Genre: Books in the Running Brooks

Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
I would not change it.

William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act II, Scene 1

Genre's Burlesque extravaganza is continuing halfway through the next month, but that's no reason to not head over right now! I made a second gilded look out of the incredible variation being sold, everything you can dream of to make an audience swoon. The glamour begins at the top, with this fantastic leaf-style headdress from +XAnSA+, complete with a color changing HUD which lets you customize every shade on it in three sections - the trim and center, the flats of the leaves and ovals on the center, and the gem accents. There are ten options for each area in the fatpack, the gems subtly different to offer some interest even if you go for the same shade across the board. You can also resize it via the same HUD, which lowers the script count when you finally wear this bad boy out on the town. For a lower cost you can pick up headdresses with pairings of two colors, but I think the full version gives you a lot more bang for your buck in terms of reusability.

Sunday Squee: Diamond Quest

The Sunday Squee is about things that make me happy and excited. From books to movies to television shows to podcasts, I'll highlight less commonly known things as a way to share what I love. If you want to join in the Sunday Squee, please link back to me, magnifying both of our joy.

One of the longer standing match-three games on my phone is Diamond Quest (iOS), a match-three with a collecting twist - as you collect keys in the game, you unlock boxes to "rescue" different animal companions from the evil Lucien who is capturing them for unknown nefarious purposes! I love the capturing them all quality of it, and how each has different abilities (they start to duplicate at higher levels, but it's not too bad) that you can use to beat the levels. Mixing and matching the abilities with the circumstances is a real challenge and makes it a lot more fun. As you match different colors of gem, you feed your puzzle companions who help you once they're fully charged. Leveling up the puzzle companions using more keys makes them go a little faster and unlocks special puzzle companions to help you out.

Unmet Needs

 "Every criticism is the tragic result of an unmet need." - John Rogers

John Rogers was talking about criticism of television shows, but this statement came alive inside of me especially in the context of the current political landscape.

"Every criticism is the tragic result of an unmet need."

From my perspective, the enthusiasm coalescing around Donald Trump, a man whose disregard and incompetence with his existing power frightens me greatly, is the result of feeling as if one is becoming increasingly marginalized when one grew up being told one should be centered. The story of the United States is one in which powerful and noble people came from across the sea, conquered the largely abandoned land, and then nobly opened it's arms for a long series of people seeking to improve their lives while the powerful and noble people retained benevolent control over it all. I was sold this story as a child and it was shocking to me as I learned the very different stories other people who had their own stories of the USA.

Sunday Squee: Marshawn Lynch Interviews

The Sunday Squee is about things that make me happy and excited. From books to movies to television shows to podcasts, I'll highlight less commonly known things as a way to share what I love. If you want to join in the Sunday Squee, please link back to me, magnifying both of our joy.

I don;t remember when I first was introduced to the phenomenon which is Marshawn Lynch. He retired in 2015 (announcing tweet) with his characteristic brevity, and while he was in public play he was known for his punishingly aggressive style on the field, and his incomprehension and annoyance at the expectation that tons of people will be able to ask him the same question over and over again while he answered them. His contract with his employers demanded he be there, though, so after he was fined he would show up and answer questions in his own idiosyncratic manner.

With the same words over and over again.

Hunt: Womanstuff: 51 - 75

The Womanstuff Hunt is on this August, covering 150 Stops. The Womanstuff Website has a list which includes some hints for people who might be struggling to find the tiny red t-shirt with "Womanstuff" printed across the chest. It is sometimes very, very tiny but I found the hints helpful for pointing me in the right direction!

1 - 50 | 26 - 50 | 51 - 75 | 76 - 100 | 101 - 125 | 126 - 150

Genre: Burlesque - Over-Run

The new Genre is Burlesque, and all the sexiest outfits and accessories have come out to play. My enormous fans and the poses which make such good use of them are from {NANTRA}, and they're redolent of the 1930s when it became a popular addition to erotic dance. The dance poses hint at the peek-a-boo nature of this burlesque classic, the large fans concealing and revealing in turn. {NANTRA}'s fans themselves are color change via touch and have white, black, and pink options, so they're easy to pair with just about any outfit... or lack thereof. I went with an outfit, selecting this purple and black number from Anachron. The corset with it's tuxedo tail is rigged mesh and comes with standard sizes as well as fitted to Bellezza, Maitreya, and Slink. I love the haltar top with it's bow behind the neck, detailed enough to stand on it's own while simple enough to work with accessories. The panties can be either a texture layer or applied using all of those plus the Omega system. There are five colors for sale, from soft shades for a classy joint to the brightest scarlet. It moves very well; I went the Slink route and no matter how I was animated, there wasn't any clipping and the panty layer was smooth and believable. The fascinator comes with it, a mesh hat with a veil that is editable and adaptable; fitting it was a breeze and I could make minor adjustments to the veil so it didn't clip my hair.

UBUMExORIGAMI - Room by Room

August is the month of ghosts in Japan, and Ubume has returned with another if it's Hunt Stories to chill you to your bones! This is the guide organized by room, so if you're stuck somewhere this may unstick you. I've also written a general introduction and the story hunt organized by deaths and endings, so head there if that's what you're looking for. Just as a warning - everything beyond here is potentially a spoiler! Quotes from the story are in italics and I've done some minor grammatical editing. Images come from the locations and videos.

The strange sound of chimes woke me up. I looked around, but I couldn't find anyone. I wonder how long I've been sleeping in here. Outside the window, there's a flaming sunset. I've got to hurry back home.

Sn@tch - Third Period

Sn@tch's fishing prize has changed to Third Period, a mix of weaters, pants, and skirts which can be mixed and matched and paired with long socks and sneakers. Fishing aren't the only freebies at Sn@tch, though; behind Sainhmihiu you can see the lucky boards, which are open to anyone hanging out there. I've gotten some awesome goodies form these lucky boards; it's especially cool that they include all the color variations shown in the standard sizes - perfect for a new player who is building up their clothing options.

7Seas Fishing is extremely newbie friendly - the basic fishing rod costs 100$L and you can catch everything at Sn@tch with it. The fish themselves are wearable - Sainmhiniu always wears a few of my favorites - and spin in circles around the wearer. If you pay extra for bait you can level up and pick up Rare, Ultra-rare, and Super-ultra-rare fish as well. Setting Sainmhiniu out to fish is always one of my pleasures, and I love seeing the sheer variety that Sn@tch provides.

UBUMExORIGAMI - Endings and Deaths

August is the month of ghosts in Japan, and Ubume has returned with another if it's Hunt Stories to chill you to your bones! This is the guide organized by deaths and endings, so if you're missing one you can go right to it. I've also added in story beats for the endings, each of which give you a different fraction of the story. I've also written a general introduction and the story hunt organized by location, so head there if that's what you're looking for. Just as a warning - everything beyond here is potentially a spoiler!

Enchantment: The Good Witch of the West

Most people forget that in the original Oz book there were two good witches - the unnamed Good Witch of the North, who initially met Dorothy at the sight of her landing, and gave her a protective kiss on her forehead. She was small, plump, and elderly with a warm spirit that was in contrast to the lean elegance of Glinda, the Good Witch of the South. She was further eclipsed in the movie, along with silver slippers, when Glinda took her place and introduced a plot hole which didn't exist in the original text. I love to revisit the original books in all their flawed glory, the dreams of a man written to please the fancies of young girls and further expanded to feed their appetite for wonder. Oz is one of the few historical series which are brimming with women, drowning even the sexism endemic to Baum's authorship in the glory of individuality and variety. It was with much glee that I realized this month's theme for Enchantment was the Wizard of Oz - and it has proved to be a wonderful reflection of the creativity and joy of it's source.

Hunt: Womanstuff: 26 - 50

The Womanstuff Hunt is on this August, covering 150 Stops. The Womanstuff Website has a list which includes some hints for people who might be struggling to find the tiny red t-shirt with "Womanstuff" printed across the chest. It is sometimes very, very tiny but I found the hints helpful for pointing me in the right direction!

1 - 50 | 26 - 50 | 51 - 75 | 76 - 100 | 101 - 125 | 126 - 150

Sunday Squee: UBUMExORIGAMI

August is the month of ghosts in Japan, and Ubume has returned with another if it's Hunt Stories to chill you to your bones! It starts today, August 11th, and will go until September 10th - so you have some time, but this tends to be time and effort intensive and well worth the work! When you're not playing, you can check out the large Shopping Area with tons of amazing Japanese and horror themed items for sale and an amazing environment for this haunted month. I ended up dressing myself on the sim, and I quite like the effect!The setting itself is lovely as well - spooky and atmospheric with many little touches along the way.

These fantastic story hunts are done via a HUD (Japanese and English versions) and have a lot of options and beautiful sets. They also have a strict script limit and are making the Free Starter Kit available via the marketplace, so you can get set up in private. The HUD itself will track your script amount, so once you're set at under 1000kb try to stay there. Once you put on the HUD agree to let it teleport you and you're pretty much good to go.

How NOT to Pick up a Chick in Second Life - Episode 17: I'm Not an NPC

A note - normally I change the name of the person who approaches me - often insultingly, but out of respect for their privacy. In this case I did not, largely because when I said no to him he went from annoying to outright hostile, and so I want to warn other people who might run into him about his nature when other people aren't obedient to his whims. I'm not a fan of men who become hostile when hearing no from a woman, and I think they should be exposed for who they are. 

In any case, it started out innocuously enough, a vaguely well dressed, over a year old avatar with an entirely blank profile IMed me while I was out taking pictures; he was walking away at the time so the initial part was in IMs.

LucasFlannery: hi
Deoridhe Quandry: Hello.
LucasFlannery: now are you
Deoridhe Quandry: I'm doing well; how are you?
LucasFlannery: feel only here in sl
Deoridhe Quandry: I don't understand?

I still have no idea what his third sentence means and he never clarified it. Also, a friendship notice and a teleport notice popped up and I cancelled both of them. After being teleported into a threesome and told "get on" (literally, the only thing he said to me) I've refused to accept teleports from people I don't know. I also dislike random friendship adds and never accept them. 

Deoridhe Quandry: Why are you offering me friendship and trying to teleport me?
LucasFlannery: like too dance here
Deoridhe Quandry: Ok, I'm happy for you.

Note - this wasn't a question, it was a statement. I'm not a huge Second Life dancer; for a while I went to the same club every Friday night and hung out with friends, but this guy showed no signs of actually being fun to spend time with. I also never know how to respond to these sorts of power plays besides digging in my heels - he was making statements and expecting me to do the work of turning them into questions and turning him into someone worth my time, and that just isn't how I roll. 

LucasFlannery: yes
LucasFlannery: come
LucasFlannery: pls

Someone who can't write out "please" is really putting effort into not putting any effort into it. He tried to teleport me again. I cancelled it.

Deoridhe Quandry: Why should I?
LucasFlannery: no fun
Deoridhe Quandry: You've given me no reason to want to spend time with you, much less follow your orders.

Sn@tch - Girls Over Flowers

Sn@tch's fishing prize has changed to the new, brief, and lovely Girls Over Flowers, worn by Sainmhiniu here. In the background you can see the vast crowds currently hanging out in the store, fishing their hearts out.

7Seas Fishing is extremely newbie friendly - the basic fishing rod costs 100$L and you can catch everything at Sn@tch with it. The fish themselves are wearable - Sainmhiniu always wears a few of my favorites - and spin in circles around the wearer. If you pay extra for bait you can level up and pick up Rare, Ultra-rare, and Super-ultra-rare fish as well. Setting Sainmhiniu out to fish is always one of my pleasures, and I love seeing the adorable outfits Sn@tch provides.

Genre: Midnight on the Pacific Shore

The Polynesian Theme of Genre is coming to it's end, and when it goes so will a wide variety of amazing decorations and fun outfits and accessories. I had fun putting together a small set off to one side of a friend's land before taking a few pictures. First, the set! The tall tiki torch and the squat table-sized torch are both from Anachron. They have a lovely shape, very simple shading, and a simply gorgeous flame on top. Both give a soft golden glow which brighten up their surroundings nicely. Behind this pair I put a trio of Little Llama's pineapple shaped lamps in a variety of colors. I'm showing the fruit colored, rainbow, and yellow, but there are several other options including a tintable white/ These lamps turn on and off on a touch, making them functional and decorative in one. In the background floating on the ocean is an adorable little lantern from Distorted Dreams which has a circle of flowers around it which can either be set to spin or be static. I love the combination, and having something to float on water is really perfect for a Polynesian theme.

Sunday Squee: The Democratic National Convention

The Sunday Squee is about things that make me happy and excited. From books to movies to television shows to podcasts, I'll highlight less commonly known things as a way to share what I love. If you want to join in the Sunday Squee, please link back to me, magnifying both of our joy.

There are real areas of critique for the Democrats, and before this year I've leaned independent despite voting with them, but this year's Democratic National Convention (DNC) made me really, really happy. It wasn't just that this is the first woman nominated as a major party candidate - though that is reason enough for celebration. This years Convention was inclusive across multiple axes and at multiple levels. In addition to nearly everyone in charge being a woman, many of them were black women. Several speakers were Muslim, despite fear-mongering against our fellow citizens. The first trans woman spoke at a National Convention and was amazing. 

The DNC said to me in word and deed that we need to come together in a broad coalition to make things better for everyone. That individuals are important and should be listened to. That black women are fucking awesome. That the US is full of diversity, and a lot of them were on our stage. That #Black Lives Matter. That gavels are hard to remember. That amateur speakers are among the most powerful speakers. That we can make a fully accessible stage, including a podium which resizes itself to fit each speaker. That Hillary met with a lot of individual people and they really, really love her. That balloons are fun for all ages.

C-Span has a fantastic page for exploring on your own, but I'm including some of my favorite moments below. 

Hunt: Womanstuff: 1 - 25

The Womanstuff Hunt is on this August, covering 150 Stops. The Womanstuff Website has a list which includes some hints for people who might be struggling to find the tiny red t-shirt with "Womanstuff" printed across the chest. It is sometimes very, very tiny but I found the hints helpful for pointing me in the right direction! The shirts are either 0$L or 1$L so have some petty cash on hand to pick them up as you go.

1 - 25 | 26 - 50 | 51 - 75 | 76 - 100 | 101 - 125 | 126 - 150

Month of the Blog: July 2016

This month I had a little fun filling out my People of Second Life images, but a lot of time was spent offline and doing other things. I did manage to catch the tail end of Second Life's 13th Birthday, and published a new How NOT too, which will undoubtedly be popular. I'm beginning to feel balanced again, so hopefully August will be a lot more active!

Top Ten Posts in May:

1. Tutorial: Graphics Settings in Second Life
2. Sn@tch - For the Love of Vice
3. How NOT to Buy a Skin
4. Sunday Squee: Pokémon Go 
5. Genre: Polynesia - In the Wilds
6. It's Been a Sad July
7. Sunday Squee: Second Life's 13th Birthday
8. Suspended
9. Genre: Aerial Silks
10. Sunday Squee: Lassitude & Ennui

Sunday Squee: Lassitude & Ennui

The Sunday Squee is about things that make me happy and excited. From books to movies to television shows to podcasts, I'll highlight less commonly known things as a way to share what I love. If you want to join in the Sunday Squee, please link back to me, magnifying both of our joy.

I have been wearing Lassitude & Ennui for six years, and they have been glorious. With their delicate and creative shapes and gorgeous textures, Lassitude & Ennui turn out new and interesting accessories, shoes, and sometimes even clothing. Above you can see an example of jewelry, the theme consistent across a bunch of different pieces - crown, earrings, and a dual layered necklace. Below, you can see an example of one of their dresses with crisp textures and interesting silhouette. I love the asymmetrical skirt with a flounce paired with a halter top, all of it trimmed with slightly shiny ribbon. The entire effect is light and springy, especially with the soft texture over the rest of the dress. Below that is a pairing of outfit and boots - a gorgeous Gothic ensemble with dress and jacket separates that I paired with calf-height boots. This was one of their first outfits and it has some fantastic curves built in, with ribbon and bow accents.

How NOT to Buy a Skin

[Coddle Me]: hey do you got the yellow skin for female tmp body/heads?
[Coddle Me]: or is it male only

[Skin Store 1 Owner]: The female was sold out

[Coddle Me]: :(

[Skin Store 1 Owner]: it's a limited edition color

[Coddle Me]: please can i have one

[Skin Store 1 Owner]: No, I'm sorry. I may do a new version of it for the Gen2 skins, but that won't be for a while now

[Coddle Me]: ill pay extra

[Skin Store 1 Owner]: no, Sorry

Genre: Polynesia - In the Wilds

I'm all decked out for Polynesia, this month's Genre theme. The US has two named territories here - one is the state of Hawai'i, known for it's laid back nature and rich heritage, and the other is American Samoa, an unincorporated protectorate that is largely unknown to most USAns. Both are island chains grouped in with the rest of Polynesia, enjoying tropical weather. American Samoa, along with a lot of Polynesia, was annexed by other countries during the continuing colonization of the late eighteen hundreds, finally ending up under US. The President of the US remains the Head of State, though American Samoa also has it's own Constitution and elected government separate from that of the US, and they send a non-voting delegate to the US House of Representatives. Culturally, American Samoa and Hawai'i have many similarities through their mutual connection with the US despite having different original cultures. Also, most residents of American Samoa are Samoan, while a lot of Hawai'i is Asian immigrants with the native population greatly diminished and their cultural heritage interrupted by laws denying them their language and practices until very recently. I can't imagine what it would be like to be denied your past only to have people transform it into something for sale - part of me wonders at putting on the colors and dress of a place that is still here but so separate from me, but I can't deny the beauty of the islands and an attraction to cultures of respect and mutuality.

Tutorial: Graphics Settings in Second Life

Clever use of graphics settings in Second Life can make taking pictures in world much easier and more effective, as well as letting lower end computers still produce high quality images. Knowing which to use when speeds up photography, especially in circumstances outside of the photo-studio, where lag and other people can be much more of an issue. Above is the final image we're working towards, using shadows and windlight settings to draw a strong diagonal across the image straight to her face, while simultaneously anchoring the image with the clock toward in the deep background.I'm also working to minimize a couple of issues at play which I'll point out as we move our way up through the levels of systemic complexity. I would find moving around with the above settings a real challenge, and framing an image almost impossible; the lag on my system is simply too intense for detailed movement.

Sunday Squee: Pokémon Go

The Sunday Squee is about things that make me happy and excited. From books to movies to television shows to podcasts, I'll highlight less commonly known things as a way to share what I love. If you want to join in the Sunday Squee, please link back to me, magnifying both of our joy.

Pokémon Go is the first pokémon (pocket monster) game I've ever played, though I've bumped elbows with it's knock-offs a few times, and I came to play it circuitously, through Niantic's previous (and still running) game Ingress. However, where Ingress encouraged territory taking and keeping, Pokémon Go has a fun solo play component to it which reinforces the exploration aspects of its cousin. First - the basics; you can sign up either through a gmail account or the Pokémon website - in either case I strongly suggest using a pseudonym or a throw-away email account as this is a GPS game which has different privacy concerns than a purely online game. The same goes for your official name in game, which will show up on gyms and on the pictures you take of your pokémon in the wild (I cropped my images to remove my pseydonym). Also, the names are unique, so having a pre-selected list of options makes a lot of sense.

It's Been a Sad July

Things seemed to get worse after Orlando.

Content Note: I keep flash off, so I don't know how many of these pages have autoplaying video of people being killed,and the hashtags often have images of bodies. Follow links carefully.

July 1st was the worst terrorist attack in the history of Bangladesh, when members of the Jamaeytul Mujahdeen took hostages for twelve hours; twenty-nine people were killed, including five of the six Bangladeshi men who took them hostage.

July 3rd, over three hundred people were killed in a Baghdad bombing targeting a Shi'ite area of the city; it was the deadliest bombing in Iraq this year. Some information about the slain was released, and Iraquis poured out their grief on the #NotJustANumber hashtag.

July 4th, Delrawn Small was shot after approaching an off duty police officer after an interaction on the road (surprisingly, the officer was stripped of his gun and badge after video evidence contradicted his statement).

July 5th, Anton Sterling was shot after being pinned down by police; Chris DeLay, the man who posted the video, was detained by police the next day.

Sn@tch - For the Love of Vice

Sn@tch is one of the 7Seas Fishing holes left on the grid that offers bonus clothing if you have some patience. All of the pieces are available for fishing without bait, and it can be a really fun activity, a way to pick up some floating fish, and an easy way to pick up some awesome outfits.

Right now, the Sn@tch outfit Sainmhiniu is wearing up front is available for catching. Right behind me, in the teal, is someone wearing the last outfit that was catchable there - Then Paloma Danced. For Love of Vice includes five different colors of this outfit, the tights and boots, the hairbow and glasses, and omega appliers for all of the textures included. The skirt comes in standard sizes, and I've had very little problem fitting it. It's extremely newbie friendly - the basic fishing rod costs 100$L and you can catch everything with it - and the quality is very high. Also, what can be fished for changes at least twice a month, and several times a year Sn@tch does "grab bag" releases, where entire items of sets of accessories are boxed up and made catcheable.

I'm an absent fisher - the 7Seas Rods allow one to catch endlessly - and I used the Oceanography Database to limit my catches to novel fish, it automatically checks them off as I go. Sainmhiniu is often fishing in the background on a Radegast browser while I do other things, so I have a small collection of extras which end up given to friends or handed off to newbies I run into. The fish themselves are a delight; I have a full set on my main as well as almost a full set on Sainmhiniu,and love to watch them swim around me. 7Seas Fish also include some secondary games - the blueprints, for example, let you collect a few items of different levels and combine them to create a bunch of different prizes, like the Oceanography Database I mentioned above or a rezzable boat which lets one fish within it's vicinity. There is a breeding game as well, where you can combine Flame Angel fish to make children. There are rezzable items, like fish tanks, and decorations, and fish competition games and fishing contests as well. The nicest thing is how fishing holes can be customized - many of them offer custom eggs and treasures and you can find them through the 7Seas Public Fishing Hole List, which updates automatically.

Sunday Squee: Second Life's 13th Birthday

The Sunday Squee is about things that make me happy and excited. From books to movies to television shows to podcasts, I'll highlight less commonly known things as a way to share what I love. If you want to join in the Sunday Squee, please link back to me, magnifying both of our joy.

I've been spending much of the day wandering around Second Life's 13th Birthday celebration, which is open through the weekend. The stages are all organized works of art spanning one to four sims at once while the display sims are broken up into about twenty-five individual squares, each in the hands of a different builder. The effect is cacophonous, highly eclectic, and often a challenge to photograph! I love it as a measure of the sheer breadth of people and talent in Second Life - by and large this is a world made up of enthusiastic amateurs, and the birthday celebration is always a striking place to see that set side by side. It's also a good place to pick up some freebies and landmarks of things to explore in the wider Second Life universe - I already have a few landmarks and notecards for when the Birthday sims close. The cake stage has already been exploded into tiny bits, but the rest will remain in place for another couple of days before they're returned. Whether you want to try to catch it all, or just seek out the highlights, I highly recommend heading over before it all vanishes into the mists.

Month of the Blog: June

This month I tried to get back into art in a small way and it happened, but not as much as I could have wished. I also experimented with using alts to show off hunt prizes, and that went rather well. This was also the month when I finally began treatment for ADD, and the month my cat looked very sick but may have just become much pickier about his food. It's been a lot of ups, a lot of downs, and not much in between - not conducive for being in Second Life, much less blogging about it! For next month, I hope to get back into my more regular posts - the Colour Challenge, the Art Analysis, my Sunday Squees. We'll see if it comes to pass!

Top Ten Posts in May:

1. Poppin' Penguin Hunt!: Summer Lovin'
2. Genre: New Republic
3. Hamlet - In a Nutshell
4. Say Their Names
5. Suspended
6. Midnight Madness: You See Right Through Me
7. LEA 26, 27, 28, and 29 - Pop-Up Art
8. Sunday Squee: Bare@Rose's Raffle
9. SL13B: Something Sweet
10. Cosmetics Faire: Six Colors, Six Looks

Genre: French Revolutions

"130 noms, 130 vies arrachées, 130 destins fauchés, 130 rires que l'on n'entendra plus, 130 voix qui à jamais se sont tues. Ces femmes, ces hommes, incarnaient le bonheur de vivre. C'est parce qu'ils étaient la vie qu'ils ont été tués. C'est parce qu'ils étaient la France qu'ils ont été abattus. C'est parce qu'ils étaient la liberté qui'ils ont été massacrés."

"Malgré les larmes, cette génération est aujourd'hui devenue le visage de la France."

François Hollande, President of the French Republic

130 names, 130 torn lives, 130 destinies broken, 130 peoples whose laughter we hear no more, 130 voices that have fallen silent. These women and these men embodied the joy of living. Because of this life that they were killed. Because they were France they were shot. Because they were free they were slaughtered.

Despite the tears, this generation is the face of France.

Cosmetics Faire: Six Colors, Six Looks

The amount of options at the Cosmetics Faire are simply jaw dropping, and I had fun flipping through the rainbow and exploring a bunch of options! The hair choices are awesome this time around. Pink Hustler has the cutest off-center ponytail design, another bit of hair wrapped around it's base and the rigged trailing ends available in normal and busty. It's recolorable via a HUD, offering up a ton of options with a single click. The textures come with a ton of options and most include subtle root shading. Ayashi also went the updo route - this time with a cute bun style complete with loose tendrils; I especially like the tendrils out of the buns themselves - gorgeous bit of verisimilitude. It comes both rigged and resizable and is recolorable via a HUD and the fatpack has a truly impressive array of options, from the realistic to the magical. [KoKoLoReS] has a couple of styles on offer; below I show off Robin, a short style with a fun, asymmetrical bang line. I really love the way the hair curves, as if it were cut by a master stylist. It comes with options for a single tint and a dichoromatic setup via various HUDs and the colors included are clear and bright. The final style I'm showing off is a short, curly style from Lovey Dovey with lots of body and one of my favorite things - tons of ombre textures including a fantastic rainbow - though I'm showing off a Torley style watermelon ombre in these images.

SL13B: Something Sweet

Second Life is celebrating another birthday - thirteen years! - and seventeen sims are decked out with a panoply of creations, artistic endeavors, styling stages, freebies of varying quality, and enthusiasm. I love wandering around attempting to take meaningful pictures while exploring the enormous variation in Second Life - while the stages tend to be high end creations from some of the foremost builders in Second Life, anyone can get one of the 36 parcels per exhibition sim to share their time, their art, their beliefs, their mysteries, their dedication. The results are always mixed; some displays are striking, some encourage the traveler to linger, some are confusing or involved while others are impossible to capture.

Genre: New Republic

The French New Republic is the theme for this round of Genre - that unnerving period of time after the French Revolution, when mores and values were overturned for good reasons and often violent ends. When I was a child, I perceived this revolution as serving all of France; as an adult, I'm all too aware of the privilege of those who took power after the initial riots. As power and prejudice combine to threaten the US now, as progress toward equality slams into fear of change, these historical revolutions seem a lot more relevant. So was who ended up suffering the most - the poor, people of color, religious minorities; I no longer believe that time arcs toward justice, but I hope we have enough people to make justice and it's siblings mercy and compassion, more central than they are now. The US is an old republic, now; we'll have to see what we can make of it, imperfect as we are.