Speaking of vanity…

Meanwhile, over in WoW, I’ve been playing various of my 90s through the brief pre-expansion quests to get the level 515 item and whatever achievement or title or thingie one gets (oh, right, it’s the “of the Iron Vanguard” title, and you really only need to get it once with one character and then they can all use it), and then doing other random things.

I played Spennix just a tiny bit, then my shadow priest for awhile (wicked DPS), and various others, then settled on Spennatrix the healer for some time, including trying to complete all of the Pandaren raids (at mere Looking For Raid difficulty) before the expansion comes out and makes all the existing content easy. (Still have just one to go! The wait-time for raid healers is always really short, I am just lazy.)

Y’all will doubtless remember Spennatrix’s simple white outfit from the other month (okay, the other year). As she went up to 90 and did Timeless Isle quests and got that gear, I didn’t re-transmog every upgrade she got, so eventually she was looking a bit more baroque again:

although not awful; the Pandaren gear is much less bizarre-looking than the stuff that inspired her to do a set of transmogs in the first place.

But so anyway, I was in the white transmog again, standing around with a raid group buffing up to take down the Council of Elders in Last Stand of the Zandalari, when I notice this other Night Elf Priestess, and she’s wearing like omg TOTALLY the same transmog!!!

That’s me on the left.

Of course it’s not really exactly the same transmog, mostly it’s that we both have Mooncloth Robes, and generally non-ornate other gear. She’s got this High Councillor’s Circlet for a nice blue gem matching the blue hair, whereas I have hair matching the robes, and an unmodified Amaranthine Cowl of the Impatient on top (not really a cowl despite the name, more a little top extension with a hairpin) because it looks good, and matches the (also unmodified) belt.

Neither of us quite have the shoulders right, I’d say; I have the White Woolen shoulders or whatever that is, and they’re simple but kind of a weird shape, and actually too white for the white outfit. On the other hand her I think Shadow Council Mantle is a little too ornate for the overall look (although they do go nicely with the gloves). I’ve switched back to the Silver-Threaded Amice look for the shoulders since, and I think I prefer it.

I was thinking about some evil-looking dark transmog for the Shadow Priest, but then I realized that since she spends 99% of her time in Shadowform, no one would hardly ever see it.

And if no one sees it, what’s the point, eh? :)

Sn@tch will have all my monehs!

From that Ivey:

As you will see there are no Sn@tch-n-Grab or Woeful Wednesday Specials this week. That’s cause I decided to try something new! Rob made me this cute little Mesh @ sign with an arrow and this week you can find them all around the store next to certain vendors. When you find them, the item it’s pointing to is on SALE! Everything with the @ arrow pointing to it is marked down between 0L and 50 L! There are several things this week scattered around the store on every level (including the Bargain Pit) and there is something FREE this week too! I’m hoping to mix this mini sale hunt into the regular line up of specials every week if it goes well! Happy Hunting!

So, being unable to resist quality things under about 75L, I have yet even more Sn@tch outfits to catch up on opening and admiring myself in!

Share the joy and/or poverty! Sn@tch LM

(There should be a picture here of me wearing clothes and all, but I am too lazy and/or busy! It is amazing I have even weblogged…)

Wallflower :)

Here I am on the wall at VreMode, because of being a Elite SL Supermodel an’ all (I even have a group tag that says so!).

Not far away, also on the wall, is a vendor for the Mulberry version that I bragged about the other day, also featuring pictures of me.

And in between, and all over the place, are other lovely clothings, as modeled by other lovely persons, that you can buy! (Or there’s always VreMode on the Marketplace.)

So that’s today’s store recommendation. :)

Love Donna Flora; fashion for a cause

SL peoples love shopping for a cause, as do RL peoples for that matter, and while it’s just as subject as RL causes to the usual “why do you put energy into THIS when there is also THAT?” sort of questioning, I still think it is a Great Thing.

The other day (was that just yesterday?) Michele passed me a notecard about Love Donna Flora, a sim-sized event to help with the medical expenses of one of our creators.

The Love Donna Flora event will open on July 25th @ 12:01 AM and close at midnight on August 11th. It will feature work from more than 100 creators with proceeds going to Squinternet Larnia of Donna Flora.

The arrival point point is in the center of the sim, which is a little confusing at first, but follow one of the nice cart-paths out toward the edge, and you’ll come to the main path, all around the sim, lined by picturesque carts selling all manner of things.

And it’s in a good cause!

(Look for the purple DNF logo signs on the signs; the contribution rate varies; many are 100%)

Okay, with all that out of the way :) here is the real reason for the post: a picture of me!

Wearing mostly random things, but at least I’m at the place. :)

Dress (actually from the event!): Klepsydra – Georgia – Black – Love Donna Flora.
Despite being mesh :) it sort of almost fits me; M, shown here, it just a tad small in a couple of spots; L makes me look curvier than I really am.

Hair: A&A Kaya, Dark Brown.
A 50L special in the Attic at VreMode.

Choker: Nizam Pearl Choker.
From Zaara

Tatt: Guanshiyin.
From CoLLisions

Leggings: Stripey Tights (Sheer) from Gauze

What the well-dressed BoHo is wearing

Two more pitchers, jes ’cause I like how they look. :)

Corset and skirt: BoHo HoBo Crow and Humingbird Dress 1

Scarf: BoHo HoBo Bandana 2

Hair (including head-scarf): [Gauze] Matey – (Kraken) Populatiry (sic), a Hair Fair freebie <3

Skin: VreMode CinnaminDora (out of print I think)

Gloves: Sn@tch Wrist Warmer (Purple Flower)

Socks: Knee-High Socks Purple-Stripe from Lash-Ware

Shopping Bag: BoHo HoBo, too :)

As above, except the Bowler Hat is part of the wunnerful BoHo HoBo Crow and Humingbird Dress 1

Xyla in Mulberry

I are a fashion models (again)! :)

V good friend Vrem of VreMode has used some boxcover pics that I took of me, plus her own l33t photomanipulation skillz, to make the vendor image for this gorgeous dress:

(Click through to the Marketplace to see the full size, other images, and to buy things!)

The Style Card:
Hair: Antonia, from Dark Mouse
Skin: Gisele Vanilla, from Cupcakes
Lipstick: Ladylove – Sienna – Wine Plush, from Cupcakes
Earrings: Cherub Wings, from Violet Voltaire
Necklace: Heart Container, from Violet Voltaire
Shoes: VreMode Nude Heels, from VreMode again
Eyes: Fantasy Purple 4, from Jenika’s Eyes and Optics

some or all of which may no longer exist. :)

Thanks to other v good friend Michele for use of and fun time playing around on very nice photo studio with classy and amusing poses; Vrem used two of those pictures as alternates in both the mulberry and turquoise versions of Xyla.

Fun!

Flowing Purple Light

These gloves and boots are amazing (there’s a corset and a neckpiece also, which I don’t have); a photo can’t really show it, because the amazingest thing is that the lights you see there as sort of purple highlights are flowing, moving across the item in eye-seducing ways. (And there are menus that let you control the rate and direction and color of flow, as well as other things like I think the color of the rest of the object, that I haven’t played with yet).

Also the boots and gloves are both mesh, but fit me and I like them anyway! I am very slowly becoming more of a mesh wearer than I used to be (i.e. not at all).

Boots
Gloves
Inworld store for those and lots of similar

And purple corset set from Rag Dollz sometime a long time ago so good luck finding it. :)

Um, soooo….

Is there an Official Name for this general AV and clothing style in SL:

This is a random picture from a vendor board at Zombiepopcorn, but if you’ve been out and about in the fashion-caring parts of SL lately you’ve probably seen the style. On people, even!

It’s characterized by a sort of pouty-frowning mouth-shape, a smallish and widish body shape, and (um) an unusually wide space between the thighs.

I first saw something vaguely like this shape on someone who was I think doing it out of creativity, and generally paired it with an animal head or frog feet rather than fashion accessories. But now it seems to have Caught On enough that various people have been expressing reservations about it. (To say the least.)

I don’t find it especially attractive, myself. On the other hand I am deciding that I like the fact that it exists. It’s a rather NPIRL fashion trend, after all, something that’s possible only because we can fiddle so extensively with our bodies. And it doesn’t cater to or reinforce the usual beauty clichés, and that’s a plus. Of course in that it’s a new beauty cliché itself, it may be that it’s similarly being used mostly sell product. :) But that’s okay, really, as long as it doesn’t lead people who look other ways to feel inferior.

But anyway, what’s it called? And I don’t mean what amusing epithets does Alicia have for it. :) What do the people who actually design for it / wear it / not run screaming away from it call it? If anything?

Gypsy Sunflower

(Original bigger size)

I do love my skybox. And sorting inventory!

Details:

Outfit: VreMode Gypsy Sunflower in Peach* from VreMode;
Skin: Snowfall Deep Black from Mango, Mango;
Hat an’ Hair: Cloche Ponytail from La Boheme;
Monocle: the Automatic Viewing Lens, from VAUGHAN’s House of Curiosities;
Hazard-Symbol eyes: almost certainly Grim Bros.;
Skybox, as always, from the bargain basement at KOSH;
Elegant bookcase-loft from S&S Clockworks.

I can haz fashionblogging? :D

* ObDisclaimer: I’m in the VreMode model group, so I get stuff early sometimes so I can take pictures of it an’ all for using on ads and boxcovers and stuff. But I am not paid to post. :) This particular outfit may not be actually available yet, or anymore, or whatever.

Fashion comes to the WoW battlefield

There’s always been a bit of fashion stuff in World of Warcraft; certain items of clothing or other gear that you could buy or get that were valuable not because of their stats, but because they looked cool (or unusual, or weird, or extra-ugly).

People would make up elegant or funny or whatever outfits out of these sometimes and stroll around in town showing off, or wear them to RP (Roleplaying) events, or costume parties or whatever. See for instance the famous picture of Spennix in the pimpin’ Crimson Felt Hat, which is actually useful for about twenty minutes at level 48, if you’re a Priest, but looks good on anyone:

On the battlefield (or out in the wilderness or the necromancer’s tower or whatever), however, you generally wore whatever you could get your hands on that had the best stats, with little or no regard to how it looked. (’cause of otherwise you would like die an’ all.)

The Blizzard folks did put some thought into gear design, and there are various sets that go together thematically at both high and low levels. But even at that if you’re a holy priest or a warlock or a retribution paladin or whatever at a certain level, there are a very limited number of things that are Best In Slot (BiS) for you at that level, and at most a couple of different integrated outfits, and even those will have been designed by, well, by Blizzard.

And they ain’t exactly fashion designers.

But now that is all changed!

Using Transmogrification, you can make any piece of gear look like any other piece of the same sort of gear (with various complicated rules like you have to own and be able to use both, both must actually have some kind of stats bonus, etc, etc), and that has completely opened up the WoW fashion scene, both in town and in the fray.

(Well, not completely-completely as in Second Life, because you still can’t quite make your own stuff, but you can combine various of the lots and lots of existing-looking stuff in multiplicative ways.)

For instance I hadn’t taken pictures to speak of of Spennatrix, my healer Priest, or even played her all that much lately, at least partly because she looked stupid in her gear.

Here, for instance, is the Mask of New Snow, the best healer headgear she’d come across and/or been able to afford to that point:

I mean, yuck! And also, eek! Is that a look you’d want to trust your life to in battle? More like something you’d expect to be battling against.

A bit later she upgraded to the Cowl of Destiny, which looks like this:

Again, omg and/or wtf rofls. Blizzard’s style choices at high levels have always run to more or less elaborate more or less dark and threatening things, which is fine if you’re a necromancer warlock or a mage or even warrior or whatever, but Spennatrix is a humble Priestess of Elune, the WoW Moon Goddess, and is not really interested in looking like any of those things, thank you very much.

(And her staff, for that matter; Chelly’s Staff of Dark Mending isn’t exactly In Character, but it’s what she’s got.)

So, transmogrification! Being an Illustrious Grand Master Tailor and a Night Elf, it was no problem to cleanse some Felcloth into Mooncloth at the ancient Moonwell over in the mysterious Twilight Grove over in Duskwood, and make a lovely set of Mooncloth robes. Then taking out the elegant Imperial Red Circlet she’d saved from her early adventures, and the Moon Staff of Elune that she quested for in her novitiate (if priestesses of Elune have novitiates, I dunno), and then down to the Ethereal’s place in Stormwind for th’ Transmogrifying (not to mention a trip to the barber for a little magical dye job), and viola:

Now there’s someone you want at your back when you’re tanking Mannoroth at the Well of Eternity, eh?

(Her next robe upgrade, to the Robes of the Cleansing Flame, didn’t look too bad:

but still too much like a Fire Mage or a UPS deliveryperson or something (not to mention making her bottom look huge; what were they thinking with that pattern on the hips??). Much better in Mooncloth:

don’t you think?)

So that’s fashion in WoW! None of my other toons (haha, “toons”) have made as much use of it as Spennatrix, although my necro warlock did use it to color-coordinate a piece of what was really Priest gear that he was using for awhile, and Spennix has used it to get back the look of her very very cool goggles from awhile back. But Spennatrix is definitely my most fashion-conscious WoW character. :)

And back in SL, boy Dale has a rather new look, too! We’ll see how long that lasts. Fortunately, no annoying raids or prolonged quests or tedious grinding are required to change looks in SL; just shopping!

Dale discovers AOs

Approaching my fifth Rezday (omg!) you’d think I’d seen most things in Second Life, but somehow there’s always something new. Just the other day I discovered this amazing technology called the “Animation Overrider”…

Okay, that is a joke. :) I’ve actually had an AO since sometime my first week in SL, when I stumbled on something giving out completely free and simple (HUDless!) AOs, that just replaced the default hysterical walk and run with ones from some default Poser set.

But otherwise, except for a few brief experiments with some rather eyerolling “sexy” girl anims that came with a gown a long time ago, I’ve used all the standard Linden stands and sits and groundsits and flying positions and things, both as a boy and a girl, and been quite happy with them.

(And it gives Certain People something to tease me about, heh heh.)

Once I’d learned about these things, I cracked open my AO and found that it was just a single old “framination” script, with a mostly-blank notecard and two poses in it. I incorporated that into my Magic Bracelet so as not to take up a whole attachment point with it, and left it there.

Recently in an idle moment I started playing. I found a bunch of random animations in inventory, including some nice ANIMAH AO ones I got from a Lucky Chair or something sometime, and stuck them in my bracelet and added them to the notecard. That was sort of fun, so I went out shopping and actually bought a few more, and removed some of the initial ones that were annoying. (I like nice subtle animations that don’t have me wandering all over the place or constantly fiddling with my hair.)

The next day I got ambitious and converted the notecard to ZHAO format, passed it to the Imprudence built-in AO panel, and poof, a nice lagless AO for Girl Dale.

I also threw in the “Hanged Man” animation that I use in my 1,000 Avatars picture, just for variety. :)

(And yeah, it does awful things to the front of the mini-corset there; that’s the SL AV mesh for ya.)

Then yesterday (was that yesterday?), being in a boy mood again, I worked up an AO for Boy Dale. Rather than starting from scratch this time, I started with the (old, inexpensive) Coolest Man AO from Vista, because from the vendor board it didn’t seem too horrifyingly macho

So now Boy Dale can stand, and even sit, in non-newborn sorts of ways!

I haven’t added the Hanged Man stand to the boy one yet, or converted it to the built-in viewer AO, or really done anything much at all with it. But I’ll get around to it. Unless I get distracted by something shiny! :)

Some random credits:

Vista Coolest Man AO from the Random Old Stuff section of Vista Animations

Various specific poses from the back room of Sinse AO (lots of nice poses at 10L each) and from the wonderful and quirky 3M/MMMA, which I see has moved, and from ANIMAH, which no longer exists.

Girl Dale’s red jacket from CHG Fashion (I think it was a hunt prize), and floral mini-corset from EDS (was that a hunt too?).

Girl Dale’s ossom BAX boots bought at Kungler’s as mentioned previously (now I have the purple as well as the brown; equally amazing).

Top and jeans in standing-up-boy picture from WoE (who have also moved, just to confuse me!).

Clothes in sitting-down-boy picture from “Sexy4Less” which were having a Big Sale inworld but are normally just in the Marketplace.

Boy Dale’s Ankh (always) from Schadenfreude, which is a gigantic elephant, and well worth seeing even if you aren’t shopping. :)

Boots!

So normally I go barefoot (or in socks if it’s chilly) in SL, sort of like in RL, because well really why not, and especially heels make my feet hurt.

But well I’ve been on sort of a clothing-acquiring binge for a few days now, as mentioned in the previous post, and somehow this led to my acquiring some very (very very) nice boots.

(Not that I don’t have some other nice boots that I have acquired from various hunts and chairs and stores and friends over the years, but…)

I mentioned this on Twitter, and a certain fictional character (John Carter, Mars, get it?) had the nerve to demand evidence.

So!

Silvana tights (in Forest) and Lavinia top (in brown, with feather collar) from Kunglers.

Amazing BAX Prestige boots, also in brown, also from Kunglers.

See? Boots!

The boots (which somehow don’t make my feet hurt hardly at all) were actually the finishing touch on this to-die-for Autumn outfit:

Silvana tights (in Forest) again and Lavinia top (in brown, feather collar off this time) again, the latter mostly hidden by the lovely Brigitte knit coat in Moss.

And the amazing boots again.

I can’t usually wear high-waisted stuff like this, but somehow in glorious warm earthtone knits I adore it.

The boots are amazing not just because they look so grrrrrr, but also because they have like a zillion options and things, including optional walking sounds, two different optional AO walks, being able to have the sleeve at the top up or down, or put on rolled-up denim for wearing with jeans, and four different basic brown shades and the ability to recolor like every tiny little detail.

Usually I keep them basic brown and black, but if one wanted to get a little crazy…

Lavinia top again, this time with adorable little Gigi sequined shorts (skort?) in Garnet (from Kunglers yet again), and with the boots set so that the zipper and edge details are in metallic gold, and the soles largely in red.

Not only do the boots make me six inches taller (six foot three, yipes!) and maybe a little hawt (blush), but with these shorts my legs look, like, five miles long.

Woot woot!

Oh, and if it occurs to you that I don’t generally have nearly this much fashion sense, you’re entirely right. :) Introduction to Kunglers, as well as quite specific suggestions on what would look good, are all owed to v nice an’ well-dressed friend Michele again (in fact as I recall this latest burst of acquisition was because I admired the Brigitte knit that she was wearing (hers in purple), and she said, ya know…).

I am becoming such a lil clothes-horse! :)

My poor inventory!

Shortly after I logged in tonight, nice friend Michele IMd that she was on a hunt, and being in that sort of mood I said Oooh tp me. :)

It was a fun hunt, in three locations of the same store (starting here), each one containing a (tiny tiny tiny) pumpkin with some fun stuff in it, and a special bonus (with a nice extra prize) at the end once you have all three. (They’re Japanese stores, but they are named “Shön”, which isn’t a terribly Japanese name!)

That’s the red gown that’s the final bonus prize, plus the hat from the first of the three stores. The other two stores have matching tops and bottoms in the same color scheme that make up a fun casual outfit in Hallowe’en colors.

And then when I admired Michele’s hat and wings she took me to the places she’d gotten them. :)

I madly lurve this outfit. It comes with like three different skirts in various lengths, two different pairs of wings (one of which drops these lovely autumn leaves constantly), and this gorgeous top (which is actually a separate shirt and jacket, either of which can also be worn alone). It’s “Fall Fairy”, from Angelwing (or Angelwings? I forget). It was only like 200L!

And the hair-with hat, for like 250L, where both the hat and the forelock have various different available colors / textures via a texture menu, is from Ivanka Akina. (Also, I think, Japanese despite the name.)

An’ Michele saw the hair-an’-hat on Harper’s weblog. Everything is connected! :)

And in various of those places I bought various other random things, some of which I haven’t even gotten around to trying on yet, and my inventory is even bulginger than ever. But it is fun!

Bunnies vs Argaloth!

Just to show that WoW isn’t all battles and fighting and stuff, here’s a moment of silliness, where most of the 25-person guild raid waiting for the last two members to show up before taking on Pit Lord Argaloth decided to turn each other into bunnies and get out our Spring Rabbit pets, and hop around for picture-taking.

(I really should have turned off all of the floating nametags, ’cause they sort of clutter up the picture…)

I am happy to see that the picture has already been favorited once on flickr. :)

I wasn’t actually planning to be in this raid at all, I just happened to be doing Tol Barad when it was time for my guild‘s weekly “Raid Boot Camp” run, so I got included in the invitation, and I thought “What the heck!”.

The raid was fun (even not counting the bunnies), and the Boot Camp part consisted mostly of following directions (something I am generally pretty good at). And I was rewarded richly, in that as the only rogue there I pretty much by default got the nice rogue PvP legs that dropped, and they were a good upgrade to my PvP set.

(In fact they’re enough better than the legs currently in my PvE set that I’m thinking of swapping them in there also; but wearing PvP for PvE, even when justified by the numbers, is sort of a WoW Fashion Faux Pas…)

So see! What WoW is really about is (a) silliness, and (b) fashion. Now you know! :)

Get Your Bling On!

I still feel a little guilty for having been so mean to Twinity. So on this latest newsletter announcement thing from Metaverse, I’ll let the big graphic speak for itself.

Yay “BLING“! :)

/me exits, stifling giggles.

Virtual Ability presents “Fashions for Everyone”

I want to share an intriguing class announcement that went out over “Hey Girlfriend!” (my shopping and general girltalk and silliness group) group IM. It’s a class at Insight Virtual College (a place I now want to find out more about!), given by Virtual Ability (one of the winners of the first Linden Prize for goodness), about making one’s fashion-related things accessible by and friendly to SL residents with various forms of disability.

Fashion aspects aside (we all know how fashionable I am!), this seems likely to be a really interesting session. Virtual worlds are clearly wonderfully accessible for people with some disabilities (regardless of your RL status, there’s no reason to be in a wheelchair in SL unless you want to!), and extremely problematic for others (here I will plug some very interesting work in enabling SL for the blind).

Anyway! Here’s the announcement:

** PRESS RELEASE **
For immediate release

Virtual Ability presents “Fashions for Everyone” at Insight Virtual College. This one and a half hour long class will cover the following topics with plenty of time for discussion and demonstration:

• Background about disabilities in SL
• Relating to people with disabilities in general
• Issues related to clothing
• Store design for inclusion
• Issues related to salespeople

Did you know that 20% of SL residents have some kind of disability? Are you reaching this market with the fashions you create and your store layout? The audience for this class includes SL fashion designers as well as store owners in SL of any type.

Join Gentle Heron and Eme Capalini from Virtual Ability for an informative session that will challenge and enlighten fashion designers and store owners. Both are experts in SL disability issues.

Insight Virtual College (232,81,36)
Stargazer Planetarium
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Insight%20Virtual%20College/197/11/54

Tuesday, September 8, 2009 at 5:30 p.m. SLT
Repeated on Saturday, September 12, 2009 at 8:00 a.m. SLT

Comments are welcome, as always, as well as trip reports from anyone who attends the class. If I manage to remember to go :) I will post a followup.

Bopping around

So I have been bopping around doing things, as usual. And being bad about writing in the SL weblog here (and for that matter in the RL weblog over there), and about answering my mail (apologies to my neglected correspondents; I will write back eventually!).

One thing that occurred to me is that over in the secret RL weblog, my postings just have a date, not a title or a topic, and I talk about whatever the heck is in my mind, all mixed together however I feel like, without (generally) trying to have any Single Particular Message. Whereas here, driven by the expectations of the enclosing technology and my own habit, I tend to not post until I have something more or less coherent to say, with a topical picture, a title, a single topic (even if it’s silly), and so on.

And I thought, hey, what’s up with that?

So I will just ramble here about what I’ve been doing lately and stuff, because why not after all.

I noticed a green up-arrow in the minimap while lying around at home in Extropia, and I flew up (actually hoverdisc’d up), and there up in the sky was Truthseeker Young, working on a gorgeous shiny funny amazing build of the usual Truthseeker kind (I won’t show a picture in case it’s Still Under Wraps). We said hi and hi and I gave Truthseeker a snapshot and went back downstairs so as not to distract.

Then some other day (I think some other day) I was wandering around Extropia and came across a bunch of fascinating art-things displayed in the square. It was of course the May Art Exhibition, which I had been thinking of making something for but of course I got lazy and/or forgot.

One of the pieces in the exhibition was (is, if it’s still Mayish) Summer Seale’s “String Theory” (in the pic above there), which is a wild color and light and sound thing that v good friend Michele showed me awhile back and there it was again and that was fun. Lots of other good pieces, too, some wild RL photographs, digital images, curled and metallic and organic prims, all sorts of things. Give it a look if it’s still there!

Then let’s see what else was I going to talk about? I’ve been expressing opinions in JIRAs about default permissions on new prims and group objects and stuff, and I’ve been posting Profound Comments on various SL weblogs. I’ve been mostly ignoring Plurk, and almost entirely ignoring Twitter, and completely ignoring things like Koinup and Plaxo, even though they like to send me mail, because I can’t figure out what they’re actually about.

I keep logging in just in time to miss meeting one dear friend‘s recently-partnered partner (I’m pretty sure she exists, as I’ve seen pictures, but I will continue to express doubts until I actually meet her!), and another couple of friends had their First Anniversary (yay!). I spent a marvelous hour or three with yet another friend, finally (after many failures to connect) touring around her lovely refuge with mountains and bridges and gardens and a horse pasture, talking about life and the universe and everything, and still not meeting her partner either because of timezone mismatches.

I think to myself, yet again, that all the things we read in the weblogs about how SL partnerships are a terrible idea and always lead to drama and fireballs and stuff, are driven by people reporting on what makes the most noise, rather than on what’s actually the most common. There are good firm partnerships in SL that, while they may have the inevitable human problems now and then, do not go down in flames due to lies and deceit and drama, and so don’t make the news, but just go quietly on their ways, contributing to the general happiness of the universe. And that’s a good thing.

I’ve been going to Live Music events, with music both good and bad (when SL live music is bad, it’s pretty bad, but usually I still love it, even when the singer can’t actually sing). The ol’ friends list continues to grow more or less without bound (somewhere over 300 right now) ’cause people are nice, as does inventory (somewhere over 31,000 right now) ’cause there are freebies :) . And riffling through both the Friends list (updating the comments that I keep on the Notes page of profiles to remember who the heck everyone is) and inventory (to do what I laughably call “sorting”) continues to be fun and soothing.

And then I snuck inworld briefly recently to just sort of decompress and sort inventory when I really should have been doing other things, and got a very welcome IM that led to yet another pretend-fashion (only let’s call it “style”) thing:

What’s wrong with this picture? That’s right, I’m wearing shoes! Hey, when one of the classiest artists in SL IMs you about a place with great dollarbie ballet flats, you don’t stand on ceremony. So to speak.

Tricsi hair (recolored dark red by me) from some store in Tropicana Grand Oasis, bought on a whim while chasing Midnight Madness boards (see, they do work!).

Annie 2 skin from a piece of candy. (Got half a dozen or so skins there in a hunt sometime back, and they are nice!)

Allyson Capris from Sweet! (from a MM, I think).

Nice "dee dee" red knit tank top from a piece of candy’s new store. I think I might have bought that. :)

[chuchulet] white ballet flats from the dollarbie store at a piece of candy, whence Calli IMd me to say Hi and we got to talking about shopping!

And I’m chillin’ on the chillin crates from Mudhoney, bought or acquired on some hunt or something I forget.

(Kitty is hiding under the Pillow Talk pillow on the lower crate there, as usual, and that’s the sim map not quite rezzed yet in the background.)

And I think that’s about all I’ll write about for now. And since I’m just rambling, I don’t have to have a conclusion or anything! Cool. But send me comments anyway! :)

Jungle Cat

Welcome to another “let’s pretend to be a fashion blog” entry!

That’s me at home in my myPod in Extropia (nice Extropia beach in the background across the water), in a look that’s unusual for me (pale lips, footwear), but that I kinda liked. So I’m doing a pretend-fashionista post about it! (Click through to flickr for more sizes and stuff.)

Skin is “Jungle Cat”, a Midnight Madness exclusive at Ari’s Neko Retreat.

Hair (including built-in hat and neko ears) is from Dirty Lynx (and I don’t know what the item is called because I am not a real fashion blogger and didn’t take good notes QQ).

Bikini (with the flag of the Republic of Mew) obtained at Mew.

“Yumi” shorts from Dazzle that was (Back In The Day).

Wonderful black boots are I think “Versatile”, from the amazing Grim Bros; I usually go barefoot, but now I have two pairs of Grim Bros boots that I completely adore! On this (oddly monotone) Grim Bros flickr image you can see some of the cool things attached to them: there’s a hammer, a compass, some little moving things, a bandana or two, moneyz, and all sortsa other stuff. (Very thanks to the nice friend from whom these were a gift; yay presents!)

Awkward-looking stand-pose is from Linden Lab’s Noob Collection, wahahahaha.

Is that it? I forget what else fashionista postings are supposed to say. :) I should probably mention that I got these SLURLs mostly from landmarks of unknown age an’ I haven’t tested them lately. So TP at your own risk!

Calling not-yet-famous SL clothing designers!

Are you a talented clothing designer in SL, looking for a hightoned place to show your stuff? Are you tired of looking at an endless series of overpriced uninteresting square stalls, in malls where the vendor next door is selling badly-scripted genitalia and the only potential customers are 50m away on the camping chairs? Or do you know someone in that unfortunate position? In that case (ta-ta-ta-taaa), lookit the Shengri La Vintage Marketplace:

As Michele says on that flickr page:

The Shengri La Vintage Marketplace space is designed to give new designers a leg up for a short period of time.

If you are or know of an emerging fashion designer with lots of talent and ideas but no idea how to go about getting established, send a notecard to [Michele Hyacinth] the next time you’re inworld. Include your name, preferred time to contact in-game, a couple of sentences about your fashion line (hoped for or just getting started), and if you have pictures, add those too! Then I’ll be in touch!

(And let me say editorially that as well as being in one of the grid’s loveliest sims, one of the great attractions of this marketplace would be the opportunity to work with Michele, ’cause she is neat.)