Home, sweet skybox

A very nice person, upon discovering that I didn't have a spot in SL of my own and went to a sandbox to do my pics gave me build rights over a 512 in their sim. I could build whatever as long as it was up in the sky. Now I've not built much. I've played with the tools a bit but not seriously so I was kind of at a loss. So I went to a sandbox and built myself a skybox. And then I aksed a neibhor how they built theirs and they told me that they just used a hollow 10x10x10 box prim. I tried that out but it seemed a little bit cramped, though I could fit in my Picture Perfect studio in it. It wouldn't be big enough if I wanted to invite friends up to chat/party/dance on cows.

Yeah, I still love Blaine Candour's dancing cow.


So I went back to the sandbox and tried building a larger skybox. Now even I am aware of the 10m size limit for prims. So what I did was try to build a 12x12 "flat" that I could use to build a larger structure. Doing the 12x12 took 4 prims, I then used that to build a 24x12x12 skybox. much more space than the 10x10 288 vs 100 square meters. But it was 32 prims just for the skybox which isn't bad, I've seen 512 "First Land" houses for sale that eat more prims, but it's still a little too much more than I wanted to use. So I went back to the sandbox and figured out how to build a 30x10x10 with only 5 prims. Much better.

Back when I was a newbie, when the Tete a Pied Une series skins was for sale, one way you could purchase them was by buying a four=pack which then came with a special scripted makeup box, which let you purchase the other skins or new skins in your skin shade at a heavily discounted price.

Tete a Pied blog post about the makeup box

Linden Lifestyles review of the Tete Une skins

Second Style blog post about Tete Une and the makeup box

Now when I got the makeup box, I told Roslin and CJ that I thought the box was just so darned cool and pretty that if I ever had a place of my own that I'd set it out on display, which I did.

But it's still rather bland, and has no ceiling or security. I've been looking around at houses and whatnot, but not finding much that will suit my purposes. I want a more open floor plan so I can set up my Picture Perfect and I don't want to have to pay alot and I want it to be low prim and aesthetically pleasing. Ingrid Ingersoll has some nice houses but there' more prims than I want to use. Barnesworth Anubis's store is shut down at the moment, so I couldn't look there. I went to a place that supposedly had a nice starter home with a build in security and feature device but the home mentioned in the review was not available as far as I could tell.

Sabrina Doolittle of Chez Petite fame has some nice prefabs on her sim, Calla, in fact the Sky House prefab is very close to what I'm looking for (It's only 27 prims too) except I think it's a touch smaller area wise than my skybox. I want the maximum amount of space I can get for the lowest amount of prims I can get. So if anyone has some thoughts, suggestions, ideas, I'll take them since I'm so out of my element in the house hunting/furnishing/building thing. I think the plot I can build over is a standard 512 32x16

I'm back postin here.

It's been a while hasn't it?

As far as I can tell PXP has gone to the great blogroll in the sky, and I'm sorry that has happened. I lurved PXP and the people who wrote for it. I just wish I could have been more prolific.

So what am I up to now that PXP is gone? Not much really. Wandering around the grid, shopping, lamenting bugs and grid seizures. That sort of thing. I was asked to join the Linden Lifestyles team to help out with the Friday interviews. That's a nice gig and I'm a big fan of Flame haired Sabrina and Patootie headed Salome I still haven't met Salome on the grid yet.

I'll be posting on ocassion to this blog, pretty things I like and whatnot, commentary. I like commentary, I liked that best on PXP.

Quick stuffs:

Six Kennedy has been updating her build again, to improve the customer experience. I expected that to happen, Six is constantly improving stuff. She pays attention and learns. Although I don't own much Six hair, being Elika's bitch, Six does do my favorite "young and sexy teen queen" hairstyle, Poptart Finale.


Oh, Tami McCoy, I've not mentioned her much but she does good hair, especially the shorter styles.

As mentioned I'm Elika's bitch, and I've recently picked up Janae (a pretty updo), Roslin (a Roslin Petion inspired updo which I had to have, being Roslin's bitch) and Bonita II. In the new Mark (Avon makeup sub-brand) there's a model with a hairstyle which looks amazingly like Bonita. I'll have to scan it.

I've been meaning to visit Calla hair again. There's nice hair there that suits my style. I get confused with the name thinking that Calla hair should be in the Calla sim.


I've been wearing Miriel Enfield jewelry lately. In fact I think most of my jewelry is from Miriel. It's that whole pretty thing. I'm a sucker for pretty and retro.

I've got some stuff I'll be blogging here eventually that didn't get blogged on PXP.

I'm sorry I haven't updated since Dec, I just spent most of my bloggy time with PXP.

Saw this "find lookalikes" thinger on willow zander's blog and did it with my av. Got some interesting matches, like Gia. :-)

Picture Perfect Studio LIght Effects

If you asked me not that long ago if I would ever make content in SL that I'd actually sell I would have said, "No way, I'm no content creator."

But I've done it now, which surprises me.

It started when I saw Roslin Petion of Tete a Pied taking pictures for her new in store displays. She had a pretty standard background type thing and pose stand, and had a plywood box prim set up to provide extra light. Now I knew there were top of the line setups with lighting devices but I didn't reacall seeing something cheap and simple. But since I didn't creat content I put the idea in the back of my mind.

Maybe about a couple of weeks later I was in Willow Zanders skybox and noted her obviously top of the line studio, even I recognize a full N30 Modeling studio setup when I see it. So I was looking at it (and did a few quick shots on it) and noticed the light thingies seemed to be made of a lot of prims. So I checked and it was 33. Even landless moi knos that 33 prims is over 1/4 the prim alottment for a 512. So I started thinking, that it should be possible to come up with something simple and low prim for fashionistas that may not have 33 prims (or a lot of money) to spare, if they set it up permanently. So I started playing with the building tools, which I haven't used much and built myself a light source that looked liks a simple basic photographers studio lamp. And it was only 4 prims. At that time it output white light and I thought, hey, I bet it would be possible to use a color change script to change the light color.

So I bought a script (from Sol Columbia) and put it in it. And it worked, to change the color of the "bulb", but not he light itself. So I had to figure out how to do that with my nonexistant scripting skills. I then loaded up the LSL Wiki and began searching. Now, I may not know much about LSL, but I have played a little with Python and I'm able to edit 'nix source code configure scripts and Makefiles if I have to, using google, helpfiles and whatnot. So I could figure out the basic structure of how the color script worked and knew where to put the code I needed in. I just had to figure out which code. The fist bit I tried didn't work, and I messed with it a bit to see if I was doing it wrong and then went back to the wiki. I found a different function that seemed "right", put it in and it didn't work, but did compile. So I went back to the code and realized that I had done the "color vector variable" wrong, that I had put it in the light changing function improperly. A quick edit and it worked. 66 colors of light with a simple chat command Just turn on local lighting in preferences and rez in world.

/4 color goldenrod gets you goldenrod

/4 color white gets you white

/4 color black turns it off.

No tiny buttons to push, no cycling of colors with a touch, instant access to any color and the light bulb changes color to match the actual light.

So I told someone about it, and they said I should sell it. But I thought it was too simple, it only took me a few hours to make, total. It's only 4 prims, it's not beautifully textured, it's just simple shiny metal that looks like a light.

This person told me that not everyone could do what I did, that even making changes to pre-existing code to do something different was beyond a lot of people.

Since I designed it for use with portable modeling studios, like Sabrina Doolittle's Picture Perfect I gave a copy to her and asked what she thought of it. And she asked if I sold it, and I said, not yet. So she offered to sell it alongside the Picture Perfect. It's a good deal for both of us. I don't need own land to sell it or anything, and it gets sold alongside the device it's really good to be used with, (and increases the appeal of the Picture Perfect) and we both make money.

How much? only 150$L It's simple and it works. Gets rid of annoying shadows really well.

Here's a picture of it, it's not beautifully made, but again it does the job it's supposed to do.:






It's available at the Picture Perfect store in Calla. I don't have the Slurl at the moment but you can check my picks in my profile for the TP. And yes, a few have sold already. :-)

I hope it's buyers get good use out of it.

Another homage to Sabrina Doolittle, because she's back!

Yes, she's back, I even chatted with her while she was moving her store to a new location. In honor of her return to SL, I decided to post a few pictures of purchases she inspired.

The first is ETD Belted, yes Elika makes things other than hair. Anyway it's a very pretty red jacked and pants set. The jacket has a white undershirt to wear underneath it, but like Sabrina I prefer it without because it looks nicer and of course shows off the TaP Deux cleavage. And also like Sabrina I wish Elika would make a red (and black) skirt to go with this.

This picture was taken in a cute chair in Sabrina's low prim furniture store, Chez Petite:



:
And yes, a shot showing off the cleavage, because, like my redheaded fashionista inspiration I too am a shameless hussy in SL, at least when it comes to cleavage now and then.



ETD Maaliyah hair in Mahogany, Tete a Pied skin, Tete a Pied Heiress bag

The Dazzle Celine gown was recently purchased at the Holiday opening. Normally I'm not into colors like this, but I have a rule, if it looks good on Sabrina it will probably look good on me, which it does, and I've started playing with more greens. The image is a collage showing both the solid and sheer skirts..It really is a pretty gown.



Pixel Mode hair, Tete a Pied skin

I, for one, am glad Sabrina's back. I miss her (and Salome's) blog posts (especially skin reviews) very much.

Konstrukt #4 is out.

The Konstrukt is a SL magazine, that takes SL seriously and not just as a game.

I contributed an article to the newest issue, that I really enjoyed writing, which came out on Monday.

The copybot

Here's simple info on how the thing works, what it can and cannot do, from a post in the Linden blog. It's less capable than I had heard but still nasty. Folks like builders, hair designers, and furniture makers will have to be the most careful it seems. Though it could be used to copy scripted objects like DoMoCo cars, but they wouldn't have the original scripts, but could be misrepresented as having such

Thanks to Szentasha Salome for the post:

Heres some info I collected from a libsecondlife developer who was kind enough to answer my questions:

CopyBot Information

CopyBot is a program written by libsecondlife to debug an open-source Second Life client API. It intercepts and interprets communications from the Second Life server and the custom client. This information includes descriptive information about primitive shapes, body shapes, baked avatar textures, and primitive textures. Using this information, avatars and primitives can be duplicated and reconstructed by the client. The creator of the new object will be that of the account used to log in with the custom client.

The CopyBot client is a primitive SecondLife client. The avatar will first appear as the basic Ruth female avatar, until it copies the form of another avatar. The CopyBot avatar can not move. It can only teleport. It is not designed to speak in vicinity and only responds to IMs. The CopyBot operates through commands IM'd to it by another avatar, and can only duplicate items in the direct vicinity, so its operator is likely to be close by. The target of a copy operation can be another avatar, or a prim object. If the target is an avatar, it gets the avatars shape and all prim attachments, which appear in the inventory of the CopyBot. Note that it does not get any clothing items - it only gains the baked texturing of the target avatar. If the target is an unattached object, the object is created 3 meters above the CopyBot avatar's head. Note, this will not be successful in sims where object creation is disabled. The CopyBot client can not pick up the object. The thief must log out of CopyBot and log in with the standard SecondLife client to pick up the object. Avatar shapes are not maintained when the CopyBot logs off, so can not be saved.

In summary:

What can the CopyBot create a copy of?
- fully textured objects attached to avatars in proximity
- fully textured objects in proximity

What can the CopyBot not copy?
- any object contents, including scripts, animations, sounds and textures
- clothing
- shapes
- textures (objects are textured but the CopyBot does not get the original textures)

Implications:
- If CopyBot copies you, only your attachments can be transfered, not your shape, clothing, appearance.
- If CopyBot copies your attachments, the attachments will be simple objects without any special functionality since they will not contain scripts, animations, etc.
- If CopyBot copies your product vendor, it will only get an object that looks like your vendor. It will not contain your product or any of the vendor scripts.
- The same is true for unattached objects.
- You can turn off object creation in sims containing unattached objects you do not wish to be duplicated

I hope this helps to answer some of your questions.

~Szentasha


Also from reading the blog, it bot has to be close and in line of sight of the object to be copied, because it can't move or control camera. So I guess one might look out for two avatars in close proximity with one never talking.

Normally I'm a big supporter of the open source movement, I run Linux after all and have an SVN client installed to access Subversion repositories for those projects that don't do regular source tarball releases like they ought to. But I think the libSL project should probably have been a little more picky about who had access to their code.

Dream job

I often read the fashion magazines, usually just Allure, Marie Claire and Lucky but sometimes others. I like reading about new goodies, even when I can't afford them.

Sometimes I thought that my dream job would be writing for one of the fashion mags, doing blurbs about new foundations and lippies. Telling people where to get the cutest shoes, that sort of thing. But I figured that would never happen.

But when I started thinking about it, what am I doing on PXP? PXP is basically a kind of "casual" group collaboration fashion magazine. Is what I'm doing that different from what Didi Gluck does at Marie Claire? It may be virtual clothes and makeup but it's still clothes and makeup. So basically I'm kind of, sort of, doing my dream job. It's time consuming, but really fun.

They're baaaaack (kind of)

Praise the fashion gods, my favorite Patootie haired blogger Salome Strangelove has returned.

See Linden Lifestyles for details.

She hopes to be able to lasso the loveable red haired shameless hussy Sabrina Doolittle back into blogging again.

Which is also a good thing, because Sabrina inspired my own reddish haired shameless hussydom.

Yay! Does happy dance!

UPDATED: (zOMG, I'm) Famous.

I have a standard greeting for content creators, famous fashionistas, bloggers etc.

zOMG, you're famous.

The funny thing is, it surprises some, but it shouldn't. One doesn't have to be omnipresent to have a good reputation as a maker/supplier of "foo" Word gets around. :-)

But that also extends to me. I am always surprised that people read my blog. It isn't horrible but it's no PXP or Second Style or Linden Lifestyles. (Sabrina, Salome, where are you? Come back, come back!)

Yesterday I got a surprise from Rita Groshomme:

"don't you write for PXP or Second Style"?

I explained that I had my own blog but did comment now and again on PXP and Second Style.

paraphrasing: "I knew I had seen your name somewhere."

And today, Six Kennedy told me she liked my blog. Which really means a lot to me. In fact I want to thank anyone who reads this blog. Thank you for your time, I hope I make you laugh, and sometimes I even talk about fashion. :-)

UPDATE: I happened to run into former PXPer, Elka Lahane of Boing Fromage today and she hit me with you know what: "zOMG, you're famous." I laughed my head off. I was so glad to meet her and I finally got a picture of her kyoot avatar. There is no better word to describe Elka but kyoot.

She's wearing her own items from her store, which I do recommend a visit for everyone.

Gamine quad from TaP (added picture)

Roxlin and CJ of Tete a Pied have released another skin quad and is this one special. (Just saw the notice on the blog)

Yes, I knew about them, seeing a prototype ad in Roslin's sanctum sanctotum. She hadn't named them then.

Gamine was a good choice for a name. Basically they're glossy lips, like the Tete Une, only better with really nice cats eye eyeliner. Do you know how rare it is to see a skin where the gloss looks like a right and proper MAC lipglass does?

They are so adorable sweet looking. If there's a skin I ever wanted to hug, it's these. Like she says, Audrey Tatou, Audrey Hepburn and who doesn't love Audrey Tatou and Audrey Hepburn.

These are perfect makeups for sweet 16 parties and prom nights to wear with your cotton candy poofy dress. I said to Roslin, "too bad you can't sell these on the teen grid"

drools some more of the gloss. here's the bronzage medium with the pink gloss I was wearing the Paper Couture Junon Gown at the time.

UPDATED: PXP needs more writers. Bloggers overwhelmed with fashion.

UPDATE: I'm now a PXP contributor, be afraid, be very afraid. What does this mean for this blog? I'll probably reduce the fashion content here, most of that will go to PXP. More personal stuff and silly stuff will stay here, as well as interesting commentary that doesn't fit at PXP. I'll only be an ocassional poster to PXP due to limited time in-world. But I intend to have fun posting for PXP.

But.. they're still looking for more people.

PXP is looking for a few good fashionistas.

I think every fashionista with a desire to write should apply. Even if you don't become a PXPer why not start your own blog.

Why? Because there's so much stuff to cover that there's plenty to go around and it's nice to have a plethora of diverse viewpoints. You might be thinking, "I'm a nobody". That doesn't matter, I'm a nobody, a nobody who now knows people. Just write about what you like, what you see and have fun, that's what I do. And someday maybe someone will come up to you and say, "zOMG, you're the famous fashionista blogger. You inspired me" (No one's said that to me. sniff Oh I kid)

Personally I wish a couple of my fashionista blogger role models Sabrina Doolittle and Salome Strangelove of Linden Lifestyles, would return from hiatus. I miss their reviews.

Distracting distractions, oh the things I see.

As a fashionista, I see all sorts of pretty and shiny. Like say Callie Cline's pictures on her new store wall (pretty) or new clothes, or sunrise. I see a lot of sunrise because I'm constantly forcing it for pictures!

Sometimes I log into SL with a goal. There is only 1 SL capable machine in the house (thank goodness I have my PS2 Linux kit or I'd never get online) So I have to make the best of what time I can finagle on it.

Except sometimes, I get distracted. I remember something I saw, or I start chatting with someone or I take screenshots of one thing when I need to take them of another. Or I run out of time.

I'm like a cat that way: What's that, ooooh pretty shiny! oooh over there.

But one of the worst things is other fashionistas. hanging with others of my kind is just so much fun. Things tend to happen, fun things, kerazy things, things that would boggle the mind. Things I take pictures of, that I know I will never post on the blog. They would boggle the mind. I'm not just talking about cows, or talking sock puppets named after Vogue editor Anna Wintour. I don't think I've mentioned my sock puppet before.

Anyway I ummm don't have pictures of things I should and have pictures that would go into ~/second_life/schoolgirl_antics/ or ~/second_life/oops or ~/second_life/personal_embarassment/

I try to be a good, umm, avatar. Be nice and organized, take good shots of stuffs, but y'know things happen.

Fashionistas are kerazy but in a good way. We have the coolest and sometimes rather surprising and unique stuff. Which is what in part makes the Fashion Emergency group such a resource.

Here's to all the fashionistas, who bring fun and kerazyness to my Second Life.

Paper Couture opening

The luck of the fashion goddesses was with me, I was online when it opened up and got an invite. More later, after I edit the photos tomorrow, I mean today, I mean whenever I get them done. :-)

And I finally met Willow Zander! Who is both kyooter and shorter than I expected. (Yes she was wearing the very kyoot neko ears) And Elika, whom I've seen from a distance and Rita Groshomme.

the opening was a lot of fun.

More info on the house of lu website and blog

Paper couture website (requires flash)

House of Lu Paper Couture blog

The blog is hilarious and I play along with the joke by writing comments like a crazy over the top member of the fashionista press.

Support your local blogger.

Hello designers, you want PR? Not getting blog coverage? Here's how to help us find you.

1. Post in the SL classified forums. Personally I don't read them,(my favorite minimalistic browser can't log into them) but as far as I know almost every other blogger does. That's one way they find out about new designers and new stuff.

2 Get a blog! It's a necessity, it helps you keep in contact with customers, bloggers get feedback, announce new releases, rant about the evil bugs and how you want to stabbity.

3. when you have that blog, make certain it's listed on Fashion Planet (world of SL) It basically syndicates the SL fashion blogosphere, that's where I go to see the new stuff.
4. Use the groups system to your advantage. Create an update/ffans of group for your store/line and try to get as many fashionistas in it as you can. Use it for announcements of events, promos, sales, new stuffs and anything else you can think of. Personally I think Linden Labs needs to up the group limit...to 100.

5. Know your bloggers. Know who they are and what they like, which leads to.

6. Getting promo/review copies of your items in the hands of the right bloggers and people of influence. Fashion bloggers do not have unlimited $L. (yeah I wish) You probably should automatically hand off review copies to Second Style blog and whichever PXPer you think suits your items best. Although the Linden Lifestyles gang seems to be on hiatus you should probably toss them copies too. They also have this excellent post.
There are others, of course. :-)

7. Again don't forget to use events, sales, promo's, fashion shows, clearance sales, to get the attention of the bloggers. For example, I did not blog Dazzle's regular releases, that was Willow Zander's job. :-) but when she had her clearance sale, I darn well blogged it.

8. Using IM's and e-mail to directly contact those in the know and with influence can be a good idea too.


Comments? Questions? Want to stabbity me? :-)

OPIUM Addictive store design contest

Alaska Metropolitan designer and owner of OPIUM Addictive has a contest to design a new store for her. The prize? 20000$L droools, if only I could build.

This would be a great opportunity for a new builder to prove their mettle and to make some cash and fame.

The parcel appeared to be about 30x48 by my rough walkabout but in actuaity is 32x48. I was close. Alaska said it was basically three "First Land" plots side by side.

She's got the basic rules and guidelines on her site. The contest ends November 30th Good luck builders.

I'm not going to enter,I think, but I'll try playing in a sandbox to see what I can do on a 32x48 space with my limited skills just for fun.

Thank you, for your kindness.

I want to thank those who posted words of support and friendship in my "Doll" post, it means a lot to me. Alaska, Francesca, Zoe, Choice and Willow, you're the best.

Laura Leandros's Au Naturel

I had popped over to Casa del Shai, to pick up another animal print dress and I saw a gathering of people on the mini-map. I tend to be a curious person so I walked over and found a store that I had not heard of: Au Naturel at Deimos 199,91,47

They have, hair, skins, shoes, boots and clothes, and according to a sign more items..eventually. Right now they're having a sale due to owner Laura Leandros's RL pregnancy.

I saw an interesting hair called Parisienne in red (a rather muted natural red) which I picked up for 85$L for one shade. I took pictures but SL was acting up (stabbity) so they didn't save. (and I crashed. more stabbity)

After relogging in from the crash I looked through the skins and bought one for 550$L.that I thought looked interesting Tone3 makeup 7. The pictures I took in the skin did save, but the torso never rezzed properly. Maybe it's ETD Belted's fault, whenever I wear that things have problems rezzing, I've never got pictures of it.

Anyway once on, it reminded me some of the Nevermore Hybrid II skins, dramatic brow and shadows with winged eyeliner. Yay. I like the dramatic look of winged eyeliner (for the right outfit ocassion) but am not very good at pulling it off in RL. I did the pictures bald so one could get a better look at the dramatic defined brows, and eyeshadow. The lips play second fiddle to the yes on this skin. As far as I can tell the skins only come with this brow color. You know how us red and reddish hair wearing av's are picky about that.

Eyes open

Eyes shut, just look at that intense shadow, very dramatic.

The whole overall look of this skin reminded me of a certain blogger on hiatus so I pulled out some very red hair and voila! It's Faux Sabrina Doolittle again!

Seen in world: yes
Review copy: no
Friend list: no

Luminosity Celtic sweater and Irvington set.

More releases from Sol Columbia's Luminosity

A pretty, cozy and very warm looking heathery Celtic knitted sweater and the preppy chic Irvington sweater and plaid pants set. Oh so perfect for the season, Oh so nice looking on my av. Just look at the sweater close up when you buy it, and the plaid pants are faboo. And lke the other Luminosity releases, great mix n' match potential.

I can't say much more than that I really really like them. I'm a sucker for preppy fall chic and for things that I'd buy in RL. They're pefect for taking a fall/halloween sightseeing tour in Caledon with ones innamorata or your cow.

Looks like I'm wearing my usual hair, skin, and bag. I swear, ETD Maaliyah is to me what Patootie is to Salome Strangelove, Sophisticate 1 Rose Dark Tete a Pied skin I love it so, and the Tete a Pied Heiress bag that everyone must buy. Those are Shiny Things Lollies on my feet


Seen in world: Yes
Review copies: Yes
Friends list: No.

OPIUM Limited Edition Wytch

I really like the OPIUM "Wytch" costume, it's looks very nice on my avatar and it has a sort of retro-pinup feel to it. The hat and stockings have multi-colored sequined starts. It's sexy but not too over the top

The costume alsor reminded me a bit of the animated opening of the Bewitched televsion show so I found myself a flying broom.

I found the broom here:

Pyeonghwa 17,184,26


Seen in world: Yes
Review copy: No
Friend list: Yes