onsdag 10 juli 2013

Second Life - Unexpected Success

A while ago I saw a notice in the group for the store "The White Armory" about a contest for finding "Miss TWA 2013". On a lark, I sent in a picture. Imagine my surprise when a few weeks later I find out that I made the quarter final. So I sent in a new picture, like the instructions said, still not really taking it too seriously. I figured perhaps there weren't that many entries and I got to the quarter final by default.

Yesterday I received a notecard that said I was now in the semi final, and with instructions on how to proceed. I suppose it could be another coincidence, perhaps enough people dropped out of the contest that I again passed through by default. In any case, I sent in my photos, but I have to say I am taking the contest a little more seriously now and starting to worry about the possibility that I might actually win.

Although honestly it's flattering that I've got this far even. I really hope I'll get to the final, especially after shooting my last two photos. In my efforts to make them as good as possible with the tools provided in-world, I crashed four times because I had the settings up higher than my crappy laptop can handle.

Anyway, I've posted the pictures below that I sent for the initial choice and for the quarter final. Decide for yourself if it's a coincidence or on purpose.

Enjoy your Second Life!


First photo submitted. The gown is 'Celtic Queen' by The White Armory.



Second photo submitted. This time I am wearing one of the new mesh gowns, of the White Tree series. This one is called 'Keeper of the White Tree'.


The third photo submitted, or rather one of two photos submitted for the semi-final. The theme was given as "Fairies at the bottom of the garden" and I chose to wear 'Stroke of Lightning' along with fiary wings, in a fairy garden.

The other photo of the semi-final set. One full body shot and one headshot was requested. The jewellery is from Chop Zuey, the eyes are from Curious Kitties, and the hair is from Tameless. I made the shape myself, the skin is a freebie from Tuty's.

söndag 7 juli 2013

Second Life - Pretty Pictures

Allrighty, I promised you pictures of prizes from A Midsummer Night's Dream Hunt 4 (Petite Path), and now I have taken the time to sort through my items and pick a few I thought were most worthy of mention. To see the full size pictures, click the image and it will open to the larger version.

First off we have the outfit from DemotiK, called simply "Ranger". Here I have tweaked it a little by adding resized hooves from Death Row Designs, and "Forest King's Horns" from the hunt prize at Iron Tiger Jewelry. The bracelet is "Fallin Leaf Topaz Emerald Bracelet" from Two Sisters' Treasures Petites and the necklace is "Forever Infinity" from EarthStones, a group gift that resized very nicely.

In this first picture "Ranger" is perched on the Roawenwood hunt prize "Zumurrud Day Bed for Petites", a gorgeously detailed piece of furniture with several sits for both single and couple.
This second picture shows the bracelet a little better, as well as the amazing detail on the bow that comes with the outfit. Only a decorative bow, but it fulfills it's purpose admirably. And of course we see the beautiful "Forest King's Horns", with the dangling gem in between them on it's golden chain.
The next set of prizes are from Kastle Enchanted, Le Petite Purr, and Dionysia Designs. The first picture is a closeup to show the lovely detail on the skin from Kastle Enchanted. The face tattoo is amazingly detailed and complements the shape of the face beautifully.

The crown is from Dionysia Designs and is called simply "MidSummer Night's Dream Crown". It is absolutely adorable, and the large gem in the middle is the icing on the silver crown.
 I want to mention also the other accessories I am wearing in this picture. The antennae are from Caverna Obscura and the little coloured drops on the ends change colour by touch. The eyes are "Nightwish in Purple" from The Stringer Mausoleum and come in two iris options, I am wearing the smaller. The hair, finally, is "Veronica" in Rose from Alli&Ali and has colourchanging streaks. Mine is set to Light Rose and has full bright off, because for hair 'full bright is just not right'.

And the final picture shows the amazing "Titania's Bower" by Le Petite Purr, a pose prop, although I find that term seriously lacking when describing this item. It would not look out of place in any garden, whether fairy-themed or not. And just in case you might have use for it, I suppose I should mention that the non-petite prize at Le Petite Purr (or rather, Co*Motion) is a full-sized version of "Titania's Bower".
The picture also shows the two outfits offered by Kastle Enchanted, female and male. The male outfit was graciously modeled by Gindipple, and he wears it well, don't you think. ;)

Well that is all I have for you from MNDp4. Just a few of the prizes offered by 38 different stores. If you haven't done the hunt yet, you should get started, before those prizes are gone forever.

Enjoy your Second Life!

söndag 30 juni 2013

Second Life - The Choice of Voice

For a while now one of my pet peeves in SL has been people who use voice indiscriminately, all the time, everywhere. It's wonderful that they have people they want to talk to so much, but _I_ do NOT want to hear their personal conversations. And they can get pretty darn personal, if you know what I mean.

Usually, unless I have to stay in the area, I just leave and go somewhere else. If I have to stay in the area for a while, I open up the voice control panel and turn down the people I don't want to listen to. It's that little button on the bottom of your screen with the headphones. Or, if like me you've trimmed off all unnecessary buttons, use the menus at the top. In that case it's Comm > Nearby Voice.

Now, it may seem like a silly thing to get worked up over, but think about it for a moment. Would you want to listen in on the 'dirty talk' of some random strangers while you're shopping for shoes? Or hear about all kinds of personal details of someone's life? I don't know about you, but I certainly don't.

And of course it makes one wonder what kind of people these random strangers are, flaunting their business in everyone's face? Have they no sense of decency? Have they never heard of privacy? Or is it just that they fail to realise that all those other avatars are actually controlled by real people? For all I know, maybe they just don't know how to use voice IM?

In any case, I finally gave up and just disabled voice chat. Much simpler and I kick myself for not doing it sooner.

lördag 29 juni 2013

Second Life - Petite Hunts

Lately I decided that the one account where I have a Yabusaka Petite I am going to only use that avatar. That of course presents a whole new world of things to do. Shopping is suddenly somewhat limited, and you have to keep an eye on the descriptions to make sure you get the version that you can use, as opposed to the 'big folk' or other 'fun sized' avatars. And for me it also limits another interest of mine, treasure hunts.

Because there are very few hunts for petites. And no quick and easy way to find them either. Sure there are hunt blogs, but they blog all hunts and you have to slog through them all to find the ones you want. So I thought I'd start blogging petite hunts specifically.

Unfortunately I got the idea a little late for the only petite-specific hunt this summer, 'A Petite Summer Hunt', which ends tomorrow, but it's not very long so you still have time to rush through it. Their website is http://addictedtohunts.wordpress.com/a-petite-summer-hunt/ and start location is at Sister Fate* Petites. Hunt item is a tiny beach ball and is 0L.

A Midsummer Night's Dream Hunt is going on, the fourth edition of it, and it has a petite path (38 stops) with very nice prizes. The hunt item is a small green butterfly and prizes are 1L each, but well worth it. Their blog is http://kastlerockhunts.blogspot.com/ and start location is at Kastle Enchanted Petite Retreat. Each store should have a hint giver to help find the prize. This hunt goes until July 21.

Then you get six days to unpack all your hunt prizes and sort your inventory before the next hunt starts.

Around the Grid in 80 Days also has a petite path. It starts on July 27 and runs for 80 days, oddly enough. Their blog is http://funwithhunts.blogspot.com/. The prizes will be 1L each, but I don't have any more information at this time. Stay tuned for updates.

You can also find hunt information in-world at The Cookie Jar Hunter Resource Centre

When I've sorted through my hunt prizes, I'll post some pictures from MNDp4. In the meantime, go hunt!

fredag 28 juni 2013

Hemmagjord hundmat

Får hundar äta broccoli? Jag har gjort hemmagjord hundmat de senaste 10 dagarna och har haft i en mycket liten mängd broccoli och kom att tänka på att det kanske inte är bra. Jag vet inte? Saharah har i alla fall inte reagerat. Hon älskar maten, och hon har inte fisit en enda gång (som jag vet) sedan vi bytte.

1 liter vatten
2 buljongtärningar (kött eller grönsaks)
1 kycklingbröst (eller 2 lårfiléer)
500 g potatis
2 medelstora morötter (eller motsvarande mängd)
ca 4 dl ICA Basic Wokgrönsaker (plocka bort lök och vattenkastanj)
2 dl matvete

Lägg buljongtärningarna i vattnet i en stor gryta. Koka upp.
Dela kycklingen i mindre bitar. Tärna potatisen och morötterna. Rensa wokgrönsakerna. Lägg i allt tillsammans i buljongen. Koka upp. Låt koka ca 15 min på medelhög värme. Tillsätt matvete och sänk värmen. Låt koka på svag värme under lock ca 15 min.
Mixa ihop allt med en stavmixer (eller nåt) till en någorlunda slät puré. Låt svalna.

Jag ger Saharah ca 2 dl av detta om dagen och hon verkar må alldeles utmärkt. Ingen gas i magen eller andra magproblem, och hon är mycket mer entusiastisk vid matdags. Såvitt jag kan se har hon varken gått upp eller ner i vikt heller.

Jag är nyfiken på vad andra har att säga om hemmagjord hundmat. Är det någon annan som ger sin(a) hund(ar) det? Recept att dela? Råd att ge? Frågor? Kommentarer?

Gå inte vilse i universum!

måndag 11 mars 2013

Second Life - Model Contest

A friend of mine entered a contest to be a male model at a store called Class A Formal Wear, and I am going to do a shameless plug for him and ask you all to go vote at the location in the link. His name is Otataral Darkmatter, and he is a real pudding. He totally deserves to win the contest, but he needs votes, votes, and more votes. So go there, vote for him, and you will have my undying gratitude. This is the pic he entered with:

It's a little squished, but you can tell he's a hottie. If you want to see it unsquished, look up his profile in-world. And remember to go vote!

Enjoy your Second Life! (and vote!)

måndag 4 mars 2013

Second Life - How to: Sort Inventory

This might seem like a silly how to topic, but get back to me after you have been in SL for a few years and your inventory is like a big black hole where you can hardly find your bodyparts. If I had a linden for every time I have seen the line "Oh wait, I lost my <insert bodypart here>" I would be rich.

The first thing you want to do is go into your Bodyparts folder and create sub-folders for the different bodyparts, like Skin, Shape, Eyes, Hair, etc. I am a sorter and organiser so I usually have sub-folders in my sub-folders, but it is of course up to each individual how organised you want to be. It is difficult for me to give specific examples using my own avatars, because I have so many and they all use different systems since they are all different natures. One avatar is a wolf all the time, and a quadruped wolf doesn't use the same bodyparts or clothing or anything else really as a human avatar, or a Petite avatar. So use your own system that works for you.

Once the Bodyparts folder is organised, move on to your Clothing folder. These sub-folders are usually more similar for my different avatars. The first level of sub-folders might look something like:
*Accessories
*Avatars
*Clothing
*Footwear

Then we add the second level of sub-folders:

*Accessories
   -Bags
  -Belts
  -Hats/Gloves/Scarves
  -Straps (i.e. upper arm straps, leg straps or bracers)
  -Jewellery
  -Misc (for those attachments that serve no real purpose, or you don't have enough to warrant a separate category)
  -Weapons
*Avatars
  -Quads
  -Furry
  -Neko
  -(whatever other kinds of avatars you might have)
*Clothing
  -Bottoms
  -Tops
  -Sets
*Footwear
  -Boots
  -Flats
  -Heels
  -Sneakers
  -Slippers
  -Sandals

Depending on how much of each category of item you have, you may want to add a third level of sub-folders to some of the second level ones. I usually have this for the sub-folders in 'Jewellery', 'Clothing', and 'Footwear'.

It is also a good idea to add a sub-folder for 'Unsorted' items. Because there sometimes just is not enough time in the day to sort through all the awesome stuff we accumulate in SL. That way, when you have a few spare moments, you can go into the 'Unsorted' folder and do some sorting.

When your Clothing folder is all set up, we move on to the Objects folder. Here I usually only have sub-folders for 'Backups', 'Spare Parts', and 'Stuff'. The Backups folder is for boxes that I have paid lindens for, and when I say that I mean paid more than 1 or 2 lindens. It is also for folders where I keep backup copies of prim items that have resize scripts in them. Because scripts cause lag, and if there is the option to delete the scripts I usually do that after I have fitted the item. But I sometimes change shape, and if I should want to use that same item on a different shape, it's good to have a backup copy with the resize scripts intact so I can fit the item for the new shape as well. This is something that designers recommend always doing for items with resize scripts, because they don't usually replace items that have had the scripts deleted simply because you want to resize them again.

The Spare Parts folder is for stuff that I might want to use some time in the future, or items from outfits that I don't want to include but I don't want to delete them either, so to keep them from cluttering my inventory, I box them and put them in the spare parts folder. For example, a couple of my avatars are ones that are possible to use as either gender, so I collect both female and male items, but perhaps I am happy at the time to have the avatar as one gender, so I stick the other gender's items in the Spare Parts folder to use in the future.

If you are a builder, you may want to add a 'Building' sub-folder to the Objects folder as well. And sorting those items is something that only you know how to do. But it's usually good to keep all that stuff in one place.

Also if you are a designer you'll be using a lot of different textures, in which case you may want to organise your Textures folder into sub-folders as well. Personally I prefer to use texture organisers, where I keep them organised by category, so one organiser for hair textures, one for terrain textures, one for fabrics, etc.

If you do this from the start, you will see that you will have less issues with your inventory in the long run. And above all, you won't want to jump off a bridge every time you open your inventory. Trust me, I say this from experience. I have avatars where I just don't want to open the inventory window because it is so full of stuff it makes me cry.

One last tip: For items that you perhaps do not use frequently, it is good to keep a type of organiser as well. With the Outfits function it's no longer necessary to keep wardrobes, and I am not even sure it is possible what with the outfits linking to items in your inventory. I think if you keep the item in a box in your inventory, the link won't work. But there are other things, like house decorations, or just miscellaneous stuff that you don't want to get rid of. Backup boxes as well, they can accumulate and clutter your inventory. And the more items in your inventory, the longer it takes to populate and the more lag you have when you log in.

So to fix this, take your items that you want to organise, go to a place that allows building, preferably a sandbox (there are thousands of them, just do a search for Sandbox), make a box, name the box after the items that will be in it (e.g. Fun Shooters, or Backup Boxes), go to the Contents tab in the Edit window, and drop in the stuff you want to box up. That way you can store up to 100 items in a single prim.

Just remember that you can't store items in folders inside the prim, so you may want to have a system equivalent to the sub-folders here as well. I did recently find a script that gives items from a box in several separate folders. If I can figure out how that works, I might put out an organiser that uses it.

There you are, your inventory is organised, and you will never have to wonder where your .... shoes are again. ;)

Enjoy your Second Life!