Castle Fae

I recently visited Castle Fae [owner SophiaHard] and fell in love immediately! From riding the dragons to relaxing in all the cozy cuddle spots to just walking around and enjoying the beauty of the sim. There is a dance courtyard big enough to hold at least 50 avies, a wing-giver (in case you left your fairy wings at home :)  ), and a beautiful grotto. In addition, there is a LOT to see under the waves as well. Perform mermaid / merman dances or just enjoy the beauty.

You may meet Scylla, Queen of dragons, or ride your own around.

The whole sim is very beautiful, perfect place to explore with your date, but keep in mind it is a Moderate sim. If you fall in love too, please consider making a donation. One can tell that, each object has been placed with love n care. I would categorize this as a Fae/ Fantasy / Romantic sim. However you describe it, it is simply lovely!

Check it out!
Flickr Link
Second Life Map teleport link

Z&A HUD Manager

I had purchased a HUD manager Z&A HUD Manager which works well but also has some problems I wish the creator would address and then it would be perfect. One problem is that you are limited to nine folders [inside your #RLV folder] and while each folder could contain multiple HUDs, in practise there is a small number of HUDs you can place in each. I believe that, one is limited to 9 HUDs total with this solution. Not enough ....

The creator it seems, has designed this menu with a very specific problem in mind [Perhaps builders?] , and of course I want to use it a bit differently LOL. I do not need or want to lock or unlock my HUDs, I simply want to get them up on my screen in the shortest possible time. Here you can see above that you will press the 'ADD' button to get to your list. In addition, after you do add your HUD, it will pop back up in case you wish to add more HUDs, which is slightly annoying after awhile [to me anyway].

Still, it works and very well. Can't beat the price which is zero Lindens, either. And the HUD [Yes! A HUD for for your HUDs] is very small so that is good. You DO need RLV enabled for this to work. Here is a picture which contains the small on-screen ICON or HUD, the one which shows a PLUS MINUS sign:

This misled me at first into believing that it actually had two functions but it does not- you can click the + or - but it brings up always the dialog in the first picture. Please Mr. Fairport keep working on this! This could go from 4 stars to five very easily I think. I don't even need a 'detach' function - its actually faster for me for to right click a HUD and detach than use this.

HUD craziness

We all have numerous HUDs [Heads Up Display] to deal with in SL, even more so if you wear a mesh head or mesh body. As part of my SL organization towards lean & clean vs. Big Hot Mess, I have been wondering about how to deal with all the HUDs I use, or at least the most common ones. I do realize that it is not going to be possible, probably, to have all of them ready to hand. The following are just my own opinions and trials.

My first thought was to use my wonderful CTS Wardrobe to do this, and yes it works. However my wardrobe itself has a HUD which is not always up, and I decline to keep it up througout my entire SL day. In addition - it is a lot of clicks to bring up one HUD. I DO have friends that use the Wardrobe for this purpose.

I tried the Z&A HUD Manager [See previous post by the same name] but for the reasons given I decided to try something else.

I am not completely satisfied with this solution, either. One could also make a folder in inventory and keep all your HUDs there. CTL + I to bring up inventory, type HUDZ or whatever to show your folder contents.

My second thought was a tip from a friend who suggested using the Firestorm Viewer Outfits pop-up. I have been using this as the Outfits button is always on the bottom of my screen in the toolbar. Basically I click the button and then click the Outfits tab and select the folder which I named 'AAA'. Imaginative, huh? This gives me a list of HUDS which I have placed there. And then I can simply add or detach from there. 3 clicks minimum. What I like is that this is a Firestorm-provided solution which is already present and no extra hud on-screen to deal with. And probably there is also a keyboard shortcut to pop-up the thing....

Fewest possible clicks please we are all busy....

I am using the Outfits method - for now. Please share your tips if you have any, below.

Hair Fair VENT

I recently went to the Second Life 2017 Hair Fair and I have to say that , while I DID find some wonderful new hair- shame on the organizers for the most ridiculous Fair layout I have ever seen.

By all means , do go- but read the following.

Being not all that bright, I followed my ususal policy of collecting demos to take home and leisurely try them on. When I went back in the afternoon, I was immediately face with a giant problem - can't relocate the stores. I had a premonition of this while shopping intially but I met up with a friend there, and you know......

Area search simply doesn't work, the map that you land in front of has no store names, there is not even a 'C4' type parking lot type of sign for a block of stores. Zero, nada. In adddition, although the stores DO have a sign out front, this doesn't help when there are TWO huge sims and each store looks exactly like the next. I saw many Avi's floating in the air like me, trying to cam in on store signs.

Yes, I understand that the organizers want to expose you to as many vendors as possible, but this is insane. It sure doesn't help buyers, and on the flip side I don't see how it really helps the hair sellers either. There needs to be a balance. Suppose I only wanted to see new Exile hairs? Good luck finding it. I searched online and at both sims for some type of 'Shopping HUD' to teleport around. No luck Charlie Brown. If there is ANY Help around, it should have been available right at the sim landing point(s). Generally at Fairs, trying to Landmark a specific store also doesn't work as all of your LM's will simply take you back to the landing point.

OK I have developed a new personal policy for Fair shopping, but that is a response to the insane layouts and I really don't see this as a plus. I would much rather try on my demos at home, instead of having to make a buy or not buy decision in the store? Aside from THAT, how could one even plan to explore the sims like this? Just wander up and down until your little avi collapses from exhaustion?

The WORST shopping experience that I have ever had in SL. Ever.

P.S. For any person or vendor that will respond by saying "Oh you should have done this or that, there was this or that thing available. I don't give a piece of peach pie!! It should have been clearly stated and readily available AT THE LANDING POINT.

Landmark headaches and my new strat

Update 13JUL2017: I have been using the below method for a few weeks now and it has been working great for me! Normally I do not even have to finish typing all of the tag before my ordered list pops up.

I recently deleted all of my landmarks, in a frenzy to organize my SL. Half were bad, and the other half could only be found by going into the inventory folder. I have tried previously a number of different solutions, none of which really satisfied. I love modular solutions, Swiss Army knife thingies - I purchased the Neurolab phone HUD some months back as it had a landmark plugin as well as slots for dance and animations. However, the HUD REALLY slows down in high traffic areas to the point of un-usability. Also, each LM must be re-named as it defaults to showing the region name. And no notes for LM. On the plus side, it holds apparently unlimited LM's and you can easily make new folder categories. But its slow and the last thing I need is one more HUD on screeen [New tip for that coming :)]

Well.

I searched MP extensively. One product only holds 20 LM's hahaha, another had reports of memory loss, forgetting LM's, another wanted you to create notecards first,,,, I found nothing really acceptable on MP that was both affordable and truly useful.I actually considered making my own LM notecard, but this also has several problems.

One, if you have ever tried searching a very long note card, you will quickly become frustrated with the limited search capabilities. Although apparently , one can link notecards within notecards, this didn't work for me either. Clicking on the notecard hyperlink within a notecard gives an option to Open or Copy ... but the Open function didn't, at least not for me. I thought to make several category notecards and link them all together , but alas! Also, you have to first find and then Open the notecard which is kind of a hassle.

These are my problems with SL Landmarks:
1) The landmarks themselves can become out-dated as owners and creators move their stores or sims.      Fair enough, nothing we can do.
2) Organizing them is not so easy, and inevitably you end up with several duplicates, which is the       latest one? Its a real pain to keep on top of all these links.

If you are using FireStorm viewer, ALT + H brings up Teleport History which is super useful to me. Of course, there is no gurantee the place you visited 3 weeks ago is still there LOL. Honestly this takes care of  'My Most Visited Places' needs. Done deal, no HUD, no worries. For less often visited places, I am now doing this:

I decided to keep ALL of my landmarks in ONE inventory folder, with tags, for simplicity & convenience. So at least I could use the inventory search function in hopes that 200 items with the word 'Dance' would not come up haha. I made the tag very simply - I preceeded the LM title with 'LM Dance:' , or whichever tag I chose to put.

So yes I might end up with 300 LM's in one folder, but I can at least get a tags list. Without using a HUD.

So the LM will look like this:
LM Dance: Some Hot Dance Club, some sim 300, 250, 22, blah blah blah

Now I only need to open inventory with 'CTL i', type LM Dance: and hit enter. And I will be presented with a list of LM's that have the tag Dance. I could double-tag it as well:
LM Clothes:, LM Booty:, Some super expensive clothes store sim, blah blah

Another advantage of using one folder is not having to CHOOSE a category folder when you first landmark a place. Carefully choosing which category it should go into, as I used to do. Takes too long. I will keep updating this post as needs. If you like this method, please let me know, or share your own method. So far this is working for me.

TIP: In Firestorm viewer , you can add Landmarks to 'Favorites' which creates an actual button on your screen, below the URL bar, for quick access. AND when you first open up your viewer, the favorites places are available for you to initially log into, as in the case if you don't want to start at your HOME position for whatever reason. Or cannot, due to rolling restart of sim.

Why do I keep complaining on HUDs? I am sick of them stealing screen space yes even with a decent size monitor, tired of bringing them up, tired of wondering if they causing me to lag. I am all meshed up as they say, there are lots of Huddies already to deal with .... so if I can find solutions to things WITHOUT involving another HUD, I will.

Trip to Japan with Amy!

Yesterday my friend Amy and I took a bus and then an airplane [ first class, naturally ! ] to Japan, Tons of fun!

Flickr Link
My friend Amy [isn't she just gorgeous?] asked me if I would like to take a trip to Japan...
We went to a sandbox where she rezzed the bus stop, and just as in RL, the bus took its own sweet time to show up. Amy proceeded to drive the bus off the edge of the sim but luckily we landed on the airport sim! We then got our tickets and got First Class seating to Japan. I had a wonderful time.

*Will update with sim location soon

Bad bad Avi!!

My Second Life avatar is buying things while I am asleep!!! OMG!! What's next, she messages my friends on her own? I thought I had been hacked but she sent me a message "Dear Human, I know you have bought me lots of clothes and things... but it was on sale & I just couldn't resist. Can't wait till payday!"

Dear Lord, help me!