Interview Meme

Oh god, I am so going to regret this XD

Dear Reader, this week’s meme from the newly fake-married Berry is an interview meme. Apparently I’m supposed to get someone to interview me and post the answers on this blog. I logged into SL in trepidation and eyeballed my friend list. Only one person online; a designer whom I know reasonably well but not well enough to ask them to interview me. There was nobody else online!

I AM BILLY NO-MATES, Y’ALL.

So, I did what any self-respecting social butterfly of an avatar (yeah, right *snort*) would do, and logged onto AIM, resolved that I would find somebody  online in that old, trusty chat medium.

OH GOD, THE WORLD HAS ENDED AND I’M THE ONLY PERSON LEFT ALIVE.

Holy shit, where the hell is everyone?!

So, here we are: the last resort of the socially-desperate. EMAIL.

Is there anyone alive out there? Can anybody hear me?

Jack… Jack, there’s a boat…

Skell: Rannon, log the fuck onto SL. I need you to stick a microphone under my nose and ask me questions or something.

Send email. Twiddle thumbs. Make a cup of tea. Return to computer. Check email.

Rannon: I told you to stop drinking during the week. Ask you questions about what?

Oh, thank god. The Triffids didn’t get him. He didn’t look at the pretty lights in the sky!

S: It’s for that Monday Meme I do each week on the blog. You’ve just got to interview me. Be gentle?

R: I can ask you absolutely anything? And you’ll answer it? No editing?

S: I’m regretting this already. Yes. Yes. and Yes.

R: Okay, Skelly, so I guess we’d better start by telling your readers about our relationship, because they’re probably wondering who the hell I am. When did we meet?

S: A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. Theoretically, anyway. In actuality, we met in an old text-based roleplaying venue, and our characters there had an uneasy love/hate relationship. (I have actually blogged about your big, hunky, stoic awesomeness, by the way. I wrote about my three best SL friends, and you were one of ’em.)

R: See, you’re not quote the cool, collected, flaming-queeny little tart of a fashionisto that you like to make out you are. You’re a little bit of a sweetheart, too. Link?

Link sent. Muttergrumbling ongoing about having to put that on the blog.

R: Big ol’ hunk o’ pervy lurv?! No, I’m not going to bend your ear for that. I’m going to bend you over and paddle your arse for it! Mind you, I know you well enough. You’d only enjoy that.

S: Damn right. So… interview? *coughs and pokes the man with the mic*

R: Pushy, pushy. I don’t know, it’s hard asking questions of someone you know so well already. What do your readers want to know about you? Okay, why did you start blogging, because I know that you said for a long time that you weren’t going to do that.

S: Daros suggested it. I was a bit restless, the text in my Flickr posts was tending toward the over-long, and I guess I felt like I needed an outlet. He knows me so well that he could tell I was pacing a room in my head, and he thought it would be a good idea to start one. I was initially hesitant, because – like you mentioned – I’d always said I would never get a blog. But here it is, and here I am, something like eight months and 130 posts (holy shit!) later.

R: 130 posts in eight months? You always were good with your mouth, Skelly ;)

S: YOU FIGHT DIRTY! Get on with it :p

R: You’re the one who told me you’d print everything I said. That’s an open invitation, my dear boy. All right, let’s see….. Actually, I’ve always wondered about this blogging thing. Do you get sent lots of free stuff? (You’re a complete shopping whore. Admit it, that’s the real reason you started blogging.)

S: (IT IS NOT!) No, I don’t. I know some bloggers do, and from chatting to them and seeing the work they put into trying to work several items that they’ve been sent into a full outfit, it seems like so much more work than what I do. I just buy stuff here and there (okay a lot of stuff from all over) and it doesn’t feel like work, to me. Maybe it doesn’t feel like work to them; I don’t know. But I like doing it because, hey, look at this great thing I found and I did this with it. So, while it would be nice to get sent stuff (I am, in the interests of disclosure, on blogger lists for a couple of stores, but literally only a couple) I’m not sure that it wouldn’t start to feel like a job to me, rather than playing dress-up and having fun with fashion. I’d be interested to find out whether the more professional bloggers who do  get sent lots of stuff feel that way about it.

R: I hadn’t thought about it that way. I know that you blog about more than fashion, do you get involved in the whole Plurk/Facebook/Twitter thing?

S: I daren’t! You know me well enough to understand how quickly my emotions can change, so having somewhere available to me (as Skell) where I can zap off a quick status update or tweet about something (or someone) that’s pissing me off… would be a baaaad idea. I’d end up annoying half of SL! At least a blog post takes more thought, longer to write, and is more work to delete than something on Facebook or Twitter or whatever.

R: Have you ever been recognised or treated like a SLebrity inworld? (I hate the way people do that SL prefix thing, but it’s the word for it, thus I use it.)

S: Nah, I’m nowhere near that level of pixellated fame XD The only time someone made mention of anything remotely like that, I was a total idiot and had no idea what the hell she was on about! I think I still have the log somewhere. It was after that long post I did about the Secret Diary of Skell Dagger, and in a group chat I was in, someone mentioned she’d seen “a certain naked man” recently and felt like she’d seen a celebrity. I had NO clue what she was talking about, and then it twigged about half an hour later!

R: You’re getting old, son. The mind’s beginning to fade. So what keeps you coming back to Second Life after all these years? And what brought you into it? (For the readers, it was Skell who brought me into it.)

S: The creativity of it, in all aspects, is one thing that keeps me coming back. From just being able to make stuff (and sell it; not even so much for the money as for the fact that someone else likes what I do, because it gives me such a thrill – every time – when someone buys something from me. I’ve connected my creativity with their wishes, so to speak) and also the creativity I’ve found with the whole fashion thing. But even more important than that, it’s the one place where I can be with Daros. I know I can ‘be with’ him in other venues, such as AIM, Skype, etc, but SL has that visual medium. I can sit on a couch inworld and cuddle with him, and – because I think we all identify very strongly with our avatars – it’s like cuddling with him in reality.

As to what brought me into SL, I have very vague memories of reading a BBC article about it online many years ago – probably about a year or two before I signed up. I think it was something about Duran Duran being the first big live act to play in SL. There was a link and I clicked it, thinking I’d be taken in to see this world, but the only thing I saw was what I now know is the map view. I expected to be able to see inside  the world, and I’ll admit that I came away disappointed. Then, some time later, Daros signed up, downloaded the viewer and told me how fun it was, so I took the plunge. Back then I was running an old laptop with integrated graphics, and I recall slugging my way through a Freebie Warehouse (which was all we had back in 2007; you young whippersnappers these days don’t know how good you have it! The blingy freebie crap I see people still wearing today was made back then!) and it was like crawling through molasses. My poor laptop couldn’t handle it.

I actually ended up buying a brand new desktop PC, just so I could join Daros in Second Life. And I’ve kept renewing my computers every few years to keep up with SL.

R: You sound really happy (and I know that you are).

S: Yeah. I am. Even if real life goes awry sometimes, I can log into SL and get a cuddle from my boy and that makes it all go away. It’s the digital equivalent of Mum kissing your skinned knee better, I guess :-)

R: Okay, last question, because I’m out of ideas and your readers will have enough of your gab to battle through as it is. What three SL-only abilities or things would you wish for in real life?

S: Sliders would, I think, be on everyone’s list. It would put the diet and plastic surgery industries out of business in a heartbeat. Next would be the ability to archive stuff in prims (which you could then archive in other prims or turn into a vase or rug or something) – just think how easy decluttering or moving house would be! Lastly, teleportation, because I hate walking to work in the rain. Bonus points for it reducing pollution around the world.

R: I’m surprised you didn’t mention perfect hair every morning, but I can get behind all of those. So did you want me to log in so you can take a photo of us both for the blog?

S: If you can, that’d be great, but I’m not going to nadu at your feet :p

Rannon Akina is online.

R: Apparently I’m gazing lovingly into your eyes. (Are those from IKON?)

S: You know how to sweet-talk a boy, darlin’. (Yes, they are.)

R: Daros might get jealous.

S: Are you kidding? He’ll be miffed that he didn’t get to snuggle down between us! :p

R: Sandwich time?

S: He makes the best filling, and you know it.

R: I surely do.

S: STOP FUCKING WITH THE MENU!

R: Dare you to put that picture on the blog…..

No. Fucking. WAY.