Well, I’m going to stop making up silly versions of UB40 songs for a start!
Anyway, first post from Horrorfest 2013 and it’s a corker. Feast your eyes on this wee cutie! This is Stella (no she doesn’t do tricks, I asked*) and she is a ‘Fledermaus Batty Plush’ from SILENT SPARROW and she is to DIE FOR! Squeeee!!!!
As with all SILENT SPARROW stuff she’s beautifully built and textured to perfection. I really love the pattern on her fur, and she is softly coloured. She’s so squishy and cuddly and I want her desperately in real life. Check out her chops; her features are absolutely adorable! She has lovely big flying-fox ears and is, without a doubt, the cutest bat I have ever seen.
There are some great choices available for Stella too with lots of wearing possibilities as well as static poses.
I really like the ‘Sleepy’ pose, which is the bat hanging over my hob. ‘Flop’ is ideal for placing on a bed, and ‘Dance’ is just too cute for words, look!
But the best of all? 100% of the proceeds from the sale of Stella go towards the chosen charity, ‘Epilepsy Therapy Project’. How can you resist?
Horrorfest 2013 starts TOMORROW. Keep your eyes glued to the official blog for location details so you can go and splurge all your Lindens on Stella!
Right, you’ll have to excuse me, got some Guano to go and clean up. Contrary to popular belief it doesn’t add a ‘certain-something’ to casseroles…
(*If you got the obscure reference you can consider yourself very clever indeed for the rest of the day. If you didn’t, feel free to ping me and I’ll divulge!)
Tomorrow, October 18th, sees the start of Horrorfest 2013.
It’s a fortnight long horror themed event showcasing the darker side of Second Life. There will be lots of wonderful items to spend your lovely Lindens on, as well as a fantastic hunt and entertainment from burlesque dancers and even a DJ event too. It’s pretty special, and that’s an understatement!
The best bit is that 100% of the proceeds from the sale of exclusive items created solely for Horrorfest will go to charity, and this year the chosen charity is the Epilepsy Therapy Project. A very worthy cause indeed, and I thought I’d write about my own experiences of this condition to highlight why we need to raise funds for research.
For a short while it was thought I had Epilepsy.
I went through a whole barrage of tests, and it was a scary time for me, even as an adult. (So I honestly have no idea how a child copes, nor a parent. They have my admiration.) Eventually (and to my relief) it was discovered that I didn’t have the condition, and my run-ins with Epilepsy ended there, or so I thought. .
When I was diagnosed as Bipolar one of the drugs they gave me to treat the symptoms was actually an Epilepsy drug. This was one of the most commonly prescribed drugs for the condition, and someone had discovered that it was beneficial for treating Bipolar Disorder. This was because of the effect that the drug had on brain activity, it basically hushed your brain up and told it to behave itself, something that is incredibly useful for us Bipolar bods. (Our brains do not behave themselves, at all.)
Unfortunately I didn’t fare well on it. The side effects were brutal; I became totally zombie-like. Everyday life seemed to have slowed down for me, and I had a host of other symptoms too. My hair started to fall out causing the shower to look like a Yeti had been shaved, and worst of all I just didn’t feel like myself. (It’s hard to quantify that statement, but suffice to say I wasn’t any better for taking the drug.) A quick trip to the Docs got me off the pills and onto something else, and the side-effects disappeared. Incidentally, the dumbing-down effect had worked enough to stabilise my Bipolarity, but the side-effects were so severe I just couldn’t endure them any longer, and the three months I was taking these pills were pretty challenging indeed. Although it worked to an extent, I can’t help thinking what a harsh treatment for the condition that was, and how difficult everyday life must be like for patients whose only choice is to take it. That’s why fundraising is so important, so that better, more tolerable treatments may be found.
A final thought; I think people have an awkward take on Epilepsy because of what they have seen in the media and film. I think a lot of people are scared of the condition, and don’t know what to expect when someone has a fit. Let me assure you, it’s not as strange or scary as you might think. In fact, I have actually been with someone who has had a fit.
This was back in my college days, in a very old building in the toilets of all places. I was in a cubicle when someone entered the one next to me, and within a few minutes I started to hear banging, crashing and yelping galore. It was surreal because I couldn’t see what was going on, but I immediately realised what I was hearing was someone having an Epileptic fit. Unfortunately I was helpless to assist. The toilets were solid floor to ceiling builds, so I couldn’t stand on the loo and jump over the cubicle. They were also incredibly cramped, and I had no doubt, as I was hearing proceedings adjacent to me, that someone was going to be very bumped and bruised indeed.
I waited what seemed like an age for the noise to die down, and then shouted and asked the person if they were alright. To my joy they were; shaken and a little uncomfortable but they were conscious. With no-one else around I had no choice but to sprint to the nearest lecturer and ask for assistance, and fortunately that came swiftly. My toilet-buddy emerged looking a little poorly, and with a nasty gash on her head, but all was well.
What I’m trying to say is that you probably encounter loads of people every day who have Epilepsy, but you don’t even realise, and fortunately it isn’t as taboo as it was in days gone past. I have one friend who has the condition, but in my circle of acquaintances I know of at least three more who are also affected. It is incredibly common, so it is important that we learn more about it and discover ways to help people afflicted by this condition. Hopefully one day when we understand a little more about the brain and the secrets that it holds we’ll be able to find a cure.
I’m really chuffed that Horrorfest has chosen this charity to fundraise for this year, and I really hope the event is a roaring success. I’m proud to be an official blogger for this event this year, and over the next few days I will feature some of the outstanding items for sale at the event. You will not be disappointed, I can assure you!
Here’s to a successful, and pant-wettingly scary Horrorfest 2013!
In real life (yes, there is such a thing, honest!) I am probably best described as a Onesie obsessive.
The clock chimes for 6pm, and it’s practically automatic that my clothes drop off and are magically switched into a onesie of some design.
Well, OK, it’s not *quite* like that, but I’m sure you can understand my point. Onesies are perfect for very lazy people like me. Clothes off, Onesie on, and that’s me sorted for the night! The only problem is going to the toilet which is a darn inconvenience, truth be told, but anyway.. So I have four onesies in my real life wardrobe. Well, technically I have ONE onesie, and three Kigu, or Kigurumi. (You see there’s a difference, a Onesie has feet included, whereas a Kigu doesn’t, fact-fans!)
Anyway, depending on my mood I can be either a Midnight Cat, a Ring-Tailed Lemur or a Kitsune*, and if none of those will do I can sport my enormous Hello Kitty onesie. It’s pink, and I look like I’m having a mid-life crisis when I wear it, but I care not because it’s warm and snuggly and blissful.
Alas, until this week I hadn’t found a onesie in Second Life that was worthy of Kitty’s wearing, until INTRIGUE CO. dropped THIS upon the grid at Collab88:
I saw this and had a Kittygasm on the spot. Not only is it a onesie (well, OK, technically it’s a Kigu) it’s ALSO a CAT, and a black one at that! So much win!!
Once I’d recovered I zoomed off to Collab88, beating half-rezzed avatars out of my way in a frenzy and kicking vendors until they divulged the secrets of the wonders that they were holding inside. (Collab is always a nightmare to rez on the first few days after opening) I zoomed on home, tearing off my mesh clothing in a rather haphazard fashion (Seriously, I took my clothes off that quickly that you would have thought Alexander Skarsgard himself was paying me a visit!)
This is an absolute joy to wear with no issues at all. I put on the alpha, then the medium sized onesie, and voila! Job’s a carrot! Fits like a dream for only L$188. If only they were so cheap in real life!
Not only is this shaped perfectly, it’s also beautifully textured and really does look like it’s made out of fleece fabric.
The styling is great too; with ears on the draped hood and a tail, as well as matching kitty-slippers to make sure your feet stay warm. I must confess I’ve not changed out of it since I bought it, despite the grid being a Halloween fashion frenzy at the moment! I don’t care, I love this way too much.
It wears so well and I want exactly the same one in real life, if I can find it!
Yet again INTRIGUE CO. have proved that they’re at the front of the queue when it comes to bringing what’s fresh and funky in the real world into Second Life. They always make fantastic fun items rendered to perfection with stunning textures a given. Wouldn’t it be nice if they were to bring a series of these to the grid? I’d be at the front of the queue if they did!
I received a note in my inbox the other day to tell me that Vista Animations had just released a new AO (Animation Override). Now, if you don’t know what one of those is, it’s best described as a scripted attachment which replaces standard animations (walk, jump, stand, run, etc.) with animations created by residents. (Torley Linden has a pretty self-explanatory video posted here which tells you all you need to know.)
I haven’t worn an AO in an age, primarily because I keep forgetting to put one on, but they really do give your avatar an extra boost of reality. They can also make them much more entertaining to watch when you’re in conversation, or exploring a sim.
Vista Animations have a reputation for being one of the best AO creators in-world, and when I discovered that this new release was called ‘Feline’, well, how on earth would I be able to resist?
Answer: I couldn’t, so I noob-strutted my way over to their store to investigate. It’s crammed to the rafters with AO’s for Male and Female avatars,and it’s easy to waste serious amounts of time hopping on and off all the demos on display.
I wasn’t the only one testing out the ‘Feline’ charm either. There are four test stands at the store with each one holding various AO components, when I visited it was very busy with female avatars of all shapes and size eagerly waiting their turn.
Business must be good! Anyway, patient Kitty that I am, I waited for my turn..and then hopped on a pad to test it out!
My problem with AO’s is that they always seem overwhelming with the amount of animations that they invariably offer so many sits for a start. I mean, I have two sit poses that I use in real life; one multi-tasking sit pose which enables me to sit at my desk, drive my car and read my Ipad on the bog, and the other I use to look very graceless and un-ladylike on the sofa of an evening. Why do I need more than two? The answer is of course that you don’t, BUT this being Second Life it’s de-rigueur to have a multitude of poses for every occasion, and Felina has them in spades. (And of course, you can de-activate the ones that you don’t want to use, but why would you when they’re this much fun?!)
Felina features 22 stands, 9 walks, 6 sits, 5 ground-sits, 2 runs, 2 crouches, a crouch-walk (whatever that is, for some reason my brain conjured up an image of Peter Crouch in distress on the football field but I think it’s more likely to involve super-heroes on rooftops) and 8 dances. That’s an overwhelming amount of movement crammed into a single AO package and when my turn came I eagerly jumped upon one of the platforms to test it out..
Felina is evidently aimed at the role-playing crowd, at least that’s what the adverts in store suggest, but from experimenting with the poses I can tell you that, like Catwoman, Felina is VERY adaptable. (See what I did there? Clever Kitty!)
The walks in particular are excellent, with the sideways shuffle (crouch-walk?) being very effective. There’s also a fast-paced, assertive stride which is just an essential purchase for bloggers on a mission at an event or sale. All of the sits work a treat, and I was impressed by the weighting of the animations making the running movements look realistic and fun. There are some Matrix-style leaps and bounds which are perfect for fighting bad guys, and I was surprised and impressed to see swimming movements included too. The included dances are slinky and smooth and just what I have been looking for in Second Life for a very long time too. (Catdance07 in particular is a nice, seductive dance, best conducted at the side of the dancefloor while purring!)
It’s never easy testing out a new AO when you’re in a busy sim filled with its own distractions (I was perplexed and bemused by a semi-naked avatar jiggling her boobies on a dance pad with a pet rabbit at her heels…yup, entry #267 in the ‘Things That You Only See In Second Life’ book), and it can be difficult to get a genuine feel for how an AO will work with your avvie, but Vista have tried to address that by publishing a YouTube video featuring Felina in action….
Note: I probably wasn’t dressed in the right attire for mood-setting for a new AO. Readers will know by now that I’m a bit of a Catwoman obsessive, collecting comics and figurines in real-life as well as owning many a latex suit in my Second, but I didn’t have time to get the talcum powder out and squeeze my virtual flab into something sexy so opted instead to wear my fabulous onesie from Collab88 (which I haven’t told you about yet, see the next post on the blog!!)
I’ve spent almost an hour in-store playing about with this AO and I’ve come to the conclusion that Felina is a really special AO indeed. It’s totally drowning in feline presence but in a stylish, seductive way. It’s bold and really makes your avatar stand out in the crowd. This isn’t in your face Neko posturing and pretending to be a cat; Felina is totally human, in fact I’d go so far as to say that this AO is how Selina Kyle would move and act in RL, which for me makes it a winner. (I’m basing this on my regular reading of the New 52, rather than any recent movie incarnations.)
My only issue was that I found it a little confusing to purchase in-store. There’s some sort of loyalty-scheme in operation, but I struggled to figure it out due to my being small of brain (and also due to being distracted by some over-exciteable avatars next to me typing Cyrillic into their keyboards like it was going out of fashion!), so I’ll need to pop back and read up on it when I’m feeling less intellectually-challenged.
However I’m happy to tell you that this AO is available from the Marketplace and is currently priced at an incredibly reasonable L$1900. (Alas, I’m skint until pay-day so I hope the promotional offer sticks around for a wee bit longer, as I think this may have to be my signature AO!)
Finally, when I was looking for the official Vista Animations Felina video, I came across a few others that seemed home-made but worthy of a peek for illustrating the benefits of this AO.
Click HERE and HERE to check them out, and don’t forget to visit the MAIN STORE to try Felina out for yourself!
Kittywitchin' 