NN in SL

Does that title make sense? Well, it’s Netroots Nation in Second Life, but that’s one long title, so let me shorten it. I can shorten it even more by just using NNSL. Yes, the lazy person’s way of blogging — use acronyms of few letters.

Well, tonight is the kick off event for Netroots Nation and we’re streaming the video of Howard Dean and Wesley Clark into Second Life.  There’s a Second Life panel discussion, dancing, and movie-going.  I’m ready for it.  Here’s today’s schedule as listed at the NNSL web site:

… All times are Second Life Time, also known as Pacific Daylight Time:

1:00 PM — An SL/NN Meetup! Here’s a chance to do some comingling with the Austin crowd at Netroots Nation. Yes, Austin and Second Life will meet. Head for the Netroots Arena.

5:30-6:30 PM — Austin Keynote Address: Gov Howard Dean and (ret) Gen Wes Clark. This will stream into Netroots Arena.

6:30-7:30 PM — “What They Said” Commentary by Joan McCarter (McJoan), Jimbo Hoyer, GenJCChristian Homewood and Cliff Schecter. This is a Second Life panel held at Netroots Arena.

7:30-10:00 PM — SL Opening Party. We’ll be chatting and dancing at the same time – very easy to do in Second Life – at the Netroots Island Ballroom.

9:00-whenever – “The Corporation.” It’s a special Netroots Nation screening of “The Corporation” at the Marxist/Lennonist Party Headquarters (this will open up the SLURL for the location, which is not on Netroots Nation Island ).

It’s fun meeting new people to Second Life, plus the SL old-timers who are showing up for their first political event in SL. Why don’t you join us!

Survival

I just survived a visit from my great-niece, Catherine. A very smart nine-year old, Catherine sure knows how to enjoy herself.  We survived a torrential downpour. There is nothing like going to a movie and taking off your very wet shoes and socks, which we did. We survived any passing of wind (I tell you, fart jokes can really get a nine-year old giggling). I survived the rigors of keeping Catherine entertained and managed adequately. Though I do have to say that I’m pooped. She slept much better than I.

I also survived the trip back from Phoenix today. Talking about torrential downpours, try to imagine standing water on an incline — that’s how fast and hard the rain was coming down. So, a 75 mile an hour zone becomes 40. It does cause accidents. On one of the rainy sections, a car had flipped. The worst part of the trip was up near the rim. That’s where you could see water filling the road, even though we were going uphill. It’s amazing.

So, I survived all of that. Now I have to get ready for Netroots Nation. If you decide to join us, I’ll be the one in the corner, napping. It’s my survival technique.

Netroots Nation - Second Life Style!

I’d say I’m tuckered out, but I’m too excited to be tuckered out! Next week is the big Netroots Nation convention in Austin, Texas. It’s the annual gathering of political progressives.  So, am I going to Austin and that’s why I’m excited? Heck no! It’s Austin in July, why would anyone get excited? Nope, I’m staying  right here on the couch with my laptop. There is a Netroots Nation in Second Life convention also. Yep, Ms. Moran Singh is going all conventioneer style next week in Second Life.

What’s even more fun, and what’s leading to some of the tuckered out feeling, is that I’m one of the organizers for the Second Life event. Yep, I’m in charge of the Social Events. Yeah, me, Miss Unsocial.

Everyone’s been incredibly involved creating this event. We’ll be streaming video from Austin, plus putting on our own panels. We’ve worked hard on creating buildings, ballrooms, orientation areas, exhibition booths, and all kinds of things. The learning opportunities keep coming my way.

Here’s a view of the ballroom at Netroots Nation Island (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Yearly%20Kos%20Convention%204/156/59/24/):

Ballroom at Netroots Nation Island

Here’s the orientation area. Any newbies can find themselves right at home. They can even pick up some freebies, including avatars and outfits.

Netroots Nation Island orientation area

For more information about Netroots Nation in Second Life (or NNinSL for short), check out the web site and blog. It’s free. Anyone who cares about politics, community organizing, health care, economics, and anything else to do with how our country is run, should join us.

So, what does a fashionable person wear to Netroots Nation in Second Life? What a silly question!

Moran in her NNinSL t-shirt

Politics, Planning, and Social Gatherings

Tonight, after work, I went to a City Council meeting. I rarely would do such a thing, but tonight they swore in the new mayor and City Council members. One of my old DFA (Democracy for America) buddies, Karla Brewster got sworn in as one of those City Council folks.

Some of the DFA regulars were there and it was good to socialize with them. I committed to being in the 4th of July parade. It’ll be hot, I’ll stand for too long on my bad foot, and I’ll end up sleeping the rest of the day, but it’s been fun the other times I’ve done it.

Then I rushed home, fed the animals, fed myself, and joined one of the Netroots Nation in Second Life planning meetings. I’m one of the committee heads. Hard to believe, but I’m in charge of the social events for the event in July. I’m also on several other committees. I’m off for five days starting Friday, so hope to actually get some stuff done.

The fun part about these planning meetings is that we socialize afterwards. Tonight we watched Al Gore’s endorsement of Obama, plus various other videos, including the new MoveOn ad, and a very entertaining video about McCain’s use of a very offensive word.

A picture of me leading a committee meeting:

So tomorrow night is another political and social event. It’s the parade planning meeting. It’ll be fun too…I hope.

Well, here are links to the three videos I mentioned. Watch out, the last one has a bad, bad word (used to hilarious effect).

Gore and Obama:

MoveOn.org ad:

McCain’s Very Bad Word or “He Said it First”

I’ll save the Bollywood Obama for another day.

Conversing

You know what’s fun about Second Life? The fact that you can have a long, lovely chat with someone from England about politics, literature, history, and cricket — all, while you’re dancing.

Oh, and this was after listening to an interesting interview with Rick Perlstein, the author of Nixonland.

Just to show that I’m not all about intellectual pursuits (is cricket intellectual?) let me throw in a gratuitous fashion photo of my Second Life avatar:

Whew. I feel better now. Shallowness is much more comfy.

Lazy Shoe Day

I am suffering a major case of the lazies. The only thing I’ve done today, besides a visit to my chiropractor, is play around in Second Life and watched Elizabeth (great film).

Second Life at least offered some activity. I went shopping. Every time I go to MichaMi’s fashion blog she always has great shoes on. Lately, the styles that make me stop and look all come from Armidi. Well, that’s where I went and I didn’t buy only shoes. Oh no. All kinds of fun clothes.

The shoes are nice, right? But what really makes it is a little white dress. I love that in Second Life I do not have to hold in my gut when I wear something snug. Snug? Oh hell, this white dress is tight. And who can deny the charms of a well put-together 70s disco hot-pants outfit? The gold shoes do go well with the gold shirt. The vest is from one of Armidi’s male outfits.

I put together some other outfits, but added some of my new purchases from a store called Bland. If you could call goldfish pants and bold red tops bland, then the name fits. The rest is more pieces from the various Armidi shops.

The shoes? The shoes are all Armidi’s. I could begin to like wearing heels all the time. . . when I’m not being totally lazy.

Posies

Whew. It’s hard work.

Okay, it’s not hard work — it’s fun. I keep playing with QAvimator and have come up with tons of poses.

Without poses we would have only the default pose. It’s rather…eh.:

Designing my own, I can upload the poses, called “Animations” per Second Life, and then either put them in my Animation Override tool or just play them as needed. For newbies, to play an animation you just have to find them in your inventory, under the Animations folder. Right click the item and select either “Play Locally” (only you can see your avatar posing) or the “Play in World” (everyone sees it!).

Poses are great for taking modeling shots, or to try to create a mood. I do like trying to come up with some. Here’s a good chunk of my pose styling:

I’ve posted before about my manipulations of the Second Life avatar here, here, and here. There is something so satisfying to come up with a casual stand or a glamorous modeling pose. It’s like playing with a Barbie that can really bend!

Another New Place for Moran

My nomadic existence in Second Life continues. It’s no longer cottage living for me. Now I’m in the suburbs and I even have a garage. It’s a nice place:

The living room (and yes, I do like the sherbety colors don’t I?):

The upstairs that still needs furnishing:

And, of course, the garage:

My latest car will fit in the garage with lots of room to spare:

This is the Oui Coupe from Curio Obscura and offers lots of fun. So it’s only the size of a breadbox? Who cares? Just check this out:

Other than my skirt hanging out I can squeeze into it nicely (and it makes me giggle every time). It comes in handy when there’s not a lot of space.

Squid Night

I don’t know a squid from an octopus, but PZ Myers does. He writes about science and evolution at the Pharyngula blog. It seems that cephalopods are near and dear to Myers’ heart, so when he showed up in Second Life to talk about science, evolution, and getting expelled from the movie Expelled, fans of his showed up in style. It was squid night at Virtually Speaking:

I think that’s a squid, though it could be an octopus. It floated above us as we listened to Myers and Jimbo Hoyer. Here are the fans:

Only in Second Life can a group of people discuss where to buy a squid “outfit” because it looks darn cool.

Nice and Cheap

No, nice and cheap doesn’t refer to me. I’m mean and expensive. What has been nice and cheap lately has been some purchases in Second Life. Yak & Yeti has some freebie sarees, undies, jeans, dresses, t-shirts, and jewelry. I picked up a bunch. Here’s a few of what I spent some zero lindens on:

Pretty, huh?

The next set of dresses came from Imagen that was offering a variety of dresses, all quite summery, for one linden each. Too much fun:

Okay, I still spend more than one linden for clothes. I picked this up at Closet. It’s called the Happy Dress. Yes, it does make me happy, especially as it came in orange.

All right. It’s back to homework and then off to see a movie to review (Nim’s Island). I just have to wait before I can go back in to Second Life and spend more money. Here I am, Moran Singh, waiting for that moment to arrive:

Dancing with Myself

The other morning I put on a cute, little Spring dress, added some jewelry, the heels, and put on the music to dance around the living room. I thought I looked cute:

The dress, a 1 linden special from Imagen, was made for dancing around. It got me so motivated that I decided to dance around my real life living room. Of course, no cute little dress clad my dancing body. Do sweat pants count as parts of Spring outfits?

Nomad of Second Life

My life has changed in Second Life. Townes has decided to create more calm in his life by not spending so much time in Second Life. He has good reason. After all, he has to spend time prepping and creating his radio show. His online station is Blue Roots Radio, and offers great music with some good liberal commentary. You can hear him here.

Of course, if he’s not going to spend time in Second Life, what happens to our island estate? What happens to our mansion by the sea? What happens to me? Why, it begins a new phase for me!

First we had to pack up our belongings, which is easy — just select the “return to owners” option for items on the land. I wish packing up was that easy in real life. Then, the land, and the tier payments, needed to go bye-bye. I put it up for sale.

Luckily, Townes and I found buyers for the land and didn’t have to abandon it.

Well, now the fun began. I went off to find a nice little rental somewhere. Where to go? Ah, how about London? Yes, a nice, little flat in Knightsbridge sounded just peachy. I found the cutest place and rented it for a few weeks. Only one problem…the prim limit. I forgot about that, living on my large estate. The flat only allowed for 100 prims. It took all of 10 minutes to hit that limit. I didn’t even make it to the top floor — I had to leave it bare.

I did have fun decorating the ground floor:

I could hang up my Van Gogh prints purchased when visiting the exhibit:

I could even relax in front of the fireplace while I read:

You know what’s really funny about all this? I’ve already moved. I now live in a cottage that allows for more prims. It isn’t as classy looking, but it does have character.

Do you want to see more photos? Follow the link….

Inevitable Post about Second Life…with Pictures

I can’t resist it. Even though my time in Second Life remains limited I still find time to buy items, try on clothes, and have a grand time. I’ve taken photos and loaded them to my Flickr account, but haven’t shared them with you. Some of you may have felt very lucky about this lack of Second Life ego tripping. Well, guess what? I’m forcing my pics on you whether you like them or not.

New sweater, hair, and glasses had me out on the side deck taking pictures:

The next one is me dressing up. I didn’t go anywhere, other than my photo studio to take pictures. I then had to come up with a background in GIMP. Not perfect, but I like the effect:

The last is a pic of two different looks. One is me in my more serious, got to get some work done mode; the other is silly party girl. I even decided to go out dancing in my red outfit and ended up at a dance advertised as “Best in Red.” Well, I was certainly wearing red. To my surprise, the dance was at a BDSM club. Let’s just say that I was out of place:

Neither look really fits into the leather and chains world do they? Yes, definitely out of place.

These Boots are Made…

I don’t get into Second Life much lately due to my lame attempts to be a good student in Real Life. When I do get in it’s not for social events — I so miss Dancing Liberally and Virtually Speaking and the other fun stuff. So when I do go in it’s for more solitary pursuits like trying on clothes and hair, and of course, shopping.

I went on a boot buying spree a week or so ago and love my purchases. In real life I have about 10 pairs of shoes. In Second Life I have over 20 pairs of boots — I shudder to think what my total shoe count is in my inventory. Anyway, here are some of the boots I picked up in my massive linden redistribution scheme:

The top two pairs are from J’s. They’re the Vintage Short Boots and the Western Boots in brown. The bottom two boots come with two options. The Cheetah boots from Bax Coen Designs come with regular calf-length or over-the-knee options. J’s (yes I really redistributed my lindens at this shop) Loose Fit boots comes with a buckle option.

I loved my new boots so much that I had to try various outfits on. Here’s what I came up with in my effort to play Barbie in Boots:

The hair is Armidi’s Poynter and the skin is PXL’s Linda with the fashion eyes and coffee lips. The clothes are a mish-mash of items from my inventory. The boots? Well, they’re made for walkin’.

I have not been too active in Second Life lately due to the joys of too much homework. It bothers me when I don’t post pics of my Second Life persona. So, to fill up this blog with purty pictures I am making a quick effort here.

Whew, I feel better.