Carol Belle

This is not looking good for my reputation! But darn it, I had to cancel another show for another doctor’s appointment. Wish me luck…

._.

Hello to everyone! I noticed that quite a few of you have signed up for the website, which I think is totally neat and awesome of you. So far, I only wanted to restrict access to downloads and things to protect my bandwidth somewhat. But I want to make it rewarding for you guys too. If you sign up, you get to leave comments (like you’re really going to do that when I barely blog), but mostly you get to see videos and get stuff like songs I’ve recorded to keep.

Eventually, I may want to hold contests and things, but I’m still thinking about it. ^.^

I finally caught up with the latest season of The Guild! Season 3 opens up with a scene that many of us hardcore gaming nerds are familiar with: waiting in line for the newest, bestest thing ever since My Little Pony!!! Boy, I remember my EverQuest days so fondly… *sniff* I kinda miss my guild – Heritage of Oblivion – and they were just the nicest group of people. Darn it, I missed another Frost Fell event. I wonder if I’ll ever go back to games like that. It seems like my life got so busy so quick!

I only just started Second Life on December 19th, 2009 (that’s my avatar’s rez day). It’s only February of 2010, and I feel like I’m achieving success unlike any other time in my life. I mean, I’ve been through not knowing what I want for most of my young adult life, going through the motions of various schools for performing arts and fashion design (I picked up a few things, actually, though I may not have graduated).

Then I got married foolishly, and then unmarried. And I still didn’t know what I wanted, so joined the Navy as a kind of sabbatical – though I didn’t know it as that at the time. Did boot camp, stayed in a year, got out, and floated for a while. Somehow I ended up where I am in Taos, totally in love and now getting married (I feel for the first time – this time for good) on the 22nd of this month!

It’s because of him that I found my voice, and that I looked into Second Life to begin with as a possibility of just being able to sing more. Slowly it feels like I’m improving in my showmanship, and I hope you guys are enjoying yourselves as my music evolves and my repertoire  grows. It’s slowed down slightly due to my stupid health issue – but that will be resolved soon. I feel pretty bad that I had to cancel so many shows, but it’s great that you guys understand.

Wow, the Who are still rocking it out here at Super Bowl half-time… Pretty cool, that.

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Medical issues suck.

Due to a particular medical issue that I developed, I required surgery today to have it taken care of. Now I’m happily drugged to the gills but unable to sing. Drugs like that dehydrate the voice (and everything else, actually). So here’s Carol Belle, probably not going to be singing for a while. I’m sorry, guys. :-(

I’mma need a few days to recover. To be honest, I’m surprised at how well I’m able to type right about now. heh…

If you have any questions, you can always contact my manager in Second Life, Ace Claridge. He’s a nice guy (and a great manager to boot).

Question to the masses: What do you want to see more of on this website, if anything at all? Write to me! I wanna know!

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Hey people! New pics from a show I had last week! I just LOVE to dress my avi up in different outfits… and sometimes I repeat myself because I have favorites. Ooh! And did you know that I invested in a photo studio system! I need to rent a place somewhere to set it up! It’s 40+ prims!

Yay, fake world photography! It’s still fun and creative, though. I’m having quite a bit of fun!

So far I’ve only met the nicest people on Second Life. I’ve been online for just over a month – barely – and I’m already being followed by people who love to hear me sing. I mean, they really love it! I feel so happy and encouraged, and I just want to keep going.

Not only that, but I think I had a good lesson last time with my Maestra! There are some days I feel I could do better, but this time I think I took the lesson the way I needed to and actually learned something. The soft pallet is naturally raised when it’s relaxed. I never knew that. So of course, relaxing all my muscles in my mouth, my throat, my tongue, makes the sound come out more . . . well, a little more like it’s supposed to. I’m not there yet, but it felt good feeling what I may be able to do more of in the future!

And I also want to plug my good friends in SL, who are also performers.

Cailidgh Spires = Lovely UK guitarist and singer, acoustic performer and dear friend.

Mudge Barbara = Acoustic guitarist and comedian. He makes me laugh all the time. <3

Harry Frychester = Jazz, blues, country, and sounds like a very schmexy Harry Connick Jr.

Best for last:

CelticMaidenWarrior Lancaster = plays a 12 string guitar and usually sings some of my favorite songs without her knowing they’re my favorites. She’s the absolute best and I love her very dearly, for her kindness and her fantastic music that makes me tear up. <3 She’s become kind of like my Second Life Mom. *squee*

I love you all, dear good friends! And I’m sure I’m bound to make more friends as time goes by in Second Life, and First Life too! One of these days I’ll kick my ass up onto a real stage again, and maybe record it with my Flip camera so you all can see how much I can embarrass myself!

Today we’re going to explore the unfair business practices of GaiaOnline. This is not unfamiliar territory to me, as I used to be employed by an equally nefarious company of the same nature, with a GM team that was just as thick-headed and small-brained.

I liked (past-tense) GaiaOnline, first of all, because it was cute. It was a social hang out place for kids and teens, but I didn’t do much socializing there. Probably because I’m 27 and not a kid. I just liked dressing up my avatar (just like Second Life, only more cartoony/anime) and maybe do some character portraits for people. I wanted a character portrait of my own avi, so I set up an art contest.

I had done it before, and it ended well, and everything. This is done in the forums section of their website.

After a while, I decide to set up another art contest, but some times goes by and I don’t get too many interested parties. I think I had three entries after two months, and just decided to cancel the contest and give those three entrants all equal prizes of Monthly Collectible envelopes that I have a bunch of.

I thought I made it clear that the contest was canceled, and that was my mistake that I readily admit to. I don’t log into Gaia for another six months or so.

After that period of time, I get a message saying my account was banned for scamming. Scamming!? Me???

As it turns out, the art contest had been left open, and people entered, and complained at my lack of response, and so on. The problem is that I was never contacted about it. I was “PMed” (Private Messaged) via the website, but no one sent me an email outside of the website to tell me there was a problem. And then I was banned, and now their policy says that I need to remain banned instead of dealing with these disgruntled people.

So, I think their business practice is thoughtless and base by not having contacted me directly prior to the banning, and after trying to get through to their GM team about the issue where I wasn’t actually contacted, they remain stubborn with their decision.

GaiaOnline is a website for children, and they’ll treat you like one even if you aren’t. It’s not worth the trouble anymore, and so I’m writing here to partly vent and partly warn.

It’s upsetting to know you’ve been banned like some criminal when you really haven’t done anything wrong.

GaiaOnline. You suck.

So far my day is off to a glorious start.

Starting with this horrible nightmare I had last night that involved falling through thin ice and sinking like a stone as I stared helplessly and frantically up at the cause of my soon-to-be-quick demise, I end up waking up to a racing heart, utterly convinced that I was about to die. Thankfully, I woke up in my own bed and next to my sleeping husband. Catching my breath, I was about ready to settle back down when another lovely occurrence in nature visited.

The song “I Enjoy Being A Girl” could NOT have been written by one. Lies!! LIES!

So I took something for discomfort, went back to bed, and slept . . . past the appointment I was supposed to have with my acupuncturist. They called, and I didn’t call back yet because I’m just not in the mood to deal with anyone. Even Husband is getting a bit of a cold shoulder this morning, but I can’t help it. I’m annoyed. I’d rather give him the cold shoulder than bite his head off, and he understands this.

But okay, so nightmare, Girl-itis, missed appointment, and then I settle with my laptop trying to put a CAPTCHA on my contact form page. I fail. I just can’t figure out coding. I hate coding. I’m not a programmer or coder or anything and I would never claim to be. I can fake a little CSS now and then, but this just pisses me off! It makes me want to poke my own eyes out.

I don’t want a complex captcha… just a human verifier thing. You know those “Are you human?” questions? I want one. A simple one. And I just want to activate it as a plugin and have it work. *cries* Why have the Internet Gods forsaken me?!

At least one good thing happened: I built a nice fire. With snow coming now, a fire in the morning (or early afternoon, as the case may be) is very nice. I feel like knitting.

Knitting I can do. Crochet I can do. They’re simple, they’re repetitive, and I’m not making noises that disappoint me. The other day I had a lesson with Maestra. There was an obvious lack of strength, and maybe it’s just me losing confidence again, when I don’t hit the high notes with the power I need to. Maestra’s never negative to me, though, and always tells me that I sound good. She’s very kind. I think she understands I have confidence issues.

Baby steps.