Snubbed Again!

"That tired old spiteful German tart, she has done it again!"

The Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm, prince of Cascade Falls, Sovereign Ruler of the Commonwealth of Southern Enchantment Region and Outer Territories and finally UN appointed Protector of the Mount Whitney sim in SecondLife, has been frantically repeating that sentence all day, to anyone who cared to listen. 

It is of course the lack of an invitation to today's Nobel prize ceremony and banquet that has upset the laird. He blames Silvia, the Queen of Sweden, and their long-lasting feud for being snubbed yet again.

This year the Commonwealth of Southern Charm even sent a delegation to the Nobel Prize Committee and the Royal Court of Sweden to ensure an invitation. Alas the mission was unsuccessful as no one could convince the queen to forgive the laird.

The Foreign Ministry of Southern Charm today summoned the Swedish Ambassador, her excellency Ms Kandinsky Beaumont, to meet with Wild Zepp, Minister of the Exterior, to inform her of the lairds great displeasure over this continued animosity and hostility.

Picture of the Day - 242

"Polar Butts" by Bijou Lee

If you wish to see more of Bijou's photography, please visit her Flickr photostream here.

Picture of the Day - 241

"Snowshoeing at Calas" by Tomais Ashdene

If you wish to see more of Tomais' photography, please visit his Flickr photostream here.

Overpriced?

Tomais and I were out looking for a new Christmas tree to put up at the sim over by Ars' memorial. On Marketplace we came across this one, in several versions.

Description
"Typical German Christbaum or Weihnachtsbaum

this is the perfect Xmas tree, because...

* the tree has 120 giftboxes underneath
* in every single ornaments you can see the reflection of a candle
* high detailed candles
* high detailed ornaments
* detailed bells
* the tree has a high detailed string of pearls around the tree
* the has a high detailed decoration on the top
* the tree has a fantastic magical light effect at daytime and night
* the tree has a very detailed texture from a real christmas tree

* the tree is level of detail optimized, when you go far away then you see allways for example every candle

* the width of the tree is 40x40m with the snow underground
* the high is 23 m"

---

It is indeed a beautiful work of art and highly detailed and must have taken many, many hours to complete, but all the same I do think that the price of L$40.000 is a bit steep...

I am quite certain that if the creator had priced it better he would most likely have made more money from his work.

Let's say 100 copies of the trees are sold at the current price, that would mean an income of L$4.000.000, but if the price had been set to L$5.000 they would most likely sell many more copies - I am guessing 1.000 - and would earn an income of L$5.000.000.

But pricing is difficult and what do I really know about it... my amazing Jester's Hats were only sold in 10 copies for L$10 a piece. The market was not ready for them... and perhaps never will be.

Ashdene-on-the-Roof

To quote the Swedish author Astrid Lindgren in her description of her fictional character Karlsson-on -the-Roof, the lairds consort Tomais Ashdene is "a handsome, thoroughly clever, perfectly plump man in his prime".

Tomais photographed by JJ Goodman

Yesterday, the consort put up Christmas decorations and lights on the lairdly couples main residence at Southern Charm. The laird was not in the least worried, such work is quite safe in SecondLife as we all know. Today, however, the wonderful man is repeating his feat in first life and that is quite a different matter... 

"If you aren't the type of man who usually repairs your roof or cleans out the gutters, what the hell motivates anyone to climb up a very tall ladder to put Christmas decorations up there?", the laird wondered to himself when he was informed of this upcoming adventure yesterday. 

Well, my darling Tomais, please make sure you wear rubber-soled shoes and use a sturdy ladder. Plant the ladder firmly on the ground and make sure to tie a rope around your slender midriff and anchor yourself to something steady. Or better yet, wouldn't those lights would look better much closer to the ground or even on the ground?

Be safe, my darling!

Picture of the Day - 240

"Karma" by Maekyr (Beastybeards)

If you wish to see more of Maekyr's photography, please visit his Flickr photostream here.

Family Feuds

It is said that there are two kinds of family. There's the family of your flesh and blood and the one of your heart, the one you choose out of love.

I am prone to organizing my closest friends in SecondLife into a family unit, sometimes - unfortunately - whether the like it or not or whether they like each other or not.

Every family has its differences from time to time, siblings squabble, children argue with parents and the rest of the family gets dragged into it. Sometimes I am asked to take sides. But how do I do that, when I love the people who are involved and see them as family? 

I find such a request totally unfair and adamantly refuse to choose between one family member or another. That in turn enrages them even more. 

It makes me feel like one of those (usually) women who get knifes thrown at them in circus acts.