[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.