I'm looking out my window at the softly falling snow, that dances in the early morning light

"I might be goth now, but soon I'll evolve into a gear-savvy steampunk fan, and your days are numbered." Hee.

Also, if you ever wanted a limited-edition, really-will-match-anything scarf for the winter, these might be the people to talk to. It's a quirky design and they're only doing a very limited run of each color palette.

I'm still perusing the Advent gifts, and today, I tried the unnamed glitter-red dress from Charisma Designs. No product pic was included, but once unpacked, this is how it looked on:

(from the fashion album; the unnamed glitter-red dress from Charisma Designs)

You can't really make it out in this pose (I'll post others), but I actually like the cut of the bodice. It's not your typical cleavage-and-midriff action, and while I do wish the bodice had an included jacket layer (so it would extend farther down), it's not bad, overall.

(from the fashion album; the unnamed glitter-red dress from Charisma Designs)

The problem lies in the skirt. Now, I will accept full culpability because I do not, as it happens, have submarines strapped to my hips. Were I to track down one of the 'hippier' shapes on the grid, this might fit like a dream. But, I don't, so in that case, this is going to need some serious adjusting.

(from the fashion album; the unnamed glitter-red dress from Charisma Designs)

As is always the dilemma, do I like it enough to put in the work that this outfit's going to need? Because that puts me stuck on a pose stand, adjusting each panel indivdually--and I haven't even checked if it's mod yet in the first place. But that's not the only problem, though. Here's a closer look:

(from the fashion album; the unnamed glitter-red dress from Charisma Designs)

There are only three solutions for an alpha layer this badly done: move the shoes up to cover the gap (in which case I risk floating over some floor/ground surfaces, depending on whether they're sim land or sculpts); find another alpha shoe layer that works better; or wear different shoes entirely. Either way, this alpha layer out of the box cannot be used.

(For this look, I'm wearing Alice Project's "Seohyun" mesh hair (size M, in Christmas White); a pair of red fishnet gloves from a TuTy's freebie on the Marketplace (seemingly no longer available); IM Capped's 'Soul Windows' eyes in Holly Daze (Veined variant); and VoiD's "Winter" skin in Ivory from a past sale, with [mock] Cosmetics' Red Hot Lipstain 1, which was a group freebie this December. Obviously, not all of these were acquired from Advent calendar daily offerings, but most of them were acquired at some point in December [barring the gloves].)

{Oh, and one last note--I've been thinking a lot about something Mr. Au said, and, while I'm extraordinarily wedded to the concept of song lyrics as post titles, I'm wondering if I can't partially change how I do things. Publish posts with keywords, say, then 'rename' them with the snippet in question. We'll see if the idea works on January 1st...or, well, whenever I next post.)

on the fields and the farms and the road to town

Finally getting around to going through some of the Advent stuph (at least, the outfits I didn't unpack and wear during the Advent-gathering process). And of course, I'm finding the occasional oddity.

Like the "Pilia" dress from Charisma Designs. Here's the included product pic from the box:

(from the fashion album; Charisma Designs' "Pilia" Advent dress for 2012)

It's a simple, casual holiday dress that's not the SL-traditional micro-skirt option. The coloring is really pretty, and I like the overall look. I can see wearing it by itself, or with a wrap, and it could work either way.

At least...until I put it on:

(from the fashion album; Charisma Designs' "Pilia" Advent dress for 2012)

Um. This is not how the picture looked.

(from the fashion album; Charisma Designs' "Pilia" Advent dress for 2012)

Maybe it's a height thing?

Don't get me wrong--I still think it's pretty. I still think the texture is lovely, and there's a wonderful effect created by the double-skirting, in that the lower skirt panels are solid, with the upper skirt panels being translucent--so there's no direct alpha issues, just a long dress that looks as if it has an upper layer of sheer material overprinted in the same pattern.

(from the fashion album; Charisma Designs' "Pilia" Advent dress for 2012)

It's just...I don't think it's going to work on me without some serious adjusting. Plus, with this being a strappy Empire gown on me, instead of the intended silhouette, there's some serious clipping issues with my poses, as can clearly be seen in the above shot, and in the first shot of me in the dress.

(For this look, I'm wearing Alice Project's "Momo" mesh hair (size M, in Christmas White); the "Icicle" holiday gloves from the "Icicle" outfit from PinkMare's House; IM Capped's 'Soul Windows' eyes in Fir (Visined variant); and the Azil "Winter Ice" skin in Snow from Curious Kitties with the "Marcera" in Silver makeup overlayer from Musa. All of these were either acquired from Advent calendar daily offerings, or (as in the case of Curious Kitties) a group gift during their Winter Festival [which is still going on]. And though they're not seen at all, I was also wearing the knitted Winter stockings from VampRealm and the Fetish Ankle Boots in White from Fetish Doll [both of which were also Advent offerings].)

and if you don't have anywhere to go, you go down on the pedal and you're ready to roll

Anyone not living in the current USA might find this tale difficult to believe, but as an American, I can tell you--while it's appalling and wrong, it's also standard operating procedure at this point. After all, we've had people detained for hours at airports for reading Prisoners of Azkaban in line; what's a little terrorist accusation for a comics artist between paranoid, suspicious enemies?

Also, the category changes for the Marketplace are in! I'd list the changes, but there's a ton, so read through the wiki to better make sense of them all.

Also II, this is one of the stranger ads for noodle soup mix out there, but damn, it sold me, and I don't even live in Japan. I am honestly tempted to go to our local Asian market and hunt it down, so I'd say as ads go, that's a very successful one.

Also III, I'm amused by people calling their spokesperson the Asian Robert Downey Jr.

[And also IV: An anonymous friend told me I was wrong on the derivation of the noodle soup--it's Korean!]

This is a lovely thing, but I think it would be a collectible only--actually using it to hold beer would result in alcohol abuse, as it would pour through the rings.

While wandering around the grid tonight, I got a dropdown message I'd never seen before:

"We are sorry, Linden Lab has discovered degraded performance on your connection to the sim you are on. You will need to restart Second Life and log into a new region for the next 30 minutes to an hour. We apologize for the inconvenience."

Really? I was able to port home, the message disappeared, then reappeared, so...I logged out. Strangest thing.

Finally, what do you get when you combine the Powerpuff Girls and Minecraft vidders? Well--at least if you're talking about the three Canadians in the bunch, VintageBeef, Etho and PauseUnpause--you get this. Which is disturbing enough in its own way.

Though I think VintageBeef really does rock that little blue dress.

you and me, we're going nowhere slowly, and we gotta get away from the past

Last bit on Perfect World, I promise.

I retreated back to a safe position while I tried to figure out what I was trying to do, and how to do it. I noticed some lumbering beetles, and made my way towards them. I had eight minutes to kill ten of the things; fine, I could do that.

(from the games album; wait, what are they talking about?)

It was then that my eyes were drawn to the bright yellow text of the chat...and I felt them promptly fall out. WHAT were they talking about??

Plus, they spelled "bestiality" wrong.

(from the games album; wait, what are they talking about? AGAIN??)

And it didn't get better. After this, there were a few minutes while I was tying up the killing-random-things-for-no-reason quest, and trying to figure out how to pick things off the ground, because none of the standards I was used to seemed to be how, and the conversation just kept going downhill.

(from the games album; the I-have-had-it point was reached)

And this is the final image I saved, the one where I decided there was no future for me in this game. Rampant typonese: check. Underage Visigoths cursing each other in open chat: check. No clear tutorial instruction: check. Avatars for the game I actively disliked: check. Timed quests when I don't know what I'm doing: check. (Oh, and on my way out, when I decided to turn the quest in, and got immediately handed a quest to kill the ten other kinds of low-level baddies in ten minutes? Check and mate.)

And after all that, the fact that they implemented cute little animal emotes in chat, over actually fixing the damn game--that chat was more important to them than game mechanics--I literally sighed, logged out, and uninstalled the game on the spot.

Was the experience worthwhile in any way? No. Did it at least convince me that Champions could be worse? Sure, but after the "Blood Moon" event tied up at the end of October, I haven't been back to Champions, so obviously, it's not a draw either.

Back to the MMO drawing board.

Seen in passing from someone whose name was a badly mispelled variant on "I love trolls" (not even kidding):

WARNING: You have the right to shut up and if you give up that right anything stupid or mean you say will be recorded and used against you. I am the master of copy and paste! You have been warned.
TOS conditions met. :D

Yeah, no, see, you're an idiot. The ToS doesn't say that.

And I'm not entirely sure, because I haven't seen everything out there, but this may be one of the ugliest mesh avatars in existence. If not the ugliest, hands down.

On the mesh front, Danae Adjani has decided to turn over part of her Flickr stream to documenting cases of copyright infringement from other 3D programs, into SL. There's a variety of sources listed, and she's got good side-by-side comparison shots. It's something to keep checking, if you're in doubt (especially if you're buying templates, and not actual clothing items).

and sit back while we attack the utter lack of our enjoyment

Suffice it to say, I wasn't in the best mood for all of this. I was still massively depressed over the (then upcoming) closure of City of Heroes; I was (still, am, will be) dealing with the mysterious departure of an otherlove (at six months and counting at that point, longer now); and the hoped-for 'spark' of sudden liking for Champions had utterly failed to manifest.

And now I was in a game I was already regretting downloading, trying to come up with a character I could bear long enough to figure out the tutorial. Gah.

As the least objectionable of the options offered, I finally went with one of the "cute" presets (each preset had two: you've been seeing the better of the two options in each case. No, seriously), which...left me with pink hair.

(from the games album; the pouty elf from PWI)

That had to change.

I found there was a surprising amount of variability settings for the eyes. As you can see, I went for a more anime look, because she just wasn't looking any better with more realistic options.

(from the games album; now, she's a pouty goth elf)

I mucked about with the colors until I had a vaguely hazel eye and vaguely dark hair (I ended up changing to the Thai-inspired filigree head-bun cover, for the second "cute" preset; it didn't help, but it helped more than the first caged-bun option did). I found a purplish-black for lipstick, and figured that went. There are a few face sliders (not featured), but none of them work really well. How'ver, this was my first solid, not budging, complaint: the body sliders.

There are six.

None of them deal with the aberrant size of the gangplanks she walks on, nor the huge and ungainly hands. Apparently, those are stuck for all time being larger than some of the monsters I was about to fight.

Great.

And then, I entered the game. I picked a generic fantasy name after a surprisingly brief amount of thought; I think I'd already decided she was just a run-through character, and I'd make a new one later. I was ready (or so I thought) for the tutorial.

(from the games album; Director Tsan, teach me!)

That tutorial? You're looking at it. I'm not kidding. I walked into the world, immediately saw a hovering icon over Director Tsan's head, and trooped over to talk with her. The first things she tells me make no mention of how I access world features, game features, or explain the HUD settings in any meaningful way. Oh, who am I kidding? There's no reference to these things at all.

The only thing I can think of, is that PWI is such a bland, flavorless clone of other Asian grinder MMOs, that everyone used to the style automatically adapts to the HUD controls and off they go. To grind for hours for...how is this fun for anyone, again?

Also, this is the first mission given. And that mission is to kill ten of a type of monster and report back. There's a time limit. Thankfully, they're a) everywhere and b) easy to kill, but seriously, people--I didn't know how to use spells, how to cast them, how to attack in the first place; I barely knew how to move, and now they expected me to squeal in delight and go pound beetles into dust?

Cue dispirited 'yay', but off I went.

[Insert from the Editrix, later: a friend of mine also dipped into the collective pond of PWI. She says, after one performs the initial two quests, Director Tsan then explains how one uses their particular set of powers and abilities, and also how to move and pick things up. You know, the basics that should have been outlined before combat in the actual game. I wouldn't know, because after I returned to Tsan, double-batch of stupidly easy local wildlife vanquished, she told me she had more instructions for me, which I assumed meant "I'm going to give you yet another meaningless time-waster. Off you go!"

[So I quit the game. But that's still to come in future entries at this point.]

just for the record, the weather today is slightly sarcastic

Seen in Champions the other day by a friend: "Battman". No picture, because it wasn't me, plus she was croggling over the fact that in a game where you can have any particular name you want, even if it repeats another character's name, this fellow still chose to spell the name wrong...but it did get me thinking.

What if that's really what he meant?

What if he didn't mean "Batman", the Dark Knight, the moody antihero with bat wings, but...a softer, cuddly variant?

I now present to you...BATTMAN:

(from the random album, a so-called 'teacup' Pomeranian puppy)

The pint-sized superhero made entirely from cotton wadding! He forces villains to submit because they cannot stop saying "Awwww" long enough to commit crime! He defeats evil masterminds by the awesome power contained in his soft, pettable, cotton fur--and by the fact he can easily distract the sleekly arch, pure white cats of evil from their laps with a can of wet food!

It's a stuffed animal! It's a cosmetic puff! It's a throw pillow wrapped in angel-hair tinsel! No, it's BATTMAN!

Okay, okay, fine, that's likely not what he meant. Shhh. I'm enjoying my version more.

If you're a member of the Eldergoth Macabre group--or even if you aren't--one of their allies, the H.P. Lovecraft Roleplay Group, is having a Twelve Days of Whatevermas event.

(from the bizarre album; the HPL RPG's tentacle tree)

They have a tentacle tree, and the first two gifts are still out. (They're both labeled Gift 2, but trust me, they contain different things.)

(from the bizarre album; the HPL RPG's Shoggoth on the roof)

And of course there's a Shoggoth on the roof. What holiday would be complete without one?

and though we're coping, I just hope it's not contagious

Picking up where we left off from my (limited) experience with Perfect World International, we're now at the "noble" preset for Winged Elf female clerics:

(from the games album; the "noble" elf)

And I'm still baffled. What makes this "noble"? The hair jewels? The brown hair? The stance? What?

(from the games album; the "proud" preset)

This is the "proud" preset, and...at this point I was losing the ability to do more than sputter incoherently at the screen. She had hair wrapped around a bulbous brain worm. Or she was secretly hiding her dual identity as an elf/Alien cross.

(Bizarrely, when I went off searching to see if any luckless artist had drawn an Alien/elf crossover, Google led me to Lady Gaga. Now I have fear.)

(from the games album; the "stylish" elf)

I think the "stylish" preset simply means "she has white hair".

(from the games album; they're getting worse.)

And this was the final preset, "wild". Trust me: you didn't want a view from the front. It made my brain scream. Also, it took me working down to the very last preset to realize by "Winged Elf", PWI means "head wings". Why did I notice now, and not earlier? Because the "wild" spiky hairstyle manages to completely swallow the head wings in those ginormous, unsettling spikes.

But there were other problems. Like the giant gunboat feet:

(from the games album; Perfect World's default feet.)

Seriously, each foot was the size of her total hip width, easy. The hell. And there were no sliders to resize the feet from "pontoon" to "humanoid in scale".

(from the games album; the giant hands.)

It still got worse--these are their distorted meathook hands, on what limited close-up action I could get whilst building my cleric--and an even closer shot of the gunboat feet, and how they're actually constructed. (Which is to say, wrong. They are constructed wrong.)

Next up: what eventually drove me from the game (in two separate directions, even).

trends come and go, and your friends wanna know why you aren't just happy making crappy little gizmos

A while back--before City of Heroes closed--I started looking for another MMO. Unsatisfied with the limitations of Champions, I discovered the same company, Perfect World, had a typical Asian fantasy grinder called Perfect World International. Based--loosely--on Chinese mythology and fantasy-tilted Chinese style, it looked worthy of deeper exploration.

(from the games album; the floating castle in Thousand Streams)

The artwork from the game looked stunning, and--disregarding some of the sexist flash on the main page, at least--the costuming looked reasonably decent:

(from the games album; the archer, or at least an archer, from PWI)

I thought, okay, fine, let's do this. What's the worst that could happen? I was soon to find out that was a question with more than one answer.

(Oh, and if you want to see the two wallpapers linked here larger, go to the game's wallpaper site.)

From Jadelynx' Perfect World Guide:

In Perfect World, there are five races. They are the Humans, Wing Elves, Tideborn, Earthguard and the Untamed. (formerly called Beastkind) Each race has two classes and each class plays differently. You can personalize and customize your character to an amazingly exacting degree. You can change anything and everything about your character's appearance.....eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrowns, skin color, hair style and color, lip color, eyeshadow color, body shape, the list goes on and on. You can make your character look extremely beautiful, extremely ugly, or make it look exactly like you.

To say this is a stunning confabulation of facts and wish fulfillment really doesn't go far enough--that's rather like saying napalm causes mild skin irritation. (And I didn't correct the spelling, by the way--yes, she typed out "eyebrowns" and never looked back.)

To get access to all the races available, one must be a paid account. For free-to-play participants, only three races are available: Humans, Winged Elves, and the Untamed. I didn't fancy having bunny ears, and humans seemed dull, so I went with the only option left--the winged elves. Who, by the way, at least starting out, don't have wings.

Then I spent two days I won't get back downloading the game. And this on my new (2011) computer. But I was still telling myself that it was worth it.

Then I opened up the character creator.

(from the games album; the basic options for a female winged elf)

This is the "conservative" option for out-of-the-box female winged elf clerics. I must have stared at this screen for five minutes, trying to figure out what made it "conservative". It certainly wasn't the outfit. Or the breast size. Or the hair. What the hell?

(from the games album; the basic options for a female winged elf)

It gets worse. This is the "cute" preset. No change in the outfit; strangely pink hair; pouty little almost-not-there mouth; and the weirdest little caged-bun thing I'd ever seen. I mean, yes, sure, it's not buffalo horns, but it still looked odd. Even worse, I wasn't able to track down the hairstyle within a reasonable amount of time spent on Google. (This doesn't mean it doesn't exist, just that double-bun styles show up with far more ease than single-bun styles.)

(from the games album; the basic options for a female winged elf)

Then there was the "elegant" preset. What, precisely, makes this "elegant"? The (slightly) darker skin? The gold hair pins? The fact that she has brunette hair? What?

(from the games album; the basic options for a female winged elf)

And then there was the "exotic" preset. Apparently, two-tone hair pinned back with silver bobby-pins is an "exotic look". Suuuure.

This is all going to end in tears, isn't it?

toiling through the ages, making toys on garnished wages

Sometimes I'm the only one seeing the oddity:

(from the bizarre album; sea above, sea...below?)

And yes, yes, I know what I'm wearing. Shush. I was testing a concept.

This is not the first time I've seen something like this, but this (while I was still using Cool VL) was definitely one of the oddest things. This was several months back, during a period where rollbacks seemed to be happening every four days, and I had been having problems rezzing things out in my skybox.

When this occurred, I was standing in a Linden sim, empty of everything but me and a slight protrusion of green. I looked down, checking inventory, and when I looked back up--doubled ocean view.

(from the bizarre album; more of the Booty Brigade at Viviane)

Guess what I found! I'd forgotten all about this one; turns out there were actually four of them, nearly all with the same bottom-heavy, gargantuan-butted shape, tiny little feet, and fully physics-enabled, almost-entirely-maximum-sized breasts.

(Forgot to mention that on the first round--all four of these lasses had extraordinarily bouncy physics layers. It wasn't just the breasts--it was breasts, bellies and butts, and all at full tilt. A little bit of bounce adds a touch of realism. But a lot? A lot pushes it full-tilt into surrealist clown-car territory. On goddamn SPRINGS.)

We move from the very large to the very small. While wandering through Vendom, I caught a wee fierce sleekit beasty...oh, and the Petite riding it:

(from the bizarre album; Petite feral horned hooved...something, riding a squirrel)

I didn't even know the grid had riding squirrels.

Of course, if you look more closely...

(from the bizarre album; Petite feral horned hooved...something, riding a squirrel)

...you'll notice a few additional things. Like the fact that she's essentially wearing a fur bikini. And has horns. And has a little black twitching tail. I don't know if she actually has ears, nor the species of whatever ears those might be, because her hair covered them up.

Also note the hooves. Big black furry ones.

Her profile said she was Gorean, something I find fairly hard to believe (at least in theme, as there's only one recognizably non-humanoid intelligent race on Gor, and it's not teensy pixie people), but mostly, I was just grinning idiotically at the concept of wee feral hooved women, riding fierce squirrelly stags into battle.

Or...whatever wee feral hooved women would ride into battle. I could be wrong. Maybe she really longs for a ferret. Or a shrunken tiger. Who knows?

the ice was breaking so

I admit, I don't get the whole butt-wider-than-Wyoming shape thing. And it's everywhere right now. And why? Why is this the SL next big thing?

But I digress. A challenger approaches!

(from the bizarre album; the big-booty brigade in Viviane Fashions)

And she seems to have even less taste than the other two. (Also, does the woman in jeans just have an ass that goes vertically? I've never seen anyone's rear, in SL or RL, just go straight out in a vertical line.)

(from the bizarre album; the big-booty brigade in Viviane Fashions)

I swear, all she did was max out the sliders for hips, saddle and legs. She looks badly inflated. Worse, she looks blockily inflated, as if instead of just going bulbous, she went hexagonal.

(from the bizarre album; the big-booty brigade in Viviane Fashions)

The front of the outfit wasn't much better than the back. No, I take that back: it was better, just...not in any good way.

Oh, and in case anyone's curious: this was one of the least disturbing contortions her AO spun her through, yes.

(from the bizarre album; Bridezilla and the fluffy dress of fluffiness)

And then, I met Bridezilla.

Not even kidding: see that tiny little bit of blonde hair on the right side of her hips? Yeah. That avatar is taller than I was. And Bridezilla was twice her height.

(from the bizarre album; Bridezilla and the fluffy dress of fluffiness)

Note: I am not saying Bridezilla was unattractive, even with the gargantuan ass settings. I liked the look, she had enough mass (no pun intended) to even counterbalance the bulk of her rear, but she was fifteen feet tall, easy.

Also, note that figure in the teal dress, far off to the right? That's me. That shape currently rates at 5'8", one of my taller forms. Granted, I'm farther away, but still, the difference is disturbing.

(from the bizarre album; Bridezilla and the fluffy dress of fluffiness)

From this angle, though, you can clearly see the distortion of her underlying shape. Maxing out sliders is not the way to create lush, rounded curves; all you get are bunches interspersed with sharp, unsettling (and unsexy) bits. Which is what her body from the waist down pretty much is--planed globes attached to sharp non-curves and angular spikes. Thank you, but no. Between that and the height? Yeah, she goes on the WTF list.

my favorite place is the warm embrace

More random oddity from the grid.

Okay. Ported in to one of my new store groups, to check on sales. And I saw...this...well, that's the problem: xie wasn't exactly identifiably male or female. But they were naked.

(from the bizarre album; the naked being, being naked, at For F's Sake)

What I think happened: oh, I wish I had a theory. I've done some really basic censoring of identifiable (sorta) sexual characteristics, save: xie didn't have any. There were breast shapes (with hair on them); there was a male-pattern groin patch (with no prim bits); there was a male skin (on what I suspect was a female base shape). So...again, which gender was xie?

(from the bizarre album; the naked being, being naked, at For F's Sake)

See what I mean? While some of the censoring on the torso occludes the shape, you can make out the basic curve of breast tissue. And they were breasts--they stuck out too far from the torso to be anything but. But, male skin. I'd say "gender-bending", or straight-out androgyny, which is fine, but...the naked seemed to just confuse all issues, weirdly.

(from the bizarre album; the naked being, being naked, at For F's Sake)

Oh, and hir feet were missing. Entirely. They're not buried in the snow prim; they're simply gone.

And I was on a browser which could see mesh.

So...any guesses as to why NatureBeing wanted to be starkers, quasi-male, with no feet, in the snow, in front of a Gorean silks shop? Got me.

There are occasional nights I can't sleep; it's been a life-long hazard, though it's getting better over the past few weeks. Still, there are certain activities I should declare off the treatment list for insomnia.

(from the bizarre album; the big-booty brigade in Viviane Fashions)

Like logging in to strange stores late at night. What. What. Am I. Seeing. I don't even.

Not only that, but it's the first time I've honestly looked at any avatar and thought the system layers didn't fit right.

(from the bizarre album; the big-booty brigade in Viviane Fashions)

You could fit her head, and each breast, horizontally, into the width of her ass and still have ass left over. Not even kidding. The hell.

(from the bizarre album; the big-booty brigade in Viviane Fashions)

Oh dear gods, they know each other.

More to come.

through it all nobody gets me like you do

I'm all for sexy outfits, at least considering tasteful design, but this one caught me by surprise:

(from the fashion album; Reasonable Desires' "Scout" dress. For...roleplay reasons? Maybe?)

I'm not saying it's bad, it's just clearly a gender-shifted Boy Scout uniform, with...substantial reduction in materials. Even so, considering some things (more on that later on) seen in SL, this is surprisingly well-made, and attractive.

At the least it doesn't run up to you with full-on bouncy physics in a thong and scream "I'M SUCH A SLUUUUUT plzlovemeohgod I'M SO NAUUUUGHTY" in your face.

You can find it at Reasonable Desires, currently on special for L$99. And yes, it includes the tent and the firepit. (No idea on shoes and backpack, but likely those and the hat as well.) For those alone it might be worth the Lindens.

[00:17] Bxxxxx Exxxxxxxx: The afterlife is fun!
[00:17] Bxxxxx Exxxxxxxx: There are pina coladas here
[00:17] Cxxxxxxx Wxxxxxxxx: High speed internet?
[00:17] Cxxxxxxx Wxxxxxxxx: Cable TV?
[00:18] Bxxxxx Exxxxxxxx: no

Then it's not fun.

Some comparison shots, mostly taken at random.

(from the fashion album; random passersby while hitting the advents at Alice Project)

I don't even know where to start...But going not in any sort of defined order:

• her boobs are bigger than her head
• she's got tiny little baby hands
• her skirt has officially reached "belt" territory
• her feet are detached from her calves

And from the back, if anything, it gets worse:

(from the fashion album; random passersby while hitting the advents at Alice Project)

For starters, the lack of connection between her ankles and her legs is even more obvious. Also, there's something really off with her left knee (but I'm not entirely convinced that's not just the SL avatar mesh itself showing its age, not her). That, and:

• there's no visible skirt panel in the back, her enormous butt has swallowed the rest of her skirt entire
• I reference again the tiny little baby hands
• the ring she wears (in a non-linked image) is cutting into the fingers on either side of her ring finger, because she's never bothered to adjust the size

The thing is, the hair works for her, her sunglasses work; she's pretty enough, all things considered, but...the outfit. The shoes. The shape.

Here's another "She's so pretty, but..." pic:

(from the fashion album; random passersby while grabbing Poetic Colors' latest group gift, and shopping about [kusshon] whilst there)

So....yeah. This is where mesh has brought us. If you have a mesh-enabled viewer now, you can see people with some pretty good hair, overall; some pretty great sweaters/tops overall; and some pretty repellent skirts and pants. Because seriously, that skirt. That skirt is made of fail. The only way my mind can even grasp how that misbegotten thing works is to assume it's sewn to the thong.

Which brings us to our next problem: namely, that thong:

(from the fashion album; random passersby while grabbing Poetic Colors' latest group gift, and shopping about [kusshon] whilst there)

What. The hell. Is wrong with her? Does she not see the monstrosity hanging from her hips is in defiance of several different fashion laws? And likely multiple state statutes. And it doesn't even fit in the first place!

Thing is, I think the sweater's dead cute on her, and it's really textured well, to the point that I really wish I knew who made it. But that thong. That skirt. That thong.

It's an affront to thinking beings everywhere.

Lest I be accused of solely focusing on feminine fashion flaws, let me present her compatriot in fashion suicide:

(from the fashion album; random passersby while grabbing Poetic Colors' latest group gift, and shopping about [kusshon] whilst there)

Oh, man. Where to start...Shoes aren't bad. I guess that's a plus. The hair isn't bad. There's still that dissonance of his tiny little head on those footballer shoulders, but...I'm used to that at this point. And even the fact he's chomping on pine needles is something I can ignore, because there's a candy cane attached. It's a thing, I guess. SL Xmas.

But...

• that huge, stiff scarf was doing its best to eat his head, after a tasty meal of his neck
• those slouchy, hipslung mesh leggings
• seriously, let me say that again: the LEGGINGS. That's true terror, right there.
• the mesh jacket seemed to be folding around an entirely different shape than this fellow was actually wearing
• speaking of, he's got seriously saggy hips, which is not a shape issue for him, per se, but is an issue with those tragic mesh leggings
• he also had weirdly tiny baby hands
• check again, weirdly tiny baby feet, which is frankly bizarre for an average guy on the grid
• and the BELT, people, he is wearing a BELT with pull-on, dropped-crotch, slouchy mesh knit LEGGINGS.

Dear gods.

And more to come.