Pick A Number

I found this piece by Paul Rudnick in the New Yorker through my steady supplier J.M.G, "Pick A Number".

I´m a definite 18, what are you? Tell us the number you pick at J.M.G.; I Pick 18.

My Day In Hibernation

I took this day off because it´s been a rough fortnight in both my first and second lives. I have been dealing with a lot in my mind and finally I felt like I reached a point of "sensory and mental overload".

I needed to shut down "the brain-machine" and do a reboot to let the dust settle in my mind and get a fresh look on things. The excuse I used to myself and others was that I needed to go out and buy Christmas presents, which sounds acceptable because of the time of the year.

The alarm was set to wake me up at 9 AM this morning and I got out of bed and turned on the computer to read my mail. There were two of interest, from two of the living people that I love the most in real life and SecondLife, although I was really happy to receive them and for the good news they contained, I found myself lacking in energy to respond directly. Two hours later I went back to bed and lay there sleeping (mostly) or thinking, avoiding the cold, the darkness and the storm brewing outside. Finally I woke up at 9 PM and got out of bed and made coffee.

Sometimes I earnestly wish that I could change my personality as easily as I change skin, shape, hair and eyes in SecondLife. I wish I could stay calm, cool and collected at all times and wasn't prone to follow my passions  I wish my parents, my school and my mentors in life had taught me, that I do not need to share my opinion on every matter I feel strongly about or that I do not always have to react when I see what I perceive as injustices. The world can do well enough with out my opinionated rantings.

After the first two cups of coffee I realized my thoughts were futile, it is not possible - yet - to change your personality in a radical way when one is close to 42 years old. I must do the best I can with what I have and follow my path. What I can do is perhaps to be clearer about why I do and say things and hopefully make it clear to everyone that my intentions - mostly - are good and honest.

Enough of being self centered, tomorrow is another day! Christmas presents, Christmas cards and the Saint Lucio Walk of Sha.. ummm, ummm Honor at the Swedish Embassy in SecondLife on December 13th are on my to do list for the weekend.

New Premium Gift

Linden Lab today sent out a new gift to premium members.

It looks like a great little sailboat, I may have to ask seasoned sailor Vanadis for some lessons though! ...or perhaps a sexy male avatar would suit me better...?

The Woman I Love

"Millimina", photo by Millimina Salamander

I know she always loves me,
I know she always forgives me,
I know she will always support me
and she has always been there for me

Even when she scolds me,
even when she is angry with me,
even when I am bad, forgetful, selfish, thoughtless, cruel or just plain stupid,
she is always there for me.

She is my memory,
she comforts me when I cry and
she holds me, hugs me when I don´t deserve it.
She will always be there, for me.

I will always love you, my darling sister Millimina, and I am so sorry I forgot your rezday on December 6th, but you didn't remind me... (Hugs to Apmel for stepping in!)

Ugh sorry, but I am no poet (as if I need to tell you...)

"Gay Rights are Human Rights", Clinton Says

Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a wonderful speech at the International Human Rights Day held yesterday at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, about the Obama administrations new policy to fight discrimination against gays and lesbians abroad by using foreign aid and diplomacy to encourage reform.

"Some seem to believe it is a western phenomenon and therefore people outside the west have grounds to reject it. 

Well, in reality gay people are born into and belong to every society in the world. They are all ages, all races, all faiths, they are doctors and teachers, farmers and bankers, soldiers and athletes.  

Whether we know it, whether we acknowledge it, they are our family, our friends and our neighbors.  

Being gay is not a western invention, it is a human reality." 

Hillary Clinton spoke in front of an auditorium full of ambassadors, many of them representatives from countries where homosexuality is a criminal offence.

You can see the full speech here (but you can find it all over the Internet)

I do not think her hairdo is particularly flattering - and I feel soooo gay and simpleminded when I write that - but do not let that unimportant fact distract you from listening to this great speech, focus on her eyes and words instead. (And yes Vanadis, I actually would say something like that even if it was a man speaking!)

"Sane Enough"

Today the Swedish psychiatrist Johan Cullberg published a dissenting analysis of A.B.B. after listening to the 36 hours of tapes from the interviews of the Norwegian psychiatric team, DN Debatt -Breivik är tillräckligt frisk för att straffas"

"The 36 hours of interviews with Anders Breivik Behring reveals no indication that he is suffering or has suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. To absolve him from accountability and punishment due to mental disorder is offensive unprofessional and unimaginative (...) 

Instead his symptoms indicate a malignant narcissistic personality disorder, or mixed - his megalomaniac notions are closely connected with his elaborate opinions. The terrorist acts are fully consistent with these. This the (Norwegian) investigators do not at all discuss.

None of the interviews reveal anything that could not have been said or done by an extreme political or religious fanatic. Breivik´s "manifesto" is reportedly fully legible, it lacks the verbal lockups and stereotyped phrases that a work of a schizophrenic person would have demonstrated. Probably he would have been accepted by a radical political terror cell. If he suffered from schizophrenia, it would have been much more difficult - he would have had difficulty to hide the bizarre and fragmented world that is always associated with that diagnosis.

Many might wish that such evil ideas and actions like Breivik´s, or for that matter those of Hitler or Stalin, must by definition be "sick". But then you use the concept of disease in an evaluative purpose. It is important that one does not believe that behaviors that we abhor or fear, and precisely for that reason think is abnormal should be classified as sick. Then we narrow our view of capacity for evil in the mentally healthy human as well as broaden the concept of mental disease to an impermissible extent."

Johan Cullberg concludes, "(The Norwegian psychiatrists) have not understood that this is a well thought out philosophy with a fully coherent criminal action."

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The above was translated by Google Translate and corrected by me, I was too impatient to try to do it myself this time.

Cullberg raises the question I tried to raise a few days ago in my post Legally Insane, about where we draw the line between legal sanity and insanity. He does so from a similar starting point but with the added advantage of actually being a psychiatrist himself.

Bock is Back