Change of Plans

Due to recent events, I do not think it will be possible to go through with the contest in the way I outlined the other day. I have therefore decided to cancel it in that form. 

Instead I will ask - or perhaps force - a few of my friends and family from outside Swedish SecondLife to help me reach a decision on which picture should receive the prize of L$ 25 000.

So no there will be no jurors, no public voting and no party!

A Slow Farewell

After the events yesterday I feel like I have a really bad hangover. You know the kind where you wake up with a throbbing head, shivering body and an awful bitter taste in your mouth.

I am guessing that yesterday in a way will mean a slow farewell to people who have given meaning to my life, which is always a sad thing.

This calls for some Mauro Scocco



A Slow Farewell

And I wish I could say this is just a phase we´re going through 
A storm we have to ride out
And I wish I could say that we´ll make it together 
That everything will work out eventually 
But how do you say to someone, that the road ends here 
And how do you say to someone, that your heart longs to be out
 
And I cannot lie to you,you know me all too well 
But if you look me in the eyes 
They are saying a slow farewell 
(So slow ... a slow farewell)
 
Here is your king now without crown 
Indifferent and tired
A sad figure, whom you never really met
And when I look over my shoulder at the years that just went by
I see everything that was lost but also all that we got 
And what do you say to someone who wants to start again 
When it is already too late;when one is already leaving 

And I cannot lie to you,you know me too well 
But if you look me in the eyes 
They are saying a slow farewell 
(So slow ... a slow farewell) 

I took my hands in the name of love 
You can win everything you lose sometimes 
You fall over, but you rise again
It is not over, it's just the way it feels 
And my heart wants, and the heart can 
Do wonders sometimes 
But the road that we travel on - it leads nowhere 

And I cannot lie to you, you know me too well 
So whatever we call it 
It is just a slow farewell,
mmm Ooha slow farewell! 

So when you look over the shoulder at the years that just went by 
Do you see anything that was lost or everything, oh everything we got.

A Witch-Hunt

Certain events lately make me think of the Swedish word "häxjakt", which means"witch-hunt", so I looked it up on Wikipedia. Here are a few excerpts from the long article.

Although I am sure this will alienate a few I cannot refrain myself from posting this. I have often thought about how I might react in situations like this. I find, I am learning more about myself as I go along.

I have always found it strange, this need in us humans to externalize the responsibility for our own failures and shortcomings as humans, as businessmen or as avatars - whatever.

Well now that I have at least called out what I see, I am awaiting the reactions.
....... 

"A witch-hunt is a search for witches (...), often involving moral panic, mass hysteria and lynching, but in historical instances also legally sanctioned and involving official witchcraft trials.

The classical period of witchhunts in Europe and North America falls into the Early Modern period or about 1480 to 1700, spanning the upheavals of the Reformation and the Thirty Years' War, resulting in an estimated 40,000 to 100,000 executions.

In modern terminology 'witch-hunt' has acquired usage referring to the act of seeking and persecuting any perceived enemy, particularly when the search is conducted using extreme measures and with little regard to actual guilt or innocence. It is used whether or not it is sanctioned by the government, or merely occurs within the "court of public opinion".

The first such use reported by the Oxford English Dictionary dates to 1932. Another early instance is George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia (1938). The term is used by Orwell to describe how, in the Spanish Civil War, political persecutions became a regular occurrence.

The term is used when a hunt for wrongdoers becomes abused, and a defendant can be convicted merely on an accusation. 

Use of the term was popularized in the United States in the context of the McCarthyist search for communists during the Cold War, which was discredited partly through being compared to the Salem witch trials.

From the 1960s, the term was in wide use and could also be applied to isolated incidents or scandals, specifically public smear-campaigns against individuals. The McMartin preschool trial of 1984 to 1990 is another iconic example of a moral panic which saw day care providers accused of what was dubbed "satanic ritual abuse", i.e. the charge of physical and sexual child abuse out of an alleged Satanist motivation. The case and the associated media coverage was frequently termed a witch-hunt by commentators."

What About A Contest?

I was thinking - pffft yeah I do do that sometimes - about this several times today. In the back of my head or actively.

Let me just toss out this idea to you all and let's see how it flies.

There are in my possession 108 contributions of wonderful pictures in my project "Nakna avatarer i SL" ("Naked avatars in SL").

Even if we take away my own contribution, my contribution of Ars, my contributions of my two alts, Wild and Hedda, the contribution that was withdrawn and the entry number 108 - which really is just a sneak photo at an event, there are still 102 amazing pictures left.

I love them all for different reasons, but still I think that some are on the whole a tad bit better than the rest, and one could possibly even be considered the best in show.

What if I offered to pay L$ 25 000 to the winner, the rest get nothing.

I think if we could get a jury consisting of five people who were willing to go through all the 102 contributions and each give the ten pictures they like best points - in falling order from first to last - 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point(s).

From the jurors votes we could select the five or ten that get the highest total scores put these pictures out for popular voting. Everyone who wanted to take part would then be free to vote once on the three contributions they liked the best giving them the points 12, 10 and 8. Voting would of course be free of cost.

From the sum of the popular vote we would award the prize to the picture that got the highest score and the one on the winning picture would receive the prize money on Christmas Day, December 25th 2010.

For the final prize ceremony we could have a party on the field by my barn. I could get a DJ or two to play for us.

Just a rough idea yet! Please tell me what you think about it and if you have any suggestions for changes.

----
P.S. I would of course not be a juror or take part in any other way than donating the money and the use of the field and paying for the DJ´s.

Rumours About Microsoft Continue

My friend Eddi Haskell reports on his blog www.eddihaskell.com  that the rumours concerning a Microsoft takeover of Linden Lab (the owners of SecondLife) still continue.

Ars Forever - Forever Ars

It´s my Ars rezday today. let´s party! Love you always, babe!

(Haha another boyband to celebrate him, I hear him grinding his teeth and muttering!)

Today Was Ars Rezday

October 25th, 2006, was the first day the avatar named Ars Northmead rezzed into SecondLife. Today would have been his fourth rezday.

As many of you already know Doug, the man behind the avatar, passed away on March 12th, 2010, after a battle with double pneumonia, so Ars will never again rez into SecondLife.

Ars was the most loving, caring and tender man I have ever known in any world. He was also among the most intelligent, warmhearted, creative, fiercely loyal, humorous, pig headed and stubborn men in both worlds. Hell I could throw all the positive adjectives in the dictionary at you, and some of the negative also - of course.  

But I am not impartial concerning Ars and never will be.

When I first came to SecondLife, I very soon received a few advances for partnering, setting up house together and what have you. People told me they loved me after an hour´s conversation, or four days acquaintanceship or - in the slow cases - three weeks.

I thought to myself, "What is wrong with these people? What the f**k are they talking about? I am never ever going there, they are crazy!" All that skepticism ended when I got to know Ars.

I remember the first time I noticed him, long before - well, a few months before - I ever dared speak to him personally. It was at the Devil Inside Club. The DI was at the time "the only" club to be for most of the gay men in SecondLife. I was shown to this club in the summer of 1997 by a friend named Drizz McMillan, who has since left SecondLife. 

Ars was wearing the cutest hat, which was what first caught my eye. After awhile I understood he was the DJ and I heard his voice and laughter - and I was charmed senseless.  

This was when my "Stalking Ars-period" started. I joined the "sarco sound group" and actually went to any and every set the DJ´s in that group ever played that were possible in my time zone. That finally ended when Ars and I started talking with each other. Then I was caught - forever. 

I have been rummaging through my overladen inventory for pictures of Ars. I found several hundred, here I would like to share a few with you all.