Skell Dagger

So many secondhand bodily fluids, not all of them saliva...

Going andro again.

Lipstick cherry all over the lens... Credits Meva for Men Only Monthly, and a truckload of glam. Suit: Meva - Tadeo (Sig, but I got it to work on Slink) Boots: Wicca's Wardrobe: Cleora Boots (fishnet) Bracers: Titzuki - Pitboy Bracers* (black steel) Top applier #1: Sn@tch - The Fishnet Collection 2016 (Omega) Top applier #2: Sn@tch - Cage Strappy Top (Omega; strap section only) Glasses: Since 1975 - Glamblind Glasses (silver) Lipstick applier: Used Abused - Lelutka Lips Red Hair: Drot - XCamo Slouch/beanie Hair (hair only) Skin applier: Tableau Vivant - Mort Vivant (Lelutka) Ears: L'Etre - Olympe Mesh Ears Head: Lelutka - Andrea (Bento) Body: Slink - Physique Male *no longer available

Thank you! I've been playing with other Windlights for this look, and I've chanced on something that looks aesthetically very pleasing to my eye, so it's going to hit my blog tonight (or tomorrow). Sneak preview:

There was no way on earth I could resist this collar. As soon as I saw it, I knew how I was going to style it: Credits ParxDesign for SaNaRae, plus Modulus for Man Cave. Collar: ParxDesign - Elizabethan Collar (classic version) Hair: Modulus - Tommy (monochromes) Eye appliers: ARTE - Blessed (Catwa/Lelutka) Makeup: Zibska - Vaclava (Lelutka/Catwa/Omega) Ears: L'Etre - Olympe Mesh Ears Skin applier: The Plastik & Trap - Atharne (Takara) Head: Lelutka - Andrea (Bento)

I don't know you, but in no way is this awkward to me. Congratulations on your transition, even though it comes at cost to your safety, if your blog post is anything to go by. I wish you and your son all the best On this point - ZOMG!!11!!! You did NOT just dead-name them! (but you did) - I would normally be disappointed to see dead-naming happening, but in this case - from the OP's blog post: (Dead-naming, for those unfamiliar with the term, refers to the use of a transgender person's birth name, rather than their chosen post-transition name. An example would be the people who still call Caitlyn Jenner 'Bruce', thereby refusing to accept her post-transition gender. It's mostly used as a deliberate insult.)

Standing on one of my platforms and going through Windlight settings to find the lighting that I want for an upcoming shoot:

You can crack my stone and melt my steel but you can never take my song. Credits Paraphrasing a great song from the new Above & Beyond album, which is my current 'on repeat'. Tattoo appliers: Identity Body Shop - Wild Nature Hair: VoltHair - Tom (black) Gloves: L'Emporio - Fingerless Gloves (Slink Dynamic Male) Headphones: Swallow - Headphones Skull Black Microphone: JBX - U871 Studio Microphone Eye appliers: Avi-Glam - Vivid Eyes* (pearl) Makeup: Zibska - Noir Pack Vol 09 (Lelutka, Omega) Head: Catwa - Daniel (Bento) Body: Slink - Physique Male *review copy

Also, keep an eye on the Catwa group. Lately she's taken to releasing her new Bento heads at half price for 24 hours.

I've highlighted the answer. In short: don't visit the places that you used to visit together. SL is a big place. Find some new hangouts.

Happy Sunday Found on Twitter this morning:

Was that the sound of your head finally exploding after yesterday's quadruple-thread rantypants session?

Absolutely NOT necessary for a complete newbie. Expecting someone who is brand new to be able to understand the complexities of mesh bodies and heads and all their attendant HUDs and add-ons is like expecting someone to be able to walk into a Mercedes car showroom and get one of the salespeople to teach them how to drive. @PrismaticFate I would be very wary of taking advice from someone who tells you that you must spend a minimum of USD40 just to look good. Spend time instead, getting to know the platform first before you start dropping that much money on mesh heads and bodies. It's perfectly possible to put together a good 'non-newbie' avatar without those items (many of us did it for years before mesh bodies and heads came along). And I say that as a resident of 10.5 years who has spent a ridiculously-large sum of money on my avatar over that time, including multiple mesh bodies and heads. I'm not what you're looking for with regard to companions (I keep my group of friends in SL very small for a reason), but I wish you all the best in finding a community where you feel that you belong.

Credits sYs, Rebellion, Anxiety, and Gabriel for Man Cave, plus Bad Hair Day and Identity Body Shop for Hipster Mens Event. Hair: Bad Hair Day - Meraki* (browns) Shirt: sYs - Irvin Shirt (black) (Slink, Sig, TMP) Glasses: Rebellion - Revolt Shades Jeans: Gabriel - Slim Denim Jeans (Slink, Jake, Sig) Gloves: L'Emporio - Fingerless Gloves (Slink Dynamic) Skin applier: Stray Dog - Rocco (tone 4) Tattoo appliers: Identity Body Shop - Wild Nature Backdrop: Anxiety - 0400 Backdrop Poses: Wrong & the Owl Head: Catwa - Daniel (Bento) Body: Slink - Physique Male *Review copy

Exactly what I thought when I read your post. What you were seeing was not thousands of people all pretending to be the official Slink store. What you were seeing was everyone who sells Slink-compatible items (Slink-rigged mesh clothing, Slink appliers, etc) and who use search keywords so that you can find the Slink-compatible items inworld. It's a perfectly legitimate marketing option that Linden Lab gives us. As Callum said: you can either type 'Slink' into the map to get to the store, or you can look up Slink's creator - Siddean Munro - in People search. That's much easier on your blood pressure than venting about 'fake news' on a residents' forum.

Block/mute the object's owner, not the object itself. The owner might be using multiple objects to spam, each of which you would have to block individually. If you block the owner, all of their spamming objects are blocked. A quick search for that resident shows that they own a clothing store on Marketplace. I would hazard a guess, therefore, that Chaser's suggestion that you've been added to that person's store-promoting HippoGroup* without your consent is correct, so try following the advice given in Chaser's post (as well as blocking/muting the owner). This could be simply because you walked past their store (or a small satellite store that you might not even have noticed) and triggered off a visitor counter that was set with too wide a radius, so they've assumed that you went into their store and have thus added you to their 'update list'. Or maybe you picked up a hunt gift at some point from their store. Or any other number of reasons where they might have got hold of your name. It's a pet peeve of mine when creators do this. If I am interested in receiving updates from your store then I will show my interest by joining your store group or subscriber group. What I don't appreciate is being added to groups without my knowledge. Daily notecards promoting your items that I'm not even remotely interested in? That's the kind of tactic that will backfire on you if you annoy me enough to make me publicise it... *ETA: There are other kinds of mass-mailing options available, so the HippoGroup suggestion may not work if they're not using that one. Hence my suggestion of blocking the object owner.

Is the Altamura skin still available as the L'Homme gift? That would at least be two choices or did it not work with the gift body? Yep, as Lil said, the gift skin didn't work with the free body. The body is literally a sample of one skintone from that designer (and it happens to be a mid-to-deep tan). But, even with that said, it's still the best of the three available three options, purely for the inclusion of the alpha HUD. It also comes with a load of other stuff, including a face AO, a hand AO, and a modifiable shape. The only thing it doesn't include is mesh eyes, but there are several free mesh eyes to be had on Marketplace.

Of the three current free male mesh bodies I would recommend Altamura purely because it has not only a Bento head but also a full alpha HUD, which means you can get almost any mesh clothing to work with it (although, as Lil mentioned, I found that Signature-fit clothing worked pretty near perfectly). Yes, it's limited by only having one skin, but that's its only limitation. The TMP free body is dated, doesn't come with a head at all, has no alpha HUD and no support, is not Bento-rigged, and is actually rigged in a way that means you may struggle to find cheap and free clothing that works with it (especially considering the lack of an alpha HUD). The ExMachina free body and head - while a good one - also has no alpha HUD, and while the creator has said "you can use in case our fitted mesh items that not require alpha layers" what they mean is "you can buy our fitted mesh items", which is not going to be helpful to someone who has no money to invest right now in SL. I picked up that freebie when it was released, and I struggled to find anything much in my extensive inventory that would fit it perfectly. (I am also somewhat leery about seeing the creator popping up on the forums every time their body is mentioned, to promote it. Yes, in this case it's the freebie, but the misleading "you can use our clothing" when said clothing is not free and must be purchased... does not sit well with me. It's a kind of hidden advertising.) Having an alpha HUD for a body is crucial if you don't want to be limited to buying clothing from the body's own brand range, since so much clothing - especially in the male market, although I know this is also an issue with some female bodies - simply does not fit well enough, even when it claims that it's rigged for specific mesh bodies. I'm grateful that there are SL creators out there who offer these gifts, don't get me wrong. But as has also been mentioned in this thread, a mesh body and head are not essential to putting together a decent-looking male avatar in Second Life. Sure, some bits of the system avi are pretty lousy (hands and feet, mainly) but a lot of men managed to put together stylish avatars for a long time before mesh came along.

Going by the avatar name, Damien is most likely male. So, unless he's planning on creating a female avatar, suggestions to buy the (female only) Tonic body and (female only) Normie head are probably not what he's looking for. @DamienPatterson - if you can be more specific about the kind of help you need, we can provide you with hints and tips. What exactly is it that you need help with? Do you have a problem with your avatar? Do you want to know how to make your avatar look great? Do you want to know how to do something specific with your avatar (E.g. You can't figure out how to fly, etc) I suspect (as most here have) that you want to know how to make your avatar look great. If that's the case, then - while you've been given a lot of (sometimes pretty expensive) suggestions so far - we can help you much more easily if we know your answers to some specific questions, such as: What kind of clothing do you like? Casual (jeans-n-tee), formal (a nice suit), Goth, hipster, etc. What kind of 'under the clothes' look (skin and body shape) do you want to achieve? Not just "I want to look great" or "I want to look hot". Give us some description to work with. Do you want a muscled bearded biker look? A slim androgynous look? A skinny geeky look? What kind of budget do you have? While it's possible to outfit a male avatar on the cheap in SL, it's harder to do well than it is to outfit a female avatar on the cheap. And, if you're looking at mesh bodies and customisable-shape Bento mesh heads, you're looking at a reasonable investment.

About time Skell's rocker persona got a 2018 makeover: One more (full-length) pic here, showing the pants and boots. Credits (as long as the proverbial arm...) Gild, Legal Insanity, and Equal for Men Only Monthly, plus Doux for The Men Jail. Jacket: Gild - Half Studs Jacket (black - Sig/Slink/Jake) Pants: Legal Insanity - Axl Leather Pants (black - Sig/Jake)* Boots: Equal - Glenn Boots (black) Hair: Doux - Armand (B&W) Tattoo: Dappa - Supreme (Sig/Slink/TMP/Omega) Gloves: L'Emporio - Fingerless Gloves (Slink Dynamic Male) Bracelets: Secrets - Justin Spiked Set (black) Glasses: Haysuriza - Glasses Michel2 (urban night) Guitar: Sau - Dhalif Guitar Skin applier: L'Etre - Toni (buttermilk) Facial hair applier: CDC Creations - Beard 46 Tintable (Catwa/Omega) Head: Catwa - Victor (Bento) Body: Slink Physique Male Pose: LAP (no longer available) Facial animation: Catwa - from the Pissed-Off Scream pack *I managed to get the Jake pants to work on the Slink body.

Same here. Same person, too, most likely. Reporting for duty!

Thought I'd try the free Altamura bento mesh body and head gift (more info here on my Flickr post), since I wanted to know if I could recommend it to guys who didn't want to splash the cash on a full-priced mesh setup. It's limited by having a non-customisable skin, but it comes with a lot of other stuff - including a generous alpha HUD - and Signature clothing seems to fit it fairly well. It's pretty damn good for a freebie:

I'd say definitely teenaged, since one of her final posts called others posting there "sad middle aged ppl who need a second life because their first one is falling apart". If that isn't teenaged foot-stomping, then I don't know what is. I won't mention the rest, because the choice of words in at least one post struck me as an attempt to elicit responses by poking the thread, which is probably why the whole thing was pulled. ETA: Oh yay. What a great top. Here, have something pretty instead:

Gotta love it when a thread is removed when you're in the middle of replying to it. At first you wonder why your post preview doesn't work, then you realise what's happened