Category Archives: Blogger Challenges

Any blogger challenges, not just IOF challenges

Blogger Challenge: We Are All Just Walking Each Other Home

Clawtooth Blogger Challenge: We are all just walking each other home.

Clawtooth by Clawtooth Over and Over

Ram Dass, a pop spirituality writer, once said, “We are all just walking each other home.” It is a quote that has stayed with me since the day I first heard it.

Bubbles Clawtooth is walking his mother home. Bubbles’ mama has ALS, a neurodegenerative disease created to break hearts and spirits, but Bubs is too strong, too busy, and too needed to fall apart except perhaps for moments of silent screaming while driving to the pharmacy or grocery store. Because he is her child and her caretaker, he wrote that he feels like “the primary joy in her world which is both a treasure and a large cross to bear. Being strong when your heart feels like it’s shattering along with there being 24-hour needs and very little time for autonomy is by far the most difficult thing Bubs has ever had to face (and Bubs has faces some things darlings). It’s a living nightmare in one moment and a dear treasure the next.” Bubbles finds the strength in his love and joy in his service, but that does not make this walk easy.

Sometimes it helps when someone walks with you a little distance,even  if only in spirit. So I propose a Blogger Challenge to show our support and solidarity with Bubbles.

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Yearbook Challenge

Yearbook Smile Saying Cheese does not work

Nonconformist of the Year – The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. – George Bernard Shaw. .

Second Life® Memestress Strawberry Singh has kicked off 2015 with a fun blogger challenge. She asked folks to shoot a high school yearbook picture with a smile – and explain how we achieved that smile. It was not easy, but I did manage a ghost of a smile.

How I Did It: I used a combination of methods, adjusting my face shape, using tips from Melanie Kidd.  Then I turned on slow animations following Gogo’s tips on slow motion animation and Iris Ophelia’s tips on lip-synching.

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Saying Cheese did not work at all!

Yearbook SmileI also tried using emotes on the AnyPose HUD I use to control my eyes in combination with the lip-synching and slow animation. OH well! PhotoShop can help.

Yearbook

 

Poses: Adorkable
Truth Hairbase – copper
(Kunglers Extra) TDRF #051 – earring – silver
*Dura-Boys&Girls*45(Mocha)
*MC* “Falsies” Eyelash – Upper+Lower (add)
AnyPose Expression HUD v1.0 – Wear Me
ISON – angora sweater -S- (plum)
[PXL] MIA NAT Opulence ~ Makeup 03 MEB C2
[UMEBOSHI] Eon eyes Dark Green (med)

Berry’s meme: a close friend

Mischief Managed (6)

I am still wandering Hogwarts, and thought you might like to see it. I’ve posted a few more photos of the sim over on my blog, but — GEMINIO. Here are more! In the bottom photo you can see my wand, the Schadenfreude Celestial wand. It’s beautiful and magical, and I swear I didn’t turn Allegory into the newt that hyasynth is holding.

Yesterday, I began to work on Berry’s meme, revealing the deep, dark secret that Acha was born a man but forced to cross-dress ever since. The second part of the meme is about friendship.

2. Blog about one of your closest friends in Second Life.

Lucky for me it’s hyasynth Tiramisu. I think the gist of this meme asks the question, what makes a good friend in Second Life? I think for me it’s a combination of honesty and loyalty. At the beginning of my career as a blogger, my pictures were horrendous crap. hyasynth has always gently assisted me, pointing out that I probably need poses other than my AO, that I should perhaps blog things besides her own clothing, that spending some time learning Photoshop would help me develop my eye. All of these things were true, and have helped me grow as a blogger.

I’m still growing and learning, but I’ll remember the lovely moment when hyasynth actually “liked” some of my photos on Flickr. It felt like my mentor was giving me a decent grade! Aside from simply helping me grow as an SL photographer, hya inspires me constantly with all of her art. She’s always growing and pushing herself, and is one of the hardest-working ladies that I know.

hyasynth and her newest baby

Mischief Managed (5)

Wizarding Faire:
Skin: My Ugly Dorothy – The Good Lady
Cloak: FATEplay Cloak – Drake – Medium – Serpent
Shoes: Lassitude & Ennui Batty Shoes in green/silver
Book: Schadenfreude Curious Flora (wearing)
Wand: Schadenfreude Celestial Wand

Other:
Pants: Plastik Elizabeth Mesh Pants in Darkness
Eyes: NP Lunar eyes in Lettuce
Glasses: Lassitude & Ennui Pince-Nex “Steampunk” silver
Hair: Little Heaven Quentin Silver (vintage)
Shirt: Schadenfreude Ivory Oxford
Collar and tie: Schadenfreude You-Know-Who necktie pack with oxford collar
Hands: Slink fist and casual

Berry’s meme: I’m a man, baby

Sirius Black (2)

When I first heard about Wizarding Faire, I thought to myself: Oh yes, now I can be my favorite Harry Potter character, SIRIUS BLACK! So instead of trying on any of the fine clothing from the Faire itself, I scoured Marketplace for a green frock coat, so as to better embody Mr. Black. Sadly I didn’t find one. But I’ve done the best I could, aided by a tattoo beard and flowing RP locks from Calico.

Here’s Mr. Black defending himself from the Hogwarts Express. He’s going to be around all week, and I’ll probably tweak him a little here and there (over in my blog), so you can see the evolution of this RP character. (Hm. I wonder if the Wizarding World needs a good Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher…)

But on to the important part of this post, Berry’s meme. This week, it’s the “Your Avatar’s Private Life Challenge.” I realized that my Wizarding Faire post fits this meme incredibly well, because…

Here’s a secret: my avatar, Achariya Maktoum, was born a boy. That’s right, fresh-out-of-the-box Acha was something like “Gothic Male” (that was a thing in 2007, right?). I’ve always been completely honest about the fact that Acha’s player is a married mom, although I hear that this isn’t what the cool kids do. But along the way, I got seduced by all the pretty dresses (I blame hyasynth) and Mr. Achariya swiftly became Ms. Achariya.

Therefore…

1. Meme Suggested by Mr. Jefferson: “What does your avatar get up to after you log out?”

I always imagine Acha grumbling whenever I force him into a girl shape. “Darnit, player. You created me as a man, why can’t I just keep my manly shape?” “You be quiet, Achariya Maktoum! You get into that cute petite girl shape and PUT ON THAT FROCK!” So whenever I leave SL, I suspect that Acha immediately loses the girl shape and slides into a suit. “Ahhh, finally,” I can imagine him saying, “I can reattach my…”

That’s why this blog post suits the meme. I’m pretty sure that when I’m not around, Acha plays with his wand out of sheer relief. The wand, by the way, is by Schadenfreude for the Wizarding Faire, and it comes with three poses, beautiful texture options, and MAGIC.

2. Blog about one of your closest friends in Second Life.

I’ll do this part of the meme tomorrow.

Sirius Black (3)

Sirius Black (1)

Homorphus!

Eyes: Shine Lustrous Arctic (large)
Watch: Elate Silver Pocket Watch Necklace
Pants: ~silentsparrow~ Batty Suit
Skin: Ugly Duck Uriel – beard – scars
Shirt: Schadenfreude Strigoi Oxford
Beard: [K] TMD Facial Hair – beard
Hands: Slink male hands – closed and relaxed. The closed one has the wand.
Shoes: Lassitude & Ennui Arcanist Shoes in black
Hair: Calico Liam in browns
Jacket: Phunk Mesh BW Pinstripe Suit
Wand: Schadenfreude Dragon Wand with magic and poses

What if you made an entire avatar look from just one sim?

What if I made an avvie from just one sim? (2)

One day, peeking down from Jackal’s sky platform, I realized that Nouveau has somehow cornered lots of awesome shops. It made me realize that without much trouble, I could put together an entire avatar from just one sim. I made a pretty Nouveau princess, and it was fun. And then I thought, wouldn’t it be neat to see what other people do?

So here’s my challenge: What if you made an entire avatar look (skin, hair, eyes, outfit, everything) from just one sim?

It can be any sim you like, and you can do this challenge as many times as you like using a different sim each time. Why not?

Here’s my look. I tried to fit in all the shops, although I’m waiting for Miss Roslin to finish making the new Luxuria!

What if I made an avvie from just one sim? (1)

It’s Never Just Hair

jul28_006

Today is the last day of Hair Fair, so that means it is Bandana Day. Today we take off our hair and wear a bandana in solidarity with all those who have lost their hair in their struggles to live with illness whether from cancer or alopecia or whatever. Hair Fair exists to provide hair for young people who have lost theirs and the proceeds go to Wigs For Kids. Think about how stressful it is to go out on a bad hair day, now how many more times more difficult would it be with no hair? Supporting Wigs for Kids will help them put an end to bad/no hair days.

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The floral bandana from Lelutka sent me on a mission to mix florals, but in such a way that they worked together. The dress from Decoy for Collabor88 has such a soft tone on tone pattern that is almost seems like a solid in contrast to the bold scarf.

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scuse me, uuumm yea…..can I have yo numba!?

So I did Berry’s What’s your Digits Challenge today and here is what I got..

digits_0088

Proportions Challenge Questions:

  1. Do you try and keep your avatar’s body proportionate and similar to the “average” proportions pictured above? – I guess not, I try t make them some what realistic but I’m not a stickler to making it perfectly proportionate. I think it’s really almost impossible to do so given the limited range in number on the mesh.
  2. What do you dislike the most about the SL avatar mesh? – The back, it does this strange wonky thing near the pits unless you go full throttle on the shoulder slider.
  3. Does it bother you when you see other avatars that are not proportionate at all? – That depends. There are some people (most of whom I think are probably men) who want that super exotic and shapely female body but go crazy on the tits and ass and max them out. Like, come on…who looks like that? But, it’s SL..so live out your fantasy I guess. Who am I to judge?
  4. Even though this is a virtual world and people can be anything they want to be, do you feel when they are in human form, they should try to keep their proportions close to average? Like I said, they can do what they want but I think pony riders and trex arms look ridiculous and wish that trend would do away.

The Silence of the Prims

Silence of the Prims

When this idea popped into my head, I had to do it even though I am so far behind on so many things I had not planned to do Berry’s SL Movie Poster Challenge at all. However, when I was trying to finish things up for our Blogger Carnival at SL10B and SL would not even let me rez a wood box, I was feeling homicidal – at that moment, I could have been a serial prim killer. And that’s when I thought of doing this – and of course, just had to shoot it. It was not terribly difficult. I made a mouthie with a death head moth and that’s about it for shooting in SL. Even the editing was mostly making it black and white in parts and adding noise. Anyway, hope you like it. The skin – as much as you can see is PXL Creations, the eyes are Insufferable Dastard and the Death Head Moth was made by me.
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Attack Of The SupaTall Woman!

Let’s talk about how hard it is to find ANYTHING miniature in SL. Making this poster was very time consuming and difficult but I’m loving the end result. I made the buildings, bridge, roads, pose, trees and grass myself. Basically, the only thing I didn’t make are the vehicles and the things I’m wearing. Post Processing involved adding the ppl and some of the background which is from the original poster. I also had to mod my shape a bit too, I made her SUPA TALL, like, I maxxed out the height stuff. Strawberry Singh issued this challenge and since I was already making movie inspired pictures for the Hair Fair Contest…I thought what the hell. I hope you enjoy my poster as much I do!

Attack_00444

Original:

attack_of_the_50ft_woman

Hybie Is Wearing:

Skin: Belleza – Berry Pale 5
Hair: TuTy’s – DIVA Vintage Hair – Copper
Top: eTude – bra – white
Skirt: Happy Undead – Mini SKirt Vinyl White
Pose – Custom Made By Me

Teach Me Something: Planning

May21_004

I am ready to plan with my notebook and laptop tucked neatly into this fabulous tote from BSD Design Studio. The fun and flirty skirt is from the brand new store, Lacuna. it comes in all sorts of happy, stripey color combinations.

Strawberry Singh’s Teach Me Something meme appeals to me. To be honest, I do not do a lot of the memes and challenges because what with all the weekly challenges from colors, to Disney characters, to concept challenges to these weekly memes, a person can easily lose track of their own blogging and become just one more iteration of the various weekly themes. However, this meme is particularly fascinating. I would love to learn about skills people use in their real lives – and get an insight into their interests and passions outside of Second Life®.

In my professional life, I probably spent more time planning than doing. After all, there were lots of volunteers and members for the doing, carrying out the plans we made. I did all sorts of planning: planning for conferences, board meetings, dinners, auctions and other fundraisers; planning lobbying campaigns to pass legislation, planning electoral campaigns for candidates and for ballot measures, strategic planning for long-term growth and development. All these kinds of planning have unique challenges, but there are some core elements that they have in common. That is what I thought I might teach.

How to plan.
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