Killer Keyboards.
I would have to say that inspiration for this month's Landing Strip has been hard to come by. Apart from the running around like a loony stuff concomittant with having fun in SL and pretending I have a real life as well, I came down with a shocker of a head-cold which started me thinking about all the things I love in SL and hate in RL. Ironing being a case in point. I do find it amazingly annoying to actually have to iron my RL clothes, and that's leaving aside the rest of the nuisance value associated with washing, drycleaning, hanging up, locating when in a hurry and the odd item of clothing which vanishes into the black hole at the bottom of the washing machine, never to be seen again.
Headcolds would be another thing I particularly like about not having in Second Life. Even the great practioners of realism in SL have yet to come up with animations for sniffling and snuffling and coughing and wheezing - well, at least in all the animation shops I've ever seen - and a quick search of the word 'handkerchief' in SL leads me to think that blessedly there is no such thing for its original purpose and this is as it should be.
Pretty much everything else is available though, and generally is great fun, other than life's little annoyances mostly centering around inconvenient crashes, large amounts of lag and the occasional disappearing skirt- an issue which is back, dear reader, as I discovered the other day.
I was pottering about a skin shop - which mercifully means something completely different in SL to RL, which is a relief and yet another reason to be happy to be here - and ended up chatting to a supermodel of my acquaintance.
Now apart from the fact that supermodels are few and far between in my real life (in fact, I should probably say I have yet to meet one, another thing that's rather nice about being in here) it wasn't until I got changed into something a little more comfortable later - sans supermodel, I hasten to add - that I realised I'd been whizzing around in a trendy jacket, leather pants, killer boots, and a full length red satin skirt. Yes, a red satin skirt. The ballgown that this goes with is absolutely superb, looks glorious on, is a limited edition and will doubtless earn me heaps of kudos at an event yet to be scheduled. However, paired with my leopard-look jacket and leather pants, I can only imagine what a sight I was out in public. The supermodel, it must be said, was most tactful and didn't say a word, though I expect Runway's ability to book her for any event from now on will be sorely limited on the grounds she'll think we're a bunch of idiots or at least that the editor is.
So, intermittent bugs aside, the worst wardrobe malfunction that happens in SL is the occasional knicker-flash when one thinks one has a skirt on, or fashion faux-pas when one doesn't know that one has a skirt on.
What I do find distressing, is that the presence of a keyboard and a monitor in the lives of many avatars, removes many of the boundaries of politeness. In fact, it appears that not actually being physically present at an event, frees many of us from the bounds of normal social restraint and gives rein to unparalleled rudeness.
If you read last month's Runway, you'll know my views on unsolicited and bizarre noises at events. Though, in all fairness, I haven't heard a Steve Irwin anywhere for a month and the silence has been most blessed, in my opinion. But the sheer rudeness of people, who feel free to say things that would get their heads kicked in if they did it in in real life, is mindblowing.
It seems to me that if you wouldn't make incredibly crass and tasteless statements about the person near you, what they are wearing, why they aren't responding or why their event is a touch laggy, in, say, your local Kentucky Fried Chicken (assuming you attend such a place) then I can't imagine why you'd do in SL.
SL is after all a collection of random 1's and 0's, coded in a such a way that we can all sit at home, chat to supermodels, wear haute couture, own every shoe on the grid and dance the night away without having to rehydrate. But it's subject to technical issues, server lag, people wearing too much bling (refer April Runway for futher details...) and whatever fiddling you may or may not have done to your home PC.
It'd be nice if it was perfect - but just like real life, washing machines, and headcolds, it isn't. As my grandmother used to say - "If you haven't got anything nice to say (publicly) then don't say anything at all." And she'd never even heard of Second Life.
Enjoy your fashion experience - be tolerant of its foibles. I'm off now to find a handkerchief and a paracetamol....
