A Special Request

Click to embiggen or see it on Flickr.

Once in a while my wife asks me to wear something special for her. This is what she picked.

Really.

This is for you, Catnip!

What's In My Closet? Why Do I Bother?

Try as I might, I just can't see myself as the glamorous sort. Slap on some makeup, a fancy dress, style my hair, add some jewelry, and ... dunno. To tell the truth, I don't think I can carry it off. In Real Life I wear (not all at once) hospital scrubs, shorts, t-shirts, hooodies, jeans, Crocs, or anything I can find so I'll be comfy and nondescript. In Second Life, I have a cage dress, heels, and dark makeup with bleached blonde hair.

WTF?

I'm totally convinced that this combo would look much better on anyone but me. A nagging thought of redemption tugs at me, though ... "What if I wore outfits like this in appropriate places?!?" Hanging out in Bay City or a nice forest in a cage dress? Probably not places one is likely to see this sort of outfit. Maybe I need to get out more.

The grown up Zyx can get away with it. It is her nature.

Side-by-Side Boobs

Today as I was trying on a tasty latex outfit that my wife bought for me, boobs were on my mind. When aren't they, really? In Real Life I wake up every morning with the weight of my two cats on my chest and twice that if they are actually on me at the time.  Then in Second Life, each and every shirt/dress decision has to involve which of my breast choices looks best. Take the latex in question as an example:

From Left-to-Right: System breasts (slider at 58); bigger System breasts (slider at 80); Lola's Tangos Mirage breasts; and Lola's Tangos breasts. Outfit: Liquid Mind ZG-0256

As often as not, Primplants (as I call them) are a trade-off with some clothes – quality of shape and size at the cost of the top's texture being oddly distorted. In some instances such as this one from Liquid Mind, the fit has to be near perfect for the edges to line up (this is greatly affected by your avatar's pose at any given moment) and the lighting has to be just right, ideally with Advanced Lighting in effect. The latter caveat is frustrating because even if you can use it, others might not be able to so they see the odd differences between the texture on the prims and the System layer clothes. Of course, you see yourself from behind anyway so it is rather pointless for you in most cases.

Then there's the translucent bits. Look very close at the image on the far right and you'll see where the prims meet the body inside the translucent latex area. It's the spotty area. Even in perfect lighting this can be obvious when an alpha layer is involved.

On the whole, I like the bigger System breasts, second from the left, with this outfit. The cleavage enhancer of the UnBra skin helps with the illusion that the clothes are pushing my girls together and compressing them to the confined space. This option also avoids much of the unpleasantness of the translucent portion fighting with the skin underneath (See that line under the breasts? Hint to makers: Provide an implants option top where the texture from the system shirt is erased from that area.)

So I saved the version I like but I kept copies of the Primplants in case the need arises. I wear so little latex (despite owning so much) that I don't know when that might be, but "With great cleavage comes great responsibility," (Jamie "The Rack" McJack quote) so I like to be prepared.

The Eyes Have It

Since going mostly blonde a few months ago (when my wife started wearing the same red hair color and styles I usually wore) and especially since I began to wear one style (TRUTH HAIR Harley) almost all that time, I've begun to change my usual eye color from greens to blues. No idea why, really. Sometimes I'll go further and change from one brand of eye to another in the middle of the day.

I've had these BSN Ora Eyes - Pale Blue for some time now. They were L$10 a couple years ago and were the same price when I helped a new resident kit out the other day. The pupil size is good for indoor/outdoor and the shade of blue is very natural. There is no prim option but lately I've been skipping the use of prim eyes because I have too many alpha layers on already. Lots of nice, inexpensive options from Red Beeks (on the Marketplace) if you need eyes.

A couple years ago I caught a sale at Ibanez Eyes (on the Marketplace) and bought some "Wasabi" green eyes that I wore a lot. At the time I also bought these Ibanez Fantasy Glow Eyes - Electric (and several other styles/colors). They have a prim option (with a slight Glow added) so you can change the relative texture size. The color is fairly intense and I think they stand out well with eye makeup. Don't these remind you a bit of Liara Okiddo's captivating eyes?

Before changing to mostly blue eyes I bought and often wore a very realistic green eyes set from theSkinnery (SLurl) so I popped back and grabbed theSkinnery Lovers eye - Storm (L$100) the other day. Unlike the Ibanez prim eyes, these are not spheres but shaped mesh so the editing options aren't as broad. These have to be seen closeup, really, as the texture is amazing. Not 100% amazing, though, as they are also shadow-textured so depending on where my eyes are pointed they can become dark masses at times. Without eye makeup, as seen below, the shadow can be very annoying.

Not an optimal shot in any respect.

Switching eyes often illustrates one of the joys of Saved Outfits – matching the right eyes to what one is wearing. Green eyes when I'm a redhead, bright blue Ibanez eyes when I'm a blonde at the beach, theSkinnery eyes with my makeup skins ... lots of options. It's good to be in Second Life.

What's In My Closet? It looks better on you.

Nearly every outfit I put together in Second Life leads me to think "This would look good on someone else." Perhaps because I own so few clothes in Real Life and they are of such a plain style I really don't understand fashion. This outfit is an example. If you care to look you will find a variation or two of it elsewhere on this blog. Whenever I wear my Black Arts Buckled Mesh Corset I wear jeans or leather slacks and black boots. No other variety. And I almost always slap on my RW Pewter jewelry set and some short blonde hair. For variety today I tried my Sanctus Mors leather slacks and some Blackburns Slouchy Over-Knee Black Boots and some makeup from Glamorize (Tragic Combo). My lack of fashion sense means that I have little originality. Start with one piece in black and keep adding black. Start with one piece with a rainbow theme and keep adding rainbows. Perhaps this is why I run around naked much of the time.

What's in My Closet? Too Many Freebies

Using Strawberry's Simple Photo Studio

Checking out Strawberry Singh's new, free simple photo studio (see here) while chatting with a friend about what she might write about if she were to start blogging I commented "Whenever I'm stuck for an idea I do a 'What's in My Closet?' post. Yes, I'm that lazy. So I took a quick peek and I have about a half-dozen un-opened freebies laying about so here's the first one: A ModaMia Sayings Tops "I am Fucking Awsome" set with a crop-top T-shirt (with primplants appliers), a mesh skirt in five "standard" sizes, some strange sleeves (not pictured) and a set of two bangles (also not pictured). The shop is on Sensible Island (SLurl).

No, for several reasons I'm not keeping this one. I'm getting more serious about deleting clothes at an alarming rate except for about three of anything – three jeans, three slacks, three t-shirts, three .... you get the idea. Same for body parts. Finally pack away skins I haven't worn, delete more hair styles (hundreds were tossed recently, though back-ups are in storage), eyes, etc.

In Real Life I have four pair of Crocs, a pair of winter boots, three pair of sandals, two pair of jeans, two pair of shorts .... again, you get the idea. Oh, and one dress with nice shoes because funerals happen. My Second Life should be that complicated.

What's in My Closet? Dr. Caturday

Hot on the heels of several comments in several places this week that I'm not a fashionista, this is not a fashion blog, and that I really don't know clothes, it's time for another installment of What's in my Closet? Welcome to Dr. Caturday!!

My physics teacher in High School was a big Dr. Who fan going so far as to bootlegging episodes from the Interwebs and owning a scarf like Tom Baker's character (the Seventh Doctor) owned. I never got it. But when the re-boot arrived in 2005 I became a regular fan. My brother and I actually go to the living room, set aside our iPads, and sit to watch the show on the big 48" TV (rather than on the 32" in our shared bedroom). I don't own any Dr. Who clothes or memorabilia in Real Life, but in Second Life I do have a few related items.

Like this cute Patchwork Heart "Hello Doctor Kitty" crop top ($50; SLurl). It's a Gatcha item, one of seven transferable "prizes," with the shirt on all layers, prim sleeve cuffs (not shown), and appliers for Lola's Tangos 'primplants.' This one features a David Tennant's Doctor (the Tenth) with his 3D glasses and sonic screwdriver.

I'm also wearing Cold Logic's Lepore Brown Capri Pants (L$250; SLurl) and HOC's Aviator Style Glasses #003 (L$40; SLurl) modified for my kitty avatar and to have blue/red lenses as if they were for 3D. I could modify the "paper" ones I created but thought my usual glasses tinted would be cute enough.

Body parts? Pretty obvious there ... Puppy's Furry Mods "Maine Coon - Natural" mod kit ($L400; SLurl) for the Curious White Chinchilla avatar (L$800; Web), Lola's Tangos 'primplants' (L$1750; SLurl), and Black Maria's "Ruby" blonde punk hair (Many colors pack – Free! Web). I'm wearing most of my usual jewelry, too, including the wedding ring my wife made and my Magellan Linden Detector ring. SL wouldn't let my collar rez today.

Something About A Tux

The brother I often mention in this blog is a Freemason and for a while he was an officer in his lodge. That meant he owned a tuxedo (the "tails" type, specifically) and wore it often. He looked pretty good and maybe that's where I got my "thing" for tuxes. Or from penguins. Not sure. But I have a couple for myself in Second Life (tuxes and penguins, but that's another story) and today that number increased by one when my friend Drew dropped a very nice (and probably very expensive) Hoornebeek's (SLurl) mesh set on me for Christmas. Totally unexpected and though I've been a good girl, totally not deserved, I'm sure. Thank you, Drew! It looks fantastic (if I may brag and take some credit).

I had to stuff The Girls into a special bra so the outfit would fit, but I think I carry it off.

The mobile phone was included. Other items not pictured: Really nice shoes/socks; a functional watch with alarm feature that could be a twin of the Rolex my father wore; aviator-style sunglasses with built-in gadgets; an open collar with un-tied tie option; open or closed or no jacket options, too.

I think my wife is due for a bit of dancing soon, and so are you, Drew, if you'd like!

Fashionistas

Is the Second Life Fashionista community like this?

Slutwear & Reading

Honest to goodness, I started writing this post about an hour ago, weaving themes and examples in a deep discourse of an obsession with reading and the preponderance of slutty clothes for busty women in Second Life. After a few readings, considerable editing, and even some research across the vast Interwebs, I deleted it all out of frustration and said "I'll just post this picture of me with The Girls barely covered while I read an iPad in a chair filled with books." Enjoy.

I guess one point I wanted to make was that while I enjoy SlutWear in SL,
I'd never be caught dead wearing this outfit in Real Life.

What's In My Closet: Kiwiberriness

The convenience of having a clothes closet in Second Life is not to be under-rated. I took well over half an hour putting together this outfit and being able to save it means that I can easily whip it back out when I want it. In the past, I'd have one "Quick Me" folder at the top of my Inventory that I could simply drag onto my name tag at a moment's notice and be fully kitted without a fuss. But that meant putting a copy of every item worn from the shape on outward into the folder then changing the contents every few weeks so my appearance wouldn't be too stale.

Eventually, I also made a "Quick Dressable Me" folder with all the necessary body parts and HUDs so that I could quickly add any outfit and then some shoes and be on my way.

When The Lab came out with Saved Outfits I was  apprehensive. My blog entry from June 7, 2010 showed that I had a right to be wary: "Recently, I and two of my alts experienced massive inventory losses: skins, prim attachments such as hair and shoes, eyes, mesh-based clothes, and more. Interestingly, items that survived the loss were ones that I had 'linked' to create Saved Outfits in the My Appearance pane in the Second Life v2.0 viewer." The problem was eventually solved and hasn't re-occurred and I've enjoyed my clothes closet ever since.

Body Parts: unBra Indigo C62/M5 skin (this has a bit of violet in the eye shadow); Lola's Tangos "Implants"; Ibanez Fantasy Glow Eyes (Ostara); Slink mesh hands; Wasabi Pills Amelie Mesh Hair in Crystal Violet.

I don't want to automatically run to the "fun hair" part of my Inventory when I have a colorful outfit and this looks good with a short blonde bob, but the hair drape forms a nice frame with the dress bottom.

Clothes: KnocKeRs Lady Luck dress in Kiwi Berry; HOC platform pumps (not shown as they sunk into the backdrop when I posed but were colored to fit the dress); PrimOptics freebie Plume eyeglasses; GanK Violet Voltaire collar and cuffs (adding OpenCollar and LockMeister scripts is what took up most of the time then choosing the right hair took almost as much time); R.Icielli Neon 02 Lipstick; Wedding ring and Magellan's Secret Decoder Ring.

If anyone can't search for these items in-world or on the Marketplace, let me know. I'm too lazy to look up the stuff for this post but I could probably be persuaded to help if asked.

What's In My Closet: Patriots Fangirl

A news story the other day about my beloved New England Patriots football team having the handicap of sharing their pre-season practice stadium with singer Taylor Swift for a few weeks got me to thinking about my fangirl outfit for the coming year. Actually, a fashion "fox paw" got me to thinking about it. Apparently the lack of rez my red shorts demonstrated after arriving somewhere was not a system fault, but the complete absence of said shorts in my Inventory. In a rush to change to a random outfit in my closet (Saved Outfits) from some swimwear so I could be somewhere with my wife I failed to notice the lack of pants. And underwear. Fortunately, Angela always looks "there" so she picked up on the Empress's New Clothes situation right away. Not sure how long she took to tell me, but eventually she did.

After quickly adding some sweatpants (a girl's go-to clothes for most emergencies) I immediately started shopping for new shorts. Today, I tried some demos, borrowed L$100 from an alt, and repaired the saved outfit.

From Top to Bottom:

Hat and Hair: ARGRACE Baseball cap2/Hailey - Misty White

A convenient HUD allows the owner to set colors for the crown, the bill, and the panel logo. I do have a Patriots hat but it is not nearly as nice. Time to go shopping. But this looks great as the hair is styled so that it blends in with the hat. I use the same combo for my Boston Red Sox outfit, but with a B for the logo instead of a P on the panel.

Jewelry and Makeup: PrimOptic (freebie) Plume eyeglasses; PoP Ball-on-Hoop RWB earrings: AiTech Lock & Chain Collar; Magellan detector secret decoder ring; wedding ring. R.Iceielli Lipstick Neon 03.

Yes, I made the earrings. Amazingly, three prims but 12LI each. I bought a mesh ring so I could have nicer nipple piercings than what come with the Lola Tangos "Implants" but these weren't any better. Long story made short, I went with plan DD and his has nothing to do with this outfit other than I repurposed the rings. So moving on ...

Body Parts: Ibanez Fantasy Glow Eyes in Wasabi; unBra Indigo Skin C62 (plain makeup); Slink mesh hands.

Clothes: EC Mika shorts with optional straps; WWI Choe bra and panties (charcoal); Whimsey's Closet Patriots Jersey; WWI Knockout Striped Boyfriend Socks; HOC Lowtops sneakers.

The shorts are the newest bits. A HUD allows color change for the shorts and a separate HUD allows the strap's colors to be changed. Inefficient, but I didn't notice that straps came with the outfit until I tried the demo, so it's a bonus. The jersey came with an applier for Lola's Pushup "Implants" but I chose to not use them since I found the straps with the shorts. HOC, of course, makes awesome sneakers. I wear them almost all the time (or the high tops or the "Bolts" editions).

And that's why I don't often do fashion posts .... all the details. Writing them down takes frickin' forever. I found the location (Rebels Football Field; SLurl) via Search, changed clothes, setup the lighting and graphics options, shot the photos, and found a seat in the bleachers to start writing in half the time it took to fill in the outfit's details.

Morals of the story? Check your Saved Outfits anytime you prune your Clothing inventory and root for the Patriots this coming season.

Three Breast System

Topless Tuesday got me to thinking ...

A woman's breast size in Second Life is in contention nearly as often as whether she really is a woman or not but it usually aligns itself along the lines of whether one believes an avatar is an idealized character or faithful representation of the Real Life typist. You may recognize the debate more in terms of child avatars, furries, and other non-human or non-adult groups. More subtle is the frequent confrontations over appearance (Read: Fashion Police).

Actual "live" picture that often
appears in my SL Profile.

As a Real Life woman of somewhat excessive mammarian proportions as seen in the picture at the left, I've almost always kept the SL breast size sliders almost maxed. And a couple years ago my wife bought a set of Lola's Pushup "Implants" for me to wear so I could be closer to my RL proportions. Despite the clothing headaches and the inability to get a really good blending between avatar and prims, I wore them with some frequency.

Then came along a love of mesh clothing and the need for "standardized" shapes so bits of me wouldn't bulge out all over thus I had to reduce the size of My Girls. I justified it somewhat by taking a cue from RL – stuffing them in clothing can make them look smaller so that's what I figured SL was like – walking around with E-Cup boobs smooshed into a D-Cup dress and being so uncomfortable that when I'd get home I'd have to take them out to breathe. Just like RL. Then I'd wear a bustier shape whenever I was nude or at least topless so the lie was fairly acceptable. The difference between the implants and the so-called Standard breasts is quite dramatic, though, and it seemed pretty silly to wear the prims at times. Still, I did make it into the Busted Magazine 2012 Calendar as Miss May and then into a feature for the November 2012 issue (pages 112-115).

After taking the plunge into mesh clothing I went for mesh feet and later mesh hands, both from SLink (SLurl). Like the Lola's, the match between skins and prims wasn't easy. I got as close as I could, but when SLink announced that skin makers could use an "applier" system to match their product to the mesh bits, I started shopping for new skins. A secondary goal of mine was to buy a new set of implants, the Lola's Tangos, that used the applier concept, too. I hadn't planned on wearing them often, but in for a penny, in for a few more pounds (big breasts are heavy, according to my back).

Lo and Behold! After setting up all the mesh bits with the new skins (Unbra's Indigo C62; SLurl) I bought, I found myself wearing the implants pretty often. Partly, it was because I ran through the Hello Titty prize hunt gathering a ton of nice, free clothes and nearly an equal amount of purchases so I just had to wear them all (cripes, but SL has made me so femme despite my RL butchness).

That's when I stopped caring about size. Well, not entirely. I still love my Big Girls and I still love a good-sized "rack" on other women both iRL and iSL, but I wasn't going to give up on my mesh clothes. And some of the implants outfits looked better with a larger (or smaller) size than I would normally choose. So I decided "to heck with it" and relaxed. I'll wear whatever breast size I want for whatever outfit I'm wearing or whatever mood I'm in at the time. So here's my Three Breast System.

Mesh-friendly "small" breasts. Depending on the skin I choose, the shading can make them look fuller, but essentially they are on the D-Cup side. Also great for "system" shirts, particularly t-shirts with graphics. The smaller size keeps the texture from bunching in the cleavage. Oddly enough, I and my two alts that share this shape get hit on at least as often as my bustier versions. These Girls also don't get comments from the Fashion Police and look good with a little physics bounce.

My Daily Big Boobs are closer to my RL cup size and far more gravity defiant, but they look strange in most system clothing and don't fit 99% of my mesh clothes. Still, I think I did a nice job shaping and I'd be just as happy if I was this size in Real Life. I'd estimate them to be a firm (pun intended) DD-Cup despite not being maxxed on the sliders.

Break out the Tangos! You've seen some women with ridiculously-sized implants (in both worlds) I'm sure, but these are only 5% larger than the out-of-box size. As mentioned above, some outfits look better if the breast size is increased,  but I almost never go above 10% bigger than the original and for some outfits I'll go as much as 10% smaller ... which puts them at the size of my Daily Big Boobs, but with a perkier shape.

That's my Three Breast System. If you do the math, it's more like six breasts, but then we're getting silly and just having this many is hard enough work. The viewer's Saved Outfits feature makes the math easier. I have each "size" set up as a nude/dressable base will all the attachments I need so I just have to wear that then find some clothes. Of course, I've saved complicated outfits and costumes regardless of which breasts they include, but having the three bases sure makes it easy to get dressed in the mornings. Well, those days I actually dress.

Caturday!

Happy Caturday! When I saw a cat shirt gacha at Patchwork Heart (SLurl) the other day I knew my next Caturday outfit was halfway complete. That's Lion-o from Thundercats, a cartoon I have to admit I've never really watched. The Thundercats logo is on the back.

Bay City Fashion Week

BAY CITY FASHION WEEK

Mid-Century fashion designers feted

BAY CITY, SL (15th April, 2013) - The Bay City mainland community is hosting a select number of the top vintage, mid-century fashion designers for a Fashion Week from April 20-29 in the Bay City Fairgrounds in North Channel (SLurl).

The designers featured were chosen based on their designs fitting within Bay City's theme: the American urban experience, between 1940 and 1965, perhaps best typified by Chicago circa 1950 and marked by a distinct deco influence.

Invited designers include Schadenfreude, Sonatta Morales, Misha Kerang Designs, FIN, Robin (Sojourner) Wood, Eclectica, Volstead, 1-800-BETTIES, Ingenue, Purplemoon Creations, Rhapsody, Vita Bella, Delicate Sensibilities, and Pure Poison.

Bay City is a mainland community, developed by Linden Lab™ and home to the Bay City Alliance. The Bay City Alliance was founded in 2008 to promote the Bay City regions of Second Life™ and provide a venue for Bay City Residents and other interested parties to socialize and network. It is now the largest Bay city group, and home to most Residents of Bay City.

For more information, contact Marianne McCann at marianne.mccann@gmail.com

What's In My Closet: A Rebuilt Outfit

I got sloppy with saving changes to an outfit with the My Outfits feature and lost the full biker chick set that was featured in my blog post "Life On The Road" from last August. After a couple weeks of being busy with other things I decided it was time to rebuild it and maybe make it better.

Many thanks to Sean Brady's Cool Beans Coffee Shop for a lovely setting for writing (SLurl).

Originally, most everything in the outfit was from Bare Rose – hair, vest, slacks, underpants – with a few other items mixed in. Recent acquisitions have changed the set.

Hair: Bare Rose Black Cat Short A. I've had this hair for a very, very long time. Probably five years or more.

Skin: Tuty's Lou Chocolate skin – romantic. Once free, these skins are fabulously well-made and come with a huge number of makeup options, with or without shaved hair on the head. That saves a tattoo layer. This is also the skin worn by my "Indian alt" mentioned in yesterday's post. I learned that in India the darker skin is ill-favored compared to lighter skin and because of my choice she's actually been shunned and called names. Well, I'm not going to drop L$2000 grand on a lighter skin for an alt though Tuty's has a great one I'd love to use. Yah, I bought skins for other alts so I might give in, but the Lou is so nice.

Shape: My usual "busty" shape. Except for the boobies, everything is "standard" for mesh (medium). No, the cup size is NOT maxed.

Physics: Fey Telling's Avatar Physics 1.0a – Layer 6. This is the most realistic set I've found. Depending on the layer you choose, the effect can be profound, but still believable. This set affects only the breasts, not the belly or butt so this girl is tight *giggle*

Eyes: Ibanez Fantasy Glow Eyes – Almondine. Almost all the eyes I wear these days are from Annie Ibanez and are prims.

Vest: B@R ::: Short Vest Lady in red. I also have black and brown, part of a full set. All sculpty but some great work. I haven't seen a mesh vest that I like better. Hopefully June Dion will rework this one into mesh.

Pants: R.icielli – ANNA Mesh Jeans / #05 M. A very nice skinny leg set that I bought with two other colors for just L$15 as part of a hunt.

Boots: DRD Bound-Cuffed Red Short Boots. A decent set of sculpty boots I got from a Lucky Chair or Midnight Mania.

Tattoo: Letis Tattoo WW501. Sadly the blender layer for the hands partially obliterates this nice tribal piece. Yes, tribals are so 90s, but I like it.

Pasties: Neko Bliss Nipple Tape

Hands: SLink Mesh Hands tinted to match the skin.

Jewelry: eCollar v3.0, custom wedding ring, Secret Decoder Ring (used as a Magellan Linden detector), PrimOptic Finesse glasses, and custom small hoop earrrings.

Best of MySL This Week

For a while now I've thought about a weekly post on this blog about my other "blog," the My Second Life (AKA MySL; Web) snapshot feed. Since there is no way that I know of to integrate the feed into any blog and one needs to log into the Second Life sites to see any feed, then manually posting some of the pix  might be the solution. So, in no particular order, here we go ...

I bought a few outfits at the retro style shop Artileri and this hair style. Yes, I'm wearing pink. Angela picked it out. But I'm not giving up my non-retro ePad. At least not until I can find a way to bring my actual iPad into Second Life. I'd love to be able to curl up on the couch in our house or on a nice beach and read or play games.

This is a project I've started, a gasoline station pattered roughly along the lines of the toy in the picture. The windows and doors are sculpties. Not happy with the front door proportions or those of the door inside between the waiting area/shop and the garage bay. Not pictured is a custom-made sculpted car lift. Not sure what to do for pumps yet. I found a really nice one in the Google Sketchup library, but to import it to SL would be some L$174 with a Land Impact of 17 prims. I'm in no hurry.

Snuggle kissin' at home with Angela. InstaWIN ever time.

Hot Bay City Nights (HBCN) started last week (see here). Ever Dreamscape, Pygar Bu, and Marianne McCann went overboard, as usual, but someone left the beer truck unattended. I had to sit there for hours to keep the kids away. It didn't occur to me to take the beer home ... for safe keeping.

The car wash was lots of fun at HBCN. We actually had a couple cars other than this late model Pachyderm. Since it was a G-Rated sim I had a bikini top on under my wet shirt. We got one tip that I saw, but I bet more skin might have helped. At least I got a "nice ass!" compliment. Since there were no donkeys around, I assumed he meant me.

A highlight of Saturday at HBCN was a bikini contest. A few of the entrants kept to a vintage theme and a few got really silly. I hope everyone had a good time. I was one of the judges. Pygar Bu did a great job as Master of Ceremonies.

My Angela was the winner. Since I scored most of the contestants pretty close I'm happy to think that the other judges picked my girl. That is a really, really retro outfit I found for her and she did great accessorizing with period hair and skin. that pink automobile behind her was the grand prize for becoming Miss Bay City.

Pretty busy week overall. I have no big plans for the coming week. Maybe I'll work on the garage a bit. It still needs an interior and a gas pump area. Maybe I'll just lay around and figure out how to import my iPad.

What's In My Closet: Stuff

Since there is no easy way to export items from your MySL feed at this time, I guess I'll have to do it manually, so here goes ... outfits I created and saved today with the captions I used (in Italics) in my snapshot feed.

My new Adventure Girl ensemble, cobbled together from all over my wardrobe. #Fashion
I shot this at the the Premium Wilderness Area (Web), a reason to get a Premium account if I ever saw one.

Updated my Builder Girl outfit. Mostly the cloth parts, but I adapted my Wynx mole helmet to fit a human size. #Fashion
This pic was taken outside the faux water tower at the Lesbos University building. I had planned to make it part of the 2012 Lesbos Halloween build, but ... Well, if you haven't heard yet, The Isle of Lesbos closes next week.

My tiny kangaroo hippie thanks to a nice freebie from "What's This?"
This little kanga avatar was one of my favorites when I worked at SL9B and I decided I have to go Tiny more often.

A Loco Pocos tiger because I'm thinking of joining the White Tiger Mentors. #Fashion
My friend, Bo Denimore, is a mentor there and I value his recommendation to join the group. It could give me something to do other than just explore now that Lesbos is going away.

The next couple pix aren't saved outfits (Web) but I was having fun with my Inventory when the idea struck that I might be able to go visit the LDPW Moles ...

I was hoping that if I visited the Mole Tunnel at the Bay City Community Center (SLurl) I'd be transported to Mole Land. No such luck. #Bay City #Mole
Needless to say, it didn't work. But do know where the Mole Islands are located (Web).

I've been trying to think what my LDPW Mole name would be. Based on this pic? Maybe Adora Mole #LDPW #Mole

Moving things from the MySL feed might become a regular event on the blog here, at least until someone looks at my JIRA to make an automatic transfer possible (Web). Well, looks at it, approves it, and implements it. No, I don't hold out any hope, really.

What's in My Closet? A New Me

One of my blog posts yesterday concerned the evolution of two alts, Zyx Flux and Zyx. They've made quite a few changes in the last year, so it got me to thinking, "What have I changed about me?" After all, people gain or lose weight in Real Life and they get shorter as they age (danged gravity). Why not in Second Life?

At Forest Floor (SLurl) for my new portrait.

It was May 22, 2010 when I last modified my shape (shapes, really ... I have barefoot and shoe-fitted versions, each with large and small bust sizes for every day use depending on the clothes or lack thereof) and I was a tall 1.88 meters with a very narrow waist, too narrow for even my tastes and far more narrow than my Real Life shape. I figured if my pixy alts can evolve, it was about time that I did.

So I'm now just 1.8 meters tall —sure, not a big deal but oddly it seems like a lot as I adjusted overall height and hip length for the effect — and I made myself thicker around the middle with the saddlebags slider and the tummy slider. I added some muscle to my legs, too and widened my hips. That change looked fine from behind when I was naked, but .... . Anyway, I also took 5-10 points off my bust size (each variation) so clothes could be a better fit.

And then my wife, Angela, took me shopping and I bought that baggy mesh blouse you see in the pic above so I look really pudgy, especially with the wider hips that make my butt look bigger even though I didn't touch the butt slider (fill in your own jokes, folks). Life is not fair, even a second one.

But I'm actually happy with the changes. I look far more natural now — less Barbie-fied and ultra-femme — and I feel more like me, a fairly soft butch (RL my hair is very, very short and I dress very, very plainly). The adjustments I made were small and subtle, but just enough, I think. What do you think?

Yes, I like it. Even the thicker waist.

Zaara - A lovely little town

When I need a bit of peace with a hint of excitement I think of Zaara (SLurl), a lovely little town with a shop that sells traditional and inspired Indian clothing of the highest quality.

The entrance to the shop shows hints at the high-quality textures of the clothing, such as you see on my model. Xandah is wearing a patterned orange kurta and blood-orange churida. She has the "Bollywood" hair that is in your basic Linden inventory. I didn't ask about the shoes. Note the arches on the windows and the door. Very cleverly done.

Relaxing by the water at sunset. At times the surrounding buildings have shops, but today they were empty. Each is beautiful and evokes a distinct feel yet blend to make a cohesive environment. Zaara Kohime, the builder, seems to understand architecture at least as well as she does fashion.

Too many people fly into a shop or a mall, look for what they want (sometimes using viewer-based search tools so they can get back to mindless scripted dancing more quickly), then simply leave. Zaara is a place to be savored. This alleyway of mock-shops is a delightful addition, immensely adding to the region's character. When I see this level of passion in a build I have little trouble paying the shop owner whatever they want for the goods I want. They certainly deserve it.

Same alley, different direction. I love the shadows. In this shot and the previous one is a model's pose stand languishing on the pavements. Not sure why. The critter, I can understand.

Most any build has wee errors, like this slightly airborne elephant outside a temple for Ganesha. A near by corner has some clearly airborne trees, but you have to work to get to them. But a scene like this certainly makes up for any trivial "ooops" or two that one might find. Goodness knows I spend lots of time at my builds looking for prims that have drifted or been mis-placed and textures that are poorly done.

Zaara has a blog if you'd like to keep up with new releases. It updates more than the in-world group. But her clothes are only one reason to visit. The region is several reasons to visit, unto itself.