Suddenly...

"Moon Above Wheatfield" by Gary Hamburgh

Suddenly on Sunday afternoon I was hit with the worst case of the common cold I can remember ever having.

It started with three heavy sneezes. Next thing it was as if my head exploded with the worst headache ever and I felt my sinuses filling up with snot and my chest was congested. The sound of my coughing is terrible and woke me up several times during the night.

Although I felt sicker than a wildebeest I dragged my carcass to work this morning because I had an important meeting in the morning. The rest of the day I avoided close contact with everyone and just medicated with paracetamols to keep the fever at bay and had rolls of toilet paper in every pocket so I could blow my nose every 5-10 minutes. The tip of my nose is red and raw by now, not a pretty sight.

Suddenly yesterday I also felt a tremendous insecurity overwhelming me when I was going to write a post about my new tipping practices in the Swedish venues in SecondLife. After being criticized recently for intimidating others with my "overly generous" tips I started tipping only small amounts in the tip jars and the rest of my tip directly - on the body part of my choice - to the person I was tipping. It´s a hassle and I don´t know how long I can keep it up.

On that subject I was going to tell the story about what Ars once told me when I asked him what the correct tip was. He said - of course - that there is no correct tip, you tip as much or little as you wish and can afford. Ars also stressed the fact that it is essential that the receiver should graciously acknowledge all tips whatever the size. "Even a very small amount could be all the money that person has earned after hours of camping or all they have."

I know why I got insecure and I have claimed I didn't give a damn, but somehow I did anyway. It could of course also be a sign of my weakened state brought on by this uncommon cold.

Sunday Brunch at Hinterland

Hiroku, Mitch and Chade

Today I visited Hinterland for Sunday brunch. Well to be quite honest. I went there to catch a set at The Den but as it turned out I was 24 hours too late.

Still, when I got there I was welcomed to join Chade Dagger. his partner Ronan Juran and Hiroku Kamachi and Mitch for a good chat and some strong coffee around the fire,

Hiroku, Mitch, Chade, Ronan and I

I hadn't seen the guys in a while so it was good to catch up. The men of Hinterland have always been good to me and to Ars too. Ars used to have a regular set at The Den on Saturday mornings (somehow I confused it with Sundays), so I was a  very regular patron. The first memorial for Ars was held at Saint Magnus Kirk, the church that is seen in the background on the top picture.

Next Saturday, 1-3 AM SLT, there will be a Scottish event at The Den, I will be there for sure (if I can only schlepp my tired ass out of bed) wearing one of my leather kilts.

Introducing the Exodus Viewer

My buddy Ziggy Starsmith shares some interesting viewer-experiences with us and introduces us to a new and exciting third party viewer. This viewer seems to be designed for maximum performance. I for one am looking forward to trying it out.

Read more about it on  Ziggy On The Edge Of Second Life: "The Exodus Viewer.... The New Viewer On The Block" (Url). Please don´t forget to see the video with the grungy but sexy Pesto Portland and his cute German accent. 

Trash-talk

In the blogging world you can always complain that other bloggers
...are faking their statistics.
...are writing about the wrong subjects.
...are whining.
...are too self obsessed.
...are not serious journalists like yourself.
...are not able to give the readers what they want, expect or need.
etc. etc.

I will always, like the French philosopher Voltaire, maintain "Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too."

Every blogger has the freedom and the right and the bloody obligation to write whatever suits them as long as it is not discriminatory, defamatory, against the law of the land or against the guidelines of the blog provider. If you do not like the content of a blog, you should not waste your valuable time by reading it. Just move along and find something better to occupy yourself with.

I have stated this before, in both Swedish and English, this blog is mainly written for my own benefit. I am grateful and happy if others like to read it also, but that is by no means my main objective. This blog is not a public service or a news blog, I don´t charge you anything to read it, nor do I receive any of your tax dollars for writing it. I make no pretenses of being a journalist or catering to the needs of others.

As my buddy and enfante terrible the Swedish universal genius, philosopher, rebel, blogger, author, artist, cartoonist etc., etc. and the honored recipient of the lifetime achievement award from the Bock McMillan Art Foundation (a part of the BMcM Corporation) Apmel Goosson once wrote (well, only a few hours ago), "The day I start suspecting that what I write is governed more by what I think the readers want to read than what I myself think, I promise to shut down my blog and permanently stop writing anything at all"

*Bock stretches out his arm with the hand held in a vertical position and says, "Talk to the hand ´cause the face ain´t listening!"*

I Shall Return

"Lunch Atop a Skyscraper", Charles C. Ebbets (1932)

I had this picture in the first life tab on my profile in SecondLife almost from the start. I cannot remember if I still do, but I think so.

The picture of the Mohawk construction workers taking a lunch break out on a beam has fascinated me since the first time I saw it. It´s not only the fact that they are sitting there completely relaxed high above the New York skyline, but I also try to imagine the balancing acts they do when sitting themselves down or when they get up to go back to work.
---

All is well with me, I have just been enveloped in my first life the last days and too tired afterwards to blog or go inworld.

Normal services should - hopefully - be resumed during the weekend.

Friends or Players?

"Three Brothers" (Evander, Ars and Bock) by Evander M.

This picture was taken on December 8, 2007, shortly before Ars and I became an item. Evander M., the photographer, was one of the "Three E´s" that I have mentioned a few times before. At that time he was a good friend of mine and my landlord.

Even if I hadn't seen the date in the properties of the snapshot I would have guessed it was late in 2007, because we are all in hair from Naughty Designs - the only place you could get decent hair from if you had any taste and didn't want to walk around in ugly hair from Badazz.

Evander and his wife ElenaS. M. had a campaign going to expose Ars to my lovely personality as often and as much as possible because they both knew that was infatuated by Ars. I had told Elena and Elena had told Evander - or so we thought at the time. This day Evander had taken me to Ars home in Moa for a visit.

According to the stories Elena and Evander were spreading among all of us in the Sarco Sound group they were a young Dutch couple who had recently been blessed with a wonderful baby boy. Elena was mostly online as she was home with the baby the first months after his birth, while Evander only came in on evenings and night. Suddenly they brought in "their good friend Emile" and started introducing him to us all. Emile was allegedly gay or bi-curious or whatever.

When this happened I heard mention of the word "alt" for the very first time. I think it was Guyke or Ars who explained to me what that meant, even if I really did not understand the concept. It was said that Emile was an alt of Elena created to get even closer to some of us. Somebody called the bluff and it became a funny thing. I am not sure if any of the others at that time believed that Evander and Elena were the same person, but I certainly had no idea until a few months later.

Early in 2008, after Ars and I had moved in together at Southern Charm, "the three E´s" suddenly decided to kill off Elena in her "first life". The young mother was allegedly killed by being run over by a drunk driver when she was out on the town. I was completely devastated over the bad fortune that had befallen my dear friends and the young family. This lasted for a couple of weeks, when we started being reached by rumors that all three of them were the same Dutch man who was playing a game with us.

Somehow some of the tech-savvy of our little group got this confirmed and the uproar over the deceit was total. I was especially upset by the cruelty of letting us believe that Elena had been killed and the commiseration we had shown for Evander during the long weeks that followed that news.

Even if I should have learned a lesson from this, even now I rarely suspect or believe that anyone is using alts to manipulate and play games with me. I just don't want to believe that about my fellow man.

Party for Three Beauties

This was the party for which everyone in the  "Who is Who in Swedish SecondLife" turned out.for, and even a few of the up and coming SLebrities and some International guests. The only one missing was the third rezday girl, Gittrika Mint who had ISP-problems.

Apollon Allen and sirhc "Junior" Weatherwax did a great job to entertain us. Good music and great company are the two core ingredients of a party in SecondLife and you can even add a drink or two in first life to make it even better!

Lots of old friends, some sexy new studs I must confess but I kept my hands to myself - this time... When I left just after 11 pm the party was still going on strong. I should imagine some of them kept it up the rest of the night.