Celebration of Kiss-A-Swede Day

Photo by Ziggy Starsmith

The International community - well, select parts of it - have celebrated the third annual International Kiss-A-Swede Day in SecondLife even without my presence.

Read more about the celebrations in SecondLife on Ziggy And Guyke On The Edge Of Second Life: Kiss-A-Swede Day (url).

Thanks Guykechen and Ziggchen, it was a wonderful surprise and I laughed so hard that I almost peed. 

My Big Boy

Today I met my son Guyke at the gay SecondLife-bloggers group Rhino Writers meeting in preparation for our groups participation at the SL10B. Guykechen was there representing his husband Ziggy's blog "Ziggy On The Edge Of Second Life". (Well, not officially but I had brought him there in that capacity.)

Unfortunately we were not many who could make it to the meeting, so besides Guyke and myself there was Avacar Bluestar and his partner ricogenu and Jeff Ellsworth. It was soon apparent that Avacar and Teno Theriac had already had fruitful conversations on the matter and had come up with many good ideas.

Myself and Avacar Bluestar

Jeff Ellsworth

ricogenu and Guykechen

After the meeting Guyke and I returned to Southern Charm to catch up and say our goodbyes. On top of the list of topics was of course what was going on in our first lives and Guyke's fabulous SecondLife  makeover.

"I decided it was time to grow up", the boy told me, "so I needed a complete remake for a more manly and less boyish look." And what a stunning look it is!

To my great relief he has not grown to big for hugging, I will never allow that to happen of course, but still it is good to notice that the Swedish part of his upbringing is deeply rooted in him.

Celebrating "The Evil Twins"

My ex-missus Iendi Laville and our mutual friend Selma Edman share the same birthday in first life. When the two women are together you n--e-v-e-r know what will happen. They bring out the absolute worst in each other - in an amusing way - so they have therefor rightfully named themselves "The Evil Twins".

Posing with the birthday girls

Today a good part of the Swedish inhabitants of SecondLife and a few of the Dutch (Butch Diavolo), Belgians (Guyke Lundquist) and Canadians (Ziggy Starsmith) also came together at the Grenouille Inn to celebrate their birthday. 

The two girls boyfriends were there also. I must truthfully say that the two women have excellent taste, both Holy Archer and Sev Laval are stunning men even if they happen to be straight. Most stunning and breathtaking was however the always amazing Apmel Goosson. 

Unfortunately I did not get a picture of Apmel or any of the others because I suddenly noticed the bulge Apmel was toting in his swimwear this evening. I swear it looked like a good sized anaconda! I am not a size-queen ordinarily, but that sight totally took my breath away and left me completely dazed.

I am hoping that some of the others present at the party have taken more pictures that I can link to, hopefully some of them will show Apmel.

A Butch on Fire

I was invited to Zeus Gay Club yesterday by "mijn vriend" Butch, who was doing a set there. 

Believe me the man was on fire yesterday and we got some great music, loads of eye-candy and pleasant conversation.

DJ Butch, the sweet Aisha Caewlin and the always beautiful Spanki Moulliez

Ziggy, looking better than ever in his old-new hairdo (approved by Guyke)

On "The Boys are Back in Town"

The Boys are Back in Town from Tremendum Pictures on Vimeo.

A post on Ziggy's blog yesterday (Ziggy On The Edge Of Second Life: "The Boys are Back in Town" (url)) reminded me of the discussions my Ars and I used to have at irregular intervals about our son Guyke and his SecondLife love life. Our son's love life was always a major concern for Ars,

"When is the kid finally going to settle down? Why can't he just stick with the great guys he has found?", he would ask me worriedly. This was after Guyke had in close succession been in long-lasting relationships with two men - who had both been to Ars and my liking - and had suddenly broken the relationships off. "He brings along new men and expects us to befriend them and love them and take them into our family and then ends it all for some mysterious reason. I am not having this anymore, babe, the next guy he brings along we will not allow into the land-group until we really know it will last!"

"Kiddo is still young, babe, and we may know a lot of what is going on between him and his men but I am sure we don't know everything. Besides it's his love life, we cannot choose whom he should love, now can we?", I used to say to try and calm him down. "And remember, babe, he is good at picking up easily likable  men - well except for (name withheld, an avatar whom Ars never trusted or liked.)"

"Don't be a damned fool, Bock, of course it is his love life and he gets to choose, I am just hoping that he at some point will stick with his choice, just like we have, and not keep looking for greener grass somewhere else."

"I love you too, babe! Like all parents I think we just have to go along for the ride and try to be there for him when things go awry. I am sure he will settle at some point."

"Yeah, but we will still not let any of his new guys into our group until we decide so ourselves, not because he wants us too"

"Of course not, Ars, it is our group and we decide whom we let in or not!"

Miraculous Recovery

Some of you may still remember my problems in world named Support Ticket #01587329

• repetition of my own chats in local and Instant Messages,
• repetition of purchases and tips,
• repetition of movements,
• repetition of teleports,
• etc. etc.

The problem remained whichever viewer I used (Yes, I did clean installations every time!), the official Linden viewer 3, other Linden versions or their beta-versions, Firestorm or Singularity etc. 

Linden Lab's customer support could not help me to completely get rid if the issue, but helped me with a few useful workarounds to alleviate the problems it was causing. I am now happy to inform you that the problems are now completely gone. 

This miraculous recovery happened after I had installed the latest major update of Firestorm (4-4-0-33720). I read about this on my buddy Ziggy Starsmith's blog Ziggy On The Edge Of Second Life.and thought I might as well try it. Lo and behold I am cured!

Two Hot Blonds and Hundreds of Birds

I had never been to my buddy Ziggy´s new home since he moved recently, so I decided to crash him today. Due to past unfortunate and rather embarrassing experiences, I first checked the World Map to make certain that he wasn't "entertaining".

Ziggy shares the sim with two buddies, the partners Larz Kaz and Aeschylus Shepherd, but has his own parcel. The parcel is a beautiful tropical paradise with about 496 colorful birds all over the place and some huge turtles too and a lot of other creatures too I suspect although I did not spot them. It is a truly amazing place and very different from Ziggy's previous home in Second Norway. 

After Ziggy had shown me around his new house and the parcel we sat down by the fire for a nice chat. I was too lazy to plug in the voice so we talked in local chat for awhile before the lateness of the hour caught up with me and I had to log off to prepare for bed. 

One of the wonderful things Ziggy had laying on the beach was a huge tree trunk which was stacked with many great poses that I tried out and a lot that I did not even dare to try. The  tree was made by the famous and imaginative creator Regi Yifu of Regimade. The trunk was a complete beach home in itself and - as those who know Regi's work must already suspect - a sex-gen plaything also. We did not try any of those poses though, knowing Regi's work I am however certain that they are both sublime and thrilling.

Ars, Guyke & I

When Ars and I got together late in 2007 he made it completely clear to me that he and his SecondLife son Guyke came as a package deal. If I wanted to be with Ars, I would have to accept Guyke as part of the family. Ars was careful to explain to me that the two had been lovers for a time, but that the relationship and love between them had - over time - grown into one of father and son instead.

However much I was in love with Ars his request was something I needed to think carefully about. I am not the kind of man who enters into commitments easily just to regret, renege or try to renegotiate at a later date. If I was going to enter into this relationship I wanted to think about it and know what I was agreeing to. I had to have some time to think and Ars would have some questions to answer. Ars patiently answered all my questions and gave me the space and time I needed.

When I had gotten all the answers and assurances I needed from Ars I told him that I was willing to accept Guyke as his son and a member of our family. Until this point in my SecondLife existence the concept of families in-world had been bewildering to me.

At first Guyke and I were quite cautious in our dealings with each other, but as we got the spoken or silent reassurances we needed from the other we grew to love each other. I actually at times feel like a stepfather to him. Guyke is extremely easy to love - when he wants to. He is an extremely charming and considerate man with a great capacity for love. Of course, like all children, he can also be a completely impossible and insolent brat, but that passes quickly and I have learned how to handle it.

Neither Ars nor Guyke ever gave me reason to regret my decision.

I do believe, as I told Guyke, that Ars would have been very happy and more than a little surprised to know that we still get along and are a family more than three years after he had left us and was not here to mediate between his pigheaded son - all inherited from his father - and me. In my opinion that's is the best proof of the love the two of us have for each other.

When I met with Guyke in-world today it was the first time in a long time. Guyke has been busy with his first lime and the new love he has found there. I haven't been as regular in-world either so we have missed connecting accept for a few offline messages.

As Guyke tells me, "he doesn't do mails" except for extremely short messages or report

We met over by the barn at Southern Charm, as I was there setting up the the new furniture I bought at Post today. When I had finished doing that - and we had admired the result sufficiently - we sat down to talk while my bulldog Bilbo snoozed in his basket.

Before we could talk about more important stuff we had to get the question of our disagreement on the pressing subject of Ziggy's new blond hairdo out of the way. 

Guyke asked me if I honestly thought that Ziggy looked good in the new hairdo, because he did not like it one bit. I told Guyke that although I might think that Ziggy was more of a brunette personalty, I actually loved the new blond hair. Guyke then accused me of having lousy taste, to which I answered that I have impeccable taste but perhaps very personal. I also told him that I found it easy to accept and forgive the whims and caprices of my friends and that if Ziggy loved his new hair, then so did I.

After that was settled we could move on to other topics.

Guyke started out with asking if we could be serious. I assured him that I would be.

My son then reminded me that Ars had loved me dearly and would have wished me to be well. For this reason - if nothing else - I should focus on my real life and to make the necessary changes to get better. He wished me to promise him that I would really to that and that I would give priority to my real life..

I told Guyke that I would give him the same promise that I had given to my boss, that I would do my utmost to make the necessary changes in my life with the end goal of improving my physical health. I went on to say that I felt that I could make the necessary changes in my first life while keeping up my SecondLife.

Guyke then accused me of not listening - and told me I never listened to him - and wanted me to admit to having a real life and not a first life.

I told my son that I had actually listened very carefully to what he had said, but that did not mean that I had to accept his premise that SecondLife was in someway unreal. I went on to tell him that what mattered most to me in any of my lives were people and my relationships with them. In my opinion people were not less real in SecondLife than they were in first life, so I refused - and would continue to refuse - to use that expression because I believed it to be untrue for me.

My son got cross with me over this philosophical quibble and told me he was disappointed in me. He also refused to hug me when he had to leave for bed because he was so upset.

I was sorry that Guyke left in a bad mood and without our usual hug. I did not understand how we had ended up in that linguistic and philosophical debate on whether one of the lives is more real than the other. I love my stepson dearly, sometimes I do not think he fully understands to what extent, I also know that he loves me.

I do understand that Guyke is concerned about my health and that he wishes me all the best. Indeed I am grateful for him for expressing his worries and it makes me love him even more. I know we will get over this stupid argument and I want to assure him that I am going to do my very best to keep my promises to him, my boss and myself concerning the changes I need to make in my life to improve my health.

DJ Butch @ Zeus Gay Club

On my return to my wonderful home in SecondLife yesterday I was suddenly hailed in Instant Message by an obtrusive, insolent and cheeky dude who asked "Who are you?". My response was of course rapid and scathing "Who are you and why are you harassing me?".

The ox greeting me in this loving way was of course my buddy Butch Diavolo, owner of Club Whim and a Techno Trance music DJ.

Butch called to invite me to his set at Zeus Gay Club a bit later. I told him I would be happy to come, but little did I know that I had accepted an invitation to a closeted congregation of gay foot fetishists, myself and other weirdos.

Ziggy joined us after awhile, and he looked absolutely stunning in his new blond hairdo.

Spanki Moulliez was also at the club and was using all sorts of tricks and ruses to divert attention from the fact that he was almost nude, displaying a cute knob and looking gorgeous.

Just before I had to leave for bed I was looking at DJ "Non-Smelly Feet", a.k.a. Butch, and his supporting team of dancers starting to lay down on the floor with Butch himself fondling and stroking and indeed smelling a foot of the club host Devin while his own feet were being played with by the lovely Aicha Aisha..

A Purity Ball for My Buddies

I thought I knew everything there was to know about the American lifestyle - but apparently I did not - because when I was driving to work yesterday I heard about something I had never heard of before. The radio was reporting about a Swedish photographer who had an exhibition of photographs taken at "purity balls" in the United States.

According to Wikipedia a "purity ball is a formal dance event attended by fathers and their daughters which promotes virginity until marriage for teenage girls. Typically, daughters who attend make a virginity pledge to remain sexually abstinent until marriage. Fathers who attend promise to protect their young daughters' "purity of mind, body, and soul." Proponents of these events contend that they encourage close and deeply affectionate relationships between fathers and daughters, thereby avoiding the premarital sexual activity that allegedly results when young women seek love through relationships with young men Critics assert that the balls promulgate messages encroaching upon women's freedom, promote anti-feminist ideals, and ignore homosexuality.(...) The girls can range in age from their college years to 4 years old, however the majority of girls are “just old enough… [to] have begun menstruating” as purity ball guidelines advise. (...) Participants are described as "dates", and, according to Glamour magazine, could be mistaken for heterosexual romantic partners in the absence of information about their consanguinity." The first event of this kind took place in Colorado Springs in 1998.

I was totally amazed and baffled when I heard about this newfangled custom. The first thing that struck me was that it was an extremely male chauvinist concept whereby the father seeks to control the sexual drives of the female members of his family. It also gave me a creepy sense of being sligtly incestuos, I am not quite clear on why this happened, but possibly it was because of my feeling that these fathers were meddling with their daughters sexuality.

From what I have seen in the pictures on Google Images the girls at these events are mostly dressed in all white ball gowns, while the fathers are in their tired tuxedos. That made me think about what my male family members and buddies would wear if I threw a purity party for them in SecondLife 

I hope none of the guys take offence, but this is only me making - sometimes - completely uninformed guesses on their love life in SecondLife for a bit of semi-innocent fun. No harm or malice is intended. (If you object please tell me so and I will remove my remark about you.)

Apmel "The Six Year Old Virgin" Goosson

sirhc "The One Woman Man" DeSantis

Dejerrity "One At A Time" Mycron

Butch "Mr. Discretion Personified" Diavolo

Eddi "I Am Never Telling" Haskell

Guyke "It's Great For My Complexion" Lundquist

Kahvy "Boys Just Wanna Have Fun" Sands

Ziggy "The Eternal Bad Boy" Starsmith

Ryse "Mr. Professional Actor" Skytower

The Benefit of Two Realities

As I mentioned in an earlier post my first life sucked big time today, so at the behest of my buddy Ziggy I logged into my other life.

If I have not done so before I would now like to take the opportunity of thanking Philip Rosedale (a.k.a. Philip Linden), the creator of SecondLife, for supplying me with this wonderful alternative reality. On a day like today it felt like a great relief and almost a lifesaver.

When I came in-world I was immediately surrounded by good, nice, decent and caring people and my outlook on life slowly shifted. I had two long talks and a few shorter ones..

The first long talk was with my brother in-law Dej who came over to visit with me at my current favorite spot on the home sim - the grassy knoll between the two ponds close to the house. I really trust Dej, he has always been there for me over the last three years. I also trust in his common sense and no nonsense attitude towards life.

When Dej had to leave for a drink and dinner in first life, I was hailed by my buddy Ziggy. We had a lot of catching up to do as we hadn't really spoken with each other since well before Easter.

Although the two men at first glance may seem very different, they have certain fundamental traits in common which appeal to me. Serious, intelligent men with a humorous twist have always made me feel comfortable and secure.

Congratulations "Ziggy On The Edge...."

Today my mentor Eddi "Eagle Eye" Haskell noticed that my buddy Ziggy Starsmith's blog "Ziggy On The Edge..." had passed 100,000 pageviews since November 2009. (The counter is at 101,567  pageviews at the moment so the event happened 2-4 days ago)

Bock in SecondLife wishes to congratulate Ziggy on this achievement and hope that we will be able to follow Ziggy´s unique view of SecondLife and the world at large for a long time to come!

Take Ziggy's Poll on Blogs

My buddy Ziggy Starsmith has a poll running on his blog whether you "think blogs are becoming a little passé or even boring now...?"

I would suggest you go there and set him straight!

In my not-so-humble opinion blogging in itself is still a viable and excellent way of expressing yourself to both yourself, your community and the world as a whole.

So what if nobody else reads it? You atleast have the possibility of unloading shit and putting your views out there for the world to see and know. Many bloggers may wish that they could be more relevant to many more readers and accumulate a huge following, but nonetheless it is a way for all of us to leave a little trail of ourselves on the world wide web.

"You Can Call Me Cupid!"

I celebrated Saint Patrick's Day at the Gay Archipelago yesterday.

My mood was excellent and I had bought a stunning new suit, fitting for the occasion, at Marketplace. The suit was a statement in itself which shouted to the world that here comes a fashion forward man with great confidence in himself and his impeccable taste. It was therefore rather disappointing to notice that my finery blended in beautifully with the unfortunate choice of carpeting for the venue.

Being me, I did not let this little adversity spoil my fun in the least.

I was accompanied to the party by my friend Butch Diavolo. The man had an excellent time mocking my wonderful outfit.

Within fifteen seconds of our arrival at the venue the impetuous man was nagging me to animate him. When I had fulfilled his wishes and turned my attention to the assembled guests, I soon noticed that he suddenly stopped dancing with me and was not dancing beside me anymore.

After looking around for him I saw that he had thrown himself at poor innocent Judas/Atreyu/Craig and was now dancing couples dances with the young man instead. Please notice where the eager young man has placed his large hand... even if it can hardly be noticed on Butch's huge ass which is as wide as a barn door.

I said to Butch, "Here I bring you to a dance and you dump me in the middle of the dance floor for a hormone-fueled young lad, whom you met little more than a fortnight ago?" Butch answered me in his usual sullen way, "I have known Judas a long time, I only re-met him at Garth's and Mitch's wedding."

Lately I have become aware of that my mere presence somewhere seems to be a catalyst for budding romantic entanglements around me. I informed Butch about this phenomenon and told him "You can call me Cupid!". He simply snorted at my profound insight.

As the two men started to draw the whole venues attention to themselves in the most scandalous way (they should really have gotten a room) I called in the cavalry in the shapes of first the sweet Ziggy and, a short while later, my son Guyke.

Although Guyke had to leave shortly afterwards, it was good to see him again as he has been away in first life. Ziggy has also been busy with his first life so it was good to get a few dances with him and catch up before I had to leave for my beauty sleep.

Hi-a-tus-es

Hi·a·tus  /haɪˈeɪtəs/ noun, plural hi·a·tus·es. (Dictionary.com)

The term hiatus has suddenly turned into a very popular word among my immediate family and friends in SecondLife. At this time I have five of those closest to me on a hiatus, they are my brother in-law Drey, my buddy Butch, my stepson Guyke, my sister Millimina and my buddy Ziggy. Their reasons for this decision vary.

Drey has just vanished and doesn't respond to messages, so his reasons are still unclear, but they usually occur when he has a lot of stuff going on in his first life.

Butch is on a sort of semi-hiatus because of first life occurrences. 

Guyke is on a hiatus to enjoy the feeling of cuddling up close to a warm man. 

Millimina is on one due to a busy first life also. 

And finally Ziggy because of painful health issues in first life - which are hopefully going to be taken care off by skillful surgeons of the Canadian Nation Health Care very soon.

In my humble (well maybe not all that humble...) opinion the five of them would be better off if they took a hiatus from their first lives instead of SecondLife, because their is no better place to be than in-world (preferably with me) if you want to relax from the stresses of a busy first life, as evidenced by the wonderful picture by Millimina that i am using in this post.

Topics of the Day

With Butch Diavolo I discussed oysters. pearls and correct cosmology. Oh, I almost forgot, we also talked about a**h***s (the bad variety)

With Ziggy Starsmith I talked about kidney stones and what we may expect of our spouses in moments of crisis. I also told him he had been added to a short list.




Kahvy Sands and I talked about taking the first step, just moving and breaking patterns and visits to Spurts Beach. (I should add that the last topic was a joke, or so he tells me...) Kahvy also reminded me about having seen the inside of his steam bath several years ago.

Photography by Dejerrity Mycron

My brother in-law Dejerrity Mycron and I talked about the Oscars, his outing with a friend and the lighthouse at Southern Charm.
P,S. We also discussed the best way to choose a handbag (seemingly for a friends niece - but I am not quite sure).