my ship is sinking, so watch me drown

January 24, 2013, 4:38 pm

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Why does this maker not have this lip? Who makes this lip?!?

And there's a new heavy metal band on the scene--literally. Massing over a ton of solid working gears and metal, they're the heaviest thing around and then some. Give them a listen.

(from the loss album; the last of Armada Breakaway)

In the meantime, some sad news. I'm copying directly from the notecard received.

******************************
Sidney Arctor's Updates Group
******************************

22nd January 2013 Update.

Bad News Everybody :(

The Armada Breakaway Sim is going offline this weekend. :(

All has been done to save it, but there is just too much empty land.

So this will mean Arctor Ship Yards and Fabulous Contraptions will both be closed.

The most popular items from both shops are already on marketplace and will still be available, and I plan to reopen a shop somewhere eventually, but this could well the last chance to get certain items, such as individual sofas (marketplace only has sets) and most of the furniture, full perm sculpts, and dock decorations. Also, it could be a while before my cannons are available again.

As my subscribeomatic server is set up in Armada, this could well be the last update message too.

My marketplace Page is here:

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/22780

This shan't be the end of old Siddy tho, nor the last you hear of Armada, new adventures be awaiting in Blake Bay where building is underway, there won't be any commercial ventures but those of you who appreciate creations by me and the rest of Armada builders, drop by in future as there's going to be various fun creations to check out.

Thanks for reading, and good luck to everyone in future!

Sidney. ◕‿◕

P.S.
There will be an end of Armada party on Saturday 26 from 7-9pm SLT and everyone is invited!

(from the loss album; the last of Armada Breakaway)

Personally, I thought Armada Breakaway was an amazing sim concept. In these harsh economic times, we must adapt or sink; and it's not news in the least to hear of another store closing, another sim disappearing. But this one is especially poignant, because it wasn't just another cookie-cutter mall plot. The entire sim was water-based, and every tenant and shopkeeper was parked on a boat, a ship, an airship, in a hot air balloon--the sense I always got was, whatever they could scavenge that could float or fly. And all of these myriad constructions were anchored one to another by rope bridges, wooden walkways, riveted planking, steel catwalks...There was a definite sense of craft, and by that, I mean, making what we have work for us, patching what we're missing, and never giving up.

(from the loss album; the last of Armada Breakaway)

This is pure economic necessity, yes, but I don't view this as giving up. I don't think Sidney does either. But it is a major setback, and another beautiful, irreplaceable thing gone from the grid.

Though it is a sadder, emptier place right now, I'd recommend people see it before it goes up in flames for good.

---

there's a message that I'm sending out, like a telegraph to your soul

January 25, 2013, 5:22 pm

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So if you read part one and part two of the grand Candy Mountain/Yulicie controversy, you thought that was over and done with, right? Well...no. Which is why this is the third part.

I realized something about all this was bugging me, and it wasn't just not having the dress to compare the Vellent Retro frock to. So, after pondering for four days, I dropped Ms. Legend a notecard.

She wrote back. Apparently she made over thirty-five variations of this, some of which only went out for limited-edition release. However, there were a couple interesting things that came out in her answer:

[19:54] Mynx Legend: (Saved Tue 22 Jan 2013 08:02:01) I made the dress templates all by hand, I never ever use photo sources or purchased templates. I can happily send you a non-special edition candy dress for you to inspect. (These were made in September with my Tea dresses)
[19:54] Mynx Legend: (Saved Tue 22 Jan 2013 08:04:08) PS: Here is the screenshot of my first WIP of my cupcake dress: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mismatch/8010759491/ If that helps you out at all
[19:54] Mynx Legend: (Saved Tue 22 Jan 2013 08:06:02) The dress is a mesh source from Meli Imako, but I haven't used the shading map provided - I don't enjoy doing that. Also, sorry for all the IMs. My brain is a bit scattered today.

It's good to have that confirmed, at least, because as the photos will show, there's virtually no difference in the actual mesh structure of both dresses:

(from the Comparisons album

That's what both dresses look like when laid over each other--if they'd used different base mesh forms, this would have shown that. As it was, they perfectly aligned, with only bits of the texture flashing on and off. This is what's going to make evaluating mesh (and mesh texturing) difficult: six different designers can buy this particular cocktail dress and turn out hundreds of different dresses. The dress form itself does not change. The mesh of the dress does not change. Just the texturing--which Ms. Legend calls "template", by which I think she means her created texture and shadow-map--for the mesh.

Okay. We know they both used the same dress form now. That's fact, that's undeniable, and it's bound to happen when full-perm mesh constructs are sold. What about the dress textures themselves?

That's where things get tricky.

A tip from a friend informed me I could actually rez the dresses out, instead of just trying them on, so for this entire picture run, that's what I did.

(from the Comparisons album

Candy Mountain's dress is on the left (note the star on the back), and Yulicie's "Vellent" is on the right. And it does look as if they've drawn shading in different places.

(from the Comparisons album

Here are both dresses from the front--the "Vellent", again, on the left, Candy Mountain's dress (note the Peter Pan collar) on the right.

(from the Comparisons album

Something was really starting to bug me, though, about the pattern itself. I couldn't put my finger on it, quite yet, so I rezzed out another version of the Candy Mountain dress. Now, Candy Mountain frocks are left and right, leaving Yulicie's "Vellent" in the center.

(from the Comparisons album

Here's the tricky bit. This is an extreme close-up of Yulicie's "Vellent" dress, showing a little jag in one of the drops of the painted texture itself.

(from the Comparisons album

And here, while it's difficult to see, is that same jag on the front of the Candy Mountain dress.

Okay, so what does that mean? Well, if I had to hazard a guess, Ms. Legend bought the template sometime in 2012, textured it with her own textures (not the six-pack that comes with the package from Ms. Imako), and released it. Then went a little crazy with brightly-colored tea dresses until she had those many, many variations.

Ms. Neaph, on the other hand, looks like she might have wandered across the Imako mesh dress recently, and picked it up. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, by the way--mesh forms that Ms. Imako releases are released with full permissions.

But. See that last picture? There's a complication, I think.

Namely, it looks like the drippy 'frosting' texture (or whatever it's supposed to be) on the Yulicie version has been flipped, front to back.

I'm going to go a little farther out on this limb, and say that it looks--at least to me--that the Yulicie dress uses the same texture as the Candy Mountain dress, which was released first, as far as I know.

I want to note: I don't know Ms. Neaph, I'm not saying she's infringing anything with her outfit. It's perfectly possible someone handed her the dress, and the texture, and she just did some quick recoloring for variation, some additional shading across the bust, et voila, her "Vellent Retro" released for the event.

But however she got it, I am saying that it's the same texture as on the Candy Mountain dress. How that happened, I'm not even hazarding a guess, but this comparison run is done, at least for me: the "Vellent Retro" dress does use the same texture as Candy Mountain's "Puddi" dress.

I'm done, I'm done, I'm done, you won this time

January 27, 2013, 7:24 pm

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Do you know the history of the .mp3? NPR wasn't sure we did, so went to Karlheinz Brandenberg to get the real story. It's fascinating, uneasy-making stuph.

And you will never see me on this hunt. Talk about missing the point...in all directions!

Looking for a terrifying avatar? I can help you with that.

The FTC has finally stepped in and forced Linden Lab to change their "Become your avatar!" campaign, on the charge of false advertising. You can see the revised before and after pictures on Miss Questi's blog.

(Yes, yes, it's a parody...but seriously, that would be cool if they did it that way.)

And this is one of the most impressive images I've seen from a Second Life photographer. My eyes keep telling me it's real; that the combination between the exquisitely textured sign, and the veiling of approaching night, manage to remove the computerized component entirely. Would it still feel "real", to me, at any other time of day? Likely not, but as it is, it's stunning.

Meanwhile...in a texture group far, far away...

[20:57] Bxxxxxxxx Sxxxxx: sprinkles the otter with pink glitter...
[20:58] Dxxxxx Kxxxx: dear santa thane, id like a martini the otter hasn't stirred with her paws... that is all
[20:58] Sxx Wxxxxxxxx: NO!
[20:59] Sxx Wxxxxxxxx dabbles her paws in ALL THE MARTINIS
[21:00] Bxxxxxxxx Sxxxxx: --==crate=--
[21:01] Sxx Wxxxxxxxx: AAAAGH NOT THE CRATE!!
[21:00] Dxxxxx Kxxxx: hehehehe
[21:01] Emilly Orr: So first we had an otter covered in pink glitter. Then we had otter retaliation by stirring all the martinis. Does that mean we now have martinis with pink glitter in them?
[21:01] Emilly Orr: Is it edible glitter, at least?
[21:01] Bxxxxxxxx Sxxxxx: it is! like kid proofing the house, we have otter proofed this group
[21:02] Sxx Wxxxxxxxx: havent!
[21:02] Sxx Wxxxxxxxx: well - maybe for a while - gotta go to beta grid
[21:02] Sxx Wxxxxxxxx: but Ill be back!
[21:02] Emilly Orr: You forgot the MUAHAHAHAHA.
[21:03] Sxx Wxxxxxxxx prances off giggling darkly to herself
[21:03] Emilly Orr: Close enough.

Seen at Patron, spinny people:

(from the random album)

Sculpted by Miss Eliza Wierwight (she also owns the Patron sim), the entire installation slowly rotates under a giant red balloon, and it's far more impressive in person. Do go look.

And there's a certifiably angry bird at La Boucherie:

(from the random album)

See? Angry. Really angry.

Seen at The Cube, the sculpture "Womanflower":

(from the random album)

This one was worth going back through to check again, because I wanted to name the artist. (She's Yaiza Galicia, by the way. She's also got a Marketplace store where you can purchase her sculptures at insanely reasonable prices.) The Cube gallery is a linked set of installation spaces, with artists that rotate in and out taking each of the cubes, or only some. If you go, they're happy to send you an invite to their group to keep up to date on the artists in residence.

If you're wondering how J.J. Abrams will do directing the Star Wars reboot, other fans are wondering the same thing. Ross Thompson did a trailer mash-up of both films, just to find out what it might be like.

Do you like zombies? Do you like teddy bears? Ever wonder what you'd get if you mixed the two? I can now answer that, also.

And there's a lot of Kickstarter project videos that start with the fairly artificial "surprise" angle--"Oh hey, I didn't see you there!" Kickstarter's finally made a video montage of projects that have used this angle.

Finally, there's a movement afoot against lives of indulgence and overspending. People are finding smaller spaces, and learning how to live in them; sometimes by building them, sometimes by buying or renting them. Felice Cohen is one of these people, who started out living in a tiny, tiny space, but--due to publicity and sub-leasing restrictions--now lives in a much larger one.

The bit about that which I think is important: she misses her old space. She misses feeling like everything she loved was nearby. I think making the sacrifice to live in smaller spaces means we find out what's truly important to us, and we work on making that feel like home (or reflect the home we have). Instead of what we think we 'should' have, or 'should' be working towards, we work on what we need.

More of us need less than we think we do, to be happy.

I was a mess before you came

January 29, 2013, 4:07 am

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[23:33] cxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx:
╔══╗
╚╗╔╝
╔╝(¯`v´¯)
╚══`.¸.ＪＥＳＵＳ
[23:33] Emilly Orr: Good for you?

Y'know, barring Caledon--where religious discussion comes and goes, depending on age of resident and amount of alcohol consumed--I'm fairly careful with my groups. By and large, no one bashes my head in with their intense religious devotion to whomever, and I don't have to hurt them. It works both ways.

And I am letting this one go, beyond saying she's fifty-seven days old, three of her picks are for the same damn club (down to the coordinates; she just bookmarked the same place three times), and three out of her four groups have to do with music (and two are related to that one club), so...I'll grant that she's impaired in some fashion, and move on with my life.

Miss Quandry's put up an excellent post on Madpeas' Room 326 hunt, which is counting down its last days. I have a couple of shots I'm planning on posting of the hunt, itself, but I'm waiting until the hunt is over, just in case there are issues with revealing locations. I will say, this was one of the more difficult of the Madpea hunts--not Twisted difficult, mind you, but fairly challenging. That, paired with the jump from L$10 HUDs to L$50 HUDs, has made several people somewhat irate.

My view is, though, we're still getting fifteen really good prizes, plus the chance to wander through a story and see how it evolves as we go. For only fifty Linden. That's less than half the price of a Bare Rose outfit, or one-eighth the price of a FallnAngels kimono, so seriously, pony up the funds and move on; it's a trifle.

Beyond that, if people really object that much to paying forty Linden more for a scavenger hunt...well, seriously, they need to reevaluate their values, or something. You'd pay more for a pack of gum. Honestly.

without regret for all the things that we have done

January 30, 2013, 5:51 pm

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Can you endure 23,000 spoonfuls of terror? Or, y'know, at least spare ten minutes for a short film about an inexplicably slow murder?

I will say, past the first four minutes or so--the first three of which are really, really funny--the concept seems to drag on. And on. And on. And maybe that's the point, really.

I've been pondering how to bring up dio, but part of what trapped me in place was trying to figure out what it was, exactly. Nothing I read really answered the questions I had. But, now I don't have to! That last post contains all you really need to know!

Interested in making books by hand? There's a lot of resources, from simple online tutorials to paid classes, but this actually covers all the basics in a short series of photographs. Impressive.

In the world of gaming, there's a lot of parody videos. There are even entire parody games. So when I first saw the trailer for Blocksworld, I thought it was exactly that--something filmed just for the fun of it.

Apparently I was wrong. Blocksworld exists. It's not a parody, it's a really good game designed (mostly for kids) for the iPad. Who knew?

Ever find yourself curious about D&D? Or if you play D&D, and you don't know how to explain what you're doing to people that don't? There's an online tutorial just for you. (Personally, I find their description of sorcerers scarily apt. For several years, the battle cry of my human mage was "Sorry about that!")

The Prim Perfect blog brings us a story about the not-so-secret "secret" of Second Life--that many participants are older than they say they are. I'll go one better and say that the other "secret" population was just grazed over in this article--the deaf.

Well, I'd say handicapped in general, but for folks in SL who cannot hear RL, it's especially relevant. Though this particular population was severely unhappy when voice launched--because, before voice, everyone typed. Not every deaf person speaks, and for some of those that do, they don't speak in ways we're accustomed to. Sometimes, this is because of the inability to hear their own voice; sometimes simply because they don't think to speak before they think to sign. But there's more than a few deaf people in SL, just as there's more than a few who have retired from their First Lives.

Speaking of the disabled, we're in the land of medical breakthroughs--again. Brendan Marroco, a U.S. soldier who'd been on the ground in Iraq, lost all four limbs to a roadside bomb. The loss of his legs, he managed to accept fairly equably. He already has prosthetic limbs, and he says they work.

But what he really missed were his arms. In January, he got them back. It was a thirteen-hour surgery, and he will have months, if not years, of rehabilition in order to regain the function he can with them. But already he can push his own wheelchair, brush hair out of his eyes, and pick up light objects. It's nothing short of amazing.

The next chronicle of Riddick has released stills! It's coming. And it looks very dark and gritty, but really, did we expect anything else?

Finally, back in 2011, on on SLUniverse, Miss Wunderlich started posting images--and explaining the whys behind--her recreation of the Crystal Palace in Second Life. It's still up--you can visit it--because she's made it her store.

I realize I'm late to the party on this (and really, that should be my cue that I need to visit her store more often!), but this strikes me as especially significant not because it's the first recreation of this structure (hers would, in fact, be the third, though the thinking goes that one of the three is no longer up0. Rather, this is significant because for historical purposes, there's very little more accepted as a structure that represents the Victorian era. The thread she largely worked from is also one of the most amazingly detailed, a room by room examinations of the structure I've ever read.

Go see it if you can, and walk through recreated history.

mark the time that slips away where the oceans meet the sky

February 5, 2013, 6:37 pm

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There are things in our lives we can redesign to make much more efficient, or beautiful, or inspiring. And then there are the designs we make just for fun. Me, I know why the tentacle plunger might get made, though it's clearly the latter. (And no, think bathroom, not bedroom--this really is a redesigned plunger, not a sex toy.)

This, though, is truly amazing and if it succeeds in a stable way, we will effectively end the debate over use of stem cells in medicine. And make no mistake about it--the initial cost outlay for medical-grade machines (and the technologists to run them) will be high, but after that, surgeons will be able to create stem cells that originate on a growth medium, not in a baby, and (even more important, in my opinion), will be able to drop rejection of the cells to zero, because they can use the patient's DNA to grow them.

Imagine: a world where there is no risk of rejection, because the cells are grown from each patient. A world where there is no need for the scary immuno-suppressants we have now, with their occasionally vicious side effects, because our bodies will simply adapt and reintegrate our own cells.

3D printers can do a great many things, but I admit, I didn't realize they could print out living cells. We are living in the future, people.

Meanwhile, coming from the more cynical region of future techs, Amazon is trying to patent a yet-to-be-created device that will ensure digital scarcity. While the concept of digital scarcity still makes me laugh, my bigger question is why? And why did it take so long to grant the patent? (It was originally filed in 2009.)

But that's not the worrisome part. The part that makes me nervous is the implicit kill coding.

Say I own a digital copy of To Kill a Mockingbird that I acquired from Amazon. I've read the work several times, I need more space for things, and Amazon has told me I can re-sell the ebook when I wish. I list it for sale (at a reduced price, though Amazon still takes a cut), and someone buys it. This technology would then (supposedly) kick in and "transfer ownership" of the ebook, giving a copy (with the kill code intact) to the buyer, and subsequently deleting my copy of the book.

Considering how easy it is for technologies to go haywire, I am not sanguine that other books may be deleted, or that there would be cases where my book might be deleted, and the buyer's copy not delivered. All around, this sounds like a bad move.

Turning to gender, and perception, Lore Sjöberg has a marvelous little commentary on the myth of the "nice guy". It's well worth reading, and I'm thinking it should be required reading for every guy in SL. Because what he says is true: women don't want "nice" when they're considering potential mates or partners. They want smart, or funny, or smart and funny, and hey, liking a good cuddle now and again wouldn't be bad either. And after those attributes are covered, then women turn to the physical.

Is that sinking in? Ask ten guys what they want in a woman, at least half of them will mention breast size. Ask ten women what they want in a man, nearly all of them will mention intelligence and sense of humor over any physical attribute.

We don't want you to be a "nice guy". We want you to be a good man.

and bitter cold goes side by side

February 11, 2013, 10:44 pm

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News of NiranV's trouble with this JIRA is both daunting and depressing to read; while I no longer use Niran's viewer, I will say I found it easy to use, easy to build in, and photography was phenomenal while using it. Overall, I really thought it was the best of the V3 coding out there.

But it seems he's intent on hanging up his hat. If true, he will be sorely missed as a creator of an actual USABLE V3 viewer, but more than that, this kind of battle with the Lindens (and the rest of the TPV community) burns people to cinders, and that's the really sad thing. He shouldn't have had to fight this hard to fix things.

But then, in reading through the JIRA comments, my jaw hit the desk more than once:

"Real bodies are not perfectly symmetric, and neither is our avatar model; changing this now would be more disruptive than symmetry justifies."
(Widely Linden)

Seriously? Plus, that statement is so dense as to be nearly impenetrable for most people. "Real bodies" aren't perfectly symmetrical, no, but virtual bodies are. Plus, this seems to be a simple change so that prim clothing, armor, prim attachments, wings, et cetera, would fit better and be positioned more accurately, right? So why would that small fix be "more disruptive" in any way?

There are more interesting comments on that JIRA, but I'm quoting the last one in brief:

"If Linden Labs really wants to get their customers to drop them like a rock, feel free to close it again. I'll know to stop getting on Second Life and go do something productive then."
(Maki Guyot)

This is exactly where a great number of us are. And I know I say this a lot, but this time I think it has some merit, because I've pretty much given up on updating this blog at present. (Granted, that does not mean I'm not blogging, but really, the only blogs I'm updating at all right now are my Tumblr feed and Topping Out.)

Without serious work on their communications with the community, without severe and sudden deconstruction of the ivory tower elitism that seems to solidly permeate Linden Lab, they're going to lose Second Life as a viable world. Which--also as I've said before--would be a really bad thing, because so many different applications (everything from training midwives to practicing military tactics to rehabilitating the disabled to encouraging socializing and personal contact) keep surfacing as to why SL is a good thing to have around.

Meet the fastest robot in the world--at least, so far, that is.

I don't normally get political on this blog, but I have to laud Nancy Pelosi's recent statement that violent video games have no impact on school shootings, and on violence in general. She's getting dunned, especially on Fox News, for this stance, but I have to applaud her for this. Because if violence in games were the sole determining cause, then there would be huge upswings for violent acts in Japan, for instance, which allows far more brutal depictions of violence in games than even we do.

We need to address the culture, not the media created by the culture. Because it's still the truth: guns don't shoot people by themselves, and violent games don't kill on their own, either. Find the root causes, not the symptoms, and we can begin to heal the cultural rift. Taking away the weapons and the games, by themselves, won't work.
Finding out why so many of our teens feel disenfranchized, why so many of our teens snap after years of constant bullying and abuse, will do us far more good than banning a few games that the bulk of young adults don't even play.

To distract from the political, have thirteen minutes of bizarre news bloopers.

And after that, here's a twenty-five minutes on why those of us in the US are paying more and getting less (in terms of download and upload speeds) than comparable developed nations. Just taking the case of Hong Kong, where even the poorest households have faster data transfer rates than people who have the fastest speeds over here, it does cause us to wonder why. I'd be very interested in finding out what Time-Warner and Comcast (to name only two) think about Ms. Crawford's assertions.

Moving on to art, let me introduce you to the work of Augusto Esquivel. He's using simple buttons strung on nylon line to create ephemeral, moving hanging sculptures. Personally, I remain enamored of the piano, but some of the other set pieces are just as stunning.

For art closer to home, buying one of the clock pegs from Yanko Design will let you use any random object (of the correct dimensions) as clock hands. Want to mark the hours of your day with pencils or pens? Done. Want to insert harvest twigs? Done. Slim throwing knives, tatted bookmarks stiffened with cornstarch, wire ribbon? Whatever. It'll work. Insert things into peg; set correct time; insert peg into wall; done.

The next dangerous drink has emerged: in this case, a vodka rated at 250,000 Scoville units. (To put that into perspective, poblano peppers rate, on average, between 1,000 and 2,000 Scovilles, jalapeño peppers around 5,000 Scovilles, straight cayenne about 30,000, and pure habañero pepper about 200,000.) The terms in which this vodka is described make it sound less like a drink, and more like an assault; however, I know people who would buy that--and drink it--with great relish.

At least until the burn hit. Then there might be tears and lamentations.

Let me also introduce you to Tsuyoshi Ozawa, who in 2012 did a series featuring women holding vegetable weapons. I...really have no place in my brain for that, so I'm sending it out to you. Maybe someone will make sense of it for me.

And there's a very inspiration video featuring women in Second Life participating in One Billion Rising. It's an important cause, and it's a touching video, both. (Plus, here and there you might recognize a few faces you know.)

this vicious circle's getting out of hand

February 15, 2013, 8:19 pm

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[12:55] ʎpuɐↃ ssǝɹʇsıW (cxxxxxxxx): I read this message in wow skin group PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS NOTICE TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY ON YOUR CONTACT LIST.

*ATTENTION*!!!!!!

In the coming days, you should be aware¦
Do not open any message with an attachment called: "Invitation FACEBOOK", regardless of who sent it.
It is a virus that opens an Olympic torch that burns the whole hard disc C of your computer. This virus will be received from someone you had in your address book.
That's why you should send this message to all your can
[12:56] Emilly Orr: Oh, not again

I swear, I see at least one of these a day, and I'm not in a lot of high-traffic groups by intent. I'm sure that people in larger, more "chatty" groups see this more than I do.

[12:56] Emilly Orr: [Cxxxx], it's not a real threat
[12:56] Lxxx Pxxxxxxx: wow
[12:56] ღ ριηкч ღ (pxxxxxxxx Fxxx): thanks i will spam that around asap
[12:57] Emilly Orr: Please don't.
[12:57] ღ ριηкч ღ (pxxxxxxxx Fxxx): huh?

So, I did some quick work to track it down. I wasn't trying for open hostility, just information. While I was off doing that, others were chiming in.

[12:59] pxxx (pxxxxxxx Mxxxxxxxx): Candy, that's spam., it's ment to have people like you paste it all over
[12:59] pxxx (pxxxxxxx Mxxxxxxxx): so please dont
[12:58] ʎpuɐↃ ssǝɹʇsıW (cxxxxxxxx): I check and is in all the web, but just in case dont open it

That's the problem, isn't it? If we don't understand the technology we use, we don't understand how and why it stops working, let alone why it works in the first place. And I am not immune to this sort of magical thinking--I've made the "box of magic smoke" references, and there have been more than a few times where I've honestly struck computer towers, as if percussive maintenance would actually work on motherboards and hard drives.

[12:59] Zxxxxxxxxxx Hxxxxxxxxx: Spam can also be used for sammiches.
[12:59] Zxxxxxxxxxx Hxxxxxxxxx: But that is a diffrent conversation.
[12:59] Exxxxx (pxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx): probably a more interesting one
[13:00] Emilly Orr: Not only that, but it's OLD spam. Like vintage 2006 old: http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/invitation.asp

But this is how infection works, right? One person gets sick, infects another person, who infects another person, who...you get the idea. And in more places than just SL, virii no longer have to be computer-based. Now, they can be purely text-based, and people will still pick up the infection and pass it on. Whether out of fear, confusion, or simple misunderstanding of the technologies we increasingly rely upon, virii still exist, and will find new ways to keep existing--save that, once they move away from malicious coding, become far more insidious wasters of our time.

So what's the deal behind Prince Stolas on Twitter? God, of all people, tipped me to him, and it's a little unnerving that his/her/its user pic (as well as the name, for that matter) both relate to the Goetic hierarchy of named demons. Of course, to be fair, My Lord Stiv was never all that sane, even when he was hanging out at the Enigma in SL, so it's unsurprising to find him consorting with owl-faced demonic entities.

What is surprising, I suppose, is to find said owl-faced demonic entity handing out "fashion curses" on Twitter.

Turning to current news, someone mentioned a meteorite striking Russia late last night. I tossed the link to friends, and we went off to look for proof of veracity.

Turns out a meteorite did strike Russia last night. There's a ton of video footage, and at this point, a ton of coverage, and just about every link is saying that this had nothing to do with the "near miss" fly-by of DA14.

I'm not so sure, to be perfectly honest; while it wasn't DA14, it likely was an outrider pulled along the asteroid's route.

[Insert from the Editrix: here is a great article on what did--and didn't--happen regarding the meteor strike over Russia. Prevailing science says my theory's wrong; the meteor that hit and DA14 were on completely different ellipticals.]

Turning to video games: there have been many ways for Lara Croft to die in the older games; usually some variation of being hit by things (bullets, tigers, lasers, the ground), or being drowned, being crushed by falling things, et cetera; none of them were really that memorable, in the sense that the death itself wasn't the point, but the end-stop moment where you'd have to try again. They were, as a rule, just memorable enough that (most) players didn't want to see them over and over again.

More news from the front lines of the new Lara Croft: this is now their idea of memorable. (Clicking that link, btw, leads to an incredibly visceral and disturbing death that someone made into a .gif; I would say it's definitely NSFW, and might indeed be NSF anyone, ever.)

This is what's been bothering me about the new trend towards "realism" in games. And it's not even the Uncanny Valley aspects of coding, nor am I going to go off on how violent videogames cause children to find guns and kill people, because they don't. I do think, however, that violence in video games, combined with the violence we see on television, on our streets, by watching the news, by watching horror films...it doesn't predispose anyone to violent thoughts or outbursts, but I do think it becomes easier and easier to adapt to the set point of violence, whatever that is for the culture at the time.

To that end, I think scenes like this, where Croft is going to die, there is no way for her not to die, yet we are shown her death throes to the end anyway, vividly; I think scenes like this are closer to torture porn, frankly, than "realistic" death, with "weight and impact". And we run a very real risk, by participating in these death scenes by proxy, of making it easier to shrug off other forms of violence.

---

go tell the world I'm still around

March 8, 2013, 3:44 pm

≫ Next: lay down for a while, disconnect

≪ Previous: this vicious circle's getting out of hand

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So, normally I'd be covering this over on Topping Out, since it's implant-related, but...yeah, I kind of have to talk about it here, because...well.

Bewbapalooza has started for another go-round, and while I'm all for implant-related events (both because it makes it easier to find new stores, and because said stores usually offer limited-edition items or sale-event pricing), I'm having a problem coping with one particular offering.

(from the fashion album; Nazi-influenced outfits from Awear at the current Bewbapalooza.)

This particular offering.

Awear calls this their "PVC Police Officer" look, but...that is pretty close to an exact reproduction of an SS officer's hat. And while I realize Nazi memorabilia and Nazi fashion still influence modern culture, both domestically and globally, for me this goes too far.

There are two outfits called "Kinky Latex", one in black:

(from the fashion album; Nazi-influenced outfits from Awear at the current Bewbapalooza.)

and one in pink:

(from the fashion album; Nazi-influenced outfits from Awear at the current Bewbapalooza.)

but they still have the same hat.

I know I'm sensitive on this issue. Having friends, having people I consider family who had family in the camps, some who made out out, most who didn't...it leaves an indelible mark. As indelible as the string of numbers tattooed on their arms, a daily reminder of the chilling horror humanity is truly capable of. Because make no mistake about it--until the tide turned, the people who captured them, forcibly transported them, guarded them, tortured them, dehumanized them, killed them--had been friends, neighbors, even countrymen. That, also, leaves a mark, and in this case, that mark is on several cultures, not just one.

(from the fashion album; Nazi-influenced outfits from Awear at the current Bewbapalooza.)

A closer look at the main outfit.

Yeah, I...I'm pretty sure I can't attend this round of Bewbapalooza until that's gone. And I'm sure Awear's off the list of implant fashions to buy, ever. Some things are just not cool.

lay down for a while, disconnect

March 15, 2013, 5:16 pm

≫ Next: less a giant mushroom cloud than an unexploded shell

≪ Previous: go tell the world I'm still around

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"True to myself until the end", this tattoo says, and I'm not quite sure they caught the significance--or the likely unintended hilarity--of the placement, methinks...(May have to have Adult listings enabled on the Marketplace to see it; it is a tattoo, after all.)

And if you ever have a need for two dead mesh goats, I can now help you with that. I have no idea why anyone would need that, but hey, just in case, there you go.

Did I mention God has this odd habit of popping back into my life on occasion?

Oh no not me I won't stand it no: FROM THE HELLS I RETURNED
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: TWICE
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: IN A ROW
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: WOOOOOOOO
Emilly: Yay? And which hells?

This is a legitimate question. For God, there's a lot of hells. Not quite as many as Big Trouble in Little China, but close.

Oh no not me I won't stand it no: just won a game of dota 2
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: so hard
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: i fought 3 people
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: they killed me when i got one
Emilly: Dota 2?

Dota 2 seems to be, from my understanding (after looking it up) to be sort of a formal, official sequel to a few informal, non-official mods for other released games.

Oh no not me I won't stand it no: so my guy auto rez'd
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: and then i killed another and they killed me again
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: AND I CAME BACK AGAIN
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: AND KILLED THE THIRD
Emilly: Woot!
Emilly: TRIUMPH

Figured it was appropriate. Still wasn't sure what was going on--the looking-up phase hadn't happened yet.

Oh no not me I won't stand it no: ALL HAIL THE SKELETON KING

Hey, that was appropriate too. Not that I knew what God meant (though that's a fair point, also--sometimes, it's really hard to tell what God means in any given conversation).

Oh no not me I won't stand it no: yeah dota 2
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: its like nerd sports
Emilly laughs
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: the international nerd sports
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: wish i took a screen of that guy asking why wont you die

I mentioned my watching of back-to-back Let's Play videos of Final Fantasy (begun with FFXIII, and now nearing the end of FFXIII-2). God mentioned another game I'd never heard of:

Emilly: Also, up to part 55 of an insanely long YouTube series on Final Fantasy XIII-2
Emilly: I think it's nomming on my brain
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: Hahahah
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: Its a lp?
Emilly: Yep
Emilly: Kung Fu Jesus and PokeCap'n, Medibot, MyNameIsKaz, some others
Emilly: Just a big room of guys playing Final Fantasy, eating cookies, and going crazy on occasion from the stress of playing the game
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: I think I know kung fu jesus
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: he started on SA I think?
Emilly: Yep
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: Hes in their lparchive
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: OH You should see GODHAND if you want a hilarious one
Emilly: It's weird, I now have LPers I recognize.
Emilly: Godhand?

Still a valid question.

Oh no not me I won't stand it no: Its
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: like
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: a beat-em-up
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: but
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: uh
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: you have the arm of a god
Emilly: Just the one?

Apparently, yes. Just the one.

Oh no not me I won't stand it no: and go after demons
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: and
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: its in the old west
Emilly: So you're Hellboy, then

Because seriously, that's how it sounds.

Oh no not me I won't stand it no: and you fight a mexican elvis demon
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: well
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: hmm
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: theres a poison chihuahua
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: uh
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: you fight 2 gay luchadores and one doesnt have a dick
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: man
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: theres like
Emilly: 0.0
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: a ton of crazy shit

I don't even. There's so much that's so deeply odd in that section. (Since having this conversation, by the way, I've watched part of a run through the game by the same group, and...yeah. It really IS that odd.)

Oh no not me I won't stand it no: and yet, its a more reasonable game than Anarchy Reigns, which is new for 30$ tell all your friends
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: Anarchy Reigns is a fighting game. With 16 people at once. Over 5 city blocks.
Emilly laughs
Emilly: Advertising!
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: AIRPLAINS FALL
Emilly: Snakes were probably on them
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: YOU CAN PILEDRIVE HELICOPTERS
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: CATCH MISSILES
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: TITS
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: MUTANTS
Emilly: Wait, you catch missiles with your tits, what?

Still trying to understand it all.

Oh no not me I won't stand it no: BUTTZ
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: ROCKET HAMMERS
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: AZN TRIPLETS WHO ARE SEXY ASSASSINS
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: ROBOTS
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: ROBOT NINJAS
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: NINJAS
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: THE BLACKEST MAN ON THE PLANET, THE BLACKER BARON
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: HIS ROBOT HOOKER
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: CHAINSAW ARMS
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: its pretty sweet

Uh...

Oh no not me I won't stand it no: So in summary, Godhand is cray and Anarchy Reigns made it look normal
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: http://youtu.be/0eQSSwmCUks 20 sec video on how hype i get about anarchy reigns
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: http://youtu.be/G6U12dQPykI the actual reasons to get this game
Emilly: Yeah, we watch a lot of Achievement Hunter/Roosterteeth, because at times they play games SO badly (Minecraft, generally)
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: Hahaha
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: You watch the one of them playing Clouds?
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: the minecraft map they made?
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: I loved that one
Emilly: Oh man, that one just COLLAPSED me
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: Hahaha
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: But yeah, anarchy reigns
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: im gonna go play that right now
Emilly: hee!
Oh no not me I won't stand it no: laterrrrrr
Emilly: Ta!

"We're all doodlers by nature," says Brandon Griggs, but what if we had the ability to make our doodles real objects? About two weeks back, parent company WobbleWorks launched what they thought was a modest enough proposal--$30,000 to get their proof of concept into mass production. Now, still with half a month to go, they've topped one million dollars in donations.

I guess more people really want to give their sketches shape than they thought.

Sadly, gadget canes are not as popular anymore--and most of the ones that are still made involve swords or alcohol--but on occasion, a vintage one surfaces that can, if nothing else, be appreciated from a distance. This is one such cane. An ornately carved ivory knob over the metal collar (complete with monogram initial), it hides a metal pick, a small dagger, and a fine ivory tool that resembles a bodkin to my eyes, but then, I sew; everything starts to look like a needle after a while.

In a prime example of cultural differences, this struck me as just odd: Minami Minegishi, one of the young singers in the idoru group AKB48, was caught leaving her boyfriend's home by press. Her reaction to this news? She shaved her head and offered a seemingly heartfelt apology--complete with wracked sobs and genuflections. But here's where it gets really odd:

[6:30:35 PM] Emilly Orr: Apparently, she's been demoted to "trainee" status, which means she'll only appear in the back of the group on tours, and not be shown outside of small clips in music videos.
[6:31:23 PM] Emilly Orr: The weird thing is that the management company for these girls forced her to wear a wig after the head-shaving vid went viral and garnered eight million views in two days. And fans reacted--but in a wholly unanticipated way: they were angry.
[6:31:49 PM] Emilly Orr: They flooded fan boards and chat rooms saying the wig told them she wasn't sorry at all, and now it's a PR nightmare.

I never thought I'd say this, but I am dying to know what this vegan, fat-free, chocolate pudding tastes like...but I'll admit, I don't think I'm brave enough to try it on my own. Why? Two reasons: half of its base is zucchini; the other half is sweet potatoes.

But hey, feel free, experiment and share the joy. Or something.

The Real Tuesday Weld have returned from their Russian tour, and have now set up a dedicated domain for their various natterings. The Blogspot for the Clerkenwell Kid is still active, as is their Facebook and Twitter feed, and the Antique Beat email service. But this will now be the spot where all new updates are sent first. Wonderful.

Finally, Google Glass gets a test run, and looks damn fine doing it. Wave of the future? Pretty much.

less a giant mushroom cloud than an unexploded shell

March 16, 2013, 5:02 pm

≫ Next: I remember because of the fires that leapt

≪ Previous: lay down for a while, disconnect

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Do you have thirty bucks? Do you want an all-in-one tailored men's suit pack? Damien Fate has you covered. It'll cost a pretty penny--or at the least, a pretty mesh collection of Lindens--but that's pretty much menswear in a box, and nary a stretched-over-muscles tank or razor-torn, stained pair of jeans in sight.

From another, wholly different direction--did you ever wonder what a pair of bleeding human hearts would look like worn as ear muffs? Me neither, but if you did answer in the affirmative, here you go.

"Burn flaming logs, screaming robots, credit cards, batteries, exploding fish, unstable nuclear devices, and tiny galaxies." Does that sound interesting in a game? Pay just five dollars through tomorrow, and get it downloadable on Steam. Or wait until the sale stops, and pay ten later. I'm fairly sure it's worth it at either price.

New friends occasionally stand in, when God is not around to overflow my blessings of bizarre. To wit, the following conversation:

[9:32:57 PM] bxxxxxxxxxxx: hello Emi ...hope your doing well.
[9:34:52 PM] Emilly Orr: It comes and goes. How's you?
[9:35:46 PM] bxxxxxxxxxxx: Feeling better...I just got in my iron nails to go with my jar and broken glass. things are looking up.
[9:36:06 PM] Emilly Orr: ...Cool
[9:36:48 PM] bxxxxxxxxxxx: It's amazing what you can purchase on the internets.
[9:37:01 PM] Emilly Orr: Indeed so.
I have no idea what he means. And I admit, I'm kind of afraid to ask.

According to the Smithsonian, medicine in the so-called "Dark Ages" was more advanced than previously thought. While most autopsies of the time were done under the auspices of the Holy Roman See, to establish proof of sainthood, some were done to advance early medical and scientific practice.

Most surprisingly, according to Dr. Philippe Charlier, a physician and forensic scientist at Raymond Poincaré University Hospital, states the mummified head was filled with a mixture of lime, cinnabar mercury, and beeswax to preserve it for study. This mixture is thought to have preserved the remains, as well as stain the circulatory system (because of cinnabar mercury's reddish tint).

The hospital also has the preserved heart of Richard the Lionhearted, which their team states was preserved with myrtle, mint, daisies, frankincense and mercury, in addition to other compounds, before being wrapped with linen and placed within a lead box.

Turning to art news, in 2005, the Chinese government destroyed the thriving artists' village of Suo Jia Cun, and the one hundred individual artists' studios, and homes, along with it. Artist Liu Bolin's studio was among them. With one strike, more than one hundred artists were displaced, with their art, their homes, and all supplies destroyed--and all because of improper permissions being granted up the chain of government.

Artist Liu Bolin was one of them, and was moved to create the "Hiding in the City series of photographs, that features the artist blending in nearly seamlessly with his surroundings. Utilizing a boxy canvas suit (reminiscent of government fashion under Chairman Mao) to layer paint on, and a series of reference photographs for exact comparison, he and his team spend several hours painting him to match the background, then snapping several shots from different angles until the best one is achieved. It is a lengthy, likely draining process, but Bolin knows it speaks, and speaks powerfully, both as art and as protest.

There's also video of several photographs in process. It's an incredible undertaking.

Finally, while there are several iterations on the same theme, XDModo's solar charger for mobile devices is both functional and beautiful. While it has a higher price tag (about $66 US), it's a simple, modern design that could blend in with any setting.

Plus, the concept of solar-charging gadgets means no more power loss camping! (Or even out over the course of a standard day.)

I remember because of the fires that leapt

March 17, 2013, 7:14 pm

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≪ Previous: less a giant mushroom cloud than an unexploded shell

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(from the media album)

Happy Feast of Pádraig! Don't drive under the influence.

Now, then. While I'm late on this, I figure I can at least help people for next year, who may want such help, as I'm very sure I'm not the only one stressed on time to cook. So here's a few links to (relatively) easy meals for the 17th--or any time you might want corned beef.

This year we went for simple, and scaled back as much as we knew how (because seriously, we usually cook to feed twenty and there's only three of us). I scouted around and found this recipe which seemed to suit. We made some alterations, though, along the way.

Crockpot Corned Beef
1 corned beef roast (trimmed lean)
3 red potatoes (scrubbed and quartered)
1 Yukon Gold potato (scrubbed and quartered)
1 large carrot (scrubbed and chopped into rough chunks)
1 onion (cleaned and quartered--we used a yellow Vidalia onion, but yellow or white onions would work)
1 bottle Guinness (or preferred dark stout)
1 head green cabbage
1 Tablespoon pickling spice
1/2 teaspoon ground garlic (or, if you have fresh garlic, two cloves sliced thin)
1 bay leaf

1. Scrub the potatoes and quarter them, only peeling if you can't stand potato peel (it's where most of the nutrition of the potato is, after all). Place in crockpot.
2. Wash corned beef and place on the potatoes.
3. Chop carrot and onion, and place (along with any remaining potato sections) on top.
4. Liberally shake pickling spices, garlic, and bay leaf atop the corned beef.
5. Open bottle of Guinness. Pour over corned beef. Fill bottle and empty three times until all but the fat cap of the corned beef is covered.
6. Turn crock pot to high, set the lid on, and check every hour or so until done (generally, about thirty minutes to one hour for each pound of the corned beef).
7. If there's enough room after the corned beef is done, wash and quarter the cabbage and place on top the last half hour of cooking. If not, remove the corned beef and the vegetables, and set the cabbage quarters in the cooking broth to cook for twenty minutes to half an hour.

Now, for this, we're not oiling the crockpot beforehand, and we're using three times the volume of fluid this recipe recommends (with our twelve-ounce bottles, we're using forty-eight ounces, total). If you just want to use the beer, you can do that too, but keep in mind, we have a six-quart crockpot. If you have a four-quart crockpot, obviously, it's going to be a tighter fit.

We're making a more "traditional" (AKA, traditional to us), soda bread tomorrow (this year we went with dried tart cherries and dried cranberries, but in the past, we've used golden Sultanas and stewed apples, homemade candied orange peel with fresh rosemary, dried blueberries and fresh basil, dried apricots and thin-sliced dates...some have been successes--in particular, the orange peel with rosemary sprigs, we HAVE to try that again some year--and some less so, but we like experimenting). For a closer-to-Ireland version, though, try this one, and keep in mind that "real" Irish soda bread didn't include eggs, buttermilk, or dried fruit, because in general, those were luxuries most families couldn't afford. (We like the fruit additions, but we've also done savory breads; both are good).

And if you're still wondering about how to use up the rest of the Guinness (if you bought a six-pack, like we did), you can always make a cheddar and beer soda bread.

We're finishing with a simple Guinness chocolate cake. There's a lot of versions out there; the one we're adapting is this. I say "adapted" not because that's not a good version, but because we're out of Bailey's, so we're doing a simpler chocolate ganache frosting instead. (That recipe, by the way, doesn't have anything to do with the 17th, but I liked the ganache from it, so I nicked it earlier this month.)

(Though if you're sold on the concept of stout and chocolate, there's a vegan version if you prefer, and a low-carb, no-sugar-added variant if your concerns drift that way. And a cheesecake version if you're feeling decadent.)

Enjoy! Beannacht Lá Fhéile Pádraig!

from paranoid to paralyzed

March 22, 2013, 2:13 am

≫ Next: stood on the edge of your bridge until I felt the rain push me away

≪ Previous: I remember because of the fires that leapt

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God still surprises me sometimes.

yog soggoth's a cutie: So for an online dating thing, it asked what is the first thing people notice about you? I guess first, there's normally the screaming of children, as though from a distance. Birds suddenly drop dead en masse. The sky turns red, raining blood. I appear, covered in a thick black oily substance. My tentacles spread and multiply all over the ground, attaching to any surface strong enough to withstand the pressure from the writhing miasma of flesh. Seven of my nine mouths open in unison and send forth the klaxon that ends the coming of days and summons the dead.
Emilly: .....
Emilly: Y'know, normally, that would just be odd, but since I've spent the last three hours watching Slender vlogs, that's certifiably creepy. 
yog soggoth's a cutie: Thanks
Emilly: You're welcome!
yog soggoth's a cutie: its on my okcupid profile now
Emilly: HEE
yog soggoth's a cutie: Get at me ladies
Emilly: Well, anyone who gets that is either going to be someone you run from, or someone who really gets who you are. Either way, it'll be interesting.

Indeed so. I'll have to ask him how a hook holding such bait fares in the wide online dating sea. Cthulhu fhtagn.

Seen at the House of ACCentaury:

(from the scavenging album)

I don't know what it does beyond this.

(from the scavenging album)

What I do know is that it took me so many individual pictures to snap, to catch the entire movement cycle, that I had to make two gifs, not one.

Seen at the pub in Naseby Field: their...bar wench?

(from the scavenging album)

Now, I get it. Most roleplay sims are barely funded, if they're funded at all. They all have to cut corners where they can, and in the pre-pathfinding days, there weren't any NPC figures people could rez out to walk around and interact with roleplayers in the sim. Hells, even in the post-pathfinding days, a lot of folks haven't figured that out. It's challenging, to say the least.

And I also understand that not everyone crawls out of the rez box knowing all the ins and outs of texturing in SL. It's a mix of factors, but I don't automatically turn up my nose when someone's flipped out a single-prim textured object--even if that alpha texture has that bright white rim around it.

(from the scavenging album)

No, what made me port out of the sim without even bothering to find the Steam 8 hunt prize was the attire and the color text over this particular bartender's head. It started with "hey baby", and went downhill from there. And keep in mind--Naseby Field is supposed to be a medieval roleplay sim. Since when did "medieval roleplay" mean "fake boobs worn with a spandex mini"?

I realize this is SL, yes, but really, people. Have some standards. Ugh.

stood on the edge of your bridge until I felt the rain push me away

March 25, 2013, 4:43 pm

≫ Next: my confusion left me as fast as the vertigo came

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Some of this year's Twisted hunt.

(from the scavenging album)

I would like to assert I am not a Petite in this image.

(from the scavenging album)

I am actually standing 5'7", including the (admittedly low) heels, yet I cannot make it up the steps to AD Creations without flying.

(from the scavenging album)

Shame on you, AD Creations. Fix your stairs!

(from the scavenging album)

Seen at LoveCats: giant follower cubes. Cute and creepy. They don't actually go into the store, but they do come close.

(from the scavenging album)

Seen at CatniP underneath the Carnival. I'm fairly sure the Carnival goes away at the end of the month, though I could be wrong--either way, it's likely you should check it out now before it's gone! (Though a word of warning: if you don't like the sight of random dead bodies, don't go.)

(from the scavenging album)

Seen (briefly) in Steelhead Harborside. A stunning center build.

Found in the description of a random group along the way:

I am a cat; we dare to sit on the Thrones of Kings and in the laps of Gods. If you want to collar something get a Dog. Dogs have Masters. Cats have staff.

Indeed. Amusingly, the avatar who put this in her profile was in human skin for her SL pic, and as actually encountered in the store. This, of course, does not mean she doesn't sprout cat ears and a fluffy tail at other times; just that she, as seen, wasn't feline.

(from the scavenging album)

Seen at Post: the very practical 'house rules' list. Also, do check out the store in general--the texturing and shading work is breathtakingly good, from the store itself to the products on offer. And for that excellence of texturing, the prices are eminently reasonable.

(from the scavenging album)

Finally, seen at REDRUM: Preservation, and again, impressively detailed. I have no way of knowing most days if something is actually mesh, or not, because I have a mesh-enabled viewer. But I'd suspect it is, because that many tiny prims assembled together would be ruinous on sim performance. But it's well worth a visit for the macabre set.

my confusion left me as fast as the vertigo came

March 26, 2013, 5:54 pm

≫ Next: now what I hold are the memories we barely made

≪ Previous: stood on the edge of your bridge until I felt the rain push me away

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This link will require you to agree to enter a blog with "adult" concepts and themes, but I promise you--this particular entry is completely safe for work. (You're on your own if you backspace to look through the blog itself.)

What you'll be seeing, however, is a collection of gravestones from Romani families in Donetsk, Ukraine. Unless we are Rom ourselves, or allied to the Rom in some way, all we likely understand about them in the Ukraine is how many were shot in mass graves during the Nazi occupation. And while that is important knowledge in itself, those mass graves, if they are marked at all at this point, will have at most a memorial tablet over the entire site.

Heads of families are very honored in Romani culture, however. They are frequently gifted, feted, and when they are dying--or dead, if death occurs suddenly--the call will go out for every relative to come to the bedside, and in general, this is exactly what happens. Money will be pooled to honor the fallen one, so--even if their lives were lived invisibly, for most of us--these etched stone portraits will remain.

While it is far, far beyond the reach of most of us, I remain comforted that there's at least one prosthetic limb studio who strives to move beyond standard replacement limbs that simply replace what's missing, and into actual prosthetics that not only suit the client's support needs, but their artistic, psychological and emotional needs, as well.

In other news, did you know that bumblebees see electrical fields? I know I didn't, and I'm utterly fascinated by the precision their reading of these electrical fields is. They can tell the difference between a high-pollen flower and a low-pollen one, or even whether another bee has already gathered the nectar and pollen from a flower. That's incredible.

In other science news, Duke University researchers have made an unprecedented discovery: by implanting a sensor chip near the tactile center of their brains, the brains of their test subjects gained the ability to 'touch' infrared light, and even to see it to a certain extent. If this technology proves out, it potentially could be implanted in the brains of the blind, so they will have an additional sense they can draw on to inform them of where they are.

And given another year, the FBI in the US will begin monitoring all all online chats. Well, I shouldn't say all, I doubt there are enough people in the world to monitor all chatrooms out there, but they will be targeting "suspicious" feeds. The problem is, for most of us (again), we won't know what's considered a "suspicious" feed, so we'll never know when we're being monitored.

Of course, this all goes back to online privacy in the first place--nothing posted online is private. If it is, then it hasn't been posted online.

And, if anyone needs a hovering mesh pig with inexplicable flatulence issues...there's one free on the Marketplace.

---

now what I hold are the memories we barely made

March 27, 2013, 7:27 pm

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A friend tipped me to this mesh piece on the Marketplace; it's attributed by its "creator" (and I use that word very, very loosely) under a "Creative Commons" license.

The problem with that? This is the Witch character from the Left 4 Dead games, in a Santa hat. Even the outfit she's in is directly ripped from the game.

And perusing the rest of his store, I am left with the inescapable conclusion that if there's anything there that hasn't been ripped from a major entertainment or game studio, it's only because it's been ripped from someone else, in world. He's a thief, pure and simple. It's still depressing beyond words that people feel the need to do that for whatever limited gain it gets them.

In other news, a friend of mine came across a 2012 study documenting the amount of virtual exposed skin on avatars in Second Life. What remains most compelling to me is that they excluded nearly all roleplaying sims (more on that later), and excluded all avatars who were over ninety days old.

If you're interested in the breakdown percentages, I highly recommend reading through the study, but I am going to mention the final tabulated results from the captured images (which were captured between 2011 and 2012, respectively). The amount of covered skin, on average, for male humanoid avatars, runs about 71% (with an additional note which indicates that 71% figure relates to a covering of 75% to 100%, excluding head and hands).

Considering that most avatars, from first day in to three months in, are still subsisting on a diet of freebie clothes and shapes, that actually makes sense. Excluding furs (who tend to wear less overall), and most roleplay sims (where more skin might be revealed), that pretty much indicates the standard population of any travel hub.

That female avatars of the same age range do not do the same is expected; but what's interesting (to me, at least), is how that change is demonstrated. There is not one single block of coverage, as is generally seen in the male figures (71% nearly covered, 19% two-thirds covered, 9% half-covered, and a slim 1% nearly naked). Instead, it's split nearly in half--female avatars, on average, waver between exposing up to 74% of their skin (38% of all female avatars observed), to exposing nearly half of their skin (47% of all female avatars observed), and that makes up the bulk of their total percentages. Only 15% remains, with 10% revealing nearly all skin, and a narrow 5% covering up nearly all skin.

We all fall prey to it from time to time, it's just easier in a virtual setting. Women dress how they dress not to impress men, generally, but to feel attractive themselves. Thing is, for most of us, "attractive" defaults to showing cleavage, or long legs; wearing heels instead of more comfortable shoes; wearing makeup instead of just cleaning our face and having done with it.

We do these things not because we necessarily feel they're important, but because we've been socialized to do these things. Our mothers told us how to dress, just as their mothers told them how. Our friends, instructed by their mothers and grandmothers, teach us as we teach them.

Be feminine. Stand up straight. Be coy, shy, inviting. Wear perfume. Wear makeup. Make sure your breath is fresh. Say yes, not no. And throughout all these messages, the one overwhelming one emerges--that women must be pretty at all times, if they hope to "snare a man". It is no surprise, then, that this melange of rules and restrictions seep into the virtual spaces we find ourselves using.

In Second Life, particularly, this is telling--because, while we, ourselves, have choices on the skins we wear, the shapes we wear, the clothing, for the most part we are buying what others have made. Which means we're literally conforming on a basic level to everything we were conditioned to believe before. There are virtually no skins, for child avatars or adult ones, that come without makeup. There are very, very few hairs that don't look like they've had some product, or gel, or mousse, used on them. There are few fashions (that are not specifically designed for roleplay, medieval sims, or neo-Victorian ones) that are not short first, or that don't expose a great deal of cleavage.

So, making these choices, wearing these clothes, wearing these shapes, and eyes, and hair, and adornments--we fall right back into the conditioning patterns. We understand why men dress to wear clothes that do not expose much skin. But most of us don't bother to understand why women dress to expose skin.

(Back to that roleplay sim. The single roleplay sim they did examine was one of the Star Wars roleplay sims, though they do not say which one in the study. There--and there alone--captured images of avatars were compared directly with stills from the Star Wars movies, in particular the "prequel" trilogy, with head and hands excluded from analysis. In this separate observational study, they also excluded furs, but retained their restriction of no one over ninety days old.)

cringe like you're cursed with your wrecking ball-y necklace

April 3, 2013, 7:29 pm

≫ Next: getting a feeling; maybe I will dream again

≪ Previous: now what I hold are the memories we barely made

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More scenes from a hunt.

(from the scavenging album)

The bubbly tilted carousel from World's End Garden.

So I found out--on the last day of the RMK Gothic sim's Bunny hunt--that seven of the various tickets had wrong SLUrls in them. One of those was World's End Garden--the actual location to redeem tickets was on the RMK sim itself.

(from the scavenging album)

But at the time that I shot these, I still thought it was somewhere on the World's End sim itself. I wandered everywhere amidst the glowing flowers, and while I didn't discover the book, I did thoroughly fall in love with the sim.

(from the scavenging album)

There are two parts: these three pictures I'm showing are of the garden next to the beam-in point. Towards the center of the sim, there's one of Miss Wrigglesworth's Anywhere doors; find that and you get access to the seaside portion of the sim.

And somewhere up there, for at least a few more days, is a jar of stars that contains a special dress. (Plus, it then becomes a simple jar of stars that one can hold, so really, there are two gifts in one.) That, also, is worth the wander, but even if you don't find the jar, drinking in the sheer beauty of the sim may be enough on its own.

(from the scavenging album)

Intruder alert! Land of Nodd's T-Rex was not the only danger, apparently!

Thankfully, their Turret was not awake, or I'd have been in real trouble.

This is full of awesome and goodness. And zombies. It's filled with zombies. But it's well worth watching.

(At least if you like zombies.)

As part of the current Jack in the Box promotion involving bacon--the one with the most disturbing ending line ever--they've launched a "secret" menu item: the bacon milk shake. It comes in two sizes, the now-you've-eaten-enough-for-the-whole-day, 773-calorie, sixteen-ounce "medium", and the inducing-your-own-funeral, 1081-calorie, twenty-four ounce "large" size.

So, if you are still interested in risking fatal coronary disease, what does it taste like? Well, according to the Serious Eats blog...really disgusting, actually.

The trip point for the reviewer seems to lie in the Torani bacon syrup used as the flavor base. We don't know exactly what's in the bacon syrup, but we do know that it contains soy and wheat, but no natural bacon extract, and can be safely consumed by vegetarians. So whatever Torani ended up adding to this bottle to make it taste like bacon...it's not bacon.

And in Jack in the Box's latest novelty shake, that difference becomes staggeringly--and apparently unpleasantly--obvious.

And there is a sim named Psilocybin. That is all.

getting a feeling; maybe I will dream again

April 5, 2013, 8:35 pm

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"Chrome just recently decided to change its menu behavior to accommodate fat fingers."

I'm not pointing this out because of the 'fat fingers' line; what they've done is actually applied a bit of redesign to make using a Chrome browser on touchscreens (like the iPad, mainly, but also other iDevices) vastly easier, with significant separation between the actions under the Chrome options menu.

Which is all well and good, but what about those of us who don't have touchscreens? Hence, the article mentioned at the top. It's a pretty clear, step by step tutorial on how to get rid of the new 'wider', more separated, options menu. (Though keep in mind: if you're actually USING a touchscreen, DO NOT DO THIS!)

This is going to revolutionize movie-making, no lie. There's a video on that site by Vincent LaForet, who's currently testing the MōVI to see just what it's capable of. In a few years, I think we'll all be able to see. This could be the end of shaky-cam footage forever.

In July of 1956, the Barstow family won an all-expenses-paid trip to Disneyland, and recorded their entire trip. In 1995, they put all the film stock together and gave it a narration. Normally, home movies are not the purview of the Library of Congress, but because this short film was so impressively detailed, both in terms of narration and visuals, it was named part of the National Film Registry by the Librarian of Congress. Prestige, indeed.

On another topic entirely, the Deformutilation blog has a short, but beautiful, entry on various reliquaries said to house the bones of saints. (Again, as with all links from the Deformutilation blog, while you will have to click to agree to viewing adult content to get to this entry, this entry contains nothing that is overtly sexual, or overtly violent. Just bones, and the richly ornate cases they are kept in, in churches around the world.)

The Firestorm viewer has found itself in something of a quandary--within the next two weeks, they say (and I'm fairly sure they're pretty on target for it), server-side baking will become a reality on SL. At that point, all viewers that are not up to date with the code changes (hint: that would be Phoenix, for those stubborn Phoenix users), will stop seeing avatars correctly (which is assuming they can see them at all).

So it's your choice--do you want to see other avs on the grid enough to update? Because one way or another, you'll have to, to stay with the changes (or walk away entirely).

Finally, do you like tentacles? Do you live aboard some alien, biomechanical integration of unholy flesh and distressed metal? Make your bleak existence a little brighter. You can thank me later.

sweeping up dirt with a broken broom

April 6, 2013, 2:19 am

≫ Next: we talk about love, we talk about dishwater tablets and we dream about heaven

≪ Previous: getting a feeling; maybe I will dream again

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[07:48] ɕʆɑгιɕҽ ɲιɠɧȶωιɲɠ (cxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx): ( ¨*•.¸(¨*•.¸´•.¸ցɾҽҽէìղցʂ! աҽӀϲօʍҽ էօ ƒƒʂ
[07:48] ɕʆɑгιɕҽ ɲιɠɧȶωιɲɠ (cxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx): ìƒ ì ϲɑղ հҽӀք քӀҽɑʂҽ Ӏҽէ ʍҽ ҟղօա¸.•´¸.•*¨) ¸.•*¨)
[07:48] ɕʆɑгιɕҽ ɲιɠɧȶωιɲɠ (cxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx): Txxx, Bxxxx, Axxx and Emily
[07:48] ɕʆɑгιɕҽ ɲιɠɧȶωιɲɠ (cxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx): ( ¨*•.¸(¨*•.¸´•.¸ցɾҽҽէìղցʂ! աҽӀϲօʍҽ էօ ƒƒʂ
[07:48] ɕʆɑгιɕҽ ɲιɠɧȶωιɲɠ (cxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx): ìƒ ì ϲɑղ հҽӀք քӀҽɑʂҽ Ӏҽէ ʍҽ ҟղօա¸.•´¸.•*¨) ¸.•*¨)
[07:48] ɕʆɑгιɕҽ ɲιɠɧȶωιɲɠ (cxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx): Dxxxxx
[07:49] ɕʆɑгιɕҽ ɲιɠɧȶωιɲɠ (cxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx): ( ¨*•.¸(¨*•.¸´•.¸ցɾҽҽէìղցʂ! աҽӀϲօʍҽ էօ ƒƒʂ
[07:49] ɕʆɑгιɕҽ ɲιɠɧȶωιɲɠ (cxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx): ìƒ ì ϲɑղ հҽӀք քӀҽɑʂҽ Ӏҽէ ʍҽ ҟղօա¸.•´¸.•*¨) ¸.•*¨)
[07:49] ɕʆɑгιɕҽ ɲιɠɧȶωιɲɠ (cxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx): Txxxxxxx

I have a major problem with this. I know the store in question just hired their first shopgirl, and I get why they're still working out the meet-n-greet protocol. And yeah, repetition of the basics, especially if a crowd of avs all beam in at once, it gets a little mentally dunning. I get that, too.

What I don't get? Typing out your standard meet-n-greet IN GODDAMN UNICODE. I like the store, I'm a member of the store group, but seriously, if Miss "ɕʆɑгιɕҽ" keeps this up, I'm SO never going to the store when she's there. I'd be too tempted to throw sharp things towards her head.

(from the shopping album)

I'm trying to come up with a reason why the Doctor would be at Patchwork Heart. I think I'm failing.

Maybe he was shopping for Peri?

(from the shopping album; what is considered "Victorian" on the wider grid)

No, really. Because a rodeo belt-buckle and a laced neckline plunging to my hips makes me think of Victorian things, right? Some folks just fail to grasp the Victorian era.

From a random profile:

if I disappear without a word, roll d100:
01-20: my net went off
21-60: my client crashed
61-81: my PC crashed
81-99: I was lost in some other thoughts and never noticed you were there
00: I just don't like you :D

That is a great, great, random roll table.

From another random profile:

If I am building please do not bother me unless you are already on my friends list.
If I am building and you want to get your freak on, no.
If I am building and want to flirt, no.
Once again if I am building do not pester me unless you are on my friends list.
You have been warned.

Seems fair enough.

(from the shopping album; Virtual Attire's interpretation of Lolita)

I want to know what about this outfit qualifies it as or "Loli". Seriously. Someone point it out to me, I don't see it.

I get the "pink". It's obviously very pink. Many things from Virtual Attire are. I just don't understand how in any reality that outfit becomes EGL wear.

(Oh, and I'd note again, that pouty, fish-lipped, flat-hipped, splay-kneed shape: WHY is this so popular these days? I don't get that either.)

F(from the shopping album)

And...this happened. Apparently, shopping naked is a trend now?

we talk about love, we talk about dishwater tablets and we dream about heaven

April 13, 2013, 7:36 pm

≫ Next: we'll weave them through every rocket's red glare, and huddled masses

≪ Previous: sweeping up dirt with a broken broom

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[19:34] Jxxxxxx Gxxxxx: feijoa, cherimoya, pomellos, are you all living in the rainforrest?
[19:34] Sxxxxxxxx Gxxxx: no
[19:34] Jxxxxxx Gxxxxx: we dont get that there fruit here in Maine
[19:34] Jxxxxxx Gxxxxx: we have apples, oranges and lobster
[19:35] Emilly Orr: ...lobster is a fruit?
[19:35] Emilly Orr: Since when?
[19:35] Dxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: I want a lobster tree
[19:35] Jxxxxxx Gxxxxx: yes, it is the national fruit of Maine! :-p
[19:35] Pxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: its a thing
[19:35] Pxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: lobsterfruit
[19:35] Dxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: but things go better with coke

Let's just say Caledon chat was strange today, and leave it at that.

So, I had some other things planned, but kept finding myself dragging my feet over getting the entries finished and posted. I'm not uninterested in the topics, I will at some point finish those entries, I'm just still dealing with the last vestiges of prior heartbreak.

It takes me a long time to recover from things. You'd think a year-plus would be enough time, but...yeah. No. Not so much.

Plus, my mind is now trying to chew over effective ways to present the upcoming Aether Salon to which I was invited. clear back in....gad. February?? And while I'm still trying to figure out what I want to SAY, and if there's anything about steampunk music I want to update for this blog, I haven't mentioned it because it seemed....well. Impossibly distant.

This is why stress is a bad thing.

Anyway, my presentation will be in the Babbage Palisades district of New Babbage, the Sunday after next, 21 Aprille, at the nearly-ungodly early hour of two in the afternoon, SLT. (Hey. Professional night owl, and that's the law--go to bed during single digits; get up during single digits; and we nicely avoid most instances of the Nasty Bright Thing.) All I know right now is I will be there; I will likely likely be extraordinarily caffeinated; and I'll do my best to keep tangents to a dull roar.

In the meantime, welcome to our next edition of Shopping Naked: Why Is This a Thing?

(from the shopping album; censored because her 'dress' is pretty damned much openwork netting.)

This is a serious question on my part. All the various and myriad stores, maturity ratings, roleplay styles, fetish styles, looks, avatars, and structures on the grid: but unless you're a professional nudist, why would you--why would anyone--decide to shop naked? I don't get the urge, plain and simple.

(from the shopping album; censored because her 'dress' is pretty damned much openwork netting.)

And no, I don't know what was wrong with her hair. And believe me, she didn't port in and port out, so she didn't have time to rez. I watched her for a good ten minutes, trying to figure out whether she was wearing some mesh object that just hadn't rezzed in (she hadn't; besides, the Lola's Tango implants she's wearing are mesh), or if her hair was also mesh, and had just gone buggy around the edges.

But nope. Neither of those things were true. Maybe she just really doesn't understand how hair works on the grid. It's obvious enough she doesn't know how to stand...

Sadly, that may answer the first question, as well: she'd spent all of thirty-eight days on the grid.

[19:36] Mxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: ok, this isn't a snipe hunt type of deal is it? The only lobster I'm aware of is the kind that is served on a plate with butter with a side of steak
[19:36] Sxxxxxxxx Gxxxx: its the fruit of the local land or sea in this case
[19:36] Pxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: crunchy
[19:36] Jxxxxxx Gxxxxx: oh a surf and turf....
[19:36] Dxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: It is ISC After Dark [Mxxx]....
[19:36] Axxxxxx Gxxxxxx prefers it in tacos
[19:36] Axxxxxx Gxxxxxx: lobster, that is
[19:36] Pxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: fruits du mer
Yeah, still strange.

Apparently in the next coming update to Minecraft (currently in beta-like, "snapshot" form, there will be...leashes on chickens? But why? That's what I don't understand. Why do we need leashes on chickens?