My Third Rezday!

It was the 19th, RFL day so that's why I didn't do anything special like throw a party or something. I'll do something eventually, I think. Just have to organize it.

Happy Rezday to ME!

SL sure has changed since my early days, and it always surprises me when newbies say I've been in SL a long time. Not that many non-designer fashion bloggers left from 2006 either. It's been a lot of fun over these years, thanks in no small part to my SL friends.

RL influences on my Avatar

There has been a bit of a meme for SL bloggers to discuss their RL influences on their avatar. My turn now.

My biggest influence is probably the iconic Audrey Hepburn especially in her incarnation as Holly Golightly in the famed "Breakfast at Tiffany's", which should come as no surprise to my readers:








And perhaps just a touch of redhead Ann Margret from her ingenue days:





And also a bit of red headed Rita Hayworth, especially when I'm doing a Hollywood style gown.




And modern burlesque pin-up, Miss Dita Von Teese. That might surprise some, but you haven't seen all my SL lingerie. :-) The lady also really knows how to work her makeup. That dress even looks like it could be from ICING in SL.




Not long after visiting Caledon, and hanging around there I realized I had subconsciously made my avatar look like Kate Winslet as Rose in Titanic. Look, another redhead!




I was once described by SL fashionista Celebrity Trollop as the Bree Hodge (of Desperate Housewives as portrayed by Marcia Cross) of SL. Little did she know as she said it that Bree is easily my favourite character on that show, in part because of her look. Very very prim, very very tasteful, very very classic and elegant, but still very very sexy, and very much a redhead.







Although her appearances on Project Runway took place after I had joined SL, there's quite a bit of the third season's Laura Bennett in my avatar. Which goes to reason since Laura is still my favourite Project Runway designer, and is the one whos designs I just loved loved loved. Very very classic, elegant and sophisticated and redheaded.








Laura has a comic book style column on iVillage called Case Clothed, where she has been avatarized by fellow Project Runway alumni and Barbie clothing designer, Robert Best. Avatar Laura and avatar CC could be sisters!









Since I've added some poundage to my shape, it seems there's a bit of plus-size model Kate Dillon too, but that's to be expected since she was one of my fashion role models during the days when the late lamented plus-size fashion magazine MODE was still around.

CC and Zen, dancing on the beach.

Zen, or more formally, Sir Zenmondo Wormser of Caledon have been friends for quite some time. It might have been late 2006 but more likely sometime in 2007. I am fond of him, we are of similar mindsets about things, and both "nerds" of a sort, though he is much more skilled in what he calls Code Poetry than I am. And yes, writing computer code, even LSL is an art, so Code Poetry is an apt name. Zen is one of the few gentleman (or ladies) who I'd ask to escort me to a formal ball in Caledon if I needed such an escort if he was available. There are a few others, but most of them are either taken (Hi Alistair Whybrow), or would most likely be escorting a peer (Hi JJ Drinkwater) or busy. I won't even go into how most of the eligible bachelorettes in Caledon don't stay eligible for very long.

Anyway, I like Zen, and for some reason, he likes me. I warned him I'm a not entirely tame or sane fashionista, but that doesn't seem to bother him. I have promised him a dance or two in the past if my memory serves me well, but I think I reneged, but I did manage to get one in after the RFL ended. I was dead tired, but I promised him and this time I wasn't going to default.

Here's a picture with my default SL settings including the CalWL windlight lighting setting:



Here, I have turned on some features and whatnot:



And here it is up to max, windlight clouds, pretty water, and everything:



Looks amazing, but took my framerate way down. That setting would only really be useful for static shots.

A very enjoyable dance, and then he took me underwater to show me his artificial life based fish. They are quite an amazing feat. While I know of AL projects over an entire sim I don't know of any small enough to keep in ones manor or somesuch.

Caledonians might see Zen and I together at events, since he is good company, and it would be nice to have a regular dancing partner whose company I enjoy. He's invited me to visit a Disney inspired sim, that he's aware of, that I hadn't heard about.

Don't look at me like that. Heaven knows what's come over me, but the real truth is, I am fond of Zen. I had a habit of calling him Sir Zen, even before he was knighted.

RFL experience, not so good.

I posted this in a comment on New World Notes in response to a question on how the RFL could try to raise US $500000 next year.


Having a big event over a long period of time is a standard tactic for SL, but that goes against the "a RFL event is 24 hours" tradition that comes from RL. Well they'll have to get over that, because SL is not RL.

Which leads me to the fact that in RL you can have people along side the track cheering on survivors and caregivers and walkers, but that doesn't work very well in SL. Those Avilion folks in Tree of Life meant well, but they were making things worse! Somebody should have ejected most of them.

Having the track double back or overpass itself through sims was a bad bad bad idea because it increased the number of avatars in a region. That's what killed Overcome, because you had a bunch of spectators at the track that passed through the Northern edge of Overcome. Besides those walking through the southern part. I never did complete the Survivor-Caregiver lap because Overcome took down SL three times. Support, Remember and Stride were also bad. it took me 10 hours to do 4.46 laps!

They should have kept the camp and build sims away from the track. I remember in 2006 how you had to walk quite a bit to get to camps to visit RFL vendors, while this year you could spot vendors right from the track. Bad idea, which also made it harder for those who didn't want to walk but just wanted to get some of those RFL specific releases.

In past relays the relay regions stayed up for days or weeks after so that people could go in and explore all the neat builds and shop at the vendors and donate yet more L$ to the kiosks. This year, no dice. They're taking them down today!

If you go here: http://slrfl.maintree.com/

You can compare the # of avatars participating and the laps/distance traveled. 2008 was king, participation wise. The track was shorter, meaning that it's easier to do for those who don't want to spend over 2 hours trudging their way through, and it was better designed. I bet the 2009 might have had better participation without the major lag. I'm talking worse than an old Dazzle LE event. I figure some people popped in, found out they couldn't move well or see, and popped right back out. It was so bad in some places that you couldn't TP out, you had to quit SL and then come in at your home point.

If you take a look at the top 15 walkers you'll notice that 7 of them are from Team Caledon, and even they/us were crashing. I know a few of us got stuck in regions that were were moving as slow as treacle in while they were rebooting. It's only people who were that dedicated to the cause who were willing to put up with the overall experience.

The RFL sent Survivors and Caregivers a survey link.


I came back to the RFL to start my laps at 2am my time on SLunday. Being less busy, it was at least tolerable then but got worse later on in my stint as others started showing back up. I also figured that if His Grace Viderian Vollmar of Cymru in Caledon could do it, I could too.

The camaraderie was great though in the Team Caledon chat and in the ISC chat too. I even got a picture of Guvnah Shang at the end of the Relay. The man doesn't stay still often enough for me
to get one!

I NEED more group slots.

I keep harping on this, but I really do. 25 isn't enough, 50 would help, 100 would be better, 500 would be great.

I know there's a JIRA for it, but I NEED them. I'd be willing to do "almost" anything for more group slots.

ICING Puma Jie.

I've been wearing ICING's Puma Jie a lot lately, in the fat pack version. The original version came with the red blouse, but later Miko Omegamu released a pack of blouses to mix with the original outfit.

I know it's an older outfit, but I still love the retro classicness of a nice blouse and high waisted pencil skirt. I could probably buy something similar in RL pretty easily. I know I've seen puff sleeved blouses around lately.

I'm wearing the white blouse in these pictures but I like all of them, Peacock, Purple, and Pink too.







And here's a closeup that shows the prim sleeve and the necklace part of the ICING Princess pearls set. I really really love these puffy sleeves, and other people have admired them too. The Princess Pearls set includes, a necklace, earrings and the bracelet. It's also available in black pearls too.



Fleur Allure Kitten skin, ETD Roslin hair, glasses from First Impressions, Shiny Things Classic Stacks pumps.

SLURL to ICING

ICING on XstreetSL

A familiar looking guy.

Amazon hosted a virtual job fair a few days ago in SL, and I was there. Not because I'm qualified for any of the jobs, but for another reason. This guy looks familiar, doesn't he:



His name is just on the tip of my tongue....



Got him! Yes, that's Philip Linden, founder of Linden Labs, creator of the vision that is SL. It was mentioned in the ISC group chat that he was at the Amazon job fair and I wasn't going to miss an opportunity to see his avatar and get a picture even if he has no reason whatsoever to say a word to me. After all, I'm not FIC . Mwah ha ha ha ha.

By the way, I don't entirely agree with Prokofy Neva's concept of FIC (Feted Inner Core), I consider it a bit limited, especially these days. I Prefer Gwyneth Llewelyn's concept of the 100000. But Mr. Neva did post the newest version of his FIC list on his blog

Personally I think Mr. Neva underestimates the influence of the SL press, IMHO Hamlet Au is probably one of the most powerful and influential Avatars in SL. He may not be a land baron, he may not be a famous scripter or builder, but a heck of a lot of powerful and influential avatars in SL do.

I also don't care very much how Mr. Neva uses the perjorative term "mangina" but that's a personal thing. I also pronounce FIC like "Bic", or "pick" because "Inner" has a short "I" sound not the long "I" sound of Bike.

Second Life Relay for Life 2009 starts tomorrow.

The SL RFL (anti-cancer charity event) is one of the first big events I heard about in SL, though I only heard about the 2006 one after it was over since it took place the weekend after I first rezzed in. Back then I didn't know much about the blogs and whatnot so I didn't hear about it.

But each one since I've participated in, though not formally as a team member of Team Caledon till this year.

Why do I take part? Because my Dad, is a cancer survivor (and me and my sister were caregivers for a bit when he came back home from his surgery and we still take him to appointments and whatnot because he stopped driving himself), and cancer took two of my late Mother's sisters. We as a family also take part in the local RL RFL, and have done so for years. It's something I feel good about participating in, in both RL and SL.

The event begins tomorrow at 12pm SLT, with the Survivor and Caregiver lap starting at 1pm SLT. More info at the SL RFL website

Here is the SlURL to the event

And finally a couple of pictures of my luminarias:





I'll be at the relay probably from about 11am till 3:30pm or so SLT on Saturday. Then perhaps. about 7 till noon on Sunday.

Even if you decide not to attend, please consider dropping a few L$ into one of the many donation kiosks set up around the grid. Every little bit adds up.

Anna Darwinian's Steampunk Adventures

Anna Darwinian's Steampunk Adventures is an interesting emporium featuring choice Steampunky merchandise from assorted Steampunky content makers. There is clothing, accessories, jewellery, gadgets, furnishings (check out the victorian furniture set that you can see to the left far rear) and this clock by Uni Ninetails, that I NEED even though I really don't have a place to show it off.



The build is attractive as well, quite worth visiting on those merits alone.

Slurl to Steampunk Adventures

Miriel Enfield is shutting down her store

In the next few weeks she says. It makes me sad, Miriel was among the first jewellery stores I visited in SL, along with Lassitude & Ennui and I found the kind of jewellery I wanted to wear and liked there. Pretty!

And then she did eyes, which are my favorite eyes in SL, and are among the "fashionista favourite eyes" in SL. She did hair, prim lashes, and clothing too. And the trees she worked so hard on. Her vendor scripts were so good I wanted to have their prim babies. You see with Miriel, you could choose your metal and favourite gem color using the scripted vendor in either copy or transfer. Anyway I've decided to showcase some of Miriel's stuff.



That's the Flora gown and Eleanora hair in Chocolate.



Here you can see her Glamour prim lashes, the Beatrice jewellery set and my favorite eyes in SL, Miriel's Vivid Natural's in Strong Green. You see me on the grid, I'll be wearing those eyes 99% of the time, and if I'm not wearing those, they'll be one of Miriel's other pairs. I prefer the smaller irises, you see. Miriel often wore Tete a Pied/Fleur skins and I'm wearing a Fleur Allure Kitten 3 skin in Truffle.

A few other things of note, one of the reasons I loved Miriel was because of her ads, the models were just simply pretty and some of them looked like me, which made me double-take once with a ETD Maaliyah wearing redhead. Since they were so classic looking it was easy to tell what I wanted and what would look good on me.

And finally, I never did get around to begging Miriel for her "sim-killer" jewellery set. :-)

Miriel is also nice. I'd have her prim babies in an instant and I will miss her stuffage in SL. Though I'm hoping she decides to hand off her inventory to someone else to sell for her, it would be a shame for all of the beautiful things she has made to be unavailable in SL.

Namarie, Tar-Miriel. Rim hennaid Findesselya vanya Ná Elbereth veria le, ná elenath dín síla erin rád o chuil lín.

Shape comparison, a Gracie-ified CC post.

Recently designer Grace Winnfield did a kind of a model search and posted her requirements for the model's shapes:


4. You must be willing and able to mod your body shape (not face) to within the params outlined below. The note here is a guideline of ranges into which you should fall to give the right feel to my clothing in the photos. The clothing is designed to fit any av size, however to look the most true to my original design i prefer this range of sizes.

SIZE PREFERENCES FOR GRACIE MODEL:

Go into edit appearance and click body
follow the measures down.. I will highlight and give a range for the important ones:

Height: At least 75 but preferrable is 80-85 or so.

Body thickness: less than 7
Body fat 0 preferred but no more than 7
Torso Muscles should be less than 40
Shoulders should be proportionate but usually less than 50.
Breast size: LESS THAN 40 PLEASE (mine are around 33)
Arms length… you are taller so your arms should be longer… probably between 60 and 69 and finger tips reach just around or above your mid thigh. Mine are at 67
torso length… we dont need long torsos so less than 55 but not too short so shorter than 44
Love handles…. between 15 and 20
not too muscular please … less than 47 but we need some tone so more than 40
leg length.. LONG!! somewhere between 80 and 95 is usually good… mine are 89.
HIP WIDTH: NO more than 48!!!!!!!!!!! ( remember i use a lot of system skirts)
Hip length shouldnt be very long.. keep it less than 37 please.
Butt size less than 30 (ALOT OF SYSTEM SKIRTS SO SMALL IS GOOD)
Saddle bags less than 25
foot size 0 so that all shoes will work.


Since lots of other fashionistas were doing it, I did it too, making collages comparing the shapes I've used since I started looking like how I wanted (since about late July of 2006)

Here's a front view of four CC's:



From left to right, theres Plus Size CC, Catalog Model CC, Supermodel CC and Grace-ified CC. I based the Gracie version of me on my Supermodel shape, which in itself is a modded freebie and I knew would be closest to what she wanted. Supermodel CC was my default shape from late July of 2006 till sometime in late 2007. Then I began using Catalog Model CC. I made Catalog Model CC after hanging out with Boss Sabrina and Tanya book, who had more realistic shapes than I did. She's a mod of the Supermodel shape that's about 8 inches shorter, with a touch more muscle and a bit more body fat. As I say sometimes Catalog CC is the woman who does her yoga and pilates every day so she can still fit into a size 6, but she wouldn't turn down a muffin now and then.

I've discussed the origins of Plus Size CC before, though I do admit she's pretty small for a plus size avatar. If she had a bit more of a waistline and was a few inches taller she could do plus size modelling in RL.


Here's a side view of all the CC's:



You really can't tell how much taller Grace-ified CC and Supermodel CC are in the pictures but they are, considerably. Couldn't figure out how to get the camera to really show the differences.

Yes, Grace Winnfield is the designer and can choose any shape she wants to model for her, but frankly of all the CC's, Catalog Model CC is the most aesthetically pleasing to me, and if I was a designer, that's the one I'd have model for me.

That's a Fleur Allure Bare 1 skin in Truffle in the pics.

My Mother passed away.

She'd long had health issues, ever since I was young (over 30 years now), and I was her primary caregiver. She is best described as spunky or feisty, even as she got older and less well.

She knew about SL, and I had mentioned my avatar and shown her a few pictures but had no interest in it herself. She did think my avatar was pretty. I put a few pictures of her in a set on my flickr:

Pictures of my mother

She was something of a fashionista herself in her younger days and even until recently she still did what she could, she was very proud of her fingernails, which she did herself. I never did learn her secrets on that.

It's kind of hard, her dying just before my RL birthday (the 9th) and mother's day.

I miss her so.

Caledon long cool women in black dresses.

I was just playing around with the taksi video capture software one day. I then edited my video using avidemux on Linux on my PS3. Since taksi doesn't capture audio, I just added the song via ffmpeg to the final avi. Thats Her DJness Gabrielle Riel and me. And yes, that's the old Dazzle Paradoxe, and no, you can't have it.

L'Abel Lanikai from Neferia Abel of Ivalde

Neferia Able of Ivalde has created a new line of modern styled clothing to complement her wonderful retro-wear. She has named the line, L'Abel. I popped over to her store to take a quick look and found this dress that I HAD to have, Lanikai

It's a deceptively simple sheath with a square neckline, and I do so love a square neckline. There's a slight dip at the neckline for added interest. The sleeves are fluttery and sculpty, the remind me of little wings. The skirt is straight, as it should be. It's not plain, which would be a bit ordinary, but with a subtle pattern in the cloth texture. It's really quite pretty.



It really is quite flattering on my new plus size shape. I have already received several compliments on it.



Here's a closer look at that floral pattern and neckline. You can also see the solid unpatterned insets at just below the bustline and extending around to the back. In RL that would be VERY flattering.



It comes in a blue and burgundy as well, which I want. I also want the sweater dresses, and the cocktail dresses and....well it's Neferia stuff, and I want it all.

Consume, buy, from the Ivalde Main Store

I forgot to mention the other stuffage: Hair is Mia in Brown Sugar from Analog Dog, Shoes are the Party Pumps from Shiny things, and it's a Fleur Allure skin, Lounge 3.

Lady Darcy earns £10000 a year, thanks to Nicky Ree.

Mrs. Bennet from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice:

Good gracious! Lord bless me! only think! dear me! Mr. Darcy! Who would have thought it! And is it really true? Oh! my sweetest Lizzy! how rich and how great you will be! What pin-money, what jewels, what carriages you will have! Jane's is nothing to it -- nothing at all. I am so pleased -- so happy. Such a charming man! -- so handsome! so tall! -- Oh, my dear Lizzy! pray apologise for my having disliked him so much before. I hope he will overlook it. Dear, dear Lizzy. A house in town! Every thing that is charming! Three daughters married! Ten thousand a year! Oh, Lord! What will become of me. I shall go distracted.... My dearest child.... I can think of nothing else! Ten thousand a year, and very likely more! 'Tis as good as a Lord! And a special licence. You must and shall be married by a special licence. But my dearest love, tell me what dish Mr. Darcy is particularly fond of, that I may have it tomorrow.


I love Colin Firth, well not exactly love, but he's my favourite UK romantic actor. One of his quintessential roles was as Mr. Darcy in the A&E/BBC coproduction of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. In the film Bridget Jones Diary, he essentially repeated the characterization as Mark Darcy, since the character in the original book was written with his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in mind. And here is Mr. Firth as the proud Mr. Darcy himself in his most quintessential ensemble from the miniseries:



I saw this Lady Darcy ensemble in Nicky Ree and I just had to have it...Swoon!





I know I know, I should have taken a few pics glowering in a corner, that's what he does. But isn't it such a handsome ensemble. I love that style of jacket and wish they were still in style. And the ruffle collar shirt, and lovely waiscoat. I paired it with Riding boots from Adam n Eve, since they have a nice pretty heel but not too high. Hair is ETD Carolyn in the 2007 version of Mahogany and the skin is a Fleur Allure, Lounge 3.

It comes in multiple colors, but the other colors suck from my perspective because EVERYTHING comes in the color. Which means the jacket is red, the waistcoat is red, the trousers are red, the shirt is red and there's not enough contrast between the various pieces. That means this black and white version is the ONE to get. Now if the other versions came with contrasting shirts/trousers/etc, that would be most excellent. My suggestion is to buy the Black and white one and then if you want, get the other versions for the jackets and wear those jackets with the white shirt and trousers. There's also a men's version called Lord Darcy.

Apparently there's a Pemberley sim in SL so I should go there...and find a pond. Heh heh heh, pond scene.

Kanomi Pikajuna

Kanomi is important. Kanomi is special. Kanomi matters. She is the friend to all. Everybody likes her. Everybody likes the nice girl who is the friend to all. She is nice and important and special and important and she is the nice special important friend to all! Kanomi is important. Kanomi matters.

She's covering the SL gaming scene for Hamlet Au over at New World Notes, replacing Miss Vidal Tripsa. She's Caledonian too.

Second Chick feature

Some may not know that I'm open to doing an occasional feature/commentary/post for practically any blog that likes what I write. I had heard that the Second Chick blog was looking for writers. Second Chick is: "for and about the women of the Second Life® virtual world" Whether you’re a woman in your first life, in Second Life, both or neither doesn’t really matter. If you’re interested in the the things that appeal to women in the Second Life virtual world, then Second Chick may be just the thing for you. So I contacted the owner, Willow DejaVu and sent in a submission.

My little post is The Holes in My Heart

I hope my readers enjoy reading it, and the other posts on Second Chick.

Are you on the list?

ArminasX Saiman of the Second Effects blog, has compiled a list, using various geeky Technorati methods, of the Biggest Blogs about SL.

I'm on the list, at #155, which seems a bit too well ranked, but I think the list is close to the mark. The list is also a list of some of the "movers and shakers of SL", at least in the blogging community. Vint Falken is there, and Hamlet Au, Mr. Neva, Gwyneth LLewelyn, Zoe Connolly. Ana Lutetia, Celebrity, Iris Seale, Tenshi. Codie, Botgirl, Crap Mariner, Colonel Otoole, etc etc, Kota, Myg, Callie, Ordinal, Iris Ophelia, Cani, Anti, Zealot Benmergui. I could probably address about half of the first hundred or so by their first names and they would respond with my nick name , "Hi CC" and I've met a heck of a lot of the rest on the grid. And yeah, friends list and groups. It's like an extended family, six degrees of separation and all.

Personally I really don't care how I'm ranked, though I'm always amazed people read my deranged rantings and stuff. I'm not entirely a tame fashionista you know.

Salome Says

Salome Strangelove, one of my former bosses at Linden Lifestyles has a new blog where she posta about all sorts of things. (who knew she had played AD&D first edition, she never told me!) Including SL fashion. Yes, that's right, the Patootie Haired one is writing about SL fashion again. Squee! I'm getting my fix back.

Plus (real) size CC

I'm friends with the lovely bear eared fashionista and Fleur CSA Rosie Barthelmess, and every time I'm near her, I kind of feel shame for having an unrealistically slender avatar. Sure my avatar is not as super skinny and amazon tall as some, and not as much as I was, but still, I always have admired Rosie. So while hanging with her today at Fleur, I decided to do a "Real size" CC, with her help and this was the result. I used my standard shape and modded it to something more like my RL shape, but still pretty and pleasing.



Layniewear Audrey Dress, Fleur Truffle Biba 1 skin, Shiny Things classic pumps, Stockings from Adam n Eve, Analog Dog Mia hair in Brown Sugar, and Oval glasses from First Impressions

Yes, I know, my hair doesn't look like this. I wish it did.



And a shot in lingerie from the Adam N Eve Carrie gown



And as a comparison, RL femme mode me, not so young and pretty as even Real Size CC, but similar in style. I'm even wearing faux lashes and I tried to wing my eyeliner, like how avatar me sometimes wears prim lashes and wears Fleur skins with winged eyeliner.



L'Oreal Infallible foundation
L'Oreal Wear Infinite eyeshadow quad in Subtle Sable
L'Oreal Lineur Intense felt tip liner in Carbon black
Andrea Modlash #33 lashes applied using the "put the glue on the lid instead of the lashes" trick
MAC Angel blush
MAC Viva Glam IV lipstick

I haven't decided if Real Size CC will become the Standard Avatar Me or not. I know the shape will make prim skirts more difficult, but I think it's a good thing I made the shape.

Space Pirates of the Caledonian, Team Caledon's Second Life Relay for Life kick off.

Most readers have probably heard of the Second Life Relay for Life, a large grid wide event to raise money for the American Cancer Society, that parallels the events held in RL. The fundraising kicked off on Saturday, and the gridwide total is already close to 3 million L$. Team Caledon's kick off event was last Sunday and according to something of a tradition, was a pirate themed event. This year, it was steampunky space pirates. I didn't get any pictures, but I did get some video snippets via the free version of the fraps video capture software. Sorry about the interface elements, I wasn't really prepared to do it.

My video page on Youtube

Embedded here for your perusal:









The last video "stars" Her Grace, Her DJness, Prim Minister, "Cousin" Gabrielle Riel

When I joined SL back in 2006 I arrived just before the final Relay event, the one on the BIG 34 sim relay track. I didn't hear about it till after, so didn't take part in many things, but I swore I would take part as much as I could in 2007. You see, my father is a prostate cancer survivor and I have lost two aunts to cancer. But I missed taking part in the Pirate event immortalized by Oolon Sputnik in this video.



So, if you see a Relay kiosk, put a few L$ in every now and then. It adds up...quickly, and every little bit, even 1L$ helps.

The beautiful Rooby Begonia

There are Second Life fashion websites out there who chronicle the fashion challenged in a humorous way. Today I decided to do something similar, but to show someone who, in my personal opinion, had a stylish and interesting look, with a couple of images from my SL folder.

One day, last December I was pointed to a store by a friend, and as I was looking around, I saw an avatar, a rather beautiful one. Now there are those that say everyone's avatar can be beautiful in SL, but I don't think that's exactly true, above average in attractiveness perhaps, but truly beautiful, no. I see lots of attractive avatars, and interesting avatars, but ones that that I consider beautiful are a bit more rare.

I saw her:



Redheads tend to get my attention, and the way she was dressed, and the way she moved and her hair, it all just added up to "Breathtaking."

Many things ran through my head:

• Who is she? Her name is Rooby Begonia. Rooby Begonia, what a great name.
  
• Where does she shop?
  
• Is she an SL model, she has to be.
  
• If I had my own agency I'd hire her right now.
  
• Ooooh, her AO is awesome.
  
• I wonder if she will speak to me.
  
• I want to have her prim babies.
  
• She is carrying a PURSE!
  
• She looks like she just popped out of some fashion magazine
  
• I want her hair...ah, Analog Dog.
  
• Should I talk to her?
  
• She is truly beautiful, in a rather classic Ralph Lauren-ish way.
  
• She isn't answering, maybe she doesn't speak English....oh no. I want to tell her how beautiful she is. Whatever you do, don't go away!
  
• Oh! She was only AFK! She's talking to me. Yay!
  

Just look at her...sigh. Redheaded Fashion goddess. What? I didn't have an immediate crush, honest. Sure, she's a Stephanie Misfit class beauty, but I didn't check her profile to see if she was partnered...honest. Yeah, that's the ticket.



Rooby's skin is a Chai, the hair being Analog Dog Mia. I'm wearing ETD Maaliyah and a Fleur skin. Can't remember my outfit, but that's the denim skirt out of the Hazel outfit from Shine. Pinson boots from Enkythings. She makes me look like chopped liver.

And she's NOT a model! I know! She said someone told her that her nose is too big, and she said she wouldn't have the patience for it. What a loss to somebody's stable of models.

Farewell to Calla, my home.

My home, such as it was, was in the Calla sim. I had build rights in a 512 area above the golf course, provided gratis by my (currently former) Boss Sabrina Doolittle. You see, as a fashionista, I'm rarely there, and only needed a spot to put up the pose stand and background thingy plus other tchotchkes, like my pancakes. I could do what I wanted, as long as I kept it up in the sky.

Sabrina basically left SL and over time began reducing her SL involvement, which included the sim, just recently. A few days ago I logged in to find Calla gone. At first I thought it was temporary, but after a couple of days I figured it was going to be gone for good. So I asked around on what to do since I had some items rezzed, including my pose stuff. Some said, that in the old days, when sims were deleted your stuffage got returned to you, but mine wasn't. So it was suggested I contact the Lindens and they'd probably temporarily bring back the sim so I could grab my stuff, which they did. I didn't even have to beg or anything, just telling them about my stuff left on the sim was enough.

So, I received notice of the temp return of the sim, and went back to get my stuff and take some last pictures.

This is the Picture Perfect Pro



What's the Picture Perfect Pro, you ask? The enhanced super deluxe version of Sabrina's Picture Perfect Studio (pose stand and background thingy). What's that you ask? You never saw it in Sabrina's store? Of course you didn't, it wasn't 100% finished when Sabrina took her hiatus, which eventually became permanent, from SL. She and I worked on it together, which is why I know about it...but I don't have a copy of the almost ready for release device. We were talking, which led to discussion of the picture perfect and other photo thingies and talk turned to doing an enhanced version with built in lighting, but still low prim and cheap. I think we were planning between 500 and 1000L$. Anyway, I did the lighting scripts, based on those for the Picture Perfect Studio Light Effects, but it's up to version 1.4 or was it 1.5. Anyway all 4 lamps are individually controlled by chat. The rings they're on spin around, top and bottom individually, but the standard placement was designed to reduce shadows in the pre-windlight client to zero. Took 4 lamps to do it, we tried 2 and it almost worked with 3, but we couldn't get the placement perfect, so we settled on 4.

The background thingy is a cylinder so it will fit inside residences, sphere's big enough for avatars with a big enough opening were a bit too big, also getting textures to look good inside of sphere's was a bit annoying, using a cylinder was easier. Sabrina did the script for that, she's much better at texture manipulating stuff. She also did the physical build of the thing, she's so much better with prims and textures than I am.

The pose stand itself contained one of our secret weapons, a simplified version of my pose stand rotation script. You see, I was once taking pictures of an outfit and wanted to take a picture of the back with a certain pose that faced me. So I rotated the stand in edit mode and I got to thinking, hey wouldn't it be cool to be able to turn this thing with a chat command, without having to go into edit mode and then cam back in. So I figured out how to do it, and built the script. Now I wanted to test it in my Picture Perfect but I figured that since the scripts were no-mod that I couldn't put my own script in it. so I searched through my inventory and found a full mod pose stand with pose changer buttons and an invis button. I altered it, improved it. rebuilt it...I had the technology....better...stronger...faster, and then I put my script in it. And it kicked ass. I handed it out to a few people, who liked it, but I wasn't going to sell it, because it just did what the picture perfect did, only better because I could rotate it along x, y or z axis with chat commands without camming out or changing cam position. So I told sabrina about the script and she told me that even if the PP scripts were no-mod I could still put other scripts in it, just like poses. So we did, and it worked great, but the controls were a bit complicated. Sabrina said she got so many help requests for her easy to use Picture Perfect stuff as it was so she asked if I could simplify the rotation script, Z-axis only and say a dozen set positions like a clock. I could and did, and that was the version of the pose stand going into the Picture Perfect Pro. My original PP pose stand got the fully geeky version of the script though.

So now that Calla is gone, no more chance for the PP pro to be released and if I am correct the original PP can't be bought anymore. I don't think it's sold anywhere else. And the Studio Light Effects I designed and built was also sold there so it can't be bought anymore either, though I'm willing to sell them directly out of inventory.

I could duplicate the function of the PP Pro pose stand with one of my own, easy enough, and in fact I have such a stand in inventory, which I may release now that the PP is unavailable. But I don't have a replacement for either of the background things, though I could do a version of the original PP's one, given time. The problem would be the textures, I can't do em. The Pro, there's no way I could build that. I could come close in basic shape, but it would be ugly, and I don't have Sabrina's texture changing script for the cylinder.

And how many prims on the PP Pro? I think we got it down to 16...total for everything, stand, cylinder, and lights, but I think there were plans to get it to 12 or was it 10. See those lamps were "bulbs"...inside of a faux reflector, using a single cylinder and faking with textures would have removed 4 prims. Either way we got it down to lower prim than practically anything else out there. It was great, even in unfinished form.

Here's the original Picture Perfect Studio, low prim, 250L$ One of the best purchases I ever made.



My light was sold next to it, Sabrina and I shared income on that. For a while, that thing sold like crazy.

Here's the exterior of the store where Sabrina sold the PP and other picture related stuff, albums, frames, etc.



Ahhh Linden Lifestyles HQ. Where the famed LL male and female freebie packs were available. I have them too and can drop them on newbies as I see them. Oh how I miss the Linden Lifestyles blog. Sabrina and Salome wrote so well.







Calla Country club, there were games inside, pool and a couple of others, and there were a few casino machines, but they went out when gambling in SL did. If memory serves me correctly Sabrina threw a few parties there. It had a small stage and dance floor, IIRC. It was a nice cozy venue for small parties. I have a golf cart given to me by Sabrina that has my name and Calla Country Club enscribed on it. The golf course, which no one ever used, that I know of, is nearby.



Chez Petite, Sabrina's low prim furniture store.



My skybox, in the skies of Calla. That's my bed, used only for a few pictures, a Caledon dance pole, and you can see a bit of my en garde piste



There's the rest of the piste, my Picture Perfect setup, my vanity table with the Tete a Pied makeup box on it, my magazine style homage to the Hussy and the Patootie head, and my pancakes.



Calla Marina, where Sabrina sold that great little housebout, that I always wanted, even if it's too small to put a picture perfect in. She'd customize it for you too. It really is a nice little place to live in.



The bridge, leading from the commercial side of calla to the residential. The golf course was on both sides of the river/inlet



Now I'm going to have to find another spot to "live" or at least put my "studio" setup in. I don't have the L$ to spend on both a 512 and shopping. I have a L$ budget (especially these days with medical expenses). I'd like to find a semi-regular writing gig with one of the "big blogs" to earn a little L$ besides writing Elsa Klensch style reading scripts for fashion shows. Will serve as lackey/minion/weapons testing target in exchange for a 512! Back to sandboxes for SL picture taking for me, give the geeks a thrill to see me skin testing sometimes.