It is with some embarrassment that I announce that my small shop in St John (City) has closed.
It is with great satisfaction that I announce that I will be sharing shop space in St John Parish with Miss Lela once the virtual debris is cleared away from renovations.
Dhughan here, after a long break rambling about at random.
My new shop in St John, a city based on New Orleans circa 1915, has opened softly. Or is that “soft opened?” Perhaps it has come in on little cat feet, tapping along with a stick in the mirk.
In any case, it seems I’m in need of a new logo, or brand or somesuch marketing whizzery, so here it is for now. Subject to change at the drop of a hat.
It links to my Flickr page, where many product photos live, and where many more new product photos will soon reside. I have suddenly come all over with a bad case of the meshles, a communicative disease caused by using a gadget called Blender. When infected with the meshles, someone must hold your hand and walk you through it patiently with aetheric visual talkies.
And now that I have a logo, I can do something else quite reckless and bold.
Having recently watched two aetheric talkies on Blender showing a simple new technique for making something in mesh, it has occurred to me like a thunderclap that my next walking stick must be in mesh. I own a real-life example to work from, it is a simple form, and it is perfectly suited to this method.
Suddenly, I am quite excited to have a bad case of the meshles! Wish me luck!
Here are the talkies. The one on trees is quite mesmerizing. The one on the genie bottle is well presented and clearly shows How It’s Done.
https://youtu.be/3-aeNb4T4aM
Huzzah and such! A new product (actually, a pair of them):
In honor of the newest Doctor, the walking stick of the First Doctor. This is a common country-gentleman style, so it’s not limited to SF roleplay.
via Second Life Marketplace – @DF@ Timelord Walking Stick – Light Ram's Horn.
I’m very happy to get this done, it’s been a hard slog of prim-twisting, image-wrangling, and animation-tweaking (not to mention script-monkeying).
Good Lord, is that the time? Doesn’t matter, just hop in the old TARDIS and arrive just in time for breakfast, well rested!
The sticks are in honor of The First Doctor, who carried a similar walking stick and apparently fended off something called the Zarbi with it.
This new Doctor Who feller may well end up with a cane, too, if his rabid fan based have anything to say about it. There might be bunnies.
Dhughan here, having got my stumps under me and motivated, here’s a new walking stick at last:
Silver and Ebony Walking Stick – Walk Like A Gent!
There are actually 2 sticks, one is compatible with the basic AO that is included and also the Gentleman Jim AO by Posture is Everything (Kamilah Hauptmann, proprietrice) and the other is compatible just with the basic AO. The second one is provided as a backup for those who’d like to try adding more animations to the config card. IM me inworld if interested in knowing how.
The bally Marketplace wasn’t working, after carefully setting up the ruddy Merchant Outbox with all the little oojahs that go in there (sticks, landmarks, info card, basic AO, and a poster-texture)… oh drat, it’s probably best if I just relog.
And there it is, visible on the Marketplace at last. The walking stick is also available inworld at the following locations:
Further West Trading Co., Steelhead City: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Steelhead/108/151/26
Froobert’s Tweddle Outlet: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Tweddle/224/226/82
St Helens Dry Goods: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Steelhead%20St%20Helens/64/158/39
And there are stick vendors at the St Helens Nature Reserve and at Further Rest, a walker’s and railbird’s retreat and pub now under construction.
And so forth. Onward!
In addition to the product update, I’ve also become aware that Spring has Sprung at last.
Thanks to a truly generous promotional offer called “the Blue Bunny Hunt” 21strom, I was able to bring on the spring at the Steelhead Nature Preserve. It’s been a long, hard winter for many, so it’s a pleasure to make this parkland available for all. Later on, there will be new green and autumnal trees as well.
The black-and-white Zen-looking poseballs are for tai chi. The poses are very high quality and smooth. There are chiming trees scattered around that give autumn and summer colors, but they weren’t very springlike, so thanks to Zuza Ritt’s generousity, we can now enjoy blossomtime in Steelhead St Helens. The chiming trees will remain for now, but be my guest if you’d like to hunt down the noisy things and silence them. I realize they’re not to everybody’s taste.
I was also able to update the picnic tables to something a bit nicer, with adustable poses and seating for 4 or 5 avatars. The picnic shelter has been sized down to something a bit less gargantuan in scale, as I have been reading and inwardly digesting various posts at SLuniverse.com regarding correct proportional building guidelines.
Next? Perhaps I should get some sort of trebuchet or catapult. That would be rather amusing.
Yes, yes, all very well; I have finally had some hours (HOURS I SAY) to myself to muddle through a product update. It’s only been 65% complete for ::mumble mumble:: weeks now.
But at last I am more than happy (and quite relieved) to release an improvement to one of my somewhat popular products:
“Without my walking stick, I’d go insane…
I can’t look my best, I feel undressed without my cane.”
IMPROVED – Textures have been thoroughly refreshed to add a more Victorian design aesthetic. Includes the previous version, which is plainer and not as detailed. The animations are the same.
via Second Life Marketplace – @DF@ Ivory-Headed Cane v3.0426 with Basic Gent’s AO.
The truth is, that I have been procrastinating lately (oh do stop laughing and falling about like a comedian). Miss Lelani was fretting for months about getting ready for the recently concluded STEAM IX hunt, and feeling like her simple little prim hats and suchlike just weren’t up to snuff in a virtual world gone all meshy. I had been feeling much the same way.
Well, there’s nothing for it but to pull oneself up by one’s braces and learn some new skills. My current walking sticks and canes are all dependent on another merchant’s product -for animations and such, it would be far better to make my own. And all of my products are prim-based, which are looking a bit doggy (the reason I decided to at least freshen up the textures).
/me looks sidelong at two books about Blender, a program whose mysteries continue to elude the typemonkey.
Time for boycat Dinkies and male Tinies to have a decent walking stick with simple animations – so I started to adapt the Ivory Walking Stick, which is old enough to need some freshening up.
I started by testing some nicer textures for the ivory, and setting it in a sort of cup-bezel with engraved silver fittings (I may play with materials a bit if they don’t add greatly to the land impact (LI). Then I resized it to the right length for a Dinkie or Tiny avatar, and got the pos/rot information with a script so as to update the control script. At last, I hopped smartly on to a pose stand to run it through the animations to test various positions and rotations.
It appears to need a little more work.
In any case, it won’t take long to correct, I’ll have to adjust things to account for the portly/dumpy figure of the Dinkies mesh avatar. It will come with a simple top hat. The tailcoat is by Kaosome Hotshot, the AV is by Etheria Parrott, and already the Dinkies have a lively and fun community, though of course we boycats don’t have a lot of choices for outfits. I hope to do something to correct that.
Hallo, Dhughan here, back from the not-quite-dead.
Whilst reading the excellent “Second Life Newser” I ran across this item:
Being a community where mad scientists are respected, Steelhead has seen many interesting creations. Question is, what would these creative minds do when asked to make a snowman? Well, the steampunk community is about to find out, as leader TotalLunar Eclipse has announced a snowman building contest.
The rules are, “Fifteen prims per snowman you can enter up to two times. The winner and runner up will have their unique snowman displayed in front of town hall until the snow thaws for all to see.”
…
Those entering the contest are asked to drop their snowmen (or snowwomen or snowbeast) at Steelhead Port Harbor (96, 111, 1028). This will be the location for Steelhead’s Friday Night dance this week, the theme being “A Snowball’s Chance in Hell.” (with thanks to M. Bixyl Shuftan, reporter)
My modest entry in the Steelhead Snowpersons in Hell contest for the shindig, shown here after placement. It may be that I’ve been watching the outworld documentary programme “Mythbusters” a bit too much during my self-imposed time off.
It is exactly 15 prims and depicts a snowperson of uncertain gender using a very unlikely boat to survive a few milliseconds longer in Hell. It’s on view at the specially constructed ballroom high over Steelhead Port Harbor (96, 111, 1028)
Although a shy person by nature I was cajoled by my business partner, Miss Carver, to attend the dance. I should say coerced, because she spent the evening heckling me and attacking me with snowballs as I sat in my little boat. She was in the aspect of a wee kitten on ice skates, and as such she skated around the ice-and-lava dance floor, chatting irrepressibly and pausing only to ambush me. Infernal feline!
Mr Lunar was in attendance, as were a number of other Steelhead worthies. Miss Carver took a few snaps for her Flickr page as well.
Rather hopeful of my chances but no word yet, perhaps it will be announced at the Tuesday town hall.
Yes, I’ve been motivated lately – not only did I just list this at the Marketplace:
A simple antique rug, well worn but carefully kept, enhances any decor. This one has paler, more subtle colors and more vertical lines and angular designs in the corners.
via Second Life Marketplace – @DF@ Antique Rug Egyptian Revival.
But I also have this for sale in my NEW SHOP in Steelhead City, as well as in the Tweddle outlet shop:
Currently I’ve only had time to load it in inworld vendors, but will add it to the Marketplace presently.
I have some exciting plans cooking around in my brain. Do stop by.
I have been absent of late bumbling around in the typist’s life of so-called “reality,” but I happened to log in to deal with a customer service issue yesterday, and resolved to log in today to get more chores done.
I missed the 3rd Birthday gift for Firestorm, but I had a different special gift in my trousers when I logged in.
Special Gifts
Firestorm Kitty
As a token of our thanks and appreciation, we teamed up with KittyCatS!, who have put together the most amazing custom collectible pet to give away to you as a gift. The Firestorm Kitty is a fully functional, non-breedable, non transferable pet for life meaning you don’t have to feed it, and it will never die. There is a rumor that this is the kitty that ate the Phoenix, but whether it’s true or not is up to you to decide. There is a limit of one per customer, and they will be available inworld for free purchase for a full week starting 9am SLT September 3rd until 9am September 10th.
via Happy 3rd Anniversary! « Firestorm Viewer – The Phoenix Firestorm Project Inc..
I had also seen the item in the SL Newser by Bixyl Shuftan about the Firestorm birthday celebrations, and had updated the viewer accordingly. I stepped inworld yesterday without issue, and today this… which would also leave me without issue in an entirely different sense.
Very awkward socially: “Oh, how do you do, I have an enormous rock in my trousers, pleasant weather for it, what?”
I was thinking of investing in some enhanced gentlemen’s bits (purely for research), as it would seem there’s a need for good quality men’s underfurnishings. It seems to me that designing a discreet “package” that might hint at the treasures awaiting a potential partner might be about as far as I’d be prepared to go in the “naughty bits” adult market.
In the meantime, I had logged in via remote aetheric device to answer a query; this has done rather odd things in the past.
And so this evening I arrive in my simple workshop to find this… geological erratic situated over the gentleman’s bits, and I did just wonder what Firestorm was thinking with their “Simple Gifts” promotion.
UPDATE: Miss Jessica Lyon, project manager of Firestorm, kindly stopped by with a fix for my dilemma. I had merely resized the bridge, but it appears I’m not the only one to be rocked by a Firestorm bridge, and she included a link for fixing the problem.