Crying to take Pictures

This photoshoot has been a royal pain to take. After several days of effortless pictures - which resulted in a slew of blogposts - this one completely hung me out to dry. There's a mesh body glitch where your eyeballs become enlarged, covering up the area around them and looking very strange - I had that in all these pictures, hence no closeup. It was so incredibly frustrating! I finally just took these pictures and called it a day. Luckily, even if I don't look my best, the stuff I'm wearing is unparalleled in cool.

These awesome boots are a new release from Vanilla C. Designs; they're mesh and completely awesome - down to details like the zipper up the back. The heel is tall but well formed into the sole of the shoe, and I love how the boots are slightly but not extremely pointed. I have fairly fat calves and was able to fit into the S/M set, but as always with mesh - try the demos first! My outfit is a gorgeous dress from Fallen Angel Creations. It's a tabard style robe with long, swoopy sleeves also tabard cut, and comes in a huge variety of colors. I couldn't resist it in teal, even with a plunging neckline that makes me blush! I put some stockings from PixelDolls underneath, which matched the color perfectly, but it can also be worn bare for an even more revealing look.

My hair is a very fun updo from Tribal Soul Designs, complete with a long flexy ponytail. Since there's a significant prim part to the hair, it stays up and poofy more effectively than flexi alone, and I was easily able to modify it around my new and shiny, yet space-taking-up ears. I love the little wisps in front of the ears! Details like that really make an updo look. The jewelry is a repeat from Elemental, this time with the matching bracelets. Don't those look amazing? There is also a matching hairpiece. I ran out to pick up this in teal after showing it off in blue - and I think I own several more colors. I have more to show off from her, but it'll take my shape cooperating! I finished off the look with this awesome lip shade released from A. E. Meth from the special ice cream event last month at Motif.

( 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, Heterochromia eShadow for Blue and Green
Lipstick: A. E. Meth, Matte Lip Tints - Slushie
Hair: Tribal Soul, Kahl - Platinum
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Jewelry: Elemental, Audrey Set - Teal
Outfit: Falln Angel Creations, Tittli Dress - Black Aqua
Stockings: PixelDolls, Leggings Teal Lace Webbing
Heels: VC Designs, M-001 Black Leather Boots - mesh (promotional item)

Poses: Glitterati

Location: Neva River
Light Settings: TOR, SUNSET Blue Inspiration
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Castle Arcanum

I've taken photos outside in Arcanum before, but it wasn't until the Peatonville Hunt that I realized how much inside there is! This is a small look at a couple of rooms - I was most taken by one of the mage rooms, with an entire window of amazing, glowing, gorgeous plants along one side. My favorite is definitely the musical box flower, though I think the stained glass flower reflects my clothing the most! My dress is a gorgeous new release from Dilly Dolls with a slightly retro-fifties feel to it; I'm really fond of the hint of animal print along the bust line and the hem of the dress - it takes an older design and makes it unique. It's released for the Vintage Faire and available in a variety of colors, though I'm really partial to this teal!

I paired it with a new hair from Tribal Soul; I'm not usually a "hat hair" kind of person, but this one was adorable, and the floofy hair really seemed to suit the sleeker, simple style of the hat. It's fully editable, so you can do things like tint the hat - like I did - to match an unusually colored dress. I added in a new release of eyeshadow from Adam n Eve (I'm getting so addicted to being able to change cosmetics - I can barely remember what it was like to be stuck with one makeup style!) and used the nude lips from my favorite De La Soul skin because the faint pink seemed to complement the vibrant teal I'm covered in. (On a side technical note, I'm trying linking to all the stores of the things I'm wearing - but it's a huge pain in the ass. Comment if you think it's worth it, or if I should let everyone use the search function, like the gods intended.)

One of the enjoyable and frustrating parts about Second Life - and life in general - is that there is so much going on and only a limited amount of time to react and a limited amount of attention to give. Life begins to be a series of priority lists - do I want to do this, or this? How can I combine multiple goals? Is that really worth my time to do? I spent that amount of time to do WHAT??? Trying to finish up one of those damn Sims Online challenges in a week, I found myself spending an hour waiting for different rooms to load and my desire to continue, to try, to even care was waning quickly. One of the mental fallacies people struggle with is the Sunk Cost Fallacy, and a lot of Facebook games seem to hinge on these. One side effect of Sunk Cost leveraging, though, is when the current challenge is severe enough and the current results are thin enough that it's worth not sinking more time and energy into it. I find the Sims Online rapidly moving into that along with Farmville; in both cases, the time spend doing things is increasingly not worth the reward - the mental space it needs to take up in my head is not worth the fun I get out of it.

Developers - don't rely on Sunk Cost too much; when you hit the tipping point, the loss of interest is rapid.

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: De La Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyeliner: Adam n Eve, Hepsut
Eyeshadow: Adam n Eve, Glitz Groovy Greens G
Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Eyelashes: Flugeln Brise, Eyelashes 5A
Hair: Tribal Soul, Vodka - Platinum (Promotional Item)
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Jewelry: Eclectica, Pearl Mixables - Deco Redux
Dress: Dilly Dolls, Delilah - Teal (Promotional Item)
Ring 1: Alchemy Immortalis, Nestling Finger
Ring 2: Earthstones, Eternal Blossom Ring - Bouquet
Shoes: G Field, Square-toe Shoes - Sophie

Poses: Glitterati

Location: Arcanum
Light Settings: TOR, MIDDAY Coral Reef

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only

Color Challenge: Week Thirty-five - Electric Blue

Electric Blue Week ended up continuing my katat0nik spree. I absolutely fell in love with this outfit, and then realized it was Electric Blue week! Such a perfect combination! The hair is from Wasabi Pills, and is one of my new obsessions - it's available at the Hair Faire, and comes both with both pigtails like this one, and a single one with the hair dangling down to the side. I particularly like it because in the single pigtail version, the hair that would have been held up actually is shown hanging down to the side.





The shoes are actually color change - which is easy on the inventory and hard on the sims. Scripted things are apparently a huge, awful deal, but at the same time my inventory always hovers around 60k these days, so trying to balance those two things is not easy! I don't really understand the whole scripted load thing, especially for scripts not running, but they seemingly must "listen" to something even when activated by a touch? No~ idea. If that's the case, though, I'm a little ball of scripts form my finely coiffed hair, which has color changing ribbons, to the tips of my toes.





This sim was very scripty, too. Many of the things I'm standing on, the boxes behind me, the lines and figures, all moves, change, appear and disappear. It's like a constantly changing kaleidoscope, only less... scopey. There's also music, changing and responding to what I did. Part of me really wanted to see it, experience it, with a lot of other people causing changes all around me.





There are a lot of elements from Bryn Oh's other builds, placed together in a reflective, almost retrospective manner. The lighting I ended up using was very harsh, which made some of the things a challenge - walking up the floating platforms for example - but I think the colored-chiaroscuro effect was quite worth the effort. I'm dressed pretty much identically to my last set of pictures in this color, but look at what a difference lighting makes!





( More pictures here! )

Credits:

Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Skin: De La Soul, Charlie - Sparkle
Ears: Illusion, Mystic Ear
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle Iridescent
Hair: Tribal Soul Designs, Kage - Purple
Dress: Katat0nik, Ruff Haus - candy yellow
Shoes: Katat0nik, Kita Mary Jane - candy purple

Location: Performance
Light Settings: Orange Incubus
Water Settings: [TOR] Arrakissed variations - red

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only

Bubblegum Weekend

You're going to see a lot more of this dress - I'm just warning you now. I really, really like it; I described it to the creator, katat0nik, as 'cutely slutty' and she laughed and said that was about what she was going for - as well as the kind of thing you'd throw on when the temperatures are in the triple digits Fahrenheit and your practically melting with sweat. I'm wearing the hair from Tribal Soul Designs again, this time in purple for Bubblegum Weekend.

I love the idea of switching things up by wearing brightly colored hair. One thing I've found through the color challenge in particular is that it's helped me improvise and try things I might not otherwise try - often things I end up liking (though not always!). The Bubblegum challenge is a similar sort of thing, pushing me to open up my hair folder and pick through for the things which are more unusual than my usual blondish. I identify very strongly as a blond - even more than I identify as someone with blue eyes - so switching that up can be a needed shock to the system.




As you can see from the close-up, I don't actually have blue eyes in Second Life, but that's because I did one better and have rainbow eyes. If I could have rainbow eyes offline I'd do it in a second, and I'm totally chuffed (I've been watching a lot of Brit TV, shuddap) that I have a bunch of rainbow eyed horses to breed together and make a small army. Yup, I'm one of those horrid breeding animals people; I have meeroos, too - but none have shown up with rainbow eyes (yet). I mostly consider it a hobby instead of a money making venture, but I am starting to sell some of my rainbow eyed girls because, well, I have a few!

I've been considering, given the breedable hate on in the blog-o-sphere which is only matched by the breedable love, doing a breedable post. Honestly, though, unless it comes up in a set of pictures I doubt I shall. I might do some examples of how I and the others I'm with are setting out our breedables, though - the whole "how do you organize" question is fascinating to me, especially since the meeroos prompted me to break out the Excel program and make up some records for tracking things. I've never been one for tracking spending much, so I was rather amused as I wrote down how much I was selling things for and moving things from page to page as they went form "for sale" to "sold." It makes me wonder if one of the side effects of meeroos will be to teach me some basic accounting skills!




The sim I'm at is Haven of Rogues and Mer Sanctuary, and it's an absolutely gorgeous sim, as you can see, above and below the surface. Be careful where you step and what yo sit on - some of the effects are... startling, to say the least! And you can be killed, which sends you home, so it's not the end of the world. I recommend avoiding treasure chests! The one time I got killed, I got curious about a treasure chest. The texturing is gorgeous, though, and the color combinations can be really fun! I particularly liked the animal-rezzers; I found one full of jellyfish, and another full of fish, and they really added to the life under the sea.

The sims (there are several - I've just scratched the surface!) are a little intimidating, though! The rules are extensive, and largely involve not being a child (I was nervous running into people because I've been mistaken for a child despite... well... I really don't LOOK like a child, surely?), not covering your nipples if you're a mermaid, and not pissing off the owner. I don't usually seem to piss people off, but I have to admit that after reading the rules I spend my entire time worrying that I would, despite never meeting him! I kept a weather eye on my radar; I suppose when I go back to explore some more I can do the same and just run and hide!

I had a very strange interaction with someone at the sim, though - a merman who swam up to me. One of the rules (eee!!!) is to respond to people, so I said hi! He swam off... which baffled me a little, only to swim back when I had moved to say... something about looking in the depths? Or... following him? He didn't wait for my answer, though, so I figured I was good to continue doing what I was doing - which was snapping pictures! I hope I didn't break the rules! Ohnoez!




It reminded me strongly of one of my objections within roleplaying, though, one which has been driving me away from wanting to roleplay - so many people seem less interested in roleplaying with me, and more interested in roleplaying at me; frequently people simply don't bother to respond to what I do, or if they do it's sort of incidental unless if merges perfectly with whatever plot they have in mind. I literally met someone ICly who gave me the entire history of his character (I didn't ask) including details he didn't say in character in a bleeding notecard! Then he called forth a demon inside of him, and acted like I was strange for... being afraid of him!

I wonder sometimes if there are people who relate to others less as individuals to form relationships with, and more as NPCs in the back of their very important story - who then become less than happy when the NPCs turn out to have reactions outside of the script.

But honestly... I'm not your NPC.

( More pictures here! )

Credits:

Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Skin: De La Soul, Charlie - Sparkle
Ears: Illusion, Mystic Ear
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle Iridescent
Hair: Tribal Soul Designs, Kage - Purple
Dress: Katat0nik, Ruff Haus - candy yellow
Shoes: Katat0nik, Kita Mary Jane - candy purple

Pose: Glitterati, 006

Location: Haven of Rogues and Mer Sanctuary
Light Settings: [TOR] EPHORIA hello gaia
Water Settings: [TOR] Chivandria clair

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only

Both Sides

I got an interesting look at two sides of righteousness today - all within five minutes.

A car runs a stop sign, cutting off the person I was waiting for - who was making a left. No one got hurt, but I felt the urge to chase after, demand if they knew what they'd done and how it was wrong.

While I was thinking about this, I went behind someone who had turned (I thought) to the left but who was actually backing up. She took the time when both of us got out of our cars to yell at me.

How much of our desire to tell other people how they're wrong is an urge to trumpet to the hills that we're right?

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Skin: De La Soul, Charlie - Sparkle
Ears: Illusion, Mystic Ear
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle Iridescent
Hair: Tribal Soul Designs, Kage - Dirty Blond
Dress: L'Abel, Monique
Shoes: G Field, Ribbon Slingback Shoes - red

Pose: Glitterati, 004

Location: SL8 Honey Swamp
Light Settings: FOGGY - Catastrophe
Water Settings: Murky

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only

Color Challenge: Week Thirty-four - Mauve

I've been dangling behind on making posts, and even taking pictures, so I've been considering the occasional single-photo post. I couldn't do that for Mauve Week, though!


The skirt is the central color-inspiration, being one of the only things I own which is mauve! A very old purchase from LeeZu, I was thrilled to be able to use it again for mauve week. I paired it with a crop top from G Field, for what is likely one of my most skin-baring looks to date.

The hair was amazingly easy to pick! It was a lovely gift from the creator of Tribal Soul Designs; I got one of the blond fatpacks, chosing this gorgeous dirty blond shade as my own. I think I might end up sneaking back there for the brightly colored hairpack for Bubblegum Weekends, which I'm only irregularly taking part in. I love the quasi-Japanese style of the top knot, combined with fluffy layers and a wonderful lack of alpha issues. It's a two-parter - with a head piece and a neckpiece so that turning your head looks more natural, and as you can see from these pictures it flows wonderfully well.


I added in some lovely piercings from Little Boy Blue - a lovely matching set of belly and labret piercings; they are tintable, botht he metal and the gem, both by touch in birthstone colors and by edit. I ended up tinting them a pale peach to match the general color scheme. I also added a bindi (also tintable in loads of colors, but not editable this time) but you can't see it clearly in most of my pictures. The bracelet and ring set in with the rest are from Eclectica.


Time, and how we spend it, is on my mind a lot these days. It's easy, and common, to spread oneself so thin that each thing only gets the bare modicum of attention. It's tempting to want to do lots of things, to take part in a lot of things, to help people out when they ask. There are also responsibilities - things which have to happen, things which should happen, things which it would be more pleasant if they happened.

It's hard to balance everything out.


( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Skin: De La Soul, Charlie - Sparkle
Ears: Illusion, Mystic Ear
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle Iridescent
Hair: Tribal Soul Designs, Kage - Dirty Blond
Bindi: Little Boy Blue, Komala Bindi
Piercings: Little Boy Blue, Birthstone Labret and Birthstone Navel Piercing (tinted peach)
Jewelry: Eclectica, Victoriana Coral Bracelet and Ring
Top: G Field, Floral Halter Top - Peach
Skirt: LeeZu, Nell Skirt - mauve
Shoes: G Field, Ribbon Slingback Shoes - salmon

Poses: Long Awkward Pose

Location: Greenburg
Light Settings: TOR, Sailor's Delight
Water Settings: Murky

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only