Strawberry Singh

Best & Worst Meme: A Tale Of Two Peeps

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1 Blah 1211_008

I could easily quote Charles Dickens here, but I’m not going to go the easy route. OK, so I kinda did in the title, but forgive me – Dickens is one of my favourite authors so I couldn’t let it go without mention!

Miss Berry has asked us to share our Bests & Worsts related to Second Life. At first glance, this seemed to be an easy challenge, but while thinking about the questions I realised it’s not that simple. There are so many good – and bad – things about Second Life it is hard to narrow it down. I shall, however, do my best not to make this the worst meme I’ve done!

Here’s what she asked us to do:

Meme Instructions: Copy and paste the questions and answers below, delete my answers and input your own. The twist is, the final question you need to change and make up your own best & worst that you want to share. Don’t forget to leave a link to your post in the comments of this post.

Click for more of this tale

Halloween Meme: Dance Macabre

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1 Halloween with my wifey MG

I had actually planned on using these photos for my post on Halloween, but of course, Miss Berry had to do a Halloween Meme on Monday! Something tells me she could never wait until her birthday to open her presents, either 😉

Halloween falls on Thursday this year, so I will be DJing at The River from 12-3am, kicking off the festivities for the club. My host and I had already decided to do a costume party event (there will be Lindens to be won!), so of course, when I picked out my costume I told my wifey, Cynner, that she had to come as my zombie groom. Since she couldn’t find a suitable outfit, she made one! My wifey is a very talented woman and runs her own clothing store, Impulse. Sadly, this is a one-of-a-kind outfit and isn’t for sale, but she does some really awesome biker stuff and she’s even recently added some pink to her line (yes, she can thank her wifey for that 😀 )

Before I get to the meme, let me tell you how Cyn became my wifey. I’ve told the story before, but I’m too lazy to dig up the link to the post lol

Cyn and I used to hang out at the same club. She is a bit of a naughty girl, you see, and at the time I stupidly wore a titler. One night while I was AFK, Cyn, whose boyfriend wasn’t in world and left her unsupervised, changed my titler to, “Cyn’s Wifey”. That was about three years ago, and it’s just stuck. And I’m glad – she’s one hell of a woman and I’m lucky to call her my friend – and my Wifey 🙂

1 Halloween with my wifey CR

Now, on to the meme!

Meme Instructions: Share a picture of your Halloween Costume in Second Life and/or answer the following questions about Halloween. Don’t forget to share a link to your post in the comments (of this post) and if you share a picture, feel free to add it to the Blog Memes Flickr Group.

1. Did you go trick or treating as a child? Yes, I did. I grew up on a farm so that meant Mom packing my sister and me into the car and driving from farm to farm to trick or treat. No mean feat in a Halloween costume!

2. What is your most vivid memory about Halloween? One year, my best friend and I stayed at her house with her baby while her husband took their two older children trick or treating. I dressed up in a Santa costume with a knife sticking in my heart and blood running down the front. I don’t know what was more memorable – the pillow that kept slipping out from under the jacket causing my pants to fall down or the look on the poor kid’s face who was devastated that Santa had been stabbed.

I probably should have considered the audience when I picked out that costume o.O

3. What is the scariest movie you have ever seen? I remember going to a midnight showing of some slasher movie when I was in high school, but I spent the entire time with my eyes closed and my head buried in my lap, so I don’t remember the name (thankfully!) I guess the scariest movie that I remember the title of would be Wolf Creek – probably because it is set in Australia and marketed as being based on a true story (although I don’t know if it really was).

4.Do you ever get nightmares after watching a scary movie? I rarely remember my dreams, so I’m going to have to say no.

5. Are you superstitious? If so, name at least one superstition of yours. No, I’m not really. I guess the closest I would come to being superstitious is being a bit leery when something bad happens, wondering if it will be the first of three.

6. What will you be doing for Halloween this year, if anything, in SL and RL? As I mentioned earlier, I’ll be DJing at The River from 12-3am SLT, which is 6-9pm on Halloween night for me. Chances are I won’t be heading out trick or treating after that! Halloween isn’t a big deal here in Australia and I live in a security building, but I’ll make sure I have a bag of candy handy in case any of the neighbourhood kids do venture to my door. Anyway, that’s the excuse I’m using for ordering a bag of Reese’s Miniature cups from USA Foods a couple of weeks ago 😉

And just because I know you’re dying for a closeup of my wifey and me in all our glamourous finery:

That’s my wifey!
The only time you’ll ever see me in a wedding dress in SL!

Pretty stuff I’m wearing:

Complete avatar, including dress, skin, shape, eyes and knife (it includes hair, but I wore my own): [*RG*] Zombie Bride *REDGRAVE*
Hair: Analog Dog – AD – tantrum punch by Queue Marlowe

Poses:
1st picture: {.:exposeur:.} Cute As Can Be by RubyStarlight Writer
2nd picture: Adorkable Poses: Shall We Dance by Adorkable Peapod (NLA)

Cyn’s pose is from her zombie AO and I didn’t grab the credits for my zombie bride photo 😦

Questions About Linden Lab’s TOS: Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

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1 Blah Slacey_011

This week, Strawberry Singh hasn’t really created a meme (in her words). Instead, she wants our views on the recent change to the Linden Labs TOS for Second Life users. This is one of the biggest controversies I have been aware of during my five year tenure in SL. And while I am not a creator, the change to the TOS has opened my eyes.

Instead of a list of instructions, Berry has just asked that we answer her questions, either in a blog post or in the comments of her post. She has linked to quite a few resources about the changes, so if you are unaware of what has changed, hop over to her blog and hit the links.

I admit that, while I am not a creator in Second Life, these updates have given me pause to think. Enough to consider leaving Second Life? No. But I am concerned how this could impact builders and designers in SL, particularly those who earn their livelihood from SL. I would be saddened to wake up to a Second Life that no longer included such designers as Onyx LeShelle, Cory Edo, Gospel Voom, Truth Hawks, Siddean Munro or Hart Larsson (to name just a few). Losing even a few of those creators could heavily impact the bottom line of the SL economy. I shudder to imagine it.

I had a conversation with my brother the other day about the TOS. It happened because he is a builder and while checking out his latest house, I casually mentioned that Linden Labs actually owns it. He had no idea what I was talking about. I explained briefly about the change to the TOS and his response was, “You actually read the TOS before accepting?”

That is a good lead-in to the questions Berry has posed.

1. Do you usually read the TOS thoroughly before you hit accept? No, I don’t. And I find it a bit underhanded that they don’t include a synopsis of the changes, as most reputable online companies do (Ebay, Paypal, hell, even Facebook offers this when they make changes.) I am a bit cynical so it makes me wonder if LL chooses to skip this, knowing that most people don’t read the full TOS – particularly when one has to determine the changes for themselves without even an indication of which sections have been affected. Unless you have an extensive knowledge of the previous version, you could read the entire document and not even know what is now different. It’s easier just to tick the box to accept the changes so you can log in and go about your SLife – regardless of the consequences.

2. How do you feel about the new LL TOS changes, specially from August 15th and section 2.3. Aside from feeling LL has tried to sneak these changes past their users by not giving an outline of the changes, my feeling is that they are setting themselves up to take the work of their user base as assets for other games they have (or may) develop. Despite their cries of, “Oh, that’s not what we meant!”, I have to believe that their legal department knew full well what they were doing when they drafted these changes. According to one blog I read on the subject, attorneys have said that it would take very little to change the wording to allay the fears of SL residents – especially its creators.

If they didn’t mean it…then change it. I’m sure those lawyers are on retainer, if not actually on staff.

3.Do the changes affect you directly? No, these changes only affect me indirectly as a consumer in SL. That said, I no longer upload my photos into SL unless it is for a client shoot or my own profile picture. I used to regularly update the photos in our home, but no longer. I don’t believe LL would have any use for my photos, but I’m not giving them the opportunity to take my images just because they reside on their servers.

4. What do you think people should do about this new change? I support the creators who are speaking out against this change. I have heard more than one activist suggest that the only way to force a change is to mount a test case in court. However, it has been suggested that simply bringing a case against LL for what they might do would stand very little chance of winning. Others have mentioned a class-action suit against LL, but again, I wonder how effective that would be if none of the intellectual property has been used by LL in any way. And I believe everyone should now read any changes to the TOS, or at least find a synopsis of the changes put together by people who have read them. This time the change is geared at creators, but who knows what future changes will target?

I should have stuck with the short answer. I haven’t a clue.

5. Are you or have you ever thought about leaving Second Life? What would you do with your time/blogs/career if you ever did? Because of this change? No. I enjoy my time in SL. It gives me a creative outlet both through my photography and DJing. I’m sure a day will come when I no longer feel the desire to log in. What I do with my time will be something I determine when I cross that bridge. However, unless I moved on to another virtual world where I could continue my photography, I cannot see any reason to continue blogging.

Speaking of creators, the outfit I am wearing is from two designers taking part in this Tuesday’s SLebrity SLection Street Sale at the Cosmopolitan Sales Room. This is a one-day 50L vs 50% off sale, so if you’ve accepted the TOS and can log in, hop over to pick up some bargains!

Pretty stuff I’m wearing:

*Tank & Bolero: Part of SLACY’S SIMPLY PLAID & LEATHER BLACK Outfit (skirt not worn) by Sabrina Hoyer (Available at SLebrity SLection Street Sale on Tuesday, October 22)
*Skirt: blah.BLAH.blah*MESH*Kimmie Skirt-12 Colors Via Hud by Lyric Derryth (Available at SLebrity SLection Street Sale on Tuesday, October 22)
Earrings: Amacci Earrings – Stripes II – Bronze by Carina Larsen
Hair: Analog Dog .b – pornado sangria by Queue Marlowe
Skin: [PXL] Creations – [PXL] JADE SK Bare Lips MEB C2 by Hart Larsson
Makeup: [PXL] Creations – [PXL]JADE SK Smokey Eyes (tattoo) by Hart Larsson
Hands: Slink Mesh Hands (av) Casual by Siddean Munro
Hand appliers:[PXL] Creations – [ PXL ] Slink Hands Appliers SK by Hart Larsson
Eyes: Amacci Gaze Eyes – Ocean Blue by Carina Larsen
Lashes: Mon Cheri *MC* “Falsies” Eyelash by Freya Oliveri

Pose: aDORKable Poses: Attitude by Adorkable Peapod (available on Marketplace only)

*Review copies