The new Blog Header, with appreciation to Gogo and Mr. Whybrow

Ever since cute blonde Gogo changed her blog header I had been thinking that I needed to do one rather than just have plain text.  I had been meaning to do it, just never got around to it.  I am, after all, quite a lazy blogger.

But I was taking some pictures today, at my new home, some cheesecake ones to tell the truth.  I decided to try to get a formal style portrait for the downstairs.  I did get some pictures I thought were fairly well done, specifically this one:

I liked it so much, because it "exemplifies Ms. CC" , so I quickly cropped it down to make a new profile picture.

However, my friend Mr. Whybrow of Caledon said it was dark and could use some lightening up.  I had taken it using a non-fixed region windlight because the lighting was good only a few minutes before....it had gotten darker, and this pic looked even darker in the profile.  He suggested I try again with prim lighting... but I don't do that, don't usually need to because I'm running around with a fixed time windlight....but not this time.

But I liked the picture so I normalized it up in the GIMP and used THAT.  Then I realized that might make a good blog header.  Played around with it until I realized it would work best with some text on it, so I added some BodoniXT in The GIMP.  That got my header.

So Kudos to Gogo and Mr. Whybrow...and my new EVGA GT640 Rev 2. (that's the recent Superclocked GDDR5 version not the 2012 version) video card, which let me actually MOVE (with a low 15fps) with ambient occlusion, full shadows and depth of field on.  And not crash a few minutes after turning them off again.  In fact I've turned them on and off 3 times.

Interesting post by Kanomi Pikajuna

Kanomi is the nice girl who is friend to all and she offers a VERY interesting solution (saw it via New World Notes) to SL's woes....sell it to the Users al la the Green Bay Packers.

Do I agree? I don't know, but it is interesting. Personally I think the real problem is the freebie culture....but that...is another story and another post some other time.

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.

Blog Death

Yes, I'm sad about Linden Lifestyles, but I'm also sad about Mean Girls Guide to SL and Shopping Cart Disco. Heck I still miss PXP and Style Disorder.

But SL fashion blogs do die, not that we want it to happen. I know that there's some who wish the lackeys would just take over Linden Lifestyles and keep on going, but Linden Lifestyles would not be the same without Sabrina and Salome. It's their baby, they created it, they put their whoring hearts into it and I am happy that I was a small part of it.

As for the Mean Girls, I love em. I aint got the attitude to be a Mean Girl, but I did admire them and what they did.

As for what I'll do post LL, not that I did much during my tenure, I'll blog here as I have always done on occasion. And post pictures to my flickr page I'll probably do infrequent posts for the Metro Models blog

As for preventing blog death, I think the solution is people, lots of people, as many as you can get. Give em beat assignments if you want "you get the fashion shows, you get skins, yadda yadda yadda" but also say: "if you see a hole, plug it, fill in the gaps." I guess that's what Second Style is doing these days with syndicating content, it's essentially getting lots of people working for Second Style.