Steamy Steampunk (and some kraken too)

I've thought for quite a long time that modeling in Second Life is a silly proposition.  In a place where everyone can look beautiful, being a model seems a bit meaningless.  I mean, what is there to it?  You stand on a pose, put on some fancy clothes (or not), and take snapshots.  No big deal.

Well, maybe I've reconsidered just a little bit.  I still think that saying "I'm a model" in SL is ridiculous.  No one cares.  But the activity of modeling for pictures can be a real hoot.  It all started with a boxing match...

Bianca Namori, who hosts the Sunday Night Sock-out matches, makes posters of the boxers to promote the event. 

Posing for my poster was great fun, so when Bianca contacted me about posing for some "Babes of New Babbage" portraits she was working on, it seemed like a no-brainer.  All of the women of New Babbage were doing it.  (And yes, I'd jump off a bridge, etc.)  My pic turned out a bit steamier than I'd anticipated, but I'm letting it stand because I like it.

The other night Bianca put out a call for lingerie models for portraits to be displayed only in her studio.  I volunteered immediately.  I'd had fun during the other two shoots and I had an ulterior motive:  to have a reason to buy a burlesque outfit I'd had my eye on for awhile.  So I bought it and went over.
She showed me the finished portrait tonight - I thought it turned out really well!

Studio portrait:



Another shot from the same session.  This one is my favorite...

So there we go.  I'm enjoying something I previously thought was rather dumb, and I'm happy to promote Bianca's new photography studio.  You can find her here:

Dastardly Darling Photography

In other news, my kraken writing project is done!  *throws confetti*

It's a book of kraken carols.  When the kraken made an appearance last week, a few of us were chatting about kraken coming to town, the migration, how it's kraken season, and I blurted out, "We need some kraken carols!"  Well, duh.  I adore writing parody songs (or "filk" as I've learned it is called), so I got to work on the idea right away.

Tonight I finished all of the textures needed to bind my carols into a book and sent them off to Scottie, who has a THiNC press.  Here are a few images from the book.  You'll have to buy a copy or at least come see it in-world if you want to read the carols.  ;-)

Ups and Downs

Spent a lot of time on my kraken project last night, and am extremely happy with how it's turning out.  I thought I had it finished, in fact I had started boxing it up for publication last night when my connection went down.  It was midnight though and I decided it could wait until tonight.

But isn't this how projects go?  Since I hadn't sent it off last night, I gave it more thought this morning and decided there is more tweaking to do. If I'd been able to send it, I wouldn't be putting more thought into it. (Well, maybe i would, but I probably wouldn't do anything about it.)  So...just a little bit more work on it tonight and then it's done. It shouldn't take much to get it wrapped up.

After that, I will post pics! I'm very excited!

In other news, I've decided to give up my property in Caledon Kittiwickshire.  It pained me to tell Desmond given how welcoming he was when I came back, and how much I like Caledon. When it comes down to it though, I'm paying for property that I'm not really using, and I can't afford to do that right now. So I'll be packing up my cottage there soon.

I'd like to buy into Caledon again at some point in the future, when finances are a bit looser, or when I'm able to make some Linden in-world.  It will take more thought and time next time though, to find a parcel that I know I'll end up using.  As much as I like my little beach spot, I just don't spend much time there.

It's Kraken Time

August through October, or thereabouts as I understand it is when the air kraken migration passes through New Babbage.  I know that folks on the Aethernet observe March 17th as Air Kraken Day, but, well, Babbagers like to do things a bit differently.

A kraken was spotted outside the city wall in Clockhaven the other night.  When the alarm was sounded and residents were advised to stay indoors, the way that New Babbagers interpreted that was:  "There's an air kraken!  Hurry, before it's gone!" 

I stood on a dock with Scottie Melnik watching for it, and was able to get a few good snapshots.  This is one of my favorites.  You can't see much detail of the kraken (enlarged to show more), but I like that it has the wall and the waves in it.

As New Babbage gears up for the Air Kraken Festival running from August 21 - 27 this month, I decided to find a suitable pirate hat for the ball at the end.  The one I ended up buying is the most ridiculous hat I think I've ever seen.  It is called the Bad Taste Hat, and I knew it had to be mine.

One last item on my kraken goodness list.  I've been working on a submission for a writing contest associated with the festival.  It didn't start out as a project for the contest, it's an idea that occured to me the night of the kraken sighting.  It is profoundly silly, and I can't wait to get it finished up.  Will post more about it when the time comes!

Sometimes I am SUCH a noob

Like tonight, when I found an old Linden-made squid gun on Marketplace and thought it was the best thing EVER.  Since it's full perms I spent the night tinkering with the script to see if I could make the squids bounce when they hit something, but no luck.  The best I can do is get them to not just go right through something.  Now they kind of stick and wiggle, which I suppose is almost as good as bouncing.

Also, they are now orange, so they can be baby air kraken. 

Because blue would be a stupid color for a kraken.

Stick and wiggle, baby air kraken!  Stick and wiggle!