Thank You, Everyone!

I wholeheartedly support this message that was posted on Google+ by my hubby Tomais today!

Thank you to our friends  Kip Ashbourne and +Chaz Longstaff of Blue Balls for donating the party favors. You guys are awesome!

Thank you to my dear brother +JJ Goodman for the wonderful pictures from the party and to our friend +Lee McKay for helping with the lighting.

Thank you also to our friends Rylan Sirnah for supplying great entertainment for two hours and to Nikolai Warden for giving everyone at the party a fish fetish for life (Yeah, yeah, I actually do know that dolphins are mammals even though they live in the sea...)

Finally but not least, thank you so much to all the generous donors and to the wonderful and imaginative guests! I love you guys, thank you so much for helping out. I transferred USD 145.17 to the +Ali Forney Center on behalf of Tomais and Dej.

Party pictures will not be posted until tomorrow.

Gallery J @ Second Pride Festival

It's been eight wonderful days of celebrating our Pride and although there are two more days to go of wonderful partying, meeting old friends and shopping or even having coffee, cupcakes and/or cookies at Bock in SecondLife's place @ Second Pride (SLurl) some of you may be in dire need of a short break from all the aforementioned activities!

Well, I have a great suggestion for you for a change of pace. Go visit the wonderful Gallery J (SLurl) at Second Pride Festival.

The gallery is running an exhibition, curated by Joseph Nussbaum, with the following well-known artists during Second Pride (in alphabetical order by their first names)

• Alpha Auer,
• Bee Glasswing,
• Benjamin Glendale,
• Boris Twist,
• Buck Mischief,
• João (formerly known as Joapedro Oh),
• Joseph Nussbaum,
• Kendall Williams,
• Kicca Igaly,
• Masquerade Snowbear,
• nessuno Myoo,
• Nikolai Warden,
• Oberon Onmura,
• Reuben Vale (formerly known as Spanki Moulliez) and
• Tomais Ashdene.

Yet Another Pet Peeve - Adding Shadows to Builds

"Bapa Closed His Heart, It Was Over" Photography by Zarina Bhimji

I was reminded of this rather newly acquired pet peeve when I was talking with Nikolai Warden yesterday. He said, and I quote: "WHY DO BUILDERS ADD SHADOWS? Whether baked or prim, if someone wants to see shadows, shadows can be enabled in his or her graphics setting."

It is so 1980's for builders these days to add shadows in the textures of their beautiful builds. True, at one point they enhanced the beauty of their builds, but now - when more than 90% of us have viewers with shadows turned on, who really wants/needs/cares for "built in" shadows in the textures?

Get with the program builders and realize that SecondLife has moved on, it is high time for you to do so too.

Picture of the Day - 20

"Bad Romance" Photography by Nikolai Warden

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

Picture of the Day - 10

"One of Sixteen Vestal Virgins" Photography by Nikolai Warden

To see more of Nikolai Warden's pictures visit his Flickr stream here.

The Henge Party

Our friends Nikolai Warden and his partner Rylan Sirnah have built a henge. Last Sunday it was time to inaugurate it with a party,  to suit the historical venue and the season the theme was Imbolc (Saint Brigid's Day), but as it was so cold the nice guys suggested we wear furs.

I - as usual - complained that I had "nothing suitable to wear" in my 24,000+ items Inventory, so Tomais had to take me shopping first. Tom knows where to shop so in a short time I was suitably attired as a barbarian.

Tomais and I brought Guyke and JJ Goodman II along with us to the party. JJ was kind enough to share some of the pictures he took with me, which is why most of the beautiful photography in this post are by him below are by him.

"Barbarian Bock" Photography by JJ Goodman II

Left to right, Guyke, JJ, Tom and I. Photography by JJ Goodman II

"The Beautiful Barbarian Tomais" Photography by JJ Goodman II

"Tomais & Bock" Photography by JJ Goodman II

"Barbarian. Self Portrait" Photography by JJ Goodman II

"Guyke & JJ" Photography by JJ Goodman II

Freezing Nikolai, our host

Rylan, our host and DJ

Tomais Saves Zeus

After having attended a wonderful masqued ball at Dimi and Mark Tarantello's Venetian palazzo yesterday, I felt like being alone with my husband for a bit of heavy breathing. Little did I know...

When we arrived at our summer house we changed into appropriate attire, i.e. buttnaked, and decided that we would go out into the woods to play. As we arrived at the camping site my ever alert Tomais noticed that something was wrong and pointed it out to me.

The strait between the Zeus sim and our summer home was completely covered by globular prims that had been rezzed by a griefer - and kept on rezzing. The huge spherical prims went far up into the sky and deep down into the ground, covering most of the strait and much of the Zeus sim.

As Tomais started searching for the source of the attack (which was later located to a corner of the Zeus sim that was empty and listed as for rent), I pointed out to him that he was naked and would need to put something on before going over to handle the emergency.

My valiant and fearless superhero went right into the middle of the mess created by the griefer and located the source and also came up with a working solution on how to solve it.

The solution in this case, after it had turned out that Tomais despite having managerial rights could not return the objects belonging to the hacked account, was for someone to rent the parcel and with owner rights return the prims and disallow building.

Later when I talked with Tomais' brother Nikolai, he asked me if Tomais was wearing one of his superhero outfits while performing the heroic deed. I had to confess that he had not.

I made a mental note - as the superhero's official sidekick - to be more specific in my instructions in the future. Instead of just reminding him to get dressed I had to tell him to wear his Superman, Batman or any of the many other superhero outfits in his Inventory.

Swimming, Submarining & More

Just a couple of pictures with captions from late last night and early this morning.

 After sending Guyke to bed Tom and I enjoyed some alone-time at his home.

I played "Submarine", Tomais is waiting for the periscope to come up

Later on we were joined at Tom's party beach by his family members Rylan Sirnah and Nikolai Warden and my brother Dej for an impromptu party.

Ry's music was great except when he briefly played a song by Army of Lovers, I never could stand them. So sorry for my outburst Ry!

I want to thank Nikolai and Ry for the warm welcome they gave me and Dej into their extended family and Ry for his many kind words about me, which I dare not repeat for fear of being called conceited.

Nikolai, Rylan, I, Tom and Dej

We had a wonderful time at the beach until I discovered that it was 5AM my local time and I suddenly realized how tired I was. I hope the guys kept going a while longer!