Blog Stats for October

Bock in SecondLife broke the 13k pageviews mark in October 2011. The new record is 13 436 pageviews. The previous records were set last month (12 749 pageviews) and July 2011 (12 477 pageviews).

I must readily admit that I am rather surprised by the increase as I haven´t been posting as regularly due to my preoccupation with first life.

Pageviews by country 10/2011

The trend towards a more International audience is strengthened further.

Sweden is still in the lead as my all time largest reader country with close to 53 274 pageviews, while the United States comes in at 29 272 pageviews and Egypt in third place with 5 725 pageviews.

The three largest language groups among my readers in October 2011 were English (46,9 %), Swedish (27,6 %) and German (5,1 %).

Ziggy: What´s Up With Linden Labs?

Today my buddy Ziggy Starsmith talks straight (for once some bitches would say) to Linden Lab about the recent in-world problems on his blog Ziggy On The Edge of Second Life. Ziggy´s thoughts are as always well worth reading.

Read the full editorial here: Whats Up With Linden Labs?

Named Avatars 4

My friend Vanadis Falconer has graciously decided to take part in the fun.

Many of you may know Vanadis mainly for her blog, "Vanadis ser på saken" ("Vanadis takes a look at matters"). I have had a few feuds with Vanadis, but I have always respected her for her ability to stand her ground and for her strong will.

Vanadis Falconer

"I was born curious. When I was a child there was a lot of talk about Norse mythology in my neighborhood, very exciting tales of Thor, Odin, Frigg and Freya and the wicked Loki. The cow that never ran dry and the pig that was slaughtered every night and was back just as happy every morning. Modern research then started to go back to originals before the christian and punch-drunk influences.

It was found that women were the major gods! No one did anything without consulting with their clever wives. 


Freya, the Vaner dis - Goddess of the Vaner, became the greatest goddess among them all.

Growing up with the strong belief that the woman is the superior gender while the man is disposable, "save the women and children first", because of the woman's ability to create life. For the survival of the human race - as for any other mammal only one male is needed for every ten females in order to avoid inbreeding. Although it is nice to have your own "little boy" to play with. All this made it natural for me to take the name "Vanadis" in honour of Freya.

But the strange thing was that when I had to choose a surname the rare name "Falconer" was available. One of Freya's attributes is the Falcon. It was a strange coincidence that I started in Second Life that day, because the next day you could no longer choose that last name. It would take another eighteen months for the next time that it was possible to choose it. It was as if there was a higher power that caused me to log in for the first time that day. The Norns weaving the web of fate perhaps?"

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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).

Assange Loses Appeal

guardian.co.uk today informs us that the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, has lost his high court appeal against extradition to Sweden to face rape allegations.

Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Ouseley on Wednesday handed down their judgment in the 40-year-old Australian's appeal against a European arrest warrant issued by Swedish prosecutors after rape and sexual assault accusations made by two Swedish women following his visit to Stockholm in August 2010.

The judges rejected the appeal on all four grounds made by his legal team, opening up the possibility that Assange could be removed to Sweden by the end of the month.

Lord Justice Thomas said a date would be fixed in three weeks' time to hear any case by Assange that he should be allowed to take the case to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.

To appeal again, Assange must persuade the judges there is a wider issue of "public importance" at stake in the latest decision. If he is successful in persuading the high court of that, he is likely to remain on conditional bail until a hearing in front of the supreme court. This is unlikely to take place until next year.

If he is denied the right to appeal then British law enforcement officers will be responsible for arranging his removal to Sweden within 10 days.

You can read Robert Booth´s full article here guardian.co.uk: Julian Assange loses appeal against extradition.


P.S. The picture pf Mr.. Assange was updated after the correct information supplied by my buddy Apmel in the comments.

Named Avatars 3

Today it is my great pleasure to let my buddy Apmel tell us about how he named his avatar - and his host of co-avatars.

As you perhaps already know Apmel is a prominent figure in the virtual art world of SecondLife. His blog "Min avatar heter Apmel" ("My Avatar´s Name is Apmel") is also the oldest existing Swedish SecondLife blog and the distinguished recipient of the prestigious lifetime achievement award from The Bock McMillan Art Foundation (a part of theBMcM Corporation).

The Apmel Trinity - from the left Meerson, Ibbetson and Goosson

"When I registered my first ava I first looked up a surname that ended with “-son”... it just happened to be Ibbetson and Apmel as first name, which was simply a reversal of one of my nicknames at work - "Lempa" instead of Lennart.

Later, I wanted to have a name ending in “-sson”, two s´s, and more Swedish I thought .. while I kept the first name. Apmel Goosson plain and simple with everything that it has come to mean...

When I created the next avatar, that was first conceived as a pure backup, the choice for a surname happened to fall on Meerson.

Eventually these alternate versions of Apmel developed, as several of you already know. 

Apmel Ibbetson was modeled using pictures of myself taken just before my sixtieth birthday in real life and hey presto, he became Uncle IB. The "last name" IB comes from the fact that my primatar initially was determined to promote his RL-activity, "Indexkompaniet Bokförlag" (The Index Company Publishers) and started an Index Company book café in-world where the group´s members were called IB-agents (Yes, I did have the (for Swedes) well known IB-affair in memory, and liked the ambiguity).

Apmel Meerson quickly turned into “Kludden” (the daub). An inexperienced young cousin to Apmel who is finding his way around in Second Life. Daub rapidly strengthened my interest in the virtual arts.

At long last Apmelina Slingshot came along and proved to be the sister of Apmel that Apmel´s dad never had. Apmelina rapidly extended my old-fashioned (albeit narrow) musical taste in a more contemporary direction - with a little help from Milli, I readily admit. :))

 

And the last (latest?) avatar that I have acquired is a banker who originally was of the same indeterminate sex and age as the name I gave it, "Apmelsprivatabankman" (Apmel´s-private-banker). I refuse to use the ugly surname Resident that automatically and not so amusingly came with it. This avatar later developed into a beautiful woman in her fifties. I am hoping she will bring order to the Apmellian finances :))"

Movember

Movember is an annual, month-long event involving the growing of mustaches during the month of November. The event was conceived in 1999 by a group of Australian men from Adelaide.

Since 2004, the Movember Foundation charity has run Movember events to raise awareness and funds for men's health issues, such as prostate or testicular cancer and depression.

Rules
1. On "Shadowe'en" (October 31), the complete moustache region, including the entire upper lip and handlebar zones, must be completely shaved.
2. For the entire duration of Movember [November 1–30], no hair shall be allowed to grow in the goatee zone (any facial area below the bottom lip).
3. There is to be no joining of the moustache to sideburns.

(Source of the above is more or less Wikipedia but there are lots of other sites)
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So start growing them mo´s now, boys and girls, it´s for a good cause!

I don´t mind facial hair on other men, but I really. really hate it on myself, so this will be a big sacrifice. My facial hair is a light ratty blond like the rest of my hair. The first couple of days I will just look unshaven in a disgusting sort of way, after that the scratching and itching will start... 

€55.5 Billion Recovered

Germany is 55.5 billion euros ($78.7 billion) richer than it thought due to an accountancy error at the bad bank of nationalized mortgage lender Hypo Real Estate (HRE), the German finance ministry announced today.

The Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm and prince of Cascade Falls, laconic response when asked about this news was, "Bookkeeping isn't that easy, you know. Those of us who are accustomed to these large amounts of money sometimes make slight miscalculations. It must be expected, we are after all only human."