When SecondLife Sucks

Today was horrible for me in SecondLife. Nothing, absolutely nothing worked.

My inventory didn't load completely, my own profile and everyone else's too went totally blank, teleports didn't work, in short it was a really miserable experience.

I tried all the usual tricks that we old hands use, cleared my caches repeatedly and re-logged about five times, but it still sucked big time. The only thing that did work amazingly - because it usually doesn't - was the Swedish group chat.

Perhaps its caused by all the new stuff my friends at Linden Lab are loading into my world, that I have read about on other blogs but don´t completely understand yet, like mesh and this new sort-of-Facebook-in-SecondLife thing called "My Second Life" (You can read more about "My Second Life" on Nanaki Raymaker´s blog "Rezzed This Way").

Well, I decided to logout of SecondLife and log in to first life a while before going to bed. I am hoping everything will be back to normal tomorrow.

Second Pride 1st Annual Photo Contest

I have earlier informed you that the board of Second Pride had started a photo contest for Second Pride 2011. 

The day before yesterday this notice was sent out in the Second Pride group: 
Second Pride invites professional and non-professional photographers in SL to submit their work to the 1st Edition of Second Pride Annual Photo Contest. Traditional, contemporary, avant-garde, creative and experimental works that include old and new processes, mixed techniques, and challenging personal, emotional or political statements are welcome.

What are the hallmarks of a winning picture in SPAPC? Technical quality, clarity, composition but also a flair for the unexpected and an ability to capture a picture-perfect moment. Enter photographs in any of our four categories:
-        Festival sim
-        Events
-        Outfits
-        AIDS Quilt

Then, you can compete to win cash prizes as well as the opportunity to have your work printed in Prism magazine (+ an interview) and exhibited in an SL Gallery.

The contest is open until June 30th, 2011 at 12:00 PM SLT. The Second Pride judges (the Board) will post the best of the incoming entries in the photo Gallery of our web site. Finalists will be announced on August 1st, 2011. Winner will be announced by September 15th, 2011.

The 2011 Grand Prize Winner will receive L$3,000 – the first monetary prize ever offered by Second Pride for its annual photo contest –, picture + interview to be published in the September 2011 issue of Prism and the opportunity to be exhibited in an SL Gallery.

Thank you for sharing your vision of Second Pride with us.

Keep an eye on the Second Pride website and good luck to everyone! 

Specific information 
Pictures must be sent to 
Pierrick Lubitsch (pierricklubitsch@secondpride.com), 
Zack Preminger (zack@secondpride.com) and 
the Jury (board@secondpride.com). 

Pictures should be submitted as a JPEG file at the highest resolution possible. 
Submitted pictures must have been taken between May 22nd and May 29th, 2011. 

If you have a Flickr account, you can also upload your pictures to the following link : http://www.flickr.com/groups/1698746@N21/ (please join the group first). 

Copyright: You grant to sponsor a license to edit, publish, promote, at any time in the future and otherwise use your submission in any and all media for any purpose. 
Eligibility: Open to residents who are 16+ years at time of entry (current SP Board members are not allowed to enter the contest). 
Entry fee: none 
Entry deadline: June 30th, 2011 at 12:00 PM SLT

For more information, please IM Pierrick Lubitsch or Nanaki Raymaker.

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It seems the board has now decided to make the contest annual and alsoto offer alternative ways to submit your contributions to the contest.

Both of the boards decisions are excellent!

I actually created an account on Flickr for the purpose of submitting my pictures to the group. Everytime I tried to do that I got a message from Flickr that I wasn't allowed to do that for several specific reasons that made no sense at all. I am sure I screwed up in some way so I had given up on the idea after 20 tries. Now I may reconsider.

Seventh Day of Second Pride (Now With Corrected Typos)

(I first posted this at 5 AM my time, I clearly shouldn't have because the typos and misspellings were really embarrassing. I have checked and corrected everything now, hopefully I got them all..)

The evening started with a party led by DJ Shea Paule. As i understand it DJ Shea substituted with extremely short notice for another DJ that had gone AWOL.It was not noticed in his play list, he played us a good mix of great music.

SJ Shea & hubby Kristen

Bock

Jeff in his usual position

Here we see what Jeff see´s and what he doesn't ever see, namely his nice ass. Isn´t it strange? The strong, silent and shy men always catch my interest? (Maybe it´s because I am such a damned loudmouth myself , but I will not tell any of you that little secret.)

Myles Capalini showing his moves.

The second set of the evening was with DJ Hotboy. (MJshotboy Skytower - as his full in-world name is - was accompanied by his partner Ohiomike Lockjaw, otherwise a studelicious man who unfortunately remained unrezzed as a big sexy cloud so I will not post pictures of him.)

Hotboy played an awesome mix of good tunes filled in with crowd pleasing gay anthems, (newer versions of the the classics and some modern anthems like Lady Gaga´s "I was born this way"). As I have said before, if ever there is a time and a place for gay anthems it sure as hell is Pride.

There is really only one small thing I have to object about DJ Hotboy and that is his terrible habit of yelling in the microphone. He really is a good and creative enough DJ and we actually do feel his energy without it. The yelling pisses me off I am afraid - everytime.

DJ Hotboy

mtd Timeless

Tylendel Falconer & Nanaki Raymaker, both from the Second Pride board with blogger Jeff Ellsworth in the background

Me being "artsy" and trying to take pictures through the water covering the floor

Another artsy attempt, see above.

Elorian Scarbridge and awesome DJ Butch Diavolo hitting it off

 

Fourth Day of Second Pride

As I already told you in the previous post I unfortunately missed Butch´s set at Pride. That was going to be the centerpiece of my post about Second Pride today I had decided, well here come "plan B".

When I got to the party area yesterday there was an event running sponsored by GayZone (a German club in SecondLife), the DJ was Wuzz Minotaur.

As I used to visit Gay Zone Germany a lot when I knew Drizz I looked around to see if there were any familiar names and faces in the crowd. Would you actually believe it, there was not a single friend of mine there. Where have all my Germans gone?

I spotted a few familiar faces though, people from the present and previous boards of SecondLife, like Nanaki Raymaker and Zack Premminger, and two bloggers that I have never actually met in-world earlier, Ziggy Starsmith (with the blog Ziggy on the Edge) and Jeff Ellsworth (with the blog Jeff Ellsworth - Witnessing A Second Life).

Ziggy and his sidekick Larz

Jeff Ellsworth - working from the sidelines

The music was good but the crowd was mainly silent, except for a short dialog I had with some members of a group I quickly named "The quadruplets". They were dancing in sync of course!

The quadruplets to the left and to the right Nanaki Raymaker

There was a handsome guy named Handsome and a bitchy little bugger named AngelOf. This is our short conversation, I have deleted the surnames. 

[14:29]  Bock: ...and I must say, you ARE Handsome ;)

[14:29]  Handsome: I know Bock - hehehe

[14:29]  AngelOf: --o.0-- HeheHe *o*

[14:29]  Bock: pffft it comes easy in SL ;)

[14:30]  AngelOf: its not shown at you 
[14:30]  Bock: haha thanks
[14:30]  Handsome: not as easy - look around Bock - lol

Soon after that the quadruplets left without goodbyes, or not that I noticed. 

I am still wondering if the AngelOf guy really meant to be abusive (not all Germans are good at foreign languages) with his remark to me and how he got into the conversation in the first place. 

Pffft I am being too touchy, lets drop it! But I am so going to ask my BIL to take me out for a total makeover a.s.a.p. Who wants to be abused like this in public chat ever again! 

Well I became friends with Ziggy and thats the main thing to remember about this evening, not that snotty little two year old. 

The Party has Started - Enjoy

Rejoice for - in spite of the Rapture - We are still here, We are still queer and you still need to get used to having us in your face.

So as you cannot beat us why not join in on our celebrations this week?

Some pictures from the events yesterday. I am sorry to say there was no Parade, it had to be canceled for various reasons, but listening to Mapoo Little sing was a great party starter. The crowd went wild for this little woman with the huge voice, of course she pleased us with some gay anthems but at an occasion like this it is fitting

Here are some pictures from the party and the ceremony that followed it, "The lighting of the Flame of Hope". I could not get on the sim for the last event, but thanks to Zack Preminger, I got a good view from the adjacent sim.

 

This great picture was sent to me by my friend Kolja Shan

The Speech given for the "Lighting of the Flame of Hope" by Nanaki Raymaker.
 

It's great to see you all here today!

This statue was a joint effort of the Board of Directors of Second Pride 2011 - specifically Tylendel Falconer, Jace  Lewis, and Nanaki Raymaker. It was designed to be seen clearly from a distance, and across several regions, and therefore uses conventional prims for the flame instead of particles.

The two most obvious symbols of the GLBT community have been used - the rainbow, as well as black and pink triangles.

Inverted pink triangles were used by the Nazis in concentration camps to identify and shame homosexuals. This symbol, which was used to label and shame, has been embraced by the gay community as a symbol of pride.

Starting out as a late-night mission in protective darkness, the giant Pink Triangle has been annually placed atop Twin Peaks - a mountain in the center of San Francisco - during every Pride Parade weekend since 1995.

The rainbow flag and it's colors has been revised over the years, each color representing a positive attribute of our shared existence, hot pink for sexuality, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for magic/art, indigo/blue for serenity/harmony and violet to represent spirit. However the most widely used flag now is the one designed by Gilbert Baker (six colors).

 In November 1978, San Francisco's gay community was stunned when the city's first openly gay supervisor, Harvey Milk, was assassinated. Wishing to demonstrate the gay community's strength and solidarity in the aftermath of this tragedy, the 1979 Pride Parade Committee decided to use Baker's flag.

This statue represents the upward progress of all sexualities and gender identities - after all - no civil rights movement has *ever* failed, as well as a symbol of hope that one day we will shine as one light, and speak with one voice.

We've got Mr. Gay 2011 and Ms. Gay 2011 here to light the flame atop this statue. A man who needs no introduction, Regi Yifu is an absolute powerhouse of creativity, generosity, and has been a source of inspiration for the GLBT community.

Marge Beaumont has served on the 2011 board of Second Pride as our Treasurer, and has worked tirelessly in her role. She is both a source of inspiration and endless humor, and I feel very honored to consider her a friend.