Here we go again...

And, once again, it's that time of year. The time of year when a) organisation of The Femdom Hunt really starts to pick up and b) I start to fuss and bother about a build I've been working on for the hunt.

Yup, that's right, I'm in testing mode again. I won't go into too much detail because hunt gifts are supposed to be a surprise but, right now, I'm heavily testing the build, even like this:

And, like last year and the year before, I'm both nervous and excited about getting it into other people's hands. I've been working on it, on and off, since late June; it's also something I've been meaning to work on for a lot longer (it's another one of those builds that I'd promised to make for Miss Vila a long time ago and that I've finally got round to -- funnily enough the main gifts for the last two Femdom Hunts have also fallen into that category). I think some people will get it. I hope plenty of people will both get it and like it. I hope they like it and benefit from it in the way Miss Vila and I am.

Right, enough waffle from me. Back to being the test subject...

Ready for the grid

The set is mostly built. Miss Vila even has her outfit sorted. I think we're more or less ready for Saturday's dance:

Not your submissive

In the past few days this seems to have taken off on FetLife. It actually struck quite a chord with me as it's something I've thought about on and off for quite some time and it does directly affect me. Not that often, but it happens.

While, of course, the original text is aimed squarely at "RL D/s" it translates to (or, I think I should say, flows into) Second Life too (not to mention all forms of online and long-distance D/s interaction).

Over the past few years I've had cause to interact with many Dommes (and Doms). It's all part and parcel of being one half of Z&A. And almost all of them have been polite and a joy to deal with. But there has been a handful who seem to think that being a submissive means I should just jump when I'm told (while, apparently, completely ignoring the content of my profile which clear states that that's never going to happen). I've had a Domme IM out of the blue and ask very inappropriate questions, I've had more than one that will ask for help and then pretty much refuse to listen to the help and advice I have to offer, I've even had one IM and tell me (yes, tell me) that I'll be custom-scripting some equipment for their club. In each and every case, even when I was unowned, I felt that it was perfectly fine to just say no and/or act with confidence as an individual. And I would hope each and every submissive would feel the same.

I'm sure my experiences are nothing when compared to subs who don't spend most of their time hidden away in their workshop making fun things. Based on the chat of some of the in-world groups I'm a member of I get the impression that there's a good few dominants out there who struggle with the idea that every sub is not their sub. It really annoys me when you see a dominant question the "true nature" of someone's submissiveness just because they're not willing to be submissive to them, at that point.

So, anyway, enough rambling by me. I thought the blog post said what needs to be said time and again and says it really well.

I'm submissive. I'm just not your submissive.

Unless you're her, then I am. ;)

I, Buildbot

I think it's fair to say that, so far this year, I've been fairly prolific when it comes to building. Since getting into using Mesh Studio and since writing the new scripts for Z&A's core products I've been pretty addicted to trying new ideas for builds or "rebooting" some of our original builds as newer designs. Accordingly I've spent a lot of time in the Z&A workshop -- possibly more than I have in previous years.

Meanwhile, over the past few months, my time spent in heavy bondage has been fairly curtailed due to various reasons. Partly down to the above but mostly because of RL commitments on Miss Vila's part. As any dominant will know, when you lock someone up pretty tight, there's a great responsibility that goes with that and, accordingly, a demand on your time and availability. So it's fair to say I've had it pretty easy the past few months -- especially when compared to late on last year and the early part of this year.

Yesterday was Miss Vila's rez day (yes, it is the day after mine). Unsurprisingly I had a couple of gifts I wanted to give her so we met in-world so I could deliver them to her. First up I showed her a new build I'd worked on earlier in the evening (which I'd intended to release by the end of the week -- along with a couple of other products lined up for release) and then we headed home so I could give her her gifts. I'm happy to say she was delighted with them. She then told me that she had a gift for me too.

A delivery came into my inventory and I was told to take everything off and wear it all. Which, of course, I did. At which point I found myself looking like this:

That wasn't the end of it though. A few tweaks to the outfit later (it cast light, so we turned that off, and we also removed the glow, increased the shine and changed the colour) and I was dragged up to the workshop where a leash post was rezzed out, locked so I couldn't edit it and I was leashed to it. Miss then set the leash to be fairly long and proceeded to announce that, until further notice, I was to be kept in the workshop. I'm allowed to build and I can wander around most of the workshop but that's it. I've also been renamed (for local chat and emoting purposes -- although chat is currently denied) as "Vila's Builder Bot".

This is actually harder than it might first appear. For one thing I'm not in my usual shape, which is my guide for building and making animations. For another I now can't photograph the new build I wanted to put out at the end of the week (anyone who knows Z&A's products will know that I always act as the model in the vendor boards). I mentioned this second point and was informed that it can wait until next week.

As usual, Miss Vila's gift to me, is what I want, what I crave and what I enjoy but delivered in such a way as to be frustrating for me and amusing for her.

For anyone wondering what the restraint actually is, it's the HybridZ G-ORT M-BOT Doll. On the whole it's very well thought out and very nicely done. We especially appreciated the fact that it was fully mod. The only minor complaint we both had about it was the proportion of the head vs the body. Unlike in the image on the marketplace it seems very small in proportion to the body.

Four years in...

Today, I turn four:

As I've mentioned elsewhere I started life as an alt. Antony was created to explore the... well, Antony side of me. These days this is, for all intents and purposes, my primary account. This is me on the grid. Me the builder. Me the programmer. Me the kinky person with a thing for Femdom and cages and restraints and... *loses train of thought*

Right, yes, four years on the grid. It's been fun. It continues to be fun. Here's to a good few more...

I might be having a bit too much fun...

Nope, totally not having a rock star moment while dabbling with ideas for the set for tomorrow's dance.

It's been a bit of a day for doing stuff for the dance too. Earlier I was shopping with Miss Vila so she could get an outfit for it.

Miss Vila at Avid. The very definition of
"choice paralysis".

Thankfully we're both sorted now. Apart from her hair. Seems she needs new hair...

New (liquid mesh) jeans

I've been on the lookout for some nice mesh jeans for a while now so when Miss Eve pointed me in the direction of a pair of liquid mesh jeans from Redgrave I had to have a look. I was pretty skeptical about them fitting well. I find a lot of mesh just doesn't work with my general shape, even if I do modify it to fit. I find I either look out of proportion or I just don't look like me.

Not so with these. The demo went on well and fitted almost perfectly around the waist. The top of the back was lost in my back a little but this was fixed by making a tweaked shape (funnily the fix was to make my backside a little bigger so as to pull the top out of my back).

I'm really pleased with the end result.

You get a lot of jeans for the price too.

I did try a shirt of theirs (also liquid mesh) to go with the jeans but that didn't work so well. Not for me anyway. The shape of it seemed to be made more for those male shapes that tend towards the "triangle" style. I ended up looking like I had a bit of an upper-body-fat issue going on. In the end I paired the jeans with this shirt and it fits over them perfectly.

The consequence of testing

At the moment I'm testing two builds. One's a long-term project that I've been dabbling with that's at a point where I've stopped dabbling for a while so Miss Vila can play with it and we can shake out any possible issues with it. The other is a vehicle I'm putting together (which should be a new Z&A release in a week or so).

Yesterday Miss Vila was helping to test the vehicle. The general idea is this: if she can drive it (she's the first to admit that she's not the best driver of SL vehicles) then I've got it right. Meanwhile, one of the features of the long-term project is something that means I can be "banned" (by her) from PG regions (the result being that if I wander into one I end up at a location of her choice -- in this case my cell).

So, there we are, her driving the new vehicle and me in the passenger seat. I'd picked a mainland area that was pretty much all moderate regions. And then....

Yes, she managed to find a PG region. Of course, I was told it was my fault for not keeping an eye out (I should mention that, at that point, I was denied map access thanks to Sub-Focus and her being near me, which made it impossible to actually keep an eye out) and, because of that, I'll have to stay in the cell until the timer runs out (thankfully just under an hour).

How's that for a consequence of testing? More to the point, how's that for a consequence of testing when everything is working correctly?

Curious time calculation

This one has bugged me for a long time, and it's one I've come across a fair bit because it seems to involve a pretty famous in-world rental system. And I wonder exactly how the code works such that this even happens.

So, here's an IM from a rental box, reminding me how long I've got left to pay:

So, according to that, time's up. Rent has run out. The fact that I've even received that means that I'm late paying. Right?

Wrong. I know for certain that there's still 24 hours left. Here's the result of my slapping the box once I got in world and went over to pay that rent:

As you can probably tell, I did that about 1/2 hour after I got the first IM.

I'd love to know what the code looks like such that the calculation can be that wrong.