Well done, Home for the Holidays Hunt!

My congratulations to the Home for the Holidays Hunt!

Not only have they provided some nice L$1 gifts, but they’ve also added something I’ve been harping on about for a couple of years…making the hunt items immediately available to buy in case you don’t have time to hunt or, in my case, the patience to search a huge store for the item in question.

Bloggers blog, I go looking for items that might have a naturist relevance, but I eventually give up because I can’t find the items in question. I can’t begin to tell you just how many potential posts have gone by the board over the years due to me not having the time (which is limited…I also need time to write the blog) or patience for a hunt.

The Home for the Holidays Hunt now offers you the opportunity to either go hunting, and pick up the item for L$1, or simply buy for L$25 at the hunt sign at the entrance to each store. Hooray for the HFH hunt! 🙂

I picked up the wooden Christmas tree, pictured, as part of the hunt. In this instance, finding it for L$1 was simple enough, but that’s not always the case, so this is a fantastic breakthrough, from my perspective, for SL hunting. Let’s hope many other hunts follow suit. This would make my naturist blogging, particularly for summer hunts, so much easier, and I’d be prepared to buy, rather than hunt, each time!

You can find the clues, and store locations, at the page at this link.

Ella

 

 

Surfing

I get a lot of IMs from random folk, mostly relating to the blog or naturism in general. I encourage people to make contact. Most are polite and friendly and display an understanding of naturism, one or two are from people who have no real comprehension about what naturism is about, despite us trying to hammer home the message that it’s non-sexual.

One such recent IM was from a relative newcomer to SL, who was enquiring about trying to be a photographer in SL and how to approach potential models and ask if they’d like to take their clothes off 🙂

I’ll come back to this point in a moment.

I advised as best I could, and he then IMed me back about photos he’d seen online, thought they looked great and sent me copies asking about replicating RL in SL, since it’s something we’ve done a lot.

Well, I wouldn’t consider these to be naturist photos, being more of an ‘erotic’ nature, I think, but nonetheless I thought we probably could replicate these, after a fashion, in SL.

A L$1 surfboard (complete with pose) from the Marketplace was paired with a free (L$0) scuba top from Naked Dreams to kind of replicate the photos sent. It goes to show that with a little imagination, and with not very much money spent, it’s possible to replicate a lot of what we see in photos -from a NY subway station to the Sydney Harbour Bridge to a London street or a windswept beach- in SL. Could we make it more accurate? Judging from some of the SL photographic talent on Flickr and various SL blogs, the answer is almost certainly yes. But we’re bloggers, not photographers.

Back to my point on asking people to take their clothes off. Getting back in world I did a quick hop around several ‘naturist’ sims and I noticed there’s increasing numbers of avatars choosing to keep their clothes on in naturist sims. This annoys me, and I’ve blogged my irritation previously. We, the naturist community of SL, expect visitors to our sims to adopt an appropriate dress code, i.e, wear nothing. If you can’t abide by our rules, please go elsewhere. In real life, resolute textiles will be chased off naturist beaches. I think we may be approaching the time when some naturist sims will need to place sim officers as often as they can to eject textile avatars.

Ella

 

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I got inworld tonight, checked the SL blogs and was immediately taken by a pair of glasses that are a bit like the new pair I’ve taken possession of recently in RL. So I hopped over to a special Christmas edition of The Chapter Four to pick up the glasses (L$75) from Random Matter (LM to mainstore) at Chapter Four.

I was thrilled to find that, by joining the Chapter Four group, you’re eligible for a free gift at practically every stall!!!!

I picked up a lot, but not all of it can qualify as ‘naturist’ by any stretch of the imagination, so I son’t blog all the freebies.

But I did get a nice scarf (which will feature in a subsequent blog post), and several Xmas decorations and goodies, which I’ve added to a growing display of lights at SLN’s offices at Eden Estate.

The lights above and below the SLN sign are freebies, as is the hot chocolate drinks on the table, although not shown off best by this photo. Again, I’ll blog more of the freebies when I do another post. All will become clear later this week.

The lights are spectacular at night.

The wire star and tree above and below the SLN2 sign colour change, and brighten up the display we have. Goodness knows how much the Linden Electricity Utility bill will be in January!

More posts this week, some (I hope) exciting news about an event, and normal service sort of resumed after illness (although I still feel less than wonderful, I have to say).

Ella

 

Winter virus

The winter virus running around my workplace for about three weeks now is finally running around in me. I’ve been lying around on bed, in bed and on the sofa for the best part of a week now, so no effort was spared to actually do anything with SLN2 as I didn’t feel up to it.

Back to blogging next week, I hope.

Ella

Guess who I ran into?

Emmanuelle Warden

Long before SLN2, or even the original SLN blog, there was 2EX, a blog that focussed on Second Life aspects of sexuality (the 2EX being a reference to sex in a 2nd life). It was run and edited by Emma Warden, who gave me a start in blogging, as ‘naturist correspondent’ for her blog which covered all aspects of SL nudity, sex, reviews of genitals…whatever.

My contributions pretty much followed the same pattern as they would subsequently do with SLN, and then SLN2, as I kept the ‘sex’ aspects of SL at arms’ length and focused on the strictly ‘genuine naturist’.

Indeed, I would imagine that it was my contributions to that blog that led directly to the foundation of the original SLN blog with Howie’s help and financial assistance, and six years on, between the two blogs, I’m amazed at how things have developed.

Emma still plays SL, is still in my SL friends’ list, and we often wave at each other when we’re both online, although our paths don’t generally cross. Emma’s an SLN/SLN2 reader, though, and this week our paths did cross at, surprisingly, a clothed sim. We were both trying to grab an item from an advent calendar.

We got chatting, and the conversation turned to how things have changed in SL since the days when her 2EX blog was running, and I was a naive young blogger.

‘Why don’t you write me an article on some aspects of that? Not necessarily about sex, just…the things we’ve just been talking about’ (I’m being coy here about what we had just been talking about, rather than make the entire premise of the article clear before it’s published).

‘It’s a long time since I’ve written or blogged. My Second Life moved on. Still, it might be fun’.

‘Agreed, then?’

‘Yeah, I’ll do you an article. I’ll notecard it to you in a few days’.

I received that notecard today, so I’m currently grabbing some photos to accompany it, and I’ll post that in a couple of days time.

Ella

 

A relationship between pubic hair grooming and STIs.

I picked up a story on the BBC website today that suggests that pubic hair is a good idea. 

I’m a long time advocate of ‘bush’, until this summer when I went bare down there, immediately regretted it and have been growing it back ever since.

I’ve previously read it’s to do with laziness that pubic hair is enjoying a renaissance, and it appears from online articles and interviews it’s men who are more wedded to ‘bare down there’. I suppose that, up to a point, it involves them, but realistically pubic hair styles aren’t all about them.

I’ve been saying for a couple of years now that pubic hair is now more evident in naturism, although the older generation of female (and male) naturists are still largely going smooth.

Within Second Life, it’s very noticeable that many, many female naturists are now sporting some form of pubic hair. As decent SL prim pubic hair can cost L$250, it would suggest that female avatars are spending their Linden dollars on it because they do like their avatar to reflect their real selves to a degree. You don’t have to sport pubic hair in SL, it isn’t necessary or vital, so I assume it can only be for the ‘SL reflects RL’ purposes.

Is the bush about to enjoy a full-on renaissance in RL? Will that eventually trickle down to more and more avatars being similarly adorned? Your thoughts, please.

Ella

Edited to add a link from The Independent relating to the same story.

 

 

 

Naked in the snow

It’s at this time of year that we read about various ‘all year round swimming clubs’ (textile) or ‘Polar Bare’ swims (nude) holding events. Many like to usher the New Year in with a swim.

And it’s very often the case that some lunatic Russians or from other northerly latitudes who take an icy plunge into icy water (it’s a good way to complete a Finnish sauna, apparently) or do other crazy things naked in winter.

I’m a fair-weather naturist, I confess. You wouldn’t catch me doing this (although I note that from a frost here tonight, we reach a balmy -for this time of year and indeed balmy on some summer days!- 12 degrees by midweek. If there’s any sunshine, then yes, I might even be tempted to catch a few naked rays in the garden during the week).

I’ve been naked outdoors in snow, I admit. Our old house had a hot tub in the back yard (yard being the operative word…it wasn’t a yard in the American sense, of what we in the UK would call a back garden, it was actually a yard…a narrow tiled area out of the back door, with room for the bins (trash cans) and little else. Privacy was limited, as the yard was overlooked by next door’s neighbours, so hot tub fun au naturel was limited (although possible with discretion).

We had heavy snow one year over the Christmas period and knew our elderly neighbours had gone to spend the holidays with their son so we made the best of it, hot-tubbing naked in the snow for three nights in a row.

http://www.adorable-teens.net

Other than that, the first winter we were in our current house we also had heavy snow, and we built a snowman (we didn’t have children at the time but snow still brings out the child in all of us, doesn’t it?) after which I posed nude beside it, then did a naked snow angel before scurrying back indoors to warm up in a hot shower.

Naked in the snow isn’t for me, but a tip of the hat to all who will indulge over the winter months. I admire your hardiness and your bravery.

You can pose naked beside a snowman, or indulge in your own snow angel, at Ultimate Winter Dreams.

There’s a variety of other activities to try. I haven’t tried these in real life, I confess, but they were fun to try in SL!

Ella

 

Meikel Skytower

The sad news reached me tonight that Meikel Skytower, the owner of 7 Hills Naturist, sadly passed away at the end of October.

If you’re an SL naturist, you’ll know how constant Meikel and 7 Hills was in a world of constant change.

‘It’s just a game’, some say.

You can go over to 7 Hills and light a candle in memory of one of Second Life’s great naturist champions, a naturist in real life as he was in Second Life.

Meikel’s friends at 7 Hills would disagree that it’s just a game. He touched our real lives in a positive way through his commitment to SL naturism, and the opportunity he provided for us to make friends through his build.

Rest in Peace, Meikel, a champion of RL & SL naturism.

Ella

 

 

The Snoopers’ Charter

Probably not something that is making waves in your part of the world, unless you’re reading this from the UK.

This week The Snoopers’ Charter passed into law in the UK. I’m not even going to give it its official title, because ‘The Snoopers’ Charter’ is a more accurate reflection of its proper ‘value’.

Essentially, it requires that Internet service providers and mobile phone companies to maintain records of each user’s internet browsing activity (including social media), email correspondence, voice calls, internet gaming, and mobile phone messaging services and store the records for 12 months.

All in the name of your (in)security, you understand.

So each time I log into SLN2 and blog…that’s going onto a record somewhere in case I’m using digital technology for…well, not even ‘terrorist’ or ‘criminal’ purposes. If I do a photo search, it’s recorded, and I do a lot of searches of naturist websites to provide the background information I do on the lifestyle. On that basis, I don’t really care much about the records. I’m a naturist.

But here’s the rub…should the government determine that naturism is some sort of sex-beast exhibitionist sex-crime (and believe me, the national organisation British Naturism have previously had to fight hard to ensure there was some sort of separation between ordinary naturists and flashers, for example) then I’m going to gaol, for a very long time! 🙂

‘Oh, it’ll never happen’, people say. But the example I’ve given above, of no legal separation between naturists and exhibitionists, as set down in the draft law, shows how quickly people could end up on the wrong side of the law.

It’s only when a naturist ends up in court for ‘browsing unsavoury websites’ that we will begin to see how much of an infringement of our civil liberties. I mean, who determines what is unsavoury?

There will be those out there who regard naturism as orgies, exhibitionism, wanton displays and, well, unsavoury. Do I wish to be judged such on the basis of visiting certain (to me) wholesome websites? I don’t.

And what happens if I click a link that leads me to a site that isn’t ‘naturist’ but pornographic or exploitative, even though I had no idea what that site contained? I’ll back out of it straightaway, but that ‘browsing history’ record remains. Will I be judged on clicking on a link to a site I’d no notion what lay beyond? Theoretically, yes. You can be absolutely certain that should I end up in court for something trivial…refusing to pay water rates because the supplier failed to supply for two months, say, you can bet your bottom dollar that the prosecuting team will have asked for my internet records to see what else they can lump onto their case.

‘Your Honour, Ms. Keng has a long track record of emailing the local council demanding all residents should refuse to pay…she’s clearly some sort of civic terrorist. While checking these records we discovered she’s a sex-beast naturist who exposes herself in public, and she once did a search for Guantanamo Bay, so we demand an orange jump suit and a rendition flight’.

I exaggerate, but only slightly. Enshrined in law, the Snoopers’ Charter will inevitably be used against the people for the purposes of criminalising them, be it for taking our clothes off in public -and in locations which aren’t actually ‘official’ naturist locations- for educating ourselves (doing a search for Guantanamo Bay human rights abuses, for example) or for telling our friends on social media that Politican X is an idiot, thereby condemning ourselves as plotting sedition.

It’s not just the UK. Remember the story from Virginia where a man was brewing coffee, naked, in his own house and was arrested because a woman and her child (who appear to have been trespassing through his front garden) happened to see him?

It will happen if this passes fully into law, and sooner than you might imagine I’d forecast someone is jailed on the basis of the info harvested from ISP records, and the crowing that ‘we’re defeating terrorism’.

While this photo is alleged to be a fake, the graphic below shows how accurate Orwell’s vision of 1984 actually is.

There’s between 4 & 6m CCTV cameras in the UK, the equivalent of 1 for every 11 people. For (in)security, you understand.

Today’s Guardian carries a piece on the Snoopers’ Charter, and as you might imagine has resulted in a huge number of comments (1700 as I write this) almost all opposed to it.

Fortunately, in the UK, anyone can set up a petition whereby 100,000 + signatories can demand something be debated in parliament.

At the time of writing, over 130,000 signatures have been added to that petition.

We’ve set up a number of cameras at SLN2 HQ (these are available on the Marketplace, priced at L$0). Despite being free, they’re actually quite useful as you can set them and point them around your land, and then click on them to give you a direct view of what’s going on in the camera’s sight lines. Quite useful if people turn up unwanted at the other end of your land and begin abusing rezzing rights or pose balls you’re paying for, and then eject them…on the other hand…you’re utilising them for the exact same purposes the UK government claim they utilise CCTV for. Oh, the irony!

We’ve over-egged the pudding with the photo to replicate UK RL with SL, and the enormous number of cameras dotting our streets.

Of course, there is one way to fight back 😉

L$199 will buy you a ‘flasher’s mac’ on the Marketplace too!

If the government wants some dirt on you, give it to them!

These would make great photos to go alongside your ‘rap sheet’ of internet searches whenever the UK’s surveillance culture comes for you.

Oppose the Snoopers’ Charter. And (are your reading, insecurity services?) maybe even taken naturism into the High Street, flash-flashes, if you will, to tie up their system for months.

Ella