Picture of the Day - 272

"Absinthe Daze" by Nigel Cleanslate (Riel)

If you wish to see more of Nigel's photography, please visit his Flickr photostream here.

Picture of the Day - 168

"Hain't It Funny" by Nigel Riel

If you wish to see more of Nigel's photography, please visit his Flickr photostream here.

Picture of the Day - 162

"Falling" Photography by Nigel Riel

If you wish to see more of Nigel's photography, please visit his Flickr photostream here.

Picture of the Day - 137

"Embrace The Silly" Photography by Nigel Riel

If you wish to see more of Nigel's photography, please visit his Flickr photostream here.

SP Annual Membership Meeting 2013

The annual Second Pride membership meeting was held yesterday. It was a well visited meeting that was conducted in an orderly fashion. Extra seats had to rezzed as more members than expected turned up.

My pictures are all  taken at an early time in the proceedings,
I should think we were twice as many when the meeting ended.

Larz Kas looking hot in a new cap with Jarred, in the second row
I and Jared Palianta and at the far back to the right Eric Quimby.

Nigel Riel (far left), Marcellias (center) and HerrDirektor /far right)

From left to right, SquirtN, Mr. G. and Dextrum

From left to right, Doc, Baz, Tootsie and Kharissa

The most important stuff that occurred at the meeting was the information pertaining to the upcoming elections of the new Second Pride Board.

This is from the Second Pride website. Please note it contains important information about 
1) eligibility to the board, 
2) voting privileges in the election, as well as 
3) a need for you - in certain instances - to update your personal information on the Second Pride website so that your vote will not be discarded. 

Election Dates and Procedures:

• Candidate declarations will be accepted from July 7th through midnight SLT July 21st. per the by laws.
• Only Members of the Second Pride Group will be considered and their declaration must be accompanied by a “candidate Statement” which will be done on the second-pride.com website. (No one will be able to declare after midnight on the 21st)
• Candidates will be announced on the second-pride.com website and their candidate statements published on the forums on July 22nd. Members will be able to question the candidates for a period of ten days ending at midnight August 1st.
• On August 2nd Candidates may make their final statements
• From August 2nd through midnight slt on August 4th the forums will be closed from further discussion . Members are encouraged to view the candidates final statements .
• Voting will commence at 00:01AM August 5th through midnight August 9th
• You must have joined the Second Pride Festival Group by midnight August 4th to be able to vote for your candidates.
• At this time the election committee will certify the results of the election and announce to the membership those results no later than midnight August 12th.
• On August 18th at 11AM slt The new Board will be installed and have their 1st meeting as a Board of Second Pride. The existing Board will step down at that time and any transfers will take place at that time.
• Candidates: Candidate Declaration Form

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR MEMBERS
You MUST be a member of the Second Pride in-world group before Midnight August 4th to be eligible to vote. The election committee will be cross referencing the online votes received against the in-world membership list. Please be sure to click on your name at the bottom of this screen [on the second-pride.com website, my remark] (to view and/or update your online profile. Make sure your Second Life Avatar name is part of your profile so that your vote can be verified against the in-world membership.

YIKES! I AM Not Proportionate

YIKES! I have just discovered that I am terribly disproportionate! Either my beautiful long legs must go or I  will have to blow my head up so that no hair will ever fit me again.

"This needs to be thought through, don't do anything in haste, Bock. You will only screw it up completely!", I keep telling myself but I am not sure it will help.

This means that those artist have been right all along, I am a pinhead! I should just delete my account and start over under another name...

UPDATE: OK, I have picked myself up from the floor and am breathing again. I have taken a look at Nigel's recommendations and his measurements (see previous post) I will start there and see what it leads to.

P.S. Don't mind the skin, it will be changed first thing when I log in today! Before I start fiddling with my measurements!

Avatar Appearances

Its important how you look, not crucial, but still important. Sometime during Pride week one of my immediate "friends" (huh?) told me very kindly that I looked old, which set me out on a hunt for a new skin. I have spent most of my time since, when I do not assist my cantankerous builder/interior decorator Butch Diavolo, with searching for a new skin that I would feel happy and content in.

I ended up buying four (4) skins in three (3) days, because I momentarily thought I liked them. After using them a short while everything about the new skin just feels "wrong" in a powerful way. It is silly really, because my avatar is not really me, but still I have to feel good and comfortable in every aspect of it.

So I have now - for the time being at least - decided to stay with the skin I have had for two years. All the new ones feel too shiny and oily. Besides they all also seem to have too much eyeliner on, wearing the skins I feel like a man of ill-repute in a Moroccan bordello. What do I care if I look old, I prefer aging gracefully than to look as if I was desperately trying to be more youthful than I am., Growing older is still better than the only other option.

Speaking of eyeliners, following a comment on my blog yesterday I came across an interesting post on Nigel Riel's blog Trials of Eyeliner (I have added it to my blogroll now) that deals with avatar shapes.

Apparently there is a rule of thumb concerning human - and hence also human avatars - proportions, saying that an adult humans height should on average ideally be around 7½ heads high, with the rest of the body parts spaced in as you see from this picture on Nigel's blog.

Image by Nigel Riel

In my life as an avatar I have of course come across the usual accusations from those in SecondLife who believe that we should all try to emulate reality in-world also and it is therefore somehow "morally wrong" to be the normal 2,20 m tall, the same rule seems to apply on overly muscular bodies. To them I say, "Bite me!"

Oh speaking of proportions, reality and heads, did I ever tell you about the two supposedly artists that at separate occasions have IM'd me to inform me that my head "is too small compared to the rest of your body". They both looked like dogshit in their perfectly proportioned bodies, by the way. Being the kind man I am, I did not tell them that but merely answered that, I liked my head fine and that the head actually doesn't grow when you pump up your body. Of course they could have meant compared to my height, in which case they would have been correct, but as I remember it they said nothing about my height.

Well, I don't care one bit about "reality" in avatar appearance, but I do strive to be proportionate. Using the guidelines that Nigel points to in his post Trials of Eyeliner: Monday Meme – 6-24, I am going to give my avatar an overhaul on proportions. Hopefully it will help me plenty in the avatar meat race!