starting 1st May, no bus will go here anymore

I can't find the thing.

Let me say that again, as it's vaguely important: I CAN'T FIND A SINGLE ONE OF THE PICTURES OF THE LAST THING I WAS GOING TO REVIEW. Worse? I CAN'T REMEMBER WHAT IN THE NINE HELLS IT WAS I WAS GOING TO REVIEW.

Add to that the frustration that I'm not already healed last week, getting a slight cold from the girl, local temps crashing, my own current dissatisfaction with my ability to Em...

Anyway. If nothing else, I needed to just get away from it all.



And tossing out the original review I had been planning entirely, whatever it was, and since I still haven't changed out of the outfit I was wearing two or three days back, I decided, we'll just pick something at random. Which turned out to be the "Elemiah" Illuminated Glass Halo from /Vae Victis\.



Also om nom nom broken bits.

I'm currently at the Snowbound hunt, looking for various baubles (in world, there's a glass ballroom with all the keys where you rez, or you can jump to Flickr for each maker's bauble color and number of prizes), and--of course and always--mourning my inability to buy Lindens. (Why is this such a constant state, Em? Oh, right, depression.) It ends January 21st, so a bit ouch if I don't get to things in time. Still. It's a pretty (and pretty crowded) build, overall.



And there's a train, so you know I'm happy. (Wrote that as "appy" first--and no, no, definitely not appy.)



But now I'm out of gingerdead coffee. Darn. Pepperminthe it is!

(Oh, by the way, if anyone feels like getting a belated gift card for coffee for yourself or a friend, or buying coffee for future me, even, Death Wish Coffee is a good one [I adore their Pumpkin Chai, it's just straight-up good spiced coffee, but their Dark Spirits Chocolate Rum Ball is also amazing]. If you're more into just good, unflavored coffee, Top of the Mornin' Coffee has a lot of really good blends--for dark roast lovers, I can't recommend their Midnight Oil blend enough. For fans of lighter roasts, give their High Noon a spin--that one's responsibly sourced, and organic! Also Dungeon Brew Coffee. [Looks like they have some of their Minty Magic blend still in stock.] I have a friend in Chicago [where one year his cat froze to his apartment window], so that tipped me to Hero Coffee, which bids to serve really excellent cups and donate to charity at the same time. And Many Worlds Tavern--they're not as stellar as Deathwish or Top of the Mornin', but they're good. And they're gamers, so occasionally they throw in dice! And I can't fail to mention Bones Coffee, because OMG, their White Chocolate Peppermint Bark is sooooo good, and I'm dying to try Sweet Tater Swirl, because--sweet potatoes? In COFFEE?!?)

(I'm not sponsored by any coffee company, just FYI. And I am far from a dedicated Q Grader. I just like coffee.)

Just for fun, I decided I wanted to see the minimum and maximum sizes in the halo. Here's the min:



And here's the max:



And it was so big I had to cheat a bit and raise my hover height to the absolute maximum, and then pull the camera way back, just to get it all in frame!



At any rate, I think that's about it. Grabbed a cup of hot chocolate from the next coffee shed I found, and have now found all five of the Winter Edition "Marbas" furs put out here. I'll be reviewing those soon, though at this point, with only one day left AAAAAAAH--you may have to hope to find the Marbas furs as a group gift later on!

and every day there's a little less difference between the two

Slightly grumpy that holiday sims are already up and running, I went on a search for ones still in autumn mode. I found one--Malal Autumn Fall.



Where it's also raining.



Was I here before? It looks very familar.



This doesn't, but that doesn't necessarily indicate I'm wrong about having traveled here in the past...



It's pretty, though. I give it full marks for pretty.

Maybe what I need is something less sprawling, more intimate, less...rainy. How about the Autumn Cafe?



Tiny little parcel. Little coffeeshop in a caravan, a cuddle pod, and a stand of encircling birch. Not terrible.



Small inside the cafe, by design, but still. Room enough for some (limited) seating, a small counter, some espresso machines and baked goods. All you'd need, really.



Still. Coffee inside, cuddles outside, crisp fall day...what more does anyone really need?

you're sinking to the bottom now

Apparently, Starbucks is introducing a Zombie Frappuccino for the holiday. I don't know about you, but zombies are not good drink ingredients. Just sayin'.

In the meantime...



You find yourself waking up, the shore of an unfamiliar island ahead of you.

It's no longer surprising how often this happens.



The boat you are on has a hole and has taken on water. You get off by now and take a look at your surroundings.

Seems...pretty bleak. And with warning signs. That's never good.

What was once unfamiliar has now reminded you of a terrible tale:



It all happened one night when the circus arrived on an island. Every child was thrilled by the visiting show and all had gone to partake in merriment they hadn't yet known. During a performance, the troupe of clowns had thrown candy into the stalls. Delighted, each and every child had devoured the sweets.



But the next night, the adults were dead. Every one of them slain by the children.



Welcome to the very island where that awful massacre occurred.

Welcome to Drurem Hills.

I should mention, if you decide to go? I have altered these five pictures severely. The entire sim is nearly pitch-black normally, it's hard to see anything.

a tale of several mesh heads (part one)

Heard from a friend about a steampunk coffeshop in Cape Town, South Africa. It's called Truth. They use an Edwardian-era coffee roaster in a Victorian-era warehouse, with much of the original pipe work for the business preserved. They roast their own coffee beans daily. If anyone's near Cape Town, or plans to be, do check them out. They sound wonderful.

In the meantime, the rest of this entry is the story of my ongoing, (mostly) fruitless search for a mesh head to go with the Maitreya mesh body. The Maitreya is mostly functional (there are still some alpha cuts that could be divided further for better adaptability), and in general, I've been happy with it.

The same cannot be said for mesh heads, from anyone.



So, this is my basic look these days. The lipstick changes, but in general, the skin, eyes, hair and face doesn't. (This is weird for me, I'm still getting used to it.) But there is a pretty clear demarcation line between where my system head ends, and where the Maitreya mesh begins. I have a couple chokers I like that I wear, but most of the time I just grit my teeth and accept there's going to be a line.

Still, friends of mine were talking about Lightstar mesh heads. I was, as with any mesh head, dubious, but I picked the one with the fullest lips (Lin, their so-called 'Asian' head), and spent many hours tweaking it into useability.



I don't think it worked. But at least, doing all that work may have given me a baseline on what to change, to make things look like "me". Ish.

Though I still don't think I look like me in any mesh head.



Then I tried the same head, untweaked, on my normal shape. Oh.



Catwa's "Catya" head is undiluted nightmare fuel.



This is Kathy.



This is Kimberly. I had high hopes for Kimberly.



This is Lilo. She looks like she's in mid-sneeze.



And this is Lona, their newest release. It's like the attack of the fish-lipped women.

All right, so...wearing the LightStar modified shape for me won't work for Catwa. Maybe that was irrational of me, to think it would, but however it goes, it doesn't work.

So later, I pore over the face changes, setting by setting, and see if I can get past the fish lips and into a mesh head, yeah?

Maybe...

(continued in part two)

your hand, my hand, fits so easy

I found a place called Fear World, and I cannot conceive of why they gave it that name.

From Devil Duck Halloween's greeter:

"[01:28] Devil Duck Halloween Greeter:
Hi Emilly Orr, welcome to Moochie. Please respect our no nudity policy, and have fun exploring. There are nooks and crannies to be found throughout, if you're willing to step into the darkness..."

Interesting. It's Moderate land, so nothing hugely sexual or gory is going to leap for my face, right?



Actually, exactly right. It's a short walk through the autumn woods to get to the lights.



The reflections on the water are incredible. It's such a beautiful patch of land.



Closer to the center clearing, there are pumpkins under apple trees, crisp leaves underfoot.



In the clearing, there are dances, and fires to warm the night if the dancing didn't fire the blood enough. Just past it, eldritch lights lead to a small kirkyard, near the shore.



It hasn't been greatly maintained, but old family plots often aren't. Maybe the islanders have a larger cemetary, somewhere, and this one's just for the locals.



Just...be careful in the small church, if you go. Something fairly dark is in there, and might just be...hungry. Still, everything is is warm, and comforting, and if you find the right bench near the docks, you can get a wonderful pumpkin spice latte.