Halloween "Costume"

If you are not a resident of Second Life who has been through at least one Halloween, you wont realize that it's quite possibly the most popular holiday in SL.  Since you can literally dress up as anything, people can and do. You have to see a club crowd on All Hallow's Eve in SL to really understand the concept of "diversity."

I spend a lot of my time in Second Life wearing outfits that you could call costumes.  From any of the pirate outfits I've made for the Shemale Pirates group, to any one of the Star Trek uniforms I've got.  From an elven look, to my Gogo Yubari outfit, from my anthro bunny avatar to my typical avatar.  My most frequent look being of uncertain gender and ethnic background.  So, since my first Halloween in SL, I have had trouble with a particular question each Halloween.  Which of the many "costumes" that I have should I wear?  If you wear costumes all year long, what makes a costume special enough to wear on the day when everyone wears a costume?  I sometimes try to match my outfit to the local "theme" if I go out to a party in a themed sim.  But this year, I was just trying to come up with something...Interesting.

Lately I've spent a good amount of time browsing through the shared library that is linked into the inventory of every resident of SL.  I've been tinkering at making various things, and there are many useful textures and examples there.  One day, I noticed there are a number of new full mesh avatar kits!  Among them are several horror themed ones.  A vampire hunter, a wolf man, zombie boy and a zombie girl.  But also a full werewolf avi, and something called a "vampire beast."  These last two even included a full AO and control HUD to cause the avatar to howl or slash out with it's claws.  I found these critters marvelously well done for a freebie. But...

There was no way I was going to walk into a club with a "stock" monster costume!  So, I used some of my new found LSL coding skills to make a scripted invisible prim I could wear in the monster's mouth.  It created a greenish mist in pulses, as if it was being puffed from the monster's foul innards.  And roughly in time with this, and the slight rocking motion incorporated in the stock AO, I added a ragged deep breathing sound. Add in some flexi drool and particle drips modified from something Belle Dejour made.  Also a set of horns I picked up as a freebie someplace, already conveniently tinted green like the avatar.  Plus the oldest prim clothing item I made, a set of green silks to fill in as a loin cloth.  Last of all I added a subtle red glow to the eyes and called it done.

When completed, the "vampire monster" looked more like a demon or gargoyle to me, thanks to the horns.  But that's all to the good, cause it was no longer a stock avatar, it was something different enough that even if if someone else wore the same stock avatar, we would not look exactly the same.  With all that said, here's my little horror show.

Image taken in the caves at the Beast Barn play sim.

Moding Mesh

While rigged mesh can't be re-sized or re-positioned, if the item you have is copy/mod, you can have a bit of fun tweaking it's textures!  I recently found a cute little sweater number for 1L on the marketplace.  Once I had it, I found it was copy and modifiable and I decided to make a copy and tweak its texture.  I've tinted a few mesh items to make them match my outfit a bit better, but this is the first time I've made a serious effort to re-texture some mesh.  I also added a sculptie collar I found in a web repository of free sculpt textures.  The net result is, I think, rather cute.  So, for your edification and enjoyment here I am posing in it at Pair A Dice.

How do you tint or edit mesh?  Well, you can right click on it in inventory once you are wearing it.  If, among the options you see "edit," you chose that.  Now that you have the edit dialog, you can change the tint color from white to any other other shade you can achieve with the SL build menu color picker.  Or, you can replace the texture map for the item.  Just be aware that the texture map, or template, for mesh is not the same as that used by the legacy clothing layers of SL.

More fun for the flat chested.

I have posted a couple of times before about Bare@Rose. You can read those posting here and here.  It's a huge place that was around long before I found Second Life.  The first time I went the inventory already took what seemed like forever to rez and wander through.  I must have spent two hours there on my first visit, maybe more.  The owner has been adding several outfits every month since.  So the shop is even more massive.  Not too long ago she started adding mesh outfits.  Which excited me, but the demos did not fit me well.  I finally found a demo from the "flat chested" section and found that they are in fact for those of us that don't have a giant chest like Dolly Parton.  While I did not find them made truly "flat," they are sized to be workable for very small to flat chested avatars. So if your avatar is a femboi, flat chested girl, small (as in normal RL sized) guy, or something similar,  and you like anime inspired looks, you really should check out Bare@Rose.

I found one outfit that amused me a lot, a sort of short toga or off the shoulder tunic called "Thalia."  It comes with several different color sashes, a spiky thing vaguely like a laurel wreath, a pair of sandals and some strappy bits for your arms and legs. You can see the web add for it here.  The wreath, sandals and straps look okay, but I found them unneeded for a look that amused me. So, if you are wondering what the flat chested bits from B@R are like.  An image of me in the Thalia mesh outfit is included for your viewing pleasure.  I'm using my totally flat chested shape and hanging out in some ruins at Pair A Dice.

Happy shopping!

Been buildly, but that don't mean I aint dressing sharp.

I have been decorating Pair A Dice for Halloween. I've made items for our scavenger hunt.  I've also been making hair, shapes, various other odds and sods and even doing a bit of coding in LSL.  I should post some pictures of some of my products.  I probably will one of these days.

But just cause I've been doing all that, doesn't mean I haven't been putting together some nice looks.  Many of them at little or no cost.  Here is a laced up latex body suit from Karu Karu that I picked up free, combined with a free jacket from O&K and free boots from Blackburn's.  The belt is modified from another freebie and my hair is my old favorite short do.  The free one from Byrce that I've had forever.

The location, just like most of the quick snapshots I take these days is at Pair A Dice.  How can I find so many different places to take pictures?  Well, it could be due the fact it's a whole sim full of all kinds of neat places to visit.  But you'd have to swing by to know that for sure wouldn't you?

The Bohemian Second Life

It seems that Grumble as really gotten into some nice more "boho" fashion lately.  They are participating in an event this October as seen here.  And here along with the link from the event, are a couple of outfits featuring some of the items.  They are cute and sexy!  So I recommend you check them out.

Gray about Grumble

I was recently wearing an all Grumble outfit, in grey.  It's rather fetching and a snapshot is included for your perusal.  But I was also feeling a tad gray, the store has indeed relocated and much of the older inventory is still missing.  I was going to use one of my gift cards to buy some shoes for a friend, but after transferring all the gift cards to L, I couldn't find any in world shoes except the new Slink feet types.  And not all of us have slink feet.  I'll keep checking it out and letting you know when I find something really nice from Grumble.  Like the shoes, skirt, top and bracelets I'm wearing here.

I've also decorated the island I call my home for Halloween. Included among the ghosts, ghoulies and pumpkins are some items that contain gifts.  Skull earrings, pumpkin earrings, walking sticks and a couple of outfits I've got tagged to sell for 1L.  Unlike the Halloween themed items, The outfits are not copy, so once sold, they are gone.

Tis the season for ghoulies, ghosties and kitties!

I'm starting to think Halloween.  And as usual, I plan to help decorate my home sim Pair A Dice.  This year though, I thought I'd kick things off by putting together a cute costume for my fellow pirates!  You can pick it up even if you are not in the group by swinging by the sim.  It's available free in a hut by the docks, next to the shemale pirate and sissy maid avatar kits I made a while back.  Here's the box art so you can see what I am talking about.  The SLURL is http://slurl.com/secondlife/Pair%20A%20Dice/202/78/23.

Steampunk fashion that helps.

I posted an entry a few days ago about the Clockwork Spiral fund raiser in Second Life.  I finally got around to taking a nice snapshot of the outfit I got there, for only 200L!  The boots are from Bootgasm, the location is the cemetery at Pair-A-Dice.  I think it's a great outfit for the price.  Not super crazy about the skirt.  But the skirt and top are separate, so I can mix and match.  So take this as an example of how you can do good, and dress good all in one stroke by donating to the many fund raising events in SL.

Some interesting insights on gender and sexual attraction.

I recently stumbled onto a couple of rather interesting videos on Youtube.  One, is a question and answer sort of thing featuring Bailey Jay.  If you are not familiar with her, she's a trans woman, model, cosplayer and porn star.  I have to admit, I've admired quite a few photos of her I've seen on the web.  But I found this rather candid interview fascinating.  It also showed her as a smart, articulate, thoughtful and frankly adorable person.  If you are a fan of her adult fare, and don't want to see her as a person, then don't watch this.  But if you are want a glimpse under the glam, I strongly recommend taking a look at this video.  It also proves rather thought provoking about issues among the trans community, gender ID and I think gives you a glimpse at how society's narrow definitions can result in some deep seated pain for those that are polyhedron shaped pegs in this world of squares and circle shaped holes.

The other video does a lot to answer a question that seems to crop up in 4chan.org/D/ a lot.  Is lusting after a "Shemale" gay?  I've never worried about that too much.  I likes what I like.  But it was interesting to see how women and men, under scientific study, have very different triggers as to what they find arousing.

Anyway, the answer the scientists came up with to /D/'s frequent question is...  If you really need to know, watch the video.

This video also explains why women like Edward from Twilight.  I always thought he was OK, certainly a stand up guy.  But if I had to pick a side in the eternal Edward vs Jacob argument, I think I'd go Jacob. Mostly for aesthetic reasons.  For one thing, I like lips.  I think lips are attractive, and he has much better lips.