Scylla Rhiadra

Well, yes, but she's wearing a very white skin that sets off the much smaller balance of black . . . Oh, never mind *sigh*

Thanks, Sara! I think you do a pretty great job of capturing the inner landscape yourself!

Beautiful picture, really great looking dress (how well does it move???)! And where is that?? Beautifully bucolic! I don't generally "do" sheep (sheep the world over heave a sigh of relief), but I'd love to check it out.

/me coughs Just to clarify, all that I really meant was that Neph habitually wears black, and Sara here was wearing white. So, sort of black cyberpunk vs. white cyberpunk? Anyhoooooooo . . .

Just want to say again how much I love your look! Great pics too!

The last of my pics for Route 66 (and the last part of the septet of pics taken there that together form a sort of mini-narrative). This one, although not as good as hers, is somewhat inspired by some of Tali's more characteristic pics.

Thanks, both! Serendipity: sometimes stuff just comes together. But this really does mean a lot coming from two people whose pics I admire so much. Yep, even same table I think, but in opposite chair. Maybe we're chatting while complaining about the crappy coffee?

I just hit 25! Which means, I think, that I get to do a shoot as an olive.

Wow. This is really wild, Sara! Very cool! (And sort of the anti-Neph!)

Route 66. The morning after (bedbugs and the jerk).

Well, aren't WE grand, then?

Yelling at the jerk in your bed-bug-ridden motel room to put his pants back on and get the hell out. We've all been there, amirite?

I actually hadn't intended to take or post a picture today, but this seemed a particularly good day to model a tee I bought last week. Picture taken behind the Pania Lounge, in a New Zealand-themed sim, Cheesecake (https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cheesecake/38/165/21/)

PS. Yes, any decade had its up-and-downs. But some are worse than others (the decades that saw the two world wars were particularly vile, for instance). The 50s were, by and large, a particular egregious era for reactionary retrenchment and socially-enforced conformity. I'm not a fan. But YMMV, obviously. On the other hand, they gave us the Chicago Blues, and Bebop. So there's that.

In a way, this announcement makes me a bit sad, because it, or my response to it really, underscores one of the most important ways the SL has changed over the past 10 years. I created exhibits for two SLBs (SL6B and SL7B). I made them from scratch myself -- I don't think either used anything purchased inworld -- employing the building, texturing, and (rudimentary) scripting skills I had patiently and joyfully begun to learn very soon after joining SL. Neither exhibit was a brilliant build, perhaps, but they were both competent and not unattractive: I don't think they looked out of place. I couldn't do that now, because the learning curve for making mesh, and the visual and coding standards we've come to expect, have both increased so much. There really isn't much room for the happy amateur anymore in the world of SL creating. Yes, I could spend hours and hours learning how to use Blender from scratch. It would be a much larger investment of time than was the case of learning how to build with prims, and I just don't have the leisure. Please understand, I'm not complaining, or "blaming" anyone. Mesh looks amazing: I don't think I could go back to a pre-mesh virtual existence. And I get why it would be fantastically difficult to produce an effective, efficient, and accessible in-world tool for mesh creation. It's just a little sad that those old, exuberant days of it feeling like anyone could contribute to building Second Life are gone. Increasingly, we are a culture divided into a small elite of creators, and a much larger mass of consumers. That's a change I wouldn't be celebrating at SLB16.

Ok, I shouldn't really do this, but . . . I've fiddled with the brightness and contrast of the colour pic, and I now like IT better. I think. /me vacillates indecisively, thereby once more proving herself incapable of adulting properly.

We REALLY need an eye-roll response for this forum. 🙄 ETA: HEY WAIT A MINUTE!! Are you comparing me to the creature from the Black Lagoon?????? 😡

More sunny, happy Scylla! (Also wet.) I know that I should prefer the colour version of this pic, which is much more vibrant (although actually darker), but I just really like it in black and white for some reason.

I was wondering when we'd see you post something here, Sara! That's quite the fashion pedigree! I wish I were a more "educated" fashionista. My own upbringing was decidedly suburban, with all that that unfortunately entails. It wasn't until I started university and moved downtown in my late teens that I really started paying attention to what I was wearing (beyond wanting to look "pretty," I guess). I have a good friend who is an actual fashion historian (nice work, if you can get it), and she continually makes the same lament, especially about her students. She argues, essentially, that "style" is dead in day-to-day life, and that comfort is everything. She's fighting hard against the trend though: her own preferred style is 50s and early 60s, and she definitely does not dress down, or for comfort. That much work at looking good every day would probably kill me. Yeah, I've been wondering about this: see my comment above. Maybe SL is the best thing that ever happened to the fashion industry?

And why not! I haven't really noticed a lot of 80s fashions around, but then I'm not really looking for them Given that there is a lot of nostalgia for that decade, there must be a fair amount available? Bright colours, square necklines, big hair? And, of course, shoulder pads! None of us get to dress up enough in RL! Which is part of the glory of changing outfits 3 times in the course of a couple of hours in-world!

Oh, cool! Do you find that eclecticism washing over at all into your RL style? I'm trying to think of where my own tastes have changed because of the influence of SL. Maybe I'm a bit more adventurous? My mum was born in wartime London, and grew up for a good portion of her early life under rationing; her own shopping habits -- for everything -- sort of reflect the waste-not-want-not attitude that I guess that must have impressed upon most Brits under those circumstances. I've inherited that, I think, and as a result I'm a pretty careful shopper even in SL too. Looking for things that are versatile, and can be combined and recombined to make different looks, is important, as well as just not, as you say, impulse buying. Mostly it's worked: I haven't had many instances of buyer's remorse. And, in fact, for me anyway, part of the fun of clothes shopping is working within those goals. It can be a bit like a game.

Oh god. You've been influenced by Orwar, haven't you, and have produced a new alt who will look like a cross between a trollkoner and the 4th Horseman of Apocalypse! I'll never sleep peacefully again.

Good catch! The cart is in New Berlin, so one would have assumed German, but I'm pretty certain that you're right: the black and white sign behind me reads "Freiten." Ketchup is still a mainstay for fast food fries here in Canada, but, happily, it's become pretty common in nicer places, or even in up-market burger joints, to find them served with aioli. So, yay for that!

Why, yes! I would like fries with that! (Been doing a lot of dark and moody pics, recently. I thought it would be refreshing to do something a bit simpler, lighter, and maybe even *gasp* happier!)

While I recognize that you probably think that this is "funny," you do realize that it's difficult to tell, from your own words, that you aren't actually expressing a desire to kill people, right? At the very least, it's an extremely ugly and unpleasant "joke."