storms are brewing in your eyes

Next hunt update bit:

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...wait. I got confused somewhere. Damn it. Okay, making a note to fix this later....somehow.
Starting out today with a Windlight setting a friend sent, called "Nam's Optimal Skin and Prim". It's bright enough for photographs, without feeling like I'm drowning in glow. (The other one she sent would be good for walking about, but really not for photographs--that would be this:

(from the scavenging album

(which is known as "Night - Brighter". See what I mean? Very restful on the eyes while preserving details, but not what I want for hunt shots.)

Also, did I mention how much I loathe low-cut pants?

(from the scavenging album

These are the mesh overdyed jeans (I'm again in size M) from BUID, and...yeah. The texturing is really well done, and they move well, and I even like the color, but...damn. Way too low.

(from the scavenging album

If that's your thing, though, pick up this gift. Because the texturing is on the phenomenal side.

This next one's irritating on two counts.

(from the scavenging album

Miamai's gift was two pairs of "Catwalk" mesh lashes, in "Orange Explosion" (shown) and "Pink Explosion" (not shown). I realize this is a me thing, but first, considering all of my neko shapes have tilted eyes, the lashes just don't fit. And while they're not rigged (which is why I was able to position them at all), they kill my whiskers without remapping.

And I have zero interest in remapping if they're not going to fit in the first place. Still, if you have a more 'normal' (feh) eye shape, these may well suit you.

I went downstairs for this next one; I thought they'd look nicer against an actual wall, not the metallic glowing studio box I'm in now. So, from Weather? or Not! comes a small expansion to their mesh cloud furnishings line (yeah, at this point, they have a line...it's cool): namely, mesh cloud picture frames.

(from the scavenging album

Why are they red out of the box? No clue. But setting them is exceedingly simple (open in edit, drag pictures in to the Content tab, close edit, then touch the frames to set cycle length, whether in order or random, and on/off settings).

(from the scavenging album

Also, touching the frames again, going into the Texture field, and setting the red seen there back to default white solves the o'er-reddening problem.

About the only thing you can't do with them is resize them; still, as they are, they make a pretty wall grouping, or could be rotated slightly to be a bedside frame.

From Alexohol comes summer stripes in two variations.

(from the scavenging album

First, the striped mens' board shorts. They're doable, though I'm still not their target market (obviously).

(from the scavenging album

Next up: the striped summer dress to match the shorts. It's nice. Colors aren't me, but it's pretty nonetheless, and well textured. There's no evidence of side seaming, though there is an odd division between the bodice and the skirt--I think that's a template thing, and not something iffy on the texturing.

(from the scavenging album

And this is it from the back. There's a little mesh crumpling along the dip in the back, but beyond that, it's very well done.

More to come! (Did you doubt?)

what I never did is done

Remember a few entries back, I mentioned a radically new power source under development? Well, soon there will be liquid antenna technology on the market, that impressively boosts signal strength for just about anything. They're seeking funding for launching the product now (though of course, the military is already using it, with apparently fantastic results).

Do you enjoy making quirky electronic gadgets? Do you play roleplaying games, and get tired of carting all those dice around? You're in luck--there's a tutorial designed just for you.

And I'm not entirely sure this is a good thing, but Star Trek: the Next Generation and Doctor Who are joining forces in a comics crossover. Ooookay...

(Also, I've moved! Just this lower section, not the top bit. This blog is still active, I'm just moving the prim breast discussions off.)

won't you take me back to oblivion?

Random vampiric conversation:

[11:02] [Hxxxxx]: Never got the attraction of sleeping in a coffin. crap, hard sides, no room to stretch role, get in odd positions
[11:02] [kxxxxxxxx]: but...its not the same freak factor as a coffin
[11:02] [kxxxxxxxx]: that in itself is like a home invasion deterrant.
[11:03] [kxxxxxxxx]: its very OMGWTF IS LIVING HERE.

Weirdly, in SL, sleeping in a coffin is simply a matter of making a doublewide coffin-space and inserting poses. In some sims that's almost the definition of normal.

Issues with the newly-launched Spring Fling in City of Heroes:

Spring Fling Known Issues

There are a few Known Issues with the Spring Fling event that we would like you to be aware of:

• The Ski Chalet is accessible to players who get a Spring Fling mission that points them to the Ski Chalet entrance door.

• Spring Fling Hero teams that go on missions that lead to fighting Carnival of Shadows enemies will spawn level 40 Carnival of Shadows enemies even if teams are under level 40.

• Please note, that if there is a Villain or a Rogue on the team, the Carnival of Shadows enemies will spawn at their appropriate levels.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused by these missions, and we are working to resolve them as soon as possible.

Thank you for your patience!

Paragon Studios Community Team

Argh. Basically, translated for non-players: you can't just hang in the Ski Chalet like you could during last year's Spring Fling (though admittedly, that will cut down on the level of ambient anime schoolgirl futa roleplay); and, if you're just playing hero to other heroes for other Spring Fling missions, you'll spawn level 40 Carnival of Shadows bad guys--even if it's a mission that restricts the entire team to level 15, or 20, or 25. So there were a lot of asks in Pocket D about villains or rogues to go on Spring Fling missions with heroes.

So while we're shuffling about, ensuring that we have rogues, villains and heroes on all teams, I overheard this in Pocket D--a conversation between a confused demon in a business suit, and several superheroes/supervillains:

[Local] Corporate Devil: I will not be bound!
[Local] Son of Consolation: [You don't have to.]
[Local] Spark Fighter: All right! Here we go!
[Local] Corporate Devil: You get no new conditions!
[Local] Nitrile: Oboroboroboros
[Local] Corporate Devil: I will not kill my secretary!
[Local] Nitrile: WE WANT HIGHER TAXES!
[Local] Corporate Devil: And you will never get a girlfriend!
[Local] Delligan Conagher: KILL HER DAMMIT!
[Local] Nitrile: FOUL FIEND!
[Local] Corporate Devil: His girlfriend?
[Local] Radiopath: I WANT PEOPLE TO STOP MISTAKING IRISH PEOPLE FOR SCOTTISH PEOPLE.
[Local] Delligan Conagher: KILL HER IMMIDIATLY!
[Local] Nitrile: WHAT RADIO SAID!

Ooookay. *backs away slowly*

There's now a way to make solar panels from grass clippings and leaves. So that's neat.

Too many bars! Run!

In SL news (sort of), there's a new Dutch court ruling that makes virtual property equal to real property--so virtual property stolen, or transferred under duress, equals real property loss and can be prosecutable under the newly established law. Miss Tateru Nino originally covered this, and while I'm not sure it would hold up in non-Dutch courts, it still creates intriguing precedent.

I'm also asking the same question as the Rock Paper Shotgun blog--does the space core showing up in Skyrim mean that Elder Scrolls and Aperture Science are set in the same universe?

And obviously, I have no idea where this image came from, but taking it purely as the advertising for skin, makeup or eyes...I think it fails. Why? Because that image is using not only Windlight programming, advanced shadows, and depth-of-field photography techniques, but a soft-focus slight blurring either achieved through PhotoShop or through a tinted/glowed filter over the photographic field itself.

No one is going to look that good on Second Life, ever, who's not standing in a photography studio being retouched on the fly. Products being advertised should reflect slightly more reality than that, people, even virtual ones.

you got to meet me by the knuckles of the skinnybone tree

So, since I'm reinstalling everything, I'm also going through the Windlight settings, since I'm going to be losing all the presets I had under Singularity.

So far I've found some good download sites, including Paulina Oceanlane's fae presets, Lusus Saule's photographic presets, Chic Aeon's Places presets, and Strawberry Singh's preset collection. It's not everything, and I'm still looking for more, but I'm trying to find a wide variety, and then weed down just to the ones I like.

Assuming any viewer in Second Life will actually log me in, that is.

[Note from the Editrix: Did the two-step process of downloading the old and creaky version of SnowGlobe, then downloaded Henri Beauchamp's CoolVL to layer over that. So far {I'm keeping my fingers crossed}, it's working.]

Why does Superman's new costume have scales? More here.

"But in real life, we expect very few statements to be public, persistent, and attached to your real identity."

You can read more about the My Name Is Me campaign here.

Meanwhile, Axi Kurmin tackles the whole raging Google+ controversy, in inimitable style. Well worth a read.

An iPhone case that's endlessly useful! Also endlessly creepy, but hey, it's Japan.

In toy news, "hurricane balls" have been invented! Very ingenious.

Kenneth Branagh has declined sequel directorship for the upcoming Thor II. Current talk places Brian Kirk, newly off directing the Game of Thrones miniseries, high in the running.

Do you want a faster hard drive? I mean, a hugely faster hard drive? Try Smart Modular's newest, a 1.6 terabyte SSD drive that boasts of being the fastest on the ground right now, period--with quoted speeds up to five hundred mBs per second in sustained transfer.

How much is it? They don't say. And unless you're graced with triple trust funds, you probably don't want to know...

How deep is the ocean? There's an infographic for that. You're welcome.