A Gift From Millimina

I had a good evening with my Ars today.

Some friends came by and sat with me for awhile, others I talked with in IM. It was a wonderful time we talked about Ars and myself somewhat but also about their lives and their experiences. Sharing is always good.

First I will show you two beautiful pictures taken by Millimina Salamander that she gave to me from last years gathering. In the pictures you see, from left to right, Sarco Halderman, Andrey Messmer, me, Janttu Winkler, Guyke Lundqvist and Millimina herself.

"Remembering Ars 2011" by Millimina Salamander

"Remembering Ars 2011 in The Jesters Hats" by Millimina Salamander

This is a picture I took earlier in the evening while I was still alone and just enjoyed the peacefulness, the music and the sweet memories.

Remebering Ars 2012 by Bock McMillan

Ars In Memoriam

Joseph Douglas Wilson Jr., in SecondLife better known as the avatar Ars Northmead, passed away peacefully on March 12, 2010, at 8.30 PM SLT. Doug died at hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas, of respiratory failure and complications due to double pneumonia.

In his first life Doug left behind parents, four siblings and their families. In SecondLife Ars left behind me, our son Guyke and Ars´s three brothers Andrey, Dejerrity and Jeb and very many friends. All of us miss him terribly in our lives.

Hey, my darling, I am back to sit and talk with you at Mirromere again. Somehow this is still where I feel closest to you, even if I know you are with me everywhere. The calmness of this place soothes me. 

Its strange really, today is two years since you passed away and sometimes it still feels like it was only two weeks ago. These two years have been rough, but I am doing much better now and am getting increasingly better as time lingers on. Nowadays I can even think of you, talk with you or about you without breaking up - most of the time. Other times are not so good, but those days are farther apart. 

I think a lot about our years together, babe, when I first saw you, when I first heard you laugh, when we first kissed, when we first made love on those damn pose balls that weren't adjusted to our sizes, when you first told me you loved me and I confessed that I had loved you for the longest time and had gotten to love you more every time we met.

I remember how we went looking for our new home together in secrecy. Not telling anyone what we were doing or why we were doing it. The many, many, places we saw before we came to Southern Charm and saw the house on the waterfall and both knew at once that this would have to be it. It felt like home from the start. 

We had many good times, my darling Ars, and they are good to think about now. We had some bad times also, babe, but they never, ever, made us doubt that what was good between us would hold whatever came in our way. I have never been happier than when I have been with you, my Ars, you always made me feel safe, you made me feel clever and you made me feel worthy of your love. 

Did I ever tell you that I sometimes seem to forget what that wild and crazy laughter of yours sounds like? But you always come through for me, and the next night or the night after that I hear it in my dreams and get all warm and fuzzy allover again. Yeah, yeah, we aren't religious any of us but still, that's what actually happens.

Oh Ars, did I tell you today? Yes I know that you know I love you, but did I actually speak it out. Somethings need to be said out loud and repeated as often as it suits you. So whether or not I already told you, I love you so much Ars baby, always and forever.

Bara On Tour in First Life

The cute guy with white hair in the center of the picture is my buddy Bara Jonson, the well known singer and songwriter in SecondLife. He is also the first musician in SecondLife to sign a recording contract in first life.

Well, soon now my buddy is going to go off on a tour to Germany with The Rockland Band. I don´t know if they are going to visit the town of "Rastatt - Germany", but if they do I hope he says "Hi from Lund - Sweden" to Heike Babii! Heike is a "Bara Jonson Professional Stalker" like myself.

...the only thing missing to make this the best tour any band ever did is of course the dance troop  "The Bara Dancers With A Singer" under the magnificent leadership of yours truly.

Best of luck on the tour Bara buddy! ...and now please remember to send hugs and kisses to the wonderful Nickel your beautiful little son Kris from me when next you speak with them.

A Blogs Demise

It was not without some pleasure and great satisfaction that I late last night noticed that the Swedish virtual worlds blog Netlott, previously named Prim Team, declared that it was closing down after only 20 days (February 21 - March 11, 2012).

I have informed you about this blog earlier in my posts "Ich Bin Ein Prim Teamer" and Bukowski & Witches.

The blog started by declaring that the bloggers were a group of people with technical interests and that they together had amassed more than 25 years of experience in virtual worlds. They also declared that they were going to remain anonymous but gave no specific reason for this decision.

I am sure the blog would have been welcomed in the Swedish SecondLife community despite the fact that the bloggers wished to remain anonymous if the blog had settled for their proclaimed field of expertise, the technical aspects of virtual worlds. Such a blog written by people with keen insight and knowledge on the workings of the viewers and a willingness to share and educate the rest of us is sorely needed and would fill a vacuum.

However, the Prim Team and Netlott blog (Netlott is by the way a word play on the English word "net" and the Swedish word "nitlott" which means "drawing a blank"), instead chose to start delving in social issues and unearthing dirty linen and rusty battle axes from the close or distant past. This caused the Swedish community in SecondLife to erupt and the tentative armed peace that had been established over the past two-three months evaporated. Ghouls from the past that had relished in the previous unrest reappeared and the favorite object of hate was yet again reviled.

Once the blog started declaring who was not a member of the blogging team I declared myself to be one of them to see how they would handle that. This was never commented upon.

I am now completely certain that one of the team members is in fact "The avatar formerly known as Sven Idyll". I have come to this conclusion from the language used in some of the posts, some of the topics raised on the blog, a question directed at me by one of the anonymous bloggers which was exactly the same as one Sven Idyll previously had posed to me and now - finally - the way in which the blog was closed.

The blog was shutdown in exactly the same way as Sven Idyll´s previous three (3) blogs. with some choice words of recrimination, "no one understands me", "you have all misinterpreted me" and "you bore me" etc., and letting the blog stay online for a while after removing all the previous comments and assorted posts and not allowing any new comments.

I would be the first to welcome a new Swedish blog that focused on the technical aspects, but we do not need more trolls. We have enough of those already, thank you very much!

UPDATE (04:58 AM SLT): And now "The avatar formerly known as Sven Idyll" has read this post and has posted a not so subtle comeback at me. Hilarious! (No link to that waste of time will be supplied here, I am sure that others will be happy to help you.)

PROBABLY RELATED: My buddy NE0 Timeless over at Free Your Mind has found an interesting article from March 7, 2012, on a Swedish website that could have some connection to this matter. An IT-consultant of sorts is bashing SecondLife as a waste of time and claiming we now have drugs inworld, something called "Seclimine". 

Apparently it is something that messes with the shared inworld experience I gather, as he mentions something about a hazy viewer and sound distortions. I never heard about it though, but I am a sanctimonious prick so...

“Being crazy isn't enough”

Joetonight dressed in lightning

The quote in the title is by Dr. Seuss, and sometimes I think that may be true. Other times I, like Albert Einstein, ask myself  "Am I or are the others crazy?”

I think I may be hanging with a beautiful yet crazy crowd of people. 

First there is the sweet Millimina Salamander, who every time I happen to mention I  am going to log off starts talking with me frantically to keep me there, while when she herself wishes to do the same she just says good night and exits promptly thereafter within 10 seconds flat. Tonight it actually took me 6,5 minutes before she acknowledged my good night and let me log-off. 

Then we have Joetonight Starship, with whom I seem to have a mental connection, because whenever I think of logging off Joe sends me an IM inviting me to a cool party with him and his hubby Dalimar. Every time when I tell him the party starts at 3 AM in the morning for me and that I am sorry that I cannot come, he at least wants me to see his cool costume for the occasion. Usually something half naked - we gay men like to show skin.

Lastly we have the sexy stud Butch Diavolo, who knows very well that I am worthless at multitasking, but still insists on saying his goodbyes when I am chatting with someone else and goes POOF within 5 seconds after his "Slaap lekker".

If I didn't love them all so much I would perhaps start looking for a slower crowd that lets me set the pace, but then again I think I may be bored stiff if I did. 

I am happy to have these wonderful people in my SecondLife although they sometimes drive me crazy.

Should Win...

...to represent Sweden in The Eurovision Song Contest, but most likely will not. Cute guys too!

UPDATE: They ended in 7th place of 10. Sweden will be represented in the ESC by Loreen with Euphoria (my 3rd place choice)

Are We Equal?

(via J.M.G.)

I was totally pissed (Sorry Diana, but there was no more fitting word to describe my feelings) by the complete indifference among my female - and male too - coworkers, especially the younger ones, on the significance and importance of International Women´s Day. Most of the younger women stated, "I  am treated equally, therefor it is not important to me!"

It may well be that Sweden is one of the countries that have come the farthest, but we still have staggering inequality here also.

Women in Sweden

• still earn (on average) 10-15 % less for the same work.
• are still not represented in a fair way in political assemblies.
• are still not represented in a fair way in management positions or on company boards in business. ("The Old Boys Club-syndrome")
• are still almost exclusively the victims of sexual crimes, stalking and domestic battery.
• are still forced into prostitution by partners, pimps or trafficking.

etc., etc ad infinitum.

In other parts of the world the situation is even worse. I simply cannot get my head around their complaisant attitude when they claim that the International Women´s Day has no bearing on them or their situation. Is it a "Me-generation" thing and an effect of the "Whats in it for me-attitude" towards life?

How are we ever going to get a society where all the minorities human rights are safeguarded if we cannot even agree that women, who are the majority of the nations and the worlds population, should have the full and equal rights of the men?

(And yes, I do feel a bit stupid as a gay man ranting at women for not caring enough about their human rights, but you can blame my mother - and father - for this! If you should wish to talk with them please ask me for their phone number.)