Miraculous

The much honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm and prince of Cascade Falls, lost his usual composure today and became teary-eyed and weak in his beautiful, well proportioned, hairy knees when he heard the news and the realization hit him with full force.

Carl Bildt

For the first time in history he was in agreement with the Swedish Foreign Minister, His Excellency Mr. Carl Bildt, about anything whatsoever.

"This was an unfair election process", said Carl Bildt, commenting on the Russian presidential election.

Vladimir Putin

"Putin won the election but observers suggest a significant deficiency", says Bildt. He continued to state that "Russia must improve its political system if the country wishes to become a European democracy like the others."


"Who would have thought that this could ever happen? Is there something I should reconsider, can I be wrong about Putin and the Russian election?", were questions the laird asked himself in the shocking moment when his perception of  the world was rocked to its foundations. 

The Citrus Party

The lovely, crazy and beautiful people at Club OrmDricka threw a party with a citrus theme in honor of my post A Little First Life Drama. Of course I had to drop in before crawling to bed.

There was some talk about my buddy Emarald Harvey´s balls when he first met the lovely Zigadena Gabardini in first life.

Apparently the meeting took place in the lovely city of Barcelona, Spain, a few years ago. Em claimed he had actually gotten a hernia from behaving as a perfect Dutch gentleman around Ziga. Well, I had to set him straight of course, so I informed him that what he had was clearly a bad case of blue balls and no hernia at all.

"Ich Bin Ein Prim Teamer"

The title of this post of course alludes to a famous speech given by the late U.S. President John F. Kennedy in Berlin, West Germany, on June 26, 1963,

On February 21, 2012, a new Swedish virtual worlds blog appeared. The blog, called Prim Team, was not really discovered by anyone before blogger Blanche Argus posted about it on her blog Blanche´s Arena on  February 28.

Little or nothing was known of the blogger/bloggers as they chose to remain anonymous, other than that they claim to be a group of people with technical interests "who together have more than 25 years of experience in virtual worlds". All might have run smoothly for them if they had not chosen to unearth and regurgitate the old Scandinavian civil war in SecondLife by four posts focusing on the old witch hunt theme again.

With those four posts Pandora´s box was opened and the scab was ripped off the old wounds which have seemed to be healing since summer. Their rehashing of history made it very interesting to know who was really behind the "insightful" blog.

For me knowing who wrote something is of interest in determining how much faith to put in what they write. Admittedly most of us in the SecondLife blogosphere go by our avatar names, all except my bosom buddy Apmel Goosson who is out there with his first life information also. But even if it is "only" avatar names that in itself is important information, because we know them as well or little as we know people in first life by their identities.

Three people came forward and declared emphatically they had nothing to do with the blog. These three were Blanche Argus, Gittrika Mint and Walentine.

In comments on the Prim Team blog and/or on other Swedish SecondLife blogs it has also become apparent that neither the mudslinger or her"cousins" are part of that particular team. The team behind the blog have also chosen to clearly state in a post that my buddy NEO Timeless is not part of the team.

I am rather sensitive to the use of language and after reading the blog for more than a week I ventured a qualified guess, by the language used in and the topics chosen for some of the posts, that one of the persons in the Prim Team is in fact Sven Idyll, latest known in the virtual world blogosphere for his blog Svens(k) Idyll (recently shut down).

Strangely this time the Prim Team chose to respond that "maybe he is or maybe he isn´t". Based on the fact that they have previously stated outright if someone wasn't a member of the team this answer - in my mind - is a confirmation though non-denial that Sven Idyll in fact is a member of the group.

In my response to this I decided to declare myself as part of that team. I still await their answer to that claim, which should be interesting however it turns out.

Oh and I should add that I have a growing suspicion about another member of the team. She is a highly intelligent woman, who has always been kind to me but is vehement in her dislike and disapproval of the so called "witch"

They should have discussed their policy on the anonymity issue better.

Bragging Rights

Bragging rights are the rights granted to someone that allow him or her to boast on themselves to a certain extent without being looked down on for it.

The goal sign says "In The Tracks Of (Our) Fathers For Future Victories"

Today is "The Vasa Race Sunday" here in Sweden. The Vasa Race (Vasaloppet) is an annual long distance (90 kilometers or 55 miles, 1,625.1 yards) cross-country ski race held on the first Sunday of March in northwestern Dalarna, Sweden, between the village of Berga by (outside the larger village of Sälen) and the town of Mora. 

It is the oldest, one of the longest, and in popular consideration the biggest cross-country ski race in the world. The race was first run in 1922, inspired by a run by the Swedish King Gustav Vasa in 1520. Leading up to the main event, the Vasa Race itself, the tracks are open for noncompetitive skiers the whole week before ("Open track").

Jörgen Brink/Scanpix

This year the race was won by Jörgen Brink (third time in a row) in the fastest time ever of 3 hours 38 minutes 41 seconds, while the other 16.000 poor sods will be at it for another 9 hours more.

The Vasa Race is a must-do for every Swedish Man´s man, or for that matter every Woman´s woman since 1981. Having accomplished this feat you get bragging rights for life if you do it with dignity and some decent humility.

As accomplishing the Vasa Race, whether the main race itself or the noncompetitive variety, have become not uncommon the really, really, really, really, REALLY macho men and women have had to up the stakes and a thing called "A Swedish Classic" (or lovingly referred to as simply "the classic") has been invented. 

The classic consists of a combination of four Swedish endurance feats and has been around since 1972. To receive the diploma you have to accomplish all four endurance events within a period of twelve months. The events consist of

• The Vasa Race or Open track - 90 kilometers skiing, (The Engelbrekt Race - 60 kilometers skiing - is also accepted which seems sort of like cheating to me)
• The Around Lake Vättern - 300 kilometers recreational bicycling 
• The Vansbro Swim Race - 3 kilometers swimming
• The Lidingö Marathon Race - 40 kilometers running

By now more than 32,000 people (mostly Swedes), whereof 6,000 women, have accomplished this and can brag about being "A Swedish Classic".

Needless to say I am - of course - man enough to be a man without those stupid races. (Yes, you may indeed call it sour grapes if you must.)

A Little First Life Drama

Man in doorway, art by Eugène Jansson

You may be wondering why I didn't post yesterday, so this is what happened in my first life.

I got home from work around 4 PM. Suddenly I got a really heavy coughing attack and I could actually feel something rupture under my beautiful belly button. A few minutes later a small swelling appeared under the  belly button. It hurt a little but not too bad, so I went for my afternoon nap.

When I woke up two hours later the swelling was the size of a tangerine and was all swollen, hard and tender to the touch. I tried pushing it back inside without success, so I called the regional medical hotline to ask for some advice about what to do.

The nurse on the other end told me that I most likely had gotten a rupture in a weak spot under the naval and the intestines had pushed through and I had gotten an umbilical hernia. As the hernia was now hard and big it had probably become strangulated. She told me I was in need of immediate care and should go to the emergency at once. I argued with her and told her that I was a reasonably fit man in otherwise good health and and didn't have any bad pains from it and asked if I should really go there, couldn't I just book an appointment with a doctor on Monday and have it taken care of? She then asked me, "Do you want to die?".

I got the message and walked to the emergency at the hospital that is only about a kilometer from where I live. Once I got there my problem did not seem that serious compared to everything else they had to deal with on this busy Friday night. After an hour a lot of tests and blood work were taken, which all confirmed that I was in good health except for the hernia, which by now had grown to the size of an orange.

After the tests I waited around for a few hours more, all the while feeling guilty for being at the emergency ward with something that didn't seem important. At midnight I asked a nurse if it wasn't better if I went back home and made a reservation to see a doctor on Monday. She told me I should stay and would be taken care of in 10-15 minutes.

I was later led to a examination room and was seen by a good doctor of American extraction. He then gave me two injections, a tranquilizer and a painkiller, after which he successfully pushed the swelling - by this time the size of a small grapefruit - back into my belly.

The doctor told me he was going to refer me to surgery and that they would contact me in the not to distant future, meanwhile I should just keep pushing the intestines back inside and come back for help if I could not do it. I could then finally leave the hospital at 2:30 AM and walk back home while i was still a little dazed by the tranquilizer.

I will now answer to the name "Bock with Brock" (The Swedish word for hernia is "bråck", which is pronounced like the American name Brock)

For NE0

Hey NE0, I got your message through my e-mail! Let´s try a little show and tell instead and hopefully you will get the "SecondLife button"-gadget working on your blog also.

Image 1

1. Start by downloading this image of the SecondLife logo  to your computer. (see image 1)
2. Click "Design" in the top right corner of your blog.
3. Click "Layout"
4. Click "Add a Gadget" anywhere in the Layout (you can move it to wherever you want it later)

Image 2

5. Choose the "Picture" gadget (see image 2) in the window that pops up
6. Fill in the window with the name you choose for the gadget, the url to SecondLife´s main page (I use http://secondlife.com/?lang=en-US), and add the picture with the logo from your computer. Check the box that says "Shrink to fit".
7. Click "Save"

Image 3

This is how the gadget should look once you are ready (see image 3)

When you are done you can move the gadget  to any position in your blog you wish in Layout

Good luck! Please get back to me if you still have problems.

Zigadena Hits First Life Media

Zigadena Gabardini photographed by Emarald Harvey

As you may remember a comment of mine was used in an article on CTV News.ca, see my previous post Bock Is Quoted in First Life Media. Well my dear friends Zigadena Gabardini and Emarald Harvey have now outdone me completely.

The wonderful Zigadena was contacted by the Swedish magazine "Camino" for an interview on shopping and design in SecondLife and she got an entire spread in the magazine, both the paper and online issue (pages 12-13).

Zigadena and her husband Emarald are both wonderfully imaginative, talented and creative designers in SecondLife with both a shop inworld and on Marketplace (you can always find the SLurl to their Main Store inworld and the url to their products on Marketplace on their blog ZE designs SL

My buddy Bara Jonson was in a television documentary, my other buddy Eddi Haskell has done radio and television shows, Ziga and Em in a magazine interview with picture, I will have to make a film directed by Martin Scorsese to match up to them...