INTERPRETING MR. CRAPPY

Last week or so, I was poking around Violet Voltaire's shop and I found Mr. Crappy and the matching earrings tucked quietly into an upstairs corner. The earrings were labeled as an April Fools' Joke but I'm not so sure. ... Now I'm already an admirer of Ms. Voltaire's slightly subversive humor as seen at times in her products. Seeing Mr. Crappy, I thought I caught a whiff of her dark humor that I think I'd like to discuss.

First let me mention that Mr. Crappy Necklace is priced at L$50, and the earrings at $L10. The other um, "more conventional" Kawaii Cameos are priced at L$200, with the earrings at L$135.

Now for the fun part! Can I interpret this as a suggestion that many of us in SL would rather buy a cheap piece of crap than pay more for something good? (LOL Ms. Voltaire please feel free to set me straight if you find this interpretation outrageous or offensive.)

Can it be true? Do most of us live on cheapies and freebies rather than pony up a US dollar or so for things of greater beauty? ... I've always wondered how so many stores survive. You know the stores I mean! Yes the stores that sell nothing but pastel ballgowns, trashy escort gear, sparkly bling jewelry that would look at home on a pimp, heels that click when you walk, and micro mini dresses made of tacky polyester fabric with no shading and flat texture. The freebie and dollarbie hunters flock to these "bargains", but I would rather wear the same three tee shirts and jeans than have a hundred of these marginally wearable goods in my closet. Do these stores all rely on newbies and the uninformed, or is this what we are choosing?

A note for those who are new to SL: don't waste too much time hunting down these low quality goods. You can go to any Freebie Shop and find lots of this stuff completely for free. When you see really good quality gifts on the fashion feeds, by all means go get them. Eventually you will become accustomed to quality. When you are ready to spend a dollar or two, come back and we'll talk.

Oh I forgot to mention. Yes, I bought Mr. Crappy! :O

THE HUNT CONSPIRACY

(Overheard, two shop owners, a blogger, and a hunt organizer, sitting in an abandoned diner.)

Ms. Mercantile: The hunt frenzy is burning out the participants on both ends. I've been talking to a couple of designer friends who used to put better quality goods into the hunt system, and they told me they are too tired to turn out good gifts anymore, what with their being a half-dozen or so hunts going on every month. Several of the better designers are considering not participating in the hunt scene at all anymore.

Ms. Couture: Let's keep up the pace then. We have the July hunts lined up but we need to fill in more in August and September. I think with Halloween, October will take care of itself.

Ms. Gossipgirl: One of my blogger friends told me that she is reducing coverage of the hunt gifts because of the reduced quality. She got really discouraged on one of the really long hunts a couple of weeks ago. She stopped after the first eighty stores to unpack, and never went back after what she saw in the eighty boxes.

Ms. Couture: Is it true that there was a grid-wide hunt with over five hundred stores?

Ms. Huntqueen: *laughs* Yes.

Ms. Mercantile: Well if enough of the better designers stop doing hunts, hopefully more customers will get burned out and quit hunting.

Ms. Gossipgirl: I think there are some dedicated hunters out there no matter what. But if the quality of the goods goes down far enough, a lot of the blog coverage should dry up.

(Yes this is satire straight from my imagination. The names have been changed to protect the blogger from catfights and snide remarks. I know I know, we are supposed to be grateful to all the designers who contribute to the free hunts. But when some of them hang a miniature of the hunt item on a necklace and call it a gift, or give away freebie full perm goods made by other people, how long can it be before the Hunt Scene jumps the shark?)

MR. CONSTRUCTION GUY

When I whistled at this guy, instead of smiling he just stood there, looking uncomfortable, and ignored me. I was walking around enjoying the Gritty City, and I thought I finally found someone to talk to. After an extended silence I realized that Mr. Construction Guy is an inanimate collection of prims.

Now don't take this the wrong way ... he has a cute prim butt, but ... why does a fun sim need plastic people to populate itself? Where are all the "real" avatars? Are they all hanging out at the Morris Welcome Area? Maybe in the future the Lab can generate robots to populate all these cute sims. I've noticed that most sims are spooky quiet when there isn't a hunt or something going on to generate interest. There are loads of cute empty nightclubs, cute empty coffee bars, and cute empty malls. Hmm. Wait! Someone tell the Lab that I have an idea for another revenue stream. They can sell bots to populate your sim and make it seem more lifelike. For instance, if you own a nightclub, they can sell you a trio of bots that dance in a group while making automated prescripted snarky comments about each others' clothes. If you build a slummy city, they can provide robot panhandlers that curse at anyone who doesn't make a donation, and a robot guy who wanders the back alleys peeing on the walls. Animated bots that walk and talk would be more expensive than those that merely loiter on park benches. Unlike Mr. Construction Guy, they could be indistinuishable from real avatars. I like it ...

LET ME INTRODUCE MYSELF

I got tired of listening to my sister complain about all the things she isn't allowed to say as a "serious" blogger and I thought, Why Not? I can say what ever I want to. I won't embarrass her by saying who she is, but I can amuse myself with repeating her frustrations and making any other halfwitty observations that cross my mind.

My sister was the pretty one, I was the smart one. It took us years but finally we figured out that she is allowed to be smart, and I am allowed to have rhinoplasty. :) Not that I would ... it's just too easy in our world to move those sliders and get rid of the saddlebags if you know what I mean? I like who I am. We argue all the time about which one of us is the alt. Really I dont care if her rez date was first. I think I am more genuine than she is, which is a shame and not really something I can say to her face.

Hm about me? The chica in the inappropriate red lipstick is Maggie. I really like red. Yes I am sturdy, I couldn't very well be a fashionista with these hips. I don't remember where I bought my jeans, and I'm a low budget girl. I have a sarcastic ironic sense of humor, which makes my sis roll her eyes a lot, which is most of the fun. My favorite thing to do is people watching. If you want to be my friend, try talking to me instead of "friending" me inworld. I don't bite. Much. Exceptions made on request.