So. I’ve done two fireworks shows since returning inworld. I’ve also rented a shop space, not really that I have a whole lot to sell but I have a little and it feels good to have a home base. I set up a sewing machine and a crude counter in there so it feels like a work studio.
I love that Philomena is still a place, if a slightly different iteration than I recall. It’s really really surreal knowing there’s a street named after me. I’m just this elf, ya know?
Pass it on! I’ll be giving my first fireworks show in four years this Sunday (April 29th) at 7:30 PM SLT at Toot Toots Carolina Pub in the sim of Sifton (SLurl to be added soon)!
The theme is “Spring Spectacular” and will feature uplifting classical music to accompany the beautiful explosions from Bach, Beethoven, Strauss, and more! Watch the sky fill with beauty as the music makes your heart soar with the end of winter and the coming of Spring.
Tell your friends, and join the Manic Elf Media group for more announcements of upcoming fireworks performances. See you Sunday night!
It’s been less than 24 hours since my last login.
I don’t know how I feel about it. I’m still sorting it out. Embarrassed and ashamed, I guess. And eager to do it again.
The thing that really hurt me about SL was the time sink. Hours and hours and hours would melt away and feel like 15 minutes. And those hours– hours that could have been spent working or dealing with issues IRL– would be gone, never to return.
So. If I’m going to do this. IF!! If I am going to do this, I need a way to keep track of time. To set a timer, and stick with it. To do the things I have to do FIRST, like pay the bills or arrange the interview or do the chores or finish the commission project or whatever it is I need to be an adult and take care of first.
…and decided that 7 is just not long enough.
These days, logging onto Twitter is an anxiety attack. People posting about atrocities. Video automatically playing about said atrocities. Everybody and their grandma needing to weigh in and retweet the atrocities. Hit, after hit, after hit, of horrible things happening in the world today; and a culture of “If you don’t absolutely 100% cosign everything I say here and if you don’t get REALLY OUTRAGED ALL THE TIME, you’re not worthy.”
The best word I can use to describe it is “despair.”
I log onto Twitter, and I despair. Of course I do. I’m an elven being who cares about the world and I want to know what’s happening in it. I see and hear awful things, thrown in my face at the speed of thought. And much of it isn’t even from real people anymore, but from Troll Farmers or else bots fighting to foment chaos and sow discord.
I don’t need to know THAT much about the world around me. I don’t need to hear every single opinion from every single person on it. I don’t even need to weigh in myself.
Oh, and by the way, did I mention the Nazis? Jeez louise.
It could be argued that I’m coming from a place of extreme privilege to be able to shut of my Twitter. That implies that I’m shutting off caring about current events. I’m not stopping caring. I’m not stopping learning. But I am stopping this… this… poison. And I might also argue that having the time to spend on Twitter, and access to electronics to read Twitter, may themselves be a bit of a privilege.
What good am I doing to myself, to my loved ones, to my community, if I’ve numbed by constant anxiety and despair? None. Zero.
So, I unplug. I challenge you to try it for a week yourself and see if you too notice a difference.
I miss the Grid so, so, desperately much right now.
It’s so hard, day after day in this world.
I’m getting by. I’m safe. I’ve got people around me.
But I miss the beautiful Otherworld and its bubble and its magic so much. I miss being Mistletoe so deeply. I want so badly to take a break from this world that words fail me. I’m on the wagon, but fuck, it’s so hard.
If you take Second Life, but make it quicker and easier to customize your newbie avatar, throw in some free coinage and a “level” system, and remove all ability to create your own content?
You get Avakin Life, a thing I was foolish enough to check out today.
Differences from SL: Free money when you start out, no way to sell content (because you can’t make content). Avatar choices are human and kind of elf (yay). Less laggy. Can’t fly. Animations are AWFUL all around; definitely no MoCap happening here. The environments are all very modern human world, not much in the way of fantasy worlds or NPIRL options.
Similarities: Dancing, teenagers, and Brazilians everywhere. Total strangers try to hit you up even if you don’t speak the same language. You can play for free, but you gotta pay in for the good shit.
Summer days: they make you think of hazy afternoons, lemonade, bare feet, and (for many people, anyway) letters home from summer camp. Call me old-fashioned, but I still love a nice handwritten letter on nice stationery.
Here is a set for you to print out and use for your letter-writing enjoyment: a letter-sized page with light lines, and an envelope you can cut out and glue together to send to that special someone. Both feature a photograph taken by yours truly of a wild summer meadow, full of daisies and tall grasses.
Download either, or both, for FREE below. Just be sure that you don’t resell or reuse this design, or claim that it is yours in any way. And if you love it, tell your friends where you got it!
Happy Summer from Manic Elf!
This Blog is going to be undergoing some changes in the coming days. Don’t get me wrong, I still love to hear myself talk, but I want to refocus a bit on what I hear myself talk about. So here are some things that I plan to change, and things I plan to keep the same.
First, what’s not going anywhere, or else will be more of:
What’s going, or else you won’t see further:
So, in conclusion, if you want to have a record of some of the things I’ve written or listed in the past, get ’em before they’re gone.
Taking your family or Household to an SCA event, and you’re in charge of food? Make life a little easier with this FREE printable menu planner. Download this .pdf, print it out, and you’re off and running! Includes space to write your meal plan, a chart of serving sizes, and a grocery list space.
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Make sure you’ve bookmarked this site to see even MORE free printables for you and your friends to enjoy.
Got a big Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) event coming up? Here’s a free pre-event checklist, with a classy medieval style, for you to print out and use. I hope you find it greatly useful.
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Mistletoe Ethaniel's Blog 