Go Easy On the Nasal Spray...

(via copyranter)
...or else you might end up this way!

I am semi-addicted to nasal decongestants around this time of the year because I cannot fall asleep if I cannot breathe through my nose.

I usually blame my co-workers with children in day care for this condition. They bring all the infections that have been running wild among the kids to us poor guys who have no immunity against those upper respiratory tract infections.

Feeling much better, but still tired. See you all in the weekend!

Schumann

Photo by Peter Leibing

The dramatic picture shows Hans Conrad Schumann, 19, defecting from East Berlin on August 16, 1961, two days after East Germany had started to build the Berlin Wall to seal of its inhabitants from the West.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Schumann returned to his birthplace. He was not welcomed by his parents or siblings and shunned by the other inhabitants of his hometown for what he had done. Schumann hanged himself in 1998.

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Yesterday I woke up 20 minutes before the alarm went off, feeling well rested after a good nights sleep. I got to work at ten to eight and was focused, energetic and sociable all through my work day. When I left work to drive the 20 kilometers home it was like all the energy was drained out of me. I almost fell asleep twice during the short drive home.

I went to bed for a nap hoping I would feel better after that. Three hours later I woke up due to a nature call, logged into SecondLife to congratulate Apmel and send him his rezday present. Fifteen minutes later I was back in bed and slept through the night. All-in-all I slept thirteen hours and still felt exhausted when I woke up this morning. 

I wish I could also take a brave leap and change my future and circumstances (but with hopes of a better ending than Schumann got).

Hope to see you all tomorrow!

Happy 5th Rezday Apmels!

Apmel in an installation for Naked Avatars in SecondLife

Apmel Goosson, the lovable enfant terrible of the Swedish SecondLife community celebrates his 5th anniversary in SecondLife today.

Apmel Jr, uncle Ib and Apmel Sr.

I am proud to call Apmel a friend and indeed my bosom-buddy, He is not always easy to be around, but hell he is well worth the time!

Apmelina in Naked Avatars in SecondLife

Apmel is of course the head of the well known artsy SecondLife family of avatars the Apmels of Solace Island. Apart from Apmel himself hius family consists of uncle Ib, Apmel J.R., Apmelina and Apmelsprivatabankman, Robotina and perhaps some more that I have not yet been introduced to.

Apmel is of course also the owner and writer of the blog "My Avatars Name is Apmel", which was the Bock McMillans Art Foundations (a part of the BMcM Corporation) lifetime achievement award for 2011,

Happy rezday Apmel, may you have very many more!

Should SecondLife be "Pleasantville"?

If you haven't seen or heard about the film "Pleasantville" (url) please read up before continuing.

First of all let me make it completely clear that I am not a behavioral scientist or anything like that. I have, however, in my line of work as a lawyer in first life, dealt with other peoples conflicts all my professional life. And I have had a few in my own personal life too.

I have also been taught by my parents, my community and my schools, to speak up and take a stand if and when I encountered anything I did not agree with. To state my case and share my opinions and arguments.

Taking a stand and showing your position by necessity creates a conflict. In SecondLife every sign of conflict is dismissed and belittled as "drama" and that is viewed as a bad thing.

Especially since I started blogging about my first and second life I have met the attitude "Can´t we always be friends all the time, everyone?". If and when a conflict showed signs of brewing or was becoming apparent I have been told by close friends and people I love and respect, "walk away", "ignore it" or "don´t acknowledge it" or something of that sort.

In my not so humble opinion conflict is drama and conflict is life! The difficult trick is of course to discuss what has been said or done, not what the person saying or doing something is. It does not promote discussion or reaching a consensus to stamp your opponent.with "He/she is stupid", "He/she is a drama queen", "He is a man, all men are animals and always try to oppress me and other women".

Honestly I can say that in all my 42 years in first life I have only one person with whom I have an entrenched and bitter relationship. In my almost five years of SecondLife I have strangely enough succeeded in accumulating four such relationships through - from my point of view - personal attacks on myself or someone I love. I am sure that the opponent has the reversed view.

I would hate to live in a world of fake harmony and stifling pleasantness, but it would be great if we could acknowledge that conflict is healthy, beneficial, creative and absof***inglutely sane! Conflict forces us to rethink our values, find solutions, forgive and all-in-all evolve as human beings by taking a position and saying what way we want to move. By individual evolution we help the society we live in to evolve and become a better place.

My response to my own initial question is therefore a resounding, Hell no!

But the difference between me and those seeking a drama free and pleasant second life could be that they are just in it for a few hours of entertainment, while to me it actually is a second life. I´m not sure.

Sweet Memories (Updated)

Drizz, I and Ars (Photo by Drizz McMillan) 

All of my gestures got deactivated recently - some would say "Thank God" and Ars would have been one of them - but due to that unfortunate happening I struck gold in my Inventory today.

Looking for a gesture I got from Mr and Mrs Twine-DeSantis-McMillan (sirhc and Vampi, to those of us who love them) I typed in "bock2" in the search field of my Inventory and lo and behold, not only did the missing gesture turn up but these three pictures also. They were taken way back on July 26, 2007.

In the pictures you see me as a brunette with my cousin Drizz McMillan with the Mohawk and my sweet Ars. Unfortunately I was not given them with full rights, so I had to use my snipping tool to copy them.

That brown hair was my first SecondLife hair ever, I still remember how good I thought I looked and how happy I was for it.

At this point in time Ars was of course not "my Ars" yet, that wouldn't be until a few months later, but I was already madly infatuated with him and had started stalking him to all his Euro-sets. I never thought I would have a chance with him though, because he was always surrounded by hordes and droves of stunning looking guys.

As you most likely can see, it wasn't for his looks that I chose him (they improved over time though, as we all did), but for his warm, kind and loving personality, his jawline, his wonderful voice and his happy, mad, wild and  contagious laughter. All the bling he is wearing makes me suspect he had dressed up for some bling-bling theme at a club. He usually never wore that much jewelry.

It shames me to admit, that I - possibly - finally got Ars full attention through both my persistence and with a little guile and deceit.

My powers of observation have never been strong. One day ElenaSanoraly Milena told me that Ars was pissed because he had a new skin for a week and no one seemed to notice or comment about it. That evening at the Sarco Sound Grounds I asked in local chat - in my most innocent way, "There is something different about you lately, Ars. I cannot put my finger on it. Did you get a new skin?". Ars was elated when everyone started complimenting him on his great choice.

From then on. I was always very observant of any slight changes in my babe´s appearances, because it always made him so happy when I noticed.

I and Drizz (Photo by Drizz McMillan)

Drizz and I (Photo by Drizz McMillan) 

D R E Y Is Back

My darling brother in-law D R E Y (the spaces are important and make him look younger, he hasn't said so but it´s what I suspect).

As always when my BIL comes back from a hiatus he has made a complete makeover and is now a stunning blond with a skin he will have to take care with in the permanent sunshine of our world.

It was late (or early) in my first life but we do not meet that often so when the occasion arose we just had to meet and talk a little, it happened to be at Fabrice´s memorial site because I was there when he came inworld.

I love my BIL, it was good to see and talk with him again.

DJ Dave Huge - A Huge Year

A Huge Year by Dave Huge
(via J.M.G.)

Joe Jervis finds the best music!