Power Exchange Society

Power Exchange Society discussion area

We finally have a new direction and it is a group titled Power Exchange Society. No, it's not a club really. While there are similarities such as dancing and Truth or Dare games and Trivia, there are also Dominant/submissive (D/s) lifestyle discussions. It is basically a meeting place for people with like minds who love to discuss their kinks, and to meet others like themselves. It is a bit over 20 meters above where we have our dungeon/play area. The 20 meter mark is the distance that local chat stops travelling. Otherwise, the meeting/greeting place would be interrupted by the chats down there and vise-versa.

In the past, there was the Cherry Street mall/club group. We had events and parties and danced and joked. It was also a great place to shop for clothing and such. We had an underwater ballroom, cuddle forest, castle and dungeon along with a nude beach. Well, our latest home, Cabria, doesn't allow for that much area, so we have basically just rezzed out a couple of houses for us to live in and terraformed some beach-front and lagoon. It's been a wonderful place to live, but it's time to start making the place attractive to hang out at. We have always been going to other places for socializing but now, we will be able to entertain guests right here at our home parcel.

While this will look much like a typical "club", and it will most certainly be used in such a manner, we will be gearing it more toward a discussion location. Text chat, voice chat, BDSM games and such will be allowed. Discussions of all aspects of the D/s lifestyle. Many people crave to learn more about this manner of relationship and even people with years of experience can gain something from these types of discussions. I see it all the time. And while there are dozens of groups out there, available to all, doing the same thing, I feel we have as much, if not more, to add to the society. So I suppose I will need to get one of those group chat moderator HUD type thingies. It allows you to see who has a question or comment in a large group of chatters. If one types in a special character such as "@" it can indicated they want to talk and the moderator can discern who's turn it actually is based on the ordered list on the HUD itself.

But there will be more than just learning at Power Exchange Society. We will have parties and maybe even some contests. I have also toyed with the idea of adding a gaming area up above the meeting place. We currently have a gaming place on the parcel, but it's not fixed up nor decorated. It's simply a platform. If I were to use that without putting at least rails or walls on it, the drunken visitors might fall off. And it's a long way down!

Nine Lives

It was birthday time for my birthday girl cat. My cat of 9 lives. I got her a gift. It is a sensuous pole dance for her to strut her stuff on. It has teases for me and even contains sex of all kinds! Animations such as straight sex, bondage sex, even gang bangs! Yeah, she's insatiable... But what else does one get the girl who has everything? A very naughty dance pole, that's what.

So I got her the pole but before letting her use it, I had to spank her. One spank for every year of her age. She is 4 SL years old now so I had to make them brief but memorable spanks. I made her strip bare naked for me. After all, it's her birthday. She should be wearing her birthday suit. Then I waited and waited and waited patiently until she finally figured out she had to ask permission to bend over my knee, which she finally did. Then it was time to administer her much needed spankings. Yes, she yelped and squirmed and put up a fuss, but I enjoy that! Don't know why. Don't get me wrong, I'm not cruel, but her yelping and screaming really were a turn-on. But alas, only four spanks. I made sure they were good ones, but I sure was wishing for more.

Then I finally showed her the pole. Then I even showed her the dance pole I got her! She was happy despite her sore bottom. Oh sure, there was a card and even some flowers I think? But the pole was the most impressive and yes, it was more for me than her. She needs to come to terms with the fact that I often view her as a sex object. Oh well, arrest me....

People Watching

Voice Chat Discussion Group of D/s People

There must not be anything which can compare to watching people interact in a virtual world in which you can control everything. Remember, Second Life is more than just a game. The universe within is created by the users and the users are real people. Sure, some of them are unicorns or dragons. Some are "furries" or demons. There are robots, faeries (did I use enough vowels?), Homer Simpsons (doh!), dogs, minotaurs, petites, owls, all manner of mythical and reality based creatures. In the end, they are all human. Real people. Full of surprises. Even the noobs are full of surprises. You would be amazed at what you might find wandering around the metaverse. Let's see what sort of diversity SL has to offer in that area.

Sure, I stayed mostly within the human end of the spectrum, but human avatars have lots of surprises to offer. I took one evening and struck out on a quest for a hangout place for me and my submissive. I had hours to spend and I strove to remain in the background for the most part, not barging in to any conversations nor joining in with RP (Role Play). After all, I was observing and striving to get to know these locations and the people in them.

When you enter a new location (and there are thousands of them called sims), you are often automatically presented with a notecard containing the group/sim rules, along with a landmark. The notecard with the rules will give you a basic rundown on the group which occupies that particular sim. Most of what I was looking for was a "hangout" place that catered to the D/s (Dominant/submissive) lifestyle. If you are curious about that lifestyle, please see most of my earlier posts. So I used the built-in search function of SL and the search terms "D/s lifestyle". After all, this is what I and my sub enjoy doing; hanging out at these sorts of places. What I found was diverse and intriguing. I found places where dozens of people just stood around and were seemingly silent. I would have my voice chat feature activated, yet nobody was saying anything. There was not so much as a peep in the local chat either. I'd have to assume that people were either mass asleep at their keyboards or chatting in private IMs (Instant Message). Not exactly what we are looking for.

At one time, we had a sim where we had a hangout spot and it included a spot where people would rez in when they came to visit. The Cherry Street shopping mall and nightclub had a greeting area. People would find us in search of either Places or Classified ads, click the search results link and poof, they were rezzed in right to that hangout spot. The place was so active that me and cat would just sit there and wait for them to pop on in and greet them. Often times we would have friends visiting with us and with the addition of random people teleporting in, it was an active and friendly D/s place to be. Unfortunately, first life financial burdens forced us to let it go (see any past posts about the region called Styll). So ever since then we have been seeking out an equally inviting, D/s friendly place, without much luck. But I will keep looking when I have time. And on this night, I had the time.

These sims or regions were all rated for Adult content meaning that unless little Johnny stole his dad's credit card and ID, the avatar was over the age of 18 and able to view any sort of content these places would care to display. So you had to be ready for just about anything. Fortunately in the D/s community, extreme sights and concepts are considered undesirable such as death, dolcette, dismemberment, etc. So I never knew what I was going to find once I clicked on a teleport link. And that's what makes this type of exploring so entertaining. You never know what might pop up.

Come Visit and Use This Girl

This evening I discovered places with lots of people jabbering away about sex and desires. Avatar accessories, places to shop, permission requests to dress, permission requests to speak, jokes, inside jokes, etc. It was wonderful. One place I ran into had games I like to play such as Greedy Greedy, and the place was a RP place where you didn't have to wear a special group tag stating you were in character. In character was the only way you could exist in that location. I like that. Your character is you; who your avatar is. Simple. Some places have where you need to wear an Observer tag and if you are in the group, are you a predator or are you hunted? Complicated. My solution is, "stick around and find out". But I do not make the rules at places like these.

Other places had submissive women that were there for the dominant's use. They would be stripped bare and ready for sexual usage. Some were sex slaves that where bound to a device and naked for your inspection, ready for auctioning off. There are dozens of slave auction places in SL. These are not to be confused with RL slavery. These SL people have the option to live out their fantasy as a sex slave for a limited period of time. It's a strangely fulfilling fantasy, but fantasy nonetheless.

Temple of the Open Collar

There was another place I visited where lots of people would hang out. It is the place where the Open Collar was given out. Open Collar is a free (open source) coded collar that most dominants use to give to their submissives. It allows for quite a bit of control of the submissives viewer, which is the portal to the virtual world. In other words, my submissive has given to me total control of her online experience. I utilize the software built into these collars, worn by the avatar, to control her. I know, this doesn't sound at all romantic but trust me, it's a very powerful tool and takes a heightened amount of trust to hand over that sort of control to your dominant. The Open Collar place had a lot of people in it but the conversations were either mostly silent and some of the public chats were quite juvenile.

Not so with Domination Palace. If you get a chance, go there. Lots of D/s couples and singles mingle there and they all appear to be mature about it. Refreshing. Me and cat have been there a few times and she hangs out there a lot. It's very close to the ideal D/s hangout we are looking for only it's a bit too sexually oriented for my tastes. Still, it's not necessary to participate all the time. Lots of good "scenes" going on though at any given time. Give the place a try. It's at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Oud%20Holland/204/64/1802

My Kryptonite

Finally, there's no place like home. We SL users are all in control of our environments (so long as we pay for it) and I have the most wonderful family and partner/submissive/SL wife. She keeps me coming back for more. Per my SL daughter's suggestions, we have formed a group, The Turbo Family, and we are going to organize and take a massive portrait of everyone. Hopefully by next week, I'll be able to post that picture to this blog. It can be tricky getting everyone together all at once, and there are plenty of little Turbos running around, but we are going for it. Check here for updates.

Enjoying Time in SL

The adventures in Second Life lately have been good. One would think that after almost six years as an avatar in SL that I would become bored with it. Quite the opposite is true though. People are always being more and more creative there and making wonderful worlds to visit, objects/gadgets to use or play with and, as I have recently found out, groups to join with lessons to master. All of this is made possible due to all my online free time and that is a direct result of being freed from DJing. While that all sounds like a better online experience, I can't help missing my DJing events. I am already entertaining the idea of returning to that with possibly less scheduled events, freeing up more time for exploring and such.

Shopping for a new collar

Much of my free time enjoyment is made possible by cat. Much of the stuff we do cannot be accomplished without the other. We play in BDSM dungeons and go shopping and sometimes just play a game or two with starie. It's all wonderful fun. But as I mentioned above, there are groups which require commitment. Any time I have joined a demanding group in the past, I have had to pay money to belong. That's about as demanding as it got. Well, in the case of the group cat wants to join, they don't want your money, they want your time and efforts. And while I can certainly understand why she may want to be a member of this group, I also understand that it's not the sort of thing I am interested in. It's a group that has specific roles for women as opposed to the specific roles for men. Not my "cup of tea" as it were. So when she joins this group, I will most certainly miss her and that makes me sad. But it's not until next winter that she will have enough online time to devote to that group so there's no sense in me worrying about it now. I am going to enjoy her company to the fullest until then and I'll deal with her absence next year.

Speaking of cat, it is coming up on three years since I have collared her. Starie was showing me some collars made by a designer with very good tastes, so I showed them to cat and she loved a couple of them so I got her a new one. That is the first time she has taken off her old collar since I locked it on her nearly three years ago. It's a testament to her devotion to me.

cat's new collar

 So I'm looking for something to keep me occupied in SL that is removed from what I do now, which is exploring, taking cat out, playing games and building stuff. While all of these are fun to do, as I stated, I am missing DJing. So I might do that plus something else. I never considered joining a group that demands a time commitment but that might be an option. After all, my SL daughter Neva belongs to a role playing group and she really enjoys it. Cat will be in a group like that next winter too. I will begin hunting for a group like that tonight.

Post DJ Times

Due to on again and off again issues with my internet "service", I am unable to run my music streaming software and Second Life viewer at the same time without anticipating a locked up computer at least a few times in two hours. Not worth the headache. So I have been spending all of my time in SL either socializing or creating things. And wow, I sure have missed that! I had no idea. I'm back to having fun again. Don't get me wrong, I love to DJ, but it was becoming too much like work and consumed most of my online time. So for this posting at least, I will not be talking about DJing at this place or that, I'll be talking about fun times in SL.

Me in a new chair cat got for us. Yes, that is a black doily I
am wearing for a necktie. All the white ones were stained.

My friend Oluthus and cat and starie and a friend of his all got together to sit on the top of a pyramid at the Champions of Death sim. Like I used to be, he was a DJ there but has since backed off from DJing and SL altogether. He's rarely online anymore but when he is, he's not obligated to be in any one place for a certain amount of time. It's quite liberating. Believe me Olu, I know the feeling. So we were sitting on the top of this pyramid and me and cat kept sliding down the edge. I finally figured out that I had to "sit" on the edge of it. It somehow keeps you from sliding down a steep slope. It's obviously an SL thing. Unfortunately, before we figure that out, cat had to go afk and ended up sliding down nearly the entire height of the pyramid. But she was able to get situated once she returned. We talked about all sorts of things, including our RL vehicles and where we lived geographically. Come to find out, 3 of the 5 of us were pretty close to each other. It was good to visit with Olu without having to worry about DJing.

One day while cat was hanging out at House of V, she was passed a landmark by some guy that lead her to a sim called Austin Island. It's an entire sim dedicated to the lifestyle of the novel, Story of O. The dominant males there are considered "enlightened" and the women, "educated". It's a really nice place with lots to see and do so we have been hanging out there as much as is feasible lately. I have not been online much really but cat has and has met some great people there. We were both invited to their cafe group while the main group of the sim involves hours and days and weeks of dedication and "scenes" before being accepted. Unfortunately for cat and myself, that kind of time is unattainable. We have busy 1st lives too. So we are not allowed access to a chateau they have there but that's okay, the rest of the sim has plenty to do. They also hold group discussions there. It's a good place and if you ever get a chance, visit there.

Me and cat and starie at Austin Island

Me and PattiQ at Ohana with Nanners as the hostess

I made my way back to Ohana rock club the other night (late) and saw Nanners there. I brought PattiQ with me and we hung out and danced for a while. This was the place I spent much of my time DJing. At least 4 hours per every Thursday evening. When I was finished, I didn't feel much like doing anything else. Four hours is a very long time to be sitting behind a computer keyboard. Actually, it was more like 5 hours because they wanted you there early and to stay late too. But it sure is a fun place to hang out at! They play classic rock for the most part with lots of newer stuff sprinkled in for good measure.

Exploration has allowed me time to check out some wonderful space station builds. I have been inspired by a few so I couldn't help myself. I had to start building another. It's coming along quite well and so far, is less than 10 prims.

SL has become fun again. As much as I enjoy DJing, I doubt I'll be doing it again unless it's for my own club, which might be opening up this summer. You never know.

The Old Days and SL Economics

Correct me if I'm wrong but most people do not work for free. Most people study, become able and go out and work for compensation. That's the way of the world. Oh sure, there are charities that perform services for people for free, but the people that work for them are compensated for their time and expertise. The charities themselves are supported by donations from people who are compensated for their work. It's the way of the world. People earn and make money and often times invest and consume and purchase things and services. That's the way life is. This sort of earning and spending is called an "economy". Economies have to be balanced or bad things happen. Rich get richer and poor get poorer. The so called middle class fades away and you get a lot of angry underpaid citizens. And that may last for a while but it eventually evens out. It has to or governments and economies topple.

Money is based on something of value. In the case of the U.S., money is backed up by gold. Next to gold, only land is worthy of high value. Land prices affect any economy more than just about anything I could name. So land prices have to be worth what you pay for it or at least, very close to it. You could say merchandise and services are based on land prices. If the economy is strong, land prices can be healthy and the cost of goods and services will be right up there too. After all, in order for a merchant to sell their products or services, they have to have a shop. They have to pay for land to fill this shop with what you want to buy. But if the profit from the merchandise does not cover the cost of owning land, then you have an imbalance in the economy. Second Life has such an imbalance now, and it's been going on for a very long time now.

Back when I discovered the wonderful world of SL, I purchased everything I wanted. Clothing, land, house, vehicles, hair, eyes, skin, and everything else. It was expensive! But I had to have things like Animation Overrides (AOs), radar HUDs and HUDs that allowed you to fly faster and higher. These items made the SL experience much more realistic and wonderful (oh I know, you can't fly in real life but so what? I'm sure you would if you could!). I had a plot of land, a house, a bed that allowed myself and my friends to do unspeakable fun things in it and even sofas to sit on and visit. I had a motorcycle and car and helicopter. I had clothes! So many clothes I could eventually not keep track of them all. And everything was expensive. The land cost, for a very modest 1024 x 1024 plot was L$800 per week. That was about 5 years or so ago. Guess how much that same parcel costs today? That's right! L$800 per week. But the cost of everything else has dropped considerably. Why? Because the Real Life economy is in rough shape and has been for several years.

Ohana Rock Club Christmas Decorations

The cost of a complete men's outfit used to be around L$400 to L$600. Now it's usually under L$100. I purchased a complete space shuttle fashioned after Star Trek's Deep Space 9 Runabout for L$89. It has sounds, tons of animations and sits and even a hover-cycle in it. It comes in two versions: One you can rezz on your land and fly or one you can wear for sims that don't allow you to rezz. All that and much more for L$89. I had to find a quick outfit for a New Year's Eve party. I found a sculpted top hat with mesh lettering and a particle effect for L$5. I would place the cost of that shuttle back in 2008 at around L$2000 and the hat at L$100. And these are just a couple of examples. There are countless more. So if the price on products has come down so much, why haven't land prices? I can only chalk it up to greed.

Merchants and creators are dropping their prices so much because they want to sell their items. People are not willing to spend much money anymore on clothes and vehicles and "toys". In order for merchants to move these items, they have to lower their prices. They realize the economy is slow and they are compensating for it. Yet the land prices stay the same. The creators/merchants have the same cost for their shop tier, but they are making much less profit. But Linden Labs is still making the same amount on land as they always have. That's not right and something's got to give.

Back in 2009, I was discussing with my then fiance' Dylan, the number of people online at any given time. It was typical at that time to see around 75,000 people online. She predicted that there would be 80,000 online on Valentine's Day that year and as it turned out she was quite wrong. Not everyone uses SL as a dating service. But that's beside the point. Today, it's rare to see as many as 55,000 people online. It's usually quite a few less. That's what's going to give. That's what is giving way now. The number of users has dropped dramatically.

SL has lots of new features compared to 2008. They have mesh now that can be designed offline and uploaded into the virtual world. They have mono scripts which runs with much less resources than the old scripts ran with. They have Server Side Includes. Well, that's supposed to be better but I personally have only seen things get worse due to that "feature" but that might be my video card too. Who knows... But my point is, while things are supposed to be getting better, the experience is a lot worse than it used to be.

Right now, I have the fastest computer I have ever had or imagined. Yet when I think back to my old IBM 386, it was running SL with ease and often times with two viewers at the same time. That's right, I could have two avatars logged on at the same time and it only slightly affected performance. Today, even with my lightning fast system, I avoid running two viewers at all costs. Nothing rezzes properly, frame rates are low, too many avatars are partial or fully invisible, crashing is almost a daily occurrence, lag is horrible and land costs way too much. If it were not for the majority of merchants lowering their costs, it would be very difficult to be an SL user. And that statement reflects in the loss of at least 20,000 daily users.

None of this would be that bad if Linden Labs would recognize what is going on here and adjust their tier prices accordingly. Oh, and stop trying to improve something that's working pretty good just the way it is. At this point, they are losing too many users due to lack of an enjoyable experience and  yes, it has affected me too. I have friends who are helping me with the high land costs and I have not been purchasing any goods to speak of and my time in SL has been cut drastically mostly because I'm tired of crashing. Instead of wandering around, exploring and shopping and partying, I log into my home and Instant Message with friends. That's pretty much it anymore. No wonder SL's population is waning. They need to make the experience more enjoyable. I see too many new users logon and complain after a few weeks then show up less and less often until they are gone for good. Make SL affordable again and make it run smoother. That would make a huge difference for everyone.

Busy Busy Time

I would imagine that as you read this, you have noticed that I have not made any posts in a very long time. I need for that to change but in the mean time, my free time in SL is restricted. I have very little to post about seeing as all I do now is DJ. And while I do love to DJ, the events all seem to be the same.

On Sundays, I have a free night. But I often try to get over to Dolls of Death to support my lovely friend starie. She hosts there and the DJ there is a good one. Also, there is my friend Oui who is SL married to my friend Ken. She's a dancer there and I love to flirt with her.

On Monday nights, I DJ at Rosewould Plantation. The event starts at 5pm SLT and it's always a come-as-you-are event. Most of the times, only a handful of people show up. But there are those rare times when we get a very good crowd. I think normally my hostess is Candy but lately there have been standby people filling in. So basically, I need to be online by 4pm SLT and stay there until my set is finished at 7pm. But I usually stick around for a bit just in case the take-over DJ needs a hand.

Tuesday nights are a night off for me. Unfortunately I seem to spend most of that time in 1st life taking care of things/chores that need doing. But I do manage to get online for an hour or so in the ev

ening. I am asked to fill-in DJ at these times but I rarely do. I think I've only fill-in DJ'd a handful of times. I realize I'm going to fill-in more often but it seems like that's all I do anymore. One quick point here; I am asked to fill-in DJ all of the time, every day, but on nights that I work, I don't even bother to consider it as I'm DJing at those times.

Wednesday nights are "hump day" nights at Rosewould Plantation. Usually, there are more attendees there on Wednesday nights than on Monday nights. Again, this event is come-as-you-are and between 5pm and 7pm SLT. Again, I have to be online at 4pm just to set up a playlist. And again, I spend a bit of time there afterwards dancing and joking around.

Thursday nights are Ohana Rock Club nights. These events are come-as-you-are and take place at a rock club that is England based but runs 24/7. Their events are 3 hours long. So basically, I'm online for these for 4.5 hours at a time. That's a very long time to be in front of the computer!! But they are a very high traffic place and generally, I make good tips there. I start at 3pm SLT and go until 6pm. This means I have to be online at 2pm to setup a playlist. And recently, they have sent out a group notice asking that DJs and hosts stay for a while afterwards in case the relief host and DJ want to refer to us. So yeah, that's about 4.5 hours.

Then on Friday nights, I play at House of the Rising Sun. It's owned and operated by Alobar and sami. Alo is a very long time friend of mine from years ago, and I like the way he thinks an environment such as Rising Sun and the surrounding castle, RLV area and shops should be run. That's why I stay there. However recently he lost some of his internet radio DJ due to lack of traffic. It's true, I'm lucky to score L$300 there in tips and after I tip out it's more like clearing L$100. But I really like the place and the people there are quality and hard to find. I'm talking the owners, their managers, DJs, hosts, patrons and guests. Everything about the place is just plain fun and enjoyable. Well.... except for the blues. At least he allows for classic rock too because one can nearly overdose on blues, I'm here to tell ya.

Saturdays I spend the morning time on my L$60 Linden Weekend shopping spree. Sometimes it takes me hours go get through it but sometimes I find a good deal too. This last one was a ballgown that was unique for SL and simply gorgeous. And it was only L$60! I bought one for cat and I showed a friend's alt the dress too and I think she picked up a copy. I can't wait to see it on one of them. Then Saturday night is free if I can manage to get online. Again, I'm asked to fill-in DJ but there's no way I can be online for 4.5 hours so I have to turn them down. One Saturday morning I was asked to fill in and I agreed only to get pressure from 1st life because I had things to do later that afternoon and could not leave the computer. Yeah, 4.5 hours is a huge chunk out of a Saturday afternoon! I sure did have fun though, but it's not worth the 1st life grief I get.

In the end, the amount of tips I am paid just barely covers my weekly tier expense. One would think that working for 3 of the most popular clubs in SL would easily pay the bills and then some, but that's not the case. The main thing to realize is that while you might have made L$800 in tips, you end up tipping that same place back. Dolls of Death for example employs 3 dancers, a hostess and a DJ. Well, I normally tip the dancers L$50 and the hostess L$50 and the DJ L$100, mainly because DJs have extra expenses. So that's L$300, but keep in mind that during a 2 hour event, I do that twice. So I might make L$800 on Thursday night but I end up with only L$200 after tips. The solution? Don't go to places where people work for tips. But that kind of defeats the purpose of my logging onto SL in the first place. I enjoy those places. I suppose I could simply refrain from tipping but I have a feeling that's what a lot of people are thinking and that's why I'm not raking in thousands in tips like they used to in the old days.

Either way, I'm not making enough money for the time I have to spend online in SL. What I need to do eventually is to find an external source for money to cover my modest SL expenses. That way I will have more time for this blog and for other exciting things to check out in SL. Don't get me wrong, I do love to DJ, but doing it for the money is a mistake. It must be done for the enjoyment of throwing a party and celebrating life, not to try and cover expenses.

By the way, I have met some wonderful people here in SL of late as a direct result of my DJing. Some from Rising Sun have moved over to Ohana Rock Club with me and also someone from Rosewould Plantation. Ohana does pay well, even if it is the most time consuming and therefore the most demanding. They have some wonderful people working there and running the place. They screen their people before hiring them so there are no "divas" there. Just hard working, fun loving people. It's a great place to visit if you ever get a chance and they have events going on ALL the time, so you don't have to worry about when to show up. Just show up.