The dress I’m wearing is from Zaara and is one of the two special editions she has for the Cinema event. They are both mesh and absolutely stunning. You can find Zaara in the Romance section of Cinema. The beautiful windblown hair is from Alice Project and can also be found in the Action/Adventure section of Cinema.

I did two crops of this picture. I couldn’t decide which one I liked better so I just gave in and used both. Which do you prefer?

I was listening to Demi Lovato as I worked on this picture. This song has always touched me and been on my fav list. <3

Credits:
*Skin: Al Vulo Julia black bronze by Hlin Bluebird
Hair: Alice Project Willow [Low] – Infinity by Alice Demonia (@ Cinema 2012)
*Dress: Zaara : Ritika Maxi dress (S) *ocean* by Zaara Kohime (@ Cinema 2012)
*Mesh Hands: Slink Mesh Hand Casual & Relax by Siddean Munro
*Necklace & Earrings: [ glow ] studio – Day Dream (@ Cinema 2012)
*Ring: Zaara : pearl cluster ring by Zaara Kohime
*Pose: Exposeur Classic Elegance by RubyStarlight Writer (@ Cinema 2012)
Location: Appaloosa

I couldn’t resist using my ALT today to show the back of this hot new mesh dress. This sexy dress came out in perfect time to help me celebrate my Plurk Anniversary today. Four years ago today I found plurk.

I admit, I have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with plurk at times. Since I’ve been there four years and my timeline is public (and I rarely remove people), I have accumulated quite a number of friends. At times, plurk can be very overwhelming, but it is definitely my most favorite social network of ALL of the social networks I am on. Plurk is where I go to rant, gossip or just share silly articles and my blog posts. Whenever I have a question about anything, especially if it’s SL related, I always turn to plurk because my plurk friends are just brilliant it seems! They ALWAYS have the answer to everything. I have blogged about plurk in the past, many times, and even did a “Berry’s Favorite Things Post” about it once.

Plurk has somewhat of a bad reputation for being a drama-ridden hell-hole and although at times it can be :P It’s not like that most of the time, not for me anyways. Plurk is what you make it. I like to use it to be goofy and playful but I also like to use it to stay informed.

I’m going to list some plurkers now that I think are a good follow if you’d like to stay informed about SL related things. (I made sure all of these plurkers have public timelines, are open to having people friending and following them and are relatively drama-free most of the time):

1. @Codie – If you look at Codie’s start date on plurk, she’s been a member since June 2008. To my understanding, she was one of the first SLers to discover and join plurk and is currently the one with the most friends and fans. She plurks a lot about technology and current events. Lots of intellectual discussions happening in her plurks but at the same time, she also plurks a lot of herself sharing personal things as well which is always a nice mix.
2. @anubisdarkwatch – Anubis is an SL DJ but in plurk he is the person I turn to when I just want to relax and have a good laugh. He always has a funny picture or meme up his sleeve. He’s genuinely nice and friendly with everyone, and that’s what I love about him the most! <3
3. For news and updates about mesh the following are the plurkers you want to follow: @EmmaG, @DamienFate and @maxwell_graf. Of course they do plurk about other personal things, current events and things they are creating inworld. However, whenever there is any news about mesh with jiras and linden meetings, etc… they are usually the first to know and plurk about it.
4. Informative ladies: @Vaki and @cajsalilliehook – Both of them share a lot of great information if you want to keep up with current events, especially leaning towards the political side and of course they throw in SL fashion in the mix as well. These are the ladies to have on your timeline if you want to have intellectual and informative conversations about a variety of topics.
5. SL News: @danielvoyager, @nalates, @Hamlet_Au and Inara_Pey- All of them will keep you up to date with everything going on in SL from events to technology and even other virtual worlds. Their blogs are where I get the latest SL related news from.
6. And FINALLY, don’t forget to follow @Secondlife they plurk all sorts of information on a daily basis, including the Picture of the Day! Which I was chosen for today, so thank you Second Life for that! :D A lot of people ask HOW do you get chosen to be Picture of the day, well all you have to do is submit your picture into the Second Life Official Flickr Group, but make sure to read the description of the group carefully so you know all the terms before submitting your pictures in there!

There are so many more people that I LOVE to follow and read but the majority of them have private timelines or plurk things that are very personal to them so I didn’t want to link to them out of respect. But once you join plurk, make sure to add me and join the conversations! Also, if you are already on plurk but not on my timeline, I am really shy about sending requests to people because I don’t always get a chance to read everyone. But if you ever wish to add me, please feel free to send me a request, I always accept!

Finally, a big thank you to all of my plurk friends for putting up with my goofy plurks and answering the dozens of questions I ask all of the time. You guys have been there for me a lot, especially recently when I’ve been having a lot of ups and downs. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you! It’s been a wonderful four years and I look forward to many more! <3

Credits:
On my ALT (right):
Skin: Glam Affair - Cassiopea - Jamaica - Tesea D by Aida Ewing (@ TDR this month)
Hair: [elikatira] Figure – Brown 08 by Elikapeka Tiramisu
Dress: erratic / abby – cowl neck dress / glitter aqua (S) by Erratic Rain
Earrings: [ glow ] studio – Pearls & Spikes Earring (silver) by Jocelyn Anatine (@ TDR this month)

On me (left):
*Skin: Glam Affair – Lilith – India 09 D by Aida Ewing
*Hair: >TRUTH< Siri – mocha by Truth Hawks
*Dress: erratic / abby – cowl neck dress / glitter silver (S) by Erratic Rain
Earrings: Paper Couture; Reclining Feline Earrings by Cora Lu
*Ring: -[AddiCt]-Virgo’s Ring/Pewter by Kianna Noel & Naith Smit (@ Zodiac Virgo)
Nails: Candy Nail #FP006 Clear Glitter French 3color change by Peche Bury

*Poses: Exposeur by RubyStarlight Writer

I’m definitely not a smoker in real life, but I couldn’t help but think that the cig in my hand really completed the look. I had a lot of fun putting together this outfit and also shooting the images today. It was the first time I was able to successfully play around with layering mesh items and not completely pull my hair out over it.

I wanted to pair these mesh pants with the mesh jacket and also the tube top underneath which is partial mesh. I normally wear a small size in most mesh items, however to make the pants fit under the jacket nicely, I wore them in XS. The The mesh tie on the tube top I wore in XXS so it would fit underneath the jacket, however I can’t wear it in that size if I’m not wearing the jacket because it cuts into the boobs. And then finally, the jacket I wore in a medium size and voila, they all fit! I was so excited! I’m going to see if I can mash up different sizes in mesh like that more often.

The shoes were another story. I have been eyeing these shoes on flickr ever since the first tease promo shots and when I saw them at Vintage Fair I bought them up quickly. However, today when I was trying them on for the first time, I couldn’t figure out why they looked partially transparent every time I put the alpha layer on, see my plurk here about it. I was finally able to make them look amazing as they do now by checking “Automatic Alpa Masks” under rendering in the Develop menu. This is the first time I ever had to do that for a pair of shoes, does anyone know why? Is there some other setting of mine that’s not correct? I don’t mind having that checked, but usually having that checked ruins the ends of my hair and eyelashes so I would prefer to keep it off.

EDIT: I just wanted to add a little note here to say that the designer of the shoe from Kunglers, AvaGardner Kungler, read my post and sent me an updated shoe folder and the problem was all fixed. She said that the only thing she did different is instead of using a PNG texture file, she used a TGA file so she believes this may be the reason I was having that problem. Thank you so much Ava! <3

Finally, the most exciting part, Shai Delacroix (one of my fav designers since 2008) has released her first mesh item! The bag (which I totally didn’t get a closeup of, sorry) is available at Zodiac this month. It’s a beautifully crafted bag, original mesh and available in ten colors! For more details about the bag, check out the Casa Del Shai blog and don’t forget to like the Casa Del Shai facebook page!

The location for my shoot was also a lot of fun. I explored the New York City sim again. It’s really well done and any time I’m looking for a city atmosphere, I head right there. They also have a very organized and informative website: http://www.newyorkcitysl.com

Credits:
*Skin: {.essences.} Virgo – Brunette by Inka Mexicola @ Zodiac – Virgo
*Hair: >TRUTH< Soleil w/Roots – mocha by Truth Hawks
*Top: Zaara : Nina tube top XXS *cream* by Zaara Kohime
*Pants: Zaara : [Mesh] Kavya summer pants (XS) *mocha* by Zaara Kohime
*Jacket: fri.day – Marie.Jacket (Fire) – Medium by Darling Monday @ Collabor88 for August
Shoes: (Kunglers) Morgana pumps – brown python by Avagardner Kungler @ Vintage Fair 2012
*Bag: *Casa Del Shai* Virgo Satchel Sand by Shai Delacroix @ Zodiac – Virgo
Glasses: MG – Sunglasses – Milano by Maxi Gossamer
Necklace: Paper Couture Black Pearls by Cora Lu
Ring: Paper Couture Diamonds and Pearl Ring by Cora Lu
*Earrings: [ glow ] studio – Pearl Dark Stud by Jocelyn Anatine
Cigarette + Poses: Di’s Opera by Di Hoorenbeek
Location: New York City

After teasing us for a few days, Maitreya has finally released the adorable tunic and boots this morning. I love the casual, laid back style both have so I wanted to shoot them in or near a field of some sort. I found Abduction Alley which is on the Nestlefire sim on Koinup Places. I fell in love with this place immediately because it was so interesting. It has a mix of an old hometown feel but then of course a big gaping alien landing hole behind the diner. It’s really nicely done and definitely a fun explore.

Anyhow, I found this field of wheat with the scarecrow and the windmill and I just felt it was the perfect place to take a picture, however there was one issue. There was a huge amount of glow coming from the wheat so it was totally destroying the picture. So then I asked my friends on plurk because I couldn’t remember the debug setting to turn glow off again and of course, as always, they came through.

So that gave me the idea to share some of my favorite debug settings with you guys, figured it would help me remember them next time too. Debug settings include unsupported hidden features that are not exposed in the standard user interface, in addition to settings that are exposed through the PREFERENCES window. To access debug settings, go to the Advanced menu > Debug Settings.

These are the settings I always setup (or try and remember to anyways) whenever I install a new viewer.

1. RenderGlow – Set that to false and it will disable glow. However I noticed it didn’t take ALL the glow away from the wheatfield. I also had to fiddle with RenderGlowResolutionPow. I knock that down from 9 to 5 and it got rid of glow completely.
2. RenderVolumeLODFactor – This one makes all my prims and sculpts look 100 times better. The default is usually set to 2 and they say you should at least put it on 4, however I keep mine on 14, cuz that’s my lucky number. :P
3. RenderUnloadedAvatar – This one saves me every time I’m stuck as a cloud. Just set that one to true and it will show avatars which haven’t finished loading.
4. The following are my three favorite mesh settings, I was having a lot of problems with mesh and I just set these and it fixed a lot of issues for me:
   Meshbytespertriangle: 128
   Meshmaxconcurrentrequests: 128
   MeshminimumByteSize: 1
5. YawFromMousePosition – This one helps a bit with photography when sometimes in certain poses if I’m moving my mouse around my head follows the mouse and I don’t necessarily want that. The default to this is 90.0 so if you set it to 0 it’ll fix that.

What are your favorite debug settings?

Click here for the Debug wiki page for a full list of all of the settings and what they do.

EDIT: Torley Linden has a great Photo checklist up on the SL wiki that also covers some debug settings.

» For more of my tutorials, check out my tutorials page.

Credits:
*Skin: [PXL] FAITH OLIVE RC.16 MEB by Hart Larsson (Not released yet)
*Hair: ::Exile::Quiet Dream:Brownie by Kavar Cleanslate
*Tunic: Maitreya Xarra Tunic – Flamingo S+ by Onyx LeShelle
*Boots: Maitreya Stagioni Boots * XS-S Sand by Onyx LeShelle
*Necklace: [ glow ] studio – Key to my Heart necklace (no bow) by Jocelyn Anatine
Wheat in mouth: Contreverse Epi de Ble For Mouth by Ameno Heron
*Pose: Geez by Grazia Horwitz
Location: Abduction Alley on the Nestlefire sim (Found on Koinup Places)

Yesterday I blogged a new skin by Glam Affair by the name of Monica, today I’d like to show you a different side of Monika alongside another new skin by Glam Affair called Sakura. This stunning Sakura skin, which my alt is wearing in the first picture and also in the second picture (on the right), is currently available at The Dressing Room for only L$70. Both of these skins are absolutely exquisite and I don’t know how Aida Ewing honestly does it. For a closer look at the Monica skin in all tones, check out Grazia’s post on the Skin Addiction blog.

This sensual pose is just one of the many couples poses available at exposeur. You can pick it up on marketplace for only L$175 and check out the rest of the exposeur marketplace store for more sexy poses at fabulous prices.

“Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity.”
Plato

Credits:
First picture:
Skin: Glam Affair Sakura by Aida Ewing (Available at The Dressing Room for L$70)
Hair: Elikatira Rhythm by Elikapeka Tiramisu (marketplace)
Dress: R.icielli by Fhara Acacia (Available at The Dressing Room for L$40)
Earrings: [glow] studio Bitterness by Linka Demina (Available at The Dressing Room for L$55)
Rings: Donna Flora by Squinternet Larnia
*Pose: Exposeur by Rubystarlight Writer (marketplace)

Second picture:
Me on the left:
*Skin: Glam Affair Monica by Aida Ewing
*Hair: [Shag] – Black Tie Affair – bistre by Sebastien Aries
*Dress: Zaara : Svara wrap dress *vanilla* by Zaara Kohime
My alt on the right:
Skin: Glam Affair Sakura by Aida Ewing (Available at The Dressing Room for L$70)
Hair: Elikatira Rhythm by Elikapeka Tiramisu (marketplace)
*Dress: Zaara : Svara wrap dress *black* by Zaara Kohime
*Pose: {.:exposeur:.} Thistle and Weeds by Rubystarlight Writer (marketplace)
Furniture: *ARGRACE* Mellow Sofa by Rika Oyen
*Promotional copies