Twisted Color Challenge: Week 4 - Payne's Star

I am really having a ball with the Twisted Color Challenge. Payne's Star was totally a challenge to pull together, and yet I'm really, really pleased with the final result. I ended up finding the perfect gray, tight dress from SL Couture. I was astonished - it fit like a glove out of the box, curving right along the right places and draping gorgeously. Usually tight dresses are way too wide at the hips for me to wear, or curve way too far back, but this mesh was perfectly formed for my shape, and I simply couldn't resist taking some pictures - even if it meant continuing to show off a lot of skin! I echoed the gray in my shoes - a gorgeous set of boots from G Field that I simply adore - and the wings. The sea green of the look came from stockings, also from G Field, a gorgeous Cascade jewelry set from Eclectica, and a short bob from Wasabi Pills. The final touch was a new set of eyes from De La Soul - shimmering rainbow colors in a gorgeous mesh that is lit from within. He has a bunch of new releases - including irises that are actual moving clocks!

I know mesh remains problematic in terms of shape adjustments people have made, but I have to admit that this outfit really made me appreciate it in a whole new way. The way the mesh is cut means the fabric falls so naturally, and the ability of the mesh to conform to my movements means that even leaning and sitting poses work well. It makes it really fun to set up quasi-pinup pictures in random beaches all over Second Life. I'm not quite sure I make a perfect pin up, but I had fun practicing!

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: De la Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De La Soul, Realism Eyes - Portal
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Eyelashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyeshadow: Mock, Glitter Pop Eshadow Chocolate
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Lipstick: Mock, Sahne Bitter Chocolate
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Noriko (promotional item)
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Hands: SLink, Mesh Hands
Dress: SL Couture, Sexy Cowl Halter Mini Dress (promotional item)
Jewelry: Eclectica, Cascade - bright beads
Socks: G Field, Button Socks
Shoes: G Field, Open Boots "Vilda"

Poses: Glitterati

Location: Mau Loa Romance
Light Settings: TOR, FOGGY Mint Teahouse
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

ICHP: Spray Tan and Sunshine in the Country

As you can see, this is a complete departure from my usual style - but I was so intrigued by the bib-miniskirt and tub top from SLC Couture that I simply had to give it a try. The sizing is a bit off, but it looks kind of loose and fun to me, so I rolled with it. I ended up shrinking a few places so I could wear it without invisilayers, since I was enough off of the base shape that you could see through me in a few places. One thing I really like about mesh is the ability to seem much smaller than your clothing, though; no longer the skin-tight of system layers, fabric can drape over a body and form new shapes which make it much more realistic and fun to take pictures of. In this case, I put the medium bustier top under the large overalls, and it looks like I pieced together an outfit from my dad's clothes and maybe some window curtains! A perfect Country look that needed a country place. The lovely ladies in the Mock Cosmetics Group pointed me to T-Town, which proved to be a fantastic place to match the style of my outfit. I love the rows of lavender and the old town, somewhat broken down buildings; it really got me in the mood of being a country girl with her pet owl (50$L Friday Release by Silent Sparrow - it hoots when you click it!).

The jewelry is from my ongoing favorite, Elemental; I figured it looked like the kind of thing a girl would pull together from brightly colored river rocks, bouncing around the farm with her jewels clinking. The hair is a perfect updo, too, from Secrets Hair. I love the braid across the forehead, and I was able to resize it and work the dangly tufts in front of the ears; it's really a lovely, breezy style. As suits a farmgirl, I went brunette and matched it with a darker-than-usual skin from Dulce Secrets and pale as ice eyes from Mayfly (the area was no script, so I couldn't pose my eyes for best look, but these are an amazing design in brilliant shades). The makeup you see is included with the skin; the shadows are darker than I'm used to, but I think it works well with a tannish-red skin. I liked the texturing of the face, too; much less sweet and innocent than my usual skin - which I thought elevated my farmgirl from naif wild child to a woman flirting with elegance. That same elegance is echoed in the nails (a first for me! I'm still not sure what I think of them overall, but the ones from Moondance were lovely) and these gorgeous heels from Felicity. Clearly, she's on her way to town, since there's no way anyone could do farmwork in stilettos!

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: Dulce Secrets, Lyric Amaretto (promotional item)
Eyes: Mayfly, Deep Sky Mesh - Monet Dawn (promotional item)
Ears: Illusion, Seelie Ears
Eyelashes 1: *X*plosion, PrimLashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Hair: Secrets, Naive - Mocha (promotional item)
Head-owl: Silent Sparrow, Owl-ee! (50$L Linden Friday)
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle Wings
Jewelry: Elemental, Tropical Earth (promotional item)
Nails: Moondance, Square Extra Short Gothic Lolita (promotional item)
Outfit: SLC Designs, Mesh Bib & Brace Mini Skirt and Bustier Top (promotional item)
Shoes: Felicity, Harlow Shoe (promotional item)

Location: T-Town
Light Settings: TOR, MIDDAY Azure
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

I Can Haz Promoshunz: In the Pink

I got lost in another person's world, a world of high contrast and novelty - one place white-lined and stark, the other almost offensively cute. I came to meet them with my best Mock cosmetics - a bright lip color I've worn many times before, and a new brownish group gift. My hair is a braided glory from Analog Dog which I simply couldn't resist; it combines sharp-ended locks of hair with sweetly curving braids. It's not mesh, but it is a double-prim, here one set of prims is on the shoulders and the other is on the head; I can't wait for Analog Dog to tackle mesh - they're already as good as already.

My dress is an awesome release from SLC Couture - a low backed confection of a gown, complete with ruffles around the hips and fluttering skirts. I ended up shrinking it a great deal and re-aligning the skirt; the skirt is actually two pieces, one tied to each leg, which means that without being mesh it still manages to follow my curves and move with me. Since everything is modify ok, its easy to move things around and make them fit my smaller, rounder stature. I especially love the low back, but I'm rather sad it didn't have more shadows drawn into the back; I love the style, but it can be hard to see on a lighter skin like mine. I'm tempted to try a different shade of gown on a darker ski to see how it would work out. The skirt also can have some alpha occlusion issues, depending on the angle and background, but the multiple layers seem to mitigate that more than increase it. The hairpiece is included with the dress, by the way; I love the froth of lace over the face which really sends this look over the top.

My shoes are a fun set I've shown before from Felicity, complete with brightly spiked flowers and delicate lacing around the ankle. Felicity has an editable means of setting the skin, which makes matching pretty easy (as you can see I did an imperfect job above - that's my fault, not her system!). The toenails are recolorable through a similar system, which means you can make them fit any look you'd like! The heel is very high and stylish - all white and black and pink all over. They're the sort of heels I could never pull off offline, and so doubly enjoy online.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De La Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose (promotional item)
Eyes: De La Soul, Rainbow MESH (promotional item)
Ears: Illusion, Seelie Ears
Eyelashes 1: *X*plosion, Prim Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyeshadow: Mock, Morrocan Indifference Eyeshadow (group gift)
Lipstick: Mock, Bella Vetro Gloss - Lepore Red
Hair: Analog Dog, Enchant
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Outfit: SLC Couture, Grand Madame Rose
Heels: Felicity, Gianna Stilettos - Pink

Poses: Glitterati

Location: Fae Varriale
Light Settings: Places Sand

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Teal Unusual

This morning, driving between one place and another, I heard a review of a new television show; the main character, female, was described as having a "secret weapon" that was "spunk." It was one of those feminist moments, when something hits my 'this is wrong' spot; granted, the show in question is called 'girls', so I know a lot of people would argue that the characters and series are asking for condescension since they're styling themselves as pre-pubescent when being in their twenties. "Spunk" is an odd complecondescend that works on several levels; on the surface, it rarefies women as non-assertive and passive - there is no male equivalent of the descriptor because men are assumed to speak up for themselves and stand up for themselves, but for women that is often the exception. It is meant as a complement, though, so any women such described is at a disadvantage when objecting to it - it indicates you are bright and self-possessed and can stand up for yourself; women, never pleased by anything, amirite? There is a secondary, underlying implication of the word which only hit me as I was dwelling on it in between clients. "Spunk" is slang for male ejaculate. This brings in a sexual component which I find deeply disturbing, as well as reinforcing that women are not naturally like this; it takes male ejaculate to make a woman assertive and self-possessed; she must really have "balls", right?

The jewelry is an awesome set from Elemental which will be available for 60$L over this weekend. I love the quality of stone; I'm not sure quite how she managed the semi-translucent effect, since I didn't see any evidence of glow in play, but it's really impressive. My only complaint is that it only came with a necklace and earrings; the flower, in particular, would be amazing as bracelets and I'd love to see some kind of hair ornament, maybe with the blue stones dangling? The dress is an amazing mesh release from SLC Couture which has a fantastic shape to it. Unlike a lot of large sizes, this nips in at the waist, which fits my shape well while also allowing my breasts to be almost as big as they should be! The inside of the dress is invisible; I don't know the ins and outs of mesh-making at all so this may be out of line, but having the insides of skirts in particular being invisible can make it very difficult for angled photography. However, for all I know, filling in may be equally a pain in the butt! I'd love to see something like a layered slip, though, or some sort of crinolines; I think the effect could be really neat. My, I'm full of opinions tonight!

The hair is an awesome recent release from Analog Dog. That style hasn't moved over to mesh yet, but it uses a cunning dual-attachment setup that I am completely not showing here. This hair comes with a shoulder attachment so that you can have longer hair if you want; I didn't add it due to the mesh top, but it's in much the same style as the upper head attachment, with the same flyaway style. I added in a bracelet from Earthstones, which I really, really like; it's a combination of mottled shapes over a curved metal that matched the tone of the amazing set from Elemental. I'm wearing some of my favorite old shoes from G Field which have stood me well and matched the unique coloration of the SLC Couture dress. The lipstick is from Mock and is an amazing subtle texture; I otherwise went nude in my De La Soul skin, which is the first time in a while. It's a lovely soft texture and delicate shading, which really feels like "me" in Second Life.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De La Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De La Soul, Rainbow MESH
Eyelashes 1: *X*plosion, PrimLashes
Eyelases 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Ears: Illusions, Mystic Ears
Hair: Analog Dog, Sapphire - Blonde
Lipstick: Mock, Opal Lipcolor Matrix
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Jewelry: Elemental, Audrey - Blue Tah Pearl (promotional item)
Bracelet: EarthStones, Twisted & Stoned Labradorite & Moonstone
Dress: SLC, Tina swirl blue MESH (promotional item)
Shoes: G Field, Ribbon Slingback Shoes - cobalt blue

Poses: Striking Poses

Location: BUG'ArT
Light Settings: TOR, EUPHORIA rotten melon
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only

I Can Haz Promoshunz: Blue Moon

I have a lot of fun things on today, many of them promotional items, and I had such fun taking pictures with my new low-lag system that I could squeal with glee. The eyes are an unusual green for me, but are a lovely mesh set from Mayfly. I really like how clear and bright they are, with shine on the top and a pale glow on the bottom. I surrounded them with a multicolor liner from Eyelure - a new to me store. with a really fun and bright style. It's all over a new skin from Skintimate, which came with a variety of lipsticks. This is the porcelain tone, and I really like the shadowing on it - especially since the tone is so light. The brows are on the skin itself but fine enough to go along with a variety of hairs, or covered up by a colored brow. The facial features are delicate and sweet, the lips a touch too wide for my usual taste but I like the effect here, and based on my time spent in second life most people prefer the large lips. The base lipcolor for the skin was a dark pink, but the layers on top cover it entirely and in a lovely way. The jewelry is another from Elemental, which I really adore. It comes with earrings to match, the same mix of colors with a large, silver star to crown them. The design is very unique, and I thought the bright colors were a nice contrast for an otherwise monochromatic look.

I crowned my look with an actual crown from Eclectica - the gems are color changing via menu, which makes it very versatile. This one is base silver, but there is base gold and base steel; between the metals and the stones, you can have a crown for every occasion. I'm also wearing a claddagh ring from Eclectica, but I neglected to get a good shot of it - it's also color changing, which I thought was really wonderful. It would make a great gift between friends, as well. The hair is a fun, piled updo from Secrets Hair. Like all Secrets Hair, it's edit-ok, which means I was able to move a few pieces of hair out of my shoulder without any difficulty. It's short enough to photograph well without being rigged mesh, and a very unique silhouette for hair - very Georgia Peach afterparty. The dress is another gorgeous one from SLC Couture - again a fun silhouette with the upturned ruffles - and the fabric of the skirt is delicate (best seen up close below). The one problem is the usual alpha occlusion errors that come along with transparent textures - I mostly settled it with a second skirt tinted a darker shade, as if each ruffle had a lining; you can see I didn't get the tint quite right for the lighting; I should have tinted again once I found my windlight, but I didn't notice the error until I was posting things up; sorry! The boots are from Dilly Dolls, from the current Ice Cream Motif event, and are also color change. The edges of the boots look like the edges of cakes with sprinkles on top; even the bows have an air of icing to them, and effect that really appeals to me.

One of the things I love about doing Promotional posts is the encouragement to put together new looks and look at things in different ways. I had fully intended to take this look to it's monochromatic conclusions until I saw the newest gift from Elemental and that changed the direction of the look entirely (even the boots, which went from plain blue to the multicolored variant you see above). It's easy to fall into a rut of a certain style of dress, a certain style of look, if you don't have things in place to challenge you to think more creatively. I wonder sometimes if creators have a similar issue, which might explain the growing trend toward thematic gatherings of things, like Flux and Motif. Just as I find themes based around colors or a need to combine items from different stores stimulating, I'm hoping creators get the same push of creativity from working with a theme and seeing the amazing work of others within that same theme.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: Skintimate, Angelina Special Edition (light pink lips)  (promotional gift)
Eyes: Mayfly, Deep Sky Mesh Eyes - Paris Green (promotional gift)
Eyelashes 1: *X*plosion, PrimLashes
Cosmetics: Eyelure, WILDS - red orange green blue (promotional gift)
Ears: Illusions, Mystic Ears
Hair: Tribal Soul, Rehab - Platinum  (promotional gift)
Tiara: Eclectica, Regency Tiara - noon (promotional gift)
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Jewelry: Elemental, Kaleidoscope Set  (promotional gift)
Dress: SLC Couture, Alise tuerkis (promotional gift)
Ring: Eclectica, Claddagh Ring  (promotional gift)
Boots: Dilly Dolls, Cassiel Ice Cream Boots  (promotional gift)

Poses: Morgane Bastista Poses

Location: Ninth Rua
Light Settings: TOR, NIGHT Brighter
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only

I Can Haz Promoshunz: Anatomy of a Blogpost

With I Can Haz Promoshunz posts, it all begins with the blogger gifts, also known as the Promotional Items. There are a lot of terms for them, and attitudes range from "why should I give you free advertising" to "why should I give you free stuff" to everywhere in between. In my case, I'm grateful for the free gifts (which is why I think of them as gifts) but I am also aware of the unspoken - and sometimes spoken - expectations. In all honesty, even though I'm on the blogger side, I think the store owners have more to lose. They are offering out free items and there are a lot of people who seem to get into blogging so they can accumulate free things. I can't imagine trying to figure out who I can trust and what "trust" should look like when I give away free products. In the area of gifts, there are a few people who give me things where I know there is no expectation - where we have a relationship beyond and outside of our sometimes relationship as Store Owner and Blogger. I still sometimes blog their things, but I don't feel quite the same invisible strings of expectations as I do with Store Owners who I don't know.

I'll also be honest and say that the biggest downside of Blogging is these invisible strings, and my own desires to have Second Life be more about responding to my whims and desires than the demands and expectations of others. I know no relationship can exist without expectations, but sometimes I can find myself running from those expectations. That's part of why I started the I Can Haz Promoshunz series, in fact - to differentiate between the 'you have given me fantastic things and here are the ones I like along with some color commentary on them' and the 'I take pretty pictures and babble a while about whatever's on my mind' posts that are the mainstay of my blog.This post will be a little of each - an amalgam, if you will.

In between my other activities today, I get some gifts from a couple store owners I'm becoming friendly with; one is explicitly a blogger's pack, the other is more ambiguous. I hit the last midnight mania and teleport in a few alts who I think it will suit; I'm fairly confident it will lock without me bringing out the full force of my alt army. "Chores" taken care of, I hop back home to begin to plan out my outfit. Every ICHP post starts in the same folder - my "To Be Blogged" folder. In it I put things which are given to me, or things I have ideas for so that they're set apart. Every couple of months it becomes unruly, and I spend an afternoon opening old boxes, sorting through offerings, organizing and deleting. Things given specifically to me tend to rank a little higher than things which come through the blogger groups I'm in, but I try to do one Fashion in Pixel's post a month (if not a week).

I catch a midnight mania I wanted to hit and I swing by (too late), only to find the Store Owner there to switch out the lucky boards (Pinkmares is a totally generous store!). She turns many of the boards into question marks - briefly unleashing a swarm of clicks as people try to pick up what they hadn't managed to get yet. Even though I have "Do ICHP: Anatomy of a Blogpost Pictures tonight" on my brain, I get totally distracted as I wait to see what the new offerings are, all the while trying hard to not thing of the wave of unopened boxes waiting for me in my inventory. Timely I am not. Finally dragging myself away to lock down a midnight mania, I head for a friend's sim where I can rez objects that take up loads of prims - more than my tiny little house can support. Nothing like friends in high places (literally, in this case; we have islands in the sky).

Back home, I strip down to see if one of the review items (a set of skins and an outfit I'd been eying when the notice came through my inventory) suits me. The face is most critical, since I tend to wear fairly covering clothing, but I like to see the all over in case it will affect both whether I'll wear it and what I will wear it with. For example, I love wearing low-cut in the back things with De La Soul skins because there are little butt dimples and the cutest butt cleavage ever; highlighting the unique and fun aspects of a skin is part of what I enjoy. I rarely show skins because I don't like the change my shape, but Fallen Gods is one of my most likely exceptions, and it proves to be the second addition to my look (the first being my hair, which like I said in my last post I'm not taking off for a while) for the blogpost - as does the included, group gift tattoo. I simply adore the built-in iridescence; it's completely gorgeously tempting. The shadows continue the same theme beautifully while maintaining the illusion of translucence.

I set the included dress aside for another day, though, thinking I'd like to diversify to a different outfit and cover more ground in this blogpost since I do multiple pictures of the same outfit instead of single pictures of multiple outfits. Now the immovable pieces - hair (Wasabi Pills), ears (Illusions), wings (Fancy Fairy) - are all recolored to match the skin - in this case I go for a white shade for the hair and make the ears and wings match the skin tone as closely as I can using a tint. The hardest recolor is the ears; I shift to one of my recolorable ear sets so my usual set don't lose the tone of my usual skin, and select just the ear part so that the jewelry remains unchanged.This really sets the pallet for the rest of my look - I can either aim to match it with shades of white and blue, or I can try to make it "pop" in the current vernacular using orange shades, but whatever comes next will have to work with the base already in place.

So I'm back to my "To Be Blogged" folder in the clothing subfolder (I organize by type of thing so that I can find what I'm missing). I already have a backlog of boxes to open that I've tossed in here, but I focus on what's already open primarily. I'm tracking what wears well on me - where is there alpha occlusion and how much does it interfere? Does this work with the skin, the hair style, how I'm feeling today? If there is alpha occlusion (which is very common), is it something I can work with or will I be glaring at my legs through multiple layers for the rest of the night (note to designers - if you can put a slightly smaller layer of non-alpha but the same colored prims underneath, that can correct for a lot of the alpha occlusion; sometimes, if I like a dress enough, I even make one myself).

Tonight it's a wave of alpha layer options that leave me peering at the included picture and wondering how they managed to conceal; wishing the alpha was due to a transparency setting, so I could make a second, non-transparent level. After some more searching and some box opening, I finally find it! The first color I try on, blue, is to close to my skin color, but the second color is perfect, and so an outfit from SLC Couture joins the rest. I adore the texture - all those little flowers flowing smoothly over the pieces.

Fitting it is next; I'm a shorter, rounder avatar than most, and fashion tends to be made for the tall and the skinny, so fitting has become a necessary step when going through my inventory. I've become good at it, too; in this case, there's lower levels attached to the legs and an upper level for the skirt which require the most fitting. I take the top level off to fit the legs (temporarily confused since they're resizable through a script, not editing), then fit the top level (which is resizable through editing). Then I tilted the hairflower to fit my hair, which was simple as cake. I've sometimes fit outfits prim-by-prim if it were particularly complicated and worth it, but this is a relatively simple design, which makes things easy.

Likewise, selecting accessories - in this case an amethyst set from Elemental Earth Designs - was really fast I saw amethyst, tried it on, and it fit the overall mood perfectly. I love when outfits begin to come together like this; there's something magical about adding each element and seeing the cohesive and attractive whole. All I have left is selecting a pair of shoes, which most likely won't be seen. I have a whole folder from Duh! waiting to be tried on, and even though the chances of these shoes being seen are near nil, I put them on. Poor Duh! I need to do a shoe-focused shoot sometime soon. At the last minute, I remember the other gift I got earlier in the evening, and take a second look - finding a tiara from Eclectica which will go perfectly with my princess-pretty look. I actually had picked up the dawn version of the tiara, a lucky break for me since this pack includes the noon! And the noon is silver, which fits the coolness of the overall template. Recoloring it was a snap - it recolors on touch, and the purple, in a fit of synchronicity, is almost identical to the purple of my dress and shoes.

So that's the dressing half of my photoshoot! I hope you enjoyed it! Sometime in the future I'll have to share how I find a place to shoot and pose my shots, but I think this post is long enough already~!

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: Fallen Gods, Ice Crystals (Promotional Item)
Face Tattoo: Fallen Gods, GROM (Promotional Item)
Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Eyelashes: *X*plosion, Prim Lashes
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Cherry Mesh Hair (Promotional Item)
Crown: Eclectica, Regency Tiara - noon (Promotional Item)
Ears: Illusions, Mystic Ears
Jewelry: Elemental Earth Design, Kiowa Set - Amethyst (Promotional Item)
Dress: SLC Couture, Lovely Flower - Lilac (Promotional Item)
Ring 2: Earthstones, Eternal Blossom Ring - Bouquet
Shoes: Duh!, Mary Janes - Violet (Promotional Item)

Poses: Glitterati

Location: Dimrill Dale
Light Settings: Places Astryls Wild
Water: TOR, Yung buk

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only

Satin Swamp

The V Tattoo Store cracked tattoo and eyes were a lovely prize from Peasters Castle Hunt (yes I'm still opening them up!). I've also gotten some lovely gifts from creators - namely hair from Wasabi Pills (she totally spoils me!), a dress from SL Couture which is a gorgeous, satiny mini-dress, and some fantastic poses from Studio Sidhe.


One of the odd side effects of my moving form a life where I had more straight television to a nearly perfect online existence, is my increasing intolerance for advertising. I'm not just talking about the obvious commercials - though my intolerance for those is catastrophically high - but also the people who try to "sell me" something even if the context isn't overtly advertising.

I'm a great lover of Korean Dramas, and one of my pleasures is to watch episodes on a free streaming website. They have ads every fifteen minutes or so (one of the real weaknesses of modern advertising is not recognizing this as a new phenomena and making limited time 'drama' series of ads so it's not the same ad fifteen times in a row) and one in particular has convinced me to never buy Nutragrain bars again. I actually like them; I used to buy them, but watching the blatantly insulting insinuations that people who eat potato chips have worse moods and poorer marriages than people who don't just pisses me off. This isn't a boycott as such, but honestly every time I think of the bars now I'm just vaguely annoyed and irritated, and I don't need that in my kitchen.



Another example is on a streaming radio station I listen to, kpfk. Multiple times in the year their fund raisers go, and the 'cure cancer with diet' and 'processed food isn't good for you, now eat my powder made from 100 world fruits and veggies' nonsense dominates the station for a while. I tune out for a couple of weeks, catching the shows I know will be on, because the emotional manipulation just pisses me off - yes, genius, sugar does feed cancer cells. Of course, sugar feeds all the other cells in your body, too! And shockingly, when you eat non-sugary things... your body breaks it down into - you guessed it! - SUGAR. You could stop eating, which would kill the cancer with one slightly inconvenient side-effect that I leave as an exercise for the reader.


Of course, this makes the first paragraph of this post hugely ironic, or is that hypocritical? I, before bitching about advertising... advertise. On the one hand, I've been deeply grateful to creators for giving me things (and making things, since I purchase most of what I wear in these posts) and I want to share them with others in case they'd like them, too.

On the other hand, until earlier this week I thought of the advertising I did as more of a side effect to a greater purpose of exploration and photography (if you can't tell from my history, I'm prone to juxtaposing avatar and sim while trying to create something artistic without being too snooty) but the reality that some of the free handouts are dependent on producing something was really brought home to me. I'm currently on the fence about what I'm going to do about it - whether I'll remain on the gravy train because the things I get are awesome and I'm introduced to stores I wouldn't normally wear, or whether I'll drop out and go back to buying most of what I wear. Well, buying and/or shilling lucky boards and midnight manias.

Part of me thinks I'm taking this whole thing a bit too seriously, though.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:
 
Skin: De La Soul, Kei Cream
Eyes: V Tattoo Store, Black Eyes
Eyelashes: Flugeln Brise, Eyelash 05
Tattoo: V Tattoo Store, Cracked
Ears: Illusion, Mystic Ear
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Yumi Hair - Grass
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle Wings
Necklace: La Petite Morte, Ribbon Choker - white
Dress: SLC, Party Dress - white
Bracelet: Kyccie, Hopeful Flower - Diamond
Shoes: G Field, Ribbon Slingback Shoes - white

Poses: Studio Sidhe

Location: Ebony Coast
Light Settings: Kunming
Water Settings: Default

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only

Review and Noise

I recently joined a review and blogging group which is a vehicle for information exchange between bloggers and creators. I am at once both deeply grateful for it, as it exposes me to stores I likely wouldn't have found otherwise, and deeply resentful, as it increased the amount of information flowing in through Second Life by about half again.

Signal to Noise is one of the bigger problems in a digital age. When we have the world at our fingertips, figuring out which part to look at first, which area to focus on, can be an anxiety provoking thing. I often find myself feeling overwhelmed, tuning out and hiding to avoid the internal and external pressures of decision making inherent in having so much variety at ones fingertips.


The poses I ended up using for these pictures have actually been in my inventory a while, a gift from the Apple Spice creator who sent out word asking for volunteers to blog them. I'm ever on the hunt for more poses, so of course I spoke up right away! And I'm easily distracted, so of course they lived in my "to blog" folder until this week. These are all meant to be sexy poses, so I waited until I had a sexy dress to pair them with. Yeah, that's the ticket! Totally didn't forget about them. *shifty eyes*

Overall, I really like them. A couple of poses looked a bit weird around the shoulders, which made me wonder if the creator's shape was larger than mine (Deoridhe is a petite faerie), and there was one unfortunate meeting of hand and belly that will never make it on film, but if you're tall and skinny like most of Second Life these should work wonderfully on you, and even for the petite faerie they are quite nice. I particularly liked the curve of the hands; some older poses of mine have these splayed-hands which tend to look quite unnatural, but these are curving and expressive, matching the mood of the poses perfectly.


Pose: Apple Spice, Sexy Pose 5

The dress is also a review copy, one of a bunch of different colors and types, from SL Couture. I was completely overwhelmed by the creator's generosity, and I have to admit I find this dress completely gorgeous. It's also large for a little faerie, but the skirt held a resizer script so I could shrink it down, and was well enough made so it fit even my plump little faerie - which was good since it was not modify-ok! I love the flower detail at the hip and on the gloves, and the cross curve under the chest is sexy without being overwhelmingly skin-baring. I'm not as fond of the thinnest of the shoulder straps - something wider would have matched the ribbons better - but I adore the curve along the back and the cross of ribbon there as well. The included stockings are sheer and very sexy as well, showing beautifully in the high slit skirt.



I added Favole's Falling necklace, which honestly I'm not sure when or where I got it. I love the little dangle, though, and the delicacy of it sits well next to the more complex, smooth dress. I ended up going to Pandemonium sim, where I got scolded for all of the scripts in my clothing and other prims, which made me a little sad. I'm an orange scrip wielder. This brings up the other, script-side problem with clothing which are not modify-ok. In order to be able to be resized, they need a script inside of that. If you delete a script, the prim is now completely dormant and unchangable. You can save copies, but that can be a complicated process ending up in inventory bloat.

Honestly, I don't have a good answer for this. I understand why creators make their clothing unmodifyable, and I understand why other places object to script-heavy clothing gumming up the works on their sims. There doesn't seem to be an easy solution to this problem which retains the sense of safety and security for the creator while also meeting the needs of the consumer.


( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Skin: De La Soul, Charlie - Phoenix
Ears: Illusion, Mystic Ear
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle Iridescent
Hair: Tiny Bird, The Killing Moon - Wheat
Necklace: Favole, Falling
Dress: SLC Couture, Franni black
Shoes: G Field, Rose bootie "Diva" - red

Location: Pandemonium @ Legion Sim
Light Settings: TOR, EUPHORIA Plum Sunset

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only