Ruling on Prop. 8 Today

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today issued a ruling that Proposition 8 in California was unconstitutional by banning same-sex marriages. With this ruling (by 2-1) the Court of Appeal upheld the previous ruling by judge Vaughn R. Walker on August 4, 2010.

The ruling today was stayed in anticipation of an appeal, so same-sex marriages will not resume yet.

It is expected that the ruling will be appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Read more about this story on Eddi Haskell´s Second Life (url) and Joe.My.God.

The Swedish Homo of 2012

Photo: Christian Hagward

Anton Hysén, the Swedish 20 y.o. professional soccer player who came out as gay in 2011, has been awarded the title "Swedish Homo of the Year" at a gala held by the Swedish gay news and cruising website Qx,se (url).

Anton was awarded the title after a vote among the 105.000+ members of the site and in competition with three lesbians and a gay blogger. The gay blogger is named Andreas and has a very popular blog on the Qx-site which is called  "Daskadasenibordet" (url), loosely translated "Slap-the-schlong-on-the-table".

The title "Swedish Hetero of the Year" was awarded to the American David Lazar, rabbi of the Jewish congregation in Stockholm. He competed in this category with Glenn Hysén, father of Anton and a Swedish soccer legend.

(Photos from Qx.se)

Tableaux Vivants, Lag & Sim Crashes

"Lag is a state of mind" a wise, semi-old but still extremely hot and sexy avatar once said, who´s name escapes me at the moment.

That is of course very true but sometimes SecondLife tries it´s very best to destroy a good party. Terrible lag, a sim crash and a sim restart almost succeeded at Kandinsky Beaumont´s and Apmel Goosson´s party at Solace Island yesterday. Luckily most of us who were there were old troopers at dealing with such misfortunes and we came back as soon as it was possible every time.

Tableaux vivants means "living pictures". The term describes a group of suitably costumed actors or artist's models carefully posed and often theatrically lit. Throughout the duration of the display, the people shown do not speak or move. The approach thus marries the art forms of the stage with those of painting/photography. (Wikipedia).

"The Extraordinary Adventures of Kikas and Marmaduke" give SecondLife a humorous and modern day interpretation of this 19th century art form. No show is ever the same because of the interaction with the audience at each performance.

Due to the delay caused by the misfortunes I unfortunately could not stay through the whole show and the party afterwards but had to log off at midnight, but as long as I was there I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Without further ado, here are some pictures from the show. Please note that I am only showing a few of the pictures and not in the order the tableaux were presented.

Enthralled audience; Bock, Emarald, Mid, Ziga, Blanche, Kandi & Apmel

Besides myself, the sim was full of all the avantgarde art elite in SecondLife. Here are a few more shots of the audience.

SaveMe Oh trying to catch the eye of some rough trade

DJ Eifach

My Soul is Intact

I and my beloved vampire

If you are a vampire in SecondLife, I guess it can sometimes be as difficult to admit to that to close family members - and the rest of the world - as it can be to come out as gay. Well yesterday one of my beloved family members told me he had recently become a vampire and had allowed himself to be bitten. It was a surprising revelation indeed and I did not see it coming.

In instant message my family member only told me that he had something he would like to talk with me about and could we please meet for a hug and a talk before I went to the party at Solace Island. I said of course he was welcome over. After the welcome hug, we talked on a bit about this and that and then he cautiously told me the news. 

Since rather early on in my second life I have had contact with many vampires. Those were the rogue kind who just wanted to pounce me and sink their teeth into my delicious neck to take my soul. These constant, tiresome, attacks made me put on a garlic necklace because I was fed up with their unwanted attention. 

I and Ars have also had close friends to the family, like Yannis Martynov and his beautiful wife Orchid Arado, who were kind, respectful and dignified vampires. My family vampires coming out surprised me a bit, I must admit, but changed nothing for me in our relationship. I know from earlier that although his soul may now be lost, his heart will always be pure gold. 

As I had always wondered if the garlic treatment had really worked or if I had just been lucky after using the necklace, I asked my vampire about it. He showed me this message from his vampire-HUD:

[11:46] HUD [Thirst::Bloodlines] 3.4: Bock McMillan has worn the garlic necklace, please don't disturb them.

I was really happy that I finally got some proof that the treatment had actually worked. I then continued to ask him if he could possibly see if I still had my soul intact or if it had been taken by one of the early attacks.

My beloved family member told me that he cannot send requests at all when someone has worn the necklace. And as the HUD still told him I was protected I still had my soul, if my soul had been taken earlier the garlic treatment would not work to protect me.

So there you see, I have proof that my soul is intact. How many can say that? 

And if you are mean to me, beware! I now have a vampire who loves me and will bite you if you don´t behave.

(I have not revealed my family member by name here because I firmly believe it is up to him to decide when he comes out and to whom.)

Recharging...

My head is thumping, my ears are burning and my feet are killing me from all the dancing and music yesterday. Add to that that my cute derriere and my other not-so-cute appendages are still freezing from the breezes of going "au naturel" yesterday and you will understand my need to recharge the batteries for the upcoming party at Solace Island tonight.

While I lay there resting on the lounge chair Bora Rossini gave me for Christmas, my thoughts started wandering about the party yesterday and the one tonight.

"I wonder what I should wear? Well, Apmel and Kandinsky have never been fussy about clothing so I am sure I will work that out before 1 PM. Damn it, I should have checked the pictures I took of Vampi, Gittrika and Mid yesterday. I know the cat is always all over Vampi and of course he had to come in the way all the time yesterday and the other two being partly grey was not pretty. But sirhc did look truly amazing in the tartans and I can never stay angry with him for long anyway. Ziga was delicious, you can always see that she and Em have a very sure taste for fashion. Hmmm this Einfach DJ-person could he be the same guy I made a translation from English to Swedish for a video back in 2007? I don´t think that Einfach was a DJ though..., well I never really knew him/her so who knows. I hope Millimina will come to the party today, I really missed her yesterday but first life must be given priority sometimes, yeah sometimes but this is her home sim so she will probably be there. Who was that cute stranger yesterday, I wonder? Even if he looked very much on the young side and only stood there in the doorway watching the whole party. Probably a noob, but there are some nice noobs. Well, most likely straight then, so don´t think more of him. Now thinking about cute guys, I wonder where Frostland was yesterday? Svessa was looking wonderful though, but then she has always been one of the most beautiful female avatars. And Vira, that was an eyeopener, so sexy in that see-through dress. I always thought she was the very "hel-ylle" (all wool, I have no good translation for it) kind, but yesterday she was amazing. Iendi was so beautiful too and she actually talked to me a little, that was kind of her. Apollon, well he always looked better than most straight male avatars. One does notice which of those that give a damn about their looks, and he has always been sweet. I like the guy. And remember NEO, I am actually starting to love his pale skin and advanced hairdos, and he does work hard promoting SecondLife in first life. Hey time for you to go get a short nap, the party at Solace Island goes on until midnight and its a workday tomorrow..."

SEMA 2011 - Oh What A Party

Finally the long awaited evening arrived. As an old hand in SecondLife I arrived early at the venue, The Fallen Gods Club at Yadkin. I have missed to many events before by not getting my ass on the sim in time.

The laird resting before the party stasrts

Once I was safely there I could take a smoke, eat a little and prepare for the party to start.

Oh what a great party it was! All the men were stunningly beautiful and the women looked reasonably OK too, even if some of them were showing a lot of their legs and boo.. uhmmm lets say chests.

Apollon Allen, DJ and one of the organizers

Emarald Harvey (in the background) with his partner Zigadena Gabardini 

Iendi Laville

Svessa Hax

My Sergeant at Arms sirhc DeSantis-McMillan

Vira Broome, one of the organizers

Blanche Argus, cbreak, Apmel Ibbetson and Kandinsky Beaumont

Chaplin Early and his partner Stella Guardian, Aake Roffo in the background

Some cute stranger

NE0 Timeless, one of the organizers

I had a wonderful evening and an unexpectedly great time, most people actually spoke with me. It was good to be able to in some little way show my appreciation of the hard work the event makers do for us. All in all I had a splendid time with no bad lag surprisingly because avatars were crashing left and right.

I would like to finish by once again thanking Apollon Allen, Vira Broome and NE0 Timeless for giving me this opportunity to extend my thanks to the event makers. I know I didn´t get all of them on my camera, for which I especially apologize to Vampi Twine-DeSantis-McMillan-McMillan (honorary and through handfasting), Midnattsdotter Fride and Gittrika Mint. All three of you looked wonderful, but my pictures of you were ugly and not publishable,

I just noticed that my bosom buddy Apmel Goosson has also been working hard and has already published his great pictures from the event here (url).

Even more pictures from the event at Blanche Argus blog now (url) and on Ewa Aska´s blog.

UPDATE:
Oh, I forgot, the evening actually ended very well when Blanche Argus finally found the humongous and  enormous tip jar for the event makers.

I understand her completely because I have been there myself countless times! Sometimes tip jars are just too big to notice, one cams above, around, behind and under them... I cannot remember all the times that Guyke, Ars or some other friendly soul has had to drag me in front of them for me to see them.

We Owe Them Gratitude - SEMA 2011

Day in and day out, week after week and all year long they work tirelessly to give the rest of us in the Swedish community in SecondLife, and our International friends, a possibility to meet, chat, dance, listen to music, meditate and have a good time together.

We owe these avatars loads of gratitude and love for doing that!

Apollon Allen, Vira Broome and NE0 Timeless got together and created "The Swedish Event Makers Award" (SEMA). The purpose of the SEMA is to celebrate the creative and committed avatars for their efforts during the past year.

"The only thing wrong with the SEMA", said the Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm and prince of Cascade Falls in an interview to CNN today, "is that I didn't come up with the damn excellent idea myself. Of course I will be there - and in full colors - to give back a little to all these these wonderful people!"

Ms Gittrika Mint : Proprietor of Måndagsbörsen (The Monday Exchange) where she has a theme party every Monday evening. She also runs Greenroom on Wednesdays for formal dances.
The Monday Exchange (SLurl)

Ms Iendi Laville: Proprietor of La Grenouille Inn where she throws parties with live music and also proprietor of the inworld radio channel "The Swedish Transistor".
YADKIN VALLEY (SLurl)

Mrs Vampi Twine-DeSantis-McMillan (honorary) and Sergeant at Arms sirhc DeSantis-McMillan (adopted) owners of Club OrmDricka (by the laird and his clan lovingly referred to as OD) where they throw parties - with or without themes - every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.
ORMDRICKA (SLurl)

The Connemara Hills collective: (Mrs. Rultan Zeppelin, Mrs Blanche Argus, Mr. Peppe & Mrs Trulte Firecaster who own and operate Connemara Hills together) The collective has a Celtic evening every month and arranges meditation sessions every Friday.
CONNEMARA HILLS (SLurl)

Princess Midnattsdotter Fride, lovingly referred to as Mid or Fride: owner and operator of the Frides Club & Lounge, where she has events once a week with International DJ:s and Fride Live with International Live Musicians once a month (this was the venue where the laird heard the awesome Strum Diesel the very first time)

LEGOLAS SIM (SLurl)

Mrs Ewa Aska: Proprietor of Viking land of Birka where the theme is mostly viking, but she also arranges Bollywood parties once in awhile. (Earlier venues have been Vadstena Castle and The Ice Hotel - ahhhh all the great memories I have of that beautiful venue)
VIKING LAND (SLurl)

Ms Kicki Spingflower : Proprietor of "Club Kicki´s Jetty" where she has tea dances in the mornings and nude parties on Fridays.
KICKI´S JETTY (SLurl)

Ms Fia Wycliffe: Proprietor of Fia´s Porch Club where she - usually on Fridays - throws parties that are called "Friday cozy ups"
FIA´S PORCH (SLurl)

Mr Alfdeejay Cooper: Proprietor of the Avalon Club & Garden Beach and Xanadu Club. At Xanadu Club the theme is usually ´80s or Disco. He also owns and operates the radio channel Alfdeejay Radio around the clock.

AVALON (SLurl) and XANADU (SLurl)

Mr Ix Heron: Proprietor of Euroclub, where he DJ´s himself on the theme Eurovision. .
EUROCLUB (SLurl)

Ms Jini Shearer: Co-proprietor of the September Rainforest which is a sim filled with romance, beautiful waterfalls and a dance floor in the middle of the jungle (great for dating and marriages)
SEPTEMBER RAIN (SLurl)

Be there or be square!
...and for the love of everything that is important to you lets show them all our love and gratitude by having FUN!

What: The SEMA 2011
When Saturday February 4, 2012, 1 PM - 3 PM SLT
Where: Fallen Gods Club (SLurl) (Reopening of the club)
Who: Everyone who wants to see Swedes go crazy is invited
Clothing: Gala/Formal (which means tartan for me)
Host/DJ: Apollon Allen