For Eddi´s Eyes Only - UPDATED

My friend Eddi Haskell asked for a picture of Anton Hyséns thighs. I tried my best but this guy covers his legs well, so this is the best I could do. Enjoy, Eddi!

And here is the bigger picture I snipped it from for the rest of you to look at.

Young Anton´s father, renowned soccer player Glenn Hysén, wasn't as bashful when he was young as you can see in this picture! Glenn has been - and still is - a heartthrob for many women and men in Sweden the last 30 years. Big thanks to my friend Kandinsky for supplying me with this picture!

At the Stockholm Pride 2007, Glenn delivered a speech denouncing sports homophobia and laid to rest an incident at an airport in 2001 where he had beaten a man for groping him in the restroom. He stated that, "I know that many LGBT people have been the victims of assaults and hate crimes. I can therefore understand if some people have been upset by the airport incident, so I want to be clear: I think that it is completely unacceptable that anybody should be subjected to assaults, insults or hate crimes due to their sexual orientation or gender identity,...The incident had been blown out of proportion in the media...In order to finally flush the Frankfurt Airport punch down the toilet: it is not the case that I beat up a gay person. I categorically deny that,...I'm not proud that I took a swing at him, but I am proud that I have integrity and that I reacted."

In the same speech he asked "How easy would it be for a sixteen-year-old boy who plays football to come out as gay to his team mates?"  In March 2011 his younger son, Anton, a professional footballer himself, came out of the closet to the media.

P.S. Oh Eddi, Kandinsky wants me to inform you to ask her for pictures next time!

Named Avatars 5

I am very pleases to introduce you today to Sjöfn Stoneshield in my series on how we decided on the names for our avatars-

"My cousin, Vanadis Falconer, lured me into Second Life because she thought I needed a little break now and then from the work on my dissertation in psychology.

When I joined I needed a good first name. "Vanadis" was already taken by Vanadis. Since we are almost the same age and cousins, we have grown up with the folklore about the Norse gods Thor, Odin, Frigg and Freya. Now I had to think a little extra. 

We have an old tradition in Scandinavia; If you pick seven kinds of wild flowers from seven different fields in absolute silence on a midsummer night and then put the flowers under your pillow you will dream about your future husband or wife. In the pre-Christian era there was also a goddess named Sjöfn, sister of the goddess Freya, who was worshiped if you had love troubles. The goddess was revered by both men and women.

There was only one small problem with that first name. It was not possible to use the Swedish letters Å, Ä and Ö in Second Life at that time (A´s and O´s with circles or two dots above). The Swedish Ö (O with two dots) is pronounced as "I" in "bird". Should I spell my name "Sjifn"? Nah, it made no sense to other Scandinavians. Should I use the German "OE"? Nah, only Germans would understand that. So I just gave up and called myself Sjofn. 

Then it was time to choose the surname. One name sounded more ridiculous than the other, eventually I came to the "S" and Stoneshield. Sjofn Stoneshield that´s good, I thought. A shield of stone for a strong and independent woman - perfect!

One of the first things I did after joining Second Life was to write to Philip Linden and tell the boy that he should ensure that Swedish Å, Ä and Ö could be used in Second Life names. And because Philip is obviously a well-mannered and obedient boy, Second Life introduced Å, Ä and Ö in the next update. So now I have my dots over the o and Sjofn is now and for eternal time called "Sjöfn Stoneshield".

Ars go Fridars ("prosperity and good harvest" in Old Norse)
Sjöfn"

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If you would also like to participate in the series by sharing your reasons for choosing the name you have given your avatar, please send me an e-mail lundamats@gmail.com. Please include a picture of your avatar.

I may take some editorial liberties with your text and picture, such as correcting obvious misspellings in the US English and perhaps shortening. However I promise that I will not distort any facts and that I will contact you if the changes are of a major nature (or if I have reason to believe that you would think so).

Anton Gets A Stonewall Award

The Swedish pro soccer player Anton Hysén (20) has been awarded a Stonewall Award as "Sportsperson of the Year". The Swedish player was praised for taking a stand in the sport.

Anton is the world’s only openly gay professional footballer since he came out as gay to the Swedish football magazine Offside in March 2011.

Now let´s see if the Swedish Soccer Federation have balls large enough to celebrate him tonight at their big party with many awards handed out.

The Stonewall Awards is an annual event to celebrate people who have had a positive impact on the lives of British LGBT people.

Anton Hysén of course also has his own blog, Anton Hysén.

UPDATE: Nope, Anton didn´t receive any recognition by the spineless bastards of the Swedish Soccer Federation. They had an excellent opportunity to strike a blow at the rampant homophobia in sports - and they blew it.

Advance Notice: Bollywood

My friend Ewa Aska is organizing a Bollywood party next Saturday to celebrate her 5th rezday. The party starts at 22:00 (Paris time no less, which means 1 PM SLT).

At the last Bollywood party that Ewa organized in SecondLife (it must be two or maybe even three years ago now) we had a real blast!

Ars was DJ-ing - and had a lot of fun making the music list - while I was hosting for the first time together with Ewa and her partner at the time. I think this was the party where I got my first tip ever in SecondLife, for being such an excellent and charming host and saying "Namaste" about 568+ times.

I am letting you know about the party early so you can start looking for decent outfits. I will be there and say "Namaste" a few times even if I am not hosting this event.

Happy Rezday, Ziggy!

Today is the second rezday of Ziggy Starsmith, the wonderful, talented, charming, sweet, studelicious and always sexy - through all his changes and makeovers!

I wish you a wonderful and happy rezday. buddy, SecondLife wouldn´t be the same without you!

Love ya, big hugs and lots of kisses!

Visiting With Ars

After midnight my time but fortunately SecondLife runs on SLT/PST so it was still Saturday in-world, there is some benefit with time zones after all.

It was a beautiful night at Mirromere, which is my favorite memorial place for Ars.

All Saints Day

Today is the All Saints day in Sweden. It is a movable holiday that occurs on the Saturday that comes between October 31st and November 6th. (When this holiday was created by the Swedish parliament in 1953 Saturdays were still work days.) The church celebrates another All Saints day on November 1st, but that day isn't a holiday.

This Saturday many of us visit our dear departed and light candles and lay out flowers on their graves or - if you are old, sick and tired as my parents - you light candles in front of pictures of the loved ones.

I visited my sister and grandparents graves today on behalf of the family, other than those few hours I have spent most of the day sleeping. I don´t know what has made me so tired, because I am otherwise in a good mood.

Tonight I am going to reenter SecondLife and light candles for my babe and think happy thoughts.