The Ball Is In Your ...

Renaissance Man Cal buckles his swash
in this White Armory Courtier's Tunic.

The White Armory, while putting out a gorgeous gown every Sunday as a group gift, has put out a fabulous Courtier's Tunic outfit for men as well this week! What's more, it comes with the hat, the boots, and the (non-combat) sword! Group membership is free, but you have to ask for it. Drop them a notecard. You have all week.

Duke, Duke, Duke ...

Duke of Earl freebie from The White Armory

Lludmila dropped by The White Armory to pick up her weekly group gift (imagine, just imagine the size of her inventory now) and spied this. She immediately contacted Cal. He needed this freebie, The Duke of Earl. Hahaha!

Not sure, but I think he got the boots from L'Emporio di Bru. They've really come in handy.

This Week at The White Armory

Ratcatcher's Daughter Protectorate Gown

The White Armory - their mission: to make your avatar look awesome. At least it makes Kathy look awesome.  Well, that and that Aeva/Heartsick Halo skin.

Sunday Best

Gift from Paris Metro.
Some parts are mesh.

This gift from Paris Metro is a nice use of mesh.  We're Phoenix users and there are only so many alpha bits we can wear at one time.  Consequently, I complain (mostly to myself) about mesh and grouse when I try to get on a V3-style viewer - and spend all my time crashing and relogging.  Gah.  And then we try to squeeze different avs into the mesh clothing and it either doesn't work or ... it's just lame.  So far the experience with mesh at Paris Metro (and G Field) has been good.  It's worth wearing shoes with invisiprims again. 

This week's group gift from The White Armory.

No worries so far about mesh and TWA.  Just one gorgeous gown after another.  Ho-hum.  Oo! but this one has wings!  There are fairies at the bottom of our garden - and they sure are overdressed!  There are little blings painted on the decolletage to draw attention to where the outermost edge of the areola might possibly be lurking but actually isn't.  What a nice touch and just avoids sluttiness (mostly by covering up the rest of the torso and all of the legs and arms).

Hee hee hee!

I'm tired of including slurls.  For heavenssake, just look it up in search!

What's an Avatar To Do?

A refreshing swim waiting for the Lucky Board.

It's funny how things affect each other.  In RL(tm), I can only wear the most comfortable shoes after suffering more than a year with plantar fasciitis.  In the virtual world, my avatar can wear, and indeed has many free pairs of ultra-high heeled shoes, but what do I like to put on her?  Yep, it's flats.

The heat is oppressive this summer, seems to be unusually so although it might just be my "power surges."  There is no temperature in virtual life ... but what do I want to see on my avatar?  Yes, again (golly, you're good at this!), it's shorts and sleeveless tops.  I can't imagine seeing her in a fur coat, wool, or fall colors.

So, Lludmila can wear anything in the world, but I continue to prefer things I would like: reasonably modest (no pubes, buttcrack, or areolae), seasonally appropriate, and not painful.  This indicates the amount of identification we have with our avatars.  Others may react differently, but we all dance in our heads when we watch our avatars dance - they are an extension of our selves.

So, it's inevitable that some of us might become entangled emotionally ... and here's what's been happening with me.

Yesterday Lludmila was out hounding some 60L Weekend bargains at one of her favorite shops and upon rezzing was assaulted by a script-nazibot telling her she was 18 scripts over the "line" and would be continually hararsed until she removed some.  Well, I can tell you, that gave me a turn.  I was wearing some prim feet and they do have several scripts in them.  I opened on in edit mode to count the scripts in one foot (while the script-nazibot continued to remind me and call me names) and "only" found seven.  I checked everywhere else and that was all that had scripts in it.  Then I looked around the shop ... I was the only one there.  I decided I'd risk "ruining everyone else's experience by producing lag" and leave the feet on.  It was a furniture shop - every dang thing in there had scripts as well.  Did they not count?

Later, in the middle of the Rebel Somethingorother Hunt, I arrived at a shop that suggested I check my script count by right-clicking on my avatar and getting a count and providing me a notecard about scripts and lag.  I was starting to get a complex about this!  Later I removed my pretty prim feet and looked into deleting unneeded scripts from them, but maybe I'd like to change the toenail color or add toe-rings or the anklets that make the join of the prim less noticeable.  Lludmila is not always Lludmila.  There are other shapes (and colors of skin) that are put on, so if I take the scripts out of an item, another shape won't be able to wear it.


I got all frowny.

Today, after larding Lludmila up with hunt prizes, I put the shorts and corset top back on her (but not the prim feet), and toodled off to get my weekly freebie gown from another shop.  Usually you are bombarded with notecards upon entering about behavior and appropriate dress, but this time there was nothing.  Lludmila walked unencumbered down the red carpet until she reached the group gift poster and suddenly there was one of those auto-messages in green about appropriate dress, aimed right at me.  Me!  The original and inimitable Unslutty Undead.

You know what that reminded me of?  Remember in school when one or two kids did something awful and everyone in the classroom had to be harangued and shamed?  That's what this is like.  Why does no one complain about lag at one of the functions we attend where everyone is loaded with prims and scripts and we laugh about our ARC?  There can be 20 of us, all dancing and carrying on and waiting for things to rez.  How is that different from 18 scripts over the line at an empty shop?

Maybe I'm so used to lag that it doesn't mean anything to me, I dunno.  But I do know this, and it may be just me, lag doesn't bother me nearly as much as being shamed when I enter a shop.  You know what, though?  I don't have to go back.*

Fully clothed - but naming no names.

  *Not that I'd be missed at some shops ... where I've never bought anything but just accumulate freebies (but I do post photos and blog about them).

Waving the Flag

July 4th hat from Hatpins

For a short time, some patriotic top hats available at Hatpins for only 5L each.  They also emit Patriotic Particles, if you are so inclined, but you can turn them off if you are not
.

Canada Day hat from Hatpins

Can't resist The White Armory Group Gift

And, of course, here's what you're missing if you don't belong to The White Armory group.

Short N Sweet

Although we still can't pry the sparklers out of Lludmila's cold, dead hands, we did get her out of those G Field rompers long enough to try on the White Armory group gift for this week.  It's a cute, frothy confection in black and dots and tulle.

The White Armory
Shoes by Nardcotix
stupid sparklers sold separately.

The Weekend Haul

"Shh! Just between you and me ..."

 Paris Metro has a gown for those who just drop by Santorini ... and, while you're there, vote for the location. It took a while for the gown kiosk to show up, but it was worth it: our end of the color spectrum and the lovely frill around the top. Both our faves!

Tempus F-f-f-fugit.

 Time sure flies when you're on the You Go To My Head Hunt.  Look for the little straw hat at BrainCircuit Inc. to get the steampunk tophat with the spinning clock hand!

Incan somethingorother

This week's group gift from The White Armory is a fantasy in white.  Lludmila wishes she had occasions to wear these gowns, but we're content to do the adult Barbie thing and just gaze at the details, adjust the prims, take photos, and sigh.

Looks like a white peacock, dunnit?

Rhymes With "Loch"

Lludmila's complexion blends right in.

This week's The White Armory group gift is the van Gogh sunflowers and iris dress.  Those of us who toured the western art world with Kenneth Clark know to pronounce it "Gawkkhhhh" to the disbelief and unintentional moistening of others.*  Anyway, along with a stunning gown and a perky little headpiece with veil comes a framed reproduction.  Now, if only Lludmila had room to display that.

This only makes us miss the Virtual Starry Night Exhibit even more!  We visited multiple times and played in all the exhibits of three-dimensional representations of van Gogh's paintings.  Brilliant!  Another creative use of interaction in virtual space!  Oh well, there's still Art Box.

OMG! Save Art Box!

*I make up for it by stubbornly mispronouncing Bruegel when I see it spelled "Breugel."