Another Pet Peeve: Tinting Skin

Let me start this post by posting a (somewhat shortened) conversation I had with my dear friend Starlight Gentil today. The conversation reminded me of how long I have had this pet peeve.

s ţ α rℓ ίg ђ ţ: Hey Bock ! thank you for the invite ....  I'll be there ! yay !! hugs Star

Bock McMillan: YAY! You're so welcome sweetie, so happy we will see each other  again!

s ţ α rℓ ίg ђ ţ: :)))

Bock McMillan: Now begone please, I have to fit a bulge on my swimsuit and get the skin color  on the penis bit right... LOL

s ţ α rℓ ίg ђ ţ: OMG !! haha ...I'm picturing that !!

s ţ α rℓ ίg ђ ţ: Enjoy!!

Bock McMillan: ROFL - I cannot understand why the stores don't hand out cards with the RGB of the skins: Would that be so damned difficult?

s ţ α rℓ ίg ђ ţ: Haha... you do make me smile :)))

Bock McMillan: It's pet peeve of mine, drat the merchants

s ţ α rℓ ίg ђ ţ: Can you imagine telling peeps at work on Monday what you did on Sunday >?

Bock McMillan: LOL nooooooooooooo

s ţ α rℓ ίg ђ ţ: Exactlyyyy .haha. But these are such important issues here

s ţ α rℓ ίg ђ ţ: OK I'll be gone and let you start tinting ^^

Bock McMillan: It's a crazy world we are living in sweetie, can you believe we are here by choice?

s ţ α rℓ ίg ђ ţ: We're all weirdos .. who cares ..just enjoy

Bock McMillan: Haha will do! See you soon! Ohhh by the way this conversation is going on the blog....

s ţ α rℓ ίg ђ ţ: Oops ! ;D

Bock McMillan: ROFL

s ţ α rℓ ίg ђ ţ: grinz

No, it's not my own "attachment"

Ever since I rezzed in SecondLife some 6 + years ago I have had a problem with tinting the skin of penises, or rather six days after I rezzed. Before that I was hanging around at the arrival place trying to get myself to look half-decent.

Can you imagine what the first thing I looked for in Inventory was once I had seen myself naked? Yup, you got it - a penis. I couldn't for the life of me understand the cruelty of people letting a male avatar rez without having a penis handy, not even a flaccid one. "Damn holier-than-thou Yanks" I thought and then calmed myself with the thought that surely there must be a solution to this major malfunction.

Well, within an hour of venturing out of the arrival place, I had been handed three atrocious penises by male avatars who wanted me to service them. The penises were absolutely ugly, both in shape and especially coloring.  Is there really anything uglier in the whole world than a mismatched penile-attachment?

This problem has remained all through my SecondLife. While Ars lived he would help me with tinting, but since he passed away I am on my own with this and not doing great I am not afraid to tell you.

One of the earliest skins I bought in SecondLife was the Dante skin, I think it was sold by something called Naughty Designs. That skin came with a flaccid penis matched to the skin tone, but other than that I have only encountered  one more merchant that supplied skins with penises and that is The Fallen Gods, who supply penile-attachments free of charge in the correct tints.

The skin tinting problem used to be only a problem for male avatars, women did not have similar appendages - as we all knew long before we took Biology 101. That was true until mesh came along, with mesh feet and shoes that need to be matched with the skin the problem is now one that both genders struggle with.

Skin-merchants, when will you take responsibility and realize that it is a serious problem for residents because it is so difficult to properly match the skin of the body with the skin of the penis and other attachments? Why the hell can't you supply us with a card telling us the RGB of the skin  or a texture so that we can tint our penises and other attachments with some ease?

Bara & Free Are Back

Star grooves

Vampi sings along

Yesterday we witnessed the long awaited and longed for return of Bara Jonson and Free Balan to SecondLife.

The two have been on your in first life to Germany and they have therefore not appeared in-world for several months.

I was - of course - at the venue of the "comeback" together with two of the other most adamant Bara-supporters, namely Mrs. Vampi Twine DeSantis McMillan McMillan (honorary) and Starlight "Star" Gentil. 

At the venue were also assembled a modest but enthusiastic crowd of other live music lovers. 

Before I could enjoy the show I was forced to derender three huge waterfalls that surrounded the main stage. These were beautiful to look at, but the loud sounds of water falling was a real nuisance at a venue where one comes to listen to live music. Sometimes I just don't understand what certain people are thinking of when they design their venues. (I am now stopping myself from going into a rant about another live music venue that has/had about 1,013 frogs and toads emitting sounds.)

Bara's and Free's voices marry wonderfully and give you warm shivers down the back accompanied by warm and fuzzy feelings. All of us at the show had a great time and enjoyed a good show together. 

Welcome back to SecondLife Bara and Free, now please wait awhile before you both go on prolonged tours in first life again!

Rage Against Technology

I live with the not unreasonable expectation that every time I do a certain thing to a machine or with software programs I should and can expect the same results.

This expectation has more often than not been proven to be false, which absolutely stuns me every time. I think of myself as a human being with some emotional weaknesses but on the whole mostly rational. The fact that machines and software programs have the audacity to act up against me and take on a will of their own totally and completely pisses me off!

What has made the otherwise meek, happy-go-lucky and ever so humble Bock so angry you wonder? Well, this is what happened.

Yesterday I read about the new Linden Lab Beta Viewer 3.2 on Sven Idyll´s blog. He was very convincing so I uninstalled my Firestorm viewer, cleaned up my computer from anything SecondLife and downloaded and installed the new viewer.

I was totally enchanted by the exceptional usability of the new user interface and by the fact that my personal and group IM´s were vertically stacked (see picture).

It´s an awesome feature that prevents you from missing any IM´s and also keeps them collected in the same space instead of spreading out all over ones screen.

Well today I did the mistake of reading Sven Idylls blog again and seeing his praise for Starlight I decided to try that feature too. I shouldn't have done that! Because when I had installed the Starlight my vertically stacked IMs disappeared and seem to be lost forever.

In an effort to try to retrace my earlier steps I have uninstalled Starlight. uninstalled  Beta Viewer 3.2, cleaned up my computer completely from SecondLife, re-installed Firestorm and chosen the vertical tabs, uninstalled Firestorm, cleaned up my computer, re-installed Beta Viewer 3.2.

Nothing helps and my vertically stacked IM´s are gone and instead I end up with this (see picture).

Thinking about this I realize that I am mostly angry with myself. When the f**k will I learn not to mess with something that is good!

P.S. Finally I must emphasize that this was none of Sven´s doing he only got me excited when I read his blog. If I in any way have given you that impression I apologize to Sven Idyll!

Bock - the TV-star med förhinder

Så kom då dagen - äntligen - då jag blev upptäckt av den stora världen utanför SL. HBO, det amerikanska produktionsbolaget ville ha mig med i en kommande produktion.

Tyvärr visade det sig att de hela kvällen istället kom att fokusera på en divig sångare och gitarrklinkare i SL som heter Bara Jonson. Ni kan ha hört talas om honom tidigare men det är verkligen osäkert ... så djävla känd är han ju inte. 

Bara såg för övrigt bedrövlig ut, först i ett bedrövligt noob-hår som han visst hade haft våren 2002 eller något, senare i grått välklippt hår och ett skinn som fick honom att se ut som en bedagad sjuttiofem årig tangocharmör. Förresten Bara i välklippt hår skulle det vara trovärdigt???

Jag vet inte riktigt hur det gick till men plötsligt var HBO mer intresserad av honom och hans kärlekshistoria med en amerikansk skönhet som heter Nickel Borrelly, de hade visst fått träffats i SL och sedan fått barn i RL. En riktig godbit för det heteronormativa HBO...

Jag fick istället ägna mig åt att dansa och se vacker ut tillsammans med min urstilige styvson Guyke Lundquist - han brås verkligen efter min Ars och börjar nu bli en riktig snygging - och hans ursöte finländare Janttu Winkler. Ni lär väl se min axel i bild i tre sekunder om jag har tur med den mördande konkurrensen vad gäller testosteronstinn manlig skönhet, och då menar jag naturligtvis inte från Bara.

Nehej, allt ovan är lite förvängt.

HBO var naturligtvis i SL för att föreviga Nickels och Baras romans, som de förde vidare från SL till RL med det underbara resultatet Kris! Jag och pojkarna var där för att vara statister vid inspelingen, tyvärr visade det sig att de där filmmänniskorna inte vet hur man håller tider. Trots att filmmakarna hela tiden "älskade" vad de hade sett, skulle de "bara fånga det på bild fem gånger till" och sedan "bara tre gånger till" och sedan "bara tre gånger till från annan vinkel och med annan ljussättning"....

Det mest bestående minnet av kvällen var dock en "räpa" som var med som statist! Hon började i IM till mig gnälla om vilka bedrövliga danser Nickel hade. När jag berättade för henne att Nickel minsann dansade på min dans-HUD så skrev hon bara att hon "raises eyebrows". Jag frågade henne då var hon ansåg att man fick tag på de bästa danserna. På det svarade hon "Naturligtvis hos AKEYO och A&M". När jag efter detta upplyste henne om att alla mina danser var antingen från AKEYO eller A&M så blev hon tyst för resten av kvällen.

Nåväl, vid midnatt var jag tvungen att tacka för mig och pipa iväg till RL innan de hann säga "bara en gång till"! Jag vet ju att jag är den mest tålmodige avataren i SL, det säger alla till mig, men även jag måste dra gränsen någonstans.

Den underbara Starlight Gentil som anslöt lite senare under kvällen

Det var kul att vara med, även om det blev lite tradigt mellan varven. Mina uppriktigaste ursäkter går till den underbara Kay Uggla, som jag hade lovat dansa med på den fantastiska Colonial Bal på OrmDricka. Vi får göra det en annan gång istället Kay!

Nakna avatarer i SL 45

Denna kvinnliga avatar känns som en lillasyster. Kataleena Bracken och jag träffades på en Bara Jonson-konsert och på den vägen har det fortsatt. Det faktum att vi båda har förlänats hederstitlarna "stalkers" av Bara har gjort att vi kommit ännu närmare varandra. Även om det ibland går lång tid mellan gångerna då vi talas vid så spelar det ingen roll, vi hittar genast varandra.

Utan Kata, Vampi Twine, Starlight Gentil och May Llewellyn kan jag nog påstå att Bara inte hade haft en chans i den tävling som avslutades för en liten tid sedan. Det var dessa fyras idoga arbete dag ut och dag in som till slut förde honom till segern!

Eftersom Kataleena är min syster är hon naturligtvis en anslående skönhet och överlag alltid charmig och trevlig med en lika stor portion ödmjukhet som jag lider av!