Named Avatars 1

This is the first installment in my new series about the intriguing names of avatars in SecondLife. 

This excellent idea was suggested to me by my dear friend and personal eye-shopper Kandinsky Beaumont. It is of course therefor only fitting that she is the first.

Here are Kandinsky´s reasons for choosing the names for her avatar in SecondLife

Kandi in Kandinsky

My first name came to me for two reasons.

It is the family name of the great Russian painter, Wassily Kandinsky, dead 1944, whom I like very much. The second reason I took it as my first name was the belief that I would be the only one in sl with that name. 

That I later should get the nickname Kandi was absolutely nothing I thought of.

My last name, Beaumont, is chosen among the names given by sl at that time. It suited me fine as it is part of a by me beloved address in rl.

One of my first friends in SL came to be an avatar with a great sense of humor and a lot of energy with the same family name as mine, Bafana Beaumont. He is now very active in the group Africa live, doing a lot of good things. Nowadays his name is Osagyefo Kwame N'krumah.

P.S. to Bock: Wassily Kandinsky was a lawyer before he turned to painting and made art history... : ))
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Kandi, you took me by surprise with your fast response so I used the only picture I of you I was certain I had on my computer. If you would like me to use another picture please send me some at the mailing address below.

If you would also like to participate in the series by sharing your reasons for choosing the name you have given your avatar, please send me an e-mail lundamats@gmail.com. Please include a picture of yourself.

I may take some editorial liberties with your text and picture, such as correcting obvious misspellings in the US English and perhaps shortening. However I promise that I will not distort any facts and that I will contact you if the changes are of a major nature (or if I have reason to believe that you would think so).

Do You Speak Draconian?

I have been thinking about my post "Whats in A Name?"

I feel that perhaps it could be read sort of like a gay anthem, "I am what I am and what I am needs no excuses" and some people may have gotten the impression that I am completely against role playing as a concept for everyone. Well, I am not!

Role playing doesn't suit me, with my limited imagination and needs, but I totally respect and accept that others are more evolved, have other needs and are more imaginative in unfolding their inner spirits.

The BDSM-scene in SecondLife is huge I am told, but to me it holds no allure. Pain or even the thought of causing or enduring it - aside from more or less gentle nibbling - is a complete turnoff for me. That being said does however not mean that I cannot understand why others can and do find it enticing. One of the most prominent Swedes on the SecondLife BDSM scene, Stoltz Sinatra, appeared in a Swedish television program last week. He was a perfectly charming man who spoke about his interest for electro-sex with passion and humor.

Other common forms of role playing in SecondLife involve fairies (the kind with pointed ears and butterfly wings, not the LGBT ones), vampires, furries, angels and even dragons. I must admit an almost total lack of knowledge as to what these groups are up to, except for the fact that fairies are great builders

As far as I know I am friends with two vampires (Yannis and his wife Orchid), a tomcat (sirhc, although I am not sure he qualifies as a furry) and a dragon.

The dragon I am acquainted with is Irwin Blachere, who is one of the friendliest and most mild mannered souls in SecondLife - or even outside of it. We have been talking for a few years now, mostly in group chat about anything between heaven and earth but sometimes in IM about personal experiences.

Strangely enough it wasn't until today when I roamed the Internet looking for pictures of hir that I realized that Irwin is a wellknown persona, who even has hir own article on WikiFur: Irwin (of the Blackheart Ridge).

Actually before reading the article I didn't even know that dragons were a species of furries, I always thought they were reptilian. (I did not find a good picture of Irwin on the Internet, so I had to go through my own archives until i found the one I am using here.)

Bock McMillan breathes: Oh in conclusion, dragons do not speak, they use telepathy!

Treasure

Today as I was rummaging around in my inventory I struck gold when I found this mounted photography of my Ars. I had completely forgotten I had it.

The picture shows Ars exactly like he looked when I first saw him and fell in love. Beautiful isn't he?

He used to wear that silly - or should I say cool? - little hat all the time for a few months during the summer of 2007. It made him very easy to spot, which I was grateful for at the time!

I am sorry to say I don´t have the texture itself, so I took a picture of the mounted photo instead. I couldn't get it completely straight so it has a very slight slant.

Just Floating

After a few weeks of almost total focus on first life I have again slowly started to immerse myself back into my second life.

This time I am feeling a certain resistance; I am not sure why really. A possible reason could of course be that the ones that have been closest to me for a long time have for the time being more or less dropped out of Secondlife, some due to personal priorities and others due to actions taken by Linden Lab. Nevertheless I miss them all badly sometimes.

I have also recently accepted a proposal to take part in a mediation between myself and "the opposition", as I call them, or "the innocents", as they prefer to call themselves in this Swedish Civil War in SecondLife. We will in time see what comes out of this, in the mean time I am refraining as much as possible to read most Swedish SecondLife blogs except PetGirl´s, Apmel´s, Vanadis´s and a provocative newcomer (well, so he says and for now I accept it) who calls his blog Znapscrap.

To take part in the mediation I have set up a few conditions.

Primarily I have asked that we actually talk in voice. My experience is that otherwise some participants do not actually read what is written but start typing halfway into what anyone says because they assume they know what the other person is actually going to say. This only results in intentional or unintentional misinterpretations, with voice this can be corrected swiftly.

My second condition is that at least one or two of the "first-liners" take part, not only some of their followers.

Although some time has now elapsed since I accepted the proposal of mediation nothing more has come of it yet, I do not want to speculate in why.

Meanwhile I am taking it very easy and slow, mostly relaxing and trying not to worry about anyone or anything at all. I am just floating around, but luckily facing upwards.

What's In A Name?

I am Bock McMillan and Bock is I. We are the same person in almost every aspect of our joint personality.

Psychologically, intellectually and emotionally Bock and I are one and the same. We have the same communication skills - or lack thereof, we share the same knowledge and have the same professional or personal skills. Our self-confidence, personal qualities and interests are the same.

The only aspects where we are different is in parts of our physical appearances, in which world we manifest ourselves to others and some superficial activities like dancing, flying and teleporting.

Bock is taller and somewhat better looking than myself, he is only seen by others in the virtual world of SecondLife (and sometimes elsewhere). I am shorter and do not look as stunning as Bock and I am only perceived by others in first life, what some call real life.

Nonetheless I am always myself in both worlds and Bock is always with me in both worlds too.

I was Bock before I came to SecondLife, the only thing that was added when I joined SecondLife was the surname and I chose it with great care. I will remain Bock even if SecondLife - God forbid - should one day cease to exist.

The word "bock" in Swedish can mean many things. Google translates it to the following words in English; Buck, goat, trestle, stud, duck, tick, cross, billy-goat, fault and howler. The word holds even more meanings, although they are rarer.

Swedes - or most other speakers of a Germanic language - who first see it and do not know me often at first interpret it in the meaning "horny man".

I will not lie, the double entendre did not escape me when I once chose it, but the name was originally derived from the Swedish word "Stenbock" which is the Swedish form of the astrological sign of Capricorn.(No, I do not believe in it!)

It always infuriates me to see SecondLife called "a game", because it was never ever that for me. If it had been just a game I would not have stayed on as long as I have, I get easily bored with games and game playing. I do respect if other use it in that way for their war-games, vampire-games or role plays, but those scenes never held any attraction for me.

To me SecondLife is my +1 existence. I am there for the other real people and the community, the players can go play with themselves or others like them.

Payment Issues

My former credit card expired in September and my bank sent me a new card for the coming three years well before the expiration date.

As the conscientious customer I am I immediately wanted to update my billing information with Linden Lab so that I wouldn't run into any problems with money in-world or tier payments for Southern Charm.

I am experienced in filling out forms of all sorts and foresaw no problems with doing this. It was easy enough to remove the old credit card, but when I got to the point where I wanted to plug in my new card there was no option to do that. The only option that was apparent seemed to be the PayPal. I did not want to use that option as I am at war with PayPal at the moment for their support of certain hate-groups.

Being a Premium Customer in SecondLife, I contacted the live support chat and was soon taken care of by a charming person with an exotic name that I cannot remember. I described my problem to him/her and together we tried to figure out a solution by looking at the form. Neither of us could find an easy or obvious way to add a new credit card to my account.

After a few minutes my support-person came up with the brilliant idea that I should log into SecondLife and try to buy L$ (the currency used in-world). When I followed the advice a form came up that allowed me to submit my new credit card information and get new L$. Mission accomplished both of us thought.

However, a few days later I received an e-mail from Linden Lab informing me with the following content. (Click to enlarge)

The e-mail is very friendly and understanding but obviously the information I had supplied once before was not enough it seems. 

Following the instructions I had soon added the new information and could authorize payment of the  tier I was due the next day. I also got an immediate confirmation that my debt had been payed in full and that my account status should now be active.

For some reason I cannot understand, it appears you must supply the same information for different uses with Linden Lab, one for buying currency in-world and another for paying tier. I don't know yet if Linden Lab needs the same information again for the yearly payment of my Premium Account.

It seems to me that Linden Lab should make it easier for the customers who are willing to pay for their services to do so without having to contact support or getting an e-mail about being late with payment.

P.S. And now I have started thinking I must have done something wrong when I removed the old credit card, but I cannot remember - and if the user makes mistakes wouldn't the payment system make allowances for that and let us easily correct the mistakes we make?

All Is Well In Both Worlds

"The Artists Mother" by Edouard Manet

Today mother is finally back home again.

My mother is tired and happy and has her oxygen plugged in while she rest in her own bed without lumps and with her own soft pillows and with her old companion pampering and fussing over her.

My father is happy and tired because he didn't sleep at all last night from was worrying that something would happen to prevent mother from coming home. (So now you know where I get my worrying from.)

I am just happy that they are both happy. What the future holds we do not know, but we will deal with it when it comes.