unVeiled Shadows

7 September 2025

hoardwear

I confess, in SL I am a bit of a hoarder. I’m not as bad as I used to be but, well, I do have an inventory filled with between 35,000 and 40,000 objects.

They are all assorted things, ranging from clothing of all types, jewelry, furniture, HUDs (even kept some from games that no longer exist or even work in SL), AOs, skins, shapes, hair (lots of hair), tools, builds and buildings of various kinds, yoga mats, ornaments, artworks, plus more fringe things such as weapons, magic spells, plushies, pets (I have a couple of horses, a ghost leopard, some fish and probably others I’ve forgotten about). I also have a folder dedicated to my business, so to speak, hobby really, ‘unVeiled’, for which I also made an SL group for which is free to join. All of my exhibition collection are there, neatly packed away until needed. I still get them out when I have a chance for an exhibition, when I’m offered space to do so.

Of the many assortment of things I have kept loads of prim-based stuff, as in loads of clothing from when all we had was made of prims. It must be the retro-girl in me, and my just in case thinking. I mean, you never know when, for whatever reason, I may need to default to primwear. It’s not likely but to be honest I can’t bring myself to get rid of them, having had them for so long. Some of these things, especially clothing, I’d worked hard at getting and some I wore a lot as they’d become at the time my favourite go-to modes of dressing.

Occasionally, I do have blitzes, as in clear-outs. Some are more successful that others. The simplest approach would be to simply pick a folder of older stuff and just send it to trash, then delete them from the trash: a no going back policy. But even when I do find the energy to wade through these thousands of now pretty much redundant items I still find myself thinking, keep or throw, keep or throw? Basically, dithering.

I suppose I find letting go not an easy thing to do, so does that make me a hoarder? Maybe a bit, but I’ve usually got a good reason for keeping whatever it is. At least, that’s what I tell myself.

I should just bite the bullet and show my inventory no mercy, shouldn’t I? (I’ll just have a cup of tea first and think about it, maybe a biscuit too. I have plenty of those in my inventory).

© Anan Eebus

22 August 2025

backwards forwards

I am back! Although I’ve not been away, not as such, just haven’t got around to posting anything here for ever-so-so-so-so long, and that’s a long time.

Nor have I been away from Second Life either, logging in almost daily, but you know how RL can be: all-consuming. SL used to be all-consuming, years ago, when I let it become so which turned out to be such a bad idea. A bad idea because eventually it started leaking into my real life, into my daily waking thoughts, into my dreams, feeding me worry after worry.

Basically, I took too much on, which, with hindsight, was a truly crazy and totally defeated the whole reason for joining SL in the first place, as a relief from the stresses and strains of the real world, a place where I could just hang out, chill, mooch, and do whatever else took my fancy, especially things I probably wouldn’t dare too for real. I will leave that to your imagination as to what those are.

But that’s all done and dusted and water under the bridge and all that. I managed over time to free myself of those responsibilities which had become no better than shackles. Every now and then since some people have tried to drag me back there but luckily I’ve learned my lesson, once bitten, twice, or even thrice, shy.

Nowadays I spend lots of time exploring, I even recently did a photo project called “Window Shopping”, which basically was photos of me by different window displays, which I wrote about in a earlier blog a while back. It was actually quite tricky because even though there are some good one, such things aren’t that common in SL. Many shops have no outsides, or they are just anonymous buildings with all the creative effort going on inside and with little except for the name on the outside. Nevertheless, I did manage to find a few and sometime I might revisit the project, see if I can find new and even better ones.
Currently my exploration interests are of a kind I haven’t done for years and tend towards things of an ‘adult’ nature.

In my early days here, and by the way, I have been in SL over 17 years (phew!), I’d been tempted to such places but over time got a bit bored of them. Now, things have changed a bit, more than a bit actually. The interactivity has become more imaginative, and sophisticated, if that’s not too over-the-top word for them, and the people I meet generally more interesting. Well, regarding the latter , mostly interesting, some are still kinda vacuous and lacking.

But I’ve been meeting some really fascinating people and enjoyed their company in lots of interesting and unexpected ways. I have long found it hard to resist my deeper nature, or maybe my darker nature, and SL gives me a chance to express that part of me. So, why not go for it! All in the name of pleasure and more pleasure, and more pleasure, and more…….

© Anan Eebus

14 December 2024

Happy Christmas from me and Santa baby

31 October 2024

tricks of treats #10- Hallowmas

Hallowmas
where the past
catches up with you,
flaunting
and taunting
haunting your every step
scratching at the truth
tooth and claw
until your skin is raw
oozing from each pore
feeding on your flaws
reading every twitch and tell
and using them against you,

pulling out your roots
tearing at your seams
shredding your defences
poisoning your streams,

feel it brush
against your thoughts,
feel it creep
into your sores,
feel it pouring
acid in your wounds,
too late to be saved
from the things you crave,
careful with that dream
in case no one hears you scream,
can you recall a past
that you hoped would last?

© E. Calder