Kitty asks you all to unite and ‘Stop Bullying’

Kitty asks you all to unite and ‘Stop Bullying’

One of the things that I love about SL is the sense of community it fosters and the way that avatars from all over the grid, and therefore all over the world, unite to support a common cause.
Today many avatars in-world are wearing pink shirts in unity against a problem that way too many people face at sometime in their lives, bullying. We all know someone who was bullied at school, but bullying isn’t just limited to the playground-it’s prevalent in the workplace, in the college dormitory and in the community as a whole. It even happens across the internet and sadly it’s even found it’s wretched way into Second Life. Bullying wrecks lives, and I know this from experience having suffered years of of it in both junior and secondary schools. You never forget the mental torture and the physical violence that a bully, or bullies, inflicts upon you. I still carry those real and imaginary scars with me today, and the effects of bullying have had a huge influence upon my life-choices and I guess, still affect me on a day to day basis. If I could have my life over again I wouldn’t want to be bullied, but I cannot deny that there have been positives from the experience too. Being bullied taught me about empathy and tolerance and eventually how to foster and truly value friendships. I just wish I had been able to learn these valuable lessons in a different way.Show your support for this campaign in-world by proudly wearing a pink shirt and lending your virtual voice to the cause. Renee has written a thought-provoking piece which is printed on the Fabfree blog, and I’d very much like you to read it and take her words to heart.

Kitty is wearing a FREE pose + sign from Estetica, along with a FREE shirt from Poised


Kitty musings on skins….

Kitty musings on skins….

I’m not finding it easy to blog at the moment (5 days to surgery and counting) despite there being so much out there for me to talk about but that’s the nature of the beast I suppose. The fact is, and laugh all you want about this because I’m done being embarrassed, I can’t physically ‘sit’ at a PC/desk for any length of time to enable me to write blog posts or do anything remotely web-wonderful. How I covet an I-pad at the moment, I’d be able to lie in bed with one of those babies and surf away to my heart’s content! As it is I’m using my wee HTC Hero to read blogs, Plurk etc It’s great but suffers the same fate for me as the I-Phone, which is I lose interest in reading off such a small screen fickle bitch that I am. Put simple, I like big. Less said about that the better, and NO, before you start with the perv-thinking that is most certainly NOT what has caused my present issue, OK?!
This is a post featuring some random musings about skins, probably your most crucial investment in-world (next to a shape made by Kittylicious natch…) But first up, feast your peepers on the beautiful photo of yours truly above, and know that you are bathing in the glory of the latest Belleza beauty, known as ‘Elle’. This is the gift skin, funding preventing me from buying a full set at the present time, but I have tortured/tantalised myself by trying the demos and by gum they are bloody beautiful. It’s no wonder this lady was causing such a fervour on the Plurkscape, because she is a sheer beauty. Now, let’s back-track a second, because although this is a GIFT you get a lot of people bemoaning the fact that you have to pay a fee to join the Belleza group. At L$250 the fee will not break the bank, and no one is forcing you to join, but the quality of the gift skins for both men and women that are handed out make this a very worthwhile group to enlist in. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend that you do that if you haven’t already…
Anyway, back to ‘Elle’. This release sees Belleza provide more brow options than ever before, and Tricky Boucher has excelled with the beautiful colour options that are available. I love the tonal depth, the subtle freckles and the shading that helps allude to high cheekbones, and on the paler tones there’s a noticeable rosy hue. The body, as you would expect, is astonishing; a gorgeous belly-button and great shadow work around key areas such as shoulder blades, arms and legs. Zoom in and you’ll see blemishes and a couple of moles too to round off the authentic look of this skin. It is extremely wearable, no doubt about it, rounded off with kissable lips that are a slightly unusual shape which make shape-making to fit a challenge, but I am more than pleased with my creation above. I think she wears Elle very well indeed!
In fact, while we’re on the subject, skins are a funny business in-world to be sure. There never seems to be a middle ground, well not for me at least, they’re either very good or unbelievably bad, and I’m afraid my views tend towards the elitist when I say if you can’t create perfection then just don’t bother trying because there are plenty of creators in world who CAN create it and you are simply wasting your time. That may sound harsh but the same can be said of everything in-world, and far be it for me to dash your hopes and dreams of making it big in the metaverse; but you aren’t going to unless you can compete with the big name brands, simple as that.
Second Life is advertised as a world without barriers but it is an awfully class-ridden society despite any pretensions otherwise, and the reason for that is because of the way that it facilitates and enables people from the mid-to-bottom rungs of the ladder in real life (I class myself in that demographic) to achieve status in world in ways that they couldn’t possibly in the real world. Of course, this does entail a cost to achieve, but L$3k (Today that is $11.84 or £ 7.65 GBP) which is relatively small change by comparison to real life, making virtual perfection perfectly attainable at a stupidly low price. Look, you can easily spend that much on a blow-out at Mcdonalds..I think the skin option provides more lasting satisfaction:)
Skin makers that aren’t at the level of say Curio, LAQ, Redgrave and Belleza, to name just a few (Look I know I’ve missed League, Rockberry, Dutch Touch out but this is part of the point, there are plenty of quality skin makers in-world ) don’t have enough time to set up shop before they find their clientèle have moved on elsewhere and navigated towards better brands. Having gone through this process myself, I know that cheaper skins serve a purpose for newbies as a stepping stone in Second Life. At first Miss Noob will be chuffed to pieces with her new skin and no longer feel like a new arrival on the block (although of course any profile reader will spot otherwise) but then she’ll progress through the ranks to the upper echelons of skin design and that’s it, no more room for bottom-end skin maker.
For a long time skin-making was seen as the pinnacle of the body modification business in world, and when I first joined Second Life it was extremely big business and skins were seen as a real investment, but those days are kind of gone now, because skin shopping has become not only routine but a necessity, and quality doesn’t have to cost a myriad of Lindens like before. Of course there’s another issue that has changed the skin environment, copybotting. The amount of ripped skins across the grid has increased exponentially and it must be sickening when the artists who have been violated in such a way discover the crime. We can only hope with the increased focus upon these issues in recent months by avatars with a conscience that the problem can be lessened, although I doubt we’ll ever see an ending to such immoral thievery in-world.
When you consider the length of time that it takes to make a skin of any merit, and add to that the raft of designers who are making brilliant skins at a fraction of the prices that they used to go for, then you can see the market is starting to get a little over-crowded with talent so what will be next for the skin making impresarios of the metaverse? We already have photo-realism, scarring, freckles and birthmarks, moles..what will come next? I don’t think we’re going to see any huge leaps over the next 12 months, but rather a concentration of effort upon perfecting details in the most sublime way possible. The base texture is surely the most important part of a skin, as well as the shading. Linden limitations aside, I think we’ll see a real change in the way skin designers develop this first layer even further and when that happens I think we’ll see prices start to rise and skin makers again becoming the near untouchable aristocracy of the fashionable Second Life.

Kitty’s jinxed..but in a VERY SUPER HAPPY GOOD way…

Kitty’s jinxed..but in a VERY SUPER HAPPY GOOD way…

Sometimes I just don’t have enough words in my vocabulary to describe the sheer awesome of a particular virtual item, and today is one of those days. Apologies for not posting recently, but I’m back with a post featuring an outfit of such quality and complexity that I may not ever be able to blog anything ever again, as nothing else will compare.
(Ok, that may be a *bit* of a bijou fibette, but I’m just gearing you up for the wonders that are to follow…)

First of all, time for me to confess. I’ve never really been a big fan of clumping great big boots and cyber gear. As regular readers will know it’s just not not really my style, and when I have seen it worn by others it’s never looked quite right to me. I dunno, perhaps you have to be of a particular mindset to find it attractive. Given a choice between a slinky dress and a pair of mind-fuck boots I’m pretty sure you can guess what Kitty would pick.

But not any more. I have seen the error of my ways,and the light is blinding me..

Feast your eyes upon this outfit. It’s the work of a creative genius called Jinx Spiritweaver. Get accustomed to that name, because her profile is about to go stratospheric. She’s just begun retailing her wares at a store called ‘Rublik‘, which is intended to feature cyber club and street-wear by a collective of super-talented artists. Jinx has certainly started the ball-rolling with her futuristic vision and the promise of many more amazing items yet to come, but so far she has contributed this outfit (available as separate pieces) as well as another style of boots which are just as mind-blowing to the store..(I’ll tell you about those boots some other time when I’ve calmed down a little!)
The outfit itself is named after the store, and consists of strap ‘stompers’ ( a better name for boots there has never been, because that’s exactly what you want to do in these!) arm-warmers, corset, scarf and there’s also a gas-mask which I’m not sporting because that would deprive you of viewing my rather pretty mush. So why is this outfit so darn praiseworthy? First up, the texture and detailing on this is so good and so well accomplished that it almost makes me want to weep. I’m serious! When you zoom in upon something for the first time and see the love that has gone into crafting that item doesn’t it provoke an emotional reaction in you? It certainly does me! When someone creates an item in-world with care it truly shows, and in this case you can see that hours have been spent tweaking bits this way and that to make everything just perfect.
Secondly, the details. I *LOVE* the strange ‘aerials'( I dunno what else to call them) that protrude from the elbows on this piece, giving it a strange, other-worldly feel as they glow. I love the way that when you lift your arms you see flashes of light stream across the polished surface of the arm-warmers. I love the way that the
corset gleams and accentuates every curve, yet is solid and constructed to be darn unbreakable, as symbolised by
the wee padlock on the front. It harkens back to the female robot in Metropolis a tad. But nothing prepares you for the colossal ferocity and sheer enormity of the boots..(Click for bigger view)

In a lesser individual’s hands this kind of footwear would verge upon the absolutely ridiculous. Jinx has made it seem so realistic and so vital that you don’t even question the construction; instead you just bask in the glory of these audacious boots. NOTHING is skimped upon. Every detail and every curve is lovingly textured to provide a
sense of realism and depth that you just don’t get from other boots of this ilk. They are a sheer delight to behold..they’re art people! They’re also made with a sense of humour too..I love the wiring and the fact that these mechanical monstrosities have a grill at the toe. Let’s face it, after a day spent stomping around the grid in these
clangers your feet would hum!
These boots are made for moon-walking, but not in the Michael Jackson sense, in the ‘I’m actually walking across the surface of a planet’ sense. I can so imagine clomping across the skin of an alien world in these babies..and therein lies the key to this whole outfit. Even though it is a remarkable work of fiction, it has the tip of it’s baby toe dipped into the water of reality,which is just enough to make it feel authentic, and that’s why I love it so much. As a virtual character you can only go so far, but when I am wearing this outfit in-world I can imagine that these boots make you feel totally invincible and want to STOMP everywhere in them.
Kudos to Jinx, these blinding boots are amazing to watch in operation. I promise you that despite their size the movement is fluid and captured so effortlessly that you won’t give them a second thought! Look, I know I have a tendency to waffle on sometimes, my bad, BUT prove to me these boots, in fact this whole darn outfit isn’t as good as I’ve made it out to be and I will happily eat my words. But fact of the matter is if you even attempt that you’ll achieve an epic fail of such proportions that it will make ‘Star Wars Episode One’ seem positively Oscar-worthy by comparison.

A final note then, after this effusive (but completely deserved) praise. The photos that I have included in this review really don’t do the pieces justice at all. You can sort of manage on a standard clothing review but on anoutfit of such complexity,well it’s practically machinery after all, I insist that you simply HAVE to see it in-world. If you’re in any way inclined towards this kind of thing all I can say to you is stick your fingers in your pocket and pull out your Linden dollars and go and try these babies on for size..and if they aren’t your kind of thing at all, then you need to do it even more. Why? Because you will NEVER get as much satisfaction, sheer fun or admiring glancesfrom anything else that you have worn now or since. I’ve only had this on a few hours and I’ve had so many people telling me how amazing it looks that I’m having trouble teleporting due to the size of my head.

Go and check out Jinx’s work; you can do this via her X-Street listings, but also by visiting Rublik in world.

Stick your neck out, live a little and invest in her amazing virtual creations, and then go and explore an environment that you have never appreciated before. Go to a club (There’s one across the road from Rublik, funny that!) or a cyber-styled RP area or just find somewhere that you can walk around and be admired. You will turn
every virtual head that you pass..can you imagine if you were a newbie who had just rezzed in world for the first
time and you saw a girl in this outfit? EXACTLY.

Jinx, you’re a genius. ‘Nuff said.

Kitty wears:

Skin by Laq -‘Trisha’ 03 ( Fair) Glowskin + hairbase

Shape by Kittylicious ‘Jinx’ ( Styled especially for this skin/outfit combo and will be on sale VERY soon!)

Hair by Laq– HB #08 ( Can only be worn with a hairbase)

Outfit: Rublik ‘Cyber Rave‘   Nine ( at the time of writing) special editions of this are available on Xstreet for a special price…..