Purple Moon Time Traveller at Fashion for Life.

If you're a lady of the Steamlands, when Fashion for Life opens on June 7th you need to run right on over to the Purple Moon stand and buy this Time Traveller ensemble.  Of course every other Steamlands lady will be buying it too, but that's okay, you want it anyway. It's going to be a lemming run for sure.

It's actually not a dress but a skirt, jacket/top, shoes (which I'm not wearing, issues with the alpha) and the hat.  The jacket has a bit of ruffle at it's bottom, from what I can see it's supposed to show a touch of skin as you move.  So far I've only seen it in this brown but I do believe other colors will be available.

Except for the shoe alpha issues (which is why I'm wearing the new mesh Tesla Ziggy's which are so perfect for it), it's well done mesh, and I'm loving the texturing and shading.   If it comes in black, I will be picking that up on my own for sure.

SLURLS:

Fashion for Life

PurpleMoon at Fashion for Life

PurpleMoon Creations Main Store

Moolala at Fashion for Life

Fashion for Life started up what I think of as the press-centric pre-event today.  The regions are open for the Blogger-press, and the designers continue to feverishly work on the regions, their vendors and adding more goodies.  It cannot be said enough, that this year EVERY sale contributes to the Relay because EVERY vendor is an RFL vendor.  So you don't have to make a choice between buying a cute dress from an RFL vendor and one that wasn't like one might in years past, it's ALL good this year.

One of the first blogger pack's I received was from a designer named

"мαηđу мσσ" (amandasue.hallison) with a

store named Moolala that I hadn't heard of before.  Being a former cow-dancer, the store name made me giggle (the mascot is a cow) so I took a look inside and found this Milla Scrunch dress.  At first I thought it wasn't "me" but I changed my hair and decided it was a cute little dress well worth showing off since this sort of thing can be a versatile little beachy party dress.  The fit is good, the texturing is good, and it is well worth demo-ing once FFL is open.

No, I will not be talking about the obviously gacha'd Truth Sakura hair and Ingenue Jolie shoes in this post, that is another long story.

There were other things, but I really want to show off this Rylee jumpsuit ...that strikes me as 70's barbecue party wear.  At first I wasn't fond of the ruffle rigging, they're static, but then I decided, that it didn't bother me as much as I thought it would.  That's because it's just a "happy" outfit.  Comes in black too, but I like this version because it's just so happy. The mesh fits well, like the Milla above.

SLURLS:

Fashion for Life event

Moolala at FFL

Moolala store

Fashion for Life 2014, June 7th-20th

I'm known for being a crankypants about many things, but there is one thing I'm crankypants about that totally deserves it.... Cancer.

I really have it in for cancer.  My father was a prostate cancer survivor, two of my aunts were killed by it, another aunt was found to have had it during an autopsy, an uncle died from it, a cousin is a survivor, a long time family friend that was an "honorary aunt" died from it, coworkers have had it, long-time acquaintances have had it....lets just say I'm not overly fond of it.  In RL, I've been an RFL supporter for years, my mother got us started on that.  She'd zip around that relay track in her wheelchair. 

I entered SL on July 19th 2006....an RFL day but I didn't know the RFL was in SL it till after it was over.  Once I found the RFL was here, I basically had a squee moment and did my best to support RFL efforts. I'm currently a member of Team Caledon, I'm not a builder or organizer, I just give moral support and try to help where I can because.. in SL..and in Caledon ...well there are people I am very very fond of, who are survivors and some we have lost to it.

Readers also know there is one thing I'm not crankypants about most of the time and that is Shopping in General, so imagine an event where I could combine two of my favorite things: Fighting Cancer and Shopping...well that would be an event made of Total Awesome.

Isn't it wonderful that such even exists in the Fashion For Life event?  Every year, fashion designers make stuff, put it in some RFL vendors in Fashion for Life regions (10 this year) and sell it to shoppers.   Shoppers get neat, and often RFL themed items, and their L$ gets donated to the cause in Very Large Amounts. Win Win for Everyone.

And every year they get some bloggers to do press for them.  They treat the bloggers like press too, it's easily one of the more blogger friendly events in SL.  For some reason, they let me in this year....oh wait, this was the first year I actually applied to do it.  (Never got around to it in previous years, mea culpa)

You might be thinking, "CC, you're not fond of location based events".  That's true, but this is a once a year thing for a cause, and it's one of the more pleasant "big" events in SL, rivaling Hair Fair in just simple shop-ability and fun.  I always have fun at FFL, last year a bunch of us Caledonians ran into each other there...we didn't know we were all there and we spent a pleasant time shopping and talking.

Fashion for Life, or FFL for short, runs from June 7th to June 20th. That means it starts this weekend.  You will go there, you will shop, and by doing so help fight cancer.  

But when it comes down to it, I'm not blogging about RFL in SL or FFL for the shopping, I'm doing it for all my SL friends who are survivors or whom we have lost to cancer, I Relay  in SL for You.

Lindens Helping Newbies? Yes!

There was a report of  Linden Sighting In-world...Lindens helping new people!  I just had to check it out.  I try to get pictures of Lindens whenever I hear of them doing things in-world...yes I'm one of THOSE people, a groupie.

Yep there they were. Kiera and Steeltoe, whom I had not seen before, answering questions, giving advice (alongside other volunteers)

I was told that they were sent out there as "First step" to see what they could do to make things better.  Yeah, Really!

Steeltoe there had a sort of Tron thing going on and Kiera was a sort of Lady Snowblood.

I was a naughty Caledonian and dropped some Caledon-centric newbie information on one new person, alongside LM's to NCI and the Shelter.

The CC List

I've added a new page to the header, The CC List.

The CC List is a list of "approved brands", but not meant to be an exhaustive list. This doesn't mean they are perfect,  in general it means that I like their items, consider them of acceptable quality and that their prices are fair.  I may sometime in the future, do a list or HUD of specific items that I believe are worth pointing out in specific categories or use cases.  An example of that would be something like:

Hair, Long, Wavy, Dressy: Emo-tions Pria, though Emo-tions isn't on the list...yet, they'd be considered a "runner-up"  (My Attic might be closed, so check Emo-tions main store)

Shoes, Slink medium feet, Dressy/evening, Ankle strap closed toe Pump, 100mm heel equivalent: Fri.day Diana

Dress, Mesh, Daytime, classic, sheath, sleeveless, jewel-neck,: Style Edit Sloane

Jewelry, Classic, Pearls, Single-strand, White: Yummy Michelle set

I want the CC List to be sort of "capsule wardrobe" oriented.  A list of simple, pretty, versatile and affordable items that will serve you well as go-to items in your inventory that will give you a good bang for the buck.  That doesn't mean it would be entirely modern items, since there's fantasy/steampunk/retro flavored items that have the same sort of "capsule" vibe to them as well.

This is an experiment, so it might not go anywhere, but it might prove useful even if only to me.

Event Fail, and a TOS Violation by Philip Rosedale...Really.

There was a "Future of the Metaverse" event today and I showed up to add a common sense practical perspective of one who doesn't fall all over for VR hype.

Now, I know how these sorts of things work so I showed up 2 hours early to make sure I could get in..and I stayed in.  Yes, I took pictures, it's what I do. I got a picture of Philip's non-Linden avatar.

More after the break

Strawberry Singh Friends List Meme

Yep, another Strawberry Singh meme, this one pertains to the Friends list:

1. What is the number of contacts on your Second Life Friends List? (visible in firestorm viewer or your web profile) :  304
2. Are you picky about who you add to your list or do you usually add most people?   With new folks I always accept out of sheer politeness and wanting them to have at least "someone" to IM if they have a problem.  I'm often shy about offering it, not because I'm snooty or anything, I just don't want to bother others.  There are people I probably should friend, but haven't yet.
3. Who is your oldest contact? (check your calling cards) Cleon Goff.  I think I met him at the SL event I attended upon first login.  (I joined SL to take part in a "GeekBrief" vodcast meetup in SL.) 
4. Who is your newest contact? (check your calling cards) Robie Shan
5. Do you know every single person on your list? No.
6. How many do you speak to on a daily (weekly) basis? Daily I would say about 2 to 3 and weekly maybe about 6 - 8.  Mostly because I don't want to bother others.  Now that doesn't count group chats, because there's plenty of  people in my friends list whom I see in various group chats very often.
7. How many do you see/get together with in-world on a daily (weekly) basis? Not many.  Maybe a half dozen or so weekly.  I could be underestimating, I see a LOT of people.
8. Who on your list do you have the closest relationship with?  Gabi, every steamlander knows who that is.  It's a part of our "Caledon Legendarium" that we're cousins.
9. Who do you wish you knew better?  Salome.
10. Who on your list is the funniest/most entertaining?  Easily, Salome. Who is made of pure awesome.  We have similar interests.
11. How did you meet most of the people on your list? (work, parties, etc…) I haven’t actually “met” MOST of the people on my list.   Group Chats, other fashionistas, random encounters shopping, socialization.
12. Do you ever clean out your list? No.
13. Do you have a crush on someone in your list? Yes.  There are a few, and one very special one.
14. Is there anyone on your list that you would trust with your password? Yes, if need be, there are a couple. 

And now for a couple of entries of my own:

1. Do you have any FIC in the friends list?  Yes.
2. Are there any friends that have left SL that you wish would return?  Yes. Sabrina Doolittle is one of them, of course.  As is Kit Meredith.   And Swirly Cyclone.  The CC misses the Swirly and her humor very very much. There are some others that haven't exactly left SL but don't log in often.
3. Has anyone in your friends list passed away in RL:   Yes.
4. Okay CC, how many in your friends list are designers?  Actually not many designers are in the friends list.  I've met many as acquaintances, but friended/been friended by relatively few.
5. Who were you tickled pink to have accepted your friendship?  Several people, including most of the fashionistas and Caledon notables in my list.

As for what I'm  wearing, basically only the hair is new and it's the Truth Lunara.

Location:  Cody & Billy's Stompin Ground

The Dateless Elf, with a curtsey to The Blogging Elf.

Tis' spring, when the thoughts of Fashionista moi sometimes turn to things Elven-y or sylvan-y, and Blogging Elf-y, but for me it still includes the color black.  I was thinking of doing an elf-y post, but wanted to do it in the style of the following question:

"What if the pretty redhead in the office next door was an elf?"

"There's this redheaded Elf woman, at work, she's very pretty, and she's Sapphic. You'd like her."

"Oh? What does she do?"

"She's the eye-candy receptionist, but Elves don't really have to work, they're all rich due to their long-term investments.  They're the epitome of The Beautiful Elite. She works for fun."

"She's probably stuck up and snooty and is probably already partnered with some unearthly beautiful glowy Elf supermodel, or something."

"Naah, she's sweet and non-snooty.   She complains about not having had a date since the McKinley administration back in 1898."

"What?  She's over a century old?  Why hasn't she had a date?"

"She says other elves think she's too obsessed with human fashion and likes shoes way too much.  She says she's much too quirky and not 'ethereal' enough.  Also she's not Elven aristocracy, most of those flit around in diaphanous gowns in their Treehouse Eld-mansions in gated communities."

"She sounds like she's out of my league."

"You should give her a call, I have her number."

"How did you get her number?"

"She gave it to me when she helped me with a move."

"Okay, Ill call."

She'd just got home from work, when she got the call.  Her date had got her number from that nice fellow from work she'd helped with a move to a new apartment.  A Date... after 100 years.  And the call was from one of those interesting human women, who were quite unlike those prissy jerks back home in the Eldemar Gardens Community.  Huzzah, as those lovable steampunkers would say.

 Now...what was she going to wear.  Her date had mentioned wanting to see her wings.  She didn't have the heart to tell her that elves didn't actually have wings, that some elves magicked them up and wore them as a fashion accessory.  It's not that she blamed her date, most humans didn't actually know that much about the differences between Elves and Fae.

She decided on a simple black cocktail dress...and went ahead and magicked up some wings.  After some thought, she put on a pair of sandals with wings.  If some butterfly-winged Fae flitting about, thought she was appropriating their fluttery adorableness, fie on them.  She'd wear what she wanted... after centuries of conservative hoity-toity Elven aristocracy saying that elven women needed to be all glowy, medieval-y and diadem-y....she'd had enough.  Glowy sparkly magickalness was all well and good, but everything in moderation.  Besides, human fashion was fun because it changed.

She decided to meet her date at one of her favorite women-centric social venues, called the [e bar].  She sat at the bar, nervously wringing her fingers.  It had been a long time since she'd done anything in the romantic vein.

PS3 Minecraft, 1.05

I play Minecraft more on the PS3 these days, the analog movement and crafting interface makes it a quicker to play.

Here is my compound on the PS3, pictures taken with my tablet, since the PS3 version of Minecraft can't do screenshots.  (The PS4 version will, video too.)

You're probably thinking:  "Hey that looks like a Caledon Flag!"  Yes, yes it does.  I put up the 4 block Caledon Flag in all my single player worlds.  And I, of course, Surrender to Callevia.  It's an in joke to some of use Caledon Minecrafters.

Since the PS3 uses the Cell processor, I call it "Cell-edon".

More after the break, because there are a LOT of pictures.

No Demo, No Purchase. More CC McCrankypants.

I have a rule.  If there's no demo for a wearable mesh item, I won't purchase.  It's that simple.  I consider demos an absolute requirement for any wearable mesh.

Today, a friend of mine visited a store called ArisAris and didn't see any demos.  I popped over thinking it was maybe a rez issue, or they were hidden in tiny prims on the vendors, but no.  There were NO Demos, NONE, Zero, Bupkis.  And before anyone asks, there aren't any demos on the ArisAris marketplace either.

This isn't some new designer either, this is 7 year old Ariadna Garrigus.  She should know better.  See that white tunic up there?  I kind of liked it and wanted to try it, but I'm not going to purchase it because Mesh is a crapshoot even within designers own lines....I need to know if it fits.  So I need a demo.  Heck, I don't even buy Truth Hair without demo-ing it first.

No Demo, No Purchase. 

I was going to do this for April Fools: Teefy Marlene/Marley.

I had this plan you see, to do something fun SL fashion-wise for April Fools day, but I didn't actually get around to doing it. I was going to talk about how from now on I was going to go for a new look.  No more classic glamour CC or even burlesque-y cheesecake CC, but a whole new original CC, and then I was going to post a photo of my new look:

Ha ha ha ha.  For those who haven't figured it out, I'm "doing an impression" of famous fashion blogger "Gogo" of Juicybomb. In fact, that Truth Althea hair is the one she's wearing in her blog header, and she wore this Tee*fy outfit a few weeks ago...except she did the blue and I was surprised she didn't do pink.  She wears a lot of pinks (and creams and whites and pastels in general).  If Gogo was a cupcake she'd be a pink cake with pink frosting...and pink candy sprinkles.  So when I picked it up, for this shoot, I got the Pink.  That's Pink Fuel Harley skin of course.  And yes, I have the hair in my proper red too, it's a piggie bun, I had to have it even though you cannot remove or turn off the headband.  Truth we need a headbandless option too!

Tee*fy Marlene is the Blouse, the skirt is called Marley.  It's very girly cutesy sweet, especially with the schoolgirl collar option.  And yes, the reason I'm using the Ohmai! Steampunk Albino Squirrel is because I can't get the Ohmai! Mochi Bunny that Gogo has sometimes posed with.  It's not like I don't like the squirrel, it's very cute (Look at it's little steampunk goggles!), but it's not quite as cute as the bunny.

If you don't want the schoolgirl collar option you can wear an off the shoulder version of the top without the collar.  Which makes it a cute little party ensemble if worn with non-cutesy non-piggie-bunned hair like this Truth Rowan and with shoes like the Hucci Glynco stilettos  And yes it comes in not-pastel colors.  The rigging is fine too, this is reasonably well done mesh.

SLURLS:

Tee*fy

Pink Fuel

Truth Hair

Ohmai! at Beetlebones

Hucci

IKON eyes

The EVGA GT 640 rev 2. (GK208) GDDR5 SC

In a previous post I mentioned a video card upgrade.  Sad to say but the card was faulty, and had issues and I had to RMA it.  But the replacement arrived and it is working well.

The card I had:

EVGA GT 220 1GB GDDR3  (the 01G-P3-1226-LR) 

Nice HTPC card, low power, a bit overpriced but popular amongst Linux users wanting a little 3D oomph for video and/or occasional 3D application.

For the replacement, I basically wanted a similar card, quiet, low power draw, no additional 6 pin power needed.  And I needed Nvidia...because Nvidia cards perform better on Linux.

So I googled around and didn't find anything that seemed a good fit for my needs and budget...at least not till after Christmas shopping with an Amazon gift card when I found this, which I hadn't recalled seeing:

EVGA GeForce GT 640 Superclocked 1 GB GDDR5 64-Bit DVI-I HDMI Ready Graphics Card 01G-P3-2642-KR

I might not have seen it because until recently, GT 640's with GDDR5 were rare...they were at one time OEM only.  Also there are at least 4 versions of the GT640.  No, really, 4 versions at least.  You have to pay close attention to tell them apart.

There's the original Fermi version that has separate core and shader clocks but has only 144 CUDA cores.

Then TWO Kepler GK107 versions with core/shader clocks at the same speed, one with DDR3 and one with GDDR5 (which at the time was OEM only)  Some people did everything they could do to try to get the GDDR5 version.  AFAIK only Dell made theirs relatively available.

Then last  year (May) came the GK208 "Rev 2." version with GDDR5.  It seems to be a rare card, the only review I've seen for Rev 2. GT 640 is for the Gainward version.

Because of this, there's all sorts of confliciting info, because there's at least two versions of the GK208 die.  For example some sources say this card has 16 TMU's but others 32.  Considering EVGA says it's texture fill is higher than a stock GT 650's...I'm leaning towards the 32.

Here's the EVGA product sheet for it, it's hard to find.  The card itself isn't listed in EVGA's products.  I don't know why, it's easily one of the better HTPC cards in this configuration, perhaps because it might cut into sales of the higher priced 650's?  I got my card for $89, try finding one at that price now..they're going for over $100 now and they're out of stock on Newegg. Unlike the GT 650, (and the previous versions of the GT 640) the Rev 2 versions come with full size HDMI jacks not those silly mHDMI ones so you don't need one of those silly mini-HDMI to standard HDMI adapters.  It is, however, wide enough to be a 2-slot card though it doesn't have a 2-slot bracket so you might mistake it as a single slot card...it isn't.

Here's the specs for the 640's

and the 650

But this EVGA version is factory overclocked and has a separate faster shader clock.  Several sites mentioned the card easily had the thermal legroom to do it in the GK107 version and the GK208 runs cooler and uses less power.  It runs cooler and uses less power than the GT220 even.

It's still a crap card for SL, I mean sure, it doubles the frame rate with shadows and DoF on, but it's still not a great card.  It won't bust your budget or eardrums though.

Just Say No to Gacha, and few more gripes from CC McCrankyPants

Just Say No to Gacha!

Why?

Because while it was originally created as a fun inexpensive thing based on Japanese toy/collectable-in-a-capsule vending machines, it's turned into just another customer un-friendly marketing tool that is akin to gambling.

Think about it, while you can trade your gacha items, how many turns of the wheel do you have to do to get what you want?  And how much would that thing have cost you if you had just bought it in a store?  When I want something, I want what I want when I want it, which is usually...NOW.  I don't want to have to put 1500L$ into a machine to get something I'd only pay 350 for.  I don't want to have to wait for a trade so that I "might" get what I really want.  I want it now.  Not later, now, and at a fair price....now.  I don't want to have to go to a lag heavy region and wait for a machine, I just want to go in, and get what I want...perhaps even WHILE shopping on marketplace at the same time. Yes, I'm one of those people who have actually paid full price for items that were in Lucky Chairs...because I didn't want to have to wait.

And this isn't the only issue.  There's another of Gacha only items.  Meaning if you don't go there, you can't get it at all, not even if you wait.  I consider that, downright contemptible.  Sure I can accept some waiting period, but I want to be able to buy the gacha item in the store without having to put up with gacha to get it.  I'm willing to pay a fair price for it.

And don't get me started on every designer and their pet KittyCat starting up their own C88 style clique and doing their own monthly location based event.  Sometimes with the evil that is event only items, which the organizers tell the designers to use to get people to come to the events rather than just shopping at the stores.

And Hunts!  I'm one of those people who think Designers that participate in hunts should put the hunt item in the front of the store in a box  you can buy...just as an option for those who just want to get in, pay a little something for it, get the item and get out.

Look...Designers you have got to stop doing this.  These events don't really help you or the consumers, they just fill the pockets of the organizers.  I know they're one of the forms of marketing that work in SL, but you need to figure out something better.

Notes on the Outfit:

I wanted an Adolfo-ish Nancy Reagan-esque outfit, so I settled on the Steffen Garcia: Blair. The skirt is shorter than Nancy or most Political Wives would wear, but otherwise it has that whole "lady who lunches/Political Wife Sex Kitten thing going on.  It looks classic, but it also has sex appeal.

The skirt's rigged a bit too slim so it looks funny when you walk, the alpha and skirt rigging need some tweaks. Hopefully the designer will do an updated version.  It comes in several colors.

Hair is Truth Colbie, which is my go-to hair for that tailored elegance/anchorwoman bob look. Skin is my usual Belleza, Jewellery is the Michelle Pearl set from Yummy. (Which makes perfect sense with the outfit). Shoes are the Hucci Glynco's.

SLURL's:

Steffen Garcia/Faenzo on Marketplace

Belleza skins

IKON eyes

Truth Hair

Yummy Accessories

Hucci

Berry's Sexual Meme

Yes, I'm doing another Strawberry Singh meme.  This one is about Sex, baby.  But first, cheesecake pictures using the same hair Berry did:

 Truth Perla in Reds05, IKON Lucid Eyes in Moor, Belleza Betty Pale 3 skin with the Shyla/Betty lip 9 over it.  Lingerie from Luxuria


This one came out well, for not having depth of field and shadows on. Mata Hari sandals by Sax Shepherd.

1. What is your sexual orientation or do you not like to label yourself? – Sapphic.  That's no secret.


2. Name a physical attribute that you find attractive or sexy. – Pale skin, dark or red hair, and glasses.


3. Are you promiscuous, a prude or in between? – I'm rather asexual in both lives, I mention the asexual thing in my profile, but not a prude.  I can count the number of intimate encounters I've had in SL on the fingers of two hands with fingers to spare.  Okay it's 7, I'm averaging about once a year.  Some of those just involved cuddling.


4. What turns you on? – Not much.


5. Are you dominant or submissive? – While I don't do the whole D/s thing, there is one thing I sometims say for fun:  I am the CC, and you will OBEY ME! Though I really would need a Nehru Jacket and natty svengali look to do that properly. Why do designers not OBEY and fulfill my every whim?  This disappoints the CC.  Perhaps saying things like that is what gets me mistaken for a Domme at times.  Or maybe it's the slinky black dresses or the riding crop.


6. Are you into sexual roleplay? – Not really.


7. Which sexual position is your favorite? –  There are sexual positions?  And what is this sex thing you speak of.


8. Do you have any fetishes? – Other than for massive amounts of shopping?  Well I do like nice lingerie, and redheads, and brains.


9. Have you or would you do porn, amateur or professional? – I don't know, considering all the many things I've done in SL....in fact I think I remember doing an amateur porn video in SL once.  C'mon it was the old days, we all did crazy stuff back then, it was the Jooky Juice.


10. Do you consider yourself sexy? – Me? No.  My avatar, maybe, sometimes.

SLURL's:

Belleza Skin
 
Luxuria is still in Nouveau

Truth Hair: Perla

Sax Shepherd Mata Hari's

IKON eyes: Lucid Moor

Boogie Trains and Template Complaints

When I first saw the Liv Glam "Yes sir, I can Boogie" (white/black) and Trains and Winter Rains (multiple color hud) suits, I desired them as a classic suit loving SL fashionista should.

Classic military style belted jacket, slim pencil skirt, what's not to love?

 

What's not to love?  The skirt slit and rigging that's what.  The jacket is fine, the jacket is worth acquiring...the skirt not so much.  Look at the slit placement.  Yes, I know, I should be cheering that it actually HAS a realistic slit, but it would be better if it was centered and not quite so wide.  But the real issue is the rigging, notice  how the skirt clips into the leg.  That effect is worse, the more the legs bend.

Here's a close look at the issue.  It's just simply a problem with the rigging...of the template.   This outfit is a template so I can't blame the Liv-Glam's designer (SamanthaSJones) for this...other than her choice to use a template that really needed some more tweaks and polish.  If the rigging was fixed...I would be recommending this outfit.  But as it is, I can't.  It's not horrible, and I've worn it out and about, but it does need more work.  It's an "almost, but not quite" sort of thing.   Which is what I say about Liv-Glam as a design house...with some reluctance:  "Almost, but not quite a first tier designer...the work is hit or miss, could  use more tweaks/polish/better texture choices, and a second critical eye would do the designer some good.  Not horrible, but not spectacular either, especially since it's probably all templates."

For an example of how this skirt SHOULD be rigged, we have to go no further than the classic Maitreya Nolita.  THAT is how you rig a slightly below the knee skirt.

I've got a couple of other issues with the  Liv-Glam "Boogie/Trains" ensembles.  The HUD colors on the multicolor "Trains and winter rains" version don't match the actual on suit colors closely enough.  And some of those colors aren't very good choices at all, basically making those colors unusable.  Why put unattractive unflattering colors in a HUD?  Put colors that ARE attractive in it.

Theres also the fact that the template origin of the Liv-Glam suits are not mentioned and/or credited.  A customer might not be aware that they're templates, and thusly not know who else besides Liv-Glam to send suggestions/complaints to.  Here's a link to the template on marketplace

Dolphin Designs "The Lady"

It also means that there are most likely other designers using this template that needs more work that I don't know about.  I am absolutely of the opinion that Templates need to be credited in the interest of transparency and honesty to one's customers.  Use templates all you want, but for goodness sake, credit them.

SLURLS:

Belleza Betty Pale skin

Truth Colbie hair

Hucci Glynco pumps

Liv Glam

Maitreya

Lelutka Hair: Kate

I'm not for sure I've mentioned liking the Duchess of Cambridge's style on my blog before, but I'm a fan.  In her duties, she tends towards the classic, simple and pretty, skirts around the knee, moderately high but not too high heeled shoes, neutral makeup and long layered hair.  And when she's off duty, she can rock the jeans and ballet flats.  She almost always looks "nice".

As an aside, she has a brain too, graduated from St. Andrews with a Art History degree...with honors mind you.

And how I love her hair.   Thanks be to Lelutka for creating a Kate-ish fluffily wavy-whirly hair.

Normally I'm not a big fan of Lelutka hair because it's "too big" and kind of "there are too many extensions in it for fullness" look.  But this I like.  This is the Jessica color, I had to tint it to get it close to my "proper color".  It's a nice hair, worth demo-ing if you like long layered "girl next door pretty" hair.

Skin is Belleza, Eyes from IKON, Jewellery from Sax Shepherd, and everyone recognizes one of the most recognizable dresses in SL, the Maitreya Nolita.

SLURLS:

Lelutka hair

Belleza skin

IKON eyes

Sax Shepherd Designs jewelry

Maitreya

Harper Ganesvoort's 2014 Oscar Contest

Harper Ganesvoort has done an Oscar photo contest for the past, what is it, 5  years?  Anyway I've been hemming and hawing on the photos (and looking at RL Oscar red carpet photos) for a month trying to decide on the look.  I finally settled on this:

The full length picture is my entry into the contest. Gown is an oldie but goodie, Azul Dailey in Champagne. Skin is Belleza Betty Pale 6 with the Shyla/Betty Pale lips 8 over it. Lashes are Redgrave 'Classy'. Hair is Elikatira Found 8 tinted 128/65/0. Jewelry is Sax Shepherd Designs 'Spirit of Giving' pearl edition. Eyes are IKON Lucid Series in Moor, XS size. Background/Posestand is the oOo Studio: Premiere.

Originally I was going to use Elikatira "Early" hair which was "Anne Hathaway Oscar Look 2013-ish", (you can see that look on my flickr) but my good friend LaDonna said the look reminded her of Jennifer Lawrence's 2013 look.  When she said that, I said, "d'oh" and switched to "Found" which worked better.

The lighting turned out fairly good, I think.  Modified one of AnaLu's windlight presets to get the look I wanted.  Not perfect, but close enough.   You'll notice the shadows and depth of field effect more in the close-up below.

SLURLS:

Azul

Belleza skins

Sax Shepherd Designs

Elikatira

Redgrave

IKON

oOo Studio by Olaenka Chesnokov on Marketplace

Deja Vu Dresses, or one of the downsides of mesh templates.

We all know what the concept of Deja Vu is don't we, from Wikipedia:


Déjà vu, (/ˌdeɪʒɑː ˈvuː/) from French, literally "already seen", is the phenomenon of having the strong sensation that an event or experience currently being experienced has been experienced in the past, whether it has actually happened or not.

Let me show you two dresses that gave me that experience, though they are not the only dresses that have given me "Deja Vu"  I kept the hair (Wasabi Pills "Claire") and shoes (Hucci "Glynco") minimalistic, and didn't wear jewellery to show off the dresses without distraction

This one is the Roksanda Bodycon dress from Liv-Glam

This one is the Suede draped dress from Cynful.

While the textures are different it's obvious they're from the same sourced template.  These two are not the only versions of this template I've seen, it's everywhere.  It's a nice dress, but not everyone needs to be making their own version of it.

Let me be blunt.  Designers, if you don't do your own mesh, try to use templates that aren't being used by  every "Art School Girl" with competent photoshop texture skills out there.  Becuase otherwise, we get dozens of variants of the same dress to sort through.  Not only that, even though there's a glut of this "slap some nice textures on templates" stuff, it doesn't seem to keep some designers from charging premium prices.  If there's a dozen versions of a template dress..you might not want to charge something like  L$500 for a single color, perhaps not even L$300.

[UPDATE} For the edification of readers I decided to add the actual prices of each of the dresses:

The Liv-Glam version is L$ 375, and includes six color variants.  There is also a floral print-pattern version that also has six variants included for L$375

The Cynful version is L$265 for each individual color.

There's nothing inherently wrong with using templates....the problem is when the same ones are used by a large amount of people, then we get a glut of sameness and lookalikes.



SLURLS:

Wasabi Pills hair

Hucci Main Store

Belleza skin

The Cheesecake for a New Year

Sometimes it seems like I know a lot of the neo-burlesque crowd in SL...especially the redheads.  Yes I know, but I can't help it.

These are the cheescake pictures I took at my new house.  Yes, I do have a house besides the Linden Home I use for my studio.  No, you're not going to find out where it is, that would be telling, unless you are one of my close personal friends.  And no, it's not at my parcel in Caledon, that's a park.

I still have a weakness for the  Luxuria  "Cherie" set  I found my self a nice dress form on marketplace from Haute House for L$150

Got this nice shot with the window behind me leaning on my old Luth Mein Herr chair.  The hat is the Black Arts "Laima" the gloves are also from the Black Arts, they come with the "Laima" dress.  Hair is Amacci "Eclaire"  "Kennedy" pearl set by Caroline Apollo

This one shows off the depth of field effect on my Dutchie  "Gustavian" Wardrober

I decided to see if I could get a good shot through the window as if some paparazzi caught me posing inside. Not great, but not bad either.

Just relaxing on my "Gustavian" Dutchie bed... yes, its the "Sapphic" version if you get my meaning, not that I'm planning on getting any use out of it other than pictures and it looking pretty.  While Dutchie furniture is reasonably priced and attractive...by my standards...the bed was a bit "dear.  As far as I could tell this is the only Dutchie bed that comes in a "Sapphic" version. Which is a little bit bad, I actually liked the brass bed slightly better.  Oh well, beggars can't be choosers and at least there was a "Sapphic" option available, that was a nice thing.

SLURLS:


Luxuria Lingerie by Roslin Petion

Black Arts clothing

Belleza Skin

Amacci hair

G Field Shoes

Caroline Apollo Jewellery

Dutchie Furniture and Houses

Haute House Vintage Dress Form on Marketplace

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.