Very Strange

Son of Man (1964) by René Magritte

When I was inworld today something strange occurred.

I was first talking with my son Guyke, who had returned today from a tour of "the gay saunas in Finland", i.e. the home of my son in-law Janttu Winkler. Suddenly the little brat stopped answering me - or so I thought. He could of course be away from hiis keyboard or deep in a serious discussion with his hubby, so I waited a long while, thinking he would come back.

When he did not come back, I tried striking up a conversation with Mrs. Vampi Twine-DeSantis-McMillan instead, who is my chief technical officer in SecondLife. Imagine my surprise when she also i-g-n-o-r-e-d me!

I thought (with a shitload of self-pity), "Well, it may just be a bad day. Everyone seems to be too busy to talk to you so you might just as well log off!"

As it turns out, they did not ignore me because when I checked my mail after logging off I saw their responses there. It was just SecondLife acting up in an unexpected way, that I hav never encountered before.

So you two who are named in this post, I still love you but didn't get your answers inworld! I hope everything works better tomorrow!

Want A Date With George Clooney?

Read about how you can makes your dreams come true and get a lunch date with megastar and sexy-as-hell George Clooney at alfred lives here: "Win A Date With George Clooney!

Do not forget that you must take the blogger Brahm along with you on the date, to thank him for tipping you about this possibility.

The Remembering Our Friends Memorial

I didn't know that a place like the Remembering Our Friends Memorial (ROF) existed in SecondLife until a few days after Doug/Ars had died when his brothers Dej and Jeb told me that a few of Ars´s friends had placed a plaque for him there.

Later the same week I was contacted by Kilara Banning, whom I had met at a function a few weeks earlier, who asked if she could place a memorial for Ars at Linden Park (SLurl thanks to Ziggy for reminding me) another memorial site in SecondLife. Linden Park is made available by Linden Lab.

Since the inception of Remembering Our Friends Memorial by Carlo Dufaux, Tina Barrett and Mike Burleigh , they have provided space in their Chapel and Annex Wings for plaques for loved ones that were SecondLife residents as well as those who never were residents.

Personalized memorial plaques are created with no cost obligation to the requester. Freestanding custom built monuments are also available at a small fee.

Remembering Our Friends Memorial is funded through donations and sponsorship. They do not profit from this revenue and any excess funding, after expenses, is used for expansion, upkeep and the causes they support.

All plaques and monuments feature an oil lamp, that can be lighted in memory of your loved one for a nominal fee. There are of course also a few donation boxes around the venue, but if I have the time I prefer the lighting candles method. You can light the candles of anyone you choose, I have made it my task to keep the candles in the section where Ars´s plaque is lit.

For more information you can visit Remembering Our Friends Memorial´s website (url).

The landmark to the sim Remembering Our Friends Memorial (SLurl) and to Ars´s memorial plaque (SLurl) (Their is a fixed landing spot, so the best way to find Ars plaque is to first look up the location on a map then red arrows will guide you once you land there.)

P.S. Yes, I detest the white angelic figures all over the place, but I try to ignore them for the good cause, mostly I succeed.)

Reconnecting With Family

Well, believe it or not, this huge, hot, scary, rough and sexy-as-hell looking man is actually my long lost brother in SecondLife.

Ladies and germs, it is with great pleasure I introduce you to  the one and only Martial Eisenhart.

Besides being one of the kindest souls I have met in both lives he is also crazy, intelligent, fierce and loving.

If you had poked me when I saw his name highlighted on my friends-list I would have lost my balance completely and ended up on the floor.

After only a few seconds hesitation I sent him an Instant Message telling him how happy I was to see him inworld again. As is Martial´s habit since he first came to SecondLife he was  AFK and did not respond right away.

A few minutes later I heard from him and we talked for almost an hour, trying to do the impossible of catching up instantly. We were not successful but there will be more chances in the future.

This encounter with my brother made my day and I was very happy when I logged off.

"Feminazis" Shrink Penises

(Via Media Matters)

The American talk show radio host and political commentator Rush Limbaugh presents a theory on why the average penis size is presumably ten percent smaller than it was in 1950. (Results according to some unnamed "Italian scientists".)

According to the talk show host the researchers blame air pollution for this phenomenon, but he has his own theory. Limbaugh believes the shrinking has to be blamed on "feminazis" and "chikifikation".

It´s always hilarious when guys discuss their favorite subject, the sizes of their dongs, but blaming the possible shrinkage on female emancipation and equality between the sexes is downright ludicrously and riotously comical. I laughed so hard my side hurts.

Do Avatars Die?

"Den döende dandyn" (The Dying Dandy) (1918), by Nils von Dardel

I seem to recall my buddy sirhc DeSantis-McMillan once posing the question, on his blog or somewhere else, "What do we mean when we say that an avatar dies?" At the time I did not know what to respond to his question, but now perhaps I have an inkling.

My own gut response would be to say that avatars cannot die because they themselves have not had life. The life they seem to have comes from their handlers, i.e. the persons behind the avatars.

However, handlers can stop logging into SecondLife for various reasons except their dying. They could simply lose interest or they could even choose to delete their account altogether. In those cases I don´t believe we would use "died" to describe what occurred to the avatar, but rather "they left" or just "they don´t log in anymore".

In my experience, we use the expression that "an avatar has died" only in those circumstances when we know - or believe - that the handler has in fact passed away. So in that sence I would say that avatars can - and do - die.

Now tell me what you think and what your experience is of the vernacular among residents of SecondLife in these matters?

Slanted Journalism

The latest issue of Newsweek has - rightfully - drawn a lot of criticism for the magazine´s cover and article on "Muslim Rage".

The U.S. magazines grossly exaggerated and dishonest reporting on the reactions in the Muslim world on the the discovery of an inane and provocative Islamophobic film on YouTube must be one of the worst examples in history of bad journalism. The magazine blows up the reactions of a small minority of crazy extremists and tries to imply that there is a widespread fury among the Muslims.

Some people should lose their job for this bummer, if they haven´t already, and hopefully that includes the editor-in-chief.

The website Gawker.com has made a satirical compilation of thirteen photographs showing us the true pictures of the Muslim Rage, see Gawker: 13 Powerful Images of Muslim Rage. (Tipped by Avaaz.org.)

Angry Egyptians gather to vent their Muslim rage

Iranian couple preparing to rage

The reaction to the cover and the article in the Muslim community has also resulted in a a flood of hilarious tweets.