Happy Holidays 2021

Tomais and I wish all our friends Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

Celebrating Christmas

Yesterday my twin brother JJ MercuryNZ and I celebrated a part of Christmas together. We had fun with those antlers with bells on, everytime we moved it sounded as if Santa was on his way.

Photo by JJ MercuryNZ

Happy Holidays 2020

My spouse Tomais and I wish you all Happy Holidays, despite the long shadow that Covid-19 is throwing over this years celebrations.

Photo by Tomais Ashdene, 2020

Eat, drink and be merry, but above all, stay safe!

Happy Holidays 2019

As editor in chief of Bock in SecondLife it is my duty - and indeed my great pleasure - to wish all our readers, friends, family and supporters, a very Happy Holiday* on behalf of the blog, the creative director, all the lazy princes and princesses on the staff and myself.

*) Bock in SecondLife is proud to be a participant in the alleged "War Against Christmas" spouted by right-wing media in the U.S.A.

P.S. The picture will also be the new Winter 2019 blog header.

"Twirl, Baby Twirl", Petr Said

Some of you may remember the post I made of my Christmas pressie from Petr, "Showing Off Petr's Christmas Gift" (url). In the comments, Petr made this request: "Twirl baby twirl. Show us the back side (Evil Grin)"

Not a terribly specific entreaty now is it, except for wishing me to show my backside. Did he want a conventional picture, something artistic or, well, something just from behind? So I am sharing three versions here.

Version 1: "Bock's backside from a distance"

The arrow points to me standing on Tomais' platform.

Version 2: "Le Bock au coucher du soleil"

This one shows me in an artisique pose against the setting sun. The displacement is supposed to make you aware of our peripheral existence in the void of the vast and vacuous universe.

Finally, version 3, "Boringly Conventional"

This one shows "the crack and the strap", just like I believe Petr may have wanted it.

Showing Off Petr's Christmas Gift

My friend Petr is an avid Gacha-player, he got me this great Elfin-outfit from Noche!

Here I am showing it off at DJ Orrec's set at the Holidaze @ Second Pride. Breathtakingly sexy-smexy, huh?

Ho Ho Ho!
Merry Christmas to you, one & all 
from 
Santa's little helper!

Seasons Greetings 2017

Today Tomais and I sent out our holidays greetings to everyone on our friends lists. Of course I want to share it with all the readers of the blog.

Photo by Tomais Ashdene

From both of us to all of you: We wish you a wonderful holiday and a great new year!

The Christmas Ball @ Starlight Ballroom 2016, Today 1-4PM SLT

This will be the Christmas Ball of the Year. It's an event which everyone is talking about, you don't want to miss this! 

Take a warm, cozy and LGBT friendly ballroom, designed with the latest material textures and decorated in a Christmas atmosphere by Garrett Smith, one of the best interior designer of SL.

The event is organized and hosted by RickJ Ewing. All venue tips go to Relay For Life!

¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪
╫✯✯✯ When - Sunday december 18th - 1-4PM SLT

╫✯✯ 1-2PM SLT: DJ Helene with Christmas songs requests
╫✯✯ 2-3PM SLT: Samm Qendra LIVE
╫✯✯ 3-4PM SLT: DJ Kahvy with intan suggestions
╫✯✯✯ What - Christmas Romance - Formal Attire appreciated
¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪

Take the limo to The Starlight Ballroom at Southern Charm

Happy Holidays 2016

It's that time of year again. It always seems to come along very fast once you have passed into November. The world is simply overflowing with goodwill and greetings for the coming holidays.

Photography by Tomais Ashdene

Well, this year Tomais and I aren't the last in getting our greetings out, that honor goes to Ophiel and Nathanael this year (or so I and Ophiel agreed...).

Have a wonderful holiday season with an abundance of good spirit. Enjoy your families, friends, luscious meals and good alcohol! 

BiSL Joins "War on Christmas"

Yesterday the Editor-in-Chief of Bock in SecondLife, the Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm*, and his royal consort Tomais Ashdene, duke of Erat, sent out their seasonal greetings to family, friends and acquaintances.

The greeting on the card is also a proud political statement in which they declare their position in what Faux News (a.k.a. Fox News of America) has dubbed "The War on Christmas".

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This year's card was photographed by Tomais Ashdene, with Bock McMillan ordering about and giving unhelpful advice and suggestions which was for the most part patiently and wisely ignored by the photographer.

*) For a full and correct list of the lairds present titles please see this post.

Blog Header - Winter 2015

My sweet husband the renowned SL-photographer Tomais Ashdene and I went to Calas Galadhon today to steal this years Christmas tree. Thank you again, Ty and Truck!

We ended up with getting both a beautiful tree and this smashing blog header for Winter 2015.

Happy Holidays 2014

My Tomais and I wish all our family and friends Happy Holidays!

The TotH X-Mas Show 2014

I am told that The Theater on the Hill's 2014 Christmas Show is a great success and runs with a house packed to capacity every time it plays.

I have not had the chance to catch a show yet, but I most certainly will try.

Here are the dates and times for the shows (all times are SLT):

Friday December 19th at 01:00 PM,

Sunday December 21st at 11:00 AM,

Tuesday December 23rd at 01:00 PM,

Sunday December 28th at 12 PM (noon) and

Tuesday December 30th at 01:00 PM. 

Your deluxe sleigh ride to the Christmas Show

Overpriced?

Tomais and I were out looking for a new Christmas tree to put up at the sim over by Ars' memorial. On Marketplace we came across this one, in several versions.

Description
"Typical German Christbaum or Weihnachtsbaum

this is the perfect Xmas tree, because...

* the tree has 120 giftboxes underneath
* in every single ornaments you can see the reflection of a candle
* high detailed candles
* high detailed ornaments
* detailed bells
* the tree has a high detailed string of pearls around the tree
* the has a high detailed decoration on the top
* the tree has a fantastic magical light effect at daytime and night
* the tree has a very detailed texture from a real christmas tree

* the tree is level of detail optimized, when you go far away then you see allways for example every candle

* the width of the tree is 40x40m with the snow underground
* the high is 23 m"

---

It is indeed a beautiful work of art and highly detailed and must have taken many, many hours to complete, but all the same I do think that the price of L$40.000 is a bit steep...

I am quite certain that if the creator had priced it better he would most likely have made more money from his work.

Let's say 100 copies of the trees are sold at the current price, that would mean an income of L$4.000.000, but if the price had been set to L$5.000 they would most likely sell many more copies - I am guessing 1.000 - and would earn an income of L$5.000.000.

But pricing is difficult and what do I really know about it... my amazing Jester's Hats were only sold in 10 copies for L$10 a piece. The market was not ready for them... and perhaps never will be.

Ashdene-on-the-Roof

To quote the Swedish author Astrid Lindgren in her description of her fictional character Karlsson-on -the-Roof, the lairds consort Tomais Ashdene is "a handsome, thoroughly clever, perfectly plump man in his prime".

Tomais photographed by JJ Goodman

Yesterday, the consort put up Christmas decorations and lights on the lairdly couples main residence at Southern Charm. The laird was not in the least worried, such work is quite safe in SecondLife as we all know. Today, however, the wonderful man is repeating his feat in first life and that is quite a different matter... 

"If you aren't the type of man who usually repairs your roof or cleans out the gutters, what the hell motivates anyone to climb up a very tall ladder to put Christmas decorations up there?", the laird wondered to himself when he was informed of this upcoming adventure yesterday. 

Well, my darling Tomais, please make sure you wear rubber-soled shoes and use a sturdy ladder. Plant the ladder firmly on the ground and make sure to tie a rope around your slender midriff and anchor yourself to something steady. Or better yet, wouldn't those lights would look better much closer to the ground or even on the ground?

Be safe, my darling!

Theater on the Hill: 2014 Christmas Show (Updated)

Shows are scheduled for
December 9 (Premier), time not posted yet
December 12, time not posted yet
December 14, 12 PM (noon) SLT
December 15, 1 PM SLT
December 19, 1 PM SLT
December 21, 11 AM SLT
December 23, 1 PM SLT
December 28, time not posted yet
December 30, time not posted yet

Your sleigh to the 2014 Christmas Show (SLurl)

Lets hope Othon - or someone else who knows . comes by and can enlightens us about which times the shows run on the days where the times are missing!

Update December 5th
Concerning the unannounced time slots I just read this on the Gay Archipelago weblog; By design, all shows of this production will begin at either 11 am, 12 pm or 1 pm slt. Not all scheduled show times have been assigned a curtain time yet, as much depends on when cast members are available in SL to delight you! Invitations and announcements will be made in advance in all major SL groups. For further information, please contact TotH Publicity Manager, Othon Weiland.

An Impromptu Christmas Dinner

´Twas the day before, the day before, the day before, the day before Christmas (that would be Saturday December 21, 2013, for those who have difficulty with counting) that the picture below was taken.

Butch, Guyke, Tomais, I and Dej at the table in Tom's kitchen.

My men and I had started talking about when we were going to celebrate the holiday together before we each went off to spend some time with our first life families and/or friends, but had not decided on a date yet.

I was hailed by Dej when I logged into my SecondLife earlier than usual on Saturday. My brother was in an exceptionally jolly mood and invited me to come over to hear him play some music on the grand piano he has in his conservatory. I happily accepted the invitation.

After a while of we were joined by the topic of Dej's and my conversation, my lover Tomais.

At first Tom took a seat in the window, demurely listening as Dej and I continued playing duets on the piano, but then Dej  remembered that there was a third pose on the piano so he joined us there.

Tom got bolder as we kept on chatting away on Skype and changed to more daring outfits, cheered on by Dej and me.

Somewhere at this point we were joined by first Guyke and soon afterwards Butch and decided to go somewhere where we could all sit and talk comfortably. We first tried my kitchen table, but as I could not provide sustenance we moved on to Tom's kitchen where the table could provide us with a complete traditional Christmas dinner.

We sat there and talked together for hours and hours, all of us in high spirits and enjoying each others company to the fullest. 

When Butch had to leave us to set up his set at Q Lounge, the remaining four of us continued talking away and relaxing in Tom's sitting room, where we were served coffee, before joining Butch at his set.

Some hours later I noticed that Tom was getting a tired, he had been suffering from a bad cold for a few days and had had problems sleeping properly due to congestion. I decided to send Tom to bed and tucked him in properly.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that this had been a magical and wonderful day, one of the top five marvelous days in my entire SecondLife existence.

Oh, I almost forgot, we actually also had sort of a Christmas miracle. Dej and Guyke, who in the past have had some difficulty getting along, didn't even bicker at each other once. The two have instead since then joined forces to instruct Tom and me on how to go about things, sticking their noses into matters that are none of their concerns. The only reason I accept and forgive them for this is that they are family and that is what families do - as I know well having done so on more than one occasion when it comes to both their lives.

Bock in SecondLife and I, it's editor in chief, 

wishes all of you and your families in first and SecondLife 

an equally wonderful and magical Christmas holiday 

and we hope to see you all safely back with us soon!

The Christmas Market in Second Norway

Today I am sharing a tip with you all about the traditional Christmas Market in Second Norway that has now started and will be going on through December 27.

You personal kicksled to the Christmas Market in Second Norway.

The vendors are selling everything from kitted Norwegian sweaters with traditional motifs to candlesticks and furniture and a lot in between.

To the Scandinavians in SecondLife

Jag önskar er alla en underbar jul med mycket god mat, goda drycker, trevligt sällskap och massor av julklappar! 

Om ni ska ut på vägarna och fara så kör försiktigt i halkan. Det är bättre att komma fram lite senare, än att inte komma fram alls.

Många kramar,

Bock

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For secular Scandinavians the main event of Christmas is traditionally Christmas Eve. This is the day we get together with our families and friends to eat, drink and be merry. This of course also the day we share gifts with each other. 

Seasonal Chores

The time has come to prepare for the traditional - well for those of us belonging to the Western European and Judeo-Christian culture - seasonal celebrations. As an atheist Swede, who was  born into our secular lutheran church, I am of course referring to Christmas and New Year.

For Ars, as for many other Americans, decorating - or even over-decorating - for the any of the holidays was a cherished obligation. He used to go completely bonkers and we had colored lights, poinsettias, christmas trees etc, etc, all over the place. I am more low-key, much more.

One of the things I do like to do however is sending out greetings to friends and family, even those I haven't been in touch with for months or even years. I still love them and think of them its just complacency, life and other obligations that has caused a - temporary - breach in the daily or at least regular contact.

Another thing I like is having a get-together before people get immersed in their first life families and obligations. This year I had delegated to - or rather pressured - Millimina and Guyke to handle the party, alas they could not get their scheduled synchronized so the party will have to be in the New Year instead, which is fine by me too because a party when people get back to SecondLife is just as good.

Well, to come to the point, yesterday I went to Calas Galadhon (I always go there) to take pictures for my card. I had a great time with myself and the camera in the Firestorm viewer.