Named Avatars 2

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

After I posted the first one I have gotten absolutely no more volunteers, which has made me realize that I would have to do two things. 

1. I would have to do a post on how I myself chose the name for my avatar.

2. I would also have to start nagging, coercing and threatening family, friends, acquaintances and even total strangers with dire punishments and consequences if they did not voluntarily submit their information and pictures. 

So here is my own contribution to the series.

"Bock" by Ika Cioc (spring 2008)

I was Bock long before I came to SecondLife in the early spring of 2007. 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 should one day cease to exist.

The word "bock" in Swedish means 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 astrology!)

The surname was a bit harder to chose, but as soon as I saw the list of 250-something surnames that Linden Lab supplied in those days I knew it would be something Gaelic (Scottish or Irish) because I have always had a weakness for tartans and for their charming pronunciation. After considering the choices offered for two days I finally arrived at the conclusion that I was of course a McMillan.

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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).

Word As Image

(via copyranter)

The challenge: Create an image out of a word, using only the letters in the word itself.

The video is made by Ji Lee (이지별) a designer who was born in Seoul, South Korea, raised in São Paulo, Brazil, and today lives in New York, U.S.A.

I totally love this, apart from the fact that it makes me miss my BIL Andrey!

Libya Is Free

Today we were reached by the news that the Libyan rebel army has liberated the town of Sirte. The town, which was the birthplace of Muammar Gaddafi, was his last stronghold. The people of Libya have thereby finally rid themselves of the dictator, his family and his henchmen.

According to the news agencies it has now been confirmed that Gaddafi was killed during or after the battles.

Although I would have prefered to have seen Gaddafi stand trial for his crimes against humanity at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, The Netherlands, I still rejoice with the people of Libya for their liberation after 42 years of tyranny.

I hope with all my heart that the people of Libya will now be able to hold true to their hopes of peace and a democratic development against the many powers within and outside the country who may wish to replace one dictatorship with another in order to get control over the Libyan oil fields.

Install A Fresh Viewer

Hear ye, hear ye, gather around for the second technical sermon by The Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm and prince of Cascade Falls, nowadays a.k.a. The Sublime TechMaster General of All Things concerning SecondLife.

So quoth the laird:

You've been in SecondLife a good while now and have most likely gone through loads of viewer updates or even changed viewers a couple of times. All the while you have been fiddling about and messing around with your viewer settings until you have completely forgotten what you did, where you did it or even why you did it.

You probably think - like I did - that every time you uninstall a viewer and install a new one it´s a virginal and completely fresh install. Well, the thing is it isn't a fresh installation at all because all your fiddling about and messing around with the previous viewers have been saved on your computer. 

To get a fresh installation this is what you must do in Windows. All of those who belong to "The Holy Sect of Mac", sometimes also known as "The Latter Day Church of Job" must find your own way.

1. Uninstall your viewer (this is best done from the Control Panel - Uninstall a program).

2. Click on the Start-button in the lower left corner of your screen (see symbol). When you click the Start-button a menu appears with a search field at the bottom.

3. in the search field type %appdata%. 

4. Press enter. After you have pressed enter a new menu appears over the Start-button which contains a folder named "Roaming"

5. Click on the Roaming folder. When you do that a box appears containing loads of different folders.

6 a. Look for and delete the folder named "Second Life" or the name of the viewer you were using.

6 b. While you are at it you might as well also look for and delete any folder with the name of any of the previous viewers you have used; Firestorm, Phoenix, Emerald, Viewer 2.0 or whatever they have been called.

6 c. Go to your [username]/AppData/Local folder and in that folder look for and delete the folder named "Second Life" or the name of the viewer you were using.

Do not worry, none of your Inventory in SecondLife will be lost. That is all stored on the Linden Lab computers.

7. Empty your Trash.

8. Reboot Windows (which means restart your computer, Ars taught me that)

9. Download and install your new viewer

10 Congratulations, you now have a fresh start in SecondLife!

So endeth the second - and probably last - sermon of the Sublime TechMaster on All Things SecondLife. Please note, the TechMaster was taught this trick by the formidable Ewa Aska, owner of Vadstena Castle.
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I was too uninspired for anything else today, so I share my acquired knowledge instead.

Get Rid of Grey People

"I see grey people" is one of the most frequently heard statements in SecondLife. The expression means that the surrounding avatars are not loading properly in that persons viewer.

After close to five years in SecondLife I recently heard about the simplest trick to solve this common problem. I have spent over 4 years trying to solve this problem whenever it hits me with clearing the web cache, relogging and reloading Inventory or sometimes even rebooting my computer, when the problem could be fixed with a simple action. Can you believe it?

What you should do in this situation is simply change your group tag or switch to no group tag. Usually, this simple measure solves the grey people problem in less than 30 seconds.

(I am banging my head against the wall to try to remember who told me about this, but I just cannot recall who it was.)

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!