ValKalAstra
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Posts posted by ValKalAstra
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Boy, so I was unable to look at the opening screenshot and did not expect THOSE kind of maze platforms like Orwar posted in reply.
I was thinking someone wanted some floating sky platform island mazes.
Yah. I'll see myself out. No worries. 🤦♀️
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47 minutes ago, Orwar said:
There was a period just after I went mesh that made me have a bit of an identity crisis as it was difficult finding the right stuffs, but it rather ironed itself out eventually.
Gosh that was me, when I had to make the switch from the buggy Genus Head to Lelutka. It took a while before it started feeling right again.
In my case, my avatar is made in my image. I went a bit silly and even used an image for the proportions, which also felt weird at first, because it's only an approximation and because so many others have much shorter arms that I feel like an alien. Even though arms do go that long. A lot of people need some Loomis in their lives!
Anyways, when did it start feeling like my look? That's hard to say. Imagine a pendulum. Make it swing and watch as each swing is less strong than the one before. That's me. Even nowadays I'm still making tweaks but they're becoming rarer. Early swings were more extreme changes where everything was in flux. Now it's just details like better eyes (my old ones have got an ugly shadow I always notice in pictures).
So by this point in time I can say it reasonably feels like me. Depending on my mood, sometimes a classy librarian look with long hair, other times cheeky tomboy with short hair and boyish clothes.
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I've just had one of the weirdest experiences lately. I was listening to the soundtrack for the old Anime Movie "Vampire Hunter D : Bloodlust" and just as a new song came up, I strolled into a drama thread about some dating stuff and the song just lined up perfectly with the cadence of posts. A thread gone wrong should not sound that epic.
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Haah. After the third day of being unable to find someone for a collaboration, I decided to just sit down and do something else for a change. Tried my hand at Black and White and realised that both of my monitors are calibrated wrong
https://www.flickr.com/photos/191119559@N02/53042913152/in/dateposted-public/
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Not sure my suggestion will be of help if the Izzie ones don't offer enough coverage. Still, here's my Avatar using Glam Affair skins. To name: It's Glam Affair - Rose with a matching body skin also from Glam Affair - that comes with an included Freckles Addon so the entire body is covered. The body i can't post here because... nudity - but I'd suggest trying the Glam Affair ones.
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8 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:
I'm just not sure of the point of incorporating them into a formal "levelling up" system. I don't think anyone in my circles is likely to be very impressed by my having achieved a certain "level" in these things. And hence, probably not very interested in undertaking it themselves.
I've pondered the question about achievements since decades ago when they popped up in gaming. I still don't understand it and have since learned that there are people, that "farm" achievements by buying *****ty one dollar games with easy achievements to inflate their achievement score on their profile and I have learned that people absolutely riot if something has got unattainable achievements that break their 100% score and...
Achievements be weird.
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Personally and without seeking to step on any toes, I'm very wary of fandoms. There's nothing wrong with liking something but when that something becomes part of the identity, there's potential for some pretty gnarly behaviour. Doesn't matter whether it's SL or RL.
Like say, the worst days of the year for me are when the Basel Soccer Club is in town, because the streets will reek of piss, alcohol and loud men (predominantly) will rampage through the streets as a horde of assholes, growling, howling, vandalizing, committing arson, littering, wolf whistling at anything feminine and throwing beer cans when I or others don't flash them parts of our bodies. Fun times or should i say, fan times? And let's not get into entire groups unironically calling themselves Stans (like don't they realise it's from an Eminem song about a mentally ill fan that kills his family?).
In online discussions then, it's pretty hard to discern whether someone just likes something and is a fan or if they've reached the identity part of liking something. It's tiring and draining to talk and discuss with someone that is at that level of infatuation. It's when any negatives of something are taken as slights against someone and criticism is met with outright aggression. That's where it turns negative for me.
This all comes to a head if someone with a particularly negative impression enters a community where there are one or two fans that are in a bit too deep. Let's call these the "haters". They're so angry with something, that it becomes part of their identity to hate it. We've all seen that kind of vent and rant thread pop up. Suddenly we've got someone that is so negative, that the result can't help but poke those to whom negativity is a personal affront. The two extremes quickly go at it. Others try to chime in and get caught in random sideblasts, "friendly" fire, it's a whole mess, quickly escalating and this is then made worse by other forum users trying to intentionally derail it for the giggles or politicals until moderators need to step in and lock it down.
Genuinely: It's just so ****ing unproductive.
So here's what I do: The second I notice someone is ranting and venting, I try to be empathetic - we all need a shoulder sometimes. But once they start flinging fanboy, white knight and shill, I just pull back. There's nothing to be gained from there anymore. Likewise when I see perfectly reasonable criticism be met with curious amounts of hostility, I assume someone in too deep is at work and pull back too. Nothing to be gained there either. It just ain't worth. They're never going to be convinced and it'll only escalate into a mess and I'm too tired to waltz into them. It brings out my cynical, snide and ugly side and I don't want that.
/edit: I had to go back and edit the post. Did the word filter get more aggressive lately? I swear i was able to write some of these words before.
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2 hours ago, Katherine Heartsong said:
Absolutely amazing btw. My fave cat avatar, all the rest I've simply retired.
I second this. I have long been looking for a decent cat avatar. The TWI Wildcat Avi is adorable, has got cool animations and you can customize it quite a bit. And now I can occasionally be seen dashing around the grid as a little purple cat with a fur made out of stars. Because why not.
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1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said:
Whatever happened to "Nice t!ts!"?
Too many bird puns pushed that out of cultural use!
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A friend of mine, usually a kind soul, has got a knack for the most backhanded compliments. The best part is that it comes from a genuine desire to be kind.
For example, the other day I was just trying my hand at a butterfly hair brouche in Blender. I spent a few hours on it and wanted to share my progress with her.
Result: "Awww, it was a nice idea!"
Youch!
Or I was taking a fancy picture that took a lot of work and usually she's pretty excitable about these, a shared passion. This time:
"Oh! You tried something new!"
Aaaaaand?
No and. Youch. The quintessential you tried reply.
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8 minutes ago, Katherine Heartsong said:
That one and the one where you click on a little flower vase in your home to delete it, select "Delete", and your whole house vanishes .. leaving the vase floating there mocking you.
The value of "Lock" item was never so apparent.
Great, you've just unlocked a whole new fear for me!
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10 minutes ago, BilliJo Aldrin said:
You are limited to the number of attachement points, 35 or so, just go to saved outfits and pick one, that should stop the process.
It does? When I accidentally double-clicked my "Bought Clothes" Folder, it kept going up to the attachment limit and just as I was celebrating - the second I took something off, a new item popped in. And another. And another. And another. It absolutely insisted on going through the entire damn list, through relog, through switching outfits, anything.
But yah, it's one of those mistakes one only makes once.
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23 hours ago, Luna Bliss said:
You've defined "spiritual" quite nicely for me -- a changing of the way we're currently conceptualizing reality so that these "other parts" (deeper in our consciousness) come to the forefront.
I'm wondering what evoked this for you. In our topic of discussion here, for me it's the ritual in Second Life I described above (Totem one) that dampens the part of the mind which seeks to define everything according to its past experiences and present desires, and lets a deeper part emerge that can provide beneficial messages.
That's such a difficult question and perhaps somewhat embarrassingly to my profession too - I lack the proper words to explain it. What did it evoke? Calm? Ya, mostly calm. It was a reset of the mind. Something that kicked my emotional state back out of shock. It was just this sensation of "it's okay. shhh, it's... okay".
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/edit: I always found that image kind of funny. Weeds are amazing!
But I can't say I have received these sort of spiritual messages out of SL, although sometimes when scripting something, I'm questioning my life choices.
I'm not very spiritual in general and that's kinda funny because I jokingly claim to haunt people in their sleep as the cosmic mistress of dreams. Just an old joke no one gets anymore from a role play ages past.
The one time it got spiritual was after a close call early this year. I got out of the hospital. Sat down on a bench late at night and just sat there for an hour thinking nothing, feeling nothing, just my mind going blank. Which to me is unheard of as it's always busy up in there and it felt spiritual in a way. So much suddenly felt meaningless while other parts became more important.
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2 hours ago, BilliJo Aldrin said:
Why do girls have to wear the high foot form when they are barefoot? Yes I know we are all barbies in here, but come on now, seriously?
Genuine answer:
- I forgot and in case I do, there's always some guy enthusiastically reminding me by asking about feet pics.
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19 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:
The easy answer is, a lot of us don't use our avatars as "Barbie dolls" with subsequent focus on looks/avatar/clothing/etc., focus on getting "Barbie houses", or RolePlay with our "dolls".
To give an alternative perspective from the dreaded land of games: Cash shops for customization are the unholy grail of making bank. People pay thousands to buy their dream soccer team or to get their upgraded S-Tier "Big Boobs Anime Girl". Customization and Self-Expression, aka playing Barbie, is something important to a lot of people. Heck it's important enough that the big spenders are non ironically dubbed whales and the industry hunts for them.
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6 hours ago, Orwar said:
Oh, been a while since I saw one of your pictures. Looking lovely! Mind telling me which dress that is?
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On 6/29/2023 at 5:20 PM, Robotshaz said:
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This is me. I've just come back from Golden and got my cake hat on and outfit
I think you were at Shop and Hop with that too, aye? Gave us a good chuckle!
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Over here, I was feeling a bit cheeky.
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The curse of shopping events! So many fancy things. In my case, I've just finished the last of the Sims and here's a bit of my experience:
Overall I've had a blast. So many cool things, amazing avatars to see, random happenings. Like I just saw a paper car that had crashed into a rubber ducky car and somehow that was just too funny and quintessentially SL for me.
I've bought less than other years but still found some cool things. There were some amazing gifts out (I'm not sure what I shall do with a several dozen meters large battle cruiser but heck, I take it and giggle like a maniac).
My experience has been mostly lag free too, some sim crossings took a bit of struggling but it wasn't too bad. Really my only disappointment would be that one of my favourite stores left me with a feeling of... that's it? Oh well, they probably had their reasons and it's no big deal!
Design wise there were some really cool booths, some funny ones, creative showings too and also a lot of default template stores. They often start to become a blur for me, which is a bit of a pity.
Well, that's mostly it from me. My purchases will make their way into various pictures and dresses and here's a final snapshot of the event from me!
One of the stores had this funny installation as part of it. You don't really see the Roswell Aliens in the shot but they made me laugh.
/EDIT: note to self, don't type when drowsy
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3 hours ago, Luna Bliss said:
I'm considering purchasing your photo tool I see you sell, but am not sure I want to pursue this as an art form, though am interested.
Oh, curiosity, my one weakness!
I'd say, come on over into the photography subforum. We're usually a welcoming bunch and if you'd like, hit me up in world and I'd love to give you a crash-course on the hobby sometime. Now for my HUD, it's there to primarily help with the process of lighting a picture. It comes into play once you've bumped into the limits of playing with windlights/eep settings.
I would love to see your shots though and if it turns out you might like the hobby, there are many clever little solutions (such as the Lelutka Axis HUD, for example!). And hey, once you get to tweaking and tuning lights, there's a Demo waiting you can try out to see whether my HUD is something that can help you.
17 hours ago, Polenth Yue said:The sky pirates place is D-Lab on Forsythia. I got the little stand that's cooking buns.
Oh, yup! You're right! Thanks for the clarification.
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12 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:
What Luna, said Val: really lovely shot.
This is at S&H? Wow. It almost makes me want to go. (I have avoided it two years running now.)
Thank you, both of you. Aye this was at S&H (Forsythia Sim?) - but I'll be honest, it was a booth that stood out. Most are fairly well designed but not as breathtaking. Well, time to head back in for me!
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For me the answer would depend on what kind of product it is. In case of clothing, my main interest in a demo are:
- Texture Quality.
- Ability to mix and match with other clothes.
- Check clipping and if I can tolerate, conceal or fix it.
This automatically disqualifies any Demo that vanishes on me in 5 minutes or that has Demo written all over the texture. Some people go really overboard there too to the point the entire texture is more or less all red. This usually ends with me throwing the Demo out. For clothes, I would say that having floating markers is perfectly okay and reasonable. Although I might just give up if they go overboard. If my attention is constantly drawn to some flickering glowing flopping thing, I tend to get agitated and yeet the demo. Subtle but visible demo markers for me, please.
It's different for anything whose function and purpose is based around a script. Here I feel you can really only do timed demos or no demo at all and that kind of fits with what I am seeing on the marketplace. Most scripts don't have got Demos.
Finally, I'd advice against particle effects. They can really make SL crawl and if I attach an outfit that sees my viewer start chugging, I generally don't go poking around to figure out if it's the particles or the mesh. I detach and move on.
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7 hours ago, Luna Bliss said:
By the end of the thing god only knows what I was...some kind of elf animal spirit thing with wings as I kept buying stuff.
As is tradition! Especially for Fantasy Faire I start with some idea, maybe a Fairy? Probably a Fairy or I could do something daring and brave and... go as a Fairy. By the end of Fantasy Faire I'm some weird half cybernetic, dragon riding, demon tail sporting, time traveller with an extra pair of hands or two - or maybe eight of them.
For Shop and Hop I started on something normal. Proceeded onwards to a risque gothic attire, became an odd blend of punk and rave party visitor and I think I'll try on some fantasy dress today. That said!
Some of the booths this time around look especially lovely though, when a friend and I rolled up to this one, I couldn't help but ask her to stand still for a bit as I snapped a quick shot.
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Wooo, I can finally post it. Summer time! Beach! That one texture I explicitly bought for one picture!