It’s My Birthday so Let’s Talk about Death

Don’t ask me why I always have these morbid thoughts around my birthday, but apparently it happens often. Before I get into the deathly discussion, let me just announce a quick giveaway that I am also doing for my birthday.

Berry’s Birthday Giveaway 2018

This time the giveaway will run on my YouTube channel. Logo has recently revamped their mesh head system and is updating all of their old heads to this system along with new and recent releases of both a male and female bento head. Their new system will have their heads sold separately from the main HUD which only needs to be purchased once. I will do a detailed blog post on both their newish heads (Blake and Tillie) once they are all released and updated around next week. (Currently the new updates are not available yet for any head)

With their new system, their heads will only be L$2500 each. The main HUD will cost L$1500 and you only need to purchase that once to use with all their heads. So if you’ve never owned a Logo head before, a new one will cost around L$4000. My giveaway will be for a L$4000 gift card for Logo, which you can use to purchase a male or female head once they are all released and updated to this new system next week.

To enter this giveaway you must click over to my YouTube Giveaway video and answer the following questions in the comments of that video:

1. What is your full Second Life username (not display name)?
2. Have you ever owned a Logo head before? If so, which one is your favorite?

The giveaway will end on Monday, October 1st at 5am SLT and I will announce the winner shortly after that, so you have about a week to enter. At 5am SLT, I will use RandomCommentPicker.com and let the website choose the winner. I will then announce the winners’ names in the comments of the video and then drop the gift card on them inworld.

Please DO NOT enter this giveaway in the comments of this blog post or your name will not be picked up by the RandomCommentPicker.com website. You need to leave your comment in the video, thank you.

Link to Giveaway Video: https://youtu.be/SA4SATRYeN0

Death and Second Life

Now onto the deathly discussion. I was recently reading a post on RyanSchultz.com about a New Book on Second Life: Living and Dying in a Virtual World by Dr Margaret Gibson and Clarissa Carden. The book takes readers into stories of love, loss, grief and mourning and reveals the emotional attachments and digital kinships of the virtual 3D social world of Second Life. If you are interested in reading it, it’s available on Amazon (this is an Amazon affiliate link).

Reading about this book got me thinking about how often I’ve heard it happen that people create friendships and relationships in Second Life (and other virtual worlds) and then one day one of the friends just disappears. They never login again and their friends are left wondering what happened to them. People usually start to assume the worst and think that they’ve passed on, and sometimes that is the case, but regardless, it’s always heartbreaking.

Recently I’ve been very busy in the real world so my blog posts have been a bit sparse. If I don’t blog for a week or so, a number of you reach out and check up on me, to make sure I’m okay. It’s very sweet and actually pushes me harder to find time to login and blog again. Juggling both lives can be hard for a lot of people but I never want to give the impression that I’ve suddenly left SL without a word or something worse has happened to me in the real world.

I thought I would take this opportunity to make you guys a promise, a birthday promise. I promise that if I ever plan to take extended time away from Second Life, for whatever reason, I will always do a blog post and let you guys know. I’ve already been doing this, when I go on vacation or if I have a family emergency come up. If you notice that I have disappeared for a while, maybe a week or two or maybe even three or more and you haven’t heard a word from me, it’s most probably because real life has me so incredibly busy that I just haven’t had a chance to login. I will definitely be back, as soon as I get the chance, I will be back! Now the promise: if something were to happen to me in the real world where I will never be able to return, I have asked my husband to let you guys know, either through my two best friends in Second Life (Zaara Kohime and Winter Jefferson) and/or this blog. My husband has all of my passwords and Winter also has access to this blog and can write posts here.

I hope after reading this today all of you take some time to set something up like this for yourselves as well. We’ve all been in this virtual world for a number of years and have created lasting friendships, bonds, and relationships. It’s important we take time to set up a way to let our loved ones know if something happens to us in the real world. Please take the time to create a Will or a simple document that has instructions for at least a few people you trust in the real world so they can reach out to your loved ones online.

Birthday Thoughts

This birthday, I actually feel younger than I have felt the last few years. I had something very tragic happen to me in late 2017, which I feel changed me forever. It definitely made me want to do even more with my life and want to try to be a better person. So I’ve been doing that, more with my life. Things I haven’t done before and also pushing myself more to focus on things I never thought about before. It rejuvenated me. I don’t know how to explain it but somehow this birthday feels different and I’m happy. I guess in the end, that’s all that matters.

UPDATE: I couldn’t resist uploading a closeup to my Instagram:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

It’s my birthday and I’m doing a giveaway! Details on my blog: StrawberrySingh.com #SecondLife #SecondLifeFashion #StrawberrySingh #virtualreality #virtualworld

A post shared by Strawberry Singh (@strawberrysinghvr) on Sep 21, 2018 at 7:05pm PDT

A big thank you to you guys for all the love and support, and good luck on the giveaway! <3

My Style Credits:
Shape: StrawberrySingh.com Logo-Tillie Shape by Strawberry Singh (coming soon)
*Mesh Body: Maitreya Mesh Body – Lara V4.1 by Onyx LeShelle
*Mesh Head: LOGO Tillie BETA v0.1.12.1 Head by Maximillion Grant
*Skin Applier+Makeup: (comes with head)
*Hair: Stealthic – Avela by Stealthic
*Romper: Addams // Paloma Romper
*Necklace: Addams // Paloma Necklace
*Rings on Right Hand: CHAIN – Flash Ring Set by MazyChain
*Ring on Left Hand: Zaara : Kasita finger-harness by Zaara Kohime
*Background – Closet: Silence. – Clara Anywhere Closet by MadelineLumin (Blush)
*Background – Office: Silence. – Clara Office by MadelineLumin (Imaginarium)
*House: Trompe Loeil – Haider Elevated Cottage by Cory Edo
*AO in video: VISTA ANIMATIONS *HUD 5.33*ZOE FULL BENTO-V1 NOFACE by Vista Barnes