[18:31] Dreamland2007 ACS: Hi, we cut 16 sq.m of your land for the new tier system, so you have been refunded 200 L$ for 16 sq.m of land.: )

I am truly overwhelmed by their generosity.

Real Robots

My RL robots wanted their 15 minutes....

More ADD

*giggly wiggly piggly*

So after spending quite a few L$s on my new home on Kaki Isles, I'm pulling it all down to build our (Joeru & mine) little town!

So exciting! And a GREAT reason to spend more time in SL. Yay yay yippee! I've decided that I will try to be good and on days that I have RL work to do, I'll wake up early for SL, or stay in at night to spend time inworld.

And on days where I'm relatively free...I'm ALL YOURS!

Hurray!

Anyhoo, here's Maximum Minimum's fabulous Solaris 01 house that I am living, and being envied in...for now :)

I'm definitely a Cult and MM princess!

Max very considerately includes cement building blocks with Solaris 01 so you can custom-reno your prefab! I built an outdoor rainshower and stand under it until I go all pruney. That's also MM's shower thingy with steam and perfect rainshower sounds...

And THEN my favourite friend Juliet gave me a DIGITASTIC Bitter Thorns wall clock that tells international time, so my friends and I will always know what time it is for me in Singapore! How clever is that???

Come and visit anytime (even if I'm not there...but keep your durty paws off the bed!)

xLx

Most Pleasantville

Jo and I want to join our parcels together and develop a 1950s vibe. I'm wondering if a black/white theme a la Pleasantville with just our products in colour would work.

Tried it on a little corner of our sim today (wearing Tete A Pied's fabulous Black & White Film Skin, of course). Kinda funky but kinda...dreary at the same time.

Will speak to Jo when she comes on later. I think it could work but we'd have to use some fabulously rich textures to keep everything from feeling blah...

PS: Winter thinks I need a tommy gun to complete the outfit. She's SO right!

Auld Lang Syne

I really miss my friends and I wish I could find some way to spend time in SL everyday, without losing my sense of balance.

This is the big problem with me, it's always either all or nothing. I saw Juli yesterday after a long, long time and how much have I missed her?? I haven't seen Shermie in ages and Fade, whom I still think of so often, is like a stranger.

I hate feeling so disconnected when I read Torley's blog, or when I speak to friends and they talk about really fun stuff they did over the weekend. I miss that incredible feeling of absorption when I'm building something new (and even the crashing downer I feel after finishing a build) and thinking about robots all day long. I feel sad about losing touch with the skills I've learnt on the grid. I regret not being able to get to know better, friends I had just met before retreating from my second life.

I even miss the sound of teleporting!

And now with stuff like WindLight and sculpted prims.....

Argh!!

I wish there was (were?) two of me.

PS: Yes, I changed my blog template. I saw a screencast on customising your blog header and got carried away....

A New Home

My friends and I bought a sim. hehehehehehehehehehehahahaMUAHAHAHAHAHA

Offline IMs

Luxe has over-indulged on Abranimations' drunken animation override

Offline IM + Blackberry = Never having to leave the sanctity of your bed
You gotta love it cos you can have conversations like this:

Luxe Alabaster: I have the worst hangover on the planet and theres proof my flatmates have seen me naked.

Phree2Be Foxley: oh no!!!

Luxe Alabaster: Oh YES!! I'm now imprisoned in my bedroom out of embarassment. You'll never see me again unless someone moves my 'puter up here. Fare thee well.

Phree2Be Foxley: Let me hop on a plane, I'll get it moved for ya. Give about 36 hours, hehe.

Luxe Alabaster: I'll be a shrivelled dehydrated prune in 36 hours.....you'll be too late. I will my robots to you, be good to them.....they'll be orphans.

Phree2Be Foxley: Without you, I'm afraid they may turn to a life of crime. Imagine the world of SL, ruled and controlled by evil orphan robots. You must drink lots of water so you may recover and not allow such a travesty take place.

Luxe Alabaster: I'm not afraid of my robots running amok. I'm afraid of acknowledging the fact my flatmates have seen me bare-assed, and obviously in need of a wax. Oops. TMI?

Phree2Be Foxley: I think you will have to come to terms with this. Think about how much better they know you now. Focus on the positive!

Luxe Alabaster: Mmmmmm yes. Because I too would love & respect them so much more if I had observed them in Nature's glory, 'nads and all. NOT!

Phree2Be Foxley: maybe it was just a glimpse, and no one saw too much.

Luxe Alabaster: Ummmm no. I am butt naked in bed with Throwing Up peripherals all around me. They saw me in full glory. My boss is a demon, it's all her fault! Screech!!

Phree2Be Foxley: Well, they probably enjoyed the show...er...uh...trying to find some positive here.

Luxe Alabaster: Ugh......ok I have to stop IMg now because its disrupting my foetal position. See you when I emerge, if ever.

Phree2Be Foxley: you'll be fine. rest well.

Original Gangsta

Hi everyone *waves and jumps up & down*!!! Gosh I've really missed you guys!!!

I had a really, really good time. Brushed off so many cobwebs. Gotta love that yoga! 7am wake-up calls for morning yoga sessions will sort all your rusty bits out in no time!

How has everyone been? I hope you've all had a wonderful few weeks too.

I made a decision during my trip to put my first life first (which hasn't been the case for awhile) because I really have to focus on getting stuff done RL. I've been procrastinating for ages! But I'll see everyone on the weekends because I love SL and all my friends and my robots too too TOO much. So please don't forget about me.....

I'll be spending more time on my RL blog, An Immaculate Conception, to chronicle the progress of my start-up as it goes along and offer ideas, resources and learnings from my experience as it happens in real time. So if any of you are interested in getting to know the real me.......

See you soon xoxo

Thincers rock!

Audiblog #4: Hurray, hurray, it's a holi-holi-day!!

Luxe will be toasting her booty until the end of April.
Get that aloe vera ready for her return :)

Ugly is the New Beautiful

Everyone's a supermodel in SL.

So I've been thinking of setting up an Ugly Shoppe. With ugly shapes, skins, reject clothes even your aged mum would never wear, daggy shoes and facial attachments like ginormous zits and ummm......bad green breath particles which blow out as noxious fumes into people's faces. And bodily sound packs. And bushy underarm hair attachments.

Stuff like that.

Hmmmm.....

How Low Can You Go?

UPDATE** I'm going mental with this adding-sound-to-my-blog business! I often play tracks obessively if I REALLY like them (i.e. loop them 4-5 times in a row) so I'm sharing my Choon-of-the-Day : Taiyou Ga Arukagiri (feat Hazaed & Daddy Shadow) from DJ Krush's Code 4109

I've had some feedback from customers saying they really liked my low-prim alternative to the Ghetto BeatBlaster - who can blame them, the original is a whopping 89 prims! One customer had to put away his living room set to be able to rez the full-prim GBB! *giggles in a secretly thrilled way*

I don't know if this is a common technique but I thought I'd share it cos it's quite nifty, if I do say so myself! It doesn't work for all objects, but here goes...

What I do is build all the bits and bobs perfectly, then take a close-up of the objects I think can be replaced with textures. So, for the GBB I have a texture of the front panel like this:


Then do a bit of cleaning up in photoshop to make it all neat and puuurrrddy, adding transparent bits so the buttons here can shrink from 15 prims down to.....ONE prim (muahahaha, laughs The Count).


Then I deconstruct the GBB until it's practically naked and replace the bits with textures.

For me, the trick is not to replace everything with textures because that will just look...BLEH. Gotta have some bumpy bits!

Here are the two GBBs side-by-side. Can you tell which is which?

The full-fat version is on the left, and skinny on the right - a 50-prim diff!

Drinks from Strangers

My mother always told me not to accept drinks from strangers.....AND HOW RIGHT SHE WAS!!! This is what happens if you're not careful!


Alternatively, you could quickly press Ctrl-8 a couple of times to zoom out, then use your camera to zoom back in again....

Less of a hangover, this way.

PS: Can someone tell me what the Z in "ZOMG" stands for?

Audiblog #3: ROH-BOH-CHOOM

Yay! The Robochums are here!

My alt, Koi, is extremely attached to Arbel Vogel's Chibi-Robo - she never goes anywhere without it... and when I started building robots I promised her I would make a fleet of shoulder pets so she would never feel lonely.

So THANK YOU Arbel for the inspiration!!!

The Robochums (pronounced roh-boh-choooooomz) all come with a menu-driven sound pack that speaks Roboguage. What is Roboguage, you might ask? You'll have to come find me inworld to find out....

My favourite is Robochum Milton. He's got shifty, animated eyes and holds up a cardboard sign that displays Milton's Laws:

Hide behind someone bigger than you
Do it when no-one is looking
When in doubt, run
It wasn't me

Robochum Digit waves and winks at you ... he's awfully proud of his long lashes, he is!


Robochum Rob flashes his eyes at you and lights up your path on those long midnight treks (to the kitchen to get another cupcake). He also keeps your earlobe toasty with his little flame. You'll have to buy an ear muff for the other ear.


Robochum Telly is deep in slumber but I am kicking him awake as we speak.

Idea #254

Can someone please make a magic permissions-changing box where I can put all my textures and scripts and thingumijigs in, and set all the permissions at one click????

Audiblog #2: Grievous Robotic Harm

"High on the hills was a lonely doodler,
Doodle-oo, doodle-oo, doo-dle-OOOO!
Loud were the scribblings of the doodler,
Doodle-oo, doodle-oo, doo-dle-OOOO!"

Waayyy waay way wayy back when I first got to SL (ok, not that way compared to some) I came across Patch Lamington's Leaning Towers of Doodles in Amicitia and thought "WOWIEZOWIE!!" An avatar after my own heart! I'm a big doodler, not so much because it's my, umm, preferred medium per se but because I can't draw! But doodling? I can doo!

And so I entered a period of doodledreams, admiring Patch's work from afar, surreptitiously lurking on street corners in Blumfield, consulting the Tarot for any hints of a future and fantasising about changing my last name to Lamington (I couldn't - they were all out of dessicated coconut)...

But like all things, my doodlhimsies faded away and I fixated on something else*.... until...I got an amazing DOODLEBOT in my inventory!!!!!!!!! Complete with wind-up key!! It made my day, and extra-sweet was the fact that Patch remembered my request from long, long ago.
*Proof that the only way to get over an obsession is to replace it with another.

Well, I immediately set Doodlebot up in my studio next to my building bench so I could gaze at him while I worked...

... and then I zipped off to buy that doodle-pad typing overrider with it's own scratchy-scribbling sounds I have long coveted but abstained from buying for fear of igniting another fervent infatuation...

...and THEN I customised the doodle-pad with my own Robot doodle (because the doodle-pad cleverly allows you to do that!)...

...and THEN I met Patch and his whole army of Doodlebots in person (it was a bit scary, they were very impassive and their silence was unpredictable....)

...and THEN Patch took this picture for me....

...and THEN I realised purely by coincidence I was dressed in Doodle colours which thrilled my matchy-matchy-self to bits....

...and THEN I nipped back to my studio just in time to foil an assassination attempt! Those cheeky little buggers, bristling with jealousy and lulled into a false sense of security by the darkness, had crept up on poor Doodlebot and tried to.....tried to....*gasp* I can't bring myself to say it!


I'm so ashamed....it's all my fault, I should have raised them better. Spare the rod, spoil the robot.....

PS: Thank you Torley for teaching me how to add audio in a much niftier way to my blog! If the rest of you want to do it too, the tutorial for Blogger users is here

Audiblog #1

Ummm....so, I got a mic and Skype (I've resisted it for years on the misconception that there;s alot of lag!) and and and and....I thought I'd do an audiblog today. It's a bit stuttery (I'm kinda shy) but.....hehe here goes!
PS: Yes - I say umm, yeah, y'know alot....a helluvalot.
PPS: Yes - any chance to flash my logos...

Idea # 253

Can someone please make a widget that lives on my desktop and tracks my transaction history?

Epileptic - David B.

I'm the wormiest of bookworms and am never more than an arm's length away from a good read. But it isn't often I'm moved to tears.

David B's beautiful autobiographical work, Epileptic is a memoir of isolation, loneliness, and the noble quest for identity, all rendered in stunning, ferocious imagery. He shared an idyllic childhood with his older brother and younger sister, until his brother developed a violent form of epilepsy. It chronicles his evolution into an artist, and how learning to re-envision and recreate the world with his eyes and hands offered understanding and an escape route from the madness and disease that consumed his family.

For those of you who think that comics are for children, think again. Epileptic is a hauntingly sophisticated and emotionally-gruelling story, woven with a dreamlike quality with insights that will resonate with all of us.

What I loved was his portrayal of two sides of human character- his brother who ultimately gave in to his demons, and David, who fought with every ounce of his being. I have had the privilege to meet many people in my travels across the grid. People like his brother, who hide behind their illnesses, using them as a shield to protect them from the harsh realities of life. And people like David, who struggle continually onwards, never giving up and never giving in. I count both as friends - learning from one, and aspiring to the other.

I am reminded that the true beauty of SL lies in its ability to liberate you from the shackles of the physical, and to transport you to the most magical reaches of your mind, and your heart, and your soul. However there is always the danger that if you're not careful, your refuge may become your prison.

As for me? I have wings, and I love using them.

Robot Thrills

Robot, originally uploaded by Torley.

I’m not the gushy kind. Never had posters of famous actors on my wall. When I see a celeb at the club I look the other way. Wouldn't pursue an autograph if my life depended on it. You’ll never catch me pushing on the barricades trying to get a closer look.

I’m just too cool, really.

But…….

http://torley.com/

……I’m gyrating inside.

A Very Long Gestation

My friends have politely refrained from pointing out that despite being a self-proclaimed robot maker, it has actually been quite awhile since I built a new robot.

Distractions, you know.

But after a very long gestation, the Atomic Falcon has finally reared his newborn head. The result of an unlikely and extremely short-lived union between Wonderwoman and Ultraman (they blamed it on cultural issues), the Atomic Falcon was renounced at birth in favour of his respective parents' careers. It's a typical story of neglect, made worse by Atomic's conflicting identity crises. Part-human, part-alien and part machine, Atomic is the anti-thesis of hybrid vigour. Whereas his contemporaries are saving humans from nuclear wars, evil midgets and pesticides - it's all Atomic can do to motivate himself to fly around the atmosphere, keeping a jealous eye on his peers' achievements.

Oh, but how well he flies.

Will he ever achieve his full potential?

Stay tuned for updates.

Ahm Taaahrd!

Someone said that moving house is the 4th most stressful thing you can do after stuff like losing someone you love. I used to think that was utter rubbish because what about things like losing a limb? Or winning the lottery then having the ticket blow out of your hands into the fire? Or getting a REALLY bad perm?

I take it all back.

Even thought I'm not finished, and the store's still a mess, and I haven't set the Tiny stuff up, and...and....

AHM TAHRD!

I'm taking a break tomorrow. If anyone sees me come online, pull out your security orb and boot me back into my first life willya? Momma needs a bubble bath and something easy to make like.....instant noodles!

But if you want to visit our new home please do :)

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Alphanumeric%20Shores/53/79/22

*takes a large slurp of wine straight from the bottle*

Bubbah!

I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat

Muji & Me - guess who's who!

I am very easily distracted.

I was in the middle of making the Watermelon GBB and I take one of my infamous 'breaks' and end up purchasing a new double prim 5120. But I HAD to!!!! The sim was called..... ALPHANUMERIC!!! How can this not be the only home for my robots? Obviously someone visited my gallery, was dazzled with inspiration and immediately went to rename their sim Alphanumeric in honour of Robot! Can you blame me for thinking the world revolves around my robots?

So I am now busy moving the gallery/shop/wotsit over to the new sim and it'll be really different. Alot more fun I think. A proper playground like what I'd always planned for the old tincans. The gallery was just too big - it would never feel finished. Juliet told me this from the beginning actually. So she's rich AND she's right. Damnit.

Huge shoutout to Zayn Till and Tasia Tonic from Metaverse Estates. They are the BEST landlords ever. Totally supportive, open-minded, encouraging and reasonable. You know they won't run out on you. Never too busy to pop round to admire a new product and they looked upon all of their tenant's ventures like proud parents. I will miss you guys *kiss*. WHAT AM I DOING?? WHY AM I LEAVING????!

And oh, did I mention that I was paying for a 11,040sm the same amount Dreamland charges for a 10,048sm tier? <---- there's something grammatically wrong with that sentence but I can't figure it out.

Another exciting bit of news - I have met a FABBO filmmaker who wants to shoot a short film about....DUN DUN DUN.......ROBOTS! How wonderful and fatabulous to meet likeminded people in this crazy metaverse! I'm chuffed beyond chuffed. Check Mujibus' photography (http://mujibus.chez-alice.fr/cariboost1/) and you'll see why I'm thrilled. Hmmm what will the plot be...let's see...oldskool sci-fi fan filmaker meets robotmaker with delusions of taking over the world...I wonder....

So Torley! I have not forgotten about you and the WGBB. THANK YOU for the hookups for animators. Nervous tics sound great....haha....perhaps I should make a Compulsive Ass Scratching robot (arm jerks back, head swivels round, up/down shoulder spasms. Repeat.) With an HUD for males to switch the animation to compulsive scrotum checking. YES, it's still there.

I'm like a cat. I start playing with a ball of string then out of the corner of my eye I see a butterfly and go chasing after that. Then a mouse pokes his head out of a hole and off I go again. Before I know it, I'm in the next meadow.

And that is exactly how it all happened.

Product Testing

As a responsible manufacturer, it is my duty to test all Robot products to ensure safety and durability. Unfortunately our small little enterprise doesn't have access to the same quality control materials that IKEA have (those springs and pounders that emulate 3000 vigourous shags and whatnot).

So Jee and I just ate a whole truckload of cakes (each) and then sat on the sky butlers to see if they would hold up.

I'm proud to say they passed with flying colours.

I had hoped to get a product shot in somehow but if you squint and look to the side, you can get a glimpse of Mr Digit. Barely.

Robot Art

It has been sooooooo long since my last post! All work and no play, really. In SL anyway. The GREAT news is that I've finally gotten the commercial end of Robot going, with listings on SLX and a retail outlet in Geeks Unique. Yay!! I'm so thrilled with anyone who makes a purchase that I am compelled to check out their profile. I mean, you love my robots.....i love you....y'know?

Seriously though - this process has been a great learning curve. I havent built a new robot in awhile, but have learnt to make avatars, hack scripts, work photoshop, gained insights on visual merchandising.....AND most of all, realised that building a business in SL is rooted in the same fundamentals as RL. And, seeing as I'm starting an RL business, the lessons have been invaluable.

I have to say that I am full of admiration for my friend Juliet. She set Bitter Thorns up around the same time as Robot and her sales has grown in leaps & bounds. She has a focus and a drive that I lack. Did I say admire? I really meant jealous as f*ck! I'm going to work on getting her ass over to my part of the world for my RL concept. If you can't beat 'em, USE 'em! *evil grin*

I'm posting all the artwork I've done for my robots. My friend GP was supposed to have done them, but he got shafted by his sim owner* and left SL in disgust. SO I had to do it all by my own fair hand - a blessing in disguise cos it was so much FUN!

Here is the 1st series. These are the flyers with text displayed with the robots in the gallery. The posters are up on the wall without the background text.

Love, Luxe


* Ugh, re island scamming PLEASE be warned. There are some a*holes out there! Check this http://www.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2007/02/island_land_sca.html

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day Voodoo with red roses from God knows where

Er, is that knife for me, darling?

Beware Valentine’s Day, it’s prime time for the psycho date, warns PAUL DUDDRIDGE

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and tomorrow night is the Hallowe’en of dating — the one evening of the year when every hobgoblin lunatic in the land can glam up and be taken on a proper date.

Apart from being an important evening to all the lovers in the world, it is easily the most auspicious evening of the social calendar to the ever-increasing band of psychos that roams the land.

What is a psycho? The term best describes those in our society who are a little highly strung, overly sensitive, somewhat dramatic and prone to tears. They hold two truths to be self-evident: 1 They are at the centre of the Universe. 2 They feel things more deeply than everyone else.

To the untrained eye, the psycho can appear to be calm, normal, perfectly level-headed and professional. Psychos are very capable of holding down a good job as as well as the partners of whom they are now suspicious.

Psycho symptoms can manifest themselves in many ways but there is a pattern that the majority of March hares display. First the psycho child will appear to be “delicate” or “gifted”. This can then lead to teenage “artiness”, which eventually results in the individual demonstrating all behaviour relating to being “unique”.

You’ve met psychos. You know psychos. They work with you, they travel with you on the bus to work, they could be your mum or dad, your brother or sister. It’s easy to be unaware of this as the full majesty of the psycho behaviour, or “tension” as it is sometimes euphemistically termed, usually remains completely hidden until approximately two hours after you’ve agreed to go out with them on a long-term basis. When discussing psychos I am not pointing the finger at either gender, particularly. I certainly don’t want to give the impression that all women are psychos, as men are just as capable of being nuts. On the whole, however, men are too lazy and too disorganised to mount an effective psycho campaign of destruction. It takes considerable multi-tasking skills to coordinate the shredding of a wardrobe of suits while hiding prawns in the curtains and logging on to eBay to sell your Maserati for £50.

Psycho dating is a universal pursuit open to all-comers. There is no discrimination based on gender, social class, or age. Indeed many experience it’s white-knuckle ride while still in their teens, as you can see from these examples taken from my book Ever Dated a Psycho? : “At 16 I met a girl and we started seeing each other. After only a few weeks she insisted on going to the pub at least an hour before me to make sure there was no one I could flirt with. I had to get up early, walk to her house and wait for her to get ready before getting a bus to college because she didn’t trust me to get on two stops after her. I had to wait for her to collect me after lessons at college and she would tell me to whom I was and wasn’t allowed to talk. The last straw was her having a go at me because I was on crutches and she couldn’t hold my hand and show everyone that I was hers.”

So back to tomorrow night, for instance. It’s the night of February 14; you’re in the restaurant. There is a better than even chance that at some point food will become involved. This might be the first chance to determine whether the person sitting opposite you is a little emotionally skittish. Food is an enormous issue to most psychos. They enjoy nothing more than traipsing around healthfood shops looking for palm oil to help to make some vile concoction that assists detoxification. Many psychos have eating disorders; most attend groups. Take this example: “The moment that I realised it wasn’t going to last with my girlfriend was the day we went to the cinema together. She was already heading for a bad mood when we left — I should have known then. I bought a mixed box of popcorn (half sweet/half salty). In the middle of the film she asked me to pass her some sweet popcorn.

“When I told her that this was impossible as it was all mixed up and the only way for me to tell which bits were which flavour would be to to eat it, she flew off the handle and started shouting at me calling me a w***** in the middle of the film.

“And the best bit was that she knocked the whole box in to the air, covering the two friends who were with us and stormed out, shouting, in the middle of the film, that I was being totally f****** selfish, unreasonable and greedy.”

I would suggest that you offer to pay or at least go Dutch tomorrow night. The psycho is legendary for being very cautious where his or her money is concerned. Happy to spend yours, though. “I dated a guy who was completely obsessed with money. He earned loads and would boast about it to anyone who would listen. He would tell everyone how expensive everything he owned was yet he would count every single penny. He would insist on going to expensive restaurants that he knew that I couldn’t really afford, and instead of just splitting the bill, he would work out exactly who’d eaten what and what they owed. If I asked him to buy me some chewing gum while he was at the shop he would ask for the money back. He kept an accounts book of every single penny he spent. About a week after we split up he sent me a text message saying that I still owed him £4.85 and could I send him a cheque!”

If dinner goes well you may get lucky and decide to take things further with your new love. The psycho in the bedroom offers you a whole new world of wonder and exhilaration. “My previous girlfriend was a nut. During sex she had an obsession with Fireman Sam and Trumpton (from Postman Pat ). She would scream out the names of all the firemen from Trumpton and the theme song from Fireman Sam. If she got them wrong I was made to spank her and she would start again. That was just the bedroom. When we were out on dates she would get so drunk that she would just leave the bar without telling anyone and always get a taxi to her nan’s house. We didn’t stay together long.”

Don’t be put off or indeed scared off going on tomorrow’s date. There are many upsides to dating a psycho: The running away keeps you fit. You gain enough pharmaceutical knowledge to retrain as a chemist. You have convenient access to the complete works of Dr Phil. You will have plenty of intriguing stories to tell your grandchildren.

I hope now you are feeling a little more prepared for tomorrow night. Statistics suggest that at least half of the population is a psycho. If after careful analysis your date doesn’t seem to be nuts then you can be certain that the only psycho at the table is you.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

xLx

What a Yawn...

....is anyone even still reading this? I think people only read other people's blogs on the offchance they will see themselves mentioned. Or discover dirty little trashy secrets about people they know (or in the case of celebs, wish they knew).

Seeing as I have been holed up in my studio trying to get this gallery up and running, I haven't socialised in WEEKS! And I've also lapsed on my sucking up so no-one is telling me dirty little secrets anymore.

What a drag...did I really come to Second Life to work?

I don't even have any new pictures of myself to post. That's really saying something. So I'll post one of Juliet in her cyberpunk jewelry. She's renting the parcel in Seonhan (SLUrl) and her stuff is fab.u.lous. Mmmmm FABulous! Beautifully crafted, high detail....technical perfection.

She knows it too....*makes a W with her fingers*

F.R.E.D.

Wow - how long has it been since my last post? I've been tongue-tied. And, RL has been keeping me very occupied (preoccupied?).

First things first - a huge shout-out to my dear friend Kraken Uramen who worked his pixelated arse off during assessment time to help me build a new gallery for my robots to live. Beautifully constructed in his very unique style, and right on brief. I wanted a build that would look fabulous on the inside, and if anyone bothered to fly up, would resemble a robot from above. Clever Kraken who got it just right!

I apologise in advance for bastardising his creation and changing all the textures - but my robots were all clamouring in a jealous rage because the gallery was taking all the attention away from them. Ugh, the irrepressible clang of stomping tin feet. I couldn't bear it and had to acquiesce by changing all the textures to wood. But here is a picture of F.R.E.D. in his original glory. Kraken's got some great pics up on his blog too.

The Freaking Rare Electronic Device

Ooohh....and I must tell you about Juliet's new shop Bitter Thorns. Tomorrow - am going to take some pictures tonight to show you.

Tirra, darlings x

I seem to have cheered up

*grin*

Christ I can be a moody cow.

By the way, what do you call a straight RL male presenting as a gay female in SL? Transavi?

Kraken, if you're reading this - I am sooooooOooOOoooooOOOOO looking forward to seeing that build. Like, SO rilly rilly rilly looking forward to it. Ants in my pants kind of thing.....XP

Oh - everyone is selling up on my island. What's up with that?

I'm Bored

Can you tell?

Namaste has gone.....Shermie is as bored as I am. Phree's not around. I need more normal people to hang out with!!!

....says the halo-ed cat with the killer claws and tutu.

I wonder how much longer I will stay for....

My Friends Often...

...accuse me of having my head stuck up my arse, but this is ridiculous!

Luxe was caught unawares at Sylfie's new Prim Seductions main store

If You're Ever Feeling Lame...

...about being a pathetic shut-in, constantly on the computer and watching your RL slip away...

Rest assured, there's always someone duller.
http://www.dullmen.com/airport.htm

A New Week....

Luxe foolishly wore heels from Minx (and broke them),

but her flatcap from FNKY! and her Toxicity dress from Canimal held up nicely

Ok, enough moping now. I accept that there's only so much I can do....

And besides, it's my Birthday Week!! Woohoo! So the theme for this week will be Things that I Have, instead of Things that I Have Lost.

And something I DO have is this brilliant ghetto blaster I made over the weekend to accompany my new Krazy Legz breakdancing robot. Hours of obsession. Shermie would visit in the morning.....and come back 10 hrs later to see me still hunched over the blasted (pun intended) thing with the only visible change being a knob repositioned slighty (oh, but what a perfect knob it is. Um, that sounds kind of WRONG).

The best thing about it is....you can select classic b-boy tracks from the 80s! It might be elementary, my dear Watson, but I'm thrilled!

Tracklist:
Hey You the Rocksteady Crew (RSC)
Rock It (Herbie Hancock)
The Message (Grandmaster Flash)
It's Like That (Run DMC)
Scorpio (Grandmaster Flash)
Rapper's Delight (Sugarhill Gang)

Requests are most welcome!

"How many prims?" you ask. 89. MUAHAHAHAHA!!! Krazy Legz and the beatbox were inspired by a certain someone anyway, so I suppose high-prims are mandatory...

Also - can I just say that the Academy SL and TUi chat channels are a brilliant resource for new builders/scripters. Most people are soooooo helpful, and I've made some cool friends.

Props to Juliet/Kommissario for not just loving the boombox, but also showing me where to get the best breakdancing HUD in SL with wicked moves, and you can invite up to 4 people to pop with you (Abranimations).

Now if I could just find an illustrator....I might post a wanted ad on the forums....

By the Death of Lover's Tree I Sat Down and Wept

RELIC - "Death of Lover's Tree", Sanctum Sanctorum (SLurl)

I have hurt someone dear to me.
*bows head in shame and sadness*

OCD

I've realised that there is a common thread that binds me to my friends in SL - obsessive compulsive disorder.

I have been building non-stop for three days, at the expense of eating, sleeping and communicating with anything that isn't made of pixels.

A typical Luxe Process:
1) Sketch a design and decide to start working on it at 4pm.
2) 4pm I'm still frantically TP'g from shop to shop trying on my 322nd demo skin.
3) 4:45pm finally sit down to build.
4) 5:22pm I'm on prim #15 of about 50.
5) 5:23pm I rez prim # 16 and twist and taper it a bit before thinking y'know, this shape would make a brilliant lampshade!!!!!
6) 7:30pm still working on that lampshade, having taken about 10 detours to look for textures, scripts and animations to go with it. I don't have my robot but I have this mad 40 prim lamp that would look just perfect....nowhere!

I'm probably going to burn out very soon, I can feel myself teetering on the edge.

It's so funny, but my closest friends in SL are the same! We make plans to do things...but the desire, the need, heck...the burning necessity for one of us to find that perfect texture, or search for that ideal plant in (minimum) 20 different shops completely blows our plans out of the window. And let's not talk about the time it takes to obsess about where aforementioned plants/textures etc should go.

What about my friend who had an important RL appointment the next day but was still logged on a couple of hours before scheduled appointment??

YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!!

But hey - we're the normal ones....it's the rest of the world who have gone mad.

Right?

Yeah, keep telling yourself that Luxe.

Oh great, now I'm talking to myself as well. OCD and a multiple personality disorder. For fuck's sake, what's bloody next - Tourette's?

Luxe and friends are in skins by TaP

A New Gallery of Old Robots

I've been making stuff! Specifically, reproductions of tin robots that I love and collect RL. They'll be serialised & sold in limited quantities. I'm not sure what anyone would do with a tin robot in SL, but then again - what do I do with tin robots RL? It's not like they bring me my morning cup of tea (1 sugar, slightly milky, thick as sludge TYVM).

AND I made the gallery to house them in. All by myself. With alot of encouragement from my lovely F *bisous*.

The gallery is in Seonhan (69, 122, 35). Please come see me!

Fanks Shermie for the title inspiro.

And Phree if you're reading this, you were a real sweetheart about that parcel.

Life is a Box of Chocolates

Luxe and Double Luxe are wearing camo bikinis by Kru

It's no secret that the Alabasters are notorious for a) being gluttons and b) having a snail-paced metabolism. The Christmas season is fraught with peril. Mince pies and log cakes. Roast turkey and bacon drippings. Cream. Custard. Crackling. Oh, crackling....surely the most wonderous of all food groups?

*Slaps herself out of food trance*

That damned Newton had to ruin it with his bloody Third Law. It never works the way you want it to - why can't the act of lifting a tasty morsel to your mouth produce an equal and opposite reaction in your metabolic rate, resulting in dramatic weight loss?

I am considering pursuing a new career in reverse Before/After modelling. Nevermind the modelling diss in my earlier post, these are desperate times.

It's either that or become a poster girl for Feeders'R'Us. Not a bad idea, except for the guys I'd end up meeting. Talk about a co-dependant relationship. Years in therapy....no fanks, guv - I'd much rather use the money to upgrade from Maldon to fleur de sel. And maybe invest in a colonic or ten....