The Dreamboat

"The coolness that is Janttu"™

A man cannot turn his back to the world for a few weeks without finding that his son in-law has turned into a perfect dreamboat when he returns. Is that really fair?

Well, the picture shows you my son in-law Janttu Winkler in his latest hair. My son Guyke tells me he had to drag Janttu to the store and force him to buy the hair, because the man claimed "his old hair was only two years old". 

Janttu should know by now that it is not easy to refuse Guyke and that Guyke has impeccable taste in everything - well,  except possibly drapes.

More about my visit with Guyke and his husband tomorrow, I am off to bed now.

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American Heritage Dictionary 4: (drēmˈbōt) noun; A person considered exceptionally good-looking and sexually attractive.

The Lairds Return

So - finally - after many promises and lots of strange excuses the Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm and prince of Cascade Falls, at long last returned to his beloved home sim yesterday.

Well, to be quite honest, I was not at home very long because I had a Second Pride membership meeting to attend. The meeting went on for more than two and a half hours, which is an unusual long time and rather unexpected if you read the agenda.

I must admit that I may in some small way have contributed to part of the tardiness but otherwise I believe it may have been that many of us were in a slightly cantankerous mood and ended up splitting hairs for no real reason at all. When a whole lot of people get together in this state of mind the outcome is inevitably a very long meeting.

The meeting was not a total waste of time because the board was eventually able to decide to
- adopt new rules of conduct for the membership meetings,
- elect a board for the newly created Second Pride Foundation,
- create a new headquarter for Second Pride,
- create a Second Pride Build avatar and
- buy a special building for certain future events.

A strange thing happened during the meeting when our usually very efficient chairman Doc Spad - or "Sir Doc, Sir" as I call him in my mind - suddenly asked:, "Did you have a question Ars?".

I immediately became alert and started caming around in the conference room to see who this second Ars could be. Then he said "Sorry, I mean Forever did you have a question?". And it dawned on me that he must be reading my group tag and meaning me. We both laughed at the strange incident because he realized his mistake at the same time as I did.

I was happy I have come this far, because six or eight months ago I would not have been able to laugh at it and would have filled it with strange meanings.

However, I did manage to get in a few words with some of my friends and family during the meeting. And at the very end - before I had to leave for lovely and welcoming bed - I squeezed in a hug from my brother-in-law- D R E Y Porchers, nee Messmer, It was good seeing him again because I don´t think we have been in touch since before the summer.

The Secret Trekkie

I have a close friend in SecondLife who has a deeply buried secret, which he confided to me not long ago. He is a Star Trek fan but is afraid to go public with this secret because he does not wish to be stamped as a "geek" by those who are so quick to judge others.

Ever since my dear friend joined SecondLife about five years ago he has combined the two passions. Over time he has learnt how to build, script and texturize. What at first must have looked as a weird desk has now turned into the most astonishing, accomplished and thrilling piece of work I have seen in SecondLife.

When you come into the room where he keeps his secret building project you see only a modest desk and a chair in front of it. If you sit in the chair and start pushing a few buttons the desk quickly changes to a Starship console. Pieces fold out everywhere, on top and  to the sides, and screens get turned on showing the most complicated moving digits, warnings on screen and with sounds, flickering images with instructions and astronomical charts and more, much more. In fact everything one has ever seen in the movies and more and better. It is a quite a unique and overwhelming experience.

I have taken a few pictures, but must tell you that I would have needed to film it to do it justice. The pictures do not show the changing screens or the sounds. (In the pictures below I have taken care to protect my friends anonymity by covering him with a hexagon, so that's why you see an ugly blob in the pictures.)

Thank you so much, my dearest friend, for sharing this secret with me!

Touch Me

(via J.M.G.)

I cannot remember this song being as good in 1986 when Samantha Fox first did it (to be quite honest I cannot remember Samantha Fox more than as a name), but my memory about somethings has always been erratic.

I  rather like Naked Highways version though, but perhaps we can blame that on the cute men and the pillow fighting.

GIFT 2012

My friend Garth Raleigh, who kindly keeps me informed with all that is happening on the Gay Archipelago sims, sent me this invitation a while back, but I didn't pick it up until I re-immersed myself into SecondLife very early this morning.

Please keep sending me the information, Garth! (I promise to publish sooner next time)

"The Gay Archipelago proudly announces the Grid-wide Opening of the 'GA International FineArts Tour (GIFT), 2012' as of Saturday, September 1st.

  

The largest multi-sim Arts event currently in Second Life, GIFT encompasses 19 GA Estates and features the works of 47 talented artists.  Each GA Estate is outfitted with a TelePort board, allowing the visitor to choose destinations throughout the exhibition.

We invite you to begin your GIFT Tour at the official  "Start Point (SLurl)"  on the GA Estate of Gay Island Resort – the rest of the direction your tour takes is up to you!

Take your time and return often to see each and every installation as these artists are exhibiting all unique, original works in a variety of media.  Feel free to explore each Host Estate to take in the sights as well.  GIFT will be open to the entire Second Life population through September 22, 2012."

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This should be fun and interesting, I am most definitely going to check it out!

I Love Our Straight Allies

Chris Kluwe

Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo (see video) has spoken out in favor of a Maryland ballot initiative that would legalize gay marriage. Yahoo has published a letter that Maryland state delegate Emmett C. Burns Jr. wrote last week to Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti, urging him to "inhibit such expressions from your employee." This is Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe's response to Burns.

"Dear Emmett C. Burns Jr.,

I find it inconceivable that you are an elected official of Maryland's state government. Your vitriolic hatred and bigotry make me ashamed and disgusted to think that you are in any way responsible for shaping policy at any level. The views you espouse neglect to consider several fundamental key points, which I will outline in great detail (you may want to hire an intern to help you with the longer words):

1. As I suspect you have not read the Constitution, I would like to remind you that the very first, the VERY FIRST Amendment in this founding document deals with the freedom of speech, particularly the abridgment of said freedom. By using your position as an elected official (when referring to your constituents so as to implicitly threaten the Ravens organization) to state that the Ravens should "inhibit such expressions from your employees," more specifically Brendon Ayanbadejo, not only are you clearly violating the First Amendment, you also come across as a narcissistic fromunda stain. What on earth would possess you to be so mind-boggingly stupid? It baffles me that a man such as yourself, a man who relies on that same First Amendment to pursue your own religious studies without fear of persecution from the state, could somehow justify stifling another person's right to speech. To call that hypocritical would be to do a disservice to the word. Mindfucking obscenely hypocritical starts to approach it a little bit.

2. "Many of your fans are opposed to such a view and feel it has no place in a sport that is strictly for pride, entertainment, and excitement." Holy fucking shitballs. Did you seriously just say that, as someone who's "deeply involved in government task forces on the legacy of slavery in Maryland"? Have you not heard of Kenny Washington? Jackie Robinson? As recently as 1962 the NFL still had segregation, which was only done away with by brave athletes and coaches daring to speak their mind and do the right thing, and you're going to say that political views have "no place in a sport"? I can't even begin to fathom the cognitive dissonance that must be coursing through your rapidly addled mind right now; the mental gymnastics your brain has to tortuously contort itself through to make such a preposterous statement are surely worthy of an Olympic gold medal (the Russian judge gives you a 10 for "beautiful oppressionism").

3. This is more a personal quibble of mine, but why do you hate freedom? Why do you hate the fact that other people want a chance to live their lives and be happy, even though they may believe in something different than you, or act different than you? How does gay marriage, in any way shape or form, affect your life? If gay marriage becomes legal, are you worried that all of a sudden you'll start thinking about penis? "Oh shit. Gay marriage just passed. Gotta get me some of that hot dong action!" Will all of your friends suddenly turn gay and refuse to come to your Sunday Ticket grill-outs? (Unlikely, since gay people enjoy watching football too.)

I can assure you that gay people getting married will have zero effect on your life. They won't come into your house and steal your children. They won't magically turn you into a lustful cockmonster. They won't even overthrow the government in an orgy of hedonistic debauchery because all of a sudden they have the same legal rights as the other 90 percent of our population—rights like Social Security benefits, child care tax credits, Family and Medical Leave to take care of loved ones, and COBRA healthcare for spouses and children. You know what having these rights will make gays? Full-fledged American citizens just like everyone else, with the freedom to pursue happiness and all that entails. Do the civil-rights struggles of the past 200 years mean absolutely nothing to you?

In closing, I would like to say that I hope this letter, in some small way, causes you to reflect upon the magnitude of the colossal foot in mouth clusterfuck you so brazenly unleashed on a man whose only crime was speaking out for something he believed in. Best of luck in the next election; I'm fairly certain you might need it.

Sincerely,

Chris Kluwe

P.S. I've also been vocal as hell about the issue of gay marriage so you can take your "I know of no other NFL player who has done what Mr. Ayanbadejo is doing" and shove it in your close-minded, totally lacking in empathy piehole and choke on it. Asshole."

Chris Kluwe is a punter for the Vikings. Follow him on Twitter, @ChrisWarcraft.

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Quoted from Deadspin.

I think I am in love with Chris Kluwe or Brendon Ayanbadejo or both... I love our straight allies!

I Am a Believer

I am a firm believer in the political process. This was one of the few battling grounds between me and my Ars over the years that we were together.

Ars was totally and utterly disillusioned with politics and outright refused to vote in any election. He never really explained why to my satisfaction, but told me that politics in the U.S. is only about who has the most money and that politics is just a game for corrupt power-mongers. His defeatist attitude towards politics really surprised me, because in every other way Ars was always a fighter for what he believed in.

To me it is a moral obligation for those of us who are lucky enough to live in democracies to vote. We can vote for or against something but to abstain from voting or voting for "Donald Duck" or some similar silliness is unthinkable.

If there is no option you  feel you can support fully, find the one you agree with most - or disagree with least. Hell, you can even get together with other with similar opinions and form your own alternative. Start with the  issues that are most fundamental to you and your values then move ahead from there.

If we choose not to avail ourselves of our democratic right to vote to try to affect the development of the societies we live in in the direction we wish to see them move, we - in my mind - also forfeit our right to complain or criticize what happens.

Change happens gradually and over time, except when there is a revolution and that is not always the best ways to provide the desired changes.