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| This evening's rants brought to you by Grumpy Geisha |
I've been having an absolute 'mare with viewers lately. Firestom starting being really slow and crash-y, so I switched to the official Second Life viewer. It ran a bit more smoothly... but not especially well - still slow and maybe it crashed once. It has this ridiculous quirk though - textures don't stay rezzed. They blur and unblur continually. What is that about?!
So much for the official viewer as the be-all and end-all that some people make it out to be. Maybe it runs better on a PC, but on my macbook? Pff. I'll take the customization options and features that Firestorm offers me any day. I love that I can right-click and derender any object that might be spoiling the in-world ambience. Anyway, I've just deleted all my old Firestorm folders to perform a clean re-install, so hopefully that will help.
That's another thing - all those people who find it oh-so-easy to say bloggers are only in it for the free stuff are so wide of the mark. By the time I've put a look together, found a location, taken the pictures (with some really slow viewer performance and probably a crash or two thrown in), done a few small tweaks in photoshop, written the post, tidied up the credits... I've probably spent a couple of hours on a post. Doing all this just to get free stuff - in the form of review copies - must be one of the least productive and cost-effective ways to spend time ever!
Of course, I'm not suggesting everyone with a blog has pure motives. Yes, some people do it for free stuff. Others like to stir up controversy or to become "slebrities" (lol). But anyone who manages to sustain a blog for a reasonable length of time is probably doing it for other reasons, because photos don't take themselves and posts don't write themselves. It has to be a labour of love, or it won't last.
I started this blog because of a friend's suggestion - I had a huge amount of silks and gowns (that I bought) and was pretty good at finding freebies! Why do I blog? Because it's fun. Because I love creating a character, dressing her up, and finding a setting for her. Because I love sharing my finds, and especially sharing freebies and gifts for people who don't have any L$. I love being able to ping newbies, or people helping newbies, the link to my free page. I love that I can promote and support reputable designers rather than shady ones. (If I ever have or do feature copybotted items, please forgive me - you can be sure it was because I had no suspicion.) I get a real kick out of seeing a new follower on my blog, or that someone has linked to me, or when someone tells me in-world that they like my blog.
Do I get review copies? Yes, now I do, but I can pretty much guarantee that for the first year of this blog I neither received nor requested review copies! I'm very grateful to all the designers who send review copies or accepted or invited me to their blogger groups as it helps me sustain the blog.
Do I request review copies or apply to blog events now? Yes,
very occasionally, as in a couple of a times a year. I might send a request to a designer I've already bought from (if I don't like their creations enough to buy, why would I want to blog them?) if I think they might be amenable to it, based on what they've stated in their profile picks. If they haven't put anything there, I ask what their policy is, if it's something they ever do. As for events, I applied for We<3RP and Fantasy Faire, and there's an upcoming event I'd love to blog so I will make enquiries about that too. I don't have the time to do justice to lots of events, so I keep it to what fits best with my interests and to which I can devote a reasonable amount of coverage. Most of the time I'm splashing the cash like everyone else!
Am I a big ol' poopyhead? Yes, probably, but that's a separate issue.
RIGHT OK RANT OVER NORMAL SERVICE WILL BE RESUMED AFTER THE JUMP
:D I'm pretty sure that extended rant was as a direct result of viewer hassles these past couple of days. It's very unlike me to write so much or comment on controversial issues.
Normal blog service, featuring this gown from the current Steampunk round of Genre, will be resumed after the jump! Congratulations if you made it this far :) and thank you for bearing with me!
