Ajay McDowwll

Sadly we're at the "no additional cats" stage of life at this point, in large part due to my husband's horrible cat allergy. He came into the relationship fully aware of the feline factor, but since we're all at least somewhat allergic to the little darlings, it's time to let the cat part of our lives go. We still have Bob, at least. We do have four dogs in addition to Bob the Cat, including two young chihuahuas. I'm just going to pour my energy into civilizing them, bless their stubborn little hearts 🤣 Re: meds, I'm like you in that I'll likely be on them for the rest of my life due to starting on them later than I really should have (late 40's in my case, rather than my late teens to early 20's). I switched late last year from Lexapro to Wellbutrin, but the anxiety component came flaring back up so we've added Buspar to my routine. That just took place, though, so at the moment I get to deal with even more anxiety, as that's one of the onboarding side-effects of Buspar that I'm experiencing. I just love how some anti-anxiety meds have the temporary side-effect of causing anxiety. Because of course LOL I was having the worst time transitioning to BoM for the same reason you stated above. I loved my face. I'd been using the same skinmaker's skins literally since I first realized the default skin was hideous, and have been buying new from there every time the situation popped up that I maybe should. I even got my Maitreya body applier there, as well as an Omega applier that worked beautifully with my Genus head. When I tried to use my latest system skin from my old supplier, though, it just would not work correctly. The shading in the neck, collarbone, fingers, elbows... well, you get the drift. So if I wanted to go BoM I had to try a new skin... and I finally did. Maybe it was time to branch out, for me. But I do get not wanting to get away from a favorite appearance, and honestly if the folks who made my old skins ever do a BoM update to mitigate the worst of the shading issues, or at least make some of the BoM "fixes" work sufficiently, I'll be right back there

I'm not at 500 -- more like 120, which I know from having to replace links after the Maitreya update -- but I have significantly more than my husband, who was very disturbed at having up update all 10 of his when his Gianni updated. I love that man, but I didn't even feel bad for him that he didn't know how to replace the links (I've since showed him how). On that note, the "Replace Links" is working for me, but last night the thing where I was supposed to just remove links (to my old manicure gloves/ pedicure socks and my head and body alphas) wouldn't complete the job so I had to go do it manually. I was in bed before 11, but not by much LOL

I have a problem at times that may be similar to yours, although mine had me look more like I was swimming in midair. I tracked the cause down to my Zooby Baby -- sometimes when I'm holding her, I just start swimming. No clue what causes it. When I remove her, I fall back to the ground just fine. This may not be your issue, but noticing the smaller individual in your profile picture I figured I'd give it a mention.

Scylla, that's what I ended up with, in Champagne. Either the neck tattoo wasn't in the demo, or I thought I knew what I was doing (I should know better, LOL) and I failed to read a notecard. Once I found the neck tattoo in the version I bought -- after the collarbone issue with the other skin -- I put it on and all was well. The downside is that I now have to go through every outfit and make sure ALL parts of the Skinnery skin (body, head, neck tattoo, and foot tattoo) are in each of them. I've got a little fix I'm using, wherein I made myself just wearing the Skinnery pieces into an Outfit and "Add to Current Outfit" every time I put on something I haven't fixed yet... but dagnabbit, after I had everything updated last night it's a bit disheartening. Oh well, it will work out eventually, even if I just spend time tonight ensuring everything is where it ought to be.

I posted back 3-4 weeks ago about the January from You-Know-Where (mental health issues running amok in the house, cat dying, etc) and I'm glad to report that things appear to be on the upswing. The Child is responding well to his new medication, after a rather rocky start with some side-effects. His psychiatrist thinks it's possible that after he's been stabilized for a year, they could try weaning him off the meds as anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications in younger people can apparently actually help to rewire the brain, potentially making them unnecessary in the future. It's not a definite, but I figure the less things anyone has to remember (and meds are a big one), the easier life can be. All things said, if he has to be medicated the rest of his life, so be it. I'm glad they exist. The cat is still... well, deceased, but our remaining cat has definitely come out of his shell and has started eating regularly again. He was in mourning, bless his heart, but it appears he's adapting. As for me? I'm wiped out today, but it's my own fault because I finally went BoM with my avatar and stayed up ridiculously late last night updating all my outfits when the "replace links" function in Firestorm proved recalcitrant. So I'm tired, but I feel accomplished Beth, I love this thread. I know I don't post much in it, but thank you for starting it ❤️

I'm going to have a look at both of those -- thank you! I did find the solution with the skin that had a terrible neck mismatch -- the demo didn't have the neck tattoo or foot tattoo that the full version had. Once I added the neck tattoo (ADD Ajay, not WEAR), the neck issue went away. Of course, this was AFTER I'd edited all my outfits to have the single-skin with the collarbone issue in it... sigh. Oh well, at least it's fixed

So, I've taken the plunge and gone to BoM... and I like it! My only complaint off the bat was that my old skinmaker (I've worn the same artist's skin since I first realized that my default skin was hideous) isn't producing BoM skins, and my old system skin's shadows were pretty awful around the neck, hands, and feet. Soooo... I had to go In Search Of. And I've now got a few nice skins, but one -- that I had to purchase in two parts, one for the head and one for the body -- leaves an awful line around my neck (but the body is the bomb), and the other one that matches beautifully at my neck (it's a single piece just as our original system skins were) has a problem with the collarbone being somewhat offset from where my body actually has it, which looks... odd. So I guess my question is, has anyone found a vendor whose skins well for both the Maitreya body and the Genus Head, as far as BoM skins are concerned? I'd love to find something that I loved as much as my old applier skins. I'd still just stick with those, but I'm kind of attached to not being stuck with onionskin layers anymore. I enjoy not essentially wearing 3-4 bodies Thank you for any suggestions and/ or thoughts you're able to offer!

This is making me want to upgrade one of my alts to Premium and get a place in Bellisseria just so I can contribute to this thread -- your kitchens are gorgeous, y'all

Wait, Firestorm has a favorite wearables button? I'm going to look that up when I get home -- it will make my life MUCH simpler

And one with a different windlight -- I really don't know which I like better!

I call this piece "Bacon Dress in a Field of Bacon." Because bacon. Also because my husband textured a full-perm premade mesh with bacon (he has issues, LOL) and I knew he'd like the picture

My dress for the Valentine's dance at the venue Himself and I frequent. Oh, and I got to meet Garnet Psaltery "in person" earlier at the Linden Hug/Dunk event -- yay! I've been playing more with photography inworld. I took the SL Photography for Beginners class in Caledon (I'm not sure that's the exact wording, but that was essentially it) and found tons of good information. Additionally, I glared at Skell's blog entry regarding SL photography and tried to take in what I was reading there also. My brain hurts, but this didn't turn out too badly I don't think The only editing was some cropping; the rest is as it was taken inworld.

I ended up getting the Vista Erika AO because it gives me facial expressions that don't make me totally cringe, unlike my Genus HUD... which makes me look like I'm contemplating serial murder.

I got to hug Whitney Linden and Patch Linden -- yay! And although I utterly failed to dunk a Linden, my husband managed to... so I feel I succeeded vicariously

My gift to myself is hopefully getting to both hug and dunk a Linden. I'll only miss it if my husband gets off work early and we end up doing something RL during that timeframe. Our gift to each other was the gift of neither of us having to stop off to get a last-minute Valentine's card for the other, because we're both a) lame, and b) have had an insane month. Hugs and kindness (among other things) will do quite nicely in lieu of decorated cardboard

It depends on how it feels to you, as Wulfie said. I'm happier at 20 FPS or higher, but as long as the movement is relatively smooth I'm good. Sometimes I can be as low as 12 FPS and only notice a slight drop in the visual... whatever it is. The smoothness? I get positively giddy at 30+ FPS, and when I'm over 100? Shoot, it's almost better than payday! Almost. Not quite. Sorry, I'm not a huge tech person myself; it's just that I just obsess over my lag so much that this particular set of terminology is familiar, albeit in a very, very narrow scope

Why? The posters here are trying to help you figure out why the V5 Maitreya body is causing you to lag more; they're asking questions to help find the source. Like Matty, my FPS dramatically jumped up when I started wearing the V5 body. If I add any of the layer elements (tattoo, underwear, clothing), the FPS drop. I've never had all three layers on at once with the V5 (in fact I'm actively avoiding them, because I'm enjoying the decrease in lag so much), but if I had, it's possible I would have experienced a drop in FPS below my V4 body. Did you have layers on when you experienced the FPS drop, or was it just with the base body?

Some days... yep. This would be one of 'em.

I posted this elsewhere on the forums, so I figured it should also go here. Here I am with my alts, AjayMcDowwll Alter, then me, then Piper Kitalpha. As I said there... fear our squirrely wrath

Since we're talking alts and I mentioned my poor Piper, who was languishing in system misery, I decided to upgrade her today. Her we all are: AjayMcDowwll Alter, Ajay McDowwll (me), and Piper Kitalpha. Fear our squirrely wrath.

I used to be really hardcore like that with Ajay (my main, the one I post under), but of late I've been a horse, a micro-dragon, a wyvern, a baby diplodocus, and I may or may not have recently terrorized my home marina as a tylosaur...

They were! I kind of think my primary last name, McDowwll, was a misspelling because I cannot find a reference to it anywhere outside of Second Life. A few months later they briefly released "McDowell"... but by then it was too late. I'm just thinking of it as the Welsh variant.

Actually, that said, my other alt's name is perfectly unrelated to these two... but she's still stuck in system avatar misery. One day soon, when I'm feeling inspired/ flush I'm going to mesh her out and then take a picture of the three of us together. As one does.

LOL -- even better, my alt is literally "AjayMcDowwll Alter", made in 2008 during the brief period of time when the last name "Alter" was available. I nabbed that sucker up quickly, because at the time I was working in management for a (then) large presence in SL, and having somewhere to retreat and just have fun, while still being able to hang with my friends, was priceless

My primary alt is agonizingly recognizable. Profile reading is helpful https://my.secondlife.com/ajaymcdowwll.alter