DVD Ordering Time - Robinson Crusoe on Mars

I rarely order DVDs from Amazon. If I see a movie I like on sale I’ll pick it up or if it’s a mainstream movie that I absolutely love I’ll buy it at full price when it’s released. But TBogg points out a new release. It is Robinson Crusoe on Mars.

I loved that movie when I saw it on TV at a young age. For those of you who never saw it and think the title is pretty darn silly — well it is a silly title — the movie is about an astronaut stranded on Mars. It’s not a slam-bang, shoot-em-up kind of space movie, but an interesting story of a man trying to survive in a hazardous world. The title eventually does work somewhat because our hero finds another person that he names Friday.

It’s a Criterion release, which means good quality. It also means it’s time to pull out my credit card and order the movie.

Mr. Woodcock review

Do I really need to post this? I imagine everyone who wanted to see this movie has already seen it; the rest of you can save your money. Here’s the review.

Free and Not so Free Fun

A co-worker of mine has started playing around in Second Life. Yesterday I joined her in a shopping adventure — buying a good skin. Well, where else to go but over to Celestial Studios where a 50% sale is taking place this weekend. The skin at Celestial Studio is lovely, I wear it a lot. I told her I’d buy her the skin which is at $L500. She freaked until I explained that in real life that wasn’t even $2. She could give me one of those lovely organic dark-chocolate bars that she buys.

So, she buys a skin, gets some freebie clothes, a shape that I provide (I love making shapes), and here’s Ariell reborn out of the ashes of newbieness:

I so wish I could show you a Before Picture, but anyone in SL knows what the Before pictures look like! Except for the skin she’s wearing all freebies. Hair from Calla, dress from PixelDolls, and the earrings and shoes from my creations folder. A lot of freebies that come in boxes aren’t the greatest, but I love when you can find some decent stuff.

Now Ariell admits that she’s not looking for hooker-wear, but something more demure. There are lots of designers that make freebie offerings. These should be snapped up anytime you can find them. Well, I discovered a blog that covers all the freebies you can find — Fabulously Free in Second Life. I already want to head out and pick a few things up!

My vanity does not allow me to post this without a shot of myself. So, here am I, but I ain’t wearing a darn thing that’s free:

• Hair: Tami McCoy Babycakes
• Skin: RaC Drew
• Earrings: Artilleri Rockin’ Earrings
• Bracelets: Artiller Racer and Shiny Things Braided in Black
• Top: Vi-C Uptown Red
• Pants: Leggings from an outfit
• Belt: Encore Celtic Belt Black
• Boots: ETD Calf Boots in Black

As for Ariell? She shows up for some dancing last night at Dancing Liberally. Even better, I discovered a delicious chocolate bar waiting for me at my office desk!

Gotta Dance!

Orchid at Mean Girl’s Guide to Second Life had an illuminating post about the evolution of dance in Second Life. Not only that, she created a great video using some of the dances that she writes about. The fun thing is, I’ve had the chance to do a lot of those moves on the dance floor. And may I say that it is oodles of fun? And may I also say that it really sucks to be wearing a cute, frilly party frock and you find that the dance machine has you breakdancing all over? Here’s the video:

I enjoyed watching it so much that Townes and I pulled out our dance floor that contains some of those same freebie dance animations and moved our bodies to the beat. I’m proud of that dance floor. I made it during a building class and Townes made the music playlist and streamed it into SL for us to dance to — he has great taste in music.

It still amazes me how well the dances can go with the music. It still amazes me that it can be so much fun!

Romance, Animated Style

Salsa….the dance of romance. Well it is the way Townes and I do in Second Life. How can we help it when we look hot and dance even hotter?

Yes, thank you might animators of Second Life, you make me move pretty darn good. From the tango to the lindy hop, my partner and I look goooooood. And some animations just reek of hotness. Like Townes and I on the dance floor tonight:

The real fun is some of the more romantic animations. And yes, some prove very romantic:

Now if I could only find a real life animator who can make me move so seductively and smoothly.

Good Luck Chuck is Rather Entertaining

I didn’t have high expectations so that helps. I found the leads charming and the story concept cute, though drawn out. The fat jokes could have been left out and I didn’t find everything charming, but for a romantic-comedy it isn’t too bad. I know…damning with faint praise. Still, if you’re looking for a date movie it’s better than some.

Rainy Day

May I just say that I love a rainy day?*

*This message brought to you by the Rainy Days Are a Good Excuse for Being Lazy organization.

Vanity, thy Name is Moran

I can’t help it. I’m going to do one of those “aren’t I pretty in Second Life” posts. Like I said, I can’t help it. ‘Cause I am pretty in Second Life. So there.

Okay, I also had fun with the camera and using backdrops and some lights that I created to give it a very creamy look. So consider this more of a showing off of my SL photo-taking skills.

It also had to do with finding a new skin that I had to buy. I keep shopping for skins and pick up tons of demos, but just couldn’t find anything to shell out for. I’ve been wearing skins from Sin Skins and Celestial Studios and have been very pleased. In my post “How to Skin an Avatar” I showed you some different looks with skins. When trying on demos I find that I’ve become quite picky about the look I’m trying to achieve: not too cartoony, but not too real. I plan on doing a post on the different skins I try, but until then, you’ll just have to put up with this post or go visit Skin Score, a blog all about Second Life skin.

I’ve hit lots of the skin stores in SL. I love Celestial Studios pouty lips and Sin Skins sweet faces and I’ve been wearing one or the other in various makeups for quite a while now. I really love how Tuli’s looks, but it comes with freckles and I don’t see my avatar as having freckles. My avatar doesn’t have a cute, button nose and I also look for a skin that isn’t going to make my vertical board of a nose look too perky. I also have asian features and some skins minimize those features.

The other night I went into Raspberry and Cow — RaC, for short — and tried the demos. Yuck. I didn’t like the first one at all. Too dark and too wrong. Yet, RaC doesn’t go for the same skin style offered in different skin tones and makeups. Instead, each style of skin is very different from the next. It took me a few moments to figure it out and I tried on the other demos. When I tried “Drew” I couldn’t stop admiring myself. I bought the set (not cheap as you get 6 makeups for that one style).

Vain, vain, vain! But check me out…I think I deserve a little vanity:

Right? Preeeeeetty! The hair is from ETD. The first pic I’m wearing Sofia and the second is Mira. The dress is the Cozy Sweater Dress from Encore. Jewelry? Why I made it myself.

By having a lightly colored backdrop and with some light spheres placed on either side of me I get that total white background. I’ve wondered how folks have done that. Sure I can crop and adjust in GIMP, but it’s much nicer to start with something like this. It saves a lot of work.

Playing Barbie with the new skin and some new hair, I tried on some outfits to see what the effect would be:

I’m wearing the ETD Mira hairdo with a nice color-changing headband, the dress is the Karoline White Dress from Ivalde, the stockings are Gracile’s LouLou in black, and the shoes are Enkythings’ Talyn in black.

A little more color would be nice…

It’s another Ivalde ensemble, the Vendela red dress. The hair is the ETD Mira style again. The shoes are Enkything’ Baba Yaga in Sharahzed (yeah, that’s the color or texture style). I’m just too adorable for words, aren’t I? Well, no…because I have tons of words that I can write about me.

The last pic is my favorite. Oh, to be this elegant in real life….

Second Life - Pirated Edition

Arrrrg, mateys…

Yes, yes, I know that International Talk Like a Pirate Day was yesterday, but I went to a party tonight. It was the Dancing Liberally event and host General JC Christian had a pirate theme. Not a one of us showed up in the same pirate outfit, though there were many eye patches, parrots, and peg legs.

Here are some pics just to show you what a group of pirates dancing on a pirate ship look like.

Me and Townes dancing away:

Pirates dancing. And yes, some were doing a jig:

The pirate ship at Cafe Wellstone:

Vex leading me, Townes, Jillan, and Tanna in dance. We decided that we looked like Vex’s backup dancers, the Vexettes:

And the most hated and despised pirate of all…Pirate Dick:

Dancing Liberally Tonight

Tonight’s theme at the Dancing Liberally event? Avast and ahoy me maties it’s the Day After Talk Like a Pirate Day! Yes, Dancing Liberally — Pirate Edition. The fun starts at 6:00 pm SL time.

I’ve got the pirate outfit, but I’m not too sure about it…did pirates really wear mini-skirts with thigh high stockings?

Funny Face?

Is there an Audrey Hepburn “thing” going on right now? By “thing” I mean some kind of TV special or retrospective? I’m getting tons of hits to this blog from people doing various searches on her name. I did a post on Audrey Hepburn in Second Life (still wish I could make that shape look more like her — I need to try some more) and I imagine that’s why they stumble upon this blog. Anyway, as someone who doesn’t have cable or network TV I’m lost as to what’s going on in Audrey Hepburn land.

Fire Alarms and Freezes

It wasn’t my clock radio alarm. In a sleepy fog I kept trying to turn that alarm off, but it kept beeping. In fact, it didn’t sound like my alarm at all and wasn’t it a bit too dark for my alarm? Then it hit — it’s the fire alarm.

I jump out of bed and rush out to the living room. I can smell something burning, but it didn’t take me too long to figure it out. After all, it happens every year. My heater turned on. All that burning dust blowing out to the meet the fire alarm.

Yes it got cold enough last night to need the heater. There’s even a freeze warning for Flagstaff right now. I’m loving it, except for the waking up at four in the morning; that I don’t like.

The Act of Creation

Second Life gives you something you don’t normally get in real life: godlike powers. I’ve created rocks, sand dunes, and beaches. And I’ve done some massive landscaping including creating an oasis, a lagoon, and plopping trees and bushes where I want them. What power! On top of that, I brought critters to life, including a dolphin, a manta ray, and bunches of stupid fish.

Here’s some of what I’ve worked on with Townes. We have an island paradise that we’ve had too much fun setting up. We snatched up a small neighboring island and started to work. Here I am trying to figure out what to do.

All that sand made me thirsty, so water was necessary! Townes and I came up with the same idea separately…we needed an oasis. Thus, some terrain editing and a few trees and homemade rocks and we have an oasis. A nearby campfire seemed like a good idea too:

The island allowed us to create a lagoon or cove area for our property. Well, all that empty space underwater required some landscaping and a few critters:

Yep, we have a dolphin (actually we have two — Flipper looked lonely so we got him Flipperina). A manta ray also adds to the fun. A few corals, some greenery, more rocks, and a few fish and it’s rather pleasant hanging out below water:

Ah, the powers of a god. It certainly makes moving rocks around much easier. Here I am, basking in my creative glory, sitting on one of my rocks by the oasis.

On the seventh day God rested. Well, after only a few hours of creation I’m just taking a quick coffee break…and enjoying my handiwork.

City Council Race

I joined some friends in a political event today. Someone I know announced that she’s running for city council. Karla Brewster is a great candidate. She’s smart, funny, nice, and she cares.

Today she had her first media event so some of us showed up to cheer her on as the local TV news crew came to film her announcement. It’s early yet, but Karla will need to start now to make sure she’s on the radar by the time people start paying attention to this race.

I highly recommend Karla for the Flagstaff City Council. To find out more about her you can read her web site.

That Time of Year

I can feel it. I walk the dog in the morning and I feel cool air, I don’t have to run the fan in my office all day, and it’s September. Yes, Fall is about to hit.

Growing up in Phoenix, Fall happened sometime, what, in January? And there weren’t many trees to show off the changing season. Here in Flagstaff we get the full treatment of seasonal change with oaks, aspens, and other kinds of trees (I don’t know trees; I do know cacti) in town and on the San Francisco Peaks. That’s where I check, looking up at the Peaks to see if I can see the bands of gold among the green up on the slopes of the peaks. A few trees on campus are the early harbingers of a new season about to start and I can see yellow leaves among the green.

All I know is that I have that expectant feeling, waiting for something exciting to happen. Fall should hit in about three weeks, global warming permitting, and I’m ready for it.

Photo of part of the San Francisco Peaks by Tom Brennan. The photo was found at the Reptiles of Arizona site.