Quinn Morani

Roche Runo wrote: But I would like to draw attention to some errors (no doubt by acccident) that appeared in the OP's original essay. First, Disney land has held gay pride days. So sexuality is found at Disneyland. (Not sure if they still hold them but I know they did cause I was surprised to hear it happen. Actually, Disney has nothing to do with Gay Days. They don't organize or endorse the event; they merely allow it to happen. They can't exactly ban gays from the park just for being gay. That would be discrimination. The Gay Days activities are independently organized and mostly take place at Disney as a high profile location to draw attention to the community in what was originally intended to be a positive way. Here is a history of the event straight from the organizers' website: http://www.gaydays.com/History/history.html And this is a pretty balanced article of both the positive and negative sides of the event: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1995839-1,00.html

I am late to the party, as usual, but I was directed specifically to check out some of your posts here in the Community Feedback forum, Del. This one is spot on. Living in the Central Florida area, Disney is everywhere here. They are by far the largest employer in this area, and I know quite a few Cast Members, both "on stage" employees and those who work behind the scenes. Professionally, I've done a lot of work with Disney over the years. I can tell you from personal experience that they devote a lot of resources to maintaining their squeaky clean image, down to their strict appearance guidelines for employees. Because of some of my insider knowledge of Disney, I can unequivocally state that Second Life is no Disney. Disney is fantastic escapism for what it is. I'm a huge fan. We often have annual passes. But its core mission and audience are completely different from Second Life. Disney is aimed at kids and kids at heart. To be sure, some elements of this can be found in Second Life. I consider myself a "kid at heart" who enjoys having fun and looks on in wonder at all the brilliant creativity that takes place in SL. But SL achieves this in a way that is completely incompatible with Disney's magical, innocent, pixie dust illusions. I don't take part in the "adult" aspects of SL, but I couldn't agree more that trying to force SL into the Disney mold is a huge mistake. Even if I'm not personally engaged in their areas of interest within SL, I treasure the diverse friendships I've made and appreciate the glimpses those friends offer into their worlds. These are friends I'd never have made if SL wasn't exactly what it is. As for Facebook, I love it. For me, it's fantastic for keeping up with RL family, friends, and even business contacts whom I've gotten to know socially. But it's completely counter to the anonymous nature of Second Life. I'm not opposed to people having the option to link their SL avatars to their RL Facebook accounts, so long as that is what it remains... optional. But don't force FB integration on the majority who have no desire to link their SL experience with their RL identity. I do understand the appeal of a FB marketing strategy when so much of the world is linked into FB. It's telling that so many product ads I see on TV and in print these days promote companies' FB pages rather than their own websites. But the conflicting objectives when SL users want to protect their RL identities and FB disallows anything but RL information means such an alliance can never work as a social tool on a broad scale. I wish I had some insightful wisdom to contribute to the discussion, but instead all I've offered is a rehash of what's already been stated, as well as what I think is the longest post I've made in this new forum. And since the length of my posts are often directly proportional to the amount of nonsense they contain, I apologize for rambling. :smileywink:

@Dana, I love your badge! @Del, agree completely, avatar join date would be much more useful info than the join date of the old Jive forum. Please make it happen, LL. Pretty please?

Cali Souther wrote: Sandra Frascati wrote: Jeesus where do you live? In the UK the end of the school day signals massive amounts of extreme language from pre pubescent teenagers on buses, in shops, in parks everywhere. Yeah ... same here, where I live in SoCal USA.... f'bombs be a flyin! + all the rest.. I have to admit, I don't like hearing it out of a middle school child's mouth. I've never heard my kids use any swear words, but my daughter hears all kinds of rough language now that she's in middle school that she had never heard before. It's sad that they feel they have to talk to each other like that. She claims it's the only thing she doesn't like about middle school.

Twitter and other forums. This forum is rarely my first stop anymore unless I have received a notification of a PM. Sadly, I get much more excited about PMs than about any of the threads going on here right now.

CiaoBella Mirabella wrote: YEAH QUINN!! Welcome Back :smileyvery-happy:.. Hope you enjoyed your vacation!! Yes, I had a fantastic time, but I promised others I wouldn't rub it in too much so I'll be good.

Darrius Gothly wrote: Quinn Morani wrote: I'm back! I'm back! I was just on vacation for a week, honest, but I'm really back now, I promise! :smileyvery-happy: Welcome Home!! We missed you! (Mainly cuz we ran outta clean dishes and clothes. *wink*) Typical. I take a week off and the whole place turns into a dump. :smileywink:

Pep wrote: You mean you had the opportunity to have Wasted's virtual child and you blew it? Pep (is astonished.) As soon as I saw "spanish," Wasted was my first thought too.

I too miss a lot of the people who were regular posters here. They've scattered all over. Some are on Twitter and others are on various third party forums. And some have migrated nowhere and can only be found inworld. I'm nostalgic for the community that had formed here. Ima, I agree that "disjointed" is the perfect word to describe the new forum. I never know which subforums to look in to find interesting threads. It's too splintered.

Marianne McCann wrote: I've not used that palette since 2006. Using the keyboard shortcuts make for a much better (more fluid) experience. :-) I forced myself to learn to the use the keyboard shortcuts when fiddling with the first V2.0, when the camera controls were no longer on the same palette and you had to switch back and forth (since fixed, thankfully). It took me a while to get used to the keyboard, but once I did, it's now the only way I control the camera. One less window taking up real estate on my screen.

I don't actually remember much of my first day experience. I didn't have any mentors early on. I was completely self taught. I do remember that I very quickly figured out how to TP out of whatever area I rezzed in, before I had done any of the tutorials so I had no idea what I was doing at first. I eventually found a public tutorial area via search where I had my one and only experience with being griefed. I logged out and when I when I came back later, the place was empty so I was able to read the tutorials in peace. Later via search, I found a newbie orientation event hosted by a resident who has since left SL. Most of what he covered there was stuff I had already figured out on my own, but that's where I made my first friends and joined my first SL group. I mentioned also being interested in events for writers, and another attendee at the meeting pointing me in the right direction for that. That newbie meeting was my first social experience in SL and I felt welcome, which is what encouraged me to stick around. Mostly I was just trying to get the lay of the lay of the land, understanding what SL was all about and whether or not it was a viable platform for some work-related activities. A year and a half later I'm still undecided on that, but it doesn't really matter since work is no longer my primary reason for being here.

I don't open each subforum in a tab. As a couple of others have already mentioned, I browse the forums in one tab and open individual threads that look interesting in their own tabs. Usually it's only a small handful, but since I've been away for a while and am just now trying to catch up, I have quite a few open. Maybe 20+. Doubt I'll respond in all of them, though.

Keli Kyrie wrote: How can we plan HippieStock II if people don't get their pixels back here. :smileysurprised: I'm back! I'm back! I was just on vacation for a week, honest, but I'm really back now, I promise! :smileyvery-happy:

Pep wrote: I sometimes wish I could hide my identity from the moderators. Pep Adding a vote for Cerise's Blue Goo theme, which adds a soft halo around the name making it visible against any badge background. @Pep, the Blue Goo theme changes the background color of the forum, so I was able to see your white text with no special tricks.

Yay, so glad you found a team and also that you got your donation box up at the hangout! I'll definitely look for it the next time I'm there to make a donation.

Mags Indigo wrote: Quinn Morani wrote: Going to listen to you DJ at the hangout, of course! And I'm going to try to drag Zeke along too. Oh, and about that corned beef and cabbage? Blech! But Zeke likes it. Ugh. It must be in his blood. His ancestry is Irish on both sides. Our RL last name is Irish. Piece of trivia that you probably already know but others may not... according to Zeke, I probably should have bought an orange dress to wear tonight instead of the green one. Apparently Catholics wear green but Protestants are supposed to wear orange on St. Patty's Day. Who knew? I'm sorry but... Americans have such strange ideas... Corned beef is a New England thing and I've never known anyone to wear orange on St Patricks Day (unless they wanted a fight). Where do you people hear these things??? Looking forward to seeing you and Zeke there :smileytongue: Other people were talking about corned beef and cabbage in this thread first, and I'M the one who gets labeled a strange American? I see how it is. Sheesh. :smileytongue: As for the orange/green thing, I've never seen anyone wear orange on St. Patrick's Day either. I'm just repeating what Zeke told me. You'll have to take it up with him if he joins us at the hangout tonight. But a quick Google search at least confirms that it's not an unknown idea. I didn't dig deep enough to discover where it originated, though.

Going to listen to you DJ at the hangout, of course! And I'm going to try to drag Zeke along too. Oh, and about that corned beef and cabbage? Blech! But Zeke likes it. Ugh. It must be in his blood. His ancestry is Irish on both sides. Our RL last name is Irish. Piece of trivia that you probably already know but others may not... according to Zeke, I probably should have bought an orange dress to wear tonight instead of the green one. Apparently Catholics wear green but Protestants are supposed to wear orange on St. Patty's Day. Who knew?

Quinn Morani wrote: I just received a group notice about a Relay For Life fundraiser event tonight. Thought I'd post it here in case anyone is interested in attending. I don't have the SLURL handy since I'm at work. Will come back and post it later. ************************* Group Notice From: Flying Armadillo & Texas Patio Good morning Dillos! Just a reminder that tonight at 7 p.m. SLT we have a special RELAY FOR LIFE LIVE EVENT - Popular singer Wytchwhisper Sadofsky will perform for us and donate all tips will go to the SL RELAY FOR LIFE project . Please come and join us for this awesome cause and help us make a difference in finding a cure for Cancer!! This notice has an attachment. Here is the SLURL for anyone who would like to attend tonight's RFL event: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Tarnburg/190/74/26

In RL I'm 5'3" on a tall day, so in SL I wanted to be a bit on the taller side. My height slider was set at 75, which I didn't think was unreasonably extreme. But when watching the video that Suzy shot a couple of weeks ago of a few of us dancing, I realized that I'm taller than I thought I was in comparison to everyone else. So I've recently made a few adjustments and shaved off a couple of inches, according the Phoenix. I may continue to tweak as trends in avatar height change so that I stay generally where I want to be relative to everyone else.

Lizzy Saintlouis wrote: Yes, in preferences turn off local lights. Also you may want to consider using windlight settings (world -> sky settings). I particularly like Nam's Optimal Skin and Prim setting. I use Nam's Optimal Skin and Prim almost exclusively, too.

I don't know if she still does, but Vivianne Hobble (I think that's the correct name, not in-world to verify) used to give out a free outfit of your choice from her store for avis under 30 days. That's how I got one of my favorite dresses.

Chris Norse would really be the best person to ask for permission to set out an RFL donation box at the Hangout, but he's been away from SL for a couple of months. I know for sure that both Sylvia Tamalyn and Theia Magic are in touch with him though, so either of them would probably be the next best option. Next year we should really plan far enough ahead to do a forum team. It would be awesome to do something like this as a team with our friends here. You can definitely count me in on something like that.

Keli Kyrie wrote: Yes she is 8pm, she IMed me this morning. If I remember what I saw on the sign at the hangout last night The St. Patty's Day party starts at 6pm. /me busily scribbles in both events for her calendar on Thursday night. Maybe I'll even be able to drag Zeke along to the hangout, if not to hear Lillie sing since that may be too late for him given how early we have to get up the next morning. And Keli, I was so busy seizing the opportunity to be excited that you're finally back in-world so that I can friend you, that I neglected to offer any advice on your original question. In my opinion, if the friendships meant anything to you, as others have already said it's worth the effort to give them the benefit of the doubt, even at risk that their response may not be what you want to hear. I'd just send a polite, non-confrontational, drama-free IM letting them know why you were gone and that you had no way to reach them to let them know, but that you're back now and would love to re-connect if they're willing. If they don't take you up on it, let it go. Quite honestly if I were in your shoes, there are some people on my friend list whom I'd make that small effort with, and some whom I might not. In fact I have noticed a couple of names go missing on my friend list, but they aren't people I ever spent much time communicating with, so I didn't inquire.

Is Lillie performing again on Thursday? If so, I'll definitely have to put in an appearance as a backup dancer. Thursday is also the FC Hangout St. Patty's Day party where Mags is DJing, so I'm planning to stop by there as well. Either way I'll send you LMs and TPs galore. I won't be able to stay out too late though. I have an extremely early flight to catch the next morning.