Where did I get these landmarks?

Cleaning up my inventory (for the millionth time it seems) i found some LMs to places i am certain i have never been:


Kind of a floating hobbit house and nicely done. i have no idea if someone owns it but it looks like a meeting place. There is no bed, no kitchen, etc. Just a big, mod looking chair and tons of pillows.

The other place was an art gallery that featured famous (or semi-famous) works of art done in SL or with an SL avatar plunked into the original. Kinda cute but after you've seen it once, you've seen it enough.

Kind of like the 'Pines

i had this idea tonight that my time in SL has turned out to be like my time in the Philippines was. It has been full of the most foul vulgarities and pollution and in the midst of all of it, i have managed to uncover a few gems and have had an amazing experience.

Total bugger tonight!

i logged in and out about 9 times in 15 minutes tonight. i'm not sure if it is a weather problem messing with power lines or the Internet or just SL being goofy again but i finally gave up in a fit of near SL strangulation.

Sorry Jan!

Late and overdue

i have a friend in SL whom i have known for at least a year, probably more. She felt a bit put off by the fact that Mistress had me uncheck that box on my Friend's List that shows if i am online. She would make friendly attempts at conversation but being in Europe (and me being in Asia for most of the year so far), our conversations were limited to offline IMs, with her usually being the one to initiate things.

i am pretty sure i have lost her as a friend because she lost patience with the challenges of being a friend with me. She had to endure:

• The friend's list check-box issue
  
• The utterly opposite time zones
• My short responses to her 'pings'
  
• The cultural differences?
• My busy-ness

That last one... that's the tricky one. i am as busy as i am because i don't manage my SL time as well as i could and perhaps should. True, i have to constantly be blogging and Mistress almost always has me doing some project for Her but i should make time in all that for people since they are what really matters in either world - RL or SL. Kind of blurs the lines a bit, doesn't it?

Mistress has been utterly busy lately and i haven't seen Her since July 9th. That is the longest i have gone without seeing Her since we met. i went from missing Her to hoping that all is well with Her to feeling deprived of Her and so on.

Every day i felt a little more needy and felt constrained in telling Her that for some reason. Something about being with Her always makes things so clear for me. Probably because She is a strong personality and is rather direct with me.

i love her and love being with Her in a very... not romantic way... not sexual at all but... it's admiration. Being with Her is almost like being with a parent or guardian; everything is right and proper when she is there and i flounder in a sea of gacktiness when she is away, especially for so long.

i have also been wondering how things will be for Jan in SL. Will She spend any where near the time here that she has? /me shrugs. We'll see i guess.

Managing things post Manila

i guess i got spoiled in a way while i was in the Philippines. With my family (small but still a family) so far away, i got used to being able to log in to SL whenever i wanted since i wasn't taking time from anyone or anything else that i cared about.

Now that i'm home it's quite different and i made a decision to log in according to a schedule (every other day). Honestly it was as much my idea as Mistress' but the point is i am spending less time in front the computer and more time in the pool or reading with Mr. Gackt, walking Lucy, going out with friends... all the things that you do in a normal life.

And i'm happier because of it.

And it also means that seeing and hearing from people that i care about in SL is even more special since i see them less frequently, especially when those people are busy themselves... getting married or just having a challenging go of it in RL.

i'm glad to have my RL and SL somewhat in order.

Hanging around

i sat around for a while doing that Mistress hates that i do - sitting around. When i realized what i was doing, i went to the Ranch and almost immediately got into a nice conversation with a man from Canada.

He had a blank profile and had only been in SL for about 2 months so i launched into my standard newbie sermon:

• Put something in your profile
• Get an AO
• Stop with the constant lol-ing!
• etc.
  

In the middle of it all he asked if i was sure that i was submissive. It seems odd to me that people don't feel that a submissive person could or should give advice. i wasn't trying to control him; i was just trying to help.

At some point while we are talking he asked how long i had been submissive. Is this something that people learn to be or something that people are. Is it like enjoying a flavor of ice cream or more like being left handed? i've always felt that i was born like this and the experiences i've had in life have brought it out in me. It isn't something i decided to be. It is something i am.

On tonight's episode:

i started working on the graphics project again. It turns out that SL is a fantastically complicated piece of engineering. Who'd have imagined that?

Cross your fingers for me on this one. Once i am done, we'll all know what things like disk cache size mean and where to set it.

Today's major events in SL:

Major might be overstating it a bit but today i worked on RLV again. i re-read Marine's blog about the things that are giving Mistress trouble and discovered a couple of things:

• i can access the folder myself! This will make getting it fixed lots easier and quicker.
• The problem doesn't seem to be with the names of the folders. Folders are apparently named just so they show up in a particular order in the menu system that RLV uses.

i need to get out of mouse look so i can work on this more effectively. i fear that this will be harder than it sounds.

i am waiting to talk with Mistress about a couple of important things and will of course, make updates to the blog accordingly.

my lines are done but RLV is still a...

...bugger.

i had a long paused conversation with Jan tonight. The long pauses were the times that i was typing on lines and She was working on making a pair of hose.

She even helped me with my lines:

"I will not chew gum in class."

i thanked Her for the help but expressed some doubt that we could slip that one past Mistress.

More bad news...

i forgot a major item this morning:

• i have to do 100 lines about why i am stuck in mouse look because i forgot why i am stuck in mouse look.

Good news and bad news...

• Good news: i saw Jan today for the first time in forever.
• Good news: i also saw Mistress today for the first time in a long time.
• Bad news: They were online at the same time so i had to say goodbye to Jan after only a few minutes.
• Bad news: my RLV folder still isn't working like it should.
• Bad news: i will be in mouse look for at least a little while longer.
• Good news: i remembered to put bullet points in my blog entry, just like Mistress likes.
• Question: If they made bullet points look like a bad hairdo, would they be called mullet points?

In today's exciting episode...

i spent a little time waiting to see if Mistress and i could test my RLV prefix/suffix schemes and hoped to see Jan maybe for a few minutes.

What i left with was high hopes for next time!

Another RLV suggestion

[6:55] xx Reyes: (Saved Mon Jul 06 03:10:20 2009) sorry i missed your question earlier. if you have not already read it Marine has a detailed blog entry on the subject of RLV folders at http://realrestraint.blogspot.com/2008/08/objects-sharing-tutorial.html and http://realrestraint.blogspot.com/2008/10/shared-outfits-tutorial-part-2.html
[6:55] xx Reyes: (Saved Mon Jul 06 03:11:32 2009) i have seen some collars, or maybe it was the Mars Ring; i forget now but one of them required subfolders to also begin with a "#" sign...
[6:55] xx Reyes: (Saved Mon Jul 06 03:11:54 2009) and in general the items don't show up but the foldernames do...



So i checked Marine's blog and found this:

• Every folder that does not contain an outfit (i.e. it contains only other folders) begins with a ">" so that its name comes first in the list, and the user knows there is more to it when clicking on the button.
• Every folder that contains an outfit (even if it contains other sub-folders, for instance if it has no-mod items) does not have any special character in it, and is sorted normally, going after the ones with ">" in the list.
• Every folder that contains an outfit, and is contained into a folder that contains an outfit too (ok it's getting complicated) is like an "option", an "addon" to the aforementioned outfit, so it's getting a "+" sign at the beginning. For instance, "+ Corset" to my "Leather mini" outfit, since I may or may not wear the corset part.

So far i have two theories for labeling RLV folders waiting to be tested:

• My Outfits folder is labelled with a suffix (... at the end)
• My Pants folder is labelled as per above.

Have we tried this?

i found this on the web:

Structured Inventory Menu (EasyStructure):
You have so much subfolders in #RLV that you want to structure them? Then give each subfolder you want to see in one submenu a prefix, starting with '#'.Example:#RLV
- #RR collar
- #RR Gag
- #RR Blindfold
- #RR Police
- #RR Shackles
- #Dari Gag
- #Dari BlindFold...

The Attach inv menu will then contain a button 'RR...' and a button 'Dari...'. Pressing that buttons you will get submenus containing the buttons for each folder.

i'm not sure if this refers to the main subfolder or the folders within a subfolder.

Also, i am truly weary of being in mouse look for the last week + but i shouldn't complain. There are many worse things that might have been done to me.

Emilee Gackt sighs...

i got busy with a fun day off yesterday just after i logged off of SL. We went shopping, browsing, did a lot of hanging out, found some time for nap, went swimming, ate watermelon in the pool... it was a really fun day. The one thing it was missing was my blog entry from yesterday when i was with Mistress.

i really hate typing lines. REALLY REALLY hate typing lines. i should quite complaining though since one of my very few blog followers has to do her lines by hand. Ack!

Anyway, i'll probably start typing my lines even before Mistress tells me to start. That kind of lessens the shame and embarrassment somehow. Like 'Yes, i know i forgot my first and most basic rule but i am already taking steps to prevent it happening again."

So here it is, a day late from yesterday:

As Mistress was reading Her emails and other things, she said to me "Go make some tea." i literally started to get up in RL and go make some iced tea. It took me a moment to realize how unusual that would be and thank goodness i had the sense not to ask Her. i 'made' Her a cup of tea* in SL using emotes. She has always been a better emoter than i am and so when She asks me to do things like this i always feel self-conscious about it.

Mistress says things sometimes that boggle me. Since i am forbidden to think am i supposed to just accept what She says as fact or can i dig a little deeper to consider what She is getting at and how she means things?

[8:00] Jacquelin Mazi: you are a child... out of control... needing discipline... guidance.. structure... and Someone to watch over you

Am i really that bad? Out of control? That makes it sound like i am so... out of control. So i asked Her and She said:

[8:03] Jacquelin Mazi: consider... how many times I have needed to punish you in the past year or so... consider all the things you would be doing if you did not have me to put a 'short leash' on you... and there lil gackty one.. is your answer... *taps your nose to accent her statement*

i view myself as usually pretty good, sometimes not so bad and She views me as out of control. i guess that gives me some incentive to improve.

i am STILL trying to figure out the RLV problem with the invisible subfolders. i have one thing in mind to try but one of the challenges i face with it is that i need Mistress to test what i try to see if it worked so it will be slow progress until i find the solution.

Despite all the challenges, my time with Mistress is so many things to me. It is the most stressful, annoying, and challenging few hours of my week and it is so compelling that once i log off after seeing Mistress i am already looking forward to seeing Her again. i sometimes worry that i put a burden on Her by feeling that way but there are two problems with that:

• It is thinking
• She wants me to feel that way

*Note to self: Mistress likes Earl Gray.

Mouselook is SO...

...bloody annoying but how is it possible that i keep forgetting about it when i log in? Everything is all black for me every time i log in and the first idea i have is that Mistress has me in some box in the cellar, all locked up for doing something dumb. i suppose that is actually partially true in a very small way but still, it seems odd even to me that each time i log in i am surprised to find myself dealing with mouselook again, which is a serious bugger.

i'm still working on trying to get my subfolders labelled and so far the advice i have gotten is to do just what we've already tried. Additional serious bugger.

[6:56] Rowan Tunwarm: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/RestrainedLifeAPI#Shared_Folders - i already checked this and we've tried it

[6:56] Addy Broome: There's no "standard"... Yep, could have guessed that.

[6:57] Cherle Tigerpaw: I prefix mine with a > Possibility for next time i see Mistress; Be optimistic about it gackty!

[6:57] Addy Broome: Only the first folder has to have a # (#RLV). Yep, figured that.

[6:57] Addy Broome: If you prefix with a dot (.folder) it won't show up in the listing. Yep, found that out by labelling every single one of the subfolders with a dot.

i told Mistress i'd be online at 6 this morning and i didn't wake up until about 6:30. Oops. Not sure what happened there actually. i distinctly remember setting my alarm for just before 6 but when i checked it just now it was set for 9:45 pm. The buggers are just flying around here today!