Shopping

In which I find an fun activity via solving an problem





So I was an egg for four days and solved the problem,

An egg at the top of the world

only to have it return aggressively about a week later. This time, not only didn't I rez, but my surroundings didn't either. Then I came back as some kind of freakish Frankenstein monster; all taupe coloured with sockets for eyes and ball shaped prims on my head. It was not a pretty site.

Luckily, the solution was the same, however: change the outfit.

I couldn't change into just anything, however. Turned out I had to pick something I'd worn many times before, something old. If I tried something new for some reason I couldn't find it. Later I found that changing to an ultra simple outfit, something with only four or five pieces, was my best bet.



At the door of a shop looking like play-do gone wrong



So I tried all kinds of things for several hours

        until something worked and I could get back to

being the adorable 1930's creature I had become.

More on that later.

In the meantime, I couldn't do anything without rezing so I did some shopping on Marketplace.This turned out to be a mistake on my part as I had a whole set of new difficulties in store. I didn't discover this until later, however, after things had gone back to normal.



After I solved the egg dilemma,  (to everyone who tried to help me, thank you,)  a couple of other problems sprung up like Hydras in their place. I may have mentioned that I love shopping at some point. One great thing about second life is that you can pretty much dress yourself and get anything you need for free or nearly free. Also, the Linden dollar, which is the currency used, is about $235 lindens to the dollar or something crazy like that. The minimum you can pay for something that actually costs say, $1L is $.031, so even the dollar items are even cheaper than a dollar. The really exciting thing to me was when I discovered that the "oh my God! They've got to be kidding!" prices; say $1.500L only turn out to be $10.85 or something, so you can get away with spending very little, except by accumulation. There are thousands of  free things in the marketplace, however, so you can fill up your cart with zeros and ones pretty quick. A lot of the cheap stuff is extraordinarily good, as well, so no need to turn up ones' nose at anything just yet.

In period underwear from Reasonable Desires and "Rosalind" wig from Cut up and Dye

Each seller sets their own price, so the quality is not always indicated by the price. You can also demo a lot of products, particularly hair, make-up and skins. I've bought a lot of great freebie and dollerbie merchandise on Marketplace over the course of my short life; but one weekend as I was cheerfully adding ten free things to my orders; nothing was delivered - four orders worth. I found out that second life had a glitch in the marketplace on the April 26th which was supposed to have been fixed by April 28th, but somehow in my case effected purchases into May. I called the help line only to find my only solution was to send an IM (instant message) to EACH individual seller and ask for redelivery. I had about 35 items to go through.  First I had to go to their store, (all their listings on Marketplace,) click on the owners' Profile and then IM them with a pre-written form I came up with which had the name(s) of the items I'd bought from them and an explanation of the problem. Luckily in a few cases I'd bought up to 5 items from one vendor so I could take care of 5 purchases at once.  I found as I was doing all this that  often, I could find the seller's "in world" store in their profile and buy directly from them in the virtual world or Sim (simulation.) So now I have another activity I can do while dressed up and walking around second life with nowhere I know of to go! Shopping!
Also shopping "in world" basically guarantees instant, no muss, no fuss delivery; so I have been doing all of my shopping there since my marketplace problems.

In wig and air ornament from Falln, Kimono by  Bhadras' Kimonos'

 I've sent out many IMs and even had a great conversation with one of my favorite vendors. I found a new activity and must now be careful of those little $2.50 minimum "buy Lindens"  because they do add up eventually. I now have a nice 1920's/30's/40/50's wardrobe and some fantastic hair and make-up to go with it, as well as the beginnings of a Geisha.
I'm very excited by the possibilities of these new looks. The great thing about second life is that you can change and be whoever you want from day to day, hour to hour or minute to minute, so I can go wherever m mood takes me. There's several sims set up for Japan in the 16thh or 17th century and some wonderful early twentieth century. I've bought a 1919 motorcycle from Gorgon Motors which can drive as well as fly, so I'm looking forward to further adventures in the virtual world.





In one of my new 1930s top and skirt from Vita Bella, fur by Donna Flora and "Daisy Mae" wig by Cut up and Dye