So yeah, in Second Life I entered a beauty contest. Miss Hawaiian Tropic 2009. Voting runs from May 22 to June 5. The top 25 vote-getters will be in the pageant June 6 @ 1 pm SL time. Each vote costs 1 linden--less than a penny in real money. The winner gets 20,000 lindens, about $77US and change. If I win, I plan on donating all the money to the DCWF. My SL ego is so huge I think I stand a chance of at least making the pageant. I'm spamming everyone I can think of. If you are in SL and want to vote, the landmark for the voting place is http://slurl.com/secondlife/Oahu/126/72/25

Here are the pics I submitted with my entry form, plus the evening gown I plan to wear if i make it to the actual pageant:

( Read more... )

Ok, this is a dumb thing to rant about, but I think it'll take more than 140 characters and I just got to get it off my chest.

In Second Life, you are only allowed to belong to 25 groups. So why does everyone and their dog need to make their own "fan" group? I have a fan group because I am a performer with a fan following. I didn't even make it, a fan did. But every Joe average makes a "fan" group for their friends, and calls it "fans of Joe," or "friends of Joe," or "Joe's Peeps," or something inane like that. Hello, Joe, you've already got a friends group, it's called your contacts list. If you want to chat with a bunch of them at once, you don't need group chat, you can start a friends conference. But no, Joe needs to feel important, so he makes his "fans of Joe" group, and then spams his contacts list to get people to sign up. Like I said, though, SL limits you to 25 groups. So you've already got some groups for stores you like, performers you like, and of course Bob, Mike, Sally, Jane, John, et al, already emotionally blackmailed you into joining their "fan" groups, so guess what! You gotta tell Joe no, you don't have room for any more groups, and he hates your guts for being a douche. Or you drop out of another friend's group so you can join Joe's, and the other friend thinks you're a douche. It's a no win situation, and it's dumb. Get over yourselves, people.

My Plurks were already set up to go to Twitter, FaceBook, and MySpace. Now I've syndicated my Tweets so you can read them on LJ. And I'm that much closer to total domination of the web.

http://syndicated.livejournal.com/gr8kat_tweets/

Despite what the announcers said, that's not "Start Wearing Purple," this is:

Bad times, hard times - this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times: Such as we are, such are the times. -- St. Augustine

There was never any good old days
They are today, they are tomorrow
It's a stupid thing we say
Cursing tomorrow with sorrow -- Gogol Bordello

If someone asks you if you're a god, say yes. -- Peter Venkman.

the last few days have been horrible, worrying about the future of the DCWF. But we had a wrestler auction today, and brought in enough money to pay 2 months tier (that's like SL property tax) on our new land. I bought my tagteam partner Paula Wilcox, and my boss Eric Stuart (0_0), and in turn was bought by Julia Parrish from the Shelter (or Fart Master as she will forever be known to me).

Haven't been too many, fortunately. I don't get out much, except once a month to get my trache changed. :P This Wednesday is the day, and i hate it. OH well.

My MIL is still living with us. Her cat Marge died recently, so she got a new kitten that looks like Orion, except skinny. Her mother recently fell and broke both arms so she's in a nursing home and miserable.

Things are going swimmingly in Second Life. I'm the women's champion wrestler, a trainer of new recruits, the head of marketing, and the coordinator of exhibition matches. They keep me as busy as a real life job, and it's for no pay. But it beats sitting around fretting about the hole in my throat, and crying.

My sister was recently turned on to LJ and had a question about embedding videos. So this post is really for her, to see if this still works. here's my entrance video (we recently had to change our name because having SL in it upset the second life gods or something, so I've reverted back to my original entrance video because we can't use the initals SLCW anywhere anymore, and I don't know how many times they might have appeared in the background). So here goes:



Meow!

Anyway, if you want to keep up with me outside LJ, I'm on facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Plurk, Flickr, sheesh I don't remember what else. Either as Katheryn Saunders or Katheryn Blackadder. Or some variation thereof. I'd love it if you checked out the wrestling MySpace... it's one of my prouder achievements in marketing (after getting us listed as a Hot Spot in SL Showcase). http://www.myspace.com/slchampionshipwrestling

And I think my Flickr gives you a good idea of the nonsense I've been up to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/katblackadder/

So that's my life in a nutshell. If you join Twitter or Plurk, you'll get even tinier nutshells.

The SLCW celebrates its one year anniversary with a huge card:

International Championship Match
"Mad" MikeFreeman Straaf vs Morpheus Shelman vs Celtdan McMahon

Chaos for a Contract
Allie Christensen vs Ari Lane vs Kipathan Quintessa vs Misaki Yumako vs Wolfy Kessel vs BigEvil Mandelkorn vs Harley Tigerpaw vs Paula Wilcox

Womens Championship Match
Sini Nubalo vs Katheryn Blackadder!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

World Heavyweight Championship Match
Tenzan Karu vs Alpin Criss

Details subject to change without notice.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Russo/146/197/32

<<<<<>>>>>>

Second Life Championship Wrestling (SLCW), one of the most successful Live Entertainment Venues in the Virtual World of Second Life, is celebrating its first anniversary.

With an active staff of over 50 talented individuals, the SLCW puts on two official house shows a week, a monthly Super Event, and frequent exhibitions. Our February 7 Super Event (or PPV) will be our one year birthday show, featuring such events as the Women's Title Match, and Chaos for the Contract.

This event will take place Saturday, February 7th, at noon SL time, and is scheduled to run around an hour and a half, and feature live voice commentary, streaming media, and all the inring action fans can handle.

The staff and performers within the SLCW pride themselves on their high dedication to their craft. This is truly as close to the real thing as you can possibly come.

The SLCW currently resides on four 1/4 sim plots. All are in Russo, next to our affilliate Metaverse TV. These plots are home to the SLCW AmbroDome Arena, the AC Pro Wrestling Academy, and the soon-to-be-open SLCW mall, Hall of Fame, and club where wrestlers and fans can mingle and relax.

Our traffic has skyrocketed since the SLCW was featured in the SL Showcase. Daily traffic fluctuates between 11-15,000 for non-show days, and spikes as high as 21,000 for show days. Official SLCW shows have been averaging 75 fans in attendance, and the exhibitions have been averaging between 38-45. We average 200 unique visitors daily, and 400 unique visitors on show days.

The SLCW also allows Metaverse TV to tape and broadcast its Saturday Show.

SLCW Important Contacts:
Alpin Criss - Owner
Eric Stuart - General Manager
Katheryn Blackadder - Head of Marketing
Misaki Yumako - Head of Production
Morpheus Shelman - Head Trainer
Sini Nubalo - Head of Development

http://www.slcwrestling.com
http://www.myspace.com/slcwrestle
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Russo/146/197/32

I didn't have time to do hardly any shopping thanks to my hospitalization. The only presents that arrived on time were for my mom and sister, and sister can't make it because of the snow :(

But we had no christmas tree mishaps this year. One of my caregivers works part time on the Christmas tree farm her husband works at, and she gave us a huge, beautiful tree.

Oh well, I'm determined to have a happy christmas just because I'm at home, not the hospital, and I feel a lot better than I did at thanksgiving when I couldn't even speak, I was so sick.

Here are some Xmas cards made in Second life:

( Merry Christmas )

We've had a snowy week which is cool with me since I'm housebound. haha, you suckers who have to walk and drive in the stuff, I feel sorry for you.

I was hospitalized again, right after Thanksgiving. I had pneumonia, a staph infection, and a collapsed lung. I fought going to the hospital but I guess it's a good thing I did :P

That's really all I have to say. The staph has cleared up, the lung has air in it again, and goop is still being suctioned from my lungs regularly, but it's not bloody anymore.

I was hospitalized nov. 28 or 29, I forget, and was in for 10 days. I just haven't had the mental strength to recount it all here yet.

I'm home from the hospital. AGAIN. Early Friday morning a clot clogged my trach and I almost suffocated. I guess I was unresponsive for a couple minutes before they were able to revive me. so off to the hospital I went, wHere I underwent testing and observation all weekend beore they gave me a bigger trach, which hopefully won't clog so easily and will give me more airflow.

so how was your weekend??

well, one of them did, anyway. I'm home, safe and sound. Just had a couple infections that needed to be cleaned up, and some general trach maintenance

squeaky died while I was in hospital, though.

Hi, this is Joel, Katheryn's husband. Just letting you know that on Wed night Kathey went to the hospital. It's nothing major like last time, and she should be coming home sometime next week. Probably towards the end of the week.

some of the new changes to my life:

I am now insulin dependant.

I have to be fed by other people because I can't raise my arms to my face.

I came home from the hospital with 17 presciptions so I take pills 4 times a day.

I have a hole in my throat. there's a tube in my throat called a tracheostomy. it is surrounded by an outer plate called a cannula. There are 3 hoses attached to the trach. One is used for suctioning secretions from my lungs. I get lots of secretions. One is attached to a balloon in my throat. The balloon closes off evrything but my airway through the trach. when it's inflated, I can't talk or eat. my nose and mouth become useless. Deflate the balloon though and life returns to "normal," and I can talk, eat, blow my nose, etc. the price I have to pay though is this is considered an "air leak" by my ventilator and it screams at me the whole time. the vent only wants air going out the trach, not the nose or mouth. the third hose is the one the air comes from. it divides into two hoses, one for air from the vent, and one for my exhalations. These hoses tend to drag, and if not careful, pull on the trach. this is painful. It's even more painful if they pull the trach out partially.

Oh, trach care, one of my least favorite parts of the day. the canulla is covered by a piece of gauze to absorb stray secretions and mucus. this is removed. then the stoma (hole in my throat) is poked and prodded by q-tips soaked in peroxide/sterile water mixture to clean it. even when it doesn't hurt it still icks me out. then it's poked and prodded wtih q-tips soaked in sterile water to rinse it. then the gauze is replaced. finally, the trach is opened, depriving me of air from the vent, so the inner cannula can be swapped out.

My legs are too weak to hold me at the moment, so I have to use the dreaded Hoyer lift to get from my bed to the wheelchair and back.

I can no longer be left alone. I have to have at least 2 people with me here at all times. so there's Joel, his mom, and outside caregivers. the government seems a lot less picky about hiring caregivers than the private companies. The first we hired called in sick every other day and we think she stole some of my sleeping pills. The second looks like a crystal meth addict and has no problem helping herself to our fridge. she's not going to last much longer. the third seems to working out ok so far, but we need to hire at least one more for back up. Joel starts school again on Monday, so we need to be able to guarantee someone else will be here besides his mom.

You don't want to know the details of bathing and other personal bodily functions.

oh, and the visitors. everyday there's someone: the home nurse, the respirtory guy, the OTs, the PTs, and they're talking about getting me a counsellor because I cry so much.

umm... I think this post lays out pretty well why I cry so much. But I've been able to spend more and more hours out of bed and playing SL. I wish SL was the Matrix and I was in it. Neo was such a chump.

Have I mentioned that my mother-in-law has moved in with us?

It hasn't been as crazy as I'd feared, she used to be a nurse and believe it or not takes really good care of me. the biggest adjustment so far is that my livingroom no longer looks like mine as her stuff crowds my stuff out. but I spend most of my time in my bedroom anyway so I guess it doesn't matter.

we're hiring other caregivers, too, only since I've got Medicare and Medicaid now, we're hiring them through the dept. of senior and disabled services rather than private companies. so we're getting a whole different level of crazy.

Oh, and I hate the smell of ambulances. I had to takek one to a doctor appt. Monday because there's no other way to transport me and the vent at the moment. I've been in the back of an ambulance six times now and they all smell the same. I think it's the diesel fumes. I dunno. but I hope I don't have to smell it again any time soon.

It's after 11 and I stayed up dancing! Sleep time now though.

I'm feeling a little less down than I was the other day. don't think I've cried once today! a record!

I'm getting a little stronger everyday I think. been spending more time in sl, even got in the old wrestling ring and beat up a perky valley girl for a while >:D

soon I'll be up all night dancing at the shelter again :3 well, maybe not soon. but maybe someday. Leave me a spot on your dance card, Eric.