Fall in the Spring

It's such a strange thing, how seasons work. If you only view the world through a narrow lens, they are very straightforward. The second you widen your gaze, they become infinitely more complex. For example, one of the interesting stories of the Greeks is about Persephone - who as Kore was kidnapped into the Underworld by her Uncle Hades, who decided he wants her. As I learned the story, she was kidnapped in fall and that is why we have winter - Demeter causes the world to die until her brother-in-law returns her daughter to her - but in the original Greek cycle it happened in spring, and the burning dryness of the summer when nothing could grow and everything dried hollow was when Demeter removed her bounty. The whole myth was quietly re-imagined to fit a new environment, and the original turning of the year was left unremarked and unrealized for many who heard the story who lived in Northern Climes, where summer is growth and winter is death instead of vice versa. One of the side effects of a wider distribution of culture is that it has lost touch with on-the-ground experiences; there's an aspect of unreality which is part of universality - the more abstract we are, the farther we are from the blood and bone of life.

This look was inspired by a dress I fell in love with when I saw it on SL Freebie Hunters when they covered the Twisted Hunt, and so I had to have it. These days, I rarely do a full hunt, and so sites like SL Freebie Hunters do me a major service by sharing all of the different options so that I can pick and choose. It's based off of a well made template, complete with full interior texturing, and lacy edging. The texturing job Shoenique did was amazing; I adore the flame effects and layered levels of black, and I decided to go full on candle frame for the rest of the look. The stockings are also a freebie in the twisted hunt, this time from Witches & Rats. It comes with appliers for SLink feet, which I used, and Phat Azz appliers. I really love the stars and moons, and definitely need these in more colors. The rest of my look isn't free, but I think you'll find this amazing hair from Underscore is well worth the cost - especially with these beautiful flowers to tuck in. Both the hair and the flowers have color-changing HUDs, and they're editable so you're able to further tint them to match a look. My shoes, which are totally adorable, come from Has Been and are also both HUD tintable and manually tintable - I am loving this trend. I went with blue and white to represent the heart of the candle flame, where the fire is brightest. I shelled out for the light and dark fatpack, which means that I could mix and match dark and light shades. I'm really on fire this Spring, I think.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: Izzie's, Irene
Hair: Underscore, Come Undone
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Eyes: De La Soul, Rainbow
Eyeliner: Adam n Eve, Hepsut
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Lipstick: Adore & Abhor, Shreveport Lips
Wings: Deviance, Sidhe
Hands and Feet: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands and Feet
Dress: Shoenique, On Fire (Twisted Hunt)
Stockings: Witches & Rats, Witchy Socks (Twisted Hunt)
Shoes: Has Been, Dizzy Peep Toe

Poses: Exposeur

Location: Havendale Village
Light Settings: TOR, DUSK Beachin'
Water Settings: Mirror Water

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Monday Meme: The Sexual Meme

Strawberry's a pe~rv. Strawberry's a pe~rv. I find her desire to perv all over our sexual histories very funny, and who knows I might even tell the truth now and then, and doing something extra-spicy for the kind-of-one-year-anniversary is understandable. I'm going to share a small selection of my more risque pictures (which by Second Life standards are fairly tame), so I hope you enjoy.

1. What is your sexual orientation or do you not like to label yourself? – I'm very straight. I've gotten offers from female friends, and been told I read as bisexual, but I'm actually on a rather extreme Kinsey scale - as in I don't even fantasize about other women. I always feel like this gives me a certain amount of comfort with other peoples' sexual orientations; since I'm so settled in mine, other peoples' aren't a threat at all.


2. Name a physical attribute that you find attractive or sexy. – I love piercing eyes and longish, mussy hair. I blame most of what I'm attracted to on Jareth, from Labyrinth, who was, in fact, my first major crush in the fifth grade. I was fascinated with him for years. The odd thing is that my taste is so at odds with what society seems to say I should find attractive - don't give me muscle-bound; give me slim, tight, and wearing eyeliner. I simply don't buy that cosmetics are feminine only.


3. Are you promiscuous, a prude or in between? – I was raped by an ex-boyfriend, which seriously damaged my ability to trust men, but I have a very high libido. I'm not sure where that means I fall - not many sexual partners, but very sexually active might cover it. I can be prudish in my discussion of things; a lot of purple prose, stuttering, and blushing.


4. What turns you on? – Bondage. My interest in bondage and in being helpless actually goes back almost as far as my interest in Jareth did, and certainly before I was interested in sexual relationships with others. I recently found out about suspension bondage and I think it looks amazing. The irony of having trust issues while wanting to try suspension bondage is not lost on me.


5. Are you dominant or submissive? – I'm a submissive and had a year relationship with a Master in my early twenties. I'm on Fetlife, but my attempts to join the local scene were exhausting and not terribly rewarding, so that part of my life in a partnered sense is pretty small




6. Are you into sexual roleplay? – I've never done it, but it sounds fun (unless you count my BDSM... but I don't consider that roleplay as such). A lot of my fantasies are the kinds of things which would be much safer to do with roleplaying, rather than in actuality, and I imagine fulfilling them would be very... fulfilling.


7. Which sexual position is your favorite? – I love when I'm sitting on a surface parallel to my partners ...jewels with him standing. Really, really... really love it, and highly recommend it. I have no idea what that's called; my experience is less book-driven and more experiential.


8. Do you have any fetishes? – Not in the traditional sense of fetish - where it is required for sexual release. I have things which would colloquially be called fetishes, since I have been involved in the BDSM community, but I can have and enjoy vanilla sex, too.


9. Have you or would you do porn, amateur or professional? – No, really not so much. My choices would be limited, and I don't find the scenario to be a turn on. I've been acquaintances with sex workers, though, and I know some women really enjoy it. Part of me thinks those women are braver and more honest than I am, and I'm not sure how to reconcile it all - if there is shame for saying no to sexual things, than we aren't really sexually liberated in any meaningful way.


10. Do you consider yourself sexy? – Much more goofy than sexy, but this may be part of inculcation by my second boyfriend. I would try to be sexy, and he'd undermine me every time, and so now I mostly focus on bubbly and cute, since it's a strength.Any attempt to be a form of sexy I am comfortable with is pointless on Second Life, as well - in a world where bunches of people walk around naked, a coquettish flash of the flesh between stocking top and panty simply isn't as alluring.

( More pictures here. )

Review LEA 13: The {Lost} Garden of Sundarya Lahari

The {Lost} Garden of Sundarya Lahari is one of the many LEA displays for this period, and it is striking, brilliantly colored, and gradually growing over time. I don't remember a time when over the months an LEA Exhibit has grown over time to tell the story of a lost civilizations hubris, but two months in we already have an amazing story. The textures are complicated and brilliant, but not at all naturalistic - something which fits the story and the overall style. While sometimes the unreality of textures bothers me, in this case I think the multi-layering of each part of the build mitigates that, and the complexity of the textures and the build combined is simply amazing.

There are several large, round rooms where more of these textures - rendered mostly transparent this time - make up the walls and most of the floor. In the first of these, where you'll land, is a table of books with a new part of the story available each of the five months. I'm reproducing them below as the story itself is bittersweet and lovely.

The first month was very green and had a wonderful interactive sections - one where you could walk into a myriad of tentacles and cause music to be made (I can only assume it was stunning with a crowd) and another where you could sit in a pod and watch the pentapussies as they strike multiple notes at once with their many tentacles. It's a lovely and soothing experience, especially if you manage to ctrl-click on one of the pentapussies so that you can follow it around as it bounces through the tentacles making music - though the way they move can be a little vertigo-inducing. You actually don't have to be inside of one of the pods if you move your camera inside, the seat just sets your view for you. I spent a long simply trained on one of the pentapussies, enjoying the random and melodic music while I did other things. Other times I cammed through the layers of intertwining green, watching as the textures changed as they overlayed each other and caught the light in different ways.

The myth of the Ancients adds another layer to the simple beauty and musicality of the build. It describes it as a garden built by people of unimaginable ability and a desire to shape the world without, it seems, fully understanding it. Everything is discovered, and shaped, and while the outcome is lovely and beautiful, I can't help but worry about the pentapussies suspended high above the water on delicate and improbably thin stilts. What's odd, and confusing, and disturbing and lyrical all at once are the vines which grow here and there and form the pathways between the different garden areas. They are not at all leaflike, which adds to the dis-ease, and they seem to grow in these discrete rings which is also very different from the chaotic, uneven growth I'm used to. All in all it is lovely, and walks a line between soothing and disturbing which is unusual in my experience.

The Second Month adds the first error to the story - and adds a new color scheme, greyish-brown and scarlet, along with an intrusion of violence to the garden. In a hurry and a shock the Ancients slaughtered the mother of the very creatures they had been adoring; mistaking her seeking out her children, they rendered her no more - and it's strongly implied she is one of the only mothers of its kind. Machinery keeps her alive, and the effect is ...held up by enormous metal rings and cables, the headless mother conceals a hidden passageway into the depths, where her progeny exist in many different stages, from apparent piles of eggs surrounding underwater dandelion puffs all the way to full pentapussies. It's unclear if there is, or what is, the father of all of these creatures - it's possible they could be hermaphroditic, but it seems unlikely. This sections doesn't so clearly have a musical component, but there is significantly more movement down under the water, once you find your way under the water, following secrets.

The more I reflect on it, the more I feel like there are echoes of The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas in this - the initial shine and joy that has deeper, darker, more unacceptable underpinnings. I don't know if that's accurate, or if it's my inherent distrust of things which seem entirely pure and good that drives this comparison, but I suspect in the next months we'll find out.

First Month

According to myths, the Ancients discovered a botanical species; a kind of reed that was capable of resonating a sound frequency when touched. The Ancients harvested these reeds and created a meditative and spiritual garden.

Quite by accident, the Ancients also discovered a symbiotic creature to the reeds; which they named the Pentapuss. The Pentapuss has the same form and biological structure as the reeds, and fed off the soundwaves made by the reeds. In doing so, their movements amongst the reeds nurtured the growth of the reeds to maturity.

The Ancients built BioPods and BioSpheres; to nurture these reeds and the young, juvenile pentapussies. They built contemplative Elemental pods at the Chamber of the Ancients, to observe these creatures and plants. They built a music chamber, where they can physically interact with the reeds......

In time, the garden grew to become a beautiful space - to contemplate and be as one with the beings that surrounds them.

About the Build
The build is based on live sampling of my cello "plucking".  Each "reed" in the build, upon collision, produces a specific note.

The build is made up of two chambers on two towers:
1. An interactive chamber where avatars can move around, collide with the reeds and make their own music.
2.The main chamber; where the musical notes are being produced in a total unstructured fashion by the random collision of the creatures "the pentapuss". The creatures move/dance in an absolute random algorithm and upon collision with the reeds, the reeds produces the sound of a single note. Being executed in a completely random fashion,  a musical score is created that is ever-changing and evolving... never the same.

Resonant sounds/notes are produced when two notes are simultaneously struck.

The beauty of the build is how one can discover an evolution in music, made totally in a random algorithm, given a full pentatonic scale (via the sounds produced on a cello).

Second Month

…..and so the story was told; that many moons had passed, and the Ancients had built their garden of tranquility - a place of musical beauty providing solace and much enjoyment.

A wondrous creature rose from the waters one day. With fear in their hearts and in haste, the Ancients captured and killed the “beast”.

The Ancients realised, that in their foolish haste, they had killed the mother to the creatures they had so lovingly nurtured, and that Mother had only arisen from the depth of the blue waters to the call of her younglings.

So the Ancients built the Mechanicum - to keep mother alive so that her species live on……

About the Build
The immersive “treat” is underwater - The plant-like structure emits particle spores, and upon approach or when a Pentapuss is near, the larvaes “hide” and get “petrified” within the egg-like structure of the plants.

Third Month

Available in April

Forth Month

Available in May

Fifth Month

Available in June


( More pictures here. )

It All Starts With a Smile

It's always fun when someone makes a personal sim and then opens it to the public, and It all starts with a smile is a charming place with meandering paths amongst some very lovely views. I particularly like how it goes from high up to down by the water, offering a variety of different landscapes but with lovely little details and bright splotches of color. I really love the landscaping, and had a lot of fun exploring and checking out the different angles of water and surrounds. I only managed to photograph a fraction of the little nooks and crannies built in and tucked around the mountain rising up out of the waters. There are lovely curved pathways, festive fish, and little buildings and stores tucked in all over the place. I was particularly struck by the waterfalls, which are not the solid sheets of water I've run into in the past, but rather are splashes of white finding their way down various cliff faces, over which lambs gambol. There are even a few nice soundscapes you can find if you listen well enough, which lured me to a enjoyable place to settle down and read a book. Everyone and their sister is reviewing It all starts with a smile with good reason - it's a lovely sim to explore.

I've been having a little bit of a crisis of blog (and by extension life) lately. My love of taking pictures hasn't changed, but it's been harder and harder to write the copy which goes along with each post - mostly because I can't decide what I want to say, or what part of my life is most important to me. I didn't start this blog as a fashion blogger, I started it to show off my pictures and hopefully get some feedback on them, but by and large what I get the most feedback from - besides Strawberry Singh's very lovely and traffic driving memes - is the fashion that I do when I cover peoples' creations. It's an interesting and often frustrating sort of thing; I don't find writing copy about peoples' creations terribly difficult, but I do sometimes find it rather dull. I love pretty much everything I'm wearing, warts and all. I think the pictures I take do a good job of inspiring, or not, people to pick up something they also like. I feel like there is deeper and more important things I want to say than simply a description of how awesome something is that I bought, but once the pictures are taken and the posting window opens my mind is a total blank. The big thing I'm thinking about today is how I miss people I knew in Second Life who have gone, or who are no longer friends. I value those who remain and their total loveliness, but I have two people I met who are largely gone, one of which the relationship never transcended Second Life, and all I could think is how much I wish I could send them both a landmark to It all starts with a smile and say, "Look at this. Look at this." And also say, Zen and Em... I miss you.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: Izzie's, Irene
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Yun
Horns: Alirium, Pan's Horns (Chapter Four)
Feathers: Lode, Boohoo (Chapter Four)
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Eyes: De La Soul, Rainbow
Cosmetics: Souzou Eien, Cultist Tattoo
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Wings: Una, Steampunk Wings (Fantasy Gacha Carnival)
Shoulder: Bryn Oh, Shoulder Beetle
Hands and Feet: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands and Feet
Nails: Flair, Juicybomb
Dress: Junebug, Sandy's Sundress and Cardigan (Chapter Four)
Shoes: Mango Cheeks, Recherche Heels (Chapter Four)

Poses: Exposeur

Location: It all starts with a smile
Light Settings: TOR, MIDDAY Rebranded Skies
Water Settings: Mirror Water

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Monday Meme: New-to-me Meme

Very luckily, for Berry's New-to-Me Meme, I had this set of pictures waiting in the wings that contained not just one, but three new-to-me stores and a style that is far outside of my normal mode (but which I have blogged before). I am normally a fantasy faerie, even when wearing modern dress, but now and then I become a cyberpunk faerie when I'm particularly inspired. With how information travels in Second Life, one of the best ways of finding new stores and new styles is through the large events that go on - though a few of them are paralyzed in size and available stores - and so I found it with the Futurewave event, which introduced me to far more new-to-me stores than just demonstrated in these images. I'm also, unusually for me, also almost wearing pants - though these thigh to ankle stockings allow just the barest flash of flesh in the back where leggings-meets-miniskirt.

These amazing excuses for me to wear miniskirts more often, and the mask, are both from one of the new-to-me stores called AFtershok, which also gave me one of those very pleasant experiences of good customer service. The set I had bought at Futurewave came sans HUD, and I sent a notecard over to ask about it, since I was particularly interested in the purple trim and it was stuck on green at the time. As is the way with Second Life, the first sending of the norecard didn't go through, but shortly after the second AFtershok sent me the nicest response and my missing HUD. I love finding new stores, and having a friendly and responsive creator is just the icing on that particular cake. The mask I'm wearing is also from AFtershok, and is as well rigged as the as the leggings and fits extremely well. It came with an invisilayer for the outh and nose, but I ended up finding it unnecessary. Both the wearing of the mask, and the almost-pants, are departures from my usual style but a lot of fun in any case; also, both are available at AFtershok's main store.

The second new store I found at Futurewave is called Static, and it brought me my amazing rainbow-pixel halo, and a set of technological rainbow color changing wings. Both have an amazing glow which stands out in the dark without seeming out of place. Both are animated in their own ways - the wings as they shift from shade to shade and the halo as it bleeds pixels of light into the air. The halo in particular is very reminiscent of my avatar on Gaia Online, who always wears a rainbow halo, and was something I had wanted for a long while. The wings are a more unusual bat-style, which I've warn before but rarely. The halo and the wings are available at Static's store, on the level below the skins. The final new-to-me store is ISD, which gave me these astonishing arm warmers which go so well with my dress. They actually came with a matching dress as well - a cowl-neck design which didn't go as well with my AFtershok mask - but what I loved particularly about them was that they could go very well with other styles of clothing, and the unusual band-and-garter style which I appreciate so much on legs. They blend in so seamlessly with the rest of my look that it's both astonishing and fun. Unfortunately, neither the dress nor the armwarmers seem to be at ISD's main store yet, but hopefully it's just a matter of time.

I would have been a great deal more naked in this look without a few stores I've blogged before, though, and since the new ones are getting a bit or word, I'd like to spend a few moments on them as well. My hair is from A.E.Meth and is a thick, single-form in the style of robotic helmet-hair, which I thought was rather fun. The dress is from Sakide, which is a store I've known and blogged for ages - a real contrast to the new stores. She regularly has awesome clothes available, often several colors for one low price, which appeals to me as a spectrumphile. And finally my shoes, my amazing rainbow sneakers, my sneaks of such delight they make me squee, are a recent release from Adore & Abhor and I simply adore (and do not at all abhor) them. Like Sakide, Adore & Abhor takes up a significant chunk of my inventory space, though they may be new to other people reading this right now. I love the idea of spreading the word about fun and interesting stores, so I'm really hoping other people who participate in the New-to-Me Meme will introduce me to some wonderful new stores.

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: Izzie's, Irene
Hair: A.E.Meth, Gynoid 9
Halo: Static, Pixel Halo
Mask: AFtershok, Asunder Mask
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Eyes: De La Soul, Rainbow
Eyeshadow: Beautiful Freak, Thorny
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Wings: Static, Rainbow Cyberwings
Shoulder: Bryn Oh, Shoulder Beetle
Hands: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands
Nails: By Snow, Carbon Manicure
Dress: Sakide, Virtuality Dress
Arm Warmers: ISD, DarkNet Warmers
Leg Warmers: AFtershok, Titan 1
Shoes: Adore & Abhor, Platform Sneaks

Poses: Magnifique

Location: Seraph City
Light Settings: TOR, DUSK Fairytale Glow
Water Settings: Mirror Water

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Unexpected Transmission

Futurewave finished in February, before I got this look together and photographed, but it was an amazing first, sci-fi focused event with the distinction of being completely non-fandom, which I thought was rather a nice touch and brought a lot more interesting things to the table. This amazing, spiky hair from Underscore which wasn't part of the event, but it seemed absolutely perfect when I got it. Underscore sells hair types with a HUD to change the colors, and this is one of the gray/silver versions of this hair - an unusual color for me, but perfectly fitting my poor, lost TechAngel. The silver array around my neck is from Spyralle, and unfortunately it is not (yet?) available at her store. It's a really, really unique design, and I particularly like how it frames around my head with the movements of lights up to the tips. I'd love to see it in more colors; Spyralle is known for her bright, amazing textures, and I could see those really being an asset with a variety of Fashion Arrays. The eyebanding is from Pin Me Down and is a really amazing effect that reminds me of the checkerboard effect from A Game of You by Neil Gaiman; it's available at the mainstore in an entire panoply of colors. My lipstick is from Beautiful Freak, and is an astonishingly liquid and shiny design that I really love. I picked it up in the more unusual colors, and got a chance to pull out this incandescent teal for my TechAngel, to reflect my tainted wings. This is also available in the mainstore, kind of tucked back from the front door.

My wings are from Death Row Designs, and they are astonishing. They don't physically move with a script; instead they are a selection of wings which appear and disappear when one flaps, with a final "up" position when they're off. My one complaint is that there is no way to freeze at the different levels, so I had to time my snaps very carefully to get the wing effects I wanted - for example, the top shot was a matter of second counting so that I could capture the down-and-back effect. I have no idea how difficult it would be to program that in, but I would love to be able to "freeze" the wings in each of the forms I doubt anyone but a photographer would want it, though, so maybe it's a lot of effort for not much payoff. The wings are available at the Death Row Designs store not only in the blue-and-teal I picked up at Futurewave, but in light, dark, and the special pack, which has wings like the one I'm wearing here. Finally, my dress - this amazing, amazing gown - is from MetaTheodora and is also available at the mainstore. I have such mixed feelings about this dress. I love the idea - the silhouette is so unique, and I adore the effect of the wires standing out from the body. I love how the sleeves and collar loop out at the ends, and the shape and form of the corset is amazing and unusual, especially how it looks machined and robotic - it struck me the moment I saw it even though I tend toward more organic designs in general. On the other hand, the shape and rigging of the skirt seemed really problematic to me. First of all, since I'm short, the folds bend oddly in response to that and look crumpled; this is a somewhat cool effect, since it looks like I'm wearing my stolen big sister's dress, but I don't think it's intentional. Second of all, the skirt is extremely flat. I've angled these pictures to minimize the effect, but the fall of skirt below is almost exactly vertical with minimal horizontal movement, and while it's not an issue from a front or back view, from the side it looks extremely odd. I'd love to see it a bit floofier and rounder in general to reflect the round of the corset-level, maybe even with some of the outflow of the arms. None of this changes how much I adore this dress, however; the ideas behind it are so fun and I am really drawn to unique and unusual designs. The texturing of it - which I didn't get into before - is also quite good. I love the metallic quality of the texturing, and the color choices - especially of the more flamboyant gowns, though the subtle effects are amazing on this monotone one - like this fawn-dapple on my butt, making me look like my dress is made out of melted aluminum that pockmarked during the drying stage.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: Izzie's, Irene
Hair: Underscore, Lyon
Array: Spyralle, Sensory Array Mode 24P2
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Eyes: De La Soul, Rainbow
Eyeshadow: Mock, Pantone Fall eShadow
Eyebanding: Pin Me Down, One 1
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Lipstick: Beautiful Freak, Liquid Metal Lipstck
Wings: Death Row Designs, Devine Wings
Hands: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands
Nails: By Snow, Carbon Manicure
Dress: MetaTheodora, Star of Venus

Pose: aDORKable

Location: Siden V3 Survival horror - Elven/Pirate RPG
Light Settings: TOR, DUSK Fairytale Glow
Water Settings: Mirror Water

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

The Singularity of Kumiko: Spotlight Vignettes

I've been circling Bryn Oh's Singularity of Kumiko for quite a while, starting with a very straightforward walkthrough and then some personal responses that rather went on it's own tangent, rather than staying focused on Kumiko and the art itself. This is at least in part because the heart and tenor of the art is so elusive, both due to Bryn Oh's signature tenuousness of storyline, which comes through even when she's leading you from place to place, as she did in Standby, where each scene of the story was in a different location and progression was linear. The use of black as both a backdrop into which we can immerse ourselves, and as a way of highlighting discrete flashes of story remains, however, and now the backdrop is not only built into the creation of these stories, but also extends so broadly that the little candle-glows of story can lurk like will-o-the-wisps in the darkness, and tucked around corners and behind walls. She also makes an entirely striking use of glow, which traditionally has a garish effect. Some of the walls at various points are set to white glow, which in any other windlight would be bright enough to blind, but in the darkness Oh has created, the stone comes off as just slightly brighter than the surrounding stones in a subtle manner. The physical details, the effects, even the near-automatic analysis of why and how it works, are relatively easy to describe. What I'm struggling with far more is my emotional response.

I found the Singularity of Kumiko more emotionally arresting than any of Oh's art so far. I have always enjoyed what she did, and felt like she was pushing the boundaries of virtual art, but something about the combination of seeing the images through the darkness and the way the story plays out - how it is about the basic value of human life, the relationship between authenticity and ends, and the dynamics of relationships, where out of love people can sometimes rush over the right of consent of the people they love. I found myself identifying very strongly with Kumiko, lost and confused in the dark and yet finding beauty in the detritus of her lost life. I knew the story of the bees, though it brought to mind another story I heard -a bout how the native bees in North America were singular bees which operate very differently from honey bees, and yet still served the purpose of pollination (and can pollinate the apparently very picky tomato plant). It's a reminder of how interwoven we and the world is - far beyond what we can easily see. Kumiko's very human concern about loving something which is made by humans, which is made specifically to mimic love, is such a striking and timely issue, and I feel like it has roots down into the core of what it is to be a person. I don't have any answers to this response, or even an easy way to describe the deep, melancholy disquiet I feel when I walk over the land and through the darkness.

( More pictures here. )

Linden Homes: Thoughts, Opinions, and Interior Design

The recent hiring of Ebbe Altberg as Linden's Lab's new CEO (and how he interacted with the enthusiastic and sometimes deafening crowd of Second Life evangelists and pundits) got me thinking about how I interact with Second Life, and in particular my rarely used but, I think, tastefully appointed Linden Home. There is a lot of critique for Linden Homes, and a lot of it I understand. They are usually empty. I'm on the edge of another Homes sim and I see maybe three houses occupied when I go to mine - one clearly a clearinghouse for alts, and several private homes for the sex trade. There are strict regulations on how you can use them; you can't use them as a store (using SL's classifieds) or build anything in the air over them. There are limitations and advantages to the house - it doesn't count against your building prims, which is good because prims are at a premium, but you don't own the house and can't directly edit it. There are other ways of editing it through a set of presets, but you can't add to them or individualize it in any manner. Or, at least - it's harder.

As you can see, in addition to the included mushroom in my house (purple and white in the back), I added a bunch of shinier, sparklier mushrooms from Cerridwen's Cauldron Creations around the side, right along where my property ends. I also built the rainbow "wall" along the front of my porch; the base style is that is open, so it was easy to fit in a giant prim and texture it with Fortunas Creations' gorgeous rainbow textures. You can't see it in the picture, but it moves. On top of the house I added a gorgeous, giant flower from Arctic Greenhouse that manages to be a single prim even though it's enormous. I took some effort to personalize the outside of my house, and I sometimes wonder what my neighbors thing if/when they log in and look. Do they like it? Hate it? Not even notice it? I'm endlessly curious about my neighbors, but I had no way of knowing who, if anyone, would be comfortable being contacted. There is no neighborhood board, or any sort of easy time-asymmetrical, opt-in communication options on Second Life, sadly enough.

I recently transformed my front porch in response to the new mesh flowers which are one prim or less and yet insanely detailed. These are all from XED Designs, and my only regret is that there are no roses for me. Instead there is every flavor and color of shiny flowers, most of them half to one prim and a couple of the larger two prims. I bought a few of them with the bases, and since everything was modify-ok (THANK YOU) I was able to mix and match like a master, making a rainbow panoply of color curling around my relaxation area. The two oldest things I own are in the center of this circle - my gorgeous and amazing bench from Off Brand Designs. It's color changing by touch and menu command, seats two, and the accessories move around when the poses change. I simply adore it. The other is my fountain from Yoneya, with it's signature flow of water then bonk as the bamboo tube overflows. I had wanted one of these for years offline, and so when I found them online it was totally worth it - and worth the prims to keep it rezzed. Finally, my shiny, color changing thistle is from Cerridwen's Cauldron Creations, and was the closest to a rainbow rose I could find on the grid. I love my little virtual garden.

My "living room" is probably the least used room in my house, so it's pretty bare. The picture boxes I built myself, as part storage and part display of images I and my friends have taken across the grid, highlighted again by Fortunas Creations' fantastic textures. The "rug" on the floor in front of the fireplace (included in the Linden House) holds longer pictures taken, but the majority of my images are square or close enough. Long ago I put in a texture change script for each so that they gradually cycle through the whole collection; it's an easy way to revisit my past. The stump, complete with a grass texture that I thought faded well against the stone floor of my house, is also from Off Brand Designs, and is a single seater with a book which can show up in your hands in the right poses. Even inside the house, the sound from my fountain permeates, which I really appreciate. The harp is a very recent addition I simply couldn't resist from Dysfunctional Dolly Designs, and is - can you believe this? - a single prim. It was a total impulse purchase when I found it while looking for roses - it has roses on it yay - and it plays harp music as well as having a lovely animation of me playing. If anything will lure me to spend more time by the fire, it's my lovely rose harp.

My bedroom was recently completely transformed by a few new, mesh furniture and accessories releases. I'm a book fiend, so when Sway's released these wall hanging shelves for Fifty Linden Friday, I couldn't resist. I particularly like all of the small details on the shelves - in addition to books there are picture frames, plants, even some candles. The change in bookshelves inspired me to trade in my old bed for a four poster, even if the four poster didn't have rainbow sheets. The four poster in question, along with a twisty bent bookshelf I quite liked, are from Trompe L'oeil, and are lovely in their simplicity. I actually started with her bed-in-a-box for a roleplaying home I put together, but for my home I wanted something a little more open and yet still with the heavy feel of substantial furniture. Since everything is modify ok, there is a decent chance I'll play around with adding my own textures in the future, and thus getting the rainbow furniture I love, but for now I'm content with enjoying the lovely included textures. The doors I added are in much the same vein as the window on the front porch - Fortunas Creations' texture on a single prim, moving slowly through the entire spectrum. One downside to the Linden Homes is their dearth in doors, even when there are discrete rooms.

The final room had been my dressing room for ages until I relocated to my platform on a friends' land, at which point I moved one of my favorite things into that now empty room - this contemplation orb from WaterMoon Breeze. Another very old purchase, it offers a variety of different, moving, contemplation options, but my favorite is this one, which gently spirals through perfect rainbows before overlaying other patterns. The big theme of my home is calm and relaxation, and this adds to that by giving me something beautiful, ever-changing, and hypnotic to enjoy when the world becomes too much.

My Linden Home started as a refuge - as some place in Second Life where I could go where it was owned by me, and thus nota party to the whims and tempers of the people paying for it. I can't afford a whole sim or even a partial one - the monthly payments would beggar me - but I can have this tiny spot of land with its tiny allotment of prims with which to build a retreat. Much as I adore my friends who let me use their land, there is a part of me that always feels a little like an interloper. I know they don't think of me that way - at least I hope they don't - but there's something about having a space of one's own which is powerful. Linden Homes, within narrow strictures, allows for that sort of thing for not-too-much a month - the price of a premium membership, which is renewed yearly.

I've always been reluctant to get more land, having read about endless billing snafus and nonsense which threatens accounts, and if I were to end up making a store it would be on an alt and likely through a Land Baron (the recent surcharges on cashing out, even if one is doing so to pay immediately back into Second Life, is troubling). I might be more inclined to deal with Linden Labs directly if their draconian reaction to various billing errors was cleared up, and if they came up with a way to pay for Linden Land using Lindens instead of having to cash out and use cash, but I'm unsure if Ebbe Altberg and the board running Linden Labs is even aware of these issues, much less whether they intend on changing things for the better. I'm not a major figure in Second Life, and in many ways I wouldn't want to be, but it's interesting to think of what one might say to someone with the power to act, for better or worse, to change Second Lifeand how we relate to land.

( All pictures here. )

Credits Outside: 

House: Linden House
Flowers & Flower Boxes: XED Designs
Bench: Off Brand Furniture
Shishiodoshi: Yoneya
Weird Flower: Cerridwen's Cauldron Creations
Mushrooms: Cerridwen's Cauldron Creations
Giant Flower: Arctic Greenhouse

Credits Inside: 

Stump: Off Brand Furniture
Harp: Dysfunctional Dolly Designs
Photoboxes: Deoridhe's Make
Rainbow Doorways: Deoridhe's Design
Heart and Star Bookselves: Sway's
Bent Bookshelf: Trompe L'oeil
Bed: Trompe L'oeil
Meditation Orb: WaterMoon Breeze

Tainted Love Hunt: Stops 41 to 61

The Tainted Love Hunt, hosted by Woeful Wednesday, is a hunt for the darker side of the Second Life Valentine Soul - not the hearts and flowers and chocolates, sort, but rather the bleeding hearts, headless flowers, and ...well, chocolates still apply for this sort. It has Sixty One stops, which makes it manageable, and there is a hint page with SLurls for the stores, so if you get stuck you can move on. There are also sometimes men's and women's prizes, and I'll be dragging along a long-suffering male alt for the purpose of showing off the guy stuff in style. You're looking for a three dimensional heart (pictured above) and I'm planning on showing the prizes in sets of twenty so that I don't completely overwhelm myself.

Stops 1 to 20 -- Stops 21 to 40  -- Stops 41 to 61

41. Post Mortum Designs

42. Soap Co.

Wearable/Rezzable stalker bush and binoculars, bloodshot eyes and bloody tears, broken heart emitter

43. ~*Souzou Eien*~
What a lovely day at the beach.

Removed heart

44. Rotten Inc. – Collectables & Oddities

Poison vials and a note

45. Venomous Rage Designs (4 hearts)
1) My eyes hurt…..The Sun…. Its too Bright….
2) I know thousands of languages, many more retorts, I am the source of your wit, and the king of your voice. But betray me in anyway and I’ll make sure you’ll never speak again. Who am I?
3) Red Light, Green Light, Stop & Go. Are they on or are they off, You’ll never know.

Cupid's Hammer; Love Chest Piercings; 

Women's: Cleanup on Aisle 4 Men's: Eternal; Women's: Blutigen Vixion

46. MiChiGaNs ShAcK

47. Violent Seduction

Bikini

48. Redux!
My heart hasn’t gone off the rails yet…

Little Whorehouse in Texas

49. Fallen Doll
Have a heart, there’s a jolly good chap!

Tired Eyes Cosmetics

50. Kabuki Creations
Sneaking up behind you and giving you a firm spank on your tush while you are cooking.

Couples Pose "Seduction"

51. Squeek!
Some things are sour, some things are sweet, some things are sticky, and you shouldn’t eat them if you are picky.

Poison Bottle Wearable / Rezzable

52. Belle’s Cabinet of Curiosities
These toxic beauties are heart stoppers.

Belle's Cabinet "All in His Head" and "Stolen Heart"

53. DAARK (Skip for now)

54. Dark Water Designs
E.A.P. hid his heart within the walls, we went him one better.

Men's and Women's Clothing

55. AD Creations Doll House
Be careful, you may fall down stairs

Mesh Collar / Mask

56. DramaZone
Be careful, a devil is near!

Amor Ava Male and Female

57. Corvus

Mini Dress and Eye Tattoo

58. ::Gehenna::

Women's: Home Wrecker T-Shirt and Mini Skirt; Men's: Heart Breaker

59. Entity

Chair

60. Adoness
You might want to check the second floor.

Eyes

61. **Myrai Style Fashion**
{Sweet Home}

Jumpsuit

Monday Meme: The Book Meme

I am a huge fan of books and have a library that is, lets just say, extensive. I have surprisingly few pictures with books given how many books I have in my house, but they've been ubiquitous since I was a child. Berry asks us a bunch of questions about books, and I had a ball answering them, even if it was a reminder of how rarely I remember book and author names.

1. Are you a bookworm? – Totally. In addition to a sizable internet reading schedule, I have about thirty free books on my phone and easily one or two hundred books in my house.


2. Which do you prefer: hardcover, paperback or electronic? – I use paperbacks the most, mostly because of cost and easy of reading them in bed. I have a few hardcovers for the series I was too impatient to wait for the paperback edition, but those are few and far between and I always pick up the paperback once I can. I keep my electronic to free until I can come up with a way to ensure I won't spend hundreds of bucks on books only to have them vanish for some TOS violation.


3. Which book is your favorite? – I'm also a huge fan of  Pride and Prejudice, and re-read it several times a year. I have most of Austen's books in miniature book form, which are adorable. In terms of books which I've reread and which have had a profound effect on me outside, I have to point to Beauty, by Robin McKinley, Fool's Run, by Patricia McKillip, and Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones. I am a voracious re-reader, but these are the ones which have carried me through decades. Outside of that, the books I re-read the most are the Black Jewels Series by Anne Bishop, less the original series and more the extensive continuations. Sadly, some of the stuff I was hoping to see never showed, and it appears that the characters I'd hoped to become more central were forgotten, but I still adore the series for all of its flaws (and since I've read it so much, I know them all). These books are the only time I've bought the hardback because I wanted the book at home and was too impatient to wait for the softcover.


4. Which children’s book is your favorite? – I have two favorites - one from when I was a child, and one from when I was a teenager. I grew up loving A Little Princess, by Francis Hodgson Burnett, and wishing I could be a Sarah. I'm not - she has a gentle and refined soul that I never seem to be able to approach, but then she's also fictional. As a teenager, I ran across Apple Tree Cottage, by Virginia F. Voight, and simply adore it. It is a book I miss and read when I remember it, like the others I have enumerated above.


5. What’s the last book you’ve read? – I just finished Twilight's Dawn, by Anne Bishop, which wrapped up a lot of the threads form her Black Jewels Series. I'm about halfway through Home from the Sea, one of Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Master's Series (highly recommended, along with her 500 Kingdoms series).


6. Name your top five favorite writers: – Jane Austen, Patricia McKillip, Robin McKinley, Gail Carriger, and Seanan McGuire.


7. Name a book that had a strong impact on you: – Plato's Lysis, a dialog of Socrates. It was one of the first times I was ever pissed off by a dialogue, and introduced me to my own passion for solid thought.




8. Favorite & least favorite book genres? – I'm a huge fan of fantasy and science fiction, somewhat of romance and mystery, and hugely of classical literature. I'm trying to make my bookshelves less white, but it's slow going. I've never read a Western, which I suppose says something?


9. Favorite & least favorite book-to-movie adaptions? – I'm going to cheat a little. I adore, adore, adore, adore without words The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, which as far as I'm concerned not only met the original Pride and Prejudice where it lived, but improved on it in ways Austen wouldn't have been able to due to the limitations of her era. My least favorite is the Hayao Miyazaki adaptation of Howl's Moving Castle, which is weird since I adore Miyazaki. He took a complicated story about loving people for who they were and turned it into a main character who doesn't think she's pretty - a truly shallow reading of the source book - and I literally can't watch it.


10. Have you ever bought a book based on the cover alone? – Yesish, that's how I found Gail Carriger, actually - her cover was amusingly Steampunk - but I always read the backs, too, and she gave good blurb. She's sort of a Steampunk Jane Austen, though sometimes her Comedy of Manners becomes Mystery or Adventure Novel.


11. Where do you usually buy your books? – I was a Borders sycophant for years, but now I shop at local stores or at a yearly trip to Barnes and Noble.


12. Do you go to the library? – I used to, but my local libraries are kind of thin on the books in general, and ordering in costs a dollar a pop, so it isn't the gleeful weekly trip it was when I was a child. When I was a child I'd easily leave with a bag of ten books for two weeks rental, and have them back most of them read. Now my reading is a lot more sporadic in terms of books; I reread as a part of self-soothing, and so my reading of new and very challenging books suffers.


13. How many books do you own? – Easily one or two hundred in my home, and another hundred or two boxed up. I've been thinning the herd recently, but it's hard for me to give up books.


14. If you were to write a book about Second Life, which topic would you focus on? Probably issues of identity and self-awareness in virtual environments - or how we internalize and play out prejudices in virtual spaces. I'm fascinated by how we make the world around us, and virtual worlds are a particularly clear example of that, lacking almost entirely in basic needs that have to be filled. How we interact with each other, what we build, how we treat each other, etc... is all made much clearer due to this.

( More pictures here. )