The Twitter Thriller

Unplanned, unpracticed, unlikely and nevertheless truly fabulous - here in all its recorded glory is last night's musical celebration of Twitterdom. I present to you... The Twitterer's Thriller!

You can see the full-sized version, made by long-time SL buddy Mewsic, by clicking here.

(That's me in the middle, fact fans, in the red, leopard print and thigh-highs, accompanied by various Twitter users and new friends, all of whom I adore for being game for such a laugh.)

A Bunch of Twitterers

Tonight marked the longest sustained period I've stayed in-w0rld for months - and one of the best time I've had on SL in all my four long years. Recently I've seldom logged in unless for work or picture taking, and I've rarely left the skybox unless to spend my Lindens. But thanks to some eager fellow Twitterers and Kitty holding my hand, I bravely ventured to the SL Twitter meet-up tonight - and what a night!

The cosy little campfire scene was packed almost from the start with people I spend half my days jabbering at on Twitter, and it was a real pleasure to put virtual faces to the names and talk to them all properly, in sentences not limited to 140 characters.

And what a fantastic bunch! Codebastard Redgrave, who I have long been smooching in Twitter, was quite literally on fire, though she seemed perfectly unconcerned by her flaming bosom.

Mind you, so did Roxette, which suggests there's a new trend I've yet to spot the bandwagon for. In this particular case, I think I can live without.

After a couple of hours, Kitty and I had to pop off to attend to real-worldly matters, reconvening for an impromptu shopping trip at the Artilleri sale.

Where we ran into QueenKellee, who was on a similar mission while covered in fluff - you really ought to click here to get an accurate impression of the ridiculous level of fluff about her person. Tickled me for some time, it did.

We returned to find the party threatening to wind down - hardly a surprise after 4 hours or so, but we weren't done yet so we determinedly rallied the troops and made everyone dance Thriller and various Pussycat Dolls routines.

In harmony, in a line, with beautiful choreography, while Mewsic filmed us all. I'm hoping the video will be available tomorrow so you, too, can enjoy the sheer manliness of a male avatar wiggling his hips to Vogue.

I was then treated to a much less raucous dance with Timothy Lilliehook, who I can confirm is lovely and snuggly and a perfect gentleman. Despite what all the suspicious pervs kept suggesting :P

My evening was rounded off with a one-on-one tutu shimmy with uber-sexy Codebastard, who shimmied through several sambas with me in our complementary outfits. I'm gonna be boasting about this for weeks ;)

Thank you everyone who made this such a wonderful evening, I enjoyed every second. The pics are on my Twitter in a rather larger, better form - click here.

Exterminate

Apparently my unhinged desire to purchase everything in sight has yet to abate. Last night I, along with the rest of my editing team, traipsed up to the centre of town to attend some focus groups. These are basically sessions in which you sit 8 people in a room, show them what you've made and pray they coo positively at it.

We left the office a touch early because we knew that, along the way, we would have to pass Forbidden Planet, a shop of such exultant and unabashed geekdom that it's almost impossible not to be sucked in.

I tried so hard not to buy anything, but I failed and came out with a dalek. I don't know why, I have absolutely no idea where to put it and I am suitably ashamed. He's quite cute though and may make an entertaining desk companion. Also he was only two quid, which sealed the deal.

One thing that I found quite interesting during the focus groups, when I wasn't playing with my new toy, was that the moderator asked each of them the following question to get started: "What's your name, what do you do and how would your friends describe you?"

Well I know my name, I know what I do (most of the time) but I haven't a clue how anyone would describe me. But I'm fascinated to know, so I have decided to ask - if you had to sum me up in a sentence, what would you say?

Just you watch as nobody bloody comments now -.-

Pure motivation!

My dear friend and fellow writer Lisa, who has provided me with sparkling text for my magazines for many years now, has just published her fabulous new book on Lulu. I'd never heard of the site before, but upon investigation it turns out to be a great idea: you can sell your novel, book, poetry collection or other as an ebook and, at the same time, as printed copies. There's no cost, because the copies are only printed as needed, so there's no initial price for a huge print run.

Knowing, as I do, that Lisa is a wonderful writer and hugely inspirational person, I recommend the book she has published on the site: Mind & Motivation. Click here to see it. I've bought my copy and can't wait to get stuck in - and am also considering what nonsense of my own might be publishable through this method!

Not your average Sunday

This evening was the regular SL Bloggers bash, hosted by the fabulous Tymmerie.

The theme was "camping, or things you might find in the woods".

So, with the help of some grass stains made by Laura, some twigs by Tie and some suitably trampy outfits chosen by Kitty, we turned up proudly bearing the title "Shagging in Bushes".

Tenuous? Perhaps, but we looked simply delightful, and I believe everyone was thrilled to see us.

A couple of months back, when she volunteered to host the shenanigans, Tymmerie asked me if I'd be prepared to hold our long-planned chocolate wrestling match during the party, for the amusement of onlookers. Make a spectacle of myself while dressing my avatar in very little? Hell yes.

I got to be Evil Wrestler while Tymmerie attempted to put me off by wearing spectacles and a baby in a sling. I was unmoved, and emerged victorious.

The loser's task is to write a post about the winner's blog, but I have a sneaking suspicion that, gracious host as she is, there was a certain amount of letting me win going on.

So I think it only fair that I do the same and give anyone who's not read Tymmerie's blog a brief introduction:

I was instantly hooked by her fantastic sense of humour - it's one of the few blogs to make me laugh out loud with every post. Whether offering a critique of kitchen-based sex toys or relaying a conversation with her mother about whether she looks like her avatar (still my all-time favourite post), Tymmerie's observations are liberally peppered with wit, attention to detail and a fabulous sense of the extraordinary. In fact, it amused me so much that I took to stalking her and, in one of my more successful stalking outcomes to date, am now proud to call her my friend.

Nowhere else will you read an interview with a prim bear and memoirs of living next door to Satan and, even if you did, I doubt you'd chuckle quite so much.

There's a link in my blogroll - I've given up putting them in the post as, for Blogger-related irritations, I can't make them a different colour without borking everything else. So scroll down a bit, click it there and prepare to be greatly amused.

Virtual probing

Kitty posted a new meme, and I cannot be expected to resist. So here we go:

1. Who was the last person you spoke with?
WillowZ, regarding the possibilities of swapping biscuits for bits of wood and the best place to find orc quests. On LOTRO, obviously.

2. Who was the last person you saw at work?
Richard - with whom I spent a hectic day getting the latest issue of the magazine finished at the same time as preparing for two new focus groups. And then it snowed when we left. Typical.

3. Who was the last person to comment on your blog?
The wonderful Lorna, another fabulous ex-Summertimer!

4. Who was the last person you wrote a post about?
Technically Tie, as she inspired the one about sexing chickens.

5. Who was the last person you emailed?
I think it was Laura, but I've been deliberately ignoring my ever-increasing inbox the last couple of days.

6. Who was the last person you phoned?
DaddyC - I talk to one or other of the parentals almost every day on the way home from work.

7. Who was the last person to give you bad advice?
Kitty - she advised me to come with her to a store and, on arrival, my camera was zoomed up the backsides of two of the scariest avatars I ever did see.

8. Who was the last person to give you good advice?
Also Kitty, who advised me on a lovely trashy costume to wear for the SL Bloggers party tomorrow, during which I am to wrestle Tymmerie in a vat of chocolate. She is also in my good books for making a Pokemon card of me on the Mean Girls, which tickled me no end. I'm not sure that qualifies as advice, although it did encourage me to increase my cat collection, just in case challenged. She also devised a cunning quiz to help me work out what kind of costume would work best for me, which you can see here.

9. Who was the last person you kissed?
Not telling ;)

The Top 3 Peculiar Jobs

Tie's response to my meme from the other day, in which she describes one of the oddest jobs I ever did hear of, got me thinking - in very strange ways, unsurprisingly. As a result, I have decided to present to you my Top 3 Peculiar Jobs, in ascending order:

3. Quoted from Tie's post: Selling catfood by cold calling - Mmmm that one was fun, though amazingly over the course of several months at least three people actually bought some.

2. My ex briefly took a job during his student days that involved pouring vats of poo down a hole. I don't actually wish he'd fallen in, but knowing he once came very close secretly pleases me.

1. My friend Tom had a similarly student-fuelled task of chicken sexing. Not as in "worrying" the chickens, as in blowing on their nethers and sorting them according to gender.

So what's the strangest job you've ever had? Can you top these stunning examples?

Fickle the Elf

I think I can be forgiven my latest bout of fickledom, because a foray into Middle Earth is hardly a transgression that will surprise anyone. And, though I do have slight pangs of guilt for neglecting Spanky the Horse in World of Warcraft, I have now pledged my allegiance to Lord of the Rings Online.

Here is a snapshot of my Middle Earth holiday, for which Gandalf was kind enough to pose with me. The game is much like WoW except the graphics are phenomenal, the people are an awful lot friendlier, there's an epic storyline that runs concurrently with the plot we all know and love and I get to drool on Aragorn's toes. Oh and there are no Horde eejits to follow me around endlessly thwacking me. It's admirably entertaining, though I am displeased to report that Aragorn looks nothing like Viggo Mortensen.

As Russell Brand might say: nice to be an elf, 'citing.

p.s. Also big thanks to my Internet Guru, WillowZ, for once again preventing a flap and panic and helping me sort out what seemed impossible.

Freaky moment...

Linkin Park
Originally uploaded by ·ĊЯФШ·

I was browsing my contacts on flickr today, to see what beautiful things people had made, when all of a sudden I came across a picture that looked really familiar - this one.

"Hey now!" I thought, indignantly. "Give me back my picture!"

Except it wasn't mine. Turns out that, of all the people in all the world and of all the seats in all the 17,000 person arena, one of my flickr contacts was practically sat on my lap at the Linkin Park gig in January. Who'd have thunk it?

4 things I'm grumbling about today

Tagged...again...so I'm going to pretend I mind, shake my fist at Hatty and get on with it, with the full resolve of the English stiff upper lip. It's called "4 things", which I suspect is self-explanatory.

4 Jobs:
Shop assistant
Star Trek photo librarian (oh yes!)
Assistant editor (Mind Body Spirit)
Development editor (Open Your Mind)

4 Favourite Movies:
LOTR
Pan's Labyrinth
Stardust
Pirates of the Caribbean
(that one was horrible and I may come back and change it later, for I am fickle)

4 Places I've Been:
Cyprus, Spain, Holland and France

4 Places I've Lived:
Poole, Exeter, Mortlake and Richmond

4 Favourite TV Shows:
Battlestar Galactica
Buffy and Angel (cheating? Never)
24
Doctor Who
(watch this space for more sneaky changes)

4 Favourite Radio Shows:
Can't answer this, the only one I ever listen to is Radio 4's In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg

4 Favourite Foods:
Any pasta, cheesecake, roast meals and pizza

4 Places I'd Rather Be:
Egypt, Rome, LA or New Zealand

I'm tagging the lot of you, because I enjoy passing on the pleasure of a good grumble.

Twilight Magazine

"Willow hasn't got enough to do in the day, I think she needs to add to her workload."

This was clearly the sentence uttered by my inner demon when I woke up the other morning to a message from Belmakor Pintens, amazing SL flickr artist and all-round lovely guy. Fortunately it was a very nice message and I'm rather pleased to be donating my time to it.

Along with various other flickrites, I've been invited to join Bel in a new venture: Twilight Magazine, a weekly SL-based magazine that showcases and highlights flickr art from the most talented artists on the grid.

Each issue, our panel of judges will nominate pictures, artists, sets and galleries and vote for who is to be featured. My job, as one of the writers, is to interview the talented wonders and find out how they make such masterpieces. Worryingly, I may be forced to gush.

I fiddled about with this snapshot of the staff until it was virtually unrecognisable (and I couldn't do it a second time, because I haven't the faintest idea what I did), but here we all are at our first gathering. That's me, third from the right, stood next to our dear editor, Bel. Ain't we a good-looking lot! We met at Grendel's, which is a very cool sim where dinosaur skeletons glide past you every now and again. Not your normal, everyday experience but definitely fun.

Now to go gush...

Earnest and important

I am currently the wunderkind - child with a gold star and a loving pat on the head. It was my parent's pearl wedding anniversary on Tuesday, Mum's birthday on Wednesday and the anniversary of the day DaddyC proposed today. So, to make it a bit special for them (as they have a predilection for old farting and not getting round to celebrations), I decided to sort the arranging out for them.

So we went to see The Importance of Being Earnest at the Vaudeville on the Strand, starring Penelope Keith, after which I booked them a room at the Richmond Hill Hotel, overlooking the famous view over the river, which DaddyC has a soft spot for. MummyC was more interested in the fact she could see into The Wick from their room - Mick Jagger's house.

The play was fantastic, the parents really enjoyed themselves (as did I), Penelope Keith was wonderfully amusing and the actress playing Cecily - Rebecca Night, lead actress in the recent BBC adaption of Fanny Hill - turned out to be someone I knew when I was very very small.

That's me in the middle of this picture, in the rather fetching lemon dress (my nan made it) proudly clutching my ice cream, and the cute little bugger to my right, in the pink, is the aforementioned Cecily.

Now there's a fame claim for you.