Saturday, January 29, 2011

Starting Over

Lludmila looks over the rest of the skybox.

Some new items freshen up an old space.
Oh, sure there are plenty of skyboxes out there (and even a bunch in my inventory), but I always return to this old hunt freebie from Curious.  It is the perfect skybox.  It has a porch with a sliding door.  It has multi-levels.  I like the textures.  The space is nicely divided up for whatever purpose I choose.  The main area is great for slipping in my photobox to take fashion photos for my Unslutty and Undead blog.   Or, at one time it was a bedroom.  It could be a kitchen area.  This is just the best skybox ever for my purposes.

The 60L Weekend people thoughtfully provide notecards with photos and landmarks so that you can view the merchandise ahead and nip directly there for purchasing.  I only bought two things this weekend (although I had "marked" six for viewing).  The small sailboat in the previous blogpost was the other.  I had been looking at some landscaping (I need more clothes or hair like I need a blue screen of death) but didn't get any not because I didn't like them, but I'm sort of annoyed with my landlords right now and don't see why I should beautify my tiny slice of land when I can't be sure they're done dicking with it.

Anyway, there are some old pieces (the rustic bed, the print, the red oriental carpet with the sit animation that makes it easy to enter the skybox when I've had to move it and there's no current landmark for it) and some new: the two-prim room divider (screen) which replaces the other one I had that was about 12 prims, the matching print, the chest, the lamp - all of which came from S&S, and the framed photo that I made from one of my "skies and clouds" photos.  The new furniture was a deal for 60L.  OMGosh! That's even me, pennypincher extraordinaire, saying that!  And I didn't even put out the other lamp (not yet anyway - the smaller one is on the step) and I won't be putting out the water-thing decoration-thing because ... well, I'm keeping the prim count low.  I'm told I can use more than are allocated for the plot, but I don't know how many more and I don't want to push it.

I really have no idea what other people are thinking.  Do they want me to go away?  Was the exhibit The Last Straw in a long line of  minor nuisances on my part?  Am I being sent to Conventry where, with a tiny prim limit, I am less likely to Get Up to Anything?  The bottom line is that I'm still sad, still afraid to do anything.  Now that I've put out a few pieces, I fear I'll be moved again.  sigh.

Cuttlefish Extra

Cal and Lludmila chillin' on her new sailboat.
Available for just 60L this weekend is this sweet little sailboat at this location.  There are a bunch of colors to choose from but Lludmila went for boring, old white - so it won't clash with her skin.  You can take a friend for a gentle float and there's also a cuddle raft option (cuttlefish sold separately).  There are more, ahem, options available - but you don't have to use everything you get, do you?

Hair with the wooly cap is a hunt gift from Clawtooth.  Rental land available on Lludmila's home sim of Awen.  She might even take you for a sail, but not for a ride.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Virtually Depressed

My old land ...

View looking toward new location ...
Cal helping me take down the exhibit ... the last bit.
New locations offered

This has been one of those "perfect storm" weekends that send me into a one-woman (and a pride of avatars) pity-party.  There's a family emergency in RL(tm) so I am home alone without the usual support system (although I'm sure my husband has enough on his plate and doesn't need to hear me whinge over what is really just dollies in pixels) and then I learn that my landlords are moving me again ... after some of my things were partially landformed over.

I had that exhibit thing going and considered adding office hours where people could come and discuss things (and had already posted one) to my book discussions ... which were turning into office hours anyway, it seems, where we just sat around and discussed books in general, the platform we were on, and a lot of personal stuff.

This happened before, and it upset me, but today the reality of everything pressing on me hit when I logged back on and looked at my new plot.  It takes a bit of time to develop an idea for what I want to do with my plot or you with your sim, so one would expect that you would know ahead of time that you had a long term plan of some sort.  Considering myself an employee, I would have thought I'd be notified of upcoming changes or included in ... and then I remember what RL(tm) jobs are like annnnnd ... I take it all back.  Nevermind.

I'm sad.  It may take me a while to get back to my plot, as it did last time, and I'll probably find happy, shiny things to do.  After all, it's more fun setting things up than just living.  In the meantime, I had a fit of pique and removed everything for some astringent effect on the spirit.  It stings like hell, but it should do me some good in the long run.

I'd like to thank my friends who rallied and offered me spaces in their areas (I have one of those pointless Linden Homes, so it's not like I'll be homeless again), but when I'm sad it all looks like dust.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

More Ossumness!

Lludmila won't be doing laundry today!

Yet another goodie for the 60L Weekend Sale at Altya's Dream Creation and Toys.  It's the Hospital Bed!  Just like I'd hoped for in a blogpost on my Unslutty and Undead blog!  Now, it's not like I'm above being greedy ... but when I walked around the shop after my sale purchase to see what I'd like to hint for next week, I noticed my eye dragged toward the more "expensive" items (400L was the highest I saw - prices are really quite reasonable).   This makes me feel a teeny bit guilty.  So, instead of lobbying for a particular item, I'm just going to show off some of the stuff that captivated my imagination.  These and more photos are Available for Viewing on Presentation of Visiting Card on my Flickr page.

 Nice book-sit here, but ... choose the wrong pillow and:
 Kathy being swallowed up by the quicksand.

The book/pillow sit (sold separately) is really nice.  Unlike the usual, the book appears when you sit and you don't have to dig it out of wherever it was sent in your inventory.  Elegant touch.  I really liked the genteel struggling in the quicksand, too.

 Who doesn't love a really good AFK? 

I have a nice collection of AFK attachments (one of them, not so very nice - ahem), so I recognize good ones when I see 'em!  A friend already has the RIP one, but my lethargic nature leans me, ever so sleepily, toward the bed one.  Ohhh, that looks so inviting!  That and an anti-idler, and I'll be happy to camp on your land for hours!  (Send me a notecard inworld if you're interested; terms negotiable - heh!)

 Kathy tries out the Wormhole - and gets the feeling she's being watched.

The POS* poster urged me to try it if I dared, and I sent Kathy through.  I suppose I could use this to replace the tp pad to my exhibit.  Just "touch" and "sit"!  Can't be any more complicated for newbs than the usual pad, but for the post-menopausal like me, it took a couple of tries.  

 Ooo, a palanquin! That's the way to go in style!

I think I have some freebie Egyptian outfit somewhere.  Must get this inventory under control!  Or at least back under 38,000.

Kathy thinks: Lludmila could use this for her next photo exhibit (see post below) to save on prims.

Altya's keeps me coming back for more.  There was even some little cow lying on the ground claiming it was free.  I picked it up and hugged it.  Not quite the stuffed giraffe that I lost in the Great Toy Folder Disappearance, but still udderly comforting.  

As a suggestion, to go along with the bag lady and legless man avs, we were talking about an apple-selling tray you wear around your neck that solicits Lindens** (in only 1L increments) and gives an apple.  You can buy one for your alt and send it out to earn its own damn LLs while your primary av goes dancing or canoodling, or whatever it is you get up to in the virtual-world-that-shall-go-unnamed.  
And ... the Mousetrap's not too pricey.  Maybe that can be next week-end's bargain!

* This always makes me giggle when people use it for Point of Sale.
**Or, as I like to call them, Lludmila Dollars.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Lludmila Makes an Exhibition of Herself

 Exhibition Poster based on old crash photo

Apparently, posting thousands of screenshots on Flickr are not enough, but I had to create a small exhibit of some of my favorite pix of the past, ohhh, two to three years in SL.  The idea originated when I was using an older pc with an inadequate graphics driver that crashed continually.  I thought the resulting images were interesting and friends suggested putting together an exhibit.  I tinkered with the idea for quite a while, but in the end decided that the crash pix weren't that interesting even to me (except for the one above that was Photoshopped to make it more interesting) and not worth the 10L each it would cost (that at the time I didn't have, being a poor and homeless waif in the virtual world) to upload them.

The idea was always in the back of my mind and I talked about it with friends recently and, looking at my stash of Linden cash (now that I am both employed and have a space of my own), decided I could fritter it on uploading about 25 pictures (there goes my weekly salary and then some) that I really liked and putting them in one of the many freebie skyboxes I had acquired.  This meant rezzing the skyboxes, of course, to see if they were suitable.  They were not so suitable as skyboxes for Lludmila to live in, or change in, or whatever she planned to do in them, but I was reluctant to delete them (which explains the struggle I'm in to keep my inventory below 38,000 items).  I chose the large and airy skybox pictured below and began to upload photos.

Photos were not exactly chosen for their artiness, but for my own personal reasons - such as: I thought they were funny, they said something about virtual life, or they were just ... colorful.  They show how much personality you can read in some pixels as well as the beauty produced by some of the content creators.

 Exhibit Opening Gala

It didn't seem like enough just to put something up, so I figured I'd attempt to have a party.  This would require a dance ball and dances.  I'd acquired those for my ill-starred rez-day party and reassembled something that worked.  That still wasn't enough.  I thought it would be fun to have places for people to pose and take pictures of themselves, so I set about poseball tinkering and set them out.  The poses are the best I could do from the freebies I had in order to make the Birth of Venus, Zeus, and a cheeky Psyche at Nature's Mirror.  I had some other freebies where you can pose in a frame.  I topped it all off with a Very Valuable Egyptian Vase from Carla's Workshop.  All I had to do after that was turn something prettier than a headstone into a tip jar (because tip jars are all about extorting Lindens from your friends), set out some champagne, and put up some signage and a teleport.

It sounds easy, but it was pretty fiddly.  I wrestled with Photoshop for a couple of days, swore at the poseballs that weren't working, and left pieces of skybox all over the Awen airspace as I tried to adjust, readjust, and tuck things back in the inventory for the night.

The Book of the Exhibit with photo of the First Visitor

All I ask is that people come by and have a little fun.  Take some photos of your own av and either post them online where I can see them (which requires telling me where they are) or drop them on me in-world, if you can afford the upload charges.  If you do, I'll visit them in the former case and put them in The Book of the Exhibit in the latter.  

Yes, a couple of the photos are for sale.  I figured folks weren't that interested in photos of Lludmila and her other inpixelations, but they might like a landscape.  If you're in a photo, you get it free, of course - just let me know.

I forgot to add a slurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Aw
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