Chasing Avatar

So you’ll notice that I’ve filed this entry under Life, Big Gigantic Pointless Waste of. That’s because I’ve dedicated many hours of my free time lately to my vision of a unique, shapely, steampunky, purple-haired avatar for my Second Life enjoyment.

Although it was a visit to Betty’s Beverages in Caledon Tanglewood’s enchanted forest that inspired my hedgehog avatar, I’ve often felt a bit awkward tooling around the other, more steampunky and literary parts of the Caledon sim dressed as a That Girl!-esque hedgie or a vaguely cyber-punk chubby fairy. The desire for a more steampunky look became pretty consuming, even leading me to rent an apartment in a very mid-century mod sim (near one of my fave retro shops, artilleri), just so I’d have a semi-private spot to change clothes, try on different shapes, and swap skins. Any SL apartment isn’t completely private; anyone can zoom their camera past your walls. Still, it’s a sparsely populated sim (as is much of Second Life), and it is just an electronic representation of one possible incarnation of my online personality.

What is steampunk? An excellent question. Let me point you to the convenient authority on everything on the interwebs, wikipedia.

My next obsession goal is to outfit my hedgie avatar as a tiny steampunk airship pilot. I have dreams of Delphinia as a tiny, leather-helmeted and begoggled aviatrix. Perhaps she could pilot a small, stealthy dirigible, ala Alberto Santos-Dumont, a dashing Franco-Brazilian who parked his airship outside his Champs-Elysee apartment, and flew it to Maxim’s for dinner. Quel Style! And then, who knows? Perhaps a stint in the Royal Caledon Air Force!

In fact, as I put the finishing touches on Delphinia’s new look, I was watching the Nova episode “Wings of Madness” devoted to Santos’ vision for flying as something everyone could do. Very enjoyable and informative.

So, after spending thousands of Lindens ($8) and swapping out more skins than a workaholic taxidermist, I’ve come up with something I kinda like! Let me know what you think!