Thursday, April 28, 2011

The Shop Necklace

This is my newest creation: a necklace you can wear that gives out a folder of LMs, NCs, objects, and pictures to anyone who touches it. Plus you get notified when they do.

This is incredibly useful for anyone who owns a shop or hosts events (or even pet breeders!). Often I find myself chatting with someone and they ask me for a LM. I then have to dig through my inventory to find anything relevant to pass along. With the Shop Necklace, you can just tell them to click your necklace!



The Shop Necklace is only 3 prims and carries a very low resource script. It comes in 3 styles: oval, round, and square, and you can customize the pendant with your own texture so you can wear your store logo with style.



You can find the necklace in three locations:

JovianBay Jewelers


Beau Gatto at KittyCats Cafe

Marketplace

CATS!

So it's been a long time since last I posted. But I have a reason for that: I've been knee deep in KittyCats!

It started with looking for a lower prim, better featured pet cat for my mom than what she currently had. My friend Novella is a breeder and had just gotten into the new cats, called KittyCats. So we went to a couple of sims to check them out. Instantly, we loved them.

I have seen, I believe, all of the brands of pets out there and KittyCats have to be some of the best-scripted, low lag, full of personality pets I've seen. You can breed them (and therefore feed them) if you want to but they give you the option to permapet the cats so that you don't have to feed them (and can no longer breed them). They come in all colors and sizes and I am so addicted there's no turning back! If you ever want to see them in action, stop by my cozy little shop, Beau Gatto, in KittyCats Cafe in Rhineland.

Here are just some of my little lovelies. (You can see more pics on my Flickr account.)




Galen, my pure Burmese Sable



Lily, my Snowshoe Lilac
Kaylee, my Domino
Zoe and Wash, two of my Cream Tabbies
The Cream Army
Cuddling with Six, my coco with Pink Ice eyes

These cats are great. They rez and chase butterflies and bees, they stick their tongues out, they sleep, you can throw a ball for them to play with, and they can even talk to you...well, sort of ;)

KittyCat breeding isn't for the faint of heart. The market goes up and down and you really need to learn the business well before investing any money in it. But for me at least, it's been a very rewarding month so far. I'm loving every minute of it!

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

This is so inspirational

I came across this and just have to share because the potential for this kind of multi-media exhibition is candy to the mind.



Can you imagine this technology being used more in all kinds of historic sites? Independence Hall? An outdoor venue like Pearl Harbor?? (Just thinking of American history here, but imagine all the world events that could be covered!)

Take it a step further...could something like this be used interactively? Like have a visitor walk through a building or something and be able to touch a wall to receive a multi-media, immersive history lesson? How could it be individualized or should it be a group experience, like being in a virtual reality movie theater?

If a group experience, what about something like a Disney ride, where you sit in a room full of chairs that can pivot and with 4 screens all around you, you walk or run from a first-person camera perspective, turning as needed to take in what the screen person sees? Heck, add in some wind or smells just for authenticity.

This exhibition in Holland is stunning. I am definitely inspired by it and am eager to see what other similar projects will come about.

Celebrity Look-Alikes

I was reading through the New World Notes blog (a great read, btw), and found an old post about a face recognition feature of MyHeritage.com where you can upload a picture of yourself and it scans your bone structure, etc., to come up with a list of celebrities you most resemble.

The NWN article (from 2006) talked about the unusual number of Indian celebrity matches that avatars were getting. Since I am modeled loosely to resemble an Indian woman, I thought it would be neat to see if this program validated my self-perception. Turns out it does!

I ran several pictures to see if anyone in particular kept popping up. Here are my results:

Here's the first picture analysis



and then another



and one more for good measure



I got Priyanka Chopra 3 times for an average match of 72.3%. Not bad! And I also got "the most beautiful woman in the world," Aishwariya Rai once at 71%. In my book, I'd say that's a win.


For the heck of it, I ran a scan on a picture (which I've kept anonymous) of what I look like outside of the grid, and it came up with this, haha



So who do you look like?

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Nordari

If I could spend my afterlife on the grid, I would definitely haunt Nordari. It's a digital heaven - a haven - and I've treasured it since I discovered the sim in the fall of last year. I don't remember how I even landed there in the first place, but once I was there, the only thing on my mind was, "what is this strange and wonderful place?"

You would almost not notice the store located on the sim as the owners blend it in so well with the natural scenery. There are no imposing buildings, there is no clutter; everything about this place, from the terraforming to the well-plotted grass, takes you to another world. I guess you could say it takes you to the virtual world - and what a showcase of digital technology it is!

I worked on this video for 12 hours today and it's still a bit bumpy but it's the best I can do with my processor and graphics card. I know I can't do it justice but I hope that this little video at least relays a bit of how I feel about Nordari.

Watch the video and then visit for yourself!

The video

Nordari

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Spring is Here!

Slowly but surely, ice is melting from the grid and shops are starting to stock up on springtime pretties. My Bohemian heart is warmed by all of the new textures, which manage to blend earthy colors with cheerful tones. I can't wait to show you my new spring low lag outfit!

There are two different overall ARCs and prim counts for this one because the dress comes with both a long and short skirt to choose from. But even with the long skirt option, the dress's use of resources is low and honestly overall it really did boggle my mind a bit that I was able to get such a low ARC from such a detailed ensemble.

So, here's the overall ARC and prim count for the outfit with either skirt option. I will detail each clothing article's use further down.

Long skirt: 879 ARC, prims 359
Short skirt: 682 ARC, prims 335

There's only one script and that's in the hair to change the colors of the flowers (you get to color both individually) so you'll want to keep that one in!

Remember to click on the pics to enlarge.


The seams of this dress are not even noticeable. Just gorgeous.



I got the necklace for 50L Friday and it comes with a bunch of options. Also, this hair is just the epitome of spring to me.


Okay so these are my favorite boots in SL. It's the first and rare time I've ever purchased a fat pack because I just couldn't decide which color. They are 100 prims of HAWT and I've gotten many compliments on them. The stockings are old-fashioned sexy and I love that this dress lets me show them off perfectly.

 

 



Dress: Mimikri - Mia Sand. 213 ARC, 26 prims for short; 410 ARC, 50 prims for long
Boots - *G Field* - Lace-Up Boots - Sand. 230 ARC, 100 prims
Hair: Fashionably Dead (fd) - Rainy Day - Nothingness from the Earth Pack. 188 ARC, 77 prims
Necklace: *League* - Wanderer Necklace - Plain. 35 ARC, 132 prims
Stockings: *League* - Side-Gartered Stockings - Khaki with brown garter (you get one pair with brown garter and one with black garter). no attachments.
Bubbles!: Eyefliez Inc. Bubble Blower

Also, if you're curious like I was as to if the dress is made of flexi prims or sculpts, it's composed of both, strategically used. It fits like a glove but also moves when you walk (and without your legs flashing through too much). It's just really well made and the creator Mimikri Kit was very quick and friendly in responding to my question.

Now go out and play!

Monday, March 7, 2011

Casual Monday

Started out with a 16 ARC (usual disclaimer that ARCs may vary for you). As always, click on each picture to enlarge.

Consisting of only 114 prims and sporting an ARC of 432, you can pretty much wear this outfit anywhere and barely make a blip on the grid. This outfit would be great for a crowded class because you can sit in it without displacing prims and even keep your hair!

Let's get it on:







The only scripts are in the shoes and can be self-deleted.

Something that really stands out for me about this particular ensemble is just how well everything fits. The pants prims blend in perfectly with the pants layer and the shoes fit me right out of the box with no need to re-size, as did the scarf that came with the tank top. Seriously, this is no muss no fuss fashion!

Shirt & Scarf: The Sea Hole - Sheer tank top & scarf sets: mocha. 40 ARC, 3 prims
Jeans: [Decoy] Dana 76 Jeans, Black. 30 ARC, 2 prims
Shoes: Tesla - High Oxford *chocolate*. 166 ARC, 27(x2) prims
Hair: Tousled (KNOTTED) Onyx. 196 ARC, 55 prims

Enjoy!