by EllCee on February 3, 2009
My Caledonian eyes bespeak my Celtic roots – ancient mysteries forgotten, but perhaps in my deepest unconscious I can still listen to them, should I still sufficiently the present tense that so clutters our brain. My face reveals my link to my Malinchero heritage - mezclado inextricablemente since the first conquistadores debarked on the sands of Mechique. It also speaks of the travels and travails of the peoples of this continent, las idas y vueltas, of peoples between Old World and New. If I relax my hair, encourage the sun to wreak its havoc streaking it to a shade quite rubia – I can quite “pass” for una Angla. Do I strive to reach the definition of fashion in my time, or do I honor my history? How much to I change my outside, before I look at myself and see a stranger? Or how much do I change my outside, before I look at myself …. and finally…. see myself?
Such are the strange thoughts that fly at me in the sleepless night.
Quando sono sola sogno all’orizzonte e mancan le parole
the quiet wakeful hours
by EllCee on January 29, 2009
My experience in Second Life has been “paradigm shifting” as they say in the education and business realms. I call it soul opening. I didn’t realize how limiting the perceptions we and others have of this biological avatar we call our body can be – how deep, unchallenged – and erroneously perceived as truth. I am understanding why mask theater can be so potentially therapeutic. The mask cuts the twisted knot that binds us to our (mis)conceptions of ourselves. However, this experience is nowhere near as liberating or illuminating as that when we don the “mask” of our avatar.
In Second Life, we create our own mask, our own character, and our own scene and dialogue. We can experiment and modify. We discover that some dreams we had were less satisfying than a Second Life cocktail , and uncover new ones that unleash passions surprising in their direction and intensity. We are attached to this avatar-mask only by our essential core of being. Without reimposing our usual perceptions of self, our core this has unfettered voice. If allowed, it will speak.
who are we.... beneath the copper sun?
by EllCee on January 26, 2009
I often say about certain investments, that you should have to be willing to take the same amount of money and burn it in your backyard. If not, you shouldn’t invest. (I also say the same thing about lending money to post bail bonds, but that is another story.) Gerald Wylie of the Loch Ness – Nessie Hunt sim has floated a proposal to interested parties. He had gotten some interest in backing his proposal for a much expanded Loch Ness on a private estate from a single investor, but the recent economic contraction made his potential backers reconsider their overall business plan. So he decided if amongst the Loch shopkeepers, the Inn patrons, and the Nessie hunters there might be enough others who might similarly share in his dream. For a single shareholder, the initial investment would not buy dinner for two at a nice restaurant, and the potential ongoing obligation would be less than the cost of a tall double latte at Starbucks per month.
For me, at the level I was considering investing, I would be paying several years shop rental up front. However, I would be getting a stake in the place in which I am making an investment in building a business. One consideration I have had in store locations is: How committed do I know the sim/parcel owner is in maintaining this presence? If I were a Ness investor, then I would be part owner of my own destiny. I read the proposal, studied the spreadsheet. I slept on it. I discussed it with several knowledgeable friends. I couldn’t dispute much of their logic in not expecting the rate of success perhaps predicted in the time frame of the prospectus.
In the end, I had to listen to that…. call of the flute. It is not logic, but the inner voice of my own truth that has been speaking to me about this project. I can afford the potential downside, and am willing to do so for at least 4x longer than the predicted time frame for breakeven. Living itself is a gamble.
The Loch - The Dream for Its Future
SL Virtual Scottish Highlands, L, Spectre (115, 242, 40)
by EllCee on January 22, 2009
Whoever knew that Second Life could become so complicated? I, EllCee am not only a designer in Second Life, but soon I am to become a RL trademark as well. I am finding that I consider my brand constantly inworld. I don’t want to look or behave in anyway that might not be consistent with my brand image. However, there are so many things I am curious about here. So I invited my actress cousin, EllaynaCyara Maskelyne inworld to explore the role-playing side of Second Life. Don’t let her newbie-status fool you – she has earned her acting chops, and is quite eager to see what work is available here. She tells me she has sent an inquiry to the Duchess at Languedoc Coeur to see if a position as a lady-in-waiting is available there. {sigh} As I am her manager, I am sure this part will prove to be expensive if she gets it. The court of Louis XIV requires a certain savoir-faire, even for a lady-in-waiting. I myself, am returning to my design studio to work on sweaters, dresses, jackets. Translating my pencil skills to the digital drawing board is a lot like skiing uphill on a snowboard. 
EllaynaCyara and EllCee
by EllCee on January 20, 2009
Kween, AnthonyPhilip, and EllCee .... Club Sky Dance Crew
We defeated lag, login lockouts, and lollypops. And made the best dance crew to cut a rug.
It is almost hard to put into words, without sounding like an advertisement, what absolute sheer wonderful fun I have here at my No. 1 hangout.
by EllCee on January 13, 2009
and end up with suede.
I am so appreciative for those serendipitous accidents. My sweaters may be a bit more time in coming…. but hey~~~ I have unlocked the secret to an endless supply of multicolored suede. Lederhosen, anyone??? Only 98% kidding. Tomorrow, I think I will make some suede vest toppers. Nothing like a good vest to throw over casual clothes to spiff it up and make and outfit. Although, I myself like the industrial felt look of the spotted part. so maybe EllCee will have a lavender leopard look …. something. And how about those stitching patterns!!!! Having ideas about scanning real stitching… how many stitches does my new Husquevarna Viking do?
so its very late. again. the plan to be in bed by 10:30 SLT …. failed again.
getting closer to the real stuff
by EllCee on January 9, 2009
Who are we here? Where do our lives begin and end? the more those that I’m previously acquainted with wish to open the wormhole that connects this world and my other, I feel diminished. My soul feels less free. I want to say: Let me leave all but my essential heart behind there. I want to feel this new world as one almost just born. The burden of my other past has little to aid me here. It is done. A future that is unwritten awaits here. Come. Let’s explore it together as ones newly made.
hearing the call of the flute
by EllCee on January 5, 2009
North Side of the Loch...
Going to create a little wee nook at the Loch… for tinies, and whatever Biggies may wander in. Cups of coffee, a few scones, and my illuminated poems as wall hangings… for sale for a wee bit o’ cash. Perchance I might offer a fantasy outfit or two. I want to offer …. a tiny moment of peace for the Nessie hunters.
Went to Misty’s Birthday party tonight. I got literally a last minute invite, but it was a total blast. Great group, and the convo was hilarious. I was so glad I had “dressed” for my work at the Loch. It is true what Gretta Monahan says – if you are a designer, even if you are working – you never know who might walk in or what might come up. As it was, I whisked off to the party… and I *wasn’t* in my Galveston beach bum get-up.
And a few thoughts to be shared this early AM:
I AM restless. I am athirst for far-away things.
My soul goes out in a longing to touch the skirt of the dim distance.
O Great Beyond, O the keen call of thy flute!
I forget, I ever forget, that I have no wings to fly, that I am bound in this spot evermore.
I am eager and wakeful, I am a stranger in a strange land.
Thy breath comes to me whispering an impossible hope.
Thy tongue is known to my heart as its very own.
O Far-to-seek, O the keen call of thy flute!
I forget, I ever forget, that I know not the way, that I have not the winged horse.
I am listless, I am a wanderer in my heart.
In the sunny haze of the languid hours, what vast vision of thine takes shape in the blue of the sky!
O Farthest end, O the keen call of thy flute!
I forget, I ever forget, that the gates are shut everywhere in the house where I dwell alone!
[I AM RESTLESS by: Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)]
Dreaming
References:
SL Virtual Scottish Highlands, L, Spectre (115, 242, 40)
by EllCee on January 1, 2009
A one point or another every Second Life resident makes significant choices that then begin to define their SL experience. The emerging market for immersive virtual environments is in business and education. This premise then, makes the experience in SL a nearly direct extension of one’s first life. It is even possible to utilize services such as that offered by AutoFace to make the avatar a visual facsimile of the human being that powers it. At the opposite end of the spectrum is the myriad variety of SL avatars in non-human form. These avatars (and others) are purposefully created to provide a radically alternate experience .
In between are the rest of us. For whatever reasons we entered Second Life in the first place, our image of who we are here, and what life we wish to create here begin to be defined by the creative potential of experience here. We have to choose the proportion of the blended reality of our 2nd life/1st life. I am a young entrepreneur who owns horses, loves to make the round of clubs, and it creating a network of friendships and relationships that are primarily defined within our Linden Lab life. I think more of myself within the identity I am creating here, and less limited by the circumstances of my corporeal self in my 1st life.
truehouse cafe
Or you can consider what Harleywood Guru has to say on the subject:
“There is no second life and real life, there is just life, and whatever shape and skin we choose to wear or is thrust upon us, does not change the things that matter which are underneath that shape and skin. Your heart, mind and soul are the same no matter what costume you are wearing on the outside. You cannot separate what you do in here from what you do somewhere else if it affects more than your body. If you do damaging things to your heart in here, that damage will hurt just as bad when you put that other shape and skin on that some call real life. … Play with your shapes and skins in here. They can’t be damaged here. Be careful with your heart, mind, and soul, in every life you choose to inhabit. You do not have a SL mind, and a RL mind, you just have a mind. As to the soul? Some of you never had one. You that do and are aware of it, be careful of the damage you can do to your soul here. ”
References:
AutoFace – Cortex (155,161,40)
truehouse cafe – House Music Island (114, 148, 21)
