sirhc DeSantis: "My Friend Stopped Running Today"

Lucien Maven, in first life a.k.a. Jeffrey Miller

When I came home from work and opened my email, at the very top there was a group notice sent out by my Sergeant in Arms and friend sirhc DeSantis McMillan titled "My friend stopped running today".

The sad title of sirhc's message was explained in another group message sent out just a few minutes earlier by his spouse Mrs. Vampi Twine McMillan McMillan (honorary) where she informed us that they had received the bad news that Lucien Maven had lost his battle against cancer and passed away today.

Lucien was a wonderful, warm, sweet and kindhearted man and a stunning DJ. He will truly be missed. I was very sorry to hear of his passing.

My warm condolences to his families and close friends in both his first and Second Life. 

Your battles are now over, dearest Lucien, rest in peace with the universe. We will remember you and celebrate you.

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P.S. Later today I learned that sirhc was quoting from the British author Richard Adams' novel "Watership Down" (1972), where the character Hazel says, "My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend stopped running today."

SP Hugs 11 - 21

Jak Calcut, the best hugger in SL

Vampi Twine

Sylvana "Syllie" Whitfield

The One & Only Tomais

Kharissa Indigo, not the best hug but the lag was fierce

Pienikins hugs my leg while Petr supervises

Mitchell, a very cute and nice French guy

Ziggy Starsmith, a prince among men

LLedge Eames

Levi Ewing, not of the Texas Ewings

The VampRealm Advent Calendar 2014

My dear friend Mrs. Vampi Twine-DeSantis-McMillan-McMillan (honorary) is a wonderful creator and store owner with her own brand The VampRealm.

From December 1st through December 24th The VampRealm has daily new free gifts to all visitors of original creations by Vampi.

Take me to The VampRealm (SLurl)

Just A Bar@Burnal Equinox 2014

I am extremely happy to announce to the world that Clan McMillan is represented at this years Burn2 in SecondLife. The Burn2 opened yesterday and ends on Sunday with the burning of the all the builds.

My beloved and trusted Sergeant at Arms sirhc DeSantis McMillan was chosen by the organizers of the event a while back, but I was sworn to secrecy by the sweet man and have not been able to share the information with you earlier.

As a part of my lairdly duties I was happy to visit the build yesterday accompanied by my royal consort Tomais. At our arrival we were heartily greeted by Sarge and his adorable spouse, my dear friend, Mrs. Vampi Twine DeSantis McMillan McMillan (honorary).

Contrary to his spouse my Sarge is an exceptionally accomplished hugger

sirhc's build is a bar in the skies that offers the other builders and all the visitor a space for rest, relaxation, friendly chat and meditation. The architecture is definitely "steampunkish" in style and highly imaginative and creative.

I must however warn all visitors to mind where they walk, as the build completely lacks railings and there is a long fall to the ground.

The sweet hosts are already aflame in anticipation of the burning that will take place on Sunday March 30, 2014, at 10 PM SLT (if I am correctly informed).

Here is the landmark to Just a Bar (SLurl), it will take you to the ground level under the bar. You will land in an acidic green slush that may be green diesel or rocket fuel.

To get up to the bar you will need to cam straight above - it may be helpful to use the surrounding walls - and when your camera reaches the build above you right click and choose "sit".

Once you have seen sirhc's build you may wish to look around at the other attractions, the organizers offer a comfortable balloon tour for doing that.

The Cat & the Princess

Once upon a time, as all good stories should start even the true ones, there was an English cat living in Canada. He was a tall and lean man with a great capacity for love. On the other side of the Atlantic ocean in a small provincial Swedish town there lived a short and full figured princess with a weakness for tall and lean men and a similar capacity for love but no one to shower it over.

sirhc and Vampi posing for my blog project Naked Avatars in SecondLife
(see the tag Nakna avatarer i SL)

Little did the two know that the love of their lives existed and was waiting to be found. Universe saw this and knew it was wrong. This should not be like this, Universe felt, the two should be together and love and take care of eachother.

Universe thought about it a while and then it came with a brilliant plan and set it in motion. First it lighted a spark in the brain of a creative American computer geek named Philip Rosedale, something about creating a virtual world where he and his geeky friends and people from all over the world could meet and discuss their weird digital stuff and kill each other in war games and build stuff and have wild, steamy and passionate sex with fabulous women and tall, lean, men or cats or whatever they wished. Philip managed to convince enough of his wonderful geeky and creative friends about his vision and they set out to create the virtual world that was to become known and loved as SecondLife.

The idea took off, the world was created and the wonderful, creative and innovative computer geeks from all around the globe converged into SecondLife. They built stuff, they beautified it, they just went wild with all their ideas. And the friends of the geeks started to check in to see what it was all about and they fell in love with it too, so did their friends and the friends of their friends.

Both the English cat and the Swedish princess were sort of computer geek so they of course heard about SecondLife too and joined the fun.

Then one day the princess was out on one of her excursions into the dark side of SecondLife, some war sim or other, and she saw this lean, mean, killing machine of a cat. And she loved what she saw and heard and could not get the cat out of her mind. She started prowling around wherever he went and stalked him from sim to sim until one day she decided to take a leap of faith and just pounce on him. The poor, innocent and lovable cat did not know what had hit him. The princess was like a whirlwind, a tornado of excitement and love that took over his life, his thought and his dreams, just as he had - unknowingly - taken over her's.

The two started spending more and more time together, falling deeper in love as the days and weeks and months went by. They also started sharing their first lives on Skype, with the cam running 24/7, so they could look after each other and talk, talk, talk, talk, talk and watch a little. After a while they got handfasted in some weird wiccan ceremony and their love was sealed. Only Universe knows what kind of kinky heterosexual stuff went on in front of those cameras besides the two watching each other sleep, eat, wash, pee and all the other daily humdrum. Universe watched on and smiled and saw that all was well.

Then one day the princess woke up and couldn't see the cat anywhere in his apartment. He had completely disappeared from it, the camera was still running but the apartment was empty. She was not that worried at first but as the hours passed the worrying mounted, especially since the cat was sick and feverish at the time. When the hours turned to days she definitely knew something was wrong. She called out for help and assistance among her friends and an especially resourceful friend, a practical woman of course, lifted the phone and called the local police force in the Canadian town where the cat was living.

Vampi and sirhc and their alts for the blog project Naked Avatars in SecondLife

Despite the unusual circumstances the Canadian police were amazingly helpful and swiftly located  the cat and - after receiving his consent - informed the resourceful woman about his whereabouts and where he could be reached.

The beautiful cat had been found wandering the streets and not being able to find his way home in his sick and feverish state. He had been taken to hospital for treatment and was recovering when the Canadian police found him and informed him that a crazy princess in Sweden was asking about him.

Universe, that had been watching the whole story unfold, knew that something had to be done. The two could not be kept apart anymore, both needed the other to look after them and to look after the other. In some miraculous way a plane ticket was arranged  with a one way trip to Sweden. The still weak cat packed up his stuff and got on the plane which would deliver him to the waiting princess.

On this day, July 20, three years ago the two fell into each others loving arms at the train station in Helsingborg, Sweden, (See Bock in SecondLife; The kitten has arrived). Since then the two have stayed as inseparable as they were before, but now in both lives. The princess has taken care of the cats health and he has done the same for her. As it turned out the cat is an amazing cook, baker etc., etc., so he put the princess on an organic, nutritional and healthy diet. She is not as full figured anymore but feeling much better she tells me.

Universe is still watching over the two. It sees that they are doing well and it is happy, and so are the rest of their friends. For this is a true story, somewhat freely embellished but nonetheless true.

The princess is the lairds CTO Vampi Twine DeSantis McMillan McMillan (honorary) and the cat is his Sergeant at Arms sirhc DeSantis McMillan. The wonderful resourceful woman is PirateJenny Whybroe.

Happy 3rd Anniversary in Sweden, sirhc!

I hope you two will live happily together ever after. Love you both!

Bara & Free Are Back

Star grooves

Vampi sings along

Yesterday we witnessed the long awaited and longed for return of Bara Jonson and Free Balan to SecondLife.

The two have been on your in first life to Germany and they have therefore not appeared in-world for several months.

I was - of course - at the venue of the "comeback" together with two of the other most adamant Bara-supporters, namely Mrs. Vampi Twine DeSantis McMillan McMillan (honorary) and Starlight "Star" Gentil. 

At the venue were also assembled a modest but enthusiastic crowd of other live music lovers. 

Before I could enjoy the show I was forced to derender three huge waterfalls that surrounded the main stage. These were beautiful to look at, but the loud sounds of water falling was a real nuisance at a venue where one comes to listen to live music. Sometimes I just don't understand what certain people are thinking of when they design their venues. (I am now stopping myself from going into a rant about another live music venue that has/had about 1,013 frogs and toads emitting sounds.)

Bara's and Free's voices marry wonderfully and give you warm shivers down the back accompanied by warm and fuzzy feelings. All of us at the show had a great time and enjoyed a good show together. 

Welcome back to SecondLife Bara and Free, now please wait awhile before you both go on prolonged tours in first life again!

Protection Against Gesturbation

In SecondLife we have something called "gestures", which are pre-programmed messages often combining sounds with words or other signs in local chat.

Gestures can be quite amusing if they are not used too often and are reasonably short and sweet. 

As an example of this kind of gesture I will one I received as a birthday gift from my dear friends Vampi Twine-DeSantis-McMillan- McMillan (honorary) and her husband sirhc DeSantis-McMillan.

Having activated the gesture beforehand all I have to do to play it is write the trigger in local chat. The trigger to this particular gesture is "/bock". So when I (or anyone who happens to have the gesture) write that trigger in local chat and press enter everyone in the room will hear sirhc saying with his sexiest voice; "Bock is in the building" at the same time as they see the same line appear once in local chat.

Another example is the popular gesture "Yeahaaaawwwwwwwwwww!" where you will hear a someone shouting yeahaw. A third example is "Mmmmmmm Bock, is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?". The last one was a present to me from my buddy Regi Yifu so you hear his sexy and very dark voice speaking the words.

The best thing about the three examples I have given here are that they are one-liners and last at the most about five seconds, so the interruption in chat is minimal, both with sound and text.

Evil people in SecondLife have spent a lot of time making gestures that last extremely long and fill the screen with jibberish for up to - or sometimes even more - than 100 lines. If such gestures come into the hands of unscrupulous avatars - especially if there is more than one in the room - the result is pure havoc with spam filling your screen. The most notorious gesturbation-lovers in my experience are generally Italians, Germans and Americans (not necessarily in that order). As always you should be careful when reading generalisations because they do not mean that every individual of the mentioned nationalities gesturbates.

Previously the only option has been to block/mute the culprit(s) after you have gotten sick with them, in the Firestorm viewer there is however now an option that, if you activate it, automatically detects and protects you against the gesturbators. You activate it by going to your viewers Preferences and in the Firestorm tab go to the Protection tab and check the box that says "Enable Spam Protection" (see the red arrow in the image below). 

In the same place you are also able to choose the options when you wish the spam protection to be activated. There is also an option to immediately protect you from repeat-offenders.

The Rhino Writers Broadcasting Party

SL Live Radio broadcast party at the Rhino Writers pavilion at SL10B can only be characterized as a thundering success.

DJ's Johny Alderton and Heloq Tomsen kept all of us in an excellent mood with their music and chat. The crowd was lively and and in excellent spirits so we all had a good time. Among other things I learned that Heloq is from Italy and that his name is pronounced "Ghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-elo-kkkk".

Butch, myself & Guyke

From a strictly personal point of view there were a few added benefits and some drawbacks, which I will list for you here (What is it with me and lists these days, this must be the tenth in just a few days..?)

Benefits

1. I got to meet Dodo, my most dedicated reader (which was proven by the fact that he was the only one who had read my post on saggy pants)
2. Vampi Twine-DeSantis-McMillan-McMillan (honorary) was there, I had not met her in a long time.
3. Bastien Berboral kindly shared a few  landmarks to shops I had never heard of after showing me pics of their awesome clothing lines.

Drawbacks

1. My son told me that, "Face lights are so 80's!" (I am so not going to share my new landmarks with him.)
2. My friend Butch told me that my beautiful skin is "OLD!". If I had newer skin I would not need face lights, was his reasoning.

Well I guess that's what you have family and friends for, to tell you the awful truth when you need to hear it. The only problems are that I feel ugly without the face light - as the old-timer that I am - and I love my skin. Oh well, maybe I do need to update my appearances, but it will be a struggle.... 

SL10B The 20+ Exhibition

My dear friends Vampi Twine DeSantis-McMillan-McMillan (honorary), Sergeant at Arms sirhc DeSantis-McMillan and Gittrika Mint also have an exhibition at SL10B. They had an opening party yesterday which I unfortunately could not attend because - of course - the two major events in my SecondLife have to coincide this year.

So I went to have a look at it today instead, you can also visit it here; Your limousine to 20+ (SLurl). It was an interesting experience and a lot of fun. I was not aware that Gittrika is a sculpture in SecondLife, so there was yet another revelation about a friends talents.

After having seen the 20+ exhibit I walked around to get a look at some of the other exhibitions when I was suddenly hailed by some other friends, Carol Morpork (nee Pixelmaid,) and her husband Timothy Morpork. It was good seeing them both again and we had a pleasant chat, among other things I and Carol compared notes on Timothy's kissing-abilities (Excellent, we both agreed) since I had attacked him on one of the previous Kiss-A-Swede Days and stolen a lovely kiss.

Mrs. Vampi Twine-DeSantis-McMillan-McMillan (Honorary), You've Got Mail

Dearest Vampi,

I didn't read your e-mail to me until late in the night, but I took action immediately and you now have an email with some good news from me waiting to be read. Hopefully the current problem can now be considered to be handled. 

With love always,
Bock

P.S. If you still don't have Internet connection I am hoping that one of our mutual friends in SecondLife has your phone number and will  call you to tell you the good news.

A Second Opinion

During the past week, while all the world has been worrying about the Boston bombings, I have been totally self absorbed and worrying about my own petty problems.

Yesterday I logged in-world determined to block out anything that had to do with first life. Whenever I was asked how I was doing, by caring friends who had read my blog, I simply answered - as I have done all week -  "I am fine" or "I will be fine" because I just didn't want to get into it all.

I tried that trick with Dejerrity too, but was unsuccessful, because he wouldn't let off and I guess I was so filled with it all and needed to talk about it with someone I trusted. So I started talking about it with him and all my frustration and confusion came gushing out.

It is all about my only remaining social arena in first life, i.e. my workplace. I have been the manager of a department consisting of six other lawyers, a conciliator and three legal assistants for the last twelve years. As I have mentioned earlier we had an employee survey at my company last year, as we have every other year. The results of this survey were delivered in the beginning of November last year. Usually I and my department come out of these surveys with flying colors. Not so this year, I flunked in many respects although my results were still excellent in others.

I am not used to bombing in any tests - ever. As far as I can remember it has only ever happened once before, and that was at university when we had an examination about a month and a half after my beloved maternal grandmother had passed away.

The lousy results of the employee survey had to be followed up of course, and we have done that to some extent, but are still not finished so I was not in the least surprised when my boss on Monday asked me to meet with her and the HR manager on Tuesday for further discussions.

At the meeting on Tuesday I was offered what I - at the time - perceived to be a Mafia-like "offer that I could not refuse". While constantly reiterating that she had complete confidence in me and that she believed that I could and would once again function as an excellent manager of my department she all the same maintained that I needed to take time out to work on some of my issues. my physical health (22 sick days last year) and general well-being. She then went on to offer me three months to do so with full pay and released from my managerial duties, which during the meantime would be taken over by my substitute. If all went well and I managed to get on the right track, which she repeatedly told me she was convinced of, I would be reinstated by September.

All my warning signals went off simultaneously and paranoia took a firm grip of my mind. I saw this as a roundabout way to remove me from my position and started  to kick and scream - figuratively - and told them straight off that I would not accept anything that included me stepping down as manager. No way, no how, it was certainly not going to happen if I had anything to do with it, never ever, totally unacceptable! (Do you get the gist of my line?)

I also told them (or rather my boss, the HR manager did not count) that if they wanted to remove me as manager of the department I would prefer a clean break and not going through these strange motions, to which my boss answered that she had no intention whatsoever of removing me as manager if I only got with the program.

At that point we decided to adjourn the meeting and to meet again on Thursday. After thinking about it all Tuesday evening and a worried nights sleep I went to work on Wednesday and sent them an email in which I asked to be relieved from all my duties as manager forthwith. I received an answer from my boss that they still wanted to meet with me on Thursday.

So I went to the meeting on Thursday prepared to discuss how to leave my position and the handover process, but my boss - the stubborn and irritating woman - was not on the same page as me. She told me straight out that she was not prepared to accept my resignation and repeated again that she wished me to consider the matter carefully because she was convinced that if I was given the time I would be able to fulfill my obligations perfectly while at the same time improving my physical health and general physical condition and well-being.

They were going to send me the offer in writing and she wanted me to discuss it with someone I trusted over the weekend.

So this was the point I was at on Friday evening when I logged in-world determined not to worry about the chaos in my mind that the discussions at work had resulted in.

While I told Dej about the events I remembered certain things that I had managed to block out during the process. The most important ones were that I actually admire and like my boss, despite her tendency to move to immediate action when she is confronted with a problem, and also that I have worked with her for thirteen years and fundamentally trust her.

Dej's reaction to the offer and his opinion of it also made me consider it as less threatening and more of a beneficial offer that I could and definitely should rethink and see the possibilities it gave me to improve my present way of life.

The conversation with Dej has given me food for further thought and I am no longer stuck in the paranoid state of mind I was in earlier.

P.S. I would like to apologise for my distraction to those who also tried to speak with me during my conversation with Dej, especially Vampi, Diana and sirhc.

You've Got Email Again, Vampi!

Please read A.S.A.P!

Hugs and kisses,
Bock

NOH8 Avatars 13

Vampi Twine

For more information about the The NOH8 Campaign and how to join it in SecondLife please read my previous post The NOH8 Campaign in SecondLife. There you will also find instructions on where to find the necessary duct tape and cheek painting free of charge.
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If you would like to be a part of the NOH8 Campaign on this blog please send me your picture (fullperm), I will be happy to post it. Name the picture NOH8 and your avatar name and drop it on my profile or send it to my email lundamats@gmail.com.

No Seduction & No Demonstration

This evening I logged into SecondLife with two options in mind, either to let myself be seduced by Ziggy Starsmith or to join Kandinsky Beaumont and Apmel Goosson in a demonstration at Burn against their oppressive rules and their terrible treatment of Kandinsky..

Well, as it turned out none of the three were inworld so I had to make alternative plans. 

I decided to go to my friends Vampi Twine-DeSantis-McMillan-McMillan´s (honorary) and my Sergeant-at Arms sirhc DeSantis-McMillan´s club OrmDricka instead. The theme was black!

The Magic Garden was filled with good friends and I also hauled my brother Martial Eisenhart over with his new perky mesh-ass.

We had a blast with a lot of fun 70´s music (which was better than I imagined it could be)! That goes to show, you can have a good time even if things don´t work out as you planned.

Very Strange

Son of Man (1964) by René Magritte

When I was inworld today something strange occurred.

I was first talking with my son Guyke, who had returned today from a tour of "the gay saunas in Finland", i.e. the home of my son in-law Janttu Winkler. Suddenly the little brat stopped answering me - or so I thought. He could of course be away from hiis keyboard or deep in a serious discussion with his hubby, so I waited a long while, thinking he would come back.

When he did not come back, I tried striking up a conversation with Mrs. Vampi Twine-DeSantis-McMillan instead, who is my chief technical officer in SecondLife. Imagine my surprise when she also i-g-n-o-r-e-d me!

I thought (with a shitload of self-pity), "Well, it may just be a bad day. Everyone seems to be too busy to talk to you so you might just as well log off!"

As it turns out, they did not ignore me because when I checked my mail after logging off I saw their responses there. It was just SecondLife acting up in an unexpected way, that I hav never encountered before.

So you two who are named in this post, I still love you but didn't get your answers inworld! I hope everything works better tomorrow!

You've Got Mail, Vampi!

Please respond a.s.a.p. for quick transaction!

Love ya´ and please slap that cute kitten of yours on the tush with greetings from from me!

Another Sleepathon

So, now I have completed another sleepathon, the second in two weeks. This one only lasted two nights and a day (from Monday 6 PM until Wednesday 6 AM) but still I am getting worried because I am going to start working again on Monday.

The difference between this time and the last, is that I actually had a dream this time. I think I may have felt guilty - or at least had a bad feeling about - the last response I left to a comment by my Chief Technical Officer Mrs. Vampi Twine-DeSantis-McMillan McMillan (honorary) and her presumed sex life with my Sergeant at Arms Lieutenant Colonel (retired) sirhc DeSantis-McMillan.

The dream was that Blogger somehow posted a warning message to my blog telling me that I should refrain from commenting on other peoples sex life or they would shut me down. The dream was so vivid that I even saw the strange post and had to check the blog when I woke up.