Meet Blue Leland, a southern beau from a good home who ran away and finds himself on the road towards a better place.
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But life’s a bumpy road.
He’s a sweet boy, but not shy of a prank or two on occasion. He helps out where he can to earn some food or new boots, but is very much aware of his charm to use as an asset to talk himself out of dodgy situations… or into lucrative ones.
He dances for cash, cheats during poker, raids your fruit trees, hitchhikes, sneaks out the back without paying, bathes in rivers or creeks and on many occasions he’s slept with your daughters, wives, husbands and sons.
Yes, this southern boy with hair the color of a shady night is sure to make a stir in many little towns on the road towards a better place.
Love him or hate him, he will certainly leave his mark on you.
Just pump up your speakers or headphones, sit back, and enjoy! (I did!)
Doll Face
(by Andrew Thomas Huang)
A very good example of how good humans can create their own downfall to reach distant goals, that get even more distant as they get closer to it…
Bangarang!
Remember this?
Originally there was something else planned for the 5th spot, but Raul beat me to it 😉
Go check it out at his blog.
Alice and Kev (About being homeless in The Sims 3)
I don’t have The Sims 3, and never played an actual Sims game. But from what I’ve seen so far from TS3, I’m tempted… intensely. The only thing holding me back is that I already have very limited online time, and I think SL really offers a touch more creativity still, so I should really focus on that, and not get sidetracked.
Besides all that, I still find TS3 intriguing enough to follow a bit about it here and there. The best site I’ve stumbled across with is the site of Alice and Kev, a homeless guy and his daughter, and how their lives unfold.
Even if you’re not a fan of TS3, or any virtual world for that matter, I suggest to still check it out. There’s something so touching about both characters that it reads like a good novel… an occasional touching or totally “emotional rollercoaster moment” included!
Lost Generation & it’s opposite
The 1st one is pretty nice, but the 2nd one is where it gets some criticism. I thought I needed to post both of them for some reason, though I can’t name which reason that is…
Color Scheme Designer A really handy too to find out RGB colors codes, and discover which colors are complementary, work in a triade or any ofther type of color combinations.
Have a go with the different preview styles and play with the hues and scheme until you’ve tweaked your color scheme to perfection.
Foodscapes
Besides games on ArmorGames or FatRat, one of my favourite timewaster solutions are to Google more unusual types of architecture or photography.
One hit this month came from a guy who takes pictures of a landscape that is… entirely made out of food.
Wouldn’t you love to take one of these Italian ham cypresses? Or how about a wavey leaf of red cabbage?
Carl Warner, the guy behind these (and a lot more) is often asked to make them as artsy advertisements, and if you ask me it’s a lot more interesting and much prettier to look at than your average food ad pic.
Sooooooo strange but funny you can’t stop watching these clips (that often are looped)! My Personal favorite so far is “Amazing Horse“… I can’t get it out of my head now.
Everybody does a doodle sometimes, or grabs a pen(cil) and a bit of paper for a quick sketch to kill a bit of time. But what if you’d wanna do that on your PC?
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Sketchy, one of many fun tools found at MrDoob.com allows you to use your mouse (or I suppose a Wacom if you have it) for simple online sketching!
Just press and drag! Dragging slower will give you heavy lines, if you go faster the lines become more faint.
You can also play with colors! The left box at the top (default black) is your “mouse” color, the right box (default white) is your background color.
On the right is a 7 minute… uhm… thingy.
When finished you can save it, or just press Clear for a fresh start!
DiVAS: S02E02
Remember Phaylen? Not too long ago she returned with a new season where SL meets WoW, and the story continues!
Robot Tralala
I don’t believe there’s anybody out there who hasn’t seen the “Russian Trololo singer” (but if you haven’t go ahead and use the link), but the robot version of it is even more crazy hilarious!
Watch the world by Robbie Dingo
Even after several years it remains one of the prettiest clips ever made within Second Life®, and it’s viewable on the Steamworks plot at SL7B Unique!
Hi! (Human Interface)
(I really stand in awe at the creativity of the people behind this clip)
(YouTube quality isn’t as good as the clip originally posted on Vimeo)
Chanel N°5
(I love the background, the settings, the details… this makes me dream) (the 2009 Chanel ad with Audrey Tatou, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
World Builder
(this makes me smile, feel warm, get amazed and shed several tears)
A Frozen Flower
A very controversial movie about a Royal family of the Korean Goryeo Dynasty, based on a true story.
A tale about captivating love, an impossible question with results that tear you apart, desire, devotion and (a little bit of) politics…
Mix all of this together and the result is a painfully intense movie.
When this movie was over, I had so many feelings about it that they kept me awake till almost 1 AM… well 3 hours after I had left the theatre.
It’s a great movie, I definately will try to find it somewhere on DVD, but if you ask me this is more than your average melodrama… it comes very close to a Tragedy in the true style of an Ancient Greek play.
The tragic climax of the story (and several things that leads to it) is so intense that it leaves a deep impression that lingers inside you for quite a bit. Long enough, even, to make the attempt of creating a happy twist in the last 30 seconds of the movie doesn’t comfort you… no matter how sweet they may have recorded it.
At least, those 30 seconds didn’t do to me what I think they were supposed to do… Despite all that, this movie was still a powerful emotional rollercoaster, had a great story and was a visual pleasure, so I gave it a 5 for the Viewers Choice Awards too.
And then there was Salsa
In itself this is a pretty neatly created commercial for a dip sauce, but it looks even cooler with the “screenfill-effect” on Vimeo!
Upular
Even if you never saw the Pixar movie Up! (which is really nice so you should anyway) this clip is still cool to watch!
Lightning strikes Chicago skyscrapers
More from nature, this guy sure got lucky capturing this!
aniBOOM: Overexposed
I recently came across the aniBOOM channel on YouTube, below is one of my favourites, but they have loads more from various contributors!
Prince Poppycock
I just loved this! I’m rooting for him!
He can sing… a bit… who knew?
There’s really not much to say about this one… just feast your eyes!
They star in clips of a different nature too!
I’m not a muscle freak, but… I’m sure you can imagine that after seeing this, I wished I hadn’t discovered this at work since there’s no cold shower at our disposal there 😉 (that was before they blocked YouTube at work)
MILK
These monks found a great alternative for cookies! (even if it has to be lured into their hands by a nun)
Remember Musa Artis? If so, you might remember one of my 3 impressions of RL art works was nothing more than a tree, with a poseball where you could pose yourself as my personal favourite martyr: Saint Sebastian.
Currently at Momomuller, together with the branch store of Last Ride located in a corner of the Momomuller store, are two freebies you can collect containing the pose depicted below, as well as the arrow props and blood tattoo layers.
But that’s not the main focus of this post.
Nope.
The skin is! It’s Ispachi‘s newest, and first ginger(-ish) skin: Björn.
Perhaps better classified as “Venetian blonde”, this skin will do well for anybody going for a more coastal look. He’s the guy you see on the promenade near the beach, going for his daily run, or perhaps practicing on a BMX. You’d instantly notice him in the bus as he gets on, and perhaps he’ll be preparing your drinks at that popular bar that’s all the rage.
Björn certainly is a catch, so why not finish your cocktail and approach him?
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SKIN: Ispachi ~ Björn “Vanilla Door Knocker”
EYES: Poetic Colors ~ Night Forest
HAIR: LeLutka ~ Isha Hair “It’s not ginger” (I removed the hat)
CLOTH, BLOOD & PROPS: Last Ride ~ Sebastianus (February freebie)
POSE: Momomuller ~ Sebastianus (February freebie)
For those who don’t know it, Lëtzeburg is the local name of Luxembourg, the capital of the Grand-Duchy bearing the same name.
Despite it being nearby (closer than Paris even) I’ve never visited it. But last Thursday, I did!
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After 4 hours in the train, the neo-baroque Gare de Luxembourg is a welcoming sight, and was inviting enough to walk around in it for a while (to stretch my legs, 4 hours in a train is long!). The stained glass in the grand hall looked nice, but the restrooms have a tourniquet thing that’s € 0,60 for urinals and € 1,10 for a toilet… which I think is a lot. There’s also a tourist office where you can get a city map (available in 4 languages).
The hotel I booked was right opposite the station square, the Best Western International ****, purely for the location and the affordable price for a single room during the week. Room 511 is a Deluxe Single and may be small, it still offered everything I could possible need (plus a hairdryer!). This room is on the side of the building, and has double glazed windows, so most of the noise of the station square is muffled.
For more info, check the TripAdvisor comment I made.
About 15 minutes later I already found myself near the World War I memorial, which is where you need to turn right to head to the Place d’Armes, one of the 2 central squares. All the streets in this area are filled with shops, be it boutiques, international chains or couture: it’s there. The next several hours were purely devoted to windowshopping, fitting and the occasional coffee.
Most prominent of all these are shoe shops. There’s loads of them and the various brands offer a tempting mix between German crazyness with French style and Italian finesse… so much more variation in styles than what we got over here, so in short: it’s awesomesauce!
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Sadly, I didn’t fetch me any as Luxembourg no longer has the reputation to be “less expensive” than Belgium. I had to limit myself to drooling over a pair of Dsquared boots and alike, as prices here are roughly similar to ours. Same goes for restaurants. We found out about that later that day when we had dinner at Carpini Restaurant(not included on the website yet, it’s located at the Place the Paris n° 27) where the smoked salmon was really good, and quite a bit larger than what you’d usually get over here. So once again it proved to be a mix of something German (size of portions) with something French (very tasty food).
After dinner the rainy weather pretty much forced me to return to my hotel and watch a bit of TV before turning in, not that I minded as my feet craved a bit of rest, knowing the following day would bring more of the same.
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Breakfast came too early to my liking the next day, but wanting to get the most out of the day I had set the alarm at 7am. The buffet at the Best Western offered loads of choice, and I have to say I indulged on it a bit. Half an hour later I was already checking out, leaving my luggage at the reception to pick up later.
Having done the shops the previous day, my focus moved to the cultural sites that are all within walking distance of each other. Sifting out the ones I had already encountered during my window shopping spree I soon found myself around some of the UNESCO World Heritage fortification sites.
If you follow one of the routes on the City Promenade map (which you can get at the Tourist Office in the train station) you’ll pass by the MNHA(the National Museum for History and Art). It has 10 floors covering local prehistoric finds, the Roman era, Medieval times and the various arts of the last centuries. The top floor houses temporary exhibitions, and currently has one about Raoul Dufy. Thanks to a little card I fetched at the hotel I got a free gift, which turned out to be any post card to my liking (I grabbed one of a painting with fauns, you know how much I liked myths right?).
Those 10 floors may have been tricky to accomplish before lunch, but I made sure I would arrive at 10 am, and a bit after 12 pm I was ready to grab a bite. While searching for a place I passed the Notre-Dame Cathedral, which at first seems more as a church with cathedral status. Here and there some nice stained glass windows can be seen, the crypt houses the Grand-Ducal mausoleum, and there’s a cemetary with some art round the back.
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Lunch I found back at the Place d’Armes at a Tex-Mex restaurant called Chi-Chi’s. It’s a nice place, a bit busy perhaps but there’s 2 floors and when the main floor is too busy you can take the stairs up. My Taco Fajita salad with porc was tasty, and a pepsi comes in a pint, so I call this a good experience!
After lunch there wasn’t much time left as I wanted to catch a train early in the afternoon so I wouldn’t be home too late in the evening. About 4 hours later, I dove into my sofa, put my feet up on the table and was satisfied with lots of impressions about the cultural hub that is Lëtzeburg.
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