188 - Birdhouse

Dim Sum pretends she's ignoring the birds, but she's secretly scheming how to jump at them before they can fly away.


I know, I know. I hadn't posted for a long while because these past week or so has been crazy busy. Last night was the first time I actually got 8 hours of sleep. Another night I got 6 hours of sleep. The rest of the nights, I got 3 hours; 4 hours if I was lucky. I was getting too cranky and too argumentative. Anyway, I'm back. Somewhat normal, or as normal I get.  ;)

Over the weekend, I did a presentation "Enhancing Depth in Your Virtual World Photos" at the first annual OpenSim Community Conference to which Rhiannon Chatnoir of the NonProfit Commons invited me to talk. If you missed it, you can find the slides on Slideshare.net and you can watch the raw recording at UStream.tv.

We had so many technical issues on Saturday, which was the original schedule, that I only got to half of the presentation before my machine shut down on its own, because it was overheating. So, the wonderful OSCC staff found me another timeslot on Sunday so we could continue the presentation. The recording is from the Sunday show. It goes faster and I managed to stay online, although Buffy Beale (my coordinator and emcee) handled the slides for me. We also had trouble with the media-on-a-prim so I wasn't able to show the examples inworld, but I added some to the end of the slide deck.

This image of the day is actually similar to the example I used to illustrate the effect of DOF in simulating depth. So I just went back to the same place to take a similar picture with Dim Sum in it.

Her pass for Kingdom of Sand expired by now, and I don't know if she would be able to get another one to take more photos there. We'll see.


location: Whispering Winds

Technical notes

windlight: Phototools- Lo Light 03 (modified)
water: Default (modified)

187 - Desert domes

Dim Sum sits by the water, glad that the temperature has finally gone down, or she would have to jump into the water to cool off.... She would shudder at the thought, except cats are too cool to shudder about anything.


This one has an overlay texture on a HUD. (Many thanks to Angela Marie Henriette for the texture!) It looks like there's no more temporary upload in Firestorm, so I used media-on-a-prim instead (LSL script below), so I won't have to use Dim Sum's lonely 10L. :D



location: Kingdom of Sand

Technical notes

windlight: [TOR] SUNSET - Langnun (modified)

If you don't know how to create media-on-a-prim, go to the Contents tab of a prim and create a new script. Replace all the default lines in the script with the following code:

integer iFace = ALL_SIDES;  // replace "ALL_SIDES" with the prim's side number
string sURL = "http://wheresdimsum.blogspot.com/";  // replace this URL

default
{
    state_entry()
    {
        integer iStatus = llSetPrimMediaParams( iFace, [
            PRIM_MEDIA_CONTROLS, PRIM_MEDIA_CONTROLS_MINI,
            PRIM_MEDIA_AUTO_PLAY, TRUE,
            PRIM_MEDIA_CURRENT_URL, sURL,
            PRIM_MEDIA_HOME_URL, sURL
            ] );
        llOwnerSay( "Status is " + (string) iStatus ); // this line is optional
    }
}

186 - Haggling with a seagull

Dim Sum wonders why she's bothering to negotiate with the seagull to get the basket of fish, when her BATNA is to eat the seagull.... Hmm.... Maybe because she's a nice cat.... Nah!


OMG, I'd forgotten how long stereo framing takes! This one took me all afternoon and all evening! But Shahrokh Dabiri asked me twice about doing stereo pairs again. But I can't do this too often!

Learn how to view 3D photos like this.

location: Kingdom of Sand

Technical notes

windlight: Places Cornfield (modified)

185 - The Blue Note

Dim Sum watches the couple twirl around and around. They're almost as fascinating to watch as a little red laser pointer dot.


I wanted to do this post yesterday, but the day was so crazy busy that I didn't have time.

Why yesterday? Because it was Opal's 7th rez day anniversary.

Why the Blue Note? Because it was where Opal celebrated her 1st rez day anniversary, and it was the first formal club she ever danced in. I have a lot of memories in the Blue Note. A lot.

models: Naydee McGettigan and Reve Monde
location: The Blue Note Retro Jazz Lounge

Technical notes

windlight: [TOR] SUNSET - Garrigal moscheles 1 (modified)

184 - Leading the pride

Dim Sum looks behind her to make sure that the pride is still following her. She'll have to recruit more lions and lionesses to make her "pride" bigger. (As though it could get any bigger.)


I had to derender a willow tree and the background mountains, because the alpha bug and the shadows are making the willow tree look like cylinders. Well, it *is* made of cylinders, but you know what I mean. Then I decided to delete the mountain because the windlight is making it look flat. Better with some clouds there instead.

location: Maria Lynn Falls

Technical notes

windlight: [TOR] BIG SUN - Variationz (modified)

183 - The pirate and his hostage

Dim Sum listens to the pirate tell tall tales while his lovely hostage rolls her eyes.


I was just setting up when I got a ding-ding. And then another. The first turned out to be from a pirate, and the second from his hostage.

The very charming (and very funny) couple agreed to be in my picture, so while I was playing with composition and windlight, the pirate regaled us with stories about how he kidnapped his lady love from Caledon and demanded a large sum of Lindens and an Egg Mcmuffin. Apparently, nine months later, he hasn't gotten the ransom yet. Instead, he has a bounty over his head now.

Soon, the conversation went to tuna, mermaids, zombies, chihuahuas, zombie chihuahuas, ....

The pirate said, "You know, I once had a zombie chihuahua head as a pet."

And his hostage replied, "I'm going to stop being surprised by the things you say. It just wastes energy."

LOL

models: Callidus Waydelich and Iolanthe Greymoon
location: Maria Lynn Falls

Technical notes

windlight: [TOR] SUNRISE - Clouds indifferent (modified)

182 - Well of Secrets

Dim Sum tries to extract the secrets of the well from the bunnies, but they just sat there nibbling at who-knows-what.


Same spot, different windlight. Actually, it's the same windlight, but more fog with the second one.

location: Maria Lynn Falls

Technical notes

windlight: Phototools- Thalia Light 01 (modified)