Spam

Lately I have been receiving an abundance of spam email from Russia or Ukraine. Whenever I open my email I get three or four of these.

They all - more or less - look like this. (Snipped from my preview in Outlook)

The worst part is that most of them are supposedly coming from g-i-r-l-s who all covet my oh so hot body and wonderful personality.

I would really appreciate it if the spammers targeted me with more suitable mail.

Enough Is Enough

OK, I simply cannot hold on to the blackout any longer, I have pictures to show and stories to tell!

However, it is my firm belief that if the United States Congress should pass legislation like the ones proposed in SOPA or PIPA it would set an extremely bad example for the world and for the future of freedom of speech.

My bosom buddy Apmel Goosson has on his blog "My Avatars Name is Apmel" today published a statement by the American lawyer Chris Savage that express my thoughts and sentiments on this completely:

"Speaking only for myself and not any clients, SOPA is a horrible, protectionist over-reach by content-owning industries. It is bad for the Internet and even bad, in a "spoiled versus tough love" sense, for the content industries.

The Internet makes distribution easy and cheap. That makes stuff easier to copy. They can either live with that and find a business model that works within it, or they can go the way of the player piano."

STOP SOPA & PIPA

In solidarity with Wikipedia, Google, Reddit, Tina´s Universe, My Avatars Name Is Apmel and other major sites and blogs, this blog is blacked out today (January 18) in protest against SOPA and PROTECT IP laws. These laws are a threat to free speech and to the freedom of the Internet. If you are a citizen of the United States of America please contact your congressional representative and tell them to vote 'No' on this law. Take a few minutes to visit here to learn more about this at Sopa Blackout (url). 

If you are not a citizen of the US. What can you do? The US State Department constantly speaks out against Internet censorship in other countries. Pressure them to speak out against America’s new domestic censorship system. Email the U.S. State Department (url)!

New Necessity for Mac-Users

(via copyranter) Click picture to enlarge.

Essential commode/commodity for Jobsites, sometimes also referred to as "The Holy Sect of Mac".

As could be expected the user interface in the iPoo Toilet is impeccable and the design is immaculate! For more information please visit Milos Paripovic - iPoo Toilet (url).

The Wonderful Bara

Yesterday I - for the first time in a long time- had the possibility to catch a set by my dear buddy Bara Jonson, SecondLife (and first life) singer/songwriter extraordinaire. It was bloody awesome!

Bara has a wonderful warm voice that goes straight into my heart and while there plays on all the strings it can find. Those of us who were there, also got to hear a new song by Bara - which was wonderful even if I have forgotten the title - and the splendid news that Bara, his new co-singer Free (whom I haven´t had a chance to listen to yet but have received excellent reports about) and his band now have a manager in first life.

During my post-set talk with Bara we talked about his family, Nickel and Kris (who are still in the U.S.) and Bara mentioned that they were both coming over to Sweden this summer. He also mentioned that Kris was going to be christened during his visit here and then said "As I have often told Nickel, there is only one person whom I can imagine as Kris´s godfather..."

A few years ago I was in a very small part instrumental in seeing to it that Bara got his ass over to the U.S., where he met up with Nickel in real life, shared some vodka with her and corrupted the beautiful innocent woman so badly with his charm and vodka that nine months later she gave birth to their beautiful son Kristoffer.

I was totally blown away and elated by being asked to perform this honor for my friends, even though I did not admit it at the time. Sadly, I had to tell Bara that "Even the Church of Sweden has a few standards and one is that the godparent belongs to the church and has the faith".

Alas, I no longer fulfill those small requirements so I had to decline with a broken heart - after I had quickly and quietly considered rejoining the church again.

Well Jonas and Elizabeth (Bara´s and Nickel´s first life names), even if I cannot be Kris´s godfather I will do my very best to be his guardian angel and/or partner in crime!

Stop Forced Sterilization

In Sweden sex change is regulated by the "Act (1972:119) concerning the determination of sex in some cases", which includes both transsexuals and intersexuals.

The Swedish law today requires that any person who on the basis of transsexualism applies for sex change should be:

- Unmarried (i.e. unmarried, widowed, divorced and not  in a partnership)

- Swedish citizenship

- Eighteen years or older and

- Sterile

to be granted permission for new legal gender identity and gender corrective surgery.

The current requirement of sterility has by the Swedish National Board of Legal Council and the courts been interpreted as requiring that no viable reproductive cells from the person may be available.

An investigation on social care and assistance for transsexuals has, in its recommendations 2010, proposed a number of legislative changes among those that the requirement to be unmarried and sterile should be removed without being replaced with other requirements. As for the citizenship requirement it proposes that this should be replaced by a minimum level of domicile in the country of at least one year.

The Swedish government has so far refused to act on the recommendations of the investigation. The inaction on the governments part is due to the influence of the Christian Democratic Party, which is a part of the ruling so called "Alliance".

The Christian Democratic Party holds the The Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs under which this issue falls. Although there is an overwhelming majority in the Swedish parliament for the proposed changes (including the other three parties that make up the governing Alliance) the extremely socially conservative Christian Democrats have succeeded in deadlocking the government from taking any legislative action.

On Thursday we were reached by rumors that the government has reached an unofficial agreement between the four parties that form the Alliance to propose a renewed investigation on the issue of whether sterilization should still be mandatory. 

This unholy agreement was reached in spite of the fact that the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights in a so-called issues paper entitled "Human Rights and Gender Identity" already in July of 2009, found that any requirement to undergo medical or surgical procedures to obtain a legal change of sex is contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights and suggested all Council members to stop the sterilization or forced treatment.

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This issue doesn't affect many people but it is still a very important one. It is time for Sweden to change this anachronistic, heinous and discriminatory law, especially bearing in mind our earlier sordid history on forced sterilizations. 

All Out and RFSL (The Swedish National Organisation for Equal Rights of Homosexual, Bisexual and Transgendered persons) have joined forces to collect signatures for a change. Go there and sign the petition to tell the Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and the others that it is time to move ahead for human rights, for human dignity and against the bigotry of the 4 % that vote for the Christian Democrats.

Please sign the petition here (url).

Second Pride 2012 - General Meeting

I am not on the board of Second Pride  or anything, but I find it interesting to be at the general meetings. All the Board meetings are also open to the membership if something isn´t said about it.

The meetings are conducted in English and with a set of formal American rules. I mostly shut up and am learning as I go along.

The meetings are lead with great aptitude by our Chairman. sexy Doc Spad..

Doc started by informing that there was now a candidate for the empty post of Membership director on the board. The guy would leave a CV. and this would be voted upon at the next meeting.

Over to the next question about how the surplus from 2011 should be handled. There is some tension in the rather small group about how SP2012 should handle the matter of the surplus of L$ 373 757 carried over from SP2011.

It seems the board of SP2011 took a decision that all the surplus should be payed on to a charity.with a very long acronym that I cannot remember, while the present board had decided first to use parts of the surplus for necessary investments before paying the vast majority to the charity with the long acronym. (The difference is fairly small, L$29 400 or USD 115).

To some of the membership it has now gotten to be a tiresome matter of principle and the matter always pops up one way or an another despite the fact that the issue has been thoroughly discussed, voted on and decided, now at least two times. Today the board decided to reiterate their former decision about how the funds should be managed. We will see when it  is brought up again next time.

Khar Indigo reported from the Christmas fundraiser, which had been well visited and rather successful, and three more monthly charity events for the future. She has always seeed a a very competent woman to me and seems to have her ducks lined up.

Avacar Bluestar informed us that things were going as planned with establishing the new website. He encouraged everyone to re-register on the new website.(http://second-pride.com/).

Pierrick reported that he was handling the new Facebook page and that the other on the board were welcome to post there too. He was going to give them administrative rights to it a.s.a.p. We went on to ask for help from previous board members and others of information about the largest contributors during earlier festivals. (It seems there is a list of this in the documents he should be able to access but hasn't found yet.)

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My only criticism concerning these meetings are twofold, it seem that members feel free to rehash matters that have already been discussed, voted upon and decided if they did not happen to attend the meeting where all was decided.. The second objection goes to the fact that some people talk in riddles about some conflict which is not known to me in which it seems both Zach Preminger and Lemonodo Oh were involved. I dare not even guess if it was the same thing or what could have happened. I don´t care really, what I am objecting about is the not uncommon references to them and something that happened. If you don't want to spill the beans to us all just chose not to talk about it at all.