Escaping (Literal) Painful Actuality at Raven Fairelander’s Labyrinth Masquerade Ball in Second Life – Ryan Schultz

I’m nonetheless working whereas on half-time sick time for remedy of job burnout, and (because it so occurs) we have now alongside weekend up right here in Manitoba, since Monday is Louis Riel Day. I must be glad, however sadly, I’m additionally nursing a decaying again molar. My common dentist was in a position to solely do a partial root canal (one nerve) earlier than he encountered issues which he felt have been past his expertise and experience, and he’s referring me to an endodontist’s workplace. My appointment is in six weeks, however my tooth has nonetheless been giving me hassle, and I must contact my dentist on Tuesday (after the lengthy weekend) to debate choices.

So in the intervening time, I’m popping additional energy Advil, and specializing in Second Life—which, as I’ve mentioned earlier than, is my most popular escape from nasty, messy, and (on this occasion, actually) painful actuality. By the point all that is over, I’ll have dropped over CA$3,000 on my tooth, so it seems like I shall be leaning fairly closely into my experience because the uncrowned Freebie Fashionista Queen of Second Life! No extra SL buying sprees for the remainder of this 12 months for Self-importance Honest and her small military of alts; my well being has to come back first!! (I’m additionally grateful that I’ve dental insurance coverage by way of my employer, which ought to repay a part of the associated fee afterwards. Nonetheless, the endodontist’s workplace needs full fee, up entrance.)

So, in these present circumstances, yesterday I stumbled throughout an announcement on the one social media I nonetheless use, Primfeed (which is type of a cross between Twitter and Flickr, but it surely’s solely for Second Life customers to publish about Second Life):

And, after all, Self-importance Honest loves herself masquerade ball! Because it so occurs, one of many issues that I’ve been doing to assist me chill out and escape my chaotic actual life is cleansing by way of and reorganizing Self-importance Honest’s voluminous stock, specializing in the oldest objects. And, in doing so, I found this wonderful, systems-layers-and-flexiprims Ariel ballgown from Kouse Singh, which I picked up again in 2012. I’ve thrown out at LOT of my oldest attire, however there are nonetheless a couple of objects that I can not bear to half with. This Ariel ballgown by Kouse Singh nonetheless holds up effectively, 13 years later! (I did add a few trendy mesh touches: a black lace bolero from United Colours; and the Meritus crown, necklace, and earrings from Petrichor.)

Nonetheless, I nonetheless wanted to pick a masks; what’s a masquerade ball with out a masks? Raven Faireland used the 1986 David Bowie film Labyrinth because the inspiration for her masquerade ball (in truth, she had video screens situated all through the spectacular ballroom she designed herself, taking part in the well-known masquerade ball scene from that movie on a loop). So I didn’t need simply any outdated masks; it needed to be one thing particular to suit the theme!

Fortunately, final Hallowe’en I picked up a particular maze hunt prize from Queenz, this shimmering Luciferix masks. It’s utterly resizable on any mixture of the X, Y, and Z axes, and comes with a HUD to pick one in all eight masks colors and two metallic textures. I picked the black masks with gold metallic accents as proven under:

NOW, I used to be all set for the ball! I teleported into the gorgeous ballroom which Raven Fairelander had created, and I had a beautiful night! At instances there have been over 100 avatars in a single area, chatting, flirting, and dancing to the DJs’ music stream (there have been three DJs that night). Everybody went all out and over-the-top with their masquerade outfits!

I did take some footage to share with my buddies and followers on Primfeed, however I additionally needed to share them right here, too. Please click on on every thumbnail within the image gallery under to see the picture in full measurement:

You possibly can see our gracious hostess and ballroom designer, Raven Fairelander, being dipped by her associate in image 4! You may as well catch a coupe of glimpses of me dancing with my champagne in hand. It was additionally Raven’s birthday celebration, so everyone wished her a contented birthday as effectively.

I’d prefer to thank Raven Fairelander for letting me come to her fabulous birthday masquerade ball. (I do must ask her the place she acquired her stunning blue butterfly masks, which you can even see on a couple of different partygoers! I had executed a right-click/examine on it, after which I logged out and forgot to save lots of the identify of the creator and the shop!!!)

Anyhow, that’s it for me. I’ll nonetheless publish now and again, as I really feel as much as it; I’m nonetheless feeling exhausted and worn out these days, and my root canal state of affairs is not serving to. I nonetheless haven’t made any agency, last determination about what I need to do with this weblog. I’ll hold you posted.

P.S. For the sake of personal psychological and emotional well being, I’ve needed to keep away from all social media (besides Primfeed) and all information media (besides checking the Globe and Mail newspaper solely as soon as per workday, by way of a newspaper database my college library system subscribes to). Even then, the upsetting, batshit loopy information headlines from the US—and Canada, too!—nonetheless handle to filter by way of. Proper now, I must concentrate on myself, my well being, and issues that I can change in my life, and keep away from as a lot as potential all of the batshit craziness happening, since I’ve zero management over it.

As I joked final week to each my household physician and my psychiatrist, “I don’t assume I’ve sufficient Clonazepam to get by way of 4 extra years of a Trump presidency.” 🤪

UPDATE 1:01 p.m.: I discovered the blue butterfly Mardi Gras masks! It’s one of many prizes from a brand new gacha machine on the MeadowWorks sales space on the Valentine’s Store and Hop occasion, on now till February 18th, 2025. Right here’s your taxi! It’s L$60 per pull. I used to be very fortunate and acquired mine after solely 4 pulls! The masks isn’t any copy, PBR enabled, and resizable by way of HUD. (Please click on on every picture under, to see it in full measurement.)