About

pieces of my {s}life

I started this blog really as some sort of creative outlet that was accessible even when I’m traveling for work – and a way to capture some of my favorite things in SL – clothes, home décor, places I loved to visit – bits and pieces of my (s)life.  At one point, I logged into the flickr account that I had created forever ago but never used, and started looking at all the pictures people were posting. Some made me race to buy “that thing,” and others just told a story – so beautifully at times that I have wept. I started taking more and more pictures, learned to use different Windlight settings, and started editing my photos. Nervously, I started posting my own pieces on flickr. It has become a way not only to capture so many of the beautiful things created for SL – but an unexpected medium for me to express what’s happening, what I’m feeling, or dealing with. Sometimes I capture it, and sometimes it’s just not quite right – I’m still learning.

To all the Designers and Creators – THANK YOU. What you do amazes me. I hate shopping in RL. Truly. I’m like the anti-girl in that arena in RL.  But in SL, my closet is crammed and overflowing. I can’t help it. There is too much that is too beautiful. I hope I do some justice to your work.

Callie

I discovered Second Life back in 2008 almost by chance. I was sick and in that sort of half asleep, half awake lying on the couch in front of the tv – and I thought I heard someone talking about a virtual world called Second Life. When I actually woke up, I googled it, and then logged in. It was just before the New Year, and I was too sick to go out – so I went dancing and watched fireworks in Second Life instead. I was fascinated and enchanted – at home, I was in pajamas and looked like death warmed over… but in Second Life I was wearing a ball gown. It  was free, primmy, and probably something I’d laugh at today – but I felt beautiful.  With a click on a little pink ball, I was dancing with the most delightful man from France. He was kind and funny, and never said a word about the fact that I walked like a duck. It was at least several weeks (probably more like a month or two) before I figured out that there was something called an “AO” that would make me walk normally, and stand in some other pose than “hands on hips, feet apart.”

I found the Medieval RP Sim, Avilion, about a month after I started in SL. There were dragons, and fairies, and Knights (oh my!) – and the sim itself was beautiful. I kept going back. For a girl with a Masters Degree in Shakespearean Literature, it was home… and for a woman with a crazy busy, overloaded work schedule where being the one to solve the problems is everyday life – being a carefree Fae in cute little dresses was a wonderful escape. It still is. Some of the dearest and oldest friends I have in SL, I’ve met through Avilion. I’m not there as much as I once was, or even as much as I’d like to be – but it’s still home.

I also started participating with Relay for Life through Avilion – and it has one of the most rewarding, moving, and inspiring things about SL for me. Cancer sucks. I was diagnosed early and got very, very lucky a lot of years ago. Too many people I love weren’t so lucky. So, as much as I can with my work schedule, I Relay. I’m thankful to have a virtual environment in which I can. It matters to have a way to fight back, to say screw cancer, and to honor the people who are gone.

These days, I log in on one computer while I’m working on some report or another on a different computer.  I travel so much for work that my home in SL is what makes being in a hotel all the time see not so sterile.  I still love that I can create a setting that makes me want to sit and stay right there… so I do.  And Callie sits in a cozy chair reading, while I pull my hair out over budgets and work issues.

And when I need a break from all of that… Callie goes shopping 😉