The Demise of an SL Institution

Today is the first day of the rest of our lives. It is also the first day without a new blogpost on My Avatar Name is Apmel, a SecondLife institution that has been accompanying and guiding us residents since 2006.

"She was in Paris" by Sergey Rybakov

Mr. Apmel Goosson Esq., enfante terrible, universal genius, philosopher, rebel, blogger, author, artist, cartoonist, etc., etc. and the honored 2011 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Bock McMillan Art Foundation (a part of the BMcM Corporation), has for some selfish reason decided that after 10,000 blogposts enough is enough. He did so without due consideration of the significant emotional distress and soul-wrenching turmoil he thereby causes to his faithful readers.

However, I must begrudgingly admit that my bosom buddy, of course, has the right to make such a decision and move on to new endeavors. In a heart-to-heart conversation, Apmel promised that we would find him on other media platforms but did not want to specify saying "Only the future can tell! Besides I won't leave SL, my avatars would never forgive me :)".

Thank you for your dedicated work through these fifteen years, Apmel! We are all looking forward to seeing your future work.

Apmel, My Bodhisattva!

Apmel Goosson, my house god for many years, in a post on his blog today (url) came out with the shocking revelation that he is not God.

This appalling disclosure at first completely shattered all my illusions and the world as I know it became a dark and scary place. That is until I figured out what had happened!

My Apmel has, of course, attained the blessed state of Nirvana and is freed from the eternal cycle of reincarnation to move on to the afterlife, but on the threshold, he looked back at the suffering humanity and in his compassion decided to stay with us to help us in achieving enlightenment. 

Apmel has become my Bodhisattva, he is the one who will help me free myself from eternal desire and suffering.

A Straight Eye For The Queer Guy

I still haven't gotten over how truly stunning, fabulous and amazing I looked at the "It's A Party"-event, so I am giving you all another chance to admire me.

Photo by JJ Goodman

The fashion-forward CheerNo jumpsuit fitted me really well and kept me cool despite dancing nonstop for two whole hours.

Now that you've gotten your fill of the astounding me, why not surf on over to get The Not-So-Naked Apmel's report from the event: My Avatar's Name is Apmel: "It was Bock's party and notwithstanding Apmel's ass being there Bock's appearance would have made him center of attention at any party" (url). (Don't you just the lovely long title of that post?)

Bachata for Bock, A Masterpiece by Apmel

Apmel created a love song in my honor and posted it on YouTube, his blog and Twitter!

I love the song you named after me, or love may be to strong a word but it is rather interesting. I am trying to hum it, but don't seem to be able to remember the melody well enough - yet!

— Bock McMillan™ (@BockMcMillan) August 3, 2018

Correction, too*

Thank you, my sweet Apmelito! I am deeply touched and honored by this loving tribute!

Esselebrity Makes A Painful Fashion Statement

Today the esselebrity Mr. Apmel Goosson Esq., world renowned blogger, fashionista and recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award of The Bock McMillan Art Foundation (A part of the BMcM Corporation) in 2011, proved that he was a highly qualified recipient of the award.

In the spirit of the old Swedish adage "Den som vill vara fin, får lida pin" ("If you wish to be beautiful, you must suffer the pain" - sort of like "No pain, no gain!") by observing the rule of not wearing socks with sandals despite admitting that his feet were cold.

Read all about it here: My Avatar's Name Is Apmel: Yes, Apmel got cold feet :) (url)

Congratulations to Apmel for First 1,000,000 Pageviews

Sunday April 10th 2016 at 4.58 AM (local time) and Saturday April 9th 2016, 07,58 (SLT), my dear bosom buddy Apmel Goossons blog passed 1,000,000 pageviews.

I was an eyewitness to the event when the blogs counter stopped rolling due to the constrictions in it's format.

Congratulations, my dear friend! Way to go!

JJ's Pictures From The Pool Party

My sweet brother JJ Goodman has published these great pictures from yesterdays pool party of F*c*book. With his kind permission I post them here also.

As always you can enlarge the pictures by clicking on them.

Tomais and I would like to thank everyone who was there for making it such a great time. We are aware that some of you could not stay long because of the lag, but thanks for trying.

We would also like to thank our friends DJ Kahvy and his host Garrett, a.k.a. The Smith Boys, for helping us in making this a wonderful party. Thanks also to my brother Dejerrity Mycron for proving "Top Security" at the event, despite constant crashing.

We thank all of you for your generous donations to The Ali Forney Center (post on proceeds and forwarding to AFC to follow)

For more pictures from the party, please visit my friend Apmel Goosson's blog My Avatar's Name Is Apmel: At the Pool Party on Southern Charm.

For Blanche and the Swedish Cancer Fund

"Blanche" courtesy of Blanche Argus

Yesterday parts of the Swedish community in SecondLife came together to celebrate our dear friend +Blanche Argus, who for a very long time was a part of the core if the Swedish community, as a creator of many cultural events and also as well-known blogger with her blog Blanche's Arena.

Some months ago Blanche revealed to us all that she had been struck by cancer in her right eye and that, as she only has loco-motor vision on her left eye, this meant that she was virtually blind and could no longer enjoy +Second Life.

Yesterday there was an event to celebrate Blanche and what she had meant for us all and at the same time a fundraiser for the Swedish Cancer Fund (+Cancerfonden).

Blanche was with us through Skype and everything that was said in local was read to her by her first life sister, Second Renoir, or by Rultan Zeppelin, one of the event organizers. 

Blanche spoke to all of us at length and told us about how she was presently doing and how much she missed SecondLife and the lovely people in it. Her love was duly returned and shared copiously, in a more substantial way, with the Swedish Cancer Fund. Everyone donated generously!

Bosom buddy Apmel Goosson, one of Blanche's closest friends

Kandinsky Beaumont

For more about this event please visit

My Avatar's Name is Apmel: Blanka's Friday and My View of Second Life (Rultan Zeppelin's blog).

My Apmelito Vortex

My bosom buddy Apmel Goosson in his blog post My Avatar's Name is Apmel; Caught By A Vortex directed by attention to a cool tool. The above picture is the result of my labors. 

The Skin Fair 2014

The SecondLife annual Skin Fair of 2014 opened on Friday. 

I haven't dared go there yet and am waiting for the true-blue fashionistas, like my bosom buddy Apmel Goosson, to be done with it first. 

As Apmel discovered after being kicked off the sims twice the fair has strict script limits and enforces them diligently. (See My Avatar's Name is Apmel: Kicked out from Skin Fair)

This is what the organizers have to say about about script limits on the events webpage The Skin Fair 2014.

"As with any big event there are some guidelines to help make your experience the best that it can be. Get rid of ALL scripted items. This includes hairs, booties, hands, feet and the like….not only your ao and radar detectors. Wear a system layer bikini. *gasp* Did you just say system layer? Yes, when you go to a high traffic sim, there is bound to be lag and while we do our best to minimize it, mesh items take longer to rezz and most likely all people will see are your alpha layers. No way to impress is it? So dig out that hot lil bikini (sorry ladies but you must wear something to cover them nips as the event is PG) and wear it proudly. Nowadays most hair is scripted in one form or another, and this can be an issue for your script count, so I suggest finding a gorgeous hair base and rocking that look. These measures should help you when you arrive to skin fair, and not only not get you booted, but let you try on skins easily."

There are three sims of skins and other goodies and no less than 122 designers participating in the event. 

Skin Fair 1

Skin Fair 2

Skin Fair 3

Participating Designers

Divalicious - Apple May - White Widow - VCO - The Shape HQ - Chary - Izzie’s - SLink - Glam Affair - Baby Princess - YS & YS - Tuli - Zibska - Bite & Claw - Zoul Creations - Lumae - Belleza -  Amacci - vive9 Fiore - Akeruka - SYS - H.O.E. Inc - PXL - Nar Mattaru - tokyo Girl - Clemmm -  PixyStix - morphine - MUA - Fake - Precious - Kooqla - Shakeup - DyVersatile - Rozena - Kokolores - Fashionably Dead - Utopiah - Black Pearl - Buzzeri - Swallow - Curious Kitties - RyuuKou - Orage Creations - Moda - Filthy - Zanzo - Egozy - Style by Kira - League - La Petite Morte - Addy Style - Aeros - The Skinnery - My UglyDorothy - Lara Hurley - Birdy - Nuuna - Red Mint - Glance - Dream Ink - Deesses - Silken Moon - Adore & Abhor - Oceane - N.M+ - BoobieLicious - Nox - Ab Fab - Soiree - Rockberry - Envy Me - The Plastik Shine - Elysium - TSG - Adam n Eve - Blush - Atomic - Labyrinth - Esode - VYC - MOJO - ND/MD - deeTalez - Essences - Tuty’s - Pointillage - No7 - Dulce Secrets - Joli - The Mesh Project - Nivaro - Mimi’s Boutique - Iren - Oohlalicious - Clef de Peau - elephante poses - anymore store - Rosy Mood - Logo - Loud Mouth - Skindustrial Bodyworks - Madrid Solo - La Malvada Mujer - YumYums - 7 Deadly Skins - Pink Acid - Razzanova - WoW Skins - blacklace  - Beauty - *(00)*YUKI - Jalwa - Eye Candi - Dead Apples - Modish - Mystic Canvas - Nuuna - Ruby Skins - Arm Candy - New Faces - Okkbye

Catching Up with My Lives

After a good night sleeps my internal hard drives have started working again as they are supposed to do and I have started catching up with my lives.

So what has been going on while I was away in Uppsala for three days and zonked out for a fourth?

My parents, who live on the fifth floor in their building, have been trapped inside for four days because the elevator stopped working, apparently some safety fuse burned out. 

In modern day Sweden it has become customary for the service companies to keep as few essential parts as possible in stock, so they had to order it from the manufacturers in Germany or some similarly "distant" country, and not by express delivery or overnight shipping either. Instead my elderly parents and some of their similarly elder neighbors were held as prisoners in their homes.

My mother told me she had actually gone down to the mailbox, which in modern Swedish buildings are located on the ground floor close to the entrance, on the second day. Going down had been easy she said, but getting back up to the apartment again had taken her several hours in the stairs. I promptly scolded her for this adventurous trip, while at the same time understanding why she did it.

Luckily my parents - as always - had been well stocked with food and other essentials, except they ran out of milk, and could stay indoors.

However it seems to me that modern Swedish society seems to willingly making itself more and more vulnerable and unable to handle "unexpected" or other crisis situations. Our modern day society seems to live with the concept that everyone is young, healthy and fully functional, which should be apparent for everyone that we aren't as the population gets more and more elderly and modern technology exposes us to a larger dependency of spare parts. Nothing these days can be banged into place or fixed with a rubber band, you need an electronic card or something highly complicated.

---

My dear friend and mentor in blogging, the amazing Eddi Haskell celebrated his seventh rezday on Wednesday January 22, 2014.

Belated congratulations to you my friend!

Eddi shares some of his accumulated wisdom on life in SecondLife in his celebratory Ask Eddi-post, Ask Eddi: What Advice Can You Give To Others After Being a Second Life Resident For 7 years?


---

"Sailor in the wild..." Photography by Tomais Ashdene

"911, called." Photography by Tomais Ashdene

"Isle of Mousai" Photography by Tomais Ashdene

My husband Tom has been busy photographing and today posted this wonderful picture on his Tumblr. For more of Tomais photography please visit Flickr - Tomais Ashdene or Photomonkey SL (NSFW).

Note: I changed the photos because my hubby informed me that the two above were the ones he actually did while I was away, while the first picture I posted was done several months ago.

---

My bosom buddy Apmel Goosson on his blog "My Avatar's Name is Apmel" in two posts informs his readers about the project that has been going on Tom's and my home-sim Southern Charm over the last week, which will come to it's conclusion with a concert by Ultraviolet Alter in an installation by Betty Tureaud today Friday January 24, 2014, 2PM SLT.

SLurl to the event

Apmel's posts can be read here: Oändligt långt från Southern Charm (in Swedish, but translation is available) and here Friday Tip: The Infinity Space over Southern Charm (in Swedish but translation is available)