Purple Fans Everywhere, Rejoice!

You may recall, a month or so ago, that I encouraged Reina Quine, the Princess of Purple, to join the ever-expanding community of SL bloggers.

SCORE!

You may also notice the domain of that blog site…Reina has been graciously sponsored by her true friend Mera Pixel, who is (of course, now, forever, and I don’t care what color she happens to be wearing at the time ) the Queen of Purple. The two of them make a good team…although, of course, Reina and Patience also make a good team. Reina’s just a good team player all around. She even helped us out when Frogg and Jaycatt played the GR the first time…she spread the word to their fan club and the Live Music Enthusiasts group for me, and ensured we had a sim-packing success.

The Princess, of course, has relatively modest goals in mind:

[...] I don’t intend to have many thoughts worth committing to print, being that I’m completely satisfied with my position as a useless underachiever in SL itself. More than likely this blog will read like a low-rate tabloid, chronicling the antics of my zany friends, any Pati*Rei party plans, occassional musings on music, and, above all…shopping purchases. That’s right dear readers, stay glued to this page, for lessons will be learned, love will be shared, lives will be changed!

Don’t be too hasty, Reina…when you start blogging, sometimes, the damnedest things happen. Take it from one what knows. Meanwhile, Quine-tessential will have an honored place among the elite bloggers of the Evans Avenue Exit blogroll.

(How apropos…I’m wearing my new purple polo shirt today, the one I found at the Stein Mart in Poway, thinking to myself, “Mera and Reina would be proud!” In fact, my wardrobe today is very close to my new “Default Erbo 2.1″ look in-world…maybe it brought good luck. Or purple luck, at any rate.)

A Wizard Cometh

I was pleased to find out, via poking at the new Web tab, that Merle Widget now has an SL blog. I’ve known Merle almost since I was a rank newbie…he’s been on hiatus for a lot of that time, but has now returned to the fold, and spent some time hanging around at the Gin Rummy. He claims to not have a lot to write about, but I’m sure he’ll have something soon…possibly scripting-related.

He calls himself “The Digital Hermit.” I added “Wizard” to that title, because I know him to be a cunning manufacturer of scripted gadgetry. So Merle, even if you do wind up writing that “Ten Reasons Why I $#@ing Hate LSL” post, you’re now among the few, the proud, the Evans Avenue Exit blogroll members!

More Linkage: A Discovery

Seems Second Life blogs are sprouting like mushrooms these days…and I have a new addition for the elite Evans Avenue Exit blogroll. But first, a little story.

One day about a month or so ago, Danielle and I were out looking around for new stores to shop at. We stopped at one store which was extremely laggy (I can’t even remember what it was now) and Danielle begged me to find someplace better. I called up the Search dialog, typed a random string–”asa”–into the Places search, and spotted, among the results, a relatively low-trafficked store named Casa del Shai. What the heck…I bounced over there and fired off a TP to Danielle to allow her to follow.

What we discovered was a store with some high-quality clothing, reasonably priced. And, by sheer luck, we discovered the owner as well, Shai Delacroix. She turned out to be a sweet young lady who stayed and chatted with us for some time. We finally departed with a new name on our Friends Lists, new landmarks in our inventory, and the resolve to return. And return we have–not only have I purchased some of her good casual menswear, a young lady friend of mine has gone absolutely gaga over Shai’s dresses. She practically lives in a couple of them…though she goes back frequently enough to pick up any additions. (She tells me that, in Shai’s new Aphrodite Cocktail Dress, she really looks like a goddess…)

Flash forward…and while checking out profiles of people on my Friends List, to see who among them might be using the new Web tab in the profile, I stumbled on a link to the official Shai blog. On WordPress, yet! It took me about two seconds to decide to add her to the Evans Avenue Exit blogroll…and just minutes more to decide on her title: “The Most Serendipitous Discovery.” And now you know why.

Visit her blog, and visit her store. She deserves the business.

Good Way To Resume Posting

It’s always good to have a good thing to resume posting with after a small hiatus…and it was pleasing to get the news that another Shelterite has joined the ranks of SL bloggers. Patience Xie, welcome to the Evans Avenue Exit blogroll.

I most often see Patience in the company of Reina Quine, shockedfrog Shriner, and/or Alexander Lapointe; she was present last night as shocked and I matched wits over the Shelter in Exile’s SLTrivia board, among other times I’ve seen her, so she meets the criteria for the blogroll. She’s well known for her quick wit, but is also a great helper of newbies, as are many Shelter regulars.

Her introductory post says about her, “She is a tempermental girl named after a virtue she sorely lacks.” That gave me a hook for a title for her: “The Ironically Named.” Yet there’s something delightfully old-fashioned about the name…it’s almost like a name I’d expect from a resident of Caledon. (Pati, if you’ve never seen it, it’s definitely a must-see; I find it visually soothing and quite charming. And they’re expanding rapidly…I think they’re getting up to 13 sims now. That’s at least triple the size that fair isle was when I first joined…)

Do check her new blog out, if you get a chance…and keep your eye on her.

Encounter with Another Blogger

Osprey Therian was kind enough to drop by the Gin Rummy this evening, probably encouraged by tonight’s DJ, Jensel Karlfeldt.  As I’ve seen her blog on WorldofSL before, I’ve now added her to the ever-growing list of elite bloggers that is the Evans Avenue Exit blogroll.

Before writing this entry, I spent some time over at her store, her art gallery, and some of the locations in her Picks.  One important thing I noticed: She likes cats.  Anyone who likes cats must have something good going for them.   (I say this as one whose lap is frequently occupied by a cat during my SL sessions.)  Her shop is full of some good period outfits, and I’ll certainly drop by there when the GR decides to run a medieval event, which will probably happen sooner or later.  As for her link title…I name her exactly as she names herself, “The Elven Artisan.”

Besides all of the above, she’s cracked the two-year mark in SL…which, I’m certain, means she has a few good things to say about the state of the world here and there.  Make sure and check it out…

An Oversight, Corrected

I’ve been remiss…there’s someone I’ve needed to add to the blogroll here for awhile.  And he did show up to a Frogg & Jaycatt show at the Gin Rummy once, so my requirement of an in-world encounter has been technically met…so, welcome, Prokofy Neva, to the Evans Avenue Exit blogroll.

The tag I’ve given Prokofy, after some thought, is “The Loyal Opposition.” He’s known for his contrarian opinions about SL and how Linden Labs is doing running it, and how things can be made better. Many people consider him a gadfly, but it’s obvious he really cares about SL, and wants to see it succeed.   He’s articulate and passionate, which are exactly the kind of qualities you want in a Loyal Opposition.  His response to Tateru Nino’s latest post on Second Life Insider about the support of newbies (response #1) is a prime example.
Every political environment–and SL is certainly that–needs a Loyal Opposition to keep it on its toes, and Prokofy is a fine example thereof.  I’m going to keep a closer eye on what he has to say.  Love him or hate him, you can’t ignore him…not and remain well-informed about the state of SL.

Come…Join us…Don’t be afraid…

I wasn’t the first SL blogger I know to jump on the WordPress bandwagon…nor am I the last, it seems.  The latest addition to the list of migrants from Blogger to WordPress is Shaunny Stovall, who joins her sister AllieKat as well as a bunch of us hosting our SL blogs on WordPress.com.  Another important group of bloggers use WordPress software, but host it on their own servers; this list includes Mera, Ms. Ordinal Malaprop, and the latest addition: Torley herself, long a resident of Blog-City but switching over to gain more experience with WordPress (which, in fact, the Grand Unified Linden Blog also uses).
Most of the bloggers I know that remain on Blogger are either still new to blogging (Shockwave, Bay), seem to have given it up (Val, Q), or have moved to the new Blogger beta, which provides more advanced features similar in some respects to WordPress (Jacek, Tateru, Akela).  The original Blogger was a decent enough system, but sluggish; WordPress is better performing but not as flexible with its template system. (To get around that problem, I may go the self-hosted route myself eventually…)
And I’d like to take this opportunity to express my hope that one particular Resi would start a blog of her own: Reina Quine, if you’re out there, I’d love to be able to see what the Princess of Purple is thinking.  Maybe you’ve already taken the plunge; if so, once I find that blog, a spot on the Evans Avenue Exit blogroll is ready and waiting. If not…well, I can just reiterate the title of this post.

Welcome, Shockwave

Danielle informs me that Shockwave Plasma has joined the ranks of SL bloggers, and I know I’ve run into her in world somewhere, right? So she joins the elite band of bloggers on the Evans Avenue Exit blogroll.
As Danielle recounts, she might have quit SL altogether early on had she not run into Shockwave, who brought her to The Shelter, where she met all kinds of wonderful people, including me, and…well, you see where I’m going. That’s part of why I have her down as “Danielle’s Sensei.” Sensei, in Japanese, means “teacher,” but it has a wide variety of connotations, including the guy at the local dojo who kicks your ass until you learn. Shockwave’s guidance was an essential lesson for Danielle, not just in where to go, but in the fact that SL wasn’t as bleak as it was appearing to her right at that moment.

Shockwave’s blog title, The Shockwave Writer, is a nice allusion to the title of one of my favorite SF novels, John Brunner’s The Shockwave Rider. It’s well known for being an early ancestor of the “cyberpunk” genre, and introduced the term “worm” as applied to a self-replicating computer program that uses networks to propagate itself.  Interestingly enough, at one point in that novel, the main character makes a statement: “Ah, you don’t have to know everything; you just have to know where to find it.”  In today’s modern world, with Google and other Internet search engines, that statement has never been truer.  Pamela just proved it by looking up the answer to a logic problem her friends overseas sent her…

From Sweden To The Blogroll

I ran into Bay Shiras last night over at the Shelter, so now I can legitimately blogroll him.   In his first entry, he says:

I don’t know if I’m getting a bad rep at the shelter. I’ve been called a player at times, and the other evening somebody called me a pimp! Hehe. For some reason, I didn’t mind…

So I gave him the title, “The Swedish Playa of The Shelter.” (He may not know that “playa” is the proper spelling. )  He’s an insightful guy; go read what he has to say.

And, I almost forgot: Jaycatt Nico has a blog, too.   And, of course, I know him; hell, Danielle and I have booked him and Frogg Marlowe at the Gin Rummy twice, and both shows were well-attended.  If you ever get a chance to see one of their shows, run, don’t walk, and check it out, as they have a tendency to fill sims….

Metablogging: Facelift

I finally got around to fixing the title image (another Signmaker special) and some of the “Destinations” links in the sidebar. You’ll find a direct SLurl for The Gin Rummy there, as well as a link to Bogart Land Management’s group blog. I’ve also modified Danielle’s blog link, as she’s moved to WordPress, and “link title”: “Devoted Wife, Mother, and Businesswoman” pretty well describes her roles at the moment.

One issue: Looks like there may be some problem with the Snapzilla sidebar code; if you see an error message under “Photos From The Road,” that’s not my doing. Hopefully Cristiano and company will get it fixed soon.