why?

Why that?

What makes people choose the avatars and the outfits that they do and what makes them think that outfit looks good?  Is there a psych connection here?  Does the super muscled over tall bling sporting avatar with a gun tucked in his waistband hide some poor demented socially inept wannabe gang banger?  I won’t even comment on the various cross-gender avatar/player combos.  Not only is it an appeal for the transgendered community to be able to fit into a community in their chosen role with minimal questioning, but many guys have said, “If I am going to spend hour at a time looking at an avatar I would rather it was a hot chick.” 

 

I am also not talking about people like my friend Ella.  She has got some wild outfits.  I mean stuff that doesn’t go with anything, except it does go with wherever she is, if that makes any sense in this single cup of coffee post.  She has taste and creativity so even her really wild outfits look pretty damn good.  What about the poor goober who is just weird to be weird and a little tasteless.  Does that poor bastard have no taste, no concept of a self image or do they just not care? 

 

On that note, is it worse to deal with a noob, help them beyond noob status and help produce an interesting SL resident or is it worse to deal with someone who enters the game with no concern for the social forms which have sprung up and does jackass things just because they can?  The example being, those people who just never grasp that SL has a vast social network as regular and reliable as any chat or instant messaging app.  I know that when I go to certain spot each evening I will likely find the same group of people chatting and listening to music. *mental note- Get a playlist to Jay*

 

This initial subject came up in conversation between me and a new acquaintance.  We joked about the compensation issues that must arise in SL and I had one of those cold water down the spine moments where I said, “Am I one of those people?”  Granted my regular form and state of dress has settled down into a notable pattern and seeing as how I have pretty good taste I always look ok, albeit sometimes I look like a Freddie Mercury fan club member, but hey how can I show off my tats if I don’t wear a tank top?  Right?  Most of the time people comment that I look like an adult version of Harry Potter, less the scar.  The blue black hair and the round rim glasses make all the difference.

 

All in all I would love to see a psychological evaluation based on avatar choices.  Might be entertaining to see what a shrink makes of the fact that although a person may dress normally in SL most of the time, they also choose to wear glasses and carry satchel.  Then where do the non-human avatars fit in?  The raven, the anthro fox and the dragon?  I think about it a good deal, especially when I see the truly tasteless walk by.

New Stuff in the Store!

I revamped my vendor and restocked it.  There is a ton of new stuff mixed in with the old.  Come by and check it out.  As always my work is original and sold with full perms for builders to use in their projects.  No texture or texture set may be resold as a texture or as a derived work.

These samples are the tiniest part of what I offer.Urban grunge, sci-fi, fantasy, abstract, cloth and leather for clothiers, windows and doors of various types.  I just keep making stuff that I see around me so there are a plethora of choices.

blah

Ok the madness, the frustration and the pain.  Not really.  Last week I upgraded my computer.  New video card and m ore ram.  Now SL does something weird.  It doesn’t just crash, the view goes all pixilated, my system seems to lock up and then the monitor goes dark.

 

Issues it does not seem to be;

Power supply

Video Card

 

I ran 3Dmark with no problems and if there is anything that would crash my system it should be a heavy benchmarking tool like that.  SL is the only app that causes this weirdo crash.  I can run a suite of adobe products, 3DS Max, Poser, Manga Studio, WoW, etc etc etc with no issues.  Someone pointed out I may be having Open GL issues.  Then why does WoW not present an issue?  Why did my older video card not have a problem?

 

Still exploring, much annoyance.

Avast!

So Ella and I had a nasty sort of split over something that seems petty but honestly doesn’t feel that way.  There was a massive double standard involved and I feel that I was being taken for granted.  Not in an abusive manipulative sort of way or anything.  She isn’t that sort of person.  So basically I got mad.  I snatched up my gear from her place and popped over to my store, returned all of her stuff.  Let me say that this part is way easier in SL than RL.  We had some words and I think she put me on mute because she responds not at all now.  Friends in common are still friendly and that is a plus.

So in a fit of pique I decided to rebuild my store and rent more land from my landlord.  I now have a groovy little pirates landing complete with cannon and some piratical doodads.  Still needs tweaking of course.  I have all of 61 prims left and no real interactivity on site to keep people around right now.  Still haven’t attempted the great vendor edit but I will soon unless I find someone to help me build new vendors that do pretty much the same as this one I have.

Needless to say between the rebuild and my retail therapy and RL messing with SL schedule my SL profits are nil for this last week.  I had a contract job, only got most of it done and really need to try and get it finished.  I don’t think I am going to take any more building façade jobs.  It is really tedious work.

I am also looking to hire a shop assistant.  Essentially they would hang about the shop for a significant amount of time each day.  Preferably not just parking their avatar their but being available to answer questions and interact with visitors as well.  It is a seriously easy job and for anyone who wants to make 700 L$ a week spending 2hrs a day in a piratical setting.  There is of course an interview process.  I also have a Tarot set up available or space available if someone wanted to do reading in that local during the day.

In lighter news I am considering having a regular dueling event and maybe an archery competition although archery isn’t too piratical.  I figure knife fighting, cutlass and rapier and pistols.  I also want to host a live show for a local musician.  The dueling idea came from the realization that there are a zillion combat systems, some simple and easy to use and zillion weapons out there.  I think it is Fizzworks that has a set of dueling pistols and while I was at Siegewhatsits I noticed they sold an Atriedes dagger.  While not piratical that did put in mind the idea of knife fighting.  I figure on working with a DJ to spin some piratical music (I have quite a bit on hand).  Get a few sponsors to offer up prizes and then have a double elimination tourney with two or three events.

Mental note gather up some piratical freebies to give out.