Winter Casual outfit # 2

I was inspired by Vixie Rayna's column in AVENUE Magazine that featured a fur jacket by AOHARU and Shai's Crocodile skin boots in red (only 50L$ when I bought it a couple of Fifty Linden Fridays ago). These two, together with Armidi jeans, Armidi's Schuyler top, Zaara's bracelet, and Caliah Lyon's Pearl earrings made a great outfit. Giving the outfit an eclectic look was this belt, a group gift from Lion skins. It had feathers and other sorts of adornments with this Native Indian feel to it.

I took these photos outside my house. I rezzed four of Botanical's trees and lined them up in front of the house. I was going to hang a Christmas lantern, or a "parol" as it is called in my RL country, but I only have limited prims in my plot and I don't want to be a bad tenant to my landlady who has been really nice!


Mainland living has its perks and peeves, I've had strangers with creepy profiles coming into my parcel looking around and being rude, but I get that too back in Costa Rica sims, only that this man I encountered in Mainland rudely entered my house and looked around. He said the door was open but I said that wasn't an excuse to just go in.  Geez!

Winter dressing A-Z

Red has always been associated with Christmas, and a white winter has never been colorful and festive with people wearing anything red to mark the holidays.

In this place where I live in real life, we don't have Autumn or Winter...so I don't have much practice creating outfits in that theme, but here I am trying anyway. Reading enough fashion blogs and looking at runway shows for inspiration, I came up with this pretty ensemble comprising of Armidi, Dela, Second Wave Apparel, Maitreya, Tesla and Zaara.

Wearing this outfit is makes me feel sophisticated, ladylike,and very chic, as if coming out of a building and getting ready to hail a taxi to go home. Or go for coffee with friends. Or go on a date.   The red coat goes very well with the different elements of this outfit, which I decided to put eclectic touches by mixing elements of lace and funky graphics.                         

The inner blouse is a part of Sioxie Legend's Tuxedo dress that has rich and intricate lace embellishments on it, and matching it with Zaara's modern black leggings with a pattern of crazy splashes seems not a bad idea. 

The charming shoes from Tesla complements the rest of the outfit really well. Tesla's shoes are fun, flirty, and never complicated to wear.

I was really satisfied with the end result and decided to take photos.Unfortunately, I am in my laptop, and I have a pretty lousy connection. So I made a big risk of maxing out the sliders and putting the graphic setting to Ultra, fiddled with the Windlight presets, and snapped away. The initial result was okay enough, and I decided to practice my little skills in editing photos until I felt somewhat satisfied with the result. 

A little bright, but not too bad,I think.

A Piece of Candy's latest group Gift: Tilly

A Piece of Candy always gives great gifts every month and I always look forward to them. Candy Enoch makes great outfits and separates that looks great along with her other stuff and among other designers' works as well.

This group gift comes with socks too and some other items, but this charming blouse is my current favorite...:)  JCNY, Zaara, and Ryker Beck (not sure if you can see her fabulous belly ring that I was wearing in the photo though) were my chosen accessories for this outfit, with my shorts coming from Armidi.

I don't usually post my outfits, I'm not a great stylist nor was I set out to become a fashionista inworld, but as a woman in SL, you get into that eventually and along with it a desire to share your finds from the grid.

Going on to other news, if you have been one of the few who actually follow my blog, I'm sure you noticed some changes. I have also gained some time again to be able to blog, so I hope you look forward to whatever random tings I could be rambling on about...:) Thanks for being a great sounding board!

Penny pinching has its rewards :)

Sometimes cleaning your inventory and avoiding shopping for a couple of weeks can be rewarding because of the new outfits you end up putting together in order to have something "new" to wear. I know for most of you this is already passe, but combining new and old items is a new thrill for me lately. Putting together outfits is not something I usually do, being someone who prefers ready-made outfits pulled together for you to click and wear.

Nowadays its different, I am penny pinching in RL and earning for insurance and a health plan. So I left (in tears and sadness) Costa Rica Sims and moved to Chinle Island, then now settling in a comfy 1024sqm in a mainland sim with a really nice landlady.

Penny pinching in SL is definitely something I got used to and I intend to keep to this lifestyle, and perhaps someday, I'll be back with my own parcel somewhere in Costa Rica.

Anyway, back to the outfit:

I was looking for something really elegant, but not too formal. A classic silhouette, sexy, but not too revealing...well, except for the cleavage...;)             

The hair is Maitreya's Aisha, blouse is from Casa Del Shai's Filipiniana collection, skirt is a newish purchase from Zaara, earrings is from CCD and the shoes is a classic T strap from FNKY!

Skin from League, my usual skin...:)

BBC fail article about Second Life

So BBC ran an article about Second Life and it wasn't balanced at all, considering that they have approached M Linden (Mark Kingdon) for an interview and he has been able to answer the journalist's questions extensively. 

The Lab has called for residents to comment and encourage us to write about our perspective on SL today, and here is my comment to BBC's article:

On the contrary, there are more and more uses for Second Life than it was used before. Your article did a disservice to this network by not looking at both sides of the story, and to think I respect and find this news network credible and fair.

Sure, there are those who came in, found it boring, had a bad experience, etc., and logged off. Then they preach all sorts of evil about it and predict its death. But Second Life is still here...and growing--those who predict its end are the noisy minority.

As a writer in the virtual world (I also belong to a staff of a magazine based in Second Life that features articles from many categories like art, business, machinima, events, live music, fashion and architecture) I was able to make a small living out of Second Life, so my hours in it are more productive than usual. My work with it (AVENUE Magazine) also made me see that SL is NOT a STALE and STAGNANT world after all. It is vibrant, creative, eclectic, stimulating, fun, and a great social environment.

As one of the commentators above said, SL is really how you make of it--but I dare say that who you meet during the first hour is also dependent to your staying or leaving the world. I was lucky to find friends after several days of wandering around (I was patient enough) and I have more friends and contacts now more than 2 years later.

That said, there a lot of things to do to make SL more palatable to regular computer users, and Linden Lab is making strides in doing so.

That said, as a reader and a follower of your network, I hope to see more objective and balanced article about Second Life.

I am not sure if they will print that or not, so just thinking of posting it for documentation and for everyone to see I did my part...:D

On consumers and how to handle the content theft issue

Real life deals with content theft, copyright infringement, and piracy issues. Real life designers and brands are constantly hounded by problems of their items being imitated and sold into the black market or at third world countries where corruption can turn a blind eye and let them be sold rampantly in public. Movie makers are afraid that the movies they produce that takes a lot of money to make will only be taken by pirates who will illegally sell copies at a cheaper price.   

As Second Life opens up and becomes more accessible to people, SL imitates RL and the same problem lies deep in Second Life, and with a unique twist. There are facets of consumers in SL that are different and unique to the virtual world. There are consumers who don't mind--as there are also in RL where there are people who don't mind at all to buy fake Chanel because they just want to look trendy. Virtual or RL, there are such people, who do not mind the ethics or artistic license of it all. Hoodwinked they are not, THEY KNOW what they are buying is fake. There are also residents in Second Life who don't care where the clothes they get for free come from--as long as they are free, and they look great without spending anything, and for as long as SL is "just a game" for most of them. They don't login to be consumers, they are just here to check things out, explore, chat, flirt and maybe use a sexbed or two. I often talk to these kinds of people while randomly going to places. 


While I love the idea of raising our voices and being heard, there leaves to be the question of how to reach out to those kinds of people--OR if these kinds of people ought to be in the radar for Artist's Voice or Stand Up! peeps or not. These sorts of people may know its wrong, but why would they care or mind? They haven't invested anything inworld to care, no designer friends to worry about, no artists/creators in their Friends List that they can feel a glimmer of compassion for. Most of all, they don't really equate virtual goods as real, the way most of us already do. Virtual goods are yet to be valued the same way as real items are valued. Despite the articles we read, the reality for many is still that there is no value in virtual goods. When people login SL for the first time, or casually, they expect things to be free.  


And even things change in the future and virtual goods are taken seriously, it doesn't mean that the content theft/copyright infringement will end. It will just be in the background, a constant reminder that there are people who still choose this path of stealing content. The very best we can get and should be getting is cooperation from LL. But then again, we never know what their plans for SL are and how this issue will affect their plans.

My favorite outfit # 1

I'm not a fashion blogger, but my love for clothes in Second Life is just as immense as the next female avatar out there.  If I were to say how much I spend my money in virtual clothing, I'd surely get in trouble.

Every Monday, I'll try to recall which outfits I like and document them so I can get a clear picture of what items I really like on my avatar.

First off, is this outfit from Bare Rose. Haruka Kish first wore it when she represented Japan in the Miss Virtual World competition. I really love this dress because of the way it was created, nice and flowy, it embraces my figure and brings out that Asian look and feel. The textures are finely detailed and I really like the shade of blue that June Dion used for this dress.

There's no need for more accessories as this dress comes with a necklace, so I finished it off with a nice pair of Courtisane's Devoue shoes in black.

Beyond Skin Deep

Addendum: This post is in reaction to the comments.


It's disheartening to read something like this that is so ignorant. 


I'm personally not exposed to black fashion, and I really regret that I wasn't able to attend the show because I would love to see and be educated on what makes African-American fashion the way it is. Certainly shows like this are also meant to educate people like me with little interaction to certain ethnic groups, and SL is a perfect place for such education. 


There is a purpose to shows such as Ebony, it's for people who lack the awareness that such fashion exist. SL is about options, of expressing diversity nowadays. We can't avoid diversity and people must know more that such diversity in fashion exist. If we embrace diversity in the forms of Neko, Goth, Asian or furry, why can't we embrace Ebony? People who choose to be in that skin color should be able to make that choice and enhance their look.


Those who were residents long enough in SL would complain about the "lack" of diversity and cookie cutter skins. Before it's hard to find really good looking dark skins out there...now that there are so many options, and people are not afraid to experiment, one agency tries to represent the shift and people are making a huge deal. 


The true irony of it all is that while people have no trouble putting up fashion shows for Asian-oriented fashion, Goth, and such, when a fashion show that featured a collection of designers dedicated to the African-American culture brings up the narrow-mindedness of some people in the grid that are reacting to it and interpreting it in their way. There shouldn't be any hesitation to showcase the things that define a certain race or culture, it's not stereotypical at all, it's just showing what is there, a slice of RL that made it's way into SL. The fact that SL fashion history would list this event as happening so late in the age of SL fashion says a lot about how in a world where race is optional, we are still judged by the color of one's skin and there are people who find a problem in showing off one's ethnicity.

"Well if you can be whatever you want in SL, then why would you want to be in SL who you are in RL?" People would ask.

Why not?

Black,white, brown or yellow--that shouldn't limit us from our creativity, at times designers find inspiration from race and the culture it accompanies. They can either mix it up--make it multiracial, globally-infused fashion, or they can stick to the fundamentals and make something that is truly "Ebony" or truly "Japanese".


Gattina's post title just reminded me how impossible the lyrics' words are. As long as you're human in SL, you will have certain affinity with a race that is skin deep. You can't change that, but what you can change is something that is located beyond the skin, your character, where one is truly supposed to be judged on. And that will enable you to transcend races, when you transcend races, you won't see the fuss or fear the emergence of shows such as Ebony, but embrace it.

People have the right to color, to diversity. People don't have the right to be bigoted.

FROM SHAI'S NOTECARD--HELPING OUT

Sometimes there's no telling how a calamity in real life can affect us, and knowing that some people in Second Life are badly affected by those calamities, we often feel a surge of sympathy and compassion. 

I'm located in the Philippines in real life, as is Shai Delacriox and her husband Kriss Lehmann. We're all okay, albeit experiencing some floods in our respective areas, but the typhoon Ondoy has wreaked the country in more ways than we can fathom. Along with Miabella Foxley (which this image is from), they are appealing for contributions for the relief of those affected by the typhoon Ondoy. 

Anyway, I am repeating their appeal inworld in this blog--please read below:

"Typhoon Ondoy [Ketsana] in Black September - The worst storm in 50 years hits Metro Manila triggering floods, landslide, power outage and stranding people in rooftops and malls. The storm kills 72 and hundreds missing.  About 400 mm [15.75 inches] of rainfall in just 6 hours. The president declared a state of calamity."

This weekend our friends in and out of Second Life™ were badly affected by the typhoon flooding in the Philippines. Miabella Foxley, Shai Delacroix and  Kriss Lehmann are setting up a collection in SL that will be directly donated to the Philippine Red Cross. We are asking our friends and contacts to please help us raise money for the Filipino residents that were victimized by Typhoon Ondoy/Ketsana.

Donations will be accepted via a kiosk  at Casa Del Shai, Botanical and other locations.  You can also donate directly at the Red Cross Philippines website link below.  50% of all my sales made in the next two weeks will be directly donated in form of goods to fellow Filipinos who are in need of assistance.

Please take a moment and help make a difference to those who have lost their houses and possessions from the flooding.

http://www.redcross.org.ph/Site/PNRC/wtd.aspx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqAdaiCZBQ4&NR=1h


Shai Delacroix
Casa del Shai - Manila, Philippines

Inventory Sale!

I'm having a virtual garage/yard sale this weekend! Here are the following furniture for sale:

There's more items and I'm rezzing more stuff as soon as I have some more space. I will also be selling most of my transferable clothing as well, once I finish cataloging them.

In order to get the item, you must pay first, then select take from the pie menu...:)

TP here:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Puntarenas%206/35/17/498

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Puntarenas%206/35/30/23

Thank you for your support!

Putting more effort in blogging

I haven't peeked in this blog in a while and there are many reasons why.

But those reasons aren't important anymore, as far as I'm concerned, with this entry I'm turning a new leaf.

From now on I'll make more time to post my thoughts and feelings. Treat this blog as a pensieve (if you read Harry Potter you'll know what that is) if I must. For virtual memories and thoughts are just as valuable as my real thoughts and feelings. Just like in real life, if one doesn't have a venue to vent and process their thoughts, one can truly fatigue themselves from the emotional weight.

Nowadays, there are lots of things to write about, one has a hard time starting. So maybe I'll just stop with this post for now and gather my thoughts.

Til then.

ROAM: Rezzable's King Tut

Rezzable's Digital Alchemy earlier of this year was a first step in recreating ancient Egypt in Second Life, allowing content creators to showcase their creativity and be challenged in creating items according to the aesthetic theme of the civilization.

Today, another phase was introduced in this endeavor through King Tut's tomb, and it was a grand spectacle of gorgeously rezzed prims and textures. The experience starts off as a virtual museum, complete with audio tour that speaks of Egypt's past. One is rezzed on a landing point, with a map of Egypt during its ancient times laid out on the ground.

There are four audio recordings that you can listen to before moving on to the next site, the excavated ruins of King Tut's tomb. A quick look around gives you the feeling of adventure and anticipation towards the mysterious.

Inside, the ancient mysteries of King Tut is unveiled, and this is where one can see the talents of the content creators bloom, showcasing amazingly detailed primwork on Egypt's ancient items. One can tell how dedicated to the details the creators were by looking closely at the items being showcased in the museum.

This virtual museum in Second Life took about two months to complete, a huge feat with really excellent visuals. It is an entertaining and educational place of art, fashion and culture. A must see.

AVENUE partners with MFA

There is a great partnership concerning AVENUE Inc and Merovingi Fashion Awards is year, and as co-editor of AVENUE Magazine, I am proud to announce that AVENUE Magazine will also be covering this event.

The MFA is known throughout Second Life as the prime award giving body that has been giving away Apple iMacs, Adobe Photoshop software and Wacom tablet pens since their start two years ago. It is a truly rewarding way to reward our content creators by giving them something really tangible to connect their achievements to.

We look forward to this excellent partnership with Merovingi! Thank you for your trust!

AVENUE Magazine Exclusive Supplement

AVENUE Magazine March 2009

Walk Like An Egyptian

I know I may not have the most original blog post title, but I can say that going through Rezzable's latest Egyptian-themed sim has me wanting to dance the Egyptian dance. Even if I did not make it to their exclusive show, I was able to drop by before that day ends to look around at the wonderful creations that designers like Sysy Chapman, Hart Larsson, Shai Delacroix, Digit Darkes and many others have made in homage for the mysterious ancient Egyptian civilization. 

I was lucky to have bumped into fellow Plurkers Sysy Chapman and Hart Larsson, who showed me their items. I tried them on on the spot and had a mini pictorial. I am not the best photographer yet, but having the best items on and being on a beautiful sim helps a lot in making my snapshots look really pretty. 

So here I am feeling regal in Sysy's Nefer gown with the Efe Emerald makeup with hair, which is fantastically done by PXL Creations. If you want to see more of these, you can come to the 2nd show which will be on Friday, February 6 at 2pm SLT.

AVENUE Models presents...

This show will be later this afternoon at 1pm SLT. Click here for a limo! :-D

A Few Honest Lindens

Today's blog post from Frank Ambrose, (FJ Linden in SL) is the most honest and candid as a post from the Lab goes, considering that most blog posts in the official blog has been more about fluff and self promotion lately. It's not that self promotion in their own blog is bad, but candid and honest posts is something Second Life residents have always found to be short in the Big Blog, and many have complained about their latest strategy on reassigning certain topics like grid outages and Torley's video tutorials to other places, but that is another discussion altogether.

What seems to be emerging right now is FJ Linden's style of keeping us posted. In my opinion, FJ Linden is one of those rare Lindens who say it like it is, using the word "painful" several times to emphatize with us residents who are trying to get in to get our SL fix. He also has the skill to write SL's woes without sending us to panic and keeping us hopeful because he and his team are doing something about it.

Indeed. Looking at his profile, and noticing his experience with AOL, I trust him. AOL, like it or hate it, is a big company, and his experience there has made him ready to handle the new challenges that is SL's infrastructure.  I'm sure that his patience has been tried so many times in AOL, and that last weekend's borkage was probably as hard on him as it was on us, but I think this is the pain that one goes when one is trying to make things better.

I don't know if people have heard or read about this, but there's a saying that "the steeper the climb, the better the view". I believe this quote is so apt for Second Life. Climbing the twin mountains of growth and stability is long and steep, but in the end, the benefits will be so good in the end.  

Here's hoping we all still have the patience for it.