Bratz Lips

I had a lot of fun in my last session, mainly because I solved some small problems.

To put my 2-prim pond up for sale (not that I'm assuming I'll ever have a customer--more on that later), I needed to have all self-created content. The pond water and the pond-surround were no problem. The problem was the fish.

A swimming fish (koi, presumably, for an outdoor pond) would make the item much more attractive than would the plain water-and-surround, or even water-and-surround-with-plants. (On that last--I'm kind of assuming that we CAN sell items made with Library components, such as the 1-prim plants. Ethically, I mean. I'm starting to get a handle on all the complications that go with the various forms of Object Permissions, though I still have plenty to learn on that topic.)

Anyway, of course it will be great when I learn how to make a swimming fish. That time has definitely not yet arrived, though!

I've looked for free scripts, and haven't yet found one, though I'm thinking that 'swimming' wouldn't have to be in the title. After all, an object scripted to move around on a single plane in the air is what I need, as there is no actual water involved.

Anyway, I don't yet have the skill to accomplish that (though I'll continue to work on it).

So I figured I'd make an attempt to at least create low-prim unscripted fish to put in the pond. What with the flowing water (thanks to the Library script "anim SMOOTH", with the speed dropped from the given 0.25 to 0.05, as suggested in Brian A. White's very useful book "Second Life: A Guide to Your Virtual World"), even stationary fish would look kinda-sorta-okay.

I did end up making a 2-prim fish of about the size of a koi. I made it late last night, rather hurriedly, so it won't win any beauty prizes. When I have more time, I'll look for better textures to use for body and tail. (I'd used two Fabric Library textures, having nothing better---I did try out a couple dozen Library textures---no reason to be limited to Fabric textures when making clothing, or to building-oriented textures when making walls, etc. Try them all!)

So I duplicated the fish twice (okay, triplicated the fish), and put them in the pond; I made a note card with some information and my avatar's name and location, and put that in the Contents tab. I do need to 'create a Landmark'---I think it's possible to have a notecard with a Landmark button on it. I need to check into that. Though of course all this is very preliminary--it's not as though I'm Setting Up Shop. Not for a while.

(Though I do have a great idea for a low-prim house that kept me awake much of last night. I can hardly wait to work on it!)

So......Bratz lips. I had a visitor last night---a female avatar landed, walked all over my land, looking into the cabin, etc., while I was 'out back' working on a sculpture. I finally opened Chat and typed "Hi there." She (as always, I'll refer to gender by whatever the person is presenting themselves to be---assuming that's detectable!) said Hi back, and "arent u bored" [sic].

I typed 'No, this is interesting, I'm having a lot of fun making stuff'--and without a word she teleported away. Kind of rude by my First Life standards, but many things are different in Second Life. (She may well have thought my response rude, too.) And I suppose it's quite common--for a certain percentage of the population--to occupy themselves by flying around, looking for green dots, and dropping down to see if they can find someone who wants to do...whatever it is they are wanting to do.

So, no biggie.

Seeing her reminded me of something that annoys me: the way the default female avatar lips are big ol' Bratz lips. (Her avatar, like every single avatar I've ever met or seen depicted on websites or in books on SL, had them.)

To have lips that aren't as gigantic means moving the relevant sliders in Appearance all the way to the left---and the result is a completely flat upper lip. There's no way to have a normal upper lip without having a lower lip that's bigger than a RL croissant. A big pink croissant.

So either I have to give in and have Bratz lips too, or try to invent some sort of attachement. I can only guess how difficult it would be to accomplish that. But hey, if I did, I could get rich, rich, RICH!! Even if most people with female avatars in SL truly want the Bratz lips, those of us who dislike them would be willing to pay as much for good non-Bratz lips as for a waterfront 4,096!!!

(Okay, that's probably a bit of an exaggeration. ^_^ )