I have not been around for a little bit and that would be because I bought a new computer! I am still working on setting it up and getting all my programs that I use installed (for pictures for example). My old computer was almost 10 years old! I did upgrade it quite a bit, but it was way past time to get a new gaming computer. Merry Christmas to me!! 

Kirsten's Computer Specs: 

iBUYPOWER - 

TraceMR Gaming Desktop - 

Processor: Intel i7 11700F - 

Memory: 16GB Memory - 

Video Card: NVIDIA RTX 3060Ti 8GB - 

Hard Drive: 480GB SSD + 1TB HDD 

Operating System: Windows 11

 

    October is my favorite month in Second Life. I love all the spooky places, costumes, and things to do. I love wearing a costume all month long! I used to write a top fun Halloween things to do in SL post every year. I have not written one since 2016! So- I am going to definitely get one made for 2021. 

#1 Coming in at #1 is the Boystown Haunted Experience. I walked through with four of my friends and we had the best time! 

"Grab your holy water and say your prayers, because the Boystown Haunted Experience is coming to thrill the grid this Halloween. Straight out of Hell, this spooky walk-through attraction with interactive experiences is designed to terrify and entertain. Start out at Horror House, where an innocent visit to Madame Ruby's Fortune Telling turns out to be a gateway to a demonic world with incredible monsters, amazing special effect and fearful places. 

Those brave enough to enter should plan on using the Second Life Shared environment, turn sounds all the way up, and allow the use of in world experiences. It's going to be a scream!"

#2 Grimsly Fiendish Halloween Rides. I was blown away by all the rides and the sheer imagination that was evident in this sim! 

     I am not even sure if I found all there was to explore on this sim because there was so much going on. I really enjoyed everything I did! My two favorite things were the Escape Rooms and the Theater of Madness. Go check them out!

         It has been a year since the first Women's March, January 21, 2017. I blogged that HERE. Wow, what a difference a year makes. It might just be me, but this year marks the most dynamic climate shift for women's rights that I have ever seen in my lifetime at least. This weekend women will be marching again. What do we march for? Equality for women, equal wages, protesting sexual assault, and a host of other things. I think every woman has her own thoughts about why she marches or supports the marches. I am not close enough to a march site and I know many others that might live in rural areas, etc also can't participate. So, as I do, I wanted to show my support in SL and I got some friends to join me!

        The friends that helped me take my picture today are (left to right), Halfwraith Caerndow, Saffron Foxclaw, Gypsy Mactavish, ME, Dani Graphelle, Asthenia Pinazzo, Rhaenys Targaryen, and Starr Ghost. I will link their blogs below so you can check them all out as well. Thank you all so much!!!

        One of my favorite SL artist, Whiskey Monday, marched today with her mother and daughter in RL. She also marched last year. She had this to say about the march today, "Today's Women's March was even more inspiring and moving than last year. I was in a smaller crowd in a smaller town, but it didn't matter. People were fired up with a purpose I didn't see last year. Women are running for office. Women are telling their stories. Women are claiming their space. I'm honored to have been a part."- Whiskey Monday.

        I think that is what I meant. The difference from last year to this year is purpose. I was just mad in general last year and you can see that in my post and the reason I said I marched in SL. This year I am resolved. I am excited about men being held accountable for their actions and seeing real change as they are fired from high profile positions for sexual misconduct. It is about time. I named this post #metoo. I did that because I was sexually assaulted by a Pastor in our church when I was a child. It does not matter how young, you are going to negatively affect that child and she will remember. I personally did not remember until I was older. I started having vivid dreams in college and they were so disturbing. I called my mom and simply asked her if anything happened to me when I was younger. She started crying and so did I and then it all came back to me. I remembered. I have also had my share of uncomfortable situations where I am trying to politely say, I am not into this, and the guy was not listening to me at all. I was never raped as a young adult, but I was definitely touched and groped when I was not wanting to be. I am still coming to terms with that because until recently I just thought that was how some guys were and they did eventually take No for an answer, so surely not sexual assault, right? Now my mind is changing. #metoo



      Now for SL fashion. I love my shirt! I love the double message and I think its perfect for today! It is new by MAddict at the current round of 4Mesh. My shoes are also new by Livalle at the current round of faMESHed. Look at the materials and how they shine. The texture is just amazing! I am not sure what the other girls are wearing. If they post blogs, I will link to that. Here is a close up of my look today.


 







Top: Maddict - Dixie Sweater  @ 4Mesh
Shoes: {Livalle} Cambridge - Oxford Creepers @ faMESHed January
Hat: (Yummy) Pussy Hat (FREE!)
Head: CATWA  Kimberly
Hair: Doe: Cole (solid) - Fatpack
Socks: erratic / eva - knee socks (FLAT) / pink (maitreya)
Body: Maitreya Mesh Body - Lara
Skirt: Neve skirt - lead Lara
Pose Prop: {NANTRA} Women's March Gift (FREE GIFT)
Background: Bossfight (free here)


Please visit these blogs!
Gypsy Mactavish, https://gypsysin.blogspot.com/
Asthenia Pinazzo http://astheniananana.blogspot.com/
Dani Graphelle   https://hausofgraphelle.wordpress.com/
Rhaenys Targaryen   http://rhandomrhaenys.blogspot.com/
Starr Ghost   https://starrzsltravel.com/
Saffron Foxclaw http://saffronsplace.tumblr.com/
Halfwraith Caerndow   http://pipsfreebiefantasy.blogspot.co


Love, Kirsten Corleone

        Happy Thanksgiving! In RL today, I cooked for 6 hours, ate for 30 min, and slept for 4 in a tryptophan food coma, lol. In SL, Hiram, Cindy, and I celebrated Thanksgiving last Monday. We had a great night! We pretended to eat really pretty decor food while we played some family games. Cindy Lu beat the pants off us at Trivia, which is impressive since she is only 4. We also played Thanksgiving Memory Match because I figured we needed a toddler friendly game, but nobody could touch me on that one. I won both the easy and hard edition of the game handedly. After dinner, we went for a family walk with lots of swings (pictured above). Finally, we played Football tag, which was really just tag on a football field texture, lol. I don't think tag had a winner. I pretty much spent the time laughing out loud the whole time as we ran around chasing each other around, lol. I made a family video to show all the fun and you can see more in this PLURK. It was a great week. What did you do in both worlds this holiday? Let me know in the comments.






Thanksgiving 2016
Kirsten's Thanksgiving 2017 Fashion:
Dress: *Just Because* Moka Dress - Merlot - Lara/ Teleport
Shoes: REIGN.- Evenna Heels/ Teleport
Hair: Magika - Excuse Me
Tights: AVICANDY Basic Low-Rise - Licorice
Family Pose: .click. Big Swing
Music in Video: Dream Culture by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Benny Hill Theme Song (lol) Licence for non-commercial use under license “Personal Use Only”




Love, Kirsten Corleone

Slink AvEnhance Dynamic Hands Female (FREE UPDATE)/ Teleport
FATE Hand Poser HUD v2.0/ Teleport/ Marketplace
AO: BodyLanguage Notorious/ Teleport
Music in Video from Longzijun's Free Background Music
For outfit credits, See this previous blog post, Magick


Love, Kirsten Corleone

Love, Kirsten Corleone

        I am leaving in just a little bit for a 9 day vacation! I have a lot of things planned and I can't wait. I will be coming home on the 26th. During my vacation, I will be unplugged from SL (pretty much because I don't have anything portable that could begin to handle SL, lol). I will see you all when I get back. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas holiday!


Love, Kirsten Corleone

#1) The Nightmare Event 2016: The Nightmare walk through is back for another year. This is always one of my favorite things to do for Halloween in SL. Can you find your way through the Nightmare experience and find all 25 teeth?



2) Pumpkin Patch by Interior Design and Artistry: After you pick out your pumpkin, there are several areas for interactive fun including a petting zoo, Apple Orchard, and a Wine Sampling Station. One of the coolest things is that visitors are allowed to rez items for photography pose purposes so you could visit and take group or family pictures at the Pumpkin Patch. 

3) Haunted Halloween Tour: Ride a coffin through a spooktacular ride. Two can ride together on this ride so you can grab onto each other for dear life. For the best experience you want to use region windlight defaults, have your sound ON, and turn on advanced Lighting.


5) Halloween Haunted Sim by Nance Clowes: This sim features several major Halloween-themed builds on one sim. Attractions include rides, an 8 story ghost asylum, GCS zombie combat city and lots more!

6) Polaris Playground Haunted House: This is an old school SL haunted house, but it made it on my list because if you find your way to the top of the haunted house you can hop on a bat and ride around the spooky sim looking at everything from above. This is an ADULT sim.

7) The Cornfield: You land and get a basket on your back, a damage meter HUD, and a plank of wood for your protection. You are going to need it because there are all kinds of spooks in the cornfield. If you are a traditional gamer, this might be really up your alley. You can click on the arrow on your HUD to get a notecard that tells you all about the game and how to play. Can you get through the cornfield and collect a full basket of corn before the griefers get you?



8) Dark Sewers:  You can fight zombies and all kinds of creatures in the sewers. Pick up a free HUD and weapons and venture into the sewers to fight all kinds of spooky haunts. Dare you venture down to the dark underground old sewers,inside this dark & damp place are creatures of your worst nightmares!

Spooky Picture Places Perfect for Halloween:
Woodbury Falls
Ironwood Hills
Arranmore

HISTORICAL SL HALLOWEEN:
Kirsten's 2015 Halloween List
Kirsten's 2014 Halloween List
Kirsten's 2013 Halloween List




Earrings: *Just Because* Pumpkin Earrings (2)- N21 FREE Gift 
Outfit: *Just Because* Willow Jumpsuit/ Teleport/ Marketplace
Head: CATWA Destiny
Hair: Doe: Punkin - Pumpkins RARE @ Kawaii Project
Body: Maitreya Mesh Body - Lara
Necklace: Noodles - Batty Necklace
Shoes: {Livalle} Rhiannon -Platform Heels- Black Jack
Pose: {NanTra} Trick or Treat Pumpkin Candy Bucket 6
Skin: Pink Fuel <Peach> - Dia De Los Muertos V2




Love, Kirsten Corleone

      I am loving the Second Life 2015 fashion scene. 2014 was all about the Fitted Mesh Body Revolution with bodies from Slink, Maitreya, Belleza, The Mesh Project, and Eve (just to name a few) released. This has brought huge changes to how we look and the fashion industry in SL. 2015 has so far been an explosion of Fitted Mesh or Fitmesh clothing that is made specifically for those bodies as well as mesh heads. With all of this has come a lot of new terms and verbage and not everyone seems to be on the same page and certainly not everyone is understanding all of these new terms. When designers are not even using the same terminology, shoppers, event organizers, and bloggers have a hard time communicating to the public. 

So this blog post is being written for three main purposes:

1) To streamline and define current 2015 fashion terminology
2) To explain current 2015 fashion terminology with a video
3) With the hope that we all start using the same words to describe the same things. 

      I was recently talking to Del, the owner of Seraphim, about using more clear verbage in her descriptions. I suggested that they specify like this: 5 standard sizes, 3 Fitmesh sizes, and Appliers included. Of course putting the appropriate numbers in the description based on what is included in the outfit. Mainly I just want it to clearly say that the outfit contains fitmesh sizes rather than the current "mesh body compatible" that could mean standard sizes that work with mesh body alpha cuts, it could be fitmesh to the body, or even appliers that work with a mesh body. I don't care as much about which bodies because often fitmesh made for something else will still work for my Physique or Lara (the two I wear), but I do want to know if a fitmesh size or sizes are included. 

      Her reply was so spot on and clearly shows the problem we have today, "Standard sizing and fitmesh mean different things to different designers, so its incredibly hard to summarize that in a clear format. Some people say they have fitmesh but they mean they're TMP compatible or something."- Del

    I have also seen the term fitmesh used when it is really just standard sizes that can be worn on a mesh body, but the clothing does not actually move with the soft sliders and was not rigged using the cBones. So I think we definitely need streamlined terminology defined for everyone in the fashion industry. This is my attempt at that lofty goal. 

2015 Universal Fashion Definitions:

Rigged Mesh- Mesh clothing (3D) that will move with your skeleton (avatar) and only moves with a few sliders (often called hard numbers) like hip width, leg length, and arm length. You can not change the size. 

Unrigged Mesh- Mesh clothing (3D) that you can size to make it bigger or smaller. 

Standard Sizes- Mesh clothing (3d) that is rigged mesh and has been made to fit exact slider numbers. In order to fit into this clothing you have to change your slider numbers on your shape to match the slider numbers of the standard sizes. Standard sizes are made in XXS, XS, S, M,  and L. 

Fitmesh (Fitted Mesh)- Mesh clothing that will move with your avatar and changes with more sliders (often called soft numbers) than the original rigged mesh. For example fitmesh clothing changes size when you move the body fat, butt, and boob sliders in your shape. I think we should use the word Fitmesh mostly because most of us already are and it makes it easier to say and type by making the word shorter. Fitmesh does NOT mean that it will just "fit." You usually need some alphas with most fitmesh items. 

Fitmesh for a Mesh Body- Mesh clothing rigged specifically to the weights of a certain mesh body, like Physique or Aesthetic, so that the clothing fits those bodies better (not perfectly). Some designers are doing experimental fitmesh because they do not have a designer kit for that mesh body, like for Maitreya Lara. 

Mesh Body Alpha Compatible (Mbac)- These are standard size mesh that have been specifically designed with a particular mesh bodies alpha cuts (in the HUD) in mind so the designer knows that the alpha cuts will work with the outfit. I would like to suggest we use an acronym MBAC or Mbac to shorten this term and make it more user friendly. 

Appliers- This is 2D drawn clothing, skins, or tattoos that get put on or applied directly to a mesh body layer by using a HUD. This is not mesh clothing. 

mBones- The original bones when mesh was first introduced into SL and what standard sizes were based on. The mBones were called the standard skeleton. All of the mBones had to be included. 

cBones- (Collision Bones) There are 26 collision bones. Fitmesh clothing is rigged on these cBones and that is why it moves with the shape sliders. The 26 collision bones are called the Fitted Mesh skeleton. These are the actual points where the mesh connects to the bones of the avatar. Designers do not have to use all of the cBones, rather only the ones they want. (Rigging Fitted Mesh wiki)

Materials- a specific set of shaders that make objects look more realistic by reacting to light and other objects in a natural way. For example, this creates reflections or shininess as well as bumps, ridges, or grooves on objects (3D mesh clothing). The shine moves when you move. To see materials you need local lights turned on and prim lights in your houses or stores. Video by Strawberry Singh

Here is a video that I made to show some of the more confusing fashion terms and the ones I am seeing mixed up the most. WARNING: This video is a little NSFW in a few places.



So those are my suggestions on the universal definitions for the current fashion terminology needed in 2015. Here is some more information and some of these terms discussed by other people with a lot of useful links included as well. 

FITMESH

"Fitmesh garments (clothes, accessories, etc) respond to (the) avatar's shape sliders similar to (the way) the avatar body (moves with the shape sliders)."- Meli Imako in her Fitmesh Manual with video

"So, what can fairly be called fitted mesh?The criteria is not whether it needs alphas, but whether the clothing changes shape when you change the soft numbers in the shape editor (such as fat and muscles and breast size). Non-fitted rigged mesh only changes shape for the hard numbers such as length of limbs and hip width."- Aimee on sluniverse forums

"The intent of fitted mesh was to allow further deformation detail to clothing or mesh avatars using your sliders. Originally, mesh would only conform to certain sliders, Fitted Mesh changed that. For the most part, it eliminated the need for multiple sizes and conformed better to your actual shape." -DoC Eldritch, DE Designs Owner in his informational blog post about Fitted Mesh

"With FitMesh system now dresses will respond to sliders similar to avatar shape. For example if you increase the butt size or leg size on edit shape window, the outfit's legs and butt will also get bigger. It will also carry out the physics (such as breasts wiggling) if you are wearing avatar physics. FITMESH wont get rid of alpha maps or it will not fit 100% all the time (It still is not dynamic clothing with collision detection), but it will fit much better than before. Consider FITMESH more like as shaping clothes similar to shaping your avatar by using sliders." - Lenka Canvas from White Canvas Templates

FITMESH FOR A MESH BODY

"Speciality Fitted Mesh – eg. Fitmesh for Maitreya or Fitmesh for Belleza – this type of fitmesh has been created by a designer and specifically fitted to your mesh body. Now this isn’t a perfect science, because mesh clothing creators need certain models from each mesh body creator to make ‘perfect’ fitmesh for their body, and many creators do not give this out. For this reason, many designers are ‘eyeballing it’ or just plain doing their best to make the garmet be the closest fit it can be for your body. So always demo demo demo and remember, creators doing this are doing their best. It’s incredibly difficult to do, and I say good on them for giving it a go!" LilDaria Resident in her informative mesh body troubleshooting guide (a must read)

‘Fitmesh for Mesh Bodies’ (Fitmesh for Maitreya, Fitmesh for Eve etc.). These are mesh clothes that *have* been designed to cover the Mesh Body you’re wearing." LilDaria in her Fitmesh Lesson

"Fitted mesh that is made for mesh bodies by mesh body vendors, probably won't need alphas. Like TMP stuff never needs alphas. They make the body and have the exact weights. 

The mesh body kits that are given to 3rd designers is a close match but not exact. So almost every 3rd party item is going to need an alpha for some poses. I have made some Slink items that don't need alphas, but in general you are going to need alpha for some poses. 

The mesh items all deform with sliders so they are fitted mesh and so it is correct to call them fitted mesh even if they use alphas." - Eboni Khan Hucci Owner

      I really love Fitmesh made for one of the mesh bodies I wear. I think it works the best of all wearable mesh and finally allows me to break out of standard sizes and still wear mesh clothing. I am not alone in my feelings. Here are what some other bloggers had to say about Fitmesh:

"Fitted mesh, it’s the best and easiest way to wear mesh clothing. If it’s not fitted mesh, it’s not awesome!"- Gogo on juicybomb.com 

 "I love buying from a brand that makes a fit for my body. I really don’t want to be bothered with making things look like they fit." - Caroline Apollo

"The mesh is great quality (Just Because) but what I love is that they have fitmesh for the Maitreya body (and other mesh bodies) that fits perfectly." - Strawberry Singh