When Dej Disappeared (Update)

I haven't been able to see my brother Dej at all during the last week, not even his tag. I couldn't figure out what had happened or what was wrong.

Everyone else we asked saw him perfectly well, but not I. 

Dej in a screenshot when Mirco shares his screen on Skype

What I saw on my screen

With the help of Mirco and his friend Miro Collas, we finally figured out what it was and then I understood when, where and how I had messed. I feel like such a noob!

Tomais, Dej and I visited The Men's Department a week ago for some serious shopping. 

As always the place was full of eager shoppers, so I did what usually do in those laggy circumstances, with one fatal exception. I marked all the other shoppers and derendered them, but instead selecting to do so temporarily I selected permanently. 

So my poor beautiful, meshified, albeit much older brother ended up being blacklisted on my screen. It was a great relief to finally see his sweet face again.

Thanks for the help Mirco and Miro!
---
Update 8/13/2017
If you are using the Firestorm viewer my friend Anonymous has a nifty trick for you on how to derender all avatars at a busy event and then to render them again later with only two clicks.

I may have learned this once upon a time, but had since then managed to forget it. There is no better way to remember things than by repetition, especially if you are a forgetful and absentminded person like yours truly.

When Shit Happens... Let the Show Go On

As an oldtimer in both SecondLife and in first life, I know that sometimes shit happens. The important thing is how you deal with it, usually you just step over it and move on.

Sasha Laryukov as Madonna

That is what the cast of The Madonna Virtual History Tour had to do this evening when their dance master - who was going to lead all the newer dances of the show - was hit by a power outage in his first life and dropped out and couldn't get back in. Sasha and the remaining crew championed on and did the best they could without him.

I have seen the Virtual History Tour three times earlier - without technical difficulties - but I must say that this was the time I had most fun and was most moved.

A big reason for enjoying it so much was the wonderful and warm interaction between the crew and the audience in the face of adversity.

The fact that the show also was a beautiful tribute to our brothers and sisters who lost their lives in Orlando in a very touching way that brought tears to my eyes. Unfortunately I couldn't get any pictures of that part due to a bit of weekend lag so the photos of their faces didn't rez for me.

I would like to thank Second Pride and all the performers for a wonderful experience!

Riding On Poultry at Southern Charm

My wonderful husband Tomais has a huge memory bank, contrary to me. I am certain that an objective assessment would show that he has something like 4 GB of memory at his disposal, while I have a mere 15 kB.

It is therefore not at all surprising that he called an old post to my attention the other day, which I had forgotten all about. The post was this one, Bock in SecondLife: The Laird's Challenge for Vehicle Builders.

Tomais reason for reminding me was that he had acquired some rideable poultry and he asked me if I thought they would fit the description. I was sorry to say, that as the poultry he showed me were more like enormous farm animals than mechanical vehicles I could not consider them worthy of the reward.

Nonetheless, Tomais, my brother JJ and I had some fun riding the cocks over to my brother Dej's place to try and give him a scare. As it turned out - and as the creator warns about in a note card - the rezzing of multiple cocks on the same sim creates a fierce lag, so textures didn't come in sufficiently fast for Dej to be scared.

The only one of us who could get things to rez enough to take decent pictures was JJ, so I must thank him for the mementos. 

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

Relaxing

It's been a hectic time with much going on in both my lives. When my husband yesterday came up with the amazing idea that we should just sit on the back porch of the barn and relax I jumped at it.

My English Bulldog Bilbo was there also, whimpering and pining for Dej, who is visiting with his mother and first life family over the holidays. After a while he realized it wasn't helping and went to lie down and catch some sleep.

After Tomais had logged for dinner, I went up into the skies and took into Inventory all the summer and autumn landscaping we had stored up at 1,500 m and 2,000 m in the hopes that the lag that has hit Southern Charm since we started the snowing would lessen, at least a bit.

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

Poll Results: Most Overused Word

The results of the poll are in and are clear as you can see.

The real thriller was for a while if "Lag" or "Drama" would win, but in the final hours "Drama" pulled away and won with a mere three votes.

So I am happy to announce that "Drama" is the most overused word in SecondLife according to the readers of Bock in SecondLife.

Lets make a deal and promise each other to use the ugly word less in the future!

Support Ticket #01587329 XI (Updated)

This evening I had an email from the sweet Theresa Linden waiting for me when I got home from work.

"A comment has been added to your Case..

Case: 01587329
Avatar: Bock McMillan
Type: Other Inworld Issues
Status: Information Requested
Hi Bock,

That is pretty cool info! I have just sent Alexa an email for you :)

Please let me know how it goes with the bandwidth test!

All the best,
Theresa Linden

To reply to this case, either Reply to this email, or visit : https://secondlife.com/my/support/?caseID=01587329

(To view the Case online, you will need to log into Secondlife.com with this Avatar: Bock McMillan)

---

I sent Theresa this answer

"Dear Theresa,

Thank you very much for greeting Alexa from me!

As far as the bandwidth tests go, I am cautiously optimistic but would like to do some further tests this weekend. Among other things I am planning a shopping tour to some of the lagiest shops I know in SecondLife. 

I will get back to you with a full report of the full results of the testing on Sunday. However, the tests I have conducted so far with extremely helpful and patient friends are very encouraging and positive since I reduced the bandwidth to 500.

Have a wonderful weekend and keep your fingers crossed for me.
Bock"
---

Update
A little later I received the following response.

"A comment has been added to your Case..

Case: 01587329
Avatar: Bock McMillan
Type: Other Inworld Issues
Status: Information Requested
Hello Bock!

I have my fingers crossed for you! Either way, have a good weekend no matter what and we will talk soon :)

Theresa Linden

To reply to this case, either Reply to this email, or visit : https://secondlife.com/my/support/?caseID=01587329

(To view the Case online, you will need to log into Secondlife.com with this Avatar: Bock McMillan)"

Technical Malfunctions

Since a couple of weeks I have been experiencing some strange technical problems in SecondLife. Below I will give you a complete list of the various problems, the causes that have been suggested to me and what I have done to try to solve them.

I noticed all the problems at the same time, so as far as I know they arose simultaneously. At that time I was using the Firestorm viewer.

Problem 1:  Repetition of my chat in local

Frequency: Daily

Description: When I speak in local chat all my remarks are repeated once. It looks like this in local chat:

"Bock McMillan: I am speaking in local chat.I am speaking in local chat."

or 

"Bock McMillan: I am speaking in local chat.

A.A: Bla bla bla

B.B: Yodel-yodel-yodel

C.C: Di-da-de-da-dum-dee-dum.

Bock McMillan: I am speaking in local chat."

What I have tried to illustrate above is that sometimes the repetition is instantaneous while at other times there is a delay of between 10-60 seconds. There are no brackets around the repetitions. Mostly I can see it happening myself but at other times I don´t see it.

Suggested causes: a) Translation is activated, b) Pushing Page Up, c) Lag

a) I have checked this at least 25 times and translation is never, and has never been, activated, besides if it were a translation it would - usually - have brackets around the repetition.

b) No, I do not try t annoy myself and everyone else at the venue by pushing the "Page Up" key on my keyboard every time I have spoken in chat. (You will have to take my word for this, I´m afraid.)

c) Yes, it happens in venues where there is lag, but it can also happen where there is no lag at all.

Problem 2: Repetition of my chat in Instant Message

Frequency: Daily

Description: When I speak in IM all my remarks are repeated once. Reportedly sometimes the repetition is instantaneous while at other times there is a delay of between 10-30 seconds. I cannot see it myself but the people I am talking with tell me about it.

Suggested causes: See Problem 1.

Problem 3:  Repetition of payments

Frequency: Daily

Description: When I buy, donate or tip my payment is repeated either immediately or within 60 seconds afterwards. This means I make two purchases and receive two deliveries of everything I buy or that I donate or tip twice the amount I had intended.

Suggested causes: Lag (See Problem 1 c and my additional information about this)

Problem 4: HUD's are turned on or off involuntarily

Frequency: Daily

Description: If I have a HUD turned on it turns itself off and if I have it turned off it turns itself on.

Suggested causes: Lag. (See Problem 1 c and my additional information about this.)

Problem 5: Involuntary movement

Frequency: Weekly

Description: When I am standing around or dancing at a venue my avatar starts moving around until it ends up in a corner from where it cannot be moved.

Suggested causes: Lag. (See Problem 1 c and my additional information about this.)

Measures I have already taken to try to solve the issues, to no avail so far.

1. I have cleared my caches 984,367 times (Well, no less than 100 times if that is more believable)

2. I have restarted  my modem no less than 25 times, on occasions leaving it off more than an hour.

3. I have re-installed the SecondLife viewer more than 20 times, making certain that I did a fresh install every time.

4. Switched to Linden Lab´s viewer 3 and then back again to Firestorm and then back again to Linden viewer 3, making sure every time that I did a fresh install.

5. I have talked with a sweet Linden on the labs Live-Chat support. She made the same suggestions that I have listed above (1-2), checked my avatar for corruption and told me it was low but she was going to run a cleaning procedure anyway, which she did. 

6. I have taken off all my attachments and HUDs and reset the HUDs.

7. I have run several virus and malware scans on my computer, both online and offline.

Today, after yet another fresh install, I took the drastic measure to delete everything in my Inventory that was younger than sixty days. Luckily I have not been purchasing much lately, but unluckily all your holiday greetings had to go I am afraid. Results of this drastic measure are still pending. This measure did not help at all!

(The information in this post was later turned into the support ticket #01587329 I sent to Linden Lab)

Creating Lag

Shorty, one of the owners, told me that I was creating lag at the Sanctuary today - or rather that my shirt was doing it. Everyone in SecondLife knows that creating lag is the worst thing one can do in-world and I did not want to get a bad reputation, not for that also.

So as the nice and innocent Swedish man I am I took off my shirt and exposed myself to their curious eyes. In hindsight I think that perhaps Shorty just wanted to get a look at my hairy chest...

The Wedding of Kicki and Hercules

The bride and groom at the altar

Protesters?

Yesterday I was honored to be a guest at the wedding of Kicki Springflower and her handsome lover Hercules.

The church, Stavkirken in Second Norway, was packed with the glitterati of the Scandinavian communities with some interesting International additions. Stavkirken is a beautiful jewel of architecture in SecondLife and all the guests did their best to match it. Most of us actually succeeded, except for a guy who kept his hat on inside the church.

It was a very beautiful ceremony and the declarations of love between the bride and groom were touching and heartwarming.

The lag was surprisingly horrendous as we were no more than 45 people on the sim. I don´t really experience lag very often in SecondLife although it is a common complaint. I took a few pictures - as you see above, but the only one close to acceptable is the one at the top of this post, but if you look closely on that you see three guests standing in crucifixion poses.On all the rest there were "Grey people" as witnessed by the picture to the right.

I at first thought this was Ms. Blanche Argus and some friends protesting against "marriage being a patriarchal form of slavery for women", but when I interviewed her on this she vehemently denied it and claimed that she and her bench-mates were in fact all sitting down..

Well as I always say, "Lag is a state of mind, don´t blame it on the Lindens!" I had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed the ceremony. For better pictures I suggest you visit some of the other Scandinavian SecondLife blogs. I was sorry I could not attend the party afterwards but reports say that it was great fun with Ms. Ewa Aska and Ms. Rultan Zeppelin as hostesses and the amazing DJ PJ.

Kicki and Hercules, you made me proud by the way you both handled the difficult situation, I wish you both all the best for the future! As the SecondLife saying goes "If the wedding has bad lag but the sim doesn't crash it will be a long and prosperous marriage!" (Well, I just made that up, but there should be such a saying.)

P.S. I hope a bosom buddy of mine notices that I carefully avoided to include any picture of a certain reverend/philosopher in the pictures above.

Pet Peeves

A pet peeve is a minor annoyance that an individual identifies as particularly annoying to him or her, to a greater degree than others may find it. (Wikipedia)

I have quite a few pet peeves but two - that both are among the top ten - happened to me yesterday, so I´ll tell you about these today.

Persons constantly complaining about lag when at a crowded event.

Face the fact that it is a natural thing in Second Life, just deal with it. You could try to change your settings for the occasion, but for the love of mankind don´t bitch about it, it gets boring for the rest of us and really fast too.

If you know you cannot stand lag go sit by yourself at the bottom of an ocean somewhere. Have fun!

A wise man - me, myself and I - once said "Lag is a state of mind, don´t blame Second Life!

Homophobes that think being gay means you are halfway a woman or want to be one.

Hey buster, educate yourself. There is a difference you know, between gender, gender identity and sexual orientation. Do your homework and don´t clutter up my life with your ignorance and intolerance.

I took someone off my friendslist yesterday because of this. I told him, if he cannot accept me, why would he want to be on my friendslist anyway?

Otherwise yesterday was a great evening, but I´ll tell you more about that in my next post!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh en sån kväll, en sån underbar kväll...

...som de kallar "splendida serata" och då är det naturligtvis Nationaldagsfirandet på den svenska Ambassaden i SL jag talar om!

Festligt, folkligt och absolut fullsatt!!! Liksom på alla de bättre fester jag har varit på i SL kraschade simen, men det gjorde absolut inte saken sämre.

Frostland var underbar som alltid, Bara var enastående som alltid, junivers och hans dansare var fantastiska som alltid, dronningen (PetGirl) var lysande som alltid, PJ var härlig som alltid, Chickendales var ljuvliga som alltid och alla andra som var där var på ett satans gott humör och soliga.

KVÄLLEN VAR KORT SAGT ÖVERHÄRLIG!!!

Till råga på allt vann jag Svenska Institutets specialpris för "sexigaste och mest kreativa avatar i blå gult", tror jag det var (men minnet är lite lite dimmigt just där). Bild kommer så fort jag hittar någonstans jag kan stjäla den på någons blogg eller om någon vänlig själ skickar den till mig.

Stöldgods från "Mer eller mindre KRANFEL", tack Vesper!

Stöldgods från "Blanche´s arena", tack Blanche!

(Taget på Måndagsbörsen dvs. dagen efter Nationaldagen, men jag hade inte orkat klä om...)

Jag har sett att några har klagat på lag, men vad väntar man sig egentligen när man beger sig till ett evenemang som lockar fler än 80 avatarer i nästan två timmar? Jo visst, blir det en del följdproblem av lag som gör livet besvärligt men vad fan gör det. Stå stilla - om du kan - och ha kul säger jag!!!

Redan som noob i SL kläckte jag 2007 den devis som sedan alltid följt mig i dylika sammanhang "Lag is a state of mind, don´t blame the Lindens!". Med detta menar jag ungefär det samma som "Klaga inte över mörkret, tänd ett ljus istället" med tillägget "...och skapa inte problem och otrivsel omkring er genom att gnälla över något som ingen kan göra något åt, i vart fall inte just då".

Jag har också förstått att några klagade på att de inte kom in på simen, men herredjävlar vilket naturreservat kommer de ifrån? Är det fullt så är det fullt, skyll dig själv och kom i tid nästa gång!!!

Tack Eventgruppen, Svenska Instiutet och Swedish People in SL!!!

Ett särskilt tack även till min gossar i Chickendales, love you guys! Ni bevisade att ni kunde klara även en besvärlig situation!