Kami-no-aisuru

One of the problems I have with fashion in SL is the mis-naming of any dress with a poofy skirt as a “lolita” dress. I feel this has lead a lot of people who aren’t that familar with the Japanese street fashion from whence it came, to think they’re “Lolitas” when they’re really just wearing a big skirt and little else. I come from a point of view of respecting the original street fashion and following it’s points. When I wear lolita-clothing, usually it’s a very classic Elegant Gothic Lolita style, very conservative, mostly black & white, properly accessorized. Proper Lolita is the entire look, not just a dress with a poof skirt-a full ensemble, complete with head-wear, appropriate shoes & stockings, accessories to carry like parasols, bags, dolls. Even lolita styles that aren’t as conservative as EGL are still full and well-thought-out complete ensembles, and considerably more demure than many SL versions of “lolita” style. I wanted to do a post featuring some Lolita ensembles, first off a classic sweetloli outfit:

These amazing shoes are new from The Black Canary, and Morrigan has gone above & beyond in creating perfect EGL shoes here, just amazing. I’m carrying my DP YumYum doll, which is very cute, but my sincerest wish is someone in SL would make a Super Dolfie (since I can’t afford one IRL, hehe).

Skin: Tuli, Sayuri-tone 1, 05a (Tuli Asturias)
Hair: Exile, Juliette, blue velvet (Kavar Cleanslate)
Dress: Blue Blood, Duchess, whitegoth, (Ghanima Uriza)
Shirt: Katat0nik, sheer shirt, white (Katat0nik Pidgeon)
Poof sleeves: G-Field, Charlotte blouse, white (Cerberus Noel)
Bloomers: Katat0nik, Strawberry Cream bloomers (2 sets)
Stockings: Honey Kitty, cutie cake socks, pink (Nekoko Noel)
Shoes: The Black Canary, Rocking Horse shoes, white (Morrigan Denimore)
Doll: DP YumYum, lolita doll (toraji Voom)
Ribbons: Honey Kitty, twin ribbon, stripe pink (gacha)
Location: Antique Artistry Victorian prefabs  (Fatima Ur)

Then I wanted to twist the look a little, since Steampunk style is so popular in SL, and I like the Steampunk look, I wanted to create a Steamloli outfit:

These shoes, again, gorgeous new work by the always-amaing G-Field. Their shoes are as nice and well-done as many shoes that are twice or three times their price. Everyone should shop at G-Field, seriously. And if you haven’t checked out the WAKA & Yuki sim yet, why in heck not? I remember when I first rezzed, W&Y was a tiny shop where all the hair was like 20L, and they have come so far since then, their hair is truly wonderful and their shop is beautiful.

Skin: Tuli, Sayuri, tone 1, 01a
Eye makeup: AtomicBambi, feline eye makeup (AtomicSparkle Skytower)
Hair: WAKA & Yuki, New 109 A (yukitan Farrjones)
Dress: G-Field, Classic dress “Clea”, brown
Shirt: Hal*Hina, cotton blouse, black (Hinano Runo)
Vest: Fri.day, halter vest, black
Stockings: Schadenfreude, Amortentia, opaque leather (Allegory Malaprop)
Shoes: G-Field, short lace-up boots, brown
Wings: Silent Sparrow, Lysander Wings, double (Jessica Ornitz)
Hat: Illusions, Carrol top hat (Siyu Suen)
Valise: XCENTRICITY, (Nix Sands)
Glasses: Schadenfreude, Hardwired spectacles
Poses: Long Awkward Pose (Dove Swanson)
Location, New Babbage

Japanese urban legend has it that if you’re walking alone at night you might be approached by a woman wearing a surgical mask. She will ask you if she is beautiful, and then reveal her face with her mouth cut all the way open on both sides. Some say she will follow you back to your home and kill you! Well, like all good urban legends, this one has a few variations, and a supposed basis of fact, about a jealous Samurai and his unfaithful wife.

I chose to try to create this look for a Halloween party, as something different than the usual ghosts and zombies of traditional Western horror.

My version makes her more representative of death itself, with her bone-accented hairdo and bone fan.

This is what I wore to the annual Illusions Halloween ball, the Masque of the Dead. It was a wonderful evening, one of the highlights of the Autumn season, as far as I’m concerned.

Skin: LF Chai, Buki, old (Launa Fauna)
Hair: Philotic Energy, Ishiko, jet black* (Aemelia Case)
Eyes: Beloved, platinum eyes large (me)
Kimono: Discord, En-Sou Unryu (Orange Meili)
Shoes: [Gauze] Ouka Saki*  (Yukio Ida)
Blindfold: Illusions blindfold* (Siyu Suen)
Stitches: Defiant Designs, stitched shut lips* (brittainy Beeper)
Fan: Falln, Skeleton hand, Raw* (Azriel Demain)
* modded for this ensemble only

There’s been a little discussion on a thread on SLU about how to make an Asian avatar effectively. Some people seem to be of the thought that it depends more on shape than skin, I am in the camp that thinks shape is important but without the right skin it won’t work.  Quite a few of the people posting in that thread are RL Asian’s creating Asian avatars, so I really value their tips when it comes to face shape and skin choice. I’m not Asian in real life, but I’ve tried to create an Asian avatar (specifically Japanese) in Second Life ™ because I was interested in Japanese culture and language and I thought it would be fun and allow me to wear fashions I can’t wear IRL.

The post on SLU had some very interesting tips on shape, specifically face shape and I decided that a bit of tweaking might be in order on myself. I can see a marked improvement!

On the front view, it doesn’t look much different, but you can see the chin is more rounded, less pointy, higher up and the nose is straighter.

But in the profile view you can see quite a change, mostly in the nose area. I really hate noses on the avatar mesh, there’s such weird angles that can occur and stuff. I’d rather it wasn’t quite so upturned but downturning it results in weird angles around the nose. meh. I adjusted the bridge quite a bit and made it smaller but the tip is still pretty bulbous. Overall I’m happy with it! I think the appearance is more accurately Asian now and still pretty cute ^_^  but my shape has evolved quite a bit and I’m open to tweaking a little thing here and there.

However, I wonder sometimes if people who see my avatar even realize that she’s supposed to be Asian? It’s an interesting question to me. I’ve had a really difficult time finding skins I was happy with, someday I’d like to do a big post or set of posts exploring the skins available out there that are supposedly Asian.

I can never think of titles, so they will be nonsequitors when I feel the urge, your only warning.

My big discovery today was this cool little hunt. It’s in front of Wynx Whiplash’s tiny store. I was there to buy a bunny but that’s a story for another time.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Raglan%20Shire/176/178/23

When you land there’ll be a big pool there, dive in, the adventure begins *hollywood Titanic-style musics*

It’s not too difficult of a hunt, depending on how diligent you are and on whether you cheat. The prize is nice but the real fun is just the environment. I’ve done a LOT of treasure hunts and this one was special because of the atmosphere, they really took the time & did it right. It’s a whole undersea adventure, with creatures & caves and whatnot. Go do it, take a friend!

I love Japanese stuff, you all know that, and purikura machines are right up there. Purikura is “print club”, super fancy photo booths where you can get custom backgrounds and frames and stuff right on the photos. SL has them and they’re pretty cool.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Nipponbashi/180/232/0

This one is in Nipponbashi. Cam into the booth a little (they’re kind of cramped) and choose one of the 5 pose stands (bring some friends for more interesting pictures!) and then use page up and page down to scroll through poses. clicking on the front screen will change the frames and clicking on the back will bring up a window with options for backgrounds. you can mix it up, when you’re ready just do a snapshot as usual and you can have a cool Japanese-style purikura picture souvenir! This particular booth is catty-corner from the zombie shooting game so grab a gun & have some fun in Nipponbashi. I plan to do some more things that focus on fun stuff to see & do in Japanese sims.

EDIT ADDING

I saw this at SLU and had to share. Gummi Lighthouses-candy gone wrong

so Alicia issued this challenge to get slackers like myself to update their “blogs” more GAWD how I hate that word and I’m not so fond of the proto culture that has sprung up around it. I’d much rather consider myself a journal-ist or a diarist. BLOGGER. horrible word as subtle as a bull in a china shop. at least call me a BLAHger or something. truth is that I’ve been puttering aroundt these internets since they became open for puttering, I kind of got most of it out of my system already. My personality is not so outgoing and bubbly and if I write about the nonsense that happens to me on a daily basis I think it just looks weird and feels pointless. So yes I overthink stuff that I’m going to write and thats why I post pictures because they’re easy and because I’m cute. ANYWAY what she had to say was probably meant for a lot of people who shout be putting themselves out there more but it hit me right at home, yo.

I do a LOT of keeping my mouth closed and my ears & eyes open in more public situations. Both in RL and SL if its a crowd at a club, a small group of friends, a forum full of relative strangers. So I probably come off a little cold & distant, sorry about that. I’m not unfriendly, and I’m not creepy.

SO I’m currently standing bare ass naked in my glorious skybox of changingness and thought I’d fire off some thoughts with minimal imagery. YES I stole the Oh Hai idea from QueenKellee and I already fessed up.

I’ve been spending a lot of time inworld, I’m spending way too much money, even if its practically imaginary. I’ve gotten kind of hooked on the more designer experience, Shiny Things, Paper Couture, so far I’ve mostly avoided Armidi because what they want for a shirt is recockulous. But I have some hair from there and its fab. I’m building stuff but I never seem to be particularly happy with the results.

Some stuff happened in the Free Style group earlier that upset me because a couple weeks back there was a free pair of boots in this location, along the back wall of said location was a pair of shoes for $10L and I informed everyone and their mama about it. I guess that price was a mistake… and now people are asked to be careful and inform the owner/creator and ask if that’s right? WTF because people (like say <3 Cupcakes just recently) decide to have a “secret” sale where the bargains are just mixed in with the regular priced stuff. I thought thats what it was & I’m NOT SORRY for informing people about it.

oh well. so the question of the day “Why did you decide to start blogging about your Second Life?” I added this “blog” GAH when I bought the Kami-no-Aisuru domain and thought i’d use it periodically. it just so happens that right after that is when I started in SL and that kind of took my world over… to be honest I don’t do much IRL and even less now that I’m unemployed. I’ve always been kind of a homebody anyway. If you know the term hikikkomori you know what I’m talking about. I would probably be a shut in if I didn’t have to do things. I’m not socially inclined, and with all of the Asperger’s talk going around these days I’ve been wondering if I don’t have a mild case. I have the ABILITY to be social just not the INCLINATION.

As for the story of the site name (and by extension my SL name) I’ve been meaning to write about that. I’ve been studying Japanese for about a year (could be going better but I have only my own laziness to blame) and its a rough translation of my RL name. don’t really care who knows it so Josephine = God’s beloved in Hebrew (fem.) and Kami=God, Aisuru=beloved. I thought it would be fun & different and had a hard time coming up with a personal domain name. so thats why in SL i’m both Aisuru (usually) and Kamino (alt). the more you know *ting*

I’m supposed to be working on coding CSS for work. I’m supposed to be working on Kami no because I’m not very happy with it. But I’m mostly unmotivated and watching various doramas. I really got into Nodame Cantabile this week, enough to almost make me want to go play the piano again, but not quite. It helped me discover Tamaki Hiroshi who looks like he could be Ikuta Toma’s big brother. Hot! I’d already decided that Koike Teppei looked like Ikuta’s little brother. So now I see all three of them in a row like that. Da-da-da. I did do some studying today so I guess thats something productive.

Back in December I pimped my cell phone. And since my camera is broken, I just this week used the work camera to take a picture. Its the very definition of redonkulous.

Yes, its a RAZR, the same phone everyone and their Grandma Margie have. Thats part of the reason I wanted it to look way OTT. Also I like sparkly things. The bow-winged bear is just the icing on that crazy cake.