I found an interesting and useful website today… Avatar Toolbox. It is a useful site of basic and not so basic things most Avatars will want to do. I was looking for a way to make an invisible prim in Second Life. Every prim I tried to make invisible had this outline to it. Avatar Toolbox has a script that will make the prim invisible - very invisible - you can’t find with with show transparent.

The items talked about in the web pages are mostly freebies from the author. It also has some articles and links on prim hair, prim clothes and prim shoes.

Useful site.

-Veyron

As anticipated, the old Second Life rating system is now gone from the latest client. This new client and server upgrade has a number of new “features” we all really love, but rather than start ranting about that, I’ve been looking into a replacement for the rating system. I decided to give TrustNet a try. Its cost is low, I like how the logic of it works and it has what I would consider to be a useful HUD. You can get the HUD in world in the Sprawler Sim. The cost is free. It appears to be subscription based, but it’s not very clear on that upfront. It looks to be L$50 a month, with is pretty cheap.

TrustNet has a web site for your account to manage your ratings and you can rate other skills than just behavior of an avatar, such as building, appearance, scripting, buying and selling.

They are also promising a security orb that uses the TrustNet data. This might be very useful. I use a Home Security Orb by Psyke’s Defense Systems, which I have found to be very useful, but this may be more useful, as it could be self-maintaining in the list of people who get access. It appears to have most of the features of Psyke’s Security Orb.

Maybe it might be a good idea to get together in world and start to build up a trust net?

-Veyron.

There is no shortage of fashion blogs and fashion magazines, but I have yet to see a Home and Garden type of magazine for Second Life until now. Prim Perfect is a new Second Life magazine, with a blog that aims to home and garden market in Second Life. This should be a welcome addition. They are having a launch party May 1st on Venice Island.

I wish them luck.

Well, looks like I won’t be served any drinks with this I.D. card, but it is pretty amusing. Much like taking your avatar to work, this might be fun. Then again, it might be a bit incriminating….

-Veyron

It’s a common complaint I heard from the guys. Maybe more like an excuse. I don’t know where to buy anything to look good. Most, but not all, of the guy’s avatars in Second Life look like a clone, or something right off of skid row. I know most of the girls look pretty outstanding and tricked out with animation overrides, accessories, nice skins and killer clothes. Comes from that disease most of us girls have - shopaholicism. It’s made worse by the easy justification of the low cost of a Linden dollar to real currency, which for some reason fogs reasoning about how much is really going to be spent.

I know there is a lot of places in Second Life for clothing and fashion for women, but boys, you need to start catching up. One of the best place to keep up on men’s Second Life fashion is Men’s Second Style blog. It’s updated pretty regularly, and done tastefully. Links, reviews, and where to get what you boys need.

So, stop looking so pathetic, and start dressing up boys! You’ll thank me later….

-Veyron

Fabjectory has an interesting product…. Take your Avatar to work. They build a rapid prototype of your avatar, or anything else you want, from Second Life in meatspace. They claim to be incredibly details and in full color. The model is made of layered, colored glue. It looks sort of expensive and from a L$ standpoint, it is pretty expensive, but then, I should talk about spending too much money….

I wonder if they would charge extra for working bells….

Anyone going to run out and take their avatar to work? I would be interested to hear from anyone who did this on how well their avatar turned out.

My next item on my list in my de-n00bification process was replacement of my current plastic skin that comes as the default from Linden Labs. This skin looks like it came right out of the injection mold machine. Nice, smooth, and completely lifeless. It has to go.

I teleport to a place called X2:Exotica. An interesting looking place, I go inside.

Once inside this looks like a familiar theme. And I also see naked people, as before on the walls. This time, instead of the skeleton, it’s the skin for sale. I wander over to the female skin section… okay I’ll admit to peeking a look over on the guy’s side. Then I wander up to the walls and begin shopping for skins… Hmmm…. look at those skins, they look much better, oh you can buy a demo. I buy a demo skin for L$1 and try it out.

I’m amazed, so much better. I’m like a new me. I’m in love. Queue narcissistic idolization. Now to buy the real skin I want without this demo tattooed all over it.

*GASP*

This skin is kind of expensive. This seems to be beyond what I was planning on spending on Second Life, but it is very nice I start to rationalize. And I spent what seemed like a lot on that last shape and I got a high quality item. My hand hovers over the buy button, and with a mystical motion, I hit buy. The first of many mystical motions to be sure….

Ahh, immediate gratification. I put the new skin on and complete the enrapture with myself. I start to hear melodious music in the background….

Then like a record screeching, I realize my skin is too light. How can I go out like this? I look way too pasty. I look like a geek stuck inside all of the time. I’m going to need a darker shade. Now this skin is really nice, but I should get a darker skin to go with it. I start internally justifying that I should get another shade of skin to have more fashion flexibility. Yeah, that’s it. I’ll buy another shade. I quickly slide over to another shade of skin and hit buy.

*BING* - what? Not enough cash? How could that be? The Visa card starts to tremble again. I smile at it. It will be okay, just a few more dollars will do….

Ahhh, once again, immediate gratification. The music starts up again….

Then that screech hits again…. I look at my head and I notice I have hair that looks like a wet sheep dog. Gotta fix that now. Nearly perfect now. I am close to having all that I need.

I go back to the list and start going over hair places. Next up, hair therapy….

-Veyron

Having a list to work with for de-n00bification was going to give me a big head start. I really could not go around for a long time with this paper bag over my head. Already it was becoming too much looking like the rest of the clones, and an ugly clone to boot. The list from my friend looked pretty complete, and there were some odd things listed in there that I didn’t really understand what he was talking about. Anyway, I had worked up a mental list of things I needed to fix. It went something like this:

• Shape - I felt I was not an expert at working how I should look, and I was in a hurry to get a better shape.
• Skin - something that didn’t look like I came right out an injection mold machine.
• Hair - the wet sheep dog look went out style some time ago (was it ever in style?).
• Clothes - ummm, maybe something not off the rack from skid row.
• Accessories - of course.
• New Walk - only a male programmer could come up with a default female walk like this.
• Window shop for other things - you know - get into trouble…..

So, the shape is first up on the list. The SLURL location is to a place called Flesh Inc. Sounds interesting. So, I teleport over to Flesh. As the location starts to rez in I see the path into the store. Walking up the path I start to see what I would consider my first shock to the system in Second Life. As Cole from The Sixth Sense might say, “I see naked people”. Now, I’ve seen my share of naked people, but the way they are being presented was rather surprising, a modern day meat market.

Maybe it was more like a market for flesh. But, what would you expect from a place called Flesh, Inc. Then I spotted the “model”. He was big, strong, cute, and naked with a rather nice tush on a rotating dais. As he orbited around, I noticed he was missing some rather key male components. I found this to be rather disturbing, in an odd sort of way. Well, I thought to myself, maybe he’s like a store mannequin. They lack those sorts of features, so that must be it.

Internally I started to have my doubts about this place as I was entering a modern Sodom and Gomorrah called Second Life. But then as I rationalized it, well, this all makes sense, you have to see what you are buying, and you’re buying a shape. It’s like the vendor being honest. That made me felt much better. This was not pornographic or anything naughty here. The vendor was just being honest and fully displaying what was being sold. That must be it….

Now I started gawking around at the female shapes and reading the notecards on their “specifications”. Wow, this is amazing, I can decide what to look like at the near push of a button. I am now in a near state of buying paralysis over what to look like. Decisions, decisions….

After about 30 minutes of evaluation, I settle on buying two shapes. One shape is not too expensive and another is twice that. Then I have a quandary, where to change and look and my shape? I can’t do that here, and in public. I am not that kind of girl, and I have modesty…. What to do…. Then I have an idea, I’ll go hide underwater where no one can see me….

I put on the first, less expensive shape. Well, it looks nice. Much better than Miss Clone. But I look like a bit too much like some teenage boy’s wet dream. Boobs are too much, hips are too wide and I also detest bootilicious. No, this will not do. Because I’m not that kind of girl. I know that for sure. Time to try the next one.

Mmmm, this one is different. Much more elegant and refined. Less exaggerated body features, but still quite “inspiring”. This shape is much more appropriate for a good, wholesome girl like me. True, I now look like Helen and I could start the Trojan War all over again, but I’m not that kind of girl, at least that’s what I told myself.

Now I have what I need as far as a shape goes. But I still have this injected molded skin, but I can almost take off the paper bag. So I look on my list and see my next stop. A place called X2? Hmm…. Strange name, but, time to move on.

Next stop on the list…. Flesh on the bones.

-Veyron

Oh my God.  Or as most Second Life residents would say, OMG.  I look like a freak or a something that dropped out of some bad hippie movie from the seventies.  I’ve just been rezzed and popped into what could only be described as n00b island.  This will not do.  There is no way I’m going to go around looking like this, and worse there are at least a dozen more clones just like me.  This will not do.

The Narrator has wisely sent off an email to an acquaintance she knows who is in Second Life for tips.  Cleverly disguising the fact that she is already in Second Life, realizing that maybe being anonymous might be a good idea here….

After a while of working on the mechanics of how the client works and how to get around, I’m getting the hang of this.  This is a lot like Doom or Quake.  Except there’s no BFG and no monsters to kill.  Hmmm, at least none that I’ve seen, and I look ugly.  Well, this is getting boring on n00b island, I might as well leave this paradise of n00bness and join what everyone is calling “the grid”.

It sounds scary out there, away from this safe island of n00bness.  Us clones might not be safe there.  Then their are these ominous warnings of never being able to return here.  It could be dangerous out there.  What if I get attacked? Hmmm. Well, I might as well bite the bullet and go into the real world, err, second world.

Bravely I hit the kiosk to teleport into the main grid.  It was the Bear sim.  It was night.  And the teleport sound the client made sounded very similar to Quake or Doom or something like that in my past and for a moment I thought….

Shit, I’m not armed!  Where’s my gun?!?  I’m gonna get killed here.  I forgot to practice with weapons.

Then I relaxed for a moment. Suddenly I saw someone walking nearby. She was beautiful, she had what appeared to be real hair, skin that did not look like it was made of plastic, clothes that did not come from Goodwill’s reject bin, and she even walked like a woman should walk.

Then panic really set in. OMG, I need a paper bag for my head.  I look like a total dork. Save me from myself. Kill me now. Strip me naked.  Oh no, she is coming near me, she’s going to talk to me. Oh my God, I can’t believe I look like this. This is so embarrassing.  Run away!  Hide! Find a paper bag!

Suddenly there was that sound of an incoming webmail….  Oh, it was my friend.  An email some odd locations of places to get things, these SURLs, in a nice list of things to get…  Hmmm, shopping?  Oh, I get it.  I can buy my way to beauty.  I notice that up on top of the client there is clever little $ spot up in the corner of to put more quarters into the machine.  How convenient.  They make this so easy.  I whip out my Visa card, and it is already its shaking with anxiety.  I say to it, don’t worry, it looks like most everything here is inexpensive.  This won’t be that bad.  Twenty five dollars should be plenty to get all I need here.  

I can see this is important to get fixed up right now.  After all, this is not very expensive, a few cups of coffee or maybe a movie.  Besides, this is fun, and it’s nothing like that Worlds of Warcraft those nerds in the office spend all of their free time playing.

I start working on the list….  First off, a shape.  Mmmmm, a shape, I might like this Second Life.

Next up, gawking in the meat market.

-Veyron