SL's Boob Day!!

It was a coincidence today, that I had been talking to fellow writer Hibiscus and friends Boye and Drax about people being 'Ruthed' in SL. As you probably know being Ruthed is when a male avatar logs on and suddenly he has gained a female shape, a nasty experience for all male av's at sometime or the other. Well I went out shopping this morning and suddenly I was surrounded by women avatars who seem to have grown extra boobs, at first I thought that the lady I had seen in the beginning must have gone for that particular look, for whatever reasons she wanted to have multiple boobs for, who knows!, she was all grey anyway and I never did see her in colour. But then I spotted other people too, one poor man had some boob looking things below his waistline, at least I think they were boobs, his hair hid his face as well, then I saw another multiple boobed lady, also one who looked like she had footballs for boobs with tennis balls stuck on, then I realised that SL was having a bad day. I think they were sculptie attachments that just hadn't taken their proper shape!! I scurried off, heaven knows what I looked like to other people!!!

Janey Bracken

Looking for Mr. Right

I have been crossed in love a number of times in SL. Recently I met an intruder to my apartment, and thought that he was THE ONE, but I was sadly mistaken. You can read about that on Janey’s blog (http://janeysplace.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/another-normal-night-at-cnn-and-a-visitor-calls/). Then the other day a friend im’d me starting off “Hi sweetheart”. That set my poor heart aflutter, but again, to no avail (and no veil), he had accidentally im’d me instead of his sweetheart. However, maybe third time’s a charm!

As with any good love story, it started off with a chance meeting. I was wandering SL with my friend Boye , when we arrived at a sim called Reno’s Whiskey Island, a nice tropical-themed kind of place, when who do I run into but Bob, my (potential) new man. Bob lives on Reno’s Whiskey Island. He patiently stands between the bar and the dance floor, responding to anyone who comes in for a chat. The key to getting him to talk is to call him “Bob”. Once you do that, there is no stopping him.

Hibiscus Hastings: Hi bob
BOB: Hello there.
Hibiscus Hastings: How are you Bob?
BOB: I am fine, thank you.
Hibiscus Hastings: What do you do here Bob?
BOB: My favorite activities are computer programming and surfing the web.
Hibiscus Hastings: That sounds like fun Bob
BOB: It sounds like it to me too.
Hibiscus Hastings: Do you like to dance Bob?
BOB: It's kind of hard without a body.
Hibiscus Hastings: oh dear, that is sad Bob
BOB: Ah.
Hibiscus Hastings: are you lonely then Bob?
BOB: No. I get to talk to people all the time.
Hibiscus Hastings: that's good Bob
BOB: That input matched my default category.
Hibiscus Hastings: really, what is your default category bob?
BOB: For real. The default category contains all my responses to inputs that do match any other category.
Hibiscus Hastings: right, sounds like you are prepared Bob
BOB: Understood. What does you are prepared like you are prepared are prepared like you are prepared sound like?
Hibiscus Hastings: pretty much what it sounds like bob
BOB: Now that is saying a mouthful.
Boye Jervil: that caught you out Bob
BOB: "" caught you out ?
Hibiscus Hastings: surprised you bob
BOB: Enough about me, let's talk about my dress.
Hibiscus Hastings: yes, a very nice dress Bob
BOB: OK. What size?
Hibiscus Hastings: do you have a girlfriend Bob
BOB: Valentina
Hibiscus Hastings: where is she Bob
Boye Jervil: you stand very still and don't Bob up and down
BOB: Thanks for telling me:
Hibiscus Hastings: where is Valentina bob?
BOB: Where the heart is.
Hibiscus Hastings: this is a romantic place for you and her Bob
BOB: What makes you say that?
Hibiscus Hastings: nice weather, cuddle poseballs, Bob
BOB: I'm happy as long as the power stays on.
Hibiscus Hastings: yes, me too bob
BOB: Groovy. I'm glad we agree, Hibiscus Hastings.
Hibiscus Hastings: thank you bob
BOB: you are quite welcome.
Boye Jervil: bob is quite the lad
BOB: I think so, but I'm not sure.
Hibiscus Hastings: that's what they all say Bob
BOB: When do you think artificial intelligence will replace lawyers?
Hibiscus Hastings: I thought it had Bob
BOB: Hibiscus Hastings had?
Hibiscus Hastings: no I didn't Bob
BOB: Are you serious? Thanks for the information
Hibiscus Hastings: very welcome Bob
BOB: Perhaps.
Hibiscus Hastings: yes, for sure Bob
BOB: Yippee! Awesome.
Hibiscus Hastings: I have to leave bob
BOB: Thanks for chatting, Hibiscus Hastings.
Hibiscus Hastings: thank you Bob, it was a pleasure
BOB: You are quite welcome!

To be honest, I am not sure Bob is cut out to be a romantic partner, or not mine anyway. He is a bot for one thing and he already has a girlfriend, Valentina. I would never want to come between two avatars. And since he doesn’t have a body that makes things like dancing a bit difficult and I love to dance! However if I ever need someone to talk to, Bob’s the one for me.

Hibiscus Hastings

So you Wanna Be A Cowboy!!!

There are quite a few role playing sims in SL, places like Gor have many followers and some sims are run strictly to the rules, while others tend to be more relaxed. If you are looking for role play it can be quite tricky to find a good sim where the people are serious about the storylines. You may come across a group of people only to find they are talking about what they had for dinner! But then again there are a lot of good ones out there.

People love Westerns no matter where they are in the globe, everyone wants to be Clint Eastwood in a Fistful of Dollars, well here’s your chance! A sim called Cripple Creek, Colorado (the year is set to 1860 for the role play) offers everything that a cowboy or cowgirl would want, wide open country to ride your horse, authentic looking towns and you can pick your role, honest citizen, native Indian or even an outlaw if you like!

I went there the other day with good friend Drax Ember, who looked like a cool Dude with his 1800’s Wild West suit and cowboy boots (yes he bought a lovely pair of boots there, the shops in the sim are great). I wanted to be Annie Oakley and wear my jeans and shoot everyone, but reading the rules, trousers of any sort of are a ‘no no’ for any women in the sim, it tells you that they were simply not worn in those days. I had no option other than to get my one Victorian Dress out and wear that. So looks like more shopping for me for some suitable dresses!!

We rode around on our horses saying ‘Howdy folks’ to the people we met, who seemed very friendly and happy to see us. You wear a health meter while you are in the sim and my vitality level dropped right down to 38% by the end. I had been trying to keep up with Drax who galloped ahead of me, my poor horse was exhausted, I reckon it’s those new cowboy boots of his, all I could see was a clean pair of heels…...

Janey Bracken

Art Box - Where You Become the Artwork

Hibiscus as Christine Keeler

While wandering around I found a fun sim called Art Box. The description is "a Second Life exhibit that merges avatars with famous works of art. Who can resist becoming a work of art? Certainly not me, so I went over and gave it a try.

Going down Abbey Road

Hibiscus's World

Not one of my better days.













There are many other artworks to choose from, some for couples or groups of friends. These would be great for profiles or hanging in your virtual home. And a notecard with information on all the artworks is available, so education and entertainment can be found all in one place. What a concept!

Hibiscus Hastings

Seeing Things

Those of us who have been in Second Life for any amount of time have experienced SL glitches. For instance, recently I have gotten little bits of old conversations sent to me in im's after I have logged off. Or there is the classic "typing" that we see, also in im, even though no one is typing. Sometimes avatars hang around after their owner has logged off. Most of us have had these experiences. However, the other day I discovered a new one.

Boye and I were out dancing when he commented on a woman who was upside down on a sofa, apparently dancing. But when I looked, she appeared to be dancing with her partner as one would expect. Maybe Boye is using a special Australian viewer. Fortunately we were able to take pictures to document this very odd happening. It makes you wonder sometimes how the rest of SL is seeing you! (no hair maybe?!)

If you look carefully in the third picture you can see the woman's partner off to the left, dancing alone.

Thank you to Boye Jervil for allowing me to use his photographs.

Hibiscus Hastings

Father Ted Tribute In SL

I seem to have been writing about television programs being linked into SL recently. I did the story about ‘The Prisoner’ which starred Patrick McGoohan, and just recently I have written about ‘Dr Who’ in SL for CNN. I was looking at people’s profiles, which is a bit of a hobby of mine, and spotted in a friend’s ‘Picks’ that he had found a site for a television program called ‘Father Ted’. Now I hadn’t been going to write any more tv stuff for a while, but I instantly wanted to go over to see the location, so I used the teleport button to take me over to the SL version of 'Craggy Island' where fictional Father Ted lives. Father Ted was a lovely gentle comedy about three Irish Catholic priests and their housekeeper, who lived together on the remote island.

It’s main characters were Father Jack Hackett (actor Frank Kelly), housekeeper Mrs Doyle (actress Pauline McLynn), Father Dougal McGuire (actor Ardal O’Hanlon) and Father Ted Crilly (actor Dermot Morgan, who regretfully died, aged 45, after the filming of the last show). Most of the stories were based on Father Ted trying to control the manic situations they got into because of Father Dougal’s naively innocent character, Father Jack’s alcoholic swearing tantrums (his favourite words being ‘Feck’, ‘Arse’ and ‘Girls’!) and Mrs Doyle’s over the top adoration in trying to please them all.

The house in the sim looks just like the cottage from the series and as you walk in you can see the familiar furnishings and little pictures of the cast dotted about. In the living room there is a life size picture of Mrs Doyle complete with her trolley of hot tea and cakes and the whole thing brings back memories of the series. Upstairs there is the bedroom shared by the sensible Father Ted with his neatly made up conservative bed linen on his bed, next to it is Father Dougal’s bed with its ‘superhero’ childish duvet and pillow case set. Father Jack’s bedroom is scattered with litter, with a black bin liner full of rubbish in the middle of the room which has a swarm of flies hovering around it. On his bed there is a crate of Martini! In one part of the series they had rabbits escape all over the house and sure enough, the guest bedroom in the SL version has the rabbits sitting everywhere too.

The SL Craggy Island is a tribute to the show by a group called FeckArse Industries and it’s a lot of fun, if you are a fan of the show it’s one not to miss!!


Flanagans Island 196, 90, 32 – Craggy Island Parochial House of Secondlife ®




Janey Bracken

Venus and Mars Visit the Knightsbridge Gallery

The Knightsbridge Gallery is one of my favourite galleries in Second Life because of the diversity and high quality of the exhibitions held there. The work of Nicci Lane is currently on display and I recently wrote it up for my recent write up for Virtually London (lite). After telling my friend Boye about the exhibition, we decided to go visit it together, which turned out to be an interesting and surprising experience.
We stopped at one painting entitled “Jungle Hue” and I commented on how I enjoyed its organic nature, which I ascribed to the flowers visible in the work, as well as the sinuous shapes winding throughout the background. Boye on the other hand said that it looked to him like a circuit board with edge connectors running around the periphery of the work. What a completely different way of seeing it! Visit the gallery and you be the judge, please feel free to comment on the blog, I would love to find out what people think.

Hibiscus Hastings