Sasy Scarborough

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wanted to do an interview with the person in Second Life that I’m most thankful for.  While I am thankful for so many people,  Sasy is easily this person for me. I met Sasy almost four years ago when I walked into her sim, The Deck,  with about 3-4 poses made and asked how much her rent was.  I was obviously new to the creator side and didn’t really know how that worked.  Sasy asked a few questions and somehow, I walked away from our first meeting with rental space on an amazing sim!  She took a chance with me and at the time, I remember thinking how crazy she must have been.   From that moment on, she would pop in and give me advice or tactfully tell me that she hated my blue walls, lol.   She will always  be honest when I ask for an opinion and I love that about her.  Over the years, she has not only been my landlord and business adviser (whether I wanted the advice or not, lol), but she has become the kind of friend that everyone should be so fortunate to have in their life.  I have laughed with her, cried with her, gossiped, screamed and virtually hugged her to death.    Thank you Sasy for being my friend.  I love you, hugs ❤  

Adorkable 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How old are you?
40 RL nearly 6.5 SL

Where do you live or where are you from?
Originally I am from my Mummy, after that it would be Australia.

Care to give your personal background? Married, single, partnered, kids, etc.
Happily partnered to Mel Vanbeeck

When did you join SL and why?
I joined SL in 2006. A friend from yahoo had shown a group of us his new Second Life via webcame, he was a Vampire and part of the original Transylvania sims. He showed us himself dancing with his partner and it looked so amazing. When my computer died I went to the store with all the stats needed to run Second Life and bought a pc based on that alone. I wanted to experience what looked amazing, and then second day I started working and never looked back, I don’t think I slept for longer than two hours a day that first week, it was just so exciting here.

Do you have a significant other/family in SL?
I do, but he is my significant other everywhere, but we did meet in Second Life. I don’t have people with family roles, but I love my friends so much .

What do you do in SL?
I do many things in Second Life. I run the commercial sim The Deck, which has the most amazing tenants and their stores, and of course an offshoot of that is also the My Attic event. I help run Hair Fair every year since 2007. I have been on the committee of other events over the years also. I am the founder/owner of What’s New SL which is a group and website for content creators to announce their releases to a large group of residents who want to know about everything available to them. I also do consulting with businesses that wish to broaden their marketing range, or have hit a wall creatively or brand, store wise in Second Life..I jokingly refer to it as Sasy Bootcamp, and it can be very intense at times, but hopefully well worth it, though that work is confidential. I also collaborate on occasion with Whimsy Winx on builds that she does for her brand W.Winx under the brand name Flair…whether she likes it or not. She doesn’t really have much say in it, seeing as she starts building right beside me, and then all I can do is start moving her stuff around, or adding to it in some way, she calls it ‘fluffing her pillows’ which sounds a lot ruder than it is meant to.
After that and a few other bits and pieces I then do blogging for my website Sasypants.com. I post on fashion in Second Life, I also try to do posts about events, and other things such as tutorials etc. I wish I had time to do more of that.

Describe your style in SL. Does it differ much from your RL? How?
My style is the same, except in SL it is backwards due to the differing seasons. As for whether I get around dressed the same, no that is not the case lately, but my taste and the way I put looks together etc are the way I have always done so in the past. The only differ would be no latex.

Do you have a home/workspace in SL? Can you take some pics of them and show us?
I don’t have pics, and if I did I would be too embarrassed to show you to be honest lol, it looks like a tip, bags and boxes all over the place, and that is only if Whimsy hasn’t built a house around my head or rezzed every sculpt known to man at my feet. My immediate space though is my VR Studio stand and backdrop, which I would not survive without, it has thousands of poses in it, and that area is pretty clean. I do not tend to have houses or home environments on my sim, as I don’t like to waste prims on myself. Mel and I do have our own home though but that is elsewhere and private.

How did you get into Blogging?
I started working my second day in Second Life. I have been lucky enough to Manage some incredible businesses over the years, and because they were fashion based, I was always immersed in that environment. Fashion shows and events for the businesses, connecting with other stores and collaborations etc, so the fashion industry was very active – more so in world back then than I feel it is now. I actually did not even know there was fashion blogging taking place, I was doing my own blogging for the store I Managed for their releases, and occasional rambling, then one day around september 06′, somehow through link jumping I came across Appearance Mode – I have a vague memory of it being because it was on the wiki – I was in awe that this was being done as a daily thing, and on the sidebar it said that if anyone had interest in joining the team to contact the owners, one of which was Six Kennedy who I knew.
I sent her a texture with text on it asking if I could please blog – just in case she missed the notecard – and she had me added then and there. I blogged every spare minute I had, I was able to do so from my platform in the sky on the sim I Managed, and had a bell in the store in case anyone needed my help – which is actually how I met Mel. I then stopped for a while in late 07 and started up again in 08 with ScarboroughFlair and then moved to Sasypants.com the next year. I was unable to make anything, and felt that by blogging I was actually contributing to Second Life in some way, as it had already given me so much. My Inventory was already rather large for back then, so I just wanted to share all the information on all the items that I had purchased in my travels and just share the day to day events of my time here.

Blogger, sim owner, event coordinator, builder, business advisor and store manager are among some of the things you have done in SL. How do you find the time to do it all and do it so well?
Blogging doesn’t usually come first in my day to day, if anything it is always the last thing. I do have to prioritise a lot of what is more important to have done in each day, generally though for me that means other people. I tend to put my things on the back burner and that is ok as long as they are only my things and not the things people count on me for. The Deck is my first priority of the day, if stores have updated, or have new releases, those things need to be promoted as that is part of what I do at The Deck. Then What’s New SL and so on. Consulting is done by appointment, so that is fairly easy to handle, I have had back to back days, and those usually have me wanting more, I love interaction and helping in the ways I can. Twenty Five years experience in retail and hospitality as well as owning my own businesses in the past make Second Life something I really admire.

As for the big yearly events such as Hair Fair, that becomes our main focus for months usually, I tend to even shut down What’s New SL applications during that month so I don’t have anyone waiting. Hair Fair is really important to the committee that organises it, and we prioritise around it., Mel Vanbeeck, Whimsy Winx, Ashia Tomsen, Gabby Panacek and Adorkable Peapod give it their all every year, and make it something that I am lucky to be part of.

What was the first thing you blogged? Will you share it with us? (link, pic, etc)
The first thing I blogged was an asian dress from House of Zen, in red with white trim. I was the Manager for House of Zen at the time, I wore an Essentia Hair Rose in red, the naughty skin Alina, white shoes from Prim Seduction by Sylfie Minogue, my hair was from Diversity. I remember the pic clear as day, but alas Appearance Mode was made private after I left and I was never able to get my original posts or pictures, because back then I uploaded directly onto the blog and I have been through at least four computers since then also. I was standing at Hinode Shima – the sim House of Zen was on.I could totally recreate this whole look but I wont scare you.

What have you created that you are most proud of?
As I don’t consider myself a creator, I would have to say that it would be things I was lucky enough to be part of. Another Fundraiser was the first thing that came to mind, based off the Eloh full perms skins that hit the grid. I saw so much going on about them, mixed feelings, anger at them being available etc, so I wanted to do something that would make them a positive thing. Another Fundraiser was born, the idea was that everyone got the kits, then made modifications to them, sent them back to me with their ads and info and I vendored them all and we sold them for 50L each. We raised over One Million Linden – 1052292 to be exact, all organised so fast and it was only up for a week, that money went to Unicef. The bizarre twist of all that is that the sim that is now The Deck was actually the sim that so generously donated space to us for the event at the time. Over the years that event has been brought up fondly by different people, people I have never met before have told me they even bought the skin I made, which is just mind blowing to me, to have people remember such details like that. It makes me very proud.

Again other things that I am part of such as Hair Fair which is a big thing for us every year and I am incredibly grateful to Elikapeka and Six Kennedy for having faith in me to join the committee in 2007. but honestly the best and most amazing things I have helped create in Second Life have been friendships, Second Life gives us an opportunity to broaden our range, to reach people all over the world in ways not usually possible. We relate so much to our avatars that a hug, a gesture and just dancing around being silly are all things we feel, it is truly wonderful.

You have the sexiest voice and I love your accent. Is there an accent that you find irresistible?
Mels voice is the sexiest to me. I don’t get all gooey on accents, not sure if that is because I don’t always hear them as an accent, but rather just the way that person talks. I do hear the difference in Mel and Whimsy and other friends, but my upbringing was full of people from all over the world, so everyone I know must have had one, I just didn’t hear it. I didn’t even know my Mum had one until I was in high-school and one of my friends used to try and impersonate her. Oh and your voice is lovely too Miss Peapod ♥

What is the silliest/craziest thing you’ve done in SL?
Let whimsy have build rights on my sim when I was in the process of building it, she covered the whole sim in toilet paper and pink flamingos. I don’t tend to do a lot of silly and crazy in Second Life, I really should, but I spent so many years working for other people, that I always felt it was wrong of me to be reckless with their reputation. Mel would say the silliest is when I actually scream out loud in RL when I fall off things in Second Life, usually in his ears on skype, like I said I relate far too much to my avatar.

What would you like to do in SL that you’ve never tried?
Podcasting, I have been interviewed with Whimsy Winx in the past by Phaylen Fairchild, but I always wanted to learn to be able to do my own podcasts, because it would be an amazing way to communicate Second Life to people.

When you’re sitting at your computer logged into SL, what do you usually wear? Describe your workspace.
Whatever I am wearing for the day, mostly casual attire when inside. My Desk at the moment is a horror show, but that is because it is not a proper desk, and I have way too much stuff around it. I also have two rather large monitors so they take up a lot of space.

Has anyone in SL inspired you? Who and in what way?
That is a hard one, there are so many incredibly talented people in Second Life, and so many that don’t yet know their talents here. I often meet people that say they wish they could_________ and I encourage them to always try, because such a huge percentage of Second Life has been self taught, or learned on the go within the environment. I was lucky to join Second Life at the time when so many of our now biggest brands were also new, they were just residents, or starting out, and have grown and learned along the way, whether just by practicing their skills day in and out, or actually going off to learn in a RL course etc. I think overall the people of Second Life inspire me to be better, to try harder and to always aim for wanting to grow and learn. I find inspiration in my surroundings and I am blessed to be surrounded by amazing people, they all know who they are, I tell the ones I love daily and sometimes hourly.

What is something that not a lot of people know about you but you wish more people could know?
I am not hard to approach, I have been told on many occasions that I am intimidating and scary, which usually makes me cry. But I love people, and I try and help whenever I can, and if I can’t then I like to find people that can. Sometimes my humour doesn’t hit the way it was intended, I tend to forget that Aussie speak is just too our own, and it doesn’t compute across the equator all that well, text is always hard too, because tone matters.

Do you have any hobbies? What do you like to do when you aren’t in SL?
Sleep

If you were granted three wishes from a genie, what would they be? (you can’t ask for more wishes)                                                 I am going to assume you mean for me alone, because if not then of course the whole world peace, no diseases, help for those that need it.

1. Good health, not unfair superhuman etc, but just everything that may be wrong fixed.
2. The ability to speak and understand every language, because I think that would be an incredible skill and possibly help in some way, especially with ancient text etc.
3. To be able to play every musical instrument and read music, because music is magic

What would you like to be doing in 5 years? 10? 15?
travelling

What things would you try if you had no fear?
Fighting crime, I could be like Wonder Woman, without the plane and the golden lasso of course. But I think if you are not afraid, then you would be able to help more people.

If you left SL today, how would you like to be remembered?
As someone that contributed in a good way to the community. But aside from that, just being remembered would be a great thing.

We asked her fellow plurkers for additional questions, and here they are!

SySy:
Ask her if she likes beans on toast?

I love Beans on Toast, it is the perfect snack/meal, and so very popular in Australia, probably a UK thing too. I also especially love when designers name their items with fun names like that 😉

Whimsy:
How does Sasy manage her time.

I am lucky enough not to have a time schedule as such, but I do try and be online in the hours that are more active, which translates roughly from somewhere between 10pm and 1am my time, to 1pm and 4pm… so translated thats about 3-4 am SLT to after midnight.

Hotsy Totsy:
How does she keep going after so many years in blogging?

I wish I did keep up lol, it is hard, everyday is different. Most days I don’t find the proper time to get a full blog post done, but do log in wanting to. If you mean inspiration wise, there are so many incredible reasons to keep going. The creativity of Second Life content creators is amazing, to share in that in some way is a privilege. Then to be able to spread the word in my way, to reach out to people I may know or have yet to meet, and share my experiences and fashion looks, tips and tricks, is all something I value a lot…that is what keeps me going.

Whimsy:
Name 5 items you would love to take outworld.

5 items I would like in RL …do whole stores count ? I think I would actually just love miniature replicas of important things…my VR Studio posestand and HUD, I love them so much I would have to have one, and would get a special Barbie for it. Funny, now that I think about it, my favourite Barbie growing up was Photographic Barbie, she had a pink posestand lol.
Then it would be a model of The Deck sim, with proper little signage showing all the stores…I would love that. The other things would be something that Mel has made for me, and of course the Essentia hair rose. Last item would have to be some kind of huge picture of all my friends…that would be wonderful.

Blog: Sasypants

What’s New SL

The Deck

Sasy on Plurk