New Favicon - The Green Carnation

Before we got the Internet and all the hookup apps, gay men with faulty or spurious gaydar - much like myself - tried coming up with various clear but subtle and innocuous ways of identifying one another in the vast ocean of stunningly handsome heterosexual men.

Ever since Blogger started allowing "favicons" (a.k.a. website icon or bookmark icon) I have availed myself of it as a means of identifying this blog as gay operated. I have used various LGBT symbols to do this, first the λ-sign, then I moved on to the pink triangle. 

When I started looking for a new favicon I came across an account about Oscar Wilde, the biggest and butchest poofter of us all.

It is said that he and his group of friends in the Victorian England of the 1890's wore a green carnation as an emblem.

It would seem - judging from a Wikipedia article on LGBT-symbols - that in doing so the group picked up a previous tradition among homosexuals in ancient Rome.

"The Journey to Me"

Today I have new addition to my blogrolls, both the SecondLife and the first life ones as it - perhaps - will straddle  both.

The blog is my dear friend and Royal Gardener, Butch Diavolo's latest attempt at blogging ("for the umpteenth time", as he himself says) The journey to me. I am certain I will enjoy reading Butch's thoughts and opinions and rants, and hope that you go too.

Bock Parties at Pride

My buddy Carl Paneer, SecondLife blogger and photographer, for many know better as Naked Carl with blog "NakedCarl" is doing his usual extensive coverage of the Second Pride Festival. During Pride my days haven't really started until I have seen what Carl has posted from the parties.

Carl captured me at a party today in all my pride regalia, including my Jester's Hat in Multicolor Rhinestone by BMcM™ (which is my freebie for the festival this year and can be acquired at my booth) and a special Pride tutu. To my immense pleasure he has today also animated some of his pictures into gifs, among them one of me partying.

I am sure you can all appreciate how my spectacular hat follows and enhances all my movements. That is truly a masterpiece of imagination and creativity. It is of course also a much coveted accessory for all the true and daring fashionistas in SecondLife.

Hair Fair 2015 - July 11-26, 2015

Oh my, do I need another hair? Hell yeah!

Hair Fair 2015 opens today and fashionista/blogger Strawberry Singh can tell you all about it (with links and SLurls to all the place you need to know to target in where to go and what to look at).

Strawberry Singh.com: Siren's Call.

NSFW Month on Ello

The social network Ello responds to Google.

"Following Google’s decision to ban NSFW content from Blogger (followed by an awkward reversal), we decided to celebrate freedom of speech on Ello by naming March NSWF Month.

You can’t ban some content without seriously impacting freedom of speech for everyone.

The last people we want to dictate what we can't say on the Internet are the advertisers that control big ad-based social networks. Ello doesn’t believe in censorship, and because Ello is ad-free, we will always be a dependable haven for free speech.

Help us celebrate NSFW Month on Ello by posting and discussing ideas about free speech, censorship, and why it's important that Internet remain open and free.

Much Love,
Ello

PS. Some people love adult content. Other's don't. Ello is all about respecting each others' point of view. You can always turn NSFW content on or off on your Ello settings page."

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Chew on that Google & Blogger!

Google Backtracks

theguardian.com today reports: Google has backtracked on plans to ban sexually explicit images from its blogging platform Blogger, in the face of widespread opposition from users.

The company had initially announced a ban on “sexually explicit or graphic nude images or video”, with just a few exceptions for content which offered “a substantial public benefit, for example in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts”.

It planned to enforce the ban from 23 March, when any user with offending material still on their blog would be forced to turn it into a private site.

Now, the company has backed down. Jessica Pelegio, a social product support manager at Google, wrote: “We’ve had a ton of feedback, in particular about the introduction of a retroactive change (some people have had accounts for 10+ years), but also about the negative impact on individuals who post sexually explicit content to express their identities.

“So rather than implement this change, we’ve decided to step up enforcement around our existing policy prohibiting commercial porn.”

You can read the whole article here: theguardian.com: Google backtracks on porn ban in Blogger

(Tipped by J.M.G.)

Really Google, Really...?

"In an announcement that was sent out to bloggers who use the company's blogging website, Google said people will no longer be able to "publicly share images and video that are sexually explicit or show graphic nudity" on Blogger as of March 23. Google said those Blogger sites that continue to host pornography after March 23 will be made "private." That means the content will be allowed to remain up, but it will only be accessible to the site's owner and the people who the user directly shared the blog with. 

Google noted that it isn't completely banning nudity from being shown publicly on Blogger. The site will allow nudity "if the content offers a substantial public benefit, for example in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts." But it also puts Google in the position of deciding what is art and what is pornography -- a decision that Instagram and other sites have struggled with. Blogger previously allowed adult content on its sites, but it required users to mark their blogs as "adult." Those Blogger sites came with an "adult content" warning that would appear before a visitor could enter the site."

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Read more about this wide-reaching censorship by Google here: ZDNet: Google bans 'explicit' adult content from Blogger blogs (Link tipped by Tomais Ashdene)

In the last months we have also seen how Blogger/Google in a very disturbing way has forced an adult rating on some of the blogs that do not carry adult rated material or nudity, for example my dear friend Eddi Haskell's blog "Eddi & Ryce's Second Life".

I am starting to think it is best to move the blog to another blog provider and to stop using my Google Crome browser, my Gmail and my Google+ accounts altogether. I  should have seen this coming earlier...

Tomorrow I am going to start checking on my alternatives concerning blog, browser and web-mail.

I Dreamt of Vanadis

Last night I dreamt one of the weirdest dreams I have ever dreamed before.

Vanadis Falconer
(photo quoted from Facebook)

I dreamt that I was sitting on the terrace of my "palazzo" at Southern Charm with none other than the other Swedish SecondLife blogger Vanadis Falconer. We were talking in voice and were happily chatting away and laughing a lot, although I cannot for the life of me remember what our conversation was about.

Now everyone who knows me well - or has followed my blog through the years - knows that my relationship with Vanadis has been "extremely strained", to say the least.

On June 29th this year I made the unilateral decision to forgive Vanadis, among others whom I felt had wronged me, so that I in time could forget the perceived insults and abuses. I at the same time asked for her forgiveness for my words and actions. Nothing more has come of that, other than the wonderful relief it gave me to get rid of that stinking and heavy burden and to finally let go of the bygone. So it is a complete mystery to me why I had this completely unexpected dream.

I am not even sure how I would actually handle the situation if the opportunity did arise.

Update On Commenting

I have previously told you that anonymous commenting would no longer be allowed on this blog, see Bock In SecondLife: On Anonymous Commenting.

The reason for that decision was mainly my refusal to use the word verification process on my own blog as it at the time gave me huge problems on other blogs that had activated that option, see Bock In SecondLife: On Word Verification.

As I have since noticed that Blogger has stopped using the blurry pictures of street numbers and also seem to have made other helpful changes in their word verification process, I reconsidered my decision and changed the commenting options so that anonymous commenting was again allowed but now with word verification activated.

My friend and co.blogger Christo Spyker reminded me the other day that I had neglected to inform you about the policy changes I had implemented.

You may hereby consider yourself informed that Bock in SecondLife now

1. allows anonymous comments again, and that
2. word verification is activated.

W T H Blogger?

I have "Showcase images with Lightbox" activated on my blog.

This option is according to the description supposed to do the following "When clicked, your images will open in an overlay on top of your blog. If your post has multiple images, they will appear as thumbnails along the bottom."

Well, today that's not happening and I don't like it one bit.

Blogger, please stop screwing around with my settings!

On "Word Verification"

I have just managed to leave a comment on another blog. It took me seven (7) attempt to get the comment posted because the bloggers had chosen to avert spam-comments by activating "Word Verification" on their blog.

As some of you may know my vision is impaired, by congenital hyperopia and by emerging cataracts, making it almost impossible for me to interpret the blurry images of street numbers and intricately interwoven letters and numbers that must be entered to get a comment published.

After my horrible experience today I have decided that bloggers who choose to activate word verification on their blogs will no longer be worthy of my wisdom or wit.

In my own experience Blogger already recognizes 90-95 % of the spam-comments and the few that slip through are easily removed so I cannot really see any valid reason for activating that silly option.

Tell-tale Email Addresses

Please note that this blogger has a gmail-address!

Another Sleepathon

So, now I have completed another sleepathon, the second in two weeks. This one only lasted two nights and a day (from Monday 6 PM until Wednesday 6 AM) but still I am getting worried because I am going to start working again on Monday.

The difference between this time and the last, is that I actually had a dream this time. I think I may have felt guilty - or at least had a bad feeling about - the last response I left to a comment by my Chief Technical Officer Mrs. Vampi Twine-DeSantis-McMillan McMillan (honorary) and her presumed sex life with my Sergeant at Arms Lieutenant Colonel (retired) sirhc DeSantis-McMillan.

The dream was that Blogger somehow posted a warning message to my blog telling me that I should refrain from commenting on other peoples sex life or they would shut me down. The dream was so vivid that I even saw the strange post and had to check the blog when I woke up.

Blogger cockup

Error performing your request

We're sorry, but we were unable to complete your request.

When reporting this error to Blogger Support or on the Blogger Help Group, please:

• Describe what you were doing when you got this error.
• Provide the following error code and additional information.

bX-tm5jc4

Additional information

blogID: 3002765122134131983host: www.blogger.compostID: 5833837131587698237uri: /comment-iframe.do

This information will help us to track down your specific problem and fix it! We apologize for the inconvenience.

Find help

See if anyone else is having the same problem:Search the Blogger Help Group for bX-tm5jc4
If you don't get any results for that search, you can start a new topic. Please make sure to mention bX-tm5jc4 in your message.

Help Center | Terms of Service | Privacy |Content Policy | Developers
Copyright © 1999 – 2012 Google

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I cannot reply to any comments, when I try I get the above message. I am not sure what is going on but I hope they fix it soon, because there vis nothing about the problem in the Help Group.

Damn You, Google!

This weekend Google has decided to screw with bloggers outside the United States again it seems. They have now decided to chang the addresses to all the Blogger (a part of Google) blogs in your blogrolls.

I didn't understand that something was wrong or what was going on until I read this post on J.M.G. Joe Jervis´s readers are usually an extremely chatty crowd and the fact that I couldn't see a single comment in his last ten posts made me suspicious.

What you have to do to get your browser directing to
http://[blogname].blogspot.com/ instead of the http://[blogname].blogspot.[your country code].is to change to the correct address in your browser by changing the address to http://[blogname].blogspot.com/ncr. Then click enter and the ncr will disappear while the .com will remain.

Once you have done this the original versions of the blog will remain in your browser. You do not need to change your blogroll (my wrong sorry). The change survives a restart, but I guess you have to do this every time you visit a new Blogger blog or change browsers or computers or anything else...

Please note:
1. Thankfully Google is only messing with its own Blogger blogs, the other blogging services remain unchanged.
2. Bloggers in the United States are not effected.

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This is plain stupid, whatever lofty and high sounding reasons they may give for the change!

UPDATE Sunday March 18: If my own personal experience is true for everyone it seems we must perform the change to .com/ncr everyday.

"Bock, You Are Such A Lens Bug"

As I reported yesterday, I left the Imagine peacefest at Solace Island on Sunday rather hastily.

This was because I received a call from my buddy Eddi Haskell, major SLebrity, blogger, fashionista, photographer, machinimista etc. etc., to come to the shooting of his appearance on The DJ Insyx Show. This show is a weekly show produced by the great people over at Gay-World News.

When I informed my sister Millimina Salamander that I was leaving and the reason for it she said, "Bock, you are such a lens bug!" (A "lens bug" (linslus) is a Swedish colloquial phrase referring to someone who very much likes to be photographed.)

The laird in a beautiful Pashmina shawl and a girly sit on the far left.

Fabrice Snook from Gay World News overseeing the taping and looking hot

Although I told her I was just going to be a part of the audience at the taping and would most likely not appear on camera, she just laughed me off. My sister is loving but sometimes I want to wring her neck!

The reason I went so fast to the taping was of course that I assumed he would tell the story about what happened to him in real life at the Hotel Mark Twain in San Francisco along with a hot blond. But no such luck this time. instead he went on and on about other interesting topics concerning his Secondlife experiences.

You can see the taped show on Eddi´s blog Eddi Haskell´s Second Life My Second Life Television Debut.... (Be careful with the sound level, start out low.)

Extreme Makeover

As a blogger I feel I must - at least sometimes - allow myself to be influenced by complaints from my readers.

Although I will always maintain that this is my blog and I bloody hell right what I want to as long as stay well within the scope of the blog providers rules, the Swedish law and normal human decency.

Today I received a complaint from another blogger that my blog header was way too blurry and she kindly offered me a sharper image. I rejected the proposal and decided to try a new look without reverting to black, so I landed on this transparent-grey-white beehive look.

As a blog header I chose a picture that SecondLife photographer Kent Hutchinson took. I am still in my "dead eyes" in the picture, but you will have to live with that. Hope you like it because I am sticking with it until December!

My Favicon - UPDATE

When I saw that Blogger today gave us the option to add a favicon to the blog I jumped on it!

I knew straight away what symbol I would choose for my blog.

The only option for me was the mathematical sign for infinity, eternity, forever.

For awhile I was considering choosing one in the rainbow colors, but I wil wait a while and try that later perhaps.

UPDATE due to Vanadis Falconer´s meddling with my brain I may choose another favicon  soon... damn, damn

I am now considering these three as well as the one I mention above.

Blogger Cockup

Well that was awful, Blogger screwed up during a scheduled maintenance, and now we are all suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

Some of my friends seem to have lost many posts also, or atleast they are not back yet. I haven´t noticed that problem on my blog though, but that could be because I have a poor memory..

Here is the explanation given by Eddie Kessler, Tech Lead/Manager at Blogger on Blogger Buzz today.

Bad things sometimes happen for no particular reason, we all know that, and sometimes when it starts happening it just piles up into a big muckheap.

Hopefully we can trust the promise that the lost posts will be restored during the next few days and that this will not happen again.

"Blogger" is hassling me again

I have had a lot of problems with Blogger recently. I constantly get "Service Unavailable Error 503" whatever I try to do.

And suddenly I cannot even see my new NeoCounter anymore with the Internet Explorer or Firefox browsers, but I can still see it with the Safari browser...? I could see it in the two first mentioned browsers when I logged off last night, and haven´t changed anything since. Javascript is still enabled and so are cookies...



Internet Explorer

Safari

Am I all alone in the world with this problem?

Does anyone have any tips?

Is it me or is it Blogger?

Should I shoot myself?

Should I give up blogging?

Do I need therapy?

Do I need to take a Blogger-class inworld?

Do I need a brain transplant?

Please answer fast to "Hassled by Blogger or something..." in comments below!