External Memories

Hermione Gingold & Maurice Chevallier from "Gigi" (1958)

I am always certain that I remember correctly, but from time to time I realize that my memory has a will of its own.and what I remember in hindsight may not be what actually happened. It as is at times like these that I heavily rely on people around me - in both my lives - to inform me of what really occurred when it occurred, who where there etc.,etc.

In my SecondLife I rely mainly on four people to work as my "external memories", these are in the order they appeared in my SecondLife Sarco Halderman, D R E Y, Millimina Salamander and Diana Gilderoy. They do not always have to give me very many clues or set me straight on something before the true memory comes to me, but my mind simply needs those inputs to start delving in the right places.

Just Because...

Photography by Ziggy Starsmith

This recent picture by my buddy Ziggy "the baddest bastard in the basket" Starsmith to me represents a lot of what SecondLife is actually about and the best part of it. I stole the picture from Ziggy´s blog "Ziggy On The Edge Of Second Life..."

We should always log into our SecondLife with an open mind, curiosity and a sense of adventure and a willingness to learn and to discover what is around the next corner. To meet new people and learn about them and from them and to share with them our own experience.

The picture also makes me think about two quotes by the venerable master Lao Tzu "A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving." and "This journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

Another thing I especially love about the picture is that I gave him the back-pack he is wearing. It is one that was made for the Bara Jonson Fan Gang group by Patrick Hufschmid Beaumont, the exceptional guitar-builder in first life and for awhile also in SecondLife. 

TESTIMONY

(via J.M.G.)

"TESTIMONY - Music by Stephen Schwartz

Lyrics taken from and inspired by the It Gets Better Project

http://bit.ly/Testimonysong

In writing TESTIMONY, Stephen Schwartz collaborated with Dan Savage, creator of the groundbreaking "It Gets Better Project." Schwartz has set the heartfelt words from the "It Gets Better" videos to music, weaving them into a breathtaking, emotional new masterpiece that speaks to anyone who has ever felt out of place.

TESTIMONY was recorded and engineered by Leslie Ann Jones, the legendary multi Grammy award-winning Director of Music Recording at Skywalker Sound. Performed by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus under the direction of Dr. Timothy Seelig."

---
Blogger Joe Jervis (Joe.My.God.) is a crybaby - and I mean that in the best way possible. He recommends you have a box of tissues handy.

I was touched but not even close to crying, perhaps because I was lucky and had sensible. unprejudiced and open-minded parents who always showed me they loved me whatever I might be. Even-so I do remember a period in my early teens when I wished I had been born different, if nothing else than to fit-in with the surrounding norm.

Due to an email from my buddy Apmel Goosson, who graciously forwarded some news to me, I am at this time mostly thinking about how organized religion - of any creed - seem to be the longest lasting, most widespread, most powerful and most vicious hate groups in our world. More about this in a later post (hopefully during the weekend).

Ban Ki-moon: "The Time Has Come"

It's not every day that a major world figure speaks out forcefully in defense of equality. But earlier this month, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon did just that when he made an incredibly powerful speech at the U.N. in Geneva. But most people didn't even hear about it.

Why? After the speech, the media focused on a handful of delegates who stormed out of meeting in protest. Their story - that gay people should be denied human rights - is the one that dominated the day's news. But with your help, we're going to change that.

Our friends at the U.N. let us REMIX Ban Ki-moon, so we took his speech and created this video. We hope you like it! After you watch, please share with your friends and family, helping this inspiring message reach the audience it deserves.", from All Out; UN Secretary General Says "The Time Has Come" 

We have another straight ally, WTG Ban! 

Firestorm Viewer Update (Updated)

The Phoenix Project has released a wonderful - I think - viewer update today, the Firestorm FUI Beta 4.0.1.27000.

The new viewer includes the amazing FUI developed by Linden Lab for its Viewer 3 and keeps the vertically stacked chats and also seems to have added lots of amazing functions, if one can judge by the video above. The vertically stacked chats, which I have become completely addicted to, were the only thing that made me leave Viewer 3 and go back to Firestorm.

Keep you fingers and toes crossed, I am downloading and launching it now!

PROBLEMS (to be continued)
1. I cannot choose the language for my download, it forces the Danish version on me. Which is plain stupid. Sure as a Swede from the far south of Sweden I do understand a lot of Danish but not the technical stuff and I have become accustomed to the English version and want that.

2. Ughh say whaaaaaaat? I got this when I started the viewer to log in on Wednesday March 21:

I will check to see if a fresh install helps me.

3. Same problem as yesterday occurs again, do I really have to re-install the viewer every time I want to use it?

SOLUTIONS (to be continued)
1, Change the default language to English from "Mig" to "Indstillinger" and then change it in "Sprog"

2. I did a fresh install and the problem came back, but after I had changed the language from Danish to English it did not come back. Really strange and confusing.

3. No problems after the third day using it, really do not understand this, but anyway everything seems to be working fine now.

BENEFITS (to be continued)
1. The problem with me being stuck down to my ankles and not being able to move when I log in has been solved. I had to teleport to another sim to get out of that clinch and to get the sounds working properly. 

Menswear Fashion Week

The Menswear Fashion Week in SecondLife starts on Friday March 23 and runs until Saturday March 31, 2012.

Read about this must-do for every male fashionista and all the events on MWFW2012 and SirenProductions; Menswear Fashion Week Events.

You may even have the possibility to meet my buddy Apmel Goosson (fashionista extraordinaire) there...if they don´t eject him for being too cute to be straight (2Q2BSTR8) and still being just that.

SLurl to Menswear Fashion Week 2012

Rewriting History

"Now you see me, now you don´t" Trotsky is wiped out from history

Denialism is the irrational refusal to accept an empirically verifiable reality, i.e. when you choose to deny what really has happened as a way to avoid an uncomfortable truth. It is a variation of the negative historical revisionism that sometimes happen when the real past is no longer "suitable" or "appropriate".

On the grander - and of course more important - scale of events this is exemplified by "Holocaust denialism" meaning the denial that death camps ever existed in Nazi Germany or the historical fact that many millions were killed in the concentration camps during the Nazi rule. Another example is the wiping out of Leon Trotsky from history books and photographs of historical events that took place in the Soviet Union after Joseph Stalin had risen to power.

On the opposite side of the scale, the much smaller, very petulant and totally banal side, it means rewriting history about what has actually happened between individuals or sometimes groups of individuals. 

For some reason I started thinking about these things after having read the latest posts on the blog anonymously written by "the avatar formerly known as Sven Idyll". It is truly fascinating and gives great insights into the workings of the human psyche.