It's Sewer Time Again!

 Om knows I just love the Scoop-N-Score. No, the prizes (which are truly free, not 25L "gifts") are not all to my taste, but it's just so much fun. It's especially fun if you're in a Dinkie av because the running anim is so cute. 

This time they've added some escape hatches, which I think was a great idea. They inhabit the corners of the sim as well as one in the center (which is a veritable Dr. Who set of corridors) and one to the shops (where there are some items on sale). 

My usual MO is to always go left and come back later and always go right. I never get all the prizes, but I do make out with some winners. Anything from Grasshopper St. is my goal and she's made her prizes easy enough to find. Bless her. However, now each of my avs has at least three kinds of peg legs. Well, what I say is, You can't have too many peg legs. 

Cryptid has a fish head. The alpha that comes with it also erases the legs and pelvis, so one had better have a fishy tail of some sort (and all three of my avs are mer'd). Just imagine running three avs through this maze trying to find the same fish head each time. Good thing I'm retired.

More info here: Scoop-N-Score.

 

Cal says, "Not another peg leg!" Too bad.

Peg leg and sailor cap from Grasshopper St.

Midnight Order January - February 2023

Midnight Order is open! 

Lludmila took half a dozen (okay, seven) demos back to her cage. She has until 20 February to make up her mind.

For you book lovers, Dirty Rat has a YUGE circular skybox that's nothing but shelves of books. SecondLife Syndicate members get free gifts and the one from DR is a lovely bookcase:

Can't wait to find a spot for it. Land impact only 4! Several other items were favorites:

Who doesn't need an animesh fleshbug? Fun item from [KROVA].Velvet flower brooch from Grasshopper St (with HUD), ornamental shoulder plates (also with HUD) from En Pointe. I had to adjust them with rotation. But they are lovelyyyy. And other items too numerous to mention

Midnight Order specializes in the Dark which isn't quite my style (even though Lludmila is ostensibly a zombie), but I appreciate the creativity and the workmanship. I mean, I'm never gonna wear the facehugger-ish thing anywhere (comes in different colors!) but it's good for a larf. Also, the SL Syndicate group membership applies to other fairs, like the Engine Room (sorta Steampunk - excuse me, "Historically Inspired Science Fiction and Fantasy") and they throw some fun hunts (the one in the sewer maze where you scoop poops with gifts inside). 

Evolution of an Avatar

 

It's been almost two years since I posted here and so much has happened ... to Lludmila and Annthrasite. I resisted the mesh thing for so long because my internet was so slow and unreliable and then suddenly we were offered a chance at fresh, new fiber optic cable! Our neighborhood went for it and then it seemed that upgrading would be worth the Ls. 

I polled all my meshie friends over what they bought and started testing things out. Lludmila was a problem. Fairly early on I discovered a look that I liked. I had given up trying to make me look like myself (fat and middle-aged) and went for just "unusual." Jupiter Vale at Absentia had a skin freebie that I fell in love with. It was a zombie skin. Lludmila was now and forever a zombie. But a nice one. Not one of those modern zombies that transmit their condition and eat brainz. Oh no. She was a well brought up zombie: polite, unslutty, undead. Then one day Jupiter asked her customers for feedback on something they wanted. As much as I loved the green skin, I thought the dark red lipstick was a bit much for daytime wear. No, seriously. And she recreated the skin in three liptones: light, daytime, and evening. And she named it after Lludmila.

That was ten years ago and Lludmila didn't change. I loved her even more. The problem with a new mesh body or head was that this old skin wouldn't work. Having used the color picking on mesh feet, I felt more or less confident that I could tint skin to match and so I tried some mesh bodies to see if that would work. Maitreya was most obliging. It was also a name I was seeing on a lot of clothing ... and a body my friends were using. 

Both Lludmila and Annthrasite got their mesh bodies but kept their heads. With Annthrasite it wouldn't matter so much. She could wear any skin. Her whole purpose in SL was to model clothes and so she could look like anything at all. Lludmila had to stay as much her self as I could manage. Was there a head that I could tint to match the Maitreya body? Lludmila tried on a lot of heads. 

Yes, there was. The LAQ head. The neck needed a bit of work. but I was pretty good at eyeballing and matching a tint. Hmmm, I would need to work on the shape a bit. Lludmila's face was longer and she had a sort of Sally Kellerman look. But I wanted my old skin. I even got the LAQ development thing and tried to recreate it through Gimp. 

Then a miracle happened. BOM came to save the day. Lludmila was able to wear her old skin again, but there were just one or two little problems. Well, one or twenty.

The neck again!

The nails.

Stargazer fixed the nails right away with a tintable tattoo layer. Izzie's eventually provided a neck fix (and on Fifty Linden Friday as well!). For some reason the nail and toenail fixes worked best on non-fleshy tones. They didn't work as well on Annthrasite's peachiness. But she had several more recent skins and it wasn't as much of a problem with her. 

Now Lludmila is prettier than ever, yet just the same.

February 2007 photo of Lludmila - I'd finally gone with the white hair. 

Somewhere there's another earlier one with light brown hair. Somewhere...

Not As Easy As It Looks

The Womenstuff Hunt is on and there are 174 stores involved. Hints and slurls are here - but there are no photos of the prizes. Normally, if it's clothing, Annthrasite goes out and finds the prizes, tries them on, takes photos and some notes, and then posts the results on my Flickr page. She did a lousy job this last time. She found the stuff she was looking for, and we pick out the best or what we liked the most of what she found (no one gives us this stuff - we hunt for it and pay for it if necessary) to post photos of as a Public Service to the Second Life community. No, really. Well, also there's that Barbie effect. I don't know about the rest of you, but I was not showered with clothes for my dolls so this is like heaven for me. I enjoy putting outfits together. But Annthrasite was not keeping good notes and we had to keep going back and updating information.

But it's not as easy as it looks. Frustrated with Annthrasite's performance, I sent Lludmila out. Lludmila needs more clothes like a virtual hole in her virtual head. Usually she waits to see what Annthrasite finds and then goes out and gets the outfits she thinks will look good on her. She did the whole Womenstuff Hunt. This doesn't mean she found everything. Oh no. And she uses every trick at her disposal to get them. Although not as evil as the Twisted Hunt people, the Womenstuff shops can be devious. They've been making that little shirt as tiny as possible in some cases. Case in point, Brocade Tiger. Now, the location just happens to be a men's shop in the men's area of the event sim. So both Annthrasite and Lludmila thought they were in the wrong place. The hint was plain as day. Annthrasite never found the little shirt, but Lludmila finally did. And it took ages. She Alt-moused the camera all over. She went wire-frame. She tried Area Search and looked at each item on the list in the 6 meter area. It finally just hit her where it was. And the weirdest thing is, Annthrasite is Lludmila's alt. They share the same typist - me.
Collecting the prizes is the easy part. Next is opening all the boxes (do you "add" or pull it out of your inventory onto the floor?), putting on the outfit (finding Maitreya versions for Lludmila out of what is sometimes a huge list), taking a picture, and making notes. Lludmila had over four pages of notes, going in what she hoped was numerical order, but not all shops indicated their number or even that it was for the Womenstuff Hunt.

Then there was going back and picking out what to wear with which. This was so onerous that we gave up matching nail polish and even changing the pose. And it was still too much. We'd get Lludmila all dolled up, note exactly what she was wearing and what shop it came from ... and then forget to either take the picture or save it before moving on to the next ensemble! There was one outfit she put on three times at least before she remembered to take the picture and save it. And it was an outfit she really liked. Imagine setting up six outfits, taking all the notes, and when you go back to the photos - finding you only saved two of them. And doing this again and again.
So, I hope you people appreciate this. I see that the photos on Flickr (Here) are getting a lot of views and I don't expect a deluge of thank-yous, but it sure is a lot of work, even in this minimalist format. So, if you see Annthrasite or Lludmila out and about, do give them a wave and all of your Linden dollars. Just kidding. Sort of.

More Black Widow

Top row: Deadly Nightshade (falling spider aura)/lurve, eva's secret/lurve/ambient(strappy sandals), Kai design, lurve (leggings need Maitreya or Omega applier), zoom
Bottom row: Kastle Rock(top)/lurve/ambient, L2L, looloo (needs omega applier for bra/panties), Mad Cat Creations (at least I hope so).

Lludmila takes on the rest of the outfits that Annthrasite missed. She's not sure what the skimpy fur thing is for. Prehistoric black widowhood? 

Flying lessons sign by Sage (with spider fascinator by Spyralle), Black Widow hanging chair by Park Place, dark den furnishings by Flowers & Things, Pumpkin deco (one on left jumps) by DH, Murder credenza by Imaginits, side table by Khargo ... I think. I mean, there's So Much Stuff!

The Flying Lessons sign is definitely going up at Lludmila's house - as soon as October rolls around. 

Slippery Slope

Outfits from the Tiny Bit Radikal Lucky Chair

Annthrasite has a Dinkie av now. Why does Annthrasite have a Dinkie av? Because Lludmila was stalking the lucky chair at Tiny Bit Radikal and the letter "A" came up. Now, it's only a five minute wait between letters, but Lludmila is trying to get as many cute little Dinkie outfits as she can. Somehow she managed to acquire four Dinkies. I think it's only four: white, bengal, callico, and brown tabby. They're just so darn cute! Wanting to move the luck along, she called Annthrasite who dutifully showed up and sat in the chair.
Annthrasite has been stalking the PS Nails lucky chairs, which are on a ten minute cycle. Turnabout is fair play, so when the "L" comes up, she calls Lludmila. Anyway, now that Annthrasite has a Dinkie outfit, it seemed silly to not invest in a Dinkie. So now both avatars are stalking both lucky chair locations.
This could take all month ... because when the letters change on the chairs, the prizes change as well. So far neither Annthrasite nor Lludmila have managed to get the Dorothy outfit and there might be more outfits in there as well.
Coincidentally, one of the Black Widow prizes (the one from Little2Large) also had a Dinkie outfit in it! Annthrasite doesn't feel nearly so silly about getting the Dinkie av now. And she needs Dinkie paraphernalia, which means going to Wee Wonders and getting the free stuff, like the bagpipe and the talkie mouth and the swimming anim ...

The Black Widow Hunt

Top row: A&A, ambient/luna nails, L2L

Bottom row: Lindy's, necklace and earrings from Arctic Storm (you can't see well in photo of the dress).

 Top row: Arctic Storm, baci/ambient/twistys, beyond persuasion, ema's secret, higs.

Bottom row: JLZ, meander, prism, trashed/baci/ambient, twisty's twistalicious, uni boutique.

After looking at the posters for this for what seems like months, at last The Black Widow Hunt is on! Annthrasite prefers looking for clothing, so here are some of her finds. There are still outfits for Classic Avatars available, but most are geared for the mesh bodies. Annthrasite has Maitraya's Lara.
Little2Large even includes an outfit for Annthrasite's new Dinkie. 
Some of the shorter outfits really need panties. Fortunately, if you have a mesh av, you have panties.
Not pictured are two or three outfits that need the Omega applier. Might get Lludmila to model that later.