Loralinda

Take a look at these. The first few are older ones (still available) but to me they resemble your examples better. The others are newer, but aren't quite on the mark I don't think. I usually try a dozen or more demos before deciding what looks best. So good luck. https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/AA-Robert-Hair-Cappuccino-Cream-Special-Color-Shortcut-mens-hairstyle/1987530 https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/AA-Kaynes-Hair-Light-Brown-wavy-mens-hairstyle-Promo/4531172 https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/AA-Kaynes-Hair-Dark-Silver-Mid-length-mens-hairstyle-Marketplace-color/4221689 https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Dura-Boy26-Dark-6color-Fat/2700398 https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Exile-Remy-demo/4488491

I've been using Singularity for quite a while and it started doing the same annoying thing. Then it occurred to me that I had not installed an updated version in a long time. So I did a clean install by uninstalling the version I had, and downloading the newer version. Voila! The problem is fixed. Btw, Singularity seems to take up fewer resources than Firestorm or the official SL viewer.

Second Life is not all devoted to role playing. It's actually a chat platform with graphics in which you can build your own surroundings and your own second life look with your avatar. Many in second life never role play (I'm one of them) and just enjoy living in a tiki hut or a castle or anything in between; enjoy meeting people on the internet from all over the world and chatting with them. But, just because I don't officially role play, such as playing vampires or zombies or soldiers or sci-fi stuff, doesn't mean my avatar is an exact replica of my real life self physically. Most residents of second life improve upon their looks and may choose to wear clothing they could never afford and would never wear in real life or change hairstyle and color just for fun. In my case, my look changes, but I am still the same person in second life as I am in real life when I chat with others. My opinions, feelings, interests and the way I express myself are the same. I am also a female and not playing at being another gender as others in second life (mostly males playing females) may choose to do.

You'd have an easier time and feel like less of a noob if you switch to the Singularity viewer. It's pretty much the same as the old sl viewer, but you can still see mesh. It also takes up fewer resources than the sl viewer. I never took to the new sl viewers, so it works great for me.

Aspen Fell is lovely, a bit mysterious but if you hike to the top of the mountain there are lovely look-out points and seating. Creations Park is also worth going to as you wander through pretty gardens with ponds, some mythical creatures, a treehouse with cuddle poses a zen garden. It is a non-profit sim to benefit Parkinsons Sufferers.

First off I've been SL for a lot longer than my current profile says. I've gone through a lot of different incarnations. So here is my 2 cents worth: personally, I don't care that much for mesh body parts. In areas with a lot of activity and people the images can take a long time to rez and mesh will simply not appear where it is supposed to for quite a while. I've seen many headless, handless or feetless avatars who have gone whole hog on mesh parts. I do use mesh clothes, but not always. Some just don't fit my body shape and ruin the purportions for me. I started off just using the sliders in the editing mode for my avatars. But I soon learned that if I wanted a really amazing look, I would have to look for skins and shapes sold together. I shopped around in marketplace in the complete avatars category and I also look in the avatar components category. One reason I buy shapes and skins together is that it takes a lot less time than trying all sorts of demo skins (yes, you can delete them when done) and that method is very "hit and miss" anyway. And I can so easily just find a complete avatar with skin and shape that I adore and get the look with the skin/shape combo, no tweaking needed. I nevert ever buy any that are not modifiable though. Because if you want to change your waist size or your height or the size of your hands or whatever, the non-modifiables make that impossible. It always tells you in the description under the "visit our store" link if it's "copy" or "modify" or "transfer" or not. So if you want to save time, check out the complete avatars on marketplace. If it's no modify, don't buy it. Then if you find some you like, you can go to their inworld stores to try on the demos and see for yourself before purchasing. But some of the marketplace sets also give you the option to get a demo for L$0. So as to cost it can range widely. I usually won't buy a complete avatar under L$400 as the cheaper ones can wind up with flaws you don't want. But these sets range from L$25 to several thousand lindens. I usually ignore the really expensive ones. They aren't that much better than the ones for several hundreds. Anyway, then you have to purchase the hairdo which will usually go for around L$200. Eyes can cost around L$100 (amacci has great eyes) unless your complete avatar comes with them. Then you can make your lashes thicker and longer if you want to purchase eyelashes that attach to your avatar. Those go for L$100 - L$200 a piece. And there are nail sets that will add on manicured nails. Noya sells some nice ones for around L$200 - 300. And in order not to look so noobish, you should probably get an AO (animation overrider) that will give your avi natural movements instead of the stiff legged movements they come with. Tuty's has some pretty good AOs for around L$300 or so which is cheap. So I'd say your initial investment would be around L$1000 and if you decide on some really exclusive type of avi, maybe L$2000. So after you have the basics, you could choose to have huge melons, lol, and buy some lolas but those are over L$1000 to add on. Personally I tried them and didn't like the fact I had to match them to my skin color which sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. And then you have to buy clothes that have lola appliers. This means the clothing has an added feature so that the breast area is clothed seperately to fit the lolas. I gave up after about 3 days on it, lol. Now all you need once you have your avatar are some clothes. I buy mine mostly from the marketplace. I used to shop stores, but I was missing all the places I didn't know about until I went to the marketplace and saw how many options and choices there were. Maitreya sells really quality stuff, but pricey. By quality, I mean they fit, they look hot, and they don't distort when you move around. Also Gizza sells nice stuff. Of course it depends on what type of look you want. If you want young and trendy, then try CK or Mon Cherie or for really funky urban stuff , check out Nytro. For more avant guard fashion I like Jador and for everyday cute clothes, I like Stars Aichi. Fashionatic is also very good, they sell entire outfits with shoes and accessories. But that's only a handfull out of thousands of items on the marketplace. So enjoy yourself and check back with any questions.

God has always been as creative force of the universe, not some big man in the sky. Who created gravity? No one. It just is. Who created God? No one. God just is. God is conscious awareness and conscious awareness is God. Without God we could not even discuss this question. In reality, we as individuals don't exist. We are simply the manifestation of collective consciousness or "life" if you prefer. All life forms appear because there is a creative force of the universe and that force has been referred to as God throughout the ages. Sadly, religions have taken this amazing life creating consciousness and in an effort to explain the ups and downs of life, made it into a fallable human concept, some sort of super human prone to senseless arbitrary acts. Nothing could be further from the truth. Like gravity causes us to fall out of a tree and possibly break our necks as a consequence of climbing the tree, so God does not operate in an arbitrary manner. For every action there is a reaction. For the negative energy we put out, we suffer negative consequences. For the positive energy we put out, we enjoy positive consequences. This law applies just as much to group populations as to individuals. Nothing happens arbitrarily. Who made consciousness? No one. It simply is. Who made God? No one. It simply is. When you were born, you were born into conscious awareness. It was there before you and will be there after you. It will be reborn with each manifestation of life. It never dies. It accepts every life form because every lifeform eminates out of this never ending, always present consciousness. What better term have we for this phenomena, but God? But, if you choose not to accept this explanation, please feel free. I always go with the philosophy that you should give every explanation some thought and if it simply doesn't appeal to you, then you are free to reject it. Simple as that.

Don't take this the wrong way, Drake, but don't you think you should just let it go? I haven't seen what started this whole pile on, but really, I think you've made your point. Why not wipe the slate clean and just start over? Many people in sl are going through personal issues. Maybe you are as well or you aren't, I don't know. But I think we should give each other some slack because life is after all just a series of struggles and everyone just does the best they know how. I'm sure Kittenz didn't come here just to stir up some drama, though that was the end result. I don't think she purposely meant to imply that we are all just pawns in a game to her though many here assumed she was belittling the residents of sl. I think she just wants to connect with some other people in a virtual world, and maybe take on a different identity for a while and that's what many of us do here. Correct me if I'm wrong Kittenz on anything I've said. I'm just saying, it seems like time to call a truce and stop assuming the worst about each other.

Lol, you are spending yourself right into the poorhouse. So join the club, hee. The Akeyo is an excellent, if pricey, AO. I use one myself. It's handy when you go to live performances or clubs and just want to dance in place too (not sure if yours has the dance option though) as you can just click dance on the hud and even invite others to dance with you. I don't think it's necessary to always buy garments at Utopia. Their style and quality is quite amazing, but there are some very good quality clothes for men on the market that won't break the bank such as Gizza. Oh, and now you've wowed us with your fabulous physic too! Well done *wink. I'm not sure mesh hands and feet are absolutely necessary, but I'm probably a little uninformed on those as I haven't tried them. The only problem with mesh is that when you go to a place like Franks or some of the other popular clubs, you will find the mesh doesn't appear for quite a while due to lag (too many people and scripts slow down the servers and/or your PC). So there you are: just a head with feet and hands. If those are mesh, then you are just a dancing head or possibly an avatar but missing your feet or your hands. I've been to popular live performances in sl and watched dancing heads through the entire performance because their mesh parts never did rez.. Very frustrating because you don't get to see if they are even attractive or not. But, to each his own. And I do know those male parts can be shockingly expensive depending on how elaborate (automatic hydraulics, piercings *ouch* etc) you want to get. From personal ummm experience, I can ummm tell you that all the bells and whistles weren''t really necessary. But don't go for the freebie type that you cannot modify to match your skin and cannot at least control movement with a menu. Just a friendlly tip, in case you ever decide to explore the ummm "romantic" side of sl. Oh, and check out Uncleweb Studio for hair. If they are still making men's hair they have very nice short styles. Possibly this: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Uwst-Hibiki-Hair-Natural-brown/5103893 (demo here: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Uwst-DEMO-Hibiki-Hair/5103880) or this: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Uwst-Dean-Hair-Natural-brown/5093730 (demo here: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Uwst-DEMO-Dean-Hair/5093723) or this: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Uwst-Nabiki-Hair-Natural-brown/5107427 (demo here: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Uwst-DEMO-Nabiki-Hair/5107433) or this: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Uwst-AL-Hair-Honey-beige/5089047 (demo here: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Uwst-DEMO-AL-Hair/5089018). They all include 3 sizes too. Here is a link to the location in world: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Uwst/169/75/24. Hope you have fun discovering the endless sl possibilities.

Thanks so much Starfire!

Nice job. Definitely an improvement over the first avatar. Yes, he resembles David Beckham, but that's a good thing I think. David Beckham is a hunk, hehe. Hopefully you will invest in an AO (animation overrider) which will allow your avatar to move in a more human way, giving you graceful standing positions, moving you about as you are standing and giving you a natural male swagger rather than the stick figure waddle that the default avis come with. There are some pretty good AOs here under the shopping tab in the "Marketplace". Just click on Animations category on the left and then look for animation overriders. Some are very reasonable, much more so than the ones you find inworld. There is nothing more telltale as to how new an avi is than the stiff legged waddle and nothing more off putting to those of us who have been around a bit longer (speaking from a female observing the male avatars that is). Anyway, good luck!

I have been struggling for the past 2 or 3 days to purchase lindens with my credit card and with my paypal account, but can't get anything to work. I'm rapidly running out of funds. Put in a customer support complaint and now have to wait until they can check for the problem.

I think these are similar. Take a look: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Exile-Tidal-demo/4472944 and https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Exile-Sid-demo/4472784 If not, look through their other men's styles. They do have some unusual ones.

I have 4 GB less RAM than you with an intel duo core CPU/P7550@2.26GHz., but things run fine. Until the CPU overheats (typical for HP laptops even their gaming laptops) and I have to keep the fan in the cool pad running while i'm on sl, otherwise it slows down to a crawl and eventually i crash. However, I don't use Firestorm anymore. I used to use it but when they upgraded it became too unwieldy to run sl on my machine. So I found Singularity viewer and I use that now. So far I'm not missing any bells and whistles and it doesn't require all my resourses to run it which speeds up rezzing and movement capabilities. You might give it a try and see if there is improvement. If not then it probably is your connection. I have fiber optics connection so it's fast, and even tho i use a laptop with wireless connection, i rarely have problems with dropped connections.

I run SL on Vista just fine, but I've read some forum comments where SL runs better on the nvidia graphics card than on ATI. Aside from that, I got the big error message after SL changed their TOS and requires you to agree to it before you can log into SL. Basically the message is titled "Crash Loop?" and says the following: "ERROR: AICurlPrivate::BufferedCurlEasyRequest::setStatusAndReason: Received 302 (Moved Temporarily) for responder "iamHere" which has no followRedir()!" Underneath that message are two buttons: Yes and No. There is a window behind it which is titled Terms of Service... But you will see no actual terms of service. If you press the Yes button you will immediately be logged out. If you press the No button, the terms of service will appear and there is a check box underneath to check if you agree to the terms. Once you agree, you are allowed to use SL. If you've been getting this error message and clicked Yes, you may be booting yourself out of SL. Don't know if this is the problem, but who knows. It's just a suggestion. If this is not the problem, then you might try downloading a lighter viewer. I like Singularity, but apparently Firestorm is very popular as well. There's also CoolVL and Nicholaz viewers which I'm not familiar with but others like them. These viewers don't take up as much of your resources, but you still get the bells and whistles with them. You can google the names to find their download sites.

Come on now people, you gotta remember not everyone is a writer in sl, lol. Give these folks a little leeway. There are noobies who don't know the basics in sl and need a little help.

I spell things out on the premise that many who are in sl do not do a lot of reading (it appears from people I meet in my travels that some are barely literate). From my experience there are also a population of non-native English speakers who would have problems with reading a lot of information in Engllish. So I try to boil information down to the simplest terms. If I can, I then back it up with links, so they can investigate further.

In my mind, she's Agnes Moorehead. Name her Agnes. See below:

I don't have as much of a problem with the butt gap issue on my av, and I think it may be because I increase the leg muscles a bit which brings the whole thing back together closing the gap. Looking at your photo shot, it appears to me that possibly your leg size is too thin, thus magnifying this butt gap problem. I've seen a lot of female avies in sl with legs that are way too skinny, giving them the appearance of a praying-mantis. My av's leg muscle setting is just a notch or two above 50 on the slider. More muscle gives the legs definition and shape. Also, you may want to stay away from expanding the hip size which will pull the legs further apart if you overdo it and give you a bow-legged look. You can makes hips larger with the saddle-bag slider without displacing the legs too wide apart at the crotch. I happened on a blog post from a sl resident who explains in easy to understand terms how the ideal avatar's purportions can be figured out. Basically the head size of an av over 6' if left alone is too small. I usually set the head size between 50 and 55 on the slider. Once you get that correct, then you need to measure your torso from shoulder to waist to be the length of two heads stacked one on top of the other. If you make it longer than that, you will look short legged and if you make it shorter, you'll look like a stork. As for the legs, I measure leg size on mine by figuring the length of the thigh from crotch to mid-knee should be measured against the length of the torso from shoulders to waist. It should be about equal. Anyway, here is the link to the article which gives illustrations you can follow: http://catnapkitty.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/getting-good-body-proportions-in-second-life/ Don't click the link mentioning her whole category on the subject as it will take you to purportions for furries. The first page is the page with human purportions and pictures. Hope this helps.

When I first started sl, I had a laptop with an integrated graphics card instead of a dedicated graphics card. Oh what misery! But I finally bought a gaming laptop with plenty of memory and lots of gigabytes and a dedicated video card. My video card is an Nvidia and from what I've read it is much better for running sl graphics without bugs than other video cards. A dedicated video card is a must really. You may want to make sure you set the pages you want to access as "PG, Mature and Adult" in your preferences. Otherwise you won't be able to access any sims outside of PG areas. There is an option for that under the general settings tab in preferences, or there was at least. I don't use the official second life viewer as I've just never gotten used to it since they changed the whole setup from the old viewer. I use Singularity viewer, which btw is less CPU greedy (my CPU gets overloaded on the regular official sl viewer and I crash a lot) but gives you the most important abilities as far as graphics and other bells and whistles without taking up so much memory. In other words, it doesn't take nearly as long to load your graphics, so less frustrating. You can download it for free. Just google "singularity viewer." It also seems to me that the menus are more user friendly than the official sl viewer, altho they look quite different. The buttons are on the top and bottom instead of on the sides, but at least you don't have to deal with the slide out menu crap which I hate. It's all drop down menus from the top and the menu options are clearly labeled as are the tabs for recently acquired items and currently worn items in your inventory.. The search and map buttons as well as sound adjustments are located at the bottom of the screen. You can access advanced settings by hitting ctrl/D. An added menu option will appear at the top along side the others. RE what the attraction is in sl, well, I found I loved going to streaming performances. There are some great artists who play guitar or piano and sing and some compose. Lots of variety. Do a search in world under "EVENTS" for "live entertainment" to find who is playing where and when. Noma Falta, Anj Gustavsan, Sweetlily Pinelli, AMforte, Sassy Nitely, Mankind Tracer, James Olmos, and Edward Kyomoon are some headliners well worth going to see. They are pro quality performers and like to connect with the audience which makes it more fun than just a spectator sport. There are many more well worth discovering. Also, exploring is fun. Visit some of the sims that are featured on the log-in page. There are some fantastic creations by very talented artists and interactive sims that are a kick. I tried a suf-boarding sim and got hooked on it. There are lovely historical sims, and re-enactments of medieval life, fairy lands, tropical islands, beautiful green glades with waterfalls and lakes, lovely flower gardens (the second life botanical garden is a good place to start, do a search on it). There is shopping for just pennies on the dollar (I have a different outfit everyday and shoes shoes shoes). There are clubs for every kind of music taste: house music, techno, hard metal, golden oldies, romantic music and jazz (usually ballrooms) where you can chat with others at the same time. If you like having a home base, you can rent homes and decorate to your delight, or rent an island or big skyboxes where you can put in your own purchased home, and decorate it just the way you like. You can live in a tree house, or a castle, or a tiki hut, or a beach house or bungalow. If you purchase property for which you only pay monthly tier (like rent) then you can change the landscape to suit yourself on your property. I found that challenging and lots of fun. I had a small castle in one place and landscaped a creek through it and flower gardens and put a little guest house on it. I had a cave once, a fancy cave with indoor pools, and corners for private areas. The entry was a walk through a waterfall. I loved it. There's so many things to try out, hours fly by before I even notice it's time to eat. Sometimes I forget. And of course there are the many many choices to make your avatar the "you" you've always wanted to be. I've had numerous versions of me and I will probably have more. I settle on one, and then I see someone else I want to look like and I'm off finding the shapes, skins and hair to get my ideal look once again. It's like designing barbie dolls, only they aren't dolls, they are you. If I can help you find the best clubs, or the best shopping, or some help finding shapes and skins for your avatar, or recommendations for cool places to explore, or anything else you need help with, just send me a personal mail through the forum. I'll be happy to assist.

I've noticed my system gets very laggy and CPU usage shoots up just before I crash. I've noticed this happens until I get a notice that one of my virus or ad remover programs has been scanning in the background. I never get a notice that any scans are going on until it's over. Then the CPU usage goes down again and sl stabilizes and runs much faster again. I can't say if that's your problem, but it seems to be mine.

Oh, one other tip I forgot. If you still look like a newbie and have not improved upon that look, many longer term residents in sl feel superior and sometimes will react towards you in a negative way. Some will be outright rude towards newbies, partly because griefers will come into venues as brand new avatars and purposely try to be disruptive and annoying. It's best to try to pimp out your avatar as soon as possible so as not to stick out like a sore thumb. Get a decent skin and hair and a cool outfit or two, get an AO so you don't move like you're a stick figure. Appearance does matter in sl like it does in rl.

Be happy with it, your avatar is gorgeous. Sometimes it's the angle your head is turned to that can cause distortions. Sometimes lighting. Don't worry about it. Just make sure your profile picture is flattering. People look at that after they notice you and if your picture is flattering, without the lines or shadows, they will know what you really look like.

Hi Mike, SL is not really a game. It's a social platform which includes games and rp, as well as finding groups and others with like interests. I suggest finding some group or other that shares your interests, preferably one that actually has regular in world meetings or a meeting place. There are places where the visitors are friendlier, but I've forgotten the exact locations. Someone else may help you on that. That way you'll find more interaction. I like music venues with streaming from some of the talented in world performers, many of whom currently perform or have performed in real life. There is more real interaction at many of these performances. But as the previous poster mentioned, it appears as if no one interacts in clubs for instance but are probably in IMs. I know some people who like to host in clubs because they meet more people and form friendships that way. Also, you may get chewed out for checking some female out because they are in fact men who are imitating females. There are some very good male artists in sl who can create amazing female as well as male avs. It's best to check out information in their profiles first altho that's no guarantee you will know for sure. But if they are partnered it's best not to approach them. And then there are the very defensive types who try to be "tough" by warning others away. I don't know what the issue is with those people unless they have gotten burned by forming relationships in sl that left them damaged. That happens all too often what with the instant relationships that go on in sl without knowing much about others or whether they are lying. So you'll meet defensive people here, that's just a fact. Try not to overstep boundaries in sl, like moving into other's space without permission. Avs have ppl behind the screen who have the same objections to being accosted in sl as they do in rl. Just observe the normal social rules you grew up with and be careful what you write in IMs. Humor is not always seen as humor when written and not spoken and can be misinterpreted and taken offense to. Hope you stick around. It's never boring even when the experiences aren't exactly what you wished for. Go exploring, there are so many sims you won't get bored. For guys, often building things in sl or creating weapons becomes a hobby. Try different things. I hear boating enthusiasts have get togethers and races where there is more interaction. For me, I've found the whole thing quite a learning experience as to types of people and interactions. It's one big social experiment.