twisting around

I made myself a monocle. For those times when you need to inspect something, and do it snootily. Tut-tut!

So I’ve been muddling along trying to learn Blender. I’ve been following this series of video tutorials, and when they made a hard hat, I decided I didn’t want a hard hat. I wanted a bowler hat! So that’s what I made. I tried to make it a little crumpled here and there so it wouldn’t look too smooth, but I think it just came out kind of lumpy. Ah well, I made it myself!

I also learned how to make tattoos. Here’s my first effort:

I made a dress, all by myself! The neckline is jaggy and the fabric texture doesn’t match from top to bottom to skirt, but I don’t care because I made it all by myself.

Notice how I took the picture in the most flattering environment setting. Ha.

Also, another Moulin Rouge for me to sit on! I wonder how many of them are in SL? Or how many versions of New Orleans there are? Maybe I should try to find them all and perch on each one.

So I was checking out virtual Harlem for twenties-related things when I crossed a bridge and ended up in virtual Montmartre.

It’s quite beautiful and great for striking a pose.

The first thing you see when you cross the bridge from Harlem to Montmartre is the Moulin Rouge. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anyone around or any shops that I could find. But I could sit on the railing! I like sitting on things in SL.

I just liked this picture.

Here I am wandering around one of the Victorian-themed towns in Winterfell (either Absinthe or Laudanum, I looked at both…). I’m dressed out of period, but oh well. I need to find a 20s-themed sim!

New Orleans: WoD is a roleplaying sim based around the Vampire: The Masquerade RPG. It’s set in a post-Katrina New Orleans (kinda makes all the water surrounding the sim a little creepy), and because it’s an ‘immersive’ roleplaying area, visitors have to wear a ‘tourist’ sign when they come to look around or shop. Yes, you can shop. There’s ALWAYS shops in SL.

Here’s an overview of the sim:

The sim doesn’t include all the city–just the French Quarter and surrounding area. But no Jackson Square!

The build is really detailed and fun to poke around in. Lots of tiny alleys, some leading to courtyards and some dead ends (probably good for vampire attacks or the like).

The street layout is pretty much the same as in RL, though the streets are very narrow! The buildings aren’t the same, but the feel is close and some of the colors/shapes are quite similar. I looked at a few comparisons with google streetview, which was fun.

One thing I just love is when builder’s put random poseballs around their sim. Here’s one that said ‘loiter’.

Being a west-coastie, I went kind of late and there weren’t any vampires around (which seems kind of wrong, doesn’t it?). The game premise looks interesting, but it is very much based on the paper RPG which I don’t really know anything about. There’s a forum for the game here.

So lots and lots of people went to hair fair. LOTS and LOTS. And everything says not to wear prims and HUDs and all that stuff that can slow things down. Like, you even get a card when you arrive saying to reduce your prim count.

So I turned on avatar rendering costs and took a few snaps.

The Cousin Itt look was all the rage.

This lady’s name tag advertised her shop. In fact, lots of people wore tags advertising various wares. They probably figured they’d get all blinged out in their hottest outfits and go show them off where there was sure to be a ton of people. I don’t think it worked out the way they imagined.

This shot says it all, I think.

For the record, I took off my hair and my shoes and went with an avatar rendering cost of 1. So nyah!

I love hair. I love changing my hairstyle whenever I want to. My profile contains the warning, “I change my hair a lot”.

Here are a few examples of hair I’ve bought:

My Louise Brooks-style bob from Truth.

This one’s long, dark, and flexi. From Calico Creations.

This is the style I wear most often, because it goes with a lot of outfits and it isn’t all that laggy. It’s from Detour.

Also from Detour, the very first fancy-shmancy hair I ever bought!

And this sassy short style I should wear more often.

Here’s my very favorite style, the one I’d wear all the time if it wasn’t a bazillion laggy prims. It’s from Cake.

Also from Cake, my long black with bangs style. I usually wear this with a different, more vampy skin.

And another Cake style, a short sassypants look.

Here’s my blonde look from ETD!

And, also from ETD, a dark up-do with cool tendrils in the back.

Finally, a vintage 40’s-esque look from ETD.

…and this doesn’t even show my freebie hair stockpile.

Did I mention Hair Fair starts today?

So yesterday was my RL birthday, and I celebrated in SL by getting violated by a unicorn. Yeah, that one thing that was all over the blogs last year? About how there’s this place in SL where if you let a unicorn have his sparkly way with you, you can get a cute little baby unicorn?

It was all true. And the place (Sensual Stoneworks) is still up and running with lots of… stuff to do.

The, uh, violation took a looong time. Or maybe it just seemed like that. And you have to make sure you start out in the, erm, right position if you want a baby from the deal. But he’s so cute! And I can carry him like a baby, too.

After that, the east-coasties I was with had to go to sleep, so I went to the Lovecraftian October Country sim to poke around and listen to an old-timey radio play. They have some rentals available there now!

Here’s a view of Innsmouth from the lighthouse:

I thought visiting something Lovecraftian was only the right thing to do, since I have the same birthday as the man.

Look, Imperial scouts!

That’s no moon…

THIS is a moon!