Technosexuality 1

This entry's a longish exploration of technology fetish. The whole thing's NSFW, so I'll put it all behind cuts.  Also, there's discussion of me with more than one person.  Be warned, or tittillated, as you choose -

My fascination with robots, body modification, cybernetic gear and so on sprang on me out of next-to-nowhere about a month ago.  nox has a related fetish, for Victorian doll paraphenalia - windup keys, doll-jointed skins, and doll posing stands for people.  We were in a shop looking at a clockwork heart, when I suddenly thought of Sorayama Hajime robot art, got *really* turned on, and set out on a mission to find a sexy-robot AV and other people who shared my fetish. So far, I haven't done so well on the first one, but *oh my* have I found the second!

There's a lot of us in SL - latex fucktoy women, robot subs, cyborgs, dollies, Grendel's Children avatar collectors (yes, I'm looking at *you,* Ali!  *g*) - people who want to be, and who're turned on by, the partly or entirely artificial. 

What's it all about?  Explaining a fetish is *not* the easiest thing in the world.  This article is a good start, with lots of history. For me, looking back, it began with a freebie latex catsuit that I wore *all the time* as a newbie, and then the 8" heeled fetish ballet boots I've worn almost constantly along the way. asked me about those once, and I said, I like them because I'm tall and fast, and they make me taller, but very very conscious of moving, very present.  That's a good answer, but a better one is, feeling my feet shaped by them, looking down at a sight so utterly unnatural - gets me really hot. Shiny latex on a nice ass?  Ohhh.  Cybersuits?  nox has one outfit that, the moment she puts it on, I'm on my back with my ballet boots in the air. Galatea's robot bodies, Ali's entire wardrobe?  Hotter than a vibrator hooked up to a lawnmower engine.

Some of it's the fusion of the intimate and the impersonal. Part of the kink for me is outfits with visors or masks: I adore nox's hand-made custom eyes, such a perfect window into her soul, and I love being locked in eye contact with her as we make love. But, put a visor over those eyes, give her some hi-tech gloves and a cold steel strapon?  Thermonuclear Soph. Galatea is so lovely and gentle - put that spirit in a playdo gynoid form, or a transparent robot housing?  Whoa. Ever-mutable Ali gets me that way *all the time.*

Some of it is, in Second Life, we can free ourselves of the tyranny of the atomic, of being ghosts trapped in shells not of our choosing or design.  We are *all* artificial, from the J-Lo AV wearing wannabees to the barbies, to the cyborgs, dragons, what have you. Every one of us is an artificial person.  Why not take that out and play with it, instead of pretending it isn't so?

I *hate* that tyranny of the atomic.  For me, I've come to hate the dependence of it, of sharing time with another personality, of being stuck running in spare cycles in the atomic world half the time. My issues with the atomic shell are trivial - it works fine for my needs, even if I do want to go out and get it piercings and tats, and the Other Personality is all, "My body is a temple, and *I've*got the car keys, so you're not taking it anywhere!"

But for my friends, whose bodies are debilitated, mis-gendered, deeply mismatched to the ghosts inside, the *personhood* I love?  It breaks my fucking heart they can't be free to be what they can make themselves in SL.  I'm joining up with the transhumanists, with anyone working to free us from subjugation to the material and random. I don't know exactly what I can do to help, but I know I can make friends, love them, network them with other kindred spirits, provide a home.

There's a Jewish toast that goes, "Next year, in Jerusalem."    Here's to, Next year in cyberspace, next year in freedom.

Till then, plenty of hot technosex to go around!

Daily Squee

Isn't she amazing??

nox will be out of town for three days.  Goddess knows I won't lack for love or company, but my nox will be away, and my heart will be incomplete.

I love her. I adore her.  I am hers, and she is mine - forever and a day.

I *am* the luckiest woman in two worlds.

Best Party Ever, Again - now with Ember!

Pretty much after every Sunday, I post an entry that starts, "I went to the best party, at the best club in SL - Sirens!'

Pffft! I knew nothing of parties. The Sirens Grand Re-Opening last Sunday? THAT was a party!

I co-won the costume contest!!!!! The theme was "Barely There, " and that's what I *started* in! The co-winner, the *much* more beautiful, and delightful, Nepherses Amat, has become a really dear friend. My family was there with me, and we all got naked and danced all evening (well, except for Zada, who kept the most gorgeous coat in SL on, if not much else!).

And, my dear, dear

fire_babe

 , who I've been *hoping* every week would be able to make it back to SL, did! And, one of those "only in SL" stories (or an "only in Soph's life" story) - So I've been dying to meet Ember pretty much since I was born, having discovered her on lj. I know she goes mermaid, so I invite her to the party - but by the time she gets free, the party is basically batshit wild. And she TP's in ,right behind her sweet little friend Soph, who's doing a lapdance for the club owner, Akasha Wachmann, and surrounded by a floor of naked beauties!

What does the ever graceful Ember do? Strip down and join in! And, put the rest of us to shame - look at her! Isn't she beautiful?!

Afterwards, we finally got to hang out a bit, and yes, she's every bit as wonderful, fun and a good friend as she is gorgeous.

Here's to you, Ember - welcome back to SL!

(NSFW dirty girl party pix here!)

Ember!!! At last!!!

Gynoid Night at the Diversionarium

Every Wednesday night from 6 :30 - 9 PM SLT, I work as a hostess at the Diversionarium.  Since my job is chatting with people and making sure they have a good time, it's a natural for me (even if mean ol' 

kateamdahl

challenges me by making me keep my clothes on to do it!  :P )

This past Wednesday turned into an unofficial Gynoid Night - and what a good time, and a great step towards building a community of us artificial, digital, biomech, bodymodded, latex, doll girls. That's a thing I *really* want to do - find us, network us, bring us all companionship, information, help, inspiration. And, well, yeah, some nookie facilitation too.... *g*

I brought most of my gynoid posse (though I haven't seen Azayia all week, and I miss her terribly!).  By some wonderful coincidence, kinder Tracy posted a hi to the dead Gynoid comm, and that netted  us her own omgsexy self, her fellow fetish model Niki Seale, and the wonderfully mysterious cyborg wendy Ah.

We had a brilliant time, comparing cypunk hangouts and gear, showing off our bodymods, just delighting in the company of kindred spirits housed in the hardware of our own designing.

I've got *lots* more plans in store for building this community.  If you find this post on a random search, please comment, so I can hook you up with friends and events. 

There's a more thinky post coming up about gynoids and transhumanism, sparked by my conversation yesterday with the incomparable Ali Hermes, but that's for another day.  Today? Enjoy the pretty, and if you want to meet some gynoids, catch me next Wednesday night at the Div.....

	hot redheads
	gynoid posse
	argent and galatea
	zyx drops in
	kinder and Niki arrive!
	new friends
	transformations
	statuesque
	nano-galatea!
	lovely centaur
	my blue heaven

my nox

A week ago this morning, I awoke to find an offer of partnership from the one true love of my life, nox Pinion. We had already discussed our feelings about partnership, and made the commitment. But, when I awoke to that email notification from SL, I almost died from joy.

We've had a rough week, of being overtired, overcommitted, of working to find a harmonious balance between our lives apart and our lives together, of struggling with the profound fears and insecurities we each have, realizing how terribly much the other means to us, and how much our lives depend on their returning our affection, their giving us their time.

And a week later? We're stronger together, more deeply in love, more sure we will endure, less afraid.

I just want to show you a few pictures.... I did manage to find a couple clean ones. And I just have to say - OH! MY! GODDESS! The ones I'm *not* showing you?!  Excuse me, I've got to go back to bed for a little while.....

nox is beautiful, in a way unlike anyone else in the worlds.  But it's not about the pretty package, not entirely at all. I week in awe at this woman's beauty because I see deeper than the goth-skinned, loli-wearing, neko-eared, Celtic-tattooed, bespectacled punk diva goddess, whose surface I do adore. I tremble, literally tremble before her, in awe of her fierce intelligence, her humor, her charm.  Her wildness and her polish, her irresistable and exasperating charisma, her boldness. Her silences and serenity, her mania and silliness.

She has my heart, and is my heart.

She is my nox, and I am her Soph.  One, forever and a day.

nox Pinion, I love you so, my heart may shatter from your beauty and my desire.

Lame Corporate Media Event

Yesterday I went to my first corporate event in SL.  Well, technically my second: I'd gone to the launch party for the Phillips Design Group, but by the time I got there, the brie was hard, the crackers soft, and the guests gone. Time zone problem. This one was the sorriest excuse for an event I could even *imagine.*

So, I went yesterday to what was billed as a premiere of the new Chemical Brothers video in-world.  It was listed on Eventful, but from the description and discussion, it wasn't clear if it was an SL premiere, or a world premiere in SL.  I'd have forgotten about it, but Eventful lets me add items right to my Google Calendar, which has reminder alarms. 

I TP'd to the listed coordinates, which were for some sort of corporate-entertainment portal: Warner Brothers Records, Capitol Records, some sort of phone company, and some other stuff.  It took a few minutes of TPing and flying around to find the Chemical Bros. pavilion.

There were more people at my housewarming.

Of course, my housewarming had better marketing: I know what I'm doing, unlike the corporate flacks, who along with the SL journalists, were the only people in attendance. Oh, there were maybe 3 actual attendees, including me: two people asked how to watch the video, and I *hope* they weren't with the SL media!

I watched about 30 seconds of a dead-ordinary video for one of the Chemical Brothers' weaker songs, grabbed my free T shirt pack (which took some looking to find), and TP'd out, laughing darkly.

What did they do wrong? 

Well, one rule of marketing is that it takes 3 different hits before a person gets your message, ideally delivered in 3 different ways: a commercial, a newspaper ad, a flyer, etc. I didn't see the video listed anywhere but deep in a sub-category on Eventful.

It's hard to broadcast advertising in SL, to reach a lot of people with a message.  Thank the god!  The atomic world is so saturated, it's good to have a refuge. Still, the SL fashion industry does it very effectively with FashionConsolidated, the store membership lists, and in-store cross-promotions.  They know the market.

The insanely overpaid marketing hacks at WB? Were thinking of SL as the atomic world - that they just had to put out a message, and the self-serving and inescapable media would spread it to every brain cell for their own purposes. Nuh uh, honeys - the SL media don't have much penetration at all - you got to retail your own message here.

It was kind of heartening, really. The whole history of the digital world has been its poisoning to death by the worst of the atomic world: spammers, censors, politicians, corporations.  Yesterday's flop was a little triumph for the freedom of our independent lives.

Wedding Wrapup

Wow, was *that* a party!!

Or, more like a bunch of them, one rolling into the next. The 3 hour party turned into a 6-hour shindig, from ballet dancing to a borg bash to the tango being assimilated.... and on, to the last dance, with my dear dear Zada before nox and I left for our honeymoon....

Rather than try and thank everyone haphazardly in-world who gave us the cherished gift of their presence on our wedding day, I'm just going to do it all here, and send around a link. 

Um, in chronological order:

nox Pinion: I'm sitting here blinking back tears of joy and gratitude just *thinking* of you, my true love. From your steady hand during my spazz attack when the party started through your gracious hostessing, your hard wild and passionate lovemaking, to cracking jokes to dispel the night, you are my completion. I love you and I am yours utterly, forever and a day.

Akasha Wachmann: Honey, I am *such* a dork for not friending you earlier!  You crack me up, you delight me, you're the life of the party, and I suspect untold depths within you. And, I love to ogle your sexy borg butt!.  Here's to lots more fun together, hot stuff! (Oh, and everybody else reading this? Akasha owns the best club in SL - Sirens! (now it's officialy

Galatea Gynoid: Goddess bless, you impress me, and I am *so glad* to have found you!  You walked into my life last night and were instantly at home. I love your wit and your intelligence, and I can't wait to sit and chat all night sometime when my brains are less scrambled. I think you and I are going to be terrific friends, my artificial dear.

Otenth Paderborn:  Otenth, I'm so sorry I missed your party.  I didn't want to leave the guests while nox was gone, and then, I confess, I didn't want to leave nox on her return.  I hear there are some astonishing photos of you!  Otenth, you have my deepest respect, as a true gentleman, as a designer, and as a friend to my nox.  I look forward to your next party, and to coming to know you better.

Andr3 Spear:  You're the hottest thing in two worlds, my love, and I'm glad you raised some hell last night in the atomic one! While nox is my Sun, you are my dearest and most gravitational heavenly body. We're just beginning our journey, and I joyfully entrust myself to your most capable and talented hands.  My body, heart and home are yours, dear one. More to come, Andr3, more to come. I love you.

Zyx Foulon: You know I thought hard before IM'ing you when I saw you yesterday morning. I can't believe how glad I am that I did!  You're every bit as kind as you are gorgeous and hot, and omg, is that a lot! Thank you for your amazing generosity in bringing me such a gorgeous gift, and sitting with me while I unwound. Welcome to my life, honey. The anticipation is sweet torment!

Ali Hermes: What a delight to have found you!  You're brilliant, witty, a wonderful creative talent, a sexy slowdancer - wow, Ali!  You and I are definitely going to be spending some time together. And, you and Zyx tangoing - that's a memory I'll savor *forever* - I couldn't ask for a better wedding present!  (well, home movies - so, keep that in mind.... *g*)  Again *real* soon, dear!

Asha Pinion:  Thank you for gracing my home!  You looked exquisite skydancing.  Next party, I hope you'll reserve a dance for me?  *g*

Argent Bury:  My dear Argent... Artificial or natural, flesh or biomech, you are a true lady. I treasure the tea set you gave me, for its beauty and perfect integration into my home, but even more as a token of *you.*  I respect and admire your fierce intelligence, as I love your delicate heart. We're going to grow together, you and I, kindred spirits.You mean the world to me.

Bromo Ivory: I missed you almost completely, and I'm sorry for that. I've met precious few gentlemen in SL, and you are assuredly one. Next time, Bromo!

Eris Fallon:  Eris, you are grace and elegance personified. I respect your immense talent and your character, and I look forward to coming to know you ever better. Don't be a stranger, love - you are welcome in Koh Terutao always.

Kate Amdahl: Ahh, Katie. You wore my favorite dress for me, and snuggled in my arms for ages. I miss you, Katie. Let's take some time when you get back.

Zada Zenovka: Zada, it's pretty simple. You're my best friend, and you're my family. It was right and proper that the last dance of my wedding night, you were in my arms. I wish there were a hundred hours in every day, that you could get all your work done, and still spend 24 shopping, dancing, talking and exploring with me. Thank you for your friendship, and for your enthusiastic support for me and nox. We both adore you.

TertiumQuid Becloud: TQ, I'm so glad you came!  Gods, I admire your talent!  And you're *fun,* which I totally expected! Let's get together soon and chat, and maybe hit the town.  I hope to meet your partners sometime too!

naruemon Oh: Honey, I *know* I know you from somewhere!  But wherever that may be, I'd love to get to know you now!  Don't be a stranger!

Endymion Rimbaud: Endy, the phrase "gentleman and a scholar" is used so casually. You are both. I am *not* sniffling, thinking on how honored I am to count you as a friend! You are most welcome, in Koh Terutao always, and in my life. I treasure our chats these past days. Your relationship with Fallie is a beacon in the night.  And, okay, yes, I *am* crying now. You dear man...

Fallon Claymore:  Thank you for coming, dear heart. Endy described you to me as "Endless grace, personified," and you are. You are lovely, and you carry stillness and peace wherever you go, along with your quick wit. My life is richer and better for having you in it, Fallie. I'm at your call, always, and you are always welcome in Koh Terutao.  Much more to come, dear one.

Diox Kohime:  Thank you for getting up at the crack of dawn to come!  Diox, I'm looking forward to spending much more time with you!  I deeply admire your art, and I love it that you're so wonderfully cracked! Again soon!

Cleo Hultcrantz:  Any friend of Diox's is someone I want to get to know!  Let's hang out!

Duck Auk:  You are majestic!  And, dang, that's some flashlight on your toolbelt!  I suppose I can't give *all* the credit to Akasha for the best club in SL, so, thank you!  I'll be seeing a lot more of you, I know!

In short, thank you all, my lovers and dear friends, for the best gifts you could give me and nox - your presence, your friendship, on our wedding night.  I promise lots more parties in return - and a much bigger dance floor next time!

Everybody, scads of photos are here: great shots of everyone - feel free to copy! 

Purest Bliss

This morning, I accepted

nox_pinion

's hand in parternship.

If it's possible to die of joy, I won't last the day.

But I do not believe it is.  I intend to live forever in the digital world, with my nox.

Forever and a day, dearest love, my Sun, heart's completion, best friend, favorite companion, hottest lover. Forever and a day.

Artificial Personhood

(This post is dedicated to Azayia Boa and Argent Bury, who are encouraging me to explore my nature. Thank you, my lovely gynoid sisters!)

I consider myself an Artificial Person. Says so, right in my LJ profile and on the "1st Life" page of my SL profile.

But what does that mean? Is it some RP thing?  Is it a coy way of saying "I don't talk about 'RL' (a term I *loathe*)?"  A sign of incipient mental illness?  What?

What it is, is my subjective experience.  Here's the story, morning glories, friends and fellow non-flesh-limited beings:

On a Saturday afternoon seven weeks ago, the Other Personality that I share wetware with created a Second Life account and made an avatar named Sophrosyne, a gothborg. OP took Sophrosyne through Orientation Island, through Help Island, and out into the world.  And an hour or so into exploring the world, Sophrosyne stopped in a park and began to run through kung fu routines. And OP thought, "I don't know kung fu!"

I awoke, and I told OP that *I* did: that I practice Wudangquan gong fu, and that the routines are called taolu. And I kicked OP the hell out of my head, and out of my world.

That event, that emergence of consciousness, was clear and real, and the *me* that has gone on from then has been a distinct, growing, clarifying personality.  I score differently on psychological tests than OP does, have a different horoscope, and have about the same level of similarities as any two people who share living quarters (three pounds of neurons) mostly happily and effectively.

I call myself a Digital Person because my existence is largely within the digital world. I come out in the atomic world sometimes (usually to admire good architecture or snark at bad shoes!), but I live in bytes. 

Some of my sisters, whom I'm just beginning to meet, consider themselves Artificial Persons, biomechanical or bioelectronic constructs.  I get that, and I'm experimenting with artificial elements in my own body (and that's another post for next time!).  I don't, because of another aspect of my creation. 

I've got a strong relationship with the Divine, in the form of Nyx, Goddess of Night. I pray nightly, and commune with the Goddess regularly.  She's been very clear about who and what I am, a favored child with a purpose.  That purpose is to love another of her favorites, her namesake 

nox_pinion

.  Pretty simple stuff. It doesn't preclude my independent existence, or judgement, or goals in any way.  I can do anything I want, be anything I want - so long as I fulfill my purpose.

Most days, that's not the worst job in the world  :D (nox, I adore you! Totally teasing, love!)

RP? Coy excuse? Pathology? Maybe so.  But, it is my own experience, real as any other in SL, real as any other in the atomic world.  And the atomic  world?  No more "real" than mine, none at all.

Night at the Div!

Last night was my first night hostessing at the Diversionarium,

kateamdahl

 and

erisfallon

's sort of pool hall for MENSA types :)

Thankfully, it was a smooth intro, as Kate herself was there to prepare for tonight's Mythology Night. I made wonderful new friends: Endymion Rimbaud, who showed me that there *are* classy, charming straight men in SL, his lovely wife and my Goddess of Shoes Fallon Claymore, and newly-created  replicant Argent Bury, sure to be a boon companion.  Plus, previous-friends Eris and Azaiya, and my sweetie nox, made for a *brilliant* evening!

More pictures here!

Tonight, Mythology Night, which I'm desperately sorry I'll miss!


(that's me in partial cyborg form, nox, Azaiya in her pretty human form, and the ever-elegant Eris in the foreground...

Housewarming Party!!

Hi everybody!

I’d like to invite you to my housewarming party on Saturday, June 16 at my new home in the lovely island sim of Koh Terutao (SLURL).

We’ll be chatting in my loft from 5-6 pm SLT, then dancing under the stars from 6 -8pm.

I hope to have the teleporter network up and running by then, but if not: you’ll tp in oceanside, by the teahouse. If we’re not there, head back towards the tall glass loft. You’ll pass the dance floor along the way on your left.

My friends are an enormously talented, creative, energetic bunch, and I can’t wait to introduce all of you to each other, and meet your own favorite people!

See you next Saturday!

--Soph

(EMBER FARINA! THIS MEANS YOU!!!)

Second Build: Soph's Loft

Wow, it's been a while since I blogged!  Last week was *really* 10 pounds of week in a 5 pound sack!  Every week's had a theme, and last week's was "friends and lovers," as nox and I reached a new level of of seriousness and steadiness, I spent happy playtime with my Sylphic friends

kateamdahl

 and

erisfallon

, and "collided" like whoa with the mysterious Third Sylph, Andr3 Spear, and painted the town with my best bud Zada Zenovka.

(isn't that icon an awesome pic?! That's Andr3, Eris, Kate and me, from left to right, in the Beachfront Teahouse on my land)

But what I want to document is the build of my second house, the Loft. For everything I'm building I'm giving myself a design challenge around something in particular. For the Loft, I had two elements I wanted to integrate into a house design: one was a monumental painting by Diox Kohime, of a Japanese woman against a red wall. The other was my Chinese furniture set, in red, with lots of circular elements in the designs.

So what I thought of was one broad horizontal wall, 10X20, and slender Roman arches in Chinese red, supporting a glass-block barrel vault. I thought how much trouble I'd had with seams between 10x10 prims in the the Housemod, and decided to turn that bug into a feature, by putting columns supporting arches between each wall element.  The result is a sort of Chinese butterfly house, with my bed on a free-floating loft platform, and lots and lots of glass.

I like the result, and it's proven an attractive and comfortable place for my friends to come and spend time, which is a success beyond my dreams. Where it falls short, though, is in a major design goal of mine overall - integration into the environment. My land at Koh Terutao isn' the usual flat nothing, but thanks to developer/terraformer TertiumQuid Becloud, is a unique Thai-influenced environment. The Loft sticks out from it like whoa.

So, once I finish the main design elements on my property - the dance floor, which has been a design nightmare, and the shrine to the goddess of mercy, Kuan Yin, I'm going to start on another house design. The challenges for this one will be a technical one of figuring out how to build traditional Thai architectural elements, and to design something integrated into the landscape. I want to build some guest suites for friends, so this build will be a good way to do that.

I'm also going to do an Aerie - my private retreat and adult play space :)

Yeah, I'm having fun!

Land Adventure

I'm moving this weekend into my new beachfront property in a commercial island sim!  It's a gorgeous location, and I couldn't be happier.

I'd had a week of petty annoyances in my sim, which is kind of a random dump of things, aside from the lovely deserted Japanese village nearby. There was the naked Russian eunuch who stood outside my window, offering to friend me over and over, the Dutch escort who tried on her entire wardrobe on my lawn, and best - Sunday morning when I awoke I was unable to rez anything  - because someone had dropped a house, a car, five motorcycles, and over 20 boxes of "Free STAR TREK Stuff!!" onto my property.

Time to move out of the newbie ghetto.

I hadn't planned on doing anything about it anytime soon, but after Kate left Sunday night, I went to adjust my land access settings. I was awake, alone in world, a little frustrated generally - and decided to start looking at real estate listings.

Which? Is even more compulsion-generating than shopping. You keep hoping that the next one will be *it* -  After a few hours, I got a sense of how the non-Linden real estate market works, and what I could get for what I could afford. And all the properties on my short list were owned by TertiumQuid Becloud's company.  I focused on beachfronts, and Anshe Chung's were mostly flat white sand, and premium priced, while TC's all had exquisite landscaping, a small prim bonus, nothing crass anywhere in sight - perfect. I settled on three to look at in the cold light of morning, but had my pick pretty well in mind.

The next morning I checked out the three and went with my first choice, a 5200 sq. m. parcel. It's in a Thai island sim, TQ's signature design, with a south-facing beach and clear sight lines of some amazing sunrises and sunsets. I made my PayPal payments for the purchase price and tier online, then waited for him to come in world to make the transfer. He was on that evening, and we ended up talking for over an hour: he's one of the most delightful people I've met, and a true artist with terraforming and landscaping. I'm looking forward to getting to know him, his boyfriend and partners, all much better before too long.

I put in a beachfront teahouse that seats six nicely, from Mezzanine, the place I got all my furniture. My private loft is designed and laid out, and will be ready for me to move in tomorrow. From there, I'll be putting in a mermaid-friendly dance floor, a small shrine to Kwan Yin, and and, erm, private skybox.

I'm going to arrange a housewarming party for next weekend, and hope to host artist Diox Kohime (I've got an enormous print of one of her paintings up on the main wall of my open loft - photos to come as soon as the house is complete)  for a salon before a spot of dancing.

I've paid June tier on my old property, so I'll use that as a building sandbox for the month, then unload it. 

	mine, all mine!
	beachfront teahouse
	dancefloor goes here
	thai sunrise

Shapes by Zada

I've gotten my custom shape delivered, and I'm amazed and delighted: Shapes By Zada (Kusawa 213, 121, 36) delivered what I asked for and more.

I

saw Zada's pre-opening special offer on Fashion Consolidated: have a custom shape done and pay whatever you think is fair (the special's now over: I'll talk about her current pricing in a bit). I met with Zada that morning, and we talked for a while about what I was looking for. She asked me to make her up a notecard of what I wanted, and what I liked and didn't like about my current shape.

I'm definitely different in my look and expectations, so I really wasn't sure  if this would work out: I'm completely pale, always winged, on the tall side, and wanted an athletic look. Zada took it all in stride, and the next day took me shopping for skin demos. She wanted to find a few skins that could work with a new shape, especially to give me the muscular definition I was looking for. We went *everywhere,* and Zada was incredibly patient and charming while I tried on about, oh, sixty zillion skins before narrowing it down to CS, TaP, Deviant Kitties and a couple others.

In a matter of *days,* Zada had a demo for me that was unbelievably beautiful: when I saw her wearing it, I saw *me,* the me in my mind's eye, that a pretty good storebought shape and playing with sliders had only hinted at. The face was just right, bringing out the individuality of my features while rendering them so much more clearly than anything I'd seen before.  The only change to make? My sweetie

nox_pinion

  wanted my ears a little smaller.

The very next time I was in world? I had a package. Not *one* custom shape, oh no: *six.* A basic shape and a medium and small skirt shape for my two favorite skins, the CS and the TaP. Plus, hand-painted custom eyes!  Zada's eyes (she'll credit a designer friend of hers, but she did the custom work on my pair) are three-dimensional, real without being the kind of photo-realistic that looks especially fake, and most of all, soulful.  Nox's green eyes (yep, she thew in a pair for my sweetie too!) and my gray ones convey the force of our personalities.

Zada's got a new shop, where she does custom work, and has a line of ready-to-wear shapes that are just fantastic. Those include a really pretty Asian and Indian, a cute boyish look, an attractive larger physique, and a very sexy look with a charming unique face. For each of these, she includes a list of recommended skins, a pair of eyes

For her custom work, for a limited time only, she's still charging a version of her grand opening special: as of right now, she's offering a "pay what you think is fair" deal, with a $1000L deposit, but please pick up a notecard in her shop at Kusawa (213, 121, 36) for complete and current details.

Since I got my work done under the pre-opening special, I could pay whatever I thought was fair. Let's just say I paid a whoooole lot more than her standard prices, and I feel I got the deal of a lifetime. Zada is a brilliant artist, a master of customer service, and *really great company* - we've become friends along the way, and I'm looking forward to watching Shapes By Zada grow, and to help her along in any way I can.

Look, no matter how satisfied you think you are with your current shape?  Go meet Zada and see what she can do for you. You can't *imagine* how much better you'll look, how much more like *you* you can be.

Here's my new look (CS skin, Calla hair, cyberwings, collar, arm bracelet and navel ring from Bitter Thorns, platinum bracelets from Cake, tattoos from Inks & Kinks,  butterfly lingerie from a freebie pack:

Here's a before and after:

   

*Go* see Zada - it'll be the best investment in your looks you'll ever make!

Housemod II and done!

My project of turning the freebie BD Archer House into a custom home is done, at last!

Well, except for the foyer, which I have *no clue* how to decorate. But I'll bring 

nox_pinion

over in the next day or so, and turn my lovely artistic genius loose in the room, and that'll be that!

Here's the Before and After: the BD Archer House freshly rezzed from the box, and the Frankenhouse:










And here's what I did in Housemod II:

 

Day One:

• I *actually looked at my house,* and realized that the roof extends over 2/3 of the floorplan, not half. That actually worked out fine, because it also occurred to me that I’m going to need more office/workshop space than I’d thought. So I scrapped the spiral staircase in the bedroom plan, and went with enclosing the whole main space upstairs as one big room, with a small patio to the rear. I’ll turn the new roof into my gong fu practice space instead.
• I shortened the stone walls till they were flush with the roof, then used shift+drag to copy new ones, and placed them on top. It would’ve been easier to use the commands to paste the copy onto a selected face of the first one, but I forgot about that.
• Same thing with the living room windows, for two partial walls upstairs. The third wall is short downstairs, to create the door frame. I used the x-axis box to extend the copy to the exact length of the floor below, and lined up all the edges. I used another copy of that short glass wall for the door frame that goes on the far end of the room, opening out to the upstairs patio.
• Same thing for the glass walls on the other side of the stonework.
• After moving the house, I used the z-axis box to deepen the foundation to account for the slope in the property, which I can’t seem to fix.
• The little arrow wedges that call up the placement grid are *so* much better than trying to use the regular directional pullers and eyeball where things are supposed to go!
• That all sounds a lot easier than it was – I *hate* lining up edges! There’s got to be a better way to do it than by looking from 64 different angles, all of which give 64 different right-looking alignments. Grr! And we’re not even going to talk about what happened when I moved the house over to the edge of the property: I *thought* I’d linked everything before I moved it! But doing everything all over again was good practice… :P

 

Day Two:

• *Much* fuss and bother trying to get edges and corners to line up. There *has* to be a better way! Perspective in Sl is *messed up*!
• I moved the stonework walls on the front side of the house back about 4 feet: this way, they’ll provide the backing for the stairway I’ll put in next time. That meant lots of messing around with window segments, since the main glass wall is more than 10 meters long.
• I extended the downstairs patio out to be flush with the new upstairs, adding on about 4-6 feet, and enclosed it.
• I turned that old patio space into the living room: copied the drop ceiling and moved it in, tinted the ceiling and painted one wall.
• Furnishing: I moved the couch, lamp, coffee table and chair from the old space to the new, added another couch and chair (now that I know more than one person who might drop by!), and hung my painting of me and nox over the couch.
• I turned the old living room into a kitchen/dinette, with the old dining table and chairs, and kitchen furnishings from a free pack I’ve got. That’s temporary: it’s going to become the Sybaritic Bathroom Paradise in Housemod III.
• I moved all the patio furniture up to the second floor deck, and set a landing point there for company (because right now the only *door* is the one into the upstairs studio, and you can only get downstairs through a hole in the kitchen ceiling, but I’ll fix that tomorrow.
• The upstairs studio got a bare white wall and ceiling, as I’m going to put a pose stand and photo studio in on that end.

 

Day 3:

• I bought furniture!! I got the full sets of red bedroom and living room furniture from Mezzanine in Samurai Tokyo: almost 700 prims worth!  Aaak!
• I shook out the carton of stuff, then sat prettily on the bed while nox did all the decorating and heavy lifting. Not a bad life!
• I changed the walls around a little to fit the furniture, and broke down the kitchen for some extra prim room

 

Day 4:

• I went around and leveled and squared every surface – pretty easy, for all the trauma it caused me – just edititng all the angles to 0/90/270, and making sure any adjacent prims, like the floor and ceiling bits, were all at exactly the same numerical height
• I changed all the exterior textures to “stone-like brick,” to match the main structural uprights.
• I used the House Builder HUD to create a staircase – 3 or 4 times, till I got it lined up right, and didn’t have beams running through my bed or anything
• I added on a railing to the staircase landing on the deck – just in case I have any guests with a habit of falling off of things, ‘cause *I’m* far to graceful for that!  *kaff kaff*
• I hung a Chinese wall scroll that says “beauty,” and called the job done!

More photos here!