Before, I thought that I would never buy a new skin but I was wrong. Today, I found myself shopping for a new skin and using Second Life’s new search tool I went from one store to another. My budget for a new skin was only 2,000L$ and I told myself that I would not spend anything more than that. I found some shops that sell skins for only 500L$ and another for 700L$. I even saw some that were selling at 250L$ to 350L$ but I didn’t buy from them because many of them looked copied.

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While I was searching for more skin shops, Isadora Fiddlesticks of HodgePodge Magazine ecstatically blurted out in the Filipino group chat how beautiful the skins in Minnu were. I immediately searched for Minnu, found it and teleported there. I found her looking at some female skins and she even tried one. I then left her and went to the Male section of the shop. There weren’t too many selections but at first glance I know that these were the skins I was looking for.

I selected the shaved tan skin style, paid the vendor, got the skin and wore it afterwards.

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The skin cost 1,500L$ and I think it’s worth every linden dollars because the skin looked really good on my avatar.

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Now my avatar has some material value. The elites of Second Life will now stop treating my avatar like a newbie and treat it more seriously. Who knows they might even accept me into their social circles! LOL!

Last week, my very helpful landlord sent all my objects back to me. No, he was not evicting me but instead he was helping me with some problems on the land where my place is located. The problem was, while working on My Little Philippines, I tried to rez some grass by dragging it on the ground. The grass didn’t rez so I tried again and every time it didn’t rez I will try again and again. What I didn’t notice was that even though the grass didn’t rez it still used a prim bringing my prim number closer to the limit. This was clearly a bug and after trying everything we can my landlord suggested to clear the parcel of all my objects by returning them to me and then just rebuild or put everything back. At first I didn’t want to do it but because there was no other way I agreed to it.

All my objects were returned to me which cleared the land of all the objects including the bugged grass objects. I then started to put everything back. Putting the objects back wasn’t that difficult because when I got them they were already grouped so I just drag it back out of my inventory and, while everything was still selected, positioned it to its original place.

I also took the opportunity to update My Little Philippines by placing it inside my building and transforming it as the third level of the place.

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I also moved some of the objects around and changed the Bahay Kubo. I’m almost out of prim but I still want to put some more objects in. I’ve also added a very simple Mini Monument of Rizal and on it is a “Proud To Be A Pinoy” Badge giver. If you touch it, you will be given a badge with the Philippine flag and the words “Proud To Be A Pinoy” on it.

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I wanted to add some more objects like rocks, small plants and even animals to add more texture to the place but because of my prim limit I can’t. Anyway, I’m happy with the place and have set the landing point there.

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It may not be the most amazing place or location in Second Life but it is my home and I love it!

To complete my new outfit, I also need to find and buy a new pair of shoes and eyeglasses so again I hit search. I first searched for a pair of formal shoes though I easily found some shops but their shoes wasn’t really that good for the price they are offering. My search led me to SF Designs and there I found a very nice looking pair of shoes called SFD Tripper Lace Ups. It’s only 200L$ and it looks really nice. There were 3 sizes (small, medium and large) so to make sure that it fits my avatars appearance I tried the demo first and the medium size fits perfectly.

For the eyeglasses, I went to the shop that loaded fast, the ones I first went to took a lot of time to rez, and that was the primOptic shop. The eyeglasses are scripted but I don’t see myself using any of its many features.

I guess that will conclude my personal shopping for the moment and my tip to everyone, if there is a demo version of the item you wish to buy then don’t hesitate to try the demo first because it will save you linden dollars. It’s very disappointing to buy something then upon wearing it you’ll see that the item doesn’t look good on you! So always remember to try before you buy!

Now that I have some new hairs, I thought that I should compliment it with a new suit. For my new suit, I still prefer it to be Philippine inspired and there is only one place I know in Second Life that has Philippine inspired suits and that is Casa De Shai. The suit I bought is named the Luna Suit which I assumed was named after two of my country’s great heroes, Antonio and Juan Luna, and it cost only 600L$.

The snapshot was taken at Mt Kiribati, Irukandji National Park using the latest Windlight viewer. I think it looks nice even though it wasn’t enhanced by Photoshop or any graphics/image/photo editor.

The suit worked well with the hairs except for one, the Lajon Hair Sytle, but still I’m very happy with it. Maybe next month I’ll buy a new suit and I’m thinking of another Barong would be nice.

If you have been to my place in-world, 3 Stars and a Sun, at Scaramanga then I’m sure you have seen my little garden inspired by my country’s culture, the Philippines. I’m proud to be a Filipino, I’m proud of my culture, heritage and history. Not even poverty nor death will make me leave my country. My allegiance is only to one flag and my loyalty is only to one country, my home, the Philippines.

Anyway, my place, 3 Stars and a Sun, used to have 3 levels or floors and the third floor was a mini-garden inspired and dedicated to my country. That was before, now you won’t see it but it’s not gone. I just moved it. Moved it way, way up and since not too many people goes there anyway, I turned it into a personal space.

But today, I set my landing spot there. Anyone who teleports to 3 Stars and a Sun will land there. The place is not really big because I have a very little space to build in. It’s 2o meters wide and it’s 500 meters above ground.

And just like before, I went for a countryside look with bahay kubos, folk dancers and palm trees. There is also a big picture viewer that shows some beautiful places in my country.

I even have a superhero patrolling the sky (not always though) and you’ll be greeted by one of the Philippines’ greatest comic book superheroine, Darna! LOL!

With limited space and prims, my ability to put more objects in is very limited but I’ll try to squeeze in some more prims and we’ll see.