Bock´s Eyes

This is a special post dedicated primarily to Kandinsky Beaumont. She has in the past - and recently also - expressed views concerning my eyes.

I will therefor now give her the possibility to choose among the following four sets. I promise to wear the set of eyes that meet with her approval until at least November 1st, 2011.

The rest of you are of course also free to express your views on this very self obsessed subject.

Set #1

Set #2

Set #3

Set #4

Ahhh of course, I should give the rest of you the chance to express your opinion in a poll. The poll is up in the top right corner.

Hatred

Only a few weeks ago many of us stood together remembering and honoring the people killed by the the Norwegian mass murderer A.B.B. (whom I never again intend to waist time on by spelling out his full name). This man hates many things; Islam, Muslims, foreigners, Norwegian Social Democrats and Swedish Social Democrats, Socialists, Communists, welfare receivers of any nationality etc. etc. The list could be made much longer but I think you get the drift.

I visited Stavkirken in Second Norway many times during that period, for my own sanity and to be close to others who cared, we sat together in silence and thought of the crimes that had been committed by one hating man against so many people. Again - a few weeks later - we stood all together outside the church remembering the killed at a ceremony in Second Norway and told each other this is what hate leads to, death and destruction and mass murder.

I remember telling myself during this period that hatred is a powerful force that eats at your soul, your mind and your feelings. It changes your outlook at the world and the other people in it. I promised myself to do anything from hating my fellow sisters and brothers again, either by word or by deed.

Yesterday I was minding my own business, looking over my sim, reading note cards that had been sent to me and answering them, chatting a little with my friend Zigadena Gabardini, discussing how our summers had been and her joy at having her Em from the Netherlands come visit for a couple of weeks and the plans they were making for meeting again in November.

I feel very close to Zigadena, ever since Ars first broke his leg and then again through his fatal illness. She has been there giving me emotional support, medical advice and helped me understand and come to grips with the medical procedures that my darling was subjected to.

However back now to the story I was trying to tell! After I had finished my conversation with Zigadena I went back to my meandering thoughts again while checking stuff on the sim when suddenly one of the groups erupted. It was one of the Swedish groups for a radio-channel. There is hardly ever any chat going on in this group apart from the announcements of upcoming shows.

Now the group suddenly filled with people who hated a common individual. Apparently there had been some blogging about something this person was supposed to have done the day before, I seemed to have missed that completely... or maybe it was so subtle that I missed what was being said behind the words written. Anyway they all were there spewing their common hatred on the "culprit" who wasn't there, or at least did not take part in the altercation while I still remained there. Actually some people I have liked dearly for a long time took part, although I don´t suspect they have liked me back as much since my position in this has been quite clear from the start, and of course there were others to whom I do have a distant or noncommittal relationship with.

The incident made me so upset that I immediately wanted to leave the group, but didn't know how to do it as I am new to the Firestorm viewer, so I logged out instead. I didn't want to get infected by more hate or be subjected to more hate speech.

When will we ever learn that there is no real difference between our own hate and the hate shown by the mass murderer A.B.B.? Hate never ever leads to any good, it only destroys.

Now back to bed, this post woke me up aching to get written. I am sad and tired now, sleep will be good for me!

Excellent Service, Linden Lab

Today I got the weekly newsletter from the Calas Galadhon group in SecondLife. In it my friend Ty Tenk, owner of the Calas Galadhon Park sims together with his partner Truck Meredith and gardener extraordinaire, tells us about the how the excellent customer services of Linden Lab came through for them after a recent mishap.

Ty tells us he was cleaning up at the wonderful Misty Mountains sim, and was returning stuff that visitors had carelessly left there, when he by a mistaken click on the mouse ended up sending back all of the beautiful sim to his own inventory. The woods, streams, grasses, flowers, animals - in short everything!

Ty called the customer service at Linden Lab and within thirty (30) minutes of his call for help the sim was rolled back and everything was restored to it´s former pristine condition.

In spite of the constant badmouthing of the customer services at Linden Lab going on among some residents, I have always maintained that they do a great job and handle the issues presented to them with as much speed and empathy as possible in the given circumstances. This just - once again - proves my point.

...and guess what, Ty didn't even have to tweet Rod Humble once!

Due Dates

Recently I have been thinking about a classic definition of a bohemian I heard a long time ago from my maternal grandfather. He used to tell me that a bohemian is someone who regards paying taxes and rent as unexpected and totally unforeseeable expenses.


I have always had difficulty remembering all the different dates of payments both in real life and in SecondLife. In real life Internet banking has saved me by allowing me to just add a bill when I get it so that I then can forget all about it, payment is made automatically on the day I decide on. I have the same problem with birthdays, rezdays and anniversaries.


In the beginning when I first started renting land in SecondLife I used to have huge problems remembering due dates. I had post-it stickers all over my computer and on the refrigerator to remind me, but they usually got to be so many of them that they either covered each other or I did not seem them because of the sheer amount of stickers everywhere.


Ars had the same problem, so when we moved to Southern Charm we made an arrangement with the landlady. Instead of paying our monthly tier on the 17th or 19th, whatever it was, we made an additional payment so that the due date always came at the end of each month, which is much easier to remember.


Today my payment of sim-tier to Linden Lab is handled by my credit card, which is also a relief. The correct amount is charged to my card monthly whenever it is due and I just pay the card bill.


I sometimes tell people that the invention of Internet-banking, the Global Positioning System and the electronic calenders have improved my quality of life with at least 15 %, just because my bills get payed on time and I can show up where I am expected to be at the correct time.

Real Life Hunk - Koji

My friend Eddi Haskell does a post about "a real life hunk" on his blog Eddi Haskell´s Second Life every week. I have done one earlier about Tom Ford, but when my attention was directed towards this handsome Japanese athlete by an Anonymous reader (who is a sports-geek) I felt the need to share. 


It´s strange how this person could know my taste in men, isn't it?

Dr.Koji Alexander Murofushi (室伏 アレクサンダー 広治 Murofushi Arekusandā Kōji, born October 8, 1974, in Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture) is a Japanese hammer thrower. He has been among the world elite since the 2001 World Championships, where he won the silver medal, and he also won the gold medal in Athens Olympics.

Koji Murofushi comes from a hammer throwing family, as his father Shigenobu Murofushi is a former Olympian and held the Japanese record for 23 years until his son broke it, and his sister, Yuka Murofushi, throws both hammer and discus. Murofushi's Romanian-born mother, Serafina Moritz, was a javelin thrower for Romania, European Junior champion in 1968, and Romanian senior champion in 1970. She is now a glass painter, and lives in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture. 


All the information above is from the article about Koji on Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia.

Fashionable?

copyranter today informs us about this detestable ad on his blog; Canadian hair salon promotes itself. I left the following comment (with a minor correction of the spelling):


"This is absolutely sickening, horrific and shameful!


How anyone can even consider this to be a "cool" way to promote anything at all except spousal abuse is a sad statement on how men´s violence against women is still viewed in many parts of society.


Thanks for exposing these douche bags, copyranter!"


Another commenter gives us the address to the salons website where you can tell them what you think about their fashion sense. 

BREAKING NEWS: Firestorm Viewer Impregnates Avatar

It is rumored that The Much Honored Bock McMillan, Laird of Southern Charm and Prince of Cascade Falls, has been taken to hospital in a state of shock due to suddenly believing himself to have been impregnated by the Firestorm viewer.

According to what has been pieced together from interviews with the lairds primatar (name withheld) and members of the McMillan household this is what seems to have happened.

The laird had been having an extremely enjoyable - although very crashy - evening at the 4th Anniversary of DJ World. When he got back in-world after his last crash of the evening, he landed on his back-porch where he has set "home".

You cannot believe his amazement when he saw the red clouds disappearing and he suddenly found himself looking like this.

"I was in total shock", the laird revealed to his spokesman Wild Zepp, "I couldn´t understand how this happened. I have been celibate for the past year and a half - I swear!"

The laird told Wild that as soon as he came to his senses he took a look at the bulge growing out of his belly in "Edit". "The edit told me that the bulge was not a baby, but a "Medium sized building block type rock" or something like that. It disappeared mysteriously seconds afterwards, but I better get this checked. It could still be growing inside me."

After the laird McMillan had been rushed to his private physician for a check-up he was sent to The Royal McMillan Hospital (a part of the BMcM Corporation) for surgery to remove the block from him.

Wild Zepp also told the assembled SecondLife media that he expects that the laird will want to pursue this event with litigation against the Firestorm-team. "After all we oldtimers are used to having our hairs moved to our crotches and our boots stuck up our asses should we now also accept the indignity of being pregnant with rocks also, I ask you? No way, I say, we cannot have primatars traumatized like this by sloppy technicians. The laird will naturally file his suit in the United States and is expecting it to result in damages in the range over and above what that stupid woman with coffee got from the McDonald´s fast food restaurant.* The laird is after all nobility, whereas she was only a commoner. His feelings are deeper hurt than hers could ever be. Before the household decides whether to sue or not, we will of course welcome any reasonable offer from Miss Jessica Lyon or any other representative of the Firestorm-team." 


*) Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants, also known as the McDonald's coffee case and the hot coffee lawsuit, is a 1994 product liability lawsuit that became a flashpoint in the debate in the U.S. after a jury awarded $2.86 million to a woman who was heavily burned by hot coffee purchased from fast food restaurant McDonald's. The trial judge reduced the total award to $640,000, and the parties settled for a confidential amount before an appeal was decided.