Shadoween

Today is the last day before the monthlong celebration of Movember, we call it "shadoween"

On this day we prepare ourselves for the coming month by shaving the complete mustache region, including the entire upper lip and the handlebar zones. All must be completely shaved.

During the next month those of us taking part will let the mustaches grow and only those. For the entire duration of Movember (the months that by lesser men and by women is called November), no hair is allowed to grow in the goatee zone - being any facial area below the bottom lip. Nor is there to be any joining of the mustache to sideburns.

Onslaught of Crow-Men

I was standing on the back deck of my home minding my own business and talking to sweet friends in Instant Message when an onslaught of crow-men suddenly hit on Southern Charm. At first it seemed like an invasion of thousands of huge birdlike creatures but when all the dust settled and the wings were drawn in it turned out to be only Guyke and Janttu paying me a surprise visit.

Once I had recovered from the initial scare we settled down for a nice talk in or under a Halloween tree that Guyke had in Inventory.

The conversation circled around, but was not limited to,

• the titles of catholic clergy,
• the Frankenstorm Sandy hitting the U.S. east coast today and our well wishes for our friends their,
• the upcoming American elections and our worries about the possible outcome,
• the size of governor Mitt Romney´s cojones,
• if we would ever want a man that wears magic underwear or not,
• how long it takes for ones virginity to grow back,
• the foaling of horses,
• the nasty customs in Belgium and Sweden around visits to the restroom,
• if we knew a good Halloween party coming up,
• the ultimate busy or away response in SecondLife and last, but by all means not least,
• what Janttu may - or may not - have been doing on Skype to suddenly agitate Guyke in the middle of it all.

Eddi Answers Eddi on Virtual Breakups

My friend and mentor Eddi Haskell recently broke up from a four year long relationship with Jago Constantine. In a mini-series of two blog posts Eddi has found the strength to tackle the problem of lost love and breakups in virtual reality.

Eddi answers

Eddi asks

In the first part Eddi, the broken hearted, yesterday wrote a letter to his own advice column "Ask Eddi" in which he described what had been, what had happened and his feelings and thoughts about it.

In the second part published today, Eddi, the advisor, answers and gives advice that may help some of you.

The posts are a must read for anyone who has ever been in love in SecondLife.

Eddi had me in tears in both posts. Although I believe we each have to find our own time frame I do find the suggestions Eddi gives are helpful.

"Ask Eddi"; Part 1:A letter I am writing to myself asking for some sage advice on how to handle my recent break-up with Jago

Ask Eddi; Part 2: A letter I am writing to myself asking for some sage advice on how to handle my recent break-up with Jago

SecondLife Hiccup

Everything worked smoothly for me inworld today, except for one crash at around 2:30 PM when the whole world seemed to crash.

It took awhile to log back in and I could not get to the home-sim but was transported to a strange place where I saw silent grey people and a man with a humongous appendage hanging over me.

Well, I think I was maybe the lucky one, because my brother in-law Dej ended up in another strange place straight in front of another man showing off his "assets", but it was puny in comparison to "my" guy´s.

Makes one wonder what people are really up to in SecondLife, huh? They don´t all seem to be playing Una...

Zig-Bam-Boom

I am sure you all know of Ziggy Starsmith. Ziggy is (to quote myself from a comment on his blog) "my dear, sweet, charmingly hotheaded, fiery and wonderfully passionate but extremely rash darling buddy". On his blog (Ziggy On The Edge Of Second Life) he regularly rants wildly about different viewers, sim-crossings and such things. To put it succinctly, Ziggy does not - and I emphasize not - love Linden Lab and that company´s customer or product services as much as I usually do.

Well, after my horrendous experiences inworld yesterday I was extremely close to agreeing with him. It was the second worst night of my whole existence in SecondLife. Whatever I did, and even if i did nothing at all, I crashed, crashed, crashed and - yes, you probably guessed it - crashed again and again.

The laird at the lowest point

I was white with rage and fuming with smoke coming out of my ears and my nostrils flaring  To top it off. my dear, sweet and loving son Guyke takes the time to inform me "I and Janttu are actually running Firestorm viewers on the Ultra graphic setting and are having no problems at all!" 

Murdering one´s stepson is not considered acceptable in polite company, but I was just seconds from doing just that. Luckily I crashed and was thus saved from that fate.

The impertinent boy also told me to upgrade to Windows 8 and to abandon the official Linden viewer (Viewer 3) and install Firestorm again. So after my last crash, the one following the murderous thoughts, I did just that to cool myself down.

The upgrade to Windows 8 Pro was simple and cheap (around US $40). The upgrade assistant did all the work well. I love the sleek new look 

But when I tried going inworld again with my Windows 8 Pro platform and the Firestorm viewer, guess what happened? You got it, I crashed, crashed and crashed! Then I decided to call it a night and try again today, reports will follow.

Simple Question

‘Your name is Windows. Why are you a flag?’, was the simple and highly pertinent question the American graphic designer Paula Scher of Pentagram asked when she was presenting her sketches for the new Windows logo.

I love it! It´s clear and beautiful in a no-nonsense way.

(More about how I happened to came across this yesterday in a post later.)

Fall Back in Europe

Tonight's the night when Daylight Savings Time (DST) ends in Europe, at 3 AM Sunday morning we "fall back" and get the hour back that we lost in spring.

This as usual heralds a period of confusion in an International community like SecondLife.

Australia and New Zealand have already gone "spring forward" on October 7, 2012, but SecondLife, the U.S.A and Canada do not "fall back" until Sunday November 4, 2012.