I shed a tear...

 

I also packed up my stalker kit because Aeris is closing MYTH! So I had a moment of despair, followed by anger [this is when I got my stalker box together] and now just a little sadness about all the memories on SL with MYTH involved. It's like the end of an era! My first lindens were spent on Mythology's Denim Skirt & Black Corset set and I wore it with pride! A few months later, there was a group notice and sign stating that Mythology was looking for a group manager. I had absolutely no experience with anything, but I wanted to learn everything I could about SL. So, even though I thought there was no way I would get it I applied for the job. Maybe no one else did, because I got it! LOL and I was so excited to learn everything that I could absorb working with a designer. Aeris was totally sweet and showed me exactly what I was to do, and even gave me some clothes from the store. I wore them everyday, always decked out in Mythwear lol. Thinking back, I was nervous because my acct had been active awhile but I was still learning due to not having used the account for almost a year after signing up for it so people's expectations may have been way higher than I was prepared to know.  Intimidating isn't the word when I found out I had actually got the job, but she made it all soo easy for me and took the time to explain anything I wanted to know. I diligently performed my tasks everyday, hoping to prove myself the right person for the job even though I had no experience to date lol. Lemme tell ya, I got good lol. And slowly we talked more, not just about the shop but other things and one day...we were friends! Now I still harass her in IM and she still runs away from me to her 2 million alts, not to mention she's one of the few people on SL with a tab in my profile. So with all that history, as well as having gone through the countless changing of store locations, the transition from Mythology to MYTH and now the demise of it all I can't help but be a bit sad about it. No more MYTH! Excuse me, I think I have something in my eye...

Anywayyyy...I made her sit her pixels down and explain herself to me...and explain she shall!

OK, so right off the bat everyone wants to know...why would u go and break my heart like this?

Aeris : Its what I do, I break hearts.... really though, months had passed by before I had made anything and I had no desire to continue making stuff and the brand I had worked so hard to build had been fading out in a sad way, of course, because of my own neglect.

What made you decide this was the time?

Aeris : I had originally wanted to do it back in October, that's when I closed down all of my satellite shops and when I began telling people (friends, etc). But *someone* not naming names (anjelyc morales!) kept being a drama queen about it all so I dragged my feet a little bit. I figured I can start the new year out with a change.

See how I always get blamed? UNREAL! Anyway, let's not dwell on who's dramatic right now *ahem* how do you feel about this being the end of MYTH?

 Aeris : A little bit like when leaving summer camp. Your happy to go home but you will miss all of the friends you made. Its kind of a huge relief to be done with it, and when I sent that final notice it was a weight off my shoulders.

What kind of sale prices are all the MYTH lovahs going to have to look forward to?  Well I'll answer that since Aeris took forever and a day to answer all of my questions.  You are looking at EVERYTHING in the store @ a mere 30L!  I mean really...I'm buying things I already have all over again at that price! K let's get back to the questions lollllll

Do you think somewhere down the line you will decide to design again?

Aeris : Meh, I dunno. I'm not super anxious to start a clothing venture. I definitely do need to do SOMETHING as my creative outlet. I'm looking around to see if I can hire my skills on a contractual basis. Like creating an outfit here or there for an already established brand. or doing templates and tutorials. I guess I'll just see what I come up with next. I'm sure it will be something lol.

 If you do, will it be MYTH again? Or will you move on from this chapter in your SL...

 Aeris : I will DEFINITELY NOT be reopening it. This is it, for good. You won't see MYTH coming back 2 months or 2 years from now.

Was I the best store manager ever in Second Life?

Aeris : What? I had a manager? lol kidding!!! You were awesome, whenever I came to the store you'd be there and it was like coming home to a hot cooked meal! BAHAHA. I miss those days lol.

What can I say...I'm pretty awesome lol.  Now...what is the single most bestest ever memory about your time designing MYTH-wear?

Aeris : That time we ran around naked in the store, or we did, you just took pictures and gawked at our pasty bodies lol.

Run tell dat lol, I sure did stay on the sidelines because hispanic people know better than to get involved in the gringo craziness.  We sit on the side and shake our heads while recording the moment.  Holla for having evidence and keeping it.

You lasted for years now, with your own niche on the grid and you did pretty well.  Now that this is the end, do you feel like there is something that designers or future designers need to know about running a business in SL?

Aeris : I didn't want to go out without giving a small bit of advice to people who want to make clothing and open their own store in SL, or maybe who already have one. The three things I wished someone had told me before

1. Never pay for magazine advertisements or any ads besides your classified.  If you decide to anyways just don't spend to much. I've spend hundreds of thousands of L$ for almost every magazine out there and they never pay off, not even a little bit.

2. 99% of the time satellite stores are useless. The most you can hope for are getting new subscribers but for sales? Yeah you'll be lucky to break even. Split profits are good but just remember not to neglect them. I've rented at hundreds of malls, districts, outlets, clubs, etc. whatever you name it. I can count on one hand how many of those paid off and most of those aren't even around anymore.

3. Get a store manager! Don't try to do it yourself! if you can't afford to pay them, give them a commission off of every sale. Otherwise 80% of your time you will be managing hunts, ads, mall requests, FAQ's, bloggers, events, contests, your marketplace store, and all that good stuff that will get your name out there. So you can imagine how insanely large your friends list will get and how easily your IM's will get capped. have your store manager handle all of that for you. Then you can concentrate on doing what you love, making stuffs! Oh and if your photography skills leave something to be desired, try to hire professional photographers whenever possible to photograph your vendor displays! TRUST!

Almost everyone has something to contribute here, so if you think your designs aren't as good as whats popular right now, who cares! A skill worth knowing is one that takes time to build. And last but not least, hold your real friends close, the other ones would sooner throw you to the dogs faster then you can say "free clothes".

She is young, she is wise...and she's pretty cute too if I do say so myself in a non-lesbanim kind of way [she wants more but I fight her off]!  MYTH is going, but it's going out with a bang.  I hope for all of you out there that have never even heard of it go on down and grab a little something.  She was a designer for men and women so guys, don't think you're left out here!  Stop on down and say goodbye to an amazing label that I quite honestly can say I was truly honored to be a part of. 

MYTH Closing Sale - Everything 30L!!!

ReZ dAy!

*This is 2 days late, my acct was fooked for a bit!*

Today is my Rez Day! Happy Rez Day to meh! It sounded very rock & roll in my head!  So, this is actually the first rez day I've been actively in SL lol.  Crazy right?  I decided my blog would be a little bio if you will.  How I started, and how I got to be here now 3 years later in SL.  We'll laugh, we'll cry, we'll ...lets face it, we'll probably laugh alot.  I am quite aware of how crazy I can be at times and I rather tend to embrace it.  I wouldn't be me without it.  Here we go!  This is how it alllll began...[too dramatic?]

I was on Yahoo! Msgr, when my friend Ladybug [SL name] IM'd me.  She was frantic and excited, and I was AFK.  So, being incredibly impatient and annoying [love ya gurl!], she texted my phone to tell me to get my assi to my computer so she could talk to me instead of just texting me what she wanted.  When I finally got back to my comp, she rambled about how I should always be at my comp when it was her and then told me she had been with a friend on Second Life.  She says to me 'gurrrrl you have to dl it!  go find it and get it' so I said, "dude, wtf is it" and she's like "OMG Mag [SL name] told me to dl it a few months ago and she finally got around to getting me on with her and she took me to some place and there were avatars having sex!  i could hear like moaning and everything!!! LOL".  So of course, my natural response was "ugh, leave it to you to find more places to be a perv".  'Shutty and go download it!'  So I did, and by the time it was all said and done, it was time for sleep lol.  So I had found out about it, searched it and downloaded it.  Then I registered, and went to bed.  A few weeks later, she tried to get me on and my laptop just couldn't handle it so I deleted it, uninstalled it and never went on again.  Pretty uneventful, huh?

About 7-8 months later, I got a new Acer and I was in a very ho-hum relationship with a fewl of a man and I got an email about SL, so I recalled having made an account.  I had my info re-sent to my email and I signed on.  My avatar was so weird looking, but at the time I didn't know any better.  I thought everyone looked like that.  I spent a few weeks trying to learn how to walk, and I was stuck in between a wall and a tree somewhere on Orientation Island for about 3 weeks.  I'd log in, try to get the heck out of there...fail and log off.  I lost patience very fast with the game, and so I never got too far with it in the beginning.  Eventually, I ran into a lovely woman who on voice, made fun of me and gave me a transferable skin and shape.  Can I just pause here to tell you what I looked like? OMG I don't know who remembers the default avatars here in 07-08 but I had the one with the red dress, white shirt and black ponytails for hair.  Ok so I thought manipulating the newb hair would give me an actual hairstyle I would like.  So very wrong...I don't know what I did to it but it looked like zombie hair.  The only claim I can give myself is it was my signature black LOL.  I tried to give her pinkish nail polish, and somehow turned her whole arm up to her elbow this pinkish purple color.  I attempted to give myself black tights, my whole body was black except my head which was sickly white, and of course my colorful arms.  I was one hot mess let me tell you what.  Had I known how to take a snapshot back then, I would have been afraid to break the camera.  So, she transferred me these items and I crashed.  I was so embarrassed at what she had said and the fact she wasn't actually on voice talking to me, but someone else telling them how I looked and OMG'ing it all that I didn't log back on for several more weeks.  Upon reading some tutorials on how to get dressed and whatnot, I braved it once again sometime in early April or May, I believe.  I put on the shape and skin she gave me, and proceeded to try to find different clothes.  I learned slowly but surely, and all alone because Ladybug's computer had died, and she didn't have another one that could handle SL.  My partner in crime was nowhere to be found and I was trying to learn all of this new world on my own.  Luckily, I'm ridiculously intelligent and got things fairly fast now that my computer could keep me online long enough to learn some things. 

I found a new skin that I liked a bit better, and I worked on making my own shape to look how I wanted.  Didn't know at the time about buying shapes, and what have you.  Just thought everyone made their own, so I did and I still use it to this day.  Of course, I have several versions now but all with the same face and I think I'll keep it lol.  When I had started to get in the swing of things, I met a sweet man just starting out himself and we became friends.  He took an immediate liking [of course] to me, and we hung out whenever we were on together.  We're partners in SL and RL now, and the rest of that story is for another blog lol.  In between Gio and I partnering, I had another SL break due to a hectic RL and another computer malfunction.  I had to get my laptop fixed, and was working 2 jobs.  He looked for me everyday until I came back and I of course thought he was some sort of crazed stalker.  When we were on, we explored SL together & made the most out of each minute we spent online.  We danced, we shopped, we built random things that made no sense just to try out our editing skills.  One day, I walked into a shop that would change my whole SL.  I became the group manager @ Mythology which later became MYTH, became friends with Aeris & she actually was the one that told me I should try blogging.  She taught me about clothing, where to shop and how to flick my Flickr. I did, and here I am now with my site, which I've been on for more than a year *yay* and also blogging for The Metaverse Tribune [http://metaversetribune.com - Mi Paraiso Virtual].  I am taking my own pictures and actually making them look decent enough to post *yay again!* and attempting to learn other things as well.  People actually stop and tell me they like the way that I write, they like that I put so much effort into my blogs and that they actually just like reading what I ramble about here.  It makes me all warm and fuzzy...I used to write poetry [well I still do...] and songs, and now I write about Virtual Fashion and I kinda adore it.  Photography is a RL love of mine, and I'm excited to learn more about creating beautiful photos for SL as well.  Making my own shapes led me to creating shapes for others also, which as of now I'm only doing on a 'Hey u asked, so sure I'll make one' basis.  I probably do too much, but I think i'm just well rounded lol.  I don't want to rule the world, or SL...I just want to be me. I don't need to be popular, I just want those that know me to view me in a good light.  I'm not high and mighty, I just always try to do as good as I can!  All in all, I think me is pretty ok.  This is just how I wagonwheel.  And even after reading all of this, I hope you do too! Hehe...if not, damn it I dunno.  Lemme give u a linden...I'm poor, is 1L$ a good bribe??