Thursday 31 July 2008

What Penn got at the Truth sale

I expect y'all visited the heaving nightmare of the the Truth sim, didn't you? It was one-out, one-in all evenig for me, and it was like wading through molasses on a January day once I was there. Here's how I got in:

[12:15] Caillaigh Elfenbeim: whoever wants in at truth, cue up, im tping out
[12:15] Caillaigh Elfenbeim: ready....
[12:16] Caillaigh Elfenbeim: set...
[12:16] Caillaigh Elfenbeim: go....
[12:16] Cailin Navarathna: lmao
[12:16] Penn Euler: I GOT IN!!! Thankyou Caillaigh!
[12:16] Caillaigh Elfenbeim: yay!
[12:16] Caillaigh Elfenbeim: you're welcome

It certainly was busy... this picture hardly seems to do it justice:


I got loads of stuff, which I may or may not blog later - I suspect there'll be a lot of people blogging their wins. I managed to find Chari there, and we struggled towards each other in slow motion. After an hour of compulsive purchasing we were both very glad to TP out to somewhere we could walk unimpeded and had a little fashion show for each other.

Firstly, we decided that matching hair is slightly more tragic than matching anoraks:


Along the way I'd bought 4 fat packs of hair, and one of them made me just look like Alex James. Coupled with a "hitman" suit, also from Truth, I was told that I wasn't allowed to change, ever again:

I reckon I'm going to keep that hair for a bit.

Chari liked it so much that I got glomped:


I didn't get enough pictures of all the pretty things she bought, but here's a cute burgundy dress:


That's it for now. I'm going to be away from SL for an extended weekend (back Tuesday afternoon UK time/Tuesday morning SL time), so the piano is on hold till then :'(

Monday 28 July 2008

Penn's busy weekend

I was totally busy while I was on SL this weekend, but somehow I hardly generated any pictures from it.

The main thing was working on the the low-prim piano, which was going really well until I totally arsed it up and made it look like a panda. At that point I had to forget that I was a man and sat down and had a damn good stamping, crying hissy fit all over it. Anyway, no pictures because it isn't finished and frankly right now it's awful.

Then I was running round the grid looking at malls because my current mall was moving and I didn't love the replacement I was being asked to move to. I ended up taking the plunge and renting a 64x64m commercial plot from the same guy I rent my home plot from. Lots more work to do now turning it into a shop. No pictures, because right now it's an explosion in a prim factory.

Yesterday morning featured Onigokking round a dildo tree. Dat's srs bidness, dat iz.

Then there was a shopping trip with Wry last night, but there are no pictures because... well, because I suck frankly.

Thursday 24 July 2008

Whoooo, spoooooky

I was over at BAPFH looking at houses after Caillaigh Elfenbeim asked if anyone had any recommendations, and I had to go round the corner and look at the graveyard at Tableau again. It's such a cool place.


But this time I dicscovered something new. Ambling through the pretty green haze, I fell into an open grave...


And ended up in this weird underwater club:


I had to enteratin the non-existent crowd, of course:

Wednesday 23 July 2008

Kabaka's new fireworks

Kabaka seems to like it when I pimp his awesome shop, so here I am playing with his new and updated airstrike fireworks:


The big change is that these are now customisable for speed, rate, and colour by editing a notecard, so you can create pretty coordinated displays:

That's Eva, preparing to garotte me if her hair got singed.

Naked pictures of me

Apart from shoes, I was also hoping I might see a new skin or two on Monday's CS Gridwide Hammer Hunt. I'm not that big on swapping skins normally (I have a great skin from FNKY which I wear all the time) but really, I wanted an excuse to post naked photos of myself because I have a lot of attractive female readers and basically I want to expose myself to them.

The first skin I got from the hunt was this mime-like Sinsation skin from Bodies By Oh, which scared Chari and nauseated my neighbour:

Interesting note: I spent ten minutes carefully colour-coordinating my cock for this shot before realising that I ought to just crop out that bit for the blog.

I actually love the way this skin is drawn, and if I wanted to look like a mime, I'd consider wearing it (assuming my friends had failed to carry out my instructions to kill me if I ever say I want to look like a mime.)

BUT, and please, Bodies by Oh, take this as constructive criticism: how is this supposed to make me want to buy skins at your place? Yes, it's well drawn, but it has no applicability to most people's avies. If you'd given me a freebie that actually looked good on me, I'd now be thinking about visiting your shop when I next want to spend L$ on an actual new skin.

Um. Okay, there was also a box of Rawk Out skins from lessthan3. The dark tan was yellowy, and the pale skin looked odd on me, but the light tan was a nice compromise, and kinda made me look like Elvis:

Now sure how often Elvis flipped the V's, but never mind. And that's non-free Tommy hair from Gurlywood for men I'm wearing there. And hey, I just noticed how this skin gives me moobs! That's coming right off.

Unique Needs! provided this "tattooed warrior" skin and shape:


Just for reference, here's my natural look. It's Antonio skin (tan) from FNKY wrapped around the Dylan shape from KMADD (it's actually the skin recommended on the style card you get with the shape), capped off with Ego hair in sable from Naughty Designs:

Yeah, feast your eyes on that picture of hunky loveliness.

--
EDIT: The survey results are being put back a bit while I introduce a few more groups to it.

Tuesday 22 July 2008

I haz dun a hunt nao

It sucks being male. That's why there are so many women on the grid. Don't talk to me about PMS and childbirth and sexism, those don't happen here - just shoes and dresses and sexy skins. Us guys have to make do with dingy little corners of sim-sized stores, with a handful of dull, dull shirts while you girls twirl around in your latest pretty dresses.

*I* want to twirl around in a pretty frock sometimes. But that's not the subject of this post. Instead, this is about the fact that some designers finally heard us and organised a hunt for us guys.

Admittedly, on Saturday, I didn't even know what a hunt was except that girls would occasionally go "squeeee!" about one and that it involved shoes sometimes. It turns out that a hunt is where a bunch of freebies are hidden round either a store, or a sim, or in this case, the whole grid, encouraging you to explore places you might not otherwise have gone, and in return you get neat stuff.

So the CS Gridwide Hammer Hunt was created for men to get in on the fun. And I did it. I teamed up with Merrick Thor initially, then a few other passers-by as the hunt wore on.

I accumulated a lot of freebies, many of which were, I'm sorry to say, fugly as arse. But there were some gems in there, such as these sharp polo shirts from Mischief for Men:




Bluebells' prize was a blue casual suit:


Twisted Rose had two prizes, one of which was this really buff t-shirt, which I have pretty much fallen in love with. Sorry ladies, it's me and the t-shirt all the way now:

I forgive them for the migraine-inducing floor just for making this t-shirt.

I half hoped I'd get some shoes out of it, but the only ones I'd even half wear are this Grunge Hustlers from Sn@tch:

There's probably a whole load of ettiquette about commenting on freebies, and I really don't want to hurt anyone's feelings here, especially not Ivey Deschanel's because she's really nice and made the hammers in Sn@tch bigger after she heard me whinging :D So I'm picking on Sn@tch here because I know she's cool and isn't going to have a tantrum if she reads this. There were worse offenders.

Here's the problem: these shoes do not make me think that I'll go to where I got them next time I want to spend L$ on a new pair of shoes. Just for reference, here's a pair of shoes that I love, my Jaywalker sneakers from Detour:

See, if someone had dropped a pair of these or something similar in the hunt, I would have a new favourite shoe shop.

Sn@tch does generally rock, as does Ivey herself, so please don't think I'm generally down on them. Okay, was that crawling enough? I'll do a special post on Sn@tch to make up for it :) There were far worse offenders in the hunt, place that just made me think, what are they trying to achieve here? Offloading excess stock of their first ever designs?

Anyway, when I work out how to put a fold in a Blogger post (like an lj-cut in LiveJournal; any help appreciated) I'll post some nudey pics of the skins that were in the hunt.

Oh, and stay tuned tomorrow for the results of my "What sex are your friends?" survey.

Sunday 20 July 2008

Kabaka's Shop

Very sleepy, so short post... my buddy Kabaka Kwaszes sent me some twirly firesticks the other day to share with people, so here's Chari, twirling:


He also has an awesome new shop, where you can see his airstrike fireworks:

That's Chari on the right, shielding her head, and Alicia turned out and is on the left hoping her babydoll doesn't catch light.

---
Quaintly IMed me and asked about a low-prim piano. I deemed this to be a good challenge. Here's some of the work in progress:

Loooong way to go yet. Althoug it is low prim, like about 5 in that picture :D

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Onigokko lives on. Some shop had some free food-related outfits which I went to get and it took about 0.0002 seconds for the onigokkos to come out.

I can't remember what the shop was or who was wearing what oh my god i'm so sleepy i can barely remember what I'm doing right now o halp

EDIT: I'm so sleepy I didn't even see that ::MIA:: logo in the goddamn picture... find it in search... I'm sure it's great... free food... zzz...

---
My pal Wry is fixing up his new avie, here he is with a 90% noob avatar (one of the new ones) plus a different freebie skin and some rocking new hair:

I'll work out what the shop was etc. and put up some "after" pics later in the week.

Can I haz bed nao?

Friday 18 July 2008

Spedoinkle! Buffy RP?

Yeah, I finally tried some non-kinky RP in SL. Charisma is a huge Buffy fan, and so am I (although my Buffy trivia is miniscule in comparison). She'd tried some Buffy the other night and it piqued my interest, so we met up with her RP friends and did this cool sequence where she and I were rescued from a demon dimension by a Slayer.

Here we are in our RP-bodies (we look nothing like this normally):


She's a wiccan, and I'm a teenager infected by a demonic virus with its own personality. Here she is "injured":


And if you're thinking that she looks adorable when "injured", you're right ;)

General Onigokko

One of the best things about having joined the CH'Know group is that not only am I now friends with all sorts of funny and intelligent people, but we sometimes end up meeting up for silliness.

For example, last weekend I had a bunch of them over to do modelling shots of the stone benches, and something posessed me to hand out an object called onigokko_shippo, which you wear and it makes you run round in cicles like a loon. Suddenly, everyone was all over it!

Well, I found the shop of the guy who made it, Gonzo Shan. And I called the Ch'Know girls over to see it. Things got silly. Quickly.


Eventually the Meara-Puft man stomped in and flattened everyone:


So anyway, go to Gonzo Shan's shop and pick up your own onigokko - it's in the freebies section, in the box with a picture of people running round on it:

Tuesday 15 July 2008

Questionnaire: What sex are your friends?

I have an almost exclusively female friends list in SL. That's not been a policy, just how things have worked out. My RL friends are pretty much 50-50 male-female. What is your experience? Do this little questionnaire and next week I'll tally the answers and see what's going on.
Fill out!
EDIT: The link to the questionnaire is now fixed at the top of the page as well.

Following the herd

Okay, this is going to be one of those memes where everyone turns out to be the same thing, isn't it?




You are a Rubik's Cube



You are engaging and popular. People are drawn to your colorful personality.

As much as they try, people can't stay away from you.

And while you seem easy to understand, people can't figure out what direction you're coming from.

Fridge meme

Yeah, workaholic, that's me.




What Your Fridge Says About You



You aren't greedy, but you don't really deprive yourself either. You strike a good balance with the stuff you buy.



You are not careful with your money. In fact, you rarely think about how much you are spending.



You are a very adventurous person. You love to try new things, and you get bored very easily.



You try to be responsible, but you don't always succeed. Your heart is in the right place though.



You are likely single - and a workaholic.


IPHONE UPDATE: yay! I now has a signal.

Sunday 13 July 2008

This week's must-buy list

It's been an acquisative weekend for me. First of all Chari gave me an @home YouTube TV:

Thanks, babe!

Then I had to get a new sofa from Melino Style so we could sit and watch TV:


Sunday morning, after the photoshoot, Meara mentioned her MystiTool HUD and then gave an impromptu demonstration. I had to quite literally buy one then and there. No one screenshot can do justice to it, so here it is rezzing an impromptu table (the sort that spawns seats as people sit down):


Then some time in the evening a Ch'Know group notice went out from Alicia which basically said OMG BOOTS SQUEE LOLOLOL MERRICK - the upshot of which was some rather awesome new men's boots at Tesla:


I got the black ones too because I am a MALE SHOE WHORE:

The girls of Ch'Know

So this morning I got a bunch of hawt babes over to help model the Dawson Stone Benches:


Yeah, I got my arm round Quaintly ;)

At some point it all went a bit loopy:




iPHONE UPDATE:
The phone itself rawks. Seriously, it totally shreds. But in an act of classic British retardedness, O2 and and Carphone Warehouse have between them managed to get absolutely everything wrong about this release, so at the moment my iPhone is basically an expensive iPod Touch. Maybe tomorrow it will start to function as a phone.

Saturday 12 July 2008

I just want you all to know that...

I'm blogging from my iPhone 3G.

Friday 11 July 2008

Prove yourself to me

Spontaneous post based on this posting by CeNedra Rivera, wherein she says:
I’ve met some jerks over my time in SL that insisted I speak in order to prove I’m female. First, I don’t have to prove anything to anyone. Second, if hearing my voice is a requirement in order to be my friend, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out LOL. I’m mean I know.
That point about being asked to prove that you're female is interesting. Sometimes you do have to prove something. Does your guy know for 100% certain that you really are a girl? All he has to go on is mutual friends' words that they've heard your voice, and maybe you're all in it together. For that matter, are you sure he's not a woman acting out a fantasy?

(That's a hypothetical example, by the way. I'm not actually suggesting that Cen is lying to her bf or vice versa.)

Maybe this is wrong of me, but I do respond differently to people based on their RL gender. I like to flirt, it's fun and harmless, but I am not comfortable going any further with someone who I know is male in RL.

Maybe only 10% of the female population of SL is transvestite, but that's enough to make me want to seek a little assurance before anything happens. I certainly wouldn't ask a female avatar to prove herself right after meeting, but I might well at some point in our friendship.

I think female players, need to understand that we, as male players, sometimes feel like we are walking through a minefield where the mines don't blow you up, but have remarkably deep voices and large hands.

Lastly, I'll just add that I have absolutely no problem with TV avatars themselves. Two of my best friends in SL are TV, and we get on like a house on fire. I also have a girl alt who mostly comes out to test furniture poses these days but used to be an RP character. So TV avatars are a-ok with me, and you certainly don't have to prove your boob credentials to be my friend, as long as it's understood that I'm not comfortable interacting with a TV avatar in any way that I wouldn't interact with a guy.

Am I a chauvinist? A sexist? A bigot? A homophobe? I have abolutely no idea and would be interested in feedback.

Tuesday 8 July 2008

Now you can make me rich online

The products from Penn's Enlargement are now on SLExchange and OnRez.

And because I hate to post without a piccy, here I am in top hat and tails, busting some Jacko moves at Rhapsody in Blue:


Comedy moment from tonight:
Marissa Fredriksson: Does he know he's crashed?
KouWainohia Bergbahn: I don't think so.
Fable Sinatra: oh nooo
Charles Coleman (on voice): Who's crashed?
Fones Rang: u
DOC Sideways: You

But apart from that, where the hell is everyone? My F-list has been dead all night!

Thanks Alicia

A selection of the gifts that Alicia Chenaux just gave out to the Ch'know group:

Rave beads, rave batons, greedy thought bubble, and of course BLINGIS.

Monday 7 July 2008

PENN'S ENLARGEMENT

Now open, selling the 9-prim Adirondack chair and a variety of other weird, lovely low-prim goodies. And yes, there are freebies too.

Stop in and say hi - I'll be hanging out in there for a little, and I'll just get bored if no-one comes.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Fantasy%20Land%202/161/104/23

EDIT: Big thanks to Elora Henig for proof-shopping my new shop and helping me make it clearer what was on sale.

Best in.. pink and yellow and green and blue?

Just rounded off my night at a Best In Blue event at Krystal Rose with Tweny and CJ. Started off quite well, we were even wearing blue:


Then someone fired up one of those acid dance balls, and suddenly we were all in them:


Then the chick next to me pulled out this thing:


And in the space of a couple of songs the dance floor started to look like:


If you look carefully, you'll notice that there were only like 6 people there. But we made our own fun.

What the hell is an Adirondack?

A few posts ago I banged on about interesting projects, and CeNedra Rivera came up with the goods: an Adirondack chair that isn't 30+ prims.

Well okay. Okay then.

Chair: 9 prims. Footrest: 6 prims. Table: 7 prims.

Next!

Saturday 5 July 2008

"Penn Euler" is worth 76 points

There's a real art to choosing a good name for your avatar in Second Life. My first ever one used my real first name and the surname "Eponym", because I thought that was clever. It turned out to be really stupid.

Then I tried a couple of avies with non-gender-specific names so I could go TV for RP areas. I still have one of them as an alt, but eventually I just went with the old saw of naming myself after a celebrity.

ArminasX Saiman has been doing some long hard thinking about avie names, and has produced a quizzy thing where you can find out how good your choice of name was

Score your avatar's name

"Penn Euler" scored 76!

Friday 4 July 2008

Really, I should not be left alone

Oh geez, this is what happens when all my American buddies are offline celebrating their funny little holiday. I get bored and start playing with black magic.

I just cast some weird spell, and this... thing appeared. What the hell is it?

Apparently it has the ability to find out anyone's key and tell you if they're online. Dark magic, I tell you. Nothing good will come of this.

Apparently the only way to lift the curse is to give copies of it away to as many people as possible. Leave a comment or IM me if you'd like one.

The difference between you and Banksy is...

This is where I go all blogosphere and start referencing other people's blogs:

I read Alicia Chenaux's blog, Ch'know. That's what got me into blogging. Via her blog, I joined her Ch'know group.

The other day she blogged about a fairly obnoxious sign making fun of those anti-content-theft posters you see around. It was probably supposed to be funny, but the result was just stupid.

Then last night (my time; probably quarter past brunch SL time) someone reported that this had happened outside Alicia's shop:

Yes, someone had stencilled a copy of a Banksy work and the words "GREEDY SHOP" on the pavement (sidewalk :P) outside the Ch'know shop.

The "someone" turned out to be one Hell Yifu, who at the time had this in his/her/its profile:
"I am Second Lifes banksy... piss me off and i'll piss you off."
No. You're not. Banksy creates his own works. And they're clever enough to work without being captioned. And the objective of his work is never to piss people off, but to make people aware of some deep subjects. And sometimes, be funny.

Also, Ch'know doesn't charge more than 100L for anything, and it's all really cute stuff that Alicia has made. And the top floor is full of lovingly assembled boxes of high-quality free stuff, so "greedy" is just not the right word.

You fail, Hell Yifu, or whatever your normal name is. You fail forever.

By the way I have a shop where I sell fires for $L400 each! Outrageous! Gosh, I hope no-one drops a copy of a Banksy picture outside my shop! Wow, that would suck!