On mesh avatars

Since I've been gone, mesh avatars have become a thing. I decided to get one (Maitreya Lara) to give it a try. The body looks amazing and I love the selective alpha feature. The neck skin blending feature could be a little better though, because I am not ready to get a mesh head. I am rather fond of looking like myself.

The biggest downside to having a mesh avatar that I can see right now is the clothing situation. With a system avatar you can mix and match clothing layers and prim clothing however you'd like, and however able you are to modify the prim elements to fit your av. With mesh clothing, your ability to mix and match seems really limited. I tried on a couple pairs of pants, and because the hems were scrunched a bit, I couldn't wear them with my prim boots. And I imagine it would be the same with any boots that weren't made to go with those pants. If they were system pants this wouldn't be an issue.

Someone told me that they have an applier that allows them to still wear their system clothes, but as far as I can tell right now, appliers only work for the system clothes they come with. If I have pre-applier clothes, I'm not sure that will work. At least I don't understand how it will work at any rate. I haven't been able to find any kind of applier that works generally on everything, and from what I understand of the development kits, this wouldn't be possible.

The other downside to mesh av clothing is that I hate it. I have found very few items I am actually fond of. Everything seems "sexy." Like when you walk into a costume store at Halloween for a regular old nurse costume and all you can find is "sexy nurse" or "sexy zombie" or "sexy pirate." It's ridiculous. I just want a white shirt and some decent pants and some boots. Clothing makers' interpretation of "steampunk" also seems warped. Like if it isn't a corset with all of your cleavage popping out, then it's an aviator jacket opened down to the naval or pants stuck in the crack of my ass and a thigh gap a mile wide. Some serious WTF going on when I page through Marketplace, and that is only searching on General level maturity.

And what if I DON'T WANT MY BELLY BUTTON TO SHOW?

Anyway, I'm not a mesh av convert yet to say the least. I LIKE my old outfits, and I might just stick with my old system av so I can wear them. I'm into steampunk anyway, anachronism is kind of my thing.

Homecoming

In the autumn of 2014, I exited Second Life rather abruptly. I had decided that my real life was never going to get any better as long as I was distracted by everything happening inworld, so I made a commitment to myself to focus exclusively on improving my situation. Were I a more moderate person I could have balanced my pursuits in both real life and Second Life and manage to not abandon good friends and loved ones, but I knew it was going to be all or nothing.

So here I am today, almost exactly five years later (oddly enough), back in New Babbage. I have to admit to having some anxiety over how I would be received, but I've been relieved by the warmth and fondness old friends have extended. They could not be blamed if they approach me with skepticism, but if that is there it isn't showing. The welcome home I've experienced has been reassuring, and I'm so glad to be back.

Now I've set about the business of re-orienting myself to SL in general and New Babbage in particular. The city has always been ever-changing, but there is enough the same that it feels comforting. The Brunel is still there, although it has experienced what appears to be yet another face-lift. The cozy little corner of Academy of Industry by Ruthorford Square is still has tranquil as ever, the trolley terminus being the only hint of the urban landscape beyond. And most of all, I was pleased to see that The Gangplank is still standing, itself having been the recipient of a complete overhaul. I have Mr. Lighthouse to thank for his stewardship of one of the oldest pubs in New Babbage.

It is good to be home.

Disguises!

Our Mines of Falun adventure continues, with the latest installment finding Emerson and Petra in disguise as "Victor Mornington" and geologist "Doctor von Hoopla," respectively.

The Mines of Falun

It's that time again!  Emerson has set us all out on a new adventure, this time to the northern mining town of Falun to look for enough gold to save our public house, The Gangplank.  Nothing is ever easy though.  An evil doctor and his wicked Morlock "daughter" are hot on our trail, and it's a race to see whether we can somehow manage to foil his designs for world domination as well as save our bar from a takeover by Victor Mornington!

Valentine's Day

A certain Mr. Lighthouse surprised me this year with a box of chocolates and some sparkling sentiments. I am still smiling.

In adding the image above, I found a picture from Valentine's Day last year.  I was at a party in Mondrago, and Emerson joined me later for a dance.  (In the background are Ahnyanka Delphin, Tau Hallard, and that delightfully peculiar couple, Phaedra Underby and Brother Dominic Lapis.)

Speaking of candy and Phaedra, my assumption is that she didn't make the chocolates Emerson gave me...

Armada Breakaway

(Cross-posted to my photo blog.  I've been considering how to handle updating my blogs, actually.  I'm inclined to cross-post since more people look at this blog than my photo blog, but I also want people to not have to weed through everything else I post...or not as the case may be for the last few months.)

The Armada Breakaway sim, unique in the Steamlands and perhaps all of SL, will be going away this coming Sunday.  I am assured, however, that the Scoundrel Fleet will continue in exile in a small location that they've secured on Blake Sea.  Huzzah! 

In order to commemorate Vernden Jervil's time as the Commander of the Fleet and Armada Breakaway, I offered to make a portrait of him there before the entire thing goes up in flames.  (Pirates love to burn, and there is a longstanding Armada tradition of torching any build that is being removed from the sim.  How spectacular it will be to see the entire sim alight!)

Go-Devil Canal Race!

Here I am, with a stale blog.  Let's see if I can't do something about that.  I think I've missed the window for discussing Christmas, which was enormous fun, but there is plenty of fun just around the corner.

The Gangplank is sponsoring a Go-Devil Canal Race this Saturday, January 26th.  The frozen canals make a fabulous track for Go-Deviling, and a race is something I've been thinking about since last winter when Kimika Ying introduced her fabulous vehicles.  We've made the arrangements with Tenk, have a course picked out, and now just need to mark the route on Saturday morning.

Saturday is going to be a busy day.  At 11 am SLT, the Second Life Giant Snail Race will take place in New Babbage.  The course for that race shouldn't interfere with our canal race, and it is apparently a great honor for the city to be hosting the snail race.  Great news for New Babbage!  At 1 pm SLT, we will be kicking off our Go-Devil race, with a party at the Gangplank afterward until 3 pm.  From 6 pm until 9 pm SLT, the annual Founder's Day Black and White Soot Ball will be happening at the Piermont, an event I am loathe to miss.  From 7 pm until whenever is a grand finale bash in End of Armada Breakaway Party, celebrating the sim before it goes away on Sunday (I'll discuss in a separate post).

All in all it promises to be a busy one, and I'm pondering whether I can somehow manage to make it to all of them...

Engineer's Ball

The New Babbage social season was kicked off on Saturday with the annual Engineer's Ball at Piermont Landing.  I had been looking forward to it all month; it's the first ball I've been able to attend with Emerson since the Founder's Ball in January.  Although I arrived late and Em had to leave for a little while during, we were both able to stay until the end.

Since I had a new gown and Em had a new tux, and since we're coming up on one year together, we decided to commemorate the occasion with a formal portrait.  I can't decide which of these two I like best, so I'm going to post both.  :-)

New hair

It's called Jayney from Truth.  It's mmmmmeeeesssssshhhhh!

Update:  I'm not quite sure about the hair yet, but I know I don't like this pic.  I look like a Gelfling.

Tea at Four Kings Alleyway

 

Jed, Kimika and I were standing around chatting outside of the Militia HQ in Clockhaven, and I decided it was a perfect spot for a cafe table.  A good way to spend the evening.

 

 

La Vie en rose

Can't you just hear it playing in the background?

This was taken at Café de Paris in the Babbage Canals sim.  We stopped for a dance while taking an evening stroll through the city, and didn't make it much further.

One Year "Back in Babbage" Anniversary

It's hard to believe it's been a year, today, since I first stepped foot back in New Babbage.  I was completely disoriented, both from being back inworld and coming back to a city that was positively podunk by comparison back in 2007.

So what has changed in the last year?

• I've made some amazing friends. On one hand I want to mention my best friends here, but I just realized that the list is getting pretty long.  One person I will always call out though is Jedburgh Dagger, who has been my best friend since we first started talking last summer.

• I fell head over heels for one Mr. Emerson Lighthouse.  How could I not?  He's amazingly creative, smart, funny, compassionate and dead sexy.  (Come to think of it, today is exactly 7 months since our first dance.)  Correction:  Our first dance was October 21st 2011, not the 27th.  Tsk.  Shame on me.

• I now own 3 parcels in the Academy of Industry sim; a house, a workshop, and a cemetery.

• I am now part-owner of the historic Gangplank pub in Clockhaven, which I run with Emerson.

All in all?

I'm a New Babbager.  What more is there to say?

Mt. St. Helens

As a native Washingtonian, I am quite attached to the cultural memory we have of the Mt. St. Helens eruption on May 18, 1980. In SL, in the Steamlands no less, there is a group of sims called Steelhead that recreate a steampunk version of 19th century Pacific Northwest.

One of the most recent sims is called St. Helens, where they have build a replica of Mt. St. Helens. In keeping with the backward-looking theme of the sim, the shape of the mountain is that before the blast. During the 19th century, it would have been a pristine, amazingly beautiful mountain, much like it was prior to 1980. Then, during the eruption anniversary week, the owners of Steelhead hold an event to blow the mountain, and then let it spew smoke and ash for the remainder of the week.

Emerson and I have a cabin at the base of the mountain. I'd forgotten about this event until tonight, when I found myself wondering why the cabin was filled with smoke. One look outside answered that question. Naturally, I took a great many photos. My favorite though is a before/after set I made with the same angle as a shot I took some time ago after our cabin was first complete.


Before:

After:

A renewed hobby

I've enjoyed taking photographs since first coming back in-world last May.  It's been about a year, and I've recently decided to start making more of this hobby.  With that in mind, I've started a new blog:

Junie's Tintypes

It's something I am deeply interested in, beyond just applying a few filters to raw images from SL, so I've decided to see where I can take it.  I've gotten good feedback from friends, so we'll see how it goes.

:-)

Because I still take a great number of snapshots that I don't give a thorough post-processing treatment, I'll still have lots of pics to post here!

This one is from the other night.  Emerson encountered some street performers in Port Babbage, so he brought me over.  He, I, and Mr. Arnold (the cat) spent some time watching them perform.

Why, hello there.

I know it's been a long time, but here I am.

Still in SL, still in the Steamlands, having grand adventures, living, loving and creating.

More to come...

Tired of winter and tourists

So I did some belly-dancing in Marikesh Mondrago tonight.  Later I found myself on the roof of my house with Kaylee, wearing gasmasks filled with genuine New Babbage sooty air.

*inhales deeply*

AHHHHH!

Steam Santa and Boiler Elf Ball

While in New Babbage, do as New Babbagers do.

At Christmastime, Steam Santa and his Boiler Elf arrive in a magnificent steam sleigh.  Babbagers take turns sitting on Santa's lap and telling him what they'd like for Christmas.

My favorite wish came from Gabrielle Riel, who asked for a lower ratio of batshit-crazy-ass-people and lag to the regular crazy people of New Babbage.  The Boiler Elf made a special note of that.  Steam Santa agreed that it might be a good idea to make sure everyone gets their meds.  We can all look forward to some chewable form of Valium in the coming year.

When it was my turn to sit on Santa's lap, the conversation was just a bit different.  He never asked me what I wanted.  It might have had something to do with the fact that I admitted not being good during the year, and staring back at the Boiler Elf when he attempted to give me The Stare.  He might be losing his creepy stare mojo...just sayin'.

But I did get a candy cane.

Beyond New Babbage: Heaven4D Ultra Dome

Tonight I took Emerson to what my friend Kenna dubbed "the trippiest place in SL."  It's like a rave club on MDMA; a totally immersive experience of music and lights and colors.  You can't see a ceiling or floor or walls - only the imagery of which you're a part.  It's what a RL rave aspires to.  IMHO, this is the kind of innovative  use of SL that makes it such an powerful (and important) 3D platform.

All that's missing are glowsticks.

I took a lot of snapshots.  This one is my favorite.

Xmas at Ruthorford House

A drunken snowman and a tentacle tree.

It's all about tradition, people.

What's a girl to do?

...when she has time on her hands and friends who need help?   She crashes wedding receptions, tests ziplines, and builds snowmen.  That's what.

Victor was DJ'ing a wedding reception in Steelhead Nevermore, and the happy couple extended an open invitation to whomever he wanted to invite.  He posted to the group chat, so a few of us went over.  Nat Lorefield, however, decided that since the air in Steelhead is too clean for Babbagers, he needed to wear a gasmask.  It took me awhile, but I finally got one.  (Ironically, Nat then left the reception, which left me alone dancing in a gasmask. It was fun though.)

Oh, and I didn't want to mess up my hair.

Sometime later, Gadget (a local urchin) posted to group chat asking if anyone wanted to help him test out the highest zipline in New Babbage.  Caesar Osterham, Leia Berithos and I went over and subjected it to rigorous, and repeated, experiments.  GREAT FUN.  I'll be going over there to zip again sometime, even though it's supposed to only be for urchins.  Riiiiight.  As if urchins are the only ones who get to have fun.

Gadget joked that he'd built the zipline as training for being launched by he cowtapult.  :-)

Finally, I had an inspiration for a snowman, so I built him.  I'm not entering him in the snowman contest because he's too many prims, and he isn't very good, so I put him in my front yard.  I think he's rather endearing.

His Majesty, Snow-Emperor Ezra Crumb:

Finally, a friend of mine sent me this link tonight.  He was completely unaware that there is a running joke in New Babbage about "death polka" (thank you, Jonathon Spires, for inspiring the craze), but it is SO perfect.  I think that whoever made the video just synched up the music with these guys dancing to something completely different.  It's priceless.

German Industrial Dance with Dutch Polka