Finally, Nanci sings in the rain

In July 2020, I got a cute umbrella in Second Life. Co.vet made their Mandala Umbrella in blue available in the Fifty5 Thursday sale. It had a rainy day version which included rain around the avatar. Since then I’ve been wanting to create a video inspired by Fred Astaire’s classic movie musical number but I struggled to find the right outfit and animations to bring it to life. That has recently changed, and I am now able to create the video I’ve been wanting to make.

Second Life creator Junk Food had their Rainy Umbrella available during last week’s Fifty Linden Friday. Of course, I had to buy it. It didn’t have the amount of rain I wanted for Fred’s song-and-dance number, but it was cute enough to see what I could do with it. I already had a nice tux from Sascha’s Designs, and I found some tap dancing animations from Abranimations. The only thing left was to find the right region to shoot in.

After looking at several regions, I found the 1920s – 1040s New York Time Zone at the Time Portal. I needed a night-time environment,but I also needed some additional light on my avatar. I ultimately used the 3 am environment setting that’s built into the Firestorm viewer, and the area in front of the Time Portal itself got enough light that I wasn’t dancing in the dark during the shoot. (That’s a Springsteen thing, after all.)

The camera work isn’t as smooth as I’d like, but I’m pretty happy with how my first machinima came out.

Credits
(Unless otherwise stated, links go to the item on the SL Marketplace)

Nanci Singin’ in the Rain
Shot by Nanci Barthelmess at Time Portal – 1920s – 1940s New York Time Zone (SLurl)
Windlight setting: Shared environment A-3AM
Music: Singin’ In The Rain by Gene Kelly (from Singin’ in the Rain (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack))

Nanci’s Body: Prima Busty (SLurl)
Hair: Stealthic – Mesmer
Tux: SAS – Shaz Tuxedo & Hat Glitter by Sascha’s Designs (NOTE: She’s wearing the Maitreya Lara version, not a Prima Busty version)
Umbrella: Junk Food – Rainy Umbrella (FLF page)
Shoes: -KC- NEDIS PUMPS by KC | Couture
Animations: Delected animations from the Mocap Tap Dance Animations from Abranimations

Closing out 2019 on a good note

My weight has been an ongoing battle over the last couple of years, but this year has had some good news on the bod front.

If you follow me on Twitter you may have seen several celebrations as I got nice lower numbers from my scale. For years in my teens and twenties I weighed in around 150 lbs., and I considered 200 lbs. to be a red line I did NOT want to cross even as it got harder to keep my weight down once I hit my 30’s. As I started 2017 I was logging my weight as part of my weekly measurements to track how my body changed with hormone replacement therapy (HRT). I’m not nearly as active as I used to be so my weight kept heading upward. Granted, that’s kind of a good thing as my body started filling out and getting feminized, but I still disliked my weight getting too high.

You can imagine my displeasure as I started 2019 at close to 235 lbs. My favorite clothes didn’t fit anymore, and I simply hated being so heavy after spending so much time in the 150s. I knew that between my metabolism changing and my HRT I’ll probably never be in the 150s again but I hoped to get back to around 185. Over the last year, I realized 185 was too big a goal to reach for at once so I set interim goals of 200 and 215 lbs.

For some reason, I tweeted that I had hit 215 lbs on 13 December but forgot to write about it here. I no longer take my weekly measurements since I’ve reached a plateau in my changes, although I do log my weight every Sunday as I log my blood sugar and blood pressure at my doctor’s suggestion. I also try to step on the scale twice a day to try to catch when I eat too much to try and get rid of it the next day, and I smiled yesterday morning when I logged 216 yesterday. I figured I might log my measurements either today or tomorrow to get the end of the year readings, depending on what my scale showed in the mornings.

Today I was so amazed when I stepped on my scale I immediately moved my laptop into the bedroom so I could log the measurements before I had a chance to forget to do it as I started my day. (It’s been known to happen.) The magic number from the scale? 214.6, a number I hadn’t seen in over two years.

I grabbed a summary of how my body changed over the course of 2019 for my trans sisters. I’ve been on HRT for over 3 years and it’s been slow going, but I’m sharing this year’s numbers to show that you should be patient. The changes are coming. All numbers are in inches.

Overall I’ve added 3.25 inches to my bust over the past 3-and-a-half years, almost an inch and a quarter to my hips and an inch to my bum. I only added an inch to my waist over that time and I’d prefer more in my hips and bum but I’ll take what I can get at this point.

I hope everyone has a fantabulous start to their 2020, and may your new year be at least a sight better than 2019 was. Goddess knows that for all the good news I’ve had there’s been a crapload of bad news too, but that’s just how the old cookie crumbes, eh?

Happy 2020! (from Bitmoji)

Success!

You may remember there were problems with my estradiol blood levels before my surgery in October, and to try to increase my estradiol absorption, and my endocrinologist moved me from an insulin syringe to a syringe with a larger, and longer, 23 gauge needle so I could inject it into muscle instead of into fat. (For some odd reason the needle gets bigger as the gauge increases, not the other way around as you’d expect.) There’s just one problem with it, though. The estradiol valerate I’m injecting is so thick it can’t get into the syringe easily through a 23 gauge needle. After looking at several things and consulting with my doctor, his nurse, and my pharmacist, we’ve changed me to an 18 gauge needle, and by Jove, we’ve got it! more “Success!”

The Indie Author Manifesto

Smashwords Indie Author Manifesto (corrected)Yesterday I was checking my stats at Smashwords and discovered that  the Smashwords founder, Mark Coker, had written a manifesto for us independent authors. As a Smashwords author I love it, and as an indie author I gladly and wholeheartedly join Mark in posting this as a commitment from this author to his readers.

Updated 16 April to fix a typo in the infographic. Whoops!
more “The Indie Author Manifesto”

Books I’m checking out for Read an Ebook Week – Saturday’s List

Today's the last day to find new ebooks to love at great discounts (or even FREE!) during Smashwords' 2014 Read An Ebook Week!Sorry about not writing yesterday. I had some tech issues including multiple Blue Screens of Death while dealing with tags for some MP3s I had gotten. But I did find some ebooks you’ll want to check out and you have to act FAST since today’s the last day of Smashwords’ 2014 Read an Ebook Week promotion. If you missed my earlier lists you should peruse Monday’s, Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s lists.

I also updated the page for No Budget, No Pay with the official link for it on iBooks and to add the ebook on Diesel. Only Kobo and Flipkart don’t have it at this point and it’s just a matter of time before they do.

more “Books I’m checking out for Read an Ebook Week – Saturday’s List”

Books I’m checking out for Read an Ebook Week – Wednesday’s List

Find new ebooks to love at great discounts (or even FREE!) during Smashwords' 2014 Read An Ebook Week!Can we still call it Hump Day (NO camels, please!) when we’re at the midway point of Smashwords’ 2014 Read an Ebook Week promotion? It doesn’t feel right to mark the midway point of something so good.

I realized that I should have included links for the author’s websites and blogs when they’ve posted that information on Smashwords so this morning I went through and added that information to both Monday’s and Tuesday’s pages.

more “Books I’m checking out for Read an Ebook Week – Wednesday’s List”

Books I’m checking out for Read an Ebook Week – Tuesday’s List

Find new ebooks to love at great discounts (or even FREE!) during Smashwords' 2014 Read An Ebook Week!Have you guys been finding any new ebooks to read during Smashwords’ 2014 Read an Ebook Week promotion? I love some of the ebooks I found yesterday. I’ve already found some today that I bet will become favorites of mine.

I know the images in these posts are wrapping around each other. For some reason WordPress is stripping out my code to start each image on a new line. Grrr.

Updated 5 March 2014: Added link to the author’s websites or blogs, or if the don’t have one of those I added a link to their Smashwords author page. more “Books I’m checking out for Read an Ebook Week – Tuesday’s List”

Books I’m checking out for Read an Ebook Week – Monday’s List

Find new ebooks to love at great discounts (or even FREE!) during Smashwords' 2014 Read An Ebook Week!I thought that I’d publish a list of the ebooks I’m checking out during the 2014 Smashwords Read an Ebook Week promotion this week. Rather than make one list that could get rather Jabba-sized as the week goes by I’ll do a new list each day as I find new ebooks I think you guys (and gals) may want to read. With every book I’ll post the cover, title, author, genre and the short description. Unless otherwise indicated all of these ebooks are free during Read an Ebook Week. I hope something (or several somethings) catches your eye.

Updated 5 March 2014: Added link to Lashell Collins’ Pierced (A Boxed Set)  since I discovered I hadn’t put in a link on Monday. I also added links to the author’s websites or blogs, or if the don’t have one of those I added a link to their Smashwords author page. more “Books I’m checking out for Read an Ebook Week – Monday’s List”

Sony leaves the ebook business

Sony Reader Store logoToday I got online after being off for two days and as I was checking headlines at NPR I saw Book News: It’s The End Of The Story For Sony’s E-Bookstore. That got my attention since my ebooks are available in Sony’s Reader Store thanks to their distribution deal with Smashwords, the company that distributes my ebooks. I went to Smashwords’ Site Updates page and saw the news there, along with a post on their blog that details that NPR didn’t provide. more “Sony leaves the ebook business”