M is for Myg

I know we’re not the only ones out there with the funk. And I am not talking about any kind of good funk. Alex and I have the head pounding, leg and back aching, dry hacking cough, don’t wanna eat don’t wanna move funk.  I was laid up with it for almost a whole week and then poor Alex got it - and he’s still out of commission.

I wanted to say a special thanks to all the Clockwork DJs for keeping the club going without us. I’m sorry we missed you all last week but hopefully this week we’ll be around more.  If I’m not mistaken, tonight it’s going to be Esteban on deck with punkish favorites. If all goes as planned I’ll actually be there this time. Can’t likely say as much for Alex - depends on how much home made chicken slop I can get him to eat today.

Hey everybody. As I’ve been bitching and moaning about all week, I am indeed sick again, this time with my old friend influenza. It’s been awhile. I haven’t missed her. At all.

But that’s not what I’m here to talk about today. I wanted to ask you all if you’re having this problem with some of your favorite prim skirts. I am, of course, talking about the ass problem.

Some things are not a matter of adjustment. See, I was all excited as I bought this cute red dress from Artilleri for Valentine’s day. Butt what you see is that the texture on my ass is actually a bit darker than the texture on the prim. I thought it was a windlight problem, as I noticed when I use windlight this happens all the time in skirts. Butt even when I adjust the prim skirt for better coverage (in this photo the skirt is rezzed right from the folder, no adjusting), there’s still a hideous difference in the colors. It’s like majorly disappointing. Especially since it seems like all my Artilleri skirts look like this now in windlight. Is it me? Is there some setting I should check out that’s ass friendly in windlight.

Today I was briefly in Dazzle, and I encountered this ass:

I mean that’s a really bad looking ass in skirt. The style of this ensemble is babydoll, meaning the waist of the skirt is supposed to be high as it is. But man, this chick has waaaaayyy too much ass for this dress. Sadly the texture on the ass isn’t rezzed, but trust me when I say even fully rezzed it looked horrible. I am not sure how she went out looking like that, unless she didn’t look at her ass. But who could not look at a wreck like that?

I am seriously no fashion expert. Can anyone help me out here?

I do not want to have to adjust my shape for every skirt, but maybe that’s what it takes. What do you do, you fashion mavens out there? How do you manage to wear these cute little numbers without showing your ass?

This is likely the last post from me until next week, because if we can manage it we’re going out of town to that place that has satellite internet (and isn’t at all SL friendly).

Don’t forget to hit -=CLOCKWORK= tomorrow night for Esteban’s funk set, Sunday night for Xax’s IDM electronica goodness, and then Monday night again for Esteban’s anti-Monday punk and stuff.

And - don’t get sick!

Love,
Myg

“I’m bored, Sable.”

“Me too Rain, what are we going to do?”

“I know let’s go hang out at the Wawa! There’s always something going on there.”

“Ok Rain, let’s go, I wanna Tastykake real bad!”

“Alright Rain - you go in and I’ll stay here and check out the hot guys. And don’t forget my Tastykake!”

“Hands in the air and gimmie all your money!”

“Rain! What are you doing!?”

“Shut up Sable and get in the car!”

“Ahhhh….this is the life huh Sable? Who knew the Wawa would have so much cash.”

“Yeah it’s nice Rain but I still didn’t get my Tastykake!”

Sable’s look:

Skin: Tap-Vivant Bronze Vin 3
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Fleur/49/116/27/

Hair: ETD - Lacey - Platinum Pack - currently closed

Top: Snatch - Part of the Bangcock Alley Set http://slurl.com/secondlife/Pulse/174/212/29/

Shorts: Anitcute-MiniShort Jeans Torn
http://slurl.com/secondlife/GoldenBusinessArea5/237/204/23

Shoes: AW Design-CourtX
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lag%20Free/41/83/23

Bikini: SJA-Red-Scull
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Chi/175/127/30

Rain’s look:

Skin: Artilleri/Lily-Marielle Dark Tan
http://slurl.com/secondlife/artilleri/98/178/0

Hair: Damselfly-Lila in Cinnamon
http://slurl.com/secondlife/DragonFly%20Oasis/244/94/25

Undershirt: Artilleri-Deanna Bra-polka black
http://slurl.com/secondlife/artilleri/98/178/0

Top: Devilish Cupcake -FishyTop-White and Tintable
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Talana/150/100/60

Shorts: Mischief-Tear’em off Light
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Mischief%20Isle/19/20/27

Shoes: Mango Pumps-Black
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Oeconomica/195/106/31

Bikini: Winter Moon-Draco
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Oeconomica/195/106/31

Why am I typing this when I have an assload of work I must get done because I have an early as fuck training tomorrow morning? Because I love you, that’s why. In fact, I love you more than my job.

That picture above features The Ladybird aka Xaxoqual Mandelbrot, me and Edward Horton after (during?) another kickass electronica set by Xax. As far as I know, Esteban will be playing punky stuff tonight at 6 SLT. So come and skank! -=CLOCKWORK=-

I saw this post at New World Notes on Unions getting together in Second Life and it made me think of Esteban. Can anyone provide me with a logical explanation as to why New World Notes does not own newworldnotes.com or some version thereof?

Did anyone else follow this idiotic story the Washington Post did about terrorists using Second Life to plot and terrorize us? This has nothing to do with the unions, by the way - that was probably a bad transition, though they are both technically falling under the “using Second Life to organize” theme. Hmmm. Let me rant for a minute. Hey! Let’s fear technology! That’ll show the terrorists! Gwyneth Llewellyn posts a much better rant on this issue here.

I was sad to hear that Tateru Nino’s father died last week. She posted a beautiful tributeto him here. She wrote:

“Life is a test,” he told me, “Everything is a lesson. You stop learning when you die. Maybe not even then.”

Here’s to him, and here’s to you Tateru. Thanks for sharing your memories of him with us during this difficult time.

Signing off now.

Yours,

Myg

Update on the fight for Topgol. (Please see the post directly below for backstory, if you are interested.)

The shitty ad cubes are down!  The wall is down and an apartment building is now standing in its place - a very big improvement.

I am no longer banned from my neighbors’ property.

I do not know the reasons why, and do not wish to speculate too much. If my neighbors or Richard Palace care to comment, I’d be interested to hear what they have to say.

This is a definite step in the right direction. Let’s hear it for progress.

I also want to explain something about this blog.

I maintain that this is my blog and I can do whatever it is I want with it. As such, I also have to take responsibility for its content - and I do.

When I post something, it’s a contract between me and my readers.  I can’t take back something I said in real time (god, if only I could…).  But it seems strange and dishonest to take down something I posted simply because someone has a problem with it. Even if that someone is me.

That’s why I offered to post something new if the situation changed, and that’s what I’ve done.

Let’s hope things continue to get better from here. I have a good feeling they will.

Report from the Fight for Topgol.

Some things make SL suck. You know what they are, right? Let’s talk about how the place looks to newcomers on the mainland:

A Vision of Hell, originally uploaded by Khamudy Mannonen.

I’ve been writing about what Second Life is good for. I’ve been doing that because I really believe in Second Life as a platform for people, digital or otherwise, to get shit done. I was compelled to write that series because there are actually quite a few problems in Second Life that make it suck, and as is the mainstream media’s way, these are the issues that get the bulk of the attention. While I sincerely hate to do more calling attention to Second Life’s quirks and, er “growth opportunities,” in the name of helping things improve for all of us for the long term, I gotta.

Today we’re talking about land developers.

Alex and I own a nice chunk of a mainland sim called Topgol, which happens to be the home of -=CLOCKWORK=- Go on and visit - we’ve worked really hard on it. So have Sable, Romana and Martin. We’ve created a nice, grungy urban theme. It’s not like mainland sims you often see - like the one pictured above. It’s got a look, a feel, a community.

So when our new blingin’ neighbors came in and put up a shitty ad cube in the middle of town, we didn’t like it. I posted about it here. In addition to the ugly ass ad cube, there’s also the matter of their club and mall being extremely ugly. Their property, in the middle of the sim, seriously degrades the overall look of Topgol - but you know what? I didn’t even complain about that because there were buildings and streets and I thought, well, I’ve seen worse.

In any case, my neighbors were offended by the post. I think they felt, oh I don’t know, a little threatened. They took down the cube, put up huge walls, and then banned me and Alex from their land. Martin Squeegee, another land developer who actually works to preserve the theme, approached them to get them to take the walls down. After like, sheesh, two hours of talking to them they took down all of the walls except the one bordering our property, which they designed to look like this:

(That’s me with my irate neighbors as they are scripting the wall to move and induce seizures I guess…)

Now, I had put a wall up too. I figured if I was banned from their land, no way did they get a road into Mainline. But I textured my wall with brick so it’d look like Romana’s loft - you know, not hideous and antagonistic. When they went INSANE and started building 50m high walls everywhere, I took it down.

They told me if I didn’t take down my post, they wouldn’t take down the wall. They felt that since they took down the ad cube, I should take down my post. I explained, oh no no no. That’s not how it works. If they work with the community, I’d be happy to post something about that and it would portray them more positively. But if they continued to act like giant babies, well, I’d likely be writing about that instead.

Today I went in and the wall was down, and an apartment building was up. And over it, a nice huge fat spinning ad cube. So here’s the rub.

In the rare instances when strangers gather around a common purpose like building a sim within a theme, that’s something worth respecting and preserving. It is an ideal of community and cooperation that shows the world what’s possible when human beings respect one another and work together.

Technically my neighbors can build anything they want. As they said, “This is mainland. If you want community you have to go to a private sim.”

But I think we’ve proven that you can have community on a Mainland sim. Hell, even the casino looked like it belonged, and you know how pissed off I was with the lag. But they bought in Topgol because they loved what we’d done and they didn’t destroy the look of it.

As Richard Palace, the land owner here (my neighbors are tenants) suggested I do in his comment on said post, I contacted him. His solution was for me to take down my post.

I figured the best way to respond was this.

Dear Richard Palace and all mainland land developers:

When you allow ugly shit to populate the mainland, you lower the quality of Second Life for all of us. Your income is intimately linked to how well Second Life attracts and retains new people. One of the most common criticisms of Second Life is the poor quality of how it looks. You are largely to blame for this.

If you keep developing mainland into digital ghettos, you will continue to be at odds with the greater good of Second Life and its residents. And if you come do it in Topgol where there is an established community, I will take the piss out of you every chance I get. It’s all I can do in the fight for a Second Life that isn’t pathetic and abused for the gain of a few thoughtless individuals.

I’m not for a lot of regulating. I wouldn’t advocate Linden Lab set covenants, etc. I just ask people not to be dumb asses. I know with a particular type of money grubber, that’s too much to ask. But then expect verbal beatings. Repeatedly.

And one last thing. Linden’s latest policy on ad farms should put these types on alert. It doesn’t apply to my neighbors, but it does imply that they are not real happy about those big spinning ad cubes fucking up the scenery. THAT’S BECAUSE AD CUBES SUCK - AND SO DO THE LOSERS WHO USE THEM.

And that’s round three, folks. Stay tuned…

Editor Myg’s note: Give a hearty helloooo and a w00t! and a what’s up? to the newest M is for Myg staffers, Sable Slade and Rain Laval! These two sexeh sisters will bring you their fave finds in the overwhelmingly over-blogged world of fashion! From the looks of things, their posts will stand out by emphasizing gratuitous sex and violence! Hawt! Welcome aboard, sisters!
—-

It’s Valentine’s Day and I actually have a date!

He’ll be here in a few minutes….omg….what am I going to wear????

I must have something in here to wear.

I’m ready!

A few hours later…….Stood up again!

WTF????

I don’t think so….not this time!

Sable’s Look :

Bathrobe and Towel - Total Betty - COZY PLUSH pink princess
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Son/184/221/27/

Skin - Chai skin - Nutmeg - Cole
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Port%20Seraphine/222/159/57/

Hair - Kin - Yohkoh - Black
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eventide%20Far%20East/176/203/45/

Dress - WRONG - Amity Dress - Red
http://slurl.com/secondlife/AlterNation/189/153/38/

Jewelry - Alienbear - DarkSassy Black Pearl Set
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bratz/194/240/29/

Boots - J’s Main Shop Tsukishima - Goth Ribbon Laceup Boots Black
http://slurl.com/secondlife/TSUKISHIMA/214/232/22/

Rain’s Look:

Lingerie - Little Rebel Designs - White Buds Lingerie Set
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Gallinas/151/93/58/

Hair - ETD - Jared - Blonde
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Gallinas/151/93/58/

Shoes - Shiny Things - Lollies - Cream
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Shiny%20Falls/173/181/37/

Jewelry - Kesskreations - Valentines Treasure - Hearts And Arrows Necklace, Kesskreations -Valentines Treasure Diamond Stud Earrings
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Shiny%20Falls/173/181/37/

Skin - Adora Shapes And Skins - Petra Skin Med. Rose Dust 8
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Inishfallen/119/148/22/

Lashes - Minnu Model - Thora
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Glam%20World/95/182/22

Wings - Cat’s Eye Main Shop - Cupid Wings
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Zorn/190/214/24/

UPDATE: Well, hey, you CAN use the new Windlight with Tiger! And that’s a great thing because it is much better than the previous release. Thanks Ordinal Malaprop for pointing that out.

I love Windlight again. A much, much better release.

___

I love Windlight. I hate Windlight.

First, data. I run Second Life on a Macbook Pro that I purchased in January 2007. It’s a 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM. It’s got an ATI Radeon X1600 graphics card. I do not have a problem telling you, I am not sure what all of that means. But I will tell you, it runs great and it runs Second Life quite well, even using a wireless network (which Alex and I both do at home).

The Mac OS I use is Tiger, 10.4.11.

The latest version of Windlight had a lot of little things that were problems for me. The friends’ list was messed up - black names on dark gray background, and I couldn’t highlight any names of friends or groups. That was the biggest complaint. I don’t love some of the little interface changes they made much. But all in all, I was using it because I LOVE WINDLIGHT.

Now there’s a new Windlight viewer, but it requires me to upgrade my OS to Leopard. I’d love to hear from other Mac users here, because the gab I’d heard about Leopard was DON’T DO IT!!!!! It was the only time I’d heard such backlash from the Mac community against an OS upgrade from Mac. I’d also heard that Leopard 10.5.2 breaks Second Life. This article was from back in December, and since then there’s both a new Leopard and a new Windlight. But I imagine some of you can feel my dilemma here. I just don’t trust it.

Now just two days ago Apple released the latest version of Leopard, which might fix things. No problem - I’ll wait and see what the early adopters say and stick with what I have. So today I go to log in:

What was Wrath saying about mandatory options? Can someone please tell me what the hell is up with telling us it’s optional when it’s mandatory? Is it mandatory for some people?

Now I got no Windlight. Here I was, braving the bugs and glitches like a good First Looker, and now I’ve been locked out of the First Look club because I don’t want to risk an OS Upgrade that has had less than stellar reception.

If anyone out there is using Leopard on a machine similar to mine, please weigh in here. Should I go for it?