…corporate Satan as well but alas, sometimes it has to be done. Especially when the government has turned more ‘New Tory’ than ‘New Labour’ and abolished the 10p rate in income tax, as well as other assorted financial blunders…Anyways, I’m pleased to announce that Kittywitchin is now sponsored by Claim Squad. Unlike those annoying TV ads with people pretending to be barristers etc, Claim Squad is an online organisation that actually knows its onions and is very successful in personal injury claims…so if you or someone close to you has had an accident in real life recently, ask them to click the link at the top right of this page and fill in the form. I’ll finish this plug with a true story…many many moons ago my mum was employed by a local supermarket, and one afternoon she slipped in the store on a grape…sounds funny but if you’ve ever had a fall or been injured you’ll know that seemingly minor incidents such as these can absolutely wreck lives. I’m led to believe that my small, dumpy mother went into orbit and alas when she landed she hit the deck with such force that she broke her coccyx. That’s your tail-bone. Yes, it bloody hurt her, she was incapacitated for months resulting in surgery to remove the shattered remnants of bone and her back has never been the same since. She’s an old lady now and somewhat arthritic, so you can imagine the jip it causes her. Alas, in those days there weren’t such things as Claim Squad to assist her, and although she did attempt to try and obtain recompense for her injuries she was sadly unsuccessful. Money doesn’t make up for the pain and hassle that being injured can cause an individual, nor does it lessen the effect it has on the family as a whole, BUT it can help…so give Claim Squad a try, and the very best of luck:)
Month: May 2008
Dernier Cri-that’ll do for me!
Now, if I’ve been reliably informed, Dernier Cri is a new arrival to the metaverse from the teen Second Life grid. If that is the case then we have one amazingly talented teen in our midst, who has the potential to take the grid by storm-I kid you not! I’ve just had the pleasure of a hair-buying spree with a wonderful difference, demos that you try on and tint using a rather smashing menu system. It’s great fun watching the white demo-hair style come to life via the selection of your preferred shade, and of course no costly mistakes, because you can try *any* colour in the palette before you shell out. When you buy a style you can choose the colours in your pack too- another really neat, practical selling point for the store. Also, shock horror, I didn’t need to adjust this style it fit straight outta the box! I actually heartily recommend that you get all your buddies down to Dernier Cri and have a mass trying on session as it’s stupidly entertaining trying on all the hair in all the colours that you would never wear in a million years. After you’re all haired-out, then move onto the fashion items. The store itself is really nice and modern, and features excellent hand drawn clothing. In fact, if you need a swimsuit for summer 2008 then give this store a try because there are some lovely bathing suits and bikinis on sale too. I also really liked the sunglasses that were on display. One of the best things though is the price…very reasonable. A three-pack of the hairstyle of your choice in custom colours is a mere L$275. Clothing is just as reasonable, I bought the swimsuit in this shots for L$50. I have no complaints, I’m a satisfied shopper. Oh and the skin that I am wearing is on offer NOW at Artilleri’s mainstore. It’s called Emi and costs just L$1 for the Anett make-up, which includes all sorts of combos of eyebrow colour, freckles and pigmentation. it is an utter bargain and is only available for a limited time to group members ( join the group and wear your tag to buy) You can’t miss it, it’s on the stage. Gorgeous isn’t it? Why are you still here?? GO AND BUY IT! ( Especially you Shinji!)
Kitty Quicky: Prad is one talented ickle sausage!
I’ve been a tad lax in updating my Flickr recently so I’ve just been catching up on some of my buddies posts, and ye gods, that Praddles has done it again! I already knew that he was a talented ickle sausage, but some of his recent artwork has literally blown me away. I especially love some of his landscape shots, for example ‘Hosoi Ichiba’ has been re-worked to absolute perfection, and he’s also posted some gorgeous shots of his rather lovely girlfriend, Chel. Stunning work that has to be seen to be believed, Prad surely ranks amongst the best image creators in Second Life. Not to forget the fact that he makes amazing buildings, clothing and pretty much anything else SL related. In fact Prad, if you ever read this, is there anything that you aren’t good at in SL?
If you’ve never seen Fifi’s work,<snigger> then click here and prepare to be *stunned*:
In fact, for best effect I seriously suggest you make yourself a cuppa, get some biscuits, switch to slide show mode and enjoy:)
Is Linden Labs talking out of its ARC?
On Thursday Pastrami Linden happily announced (seriously, check the way that the article is written, seems like Pastrami was on the special glee-inducing pills!) an interesting concept which *potentially* could have really unpleasant repercussions for avatars and businesses alike. You can now activate a feature that allows you to see your ‘Avatar Rendering Cost’ and I think this has the potential to open up a HUGE can of worms. Without going into too much detail ( check the blog for that) the more complex your av, the attachments you carry and prims that you use on your person have a numeric value. This is your rendering cost and obviously if it’s high then you *could* be having a detrimental effect on your environs. The onus will therefore fall on us to ensure that our avatars carry as little ARC as possible. Now initially my thoughts were that I can see the point in this, and it may prove to be a useful function-for as a virtual community surely we should do as much as possible to decrease the Linden lag-fests that we are so often forced to endure and spend most of our time whining about? But, then I thought again, and I must admit I’m starting to think this ARC idea could be used to stifle creativity. OK, there’s nothing wrong with prim-efficiency, but it’s a given that some of the most beautiful designs of avatars and clothing in our world are going to carry a lot of weight prim-wise. So this leads me to wonder if we are going to see situations where people are ejected from sims because their ARC count is too high. Discrimination could rear it’s ugly prim-heavy head in our virtual utopia..Of course there’s the other side to consider. We know we have amazing designers and talent in-world who will probably see ARC as a challenge that can be successfully met head-on. Low ARC could even become a selling point. But there’s a danger here..Second Life is what it is because of it’s complexity and because of the amazing creations therein. I don’t want it to take a backward step and become dull and formulaic because someone doesn’t want to exceed a set ARC. I want it to be beautiful and visually challenging and prim heavy if that’s what it takes…But am I alone in thinking that this is Linden Labs issue that they should be dealing with, rather than trying to make us sort it out? Am I being melodramatic here? Actually I don’t think I am…a pessimist might argue that we’re being thrown improvements like these to create such disharmony in-world that Second Life will eventually fizzle out, leaving Linden Labs free to move onto other projects. No wonder Phil Linden bailed….Anyway, enough with the grumpy kitty.I’m interested to know what you think so please leave a comment below. I also recommend that you check out the original article and the response on the Second Life Blog: http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/05/01/who-me-yes-you-couldnt-be-then-who-introducing-avatar-rendering-cost/#more-1960
Kittywitchin' 