Operation Bock

I am happy to report that the Swedish healthcare system is still working smoothly and efficiently.

As some of you may remember, well it was only less than three months ago but I know that many of my readers have lots of more important stuff on their minds, I coughed up an umbilical hernia in the beginning of March this year.

The hernia became strangled later the same evening. It was not a pleasant condition, but I was well taken care of at the hospital emergency room and could come back home later the same night.

I have now been notified that they have scheduled me for operation on June 11, the time of day is not yet known. If everything goes well I will be sent home the same day.

Even if I know I need the operation and that it is a rather minor and undramatic procedure I still got a little worried. Luckily for me, when it comes to healthcare issues, I can consult with my dear friend Zigadena Gabardini. She can always answer the questions I have and that calms me down. This time I could also draw on the previous experience of her hubby Emarald Harvey. The poor man contracted an umbilical hernia lugging around Ziga´s extremely heavy luggage when they met the last time in first life.

So by June 12, 2012, I will hopefully no longer have the ugly little lump on my stomach which I constantly have to push back in. Bock with Brock will be gone again.

Don´t Go There

My friends Zigadena Gabardini and Emarald Harvey have picked up an interesting video with recommendations on where NOT to go this summer or ever. See the video and the recommendation on their blog ZE Design SL.

Hey, why should we gays, or our straight allies, support undemocratic bigots with our tourist money anyway? If they do not want us, stuff them! There are so very many other locations to visit for a vacation.

In my mind, it is always good to do a bit of research before making travel plans, and not only on hotels and travel costs but also on political matters. Tourism is a huge industry and by spending our holiday money consciously and wisely we can make a significant difference in bringing about change.

RELATED and BACKGROUND

The Citrus Party

The lovely, crazy and beautiful people at Club OrmDricka threw a party with a citrus theme in honor of my post A Little First Life Drama. Of course I had to drop in before crawling to bed.

There was some talk about my buddy Emarald Harvey´s balls when he first met the lovely Zigadena Gabardini in first life.

Apparently the meeting took place in the lovely city of Barcelona, Spain, a few years ago. Em claimed he had actually gotten a hernia from behaving as a perfect Dutch gentleman around Ziga. Well, I had to set him straight of course, so I informed him that what he had was clearly a bad case of blue balls and no hernia at all.

Zigadena Hits First Life Media

Zigadena Gabardini photographed by Emarald Harvey

As you may remember a comment of mine was used in an article on CTV News.ca, see my previous post Bock Is Quoted in First Life Media. Well my dear friends Zigadena Gabardini and Emarald Harvey have now outdone me completely.

The wonderful Zigadena was contacted by the Swedish magazine "Camino" for an interview on shopping and design in SecondLife and she got an entire spread in the magazine, both the paper and online issue (pages 12-13).

Zigadena and her husband Emarald are both wonderfully imaginative, talented and creative designers in SecondLife with both a shop inworld and on Marketplace (you can always find the SLurl to their Main Store inworld and the url to their products on Marketplace on their blog ZE designs SL

My buddy Bara Jonson was in a television documentary, my other buddy Eddi Haskell has done radio and television shows, Ziga and Em in a magazine interview with picture, I will have to make a film directed by Martin Scorsese to match up to them...

RL Photo Exhibition & A Colorful Rezday

On Thursday I was invited by tthe gallery owner Aake Roffo to a exhibition opening at his gallery at Yadkin. The exhibition was called "Houses in RL" and featured the first life photography of Kaja Lurra, well known sim landscaper in SecondLife.

I liked the pictures a lot and even bought a beautiful one showing some old beautiful blue tapestry. As I am mostly a people person here are some pictures of the visitors at the exhibition.

My buddy Emarald Harvey and his sweet avantgarde wife Zigadena Gabardini

Party people

Beautiful Svessa Hax  flanked by Aake Roffo and NE0 Timeless

After the gallery opening I had originally planned to retire because I had a early morning meeting in first life on Friday, but Kandinsky Beaumont and Apmel Goosson convinced me I would have time to drop in at a rezday party.

The rezday party was for SaveMe Oh, famous and/or notorious performance artist in SecondLife. She has made her whole public existence inworld into art by behaving rudely and by being obnoxious and cantankerous. Sometimes I find it amusing and am wholeheartedly entertained, at other times not so much.

Apmel and Kandi had been appointed as my caretakers by my little sister Millimina Salamander when she went off on a first life adventure for a couple of days. When I learned this I could not refuse them any more so I crashed the rezday party.

Luckily Apmel had warned me beforehand that it would be colorful, but what I saw when I was teleported in was the most amazingly bright cacophony of colors in all imaginable shapes and forms. It was a veritable bombardment of the visual preceptors (i.e my eyes). Occasionally we would also have shoals of sharks attacking us. I presume the shark is her totem-animal, but I am not sure.

I enjoyed the experience thoroughly but after about half an hour my sight was suffering from an overdose and it was time for me to sneak of to bed.

The rezday girl SaveMe Oh

Lucky Woman & Luckier Man - UPDATED

Emarald Harvey

Look at that beautiful man in his humorous picture! It is my buddy Emarald Harvey.in one of his contributions to this blogs series "Nakna avatarer i SL" (Nude Avatars in SL)

Would you believe that this boyish, charming and talented man with a wonderful sense of humor could capture and hold the heart of one of the most kind, caring, talented and beautiful women in SecondLife for four years? Four years in SecondLife, that must be something like 25 years in first life, even for a straight couple.

Well, I know both Emarald and his wonderful wife Zigadena Gabardini and today they are celebrating their fourth anniversary, and let me tell you I am not in the least surprised. They complete each other in all the ways a long-lasting couple should.

Ziga attacking my buddy Em

Today my two lovely friends are celebrating their fourth wedding anniversary at one of the friendliest places in SecondLife Club Ormdricka and of course everyone is invited.

The party starts at 12.30 PM SLT. I for one am going to be there! Club Ormdricka (SLurl).

UPDATE: Ughhh terrible! First I overslept until 1.38 PM SLT and when I finally logged in I could not teleport anywhere. I managed to get hold of my buddy Em but the sweet Ziga had already retired. Hugsand kisses my darlings, I am so sorry about this mess, talk to you tomorrow!

Tableaux Vivants, Lag & Sim Crashes

"Lag is a state of mind" a wise, semi-old but still extremely hot and sexy avatar once said, who´s name escapes me at the moment.

That is of course very true but sometimes SecondLife tries it´s very best to destroy a good party. Terrible lag, a sim crash and a sim restart almost succeeded at Kandinsky Beaumont´s and Apmel Goosson´s party at Solace Island yesterday. Luckily most of us who were there were old troopers at dealing with such misfortunes and we came back as soon as it was possible every time.

Tableaux vivants means "living pictures". The term describes a group of suitably costumed actors or artist's models carefully posed and often theatrically lit. Throughout the duration of the display, the people shown do not speak or move. The approach thus marries the art forms of the stage with those of painting/photography. (Wikipedia).

"The Extraordinary Adventures of Kikas and Marmaduke" give SecondLife a humorous and modern day interpretation of this 19th century art form. No show is ever the same because of the interaction with the audience at each performance.

Due to the delay caused by the misfortunes I unfortunately could not stay through the whole show and the party afterwards but had to log off at midnight, but as long as I was there I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Without further ado, here are some pictures from the show. Please note that I am only showing a few of the pictures and not in the order the tableaux were presented.

Enthralled audience; Bock, Emarald, Mid, Ziga, Blanche, Kandi & Apmel

Besides myself, the sim was full of all the avantgarde art elite in SecondLife. Here are a few more shots of the audience.

SaveMe Oh trying to catch the eye of some rough trade

DJ Eifach

SEMA 2011 - Oh What A Party

Finally the long awaited evening arrived. As an old hand in SecondLife I arrived early at the venue, The Fallen Gods Club at Yadkin. I have missed to many events before by not getting my ass on the sim in time.

The laird resting before the party stasrts

Once I was safely there I could take a smoke, eat a little and prepare for the party to start.

Oh what a great party it was! All the men were stunningly beautiful and the women looked reasonably OK too, even if some of them were showing a lot of their legs and boo.. uhmmm lets say chests.

Apollon Allen, DJ and one of the organizers

Emarald Harvey (in the background) with his partner Zigadena Gabardini 

Iendi Laville

Svessa Hax

My Sergeant at Arms sirhc DeSantis-McMillan

Vira Broome, one of the organizers

Blanche Argus, cbreak, Apmel Ibbetson and Kandinsky Beaumont

Chaplin Early and his partner Stella Guardian, Aake Roffo in the background

Some cute stranger

NE0 Timeless, one of the organizers

I had a wonderful evening and an unexpectedly great time, most people actually spoke with me. It was good to be able to in some little way show my appreciation of the hard work the event makers do for us. All in all I had a splendid time with no bad lag surprisingly because avatars were crashing left and right.

I would like to finish by once again thanking Apollon Allen, Vira Broome and NE0 Timeless for giving me this opportunity to extend my thanks to the event makers. I know I didn´t get all of them on my camera, for which I especially apologize to Vampi Twine-DeSantis-McMillan-McMillan (honorary and through handfasting), Midnattsdotter Fride and Gittrika Mint. All three of you looked wonderful, but my pictures of you were ugly and not publishable,

I just noticed that my bosom buddy Apmel Goosson has also been working hard and has already published his great pictures from the event here (url).

Even more pictures from the event at Blanche Argus blog now (url) and on Ewa Aska´s blog.

UPDATE:
Oh, I forgot, the evening actually ended very well when Blanche Argus finally found the humongous and  enormous tip jar for the event makers.

I understand her completely because I have been there myself countless times! Sometimes tip jars are just too big to notice, one cams above, around, behind and under them... I cannot remember all the times that Guyke, Ars or some other friendly soul has had to drag me in front of them for me to see them.

The Saint Lucio Pageant 2011 (Updated)

What: The Saint Lucio pageant in SecondLife

When: December 13th, 2011, 11 AM SLT

Who: Everyone and anyone is welcome, either to join in the pageant or to join in the celebration as an onlooker. 

No prior notification or registration needed! Just be there in costume before the pageant starts walking at 11 AM SLT

Where: Swedish Embassy in SecondLife

SLurl for the participants in the pageant

SLurl for the audience

Why: 

We walk to combat the forces of darkness and the evil powers and for the return of light, warmth and love in the world.

What to wear (the eternal question): Depends mostly on if you are there as an onlooker or to walk in the pageant.

A) If you are a member of the audience - The sim is rated as General, so keep your private parts (boobs and genitalia) covered and tucked away.

B) If you want to join in the pageant there are several alternatives.

1.  Saint Lucia or Saint Lucio

Full length white gown with red silk ribbons around the waist and a crown of lit candles.

A beautiful version of the gown can be picked up at my friends, designers Zigadena Gabardini and Emerald Harveys, store ZE Designs Mainstore (SLurl) (the gown can also be used for the maids and maidservants and - I should think - the star boys too).

The beautiful crown is designed by Cur Waydelich at CurWay Creations and can be picked up for free at his store SLurl CurWay Mainstore (SLurl)

2. Saint Lucia´s maids or maidservants (a.k.a. "tärnor")

Full length white gown with halos and waistbands of glitter and a lit candle in one hand.

3. Star boys or star girls

Full length white gowns with tall conical white hats sprinkled with stars and a star on a stick in one hand.

4. Gingerbread men or women

Brown outfits of varying design with white frosting and wearing a brown top hat

5. Santa´s and Santa mums

Red and white outfits (well you have seen them before)

6. Chimney sweeps

Black outfits with the paraphernalia of a traditional chimney sweeper, black top hat and black rope etc.

7. Yule bock

Shape shift into a goat made of straw with red silk ribbons around your body and horns. (This group is mainly represented by the designer Ms. Adrina Welders)

Thanks to the janitor of the Embassy sims, Ms. PetGirl Bergman, free ready made outfits are now available in the reception of the Embassy (SLurl) 50 meters from the landing spot for the pageant.

After the pageant has walked - and sang a cappella (or made noises without music) - we will also witness the burning of the Yule bock, thanks to the gracious offer of my friend the designer Ms. Adrina Welders.

One last thing, remember we are doing this to have FUN!

Hatred

Only a few weeks ago many of us stood together remembering and honoring the people killed by the the Norwegian mass murderer A.B.B. (whom I never again intend to waist time on by spelling out his full name). This man hates many things; Islam, Muslims, foreigners, Norwegian Social Democrats and Swedish Social Democrats, Socialists, Communists, welfare receivers of any nationality etc. etc. The list could be made much longer but I think you get the drift.

I visited Stavkirken in Second Norway many times during that period, for my own sanity and to be close to others who cared, we sat together in silence and thought of the crimes that had been committed by one hating man against so many people. Again - a few weeks later - we stood all together outside the church remembering the killed at a ceremony in Second Norway and told each other this is what hate leads to, death and destruction and mass murder.

I remember telling myself during this period that hatred is a powerful force that eats at your soul, your mind and your feelings. It changes your outlook at the world and the other people in it. I promised myself to do anything from hating my fellow sisters and brothers again, either by word or by deed.

Yesterday I was minding my own business, looking over my sim, reading note cards that had been sent to me and answering them, chatting a little with my friend Zigadena Gabardini, discussing how our summers had been and her joy at having her Em from the Netherlands come visit for a couple of weeks and the plans they were making for meeting again in November.

I feel very close to Zigadena, ever since Ars first broke his leg and then again through his fatal illness. She has been there giving me emotional support, medical advice and helped me understand and come to grips with the medical procedures that my darling was subjected to.

However back now to the story I was trying to tell! After I had finished my conversation with Zigadena I went back to my meandering thoughts again while checking stuff on the sim when suddenly one of the groups erupted. It was one of the Swedish groups for a radio-channel. There is hardly ever any chat going on in this group apart from the announcements of upcoming shows.

Now the group suddenly filled with people who hated a common individual. Apparently there had been some blogging about something this person was supposed to have done the day before, I seemed to have missed that completely... or maybe it was so subtle that I missed what was being said behind the words written. Anyway they all were there spewing their common hatred on the "culprit" who wasn't there, or at least did not take part in the altercation while I still remained there. Actually some people I have liked dearly for a long time took part, although I don´t suspect they have liked me back as much since my position in this has been quite clear from the start, and of course there were others to whom I do have a distant or noncommittal relationship with.

The incident made me so upset that I immediately wanted to leave the group, but didn't know how to do it as I am new to the Firestorm viewer, so I logged out instead. I didn't want to get infected by more hate or be subjected to more hate speech.

When will we ever learn that there is no real difference between our own hate and the hate shown by the mass murderer A.B.B.? Hate never ever leads to any good, it only destroys.

Now back to bed, this post woke me up aching to get written. I am sad and tired now, sleep will be good for me!

A Whole Lotta Kissing!

The time for the 1st annual International Kiss-A-Swede Day in SecondLife finally was finally here.

Before it started I was wondering how the f**k I could come up with such a crazy idea, but that feeling passed once I had Millimina and Vampi at my side and we together waited for the kissers to start coming come to us.

Millimina and I before the party started (Photo courtesy of Millimina Salamander)

Kissable Vampi in a beautiful furry skin

 With an event like this there is no knowing who and how many will come, you just have to take it in your stride and go with the flow and most importantly just have fun!

People were coming and going all through the two hours, which is just as it should be on this kind of event, many I had missed seeing in a while showed up and some I thought might come didn't but thats to be expected also. Things happen in real life and in SecondLife, we just cannot be everywhere - and of course sometimes we don´t want to be at a particular place either.

The main thing is that those of us that were there had fun, and I myself for sure had an excellent time and kissed like crazy! There was only one dumbass loser who declined my kiss, it did not spoil my fun although I wondered about who shows up at a kissathon and refuses to kiss?

Anyway we were close to 25 avatars for about an hour and about 15 the rest of the time. I had an awesome time.

Thanks to everyone who came and special thanks to Vampi and Millimina for helping kiss a few!

Pictures from the event can also be seen on
Magasin Millimina,
Min avatar heter Apmel and
Blanche´s Arena

Now to my own kiss-fest pictures!

Kissing Carol

My boys Janttu and Guyke (Photo courtesy of Millimina Salamander)

Kissing Sven while Jon Rhiannyr dances

Me pouncing Carols hubby Timothy

Kissing sweet furry Zeba

Jon Rhiannyr pounces me after knowing me for less than 5 minutes

My bosom buddy sirhc, who was DJ-ing at another party at the same time

The wonderful Ziga and her Em - in amazing outfits as always

Not sure whom I am attacking on this picture, could be Sarco or Jeb  -  but it looks good...

Pounced by Jon again

Pounced by Blanche

Cuddling with Jon in the makeout room

Kissing Blanche again

Kissing Sven in the makeout room

Kissing Jon in the makeout room