date with
Madame Maracas? She never heard the phone ring when
Tardis had ended up floating in space with
Tenebrous, who quickly called for help. Unfortunately, no-one was available, apart from
MadameMaracas’ pet hedgehog, Ralphie, who cleverly IM’d
Tenebrous, who quickly called for help. Sensing the strange time-loop, he sent a letter backwards in time. Due to poor planning, it arrived with
MadameMaracas’ parents just as they were meeting on a blind date. They ignored the plea for help, distracted by the sudden appearance of
DakotaB, who pranced around wearing a strange purple outfit, designed by
MadameMaracas, their as yet unconceived child.
Tenebrous (back in the future) picked up his phone again. He needed someone to talk to, and the first person who came to mind was
DakotaB, who was at the hairdressers, having her barnett carefully styled so that it looked like a life size replica of
Tenebrous 's favourite work by the infamous topiary artist
MadameMaracas, who styles her work after the fictional Edward Scissorhands, having been pointed in this odd career direction by
Damien Fate when he was giving a lecture on odd films made by
Tenebrous ' old friend, Dr. Mithril. However, in recent years the good doctor had fallen on bad times and had been forced to change his name to
Damien Fate, which Damien thought was a little creepy, especially since Damien himself had changed his name to Damien Fate. He was once known as
MadameMaracas , which violated NO copyright laws, nor trademark rulings but created a rift with
Tenebrous ™. It was a sorry state of affairs, but one that could only be solved by the cunning prowess of
JohanYugen , who announced that people couldn't trademark their names. This pleased
MadameMaracas as she'd not bothered to do this against the advice of
Tenebrous ™, who was used to this and therefore resorted to using © and ®. He picked up his phone again and called
jjacek , who loved to offer questionable legal advice to all her friends. Citing the example of
Damien Fate vs
MadameMaracas , where legal precedent was set for the use of the term "Pixel slapping" in the defense of
jjacek , who was on trial for having a sexy mudwrestling contest with
JessykaRichard . The referee of the match,
jjacek , who also happened to be judge at the trial, was not very fair. She sentenced
JessykaRichard to 5 years of hard labor. At the work camp, she found herself chained to
jjacek , who had sentenced herself to 5 years of hard labor, for corruption for serving as judge at her own trial. At the work camp, she and
JessykaRichard devised a plan to escape and open a stand selling
Damien Fate’s body. One of the first customers was
JessykaRichard , as she couldn't resist the charms of her own product. As she was sampling her wares,
jjacek pointed out that they were still chained together, so she suggested that the two of them go on a crazy adventure. Along the way, they met
JessykaRichard 's long lost cousin
Tenebrous who declared that the story was over. It wasn't long, however before that was ruined by
CoyotePace who, slinking around the corner and seeing no one was about, re-introduced Ralphie the Hedgehog to the story -- much to the delight of
Damien Fate who had also been absent for a while. All because he was occupied with
MadameMaracas and her litter of bionic kittens that she bought from
Tenebrous , which seems to be a popular name in these parts, almost as everyone in the town is called Tenebrous, much like in the next-door village of
jjacek Land, everybody is called jjacek. Ralphie the Hedgehog loved to snuggle with
MadameMaracas and she enjoyed his prickly snugglings! Meanwhile, across town a plot was hatching, whereby
Tenebrous and
MadameMaracas will cover all the world's Volkswagens left rear tires with Vaseline, however this clever concept of confusion & traffic horror was foiled by
Tenebrous 's own stupidity. Everyone knows that there is a national shortage of Vaseline and rubber, mainly caused by
MadameMaracas 's wardrobe requirements.

Many thanks to Tenebrous, Tmcamp, Damien Fate, MadameMaracas, Tardis, Johan Yugen, Jjacek, JessykaRichard, Coyote Pace and me.

The Famous 5 Word Stories of Tenebrous

2008-06-26T22:28:00.002+01:00

Can be found here:

Number 1

Number 2

Number 3

Number 4

Tenebrous' 5 Word Stories - Number 4

2008-06-26T22:01:00.010+01:00

See the original Plurk conversation here!

Many thanks to: Tenebrous, spiderkitten, michaelcela, jjacek, MadameMaracas, CoyotePace, Eladrienne, JustJ3nn, JessykaRichard, artoudeetou, rachael823, DaleInnis, kurtvan, LyndzayM, RedRoseRattus, Damien_Fate, (and me!).

The sea was rough, and
rolling with a big, scary
rubber ducky floating on top
that squeaked with glee, happy
that Glee was joining him.

Glee waved from his sailboat,
pulling the tiller to align
the warp core vertically with
the nacelles, to ensure that
his exit would be precisely
timed to coincide with the
entropic failure of the singularity.

If his timing was off
the entire vessel would be
converted instantaneously into a hedgehog,
which would be a disaster,
since a hedgie's bitty paws
get cold when they're wet, making them cuter, but less
effective sprinters. Luckily, Glee's timing
was perfect, and the sailboat
....which was actually a sailBOAT
that transforms into a robot
was able to travel from
the event horizon off into
the Delta quadrant, quite speedily.

Luckily, the SailBoat could also
make coffee and tea but
not at the same time.
In space, no one drinks
urine, but why would they?

'Golden showers' are difficult without
gravity as it becomes random
and can be quite a nuisance.
So the "sailbot" turned and
turned, making a giant whirlpool,
generating a gravity well that
sucked in all the katamari balls
that had collected nearby planets.

"Reverse the polarity!" cried the
man with two left shoes
as he limped about the
cabin in a polka step,
his flouncy skirt bouncing about.

The chief engineer flipped the
switch; time to get serious.

In his clown wig and shoes,
A deep rumbling thrummm noise
alerted him to a digestion
problem in his "lower decks".

By "lower decks", we mean
the ship's large and rather rotund
buttocks, or rather, bot-tocks. He
grabbed the ship's key and
forced it longingly into the
ambiguously sexually-suggestive key slot
with a sigh of relief.

The console sighed with satisfaction
while the captain turned the
knobs upstairs attentively. The temperature
actually fell; everyone had deserted
and humidity started to rise
after they had their desserts
which consisted of runny custard
and funny mustard. It tasted
of custardly mustard, an acquired
recipe stolen from a group
of robotic cooks, renowned for
their lack of taste sensors.

Meanwhile, on the lower decks,
the containment field was leaking
a strange pink concoction, seen
dribbling slowly from between the
secondary engine core and the
large inflatable sheep. It was
trickling nonchalantly across the floor
like a sinuous, luminous trail
leading towards the ship's cat,
Flibble, who was currently under
a giant pile of underpants
left there by the melon
keepers son, who recently had
a bad case of gonorrhoea
which he caught from Annie
Lennox at a recent musical
recital on board the HMS
Glee, coincidentally his owner's name.

The night was closing in...
But in space, it's always
quiet; no-one hears you plurk.

Having a case of space
Plurk addiction is very serious
and difficult to cure, however
bananas have been known to
heal the lesion but also
make your skin break out
in large, yellow, fluffy pickled
in fuschia boils with black
centres that smell of cheese.

When lanced, small moths emerge
which tend to clutter spaceships
exhausts. This causes problems with
emissions testing, huge moth nets
tear easily when subjected to
large flocks of moths. Suddenly
out of the closet, came
Jim Carry, and he said
here is your money back
for watching my horrible movies
apart from Truman Show which
is pretty decent. Jim then
pulled a trademark face and
in a dorky voice, proclaimed
his ass was now speaking,
he bent over and clenched
both buttocks, asking "Anyone have
a breath mint? I am
full of garlicy saucy goodness!”

Glee shook his head, feeling
faint, overcome by Jim's fumes.

He'd been hallucinating, imagining he
woke up in a very
long winded 5 word story.

This story haunted his dreams,
pervading into his very being,
oozing orange goo out his
nozzle. He tried ferverantly to
unscrew the implement, however it
snapped off in his hand,
causing him to exclaim, "Bunny -
rabbit smell bad!" To this
Glee replied, no, Hare balls!

Tenebrous' 5 Word Stories - Number 3

2008-06-26T21:36:00.004+01:00

See the original Plurk conversation here!

Many thanks to: Tenebrous, Loaf, GingerSho, rotemu, rheta, spiderkitten, shockwave, michaelcela, jjacek, MadameMaracas, gabbypanacek, BigMonkey, thraxis, CoyotePace, Eladrienne, (and me!).

Once upon a time, in
Plurkland, some folks conspired to
write a five word story,
which starts with the words
“Once upon a time, in
Plurkland,” some folks conspired to
write a non-recursive story
but failed miserably, as suddenly
and to that end, we
were ginormous doof balls who
have nothing better to do
than write stories about ourselves
in a 5 word format,
when we should be working
out how best to make
a million dollars just by
plurking and blogging and then
taking a nap. Speaking of
napping, I need to get
a fish and go to
the bicycle store to buy
a tank to put them
inside for our battle against
cuttlefish invaders of the north!

The vicious cuttlefish have been
building a stronghold in the
nearby warehouse where they have
stockpiled large amounts of green
plasma, krill in salt water,
and several pairs of old
breeches, coated with a strange
yet delicious layer of meringue
which attracts many flies, from
big flies to small flies.

A knock on the door
distracts everyone from the flies.

The door opens abruptly, revealing
nothing. The door shuts again
and a large BOOM is
seen, microphone swaying wildly, as
grips & best boys scramble,
the boom operator keels over,
tipping the dolly cart over
and ruining the whole shot.

"CUT" shouted the A.D.,
making the foley artist cringe.

“(Odd that they're on set)”
said jjacek in parenthesis, wondering
where the fourth wall went,
as a whole world opens
up, revealing that it was
little more than a badly
written parody of real life
mired in confusion, puns and
strangely out of place characters,
yet somehow finding humor in
life is always important,
the masses of vicious cuttlefish
observed as they ransacked and
wrote a five word story
with some help from a
man in a green leotard
covered in white question marks
known as The Riddler, who
cackled maniacally, prancing about while
wearing a raw tuna fish,
the scent of which attracted
many large, hairy, purple
otters bent upon world domination!

Meanwhile, in another part of
the story, verbs languished unused.

Perhaps we should write a
handwritten letter of condolence to
the mayor, stating that we
keep writing the story anyway,
whether or not its cohesive
because it is great fun
and always seems to end,
especially when the robots arrive,
laser beams a'firing, stomping down.

"Oh no! I've been hit!"
cried a passerby, falling down!

The robots stomped on the
otters, leaving purple fuzzy smears
all over the road. It
started to rain, bleeding purple
which went into the drains
and dripped down on the
rats congregated at the opening
who were anxious for fresh
performance of the Otter Orchestra's
toccata and fugue in five
minutes after finding a suitable
bass fiddle, flute & tuba
playing aardvark, which was not
an easy task, as you
find they want more money
to buy off marauding cuttlefish.

The multi-talented aardvark population
wondered if it was time
to see what the cuttlefish
on top of that tiny
echindeas were gathering, preparing to
storm the beaches of France.
but the waves were rough
so they all gave up
and started a new story!

Tenebrous' 5 Word Stories - Number 2

2008-06-26T21:00:00.004+01:00

See the original Plurk conversation here!

Many thanks to: Tenebrous, Loaf, GingerSho, rotemu, rheta, spiderkitten, shockwave, michaelcela, jjacek, MadameMaracas (and me!).

It was dark. All around

the cheese factory on the

seventh floor, many people had

started hunting the giant mice

who had, in recent times,

started kidnapping the factory workers

who smelled of cheese, and

used by the mice for

keeping the rats inside the

local McDonalds. The mice hunters

wear jingly bells on their

private parts, hoping to keep

them from bouncing from the

ceiling and abducting them. Meanwhile,

in another part of town,

the giant mice eating buttplug

also known as Charles Cat,

was donning his superhero outfit

made entirely out of latex

which was black, of course

except for several small patches

made of linolium. This helped

a lot when he tried

to stick to kitchen tables.

Alarmed by the call of

nature, he quick rushed to

answer the door and let

nature in. "Trouble", she said.

Suddenly, a time rift occurred

five giant purple cats appeared

followed by the Doctor and

followed by another docter

and a giant pepperbox squawking

"Beware of the fish", and

a gaggle of little cuttlefish

swim through the air, oblivious

to the need for narrative.

Back at the cheese factory,

the two ripe camemberts thought

about the impending mice attack,

and girded their cheesy loins.

The Brie was running in

shedding big dollops of itself

screaming "DINNAE TAKE MAH RENNET!"

The factory workers hurriedly tried

to cool down the cheeses,

huffing, puffing to no avail

watching in terror as suddenly

the cheeses came to life.

"Sweet Jesus on a Cracker!"

exclaimed a small random child

in the corner nibbling on

a leftover factory worker earlier

seen bribing a police officer

because he was Morris Dancing

without a license nor care.

Tenebrous' 5 Word Story

2008-06-24T19:35:00.008+01:00

Plurk is, according to its front page, "a place that lets you publish and share your thoughts emo-ness, #^@%!*%(& and loves." It's very similar to Twitter, but with the added advantage that each post can have a series of follow-up plurks, forming a conversation.

Last night, Tenebrous started a "5 word story", in which each person, in turn, adds 5 words to the story. We thought it would be fun to share the end result with everyone, so here it is:

He turned his back and
looked out of the window
and gasped, for outside was
a Rickrolling Plurk Twitter Whore,
wearing only a diaphanous gown
and a large, blue, fluffy
t-shirt with chains and bells,
blinging her way down to
her dead friend's funeral ceremony.

But then, along the way,
the wind lifted her skirt
and to the surprise of
the tall, elderly gentleman nearby,
the woman was wearing only
a string of pearls thong.

The gentleman stopped and said,
"Excuse me miss, but do
you know if those are
kumquats? If so may I
please check them for ripeness?"

The woman smiled, and said,
“My dear sir, why I
really don't believe these are
kumquats, however I worry that
they haven't been squeezed in
quite some time would you
be so kind as to
touch them, but be gentle?”

She grinned shyly, touched his
arm and led him to
a quiet spot around the
corner, out of sight of
the officer on the corner
who seems to be watching.

The gentleman felt something stir;
turned around to find that
another young woman watched them
from behind a bush, although
she clearly was quite aroused
and wearing nothing but a
smile, umbrella and also a
pair of shiny rain boots
that reached all the way
to the top of her
white, ribbon-trimmed, lacy and
pink knee protectors. She said,
“I have a small brown
mole just behind my right
knee that seems to itch
whenever she is excited or
the moon is full or
I open this umbrella.” She
then proceeded to lift and
open her umbrella with a wink,
when out from inside fell
something small and black and
shiny, yet glowing an odd
unearthly shade of yellow-green
spinning slowly, floating gently to
where he proceeded to take
photos with it. The camera
already held special photos of
his young, gold digging wife
who was away with her
mining company on business. He
knew the time was now
from the built in clock.

In the photos she is
in a rather compromising position
posed with ducks, chickens and
doing fowl deeds. He thought
I might care to join
blackmail would be quite possible
if the angle's are right.

Then again, art galleries might
call the police if they
liked men in uniforms.

Then the gentleman noticed that
the two women were suddenly
interrupted by the appearance of
three blind mice and a
seeing eye dog. "Zounds!" cried
the pearl-thonged woman, who
clambered up the nearest tree
in hopes of escaping them.

The blind mice squeaked and
ran up her bare legs
gnawing on her pearled thong
, which suddenly came loose and
cascaded down her thighs landing
on the ground, revealing her
odd lack of genitalia. She
blushed and covered herself up.

But not before the gentleman
revealed that he too was
lacking in the genitalia department.

The mice ran down her
leg in utter disgust when
a dog ran up and
stuck out his long tongue
wetly slurping the gentleman's hand
although, they were strangely aroused.

It was getting late, and
he was late for tea.

The old gentleman whipped out
a PDA and checked his
supply list. IM'd his dealer,
and arranged a delivery of
four small but perfectly formed
cheeses, perfect for covering in
a warm fluffy dog blanket
before reading them a story
about a man who turned
his back and looked out
on a sea of lost
blind mice and umbrellas. I
wonder if this story will
ever bloody reach it's natural

END

...cause it's an addictive format...
which lends itself to many
many many many many many
yet very few occurrences of
actual intelligence. In fact, it's
almost anti-intelligence in the way
that it keeps going from
bad to worse. However if
one of the three blind
umbrella holding mice were to
suddenly disappear in a cloud of
foul, noxious smelling gas, then
my boss is around. This
is probably going to end
sooner rather than later!
If only there was a
sequel in the pipeline, that
would make it easier to
make a sequel!

Many thanks to Tenebrous for starting this, and to all those that contributed, namely: Rammi, MadameMaracas, jjacek, sdohrn, ArminasX, Michaelcela, Damien Fate, gabbypanacek, Argent, spiderkitten, toniroffo, BigMonkey and myself.

You can see the original Plurk thread here.

Introducing Dame Montana Blackmountain

2008-06-19T20:38:00.004+01:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, furries and tinies, those in the back and you over there. It is my most honoured privilege to introduce to you a lady who has been an inspiration to me. Drinking only the finest vintage champagne from flawless crystal, she radiates elegance from her Manolo Blahniks to her coiffured Nicky Clarke locks. Please put your hands together for that most respected of mademoiselles, most revered of senoritas, the one, the only, Dame Montana Blackmountain!

Kota's Who

2008-06-18T18:45:00.002+01:00

If you haven't seen Horton Hears a Who yet, I thoroughly recommend it. In the meantime, feel free to play around with my very own Who!

Second Life Quotes

2008-06-17T17:49:00.004+01:00

I keep a notecard in my inventory in Second Life which is full if quotes I've picked up over the past year or so. I decided it was about time to share these with you all, but to save too much embarrassment, I'm not telling you who said them (except that most of them are Tene's)! Enjoy...

"Why is it, all the most exciting things happen to me, while i'm not there?"

"Is it called 'taking advantage' when i'm going 'c'mon then'?"

"I know its big, but i find it manageable."

"Carry on any lower and you'd have poked me in the hard."
"Wood flooring"

"It was just a big something shooting across before me"

"Meanwhile, i appear to be jammed on a coconut"

"Tene has a good set of balls "

"Mmm i'm hungry for beavers...I think that's what that is"

"I'm doing a series of nude ladies"

"Yeah, don't want the condom to accidentaly "go off"..."

"Doods, I have big pants!! And they amuse me greatly!"

"I'm gonna die, you two are so adorable, just shoot me full of cute why don't you, im'a OD"

"Hey. I can be adorable when im not wearing black or bound in leather......"

"I'm a horse, of coarse I have hairy legs"

"Oh hey! look... my coat tails are twisted... so are jonnee's danglies"

"Do you have to be sooo tiny?"

"Have you noticed tho, I'm stuck in a position like I'm about to drop a major log"

"His banana hammock is like a train wreck. ya cant look away."

"Everyone is naked and gay."

"My balls are much more suited to this"

"I have one attachment I keep well polished thank you."

"Damn...haven't had mine polished in ages"

"Ooooh my ring is on fire"

SophistiKota

2008-06-16T20:47:00.003+01:00

I scrub up pretty well, even if I do say so myself!

Exploring The World

2008-06-06T21:06:00.002+01:00

Sometimes the best thing about Second Life is the ability to go somewhere new and just randomly wander around. Tenebrous and I do this quite often and we've come across some truly beautiful areas.

"Beautiful" is a very subjective term, however and something almost impossible to quantify in any meaningful way, but you'll know if you see something that fits the description.

Capturing the beauty of something in SL is much easier than in RL, so there's no excuse not to get out there and get some photos - exactly what Tene and I like to do!

Most recently we came across a sim called The World, which easily illustrates my point. There are no flowers, or animals here. No bubbling brooks or lapping waves. What you will find, however, are cobbled streets, narrow alleyways and a dock complete with sailboat. Stunning in it's simplicity, we happily spent a few hours just exploring and taking pictures.

You can see the full set in my flickr.

The High School Meme

2008-05-28T21:57:00.002+01:00

Yep, it's another meme. I don't usually tag people for these as some people don't take kindly to that (and also because I don't know enough bloggers to tag), but feel free to consider yourself optionally tagged just because you read this far!

1. Who was your best friend?
I had various different best friends during different phases that I went through. There was the swot, the popular girl, the geek and then the genuinely friendly ones.

2. Did you play any sports?
Not if I could help it! I hated Physical Education and quit it as soon as I could. I think it may actually have been the only class I ever failed.

3. What kind of car did you drive?
I didn’t pass my driving test until I was in my first year at Uni (I started Uni at 16) so the only thing I drove was people up the wall.

4. It’s Friday night. Where were you?
At the ice rink skating my teenage heart out. I still have the speed skates and they still fit!

5. Were you a party animal?
Not really although in my last year I did go to quite a few parties. I was probably the first one to leave every single one though. Including the one I hosted!

6. Were you considered a flirt?
Not at all. I never had a boyfriend at school and I wasn’t particularly interested in any of the boys there.

7. Were you in the band, orchestra or choir?
I was in the junior band in my first year but I gave it up after that when I realised it wasn’t very cool. Also cause I sucked at playing the flute (probably because you’re really supposed to blow).

8. Were you a nerd?
I don’t think I was ever classed as anything to be honest. I was more one of those people that just kinda fits in anywhere.

9. Were you ever suspended or expelled?
Nope. Only ever had two punishment exercises – one from a Religious Education teacher for not covering my jotter and one for supposedly smoking on school grounds. Worst thing was, I wasn’t even smoking!

My Celebrity Look-alikes

2008-05-27T18:54:00.006+01:00

I am fortunate (or unfortunate) enough that IRL, I don't really look like anyone famous. Unless of course my parents are famous and I don't know it! So when I saw on a few other blogs that www.myheritage.com allows you to put in a picture of yourself (or your avie) and use their facial recognition technology to come up with a list of celebrities which you most resemble, I was intrigued.

I tried it about 5 times and couldn't work out why it wouldn't work for me, but then of course, then penny dropped. They obviously weren't expecting me to have big black ears on top of my head. So after the painful experience of parting with them long enough to take a snapshot, I set off on my mission of celebrity lookalikeism.

So I look like Tyra Banks, Nikki Cox, Madonna, Avril Lavigne, Daniela Pestova, Scarlett Johansson, Christina Aguilera and Mariah Carey.

So now that I know who they are, what do they do? Although in this day and age you don’t appear to have to do anything in order to be famous. Um, Paris Hilton? All she ever does is moan apparently! Oh, and get arrested. I know who some of them are, obviously, but in the interest of thoroughness, I shall research them all (bring on Wikipedia!).

Strangely enough, among the list is Avril Lavigne, the object of Tenebrous’ secret dreams... No wonder he fell for me :)

Tyra Banks – supermodel, talk show host and actress. Most famous for judging the reality show “America’s Next Top Model” and hosting her own self titled talk show.

Nikki Cox – actress most famous for her appearances in “Unhappily Ever After” and “Las Vegas.”

Madonna – alternative name for Mary, the mother of Jesus. She is also the Michigan born “Queen of Pop” responsible for such hits as “Like A Prayer” and “Ray Of Light”.

Avril Lavigne – Canadian pop singer who has also turned her hand to fashion designing and
acting. Voted 7^th most powerful Canadian in Hollywood by Canadian Business Magazine in 2006.

Daniela Pestova – Czech supermodel who has appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated three times, as well as modelling for L’Oreal and Victoria’s Secret.

Scarlett Johansson – childhood star of “The Horse Whisperer” who has gone on to star in such movies as “Lost in Translation” and “Girl With A Pearl Earring”.

Christina Aguilera - singer-songwriter best known for her single “Beautiful”. Recently she has also been the face of jeweller Stephen Webster’s exclusive “Shattered” collection.

Mariah Carey – the first artist to have her first 5 singles top the US chart. It is rumoured that Mariah will appear in the newest Adam Sandler Movie “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan”.

So there you have it! I look like a whole bunch of famous women. What a shame I don’t share their talent....

How Do You Make Friends In SL?

2008-05-26T21:05:00.002+01:00

If you’re anything like me that answer is: not very easily. Sure, there are lots of people that I know and that I will talk to if I see them around, but as for close SL friends... well... I can count them on one hand. I just don’t seem to be the kind of person that makes friends easily. Some people only need to appear in a room and all of a sudden people flock to them and wham! Before you know it, they’re BFF! Me, I will join in the conversation and add my tuppence worth when I can, but as for the next phase in making friends, I seem to be at a loss. I have in the past employed various techniques such as IMing them, or asking questions, but I always came out of it looking like a deluded stalker, or one of those annoying noobs whose first words (or rather letters) are the ridiculously out of date “ASL?”.

I despise people who are overly nosey – don’t ask me where I live before you’ve even introduced yourself, or I’m liable to hit that TP button before you can say “male or female?” (not that it really makes any difference in SL anyway). I have offered to share a bit of myself with people in the past, something I have in common with them, but it seems to a few lines of IM chat and then that’s it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not the best person in the world for keeping in touch, but I will IM a “hi, how’re you doing?” every so often and pop over for a coffee once in a while, but it’s that first step on the friendship ladder which seems to totally elude me.

Maybe it’s me, maybe I try too hard. I always wanted to be one of those people that walks into a room to a chorus of “Dakota! Hi! How are you?” and gets the first invite to all the hottest parties. So maybe when I do meet someone I could be friends with, maybe I go over board and suffocate them with friend-making attempts. There’s a fine line between asking enough questions to be friendly and asking so many that you become that annoying person no-one wants to talk to.

Or maybe it’s because I’ve never really had to make my own friends before. When I first started playing SL, it was through an RL friend and most of her friends became my friends. Then, when I met Tenebrous, I adopted some of his friends also. So the friends I have now were never really ones that I made on my own and they never required that initial relationship building stage, they just went from stranger to friend with (quite literally) a click of the mouse.

There’s also the chance that it could just be me. Maybe I don’t have the kind of personality that draws friends, but rather I’m the “plus 1” on the invitations. After all, someone has to fulfil that role. Someone has to be the person greeting the popular people with an enthusiastic “Hi! It’s great to see you!” from across the room.

And of course there’s always some other reason that I haven’t considered. I have no idea. But if you see me wandering around and I try to start a conversation with you, I promise it’s not cause I’m a stalker, honest!

5 Things Meme

2008-05-25T23:02:00.010+01:00

I’ve already done the “4 Things” meme, so here’s the “5 Things” one.

Can you tell that I like these meme things?

Five things in my bag:

1) Carmex Lip Balm

2) Neutrogena hand cream

3) Hair brush

4) Keys

5) Purse

Five favourite things in my room: 

1) Cards and presents from Tenebrous

2) Tom and Jerry teddy bears

3) Purple Colorado Rockies foam finger

4) My cowboy hat (yep, it’s a custom shaped Stetson)

5) My book collection (ok, not all of them, just my favourite ones)

Five things I have always wanted to do:

1) Scuba dive

2) Buy a house

3) Watch a thunderstorm at sea from a beach (yeah, cheesy but true)

4) Go on a cruise

5) See Alaska in the winter

Five things I'm currently into:

1) Second Life

2) Blogging

3) Flickring SL snapshots

4) Gardening (ugh, I’m getting old!)

5) Super Mario Kart

The Ipod Meme

2008-05-24T12:19:00.000+01:00

(or in my case, The ATMT 256MB MP3 player Meme)

Instructions: Go to your music player of choice and put it on shuffle. Use the song title as the answer to the question. NO CHEATING.

1) How would you describe yourself? 

“Lips of An Angel” by Hinder

2) What do you like in a boy? 

“When a Woman Cries” by Joshua Kadison

3) What is your motto? 

“Never Again” by Kelly Clarkson

4) What do your friends think of you? 

“Beau’s All Night Radio Love Line” by Joshua Kadison

5) What do you think about often? 

“Songbird” by Kenny G

6) What do your parents think of you? 

“Bobby’s Girl” by Marcie Blane

7) What do you think of your best friend? 

“When You’re Gone” by Avril Lavigne

8) What do you think of the person you like? 

“Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” by The Shirelles

9) What do you want to be when you grow up? 

“Greatest Story Ever Told” by Oliver James

10) What do you think when you see the person you like? 

“You and Your Hand” by Pink

11) What song will they play at your wedding? 

“America” by Razorlight

12) What will they play at your funeral? 

“Just Say Hello” by Rene Froger

13) What is your hobby/interest?

“Right Here Waiting” by Richard Marx

14) What is your biggest fear? 

“What a Wonderful World This Would Be” by Sam Cooke

15) What is your biggest secret? 

“Twistin’ the Night Away” by Sam Cooke

16) What do you think of your friends? 

“Bring On The Wonder” by Susan Enan

17) What is your theme song? 

“Rule The Wold” by Take That

18) What do you think of your family? 

“In This Diary” by The Ataris

19) What is your best friend's theme song? 

“Over My Head” by The Fray

20) What is your mood right now? 

“Your Love” by The Outfield

21) If your heart could talk what would it say? 

“Life With You” by The Proclaimers

22) What do your co-workers think of you? 

“Face Down” by The Red Jump Suit Apparatus

23) What does your future look like?

“Face For The Radio” by The View

Things You Never Knew About Me

2008-05-14T19:10:00.002+01:00

(and probably didn't want to!)

I like my "All About Me" things, so here's one for you!

1. What time did you get up this morning?
6:45am

2. Diamonds or pearls?
Definitely diamonds - pearls are boring

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
Iron Man with Tenebrous :D

4. Favourite TV show?
Top Gear

5. What do you usually have for breakfast?
It depends what kinda mood I'm in. Sometimes sausages on toast, sometimes poached egg on toast and sometimes Coco Pops

6. What is your middle name?
I don't have one in SL or in RL

7. What food do you dislike?
Cheese or anything overly cheesey. Also anything that looks icky.

8. What is your favourite CD at the moment?
Joshua Kadison – Painted Desert Serenade

9. Favorite sandwich?
Chicken New Orleans from Greggs

10. What characteristic do you despise?
Subconscious liars - like people who say "I've got no money" then go buy something stupid

11. Favourite item of clothing?
My crocs (sorry Tenebrous)

12. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would it be?
Alaska. Preferably in Winter.

13. What colour is your bathroom?
Pale blue

14. Do you make friends easily?
No

15. Where would you retire to?
Anywhere peaceful

16. What was your most recent memorable birthday?
Dinner with Tenebrous to celebrate both his and mine :D

17. Favourite sport to watch?
Skiing (and sometimes I like a bit of Rodeo)

18. How many towns have you lived in?
3, although 1 of them only had a population of 22

19. How many do you think will send this back?
No-one cause it’s on a blog! Silly!

20. What’s on your bedroom floor right now?
Clothes and probably a cat

21. Favourite saying?
“cool”

22. When is your birthday?
January 24th

23. Are you a morning person or a night person?
Neither in particular really, probably more night than morning though

24. What is your shoe size?
7

25. Pets?
4 cats

26. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us?
Nah

27. What did you want to be when you were little?
A lawyer

28. Which talent would you most like to have?
To be able to sing

29. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
“cool” “whatever”

30. What is your favourite flower?
Snowdrops and daisies

31. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to?
Friday and every day thereafter that i see my Tene

32. What colour are your eyes?
Blue

33. What was your favourite toy as a child?
Sylvanian Families and Teddy Ruxpin

34. Summer or winter?
Winter

35. Hugs or kisses?
Both. At the same time :D

36. Chocolate or Vanilla?
Vanilla

37. Do you want your friends to send this back to you?
They can do it on their own blogs

38. When was the last time you cried?
Saturday

39. What is under your bed?
Old diaries

40. Who is the friend you have had the longest in SL?
Tangletwigs Fairymeadow

41. What did you do last night?
Played some SL, chatted to Tene and then went to sleep

42. Favourite smell?
Frying breakfast

43. What are you afraid of?
Drowning, gas and fire

44. Plain, sweet, or salted Popcorn?
None, but salted if I have to

45. How many keys on your key ring?
5

46. How many years at your current job?
Just over 1

47. Do you have any scars?
Loads

48. Favorite day of the week?
Saturday

49. How many people will you be sending this to?
None, only posting it on here.

50. Who's answers are you looking forward the most?
Everyone’s cause I like these things!

SL-Twitter Meetup

2008-05-11T17:56:00.005+01:00

It's always nice to put an avie to a name, especially when it's people you talk to quite a lot. On Saturday May 3rd, at Jack Rabbit Slim's I attended a meetup of peeps from Twitter. The theme was "Your Favourite Movie Character" and there were some awesome avies there! Tenebrous and I went as Alien v Predator and my alien avie was well complimented, although to be honest I think people were just being polite in an attempt to stop me emitting green, er, stuff, all over the floor...

Take a look at the pictures here.

4 Things Meme

2008-05-10T22:41:00.005+01:00

I found an interesting meme on Timothy Lilliehook's blog, so I thought I'd take part.

4 Jobs:
- bar maid
- wrangler
- financial adviser
- recruitment consultant

4 Favourite Movies:
- Sweet Home Alabama
- How To Lose a Guy In Ten Days
- St Elmo's Fire
- The Prestige

4 Places I've Been:
- America
- Canada
- Portugal
- France

4 Places I've Lived:
- Glasgow, Scotland
- Birmingham, England
- Vail, Colorado
- Mornington Crescent, Laland, Second Life ;)

4 Favourite TV Shows:
- Nip/Tuck
- Grey's Anatomy
- Top Gear
- Pushing Daisies

4 Favourite Radio Shows:
- Bowie at Breakfast (on Clyde 1)
- Randy in the Morning (on Jack FM)
- I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (on BBC Radio 4)
- Gonna have to pass on a fourth I'm afraid....

4 Favourite Foods:
- Chocolate (does that even count?)
- Vanilla vienetta (sensing a theme here?)
- Home made steak pie
- Spaghetti Bolognase

4 Places I'd Rather Be:
- Alaska
- Egypt
- Vietnam
- anywhere so long as Tenebrous is there too

SL Bloggers Party

2008-03-31T18:47:00.004+01:00

Last night, Tenebrous and I attended the SL Bloggers party hosted at Crap Mariner's Clocktower.

I had a great time and it was nice to finally put avies to names.

Here's a few of the photos I took.

Pixelated Partying or Realistic Raving?

2008-03-26T18:35:00.000Z

Sometimes I wonder why I find it more fun to visit a club in Second Life than I do in real life. I sit in my house, on my couch, staring at a computer screen displaying pixels moving around completely out of time to the music being streamed by someone sitting in their own house, on their own couch, when I could be out there in the real world meeting people, soaking up the atmosphere, indulging in a few cocktails and dancing my pretty little heart out. Some people would probably choose the second option without giving it much thought, but not me. And not some 50,000 other people who regularly sign into Second Life on a Saturday night to partake of some pixilated partying.

For a start, I have nothing to wear! “Yeah, yeah, whatever!” I hear you say, but it’s true. When most people are out partying, it’s about minus 2 degrees Celsius outside and walking around in a short skirt and high heels in that kind of temperature just doesn’t hold much attraction for me. Nor does the rain and yet taking a raincoat or an umbrella with you when heading out clubbing appears to be forbidden. So unless I invent some new outfit that is cool and sexy indoors yet warm and waterproof outdoors, then I honestly have nothing to wear to a real life clubbing session. In SL however, ta da! With a few simple clicks I have almost every conceivable type of outfit all fitted and tailored just for me! Recently I’ve even been learning how to make clothes in SL, something I’d never even imagine wanting to do in RL, which really does confirm just how unlimited the options within SL are. You want an itsy bitsy teeny weenie yellow polka-dot bikini? Give me five minutes. You want a pair of pink fluorescent flares? Step back and shield your eyes!

Secondly there’s the issue of people. In SL I can easily go to a club on my own, or with my boyfriend, Tenebrous, and not know anyone else there. It’s not a big deal. Within a few minutes, we could be chatting away to other people in the club as if we’d known them for years. But in RL it’s the exact opposite. You walk into a room and everyone there wants to know what you’re wearing, what brand it is, how your hair is done and sometimes quite frankly I can’t stand the constant assessments. If I want to be dancing in my pajamas, I should be able to dance in my pajamas. People should talk to me the same as they would if I was wearing the latest *insert current hot designer* outfit. They do in SL! They will probably ask if you realize you’re still in your pajamas, but unless you’re actually offending anyone they’re unlikely to actually let it affect their judgment of you.

So basically, if I go to a club in SL I can actually sit on my couch in my house wearing my pajamas and drinking hot chocolate while talking to non-judgmental people in a non-threatening environment. While still listening to good music, dancing like a maddy and making new friends. Who would give that up for spending a few hours in a sweaty night club full of drunken people and then an hour in the freezing rain waiting for a taxi?

Your Avatar vs. Your Personality

2008-03-02T18:09:00.000Z

Have you ever wondered what makes you choose how your Second Life avatar appears? Why you are tall or short? Which furry you are or what colour your fantasy eyes are? At first I assumed that it was because in Second Life people could look however they wanted to, so obviously they made themselves look like they would in Real Life if they had the opportunity.

But after going through numerous skins and shapes, I've finally settled on something I am mostly happy with and I'm not at all convinced that this is the reason. My avatar is petite, with big blue eyes, human skin and shape but neko ears and a tail. If I stand back and ask myself if I would want to look like this in Real Life, then the answer is no, I wouldn't. I would like to be slimmer, and I am already short, with blue eyes, but the biggest part of my avie is the neko side: the ears and tail. Would I like to have ears and a tail IRL? I don't think so... Imagine the trouble I would have getting trousers and hats to fit! I would have nowhere to balance my glasses and I'm pretty sure that my tail would get in the way when sitting in the car.

So if I have established that the most dominant aspect of my SL avatar is something that I wouldn't want in RL, why do I have it in SL? We could take the easy way out here and say "because we can" but I don't think that quite covers it. I mean, I "could" jump off a bridge... but I don't. On a daily basis we are confronted with millions of things that we "could" do, yet for one reason or another we don't. The reasons behind these differ... I don't jump off that bridge because I'd most likely get hurt, I don't tell my boss what I really think of him because I'd get fired. But in SL there are no consequences of how we look.

Or are there?

Recently I've started to hang out at a place called Luskwood, which is intended for (but not exclusive to) furries. I have seen some amazing avatars there, from huskies to vampire bats and just about everything in between, but the one thing they almost all have in common is that somewhere along the way they have all been customised to one extent or another. Be it adding hair or clothes, or changing some fundamental aspect of the avatar, they have all put some effort into making their avatar look that way. They have had the creativeness and the patience to do this and have therefore invested some small piece of their real life self into that avatar. After all, who would want to look like a huge spider if, in RL, you are terrified of spiders? The very nature of our avatars means that to an extent they do represent out RL selves, or at least an aspect of them. But as I mentioned above, this isn't borne out of a desire to physically look like that. It's something more psychologically intrinsic than this. It's something we can't just pluck out of thin air.

Take me as an example. Recently, with the help of my boyfriend, I added two silver safety pins to my neko ears, as if they were earrings. I would never put safety pins in my ears IRL (no offense intended to anyone who would) so why have I done it in SL? I could simply say "because it looks good" but again, I think there is more to it than this. To me, it represents a little bit of rebelliousness coming out. It makes the cute neko girl look a little bit dangerous. But not as dangerous as a big spiky collar or walking about with an Uzi attached to my hand. Why do I want to look like I have a rebellious side? Maybe because society has taught us that rebelling is not something to be proud of. We are constantly shown images on TV and in newspapers that show "rebels" being punished, therefore those of us that sometimes do feel the need to differ from the mainstream find subtle ways to do this. In SL, the easiest way to do this is by modifying your avatar. Hence the safety pins.

My example is very subtle, especially since there are avatars out there that are positively screaming out with aspects of their RL person's personality. The child avatar that longs for care and attention. The giant tattoed weapon bearer that craves power and control. The all round average Joe that just wants to fit in. To someone who wants to look a little bit closer, they give away huge chunks of information, whether intentional or otherwise.

So if we are unconsciously bearing our desires or longings to the entire population of SL, there must be some backlash somewhere. As is so often the case, this takes the shape of discrimination and in some extreme cases, hatred. Luckily, I have not come across too much of this in SL, but I know of people who have and I would find it extremely difficult to believe it if you told me it doesn't happen very often. After all, there are groups that are "anti" this and "pro" that. Human nature lends us to forming opinions on things and thus taking sides. Luskwood is a place that welcomes people of all shapes and sizes but there are many places that don't. There are people that actively attack people who choose to represent themselves as a furry, or as a child, or as a neko. Why? Because they are different? I do not know the answer to this, but I do know that there are definitely consequences of the way that we look in SL.

There are places we cannot go because of the way we look. There are people who will be mean to us. There are weapons designed to "fight" us and people employed to eject and ban us.

So why do we choose to look different? Why don't we all look the same? Because we are human, that's why. Would you want to look exactly the same as the person sitting next to you on the bus? Would you want them to look the same as you? I bet you wouldn't. Why? Because as humans we intrinsically long for the opportunity to express our individuality and in SL, we do this by customising our avatars.

So the next time you see an avatar you think is horrible, or scary, or just plain weird, stop for a minute and consider why they chose to make it look like that. Then remember that at the end of the day, it's a human being controlling it. Be it that tattooed gunman or the crying child, it's someone who wanted to look like that, and there's a reason why.