Multiple Princes?

Snow White´s song works for the first prince, but what if the first prince has come and then gone away? Can we actually hope for a second coming, a second visit, or is that it, once and never again? What if another prince actually does come along, how do we juggle that and - perhaps even more more important - how will the second prince handle the fact that there has been a first? Can anyone compete with a shadow and win or even tie? Should there even be a competition? And if there is a competition how do you weigh one against the other?

Or to summarize, how does one avoid comparison between the first and the second prince even if it is only in your own mind?

Support Us or Else: Message to Straight Men

CollegeHumor's Favorite Funny Videos

This threa... ummm message should convince more straight guys to support same-sex marriage!

Dig Deep

My friend Garth Raleigh at the Gay Archipelago has posted this request on the GWNews blog today.

"In order to prepare the Fabrice Snook’s commemoration taking place on Chilipepper November 23 from 1:00 pm slt, we need your help.

We’re seeking your pictures (full perm) of our friend Fabrice for a special project to celebrate this man’s time with us in Second Life. Pics of all situations, funny, goofy, serious … (no nude photos or sex).

A special souvenir book will be distributed at this event.

Send your photos to Zaza (Nefaso Resident)

Thank you in advance for your contribution to this project!"

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Fabrice was a kind and charming man whom I got to know better only shortly before he passed away, even if I had met him around SecondLife for a very long time before that. 

I will be happy to share the few pictures I have of this wonderful man. I am hoping my sister Millimina sees this and sends in a few of her pictures of Fabrice from Miss Wigstock 2010 also... 

#dethärärmittland

The hashtag in the title is used in thousands of tweets in the Swedish parts of Twitter today. Translated to English it would read #thisismycountry. I will go into the reason for the flood of tweets with that hashtag but first let me leave this message.

Bock, 42 y.o., laird, born in Lund, Sweden, by ethnic Swedish parents, moved to Lahore, Pakistan when I was 11 months old. I returned to Sweden when I was 13 y.o. as a blonde, fair skinned, ethnic Swede speaking better Swedish than those around me who had never left the country. When I "returned to my homeland" I was in effect an immigrant who spoke English and Punjabi as fluently as I spoke Swedish. I did not understand Swedish culture, society and norms of behaviour. In every way, except for my ethnicity and command of the language, I was culturally Pakistani and hated being dumped in this terrible and cold country by my well meaning parents. Not until I was 20 y.o. did I feel that #thisismycountry.
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The reason for the flood of tweets today on that theme was the unveiling yesterday of a film taped on a cellphone belonging to the Sweden Democratic Party parliamentarian Kent Ekeroth, the party´s legal policy spokesman, almost two and a half years ago. In the film we see Mr. Ekeroth and two of his party colleagues in a confrontation outside a McDonald's restaurant in Stockholm.

One of the colleagues, Erik Almqvist, the party´s financial policy spokesman, is seen telling Soran Ismael, a Swedish comedian of Kurdish extraction, why he cannot claim Sweden as his country. After that Mr. Almqvist moved on to name calling of a xenophobic nature and to calling a young woman who tried to interrupt the confrontation "the little whore".

The cellphone film has forced Mr. Almqvist to step down from all his political offices within the party, while Mr Ekeroth has declared that he is taking a timeout after his film showed the three parliamentarians arming themselves with iron rods.
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Update: The best tweet on the subject that I have found so far. Kurdo Baksi is a Swedish social commentator, journalist and author of Kurdish extraction.

Translation to English:
"My name is Kurdo Baksi and I am 47 y.o. I love eating kebab with lingonberries and take long lonely walks in the forest #thisismycountry"

Cool, Calm & Collected™

After the latest scare, where I went frantic and saw myself with a white cane trying to find my way through the winding and cobbled streets of my beloved hometown, not being able to read, write, drive or watch movies, television or SecondLife I today digested the news and realized that the danger was not imminent.

There will be ample time to take action and find solutions because I will not become totally blind within the next few weeks or even the next few months. There is time to consider options like suicide, surgery or support from a set of beautiful and reliable twins to steer me through my everyday life and cater to my wishes or needs.

It is time for a new beginning, a change! From this day on the laird will personify the phrase "cool, calm and collected". No more histrionics, outbursts or antics, just a calm and slightly aloof attitude to whatever may happen.

Artwork: Nils von Dardel, The Waterfall.

Rumors: Birth at Summer Palace at Haug?

An anonymous tipper - a usually reliable source that this blogger has the greatest confidence in - sent me a tip that it is rumored that prince Ziggy Starsmith today has given birth to a whole litter of small princes (3) and princesses (2) at his summer retreat on Haug.

The proud father prince Guyke Lundqvist, is reported to be a nervous wreck standing in a corner of their log cabin anyone who cares to listen "I did nothing, I promise it was not me..."

Ziggy and the children are reportedly doing well despite the crazy father in the corner.

Asked for a comment on the rumors the Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm and prince of Cascade Falls, said: "I knew it! Thats why he suddenly loved mesh-clothing. He wanted to hide his pregnant belly from me! 

(Note, for those who do not live in SecondLife yet, mesh-clothing is a new fangled thing which distorts your body shape so that the clothes fit any shape and thus can effectively be used to hide a pregnancy.)

Diagnosis: Cataract

So, after various examinations today the ophthalmologist diagnosed me as having an onset of cataract.

A cataract is a clouding of the lens in the eye that affects vision. Cataracts are usually a result of denaturation of lens protein which causes a clouding that develops in the crystalline lens of the eye or in its envelope (lens capsule), varying in degree from slight to complete opacity and obstructing the passage of light. The disease is "age-related" in the sense that most people over 70 have it to some degree, but the onset can start as early as in the 30´s or 40´s.

Symptoms include

• Being sensitive to glare (Yes)
• Cloudy, fuzzy, foggy, or filmy vision (Yes)
• Difficulty seeing at night or in dim light (Yes)
• Double vision (Yes)
• Loss of color intensity (Not that I have noticed yet)
• Problems seeing shapes against a background or the difference between shades of colors (Not that I have noticed yet)
• Seeing halos around lights (Not that I have noticed yet)

However, the doctor told me that "my cataract" was not so far gone that I would be considered for surgery - yet. The development of cataract varies, some are faster and some are slower, so at this point we wait and see. The fact that I have only one usable eye is a factor that may merit an earlier operation.

This totally sucks!