So..

I know, I know. It's been a while. Many of you havn't even seen me in game since I've only ever been on randomly and generally only once every couple weeks or so. Life has just been, well like life - getting in the way of the things we enjoy.

At the end of it all at least I've had time to think, and while nothing is certain for now the future of Anthemion is unclear. I try to come up with ideas for new stuff, and never can, and what I have made doesn't sell. I think I've just run my course, but I've still got money and that means time; time which I'll use to think some more on the direction I want to take.

I guess we'll see what the future holds.

Moved.. and quite settled.

Well some of you may have seen me popping online again already, this is assuming anyone reads my blog... but whatever.

Our move is complete, and while things aren't all how we want them in the end most things are set up just fine and we've been enjoying living in our new place.

Now this doesn't suddenly mean that I will be on all the time making new stuff or some such, it just means that I can if I feel like it. There's still the fact that I just don't really feel like working as hard as I did in the past. Not sure if it's just lingering burnout of SL, or just cause some days it feels futile or just cause I'm lazy and work makes me chaff :p

Who knows. Eitherway, I do hope to get more work done - whether I do or not is the question.

Moving

Well, our moving day moved up a couple - instead of Monday now we're moving on Saturday. This makes Friday a very busy day too getting things as ready as we can, and Saturday, well; we'll be obviously busy.

The appointment has already been made to get our internet connected over there, so hopefully I should only be out of action for the few days it takes to get settled.

New Projects

So been working past little while on a few new projects, nothing really to show for it yet it's mostly just a few prims and theories but I hope for things to all work out in the end.

First off been dabling with a new version of my vendor to make it more owner friendly (more dynamic, possibly even easy enough that I can sell it itself) and to allow people to leave reviews of the products right at the vendor.

I've also been working on and off with my A.N.T HUD to coincide with the update to my chastity belt and it's inclusion in the APS category. The HUD will be something to see if all my ideas work out.

Lastly I've been working on an in world project, a puzzle room for use in a dungeon/maze, inspired largely by my recent playing through of Oblivion.


In other news - we will be moving again soon. Monday the 15th to be exact, I'll be moving back to a place where I have greater levels of privacy and should hopefully be able to "get back into the groove" of coding and building on a more regular basis as opposed to now when I really only get the chance at the least ideal times (late night when my brain doesn't work well).

APS Harness (Pony Bridle) v 1.2

The long awaited (for some) Version 1.2 of the Pony Bridle (now renamed to APS Harness) is finally done and ready.

It will be avaliable in all shops (replacing the Pony Bridle) and to any existing owners of Version 1.0 or 1.1 Pony Bridle's you can get your free upgrade to Version 1.2 by clicking the "Update" button found in the Plugins menu.

Updates are web-enabled: this means that you don't have to go to a store or a specific location to get it to work, you can be anywhere on the Grid and recive your new copy.



Demos are now avaliable at all vendors.

Well I'm back, more or less. For those that didn't know I was without internet access for the past while. It was boring, not much happened, certainly glad to be back.

Review: Real Restraint Vixen Leather Cuffs

A new product by Marine Kelly that inspired me to buy them from a list of features. That right there is proof of their success - what are we here for if not to make stuff people will buy.

Playing around with them I was satisfied to see Marine's tried and true style, good animations - including spreader bar animations which is not something I've seen yet and they're done well which is even better, and a restricting combination of poses.

The fitting, as with most items, takes some time but I think it's worth it for some fun.

There's some decent innovation in them too, even a few ideas that I was planning for my own cuff set (which I guess says good things about me if my ideas are good enough for Marine's famous work). Sadly some of the innovation seemed to go to waste. Things like the crotch chain, which take up the stomach slot, is a neat idea (that of having a bunch of relays to send a particle in a shape to avoid it cutting into the avatar unrealistically - something I wanted for my cuffs) but it only turns on for one of six poses in the arm cuffs and none of the leg poses.

To me that just seems like a lot of work for so little use.

The four collar in one is a nice idea though it makes adjusting it tricky as it's hard to tell what is where.

Overall I like them, they're done well with solid and fast scripts - they have some innovation and of course look great. Perhaps my standards are just to high but I think Marine could have done a lot more to improve them.

8 / 10

Internet Worthy

Here's what I don't get. You go out looking for inspiration or mood or just to waste some time surfing the internets vast supply of pictures and you come across - the faceless wo/man.

Why? Blurring, cropping, smuding; whatever, the face of the person out of an image has it's uses, like anonymity in a candid photo. But why, in an image that you are knowingly putting on the internet for all to see do you erase the face?

If you don't want people to see your face: what the hell are you doing posting images of yourself?

There's nothing worse then finding a rare gem of a artistic picture, with pose and rigging done marvelously (for ones tastes) only to have the image cut off at the chin because the model was, despite knowing the image was going to be online, unwilling to show their face. All it does it ruin the image, it doesn't let people see "the pretty work we did just without my face" it removes all value from the image, imo, because who's going to look at art form when there's such a glaring imperfection?

New Digs

Well some people in world may already have heard but, thanks to where we have moved in the in term, I do not have the privacy (with SL, and specifically my work, containing adult material - and there being young kids around now) to work on my stuff much if at all.

As such I've not been able to get any work done yet, by the time I get some opportunity to get on it's very late at night and really not the best time to try to think of something to program. So for the time being, sadly, work is on hold until I can get some measure of privacy back which will hopefully occur in the coming weeks with the arrival of a much anticipated laptop.

The End of a Legand

A truly sad day in Second Life history as Dirk announces the closure of Stonehaven, one of the oldest and best BDSM friendly sims in the grid.

It was because of Dirk that I got my start, he gave me the capital; out of sheer generosity, to buy a vendor system and pay the first months rent. From there I expanded and shrank with the market but have kept a steady shop rented at Stonehaven for about two years now.

I'd like to say that it's closure will hurt my business but honestly Stonehaven has been dying for a long time. Thanks to the persistent memory leeks that LL has refused to fix, and a few other issues with the sim; including some hostile encounters that hurt popularity, and just the slow march of time it's just reached that point where the population isn't there: and hasn't been for some time. While I've maintained a shop there I haven't gotten many sales at all there for some time.

It's sad because there's a lot of memories there, I met my first (SL) Master and a very good friend, Veritas Gothly there, as well as many good friends; some who have already left SL for good. I enjoyed my time there and I wish SL could feel that way for me again, I wish SH could be the place that we go and sit around in chairs or on cushions and chat and have fun rather then the tired ghost town it is now.

I'm sure we'd all like to find something to blame for it but at the end of the day, accounting for all the factors as to why people left, the responsibility lays on the shoulders of LL for hurting all of SL with their antics. Stonehaven isn't the first, and sadly it won't be the last, sim to fall from glory or obscurity because of the high tier prices and lack of decent support along with a penchant for doing the exact opposite of what everyone wants.

I guess some of the sad truth behind this is that my business has been following the same path as Stonehaven, business has been slow and it's been that way for a long time. I just can't compete with the market anymore. I don't have the equity to rent dozens of locations around the grid and while I like to think that my products are good and worth buying, they just don't have the exposure and advertising they need.

Some day the post will come that my last store is closing, I don't know when it will be and I'll try to hold it off best I can but in the end it's up to you, the consumer, to decide how long I last.

Moving

So we, as real people, will be moving to a new place at the end of this week. Because of this the past while, and the next upcoming while, is and will be taken up by sorting and packing. Hopefully there won't be to much time lost but it's not something that can't be avoided seeing as the building we're in got sold and the new owners are evicting everyone because they want to renovate the whole place.

Technically we have till the end of February to move but we decided to do it a month early and just get it over with.

Happy New Year!