Genre (Medieval): Dane-geld

It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation 

To call upon a neighbour and to say: -- 

"We invaded you last night--we are quite prepared to fight, 

Unless you pay us cash to go away." 

And that is called asking for Dane-geld, 

And the people who ask it explain 

That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld 

And then you'll get rid of the Dane! 

Genre: Wild Derby Girls Run Free

This Genre look is a combination of bunches of things, and I think it turned out rather well! One of the things I love about Roller Derby is how the looks can combine femininity and aggression into a single, cohesive whole - neither undermines the other in this world of battle. In addition to a bunch of things pulled in from my inventory, I combined pieces from Sn@tch's Roller Rebel Bodysuit - most of the textures on my form - and :{MV}:'s Hellcat Derby rigged mesh pieces into a cohesive whole. It amazes me how seamlessly everything fits together; the textured bodysuit with it's long sleeves and high waisted corset piece tucks beautifully under all three :{MV}: pieces. I used the white bodysuit to balance out the dark red of my :{MV}: top, and balanced the red out with a pair of tights from Stellar and the Anachron helmet in black, red, and white.

In the Pink

It all starts with a smile is back!!

For all the Lolita's out there - I found bloomers that work under puffed skirts. Check out Goji for them in a few different color packs and never worry about flashing your scants again!

Dreamers by Cica Ghost on LEA24

When I first landed on Cica Ghost's latest creation, Dreamers, I'll admit to being disappointed by the simplicity. I should have trusted her more.

First - where I began.

The landing point is a platform from which you can see the entire floor level under a sky held back by chain linking that arches overhead in front of an orange sky. The sky itself is built in - a moving texture which does its eerie job perfectly. There are a few scrubly trees here and there; the one technical flaw is in layering the texture of the chain link with the textures of the trees - sometimes the alpha occlusion error kicks in, and it looks a little odd. I found right-clicking the chain link did a lot to solve that issue, though, reminding the browser what was behind what.

Everywhere you look there are crows turning their heads and blinking at you. Fields of rusty flowers, their golden faces turned toward the sky, blossom here and there on an otherwise forbidding, stone landscape. Ghost's landscapes always draw from her past, offering up stylistic consistency and a sense that these all exist within the same milieu, and the flowers serve that purpose here offering echoes of Small Town and Balloons. The trees are black and leaf-bare, and are the only tall things in view except for the sixteen stone faces on long stone necks peering up into the sky. I went with the sim default windlight, and it's a soft light with distinct, dark shadows and heat haze in the air; I can almost smell stone baked in the noonday sun disgorging it's heat into the dreamy twilight and keeping off the chill of evening.

"In a surreal world canopied by a magical sky, sixteen figures look upward to dream, and eight eagerly share their visions with visiting explorers."

It was the sim description that gave me the first hint that I was missing something. Sixteen figures look up, and eight speak - clicking on one of them lead me flying up into the sky to a complete different world so colorful I ended up laughing aloud and clapping my hands in delight. Sitting on each figure takes you to a different world high in the sky, a tiny microcosm of a dream as varied as dreams must be.

I recommend checking out one or two a day; I found after three or four I was so overwhelmed I stopped being able to easily get absorbed into the worlds dreamed up in the sky.

Into the Wilds

Made up of a mixture of wild and mechanical, Into the Wilds is a smooth combination of internal and external spaces, perfect for exploration and spending time with other people. Natural props like a variety of trees and a lovely river system, and human additions, like cars and buildings, meld together in a lovely manner with poses and dance balls scattered for you to find. The color scheme is shades of brown and green with gold and silver highlights, and there's some height in the form of a mountainous region to contrast with the lowlands which predominate. Small buildings dot the landscape, from furnished houses to ruins left fallow in the grass, and include a number of cute, bare buildings on the beach and throughout the woods.

There's life here, too - bears, horses, deer, sheep, and even birds that make their home on a boat waiting at the docks. The creator also made clever use of soundscapes to sell the natural nature, and the added surround for the sim gives the illusion of this being a river-soaked area in a mountainous region rather than the seascape standard to all individual sims. The sheer variety of items means you have significant flexibility in many themes, whether you use the warm sunset windlight set for the sim, or substitute in your own as I did by indulging in my penchant for golds and greens. A note of warning - the sim is set to adult, so adjust your settings accordingly and remember Adult means adult avatars only. I didn't get dropped a notecard of rules when I landed, but there is a group you can join if you want to rez things (small things only, please pick up after yourself) and I'd assume the usual rules of being polite to others and taking responsibility for yourself hold even without explicit rules.

Dancing Steps

I had a ball with Cila's outfit from the Fantasy Gacha Carnival - and I love her gacha style; her rares are color based, and by and large the colors all work together pretty well. I've been running into more gacha like this, a little closer to the original idea of being inexpensive, fun items one didn't need to collect all of in order to enjoy the few one got. I ended up rounding out my collection a little with some purchases and even picked up a rare! Ah, the temptation to try to catch them all~

China is a glorious watercolor sim which can be tinted every which way, and there is nothing quite like a rainbow sunset exploding in every direction. The sim is an ink impression of bamboo, clouds, birds, and a single building. A few items are thrown in - a chair, a television - but it's easy to focus on the simple lines of an ink painting reproduced in three dimensions; you walk here among stylized China, slipping between the lines both literally and figuratively.

Realm of Ozryn

The roleplaying sim Realm of Ozryn (Website) is opening on Monday.

The world is a mix of times and races, all drawn together by a traumatic event eighty years ago called the Chronophage. Now, in the wreckage of many ages and without the technology to ease their lives, a melange of people try to make their way through a dangerous, changeable world, haunted by mysterious figures called Auditors who remove any technology one might find or create. Left with medieval resources, even pampered creatures from the future must work cheek and jowl with their ancestors to grow enough food and build enough of a society for them to survive.

In the absence of technology, though, magic flourishes - both in the bodies of many a fantastical creature, and in the minds and hands of humans. By and large, if you can dream it you can be it - Angels, demons, fairies, elves, beast-kin and mermaids all co-exist mostly peacefully with humans, ruled by an upper council of Humans, Vampires and Celestials with representatives of the other races also attending and voting. Peace largely reigns, but there are always murmurings in the shadows as the different peoples jostle for power.

Character creation is simple and straightforward, with skills baked in for most races and provisions made for half-breeds. Rentals are available in many of the racial areas, from the hidden glens of the mers and Drow, to the sweeping heights of the elves and humans. There is one central town near to where the council meets, and a docks bustling with activity as ships come and go from the other nations in the world. Ozryn is a central location in the ocean, allowing for vast amounts of trade and making it a critical stopping point for ships traveling between the many islands on the planet. People are constantly coming and going, contributing to the ever-changing, energetic feel of the island.

There are also a variety of shops available for the entrepreneurial individual and can serve as a valuable entree into roleplay as well as an excuse to lurk in well-trafficked areas. Even the most marginalized need to manage to find food and shelter, though, whether through begging at the docks or serving some as-yet unidentified purpose underground. Others still might make their way as guides and travelers, learning the most hidden paths to untold wonders and smoothing the way between often antagonistic individuals. A favor can be as good as a handful of coin from the right person, and many races have long lives and longer memories.

What will you find in the Realm of Ozryn?

Flower in the Carribean

It's been a hectic month already, but I pulled this outfit together towards the end of the Fashiontropic event and I loved the effect - as did a handful of people in the dance and activity sim I found myself in. You can't tell due to my angle, but the Caribbean Resort has dance clubs, boats and helicopters to travel around in, and is clearly one of the destination places of a bunch of new avatars. There are a ton of couples dance balls floating around all over, and also some cuddle spots. You can also, with some judicious angling and a touch of derendering, snap some clean pictures. One feature the ism has which I wish more seaside ones did - the land slopes gently under the water so there is a wide area one can stand in before it bottoms out. This makes using reflections a breeze - one can use the hover to fine tune it and catch some lovely shots. I'm a big believer in using Second Life's natural water to augment pictures - the effect can be really amazing and add a lot of life to your pictures. The trick is a windlight that isn't too misty, and the right reflection on the water and you, too, can look like your avatar is melting into swirls of brilliant color.

The Generosity of Others

I have much to thank for the generosity of acquaintances!

In this case, a lovely individual passed me more lovelies than I could imagine - a balm to my money-tightened nerves. I haven't been able to indulge in gacha recently, but nonetheless I have this adorable feathered vest/collar from .aisling., and I was able to pick up all of the attached commons on the cheap through the various gacha yard sales. I'm ending up with a lot of inexpensive bracelets and armlets thanks to the proliferation of gacha markets and the bottom falling out of the common trade, which can be really a lot of fun to mix and match. In this case I stayed within the same set, though - a highly feathered and beaded confection with truly sublime options for color change - multiple options for the beads and two sections of cloth and feathers both.  I adore the fact it offers so much room for customization; it adds a zing to what seems on the surface to be a simple accessory set, a hallmark of .aisling.'s eye for detail. I went almost monochromatic for this shoot, though, which doesn't show off the options but does show off the style, all delicate beading and curved feathers. I especially love how the vest fits around my wings, a delicate touch I always revel in when I can accomplish it. Wings in Second Life may be able to pass unchanged through cloth, but it's so lovely when I can accomplish what verisimilitude exists in fantasy.

And what better way to indulge in fantasy that enjoying the fading days of the sim Venexia, which I explored once before. It's closing in only a few days - a sadness as it is a lovely and unique setting - but I'm enjoying exploring once more and trying to capture some of the wistful mystery of the landscape before it vanishes into the ether. You have to pick up a visitor HUD to visit the ground floor, but they are free and it is definitely worth the extra effort. Venexia has always reminded me of Venice, a city which haunts my dreams in whispers; the formal buildings, lines of hanging lanterns, and shimmers of water catching the light from any angle. A sister-sim, Goatswood, is also closing pretty soon so I'll be swinging through there pretty soon and I'd encourage others to as well. I wish there was a way to catch the attention of the Lindens when exceptional builds like this are vanishing from the grid, but in a world where the dollar is Queen, we all must dance before her throne.

Ziki Questi has some gorgeous pictures up on both landscapes, and Living in a Modem World announces that the creators are working on an Open Sim project called NeverWorldX that will be focused on detailed fantasy roleplaying.

LEA 1: Bryn Oh's "Obedience" - The Binding of Isaac

What, if anything, is the culpability of the watcher?

By making you complicit in the events around the Sacrifice of Isaac and aligning you with a God about which the click of shutters echoes, Obedience asks this very question. You have, quite literally, no power to interfere; the events continue unabated whether there are watchers or not, but select spaces between the narrative dioramas react to your presence. Boxes rise up, music plays, lights flash, an eerie spotlight follows you as you move - all of these things highlight not the story but your presence around it. It was the moment when I realized the light was following me, when I saw how I existed in relation to the half-cone of story behind me, that I felt the haunting effect of watching a tragedy with no hope of interference.

Frequently, visitors lingered in the shadows almost invisible next to the familiar story of Abraham loving, learning, enticing, and almost killing his son. The sheer variety of avatars moving through these dioramas offer their own surreality, especially when there ended up being a slow train of movement from one lighted area to the next with the expected pauses on the edges of light. Bright whites and dark shadows combine for a virtual, almost tangible chiaroscuro effect that expands to envelop each visitor as they pass through. And such a diverse flow of people - from the default avatars of the utterly noobed to couples in little more than lingerie - art aficionados in Second Life are like no others.

Like the importance of light, sound is also central to the story. Many of the sections have an appropriate sound-scape. The tinkly lullaby of the first scene, where Abraham's finger in Isaac's mouth eerily echoes the penultimate interaction between them, is at once comforting and threatening. Abraham's Burning Bush is a television, one which offers up static, commercials, and a husky voice whispering a command. With foreshadowing as thickly laid as the shadows, Isaac tells his father about his love of the ram toy he has, and the curve of it's horns which keeps it from harming others. The echoing repetition of "Holy" can be heard before you enter heaven, but it is only when you get close to the penultimate dramatic scene that you hear the winged female spirit - the only woman in the entire story - whispering, "Do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear G-d because you have not withheld your son - your only son."

By far the most active section is this Heaven where a motionless Throne and surrounding, eye-festooned creatures are worshiped by an ever-changing army of winged ken dolls, chalky white save for the gold crown on each head. Only a few of the waiting Presence Choir walk to the throne. Alpha, crouching pensively before his calm approach and graceful bow. Charlie, with his pensive pause and florid genuflection. Echo, casually approaching before going down on one knee. Golf, gesturing expansively to his fellows before striding over and summoning a familiar, blue planet. India, gesturing hopelessly before timidly approaching the Throne and falling to his knees. As visitors approach the final area, their shadows fall over the Choir itself, mingling with the rest. As my visit lengthened, I found myself watching others interact - watching where they stood, what they looked at - as much as I watched the inexorable tide of figures playing out their pattern.

Two other alternating figures play out their own dance, approaching first the disturbing moment of Abraham making good his murderous intentions, then the Throne itself, and then creeping between the static rows of chairs holding the Choir. One, Abecedarian, has a devilish exterior that is constantly shifting in color. The pattern remains consistent each time - red as he surveys the attempted murder and approaches the throne, cyan as he crawls away and crouches to watch the distracted Choir shifting to blue as he crosses in front of them, and then he turns green as he creeps between the two rows only to rush back to red as he runs back toward the Throne. Apprentice is less changeable but oddly more disturbing as, out of all of the moving figures in this diorama, he looks the most like a typical Second Life Avatar. To watch him echo the path of Abecedarian is unnerving - a reminder of how easy it is to enter another avatar's rut.

Standing at the edge of an open view into the most frightening moment of Isaac's life, listening to the incessant click of the camera, I was reminded of the ethical quandaries faced by journalists and documentarians - the question of when to photograph and when to help. There was the story of an imbedded journalist in the Middle East who ended up on a flight rescuing soldiers on the front lines - who photographed as the medics she had spent her time with frantically tried to save the life of a soldier, only to fail. The man making a documentary about war in Africa who photographed the torture and murder of a man, only to learn it was done for his benefit. The question of when, and how, and to what extent people whose job it is to watch should interfere is the lived reality of thousands of people, and thousands more watch when we could act out of self-interest, ignorance, laziness, indecisiveness, or the fear of making things worse.

The story of Abraham and Isaac has always bothered me for the subordination of parental love in such a profoundly violent manner, and the final image of Obedience shows the aftermath of Abraham's actions as Isaac cowers away from him. Unlike the previous scenes, which could be reached by walking from one to the next, this one is found through teleportation - either the candy in Isaac's lunchbox, a ball in the stairwell, or a ball in the apartment that Abecedarian and Apprentice emerge from. Boy, Ram, and Gun exist at a distance from Abraham, who is reaching out as he did on the stairwell up. One wonders is Isaac will ever trust his father again.

And above it all, the watchers watch.

One Amazing Event that Will Never Happen Again

For only twenty-four hours, non-humans could visit 1920's Berlin. The invitation came with a caveat - it applied to everyone, residents and non - but it was a rare chance for me to check out a sim I've been hearing about for years, and into which only the CEO of Second Life could venture without appropriate attire. I had occasionally played with the idea of setting up a 1920's alt, Volstead has wearable demos which are free and both Bliensen + MaiTai and Eclectica offer accessories at a reasonable price, but never got around to it. When I heard I could go in wings and all, though, I kitted myself out in an old fashioned hobble skirt and cloche hat before winging my way over for a look and some pictures.

The 1920's were a rare moment in European and US history, a brief window of cacophonous freedom before the 1929 Stock Market crash. Women were building on the gain made by suffragettes over the previous decades, and the young took their new independence and ran with it. You can think of the style of this period as a recoil from the voluminous gowns and hour glass shape of the Victorian and Gibson women. Jo Yardley attempts to recreate the Weimar Republic in all of its conflicted glory, from the demands placed on women on the street to cover up - at risk of drawing police attention! - to the wild parties in the speakeasies and the subversive Cabaret. It was central to the German Expressionist movement which embraced the unrealistic and highly emotional. Even now their tropes are the foundation for modern horror and film noir, dark and dramatic genres which could only be intensified by the horrors soon to follow. The portrayal of humans as a source largely for malevolence, where even the honorable are stained, seems reasonable in this context.

By the time I arrived it was late night and Berlin was deserted - a maze of streets and courtyards which defied light. A few stores sold clothing and accessories in the distinctive style of the era. Women's fashion tended toward the boyish, the freedom-seeking New Women of the previous decades embodied by the young seeking independence and enjoyment. Women's dress revisited the square silhouette in rebellion against the hourglass of previous decades, this time with a dropped waist and the removal of the corset altogether. Hemlines rose - but not too much; the mini-skirt was still fifty years in the future, and knees remained more hinted at than brazenly shown. Bobbed hairstyles became prevalent, sometimes with fingerwaves, other times with elaborate curls that followed the contours of the skull. Inside one of the buildings in 1920's Berlin was a maze of barber's chairs, the hairstyles of the era covering the walls. The highly decorated, broad brimmed hats of the past gave way to narrower, tighter styles like the distinctive cloche or newsboy caps. Cosmetics tended to be high contrast - bright or dark reds and oranges against pale skin. Men were still decked out in suits, but might be more likely to incorporate bright colors or patterns into their ensemble, and within the night clubs and cabarets even more boundaries than color might be crossed.

The German Kabarett was a darker riff on a French confection - song, dance, and costume combining with razor social critique and gallows humor. The aesthetic was cynical and detached, and while the lessening of governmental controls allowed for greater communication, the defenses of sarcasm and irony remained intact. Demands for change and critique of the contemporary order were combined with wild partying, and when people wanted to dismiss calls for sexual and racial equality, it was the partying they highlighted. Black entertainers from the United States fled to Europe where discrimination was less woven into the warp and weft of society, bringing with them their music, dance, and dress and those seeds found fertile ground to inspire the next wave of creativity across Europe. Jazz was brought to Berlin by artists like Josephine Baker in her tour across Europe. Dances like the Charleston supplanted the waltz of previous decades. The Charleston's roots are in the Juba dancing inspired by West African culture and was performed by slaves on Plantations, and the systemic practice of black dance becoming gradually more mainstream and less identified with the people who began it continues to this day with twerking, a move found in the mapouka dance of West Africa. Sadly, racism was still present in Berlin; while black entertainers may have done well, black residents were described by the local racist elements as being tolls for the equally hated Jews, sent to destroy Europe via miscegenation.

In Second Life's 1920's Berlin, Frau Yardley attempts to capture in amber a contradictory and tumultuous time in history, the moment when so many competing forces were coalescing in a shining moment of light and sound before war descended again. Within Second Life, a requirement for verisimilitude, for faithfulness to a vanished past, can be realized again. I have mixed feelings about demanding historical fidelity - my own forays into the virtual are much less tied to mortal flesh and I have reservations about attempting to replicate the offline world without reflecting on who and what is left out. Second Life is an overwhelmingly white place within it's humanity, and the exclusion even of the fantastical things white people can dream up seems like a further symptom of this narrowing in the name of immersion or authenticity. For an hour, though, a fae walked the streets of Berlin, pausing in it's alleys and snapping images of it's painted chairs, and for now that will have to satisfy my desires for transgression.

As you may be able to tell by the title, I've been thinking a lot about Canary Beck's writing on SEO - and the opportunity for one of her signature titles was too strong to resist. This is highly likely to be a one time event as well; the style of title may be evocative and good SEO, but I can only engage with it ironically.

My Alpha and my Omega, and All that was Ever Mine

It's been a rough year so far, and I can feel how it's affecting what I do - making every step and every moment of focus more of a challenge. I've also been thinking a lot about Canary Beck's words for [SL] Blogger Support on why someone should make a niche for themselves and the challenge I have with making any sort of niche which would show up on a list of Second Life blogs. In the terms of Second Life blogs, my blog would seem to be a fashion blog - and women's fashion in particular. I view it as more of a personal travelog that includes some details on what I like and why, but I can't deny that one of the things which drew me to Second Life was the opportunity to create unique and beautiful outfits for a mostly-static avatar of myself. I think part of why I bristle so much to be included in the masses is because I'd like to think there's something which sets me apart, even while being afraid that nothing does - and as such I find it impossible to respond to what she says in any sort of measured way; it's all snippy hand-wave and airy defensiveness. I'm reminded of a dynamic I experienced a while ago, early on in my receiving items from creators to blog, when I would write about my mixed feelings about that and confuse one of the creators who was sending me things! I am, if nothing, a giver of mixed messages and a writer of mixed blogposts. Consider this a uncentered splurch of feeling to my blog, expressing some mix of tension, fear, annoyance, and general malaise - it has been a very conflicted year, and we're only three months in.

The new Omega Point sim fit my mood very well, being lovely and natural where one lands with gorgeous shadows cast by the trees, and rapidly descending into a nightmare of blood, lightening, and the depths under the earth where all fear to tread. This is an updated sim in much the same spirit as the old one - the color palette is very similar but the build is much more detailed and economical, and the texturing is more naturalistic. I also really liked the huge maze of passages under the ground, found by following not-at-all-subtle giant teal arrows down into the ground. Around the entrance to the depths and within those depths there is a fun combination of primitive and futuristic, wild and violent animals goring bodies next to piles of manufactured steel supply crates; durt passageways that give way to malfunctioning doorways of light. I am a fan of high contrast, and Omega Point is centered around the meeting point of dirt and steel, all of it bathed in blood.

I centered my look around my hair from Wasabi Pills, currently on sale at FaMESHed, a versatile style that can be aged up or down depending on dress and accessories; in this setting it felt rather like the business woman, taken aback by the land she is unceremoniously dropped into. FaMESHed is much more sleek and professional than my usual trend, but I've been trying to find the challenges within all of the events going on within the grid, and I felt I was up to the challenge. The Wasabi Pills hair on sale there this month is a high ponytail that drapes over one shoulder and can be styled a number of different ways. The asymmetric nature combined with the heavy fringe can play very young, especially when combined with an adorable headband like this one from Dream Things that's currently being sold at Fit for a Princess. The blossoms on my headband are color changing, and it's natural enough to work in non-royal contexts and on adult heads. I played up the youthfulness by adding in this group gift from .:Soul:., a rainbow cupcake styled on my actual platform and given out to try to cheer everyone up in the face of a very challenging year - Charlie is always so sweet to me! Combined with more mature clothing with a simple silhouette, though, these childlike touches at whimsy and charm without seeming underaged, and the Wasabi Pills style adds a touch of elegance with the simple flow of hair over one shoulder - one of the more formal qualities of the hair style.

One of the nice things about a sheath dress is that it can be dressed up or down, professional or casual, and while this dress from Valentina E. Couture, also at FaMESHed, flirts with the risque by showing a bit of lace along the low bodice line, adding in a jacket buttoned high would do a lot to turn it from slinky evening wear to stunning professionalism where the lace hints at a naughty side without being too sexy. The three tone tartan caught my attention as well, the pattern standing out but remaining more simple than a complicated or starkly colored tartan might. By limiting the color palette, Valentina made it much more versatile and set the dress up to be paired with a lot of different accessories. My absolute favorite touch is in the mesh, though. Look at the line along the upper thigh - a shape often seen on offline dresses. It looks like a texture added for verisimilitude, but it's actually cut into the mesh in such a way that the dress bends at the thigh in an incredibly realistic manner. This is often a tricky area where the bend can look rubbery, but with the addition of this curving inward to a bend at the upper thigh and some clever rigging, this dress looks wonderfully natural as you move. I would have never though of it, and now I don't want a sheath dress without it!

I reinforced the "classy" read of this outfit and balanced out my more playful accessories with this lovely necklace and earring set from Ariskea. It was the necklace which caught my attention - I'm a sucker for wire wrapped around stones, and these dual-colored stones were particularly striking, with the blue catching the darker blue in the dress while the pink bridged some of the distance between outfit and headband. I echoed this combination of peachy-pink and steel-blue in my shoes from Eclectica, available at her Main Store. They are texture changing, so I combined steel blue on the main shoe with touches of pink and black trim - echoing the main look both in the sleep shape of the shoe, and also in the ornate swirls of the pattern, which capture the swirls of my jewelry. The ultimate effect is a classy date look with hints of playfulness and whimsy, sleeking out my style without losing the essence of a silly faerie who loves rainbows.

Monday Meme: Perception of Second Life

This week Strawberry challenges us to make a video and reflect on how we view Second Life. The former is actually something I've been trying to accomplish for a while - a lot of the art in Second Life is more interactive than static, which makes simple photographs insufficient for capturing what it's like to explore the worlds made by other people. I've made a few abortive attempts to make videos in the past, but this is the first one I'm sharing with other people - so I hope you enjoy!

I clearly need to work on my audio!

I tried to use my little bluetooth headset, but I couldn't figure out how to increase the volume. If anyone has any tips or tricks, I'd appreciate it!

For video, I tried FRAPS (which I've failed at in the past and even the few tutorials I checked out didn't help this time), Jing (the video was extremely choppy), and finally Snagit (which I have on a 15 day trial). Both of the latter two required you to sign up for some reason - in the latter case most likely to enforce that fifteen days, and neither allowed one to pre-emptively opt out of whatever mailings they're now going to send to me. I found both Jing and Snagit to be incredibly intuitive, though, which is many marks above Fraps. Jing has a very cool "hit ctrl to maintain a 3:4 aspect ratio" feature I found while scanning the tutorials, but I was able to approximate that on Snagit using the actual numbers (1000 x 750). If the video quality on Jing had been good I would have stayed with it in a heartbeat, but it was simply too choppy to work with and while Snagit let me save my video in mp4 format, Jing enforced fps, which I couldn't play on my computer. Snagit also has editing capability, which I didn't play with here but which I might in the future once I have the cash to upgrade and the time to play around some more.

1. What is your perception of Second Life? – Second Life is a world created at the intersections of peoples' dreams, where their best and worst aspects can be free to fly - and where people can meet who never would offline. I think it's a reflection of who we are in all of our variety, and I find the chosen narrowing of worlds that so many people engage in even in Second Life to be fascinating - in a world where we can make anything, it is astonishing how often we remake the world we know, only slightly bent by our own preconceptions.


2. Do you feel the portrayal or reputation Second Life seems to have in the mainstream media is justified? – I think that Second Life's sheer diversity can be its own enemy. This is a world made up of dreams both dark and light, and trying to represent that to the mainstream world is a unique challenge; people will be attracted to what is dark within themselves, or want to represent Second Life to make various decided upon points, which further shapes how Second Life is perceived. I wish more of the art done in-world was shared with the world at large, both the "official" art by people who call themselves artists, and the commercial art in the form of clothing, accessories, and world items made for the purpose of building homes and sims. I also wish there was a higher profile for the ways in which Second Life can serve as a mirror for us to understand ourselves. The degree of permission and control we have in world is nearly unparalleled, and so often that seems to be missed most of all.


3. Do you talk about your Second Life with your real life friends and family? – I have talked about it with a few offline friends, and I tell my mother everything, but by and large people aren't really interested. Everyone has a lot going on in their own lives; following a blog or listening to me rant about clothing and art is rather low on their lists.


4. What is your most favorite thing to do in Second Life? – I love to explore. The moments when I feel the most immersed is when I'm draw into a world someone else has created and exploring it with my full attention. I hope figuring out how to record in Second Life in the way I'm comfortable with will get me going on a project I've been wanting to do for a while - a video recording of various at sims to the music of Second Life musicians.

Genre: Reversal of Fortune

I am not only decked out in a bunch of amazing Genre exclusives, but I also built a fun set in the moonlight from the same source; the Dark Arts has been fertile for pushing my style in directions it doesn't often go and this time I did a cool teal look for an icy fortune teller, in contrast to the fiery fanatic of my first look. I also went significantly sleeker and more modern, wanting a high contrast with my prior appearance.

My outfit is actually a combination of items from two stores - a mini-dress turned shirt from Vengeful Threads, and a pair of leggings from Sn@tch that match so perfectly that they seem made for each other. Both of them are textured with rich colors - a deep black with pale gray highlights, and a wonderfully rich teal that fades in and out of the blackness it is placed upon. The teal seems almost enameled, with hints of the black base beneath and some lovely light edges around the flames of the halter top. The Vengeful Threads halter top itself is quite sexy, with the teardrop cutout and low slung sides holding up a spiked waistband. I love the shift from dominant teal to dominant black, with the veves glowing magically out of the darkness of the skirt. This same effect is echoed on the leggings from Sn@tch - a black background with a pattern of inverted crosses glowing out of it. The effect is nearly a smooth one until the ankles, when the fabric buckles naturally and forms a perfect base for either the standard Second Life foot or the SLink feet I used here. The two together work wonderfully together and make a cohesive look that forms the basis for a truly impressive selection of accessories.

The first set of accessories all come from one store - Zanzibar creationZ - and work together wonderfully. Firstly the circlet with the soft sea green sliver of moon is one of a variety of crowns with a similar design but different seals on the gray metal "shadow", each representing a different demon from the Ars Goetia. All of the colors come with a different sigil and is named for the demon represented by that sigil - so take care whom you place upon your brow! They come in packs of two - for example, my Leraje circlet also comes with Amon in red. Also from ZcZ is the rings in blackened metal on my fingers - worked in the shapes of runes from Norse and Germanic cultures. Manaz, Uruz, Othilo, Dagaz, and Sowilo make up both hands, placed on various fingers with Sowilo tucked before the second knuckle. They're fit for the SLink Relaxed hand but each ring is editable independently to fit them to any hand of your choice. They are also resizable, which means that even on my unusually sized girl paw it was a matter of stretching them a little to make them fit. At the same time, I added the symbolic black and white manicure and pedicure from ZcZ, including a variety of other symbols - including the anhk one I'm using. I love them for their simplicity, and for symbols with directions there are options for coloring the nails appropriately.

ZcZ set a high bar for accessories, but luckily the rest of my accessories clear it handily! Over my eyes is an amazing mask and horns from BluPrintz with lovely dangling crystals. It's color change between several options - I'm showing bone horns with a black mask and yellow jewels, but there are tons of other options for other looks. I found the fit to be easy and there are even small bands which hook over the ears for verisimilitude. I paired it with the lipstick from Sn@tch - also featured above for leggings - a dull color with simple sheen which is a perfect match for the brighter, gleaming eyeshadows you can pick up with it. The final touch to my whole look is this amazing, color change via HUD necklace from LOULOU&CO, which comes in eye and gem styles. I chose the eye, of course, since I even seers need some way to see! It fits perfectly into the keyhole of my Vengeful Threads dress, and the petals and beads can all be shifted to different colors and patterns. It's a creepy and yet lovely accessory that I think all of the blind seers will be selecting from now on!

The backdrop I build is in the forests of Lasting City, a lovely sim designed and created by my dear friend Charlie. I shamelessly took over a grove, filling it first with the fountain and stone surround from Frogstar, which also include the curving stone frame and the hanging glow stones. I love the use of materials on this in particular - the stone looks slightly damp in the moonlight, catching the light sharply in contrast with the softer and duller ground. In the center I placed an enlarged crystal ball from Noctis - the one with the skeletal hands holding the stone in place. It also moves as you look into it - an eerie effect even in a much smaller globe. Arranged around the fountain are a set of candles in cross bases from Artisan Fantasy, seven total candle colors available. The wood is set to gleam glossily and the candles themselves give off a soft, golden glow. And finally, tucked off to the side and captured above in the shot that took in my non-Genre shoes is a wonderfully programmed Tarot Deck from Anachron which uses the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck that passed into public domain. There are a bunch of spreads available, and more astonishingly the deck is set to give a short description of the card, with additional notes if it's reversed. It's an amazing set for Tarot Readings in Second Life, and I can't recommend it enough!

Mysteries

I love mysteries, but I get frustrated quickly - it's a problem.

In this case, I ended up in Hestium, a gorgeous little pocket full of well-decorated, adorable houses. There are hints to a greater mystery, and I wandered around a while poking at various corners and peering at various books, clicking everything I could find. One place is marked off limits - I avoided everything I couldn't walk to, and one walled garden; no idea which was the off limits place. I wasn't able to find any secrets, but I did enjoy snapping some shots and encourage you to check out this lovely little corner of the grid.

It's my hair that took me to FaMESHed - a lovely side style from Wasabi Pills with coils of hair over one shoulder, and delicate strands curling down elsewhere. I love how she has begin to use full mesh pieces for the wisps of hair, minimizing the alpha on larger pieces; not only does it minimize alpha occlusion errors, but also it leads to lovely effects like along the edge of the right side of my face, where strands of hair cling and fall in a most natural manner. I paired it with a jewelry set from Cae, bought at the same event, a wonderful necklace and earring set with dangling beads whose color can be changed. The HUD also includes three different areas where the metal can be tinted differently, and options for a short versus long necklace style.

It makes it such fun to pair with outfits, either in matching - or in this case contrasting - colors. The usual contrast for red is green, but when you have a slightly duller pink edging toward a warm orange - like in this dress from Coquet - teal actually works better to play off the color and make both more intense. I fell in love with this dress when I saw it's unusual, contrasting back and the most adorable bow in the world - one which called for a different wing than my usual. I ended up settling on Sway's chibi angel wings, one of the gifts during advent that I cached away for a brighter day. They're a very simple style form someone more known for her furniture than her wings, but the subtle layers and transparency is really fantastic, and I was able to tuck it right under the Coquet bow so that they looked apiece. The final touch were these shoes from Ricielli in a lovely bronze which contrasted beautifully with my gold Sway wings and re-appeared serendipitously in my nails, a hold-over from Fallen Gods' latest skin. I adore how intricate they are, boot in style but with large whorls which echo the whorls of my Cae jewelry. Combining contrasting colors with repeating shapes makes for a balance outfit that seems simple even while being very complicated.

Locations: Oporuto

Oporuto is a lovely sim with meditative vignettes placed regularly around the watery landscapes. A lot of them are art pieces, set among appropriate decorations and with striking particle and mist effects. It is a little bit of a challenge for a fashion shoot, but a lot of fun for purely artistic endeavors.

In addition to the statuary, there are several raised platforms and buildings with different accoutrements and levels of decay. In spirit, it reminds me strongly of The World's End Garden, one of my old favorite sims, though its layout is more regular and less abstracted and layered. I fully expect to spend a lot of time here, exploring it's bits and pieces and seeing what I can make of them; I'd love to meet you there!

Dream in Red

I was last at The Sea of Cubic Dreams a few months ago when it was in shades of black and blue - but for the horror of Halloween they redid the sim in shades of red, with some added items of terror - at least for trees! I'd been updating my LEA Information for the blog, and the outfit I'd put on matched the feeling of the sim perfectly. Of course, no plan is seamless; in this case I had two of the best wrinkles show up! My friend Katat0nik, who doesn't get out as much as she should, happened to come by while I was there, and we spent a pleasurable half hour or so figuring out how to sit on cubes, and then knocking each other through the sky - frequently loosing our avatars and giggling like loons! At the same time, the person who pointed her in the direction of my sim contacted me, and we had a lovely chat while I went flying through the sky, trying for an attractive angle.

The way it works is - while you're sitting, you can move the cubs near yourself to knock into you and your friends - I really recommend trying it on and trying to take pictures. It was fun with two of us, but I bet with a half dozen or dozen it would be a total blast! I uploaded several directly to Flickr before Kat left me alone and bereft to finish my photoshoot. I think the pictures turned out well, and are an interesting contrast to my previous visit. Let me know if you're going, and we can play together!