Happy Thanksgiving
So I cheated. The sign REALLY didn’t say Happy Thanksgiving, but thanks to my limited Photoshop skills, it does now!
I decided to dress for the occasion…or at least in seasonal colors. Now that Turkey Day is ALMOST over, all the warm colors will be put away, and we’ll drag out the red and green. I’m enjoying it for now….I even took off my J’s Cross Belt Pumps! *gasps*
Skin: Tuli – Emily [light] ~ petal (freckled)
Eyes: Sin Skins – Intense Sage/Gold
Hair: ETD – Jessica – Espresso
Top: Celestial Studios – Trixie Tee Shirt – Melon
Pants: Celestial Studios – Cords – Tan
Belt: Celestial Studios – Brown Suede
Shoes: Maitreya – Group Gift Pumps – Brown
Jewelry: Genesis Classic Cocktail Ring, KessKreations – Natasha Heart Charm Necklace
About Me
WordPress kept hounding me to complete my About page. I did that, then I couldn’t find it on my blog page. I thought maybe it was a widget, but I couldn’t find it there, so I added it as a link. You’d think that if they wanted me to complete it so bad that they would have an easy way for others to access it.
You’d also think that I was technlogy-challenged by reading this message.
Anyway, read all About Me!
Loneliness Abound
I read a lot of SL Blogs, but the one blog I look forward to each week is the Sunday Shopping Cart Disco’s SL Secrets post. I’ve been a fan of PostSecret for quite awhile now, so it was natural for me to enjoy reading the SL version.
Each week’s secrets are filled with lots of snarkiness that I usually don’t have a clue who they’re intended to insult, but I still find it interesting to see what people will say when they are able to remain anonymous. The old saying, “Mama always said that if you ain’t got anything nice to say, then don’t say it at all,” doesn’t seem to apply when there is no worry of repercussions and judgement.
Another common theme seems to be loneliness. I wonder if there are just that many lonely people in SL or if once again the anonymity of SL Secrets seem to attract people who might be searching for validation that they truly aren’t alone. Or perhaps it’s a safe way to lurk into the lives of other people without actually making a connection with someone and risk ridicule of any kind.
I’m sure there are other reasons, but these are the two that I have identified…and well, I might as well admit that I identify with them myself. I haven’t posted anything snarky to SL Secrets, but I can definitely see the appeal of doing so. I’ve been known to write letters to people who have ticked me off or hurt my feelings, but I never send them, so in a way I’m guilty, too. As for the second part, I most certainly identify with what I wrote. I can’t seem to find my niche in SL, so I end up by myself most of the time. I think about making friends, but I honestly don’t feel like I know how! To say it sounds silly, but it really does make sense in my own head.
At least SL Secrets has succeeded in making feel not so alone anymore.
And just for pure self pleasure (that sounds REALLY bad), here’s a picture I took tonight. It has nothing to do with this post, but I felt like adding it 
RL vs. SL Me
So here I am! I took the challenge to make my AV look like the RL me, and voila! I tweaked the shape as close as I could get with my limited shape-making skills. I had the hardest time finding an olive-colored top to match the little bit of my top that is showing in the picture, so I found a Fluky striped Hoodie and just photoshopped the beige stripe out.
Skin: Tuli – Emily [light] ~ petal (freckled)
Eyes: Sin Skins – Intense Sage/Gold
Hair: ETD – Hayden – Espresso
Top: Fluky Striped Hoodie (brown)
Jewelry: Violet Voltaire – Eternity Necklace – Silver/Ruby
This is pretty close to the type of clothes that I would wear in RL…except the heels. I NEVER wear heels in RL, but I love to wear them in SL, especially since I discovered J’s Real Toe shoes!
Skin: Tuli – Emily [light] ~ petal (freckled)
Eyes: Sin Skins – Intense Sage/Gold
Hair: ETD – Trinitee – Espresso
Top: Tuli – *sUmi* patch shirt red
Pants: Tuli – *sUmi* jeans dark
Belt: Tuli – *sUmi* folklore belt red
Shoes: J’s Real Toe Cross Belt Pumps(RED)
Jewelry: Violet Voltaire – Eternity Necklace – Silver/Ruby
Is this thing on?
I haven’t posted here in forever. My time in SL has been very sporadic for the past few months. I’ve had a lot of changes in my RL, and SL hasn’t been the same for me.
I’ve changed my AV just recently. I had been thinking about it for awhile, and I finally just did it. I’m trying to make my AV look more like me instead of hiding behind a Size 0. When I first started SL, I thought how cool it would be to finally look like I’ve always dreamed. I thought it was my chance to be thin and beautiful. I didn’t have a bad experience with that, but I guess with all the RL changes I’ve had going on, I felt that I wanted to be more me.
Marissa Racecourse’s study on fatvatars was very inspiring, and I did start creating a more plump shape, but I never wore it out in public. Then just recently I read several blogs of people changing their AVs to look more like themselves, and that was the final push. I did it! I don’t know how successful I’ve been in making Ashlen look like me, but at least she’s not a size 0 anymore, and that’s all that matters to me. I’m now a proud fatvatar!
Oh, and the whole modeling thing didn’t work out for me, but it’s all good. I doubt anyone would want a plus sized avatar now, anyway 
Once I get my shape closer to what I look like in RL, I’ll post that. I’ve picked out the picture that I want to use, so now I just need to change my AV to look more like that. That’s a brave step for me, so it might take a bit. I might enlist the help of a photographer friend.
