Sunday Night Not-So-Blues

I would be saddened that my weekend is about to end but as I’m off work tomorrow, and the day after is a holiday, my weekend is flowing along nicely, thank you. Relaxation is a wonderful thing.

Yesterday I did nothing but make a pot of beans (which I’ll be eating off of for weeks) and some homemade bread. God, I love homemade bread. I pulled out the bread maker when I started the beans because there’s nothing better than buttered homemade bread sopping up a bowl of beans. Please, I do not want to hear about the hazards of carbohydrates. It’s too delicious a hazard to give up.

I took Spencer out on a nice hike yesterday which seemed longer than it really was due to walking over packed snow. This has been unusual for us in Flagstaff. A foot or two of snow still sticking around over two weeks after it fell. We normally have a high melt-off rate, but the weather has stayed in the thirties for most of this time and we only end up with ice and not melting snow. Sliding around on my dirt road to get to my truck has been a challenge. Happily, today the temperature was above 40 degrees and my road is finally becoming a muddy, mucky mess that it should have been weeks ago.

Today, I saw a movie: PS: I Love You and found it appropriately soppy. Dawn, it’s a good chick flick — I cried several times. Then I spent some time reading up on Amazon’s Kindle. Why? Because I got one for Christmas. Yes, my sister bought me one, wrapping up the pages of information she printed off from the web site. No, she didn’t wrap an actual Kindle — they’re back ordered and I’m waiting to get it, but I’ve already started deciding on what books to load first.

Tonight I’m watching some older movies on DVD. Due to my mom discussing the Ocean’s 11 films and how she’d not seen them, I was interested again in seeing them all. Watched the first last night, just finished Ocean’s 12, and am about to put in Ocean’s 13. Yeah, my life is exciting, isn’t it?

No big plans for New Year’s Eve as I usually am too sleepy and too anti-social to do the party thing. Yeah, as I said, my life is exciting…really.

Ice Skating in Second Life

I tried. Really. I tried to get an action shot of me/Moran ice skating in Second Life, but manning the camera and moving about the ice were conflicting goals. My ice-skating skills are tremendous thanks to my skates from Skoopfz.

Why was I ice skating? Well, the Virtually Speaking event was non-speaking last night and only had skating and then dancing. Knowing this I decided to go shopping in advance and fit some skating practice in before heading on over to the event.

Both Townes and I got some skates and practiced. Here’s a shot of us managing to stand on ice with no wobbling:

Here’s the one action shot I managed but it doesn’t show much:

Hard to tell that I’m graceful and athletic on ice…another case where Second Life doesn’t match Real Life.

Click and Style

Can I just say that I find buying skin and hair in Second Life way too much fun? I love that I can change my look with a few mouse clicks. I can’t do this in real life.

Look at this as an example. I started out today with this look:

I’m wearing some new hair from Philotic Energy. It’s the Ariadne style in black. I love its wispy but dramatic style.  With the hair I put on my new skin from Chai. It’s in the Cream tone and is the Mulberry makeup. This means that I must match the makeup with Maitreya’s Dune boots in red, Casa del Shai’s ruby-colored turtleneck, and Artilleri’s scarf in pink threads. The sunglasses are the Aviator glasses in black from Sand Shack Surf Co.

I had put this look together the night before and had done a bit of shopping. Well, it’s a whole new day today. In a few minutes I looked like this:

This started with Sirena’s Rockstar hairstyle in jet, plus the Chai skin in Cream with the SIYU makeup. It’s the same Isabeaux leather pants, but with the Mirli sweater in purple from Maitreya with the gray camisole, Encore’s black and silver Celtic belt, and Maitreya’s Boot-alicious boots in ash leather with the dark gray socks.

I didn’t have to sit around with a curling iron or a blow drier to create a whole new style, nor did I have to stand in front of the mirror washing off old makeup and applying the new stuff. Nope, I just had to “wear” the hair and makeup. I’m telling you, this is so different than my attempts of style change in real life. In fact, I’ve just settled for a look that I use day after day. It’s easy, it fits my lifestyle, and I’m happy with it. Ah, but in Second Life? In Second Life I can achieve looks that I don’t even want to attempt in real life. It’s too much fun and, yes, it really is playing Barbie on a grand scale.

Of course, what would happen if we could “click and style” in real life? Would I do the same as in Second Life? I just might…as long as I don’t have to stand in front of the mirror for hours trying vainly to achieve a look, I’d be happy changing my appearance with a click or two.

Home and Work Again

Last night I drove over the rivers and through the woods back to my home, and really, when I say rivers I mean dry river beds Arizona style. Though the Verde River had some water flowing in it.

It’s good to be home. My cat Lulu missed Spencer and I. Poor Spencer, he’s been tired. He joined me at the Christmas Eve party and all those people and KIDS kind of left him in a shocked state. He was very good with the kids I am pleased to say, even with little Miguel whose idea of petting a dog was more like grabbing bits of fur and pulling.  Yeah, I guess Spence has every right to be catatonic.

Today is a semi-day off. I am doing some work from home, but am trying hard not to go in to the office. I’m on call and have done some work already, but am doing my best to space that out throughout the day.

Okay, back to goofing off.

No Coal for Me

Hmmmm…I must have been good. No coal from Santa. Some nice gifts, some good times, and a long, long Christmas day made for a nice holiday.

Yes, it was a  long day. Nieces and nephew managed to wake up at 4:00 in the morning to see if Santa came. He did! We managed to get them back to bed. I slept some more and then woke up at 7:00 and was the first one up for the second round of wakings. Jeez, the kids were still asleep…dang kids, didn’t they know what day it is And NOW they should get up?

After they arose we all had a grand morning. Santa brought my sis and bro-in-law bicycles along with ones for Jamie and David (a smart Spiderman training wheels bike). Last night after Christmas dinner we scared the neighbors by racing up and down the street (yeah, I managed to bring my bike down — who knew that Santa would provide for the others?)

I fell asleep on the couch way before the kids went to bed. Whether having to watch The Santa Clause caused me to sleep or whether I was just plain tired I conked out.

A very satisfactory holiday in all. But my question is, how bad do I have to be before Santa gives up and just gives me coal?

Holiday Wishes

Yep, I forgot to buy some gifts so had to run out and get them today. Everything’s wrapped and it’s time to load up and head off to visit family. I hope y’all have a great holiday, however you celebrate (or not celebrate) this time of year.

Oh My

Okay, this caused a moment of confusion:

Thanks to Scalzi through Atrios.

Stardust Redux

Just watched Stardust again. I still enjoy it and heartily recommend renting or buying the DVD.

Delaying Poses

I admit it. There’s no denying that I’m doing some pain avoidance here. The pain? Wrapping presents. They’re all piled on my dining table and all need to be wrapped. So, how am I avoiding this pain? Why creating more poses for Second Life.

It’s way too much fun. Some are poses that I started on some time ago and tweaked today. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far (hey, those presents still need wrapping and I can avoid those all day if I have to):

One of the poses I created was used to show off some tattoos that I bought at Needles ‘n Skins. This photo has manage to become my most popular photo at Flickr. Do you think it’s due to the gorgeous tattoos or the fact that I’m not quite dressed?

Hmmm….so what else can I create in order not to wrap gifts? More poses? Some new shapes? Hey, maybe some shopping in SL! Now we’re talking.

Christmas Accessorizing

A gift from Caliah Lyon at Muse had me taking some pics in Second Life today. This cute Christmas-themed necklace with bells, ribbons, and a bit of white fur just looked so cute. It came in red, green, white, black, and had choices between silver and gold bells.

I liked it so much that I put it with this lovely Victorian dress from Ivalde. I even thought it deserved more accessorizing and gave the whole ensemble the Currier and Ives treatment.

Yes, a necklace can dictate the outfit AND the background.

Shopping Done?

I think I finished my Christmas shopping tonight. I can’t guarantee it as I know there’ll be some last minute gift I’ll decide to buy, but as it’s getting to be that “last minute” I don’t know when I’ll decide to buy something else.

Having a cold for a good chunk of December certainly put me behind schedule. I never found the time or inclination to put up Christmas decorations or send out cards. Having shopping done at least has me breathing easier.

Oh poop. Now there’s one thing left to do — the one thing I hate to do — I have to wrap all those items I’ve bought. Sigh. That’s for tomorrow.

Virtually Speaking

Virtually Speaking is a wonderful event in Second Life. Tonight’s interview covered Net Neutrality and other concerns in today’s political and social world. Every Thursday night we can hear people talk about their involvement in making this a smarter and better country. You can find the upcoming schedule here.

I even managed to take a few pics tonight. First shot is Tim Wu and Matt Stoller’s avatars in the interviewee seats. That’s Jimbo Hoyer doing the interviewing. The interview is streamed audio.

Me and others watching — really more like listening to — the interview:

I went for the retro studious look:

And for the frivolous part of me, there’s always dancing afterwards!

Politics and dancing. Now that’s a combo for some fun and it’s available every Thursday night in Second Life.

A Second Life Post

No, no pictures or tales of my adventures in Second Life. I’m just posting that I actually went into SL the other night for the first time in a long while and I’m going in again tonight. I may even take a pic or two tonight to post here.

Tonight is the Virtually Speaking event in SL and Matt Stoller is the interviewee. I’m a fan of his. He’s been blogging for a long time about politics, first at MyDD and now at Open Left. It should be interesting to hear what he has to say.

Enchanted review

Now this silly film I liked. Disney does a good job making fun of itself. Here’s my review.

The Namesake

I just watched The Namesake on DVD. What a lovely film with characters that you can care about.