Mermaid is Back

It's back, and it's here in Caledon Lionsgate.

Both gender sets, the gender parts can be mixed and matched, the difference is mainly the style of turn and the 'mood' of the animation sets.

An update feature is installed in the HUDs, but there's nothing to update yet. :)

Holders of the Relay For Life edition, I'll be manually passing out copies this weekend. Want one sooner? Contact me via IM in World. IMs should be delivered to my email.

Thank you for your support. :)

What Was and Is and Is To Come

Or what is Kamilah wearing?

I'm a rare one it seems, sticking with one avatar for close to three years. Sculpts appearing pretty much destroyed that. Damn you, Uchi Desmoulins for showing me that incredible white lioness avatar!

Anyhoo, the selection of puma avatars has always been terrible in Second Life, so I went for the longest time with a Luskwood White Lioness.

Earliest (good) picture I have is here.


I caught onto how to use the camera like a pro early on. Camera training, the foundation of SL enjoyment. The outfit is a mixmatch of various bits and pieces I'm not sure even exist anymore. It dates to December 7, 2005.

While not exactly my first dress on SL, it became a favourite for longtime. Silver Rose, Anna Karenina, with my lipstick prim, January 9, 2006:


The following genie outfit was my dissatisfaction with the state of bellydance wear in Second Life, it's undergone a few incarnations of its own, from cute to OMG. The tiara became my Viceregal tiara. Dated March 1, 2006.

And dated March 5, 2006:


And September 10, 2007:


And back to the gowns, I wore a Silver Rose Celia in Red or Green longtime too. Dated December 6, 2006:


This was done for an avatar around December 30, 2007. The hairstyle, had for much longer, and usually worn with a Solange Legacy in Red/Gold and a pair of particularly extreme boots by Dark Eden, the Nemesis. And several other DE accessories. Etain Peregrine is a doll. Shop her. Do it.


And my most current formal Viceregal attaire, Silver Rose Gloria Silver. Dated February 3, 2008:


I caught a friend (Kensuke Leviathan) of mine working on a sculpted panther head, and I went bonkers all over the place for it. So close, so close to puma. So we hammered away at the sculpt, it looks much nicer now, even over and above what I have here, dated about a month ago, photo by Virrginia Tombola:


That was short lived, and may be revisited, but holy damn if AnthroeXtacy hasn't thrown everything else out the window with this. Dated today, and in progress:


You served me well for a long time, Luskwood. It's time.

A Funny Thing Happened In A Mermaid Roleplay Sim

They were nice, they were polite, they asked me to switch to a non-furry avatar. Not being in the proper mood to be an asshat about it, I complied, had a nice chat.

Apparently a Merlion was too far outside the mythos of the estate. Works for them, alright.

But apparently they've never been to Singapore. <-- I lolled when I learned this. Thanks, Theta! :)

State of the Water

Swimming:
The Swim utility's finally branded, I've dubbed it the Swim Wedge. It's out there, on the market, any of you who bought an earlier version for the Relay For Life benefit can rez the Rezzer near the Update system and you will be given the latest version. Now with speed controls. :)

Located HERE.

Mermaid:
Off the market for the moment, but available on request. No update system in it just yet and I just hammered out the last Really Annoying Bug. There remains some 'personality issues' but it's largely functional. I need to box, brand, vendorise, price, and update the Merman edition first.

Seahorse:
Planned for next!

A Few Numbers

Items sold benefit Relay For Life

• Eye of Ra: 1
• Ballroom fans: 8
• Mermaid AO: 146
• Swimmer: 40
• Total L$15,686
  

Luminaria lit: 5, Total L$22,500

Auction Item won: Golden Winged Lion, L$6000

Final Push Donation: L$25,000 (May or may not have registered but the L$ were sent. JJ may have lost one too. We were beating up that poor kiosk.)

Recognition (Why We Do It)

Good Lord, that was a long night, and worth every moment.

Up at 8:30 on a Saturday, fairly typical, on the Relay track at 9:00, not typical, and prancing about Second Life for the next 25 hours. (Almost completely out of character.) I had a reason, but I'm getting to that.

I did roughly what I did on the track last year, only MOAR of such. I ran a few laps with Viderian Vollmar. I'm not sure how many, at least two. I ran a lap and a half or so with Mordecai Scaggs. I ran a few laps myself and did one as a product test with the Freestyle Mermaid override. I did a more social lap where I investigated the various builds, chatted with a few of the people there. This was by far my favorite lap, particularly a brief chat with David Valentino. (We've talked a few times over the last few years, always pleasant.)

Of course, there were annoyances. In order of arrival:

• Avilion group lined their sim with avatars and created a quagmire for the first few laps until many of those avatars packed it in for the night. Frustrating and effectively like swimming in molasses through the sim. I grew to appreciate the gesture though, later into the night when there were A: less avatars on the track, and B: less avatars lining the track cheering. It was a lovely build.

• A trio of avatars were using a form of an impulse engine, it appeared to behave as a directional-forward moveto that on the straights I had trouble keeping up with even when flying. Unsporting. And I do recall an Estate message in the early going that those were deemed to be unfair. I cannot remember, nor did I log, the message and so I do not know what the official ruling is or will be.

As the night wore on, my love of the Avilion group's build grew. As did my, and collectively in Caledon's upset at the conduct of the avatars who were rapidly passing and lapping their way to the top of the stack.
Whining ensued, tired set in, went to sleep with the knowledge that Vidrian, who'd showed up early and stayed late, go from far and away the lap leader to being passed like he was standing still, running all night, stopping? Not much.
Where would be his recognition?
I wake in the morning and remember why we do this. I do it for my father in law. Died of lung cancer and various others. I do it for my mother, survivor of skin cancer. I do it for my aunt, died of colon cancer. I do it for myself, very pale skinned to the point of begging for melanoma. I do it for my father, uncle, cousin, each with heart and stroke troubles, and diabetes. I do it for my grandfather, the finest gentleman I've ever had the privilege to know, who fell to ALS.
I do it for Lapin Paris, my friend. May her coffin be hewn from the wood of a 100 year old tree, which I will plant sometime in the future.
Mordecai loves life, and ran some and played some and still made a grand showing.
Viderian does it for his mother, may she rest in peace.
Three names I've heard are to appear on the podium, to receive recognition. Three names which stayed long enough and struggles hard enough with any method necessary for personal recognition.
Viderian Vollmar worked overtime instead and ran the Last Lap.

I recognise Viderian. I recognise Lapin. I recognise myself.
I recognise community, the community that came out, showed up, and went to work.

The Swim Canisters and the Mermaids AOs will remain to the benefit of the Relay up to the last possible moment. And a little bit longer.

Addendum, following day after reflection:

I still don't know if Viderian's numbers were padded or anyone else's were penalised. We may never know. Here's to you, Pops.

Grief and Psychology

Completely random thought: I'm reading a chapter on grief processing, and it went on about identifying real grief, and then into grief handling, it mentioned wrapping up in blankets for the sensation of being cuddled. My mind made the association, "What if Asperger's Syndrome is really hypersensitivity to grief? Lose a status quo, and bang, need comfort. Ordering entire life around routines and predictability (impossible, nothing is permanent) in order to avoid situations where loss can occur?"

~Not exactly neurotypical Kamilah is reading Finding Your Own North Star by Martha Beck and thinking of a dear friend

Swim Ball Rezzer in Photos

Water shots using normal SL water from a fairly high dive.

The Rezzer can be seen with three swim slices on the rocky outcrop. The Rezzer can be hidden if desired.

We got your backstroke, your breast stroke, splashing water, sounds, most directional controls, update feature included, and for the rest of the Relay For Life the system goes for L$50 all proceeds to the Relay. Here's the location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Lionsgate/158/116/48

Swimmer's Ready!

I'm excited about this one. Here's the location. Try out the various dive locations in the sime and in Port Caledon to the south.

Will try to upload images later, Blogger's not cooperating. In the meantime, try them out. :)

You Can Swim If You Want To

Right here. Working beta of my swimming rezzer. Free until I can get it into an RFL vendor. Read: Soon. Even then it will be cheap.

It's designed to work with any SL swimming pool, or open water.

It pops out pose balls, or rather, pizza slices. You sit on the pizza slice, and if you're above water, you go SPROING! and hopefully land in the water. Thus the pizza shape, to point the thing.

When someone sits on the slice, it squawks it's position and rotation in a whisper. If the rezzer is placed nearby, it will issue another swimmer.

Only the owner can control the rezzer, but anyone can use the swimmer slices.

Hypothetical situation A:

• Owner has a dock on the water.
• Owner rezzes the Rezzer.
• Owner touches the Rezzer and chooses from the dialog box: Rez Swimmer
• Owner moves the swimmer slice into position on the end of the dock and points it out into the water.
• Owner stashes the Rezzer under the dock, touches it, and chooses Hide to make it mostly invisible.

Hypothetical situation B:

• Owner has a swimming pool with prim water at the top of a mountain.
• Owner rezzes the Rezzer.
• Owner moves the Rezzer into the water until the red line on the Rezzer is in the prim water level.
  
• Owner touches the Rezzer and chooses from the dialog box: Set Level
• Owner Touches the Rezzer and chooses from the dialog box: Rez Swimmer
• Owner moves the Swimmer up to the top of the diving board.
• Owner rezzes another Swimmer and places it near the diving board on the deck.
• Owner moves the Rezzer under the diving board and hides it as above.
  

Sarah Brightman

I used to really, really love Sarah Brightman, and probably would have bought all of her albums by now, except for that obnoxious CD 'protection' that came with the Harem album. Today, something triggered the memory and I started rooting through my WinAmp library for what I did cut from my CD collection.

The trouble is, I couldn't remember her name. Way to go, lawyers!

I wonder if this is a sign of the future. I'm a 30-something at this time of writing. In twenty years, are major labels dead due to no one knowing who their artists are?