Meeting My Unknown Admirer

A short time ago I was contacted in IM by Fingerdelice Metalune, whom I did not know before. She was kind enough to tell me she had been following my blog for awhile and wanted to tell me in person that she liked it.

That made me really very happy and proud. Of course I have realized that my blog may be read once in a while by people I didn't know, but I actually thought most of my returning readers were family, friends or among the Swedes and other Scandinavians in SecondLife.

Today I was invited over to Fingers´ home for a visit. Fingers showed me around her beautiful beach home in Cuban style.

Afterwards we went down to the beach for a nice chat.by the fireplace, we had a really pleasant time although too short because my curfew time for logging off arrived too soon. (I keep a strict routine during workdays because of my present troubles with insomnia.)

Even if it was much too short it was a very pleasant visit and Fingers was very kind to me, showering me with compliments on my blog. As all women know keeping a man well fed and giving him compliments are the surest way to gain his confidence and his heart. We are not at all hard to please...

I hope to see you again Fingers and we must make sure you come visit at Southern Charm some day soon.

Cloud Panic Planing

The oldest female avatar known and the Swedish Queen of SecondLife blogs, Ms. PetGirl Bergman over at Tinas Universum, today shares some of her hard earned wisdom with us.

PetGirl recommends us to read Inara Pey´s excellent post "Avatar A Cloud" which contains several handy tips in case you get stuck in a cloud-state or if you are ruthed.

Among the many tips Inara shares with us in that post is to create a panic-folder for those ugly situations. I am going to make one as soon as I log in-world today.

Do Nice Guys Finish Last?

In today’s Wall Street Journal, there is a report (url) on a new study showing that men who rate themselves highly “agreeable” tend to earn lower incomes than men who consider themselves less cooperative.  “Mean girls” also earn more than more amenable women, but the gap is much smaller.

The study, “Do Nice Guys–and Gals–Really Finish Last?” by Beth A. Livingston and others is forthcoming in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

"Nice guys are getting the shaft,” Beth tells the reporter, "even in firms that claim to value teamwork. Women, meanwhile, are expected to be nice, so they aren’t penalized much for being so."

----

I consider myself to be a nice guy, although all may not agree - always.

So not only are we getting sex with fewer sexual partners, as it has been shown in other studies that both men and women go for the "bad boys", we are also getting paid less wages.

This is what the world comes to if you measure success by quantity before quality when it comes to sexual encounters and if you value a team player as less worth than a rude and assertive loud-mouth.

Shopping As Therapy

In real life I don´t really like to go shopping but in SecondLife it is quite the opposite. Perhaps because the next shop is just a teleport-hop away. Bock is better way equipped for any and all occasions than his primatar will ever be.

You may remember - or not - that I recently called for my stepson Guyke Lundquist to come in-world and take me shopping so I would look cool while clubbing at the upcoming DJ World event.

Well Guyke is a true son of my Ars in the way he always responds when he hears me crying out for help. The past weekend Guyke came in-world, dragging his hug-meister extraordinaire Janttu Winkler along, to show me a few "hot-spots" in the Menswear department of SecondLife.

As we arrived at two of the shops he confessed to me, "I have everything from here! ...or almost..."

I have always found that shopping together with good friends in SecondLife is a bonding experience and also a sort of therapy, if you have similar likes and dislikes. This was a splendid session. Guyke and I chatted away while Janttu stayed rather silent in chat - but was perhaps more chatty on Skype with Guyke. Guyke, as always, was multitasking with esprit and forte.

Another confession was shared by Guyke during this session. We were in a shop selling great leather jackets. "These jackets - and everything else in this shop - take a lot of fitting", he told me, "but I don´t mind that. My favorite position is the pose stand!" Janttu was - of course - extremely quick to verify that statement.

At another shop Guyke told me they had great hair and slutty pants, which made Janttu ask "How are they on slutty hair?"

Whoever said Finns are slow? I have found that they can be fast whenever they wish.

It was great seeing them both again and I was - once again - reinforced in my conviction that appointing Guyke as my personal shopper is one of the most brilliant decisions I have ever made, in my first and second life.

I love you both, guys! XOXOXO

When I Start To (Break It All Down)

 

Erasure - When I Start To (Break It All Down) by Mute UK

Master suppression techniques were a framework articulated in the late 1970s by the Norwegian social psychologist Berit Ås to describe five means by which, according to her, women are subjugated to in supposedly patriarchical Western societies. Master suppression techniques are sometimes called domination techniques.

I believe in full and equal rights for women and men in all walks of life. I also believe myself to be a feminist. It is therefore rather upsetting to me when I get criticized for using domination techniques everytime I do not agree with a woman.

My disagreeing with her has nothing to do with her gender, but has everything to do with her opinions. Whatever gender the person I disagree with has, I will always feel entitled to criticize their opinions and I will use the same techniques for both genders.

It Isn´t Rocket Science

Kids can do it well, so can you if you only try!

Hey excuse me, but I am Swedish and hugging is our favorite pastime. We hug a lot, no one is safe anywhere.

I am getting totally disheartened by the lousy and sloppy hugging going on in SecondLife. I have only met two outstanding huggers, my Ars and my son in-law Janttu. Guyke is getting much better - much thanks to Janttu´s training , I am sure - and so is my brother in-law Andrey, but the rest of you desperately need lessons.

It really isn´t rocket science, as the headline states. Hugging just takes a bit of concentration and knowing who does what. So here is a short excerpt from the "Hugging 101" class at "The Lairds School of Animation" (a part of the BMcM Corporation)

1. Someone sends you an invitation to hug.(Sending the invitation and standing still is pretty much what the hugger needs to do.)
2. Check - and double check - who you the hug and decide if you want to hug the person or not.
3. If you do not want to hug that person, click the "Decline"-button and say something nice about why not in local chat. (I cannot stress enough - nice!)
4. If you however decide to accept the hug, follow these steps
a) Locate the person who wants to hug you.
b) Go stand in front of that person.
c) Make sure you line up properly and squarely in front of that person (not sideways, but facing them directly).
d) Check - and double check - that your AO (Animation Overrider) and any dance-HUD is turned off..
e) NOW - and not before - is the time to click the "Accept"-button.
f) Enjoy the hug, do not rush through it or stop it prematurely. Just go with the feeling. (If you feel that 1-2 minutes of your precious time is too much to sacrifice, it is better to decline the hug than cutting it short.)

Please note:
1. It is always the huggee´s privilege to decide whether or not they want to join in a hug or not but it is also the huggee´s responsibility to make sure that it turns out well by following the measures above.
2. The guidelines given above work for all animations in SecondLife (kissing, dancing, f**king and getting bitten by noob-vampires, whatever).
3. To avoid the noob-vampires, get the Garlic Necklace. Wear it and click the appropriate button and then take it off. You are now pretty safe from the noob vampires. (If you cannot find that necklace, send me an IM and I will send it to you.)

Hugs are healing!

Attaboy Rodvik!

Video streaming by Ustream

This video from the SecondLife Community Conference this year.(SLCC 2011) is going completely viral on the SecondLife blogs. It shows Rod Humble, CEO of Linden Lab (in our world better known as Rodvik Linden) giving his keynote speech.

Noob Rodvik is actually starting to gain my confidence. I like what I hear him say in this speech. Testing and bug-fixing are a priority for him, as are lag, usability and added value features for the paying customers.

Best thing is that Rodvik reveals he doesn't much like the Viewer 2 either and actually hates the sidebar like many of the rest of us!

Keep this up Rodvik and you may become my second favorite CEO. There is no one that can beat my dreamer Philip Linden, but they can come pretty damned close.