Bleh. My computer is starting to hate me. Occasionally, my SL client has been acting weird. While I was camped out at Illusions, waiting for the lucky chair the other day - I turned around to see my world in rainbow colors. O.o I took a pic:

Now, I'm pretty sure this is my graphics problem - but it only seems to happen occasionally, and really isn't much of a bother to me at all. Just a little weird to turn around and see rainbow trees XD I was watching Siyu landscape this portion of the island a few days ago, and it was totally amusing, surprisingly. Watching people play with big giant rocks is oddly fun. O.o

Oh, I changed the header over at my Fashion Blog, Fashion Labyrinth, and I am so in love with the pose. I made it to emphasize my ears, but every time I look at the pose, I giggle to myself. Its soooooo goofy XD Heh, here is the picture I took for my header, that shows more of the pose:


I love it :D Its almost a shame to keep it to myself, so I am wondering what I want to do with it. I don't think many people have elf ears, so they probably won't be interested. I think maybe I'll send it out to my group next week - maybe one person out of 600 would have a use for it :D Of course, if any of you want it, feel free to send me an IM, and I'll pass it to you ^^

Speaking of - I am so excited that today is the first day of my second sale at Imperial Elegance! This will be the second sale that IE has went through - and I think its even better than last time :D Last sale, was my big moving sale, and everything in the store was 50%. This time - I'm retiring older poses and making them $15L each~ I have learned so much more posing techniques since I started making them, that eventually I would love to go back and redo some of them, using my more "modern" techniques.

But before then, I have several pose sets I've started, but have yet to finish. Sword poses are pretty high on my list - but, I've become stuck... I mean, there is really only so many different poses you can do with dual swords. I've looked up Miyamoto Musashi artwork, because I know he practiced the two sword techniques (called the Nito Seiho, I think?)... but, there doesn't seem to be too much on him. I also have some despair poses to finish, but... again, there are only so many ways to cry. O.o;;; But, I am trying to get them out as soon as I can! :D In the meantime.... I'll give you a teaser pic!


Heh. This is among my favorite of the sword poses so far. :D

OMG. Look what I did! (BTW - You may not want to watch if you dislike Japanese music :P)

I swear, I'm so goofy sometimes. XD But, I've been meaning to make a machinima for a while - I just recently chained my sibling to my desk chair until he taught me how to make one. He makes Halo videos constantly, so he showed me how to do SL videos :D Yay! So, I took a silly video of me dancing in my Harajukubox home to test out my lack of video capture skill. And - because Sai looked utterly dumb just dancing with no music - I slapped a portion of my favorite song on there XD

Yeah, I know - its pointless, silly, and dumb... but hey! It's my first try, and I had quite a bit of fun making it! I do hope to do more sometime - even if its just me all dressed up and dancing in my living room. :D

Oh, and as soon as I am able to log back in, I'll take some more snapshots of my home in Hbox... in case people want to see ^^

I've been seriously slacking on pose making lately. OMG. I've been utterly obsessed with the Illusions lucky chair the past few days - I only leave it when I go to sleep IRL. Siyu recently put 5 new items in there (a mask, usagi ears, safety pin earrings, a vase with flowers, and some cute sculpted vampire teeth), and even though I don't necessarily *need* them, I want them sooo bad. So much so that I've camped in front of the chair for 3 days now! O.o;; And of course, that chair HATES me. -.- So far, I've only got the usagi ears, and I need the other 4. TT_TT

But, today.... while standing in front of the chair, I was suddenly motivated to do something other than watch the chair tick down 25 minutes. So, I opened up Poser and set to work on a pose that was requested to me a couple weeks ago. It was requested to do a girl-cuddling-on-man's-lap pose, so, I attempted it today. Interested to see it so far?

There it is, all set up in poser and looking pretty XD I have uploaded them into SL now, all I need to do is put them together, do some final adjustments, make the ads, and stick them in the store.

I still don't understand why I am having trouble finding something to do, when I have sooooo much that needs to be done. I have a book full of couple's poses that needs to be done, some sculpted shoes to finish, a requested necklace to make, handbag poses, sword poses, a machinima to make, a second store that needs to be completed . . . . . @_@

*sigh*

BBBC day 4 is: Where do you go to shop when you just need some retail therapy? Do you suffer from buyers remorse later? What is the most expensive thing in your inventory?

I am terrible with shopping. I usually get in a foul mood and need to shop.... anywhere. I will go out to my favorite stores like, Armidi, Illusions, Baiastice, PixelDolls, ETD, or Truth and buy pretty much random things without thinking. On a normal day, I'll see something I like, and mull it around it my head, thinking: "Do I really need that? What would I wear it to? When would I ever wear it? What would I wear with it?" And ultimately, talk myself out of it.

However. When I go on my bad-mood shopping sprees, I'll just buy stuff I don't really want... just to buy it. And, as you can imagine, when I come to my shopping senses a few hours later.... I feel like total crap that I bought all this stuff that I will never wear. So, I either find myself boxing it up or deleting it while crying at my $L balance.

Lately my bad-mood sprees have been at furniture stores. I recently moved in SL (yet again! - look for a upcoming blog about it), and most of my furniture wouldn't fit in my new, smaller home. I've been buying furniture, only to find that I didn't like how it looked.... so I've had to keep buying and buying and buying to find a living room set that I liked. I still haven't found one. TT_TT It sucks, and I might even have to think about having a SL furniture yard sale for all these extra housewares I have now. -.-

Anyway. I've had quite a few expensive purchases, most probably no where near as pricey as what other people bought. The most expensive thing I have is definitely the Alienbear Miss SL Universe jewelry set, ringing in at $6000L. I have several limited edtition jewelry and gowns that cost at least $2000L or more... but that item is definitely the most expensive thing. I also have a few in-world sculptie makers that were around $3000L each, and a in-world pose maker that was $5000L. I also have two RaC skin sets that I purchased for $4000L each set (back when they forced you to buy a fatpack). I swear, if SL burps on one of those items.... I will be having a serious chat with the lindens.

BBBC for day 3 is: If there was one thing on the grid that you could snap your fingers and it would be gone forever, what would it be and why? It has to be something other than lag.

Traffic. I feel very strongly about this, and I think it might be the core of several problems. The main problem I think about is: Newbies come here, not knowing their butt from a hole in the ground, and when they see "ORGY ROOM!" in popular places - they think thats all SL has to offer. So, you get the pervy newbs going around asking every female avatar if they want to screw. Its extremely irritating, because I wish people would come to SL for more than a reason to have SL sex.

Another problem I see with traffic is the money camping. While I understand new people need money, and thats pretty much the only way for them to get it - I really hate going to a sim with quite a bit of traffic and seeing nothing but campers. I think for new players, there are alternate things to make them look good, like prize camping. I have no problems with prize camping or lucky chairs (hey, even I prize camp occasionally for some time to do some much-needed inventory cleaning) :D

Now, I know I might get asked: "Why do you hate money camping, but love prize camping?" Well, prize camping cuts down on the bots, and if you like the offered prize and want it enough to camp for it - then the traffic you add to the land is worth it. ^^ Also, prize camping will get newbies to look reasonably good on no budget at all. :D

However, as I was ranting about traffic somewhere else, the point came up to me about clubs. I've never really been into the club thing (and I am definitely -not- the party type), so I have no idea how they work. But apparently, clubs rely on traffic for patrons.... (is patrons even the correct term? O.o;;) So, maybe something more traffic-correct could take its place.

As a continuation of the BBBC - Here is day two: Do you have dreams about SL? If so, do you dream of SL as it is, or does it become more "real world?"

I used to have dreams about SL while I was with Bats, quite often. I don't know why, but it doesn't happen at anymore.

But. I find myself thinking about SL as RL more and more often lately. Very recently, I went to see the musical, The Phantom of the Opera and realized that I had nothing to wear to it. I kept thinking in SL that "OMG - that Icing dress would be amazing to wear to the Phantom!" Well. Of course I had absolutely nothing like that in my RL wardrobe.

That same day, while clothes shopping for the musical, I thought of SL again as I was shopping for dress pants. "OMG. If I could stretch these pant cuff prims, this would look perfect!". .... *Sigh*

Such is fate for a girl living in two worlds. :P

Ok, so I read that Alicia (one of the most adorable bloggers ever, who I stalk her blog several times a day XD ) is doing a Big Bad Blogger Challenge, where bad bloggers have to blog every day for one week. I am not sure I can do this, but darn it, I am going to try.

For today, she provided us bloggers with a question to answer:

Why did you decide to start blogging about your Second Life?

For me, I loved exploring SL, and I always had a difficult time finding interesting places to visit. So, I came to the conclusion that I would blog the places I've been, and have pictures of them - in case other people were looking for great places. I wanted my blog to be like, my travel guide of the best places to see in Second Life. That was the birth of Sai's Random Bloggage.

But then, my inventory started growing with clothes, and I became more fashion obsessed. I found many of my fashion posts finding it's way to my blog... which was changing it. And of course, was taking over. Thats when I decided to bring in a second blog, only for fashion. Which I called Fashion Labyrinth. So, now I have my personal thoughts, travels and creation stories here, and fashion on another.

But, as if two blogs isn't enough, I had decided to start yet another blog for Imperial Elegance, my little store. I didn't want to do my store releases on Fashion Labyrinth (that would almost be tacky), or make people sort through my personal ramblings for store news - so I thought a separate blog would be best for that. :D

So, I have 3 blogs, Sai's Random Bloggage, Fashion Labyrinth, and Imperial Elegance that I created to manage the madness in my Second Life. :D

What is going on at the Viva La Glam sim?! I went there to look for a handbag prop for my next set of poses... but I never expected to see this....

It was absolutely insane to walk around a flooded shopping sim! I was just in awe at how bizzare it was to me. XD However, it was oddly beautiful, in it's own, strange way.


Oh. But it wasn't just flooded on the outside. No, inside the stores are flooded too!


I really hope these stores have good flood insurance! If not, this will definitely be costing them a fortune. XD


But seriously, this whole experience with walking around this sim was strange. Like, it doesn't seem like this was just some weird terraforming accident - it appears to have been done on purpose. But.... why?! O.o


Viva la Glam is one of my most favorite places to take pictures at - I adore the build's textures, height, and overall appearance. And even with it flooded to my waist, I still couldn't resist taking tons of pictures. Its beautiful in a different way.


I really can't wait to see what the sim owner's plans are for this. I think there must be a reason they decided to flood it - and I'm sure its going to be good :D

(And, omg. Have I ever mentioned how much I looooooove my new video card? Without it, these pictures wouldn't have even been possible XD)

This is going to be another long, picture-heavy post. Just a warning. ^^

With my new graphics card loving windlight, I suddenly noticed my current home had no view of the sky, or any water around it. I spent 99.9% of my time in SL in my home, so I wanted to be able to look at prettiness. I had a few things in mind: I wanted an ocean view, no beach, a rental, views of the sky, generous prim offering, and a house already on the property.

I searched all night long, and found two that I liked. One was another, bigger Cherry Tree Rental in another sim with water and sky views. I loved it, the textures were great, layout was clumsy Sai friendly, and the prim allowance was very nice. However, like all the Cherry Tree Rentals, it was on mainland, and half of my water view was owned by someone else, and it just so happened that they had just claimed the land earlier that day. So, I had no idea what they were planning on doing with it, and if they were going to block my views.

The other option was on a private island, run by the same people who own the SS Galaxy. I TP'ed to a few of their rentals, and fell in love with one specific prefab home - the Vancouver. Its a prefab that I've always loved, but the doorways were too small for clumsy Sai, so I'd never even considered it when I lived with Bats. But, the house is beautiful. Looking at the price per week, I cringed. OMG, $1800L a week. *dies* The prim allowance was great though, coming in at 500. The views were great, and this was on the edge of the sim, with no sim blocking my ocean at all. I shut my eyes as hard as I could, and paid the rental box. *sigh*

I am pleased with the home though, its very beautiful. This is a picture of the driveway, right off the main street. It also appears that they have a trolley or something that goes by every so often. O.o;;


And, the back of the house, that gives me the view I wanted. I had even considered taking in a roommate, mainly because this is a little too much house for me, but decided against it.


This is my view from my driveway. The neighborhood seems nice - I never seen any spare prims randomly on walkways.... it looks very well kept. And, in all the time I've been in the sim, setting up my furniture and hanging about, I've been the only one in the entire sim. O.o;; Its like, almost deserted.


And, of course, I had to include a shot of the view. I love it so much - its completely unobstructed. :D


This little patio area is my favorite place to sit and AFK so far. Its great with my little outdoor set from The Loft. And the fireplace, omg - so cute :D


Now, going into the house - this is the view from right inside the front door. I got a lot of my living room set from The Loft, just with items from various sets. XD

Now, last night was a horrid experience with installing a graphics card. I guess now that the panic is over, I can talk about it a little. I did my research before I bought a new one. I found that I had a integrated video card, opened my computer up and seen it - and seen at I had 3 white PCI slots, and 1 black empty, opposite facing slot that looked the same. Ok, so I still had no idea what I was doing. As a matter of fact, I have never even seen what a video card looked like.

I wrote down all the graphics cards that were recommended to play SL, and went to Fry's. While walking in there, had the thought in my head that I was going to ask a worker for help while I was there. As I stood in the video card section, completely baffled and clueless about what I was looking at, I seen the GeForce 8600GT was on sale at $119 from $149 (with a $50 mail in rebate as well). Cool :D

Excited, I grabbed it, and hunted down a victim to ask my questions. I found some dorky looking guy, who was a total jerk. And, because he was not nice, my questions to him was limited. I told him what slots I have, and asked which one it should go into. He told me the black slot, and that it just slipped in there. Seemed easy enough. :D

I get home, immediately set it on the kitchen table, open the case up and rolled back my sleeves. I opened the package for the video card, and omg - it had the cutest little fan on it XD So, I gently started to put the card in the slot.... but one side (the piece of steel that pops out the back of the computer) was stopping one side from going in all the way. I struggled to fit it in there for about 30 minutes, and was even considering cutting off the offending steel appendage that was pissing me off.

Eventually, I grabbed a screwdriver and pulled that side of it farther out, so it would fit into the slot it was supposed to be in ( I'm sure this doesn't make sense - but it made sense to me at the time XD). It snapped in, and I was thrilled. I closed it all up, took it back upstairs and hooked everything all up.

Turned it on, and my monitor got no signal. Great. I spent the rest of the 6 hours disabling the onboard grapphics in the device manager, trying to figure out where to disable in in the bios (I did keep the primary to the PCI-E slot, but it still didn't work), updating the bios software.... everything. I took the dog for a walk and pondered what to do next. I decided I'd send a call for help on my blogs, wait for the rest of the night, and then make a phone call to NVIDA first thing in the morning.

I posted my cry for help on 2 of my blogs, and then decided to try one more thing, before I shut it down for the night. I wanted to start the process all over again, the way it was meant to be installed. I brought the computer back downstairs, took out the new graphics card, brought it back upstairs, hooked it up, and turned it on. I then disabled the card via Device Manager, and made sure the BIOS said PCI-E. Turned it off, took it back downstairs, and put the new card back in. Brought it back upstairs, plugged everything in, and turned it back on. It started right up.

I went around the house screaming that I fixed it, and was totally thrilled. :D :D I installed the new drivers, and everything worked perfectly. OMG. I was sooooooo happy.

The first thing I did was start Second Life. It was so incredible, because I have never been able to experience SL the way it was meant to be. I always had my graphics at the lowest settings, because I get major computer lag, and I can't move otherwise. Now, I can boost all my settings up to the Ultra option, and really see what Windlight is all about. Its amazing, and really stunning. I am so happy with my new card, and it made all that work, stress and time really worth it.

I spent this morning tweaking the settings to make avatars look good, and I think I have found my setting:

I have taken off all 4 of my face/body lights, which is really amazing to me - and I am only wearing the face light that Caliah Lyon made. I never thought I'd be able to part with my lights, and it makes for a more amazing SL experience. :D

I am also noticing little problems here and there - for example... my ears no longer match my skin tone, and my photosphere is no longer a "neutral" with this setting. But, I am still experimenting and I hope to get it down soon. ^^

Every 5 seconds I've been telling the people around me IRL that "I looooooove my graphics card" XD I am so excited about it - this definitely opens loads of photographing opportunities for me ^^

So, so far, I've installed a new hard drive, twice as much RAM, and a new video card... and it hasn't exploded yet. And, its also important to know that I had no idea what I was doing in any of those times. O.o;;;

Ok all, I am asking for a small bit of help, to any techie. As I said in my last post, I wanted a new graphics card. So, I went out and bought a GeForce 8600GT. My computer is a HP, with a Nvida 6150 LE on-board graphics card.

I installed the new video card just fine, and was totally thrilled when I booted up the system.... only to find that my monitor isn't getting any signal from the new card. Instant heartbreak, I tell you TT_TT

Now, I have tried everything I could think of.... Disabling the 6150 in my Device Manager, uninstalling it, installing the new software.... nothing. I am totally frustrated and about to cry.

It appears that the new card is working okay, the fan on it is spinning and all, but it does not show up on my computer. I have no idea what else to do, and I am at a total loss. I've been working on this for the past 6 hours, and have gotten no where.

So, I turn to you awesome readers of mine. Does anyone have any suggestions for a frazzled little pixel elf? TT_TT

EDIT: Right after posting this, I decided to restart the entire process and try all over again. And, I seemed to have gotten it to work somehow. Note to self: Read instructions before doing anything computer related. -.-

And omg - finally being able to view windlight is absolutely amazing. My computer was too low to really see windlight the way it was meant to be seen, but now I am able to put my settings on Ultra with absolutely no computer lag at all. I am so excited about it now :D :D :D