Named Avatars 5

I am very pleases to introduce you today to Sjöfn Stoneshield in my series on how we decided on the names for our avatars-

"My cousin, Vanadis Falconer, lured me into Second Life because she thought I needed a little break now and then from the work on my dissertation in psychology.

When I joined I needed a good first name. "Vanadis" was already taken by Vanadis. Since we are almost the same age and cousins, we have grown up with the folklore about the Norse gods Thor, Odin, Frigg and Freya. Now I had to think a little extra. 

We have an old tradition in Scandinavia; If you pick seven kinds of wild flowers from seven different fields in absolute silence on a midsummer night and then put the flowers under your pillow you will dream about your future husband or wife. In the pre-Christian era there was also a goddess named Sjöfn, sister of the goddess Freya, who was worshiped if you had love troubles. The goddess was revered by both men and women.

There was only one small problem with that first name. It was not possible to use the Swedish letters Å, Ä and Ö in Second Life at that time (A´s and O´s with circles or two dots above). The Swedish Ö (O with two dots) is pronounced as "I" in "bird". Should I spell my name "Sjifn"? Nah, it made no sense to other Scandinavians. Should I use the German "OE"? Nah, only Germans would understand that. So I just gave up and called myself Sjofn. 

Then it was time to choose the surname. One name sounded more ridiculous than the other, eventually I came to the "S" and Stoneshield. Sjofn Stoneshield that´s good, I thought. A shield of stone for a strong and independent woman - perfect!

One of the first things I did after joining Second Life was to write to Philip Linden and tell the boy that he should ensure that Swedish Å, Ä and Ö could be used in Second Life names. And because Philip is obviously a well-mannered and obedient boy, Second Life introduced Å, Ä and Ö in the next update. So now I have my dots over the o and Sjofn is now and for eternal time called "Sjöfn Stoneshield".

Ars go Fridars ("prosperity and good harvest" in Old Norse)
Sjöfn"

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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 your avatar.

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).

Anton Gets A Stonewall Award

The Swedish pro soccer player Anton Hysén (20) has been awarded a Stonewall Award as "Sportsperson of the Year". The Swedish player was praised for taking a stand in the sport.

Anton is the world’s only openly gay professional footballer since he came out as gay to the Swedish football magazine Offside in March 2011.

Now let´s see if the Swedish Soccer Federation have balls large enough to celebrate him tonight at their big party with many awards handed out.

The Stonewall Awards is an annual event to celebrate people who have had a positive impact on the lives of British LGBT people.

Anton Hysén of course also has his own blog, Anton Hysén.

UPDATE: Nope, Anton didn´t receive any recognition by the spineless bastards of the Swedish Soccer Federation. They had an excellent opportunity to strike a blow at the rampant homophobia in sports - and they blew it.

Advance Notice: Bollywood

My friend Ewa Aska is organizing a Bollywood party next Saturday to celebrate her 5th rezday. The party starts at 22:00 (Paris time no less, which means 1 PM SLT).

At the last Bollywood party that Ewa organized in SecondLife (it must be two or maybe even three years ago now) we had a real blast!

Ars was DJ-ing - and had a lot of fun making the music list - while I was hosting for the first time together with Ewa and her partner at the time. I think this was the party where I got my first tip ever in SecondLife, for being such an excellent and charming host and saying "Namaste" about 568+ times.

I am letting you know about the party early so you can start looking for decent outfits. I will be there and say "Namaste" a few times even if I am not hosting this event.

Happy Rezday, Ziggy!

Today is the second rezday of Ziggy Starsmith, the wonderful, talented, charming, sweet, studelicious and always sexy - through all his changes and makeovers!

I wish you a wonderful and happy rezday. buddy, SecondLife wouldn´t be the same without you!

Love ya, big hugs and lots of kisses!

Visiting With Ars

After midnight my time but fortunately SecondLife runs on SLT/PST so it was still Saturday in-world, there is some benefit with time zones after all.

It was a beautiful night at Mirromere, which is my favorite memorial place for Ars.

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/)