My Own Private Drama

For security reasons I chose to get 2-step verification to my Google Account, which I use for my gmail, my Google+ and my blog. It adds an extra layer of security by requiring that I have access to my iPhone – as well as my username and password – when I sign in. In addition to my username and password, I should enter a code that Google should supply to an app on my phone when I sign in.

"2-step verification drastically reduces the chances of having the personal information in your Google account stolen by someone else. Why? Because hackers would have to not only get your password and your username, they'd have to get a hold of your phone." 

Well that's how it is supposed to work according to Google. Sounds awesome huh? If it worked as intended I am sure it would be, but it doesn't!

You have an option when using it to let you stay logged in for 30-days. That first 30-day period expired for me yesterday, Friday. No problems I thought and brought up the Google Authenticator app to get the code for accessing my accounts again. I must have tried about 50 of those six digit codes generated by the app, but was told every time that the codes were not valid.

As I had to go on a Christmas dinner with my workmates yesterday I gave up for the evening and thought I would deal with it again today, after I had sobered up.

Well I tried 25 times today also, then I removed the app and reinstalled it and set it up again according to instructions and tried another 25 times. Still I got the message that the codes generated by the app were not valid. Totally frustrated I shut down the computer and gave up on ever accessing my blog ever again.

After a few hours trying not to think about the damned thing, I suddenly remembered I had actually gotten a set of ten written backup-codes when first setting up the thing. So I thought I might try them before giving up completely. Lo and behold, the backup code actually did work.

So in the future I am not even going to use the app generated codes but going for the backup codes straightaway, you can easily get ten new ones when you have used the first ten.

Bock in SecondLife is back in the air again. The world is safe as this blog continues it´s fight for truth. justice and the SecondLife way of life.

World AIDS Day

"The World AIDS day is celebrated on December 1st every year. It is dedicated to elevate the awareness of AIDS pandemic sources by spreading of HIV infectivity.

It is ordinary to hold remembrance to respect persons who have expired from HIV/AIDS on this day. Health officials and Govt detect the event, often with forums or speeches on AIDS theme. Since 1995, the President of United States has created an official announcement on the World AIDS Day. Govt of other states have made similar announcement on this day.

This disease has killed above 25 million people between 1981 and 2007. About 33.2 million people universal live with HIV/AIDS as of 2007. It has become the most critical epidemic in the recorded history."

Shaving Day

I have been taking part in "Movember" which is an annual, month-long event involving the growing of mustaches during the month of November.

The aim of Movember is to raise awareness and funds for men's health issues, such as prostate or testicular cancer and depression. By encouraging men to go to the doctor, Movember also wishes to increase early cancer detection, diagnosis and effective treatments, and ultimately reduce the number of preventable deaths.

Some say the mustache suits me, others say it makes me look older, younger or more distinguished. I don´t care what they say because I totally dislike it, so tonight it is coming off.

To me it looks - and feels - like I have a blond dead mouse covering my upper lip, disgusting!

Legally Insane

This morning two court appointed psychiatrists delivered their findings to the Oslo district court in the case of the Norwegian mass murderer A.B.B., who killed 77 people in July. 

In their report they have concluded that A.B.B.suffered from psychotic schizophrenia when he committed his crimes and that he is therefor legally insane. The psychiatric findings may mean A.B.B. cannot be sent to jail. 

The court will have the final decision on whether A.B.B. can be held responsible for the crimes, but it generally follows the recommendations of the experts. If the court upholds the conclusion A.B.B. will not be put on criminal trial but would instead face a court hearing to rule on his criminal insanity and the length of his commitment to a psychiatric institution.

It is reported that A.B.B. doesn't approve of the psychiatrists conclusions and that he "feels offended" by them.
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My first thought when I heard this news was that to those of us in the mainstream, the thoughts and actions of extremists must inevitably seem insane and bizarre. This in itself doesn't mean that extremists always are insane by definition, let alone criminally insane in a way that they should not be accountable for their actions.

The reality of an extremist is not the same as ours, neither are his remedies. But then again, I am not a psychiatrist...

It´s Time - Everywhere

This Australian video has had close to 1,8 million hits in only four days. Lets see if we can help to increase that!

Please share this with friends and loved ones.
Donate to put on Australian TV: http://tiny.cc/gkuwp
Sign petition: http://www.getup.org.au/marriagematters

Music: Oliver Tank "Last Night I Heard Everything in Slow Motion"

"GetUp! Action for Australia" is an independent movement to build a progressive Australia and bring participation back into our democracy.

Happy Blogoversary, Eddi Haskell´s Second Life!

Sunday was the third blogoversary of my buddy Eddi Haskell´s blog "Eddi Haskell´s Second Life" and I nearly missed it altogether. Thanks for the reminder to Avacar Bluestar at GWNews!

Another year down, Eddi, and many, many more to go!

Sorry for the belated greeting, you almost succeeded in sneaking it past me. If it hadn't been for Avacar you might have made it.

Southern Charm

The view we fell in love with at Southern Charm

Soon after Ars and I became a couple back in December of 2007, we started to look for somewhere to live together and spent all Ars free time sim-jumping to search for a place we both liked.

We had made a joint list of criteria for what we were looking for.

1. No boring beach property
2. Affordable
3. Big enough. i.e. with enough prims over after setting up the house.surroundings and furniture. to allow Ars to build without too many limitations
4. A reliable and secure landlord - we had both heard too many stories about the other kind

Usually Ars would have prepared a list of places to check out beforehand and pretty soon after I logged inworld we were off on our hunt. We had a good time doing this and enjoyed being in each others company.

After about a week or so we first came to the Southern Charm sim, which seemed to meet with all our criteria except the affordable. I was the stingy one, after all the relationship with Ars was so fresh and I did not want to commit to something that could be difficult to pull out from if things turned sour.

We both fell in love with the house straddling the waterfall at once, so after seeing that we just kept coming back. Finally I gave in and we started negotiations with the landlord.

The sim was at that time owned by Spyder Jewell, but was managed by his wife Jazzine, a smart, funny and wonderful American woman.

Jazzine took to me as soon as I had made Ars question her about the "no nudity" clause in the covenant. Finally we made an explicit agreement stating that I (and Ars) could run around on our property as naked as we wished as long as we did not tote a boner outdoors and wore clothes when visiting with the neighbors.

With that essential point settled we started negotiations on how many parcels we were going to rent, which parcels and what the total tier would be. I had complete confidence in leaving Ars to handle that when I logged off that night.

Next day when I logged in Ars told me triumphantly that we were now the proud tenants of two parcels on Southern Charm, including the one with the waterfall. We were jubilant and immediately started furnishing and decorating.

As time went by, we increased our land with a third, fourth and fifth parcel until we rented more than half the sim. At that point Spyder and Jazzine encountered financial difficulties (or perhaps just decided to move on from SecondLife) and offered us to take over the full sim so we would rent it directly from Linden Lab. (That´s called landowning in SecondLife.) Because I am a citizen of the European Union we decided to name Ars as the sim-owner so we wouldn't have to pay the additional VAT-tax on landowning fees that the EU forced on the Lab.

After Ars passed away in February 2010 there was some paperwork needed to transfer the sim from his estate to me. Luckily, I had the full cooperation and understanding of his father and family in doing so, everyone is not so fortunate.

In hindsight it is my firm recommendation to anyone who co-owns anything whatsoever in SecondLife, to see to it that you make a will bequeathing any joint - or for that matter personal - property to the survivor. It is actually also in accordance with Linden Labs rules to bequeath the avatar itself and all of it´s possessions to the surviving partner.

Ars and I were too happy together and probably thought nothing bad could happen to change it to do any of those things, it almost cost me the dearest memories I had of him and our time together. Do not make the same mistake!