they say you can't go home again, it's true, especially when your home burns down around you

I don't know why I'm not letting go of the holidays this year. My playlist is still carols and solstice favorites, and our wee frosted tree festooned with musical instruments is still up. Got me, why, it's just a comfort, and these days, I go with those.



Today I'm at the Temple of Sound in Riki, to show you another group gift from /Vae Victis\, this time the "Marbas" Beast Pelt boa.

Straight out of the box, no adjustments, no tinting, and it's a perfect fit. Which is honestly impressive, because Grim's nineteen feet tall. I figured at the least it would be ankle-length.



There are eleven shades total--as is tradition, there's a capture of the HUD later--and I don't know if I can do them justice. I do know I want that floating house behind me.



I had never gone downstairs at the Temple, so...I decided to find out what was there. There's a pool there! And a nice bench to rest upon. And just enough shadow to drape around the deep crimson fur.



Maybe I'm not the only one clinging to holiday feelings--Persephone Phoenix, the owner and operator of the Temple of Sound, and the ski slope behind it, has scattered several holiday trees around her property. Each of them have some cats, open to all. (She had them under request for two per person, but of late I think she just wants them carted off, so she's lifted that restriction!) Some are actual freebies, priced at L$0; some are slightly fancier breeds at L$200, which is still a deal; one or two are marked at L$1000 (usually those are the really BIG cats).

There are some that are not priced at all, and I see this partially as her just missing a few, because she had a LOT of cats out, as well as a minor contemplation moment on wanting the unattainable. Either way, you could probably drop her a line and ask about specific ones and see what she'd like them priced at.

I thought the brilliant emerald would go with the tree best.



And of course I'm not going to ignore the traditional pink shades! I actually considered leaving this one out, because it clips through the couch and I didn't feel like that much editing? But then I thought again, because clipping is a part of life in SL, and this was the only time I actually noticed it happening!



And that was that, and now it's time to reconsider what we're putting inside Steam towers, now that they're remaining for a while! Definitely the small bar I found, absolutely, but should the Cthulhu drinks go out again? Because the table goes very well with the place--it's a giant gear, with a friendly brass octopus topper--but that means the table will be out, and people will drink from the server...and we'll have people dropping dead all over again. Such a bother.

Oh--did I mention? You can't buy this at the mainstore, but you can get it at the main store for joining the group. It's glorious enough to go for L$500, but no, just the small bookkeeping fee for group joining (I think it's L$10 at present?). Do go see.

{{Brief comment one day after posting from the Editrix: yes, I did notice here and there the fur clipping through my bosom. But nearly everything I own clips through my bosom. It's a hazard I've accustomed m'self to.}}

unimagined gifts are waiting

(Mostly roleplay.)

From another forum site:

[8:33 PM] Lxxxxxx: I have increased my penis compensation device.

Well, I mean, you gotta do what you gotta do...

In other news, something new has been added to Tannhauser Station:



Fairly sure the Duke's brought in a floating repair dock. Just in time to pull the ship with the malfunctioning FTL drive into a bay!



It looks like we can easily bring up the repair bots, too, because I'm fairly sure those are floating recharge stations along the sides.



Yes, I think this could be very worthwhile indeed.

And underneath--not the floating dock, but one of the pods nearby...I found this:



I'm used to reactor cores, but...what is this? If I didn't know better, I'd say it was some sort of tonally-based communications center, but...that can't be what it is, if it's embedded in the bottom of a pod, with power lines leading away to the rest of the station. Can it?

take my breath as your own, take my eyes to guide you home (part two)

(Continued from part one.)



Under Club Aruba is...a sea city.



Caustics are used to stunning effect here and there.



Oh, my gods, it is so beautiful down there...so many varieties of kelp and sea plants.



You can get to Aruba simply enough, but keep in mind, everything under the waves requires a tail or gills. Or a rebreather.

And above the waves? Dances for the legged, airship battles, and everyone's welcome--from steamlands denizens to humans to elves to furs to mers. It's a one-stop acceptance shop.

I like that. There are too few of those places these days.



A shot of the arcing red orbs from the particle machines.



Center floor's now rigged for rockets. Remind me never to dance in the center!

[14:32] Maria (rain0bow): foam
[14:32] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Oh no
[14:32] Jon (jonform.coeur): sprinklers kicked in
[14:32] Maria (rain0bow): love it
[14:32] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Welp, dry-cleaners for this, now
[14:32] Maria (rain0bow): fiesta de la espuma (foam party)
[14:32] Fleming Helfenstein (mountainhall): Good to have a lot of foam around when having fireworks :-)

Would cut down on the chance of fire!

he said, "Son when you grow up, would you be the savior of the broken, the beaten and the damned?"

I've covered a lot of ground in the last handful of days. Letting the mind process while keeping the body traveling; it does seem counter-intuitive at times, but it works for me.

Along the way, I started looking for post-apocalyptic sims beyond the Wastelands. Not that that's not a great collection of sims, but I've taken a lot of shots there. It's one of the top five sims I hit when I'm dealing with heartbreak or major setback, that's how often I've pulled that landmark out. And sometimes, even these days, I'll just port over and sit, let myself think in silence.

This time out? I found the Deathlands.



Within moments of touching down, Rebel IMed me, then, between shots, showed up in person:

[20:27] Rebel Wolf (hermitblue): hi!
[20:27] Emilly Orr: Hi!
[20:27] Rebel Wolf (hermitblue): i wandered over to personally welcome you
[20:27] Emilly Orr: Kind of you

Now, I won't lie--normally, I try to ensure no one's around when I'm setting up shots, because either way I'm going to look odd, either playing various animations in world, or the occasionally worse move of standing like a fool in place while I cycle through animations locally. Plus, this past handful of days, especially, my mental state was so friable from one moment to another, I had no idea how I'd interact with anyone at all, let alone coherently.

[20:28] Rebel Wolf (hermitblue): enjoy the radiation..................

He wasn't lying--there's some extremely active patches of  fissionable material on-site. But more than that, for all that this one sim doesn't have the scope of the Wastelands, it feels equally lived-in. The texturing is really good, the environment pairs well with the set pieces chosen, and nothing radically stands out beyond the little bright orange cones scattered on the ground--and I was informed in a bit of uncaptured text that those are random Linden givers, just on a whim.

[20:32] Rebel Wolf (hermitblue): have fun, try not to die...basic info..its 60 some years after the nukes fell.....................
[20:32] Ays Jun: you surely have a nice Profile. I like the Guidelines part in your picks :D

I sadly didn't snap a shot of Baroness Ays. She was a lot of fun to talk to, too, though. She drifted over soon after Rebel did to say hi.

[20:32] Emilly Orr laughs
[20:32] Emilly Orr: That's been there for years.

This isn't something I think often, when traveling to new sims, but I immediately wanted to come back. Even if not to fully vibe on the RP going--and they both seemed fine with someone wandering through casually--and, to that end, while both Rebel and Ays were in fur, they pointed out all are welcome. Ays, in fact, occasionally goes smooth-skin when the urge strikes. Acceptance is a good thing.

[20:32] Emilly Orr: And good point. I generally try not to die anyway
[20:32] Rebel Wolf (hermitblue): and now your story begins

Indeed it does. Another chapter of it, anyway. I have no idea what I'm going to do there, in all honesty--I may never have the time for more than just wandering and saying hi--but I felt thoroughly welcomed to do that. They have a strong core ethos, but it's flexible enough to allow humans, non-humans, people dressed in theme or not--I mean, look at the first shot, I clearly was not in theme for the sim--and they're friendly.

What more can anyone ask, after the exchange of things that go bang? I am definitely going back.

stop stalling, make a name for yourself

Sometimes, I take pictures because I can't believe how bad the avatar I'm seeing is. Sometimes, I take pictures because I've caught someone else shopping naked, and it's not just their mesh not rezzing in. And sometimes, I take pictures of pretty.

This is one of those.



I wish I knew who makes this avatar. I'm sure her base shape has much to do with it, but the shade, the shape, the glasses...she's adorable.



There's some angular action around the hips, which honestly may be less the mesh or underlying shape, and more my settings at the time--I tend to wander on shopping days with my graphics set very low.



But it's very well done. Kudos to this lady, whomever she may be. Great look.

you're sinking to the bottom now, you're losing control

This is actually a pretty on-point article on why many video game breast physics get so ridiculous, and coincidentally, why so many breast physics layers just profoundly do not work. Good to know, but getting people to actually improve...that's the trick.

And who knew Archie comics were so popular in India? I certainly never considered it, but apparently, they're so popular that there's going to be a Bollywood movie. I'd be afraid, but I've already seen Riverdale, and surely, it can't do worse than that.

At the beginning of March, or the end of February, Hippo Technologies gave up the ghost. As many of us thought that it was no longer in use anyway, it was a surprise to find businesses affected. One of the most surprising was Utilizator, who has set out a fairly detailed set of instructions on how to claim an update with the new cards from Caspervend.

I don't even know what this is all about. Is it a game? Is it an e-commerce site? I don't get it. You play the game, you sell virtual products...that are actually real? And shipped? Does anyone have more information?

In the meantime, I'm noticing a worrying trend on the grid:

CLUB G WILL BE OPEN TO ALL HUMAN APPEARING AVATARS, INCLUDING NON-MEMBERS FOR THIS EVENT

Now, I'm not trying to single Club-G out, they're a great place. Fun energy, good music, some great places to sun on the beach or by the pool if you're tired of dancing. No, it's more that..."all human appearing avatars" line.

I'm seeing that in a lot of places, now, not just dance clubs. Whole sims are back to 'human only' signs. It's no longer just 'no child avatars', which I do understand, but...no non-humans at all.

When did this happen? When did furs become persona non grata everywhere I go? Am I just wandering the wrong sims, going to the wrong clubs? Of course, I didn't think Club-G was one of those clubs, nor the Lowlands sim, nor several other places I've found wandering about.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying these are bad places, and maybe that's part of the problem. And it's a problem we only notice if we don't have a human face. Should I start wandering the grid more as a cat, would that help? Or maybe the prejudice would just become more obvious. I don't know.

But it worries me. It does worry me.

gonna find out who's naughty and nice

Do you like holiday cookie noms? Do you have a muzzle most of the time in SL? This could be right up your alley, then. Comes in iced tree, iced bell, and iced stocking variants. At a stab, I'd say they're either gingerbread or molasses-cookie based, considering the color of the dough. And they're utterly free, so go nab 'em!

Yesssss, I haven't updated for a while. I also haven't been in SL for a while! Life and been utterly hectic in so very many ways of late. In the meantime, this means...a clip entry!

Because seriously, I don't have energy for anything else.

No one has yet given me a full link list to the Advent calendars going on, plus I started three days late, so bother. I checked my landmarks, but Kouse's Sanctum is now gone, and all the FallnAngel links go to sims that aren't attached to the store anymore, as Azriel's downsized (along with oh, so many other merchants on the grid). This is all I could find on a quick earlier run before daily life tackled me and threw me to the floor again:

Alice Project: hair advent at their main store, though apparently the boxes (one for VIP clients, one for everyone) will show up at the Mint Tulip branch a few days after to help out with sim traffic.
Kinzart Kreetures also has an Advent going. I don't know whether it will just be plushies, or will include skins/ears/tails or full avatars; we'll have to wait and see as it unfolds.
And Abranimations has their usual animated-pose things on Advent offer this year.

I'll post more as I discover them.

Apparently--scientifically, even--the best time to drink coffee has been determined, and it's not a time when I'm ever awake--unless I have to be. Guess I'll have to finally invent that espresso IV drip, after all.

[02:54] kxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: friend give me home but when i walk it be liek invisibel

I'm actually terrified of what they're trying to say. When they walk inside the home, it becomes invisible, or when they walk when they're attached to the home? Because I've seen that happen.

More to come.

on a bed of spider web I think of how to change myself

The Oculus Rift VR device got an insane influx of cash recently. So, whereas they were going to be the toy of the privileged few--if them--now they have the means to justify putting one within (fairly) easy reach of most of us, depending. Either way, that kind of money can change the face of gaming, because far more developers are going to start coding for the Oculus headset.

There's a lovely Flickr project called Blog Memes for Second Life Bloggers; what it really is, is a thoroughly ingenious set of reproduced movie posters starring SL avatars. Lovely, lovely work.

Did you know there are pop-up activity books for adults? No, I don't mean Adult adult; I mean grown-ups. Or at least people who think they are.

On the other hand, I've thrown crayon parties before where no one was under drinking age. Adult beverages in the fridge, chips and veggies on the table, butcher paper on the walls and all horizontal surfaces. Everyone gets a box of crayons when they get in.

Those were a lot of fun, as I recall. Pity our current place is so little.

There's, um...how do I put this? A Reddit user has decided to make fanart of the Mindcrackers for potential calendar use.

Pin-up calendar use. Oh, my...and is it sad that I downloaded the one for Pause Unpause?

Courtesy of Slate and Pinterest, I've found another small trove of Victorian (with a scattered few earlier) images, but yet again, it's slightly off-beat. In the case of Corsetra's Pinterest board, it's devoted to breastfeeding art and photography. Who knew the Victorians were so keen to have their pictures taken with attached baby?

But then, in a culture that allowed women to breastfeed (as opposed to one that seemingly goes into frothing hysterics when any hint of a bare breast is divulged), such images would be both common, and acceptable. I never thought of it that way before.

(Just FYI, Corsetra herself is rather a find--I would say easily half of her boards are related to Victorian/Edwardian/Regency concerns, over a wide spectrum of topics. Highly impressive.)

Ten thousand gamers cried out against oppression, and Microsoft backed off some of their plans. So...yay? But family/friend sharing is now out, it seems, along with not needing a disc in the tray to play (something the XBox 360 allowed). I guess that's mostly good...ish...

Facebook, in a landmark reversal, is going to allow mastectomy photos to be posted to their site. This has been a hard, arduous fight (though still a cakewalk compared to having a mastectomy), and many women are overjoyed for Facebook to acknowledge the empowerment that seeing these photos can give women facing breast cancer.

A random perusal of Tumblr a day back brought the String Rabbits to my attention. From there, I found this article, which led me to this article, which led me to the Zoorasian Brass Emissions Orchestra's YouTube account. I highly recommend "Bear-forest", "Ainekuittsu Show Time", and their "Railroad Fantasy" performances, but they're really talented in everything they've posted.

(Oh, and they all have nicknames. For instance, the saxophone players are colloquially known as Saxofox, the string section as String Rabbits [Tsuru-Usagi in the original], the clarinet quartet are the Claricats, etcerera. Fascinating.)

after them she shot, down down down

[20:08] pxxxx Cxxxxx shouts: WHY DO YOU GUYS HAVE DUCKS ON YOUR HEAD

Some days, people worry me more than others.

In and amongst preparations for Sunday's Aether Salon, more reflections on shopping naked.

Because it's still confusing.

Take this lovely fur, f'rinstance:

(from the shopping album; apparently furs shop naked, too.)

I won't lie; she was dead cute. The bow, the spots, the poses in her AO...she was just adorably winsome, start to finish. But she wore a bandeau top and gloves, the bow, and...nothing else.

And see, here's my thing with furs: yes, I know animals don't wear clothes. Even some anthropomorphic animals don't wear clothes. But there's a vast difference between "not wearing clothes because I'm covered in fur", and "not wearing clothes even though my fur is so short you can see genitalia". Am I the only one who perceives the definite difference between those two states?

I don't even feel I can link directly on this blog the set of shots I took and animated, just to show you the pose variation, because barring this one (rather perfectly) figleafed image, ALL of the rest I'd have to edit!

Or how about...her:

(from the shopping album. Some things you cannot unsee.)

I...don't even know where to begin. Her proportions are off, and I'm not just talking about her implants. Her color coordination sense is...deeply impaired.

(from the shopping album. Please don't do that again.)

And keep in mind, I'm not even talking about the implants here. Some women want tits the size of planetoids; okay, whatever. That's your thing, that's your thing, it's not about to change.

I'm more talking the distortion of the system avatar.

Like...the fact that she doesn't have curves, here, she has ANGLES.

Just to enhance the point:

(from the shopping album. Yeah.)

This is a crop of the above image, so you can see exactly what I mean. Even if you want a large rear--or large anything--you want to do your best to ensure that it fits the concept. Because human beings are not angular, we're rounded. This? This is not rounded. This is pushing the system mesh until there's literally nowhere else to go. This is forcing an avatar to be as large as it can be with zero care how that looks to anyone else.

(from the shopping album. Yeah.)

It's like she doesn't even notice--or worse, doesn't even care--how much she's distorted the underlying shape.

(from the shopping album. It's just not getting better.)

Maybe she finally realized how little her boots go with the rest of her? Your guess is as good as mine, unfortunately.

so this is what it's like living in limbo

(from the Avatars album; the World's End Garden group gift collar, with silk rose detail)

While we're on the topic of World's End Garden--sort of--I adore the 'Chasseur' dress partially because the texture used on the roses that adorn both the sculpted collar and the half-skirt look so perfectly like black silk.

(from the Avatars album; the World's End Garden group gift half-skirt, with silk rose detail)

They don't look like the usual 'living black rose' thing; they look exactly like a couture designer's attempt at high-end, artificial adornments. For me, that just adds to everything.

Also, Puppy just released cougar mods for Uchi Desmoulins' Chinchilla avatar. The modding industry for furries is still in full swing, but what amazes me more is the three distinct and different facial markings included with the mod. Considering most furs--at least, the quality ones--run between L$600 and L$1500, asking L$350 per mod is fantastically reasonable.

Back to the eyes! (Which you can get by going to Rue's main store in Netherfield.)

(from the Avatars album; Rue's "Cassiopeia" eyes, from the Firelight set)

We're up to the Firelight set, and that one starts with "Burn", a rich, Octoberine meld of purple, orange, and ember-yellow.

(from the Avatars album; Rue's "Cassiopeia" eyes, from the Firelight set)

Next up, "Copper", with expected, lovely tones of old gold, light and dark orange, sienna and black.

(from the Avatars album; Rue's "Cassiopeia" eyes, from the Firelight set)

"Eden" is an industrial sunrise of lime, gold, rose, rust, and headlight-yellow, simmered in white wine.

(from the Avatars album; Rue's "Cassiopeia" eyes, from the Firelight set)

"Rust" is one of my favorites from this set, and reminds me more of rust in motion, of the act and the active presence of rust as it moves over surfaces.

(from the Avatars album; Rue's "Cassiopeia" eyes, from the Firelight set)

And finally, "Terracotta", which are very similar to the "Rust" eyes, just aged a bit. Muted rust, brushed rust, or sun-baked clay--say, the type you'd find on a clay-tiled roof. The variegation is subtle and attractive.

More to come!

(Horns are from Rue, part of the Eclectic Desires L$10 skull hunt and maze. The "Harlowe" hair is from Ploom. Skin's still from MoMo [may not be available], the lip tattoos are from Pin Me Down [acquired during World Goth Month], and the forehead jewels are from the Arachnos skin set at Fallen Gods [it comes with spider back-arms and the Arachnos skin as well; it's for the next day or so only on the Lucky Fortune machine].)

letting go again of all that keeps me in place

(from the bizarre album)

Have you ever had one of those days where nothing goes exactly according to plan? This was mine.

I still can't figure out what's wrong with these boots.

(from the bizarre album)

Are they going to stay this way? Every time I log in from now on?

(from the bizarre album)

I relogged and everything. Twice.

Finally, I gave up, and, having heard of the sale at Bobtails for Felis mod skins, I changed my boots to a pair that behaved, then ported down and considered my options. Among the things I dragged back to my skybound lair were several unusual shades of lynx skins. One was a pale leaf-green tone, with darker green patterning, and gold flashed along the eye. I decided if I was going to take the time to mod the head for this, then I should mod it right. So I picked my texture, carefully dragged it over each individual prim of the head, then found a hair I thought went with it (a little hefty at 174 prims, but hey), and attached that to the skull.

That's when things went horribly, horribly wrong:

(from the bizarre album)

IT'S BLINKING.

No, seriously:

(from the bizarre album)

WHY IS IT BLINKING??

At least I wasn't the only one having problems:

(from the bizarre album)

Personally, I blame two things for this. First, that I caved and downloaded Singularity, because even Niran's was eating my brain.

And secondly, I blame Singularity.

(from the bizarre album)

Because seriously, people...these are not normal things to see, and they seem persistent across sessions. What is UP with the graphics?!?

I'm going to take a few hours, maybe even the rest of the night off, in the hopes that whatever weird visual glitchy code fracture is going on will fix itself.

And hey, if it doesn't...well, I always have Niran's.

*sighs resignedly*

I got a place where all my dreams are dead

Punxatawney Phil apparently saw his shadow. So six more weeks of winter, at least off the grid. (On the grid, well, when I left Caledon and Winterfell, both were saying winter was soon to end. Since I haven't been back to either place yet, I truly don't know.)

In other news off the grid, mutant chickens are growing toothlike nubs. But mostly, I like this story for the very first line of it:

Working late in the developmental biology lab one night, Matthew Harris of the University of Wisconsin noticed that the beak of a mutant chicken embryo he was examining had fallen off.

Errrr. What does a thinking being say to that?

The rest of the story goes a little bit into why this mutant chicken began growing teeth, but the first three questions that popped into my mind were

• Wait. You're mutating chickens for educational reasons now?
• The beak fell off? The hell? How do beaks just fall off??
• So chickens can't grow teeth normally, but you've managed to reinvent the chicken so successfully they can grow teeth on their own? What's next, the pocket shark?

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the grid...

[19:57] [Fxxxxx Axxxx]: There are two MLP ponies inside the elevator at Doomed.
[19:57] [Fxxxxx Axxxx]: One's titler is "My dad just died in RL let me be PLX"

Man, that would be a hard call. On the one hand, you want to support people...ponies...people in ponies...wau, that sounded bad...in their hour of whatever.

On the other hand, My Little Pony avatars DO NOT BELONG ON DOOMED, so...yeah. There's that fine line, painted in bright, sparkly neon, and likely glowing in the dark.

Lofty Pursuits' long-sought-after goal of acquisition and restoration of Victorian-era candy-making equipment will be funded! That's just amazing. Do read the whole story, it's inspirational, and yes, feel free to fund if you can--they set a low fund limit, because they're doing most of the restoration work in-house, but absolutely anything would help. (Oh, and this just in--there's a Girl Genius link, in more than one way. So yes, anyone steampunk-inclined or Girl Genius fan, give to the project! Or spread the word! And remember that website--bookmark it so in six months to a year, when the Victorian equipment is fully restored and in use, you can order authentic Victorian candy! Woot!)

Unfortunately, Mother Henriot's Absinthe Elixir is not doing so well. I and eighteen other individuals are backers, but that's only raised $980 of their stated $10,000 goal. It ould be a shame for that one to fail.

Meanwhile, there's a new form of visual "muting" on the grid. It's not an actual mute, as all it does is count the number of attachments, or the surface area on which those attachments are used, and then render anyone above your chosen figures as a grey ghost in the world.

Of course, my mind immediately leaps to two places: furs, and the catgirls with the big stompy feet and the fluffy tails with the prim-everything wrapped around the base. I can see either category easily falling off the radar with either debug setting.

But we'll see how it goes. I still have trouble seeing this as actual discrimination because you're still able to see their name, interact with them, have them interact with you--there's no actual "muting", per se. But, if they're wearing too many attachments, or there are more attachments covering their avatar than system layers...these settings would remove them from rezzing in for you.

Ever.

This is going to make crowd photography problematic, I think...

swift and sudden, fall from grace

So we have a single-picture release of Katniss' Fire Dress from the Hunger Games, and...well, I'm hoping I'll be more impressed later. Also, I'm a little gobsmacked by their choice of actor to play Cinna--to be truthful, I was thinking someone closer to Austin Scarlett than Lenny Kravitz.

Originally seen on New World Notes came another mention of the SL vampires phenomenon--but this time, from a slightly different direction. And it's one I agree with, quite honestly.

This is the current best-of attempt to lure in the vampiric masses to SL:

(from the Blogger Pictures album)

So, this vampire. I'd love to know both who took this picture, and who's the model. Because I can tell several things wrong right off the bat:

• Where is she, in Little Silent Hill? This is not a Ridley Scott movie. Clear out the snow effects.
• It would also be nice to have someone with a little knowledge of attachments, and adjusting same, to have worked with this avatar before the shot was taken? Because right now they look like fang-shaped lower-lip piercings, not--you know--fangs.
• It would also be nice if they'd have used a vampiric eye that didn't look jaundiced over supernatural.
• And while we're at it, they couldn't have done a little PhotoShop work, trimmed out that jutting ribcage on her torso? Not exactly aesthetically pleasing.

Then (as they mention in the article) Alicia Cachenaux decided to pull up what she thought was the same outfit (called the Vampire Xyla avatar in the Library, apparently). This was her take, which she says was only lightly PhotoShopped, and took her about twenty minutes all told:

(from the Blogger Pictures album; Some rights reserved, Copyright, Alicia Cachenaux; used without permission but not altered in any way save machine resizing (original as downloaded is the same as seen on her site.)

Now, things I noticed about this one:

• You can emphasize "winter" and "chill" without having floating snow particles. Gosh! Imagination! What an astounding thing!
• Also, she's got to run shadows on her machine. Which I will admit, makes this picture look phenomenal without a lot of editing. (But truthfully, most folks can't run inherent shadowing on their systems.)
• She knows how to adjust prim fangs. You'd think Lindens who worked for the Labs would know that, too.
• It's a lovely pose, it's a lovely background, the extraordinarily jaundiced eyedrops-of-Midori look seems toned down, and even the hair looks good. Amazing.

See what a little effort can do? And I do mean little; that was a twenty-minute shot, start to finish. That's about the time it takes to watch an episode of the Daily Show without commercials, people.

Lindens, you could have put up this picture to advertise for vamps. Why didn't you?

I would like to bring up one more thing from the Iris Ophelia article also linked. It seems staggeringly apparent to me, after six years on the grid, that what the Lindens expect and what they get are two radically different things, but this complaint is more specific than that.

What Linden Lab seems to want is pretty clear: they want people to pay them money. They want people to keep paying them money. They want people to play their games, and keep playing their games, because let's face it, it's not easy to live on the grid and not spend money.

I'm not saying these are bad goals. And more power to them when (though usually if) they happen. But here's where the problem is: the tools they're employing to get these paying customers are woefully inadequate to get those paying customers.

Why? Well, first, they seem to use vintage 2006/2007 avatars for almost all promotional materials, unless they're specifically advertising new products, like the vampire avatar. Why do they do this? Moreover--and this one has baffled me every time I see a Linden--nearly every Linden on the grid is also in a 2006/2007 avatar--if not in a significantly older avatar. I'm sure there's a value to nostalgia, but seriously, when the big redesign for Philip Linden takes him from looking like a Naruto clone in spiky hair and an impossible codpiece to...well, someone who walked out of the Castro district after a particularly vigorous night...I mean, okay, the skin's better (and a custom design); the hair's better (sort of); but the outfit? It's an essentially (and only slightly) better-textured version of his original outfit. Come on, now.

And if that's the thinking of the CEO (at the time), that's the corporate culture. And if the corporate culture is saying things like Never update and don't use an AO and don't use prim hair and stay to system layers...that filters both down to the support staff, and down to the customer base.

Frankly, if you emphasize that money's not needed, you get people for whom money doesn't matter, and from there you get people who don't want to pay to play the game. That's a pretty callous statement, I know, but it's not wrong.

More than that, the tutorial walk-throughs on Orientation Island used to emphasize these things. This is how you walk with an AO; these are clothing layers; these are eyes; this is how to walk, this is how to turn, this is how to interact with an object, this is how to open a box.

Once that was thrown out, the only instruction left is the userbase, and most of them are still telling the random conglomeration of friends and strangers that arrive on the grid several specific, and fairly Linden-unfriendly, things:

• Get an AO. NOW.
• This is prim hair. Never wear system hair again. EVER.
• DO NOT USE SECOND LIFE'S VIEWER. Use Firestorm.
• You don't need to rent land. Just pop a house up at a sandbox. No big deal.
• Wear fur.
• Wear fangs.

Is this really what the Lindens want to pass on to their userbase? Because from here, we have to look at the advertising. What's the advertising for SL telling us?

• If you're not human, you don't count.
• If you're a vampire, you count, but really, we think of you as human.
• Water sims are really, really important for all those fun outdoor activities we know you'll love.
• It's possible to change clothes by activating a swirly particle effect.
• It's possible to hold hands with an avatar anywhere you want.
• It's possible to kiss an avatar anywhere you want.
• Ideally, even more than being human, we at Linden Lab really want you to be white. Even though other skin colors are just fine. But you'll have more fun if you're white.

But break down the bulk of the newcomers to Second Life recently. What are they, in majority groups, identifying as? They're almost always from this list:

• Furs
• Vampires
• Vampire furs
• Nekos
• Victorians

Think I'm kidding? Look at the folks around any welcome center. Or even better, look at who's renting land or even buying whole estates after they join the grid? Who are those people? Chances are, they wear fur, or they wear fangs, or both. (And nine times out of ten, within a week, even the "human" appearing girls will be wearing cat ears, anyway.)

So, if you're taking into account the Lindens' stated goals with their advertising, they aren't really working. Even worse, if you're taking into account the userbase's generic and mobile goals, they aren't really working, because in spite of all instruction there are still people wandering around wearing houses on their right hand and complaining that SL's too hard. (And some of these people are using the official SL viewer--I truly think a time must come when the Lindens sit back and say, okay, some people, they're just dumb, and stop trying to drag every single procedure down to kindergarten-speak.)

Ultimately, it leaves us in a very uncomfortable place. Namely, telling our friends to log into SL and join in the game, while ignoring every single image they see on the SL website. And it leaves the Lindens trying to speak to a userbase that really, truly, for all intents and purposes--doesn't exist.

Who's going to pay the bills at that point? That's the question the Lindens really need to be asking.

I've got skeletons in my closet, they're rattling tonight

"Well I wasn’t about to draw a nonopus. That's just unnatural."

Well said.

So mesh is back to being on its way to Second Life, and there are already videos that make it sound like anyone can do this, as easy as rezzing out a prim. Which is far from the case, and as Axi pointed out in the original linked article, that's the main problem. Will we see more creators, more designers leaving Second Life once mesh arrives on the scene? I'd have to say probably. But, aside from that bit of pessimism, I am really curious about what the mesh designers are going to bring to grid.

In better news, Ruina Kessel has revamped more of her older horn sets, and she's doing Moody Monday with them again. Go to her store before Monday is over, and score one of five specially-tinted packs for L$55 each. A deal at twice the price (considering the full color packs themselves are only L$150).

And finally a video with nearly everything--furries, current memes and old school arcade gaming. You're welcome?

last time we talked, the night that I walked, burns like an iron in the back of my mind

OnMark Productions has a page on Buddhist symbols. One of them ties in with the mythological Qilin (Ch'i-lin in China, called Kirin in Japan):

A mythical horned Chinese deer-like creature said to appear only when a sage has appeared. It is a good omen associated with serenity and prosperity. Often depicted with what looks like fire all over its body. In most drawings, its head looks like that of a Chinese dragon (see dragon above). Japanese art typically depicts the Kirin as more deer-like than its Chinese counterpart. Kirin is sometimes translated in English as "unicorn," because it looks similar to the unicorn--the later a hoofed mythological horse-like beast with a single horn on its head. Some accounts describe it as having the body of a deer and the head of a lion.

Why am I mentioning this?

(from the Avatars album)

Because I, like many Westerners, had aligned the Qilin with a sort of Easternized unicorn, and that's far from the case. Some had one horn; some had up to four; some didn't have horns at all. There have been descriptions of Qilin in records from the official to the fictional that describe them as having the attributes of dragons, of deer, of tigers or lions, even of giraffe. There are even those who think qilin had a chimerical humanoid form. And most of the statuary seen to this day more closely resembles dogs than anything else. (Hells, some of the statues, I'm honestly not sure what animal it's supposed to represent!)

(from the Avatars album)

I came very late to the party over at Mithica--a friend of mine had told me about it around 5:30 pm, and I didn't end up going over until 5:38. Miss Piper Shan was standing in the middle of the sim, and it seemed to be--find your egg; wear your egg; go back to her and tell her what you want.

So I thought of everything I knew about hunts in general, and--more guided by whimsy than anything else--wandered towards the shore, because shorelines can have good prims to hide things under.

Turns out there was a small pier at the waterline, and there were two eggs on the end of the pier! As it was a touch one per person sort of hunt, I touched one, and the egg disappeared, giving me a wearable egg in my inventory. Delighted, I ran back to the center of the sim, clutching the large Easter egg to me, and proclaimed that I'd found one!

At which point, Miss Shan asked me what I wanted.

Of anything.

On the sim.

My jaw dropped. I ran back to Rez Fantazy Avatars, staring avidly at the vendors. And one caught my eye, the Female Kirin in Black.

(from the Avatars album)

The first thing is, it's not actually black. Black is in there, but what it really is is black, brown, and purple, with swirls and flame-lick spirals in cream and slate blue. Amazing look to them.

(from the Avatars album)

They come with the hair, horns (changeable by menu), ears, digitigrade legs and hoofpads (that's the only way I can describe them--they're shaped like hooves, but they're not, quite), scripted tail, blinking eyes (also changeable by menu), skin and shape, and a HUD that allows further customization possibilities.

(from the Avatars album; this is the PG skin option [essentially, this option removes the nipples, that's about the only difference] to show the chest shading)

They're definitely horse ears, but the legs and feet aren't, quite. The tail's bound like a horse's, but then ends like several other species. The head is very vulpine, but it's definitely a lion's nose on the end of the muzzle. The eyes are tilted and catlike, but the mane of hair could fit five different animals I can think of. Retail? L$850. And, having walked around in this since I got it, I think worth every Linden of that price.

I joined the group. They also design "Lupans" (wolf-like creations) and "Caprans" (modified goats), as well as a selection of big cats and at least one reindeer. And they seem to have sales around every two months or so. This could be very good.

(from the Avatars album)

The basic thing I'm doing my best to communicate here is that these are seriously impressive avatars, done by people who are really looking towards things that Second Life does not already have in spades. We should be encouraging this.

(Pictures were again taken in Oubliette; and the outfit was Bare Rose's Devilkin, it does not come with the avatar.)

Two things to wrap this entry up: first, the Thrifty Goths group (which I abandoned some while back, as being far too restrictive on what was considered 'gothic', and far too full of insane drama and daily controversy, very little of it gothic in the least) has tossed up an open poll. To wit, should neko parts, skins and outfits be considered gothic?

So far? The "yes let nekos in" crowd is ahead by over half. I'm amused.

The last thing is unfortunate, but must be shared--if you are ever in a position to try to rinse sharp, intense mint-flavored jellybeans from previous o'er-sugary bubblegum flavors, do NOT reach for mango-orange juice, because then your tongue will be very unhappy with you and rebel.

It is not a good thing. I'm just trying to stave off anyone who may be contemplating this situation by providing my own bad example. You're welcome.