Makara Yorimasa

In between farting around with various builds, I have been wasting time looking for a new skin, or at least a more Asian-looking one. Anyone who has ever gone looking for an Asian skin for a man on SL will know what a tough job it is: there are loads for women and hardly any for men.

The one I have now is a generic medium tan Caucasian; I wanted something with a yellower tint, preferably with eyebrows more like my own, and not too muscly. After a couple of hours of trying on demos (and accidentally buying the full version of one - aieee!) these were the best Asian skins I found (all skins are worn over my existing shape):

Maybe I'm not hanging around with the right people, but when I read articles about SL like this one in the New York Times, I get really pissed off. Some of us like building because we LIKE BUILDING not because we're keeping up with the Joneses. Real Estate might be abundant in the USA, but here in London, I can't even afford to buy a studio flat. It's no mystery that in SL I live in a huge modern swanky pad, and in my free time, spend literally hours buying or building homes, putting them up, landscaping them, modding them and filling them with cool stuff, but does that make me a craven consumerist? No it bloody well doesn't. What on earth is wrong with wanting to look hot, live in a lovely environment and have tons of funky clothes? It doesn't mean I can't also read books, hold a conversation about deep stuff, care about world issues and do whetever else people do to prove they are educated and worldly wise.

And Homeless Hermes shoots himself in the foot rather by railing against the consumerist tendencies of some residents one moment, and then saying he makes all his money buying and selling real estate the next.

And another thing: sex and love. It's as real as the person you're making it with, and lots of people enjoy it on SL. You can't have much of a sex life if you have a wiggy avatar which looks like "a fruit salad encased in gelatin" - this isn't American Pie. Naturally, people want to be beautiful - I personally think my av is pretty hot - and for some people, having a sexy av takes away the fear of being rejected for their less-than-perfect RL looks, and allows them to express themselves sexually in an uninhibited way. It's a GOOD thing to be uninhibited, you morons! You can't deny physical attraction - it's an integral part of sex. Political correctness might not like the concept of physical beauty being valued but it's a natural human urge.

Anyway, in SL, where people can be as beautiful as they like, I find that how good the person is as a virtual lover is much more important than what they look like, a fact which seems to have passed by the writer of this article.

Regarding looking businesslike, our beloved leader, Chant Newell, has a basic skin and a friendly old man av - bald with a little grey beard - and I've never seen him wear anything other than a green shirt and a pair of jeans. Looks count for less than this article implies - it's your interpersonal skills and your business acumen that swings the deal. What this dork fails to realize that when anyone can look as impressive as they like, in SL more than in RL it's the fact that you can walk the walk and talk the talk that gets you taken seriously as a resident, not your big fuck-off glass office floating sky palace. If anything, SL is teaching people that appearances ARE DECEPTIVE, and that's a good lesson for the Real World as well as the Virtual one.

End of rant...

I thought I'd write a little bit about my av before I launch into all the building stuff. I started off with the generic noob body, the Harajuku version, and free hair from Calla, which as you will see, I kept for quite a long time. Within a couple of weeks, I equipped myself with a working cock (I bought the Xcite pack with cock, ass and nipples), which kept me going for a while. The first time I tried out my cock, I spent about 20 minutes wanking. It was brilliant! My clothes were all freebies, and I spent most of my time hanging around the one friend I had made who soon dumped me because I kept hanging around with her (to be fair, I was practically stalking her, although we weren't shagging; I was just chronically new and clueless).

After a month or so, I bought a skin (Eric, from Cryogen, which I still use), and started to hang out at Whitesands, a mixed beach, and two gay beaches, Boots Beach and Hot 'n' Hung, getting as much action as I could. The novelty of having virtual sex with men soon wore off, and I slowly realized I actually preferred it to having SL sex with women, partly because I felt that I wasn't being unfaithful to my RL girlfriend if I was sleeping with men rather than women (crap, really!), but partly because I enjoyed the freedom of doing whatever (and whoever) I liked.

Around this time I started wearing neko ears and a tail, although I am definitely not submissive by nature (which is what neko guys are supposed to be, from what I can make out). I still hadn't been fucked: even the roughest manliest men I went with wanted me to do them, rather than the other way around, despite my ultra-boyish appearance. If anyone can explain this to me, please get in touch...

So here's my first long term manifestation: me as I appeared at Boots Beach during late 2006. My neck's a bit long and I look too young here, but it's pretty good... I wanted to look Eurasian and younger than I am, since that's what I look like in RL, but to be a cuter version of my RL self. I like to think of my av as Morpheus' "residual self-image" (The Matrix).

I met Simon Lufbery and Gabe Semyorka at around this time. I had an instant rapport with Simon, who was an aficionado of the hardcore end of the SL gay sex scene, because he sings the sort of choral music in RL that I love, and because he's an educated, funny, sexy, charming, interesting man. I started to spend more and more time with him just because I liked his company so much, and eventually, I asked him to be my partner and be exclusive to me. Happily, he agreed. I became closer to Gabe, possibly the sweetest person I have ever met in my life, when his relationship with his partner broke down and he was having trouble with his SL landlord. I really felt sorry for the poor guy, and was happy to spend hours listening to his problems just because he was so damned nice. More about Simon and Gabe in another post...

So here's me in early 2007, with different hair, standing on the roof of my low-grade copy of a Fade Languish house in Henmaris (I still own this plot of First Land, and I intend to put a shop on it eventually). Since then, I've changed my hair again (see my profile pic) and added some more Xcite attachments (ears, lips, shoulders, animated neko ears and tail), but I still have the same skin and the same build.

BTW, people often ask me about my eyes - they're just the basic noob Harajuku eyes set to a massive 85 points, manga-style. I have tried other eyes, but none of them have pupils large enough to cope with my "big-eyed" look, so I've stuck with these.

As for my clothes, I am a regular shopper at The Block (esp. Form), The Laundry, Gritty Kitty, and any place selling wiggy Asian-style clothes. I sometimes buy womens' clothes and adapt them, and I have a number of costumes for fun: an angel, with scripted wings, a black desert arab outfit with cape and headgear, a Persian prince outfit in white, and various period outfits for visiting sims like Caledon. I'm not this clothes-obsessed in RL, BTW - SL has released my inner fop ;-)