Raevyn Addams

I noticed that too and thought it an odd choice essentially restricting what can be placed along that short wall (unless you set it, the furniture, to phantom). I have to admit though after just taking a walk through the new display area I am impressed. Not so much at the buildings though they are gorgeous, and the attention to detail is amazing from the textures to the not-as-curved baseboards to accommodate for us builders creating add-ons to match. What grabbed me immediately is the landscaping. It's so relaxing! I love the foliage, the dirt roads, the rock fence and wooden mailboxes, I love the sounds of the birds. Even as I type this I am standing in the middle of it just listening to them... Honestly I'm starting to consider bumping my old house hunting alt back up to premium for a while to try and catch myself a weekend getaway. It's an odd sensation after doggedly saying "no". The houses still feel too big for me to use as a house (especially with my Zooby Animesh) but the environment itself is perfect. If only I could pick up all this landscaping and take it home with me... back to the beach. Not sure how that would work but hey, I want the best of both worlds what can I say? All in all very impressed. Pictures doesn't do the display (or homes) justice really. ❤️

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; you will always be cute to me @Scylla Rhiadra. (P.S. Why is it that the most talented of us have skills disproportionate to the belief in themselves, or lack thereof? Riddle me that. A conversation for another place and time perhaps). 🤗

Another Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi! *snorts a laugh because... Aussie-isms* (I swear I am not a complete bogan) 🤭 For what it's worth there's been a lot of chatter regarding how best to accommodate all the different time zones as @Saravendi mentioned, whether that's alternating times or alternating days from Sunday to Saturday (since generally Sunday equals our Monday here Down Under) and I'm still not sure that anything's been set in stone. But it is a constant work in progress, as all good art (and artists) should be. ✍️

Everyone looks fantabulous! Shame old bones here missed out this time. My bed it was a-calling. @Scylla Rhiadrawhere is the pic of you in all your fairy splendor? 🥺

In no way am I negating your experience or objecting to your opinion; you have every right to have one as do I. But personally I think entering into a relationship with someone outside of fiction/RP constraints can be problematic and asking for trouble primarily because you never really know for sure who you're playing with or if anything they tell you is true. Voice verification and photos can be "faked" and Skype or other face time apps will certainly come in handy for verification but again not 100% foolproof if someone has a lot of friends. Even once you establish the person is who they say they are you have to ensure they aren't actually already in a relationship with someone else (either in the virtual world or the real one), or that the rest of the information they've given you factually checks out. No one wants to feel like they're being interrogated just to be with someone else. Relationships online require a heavy dose of trust on both sides with so much room for misinterpretation or flat out deceit possible compared to face to-face-physical relationships in my humble opinion. But even face-to-face real world relationships face this same problem so again it's a risk people take. I'm not saying no one should ever enter into relationships online. We probably all know of someone in real life who met a stranger in the virtual world and things blossomed in the real world. But personally as a born skeptic I take this as the exception to the rule. As has been said, being honest to appease others comes at a cost to the player looking to experience life as someone else other than what they really are. Yes it is still a lie when you enter a relationship with someone else under false pretenses but I still don't believe this deceit comes from a negative or hurtful place. Sometimes things "just happen" beyond both parties control. Much of the time relationships aren't spontaneous events but develop over time. So you meet someone in Second Life you think is male and get to know them. You talk, hang out, have fun, and friendships form. Before you know it you start feeling a connection to this person (or they for you) and want to take it a step further. But there's a problem. By rejecting the relationship the person risks offending or upsetting someone they have come to view as a (probably close) friend; you. When you ask them why they don't want to be your partner they are faced with a choice and neither of them have a positive outcome. If they confess they really are female then everything you've built together up to this point unravels. If they continue along with the guise of being male then they know one day eventually the truth will come out and you will feel hurt and betrayed more than if you learn the truth now; either way they hurt you. Being honest means they risk losing you, their friend, and whatever you've built to that point when possibly to their mind they never saw a problem with the relationship as it was in the first place or saw the need for it to change or progress forward. They may get lucky and find you really don't care about them being a woman, and the two of you may even develop a stronger friendship instead of the romantic one you intended. But again a rare exception to the rule. I have been caught out in this exact situation with my main account long before I joined the forums so I can only speak to what I know. I can tell you it feels absolutely s***y to be that person who has to be "honest" when you don't want to hurt a friend. I don't, can't, and won't speak for anyone else, and it would be naive of me to say that everyone who enters online relationships does so with good intentions. Some people are just jerks. But by that same token I don't believe everyone who plays as another gender and doesn't "be honest" is looking to lie to or hurt you either. They just wanted to experience life as someone else, and then a friend came along... 🙂

I post when I have something to say. Some days I rant my butt off have a lot say, others not so much. (Clearly this is one of those days...) When I first came to the forums I was throwing likes at people like @Rolig Loon and @Penny Patton for their helpful posts regarding scripting. Over time I felt brave enough to start posting my opinions and it felt good to see others like what I had to say. I'll admit it was addictive. I think @Orwar might have hit the nail on the head there; the likes felt like acceptance (even if it was by a bunch of random strangers online I'd never met). But then I fell out with a few people and the proverbial rose-coloured glasses came off. I recognized the likes weren't actually "likes" (or certainly not always); more acknowledgment or a "we heard you" or "we couldn't be bothered to read that long-winded rant but here's a like to pretend we did" type thing. Sometimes I used to feel quite crushed to not get any response to a post I had poured a lot of time into or when I did it would feel like an empty gesture but I suppose that says more about my mentality at the time than it did those posting them. I'll admit I got more invested into it than I should have. As a forum noob I used to equate lots of likes with popularity or assume someone had earned their stripes so to speak with worthwhile forum contributions. Now I know that's not always the case. When I post likes they aren't always just "likes"; I try to show support and encourage even if I don't always necessarily agree with whatever the post is about - especially for those who help without a heavy dose of negativity or sarcasm. Sometimes I see posts with a lot of likes and can't get my head around why. It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Realistically there are bigger problems in the world to be concerned about. Since likes are severely restricted to just a few and human emotion is a complex thing there's too much room for miscommunication. I take all likes that I get with a grain of salt. Absolutely it's great to get a like but to me a written response says more and feels more personal but even that is a double-edged sword. A like is like sending out a Shakespearean Tome and getting a text message "K" back in response. Likes are great. Thanks are better. It brightens my day to think I may have helped in some way or made someone smile. My world doesn't stop revolving if people don't like what I have to say. They can scroll past and move on, simple.

I'm generally not a huge fan but this song is an ear-worm that I can't get out of my head. So I'm listening to it on repeat until I get so sick of it I can't ever listen to it again. Let's see if that works. XD

I love how after a few posts this topic actually went from a full scale rant to provoking a laugh or two towards the end. Flipping well done! 👍

^ This. ^ And this. I've said these same things many times over the years and will keep repeating them (even if others disagree as is their right); * You are under no obligation to tell anyone else anything about yourself that you don't feel comfortable in sharing, regardless who is asking or why (unless it's LL of course). * In Second Life as with any other website, online game, or anything virtual do not give out more information about yourself than you are prepared to lose. Once it's out there, it's out there forever, and you have no way to control what's done with that information. * There is a HUGE difference between representing yourself as another gender, race, age or other in avatar form and deliberately deceiving or pretending to be someone else in real life (aka Catfishing). How others visually perceive and relate to your avatar is for them to decide. (This is different to how you treat others but that should be fairly common sense and shouldn't need explaining). * Honesty is not always the best policy unless it feels right for you to disclose (or unless you are intentionally trying to deceive others in real life, as stated above). It is not your job to validate anything for anyone else (unless you are running the risk of breaking Linden Lab's Terms of Service, Community Standards, or real life laws). * Disclosing any real life information in your profile has the potential to ruin YOUR immersion and effect the way in which others relate to or engage with you. Declaring yourself as a human behind a horse avatar won't shock anyone, but declaring you are of a different age, race or gender than they see on the screen will influence how others judge you regardless what they say. Everyone on the planet is ingrained with personal and societal bias and much of that is beyond your (or even their) control. * Some people are more tolerant than others. Some will undoubtedly cause problems. Their immaturity or narrow-mindedness is their issue, don't let them make it yours. Remember everyone you meet has their personal reasons for representing their avatars as they do and no two people will approach Second Life in the exact same way. For some having the ability to be what they want is liberating; it could be wish fulfillment or a chance to recreate their youth. While for others it is an extension of their everyday real life recreated to whatever degree in pixel form. We all have that freedom of choice in Second Life to be what we want. Don't let other people impede you from making the choice in avatar that suits you. I speak from experience. Do what feels right to you and enjoy your Second Life.

This is going to sound strange as I know Second Life is NOT real life and I've never treated it as anything other than a great big virtual sandbox with elements of an MMORPG thrown in, but I still treat certain aspects of Second Life with real life constraints. My home for example in RL I would never leave unlocked when I'm away so that anyone could just walk in. Same for windows and doors (or, oddly, those facing the "street"). It's not that I want to be unsociable but it's an odd feeling of protecting what's "mine" despite the fact it's not really real, it's just pixels on a screen in a virtual pretend universe. Logically I know the difference, but it seems that old habits die hard. Maybe that explains some of it?🤔

I do love the new style log homes just as I love the look of the Victorians, but I still love my Traditional PARCEL more. On top of having my current ideal beach location I am one of the rare few that still enjoy the smaller styled homes, so to that end it's likely I will be staying where I am for the foreseeable future. Especially since something said in the latest Lab Gab caught my attention. @Patch Linden (and the team) did mention/hint (at 21:49 - 22:48 in the video) at the possibility of going back and revisiting the four earlier themes at some point to "do some special stuff with them" and the possibility of MAYBE having the option of say 8 homes to choose from instead of 4 - but this probably won't happen in 2020. It's a maybe. But it's a maybe I'll hold out for a little while longer. I still want to say the Log Homes are gorgeous builds though, as all of the builds have been. Well done Patch and the LDPW.❤️

I love this sky! It's a preset in Black Dragon called Burn. Still trying my hand at Poser (pun intended), and thanks to @momomoonusagi I've been learning to pose Riley too! ❤️

^ This is stunning! It looks like a render! ❤️

First time I've bumped this I think... because why not!

(I did try to get solo pics of everyone buuuuut texture thrashing... Sorry about that!) And finally this is what happened when we hit the Forum Cartel... The dancing horse made me laugh way too much. I don't know if that made me a troll for encouraging but I didn't see anyone getting trampled while I was there so I think a good time was had by all... Except Rupert the pig who probably got motion sickness from Momo's crazy break-dancing in her pretty princess dress. (And now I can I've finally been to FC too which is another tick on my virtual bucket list XD) Thanks all! ❤️

Thanks to @Angelina String, @Saskia Rieko, @momomoonusagi, @Scylla Rhiadra, @Orwar and Nephtyria, @Eva Knoller, @TatianaNikolay, @BelindaN, @Seicher Rae, and @Matty Luminos, the companion pets and dancing horse, and all the folks at the Forum Cartel. It was certainly an experience! (And yes still a little fangirling over finally meeting you all in world as opposed to liking posts on the forums, so thanks for putting up with that too). 😆 EDIT: These were taken using Firestorm. I initially tried on Black Dragon but saw nothing but jellydolls even with avatar complexity set to absolute MAX (I'd have probably killed my computer trying to visit the FC on BD, say nothing of the probability of me sliding left or right instead of turning and smacking into walls as usual since edjit here can't get a handle on keybinding and is trying hard to learn the BD way). They're still good for non-Ultra pics. Also have I mentioned yet how awesome it was to be able to take pics of some of my forum pic mentors?! Okay I'll shut up now... EDIT EDIT: OMG how did I forget to tag everyone?!! I just noticed! So so sorry. Fixed now! Forgive me, @Matty Luminos! 😭

Thanks to all for the advice, comments and suggestions. Since the situation falls under harassment more than anything, my next question is more what happens after the Abuse Report has been filed? From the wiki I know Linden Lab don't give feedback on any actions they've deemed appropriate to take (if any at all), but it's more a question of what happens to the instigator or harasser if action is deemed to be warranted? Assuming they even are warned, there's no naming of names is there (as in who filed the AR against them)? And if there aren't how is this person expected to quit their antics with me, again assuming that like most bullies there would be more than one target in their proverbial cross hairs? Does the warning state the reason why one has been warned in order for some lesson to be learned, or is it something else entirely? I'm sincerely dubious much will amount from this, and not convinced in the slightest that the bully will change their ways after all these years and for the situation to be resolved. Worst case scenario there's nothing stopping them from creating an alt account and returning to pick up where they left off - though I can only imagine that would happen in the most extreme of cases, and this wouldn't be it. But for what it's worth I am following the appropriate channels and hoping for the best. It would be nice if there was no need for ARs in the first place but since commonsense and common courtesy are misnomers (especially on the internet) it's pointless to dream otherwise. ^😟^

It's almost 3:00 a.m. so... appropriate music to stay awake for no good reason. XD

Thanks for that, Garnet. I didn't know that about the cross-checking so that's something at least. Sadly my friends and I did talk in SL so that is LL jurisdiction, and I can't imagine interest going away any time soon. It's been five years already. Were I to report I don't expect much to come from it,just as it hasn't as I've continued to ignore, hence my frustration. In an ideal world the troublemaker would move along but reality doesn't work that way. Some people just enjoy causing problems and no amount of patience or logic will change it. Sadly. Thanks for your reply. That may be the only thing I can do, or we can do. Just wish there was an actual solution. I really don't hold out much hope. My friend who was stalked submitted AR's for a long time and there was far more "proof" and harm caused then and nothing happened at all. The whole thing just kills my urge to be here/log in at all. Thanks for replying too.

I'm not even sure where to ask to be honest and reading the wiki has left me with a few doubts so I thought I was ask for general opinions here. At least that way I'll know if I am wasting LL's time or not. Okay so to quote LL's Terms of Service/Community Standards here; https://www.lindenlab.com/legal/community-standards This relates to alternate accounts, specifically. If someone tells others the identity of your alternate account, that's a clear case of above/Disclosure, correct? But what if they tell others of accounts they suspect are alts? Not; "I think that *name here* is Rae". It's "Did you know *name here* is Rae? She told me years ago. I was just telling *their friend's name* about it. I thought everyone knew? " (Not true). Having alts is one thing. Being accused of being an alt, or having an alt, and having that repeated to any who will listen seems like another matter. It's also incredibly frustrating. Because someone has it in mind that I am someone else that then automatically entitles them to my real life information? I'm supposed to step out of my comfort zone and voice with a stranger, or send a real life photograph, or have a Skype chat just to set their mind at ease? What exactly constitutes as proof that can't be tampered with (such as Photoshop or flat out Catfishing anyway)? Why should I disclose anything in a virtual world where one is encouraged to be whatever they want to be... provided I tell anyone what they want to know. That defeats the purpose of being here in Second Life, doesn't it? Ignoring this person or what they say doesn't work. I blocked them years ago when it first started and we haven't spoken a word since but the rumours keep persisting. That was over FIVE years ago in fact and it's just now reared its ugly head again. I'm not alone in all this. A few of my closest friends are also implicated and for one of them, after reporting a virtual stalker in SL for over two years and having nothing done about it (and subsequently having a nervous breakdown because of it) I think this may be the final straw. For one final insult, the friends that told me what was said would, according to the same rules covered in the ToS/CS, get into trouble/a warning for trying to help. So I can't AR without sacrificing them which puts me in a precarious situation. I'm sure Linden Lab doesn't really care too much about this sort of thing as no doubt it's a case of "he said/she said" (even with IM logs, and who is to say they don't assume both sides have edited them anyway) and there are bigger issues to deal with in the entirety of Second Life. I'm just not sure what else can be done to stop this person's toxicity beyond just deleting my account and walking away for good. Legally, realistically, what can be done? 😔

Guess what kind of princess I am... No PP, raw shot in Black Dragon viewer. Taken at Folkvang here: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lexicolo/207/40/2999 The ride/experience through Norse Mythology is amazing and very well done. I've been going back there now for years. LOVE it! ❤️

That part you hesitate to speculate on... How about, "Protruding belly button!" From this (profile) view it reminds me of a baby's ultrasound, sooooo... It's a newborn baby dragon! (And you're right, cannot be unseen XD)

Feel free to "bug" me *lol* (It's not bugging, really). If I can help find something or give you some information (if I have it) I'll most certainly try. We all started somewhere! I wasn't a builder once either, and since I don't use Blender or bake shadows I'm pretty sure there are a majority of folks who don't class me as a builder either but that's okay, I do it for the fun of it. There's something extremely gratifying in creating something from nothing and seeing others enjoy it as well. You never know. Just because you're not a builder today doesn't mean you won't be one tomorrow. But even if you don't have any intentions to build that's perfectly okay too. Buying keeps building hobbyists like me in business! As for the walls; I never really considered selling them as I usually build first and foremost for my own needs (with my limited skill set) if I can't see what I want already available on the MP, and this was only ever intended to be a "one off" for me. That said, I never considered anyone would want it either which is why it wasn't for sale. If there's demand for it I'll see what I can do. I've still got the original in my invent somewhere to re-mesh (as there are flaws right now that *I* see and learned to live with in my laziness *lol*, they should really be fixed first). I've just finished another insert for a friend so I can take a look at the Adams walls again over the next few days, time allowing. And if you don't hear or see any updates from me on the forums by all means message me if you feel so inclined. I have a tendency to get easily distracted, but I'll get there eventually, I promise! Thanks so much for your kind words (and interest) both of you, it really does mean a lot! 😊🤗❤️

Yep, forgot about that one, dammit! *lol* Nice catch. 👍