SL and Building sometimes don't mix

Surprising but true! And the pics you see represent the level to while SL frustrated me last night while I was working on my latest LOL

Smoking a joint AND a ciggy all at once ... seriously, how sad is that?

So, was working on a new FUN project .... well, they're all fun but been feeling like the last several have been very "serious" as in, not funny. Pretty and all that, but not FUNNY, which is my fave thing to do really. SO, broke out all the fun sculpt maps I've been collecting and the scripts I've also been collecting, and kinda tossing them all in one pot! Woot! So far it's been a blast to CONCEIVE, but putting it together is yet another story

ESPECIALLY when SL won't let me like, copy stuff ... or appear not to and then all of a sudden I end up with 50 cubes scattered all over the place or ... makes my scripts look like they're not working ... or ... or ... or ... Yeah, was pulling my hair out last night omg.

The joint and the cig ARE involved in the new build thought ... exactly how is what you'll need to stay tuned for to find out :))

Yes, they ARE the freebie ones that you can get but ... how they're incorporated into my new thing I think will make up for that fact ;)) Wanted to be upfront about THAT part so y'all don't think I'm trying to pull wool over yer eyes.

Anyway, I'm having a blast making it when SL lets me. I hope you enjoy wearing it when I'm all done with it as much as I've enjoyed putting it together *snickers*

VOTE ON THE NEXT PRIZE!

Well, it IS RGK CUSTOM Photo Services, so figured it made the most sense to let group members and blog-followers be the ones to decide what will be offered for the next Midnight Mania prize :)

On Saturday, I'll be updating the two MM boards I've got going right now (one at the main store location, the other at my new location at Shadow Realm), and you all get to decide what goes in!

So, if you've had your eye on something or if you missed out on a prize that was previously offered, this is your chance to let me know! Make your choices known (you can suggest two, since there are two MM boards) by posting to this blog. If you can remember the name of the item, great, but if not, describe it as best you can and I'll probably be able to figure out what you're talking about :))

The top two suggestions/votes will be used as the MM prize for the upcoming week. If you're not quite sure you remember what the offerings are, hop over to the main store at Statesboro and take a browse through.

Thanks, and good luck all!

New location and an exhibit!

Wooow, that Midnight Mania board has been KICKIN' MY ASS LOL. Ever since I started up with that, all sorts of GOOD stuff's been happening, including group membership just skyrocketing -- but consequently been running all over checking numbers and posting slurls to groups to make sure they get locked down for y'all etc. etc.. It's blowing my mind, and soooo coooooool. Thanks so much to all of you who are out there watching and supporting!

Well out of the Midnight Mania, has come a really great thing. Found an awesome new location for RGK at a sim called Shadow Realms. PLEASE check my picks and take a look not just at my store but the sim as a whole. I'm in love with it. The people who run the place are incredibly nice, and they have a really well-put-together place going. They have lots of nice vendors there including my friend Velvety Avro, who owns Alpha-Delta Designs (I usually wear her piercings now, pretty much exclusively cuz they're just that good), who loved the sim so much herself that she's setting up her main store location there now as I write.

If you're reading the blog, that means you get a little heads up about an unannounced sale (well, except to group members muahahaha) at the Shadow Realms sim. There's a 'secret' 50% off sale going on there now -- no signs, just everything marked down by half or more to encourage you to do your RGK shopping there. There's also a new MM board there as well, so keep your ears open for that :)

Finally, ALTAQUALITAS, is apparently an exhibition of some vendors that this sim owner likes? At least that's my understanding. My Spanish is minimal and while she speaks really great English, it's not her first language so ... I hope I'm understanding what she told me correctly. Either way, I've got a location/exhibit set up there as well, and there are some really nice looking designers in that location that I've never seen before. You should be able to find them doing a search and just tp over OR, you can ask me for the LM, would be glad to send to you when I'm in-world :))

**PHEW**

OK, that's all the new stuff. Need to update my flickr some more, be sure to check that out.

Gonna do some fun stuff with that here once I have the chance to catch my breath a bit (will that ever really happen????)

Okies, hope y'all got thru all that all right. Hello? *nudges you awake*

New Set of Tail and Ears!

Okies, new set of tail and ears released today! Woooot!

If you've taken part in the SL Discovery hunt, this set of tail and ears will match the armband that you ladies got as the prize at my shop in Sassy City.

Men, there's matching tail and ears coming for you to go with the gift that was given as the male/unisex gift that I have in the SLD hunt as well, so stay tuned!

Here's a pic, it's all up for sale and ready to go:



As per usual, the tail is equipped with both chat and movement menu. Chat menu is for others who touch the tail, movement menu is for you ;)

Other features of this tail include:

* Fabric texture is changeable by menu
* You can drop textures into the "frame" at the center of the central flower. In this package, I've included some textures of lady bugs, butterflies, and flower centers. You can easily add your own textures of friends or other images you like by following the directions included with the tail.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a notecard if I am not online. If I am, send me an IM and I'll do my best to help!

Up for vote ... to MM or not to MM?

Well if you're reading this, hopefully it's because you've got something to say! You're in this group of mine because you're interested in my stuff -- whether it be because you wanna catch a good deal, freebies, just curious about what I'm creating.

Regardless of your reasons for being in the group, my interest is in keeping you around ;))) This group has, in the last few weeks, grown from 20-something to almost 50 members, with more joining every day! That alone is really exciting to me, and I thank you all.

You've of course noticed that these past few days, you've been receiving notecards with details about Midnight Mania -- what it is, how it works, and then, the daily prizes I've been making available to everyone through Midnight Mania.

Here's my dilemma:
As a business, it doesn't make sense to me to give away ALL of my stuff for free -- then they'd just be freebies. If you've gotten my products, you've seen that there's a lot of detail and work that goes into my products. Everything is done buy hand, I buy all my textures, sculpt maps, make my own ads, rent shop space etc. etc. etc. It's hard for me to justify giving away everything for free when I'm spending that much TIME first of all, on creating my products.

So, I've decided that I need to change the format of the MM prizes -- and I want YOU, those who have joined my group and support me, to help me make my decision LOL.

Please, make your vote by posting a comment to this blog entry ... the options I've been mulling over are below, and tell me which one you think is best. If you have suggestions to add, please write that here too.

Here are my thoughts:

1) Offer MM prizes on Saturdays only. This will kinda keep things interesting, something to look forward to, and would would be the best time for you to lock down the item.

2) Keep the same prize in the MM board all week, whether the item locks down or not. Keeping the same prize up would allow people who don't log in on a regular basis a shot at "the prize of the week," and not miss something just because they haven't been on.

3)I thought I had more ideas than this, but I don't *LOL* So I'll make this the "other" option. There are probably ideas you have that would be just as good, so let me know what they are!

Thanks for helping me out with this ;) Looking forward to seeing yer votes!

Midnight Mania

Wellll, so, I've discovered Midnight Mania. It's a good thing and a bad thing LOL.

I'm completely, and totally hooked on it, I have to say. I've gotten some pretty amazing things from being in the free chatter groups, where you get IMs on items being offered up by vendors, people who find MM boards etc. I've gotten a STORE (woot! I'll use that when I need more room for all my stuffs), gazebos, beach shacks, cool dresses and more. The bad thing is, my inventory is a bigger mess than it ever was *lol*

Also, I'm loving this way of letting people "sample" what I have ... I know not everyone can always afford to get all the stuff they want (including me), so this is just a nice way to get people to try things they think they might be interested in, actually get to HAVE something I make, and they get to see the quality of my work and all that good stuff.

SO, if you haven't jumped on the MM bandwagon yet, and you're a freebie/kickass deals junkie, this is definitely something you need to get going on ;)

So far I've been sending the MM notices in group messages once a day but ... I might switch that. Considering making my offers once a week after this weekend, and putting notices on this blog (maybe in addition to? Instead of?). I may put that up to a vote by group members. (Thinking that actually sounds good).

This is stream of consciousness right now (cuz I'm posting from work omg how naughty), so I'll work out the details LOL and let y'all know laters.

How Sad ...

I just had to write about this here because I've always HEARD about people doing it, but I've never seen such flagrant evidence of this -- content theft.

I'd gotten an invitation to set up a shop in a mall, like most of us shopowner do. I went to check it out, and I have to say, I was ready to pay 2 weeks rent to try it out because it looked like a pretty sweet spot. I ALWAYS look to see who else is there, and lo and behold, there was a shop called SoulFire Creations *snort*

The SNORT is because "creations" implies that you made something yourself ... you CREATED it. Being an avid shopper, I immediately recognized the hairs of two designers I frequent. I could NOT believe it, absolutely couldn't. They didn't even TRY to change it a little.

Having made a few things myself, I know how much work it takes to build anything. I've spent a LOT of time and money on my creations with the hope that maybe a few people will get some enjoyment out of them, and maybe I'd get some spending moolah out of it (chuckles -- I've put more money INTO my projects than I've gotten OUT of them, but that's another story). So, I contacted the designers whose hair designs I recognized ... and I was shocked by the reply I got from one. They were VERY kind and thankful, but they said that they no longer pursue the issue with LL. Why? BECAUSE THEY DON'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT. I couldn't believe it.

So, in SL, it's OK to steal other people's intellectual property, pimp it out, call it your own, and try to gain profit from it.

I can't even really explain how that makes me feel. The words I do come up with are ... not adequate.

For my part, I contacted the mall owner, told him he has a great place and that I would rent from them IF they addressed the issue of the one vendor (that I know of) who is selling stolen content. I will NOT shop there or rent a shop from them for as long as the stolen content is permitted to be sold on their premises.

I hope everyone here will do the same. If you're any kind of shopper, you KNOW your designers -- the ones you buy from all the time, the ones whose releases you await with bated breath. You recognized their work when someone else is wearing them, you just KNOW. Don't buy stolen stuff ... I don't care how much money you save.

If you can't afford the stuff that the top of the line designers make, do what I did -- learn to build. Shop lesser-known vendors who are trying to get your attention and make amazing things. There are LOTS of honest creators out there with a lot of talent that you can shop from. ... so please do. If you know someone is selling stolen stuff, do the right thing and don't feed into that system.

I did what I could, I hope you do too.

Thanks for listening to this rant. I just needed to get it out.