Picture of the Day - 489

"Izzies" by Matt Johnson

If you wish to see more of Matt's photography, please visit his Flickr photostream by clicking the name under the picture.

Picture of the Day - 262

"End of the Line" by Matt Johnson

If you wish to see more of Matt's photography, please visit his Flickr photostream here.

A Mission to Krakow

“Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła” are the first words is the national anthem of Poland. Translated to English they mean "Poland Is Not Yet Lost".

The words became relevant in a discussion yesterday at  a summit meeting at Southern Charm. The recent discovery of an age-old peace treaty in SecondLife from as far back as 1993 whereby the citizens of the Polish town of Krakow with SecondLife avatars swore eternal allegiance to the laird of Southern Charm (or his legitimate predecessor). Over time the treaty had been forgotten and no efforts had been made to develop or consolidate the alliance.

The discussion concerned whether or not it was meaningful for Southern Charm to try to revive or revitalize the treaty or if Krakow should be given up. At one point in the discussion HRH prince Wild Zepp, who always finds a way to show off his multilingual talents exclaimed, "Noch ist Polen nicht verloren", which is the German translation of the initial words in the Polish anthem. 

This enthusiastic outburst completely changed the mood of the meeting, and instead of asking whether or not a mission should be sent to Krakow to salvage what was possible the conversation switched to when and how the mission should be formed.

It was finally decided that the mission of "love, peace and cordiality" much include the laird himself accompanied by an unwedded prince and a an unwedded princess of his immediate family. The latter two would be married off with some Krakowians to further strengthen the bond. "With their beautiful faces, bodies and minds and their charming dispositions the residents of Krakow will not be able to resist us!", HRH princess Hedda Millar said.

The two unmarried royalty that were chosen from within the family were HRH princess Minerva Xenno and HRH prince Matt Gaboian, who were both able and willing albeit a bit concerned about how this would end.

It was determined that the mission would leave, with a rudimentary following of only fifty people to care for and serve the royal's immediate needs. as soon as possible, i.e. the next Tuesday and return back on Sunday.

"Krakow is still Ours", the Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm, prince of Cascade Falls, Sovereign Ruler of the Commonwealth of Southern Enchantment Region and Outer Territories and finally also UN appointed Protector of the Solace Island and Mount Whitney sims in SecondLife, concluded with a happy smile.

The New Residence

The pictures above show the new abode of the Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm, prince of Cascade Falls and supreme sovereign of The Commonwealth of Southern Enchantment with Outer Territories.

Although the house is large it reportedly only has one bedroom, but as the laird is supposed to have told his nephew Matt McMillan "it can host an orgy of 60 avatars and still has room enough for all to roll about in".

Report From the War Room

The news reached Southern Charm on Thursday that Her Serene Majesty Mialinn, Queen of Second Norway, had declared war on the Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm and prince of Cascade Falls.

Ever since the MIA (McMillan Intelligence Agency) had filed their report with the Minister of Defense Hedda Millar she had been belligerent and swearing even more than usual. Some of the extremely cute men of the sim walked around with a permanent blush and seemed very flustered after meting with her.

Hedda of course followed procedure and called all the high-and-mighty of Southern Charm to an immediate meeting in the war room, located ten kilometers below the welcoming and beautiful surface of the sim. Such meetings are mandatory when the safety of the laird or the sim are threatened. 

All of the powers-that-be of the McMillan house hold had been locked up down there since Thursday, with no news of what was going on leaking to the restless and anxious hoi polloi nobilty and commoners up on the surface. However, the meeting is now over and we are being reached with several accounts of what has been happening.

The laird himself had seemed calm and in a good mood despite the urgency of the meeting. 

The hawks at the meeting are rumored to have been Hedda Millar (naturally), her aide-the-camp Minerva Xenno and the identical twins Admiral Duncan Aycliffe, Chief of the Southern Charm Naval Forces and Coast Guard, and Field Marshall Angus Maldor, Chief of the Army and Royal Air Force.

The doves are said to have been represented by Prime Minister Wild Zepp, The Ambassador to the Court of Saint James Callum Beamish, the Foreign Minister Seamus Lycheborne and General Matt Gaboian, Chief of the Marine Corps.

Seemingly Hedda Millar started the meeting with a plea to the laird, this is the only word-for-word account that has reached us as yet (civil translation in brackets). "My kind sweet laird, give me permission to nuke this ÜƧ‗z£ (woman) who has spent the last three years z☺"☻Üú{©¹→1 ☺ ☺54 z☺"☻Üú{©¹→1 ☺ ☺ ÜƧ‗z£ (surgically enhancing her bosom to such a size that she now needs goggles with periscopes to look in front of her when she walks). I will send ©¹→1 ☺ (her) to hell where she rightfully belongs. Please, milord, please!"

The laird is said to have smiled softly at her and have asked her to sit down and breathe. "It is true, we have had an armed detente with the Queendom of Second Norway during the last decade, but I actually cannot see that the declaration of war from the good Queen Mialinn should be taken seriously, to the contrary. To me it seems that her post should be read as a joking peace offering. You all know this already, I love Norwegians and would never contemplate any obliteration of them and their beautiful sims, besides I have been sending friends to live there. They might be hurt too. We do not want to kill Ziggy Starsmith and Drew Barnard and all the other friends we have managed to sneak in there, do we?"

After this the mood of the meeting is said to have changed. The princes and princesses instead started laying plans on how to deal with the hundreds of Vikings the Norwegian queen had promised to send. Duncan came up with a devious plan.

"Well", he started, "we all know that all straight men are not as straight as they seem. Lets make a drink of ginger ale and some Tabasco sauce. When they come we will serve it to them and tell them that if they drink the potion they will forget everything they do and will no longer be responsible for their actions. That should turn a lot of the bi-curious or closeted gays around and we would have a good time too. The ones it doesn´t have an affect on we leave to Hedda and Minerva do deal with."

With that they laughingly left the war room and went up to their waiting countrymen shouting "Pounce the sexy Vikings, pounce them and lets enjoy ourselves!"

Lawyers, Makeovers & Housewarmings

Well, I am feeling a bit strange today. Nothing at all has pissed me off or irked me enough to make me rant and rally in a post. All has been just humdrum in a sort of calming way.

So I´ll just go ahead and tell you about my day in SecondLife yesterday.

First of all - just to warn you silly buggers who may try to mess with me - I retained a lawyer in SecondLife yesterday. Yeah, I know I am one myself but only a bad lawyer acts on his own behalf.

My lawyer is an American and one fierce cookie I can tell you from the start. She is totally fearless and protects my ass like a lioness protects her cubs. Hell, I even had to stop her from slamming a restraining order on some people for looking at me weirdly the other day. (Note-to-self, remember to pay her 1 L$ when you get in-world, so she doesn´t try to weasel her way out of our attorney-client relationship.)

A good part of the afternoon I spent giving Matt McMillan, nee Gaboian, a well needed makeover. Matt is an alt I use in the Tiny Empires-game. Although he is an alt of mine by some freakish accident he has turned out to be straight, the poor man. Well I started off by giving him my shape with a few minor differences and then he got new skin, new hair, new eyes and a brand new tartan. The tartan was from Elle74 Zaftig of course, nothing but the best would do!

This is what he looked like as a Linden-noob and here he is after the makeover. It´s a big improvement I think.

Later that evening I was invited to a friends housewarming party. It was Ewa Aska who had built a new house for herself, she is an awesome builder in SecondLife. The house was beautiful but the coolest thing was the dance floor, I thought, we danced over flamingos and crocodiles. You can see it here in a picture I stole from Blanche Argus´s blog (please note the capital B in Blanche).

The other guests at the party were mostly from the Tara Hill-collective, so I was left pretty much to myself except for the "Hi´s" and "Bye´s".

I had a few clarifying IMs during the party though. I managed to tell a woman I had been pissed with her but that it was passing now and also a guy that I had never been pissed with him just with a female friend of his, but that that was also passing now. And finally I managed to talk nicely with another friend whom I hadn´t met for a while, to her I was quite pleasant I think, no bitching at all - would you believe it?

There you go, parts of my day all summed up in one post, and those were the interesting parts.