Monday, May 13, 2013

Far Out!

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has been on the International Space Station since December 2012 and in command of the vessel since March. While in space he has, with the help of his sons Kyle and Evan,  built up a fan base back on Earth thanks to his Twitter feed of comments, photos and videos showing what life is like in space.

Here commander Hadfield takes farewell of the I.S.S. before heading back home to planet Earth yesterday after five months in space, by singing David Bowie´s "Space Oddity".

(via J.M.G. and others)

David Bowie's team seems happy about it too, as they should be.



Sunday, May 12, 2013

Second Annual Spurt 24 hour DJ-Athon

Next weekend from noon on Saturday until noon on Sunday there will be a DJ-athon at Spurt Beach (SLurl) benefiting Second  Pride with 12 fabulous DJ's in 24 hours!

You had better mark the dates down in your calendars because I simply cannot believe you would want to risk  missing it!

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Bubble


(via David Venter@DAVIDVENTER.NET)

Whooooooooa, Sebastian Castro tells us about what gives him pleasure. I have played this ten times in  a row already, I hope you enjoy it also!

Friday, May 10, 2013

I Am Doing Requests, Or Something...

As every good DJ and blogger knows, sometimes you must interact with your listeners or readers and give them what they crave.

Recently two of my longtime readers have expressed thoughts which I chose to interpret as discrete requests and therefor am going to fulfill in this post.

First I would like to address Chaplin Early and his novel idea on the "manscaping" of a mans nasal hairs. I will not comment on this, except for saying:
"Eeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...!"

Next I wish to honor Kahvy Sands request for recognizing and highlighting the ascension to the throne of his royal majesty King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, my dear cousin and a friend of the Commonwealth of Southern Enchantment in SecondLife.

My cousin is the first male regent of the Netherlands in 123 years. He became king after his mother abdicated from the throne, she is now known as her royal highness.Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands.

In the picture below you see him with his consort her royal majesty Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, doesn't she look gorgeous in her coronation outfit and regalia?

Miraculous Recovery

Some of you may still remember my problems in world named Support Ticket #01587329
  • repetition of my own chats in local and Instant Messages,
  • repetition of purchases and tips,
  • repetition of movements,
  • repetition of teleports,
  • etc. etc.
The problem remained whichever viewer I used (Yes, I did clean installations every time!), the official Linden viewer 3, other Linden versions or their beta-versions, Firestorm or Singularity etc. 

Linden Lab's customer support could not help me to completely get rid if the issue, but helped me with a few useful workarounds to alleviate the problems it was causing. I am now happy to inform you that the problems are now completely gone. 

This miraculous recovery happened after I had installed the latest major update of Firestorm (4-4-0-33720). I read about this on my buddy Ziggy Starsmith's blog Ziggy On The Edge Of Second Life.and thought I might as well try it. Lo and behold I am cured!

Dear Brad, You Are Not Alone!

In a comment today on Bock in SecondLife; Eddi Haskell dropped the bomb that even Brad Pitt, the most beautiful man in the world, has problems with nasal hair.

I have touched on this irritating affliction for men, nay mankind, in a previous post, Top Ten Reasons For Being A Male Avatar. So let me just take a moment to share with Brad: You are not alone you-sexy-studeliscious-hunk-of-male-beauty-you! Indeed I myself, and most adult men (and even some women I should think), suffer with you.

Wikipedia has this to inform on the subject:
"Nasal hair or nose hair is the hair in the nose. Adult humans have hairs in the anterior nasal passage. Its function may be to keep insects and foreign particles from entering the nasal cavity." (...) "A number of devices have been sold to trim nasal hair, including miniature rotary clippers, and attachments for electric shavers. The trimmers shorten the hair to such lengths so that they do not appear outside of the nasal passage. A pair of tweezers can be used which facilitates removal and an antiseptic cream applied after treatment on the end of a cotton-bud to reduce the risk of infection and soreness."
Not much help there, huh?

I first started noticing my nasal hairs when I had turned thirty, before that age I cannot remember ever being bothered by them. Since then I have tried a range of methods to remove them, all rather tedious, painful and/or unsuccessful.

1. Pulling
This procedure is extremely painful and takes a long time because you have to pull out each strand of hair individually. It is also a sorry sight to watch yourself weeping from the pain it causes.

Pulling can be done either with fingers or with tweezers. In both cases it is difficult to get a firm hold of the hairs and my nostrils aren't wide enough to allow two fingers to reach the the hairs that don't protrude and those that are too far inside the nasal cavity.

2. Cutting
This procedure can be done with scissors or a knife. I firmly recommend using a nail scissor.

This method allows you to shorten the hairs and you can take several of them out in one clipping. Alas you usually do not cut low enough and there is still the problem with the ones that are deep inside the cavities. There is also a risk of clipping into the membranes which is extremely painful and takes forever to heal. Besides can you imagine how much a cut inside the nose bleeds?

3. Nose trimmers (various models)
These are mostly ineffective, take too long and do not cut short enough anyhow. You still cannot reach the deeper set hairs. Pain occurs if you happen to get the apparatus in a bad angle and it cuts into the membrane.

I have not tried waxing or hair removal yet, because both those methods seem harmful to use on membranes.

As a child living in Pakistan I can remember the barbershops using a method that I have later seen used in Turkey and Greece also, It seemed fast, efficient and painless as far as I could observe, alas it is not practiced in Sweden.

This method consists of singeing the nasal hairs. The barber catches a cotton swab in a pair of tweezers and then dips it into a liquid. He then proceeds to light the swab with a match and passes it under the nose while the customer is careful not to inhale. I would use this method if I could but my problem is I do not know what liquid the swab is dipped in. I should think it could be ether or alcohol, but I am not at all certain.

Come to think of it, why hasn't a modernized version of the age-old singeing method been invented using electricity I wonder? One would (meaning I, me and myself) think that it cannot be that difficult for all the talented scientist and technicians in the world to help mankind with this important issue. Anyone may use my suggestion here royalty free!

Second Pride: "Help Us, Help You!"

Doc Spad, (photo by GWNews)
This is an important message to all LGBT residents and non-profit groups in SecondLife from Doc Spad, the chairperson of Second Pride

I am happy to be able to assist in spreading the word.



Over the last year Second Pride has worked to create to reasonable and effective way to utilize the funds entrusted to it from our sponsors, members and attendees of last year’s Second Pride Festival. Last year’s Board made the decision to use these funds in-world to benefit our LGBT community here in Second Life. The Second Pride Region is the product of those efforts.

By creating a permanent place for all facets of our community to come together, share, support and learn about each other, we feel that this best advances the mission of Pride while providing each of our communities advocacy, educational,  and support groups an opportunity to be seen at the festival and have their message heard year round on the Second Pride sim. Meeting spaces, an event venue, and a message center will be available to any and all LGBT nonprofits. Office spaces and a place to showcase your group will all be provided for free. For some this may be as little as a Landmark  to your existing location, or a possible a satellite location. For those interested, we welcome you to make a permanent home on the Second Pride Region. All is provided free of charge.
I’m pleased to announce that our home is nearly complete and will be the center of the festival this year. We have also secured two additional full private regions donated for the festival. Having the festival on full private regions will allow for better control of the festival grounds and provide less lag and a better experience for all attendees. We are no longer paying Linden Labs for their limited mainland sims.
The Board , through many open public discussions with our members, has also relaunched PRISM, our quarterly LGBT community newsletter. This publication is available for LGBT nonprofits to voice their views, educate the community and “get the word out” of their work in Second Life as well as real world efforts. We have also started Second Pride Radio which streams 24/7 on multiple channels which is available for LGBT advocacy, educational, and support groups to advertise, for free, their activities and services to the community. 
second-pride.com is the official Second Pride website and we hope it will become a central clearinghouse for “all things LGBTQ” in Second Life. Soon a complete listing, to include SLurls will be available on the website so that anyone can learn about your group and all educational, support, and advocacy efforts taking place in Second Life.
Help us help you in “getting the word out” about your group and the good it is doing for our LGBT community.
We know that all LGBT groups within Second Life do not always get along, or that they do not all share the same goals or aspirations. Like Pride festivals in real life, we would hope that our pride festival will be reflective of the entire LGBT community and be a place where we can share our common goals of equality, fairness, and inclusion.  Pride is a celebration of our “gayness” and to acknowledge all that we have accomplished through our unity...it’s also a chance to look at the future and what we still have to do. We can better accomplish our common goals as a united LGBT community... join us and be part of the largest and most visible LGBT gathering in Second Life.
Let's Celebrate! 
If you are a non-profit or thinking of starting a support, advocacy, or educational group, but needs a home, Please contact me so we can show you what we are offering and how we might help in letting the rest of the community learn of your group.
Doc Spad
2013 Chairperson
Second Pride
docspadusmc@gmail.com