Fun on a Prim

WhiteRaven Slade, Chey, and Sweetie Bounce Around on a Prim

Photos by the One and Only Sweetie

Written 31 December, 2008

Fun on a Prim
Ever hang around with friends and can't decide what to do?

Rez a prim (any will do, but a four or five meter cube works great (and sit on it. Have your friends sit on it too. Then right click and choose Edit. Select the Object tab and in the Position section select a z height around 500 meters. As soon as you do and click out of the box, BAM! you will be hanging in the air at your chosen height.

But not for long!

Check the box that reads Physical. Nothing will happen until you close edit. Then the prim will begin to fall-- slowly at first, but accelerating until you reach terminal vecloc-ty-- which is pretty fast.

It's never the fall that kills you; it's the sudden stop.

Fortunately, there's no sudden stop in Second Life. Instead, you bounce. And bounce. And roll. When you hit the ground you'll be all over the place.

It's a riot. Fun on a prim. Try it!

Now!

Sweetie's Victoria Noel Boxes

Written 30 December, 2008

Sweetie's Victoria Noel Boxes

Sweetie worked hard on the design of her Christmas boxes. They're absolutely beautiful!

Here's the logo for our line of soon-to-be-released for sale Christmas products.

Christmas Ornaments

Bottom Photo: The Official 2008 Whimsy Ornament. It Takes Real Genius

To Turn an Ordinary Floor Texture into a Volcano Emitting Smoke 

Written 29 December, 2008

Christmas Decorations

I attribute my recent return to in-world creativity to Sweetie. When she started building a Christmas ornament, I, knew I she would be absorbed for a while, so I built a bell.

We gave Christmas packages to our friends. We packed an assortment inside a greeting card.

A lot of people didn’t realize the card was stuffed. If they had clicked it, it would have given them its contents—but they didn’t, even though the card included the words Click to Open.. My friend fly Paulse nearly went nuts trying to discover the source of the sudden snow (it was the card).

Hehe.

Second Life’s permissions system mandated the card come from either me or Sweetie. We went nearly nuts trying to work with the perms. We filled one of her great gift boxes (blog post forthcoming) with six of my ornaments, and six of hers, which she had given to me with full perms. Before I took the box, I was able to set it for purchase—but when I took it, it had become no transfer. We looked in every prim, but there were no hidden textures, objects, sound, or scripts to account for the box’s obstinacy. Grrr!

We finally worked things out. We sent out the card on Christmas day.

Here’s what we gave our closest friends:

* Three of my bells.

* An assortment of a dozen or so Christmas ornaments, some made by Sweetie, and some my own creations.

* The official 2008 Whimsy holiday ornament.
* A peppermint-striped holiday edition of my sweeping broom

All were packed inside Sweetie’s beautiful Victoria Noel boxes.

SL is Borked!

Written 29 December, 2008

SL is Borked!

For the past 24 hours changes I've made to prims have happily reversed themselves.

I stretch a prim. It snaps back into a happy cube.

I save a script in an object. It reverts happily back to its former version.

I have to delete prims several times, and I have to right clicks on objects and avatars several times to get the pie menu to open. Profiles take a long time to load.

The Lindens have been busily changing server versions; for the past week and more I've been chased by rolling restarts and there seem to be different simulator versions on every sim.

I know the problems are server-based, because the happen no matter what viewer I use.

Hey, Lindens, take that extra $20 you'll be extorting-- I mean getting from me for my openspace next month and use it to hire Nicholaz Beresford or someone else who knows WTF they're doing!

He Did NOT Just Say That! (Language Warning)

Scarves and Pash-- Pash-- What Was That They're Called Again? At Zaara

STRONG LANGUAGE WARNING!

Please skip to the next entry if names of body parts offend you

Written 26 December, 2008

He Did NOT Just Say That!

Next we went, at Tozh' suggestion, to one of her favorites, Zaara, which features the Indian-designed creations of Zaara Kohime. Sweetie and I bought scarves, and I an outfit which unfortunately turned out to have a butt skirt and an assortment of beautiful low-cost prim jewelry.

What's that, Sweetie? It turns out they're not scarves at all, but kash- what? kashmini? Pashmina! Tozh knows that, too? Oh, no, OMG, horrors, my fashionista rating just went down twenty points!

At Zaara, our male friend's genitals became the topic of conversation. Sweetie, in all innocence, asked him why, since he was dressed simply, with no obvious complex hair or jewelry, his Avatar Rendering Cost was so high. Our friend said it was probably because of his XCite!... as Sweetie would say, boy parts.
Clearly Mike-- we'll call him Mike, even though his name is Steve-- wanted to talk about his proudest possession.


I immediately went into Highlight Transparent. I said, "And you're wearing nipples!" (And they were set to public. too. I know because I touched one and it invited me to touch, fondle, lick, pinch, or suck it.)

And of course I peeked under Mike's robes. I don't teach classes in camera control for nothing. His parts were, I assure you, NOT set to invisible.)

Mike said he considered nipples more or less useless for a guy. And he didn't use his XCite! ass either, he said, because people put things in it.


PUT things in it?

OMG, we are back to rodents again!

Someone said, and I'm afraid it might have been me, "You don't use the ass or nipples, maybe you shouldn't have bought the value pack."

Our friend Pam Havercamp joined us that point, and we more or less managed to bring the conversation back around to fashion.

But people were now thinking of things other than fashion, and so we brought our glorious Christmas shopping day to a close.

p.s. Shame on you for thinking I would post pictures of Mike's private parts.Besides, I forgot to take any.

Red Queen

Written 26 December, 2008

Red Queen

Tozh told us about Red Queen, where the hair is delightfully messy. Interesting place.

Tozh knows all the interesting places.

The hair I bought (above) just made it feel right to pull out my Harley.

Well, not a Harley, but a MLCC Rocket chopper. I picked it up on the MotorWorld sim (just type in MotorWorld on the map), where there's a great road course. You can rez a bike and ride as long as you want. Go for it.

I'm sorry I didn't get better pictures of Tozh and Sweetie. Well, Tozh. I got plenty of Sweetie, but her 007 license to kill makes it inopportune to paste images of her on the internet. That's why I always picture her with her back to the camera or her head in a prim.

Upside-Down Flower

Top: Chocolate Tux Christmas gown

Middle: Overhead Shot
>
Bottom: Upside-Down Flower

Written 26 December, 2008

Upside-Down Flower

Okay, here I am at the Whimsy dance platform in Ishi Otawara's Christmas special dress Smokey Tux Christmas. Since Sweetie said I look like an upside-down flower in it, I thought I would turn it right-side up.

A Nice Christmas in Second Life

White Christmas at the House of 1000 Pleasures. Why the Blank Poseball?

Because Sweetie's Parents Were Visiting

And She Was Not Available for This Staged Recreation

Naughty Santa Girl Chey

Naughty Santa Girl Chey (Detail)

Written 26 December, 2008

A Nice Christmas in Second Life

The calendar just clicked to the 26th. Sweetie and I are cuddled up on a retexturized freebie kiss and cuddle chair at the House of 1000 Pleasures, watching Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney in Michael Curtiz' 1954 film White Christmas. We're wearing slightly slutty Santa Girl outfits. Well, perhaps mine is more slutty than Sweetie's. And besides, have you ever seen a Second Life Santa Girl outfit that wasn't slutty?

(Sweetie swears her Santa Girl outfit isn't slutty at all, just tastefully sexual.)

We had a big day in Second Life. First, we fiddled with a freebie antler set with attached Christmas lights. I added scripts to make the bulbs blink on and off and made the antlers jingle on touch, then moved some sections of antler that didn't quite connect. Sweetie applied texture to the bulbs and adjusted the texture density so the antlers looks more like antlers. While we were tweaking, many of our friends checked in to wish us a merry Christmas and thank us for the gifts we sent out last night.

Next we jumped to Maitreya so I could get Sweetie her Christmas Present-- five pairs (or was it four?) pairs of their great suede Dune boots.

Long ago I bought a fat pack of Dune boots, but since there are two fat packs now, each with desirable colors, it made sense for Sweetie to pick and choose. She choose boots in blue, red, black, and champagne. Since the boots are modifiable (and copyable!), and since Sweetie is a recolorizing wonder, she is set for boots.

We went next to Chambre de Chocolat, where Eshi Otawara has a new line of clothes for winter/spring (this is NOT a fashion blog!). (Eshi's last season's clothing is upstairs, priced beteen 20 and 70 percent off.) I bought her Christmas special, which is called Smokey Tux Christmas. It looks nothing whatsoever like a tux. Nor is it smokey. In fact, Sweetie told me the spreading skirts made me look like an upside-down flower.

Sad to say, she was right.

Ishi clearly makes clothing that follows her own vision, and I admire her for that. But this is not a fashion blog, so back to the day's adventures...

Along the way we chatted in IM with our fashionista friend Tozh Taurog. Tozh is another person who is true to herself-- and she knows where the bodies are buried in the SL couture business.

Sweetie and Tozh and I jumped to Red Queen, which sells deliciously sloppy Second Life Hair. We all bought hair. I mean, we NEEDED it!


(The Christmas shopping adventure will continue in the next fashion-packed installment of Chey's non-fashion blog).

Whimsy Christmas Train

Written 25 December, 2008

Whimsy Christmas Train

If Whimsy is all pimped out for Christmas, the train area is beyond shameless.

I bought Kitto Flora's little Christmas train, and by luck found just the right texture to put on the sign on the sides of the boiler. We put up giant candy canes, lights galore, and icicles. You see what we got.

Wishing You the Happiest of Holiday Seasons!

Written 24 December, 2008, 11:57 pm, EST

Wishing You the Happiest of Holiday Seasons!

From Chey and Sweetie, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, and Happy New Year!

Last-Minute Christmas Tweaking

Photos, top to bottom: Christmas Card Ideas, Sweetie Tweaking,

Presents We Made, More Presents We Made

Written 24 December, 2008

Last-Minute Christmas Tweaking

It's Christmas Eve. Both Sweetie and I got home from work early. We're doing what we should have done a week ago, getting our holiday package ready to send out to our friends. We're making boxes, filling them with ornaments, working cooperatively and occasionally mildly disagreeing about this or that. Friends drop by or IM. It's snowing gently, thanks to a script I put in the Christmas card we're working on.

My Sweetie is 850 miles away, by herself tonight, as am I, and yet we're together on this holiday. It's a little sad we're not together IRL tonight, but it's sweet and to a large extent satisfying to celebrate Christmas this way.

Couldn't Resist!

Written 24 December, 2008

Couldn't Resist!

Yep, you guessed it. When I went back to Sirena to get the SLURL, I picked up another hairstyle!

They're only $199. It's a wonder I didn't buy three!

Cool Hair!

Written 24 December, 2008

Cool Hair!

Sooo, Leaf was telling me about this place with scripted hair. You put it up. You take it down.

Of course I would never fall for a gimmick like that. I was so there within five seconds!

THERE is Natalia Zelmanov's Sirena Hair & Fashion on the Sunset sim.

Natalia's newest hair is scripted. By voice command, or by attaching an ornament, the left and right sides can be swept up or let down. There's even a special ornament that will let others remove it and take down your hair.

I'm not sure why, but with the hairdo I chose, Alicia, you can put up only one side at a time. In face, the hair doesn't actually go up; it's just swept behind the ear. I do that sometimes with my IRL hair when I go out.

I know exactly how Natalia does the upsweep thing; I use the same technique in my brooms: on command, she turns one set of prims visible and another invisible. Clever, if I do say so myself!

The hair is quite well done, and I'm sure that when I go back to get the SLURL to paste into this article I'll pick up another just to see if I can put both sides up.

Be sure to check out Natalia's Mermaid Diaries blog.

Touching Base

Written 23 December, 2008

Touching Base

If my blog seems to have devolved into a mishmash of fashion, catty remarks about those with unfortunate poor taste, and griping about the lindens, well, so be it. I guess it's just who I am these days.

Come, Come, To the Beautiful Mainland!

This was one tall mountain.
Otherwise, the sim was typical mainland.
Ugly, boring, stupid.

Much of the mainland looks like this. Brilliant, it's not.

This jewelry was expensive. I can't for the life of me imagine why.

Camping bots. The Lindens are criminals for allowing them.

Written 23 December, 2008

Come, Come, To the Beautiful Mainland!

What a fool I've been! All along there was this beautiful, alluring mainland, waiting for me, and I just refused to see it! How could I have been so blind!

So, without further adieu, here are some of Chey's random (I closed my eyes and teleported to somewhere on the map) mainland experiences.

Random Mainland Experience 1

Mhindepinde. Over ocean (Gulf of Lauren). Fly west toward land. Rail tracks (no train, of course), otherwise just empty land. Fly South to Grub Beach. Not allowed into destination (apparently even onto the sim). No sounds anywhere. Spooky.

Random Mainland Experience 2

Aqua. Aquafrolica Shopping Village. No build. Grrr! I hear an annoying racing car motor, which doesn't seem to be associated with any vehicle or any build on the sim. No other sounds. Cramped builds trap my campera. I walk across a causeway to a store called Avatar Central. Most of the stuff is crap, but I buy a carp windsock for $50L. A friend later tells me it's brilliant.

Random Mainland Experience 3

Barcola. I land near an oil refinery and assorted buildings. Roads. Jet engine sound. No jet. One parcel has a little Christmas train running over the prim noob guy. A real noob appears and is insulted by a newbie detector. And no thank you, I don't want to buy the zombie AO.

Random Mainland Experience 4

Plebeja. I land face to a vertical stretched terrain wall because some damfool lowered the land. I turn to my left and run into a goddamned red fence. Bastards. To my north is a hole in the ground where there must have once been a store. Jagged land. For sale signs and homesteads the next sim over. But eastward is a mountain with a building on it, and walkways. Very nicely done. A sign reads "Welcome to Plebeja. Simple offers you this free..." the rest of the sign is indecipherable because there are two textures competing. That, and the building is in the clouds. It's a REALLY high mountain. But the walkways are nice.

This is the tallest mountain I've ever seen-- 338 meters! All green. There's a house at the top and prim rock cliffs. Other houses range along the top and upper sides. Nothing exceptional except the size of this mountain, which must cover at least six sims. I hit the summit on the Arches sim at 365 meters.

I mistakenly land on the back side of the mountain, and the area is set to no fly. Grrrr! Bastards.

No sound anywhere.

Random Mainland Experience 5

Campanula. This time I jump to a cluster of green dots on the map. No people within 96 meters of my landing. I land facing a wall. I'm at 201 meters, in the clouds, trapped in a huge concrete box that spans a hundred or so meters on the face of the mountain (this just to provide a level place for a house). Guess I didn't jump far enough, am still on that big ass mountain!

Random Mainland Experience 6
Atropopos. I jump to a big bunch of green dots, but no one is around my landing area. Commercial area. Vehicles for sale.

No, wait, here come my Mystitool readings. 16 avis within 96 meters. I begin to hear vehicle sounds, but they're merely canned loops. There is the biggest sculpty monster truck I have ever seen.

I fly to the concentration of people, see 15 or more avatars, all of them caspered (clouds of gas). They're in a 10-meter circle, camping. They're bots; one even has Bot as part of its first name: SilverBot Ceriano.

The price of camping has gone down: $2 every 60 minutes! And now the bots are coming into focus; they're dancing.

Okay, one final try at the mainland...

Random Mainland Experience 7

Modest. I'll say. I land in a jewelry store. No surprise, it's snowing inside. It's snowing everywhere, as it's Christmas Eve eve. The jewelry is (no surprise) hideous.


What can I say??? I am SO impressed by this mainland!

/me makes retching sounds.

Personal Shoppers Needed Badly

Written 23 December, 2008

Personal Shoppers Needed Badly!

I went to Sirena Hair last night after being tipped off by my friend Greg Paslong about Natalia Zelmanov's new scripted hair (blog coming).

These ladies were there. I could barely look at the hair for staring. The skin, the shapes, the clothes, OMG!

Where, or where, are THEIR personal shoppers?

Cheyenne's Personal Shopper

Doesn't look like all that from the sales photo...

But looks pretty darn good on my avi!

Written 22 December, 2008

Cheyenne's Personal Shopper

When Sweetie and I are shopping she sometimes stops dead still in front of a sales sign.

"This outfit would look great on you. You must buy it." And I do. Even when, sometimes, I don't see what she sees.

And I always look great in it. Check out the bustle in this "Kitty Draped Silk Dress" from House of Nyla.

Sweetie uses her super fashionista powers only for good.

And Then There Were Three...

Written 22 December, 2008

And Then There Were Three..

Last week our openspace sim Whimsical Mischief disappeared-- for good, returned to the Lindens, and our little block of six sims had become five.

This week, our sim neighbor Leaf Shermer is preparing her openspace sims Eccentricity Island and Eccentricity Cove for deactivation; they will be gone by the 5th, she says.

I took these photos from my laptop, which has a video card entirely insufficient for Second Life. But you can tell Leaf has terraformed her once-beautiful openspaces into a spiky fuck you to the Lindens-- not that they will either care or appreciate it.

Strange-- two months ago both Leaf and I were thinking about adding more sims. Now our six have become three.

Nice work, M. Linden. May your God Mode powers be revoked and your account deactivated.

Avie Magic

Written 22 December, 2008

Avie Magic

My Friend Melissa Yeuxdoux pointed in her blog to a post in Wagner James Au's New World Notes about an amazing avatar portrait by Connie Arida. It's truly a wonderful photo.

Yesteday, Sweetie and I were out scouting the grid and found the above photo, which reminded me of Connie's self-portrait. It's an advertisement for Alady skins and shapes; just Search > Places > Alady and it will come right up.

Sweetie Shoots Chey! Film at Eleven!

Written 21 December, 2008

Sweetie Shoots Chey! Film at Eleven!

Here, as promised, are some shots of me, as taken by Sweetie. She's not quite finished with them, so shhhh! Don't tell her I put them up!