Yes, some things have changed on Zamargad... as well as our store, ^v^/<|;) (Bats Out Of Hats)... and our home, 1181 Cheshire Smile.
I guess you are entitled to an explanation.
Back on 08DEC16,
Samael and
I acquired a sim/region. I paid $150 to change "Vita Nova" to "
Zamargad."
On Thursday the 16th of February, we had our grand opening party. A "Thank-You Scrapbook" was available to thumb thru inworld,
and is also available for free on the MP.
On the weekend of 20MAY17, we had a gala event with
Treasure Quest (featuring a photo contest), and were able to get more images for
our Zamargad brochure (that started out on
ASNers as "Postcards From Zamargad").
Granny Zia Sophia (zia.branner) took the winning picture that became the featured portrait for our claim in the
Destination Guide. On 20APR18, Brett Melnrick, Editorial Staff of
Second Life's DG, placed
Zamargad under "Experiences" in Second Life's DG (due to all the hidden clickable adventures).
On 30MAY18, we built
our website all about everything Zamargad (and essentially, us).
Zamargad has always consisted of 3 parcels:
1) "1181 Cheshire Smile" which was where we had our public pumpkin house.
2) "^v^/<|;) (Bats Out Of Hats)" which was our store parcel (featuring our store,
our advertising skybox, and
LGH Fish Hunt supplies).
3) "Zamargad" which was our largest portion of land dedicated to our dark fae theme and breedables (
PlantPets,
KittyCatS!,
Amaretto Horses, &
EVO Fairies).
Now let me back-track a bit here, before I go any further...
I have certainly had a most interesting and adventurous kind of [real] life involving health/development. It took me a long time to get to where I am now, and the hard work isn't exactly over by any means.
It took a lot of fighting and growing to get my own place to live, what turned into a long-standing career (that is still occurring, thankfully), and to learn how to build credit. I was finally doing it, tho. I was being a responsible and successful adult.
I guess you could say that this mess started with a painting.
I was at a festival and fell in love with this artwork. The artist agreed to accept monthly payments of $100 for 5 months. Shortly thereafter, I finally succeeded in having something nice to show for my life.
I did lots of little things like that successfully.
Then in 2015, I was not happy with my life because important social things were not going very well. And when I think negatively, you can rest assured that I do it very thoroughly. I went from being a size 16 to a size 8 in just a few months. My hair even started to fall out. I just did not see the point of participating in humanity anymore.
One repeating thought kept happening... I regretted having crashed my very first car and first F-Body Camaro, Marigold, back when I was 16 or so. ...Never get a nice car as your first car, you're just too inexperienced and will regret having fucked it up in any way. Furthermore, do not take that insurance money and chase that dream half-assed. You will regret that car and what happens to it too. No good deed goes unpunished.
I wanted something major to feel deathly proud of and show for my life, now. ...If everything else was "going to be a failure," I'd be damned if I'd continue letting it be... I was going to take charge and do things over again, correctly this motherfucking time...!
So yeah, I decided to buy what they call "a midlife crisis" car. My thoughts at the time were that I not only damn well earned it, but that I already knew how to prove myself financially and could handle it.
I had cashed out my stocks (taxes withheld, of course) that I had saved for about 7 years to do so, and took out a 5-year loan to pay for any repairs.
It was
fate. On 08JUN15, I bought my daughter,
Isis, my 3rd F-Body Camaro. Hitched a ride with my Marine co-worker buddy and his friend to the neighboring state. Paid cash for a bit of a discount. Had the most fun drive home. Entered a car show, learned a lot. She makes my life worth living and is the only reason I go on.
And although my daughter is strong, we all eventually deteriorate. I will explain to you more in a bit, why I have made the decision to go back to college and study auto mechanics.
So...
•You need credit to have a credit score, which will determine how much you will get fucked or not when you try to buy/rent major necessary life things like a car, house, etc. A score of 800 is perfect, the higher your score is and the closer you are to it, the less you will get fucked and the more you will be taken seriously. At 850, you become a God.
•You can get a prepaid credit card from your bank for such small limits like $300, though the interest may be quite expensive (the lower the percentage is, the better - which, incidentally, also comes by having a higher credit score). ...I still have my first card, I use it for online purchases in case some asswipe tries to steal/use it without my knowledge, then they won't get very far, LOL.
•Not using a credit card will give you no credit, which is worse than having bad credit. Just make reasonable, small, affordable purchases on your card (like gas) and then pay them off right away the next month (or at least pay more than the minimum balance).
•There are 3 credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and Transunion. You may check your credit report once a year without doing any damage to your score... otherwise, sign up with
Credit Karma to so do more frequently. And yes, every time some major financial organization runs your credit report (like when you are applying for another card), your score will lower a bit.
•If you find anything negative on your report, like bills having gone to collections... Call that stupid place and pay them off ASAP. Then you can dispute their note on your report, and it will go the fuck away.
•When you get a loan, make sure it's for something very important and absolutely necessary... Because, by end of the loan, whatever bill you needed to pay, you will discover that you have paid for that shit twice.
•When your debt becomes 65% of your income or more... even if you are making the minimum payments on time and incur no penalties, your credit score will lower.
...And now we have come to my predicament...
I have 15 months left on that loan. I get gov't benefits and work, but it is still not enough. I have continually been cashing out my stocks every 6 months to a year, as a contingency fund of sorts (which makes my tax ppl very upset, as it should really be used as a secondary retirement account), but even that is still not enough. Samael has his own personal/financial responsibilities that cannot afford more than this remodeling interim, for the time being ...But I do want to thank him very much for recording/returning those last prims to me, that were just too heartbreaking for me to do.
And to be honest, this wasn't all completely Isis's fault (I'll absolutely die before I ever sell her, especially after all this ... Not even kidding, all the naysayers can absolutely go fuck themselves, hard). ...My old apartment
dropped the ball on their tax credit paperwork, and in 2016, my rent got raised $200 more a month, out of nowhere. The Federal gov't didn't do anything about it until 2018, and it was just by chance that cheaper/alternative housing was offered to a group of ppl housed in that place, by that original program. I took the advice of my co-workers, on a very small chance, and fled as fast as I could onto something better in RL. ...It was actually because of Isis that I ended up in a much better living situation, including her own personal garage!
So I have to think of priorities now. This is "do or die." Something has to give. And unfortunately, even that may not be enough... Coupons, low-income benefits, food pantries, it's all still not enough to barely keep me from eventually declaring bankruptcy.
It breaks me to the core that I have to give up most of my [interactive] art for a bit. This is the only art I do now (I gave it up altogether for at least a couple of decades), and to have to give it up again is not only embarrassing, but I hope not crippling. In fact, when I was 16, I had plans to go to
Otis, they believed in me (by sending me a direct invitation) because
I am that talented ...But it didn't pan out because I stupidly chose love instead (which was a fucking mistake and I will absolutely never hear the end of it from the ppl I have spawned from). Not only that, but I was burned out on having gone to college since 11, and not being allowed to abandon that local college until I achieved my transferable AA (no financial aid until 25, and the ppl I spawned from knew better). Just a small part of PTSD in early life trauma. ...It's alright tho, nobody will hire a 40-year old commercial artist now anyway.
I'm, however, okay with this having shaped who I am today. I think that's why I am mostly successful at my job that I love so much, and have been at for most of the outstanding part of my life. I have grabbed life by the balls and have become a badass ninja, who works with a bunch of funny guys, who role model exceptionally cut-throat/realistic/respectable/honorable approaches ... + sailor accents, LOL.
And rather than become a cash-cow again to another mechanic, who typically seem to prey upon women... It is clear that I need to study auto mechanics to take care of myself and my daughter .....If you want something done right anyway, do it your goddamned self!
SO THIS IS THE REALITY OF ZAMARGAD NOW:
•Zamargad sim is not going anywhere.
We are not going anywhere.
ZoHa Islands is not going anywhere. We are not leaving
ZI.
^v^/<|;) (Bats Out Of Hats is still on the Marketplace.
•We are downsizing to the smallest parcel, on Zamarad. In the same parcel area that ^v^/<|;) (Bats Out Of Hats) used to be, to keep customer and visitor confusion to a minimal.
•Plans are to only be downsized for about 15 months, from March of 2019. Afterward, we will then buy back the rest of Zamargad and go back to normal. Should be fairly simple as everything has been logged and recorded into inventories.
•This smallest parcel can barely afford the prims of all the breedable stock we need to stay afloat in SL... So should you need to see one of our regular items inworld before purchase, feel free to contact me,
Lilith, or
Samael, and we will gladly accommodate via sandbox.
•Advertisors have been refunded for their remaining times (rounded up) and have been given the opportunity to advertise with us for free on
our website during this time.
•
"Win L$100 Just For Being A Batling Fan! / Dedicated Batling Promo" will still happen.
ASNers has moved to Facebook (everything is still getting sorted, there). We have L$700 to give away in total prizes for September 2018 - March 2019 (we apologize for RL holding us hostage): L$100 for each of those randomly drawn residents who have any part of Zamargad in the picks section of their profile, as well as being a part of
our ^v^/<|;) (Bats Out Of Hats) group in SL. ...After downsizing is completed, names will not be drawn until we regain the rest of Zamargad back, however, we will then have at least 15 prizes to give away when we do come back (L$1,500 in total prizes - which increase the chances that your name will be drawn). To still qualify for getting yourself in this drawing/promo (after the downsize, and before our eventual regain of Zamargad), you will need to have our "
Zamargad Charged By Isis: The Remodeling Interim" parcel in your picks section as well as be a member of our free group. Those who have never deleted their original picks and are still in our group, of course, will still qualify too!
As for me...
I will be okay. This too shall pass. I have a good, long relationship with ZI, and am very grateful for them working with us during this time to keep a dream. I also have my son, Eddy. True friends, too. Some breedables to take care of and sell while playing L$ earning games like
Alienum. Probably hang out at
EOD to make a little extra L$. And will continue on in RL unpacking into my new house, going on with my career that I love, and continue to do the best I can to take care of my daughter.
We wish you well, and hope you are confident that we are not going anywhere. We are fighters and die hards. We are still Zamargad. You are still our friends, Batlings, neighbors, and inspiration. We are all in SL (and first life) together. We appreciate your understanding and support very much. ♥
^v^
