Beauty Is...

Photo quoted from Associated Press/AP

The blooming of a single rare flower caused a minor botanical sensation yesterday in Botaniske Have (The Botanical Garden) in Copenhagen, Denmark.

After several days of waiting a flower named Amorphophallus Titanum (which means "giant deformed penis") started blooming at 7 PM local time. Within 20 minutes after that long lines of interested spectators had formed to look at the plant. The smell this flower emits from it´s interior is a foul stench, which is said to resemble that of rotten meat or a carrion.

"I was very proud. At the same time I was overwhelmed by the flower, it was more beautiful than I imagined. It is something else when you see it in reality", said the gardener Mr. Rasmus N. Kloster, when interviewed by my local paper Sydsvenskan yesterday. Mr. Kloster has been taking care of the flower for nine years for a few hours of pleasure as the is short lived and most of the plant will start to wither already today.
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As always an old saying seems to hold some truth, "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder", because this must surely be one of the most hideous looking plants I have ever laid eyes on.

Gay Anthems for Second Pride 2

Tom Robinson Band - Glad To Be Gay

SP2012 - Day 1

The first day of Second Pride 2012 I visited the minor party, which had a line-up of great DJs, starting with DJ Thorn (Andel), followed by DJ ItalianBear and finishing with DJ InsyX (Piranha).

People were coming and going the whole evening, but mostly it was a good sized crowd of men and women throughout the evening. Some old friends and acquaintances and some new. Most seemed happy to be there and the talk in local chat was really fun and flowing. Here are some pictures from the event.

The venue from afar 

DJ Thorn

Bock, Carson Darkstone and Pearl

Security is looking better this year, here 
is the undercover security sleuth Larz Kaz 

Ziggy grooves

Jace Lewis & Lukas Bellingshausen, partners

For more pictures please visit

Ziggy Starsmith; Second Pride is ON ... bitches!

Eddi Haskell; Second Pride Kicks Off With A Blast

Torro Spyker/The Bullring; Second Pride Kicks Off

Jeff Ellsworth; Second Pride 2012: Live And Lively

Post Title of the Day

Friends today directed my attention towards a blog I usually do not read.

"I Am Innocent, Bock!" is the title (translated from Swedish) of a post today on a blog operated by a person who to my readership is best known by the affectionate nickname "the mudslinger".

In the post the mudslinger denies being "the other person" and goes on to threaten me - and the rest of the world - with a law suit for harassment.

How quaint that she should feel the need to deny something that must be blatantly obvious for the rest of the world, as she doesn't fulfill the fundamental criteria of being someone I have supported and stood beside for several years.

Gay Anthems for Second Pride 1

Boyzone - No Matter What (Andrew Lloyd Webber/Jim Steinman)

As a way of celebrating pride Bock in SecondLife will post a gay anthem every day during the Second Pride Festival 2012 in SecondLife.

Happy Midsummer!

On June 22 we celebrate midsummer eve in Sweden, which is the start of our prolonged weekend of Midsummer celebrations. This holiday is with out a doubt second only to Christmas in Sweden. I would also say it is the most popular as it comes without religious connotations, family pressure and financial strains.

Midsummer is a time for socializing with friends (and family members you like) while eating loads of mainly herring in hundreds of various tastes and mixes, swallowed down with any good snaps, akvavit or beer you can lay your hands on or wish to try out. For dessert the best - I think - is to keep it simple with fresh Swedish strawberries, a little sugar and lots of cream. Every time you drink a snaps you have to sing a silly song in unison with the others.

After the meal the natives (that´s us) and the youngest kids dance silly but quaint dances around some sort of midsummer pole that is erected nearby, not all beautiful but fully functional to dance around in circles. When the kids have been put to bed, you talk and laugh and enjoy yourself some more long into the night that never gets really dark.

I love midsummer in Sweden, but this year I will not be celebrating mainly because I haven´t really gotten my appetite back, cannot mix my medication with alcohol and don´t feel much for socializing just yet, besides the Second Pride Festival 2012 is starting and I want to cover it. Anyway, I would like to wish you all a 

Wonderful and Happy Midsummer

Let me share a secret. What I will do, like some other young - 42 isn't that old is it? - men and very many women is to pick 7 different kinds of flowers tomorrow night to put under my pillow so that I will hopefully dream of the man I am to marry in the future.


P.S. My buddy Apmel Goosson shows a video that can aid you in understanding My Avatar+s Name is Apmel; Midsummer For Dummies (but I don´t understand why they are telling you to have a BBQ - darn silly idea)

The Accidental Drama Queen (Updated)

"Wherein this avatar´s fates, adventures and experiences in, his thoughts and feelings about and his reactions to his first and second life are depicted with written messages, images and other visual tools."

That blog description has been at the top of Bock in SecondLife from the beginning, at first in Swedish and later translated to English. In spite of that, I have on more than one occasion been accused of being a "drama queen", i.e. (according to the Urban Dictionary) "an overly dramatic person" or "someone who turns something unimportant into a major deal. Someone who blows things way out of proportion when ever the chance is given", for doing exactly what I promise to do namely express my reactions, feelings and thoughts on things that happen to me or move me in some way.

Giving me that epithet is of course an easy and accessible resort for anyone who wishes to disparage or belittle me or what I have to say.

My intentions with blogging have from the start been to give a truthful account of what happens to me, in SecondLife and first life. I am always aware of the fact that another witness to the same events can have a completely different view on the matter, but it is not my responsibility to take an objective approach and I have never claimed to be an objective onlooker. 

What you get on this blog is my personal and unique take, if it upsets you it is your problem and not mine. However, that being said, I have always been prepared to accept that not everyone shares my perspective and have been ready to listen to their version of "the truth or what actually happened".

I don´t take shit from anyone and it is not in my nature to look away or walk away from matters that upset me. I will offer my thoughts and advice freely and lavishly, it is up to the receiver if they wish to accept it.

I realize that you may wonder what brought on this diatribe and I have decided to share it with you. Yesterday I received two e-mails from "the other person" that I mention in my post Misplaced Loyalty. In the first e-mail he/she claimed utter incomprehension to my reaction for "that trifling action" she/he had taken (which only showed that he/she had not read or understood what I had tried to tell him/her because I had been careful to clearly outline my views on the matter).

In the second e-mail he/she had willfully misinterpreted and taken out of context a part of a sentence from my first e-mail to him/her in the matter. I had told him/her that I did not know what I was going to do about our relationship in the future but would decide when I had cooled down. Now he/she had clipped out "I do not know what I will do" and asked me if this was a cry for help, i.e. suggesting that I had threatened committing suicide. 

Let me tell you all, I am in a stable emotional and mental frame of mind. I have never had any suicidal tendencies, although I do understand that some people at times can find themselves in a desperate situation where they do not see any another option. If I should ever get close to that point it will not be over something trivial.

Of course I could always write a blog along these lines:
"Day1. I woke up after a good nights sleep. Coffee and ham sandwiches for breakfast. Went to work. Came home from work and logged in to SecondLife. Logged out and went to bed.
Day 2. Woke up after a good nights sleep. Coffee and cheese sandwiches for breakfast. Went to work. Came home from work and logged in to SecondLife. Logged out and went to bed. Etc., etc., etc." 

But that is nothing I like reading and would not enjoy writing either.

In conclusion, I would like to say that I do not try to create drama or thrive on it (rather it makes me uncomfortable), but when drama seeks me out I will not back away from it. In my mind, life is interesting and life is drama but I am no drama queen as such, even if I  may admit to sometimes being an "accidental drama queen".

Update
I have received complaints via e-mail from "the other person" that he/she doesn't completely agree with my depiction of what happened and wishes me to correct it. 

My response to him/her was that I have given a complete and accurate account of what has happened but that he/she is welcome to leave his/her version in the comments (even anonymously if he/she wished) and that I have no interest or intention whatsoever of discussing my blogposts with him/her via e-mail.