Picture of the Day - 271

"Having a crack day! Broken down" by Wayne NZ

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

Close to Home

Ever since I was reached by the news about Avacar Bluestar's passing I have, privately, been hoping that he and his partner Rico had been more prudent than my Ars and I were.

It is after all so extremely easy to take precautions to help your partner in SecondLife in case something unforeseen should happen, even if one is young and in good health. Unfortunately we seem all to be living in a dream that nothing bad will ever happen or that there is no tomorrow and thereby leave our loved ones future in the - less than certain - good will of our inheritors in first life.

As the passing of Avacar hit very close to home for me and have brought all the uneasy memories from almost five years ago to life again, I have not been able to bring myself to contact Rico directly. Even if I am now very happy again and very much in love with my new partner Tomais, the memories of those awful hours, days, weeks, months and years after Ars death are with me still. In particular the period when I was afraid of losing the home we had over  period of more than two years built together on the Southern Charm sim.

Ars had just died and I was grieving deeply for him and less than two weeks afterwards I was struck with the realization that the sim was solely in Ars' name (to avoid EU VAT) and I did not know what to do to get the sim transferred to me. I was afraid to lose it all and with it all the memories of Ars.

I blogged about it - of course - as that was my way of venting and letting off steam. These are the links to my posts as the events unfolded. (If and when you read them, please try to remember I was not completely sane at the time and more self-involved than ever before or after.)

1. Trying to deal with reality - March 26th
2. Trying to deal with reality II (updated) - March 20th
3. Trying to deal with reality III (glimpse of hope) - April 2nd
4. Trying to deal with reality IV - April 13th
5. Trying to deal with reality V (The conclusion) - April 19th

I will never forget the kindness of Belinda Linden and a few others at Linden Lab when they guided me through the process, however I do believe think it would have gotten the happy ending it did had it not been for the kindness and compassion of the Wilson family.
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I can wholeheartedly sympathize with the agony that Rico is going through at this time. The sims mean nothing to Avacar's first life family - except possibly a hateful reminder of the true nature of their son - while it to Rico is a living memory of the work the two of them did for many years to build a meeting place for the LGBT community in SecondLife.

Please @ebbealtberg, @LindenLab try to find a way to #DotheRightThingforAvacar and transfer the GFW-sims to Rico. pic.twitter.com/WFy7zoi4Qj
— Bock McMillan (@BockMcMillan) January 16, 2015

#DoTheRightThingforAvacar

Yesterday I was contacted by Rico Bluestar, who wanted to know how the situation concerning the transfer of Southern Charm sim had been solved when my husband Ars Northmead passed away on March 12, 2010. Ars was in first life also known as Joseph Douglas "Doug" Wilson Jr.

Although Linden Lab were compassionate and as helpful as they reasonably could be throughout the process, I could only tell him that I was fortunate that Doug' first life family were understanding and loving enough to help me in that situation.

Doug's father, who was the executor of Doug's estate, presented the proper documentation to Linden Lab showing his status as father and executor, and also wrote a letter to Linden Lab in which he asked them to transfer Southern Charm to me. That saved the situation for me.

I am forever grateful to the Wilson family, and especially Mr. Wilson himself, for the love, support and assistance they showed me - a complete stranger (although Doug had mentioned me to them several times it seems) - in this difficult situation.

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Rico Bluestar was the partner of Avacar Bluestar for close to three year up until Avacar passed away on November 14, 2014. Together the two owned, operated and worked hard to build Gay Fun World (GFW) as a place for gay residents to go to for fun and shopping.

Rico is not as fortunate as I was. It seems that Avacar's first life family are Southern Baptist and all of them - with the exception of a one of Avacar's sisters - absolutely abhor and detest Avacar's "lifestyle choice" (i.e. that he was gay and admitted it). They want all evidence of Avacar's homosexuality obliterated and disolved and will therefor not cooperate to have the sims transferred to Rico Bluestar.

I think that is wrong, it is in fact an outrage!

I would like all of my family and friends - straight or gay - to join me in telling Ebbe Altberg, the CEO of Linden Lab, and Linden Lab itself that it is time for them to take a stand against homophobia, to make an exception and to transfer the GFW sims to Rico.

If you have a Twitter account please retweet my tweet and ask your friends to do so too. If you don't have a Twitter account, get one and do the same thing. Gawd this is the 21st century people, get with the program!

@ebbealtberg & @LindenLab, #DoTheRightThingforAvacar and put an end to #homophobia. Transfer the GFW sims to Rico! pic.twitter.com/WYipgApNVq
— Bock McMillan (@BockMcMillan) January 15, 2015

Do Not Disturb!

The Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm etc., etc., is in a state of semi-hibernation at this time, but has in a moment of awareness asked this blog to convey his greetings to his beloved readers and to inform them that he will - hopefully - be alert again soon.

Picture of the Day - 270

"Approaching Wipeout" by Curfax Zimminy

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

The Laird Bestows Princehood on Pook

In a solemn ceremony at Southern Charm today 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 bestowed princely honors upon his son Pook Cypher.

H.R.H. Pook, Le Prince du Nord 

Pook, as you all may know, is a result of genetic experimentation whereby the DNA of the laird, his consort Tomais, Bre Czaroux and Erik Czaroux were mixed in a perfect combination.

Attending the ceremony were most of the princesses and princes of Southern Charm and all four of his fathers. 

At the ceremony the new prince also received the title of H.R.H. Pook, Le Prince du Nord.

Project -15: The Work Begins

On Wednesday my landscaper Samuel Fallen, of Lytton & Fallen, started work on the project. I first noticed that because I started getting offline messages about returned objects. Later on I also received a shopping list.

I was eager to log in to my SecondLife to see what had been done, so a few hours later I did just that. I am not lying when I tell you that you I almost fell out of my chair out of surprise and joy when I saw the master landscaper had been working on.

Samuel had in his very first day done accomplished everything I needed - or could have wished for - to justify my hiring of a professional landscaper.

Just look at the stairs leading up to the main entrance from the duck-pound. I hadn't even dreamed of anything like those stairs, but once I had seen them, they made p-e-r-f-e-c-t sense! I loved the rest of it too.

From now on I will put my worries aside and completely trust Samuel's instincts and professional ability to see what can be achieved and how it should be done.

We haven't yet found a perfect system for how to see to it that Samuel uses my objects so that I can work the HUD in the future. Our present system is that I buy the stuff that Samuel tells me to buy and I follow after him and replace the objects he has put out with mine. This means that Samuel has to do the same work twice, which is unfortunate and time consuming, because he then has to resize and replace my objects where he wants them to be.