Figured it out finally....

I'm always asking why in the world I bother staying in Second Life and dealing with their frustrating grid performance.  Think I figured it out.

Life.  And retaining my sanity through life.

Business has been seriously screwed up: having to cut the line-up by two authors for stupid reasons - and I'm a super lenient person (maybe that's what I need to change), losing a staff member to inability to deal with a life event, and living in a very non-supportive area for my business (something that totally surprised me).  I'm restructuring it to meet these new challenges now.

There's never enough time in the day.  Maybe I should break from Second Life for a few days to do such things and then come back. hahaha

Current events.  Overwhelming understanding that we're unable to control anything.  We petition, we vote, and the powers that be in our government do what they please anyway.  Usually they're not doing things for the people, but for their own agenda, which usually doesn't make any sense whatsoever.  (Maybe those shows where the aliens take over the government have more basis in the truth than we give them credit for.  LOL)

And the use of one word or phrase that allows someone to exploit it as derogatory towards a whole group can ruin a wonderful long running career.  And our judicial system allows this crap to go on.

And they wonder why people don't communicate anymore.  It's because if you say one thing and the right person hears it, BOOM!, you're in court and your life is destroyed.  And the press supports such things, making it worse.  They take the worse possible scenario and exploit it to get more ratings for their own media.  Who cares if it's true or not?  It's the ratings that count.

mm..most of us know this as fact.  And we still watch and read the media anyway.  Gluttons for punishment?  Maybe we all are.

And life stress...potential career change for spouse due to the level of stupidity that cannot be fathomed at work, getting my career off of the ground, parents' failing health (all four of them), son's challenges in life, etc, etc ....

In SL, there's so many dealing with the same type of stresses as I.  We gather; we hang out for things that have nothing to do with life to help us forget and rest our hearts and minds from having to deal with it.  There it doesn't matter where you live, your nationality, skin color, sex, or anything else at all. You don't have to think about any of that.

When you're with the right people, that is.

There's a teeny bit of if it my immediate gaming family, but it's easy enough to avoid.  And it's more of a family thing.  And they're a wonderful, helpful, caring group.

In the Biobreeds auction family groups I'm in...none.  I've found that it's even manageable to avoid the drama.  And happy to say that one I liked in the drama group has returned to her wonderful self.  Yay!

Elpis update:
I gots a Turtle!  yay

Hoping the exotics show what they're carrying soon so I can get the population down to my core group.  I've been building up a stash of chi and shiba crates I need more room to birth.  LOL

KittyCats are fairly boring.  They're doing their job, at least the generation strong ones are.  But the LEs are proving to be stingy, so I've set them out for cheap sale.  Sold four so far.  Just keeping 8 total to play with at home.  I really wanted to see more odd sized ones than I have been seeing.  It's just not happening, so I'm keeping the population down.

Tigers are doing well.  I'd like to start another cat going, like the dark coated jags, but prim space isn't opening up enough for me.  These are going to take a bit of pre-planning for me since they're done once they're out of seeds.  Hoping I can sell one of my RFL tigers to someone as a collector pet at some point so I don't have to sanctuary one of them when the time comes.

Shibas - a 5 and 6 T gave a 3T - not a bust, but nothing to brag on.  Others weren't as good.

Chis are down - getting a lot of 1 and 2Ts from the 4Ts and ciels.  Filler for the random bundler.  If someone wants to start chis anytime they're going to make a killing at my place.  lol  But I'm ready to birth and reseed some more. LOL  Pepi and Melosa have been reseeded again.  Pepi hit up a rosa coated great granddaughter this last time who was waiting for my rosa boy to grow.

Dobes - in between growing and breeding time right now so not much.

Huskies - suckers are stubborn - down to two and they're on probation.  Unwilling to bid high enough to get into Triple Threat's line, so probably not going to see that happen.  Sad, really.  They're beautiful dogs, just wish they'd work for me, but 5Ts are still giving 0-1Ts.

German Shepherds - lots of low traits, but tons of double rainbows.  Mix of Nik's line and mine so it's really strong.  Filling up random vendors for them mostly.  Just set up Nik's super stud with white ciels - first one was white ciel with double rainbow male.  It's set aside.  Not sure if I'm going to sell the babies or keep them to start generation breeding.

Yeesha is Calling Me...

Message from Issis...

Yeesha's been calling me back to the Cavern.  I'm getting the call, much like I did when we first were sent to the Cleft.  I feel this something I need to find or know or recall for this next Age Exploration, so I must visit the known Ages and read the journals left for us again.

I'm packing faster and trashing a lot of my inventory in Second Life.  Quite a feat considering I have nearly 25k still left to go, after getting rid of so much over the last year already.

I set more of my KittyCats for sale.  What are not sold will either be sent to menagerie or set into storage, whatever Elpis wishes.  She would like to add another pair of tigers, so will probably only do a few KittyCats.  They do sell, but they don't sell well.  And I've made more than enough to keep her in boxes to birth and sell.

Yeesha's call does surprise me, although now I think about it, perhaps it shouldn't.  I did start naming all my chis D'ni names and words before turning them over to Elpis.  Going to miss Pepi...wish I could take him Age exploring with me.  But Elpis said she's going to reseed him and let him hang out with Melosa for her next set of seeds.  That's good.  Melosa is great with Pepi and she's awesome.  Out of two full rounds I think only two pups were not Licorice.

I do regret calling one male chi Gehn though. He kept running away from the lady chis...even the one called Keta didn't attract him.  We kept having to tell the ladies to find Gehn and let them follow him until he gave in and got them pregnant.  LOL  Thankfully, it seems he's over his shyness and they don't have to chase him down anymore.

Isis and Elpis report...

ms. isis report:
I'm settled in to the life of a former SL person before I've even left.  In maintenance mode mostly.  Unfriended those I never had close contact with.  I have a notecard ready for those friends I have and will pass those out.
Hope to get my inventory clean up done more quickly than planned.
Trying to think on how to do the KittyCats.  I'll keep the RFL bunch for a little while and give the rest to Elpis.  Debating on menaging most all my boxes...20 of them...to get a 5 pack of food.  Use my dollars up to give her some food.
In real life, lots of file preparations and organizing going on right now.  Creating pdf copies for all of our books and will have our own storefront to sell them at.  The writing is well, but pace needs to pick up.
I have to leave and work with Thorne on a new age exploration in a few months.  Busy getting everything worked out for that too.

Elpis reporting:

I visited Myst yesterday.  Loved being able to kick the leaves around Tolesa.  Not sure what it is about the cavern and ages but visiting there always recharges me, and the sounds are so soothing.  I need to go visit Shroomie yet.  I hope to get time today.

Finally working down the chis a bit.  The extra low trait ones are getting low on seeds and if they aren't producing then I'm sending them on before they finish the last ones.  Soon I'll have all 3T and higher, and most of those will be OS of the ciels.  It's to the point where I'm done bringing in new blood.  The line purity should be set and okay to stick with now.  Melosa is on her last seed.  She'll go hang out with Pepi when she's done.  She and Pepi may hook up together in the near future again.

My dobes are working themselves out well.  Should be able to lower the numbers by a few this week. All but one of the groups are going down to 2 females and 1 male.  One is fawn with rose, another blue with shades, the black and tan group, and ivory group.  Just finished making the new ivory group and will birth them soon.  I mixed Ivories from Lance's line and my own original line to make them.  I'm tempted to run them again for another round of crates to sell.

Huskies are pg again.  If they don't pass the traits this round, they get stored for later.  I do have a small set of shaded brick pits waiting to use.  Don't do pits, as they aren't as fun for me.  Weird, as I've always loved the breed in RL.  But these were cheap and nicely traited. May as well make some for the store.

Sales are down...have been for awhile.  Making just a little from the two auctions I attend.  Hope I get to have two panels every once in awhile, but the waiting list for The Farm gets long, and people snatch up Camelot's too fast for me.  I know- I could be more aggressive and do like they do, snagging it faster than others.  But I'm too nice.  That's okay.  I'll play at a pace that benefits how I want to be.  If expense is a problem I can always pick up for awhile and breed more later.  Lord knows the critters kick out more good stuff than what sells direct so taking breaks may not be bad.

Watched many breeders post their newly discovered stuff in chat on the exotics.  My exotics and zeonies have proven to not give me anything new.  So I've picked up many of them.  Mostly doing epic/exotic new starter coats now.  They did give me one with all new starter exotic traits for auction material today though.  And one to add to the small group I kept for majesty breeding. From a majesty I purchased from Trem.  She has the jungle red hair so I named her Trem'sWildChild.

Preparing to cross Nik's GS lines with mine and others.  Nik's triple sec has two ciel shaded ladies now.  Shibas are doing good.  Still just breeding to bring out the shades.  Got a 6t twinkle girl from the attempt who just turned adult.  Hope she does well.

Been good and bad all around

In breedables...
Had numerous high traited dogs give no traits or 1 trait crates.  That sucked.

Today was a little bit better.  Got a 3t flare chi.  Thinking of keeping the dad.  He's been good at throwing interesting traits, even though he's not a lico.  I may put him with the rosa girls, since he's thrown one. He's an OS.

Also got  a rose blush ivory dobe from two I got from Lance.  Naughty mix of Ivory and Blue parents, but good results.

There's three or four more after today's auction.  Also the other tiger should birth by then.

Sales have sucked this last week.  In fact, traffic has been a bust for the biobreeds ads.  I'm okay.  My mass sales last week have carried me and I have about two weeks of expenses paid up so far.  If it continues next week may be a sign I should lower numbers a bit.

In Myst...
Got a new laptop.  I load MOUL on it today.  See how it runs tonight during my play time.

Second Life...
Got a lot of drag from Camelot Village that I don't get anywhere else today.  Can't tell if the trees or anything is mesh.  Suspect either mesh or large textures.  Probably large textures.  Most people are not aware that computers are not built to handle the big ones.  Why I compromised and chose textures I could keep down to 512 for the most part on my sims.  Will watch it there...if what they use drags my computer down, I'll probably let the corrals go and just have the store.  Don't sell from the corrals anyway and they're full so they can probably get someone else to rent them.

Real life...
Letting go of frustration with authors.  I have some really good authors with me, and they seem to use their brains a bit.  But have had accusations thrown at me, which I found surprising since I've tried to be so forthright in my dealings.  Not sure how much more honest I can get.

(deleted long winded rendition of publishing drama.  Not appropriate and not worth the time.)

I will admit, some of my plans to move forward have been temporarily stalled.  I have a staff member who has been working on special promotional items for ALL books in our line up to be added for our multi-media marketing efforts.  But this staff member has had a serious life disruption.  I hope to know in a few weeks or month at the most if I need to replace that staff member.  That has me a little worried, but in the meantime I'm trying to train myself to do some of what he was planning.  Limited of course, writing two books, content writing, and non-fiction work has my time very limited.

Still, many other aspects of my plans are seriously pulling forward.

Morons...

Remind me why I'm in SL again?

hehe, yeah talking to myself.   I know I have no readers here.

Upon the realization that I can get a new exotic coat from the unbirthed epic crates, I birthed them.  Most of them had sold already, which is good too.  Got reptilian and cheetah coats.  Not anything special I wanted but it allows me to swap out the champagnes I got in the first batch so they're all new coats.

Two more dobes to go for today yet...so far uneventful there.  Think I'll build up about 10 crates and then choose which ones to store and sell off.

Remembered the wrong server for a sim and thought I was safe rezzing.  Nope.  Numerous duped crates and lost three chis.  Sucked. 

And in my mood...was about to heaven everything and say good bye to SL.  Most times it's much more of a pain to deal with than it's worth.  Shopping sucks anymore.  I don't do mesh and builders seem to think they have to do mesh.  Glad I'm finding enough to transfer over to my author avvi.

This is just a rant...one of those days...I should have kept the car again and took a work day away from the house.  But coffee is being inserted now and it should improve...

Drama can be funny or sad...

Got a laugh today.  Took a look at the profile for the drama queen from the near history events.  She has an anti-drama post on her profile.  Too funny!

So glad I didn't have to deal with that mess and that it's done with now. 

When I allow myself to think on these instigators, it's also something I find very sad.  They just don't get it.  They don't get they actually did something wrong and place the blame on everyone else.  And they really do think that everyone around them agrees with them, when in reality most are just playing supportive or being quiet to wait it out and let it blow over and things get back to normal.

It's a common cycle in SL.  Sometimes in RL too...which is doubly sad.

I just don't get it either.  Maybe it's my military upbringing.  Rules and standards are made by the owners and I follow them.  Whether I like them or not, is beside the point.  If I don't like them, then I'm free to bitch here and go somewhere else where I do like the rules.  And I don't expect them to make me an exception...I'm no better than anyone else and I know it.  If I play along, I play along with the same rules as everyone else.

I may tell the owners why I'm leaving, but I don't go on a rampage on the people they hire to enforce those rules. 

Much like yelling at the telephone operator for the credit company.  Does no good.  You gotta get to the manager and deal with it through a person who has the power to do something about it or who has the final say to just tell you you're S.O.L.. 

Nice thing about the families I have now in SL.  If there's a ruling I don't like, I can talk to the management about it.  And when this type of drama happens, our family adjusts and lets it blow over without getting into too much of a fuss.

In this case, a further change that has nothing to do with the drama incident helped to speed the healing along too.

Of course, it's SL.  Disruptions will always happen.  But we're stable and can handle it.

Progress update...

I've only been working on the breedable stuff in virtual worlds.  Going to take quite awhile to sort things out. 

I will be building a little in SL.  Making my builds full perm and boxing them up to give to Elpis.  Some of my favorite texture builders don't have certain textures I like in InWorldz yet, and they actually have stores there too.  Going to ask them if I can transfer certain textures over.  Means making a list, going to their shops at InWorldz, buying there what they do have, and then creating a notecard for permission to transfer over what they do not have there yet.  Unless their current TOS says I can already do that, then no worries.

Think I'll deal with sorting through the rest of the inventory first, which will take months.  LOL

Until I get through all this inventory mess, I'll keep Issis for auctions and to maintain a few stores at market.  Maybe by the time I'm done we can get some of the excess crates sold.

Need to catch Elpis in today...the twinkle flare lico girl needs to be with the ciel lico boy for a ciel twinkle flare attempt.  And have her see what Irish Cujo is at...Smmu missed rebonding her pug so if he's ready Elpis can handle it from her end. If not, I need to get Smmu to rebond her girl when she's in.

I don't think I'll start the next Myst book until Fall sometime.  The next two books of the fantasy series are really coming together and need to be finished. 

In fact, I need to work on a few projects for MMP.  We've had a temporary stop to the cover production team for the main novels.  We'll still make our deadlines for the end of the year, I believe.  Just delayed on getting the reviewer copies in and starting the pre-launch.  Instead of four months lead in, I'll only have a few months.

We do have a few books coming in ebook format so that will help.  But I have some projects I don't need the cover team for.  I can work on those myself.

it's a breedable mess...

I've been sorting through my inventory of crates for Elpis.  She has 20 live/crated huskies to start with...I should have been breeding them out...some of these have triple shade and high trait potential to them. 

Even going conservative, there's a ton!  If only I could afford to get her a half sim and the food for the animals to start off with.

Glad we gave ourselves a few months to get this all done.

Just to be clear...I'm not leaving SL.  I have an avi for my RL business needs and a Myst RP one I'll be with.  Just no Issis anymore.  I won't be with her anylonger once breedable things are transferred to Elpis, and over the next several months I'll occasionally pop onto her for cleaning out her inventory until her anniversary day when I'll delete her.

Elpis thought to come in with a bang to BB.  She tried bidding a few times on the RFL one of a kind, but hit her max.  Luna wants the pony too badly to let her have it.  LOL  That's okay - she's got my Pepi line and 10T pony line for a running start.

This week was kittycats week.  Really good haul.  Only one box was all starter traits and the rest were good enough to set out for sale. 

Pepi line really passed the shades well this week too. Ciel, Flare, and my first double dip of Twinkle Flare.  Yay!  Er...now Elpis's.  She has the breeders now and I get to watch. 

The shibas passed blush and rouge, and the pug passed blush. 

Elpis's tigers seem to be doing really well.  I redesigned the area to eliminate some scripts on the land.  Waiting for feedback from Elpis and Smmubert on if this helps.