On Short Hair

Today (or more accurately right now) I let my (Second Life) hair down. I had a run of short hairstyles that I bought on a whim on my birthday and as I hadn't changed my appearance for some time, I decided the time was ripe for a hairdo to be done! Of course, unless you hung out with me a lot in Second Life, you probably didn't notice and this post isn't going to make a lot of sense. Oops.

In any event, no one seemed to notice too much. I think Madison made a comment, but it was only because I was changing it directly in front of her. Am I an attention seeking narcissist? Oh Yea! I was kind of sad that no one said anything to feed my insatiable appetite. I suppose no one really takes a good look at each other to notice. "Oh, she's got hair, nothing new. Just like every other human being I have met."

One thing that did cause quite a start among everyone was my experimentation with different colors. 'Dying' my hair was very entertaining. People may not notice the style but they certainly notice the shade! Which is understandable as you don't need to alt-zoom into my follicles to notice, right?

I first tried it jet black, and was asked if I was going 'emo'. When I said no, then I was obviously 'goth' it seems. The concept of dark black hair was too much and there must have been some deep meaning into it! I tried brunette next and no one seemed to mind that much. Aside from the 'you changed your hair!' comment after the fact. I went through about seven shades of that, even a few with streaks (one made me look like I was on fire literally with the orange and red highlights), and the reaction was mostly 'blah'.

White was met with 'Hey Grandma' and I am way too young for that so that was quickly ditched (My friend Winter, though, does not seem to mind it as much. Then again, Winter's a ghost and doesn't care much for the earthly plane as it is). And I wasn't about to try any sorts of redheads because I just have this aversion to it. At one point, almost all my friends were fiery and I fear blending in. Except when something nasty (like a rabid dog or a neurologist or a loan collector) comes and then I wish I could blend into the wall. They'll never take me alive.

I think next time I'll try truly ridiculous styles and colors. Gigantic purple pigtails, anyone? How about ankle length blue hair with dotted navy streaks? An Afro? I'll keep you guys updated if and when I do.

Dimitrio's Photostream

Once again, because I'm lazy I'm going to examine someone's photo stream. This week I bring you Dimitrio Lewis, who is a quiet and reserved fox armed with a camera and a neon green scarf and top hat. He probably does a multitude of things but hell if I can remember. Let's just settle that he's a great guy.

Thanks for the nightmare fuel. Honestly, after I saw this, I went to sleep and had a dream. And in this dream, this ... thing? ... came to me and questioned my entire life. This took all of four minutes. After that, I turned to 'The Dark Integral' here and said "Is that it? My entire life spans only four minutes?" Dark Integral nodded solemnly. Then I realized I had spent about a year and a half of my life playing Second Life which took up about 15 seconds of my life narrative and I started screaming and running through a giant can of Pepsi. After I woke up, I went to the fridge and got a can of Pepsi, but when I went to pop the top, Dark Integral's face appeared on the top of the can and said, "YOU CANNOT ESCAPE ME."

The shame is that Dark Integral isn't a bad person. It's just that people get scared to death that he/she/it is going to eat your soul.

The face looks like it was lifted from Egyptian hieroglyphs.

According to Dimi, an office hour was held inside of this.

I see the Borg are going for a more organic look. Too bad the tree is dead there, but I give them bonus points for trying.

Also, is it just me, or does Second Life stink at creating the illusion that an island really is an island? Take a glance at the land mass below the Cube. Island water and Void Ocean water contrast so much that it's jarring. No matter how deep you make your island's surrounding water, the linden ocean void around you will remind that you're just a speck on some server. It's a real killer on those 'tropical islands'. You try to enjoy a sunset and you have to watch this giant line across your view in the water. Windlight solves this by having light reflect off the water and blind you but the peripheral view still has that sim seam visible. Oh well.

Neon Neko. It looks like she lept out of a video game.

Once, long ago, in the middle of Linden village, there arose a temple of grand splendor that many in the lands traveled to in order to give worship to their Linden overlords. However, the mightly God of the Underheavens Nunchuck grew angry one day that his favourite television show was canceled and so in a fit of Godly rage he took the Femur and blasted the nearest object in view which just so happened to be this marvelous temple. As the fires of hell enveloped it, the people and Lindens wailed and gnashed their teeth as the land collapsed and the seas roared and raged and poured into the gigantic ornate halls and rooms, swirling around the altars in an embrace of death and watery graves. Over time, that it was a temple was forgotten and its roof, sunken into the land itself, was used as foundation for this office. The only remnants of its former glory lie in the four minarets which formerly bracketed the massive domed golden roof of the temple.

This phoenix is looking quizzically at Dimi as he took this snapshot, as if to say, "Of all the things around, you're taking a photograph of me?"

Yes, giant golden firebird of lore, we are taking a photo of you. Also, could you lite this cigarette for me? I left my lighter at home.

Look, it's an idiot! This green lantern wanna be isn't even doing his job. If you can read the board behind him, it shows the details of the meeting, which is 'ask me questions or suggestions about Knowledge Base'. In other words, "I got nothing for you guys because I spent all day playing Grand Theft Auto 4. Feel free to vent yourselves by asking me questions that I'll answer with a flaky answer which essentially punts it to another person, or a suggestion that I'll write on a note pad that I'll later throw away."

Of course, that's assuming this guy is the Linden/organizer of this office hour. If not, then it's probably one of the dull multitude who hang around these hours doing nothing but watching as actual people try to conduct business around the lag you're causing by being there. I should know because usually I am the one sitting around doing nothing. At least I'm doing it out of spite. This poor fool probably hasn't realized that he's about as useful as a sack of corn.

Oh, and if this is a Linden? I'd like to give you a small notice that any thought, however tiny, you may have that Lindens are 'superheroes' doing the grid 'good'. I think that, if anything, Lindens would be like Bizarro Superman, who try to do good in their own perverse way but always pissing everyone else off in the process.

Ah, the solitude of a forest. A place where one can feel free of civilization and the constraints of having to answer your cell phone while driving, causing you to almost run me over because you have to dig through your purse to get the phone so you can chat to your friends about Bob. This is a true story, by the way. I was almost run over by a car last week because some idiot couldn't be bothered to pay attention to the stop lights. It's a good thing I always check the street even when I have the green light or else I'd be a road sandwich for the vultures. This same woman also cut off a SUV, literally scraping the bumper (which also alerted me to Cell Phone Idiot).

I'm so glad my life is worth less to this person than a call from her boss/friend/husband/children. I also love the excuse "I had an important business call!". Oh really? That call really couldn't wait and hit voicemail? What a joke. Do you honestly think YOUR boss answers every call? I doubt it, you'd probably get his or her secretary or answering machine.

I'd like to say that's the worst of it, but it does indeed get worse than answering a cell phone while driving. When I used to drive, I used to see morons of all stripes pouring cups of coffee and eating something or other (with no hands on the wheel on an Interstate) and once I witnessed a guy getting dressed inside his car. He was buttoning his jacket, doing his tie, and checking the overhead visor mirror to inspect his shave. How did I notice this? Because this guy zoomed past me and cut me and an eighteen wheeler off, crossing three lines of somewhat heavy traffic.

Idiots.

There are no sidewalks in this picture. There is an asphalt fully paved road directly against these buildings. The caption said it was Mediterranean, but this looks more Western adobe (albeit white) to me. It appears to be high noon so maybe there is going to be a shootout around here soon, thus the lack of anyone on the streets. It couldn't possibly that most people in Second Life have an aversion to any density greater than a village, we'll keep building city environments such as Bay City until those people inhabit it!

That's about it, I've hit the end of Dimitrio's photostream. It was a pleasure writing about them. It was much easier than actually going and taking pictures of my own.

Freaky Faces

One of the more interesting aspects of Second Life is that you can customize your avatar into any shape, form, or contortion that you can imagine and then some. The sheer variety you can spot if you keep your eyes open is amazing.

The best places to check out all this out is at an infohub. Infohubs are unusual creatures, because I've never met one that gave out any useful info. They either spam links at you or have 'freebies' (if by free you mean you have to pay a small amount in) available. They're really only used nowadays as a holding pen of sorts for newbies, or a general haunt for regulars. It would be better perhaps if the infohubs were somewhat pretty, but most are not. Most are just a square block of concrete with benches lining the rim, and a teleport spot in the center.

One infohub I happen to prefer is the Bear Dream Lodge Infohub, in the Bear Sim. It's one of the nicer infohubs, and it has a small lodge of sorts with an camp area behind that. And that's where I captured some of these unique avatars. So, without further ado, and in no particular order:


The one above was not taken at Bear infohub, but hey, where else are you going to see a giant robot tango with a jelly?



The one above is another non-Infohub pic.