New posts coming

New posts on Thursday and Friday

Our poll

Not many voters...but it seems you're split between more and less 'x' rated material on the site. I'd hoped for a clear(er) indication of where your priorities lay, and that I wouldn't have to make a casting vote, but I opted to include more 'x' rated stuff as the blog developed, and I guess my casting vote must fall on the side of more 'x' rated stuff in that case. I do have some material by Honey and Rosemary that's worthy of posting, so I guess it's also a case of continuing as we were. Although the poll was indecisive, it does give me an indication of where the blog can continue to go, so emboldened with that knowledge, we can move forward! :)

Thank you to those who voted.

Ems

xxx

Blogger re-vamp

Apologies if the site doesn't like 'quite right' in terms of layout. Blogger have altered the interface and left us with a huge left hand margin down the page(s), so I'll investigate and repair this if and when I can.

I knew this would happen! (pubic hair and see thru shirts)

I knew this would happen! As soon as I announced a brief hiatus from blogging, I've been inundated with items to blog.

Over at the Never Ever and Robbish store, there's a net shirt in the Men's Hunt. I know, I know, I try to avoid hunts, but fortunately the store is small enough to ensure you aren't going to wander aimlessly for ages, and I found the item quite quickly.

After that it was a zoom over to Spangles Jewelry Box at the urging of a 2ex reader, to pick up a L$100 pack containing five pubic hair styles. You know, if this keeps up maybe I can run this as a pubic hair blog after all, lol! A lovely little set that's costing you a mere L$20 per style? You can't go wrong!

Something has changed

I've been doing some overnight thinking about this blog.

I think it's safe to say we've lost, or maybe never had, a real focus on where our interests and desires lay. A 'soft' sexuality? Or 'x' rated stuff?

I'm keenly aware we've served a purpose of sorts, the readership have made it clear we've been invaluable for new players, and for old hands re-aligning their SL's, in areas such as lingerie and pubic hair. But we can't exist as a SL lingerie blog, and even less as a SL pubic hair blog.

The pages read suggest that's an ongoing thing, as new players come on board and search for specific items they require for their avatar. But the fact is that 'sexuality' is, in the context of this board, becoming narrower. People don't read the stuff on homosexuality. Maybe it's time for someone out there to start their own blog focussing on the gay scene in SL, because as sure as hell my audience isn't interested.

And we've polarised opinion with the 'x' rated stuff. Some people like it (a lot) and others loathe the in-your-face approach. Maybe SL isn't ready to grow up to its sexuality yet.

So...I need to re-think this blog, and with it maybe my own SL.

Ella's departure for a new venture, focussed entirely on one aspect of the broad church of SL sexuality -naturism (and Ella would maybe argue that's not even sexual)- makes me think something was lost with her going. I can't replace authors as good as her at the drop of a hat. I can't offer the photographers regular work, nor even Mal if I'm honest, and lingerie is a staple of the SL design world.

I've had a sneak preview of Ella's new venture, too, and I believe it already looks a million times better than this blog, with a much more talented writer at the helm. I'm not bitter about her leaving, I'm glad her talents were recognised by others and she has moved onto something that looks like it will be a great success (and looks wonderful). Diane, too, had kind of moved on, taking commissions for SL photography work here and there, and branching out from the little arena of work we offered her. Marlene, too, has moved on, beginning here as a 'lesbian affairs' writer, before RL kicked in with illness that she overcame, but then re-aligned her RL focus, and now spends a lot of her free time working with a breast cancer charity. We wish her continued good health, and happiness with Lizzie, who recently became her SL partner after some drama en route to finding SL contentment with another. I've had this crew assembled for the best part of two years, but SL and RL moves on. I'm not sure I've the energy to assemble a new crew of writers to fill the gaping holes left by their departures (or part-departures). Vaj's current RL work circumstances up to and over Christmas mean she'll be a rare visitor to SL, let alone to the blogosphere.

As a result of this, I've decided to largely park and rethink this blog between now and Christmas. Of course there'll be the odd Mal post (or one or two from myself, Christmas is a time for a lot of SL sexy lingerie), but for now I'm going to 'disband' the remainder of the crew for six weeks, until the new year. We'll come back with a new design and outlook, I promise, and a more tightly defined focus on where this blog is headed. Currently, my thinking is that we're maybe going down a lingerie/sexy clothes route, and blogs such as these already exist and do it better than we ever could. I won't be taking that route. It's boring, to me, and if that's the future, the 2ex will cease to exist.

'X' rated stuff? You don't seem overly excited by it. It's something I thought would be popular, but I seem to be wrong. Honey and Rosemary's pages aren't being visited that often. Explicit stuff isn't that exciting to the readership. This, surprisingly, doesn't appear to be the future either. Davlos's work has been a breath of fresh air, both to me and to you, but again I can't run a blog dependent on his contributions, although his report from 'the commune' remains a very popular post, and I suspect has led to a lot of visitors to the sim. A success story, certainly, but what I regard as successes are becoming fewer precisely because we aren't sure ourselves where our focus should lie.

I don't know. Maybe the blog has served its purpose and run its course. For now, not 'goodbye' but 'au revoir', and I'll be posting again in the new year, even if it's only to close this blog. As Mal (maybe) or Vaj or whoever provide material, I'll pop it up here, but I won't be contributing much myself.

Ems

Good luck, Ella!

And with her post regarding the Eden blog update, Ella is signing off from 2ex. She isn't leaving SL, or the blogosphere. Instead, the quality of her writing has been recognised elsewhere, and she has been 'headhunted' to edit a new blog. We wish her well, and thank her for her great work here at 2ex over the past months. I guess we need a new naturist correspondent here at 2ex now! :)

I shall update you on Ella's whereabouts whenever her new project finally reaches fruition at the beginning of next month!

Eden naturpolis blog re-designed

Ella Keng (2ex naturist correspondent) From a period when very little seemed to be happening on the naturist front in SL, it seems that there's now quite a bit of activity, and following on from my reporting of Su Casa's new blog, Eden Naturopolis recently appear to have updated their own blog page.

I recommend that you click the link and read all about this beautiful collection of sims.

Revisiting it for a full review of it is another thing on my 'to do' list, so I'll maybe see you there in the coming days.

Vintage Lingerie

The Vintage Fair begins tomorrow, and as readers of this blog will know, we adore vintage and retro stuff here at 2ex, particularly in the lingerie department :)

Malgorzata has already been despatched to poke around what's available, and she'll be back with a report and photos in due course, but while I was IMing her about this, Tiny Larkham's name came up (as usual!). We love Tiny's stuff, and while retro/vintage lingerie was being discussed, Mal took the opportunity to nip over to Tiny's store and poke around.

Yes, I know we've blogged Tiny's stuff before, but as this blog seems to pick up more and new readers all the time, it's absolutely worth my while pointing new readers, who may also be new players, at some of Tiny's freebies and cheapies. As well as the freebies and cheapie items there's a store full of remarkable, elegant, sensual items at full price. For me, it's one of those stores I would need to drive up to in a van, break down the doors while wearing a balaclava (so best to avoid detection on Tiny's CCTV) and make off with her entire stock! I love it.

Two pictures of Mal in a L$0 black lace bra from Tiny's (other colours are also available)

Poll No.1

I've added a poll to the blog, and the first question I wish to ask is if you'd like more 'x' rated material on the blog. The reason I ask is because Honey and Rosemary have been pretty busy of late and Rosemary's, in particular, is red hot!

In discussions with others it seems some prefer a more general, 'soft' sexuality: naturist sims, advice on where to buy pubic hair, lingerie, that sort of stuff, while others really would like something altogether more adult.

The poll ends in a week, so cast your (anonymous) vote. In the meantime I'm holding back some of this incendiary material

Su Casa has a new blog

Ella Keng (2ex naturist correspondent)

Su Casa naturist island now has its own blog.

It's a place I visit from time to time, although I'm not really a regular visitor. I'm going to increase my visitations, because the creation of the blog tells me one thing...Su Casa are bedding in for the long haul. And if they're planning on being around for a while, rather than some of the fly-by-night naturist sims that pop up and disappear, they're investing their time in their sim, so it's only fair that I should return the favour by investing my time in their sim too!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Su Casa is a good, genuine naturist sim with apparent genuine naturist aspirations and values, which is why I like it so much. Not overly crowded, and with what appears to be an exceptionally friendly, welcoming crowd.

Ella

MTV European Music Awards

Now that it's over, I feel I can say that for the last week I've been camped in Belfast, Ireland, while part-organising the event. Not the glamorous, on-screen parts, but the rather more mundane but nonetheless important logistical behind the scenes bits. Fantastic night, fantastic welcome, fantastic people and hospitality from the people in this beautiful (if chilly) city. Got back from an after-party at 730am and have just got up, slightly the worse for wear. :)

Normal blogging resumes tomorrow, as the break-down of equipment requires less of a hands-on the the build, and I'm home on Wednesday. Some articles from Vaj and Mal are in the pipeline, plus a page of urls put together by Rosemary of sims she's been to recently.

Talk more later this week (when not hungover) and I've got a few days off to enjoy.

Double Standards

HONEY OGLEBY: I got an IM about two weeks ago in which I was accused of being all sorts of things, regarding my SLSL (Second Life Sex Life). I've been open, through this blog, about the number of encounters I've had. There have been a lot. What's more, other than maybe hooking up for one-night stands with guys who have been fairly boring in themselves, and lacked much of a keyboard personality, I've regretted none of them. It has been a wild adventure in which I've explored parts of my sexuality that I would not have done in RL, nor will ever do.

It's important to separate the SL 'Honey Ogleby' from the person at the keyboard. Oh, sure, we cross over a bit, but I imagine that if I'd been quite so promiscuous in RL I'd have been dead, from exhaustion, illness or something else by now.

From day 1 in our SL's we're surrounded by sex and bombarded by it, bombarded with sometimes unwanted IMs from dreary guys walking around with noob cocks on display. Then our jaws drop on the realisation that they're 1000 days old, and still haven't bothered to keep it real. 'Wanna have fun?', they ask.

This is fine for guys. They're 'studs' who notch up encounters on the bedposts and are admired for their prowess with the ladies. Not so dissimilar to real life. But if a girl adopts the same attitude to sex she's a slut, a slapper, a whore or whatever. Not so dissimilar to real life.

Stick your cock in 1000 pussies and you're fantastic. Have 1000 cocks stuck in your pussy and you're a slut. And guys, who adopt this attitude in RL, carry it on into SL. I often have one night stands, but sometimes carry on longer, deeper relationships in SL. There can be a meeting of minds and the cyber is deeper and more satisfying as a result. And in the midst of one of these, maybe a year or so ago, one guy said to me that he'd have liked to have partnered me (I'd have refused anyway, it's not on my SL agenda) but that I came with 'baggage'. What he meant was that the knowledge of a very active sexual past bothered his RL mind in the context of SL. He couldn't get around the fact that I might have cybered with a lot of guys and I suppose, in a sense, there was something to compare himself against. Like a RL guy might fret that his cock might not measure up to something his girlfriend had previously experienced, this guy was fretting his cyber technique might not measure up. I reminded him that I wasn't the one carrying the baggage, he was.

I enjoy cybering. It's a challenge to be creative and inventive, erotic and sexy in words. I am doing what so many guys in SL do, on a daily basis, which is to bed female avatars. I bed as many male avatars as possible, and enjoy the writing challenge of making the encounter enjoyable and positive. I do not need to explain myself (although that's exactly what I'm doing here).

Guys, you need to examine your attitudes towards cyber, and women in general. You need to accept that, sometimes, a woman's libido (in RL or in SL) is just as great as yours. You need to accept and understand that women have found their sexuality in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, and can be just as predatory as you are.

And when it comes to tripping down the aisle, that old 'virgin bride' schtick is very much a rarity nowadays. She will have had a sexual past before you. It's not 'baggage', it's part of who she is. Accept and understand it. The same applies in SL. Some women maybe fairly chaste in their SL's, and some may not even cyber at all (I've seen it described as 'pointless', 'boring' and even 'virtual adultery'). Others will have bedded more guys than you have women.

I'm making no apologies for my SLSL, and will keep on doing what I'm doing. Having fun in SL. So please, please, please never have the audacity to accuse me of being a 'whore' or anything else via IM, or daring to act as some kind of moral guardian to my SL.

Honey Ogleby

Emma says: I agree with much of Honey's assessment on the double standards that get carried into SL from RL, not just in terms of sexuality either. Readers who've been with us from the start may recall that I started it as a SL virgin and the original intent was to follow a path of sexual awakening conducted through the blog. Somewhere on the line, the blog's intent changed and I never pursued that idea (although I did lose my SL virginity during the course of this blog and had dozens of suitors who liked the idea of helping me lose it, all of whom disappeared when I announced it was gone, lol. Just like RL, guys are fascinated by the idea of 'breaking in' a virgin). I've found a significant other with whom I occasionally cyber, but I don't feel any real need to share the encounters. It's a private thing, conducted privately, and I make no apologies for 'unticking' friends to appear offline when doing so. I don't want someone saying 'hi' in the middle of it, or having to explain to them that I'm getting laid. Guys also need to accept what women want from their SLSL's. Ella, for example, doesn't cyber at all, and says as much in her profile. She has told me that, despite this, some guys don't want to take no for an answer and she has been forced to 'unfriend' people she has known a long time when they've become too persistent. Learn, guys, to accept no means no, as in RL.

Solitaire and Panties Down

I am grateful to reader Sanne for pointing me in the direction of Solitaire, a store/sim I've not been able to find in search (although other Solitaires turn up). You should visit, as it has (priced at L$220 and L$120) a pussy in 'normal' and 'enlarged' (i.e, aroused) states -see the bottom two photos- and pubic hair in a five pack of various topiary styles, from wild (see top pic, of me and of the close up) through to a landing strip (photo 3) and other styles (photos 4-6). I think I will wear most of these at some points in my SL, depending on mood.

I'm also on the lookout -at the request of another reader- to locate a pussy that has a pronounced mound (of Venus). The reader wishes to replicate her real life vaginal profile with her avatar, but is having difficulty locating one which matches her own body. A pronounced mound of Venus or mons pubis, would be a profile whereby there is quite a pronounced 'bump' around the vulva, and is disposed to aiding and abetting the 'camel toe' effect a lot. (see photo below)

Before you ask, that's not me in the photo! :) I have, however, located some camel toe panties at Panties Down which has a pack of five different coloured panties for L$200. and gives the effect of this

tennis star Anna Kournikova wearing panties that are too tight :) and creating an effect men seem to adore. Worn with the right outfit in SL (or used as bikini bottoms) it could be very sexy indeed. Panties Down also sells other panty related items, such as panties strewn across the floor (great if you have a SL apartment where you can litter the bathroom and bedroom floors!) and panties washed and hanging on a line (hang them over your SL bath!). An excellent little store well worth a visit.

Remember, if you have specific needs, ask! One of us will have some experience of the items you may require, and if we don't we'll throw it out to a knowledgeable readership.

nb: I'm off tonight and daylight hours on Friday before getting back into a heavy work schedule, so probably no more posts from me, I might be able to get a post or two from one of the other writers published if I have anything to post, until Monday or Tuesday next week.

What about the children?

I've previously moaned, to Emma, and through the blog, about the dearth of genuine naturist sims in SL. Yes, there are a few, and I blogged the current, quality (by my understanding) urls on this post a week or two back.

What do I mean by genuine?, someone IMed me to ask. By that, I mean those sims that contain an atmosphere that replicates real life naturist locations. And that means 'social nudity', not 'sex going on three steps away'. Many places in SL don't understand this, and will advertise a sim as a 'nudist beach' when it is, in reality, a sex sim. Essentially, if certain words are contained in their search tags, I won't visit or review it -they simply don't understand what naturism actually is, which is that it's non-sexual, at least publicly. Certainly, the relaxed atmosphere of naturism and social nudity can and does create a sensuality in adherents from time to time, but it isn't 'sporting a huge erection' type sensuality. It's more of a 'retiring to the rented apartment or hotel room and doing what comes naturally' kind of sensuality. For example, both of my children were almost certainly conceived while their father and I were on one of our annual naturist holidays! :)

Since then, we've taken them with us on our continuing naturist holidays, and while they're still of pre-school age, they simply enjoy splashing in the pool or the sea and building sandcastles while a nude Mum and Dad spend some quality time with them. It's time we look forward to having together as a family each summer, and the nudity is incidental to them. They probably aren't even aware of it yet, and simply love splashing around with us.

They're rewarding, challenging, loving and loveable, and ultimately exhausting, and I use the little free time I have to sometimes log into SL and use it as a relaxation tool, a fantasy world in which I can unwind and chill with the game in progress, some music on in the room at home (or via the various SL audio feeds) and with a glass of wine to hand. And sometimes, even when logged in, I don't even 'play' much. I park my avatar on a sunbed, set the radio feed to the music the sim provides, and do some RL work. If someone says 'hi!', or if a friend logs in, I'll respond and chat, but that may be the extent of my SL play on a particular evening.

On other occasions my play is more interactive, but I'll very often stay within the confines of various naturist sims, dance and chat. But even on the more genuine sims, one thing is often missing: children. It kind of skews the whole family vibe found in genuine naturism.

Of course, I'm not advocating 'age play', which I find distasteful, knowing an adult is behind a tiny avatar and often roleplaying, and I'd question the motivations that may often be behind the adoption of a child avatar. Some may be innocent, others less so. On that basis it's good to know the sim is being kept 'clean' by the banning of age play or tiny avatars. Let's keep it that way.

However, despite the fact that I'm using my SL free time to escape everyday life for brief periods, there's sometimes occasions when I think I'd love to be playing with one of my children on a beach, replicating beautiful real life experiences and memories. But I'm not about to 'adopt' another avatar to fulfil this role. So how do we manage to create a more realistic family atmosphere on various beaches (naturist or textile) in SL?

I think I've an answer.

One of my SL friends owns a pet dog in SL. It's not another avatar being a furry. It's an attachment whereby she can walk a sim in SL with her pet dog never far behind her, tracing her footsteps. The dog, I think, can be 'taught' commands such as 'sit', and will animate accordingly. I'm advocating that some of SL's finer computer minds might wish to create similar attachments in child form. I'd love to be able to, once in a while, wander on a beach with a child, and animated attachment child, in tow, and maybe sit on the water's edge watching the child attachment play on the sand. Or maybe head to a shopping mall where -as in real life- a bored child wanders near me, and then attempts to wander off. The RL mums out there will know what this is like, one eye on a new dress, one eye on your son or daughter.

There's plenty of partnered couples out there in SL, and some of them are recreating, to some realistic sense, the female's fertility with the Mama Allpa hud, wherein the female can, and does, get pregnant. So what happens at the end of the pregnancy? Just another box in inventory? I think it would be terrific if a couple (or woman) could attach a child attachment that toddles around in tow. There would be no capacity for ageplay, the child merely being an attachment like a pet dog readily available in SL.

Oh, I know you're going to mention the 'nudity' element. I agree, and I would propose that, at the very least, the toddler comes wearing a nappy/diaper at the very least. Who knows? With some integration between hud and designers, it might just be possible to load clothes onto the child attachment, thereby providing a new revenue stream for designers.

I'd love to know what you think of the idea. Would some of you, as RL mums, embrace the idea of having a 'child' -with none of the morality issues SL has brought up regarding age play in the past- attached to your avatar? Let me know what you think. I'd love to hear other people's views on this.

Ella Keng.