The Spy in your Living Room – How much do you want to reveal about yourself?

Heya people!

So, this isn’t going to be overly SL related. To explain why all these things came to my mind: The new XBox One with the Kinect Camera by Microsoft has been presented to the public and I was sorta shocked when I read this article:

Spiegel.de – XBox One – Microsoft kann jetzt ihr Sofa sehen. Here is an english article, pay attention to the last two paragraphs: Microsoft unveils the new XBox One. Anyone who will use the XBox One as intended (as some sort of substitution for all the media/media controls in your living room or wherever you hang out most), it won’t be always on…but a LOT of your time.

So, is it just me or is this really fucking creepy? Collecting data by filming you the entire time while that thing is connected to the web (which is seemingly amost always the case when it is turned on)? Filming how you sit on your couch, who visits you, how you come home drunk and puke all over the table, film your kids, your parents, your dog. Filming arguments and what not? Your family hanging about in pajamas, your daughter forgetting to turn it off and running around half naked in her room? Seriously? How far do people let them go? I was really looking forward to the new generation of consoles but this makes it an instant NO BUY for me.

I hate being observed and having my life interpreted by data collectors!

I am tired of being observed, having my every step filmed, my data collected just to be swarmed with TONS of lameass advertisements, advertisement calls, more advertisements…and more rubbish. There are some really annoying offenders out there already: Apple, Facebook, Google and our wonderful politicians with their “security plans”. Ever since 9/11 the “terrorists” are the ever valid excuse for all politicians to support any sort of permanent observation and intrusion upon privacy. I am sick and tired of it.

To quote Bejamin Franklin who said something VERY wise about this issue:

“Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”

Granted, this is an old quote, but it still applies. I don’t want to give up my privacy and personal rights in order to live more ‘secure’.

Here a few examples:

Apple: The IPhone used to collect exact data of your geographical locations in an unprotected file, easily accessible by others. Does it still? I won’t buy one. Iphone-Article

Google: Oh, we all know our best friend Google and how it saves our searches keywords and displays all the right advertisements and links JUST FOR US. Such selfless, kindhearted people with good intentions, aren’t they? Fuck that shit, I want to google porn without having others watch over it and interprete my favourite sexual desires. Oh and don’t forget Google Streetview! Everyone knows where you live know and what curtains you use. Yay!

Paypal: Ohh Paypal, you customer friendly, selfless, wonderful institution. Such a good pal you are. Allowing third parties of all kinds (banks, marketing companies, companies that collect data about your directions, identity etc.) insight on our data. Pages of pages of WORLDWIDE companies having access to your data. Granted, the longest list is the one for the marketing companies. Many people use Paypal for Secondlife, have they ever truly read all the TOS? Find the list here, because apparently I am too dumb to even find it on the english Paypal site: List of who has access to your bankaccount/Paypal Data

Facebook: Isn’t it still terribly creepy that whenever you upload a picture FB recognizes you and your friends and makes correct tagging offers? That it is incredibly hard for new users to find out to turn off all those apps, privacy thingies and what not? Yes, such a SOCIAL network.

Cities: In Germany, whenever you register yourself as a citizen (for example, after moving to a new town/place within the same town) in the City’s Office, you have to specifically ask to be handed a form where you have to put your signature to disallow them to share your data with marketing companies. O_o

Politicians: The terrorists are EVERYWHERE. Ev-ery-where. The constant fear-mongering of course works wonders: People don’t care anymore that you cannot move in some cities without being filmed, that it might just be possible that people are listening in on your private phonecalls. Security above all! Read the above quote by Benjamin Franklin again and think about it. And of course…one can always win an election when promising ‘more safety’.

I am sure there are more. It’s the little things at times that piss me off. Take the gaming area: For how many games (EA Games being very prominent in that regard) do you have to STAY connected to the internet, even though it is a single person offline game? How many games cannot be resold anymore, because they are registered with your personal data? Isn’t that a little odd? You buy something and cannot resell it even though you have legally paid for it? How creepy is it that EA Games (and others) apparently find it fancy to collect your data while you game? O.o At least they sort of cut their selfproclaimed rights a little to browse any of your data for their purposes by now. It’s the sole reason why I still haven’t bought any Assassin’s Creed games (Ubisoft), even though I want them badly.

Funny thing is: Apparently companies in Germany are now considering to overview the amount of energy you use as well. Politicians are discussing currently to implement a mandatory (!) chip in refrigerators to be able to turn them off whenever they think a so called Blackout might be happening. Or…whenever they think you use up too much energy? Who knows. But soon enough, the kitchen is no safe place either anymore if you want to escape the everpresent collection of data/observation.

Be careful!

I use Google. I am on Facebook. However, I am super careful with what I reveal about myself. The youngest age that allows you to enter Facebook is 13. I am a teacher, and most of my little 13 years old in 7th grade had NO idea what they signed up for. They got a lot more careful about certain things after we did a little Facebook-Project. Isn’t 13 a little young for a network in which adults are? Can parents really keep track of everything their kids do on the internet? I doubt it, and I am rather much sure that Facebook and other wonderful companies are well aware as well.

So yeah, I  am done ranting.  I want my peace. Get out of my livingroom! Or wait, are you in my bathroom already? Do showers now have cameras to watch our bathing habits? The wall of text ends now and I feel a  little relieved because I had to get this off my shoulders. Gah.

<3 Arica

What is up with Collabor88???

Heya peeps,

today I have been to Collabor 88. Every damned month I am really waiting for it, no exaggeration there. I used to lurk in the neighbouring skybox when it was still at its old place and cambuy stuff as soon as it was set up by the creator…ahem. :>

I know the following won’t make me popular, but I want to express my opinion regardless.

The last few rounds, I have been a little disappointed. Anyone but me noticed that the prices there skyrocketed? There isn’t much left of the original concept of selling stuff for 88 Lindens when stuff is set at prices such as 588 Lindens by now. I’ve seen prices above 1200 Lindens, too, though I think not this round. Granted, it is a good and big item, but…don’t sell such an item then? Very few items are still sold at the old 88 Lindens price, and if so, with few notable exceptions, it is usually some sort of little item, say, a ring, earrings or whatever.

Wasn’t the whole concept originally to showcase awesome creators withing Secondlife and give people access to teaser-items (or maybe exclusive items working as a teaser) for a really low price, to offer a gREAT deal? Those deals really haven’t been so great anymore, and given the financial crisis, people now even have LESS money (on the average) in their pockets. Many, many people I know on SL really need to calculated wether or not they can afford item XY. I find it sad to see sometimes crazy high prices at an event like this. I even heard rumors that some items ended up -cheaper- in the mainstores after C88 ended, but I have no personal proof of that. Would I be surprised? Yes. I really hope the organizers keep track of that though and I think they wouldn’t allow that at all if revealed.

A Few choices

Don’t get me wrong, I can understand (!!!) that the creators do not want to sell their items under their value, but there are but a few choices to pick from:

1. Just don’t offer an item that would be greatly undervalued. Or maybe not every time.
2. It is Collabor 88, not Collabor 88-1088. Maybe adjust the name a little? I think it is very misleading nowadays.
3. Be generous and do it anyways. Chances are, the customers will hold you in very high estimation for it.
4. Do it at least sometimes. Not every round, but maybe every third?

If the only idea of the name supposedly was (and I absolutely doubt that, since in the first couple of rounds almost everything WAS 88 Lindens) to have the price end with 88, then it is a really bad deal imho because it means an item sold for regularly 2000 Linden could be sold for 1988. Awesome ‘deal’, huh? And if that IS the case, why is ISON allowed to sell their stuff for (admittedly awesome) 148 Lindens? ;D

C88 is a SALES event..

I am aware that C88 isn’t supposed to be a discount event, but you know, if you start as Colabor 88 with the prices originally BEING 88 Lindens, and then start to raise those prices through the sky? Don’t be surprised if people are upset and disappointed. My two cents really. Cory Edo of Trompe Soleil even admits in this PLURK that the merchants ARE told that it is a sales event, but what kind of sale is that when you save 12 Lindens??

Summary – No more IMPULSE BUYING and a lot less lindens left at C88

I think my beef with the whole thing is that C88 promoted itself very differently at the beginning. Prices were awesome and you made a great deal. Nowadays, the items are more expensive at times than similar quality items from the same creator in their mainstore.  I can see a creator’s perspective, they need to make their cut, too. However, people’s disappointment is very clear and the explanation of “The price only has to end with 88″ seems far from logical.  I still like the event and sometimes you get a great deal out of it (I love the skirt from FD and the hair by Clawtooth this round), but I leave significantly less Lindens there now. I used to easily leave up to  3k ….now it was  exactly 2 x 188 Lindens. Back then, I also used to buy a LOT of stuff I didn’t really need, nowadays, I am VERY picky. Leaving 500 Lindens there is a lot for me. Back then, I bought a lot of stuff just because it looked cute, nowadays I don’t care to buy it anymore. Pity really, and I know I am hardly the only one.  No more IMPULSE buying for me.

Granted there are STILL a lot of cute and great items for a good price, but…it used to be a lot more of a bargain and I used to leave a LOT more money there. Sure, you can say “Don’t like it, don’t buy there.” And it is exactly whata  lot of people do nowadays. However, my kudos go out to those creators who still sell AWESOME items for a price that definitely is a bargain. Be it 188 or 288 Lindens, Glam’s skins are awesome. ;D And so are a couple of other things there.

WE <3 ROLE-PLAY started, a POLL, and more awesome outfits! :)

Heya!!

So, WE LOVE ROLE-PLAY finally started and after my epic failnet (aka, my internet cut out three minutes before we were supposed to open) we started and the place was  cramped with avis. We are so glad and I want to THANK YOU:

I want to thank the CREATORS, who contributed all these awesome items. I want to thank the bLOGGERS who relentlessly blogged the awesome stuff for the event. My thanks go out to HOTTEST, who displays her amazing art at the exhibition area and made out logo. Last but not least my thanks go out to the TEAM and ADARA, who kept me sane and where more than just a little helpful. THANK YOU!

I DO have an IMPORTANT question for you readers though!!! Please use the following POLL and assume you EXPECT those sort of items and that the items even would fit your style usually.

Here is the newest outfit. It is a collabo post together with Adara Cascarino! You’ll find her posts, featuring different pictures and her items, here: The Messy Little Closet. Check it out!!

Hair: LeLutka (Thora Charron, partial Mesh!!)
Ears: Illusions (Siyu Suen, Mesh!!)
Eyes: The Skinnery (Umazum Metaluna, Mesh!! @ WE LOVE RP!!)
Horns: Europa (Kazuhiro Aridian, @ WE LOVE RP!!)
Nails: How Vexing (Myuuji Bubble)
Dress (incl. bracers, collar, gloves) : The Muses (Dolce Blackflag, Mesh!! Special Edition for WE LOVE RP!!)
Boots: GField (Cerberus Noel)
Facial Chains: Soedara (Marbella Pronovost, @ WE LOVE RP!!)
Headpiece: Glam Affair (Aida Ewing, Fameshed Exlcusive, sorry. )
Necklace: Fashionably Dead (Toast Bard)
Ring: Manna (Manna Yoshikawa)
Polearm: EZ Weaponry (Deccan Arida, Mesh!!)
Poses: Magnifique (Scarlet Chandrayaan)

Location: Scotland – Loch Leven (Des Beaumont- Store for RP Buildings), Loch Leven

And, here comes another outfit by THE MUSES! They thought of the guys, too!

Hair: Wasabi Pills (MissAllSunday Lemon, Mesh!!)
Skin: The Body Co (The Body Co Resident)
Ears: Illusions (Siyu Suen, Mesh!!)
Eyes: Umedama (Imetaro Mayo)
Scars on Face: Severus Koskinen Designs (Severus Koskinen)
Robe: The Muses (Dolce Blackflag, Mesh!! Special Edition for WE LOVE RP!!)
Gloves: Lightstar Designs (Krystal Silverweb)
Pose/w Daggers: Magnifique (Scarlet Chandrayaan)

I wanted to show you another picture with Adara posing in the BLACK version of this outfit, but unfortunately it has an odd glitch. :/ But please check it out here: The Messy Little Closet.

Dwarfins coming home! – Fantasy Faire Part IV

Heya!

So, I have a strange fascination for breedables in SL. I used to be totally into KittyCats. I don’t even know why I dropped it, well, duh, I do know! Because I lacked the time to keep track of them all the time. I think in my case it is mainly the theorycrafting that gets me.

So, a while ago I stumbled upon something that freaked me out at first: Dwarfins. Breedables dwarves. Breedable humanoids. At first I thought it was creepy, but you know…it is freaking cute. THe little dwarfins are really cute, wellmade. They have certain traits that can be common or rare and depending on how you breed them, those traits get passed on from generation to generation. They got different haircolours and -styles, weapons, clothes, eyecolours etc.

The pricing is very reasonable imho, both for the dwarfins starterpacks as well as the food. They also can interact through interactive items such as a barrel for ale (hahaha ), or fireplaces and many more. The furniture is REALLY cute. Also, they do not only come as breedables, but as wearable avatars (see second and third pictures!), too. I am the female avi in those pics. Am I not hot?

Horny dwarfins!

However, watch out! Them dwarfins are horny! If you do not turn off the breeding option through the menu (via clicking on the dwarfins) and you happen to be offline for a couple of weeks, you will come home to a GIANT family of dwarfins. Happened to me, though luckily the baby dwarfins stay in their stone-’eggs’ until you birth them.

Dwarfins at the Fantasy Faire 2013

Darfins has a big store at the Fantasy Faire 2013, located in the Lumenaria sim. The dwarfins you see displayed here have been made especially for the faire and come in cute little wizards outfits. Even the food, mushrooms in a bowl, is special. Dwarfins also offer them as avatars, alongside with an interactive Magic Book and an interactive Andronicus Stone. As a bonus, the newly released Rinn and Rorek Rockbeard dwarfins are available as avatars for those who could not win the breedable versions at the auction. All of these items are really wellmade.

In the picture ALL furniture besides the bear rugs, the barrel to the right and the little bowl on the table are made by Anke Hatchuk and her team (Kalia Firelyte and Codereth1200 Nemeth) for Dysfunctional Designs who have a stall at the Fantasy Faire at The DragonSpire Sim. I really love her furniture and deco-items, my entire parcel is stuffed with it! It is handdrawn, original mesh and comes at very reasonable prices, so definitely worth to check it out. They had 14 (!!!) new releases for the faire, which I think speaks of a LOT of effort they put into it.

The bear rugs are made by Tia Biscuit for TIA, another store that I am incredibly fond of. Her textures and meshwork is plain awesome. The small bowl and the barrel are items for the dwarfins. The shack itself is a meshbuilding made by Nash Sauber for Absent Designs and a new release.

In this picture you see more of Dysfunctional’s new releases at the faire: The dresser and towel-shelf to the right. The bed is made by TIA and the pictureframe comes from a store that is -about- to open: AISLING by Druunah Esharham and her team. Stay tuned for that one! I am amazed by the quality they offer and already had a chance to take a peek at some upcoming items.  On the left you can see more items by Anke’s team and the pillow on the ground is actually a freebie made by them.

So, Dysfunctional Designs, TIA and Aisling are definitely three of my favourite creators for rustic furniture in SecondLife. Envisage Limitless would be the fourth, but I#ll wait for her newest release before I blog them!

Here a look at Absent Designs’ shack in my parcel, with me as a sexy dwarfin with Elikatira’s hair in front of it:

Update about Flecha Warwillow

Hello peeps,

After a long talk with Flecha Warillow, I will state this:

I have absolutely NO worries about ‘losing’ face by a possible error. Instead of using the word ‘ripped’ I should have marked them as “almost exact, sculpted copies” from the PC game called Skyrim. I hereby apology for that and the error in the post has been corrected.

I will post the pictures of the weapons and let people decide if I lied knowingly, which more than certainly was not my intention, or merely let my eyes judge.

Here is a picture of his current sculpted weapon (a freebie called “The Lies of the Blogging Elf” hehe), no credits given, however the original modder from Nexusmods allows the unlimited use of these:

This is the original:

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/3871

Here Flecha shows how he does it:

Flecha’s Video about making the sword.

This is one of the weapons from the pack that made me post this, maybe too quickly:

Daedric Battleaxe

Original:

Daedric Battleaxe, Skyrim

I will let you guys decide if my post was purposefully meant to be malicious or just me being too superficial in my investigations.

Here a statement from Flecha Warwillow himself (note that sharing IMs outside of Secondlife is absolutely allowed as per TOS, also note that Flecha is not a native speaker and likely slightly raging, so don’t mind his mistakes):

[04:43] Flecha Warwillow: i dont altering textures
[04:43] Flecha Warwillow: I MAKE MY OWN TEXTURES
[04:44] Flecha Warwillow: i see te original so i need to build as close as original

<3 Arica

PS: I really hate when people state that I do not approve comment son my blog. I approve them all. I just happen to have a rl, too.

WE <3 ROLE-PLAY – Not just another Shopping Event

Hello peeps,

as announced in my previous post, a couple of likeminded people are currently organising a shopping project for role-players mostly, and I’d like to release a bit of a teaser with some preview-information on it.

Here is our logo, made by Hottest Resident:

Here a few questions we’d like to answer:

What is your GOAL with this event?

We want to promote creators who offer high quality content in general or high quality original content. We have nothing against templates if used WELL and if used to create a unique look. We want to spotlight  and bring appreciation to stores that do not dish out mediocre work five times per week, that do not sell blatantly ripped stuff, that do not undercut everyone’s reasonable prices. We have a feeling that a lot people are not aware of all the GOOD stuff that is out there that isn’t blatantly stolen.

Who will participate?

We’ve handpicked a nice list of stores who will either appear as regulars or as guests. So far, we have gotten positive feedback from these stores:

Regulars:
1- EZ Weaponry /The Forge (Weapons/Accessories) – Deccan Arida
2- Centipede (Weapons/Accessories)  – Kendra Zaurak
3 – Trident (Furniture) – Laufey Markstein
4 – Trident Jewelry (Jewelry) – Rossana Llewellyn
5 – Gspot (Clothing) – Jalilah Jewell
6 – The Library (Clothing) – Dream Resistance/Sabina Takakura
7 – Essences (Skins) – Inka Mexicola
8 – Dysfunctional Dolly Designs (Furniture, Landscaping) – Anke Hatchuk
9 – Roawenwood (Furniture) – Searlait Nitschke
10 – Tia (furniture) – Tia Biscuit
11 – Soedara (Clothing) – Marbella Pronovost
12 – Rainbow Co. (Furniture, Houses) – Huntress Blackrain
13 – Xanimations (Animations, Accessories) – Xanxan Jervil
14 – The Fallen (Clothing) – Triad Fallen
15 – Lightsstar Designs (Clothing, Shoes!) – Krystal Silverweb
16 – Rue (Accessories, Bodyparts) – Ruina Kessel
17 – Alchemy (Skins)- Nina Helix
18 – Panda Express (Accessories, Bodyparts) – Kioko Kumaki (from May on)
19 – Bilo (Clothing) – Mayaa Thistle
20 – The Muses (Clothing) – Dolce Blackflag
21 – Evie’s Closet (Clothing) – Evangeline Miles
22 – Innocuous (Clothing) – Circuitous Resident
23 – Kouse’s Sanctum (Clothing) – Kouse Singh
24 – Knickknack (Clothing) – Levia Larsson
25 – Silkworms (Clothing) – Trippy Fall
26 – The Plastik (Clothing, Skins) – Aikea Rieko
27 – Aeva/Heartsick (Skins) – Amesha Jewell
28 – The White Armory (Dresses, Weapons) – Colton Drechsler/Bee Dumpling

Guests:
1 – Handverk (Accessories) – Daphne Klossovsky (Guest)
2 – Arwen’s Creations (Clothing) – Arwen Serpente (Guest)
3 – Rochambeau (Clothing/Buildings) – Leviathan Flux (Guest)
4 – Tokidoki (Clothing) – Maya Levane (Special Guest)
5 – Deviance (Clothing) – Surreal LeShelle (Guest)
6 – Es-kimo (Hair, Skins) – Ziekling Bunnyhug (Guest)
7 – Aeros Avatars (Skins) – Pi Rain (Guest)
8 – Fallen Gods (Skins) – Alia Baroque/Elizabeth Tinsley (from June on, Guest?)
9 – Zaara (Clothing, Jewelry) – Zaara Kohime
10 – C’est la Vie (Clothing) – Larcoco Mathy

Please be aware that due to rl circumstances or any other reason this list might change. This is what we have NOW.

When and where will the event start?

The event will likely start on May 4th. I’d like to keep the location a secret for now, since I am still working on it. We do not want the usual boring box-look most shopping events have.  However, if you open your eyes, you might stumble on it anyways.

What kind of items will be offered? Will there be a discount?

All items that fit into the medieval/medieval fantasy, gorean, ancient Rome/Greece/Persia/Egypt theme are allowed. Furniture, clothing, hair, skins… whatever fits. A minimum discount of 25% is planned, a maximum discount of 50%. Anything in between will be decided by each creator. The items do not have to be a new release, but have to be looking 2013. No old stuff. Both genders will be considered. We’d like to offer a good deal to customers while at the same time not devalueing the hard work of our creators.

How will the promotion happen?

We will promote through various blogs, forums, we’d like to start a blog for the event, through the logo in stores and on role-play sims. We’d be glad for any simowner who’ll be willing to let us display the logo there. There will also be an updategroup or a subscribo (not yet decided) for customers. Plurk, Flickr, Facebook…so many possibilities.

I’d like to be an official blogger!?

That’s great! We are both looking for role-play bloggers as well as casual fashion bloggers. If we haven’t contacted you by April ~ 10th, feel free to contact us (see below!). There are but a few expectations:

1. Your blog must be older than 3 months.
2. Your blog must contain quality pictures.
3. If you knowingly support stores that sell blatantly ripped content and are aware of it, you will not be considered. We ask you to understand this (see ‘goals’).
4. Please do not ask the creators for review copies! They will contact you instead if they want.
5. You should have a unique, tasteful style.
6. You should be syndicated in at least three of the major feeds such as Iheartsl.
7. Please announce the event every month on your blog and add a link to the blog to your blogroll: <a href=”http://weloveroleplay.wordpress.com/&#8221; rel=”nofollow”>weloveroleplay.wordpress.com/</a>. If you would put up the banner as well, that would be fabulous.

I have a store and would like to join in!?

Please contact any of the four persons listed below. We will have a look at your store and will get back at you.

Who do I need to contact if I’d like to blog, have any questions, suggestions, concerns or ideas?

Feel free to contact either of us: Ost Clawtooth, Arica Storaro, Tera Varriale, Kaitlin Eiren.

I am really looking forward to this whole adventure. I am sort of putting my heart into it (and so are the other three!) and it has been an idea I have long been mulling over. I really hope it works out, it will bea firsttime for us as well. Keep fingers crossed and stay tuned!

<3 Arica

Ripped content….makes me angry.

This time no fancy picture, just this:

So, recently I have seen more and more and more people promoting and wearing armors and follower pets created by Manticore/Erebos. I admit, a bit ago I fell for the ruse myself and bought a cute little dog there, being rather unaware of the fact that the pets displayed are all ripped from games such as Final Fantasy as well…since I never played those.

And this is just ONE example out of all their stuff. I fear not a single item in that store is NOT stolen.

I myself became suspicious the moment the store began to release a ton of excellent mesharmors…that all seemed oddly familiar to me. I could bite my ass for wasting 450 Lindens on the small dog.

I made the experience that ever since mesh was introduced to SL, any random store that pops up with a TON of excellent stuff at once should be regarded with suspicion.

I for once am a huge supporters of original creators and I personally-hate- blowing money of peoples’ ass when they sell stolen stuff. I am really sad to see just how few people seem to care about this and don’t even feel a bit bad about buying stolen stuff. I guess a lot of people who aren’t regular gamers aren’t even aware of it, just like me when I bought the dog. FF is one of the few games I never touched.

I do not really think one can expect people to recognize every little piece of stolen stuff from other games, but I do think that a bit of common sense sometimes helps: Large amounts of excellent seeming stuff for low prices from a largely unknown store? = Likely ripped. Not always, but there’s a good chance for it.

I personally do not even -mind- if people get stuff for themselves, but as soon as you profit from it, imho you are not only ripping off the creator, but also those who buy from you, letting them believe you buy legal stuff until one day they look into their inventory to find out it’s been replaced with an ID from LindenLabs and an odd message in their IMs.

Food for thought.

Arica.

PS: I find some reactions, even from bigger bloggers, rather disappointing. Basically they go: It is LindenLabs responsibility to take them down.

Oh sure, it is. But do you really think that takes away -your- responsibility to not support thieves by throwing money at them or displaying their stuff knowling on blogs? I hardly will blame anyone who doesn’t know it, but I will blame anyone who is being made aware and still says “Oh, that is LL’s responsibility, not mine.” Especially since the TOS clearly state that you, as the user of content, have a share of responsibility as well.

Modern Elfy Times!!! :)

Hello peeps,

so, I guess I owe an explanation (or not?) as to why I am have been sooo slow with everything lately. I keep telling myself that I’ll have the time to blog more…but then I figure: NOpe, again no time. I am currently in a trainee programm for teachers and it basically eats up my time. I got my final exams in less than three weeks and well…I better not procrastinate. So until the 4th of March, I will probably not be blogging again after this post.

Today, I wanted to show you gyus an outfit I made for a casual OOC elf a s well as some of my favourite hairs that more or less recently have been released.

Here is my outfit. Forgive the not so cool picture, I tried to figure out how to get shadows to work properly. Oh well…skillfull me isn’t all that skilled yet.

Hair: Exile (Kavar Cleanslate Mesh!!)
Shape: selfmade
Eyes: Mayfly (Arkesh baral, Mesh!!)
Ears: Illusions (Siyu Suen, Mesh!!)
Blouse: Tee*fy (Azure Electricteeth, Mesh!! Collabor 88!!)
Skirt: Götzsche (Goetzsche Resident, Mesh!!
Pumps: Elikatira (Elikapeda Tiramisu, not for sale anymore. )
Clutch: Milk Motion (Marie Lauridsen)
Belt: Tokidoki (Maya Levane)
Necklace: League (Nena Janus)

Here come my six current favourite hairstyles, in no particular order:

Both Magika hairs are just flawless. I love, love their system where you can buy the whole scale of natural colours (brunette, red, black, blondes) for only 250 Lindens. The textures and meshwork is awesome, and each hair comes in three sizes. Magika has improved so, so much over the years. Imho, Sabiny Gully is currently one of the best hairmakers out there. These hairs fall in a natural manner and are really long as they reach down to the lower back. I am in love with these. Also I think her haircolours look very nice and natural, even if I picked a not so natural red right now.

The LeLutka hair is very nice as well, the soft waves giving it a very innocent look. I love the fact that you can turn the hair accessory on or off. I have to unfortunately turn it off because it clips into my elven ears. But even without it, this hair looks really nice. Her haircolours and textures are very, very good as well. I really can rarely complain, unless she is making one of her strange hairstyles again for which you’d need a bottle of hairspray to have them stay that way. But oh well, this one is awesome! It also fits me quite perfectly, even without the alpha layer.

And here comes Eaters Coma. Kumii Yoshikawa always already amazed us with her really pretty styles that she made for SIXTYNINE. The style ‘ME’ was one of the favs I’d say, and I saw so, so many chicks with it. Guess what? Now she has redone it in mesh, and while I like Burley’s remake of it as well, this one just made me SO happy. I am wearing it on the right. I do not think it is  a 100% exact replica of her old ME-style, and I wish teh bangs would be a bit lower on this one, but this is a thick, very wellmade and hot braid that goes over your boob. Truth has made a similar style, I believe it is called Froukje, but the way the braid just seems cut off at the bottom always bothered me. I love this. Eaters Coma in general makes very good mesh styles, even if not all of them are fitting my personal tastes. The style on the left is one of my current most worn styles as well. I think her textures are awesome, however I do wish she would add more colour-variety to her packages. Also, making hair, even meshhair, no mod is a bit sad. One should be abllowed to tint it a bit!

In the middle there is Exile, and I really, really do like it. Often enough, the shape of Exile’s hairs doesn’t go well with my headshape at all. In this case, I was SO hapy. Not only does it come with a bunch of cute, rigged meshflowers which you can obviously detach. The textures are nice and I really do like how it flows down over your boobs. I tinted the hair in this case. I bought the Naturals Package Exile offers and the tone ‘Sunset’ doesn’t exactly strike me as a red tone, so I tinted it a bit,  e voilà, now I am happy.

I think that is something  creators of hairs should really keep in mind: Please, please add packages with one example of each natural colour! I know Exile, Eliaktira, LeLutka and Magika do this, but I really wish others would follow as well. Make it a little more expensive than  the usual packs, that justs eems fair. But nothing is worse than having to buy tons and tons of hairs in a new colour, just because youc hanged your colour after years. I know what I am talking about.

 

So, that’s it for now and the next post will be more than liekly after the 4th of March. Unless I start procrastinating…

Arica

 

Botters going Nuts – What can we do?

Hey there,

well, after the whole giant mess around Curio, we already know how damn hard it is for creators in SL to protect their own creations from less creative people who want to leech money…also known as copybotters, texture-rippers and so on. And now it looks as if things are picking up once again.

Since quite some time, there are viewers available which will allow anyone to copy any avatar, including their skin, clothes, textures, hair, eyes and probably everything else, within a few seconds. You say this cannot happen? Well, it happened RIGHT in front of my eyes. I was role-playing with a friend (well, actually we were about to) and I have a bad habit of camming around… a LOT. I was wondering why there was a noobie looking avatar not too far away, clearly they did not belong into that sim, but shrugged it off, turned around to talk to my bf, looked back at my screen, and suddenly my friend stood there, when I was pretty sure I had not moved my cam. At first I was confused, but when I saw my buddy was still standing next to me, and still I had his avi on my camera, when it was about 80 yards away….well, go figure. That happened within maybe 10 seconds. Confronting the person they freely admitted that they thought it was completely okay using that viewer, not against TOS, avatars are for everyone, bla bla bla. I reported them to every simowner I knew and Mister Rulen resident is now on a lot of banlists.

Now, yesterday I looked at my Flickr and saw this:

Read the whole story here:

Sanya Bilavio’s (Vive9) Flickr

It appears, that once again Marie2 Cisse and her gang of girls (likely her own alts or some other equally stupid people) managed to draw lots and lots of attention to herself and her…’store’. In this case, she copybotted Inna’s complete shape, skin, custom make up and everything else, informed her about it and since then is bragging about how well it sells, of course after trying to ‘bribe’ her into giving her Lindens in order to prevent her from reselling a shape/make up etc. she never created herself.

A few comments from dear Marie2 Cisse  and ‘friends’ towards the creator of the items:

[2012/11/02 12:23] Second Life: Alexandriala has given you this body part:
Inna Bilavio shape
Do you want to keep it? “Mute” will block all future offers or messages from Alexandriala.
[2012/11/02 12:23] Alexandriala: Your shape has been copybotted.
[2012/11/02 12:23] Alexandriala: And will be sold.

———————-

They try and bribe designers after they bot them as well ::

[2012/10/15 14:08] Gerusa Bastos (marie2.cisse): you lose your mind
[2012/10/15 14:08] Gerusa Bastos (marie2.cisse): creating skin
[2012/10/15 14:09] Gerusa Bastos (marie2.cisse): you think those skins will be on sale
[2012/10/15 14:09] Gerusa Bastos (marie2.cisse): for 1k or more
[2012/10/15 14:09] Gerusa Bastos (marie2.cisse): I can do it for 300L
[2012/10/15 14:09] Gerusa Bastos (marie2.cisse): Full fat pack
[2012/10/15 14:09] Gerusa Bastos (marie2.cisse):
[2012/10/15 14:09] Gerusa Bastos (marie2.cisse): Maliah skin will sell more with me than you
[14:10] Gerusa Bastos (marie2.cisse): 20k i am offering
[14:10] Gerusa Bastos (marie2.cisse): for don’t distruing this skin

———————-

[17:26] issela2: Poor gurl. Never more will be at Eila?
[17:26] issela2: HAHAHA
[17:26] issela2: Take care
[17:34] issela2: I’ve all your mesh stuff
[17:34] issela2: And I’m going to giving away this

Here she goes on bragging and already posting advertisements for ‘her newest creations’:

Marie2 Cisse’s Flickr

and

Marie2 Cisse Flickr

Now, with Linden Labs forcing creators to go through lengthy and COSTLY legal processes, I wonder what we can do against such people? Not everyone can fork out the money to pay for such processes or even think about going to court, and not everyone will be able to fund money as Gala Phoenix and her team did with the ONE VOICE event. The process to actually get someone banned fro such things is absurd in Second Life, as sad as it is. Obviosu proof is not enough, you gotta file DMCAs, which can simply be countered…and so on. We all saw it happen with Gala.

So, what CAN we do? That is really the key-question. In my humble opinion, spreading the word about people like these, trying to convince people not to shop there, and that is why I am posting this.

However, quite frankly, the creators of Vive9 would likely do well with telling certain people, such as the dearest Lady Gericault, to shut the hell up, since people like her are NOT helping them by behaving like complete crazies in public. Argue with style, not like some raging rhino using capslock all over the place. O.o

Not too long ago, racist comments caused people to convince Linka Demina, founder of The Dressing Room, to not allow TIGirls to participate in the event due to obvious racist comments. View this here:
Linka Demina’s Flickr

They somehow managed to worm they way out of that, though even if the comments were a joke, they were incredibly stupid. But people forgive. But personally, I am out of forgiveness. I am simply asking everyone I know, to ignore these people, to NOT buy their stolen stuff, to spread the word.

I would appreciate if people would actually do this.

The following people are involved with Marie2 Cisse or are her alts:

Marie2 Cisse, Alexandriala, Alemanha (sallygirlpaty aho), Miss Fedorova
and more than likely all the names in this picture, in which she accuses Götzsche Resident to be herself:

Other alts

Arica.

Finally, finally, finally…hurray for Laqroki!

Hello fashiongals!
Lately, I felt a little uninspired, likely due to the fact that some of my favourite stores and sims closed. Even outfits I actually liked suddenly did not interest me anymore, so the only thing that made me log in every day was the search for something awesome and…new. And here it is:

Laqroki finally released their new skinline: ESSENTIAL. I decided to buy the skin named Saga, and it the FIRST time that I truly felt comfortable with dropping my usual skin, Orchid by the Body Co. I dropped it before for League, but soo enough went back, but in this case I think I actually might stay with Laqroki.
Mallory Cowen, the creator of Laqroki, reworked the whole look of her skins. I am not sure if she will ever rework her older skins as well, but I cannot blame her if she doesn’t, given how MANY she released so far. I üersonally am REALLY in love with the look of the face, even though it is, typically for Laqroki, decidedly flawless. But hey, I play an elf, we are supposed to look oh so flawless, so I cannot complain.

A skin costs 1990 Lindens and comes with a GIANT package of addons: Lipgloss, different eyebrows, different eyelids, lips on layer, nose on layer (!!!), birthmarks on layer, hairbases in blonde, brown, black and red on layers, eyeliner and smokey eyes on layer, Saga prim eyes, cleavage layer both on tattoolayer and on the undershirt layer. Honestly I think that 1990L is a VERY fair price for this package. Also, there are tons of make ups available, 100L each.

Now you might wonder why nose, mouth and such come on layers? Well, you can combine them with her other skin, Elle, or that’s what I ahve been told. Basically, you can add the Elle-Nose to the Saga-Skin or teh other way round and so on. This way, you get to mix all kinds of very unique looks, and I think it is a badass idea!!!

But lets see how these skins look now:

On the left I wear the Laqroki skin in Tone 1.0 (the palest tone), on the right I wear the same skin, just added Arriah Fiertze’s Skin detoner. I personally am delighted to see that Mallory managed to significantly reduce that awful yellow/orange ting that most of her older skintones had. In my opinion, it is STILL a bit visible, but that might just be my graphic-settings as well. I personally like it even more with the skindetoner. The make up I wear is from Kosh, the skin tiself is completely bare. The look is very soft and beautiful, I really do love it on my shape. The lips have a nice colour (this is the base colour), a nice sturcture and the spines seem very natural and not as overdone as they often look on other skins. The brows are fantastic imho, not too thick yet visible enough. The nose is pretty much perfect, I really do not like the overly thin or bulbous looks that seem so popular lately.The slight rosy blush on the cheeks adds a touch of innocence which I really like for my particular character.

Maybe people who like flaws and possibly a more mature look will not be as happy with this skin as I am.

Note that ALL the following pics have not been reworked in any way besides cropping them and adding a border.

Lets have a look at the body:

I am amazed about how Mallory reworked the body. On her old skins, the belly always had sort of a chubby look and imho, look rather unrealistic. It was one of my biggest petpeeves about her skin. Now? I think the shading is magnificant and very detailed. I like the sporty look the stomach area has to it now, yet it doesn’t seem exaggerrated and still very feminine. I especially like the hint of hipbones and muscles. I do believe that the boobs look a bit too plastic for my tastes, maybe the highlighting on them is just too much. However, they are a great improvement compared to the older ones.

I am not sure about the legs and butt. I think the shading on both knees and butt could have been a bit more detailed, but it certainly is no major thing for me. I really do like the shoulderblades as well as the shading around the lower back area. (Please ignore the not so fitting meshfeet….*cough*).

Overall I must say I am personally superhappy with this skin. I think this new line is a GIANT improvement if you compare it to her older skins and they can keep up with pretty much ever yother designer out there once again, if not even outshine them.

New hairs, too!

I was never a huuuuge fan of Magika. I bought a hair from them here and there, btu a lot of their hairs just seemed to unnatural or absurd for me. But then, last week, I went there and I couldn’t believe my eyes: AWESOME hairs all over the place. :O So, I went in, bought all of them and am ever since a superhappy gal! Elikatira released a new hair, too, though I wish she would add different REDS to her Essential Colour Pack. You ahve the choice between either an orangey version or a very deepred version, both not really looking too natural. I am in love with the styles and the textures on the Magika hair, especially with the red tones as well.

Here they are!

Magika

Elikatira:

I really love these! And I hope you liked the review.

And now, as a last question, what do you think about this skin on my avatar and about the new haircolour? I am pondering to have my elf become a redhead.

Arica

PS: New outfit following soon! Had to redo them because I was not happy anymore.