Psyche Starling

My first shot made my arm pretty sore for a few days, but that was about it. My second shot didn't make my arm as sore, and I also didn't get violently ill which I was worried about, but I did feel a little stoned or loopy for a couple of days. Definitely not the worst case scenario!

I agree, it's annoying when they greet me from a million miles away. As I learned a few weeks ago when I dropped by a club just to unsubscribe from their eternally spamming subscriber, only to get "Hi (Display Name), welcome to the party!" But I do figure DJ tips into my plans if I want to go out. It's a really minimal cost for entertainment when I compare it to how much I'd pay to go to a club IRL.

Do you have a mesh body already? If so, get demos and experiment. I've made a bunch of standard size clothes work if I used a BOM alpha, which often comes with those clothes already. Or you can adjust your body to fit with the sliders. The idea of the 5 sizes was that if you set your body to a certain set of measurements, no matter what body it was, it would fit. You can then save that shape to use the next time you want to wear it. FitMesh was supposed to fit everybody in theory, but in practice doesn't, so again, demo it and see if you like it. (That's for the ones that just say "Fitmesh" with no other info, which I don't see very often. Sometimes it will say Fitmesh and be the 5 sizes, or "Fitmesh for Maitreya" or whatever, in which case it will fit those sizes or bodies.)

You have to buy clothes for the specific mesh body you have. The trouble with a lot of the free/cheap "complete avatars" is that hardly anybody makes clothes for them. Look at the clothes you like, see what bodies they say they're for. You'll see names like Gianni, Jake, and Legacy. If you invest in one of those, it's more upfront cost but you get to wear a lot more clothes. ETA: Here is a good blog post about the different male bodies. https://virtualbloke.com/archives/3711

Oh, it's definitely old! I'd been annoyed with some aspects of mine and asked a friend what she was using, because I liked it; turns out it was a really old one that is cheap on the Marketplace now, so I've been trying it out. But I liked my previous walk better, so here we are! I haven't decided yet whether I want to keep it, go back to my old(newer) one, or try something new altogether. But thanks to this thread, at least I know what's up!

The transitions between stands are actually working fine--it's the walk only. Sometimes it will take a second to start, or I'll float a few feet before starting to actually take steps. It's a minor annoyance at most, but hey, now I know why!

Oooh, this actually makes sense of some weird stuff my avi has been doing. (I switched from a newer AO to an older AO for reasons, but hated some of the animations in it and replaced them with newer ones.) I get the stall and slide things sometimes.

Yep, same. The button is small; IIRC I had to watch someone's tutorial video to figure out where it was! But I am now happily using BOM hairbases, skins, and makeup on the Genus Strong head.

Hmmm...I don't think I'd have wanted to lock myself into a specific mesh body until I'd spent some time in-world. I think it was valuable for me to (1) learn how to use system clothes, which helped with BOM later; (b) learn by experience how little clothing support there was for system avatars, (c) also learn by experience that the body I liked best aesthetically wasn't supported by a couple of my favorite designers, and then (d) finally settle on one to stick with. And I'd have had zero clue on heads.

Nah. (a) I'm not always making in RL the expression I want to convey on-screen, and (b) I'm not sure my real smile would be much of an improvement. 😆

The few times I've accidentally made my avatar smile, I'm pretty sure it would have scared small children, if any had been around. Resting ***** face wouldn't be my first preference, but it looks a lot better than Pennywise grin.

Found a new Asian-styled, modest store for you--went there for the group gift shoes, stayed for the cute clothes. There are several older GGs available in addition to the shoes, and the clothes for sale are reasonably priced too. S@bbia: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Manduca/133/226/600

I like to go out dancing, shop, RP, hang out with friends, and sometimes just wander around pretty areas.

I've found some really cute stuff at Virtue. They also have a lot of group gifts. There's a religious overtone to the store (in the decor and the music they play) that may or may not be your thing, and that's what drives their push toward modesty, but of course anyone can wear the clothes. A lot of it is vintage-styled and very cute. I've also had good luck at Belle Epoque and The Annex; they both have some sexualized stuff but also some that is not, you just have to walk around and demo stuff.

Oh, man, I would be so screwed. And broke. Remembering too many post-shopping flurries of chucking 4572048620486752 boxes on my house floor...

And I wouldn't even know how to go to most of them. Beats me where Belle Epoque is located in relation to The Annex, or whatever. In my head, all of the places I go outside my home sim are just kind of floating in space.

I think there are also some skins that are designed to look like light is shining on your face. If this is what's going on with your skin, when you take off your hair, your face is lighter than the rest of your head. I thought I was messing something up, but I've concluded it's just designed like that. The body skin has really light areas too; I find it most noticeable on the thighs.

DeeTalez has some.

I think the gridlines might be because it's a demo--definitely the words on your face are. Creators will make the demo "off" in some way so you don't just go around wearing it forever and not buy the actual item that's for sale. Sometimes it's words on your face, sometimes it'll be objects rotating around you like a dizzy cartoon character, etc. ETA: I see where you said all the demos are off and the gridlines remain. In that case I'm not sure. You might still have a demo worn as your body skin even though it's not on your head, maybe? It won't let you have no skin, so something might have stuck around.

Yeah, this happens to me when I have lag. Press the arrow key...nothing happens...I think well, crap, I must have missed the key, press arrow key again...and then my PC catches up and moves all the moves at once and I go on a little journey.

Maybe that's why I took to it. I'm enough of a noob that I was using the system clothing not that long ago anyway. 😄

I read about 2034652874365028743 articles and concluded it was hard as hell, and then did it and found that it was insanely easy. And opened up some more wardrobe options.

I'm liking it a lot better now that I've found some skins and makeup sets to experiment with--my main gripe with my original look was that it was kinda washed out. And I don't look forward to having to resize a bunch of hair! 😄 I just got on the BOM bus recently, so I'll still be able to wear all this makeup if and when I switch over.

Thanks! I'll look into it.

This. My avi is wearing BOM jeans today, because I wanted them to not interfere with a long drapey top--so I'm basically wearing them as jeggings. Plus I already had them from my classic avatar days. If I were shopping for a new pair of jeans, I like ones with more dimension than BOM jeans have. OTOH, I'm loving BOM for underwear.