Call For Entertainers! Second Pride Wants YOU!

The sim is ready! The creators are moving in! All we need is you to come party with us!!

Second Pride is gearing up for TWO, count em, TWO weekends of parties on the newly finished Second Pride Sim!!!

The Events/Marketing Director Nicky is looking for artists. Sign up today!! Party with us on December 21st, 22nd & 23rd and then again on the 28th, 29th & 30th!!

Click or cut and paste this link to take you the online signup portal now!
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The sim has already been winterized by Build Director Starter and his eager and talented helpers. It looks terrific. Vendors have started moving in, and more are on their way!

Come and enjoy the beautiful sim, do a little holiday shopping and take pictures with friends.

The amazing sim pictures below are by Danielle Darkwood.

Your sleigh ride to Second Pride sim awaits!

SP Elections: Last Chance to Vote!

The Second Pride elections end today at 12 AM (midnight) SLT. If you want a chance to influence the selection of Marketing Director and Building Director you need to get your vote in.

The candidates for Marketing Director are
1. Jimmy Augustus-Gracemount (jimmmmmy) url or
2. Kaiden Brandt (Kalculate) url

The candidates for Building Director are
1. Sтαятєя Ɛνєηѕтαяя (starter232) url or
2. Dҽʋιɳ Kɳιɠԋƚ Dɾαƙσɳ (devindevin1111) url

(The url's lead to each of the candidates statements at the Second Pride website)

How to decide whom to vote for
So how do you choose whom to vote for?

There are multiple techniques used by voters throughout democratic history to decide on whom they vote.

A) Beauty Pageant/Talent Pageant
This technique is mostly used by people who are completely uninterested in politics or ideology. They look at the pictures of the different candidates and decide on that fact alone which candidate they will vote for.

"They have beautiful hair/eyes/body/nails/feet", "They are so sexy", "I don't like their eyes, they look mean" or "I would do them", are the answers you most often get when you ask the voters how they decided.

B) Relationship
This method is usually used by voters more interested in relationships than politics/ideology. They will rather vote for someone they or their friends known and like than someone they don't know, and definitely, rather than someone they or their friends dislike for whatever transgression/reason through the history of mankind.

"I know them, they are an asshole", "They are good people", "My friend says they are batshit crazy and drama-seekers", "Their partner is a friend of my friend and they are so nice" or "variations of "The enemy of my enemy is my friend".

C) Analytical
This method is used by people who don't give a shit about anything else than if the person is qualified for the job. These are the people that will read the candidate statements and decide based mainly on that, and maybe check their references or previous work history.

"I trust they can do the job", "They seem to be qualified enough", "I've seen their work before and they seem trustworthy", "They seem to have the right priorities", "I like how they think".

D) Haphazard/Lottery
This method is good when everything else fails and you still see the choices as equally good or if all the above methods fail.

Flip a coin, and let that decide.

"I don't know any of them", "They both look great", "Both of them see qualified to do the job"
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There now you do not have an excuse not to vote. Get the f*** off your ass and teleport to the Polling Place (SLurl) at the second pride sim.

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

News From Dej's Family

Today I received an email from Dej's first life brother Andy.

"Hi [Bock],

I heard from the medical examiner and it turns out that [Dej] had bacterial pneumonia. It was a very bad infection that he probably had for some time and it went untreated. We are all very surprised that he didn't reach out to anyone including a doctor or hospital since antibiotics would probably have saved his life. We shall never know why he chose this path. I am so very glad he had a good friend in you for all those years. He struggled to get along with people so you must have been very special to him. Thanks for your friendship with my brother [Dej].

Andy"

This is my response to Andy.

"Hello Andy,

Thank you so much for the update!

Mike had an ugly cough for a long time, but for some reason, he refused to see a doctor about it - despite much nagging from me. It is sad to realize that something so simple as a cure of antibiotics most likely would have saved his life.

I am sending you the words I shared at the memorial we had for [Dej] and two of the many hundreds of pictures [Dej] has shared with me over the years. Both the pictures are several years old (SL avatars look much better these days). The one called “Mother of the Bride” is one [Dej] sent me when I was getting partnered, while the one called “Dej at his downfall” shows him standing at a place on the sim were I used to accuse him of ditching his husbands and “all” his lovers (I put lots of skeletons in the waters below to represent the “tons, and tons of men laying there” – a gross exaggeration, but we had fun about it anyway.)

As long as I remain in SecondLife and have the sim, Dej’s downfall will always remain. Dej will also share a memorial on the sim with my former partner Ars, who like his brother [Dej] also died of - untreated - double pneumonia in 2010. (What is it with Americans and health care?) 

Dej was very dear to me and it was a pleasure to have been a part of his life.

Thanks again for the information, Andy.

All my best wishes to you and the rest of Mike’s family in [first] life,[Bock]"

The pictures I attached to the response were these two.

"Mother of the Bride" (March 8, 2014)

"Dej at his downfall"

LL Lowers Land Prices For Some and Reduces Fees

Linden Lab has announced it will, effective immediately, lower land prices for those who do not already have lower rates, either because they have grandfathered rates or they "bought down" their rates last year.

Land Prices will be reduced by 15% and fees by 41%.

TERMS & CONDITIONS: Private Estate price reductions do not apply to Skilled Gaming Regions. While new Openspace Regions are no longer available for purchase, existing Openspace Region landowners will receive the newly-reduced monthly pricing. In addition, these changes will not impact any grandfathered or “bought down” land prices since those are still below the newly-reduced rates. Lastly, Education/Nonprofit (EDU/NP) discounted full islands have also been re-priced to maintain their 50% discount off the regularly priced full islands. The new price of $124.50 will go into effect at the start of that island's next invoiced billing term.

The Added Excitement of Sim-Crossings

How Uncouth

Well, I never...

My Tomais and I handed out these beautiful Flat Bock's at last years Second Pride. Everyone wanted one, two or three or even more.

Imagine my surprise when I was wandering around at the home-sim and found that my beloved brother Dej had misused that precious and beautiful objet d'art in this disrespectful way!

As if I could enjoy a flagpole in my manly love-hole. *sigh*

Second Pride - Call for Board Candidates (Updated)

The minutes of the Second Pride annual meeting on July 30, 2017, have been published on the Second Pride website. You will find the minutes in the right hand column.

Left to right, Tootsie Nootan, Viktor Sandman, Jak Calcutt & LLedge Eames
(Marge Beaumont wasn't able to attend) 

A quick summary of the reports from the board members would be that this years Second Pride festival was a huge success, with lots of visitors, wonderful venues and builds, few security issues and loads of donations.

The board thanked everyone and the board members were in turn all lauded by those in attendance for their good work for the community and the organization.

After setting aside funds for tier for the Second Pride sim for the coming year and some petty cash, there will be roughly US$1,000 for the board to donate to charity. The board is considering donations to either The Rainbow Railroad or The Human Rights Campaign Fund.

The biggest surprise was the news that the whole board is stepping down, every single one of them. All the positions will be open for the election of new candidates.

The election timetable is as follows (all dates are of course SLT).

1. August 1 - September 3, 2017 - The Second Pride Festival group is closed for new members until the end of the election.
2. August 7-20, 2017 Call for candidates.
3. August 20-26, 2017 Question & answers period 
4. August 27 - September 2, 2017 Elections

The election committee will be headed by LLedge Eames as the outgoing chair.

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Those considering submitting their candidacies will find a Board Candidate Submission Form (here).

Please take the time to consider how you - or perhaps a friend - could serve the LGBT+ community in SecondLife and send in your Candidacy.

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UPDATE 8/13/2017
Lee MacKay, the current webmaster for the Second Pride website, in a comment on Google+, informs me: "It's also very important to note that anyone wishing to participate in the Q&A portion of the election process MUST create an account on the website to do so. The Q&A will take the form of comments beneath each candidate's statement, and a working, verified login is required to post or reply. This applies to the candidates as well, of course. - SP Webmaster"

Visiting Days of O

"O is taken by her lover to a castle where she is ravished by a number of men. When she returns to her apartment and her work O is forced to follow many rules with the aim to make her a perfect slave. Submission is becoming increasingly important in her life; as the agonies become more difficult, they are also sweeter to endure. O wears her scars with pride."

The above is a back-cover synopsis for "The Story of O" by Pauline Réage (1954) which is an erotic novel on the themes of love, dominance and submission.

The last part of the last sentence already has me so scared and freaked out that I would never consider reading it. I am so vanilla it is probably boring. The only marks I would ever consider having after lovemaking would be hickeys or chafed knees.

Besides, it seems so uncomfortable to me to lug about trunks of heavy duty equipment and clothing for sex when all I really need is condoms and a small vial of lube.

This rant was brought on by my visit to a sim called "Days of O" yesterday, with my Tomais, JJ and Aeon. A beautiful sim dedicated to - as I understand it - the BDSM lifestyle and the famous novel.

One thing good came out of it though, I found my perfect "master" and/or "slave", see the picture above.

Below is a picture of Aeon with his newfound true-love Betsy The Sheep in his arms.

 

A Dishonorable Man

This post is a sort of reveal on my previous post Bock in SecondLife: Mitzi's Dilemma. I have struggled with whether or not I should post this, but finally decided to do so anyway.

I realise that my decision to do so may be as - or more - dishonorable than the actions of the person I am criticizing. Anyway, here goes!

"Scoundrel" by Mel Bochner

Fact 1: I paid Marcus Lefevre L$151,500 to rent a sim on my behalf for the Second Pride Festival. The payment was for 6 weeks of use of the sim (four weeks for building before the festival, one week for the festival itself and one week for cleaning up) at L$19,000 per week and L$37,500 for moving the sim to and from the Second Pride sim.

Fact 2: On the last day of the Second Pride Festival, I woke up to a barrage of emails and offline messages from Second Life, informing me that the sim I had rented had been closed due to non-payment of tier.

Fact 3: After trying to reach Marcus Lefevre without success, I contacted the sim-provider and was informed that the sim had been shut down because the tier was in arrears for the festival week and they had not received payment despite several messages to Marcus Lefevre.

Fact 4: To get the sim reopened - so that the festival could finish as planned - the sim provider agreed to let me pay them - on Marcus Lefevre's behalf - the money they were owed for the festival week and the tier for the clean-up week, thus I paid them L$35,554 (at L$17,777 per week). The company then opened the sim again.

Fact 5: On the same Sunday, Marcus Lefevre sent me this message on Facebook: "omg Bock I don´t even know what to say but it seems as if the error was entirely at my side. Please, if you can go to Value Rentals, they should be able to help. Let me know any additional costs you may have and I shall refund that money to you. I feel very emberassed, I`m sorry frown emoticon"

Fact 6: I informed Marcus Lefevre that I was expecting payment from him of L$35,554.

Fact 7: I have been able to communicate with Marcus only once, a Friday more than six-seven weeks ago, when Marcus asked if we could hold off the conversation until "after the weekend" because he was busy proofreading, Additionally he told me that he didn't "agree with (my) math's".

Many weekends later and since our last chat I have not been able to get in contact with Marcus Lefevre, neither have I received any payment whatsoever from him.
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I can live with the loss of the $144 Marcus Lefevre owes me, but I cannot live with the knowledge that he may fool someone else.

Don't do business with this scoundrel, or if you must, count your fingers and toes first.

Art Auction In Honor of Kylie & The Trace Too

Poster by Trinity Yazimoto

Art Auction: a fabulous farewell to Kylie Jaxxon

Auction start: 2nd August 2015 and ends 10th August 2015

The Trace Too (SLurl)

Kylie Jaxxon's beautiful sim, The Trace Too, is closing at the end of August as she has departed SL. Kylie created a beautiful sim that has become special to many people. Kylie was an avid blogger and somehow managed to find the most beautiful trinkets to decorate her lovely sim, then shared them with the community.

In honour of Kylie and her gorgeous work that has touched the SecondLife community, there is an art auction at her sim to celebrate her talent, and wish Kylie a fabulous and final farewell:

The auction was originally intended to raise funds to keep her beautiful sim, The Trace, open until the end of August. Due to people's generosity this goal has already been achieved, what an amazing result!

With this in mind, all proceeds from the art auction will now go to Relay for Life in Kylie's honour. This group raises money for the American Cancer Society within SL and we think it would be a very special tribute to Kylie if we could donate as many lindens as possible to this fantastic cause on her behalf. This is our way of collectively saying thank you for all that she has done for the SecondLife community, and remembering her talent.

A bunch of talented and generous artists have donated original pieces to the auction, and all their work is available for you to look at around The Trace. Each pictures has been placed as close to the location they were shot as possible. Check every corner, boat and deck to ensure that you don't miss any!

We really hope you'll join us to make this goodbye one of the best there has been in SecondLife.

Happy bidding!

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Big thanks to Pinkrayne for the PR writing and her help for the set up.

Huge thanks to all the Trace lovers who have donated one or several pics for the auction (Eddie Haskell, Leonorah Beverly, Gidgette Adaggio, Seraphiel Galaxy, ScarlettElizabet, SereneDean, Kaelyn Alecto, Lumiette, Pearl Grey, Lo Coeur, Pinkrayne, Bamboo Barnes, Maxie Daviau, Skinninylla, Sabastian Melmoth, Hillara, Coober Galicia, Terravive, Becca, Chrysterox, Masquerade Snowbear, Lizz Avon, Rosy Highwater, Tripp Nitely) (if you are missing in the list please let me know).

An endless thank you to all the generous persons having already donated and those who will do it before the end of the month.

Thank you to you all

Thank you Kylie, for having been this so lovely person in SL (i so wish i could know you better) and for all the stunning landscapes you have offered to us for all those years.

(via Ziki Questi's blog and from Trinity Yazimoto's Flickr)  

"We Claim Macedonia", Laird Says

"Inconclusive? Inconclusive!?! Have you gone out of your minds? This was not at all the result I was expecting from you! How effing dare you!!! And you call yourselves my loyal and loving citizens?"

All the little princesses and princes and every other denizen of Southern Charm were startled by the outbreak of anger from the mansion, which disturbed the habitual peace and serenity of the sim. They all recognized the voice of the man who was otherwise known to be the most patient and gentle man in SecondLife and none of them had ever heard him this angry before.

Inside the great mansion on the hilltop a small congregation had assembled, consisting of the Prince Consort Tomais, The Royal Gardner Butch Diavolo-Ğrăçємσûηт, renowned geneticist, the twin-princes Angus Maldor-McMillan and Duncan Aycliffe-McMillan, both well known historians, and lastly - but not least - the cause of all the raucous, the laird himself.

The Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm, prince of Cascade Falls, Sovereign Ruler of the Commonwealth of Southern Enchantment Region and Outer Territories and finally UN appointed Protector of the Mount Whitney sim in SecondLife, was now seated again after his outburst. His face was dark red and he had an annoyed frown on his face.

Tomais had moved in behind the laird and was slowly massaging his neck and shoulders, once in a while lovingly stroking the head, to calm the laird down. Tomais was seemingly unperturbed by the commotion but small beads of sweat could be seen on his beautiful forehead. The effects of Tomais labors were soon noticed as the laird's face got more relaxed and his body less tense, although he was still apparently displeased.

The other three in the room, stood scowling and scraping with their feet before their beloved laird, clearly apologetic for causing him such discomfort but still adamant in their conclusions.

A month earlier the laird had appointed the three of them to a secret committee with the purpose "to investigate whether or not the laird is a direct descendant of king Alexander III of Macedonia, a.k.a. Alexander the Great, and therefore can rightfully claim the crown of Macedonia". Although the laird had not said it, they had all three understood that the "or not" was merely inserted for pseudo-objective and decorative reasons. However, too much time had passed since Alexanders death in 323 BC and records of the lineage had not been kept, or had been lost, neither was there any known source from which DNA from the great king could be taken to securely establish a claim. Although there were certain DNA-markers and other fragmentary historical facts to support the lairds wishes the evidence was still too complex and inadequate for them to determine a direct and indisputable link between the two great men.

Suddenly everyone in the room could sense that the laird had calmed down and had reached a conclusion. "No matter", he said with a radiant smile, "this is politics, and politics is not about facts or evidence. Politics is about our desires, our wishes and what we want from the future!"

The laird rose from his seat with a loving and grateful smile to his consort and said, "To hell with Greece and that ridiculous country calling itself F.Y.R.O.M., let it be known that from this day we claim the crown of Macedonia. We will henceforth add to our titles 'pretender to the throne of Macedonia and dependent territories' "

#DoTheRightThingforAvacar

Yesterday I was contacted by Rico Bluestar, who wanted to know how the situation concerning the transfer of Southern Charm sim had been solved when my husband Ars Northmead passed away on March 12, 2010. Ars was in first life also known as Joseph Douglas "Doug" Wilson Jr.

Although Linden Lab were compassionate and as helpful as they reasonably could be throughout the process, I could only tell him that I was fortunate that Doug' first life family were understanding and loving enough to help me in that situation.

Doug's father, who was the executor of Doug's estate, presented the proper documentation to Linden Lab showing his status as father and executor, and also wrote a letter to Linden Lab in which he asked them to transfer Southern Charm to me. That saved the situation for me.

I am forever grateful to the Wilson family, and especially Mr. Wilson himself, for the love, support and assistance they showed me - a complete stranger (although Doug had mentioned me to them several times it seems) - in this difficult situation.

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Rico Bluestar was the partner of Avacar Bluestar for close to three year up until Avacar passed away on November 14, 2014. Together the two owned, operated and worked hard to build Gay Fun World (GFW) as a place for gay residents to go to for fun and shopping.

Rico is not as fortunate as I was. It seems that Avacar's first life family are Southern Baptist and all of them - with the exception of a one of Avacar's sisters - absolutely abhor and detest Avacar's "lifestyle choice" (i.e. that he was gay and admitted it). They want all evidence of Avacar's homosexuality obliterated and disolved and will therefor not cooperate to have the sims transferred to Rico Bluestar.

I think that is wrong, it is in fact an outrage!

I would like all of my family and friends - straight or gay - to join me in telling Ebbe Altberg, the CEO of Linden Lab, and Linden Lab itself that it is time for them to take a stand against homophobia, to make an exception and to transfer the GFW sims to Rico.

If you have a Twitter account please retweet my tweet and ask your friends to do so too. If you don't have a Twitter account, get one and do the same thing. Gawd this is the 21st century people, get with the program!

@ebbealtberg & @LindenLab, #DoTheRightThingforAvacar and put an end to #homophobia. Transfer the GFW sims to Rico! pic.twitter.com/WYipgApNVq
— Bock McMillan (@BockMcMillan) January 15, 2015

Stalking the Talent

On Sunday my man and I visited the beautiful Southern California (SoCal) sim (SLurl), because the talent in the family wanted to take a picture there.

"Stalking the Talent" by Bock McMillan

Tomais at first had a completely different picture in his mind, but as the owner wasn't online he could not get permission to rez the car he needed for that. However, there is no way of stopping a talented man who is inspired so he came up with another idea.

As always when the talent goes into his creative mode, i.e. trying out various angles for the shot or all his 8,653 Windlight settings, all the while mumbling to himself and from time to time asking my opinion, I went off on my own excursion looking at the sim and my man.

As I sometimes do, I decided to take a snapshot of my lover at work and do my own variation on the same theme. Above you see my take and below is Tomais wonderful photo (posted on Flickr).

"Pretty in Pink" by Tomais Ashdene

Second Pride Renewed

We have had a couple of truly devastating months in those parts of the gay community in SecondLife that are affiliated to the Second Pride group.

The ugly election campaign and its even uglier aftermath, with the - hopefully - final manifestation when the two resigning directors removed all the landscaping and buildings on the Second Pride sim, leaving the nonprofit organizations and Second Pride itself in effect homeless. The sim was left almost completely barren and desolate, thus mirroring our pride that had been shattered by the internal strife. I couldn't even bring myself to visit the Second Pride sim when I got the news that the main building had also been removed, I knew it would be an ugly sight.

At the last board meeting Jak Calcutt was appointed as interim Build Director to see to it that the sim was ready for a few upcoming events. His workload was of course increased many times when the main building was removed the day after his appointment.

After hearing that Jak had started his work, with help from others when required, I decided to make a visit to the sim today.

I was extremely happy by what I saw. There was a beautiful new main building in place and I could see that work was still being done. While I was there I was lucky enough to be joined by the builder himself. Jak explained to me that due to the urgency a readymade building had been acquired and he was now modifying it for the needs of Second Pride and the nonprofits to see to it that all had roofs over their heads as soon as possible. Additional buildings would come later and in less haste.

I did not know Jak earlier, but while I was listening to him tell me what he was doing and was going to do I felt optimism growing within me again. Much has been lost and destroyed, but we can work on together, regroup and rebuild and start looking towards the future with hope again.

Second Pride will rise again from the shameful depths to which it has been dragged and we will be able to focus on what is important for us and on our goals again. With such pleasant, dedicated and hardworking members as Jak, and many others like him, we simply cannot fail.

I am very proud that I got a new friend today and that my pride is renewed.

The Second Pride Memorial Chapel

This evening I made a visit to the interdenominational memorial chapel at Second Pride.

It is an extraordinarily beautiful building placed close to the waters and is surrounded by trees. The wonderful place is unexpectedly calm and serene, considering how busy the rest of the three sims are.

At the back of the chapel there are two small tables, one in each corner, with candles that can be lit for a lost friend or loved one.

I was very pleased to notice that there were three candles already lit for my Ars and I lit a fourth. It also made me happy to see that Kris Mounier was still loved and remembered by someone, Ars always had a great deal of affection for that kind man.

Second Pride: "Help Us, Help You!"

Doc Spad, (photo by GWNews)

This is an important message to all LGBT residents and non-profit groups in SecondLife from Doc Spad, the chairperson of Second Pride. 

I am happy to be able to assist in spreading the word.

Over the last year Second Pride has worked to create to reasonable and effective way to utilize the funds entrusted to it from our sponsors, members and attendees of last year’s Second Pride Festival. Last year’s Board made the decision to use these funds in-world to benefit our LGBT community here in Second Life. The Second Pride Region is the product of those efforts.

By creating a permanent place for all facets of our community to come together, share, support and learn about each other, we feel that this best advances the mission of Pride while providing each of our communities advocacy, educational,  and support groups an opportunity to be seen at the festival and have their message heard year round on the Second Pride sim. Meeting spaces, an event venue, and a message center will be available to any and all LGBT nonprofits. Office spaces and a place to showcase your group will all be provided for free. For some this may be as little as a Landmark  to your existing location, or a possible a satellite location. For those interested, we welcome you to make a permanent home on the Second Pride Region. All is provided free of charge.

I’m pleased to announce that our home is nearly complete and will be the center of the festival this year. We have also secured two additional full private regions donated for the festival. Having the festival on full private regions will allow for better control of the festival grounds and provide less lag and a better experience for all attendees. We are no longer paying Linden Labs for their limited mainland sims.

The Board , through many open public discussions with our members, has also relaunched PRISM, our quarterly LGBT community newsletter. This publication is available for LGBT nonprofits to voice their views, educate the community and “get the word out” of their work in Second Life as well as real world efforts. We have also started Second Pride Radio which streams 24/7 on multiple channels which is available for LGBT advocacy, educational, and support groups to advertise, for free, their activities and services to the community. 

second-pride.com is the official Second Pride website and we hope it will become a central clearinghouse for “all things LGBTQ” in Second Life. Soon a complete listing, to include SLurls will be available on the website so that anyone can learn about your group and all educational, support, and advocacy efforts taking place in Second Life.

Help us help you in “getting the word out” about your group and the good it is doing for our LGBT community.

We know that all LGBT groups within Second Life do not always get along, or that they do not all share the same goals or aspirations. Like Pride festivals in real life, we would hope that our pride festival will be reflective of the entire LGBT community and be a place where we can share our common goals of equality, fairness, and inclusion.  Pride is a celebration of our “gayness” and to acknowledge all that we have accomplished through our unity...it’s also a chance to look at the future and what we still have to do. We can better accomplish our common goals as a united LGBT community... join us and be part of the largest and most visible LGBT gathering in Second Life.

Let's Celebrate! 

If you are a non-profit or thinking of starting a support, advocacy, or educational group, but needs a home, Please contact me so we can show you what we are offering and how we might help in letting the rest of the community learn of your group.

Doc Spad

2013 Chairperson

Second Pride

docspadusmc@gmail.com

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.

Southern Charm

The view we fell in love with at Southern Charm

Soon after Ars and I became a couple back in December of 2007, we started to look for somewhere to live together and spent all Ars free time sim-jumping to search for a place we both liked.

We had made a joint list of criteria for what we were looking for.

1. No boring beach property
2. Affordable
3. Big enough. i.e. with enough prims over after setting up the house.surroundings and furniture. to allow Ars to build without too many limitations
4. A reliable and secure landlord - we had both heard too many stories about the other kind

Usually Ars would have prepared a list of places to check out beforehand and pretty soon after I logged inworld we were off on our hunt. We had a good time doing this and enjoyed being in each others company.

After about a week or so we first came to the Southern Charm sim, which seemed to meet with all our criteria except the affordable. I was the stingy one, after all the relationship with Ars was so fresh and I did not want to commit to something that could be difficult to pull out from if things turned sour.

We both fell in love with the house straddling the waterfall at once, so after seeing that we just kept coming back. Finally I gave in and we started negotiations with the landlord.

The sim was at that time owned by Spyder Jewell, but was managed by his wife Jazzine, a smart, funny and wonderful American woman.

Jazzine took to me as soon as I had made Ars question her about the "no nudity" clause in the covenant. Finally we made an explicit agreement stating that I (and Ars) could run around on our property as naked as we wished as long as we did not tote a boner outdoors and wore clothes when visiting with the neighbors.

With that essential point settled we started negotiations on how many parcels we were going to rent, which parcels and what the total tier would be. I had complete confidence in leaving Ars to handle that when I logged off that night.

Next day when I logged in Ars told me triumphantly that we were now the proud tenants of two parcels on Southern Charm, including the one with the waterfall. We were jubilant and immediately started furnishing and decorating.

As time went by, we increased our land with a third, fourth and fifth parcel until we rented more than half the sim. At that point Spyder and Jazzine encountered financial difficulties (or perhaps just decided to move on from SecondLife) and offered us to take over the full sim so we would rent it directly from Linden Lab. (That´s called landowning in SecondLife.) Because I am a citizen of the European Union we decided to name Ars as the sim-owner so we wouldn't have to pay the additional VAT-tax on landowning fees that the EU forced on the Lab.

After Ars passed away in February 2010 there was some paperwork needed to transfer the sim from his estate to me. Luckily, I had the full cooperation and understanding of his father and family in doing so, everyone is not so fortunate.

In hindsight it is my firm recommendation to anyone who co-owns anything whatsoever in SecondLife, to see to it that you make a will bequeathing any joint - or for that matter personal - property to the survivor. It is actually also in accordance with Linden Labs rules to bequeath the avatar itself and all of it´s possessions to the surviving partner.

Ars and I were too happy together and probably thought nothing bad could happen to change it to do any of those things, it almost cost me the dearest memories I had of him and our time together. Do not make the same mistake!