dossiere

I hated the idea of mesh bodies for a long time. I still don't have a mesh head, and don't see the point of that. But I've bought and tried several different ones - Belleza, Tonic, Maitreya, and even though I had to spend money for the body, a skin, and appliers, I rarely bought clothes, and just hunted for freebies. My experience is that you can get by quite well on freebies if you have a Maitreya body, but that it can be hard to even buy clothes if you have the other bodies. Before you jump on me for saying that about Belleza, let me say that I had the Hourglass body. It's not an easy fit. With Maitreya, on the other hand, you can find tons of free clothes AND SHOES. And you don't have to buy an extra pair of feet. They come with the body. There are even a few skin makers who give out body appliers with their group-gift skins. Also, I have a couple of alts, and most of them have mesh bodies, because after you start using it, it's hard to go without it. You'll be surprised what it can do for your favorite shape, and it makes a lot more variation in shape possible, because if you start pushing the limits of breasts and butt, you start looking bad in the classic avatar, but there is no limit like that in the mesh bodies. And if you want a real hourglass figure, you can't get that tiny waist without one (a la Belezza Hourglass). Unfortunately, the only way to really find this out is to buy one of the bodies. I would be very surprised if you regret it. if you do struggle with it, ASK FOR HELP. None of it is as hard as it might first appear.

About the whole retiring thing - I'm glad I saw the way my dad did it. This is how it went from my point of view: My dad and I were going somewhere, and ran into one of his ex-colleagues. We talked to the guy for a while and all the guy did was complain about how much he hated retirement. It really disturbed my father. So, Dad started looking ahead and thinking about the things he liked to do, and he started spending time doing those things. He rearranged the family budget so he could save more for retirement. Then he retired, and he was having fun and relaxing and hanging out with his friends... But he missed his job, so did some part-time consulting. Some of the jobs he didn't like, so he quit doing those, and in the end he found a work/life balance -- meaning, he worked as much as he played. I think if he could have foreseen that he could arrange his life that way, he would have retired much earlier.

That is one of the lowest sales tricks in the book, and has never led to a sale in any company I've worked at, and by Grabthar's Hammer, I swear it never will.

You can still find system (non-mesh) clothes that will fit any body EXCEPT mesh bodies. Although some of them will make you look dated, there are some quite nice ones. Also, mesh clothes were originally designed for the classic avatar, so if you see mesh or fitmesh clothes that don't mention any of the mesh bodies, then those clothes will work for you. I have been having some fun looking through The Sea Hole's outlet store on marketplace (https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/76031) where (1) not only are the clothes quite nice, (2) there are almost 2000 items, (3) not even ONE of them is made for a mesh body, and (4) they are $1 each. So have a look. Even though I have a mesh body I bought a couple of carts full -- because you can only have 11 items max in a cart. (Incidentally, to fit into standard M sizes, I have to wear an extra small shape under my mesh body.) Also, there are clothes makers who make only mesh clothes, but NOT for mesh bodies. So don't avoid mesh or fitmesh clothes. If you are in a clothes shop, get the demo of an outfit you like, to see what that store typically does. If you find either fitmesh or the standard mesh sizes (XL, L, M, S, XS), then one of them ought to fit you. Don't lose heart. There are plenty of nice clothes to wear, even if you don't get a mesh body. I'll try to make a list of stores.

Never have I ever ... broken a bone.

New skin, new hair, new shape...

Being a doll And hey - nice new avatar pic, @LittleMe Jewell

Dancing at the Ohana Club

I don't know whether "cancelled" accounts ever go away. I cancelled one two years ago and still get emails telling me that someone is trying to change the password on that account. And yeah, what LittleMe said - it's the email address that ties them together.

Friends are coming over tonight -- really good friends -- but we might have to go out and meet them to wander around town together before dinner. Yeah, I love them like family and I'll be really happy once they're here, but I wish there was a way I could stay home alone until they come over. I honestly think I'd be a nicer person in RL if I could spend more time in SL.

The loss of last names. Display names are a sop. I've learned to live with them, but real names will always remain several orders of magnitude cooler.

Getting my aura touched up

The fingers and the pin really add a lot, @Madelaine McMasters.

I'd never pee if ya feets wuz burnin'