All Saints Day

Today is the All Saints day in Sweden. It is a movable holiday that occurs on the Saturday that comes between October 31st and November 6th. (When this holiday was created by the Swedish parliament in 1953 Saturdays were still work days.) The church celebrates another All Saints day on November 1st, but that day isn't a holiday.

This Saturday many of us visit our dear departed and light candles and lay out flowers on their graves or - if you are old, sick and tired as my parents - you light candles in front of pictures of the loved ones.

I visited my sister and grandparents graves today on behalf of the family, other than those few hours I have spent most of the day sleeping. I don´t know what has made me so tired, because I am otherwise in a good mood.

Tonight I am going to reenter SecondLife and light candles for my babe and think happy thoughts.

Complete List of Virtual World Blogs

Sven Idyll photographed by Sven Idyll

The Swedish blogger Sven Idyll has been working hard to make a complete list of links to blogs covering virtual worlds, although mostly SecondLife.

He has now collected a list with more than a hundred links to active blogs. The list is sorted with the latest updated on top. If a blog isn't updated in six months it will be removed.

Only a few of the links are for fashion or event blogs as Sven thinks these blogs - although they have great layouts are mainly for commercial reasons - and he wants to focus on the blogs covering living in virtual worlds or the technical aspects. He is however considering to maybe create a special collection of links to the fashion blogs in the future.

I have added a gadget in the right column with a direct link to the list, click the image "Virtual Links" and it will take you straight there.

Sven says he will gratefully accept any hints of blogs he may have missed, so if you don´t find your blog in the list tell him about it!

My own tips to Sven on missing links are
Gay-Worlds News (http://www.gay-worldsnews.com/),
The Bullring (http://torrospyker.blogspot.com/) and
Second Pride (http://www.secondpride.com/)

Time to Sign Up

If you aren't an organ donor already you should sign up for it now.

Always make sure that you let the people close to you know where you stand in this matter, so you do not dump the decision in their lap at a time when they are preoccupied with other things!

Organ Donor Foundation TV commercial - 'Leila' from kirk gainsford on Vimeo
(via copyranter)

This is by far the best public service announcement for organ donation I have ever seen, it´s strong and hits home hard. The best part is of course that it is completely true. If you aren't an organ donor you do take 5-7 others with you who could have been saved!

Swedes can sign up here Donationsrådet.
Americans can sign up here organdonor.gov
Canadians can find out how and where to sign up here Canadian Living
Australians can sign up here Australia MediCare
Danes can sign up here sundhed.dk
Britons can sign up here Organ Donation
New Zealanders can sign up here Organ Donors Foundation
Belgians can find consent forms in French and Dutch here
The Dutch can sign up here - with DigID Donorregister or with a form Donorregister

In Finland it is automatically assumed that you consent to organ donation unless you have previously expressed opposition. (Way to go, Finland!)

Lazy buggers of any other nationality, just do a Google search for organ donation and your country.

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.