Thank You, Phoenix Firestorm Team!

There I was, a couple of days ago, in my wonderful mansion, deleting stuff I had pulled out from Inventory to take a look at, while I was talking with Tomais on Skype. Tomais had gone to La Galleria to pick up some plant or other.

Suddenly I noticed a change in the light where I was sitting. Almost at the same time I realized I was seeing a lot more of the sea outside the sim. It took about ten seconds for my brain to process the information it was receiving before I consciously understood what had happened.

- "Tomais", I shouted, "I just took the house back into Inventory!"
- "You didn't lock it in place, babe?", my lover asked in the way that comes natural for those who know it all.
- "No!", I said sullenly and guilt-ridden.
- "OK, I'm on my way home soon. We will sort it out!", the second-most patient man in the world said calmly.

While I was sitting there, feeling devastated for having yet again pulled a home into Inventory (I think I have done that with almost every home I have lived in) I vaguely remembered the thing saying "Restore to last position" that I see when I click about in my Inventory.

"What about 'Restore to last position´, Tomais?", I asked.
"You could try it, but it doesn't always work...", he answered.

So I looked for the house under my Recent tab, and sure enough there it was in the Trash. I right-clicked it and chose "Restore to last position".

Nothing happened. I took a deep breath and started thinking of all the time consuming work that had gone to waste due to my imprudent action. And hoped that it would work...

"I tried it but nothing's happening!", I informed my hubby.

The seconds passed slowly by and I was waiting for a miracle to occur, but still nothing. Then suddenly after ninety seconds - at least - and just as Tomais arrived home the I saw a big shadow looming over me and the house appeared in place. In the exact same place as it should be and where it had been before. I sighed with great relief and the tension that had been building up left my body. Jubilation and laughter!

"Woot! It's back!"
"Yes, I see and exactly where it should be", Tomais confirmed. He continued, "We are very lucky that you are on the Firestorm viewer, none of the other viewers have that feature!"

I sent the little geniuses at the Firestorm team many grateful thoughts, while I hastened to lock the mansion in place.

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I would like to say a heartfelt "Thank you so much!" to all the marvelous and wonderful people who are involved in the Phoenix Firestorm Project, for having the foresight to create such a wonderful feature for those of us who are klutzes sometimes. If you ever feel in need of praise or a hug, just come by Southern Charm and I will lavish you with kisses, hugs and compliments.

Rusty Redfield Interviews Tomais

My friend and co-blogger Rusty Redfield today published an interview on his blog with the renowned SecondLife photographer Tomais Ashdene, a.k.a. "the husband unit".

It's a wonderful interview, you should all read it!

Tomais Ashdene, photo by Rusty Redfield

Playing with the Big Boys; 100: With Tomais Ashdene at his gallery show

Second Pride Updates

I have been remiss in my self-imposed obligation to inform you, my dear readers, about what's going on in Second Pride.

In my own defense I would like to point out that due to timezone restrictions I have not been able to attend any of the meetings lately and that the Second Pride website has been down.

The website is now partly up and running again and I have the pleasure of informing you of two things.

Call for Secretary/Co-Chair
There has been a call for candidates for the position of Secretary/Co-Chair and two candidates have put their names forward.

Carson Darkstone

Andre Fyre

Please visit the Co-Chair Candidate Discussion Forum to see and join in the discussion.

General Meeting, Saturday January 24, 2015, at 10 AM SLT
The proposed agenda for this meeting is
1: Call To Order:
2: Department Reports:
    A: Chair
    B: Build:
    C: Events:
    D: Community Relations
    E: Security
    F: Treasurer Report
    G: IT
3: New Business
    A: Set Official Dates for Pride
4: Old Business
5: Board Vacancies
    A: Co-Chair Secretary Election
    B: Call for Elections for IT & Marketing
6: Motion to Adjourn

That sounds like an interesting meeting, doesn't it? And it's at a doable time for me too, so hopefully I will see ya'll there!

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.