I am always fascinated by how people think of and describe Second Life. Some people say it’s a game and some say a virtual form of social media. I think of it as a community center with infinite rooms for infinite communities to grow and develop. It’s like yeast, fermenting creativity and community.
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Hello, world! That’s what the blank sample post always starts with in WordPress and it seems appropriate as it has been a long time since I last blogged. Fifteen months! I won’t bore you with all the details, but I have been having some health issues that just made SL seem overwhelming.
On to more interesting topics like this gorgeous Poker Suit from Baiastice. I don’t know why it’s called Poker Suit, except maybe the décolletage will distract other players enough to help you win. I can see that happening. The top is tailored with a pagoda shoulder, a fitted waist, and a styling HUD that allows you to wear it cropped or with a peplum. You can also wear it with the bra showing or hidden and choose from a range of colors. The pencil skirt length can also be shortened with the HUD. There are a range of solid and prints. I chose this lovely lace brocade. With the print, I wanted a simple, classic shoe and there’s nothing more classic than Slink’s Siren stilettos
The jewelry is from Kunglers. I am wearing the Lola necklace and Vera earrings. Both come with a HUD scripted to allow changes to the metal and stones. The necklace also allows us to change the color of the cords. The nails are from AlaskaMetro, the Kimono manicure suiting the laciness of the suit.
Finally, Glam Affair’s Stella adds the final touches.
****SHOPPING LIST*****
Francis Bacon,the great scientist-philosopher wrote, “In order for the light to shine brightly, the darkness must be present.” The truth of this is demonstrated every time I work with projectors. They are brightest when it is darkest. I thought of this quote, though, in relation to this avant garde outfit from Liziaah. It explores form and texture and through its form, the interplay of dark and light. Released in deep, dark shades of aubergine, royal blue and black, the colors provide the darkness.
Explorations of form, curving shapes and an open back reveal the light of exposed skin made brighter by their relation to the dark, rich fabrics.
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It’s such a sad old feeling
the fields are soft and green
it’s memories that I’m stealing
but you’re innocent when you dream
when you dream
you’re innocent when you dream
Tom Waits
Penumbra Spring Summer Fashion Week wraps up today, though the shops will remain open for the month. Today I am wearing a top and skirt by Glitter called Lauren. It comes with a HUD that allows you to pick six texture options for the top and the skirt. I went for the solid black top and the black skirt with a pinstripe inset. The top is very short and just barely covers the nipples, leaving the underside of the breasts bare. That’s not my preference, so I added a bodysuit from Sn@tch, using their applier for the Slink Physique so I did not have to worry about the Glitter top fitting over the Sn@tch top. Besides, I think the teal and black lace adds a nice touch. Continue reading
This Prey jacket for Penumbra Spring Summer Fashion Week goes over a coordinating corset. It seems like a capelet with short sleeves. It has long points that drop down and from which a silver spikes are suspended. Here you can see the point drops to the mid back.
I have spent a good portion of my life on buses; school buses, tour buses, Greyhound and Trailways buses and public transit buses. Of course, that means I have also spent a good portion of my life waiting for buses.
Among the many places I have waited, the most interesting, entertaining, freaky, funny, scary and downright wild place is Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis on Saturday night. I would get off work at the planetarium just as the demi-monde was coming to life, late enough that missing one bus meant a long wait for the next one. A woman alone was often presumed to be on the stroll, so I had the “pleasure” of turning down many propositions. I am told that the infamous Block E where I would wait has been leveled and a new entertainment mall has replaced it. I suppose that would make for a more comfortable wait for the bus, but there was something vibrant, vital and exciting about Hennepin that I hope is never lost.
Of course, if this were Hennepin there would be at least three level of signs on every building and hundreds of people on the sidewalk.
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.
Saying Cheese did not work at all!
I 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.
I love the form of this sweater dress from NYU. It subtle shift from regular knit to rib knit to hug the waist and forearms is gorgeous. I love the slight blousing out on the sleeves and the top. It comes in two versions, with and without a collar. I chose the collarless option because I decided to add the gorgeous oversized shawl from Baiastice. Both items come in many colors to allow you to find your own favorite. (All photos are raw shots loaded directly to Flickr from Second Life®. They are not even cropped because the viewer crashes when I try to save to disk.)
I really love how the scarf drapes in the back as well. I included to picture to show off the wonderful Christmas Lighting Pine Trees from 3D Trees and explain how I edited them to make them even better.
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Since my five siblings were married before I turned four, I essentially grew up at Grandma’s House. My mom and dad were Grandma and Grandpa. My nieces and nephews loved to come stay during summer break and during Christmas vacation. Living a lake with more than twenty miles of forest behind us, there were always plenty of things to do.
We loved to have winter skating parties. My dad, my uncle and I would clear a big square on the ice and put up posts about every eight to ten feet, stringing Christmas lights from post to post, encircling the open skating area. We piled a big stack of wood and brush at the deep end for a bonfire and set down some logs around them for seating while we roasted marshmallows and hot dogs. We laid an old wooden door on the piled snow for a table for our hotdogs and marshmallows for roasting and there was always a pot of baked beans and some casseroles resting on cans of Sterno® to balance the meal. Picnicking in the snow is something not to be missed!
Mom had an outdoor speaker system to pipe music down to the lake and we danced on our skates. My brother would bring his sleigh and horses, the neighbors would bring their snowmobiles. We partied for hours and the signal to go home was when the bonfire melted through the ice and fell into the lake – which usually took about four hours or so since the ice was so thick.
Bizza’s Asymmetrical Jacket is fun, casual and goes perfectly with the Josie pants.The Josie pants come with a HUD offering three options for each pair of pants. The details on these pants are out of this world.
Most of our friends are not our friends; they are acquaintances, contacts, colleagues and associates. However, in social media, we lump the people on our mobilization phone trees together with those for whom we would give up a kidney. The act of reading each others timelines foster that sense of shared intimacy that is the hallmark of real friendship. The boundaries blur and sometimes we invest more emotionally in those who are merely ships passing by, mistaking acquaintanceship for friendship. More than one person has been devastated recently by opinions of “friends” they have mistaken for friends.
However true friendship requires more than knowing the name of my cat or my political persuasion. Friendship is an investment in trust and intimacy. We share our best selves with our “friends” and share our flaws with our friends. You know someone is your friend when you know you can safely confess some petty, spiteful thoughts and feeling, secure that your friendship will not falter. That is why the opinions of “friends” should be taken lightly. They know of us. They know about us. They do not know us.
It’s fall and that means that plaid is in bloom. While nothing prevents us from wearing plaid in the spring and summer and nothing prevents us from having plaid cottons, taffetas, silks and organzas, we still most often see plaid in rich, cozy wools perfect for cool, crisp autumn days. This plaid skirt and cowl sweater are from Shai Delacroix. I remember in 2008, my friends and I would make weekly pilgramages to Casa del Shai to see if and what she may have released. She took a bit of a sabbatical for a bit, but since her return she has been releasing all sorts of new and wonderful mesh with a focus on great separates for everyday wear.