Week of January 20th, 2013 - No Country for Old Men Secondhand Lions

Sunday: I made an obvious tourist without using the Obvious Tourist item. It’s the small victories.
Monday: The beard here is from SDPlus #198 Auldivin the Stonehand, making this the second SDPlus doll I own. The outfit is because I had a job interview that day. (compare Wednesday of this week.) More on that, though.
Tuesday: The Junk food pirate returns once more! This time he’s only eating things from the 2012 Xmas event on Gaia: the only poses of both Holiday Feast and Horded Snack Cakes. They just suit him so well, you know?
Wednesday: This is one crabby wizard. And he has both a staff and a wand, I guess? The crabby expression comes from Old Nikolas (Salt and Pepper Beard) atop The Case of Pietro (Inspector’s Face).
Thursday: This avatar is mainly about the pants. A bunch of new gold shop items that recently came out, including the Áo Dài series of items. (which will never have its accents again outside of this post, so savor it.) These are Yellow Áo Dài Pants. Other pieces of not-necessarily-obvious note: Shadowlegend ‘wandering fist belt’
Friday: Every once in a while, I like to show the Tengu with his dad. This avatar occurs, of course, after he grows out of his sulky stage.
Saturday: Probably the biggest complaint the company had at my interview was that my beard was far too shaggy to work there. So this is sort of a farewell to Gummy, since I no longer have the shagginess required to play him.

Week of November 18th, 2012 - Dem Bones

Sunday: The Halloween 2k12 Thrones of Bones is what started the idea in my head- I’ve got a lot of skeletal items, why not make a theme week of them? This angry little fellow doesn’t really suit a throne of bones, though, does he? You expect someone more… lazy?
Monday: I saw the El Vestido Elegante Con Rosas Roja in Barton Boutique and immediately bought it. It went into this avatar the next day. The character herself is probably at least partially supernatural; skeletal parrots are difficult to come by for mortal-types. Additional bonage; Spirit Pyre ‘bone bracelets’.
Tuesday: A faceless-glitch’d beastie with a skull helmet (YHBT Hat, ‘rotfl skull’) and a black skeleton. (Grim Reaper, ‘Black skeleton’) As for the character, I couldn’t tell you much about him. He’s sort of prim.
Wednesday: So I think that Antipathy ‘Wraak’s Mask’ is *hilarious* when combined with the Black Skeleton Shirt and Skeleton Pants. Like, it’s supposed to be this horrible denom, but he’s resorted to painting bones on his own shirt to get the effect. I once again don’t know what he’s doing, but the combination of Shadowlegend ‘Bones’, Harry Potter Student Cauldron, and Science Camp Beaker & Tongs is pretty interesting.
Thursday: Thanksgiving! This avatar is basically inappropriate in most ways I could think of, so here’s a list of (some) ingredients. Spirit Pyre ‘Nose Bone’, Gary’s Island Adveture ‘The Gary Remains’, Viking Love ‘Troll’s Heart’, Antique Shop ‘Sloth Body Paint’, and Jinxi’s Charm ‘Forgiven Headdress’.
Friday: Not exactly calling back to Thursday of this week, but sharing some critical elements, the entire point of this avatar is to be a counterpoint to Captain Ara’s Nestegg ‘Davy Jones’. I’d’ve done well to mix it up further- like, using the Ce.Ch.Be. Embryonic Vial ‘Fifth Mutation’ as a base, for example.
Saturday: A bonehead. He’s got the Gogh Reed ‘bone helmet’, the Aged Bone Mask, the Bone Scythe, and the Knocked Out Teeth. I… guess this guy is trying to look skeletal? Being thin might help…

Week of October 7th, 2012 - barely. It feels lame to call it the week of X when you’re missing the first two days, and jump right into

Tuesday: I was going a little nuts… I think there was drama? So all the avatars this week are crazy. Lookit me, I have a seagull in my hair!
Wednesday: Lookit me, I have a basket on my head!
Thursday: Lookit me, I have a dead rat on my head and no pants!
Friday: Lookit me, Imma derp!
Saturday: Lookit me, I’ve got a plush narwhal on my head! And I’ve dropped trou.

In essence, I decided that craziness is wearing/putting strange things on your head. Now, here is a self-portrait from one week from Saturday. I rest my cake.

Week of September 16th, 2012 - Probably the shortest week ever…

When you don’t have internet access on the weekends, and you have long weekends… you don’t get a lot of Gaia in.

Tuesday: I was feeling deathly ill. So ill, in fact, that I was still wearing my cowboy clothes from days earlier.
Wednesday: A grimmer version of the character I played here and here. Maybe in this world the faeries fight back.
Thursday: Space Cheddar! That’s… about it. In the stories I’ll never write, there was a Flash-Gordon-esque space serial starring a cheese-based superhero, in-universe, before the Cheddar Avenger himself started hero-ing.
Friday: What’s wrong, Tengu? You’re old enough to drink, and it’s nice out, and- oh, they over-salted your margarita? Just order another one!

Week of August 19th, 2012

Sunday: There’s always one day of a trip where I can’t get anywhere near a computer, try though I might. Though I had an avatar created for this day, it was just me in swimming trunks with other people around. Use your imagination, if need be.
Monday: Beard Science, the monthly collectible for August 2012, makes its debut on my avatars. Given the name, my ownership of it was inevitable. Both the default pose and ‘Singed Red Hair’ are used here, in conjunction with Death’s Whisper ‘Consume’ and Spicy DJ ‘Crank That Sound.’ I’m not sure where the rosy-cheeked effect comes from, but in a re-iteration of this avatar, I’d remove it.
Tuesday: Some arm positions of Literary Luxury lead to the hands-on-glasses look achieved here. Layer that on top of the faceless glitch ala Lumiere Noire, and it’s just a matter of time till you end up with an avatar like this one.
Wednesday: A cosplay! I don’t think I’ve had a cosplay since July. Anyway, this is Cervantes de Leon, a constant villain in the Soul Calibur video games. He’s sometimes undead and sometimes not. It’s not a great cosplay, but lookit the ones people on gaia have submitted. Aw-ful.
Thursday: Self-portrait in work clothes, specifically as seen by the kids I work with. I’m the hairiest employee they’re likely to see. On this day, at work, my pants dissolved during a show. Super-awkward.
Friday: The Tengu is wearing a skirt in a misguided attempt to rebel. Tengu, if you wanted to earn my scorn, you chose poorly.
Saturday: Meh… There’s nothing wrong with any of this, good match between hair and facial hair, but nothing stands out here. Ho-hum, kingy.

Week of July 22nd, 2012

Sunday: As one may have inferred by the self-portraity-ness, this is another ‘I went somewhere and here is how I was dressed” avatar. The event, as well as the avatar, bears much resemblance to Sunday of This Week.
Monday: The Cat in the Hat! …That’s that.
Tuesday: I’m not familiar with the graphic novels/artwork of Jean Giraud, better known as Moebius, but the New Age Remembrance item is in memory of him. I… doubt I did him justice.
Wednesday: I got Pow (I’m guessing based on the card game Bang!, which I played at the event I went to on Sunday,) because I’ve become a real sucker for Cowboy/Wild West stuff. This is the Pow ‘Poncho,’ which has a nifty pair of ‘reaching-for-a-gun’ arms.
Thursday: This avatar is, I decided, distinctly a supervillain of some sort. He doesn’t have a real face, and looks like he’s going to punch somebody. I don’t know, it made sense on my head. This is simply a combination of the faceless glitch and Diedrich’s Cone of Shame.
Friday: After a short vacation, the Tengu has returned. And he wants to start a band!
Saturday: On Saturday I went to a paintball field. I couldn’t see for beans so I spent a lot more time getting shot than I spent shooting, but it was fun anyway.

Week of July 15th, 2012 - Wizards with beards facial hair!

Sunday: Questionable Beards ‘Cobalt Beard,’ augmented by Timmy ‘Adult Timmy Mustache.’ He’s sort of a Rincewindian wizard; of particular notice is his hat, which actually combines the Lawn Gnome Hat and the Red Woven Sun Hat to, I feel, quite good effect.
Monday: Sadly, the FMAB Major Armstrong ‘Beautiful Face’ doesn’t play nice with others, so it’s relatively difficult to put an appropriately-coloured beard with that stache. Note the hairy chest and skirt combination; this wizard DGAF about your gender conventions.
Tuesday: Did you notice the wizards are rainbow-ish by clothing color? Because they are. But not by facial hair color; Beards tend too far towards brown for that. Admittedly, Questionable Beards has helped with that some, giving some dark blue, cyan, and adding variety to the red, as here with its aptly-named ‘Red Beard.’ It looks so pleased…
Wednesday: Well, they can’t all be winners. This druidic guy is using the Questionable Beards ‘Aqua Beard.’ As soon as I saw an item named “Questionable Beards” it was obvious I was going to have to have it. And the beards all told are pretty good. Not necessarily *useful*, but…
Thursday: I misused the QB ‘Brown Beard’ a bit. It definitely wants a pale shirt to show against, and this… isn’t it. Clearly, though, this man is a Royal Vizier. And I think he plans on stabbing the wizard next to him.
Friday: Hello there, Mister Moneybags! You do have a ‘Beady Face,’ don’t you? Takes sunglasses of some sort to (mostly) cover them up. You also have the same wig on as the previous day, but you’re both wearing hats so it’s not totally noticable.
Saturday: So often, Saturday is the odd one out. In rainbow-weeks, it’s usually the brown/white/black one. Here is no different, being the brown-clad hairy-faced wizard, BUT at least this one has chin-cover from Questionable Beards- the ‘Question Mark Beard,’ in fact. The hair, which matches fairly well in color, is the Lady Glaive ‘Garnet Curls.’

Week of April 15th, 2012 - All Washed Up

Sunday: This here is Charon, boatman of the river Styx. He collects gold from the dead, you know? This uses the Norseman’s Expedition ‘Ship’ instead of the Charon’s Vessel ‘Boat’ because the Charon’s Vessel is expensive, and the boat itself is slightly inferior. Despite being designed for Charon.
Monday: I’ll be honest here: I’ve never read Moby Dick. But Captain Ahab usually is portrayed with a huge nose and a lincoln beard, along with the distinct prosthetic leg. And I’m sure he gets set afloat on a raft at some point. One of this week’s particular challenges was maintaining a vaguely watery theme without reusing the same pose- I only have so many watery or islandy backgrounds.
Tuesday: Mer-princes aren’t too rare, are they? I mean, King Triton was Prince Triton at one point, wasn’t he? Anyway, this pose from Summer of the Shark is rarely appropriate to use because sharks don’t move like this except in the water. Therefore, being underwater, I had no choice but to use ‘ELLO THERE’.
Wednesday: Castaway! Only this castaway, unlike Tom Hanks, has a non-anthropomorphized ball. And a tropical drink in a coconut.
Thursday: The narrative on this is a little weird. A ghostly pirate with a skeleton parrot, digging up buried treasure. What does a ghost need treasure for? Maybe that potion can bring him back to life?
Friday: This is stretching it. It really is. Tengu, you are inside a wall-hanging of water. That only barely fits this week’s theme.
Saturday: Lastly, and a french-or-british sailor from around the time of the East India Trading Company. The only notable thing is his legs, which is/are the ‘Bartender’s Uniform’ from The Case of Pietro.

Week of April 8th, 2012

Sunday: Voila! A rabbit out of the hat! “He was behind the hat in a bag!” Shut up, kid.
Monday: I think it’s obvious that I just love Christian Siriano’s Ruffled Red Vest and Shirt. I’m also, at least temporarily, fond of Lucky Throw. (It appears twice this week, and once here, approximately the day it came out.) That all said, this avatar also combines seamlessly the ‘Inspector’s Hair’ from The Case of Pietro and the ‘Adult Timmy mustache’ from Timmy. They really do go well together, I think.
Tuesday: A self-portrait off by nearly a week. The actual vest was purple. I went to a Passover Seder. :D
Wednesday: For some reason, Mascherato shows up in [Tops] instead of [Head]. The feather on top of the Mascherato ‘without mask’ pose made me think of bards, so I put together an avatar based on it. There’s some neat embellishments in the center that the guitar covers up, though, so I’ve got a remake of this on the back burner, planned for some time in November.
Thursday: I like dice. And I think this was when Sims Social started doing a theme week based on Mad Men? So… dice, and things raining from the sky.
Friday: …god damn it Tengu. What have you done?! Oh, the humanity.*
Saturday: So I was playing around with Djinn Baharat and I realized that the ‘Rakish Pose’- sitting on air- worked awfully well with the Catastrophe! ‘favorite scratching post’- a couch. The beer, Cig, and general appearance all followed naturally from the “guy sitting on a couch” concept. If there were a videogame controller item, he’d’ve had the beer and that. The fez goes with the pants. But even I’m not sure why this scene takes place in a towering inferno.
*Tenguosity?

Week of March 25th, 2012

Updates delayed my laptop disablement due to power cord failure. Kept my avatars going, more or less, though.

Sunday: Started playing Warriors Orochi 3 on this day- or, at least, I downloaded the game at this point. As such, I made a character who’d sort of fit in the universe- though, given that the WO series is sort of Koei Tecmo’s Super Smash Bros, a lot of characters are in the game that aren’t inherently a good fit. Like Joan of Arc and Achilles.
Monday: The theme of this avatar is Fire and Ice. Pretty clearly, I think. Almost every item or pose mentions ice/snow/frost or fire/flames/blaze. The sole exception is the hair, which is just the Ireful Marksman ‘Hair’.
Tuesday: A cute little pirate lady, first mate on the ship. I’ve decided she’s more than a little clumsy, but she’s made first mate because her sister is captain, and because the Kraken in the background is her best friend. Mechanically, it’s worth noting that her hair is actually the Enchanted Book ‘clumsy servant’. Ergo, her mop top is, in fact, a mop.
Wednesday: Gummy! We’re approaching the point where Gaia can portray Gummy more completely and accurately than I can sprite, though they still lack a pickaxe. And the peg legs they have aren’t quite what I want.
Thursday: Paula, from Earthbound, in the midst of praying. I wish I could have shown this from the front, because back-view is a copout (except when it comes to the Tengu) but there’s just no way to make the hands look prayer-y otherwise. (There exist two items, Anesidora’s something-or-other that have a prayer pose, but one turns the whole arms white, and the other black. No good.)
Friday: What… are you even doing, kid? WHO ARE THOSE PHOTOS OF? Gods almighty, clean off your bed. That’s disturbing.
Saturday: It’s always a little uncertain, when I leave an avatar with my default hairstyle and don’t change the face too much- doubly so when I have a beard, but not the right one, and am wearing items I actually own. Therefore this is not a self-portrait, or even particularly tag-worthy. I nevertheless like it.