Hair Today...

Another flimsy excuse to post pictures of my beloved looking stunning. Actually, the top two pictures are the one relevant ones, as hopefully they show the difference a hairstyle can make to ones look. The Grid was laggy again, so I didn't quite get the shots I wanted, but still I think the effect is there somewhat. It is certainly noticeable in the pixel, how the face takes on a completely new look depending on how the hair style frames it, whether there is a fringe or not - perhaps it is just me who sees it with the eyes of love!

Whatever hair she is wearing, you cannot deny that Melissa is the most beautiful woman across all the Grid. The other two pictures are there purely to show this fact even more, with full length shots of my darling in one of the new dresses I picked up for her. Tis only a simple black number, created using the adage "less is more", but once again Melissa not only has the figure to wear it with ease, she transforms it into something the designers could only have dreamt of. O my heart, you beat fair fit to burst when she is near - could this be love I feel? Yes, yes, a hundred times yes!

Apollo, From Both Sides Of The Waterline.

I was lucky enough to have some time with Melissa earlier today. The Grid could have been more helpful, but after a couple of crash-outs I was able to mesh nicely, and my beloved and I set off for somewhere to have a quiet canoodle. Melissa was looking particularly lovely, in a flowered kimono, the hair she had chosen to wear with it making her face look fabulous as it framed it in a way new to me.

We started off in Lothlorien, but there is a singular lack of poseballs there, so we returned to a place that holds great significance in terms of wonderful times spent together, the Lost Gardens of Apollo. Once there, we made for "our" bench, and I was in Heaven once more.

Time came for Melissa to return to FL, so we parted with many kisses and longing looks. After Melissa had disconnected from the Grid, I stood up, only to find myself very soon after looking up at the Lost Gardens from the bottom of the lake! That is the one thing to be aware of here, the fact that the benchs are very close to the water, and the decorative tusks make for some tight squeezes when leaving them. That aside, the Lost Gardens will always be a place where I found a dream coming true for me.

My Sunset Love Returns!

At last the day I have been waiting for! Melissa has returned from her familial visits over the festive season. My heart beats again, my breath moves in my lungs once more, life has returned to my body! Laggy though it was, the half hour we had together was one of the sweetest of all I have had on the Grid so far. To be in the presence of the one you love more than life itself is the most wonderful feeling. When that person returns your love, then death loses its sting, for having been loved by Melissa there is no fear of the Reaper. To live in the light of such a love is to live indeed, virtually or otherwise. And ever the goddess, Melissa was wearing the most amazing creation, revealing yet mysterious, an image of Beauty made pixel. Read more about the outfit here, in my beloved's own words.

After my love left, I paid attention to my surroundings. The venue was Old Salt's Pub in Kokomo, and the superlative performer was Etherian Kamaboko. Very good he is too, catch him when you get a chance. I am not naked, as might be suggested by the last picture, but wearing some Kajirus silks, in a vain attempt to look handsome for my beloved. A woman who looks as good as Melissa does whatever she wears needs a partner who is equally sartorial adept. Not me yet, but I am working at it, for I do not want my love to be embarrassed to be seen out with me. A higher quality set of silks is need, I think!

Fun With Aspergers

A week rolls around in seven days, and I found myself at another meeting of the AS group. It was a great help to share my experience of a difficult Christmas with other people who had suffered similarly, and it was nice to recognise a few faces, one being Narcissa Marchionne, looking postively summery in a lovely yellow dress. Another demonstration of the skill of both texturers and lighters, the dress went from lemon yellow through to old gold as the day wore on.

When the meeting dissolved a good hour later, I asked Narcissa if I could take her shopping, as a way of making myself feel brighter. I needed a lift, as I was missing my beloved Melissa, having last had a brief moment with my betrothed on Christmas Eve, and one way I have of making myself feel better is to make someone else smile, something usually achieved by the simple practice of buying them something. This strategy has often stood me well in the 35 years I have been using it, since the first days at infants school (kindergarden - age 4 onwards) when I found that one way of making people like you when you are a bit weird is to buy them something. It has its pitfalls as a technique for getting through life, of course, but to make someone happy, a gift usually does it. And if they are happy thanks to something I have done, then I am happy too. That is why I like to have female friends, as when they understand why I want to buy them something, are usually only too happy to support my retail therapy! Cheyenne can vouch for that!

So, with my limited knowledge of how colours and styles work, I took Narcissa first to Pixel Dolls, and being unsuccessful there, on to Silver Rose Designs in Caledon, where I might also pick up an outfit for myself. Narcissa asked for my advice between three pieces, and together we arrived at Aurora, in bronze. I duly purchased it, only to discover that it was a No Transfer item. I could therefore not give it to anyone! I then paid Narcissa the requite amount, and she purchased one for herself. It always amazes me that some designers sell their outfits with No Transfer permissions, as they are so obviously items that will be bought as gifts. So we both wore our new dresses! Quite the Victorian couple! It needs no telling, the pictures speak for themselves, that the outfit looked a lot better on Narcissa than it did on me, as I somehow managed to make it look not only silly, but frumpy with it!

Thus attired we took a tour on the amazing trams they have that run around Caledon. We were joined by Enky Nakamura, and had an interesting conversation with him about the future of worlds such as SL. The bottom shot shows the three of us whizzing along in a tram, fast enough that Narcissa's hair was blown horizontal, but under 12 miles an hour as we could all still breath comfortably. The picture also shows how Caledon manages to keep it streets so clean, as Narcissa and I found ourselves becoming road sweepers for the day on account of the length of our frocks! A nice time spent, and afterwards I did indeed feel brighter, although still with a hollow emptiness where my heart should be, missing as it would be until Melissa's return.

Fire Goddess In Winter

Cheyenne Palisades is one of my dearest friends, certainly on the Grid, and has her own wonderful blog here. You will see from it that she has recently taken on a plot that includes a volcano, which she has dedicated to Pele - not the greatest soccer player ever, no, but the Hawaiian fire goddess - read more from Chey herself here.

The first picture shows me standing on a waterfall inside the volcano - under the lava! Achieved because Cheyenne knows a great deal about building, and set that particular prim to "Phantom", enabling us to pass right through it. We learn from our friends every time we are with them, at least we do if we are lucky enough who we have as friends.

SL has taken on the season of FL, and so Cheyenne's landlords, Dreamlands, have decorated the sim accordingly. The next two pictures therefore show Chey's West Beach ankle deep in snow - again only in SL! This is to become a party beach, Cheyenne tells me. Partying will be a major part of life on Pele it seems, as we then took in Chey's underwater room! A spectacular party space indeed!

After seeing all the fabulous creativity she had unleashed on her island, I naturally took Cheyenne to look at my Chain - I know how to show a lady a good time, no worries! I was touched and surprised by Chey's admiration for my project, given how far above mine her level of skill now reachs. Apparently her other half, inspirational architect [name removed to spare her blushes], also finds the Chain a nice piece of work. Wonders will never cease! Two of the hottest creatrices (correct plural of creatrix?) on the Grid giving my humble attempts praise! Only serves to put even more pressure on me to really produce the goods attached to the other end!

Jobe Nurmi

I had an interesting, indeed unusual even strange, experience recently. I meshed with the Grid as usual, arriving as I do at the Tea House, to find someone else there. Great ,I thought, a punter! Feedback time. So I sat down, and started up a conversation with my visitor.

And then it starts to get strange. The young lady introduced herself as Jobe Nurmi, and proceeded to praise what I had done with the Tea House, and my personal appearance. Now I am sure everybody loves to get praise, but I started to feel uncomfortable at this point. I know Melissa gets plenty of praise on her look, and indeed so she should. I hope you are all Rating her positively, I know I do! But Melissa getting attention from other men is one thing, and indeed only to be expected, but for me to get told by a woman not Melissa that she "loves my look" is quite another. I struggle to accept that Melissa finds my avatar physically attractive, even with copious evidence to support her case, so when a stranger starts up my whole alarm system goes off. What does this person want? Should I just get up and walk away now? What would Melissa think of this situation?

Here I must apologise to Ms Nurmi, I am sure she was just being complimentary and nothing more, but my panic at the situation I found myself in is another pointer toward maybe looking at the possibility I have AS, given that it was totally inappropriate for such a normal, everyday piece of social interaction. I am very lucky to have Melissa, and it would be hateful to upset her by getting myself into a potentially compromising situation, so I tend to monitor my behaviour far too much in order to avoid such a situation arising. Anyway it turns out Ms Nurmi is an interior designer herself, hence the interest and compliments. Then she invited me to her houses to see her work.

It was at this point that I really did outdo myself for imagination, as panic turned to suspicion. A few little things had been tugging at my mind's trouser leg, and now they hopped on board. Was Jobe Nurmi actually someone else, someone I know using an alt? Was it Cheyenne, or even Melissa, checking out my faithfulness? Bizarre to say the least! If you look at the picture of Ms Nurmi, you may spot a slight resemblance to Chey in the face, the hair is a style they both use, the body was sort of like Melissa's, without the breasts, or the leg length, or the beauteous radiant face....So you see how ridiculous an idea that was. It was just something about the way the conversation seemed structured, the way Ms Nurmi threw blunt observations about me into the mix, that had me thinking this way.

Nonsense notwithstanding, Ms Nurmi is a talented interior designer. The shots are all from her main house, an amazing creation where the attention to detail in the dressing is fantastic. I guess the fact that it was medieval in theme also put me in mind of my beloved. Ms Nurmi is a wizard, or even sorceress, with textures, and to go with that talent is a very nice sociable personality, so I can only apologise for allowing my brain to use her as a way of getting myself in a flap. I don't think anyone other than me thought that there was any danger of me being seduced, so in the end no more harm was done than to make me look foolish, to myself alone until I wrote this.

Why post it? Because this is a blog about my experiences in Second Life, and for all its external innocuousness (innocuosity?) this experience was one of my strangest yet. It may also give a little insight into the mind of Mordecai Scaggs, and thus underline why I am so lucky to have Melissa! There is definitely something to be said for a romance that is conducted at a range of 5000 miles, especially when one of the participants is me!

CEN Event, January 1st

This is a timely announcement for the upcoming event to be held at CEN HQ, in Huchu. Go to the tea house, and look across toward the very tall building next to the Rose Garden, and you will see the Clean Energy NOW! site clearly signposted. The event is to be a lecture by my friend and colleague from CEN, muhammedyussif Wikinger. Here are a couple of shots of us discussing the event just before Christmas. As you can see, there is plenty of interest at the site, from solar panels you can buy to a fishing pond, so please do all visit. The organization is purely voluntary, we (myself and the other volunteers) do everything for gratis, believing as we do in the group's purpose of encouraging the use of sustainable technologies.

Muhammed is a lovely man, very earnest in his work for CEN, and with a dry sense of humour. I think his lecture, on how Stockholm has embraced the concept of clean energy and renewables, will be both informative and entertaining. I shall certainly be attending, if only to take notes on how to give a lecture, something I will be having to do myself in the not-too-distant! So I applaud muhammedyussif for his bravery in stepping up and being counted. Please try and attend yourselves, the lecture is to be held at CEN HQ, on January 1st 2007, at 7am SLT. Which is about 3pm GMT, or 4pm CET. I apologise to my readers in the western hemisphere for this early time for you, but at the moment a lot of the CEN volunteers are based in Europe, hence the more euro-friendly timing. However we will also be scheduling lectures for US times, as we don't want any residents of the Grid to miss out on what we might have to say!

Whilst you are at the CEN HQ, take a moment to look around, and maybe even volunteer something yourselves, or perhaps just join the Clean Energy NOW! group to receive news of other forthcoming events, such as trivia contests in nightclubs, or movie screenings, concerts, hell even more lectures! I hope to see you there, to support muhammed yussif, perhaps learn something new, and for me a chance to meet a loyal reader or too as well!

Anchorage

A quick shot of the base once more. I have started to landscape it a bit, exploring the mechanics of terraforming as I do so. The end result is to have it appear as if the granite block has been there a while, the ground around it weathered and crumbling. Will the anchor hold? How much longer before the ground is completely worn away from it, and its charge draws it from its hole like a tooth from a gum?

A Muse Is Rescued!

At last, the Muse is restored to me! As you can see, after my slip whilst standing on top of the chain, my poor beloved vessel has been languishing at 400m. So I rezzed another airship, ascended to the mission height, then made the perilous leap across the void to my dear Muse. Silly really, as all a fall from 400m does here is make me bounce a bit! Another example of the Immersion Factor at work.

Once safely back on board and in command of the Muse, the rescue boat was returned to the inventory. I stayed at the top of the chain to take a few more pictures. Looking high now, yet thanks to the purchase of more land - and therefore prims - it will be higher still before I am done with it, and ready to begin construction of whatever it is that this chain tethers to the ground below.

Draconis Platform

Flying around my chain the other day at 250m, I spotted a handy seat nearby. This observation platform was put here by my neighbour Draconis, as part of his alchemical set up.

It certainly gives a wonderful view of the horizon, and the sunrise and sunset!

Flaky?

After the gig at the Tavern, I was flicking through Search>Events, when I came across a meeting of a support group for those with Aspergers Syndrome. Now why should this interest me? Well, more than one person in the last couple of years has suggested I look into it, and on taking some online tests, I discover I score very highly indeed, indicative of someone with Aspergers! This page explains what AS is, suffice to say I seem to fit the profile.

I have spoken to my GP about this, and he seems very supportive and keen for me to find out one way or another. A positive diagnosis would be useful in as much as it would explain why I am the way I am, but would do little else at this late stage in my life. As far as labels go, AS is preferable to f*ckwit loser.

So I went to the meeting, and had a great time. Just to meet and listen to people who are as flaky as I am was good. The other members were all very personable, and I had a lovely chat afterwards with a young lady from Estonia called Narcissa, who was full of pertinent advice on how to get along with AS. Whether I have AS or not, I have met some very nice people anyway.

Amazing Grace Reprised

With many apologies to my regular reader for the delay in posting here, I now rectify the situation with some shots of the wonderful Grace McDunnogh playing another set at The tavern in Mill Pond. I think this is a regular gig for Ms McDunnogh, and I highly recommend you catch her performance at least once in your life.

400 Feet By Midnight...

More shots of the top of The Chain as work ended for today. Four hundred feet so far! Not so many neighbours around up here! Tools were downed after a typical worksite accident - doesn't it always happen though, where you step out of your airship to stand on the top of that day's vertical chain, only to turn back for something you need but left in the gondola and then you find yourself falling Gridward! The number of times that must happen in a day!

So now as well as extending the chain a little more, I shall have to use a spare LTA vessel to retrieve the Muse! O the embarrassment!

Thank You, Darling

I love to buy gifts for Melissa, but sometimes she turns the tables and I am the one who is spoiled. Thank you darling for these two wonderful - well they are too good to just call T-shirts - these two wonderful wearable artworks. Both by Masterblaster Jay, the top one is called Amoeba Dance, and is my most favourite, as is the other garment, this one entitled Star Crash. Beloved, you will have to peel them from my skin if you want to put them in the wash ever! And speaking of skin, a treat is provided in the shape of the last picture, showing what is underneath the Artshirts - Light Definition from Naughty Designs, the clear leader in the "Which Skin For Scaggs?" poll I conducted of Melissa.

Starting Point

The chain as seen from ground level.

Going Somewhere

Having finished the tea house rather quickly, I have started on a new project. The top of the structure in these shots is just above the 250 feet unaided flight limit. Building at these altitudes relies on the fact that I have the Muse as a floating podium, as one soon tries to work beyond one's reach if you tried to build this whilst firmly rooted to the ground. I guess the range of Edit is about 100 feet or so.

And what will be at the other end of this great chain? Not fully decided as yet!

Coyote Ugly

What a strange, and awful-sounding expression . I daresay that is just my Old World peevishness, but such was the name of the bar where I saw Pam and Bill Havercamp lay it down last night. Pam was very festive, and together she and Bill delivered a storming set.

The pictures have me dancing with the owner of the SL Coyote Ugly Bar, in Plush Terra, Destiny Donnelly. She wasn't ugly by any stretch, and neither were her staff! We had a good chat about the running of venues and the like. Apparently the interior of the club is modelled after the film and on units of the Coyote Ugly chain in RL. Now there's a thing - virtual reality imitating real life imitating art (of sorts!).

More On Light

At the risk of boring you, dear reader, and of giving Melissa the vapours for my openness, I present two more pictures of a tender moment between us, to illustrate the effect that light can have on an experience. We were embracing atop the Celebration Hall, in our private solar, during the day. Melissa exclaimed that the effect of forcing the Sun to Midnight was rather good, as the second picture demonstrates. One setting, two ways of experiencing it. Both good, in fact both wonderful, thanks to their common denominator, the anything-but-common Melissa Yeuxdoux.

A Christmas Interior

Those of my readers who also read my beloveds blog, to get both sides of a story as it were, will have seen this post about a house at the Creative Fantasy show-sim. Melissa took me to see it this morning, and I am happy to provide some interior shots. The staircase is phenomenal, dressed with poinsettias, but very much a status symbol, as it says quite bluntly "I have enough land, and money for more land should I so desire it, that I can throw prims away on a staircase like THIS! whilst you paupers scrimp away your prims and use a teleporter for improved efficiency". But very pretty with it too!

The house also provided the perfect backdrop for my beloved, dressed as she was in what I have come to call "her fateful dress", as when ever she wears it, fate lurches life to one side and my head is left spinning. So far the batting average is 4-1 as of today, in favour of good lurches of fate. Melissa and I know what those times were, but whichever way fickle fate goes, she looks just so very incredibly beautiful! I did get a wonderful shot of my love with the staircase behind her, well framed etc, but lag, and the need to tweak the camera settings (see Melissa's posts on this subject, such as this one, for she has the photographers eye, not me!) for every single shot meant that by the time the shutter fired, the moment had long since passed by! Another time, I'm sure.

Note particularly how the firelight is dealt with here, by both Melissa's artistry in setting up her skin, and the skill of the builders with their use of lighting. Spectacular!

Mix And ...Match?

Today was a mix'n'match day as far as the wardrobe was concerned. At least I think it all goes together near enough! Melissa, like any painfully, heartbreakingly beautiful woman, has a comfortable range of clothes, with something for any occasion, and with many outfits that can be mixed.

I have yet to achieve a satisfactory level of garmentation, so in order to maintain Melissa's interest in my appearance I need to work hard - at least until after Christmas when the sales are on! My love tells me I look quite dashing in this arrangement, and if she thinks so, I am happy enough. Should you wish to create the same look of dash and verve, I threw this ensemble together from the following components;

Boots - SF Black Bikers

Trousers - Rogue Alchemist, from Silver Rose

Shirt - FF Black Ribbed Button T

Jacket - PD Iridescent

Couch Time

I have now finished titivating the latest part of the tea house site, and I was delighted to be able to test out my new couples couch with my beloved. Melissa look stunning as ever, she can wear the most average of outfits and make it an extension of her beauty. Her figure is just so good, whatever she wears becomes an outfit to stop traffic.

We had a wonderful time, unwinding with some lovers conversation. I do hope my readers will find the same sense of ease and calm when they visit the Yeuxdoux Tea House.

Amazing Grace

Ok, a very cheesy title, and one I am sure will make Ms McDunnogh cringe, but she does have an amazing talent. I caught her act at The Tavern in Mill Pond, and well worth the hassle of a crash and a relog it was too. As you can see, Grace McDunnogh is a well-known artist, her gigs thus well-attended. She went through a wonderful set, with covers of people from Gerry Rafferty to REM. If you get a chance to catch a performance, do so, you will not be disappointed!

I had hoped to move on to see Bill and Pam at Winterland, but the Grid was very laggy, and once again I crashed out, this time whilst trying to take a photograph. Ever since the last couple of updates, SL has been very laggy indeed, whether busy or not. I had thought it was the fact I am using a router at the moment, but apparently others are having the same experiences. Lets hope todays unscheduled shutdown will go some way to resolving this issue of lag.

Light On Skin

Melissa came to see me this morning, and we had a wonderful time, discussing the teahouse, films, love. My beloved was wearing the outfit she is dressed in at the end of this post from her blog, and my heart caught in my mouth as I gazed in awe upon her radiant beauty. Interestingly enough, both Melissa and I have mentioned skins in our posting recently, as we both move toward a gridself just that bit more realistic . Here we got an iluustration of how wonderful skin can be in SL, especially when combined with some appropriate lighting.

I do hope my beloved will forgive my use of these images here, although for all their candour she appears nothing less than divine in any of them. Melissa does have a full retail skin, whilst I am wearing a demo until I can afford the upgrade, so hers is the most transformed as we watch the sun rise from the shoji.

From a softly shadowed light brown, through a ruddy tone that radiates warmth to a shining fair with very subtle golden lights to it, Melissa is a work of digital art. There can be no other description for such a rendering of pixels. I don't know if it is scary real (thanks again to Cheyenne for this one), but it certainly looked very lifelike to me. When the Grid flows well, it brings wonders with it. I am not one for creating buzz words, but with the quality of graphics reaching ever higher, will we be comparing the "wetness" of differing skins, using the concept of wetware to rate how lifelike each appears. I fervently hope that my beloved reads this, as she will be able to say when the first use of the term "wetware" to describe the human part of the internet/computing equation actually happened, but as buzzwords go, I like this one. Wetware has an almost resentful nuance to it, as it describes the flesh which holds tight to our seat in front of the screen. To be without it! To live fully in Second Life as an independent entity - Vanilla Sky only better! Where do I sign this contract, Mr Mephistopheles?

Chai, Anyone?

The Yeuxdoux Tea House is now open to receive guests. With pillows to kneel on, tea can be taken in a calm and relaxing atmosphere. Candles and lanterns provide warm illumination at night, and the aroma of incense is in the air. A Zen garden is available to the right of the shoji, and a bench for couples is being installed to the left. Sadly the teapot doesn't work, but that will be replaced very shortly with one that does. There is a donation box for CEN, which seemed appropriate, and this one is in red bamboo to fit in to the setting, and I have provided a notecard giver, that also mentions Melissa's Rose Garden along with a handy landmark. Now to provide a reverse link to here from the Garden notecard!

I do hope readers will use the teahouse. Search>Places with teahouse, tea house, or yeuxdoux. The last will find it every time. I have also placed a koto, which can be strummed, inside, and the wonderful magnatune is streamed in as well. The grid can be a tiring place to be at times, so providing a facility for rest seems to fit nicely with my philanthropic aims. Please, use and enjoy!

First Christmas Card!

I had a wonderful gift from Rick and Darcy the other day, a Christmas Card from the two of them. Only this card opened, and poinsettias drifted out! A wonderful little geegaw, but a perfect example of how a knowledge of scripting can transform the simplest object into a thing of wonder. I can build a bit now, so I too must take the bull by the horns and learn to script a bit now. Thank you Darcy and Rick, a Merry Christmas to you both!

Up And Running (Sustainably, Of Course)

I think I have mentioned that I donated some land to Clean Energy NOW! for their headqurters. Well, Lynn Evelyn has been hard at work transforming the site. A few pictures of the progression of the works. Top - the dance floor and terrace bar. Middle - the lectern I threw together for the lecture amphitheatre. Bottom - next day, taken from where the lectern stands, looking in the direction of top picture! Now a lake, with fishing poles you can purchase for a small fee(2L), adspace for rent, sustainable technology for sale and a headquarters building too! Lynn has excelled herself.

The site had its grand opening at 5AM SLT today. Sadly I was unable to attend, although I will be many times still, but I urge all my readers to visit, donate and volunteer to support CEN. Check out Lynn's blog here, and the Clean Energy NOW! website here. Please bear in mind this is still under construction, but functioning well.

Tea With A Goddess

Not long after I had rezzed the treehouse, my beloved came to visit. Wow! I always feel in the presence of a Goddess when I am with Melissa, and in Dazzle outfit "Naughty" she has stepped straight out of a pantheon from classical times.

We discovered the tea animation, and we had a lovely time positioning the Lovers Embrace I had serendipitously rezzed moments before! My love expressed approval at my idea of the teahouse, so that gave me a warm fuzzy. Feeling. She is my oasis, the still calm at the centre of my sometimes turbulent life, and just as the Rose Garden is a celebration of the love she has enabled me to feel, so shall this place be a modest homage to the way she creates a peace in me that is not wholly from the mortal plane. There is divinity in her footfall, and starshine in her smile. Ok, wonder if one of these freebie lamps will do for a modest homage to starshine?

Shoji Tea House

Whilst out looking for something else, I came across this delightful little teahouse - or is it tea house? Whichever, and it may be important to how Search finds it, it is a fantastic structure to have on ones land, and it came with a teaset that has you drinking hot green tea! I have the garden, I have the venue, and I do want to use the rest of my land for 'nice' things, such as a teahouse!

This is my new projet du jour, to create a small oasis of calm, for others to use as they progress across the Grid. It is a foolish vanity, this desire to leave something behind that others can enjoy, and it is very new to me - always in my First Life (thanks to dear Cheyenne for this very apt term for "real" life) I have just done and moved on, wanting to leave no sign of my passing, no children, the works. Here and gone. Something about the less stuff one has, the closer one is to the bosom of the Earth. Hmm. Well now I have gone and grown one, I find it to be only right and proper that I discover how my vanity muscle feels. So I allow myself to flex it every so often, and it is not such a very bad thing after all. Both in terms of my new sartorial eloquence, and in the way I build, and what I build for. I pay for server space, after all, with my monthlies and my tier fees, so I want to be storing something worthwhile storing! Thus a teahouse. Now to fit it out.

Today I Am Mostly Listening To...

For any readers who might be interested, the audio accompaniment to todays' posts was "7=49", by the wonderful combo The Moon Seven Times. Again, this particular disc is occassionally available from the better file-sharing networks.

Friends From Yahoo

I belong to a Yahoo group called "Brits and Pieces", ostensibly for UK-based players of SL, but having several members from elsewhere upon the real globe. Today I finally met up with two friends I have made there, Darcy Rutledge and Rik Langdon. Here is a picture of them both, and one of each as well. Darcy hails from the US, but I am not sure where Rik is based in RL, not that it really matters! They are DJs on the Grid, and also own a club, but once again my memory fails me as to what their club is called. Terrible thing, old age!

Love In Lothlorien

I was able to meet up with my beloved again this morning, and she TP'd me over to the incredible sim of Lothlorien. Melissa was wearing the Naughty outfit from Dazzle, and she looked every inch the goddess in such a fabulous setting. I also took a wide shot of the area (bottom) to give some idea of the scale of it. Visit Lothlorien before you die, it really is that amazing. And for a much better shot of Melissa as Goddess, visit her blog here.

Philanthropy

Having a fair-sized chunk of a region is fun, and gives one a feeling of grandeur, but I am not here purely for myself. I cannot be a philanthropist in RL, so I try to be so on the Grid. To that end, I gave a couple of spare plots to Clean Energy now, an environmental lobby group I have mentioned before. They don't hold any land themselves, and like any charity cannot afford to be shelling out precious funds on rent, so one way I can help is by providing land (which I shall pay the tier for) on which to build their HQ. I put one of my signature hedges around the site to screen out the neighbours, but Lynn Evelyn will be doing the majority of the work.

I have also started work on an extension to Melissa's Rose Garden. Again, I had a spare plot that fits in nicely to the layout of the garden. Whilst I can put in the hard landscaping, the planting will have to wait until after Christmas, when my credit cards are recharged! If you have yet to visit the garden, then please do so!

Many Happy Returns Of Love

At long last I have managed to meet up with Melissa again! Five long, long days have passed, but now we are in each others arms once more. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, they say, but I do not believe I could love my darling any more than I already do - with every fibre of my very being. Sometimes I wish that SL was my RL - forthcoming generations are going to be so lucky, with cranial jacks and all the other cyberpunk gadgets they will undoubtedly have. Love on the Grid is so intense at times, being composed as it is purely of thoughts and emotions. I just hope todays update goes ok, so we are not parted for so long again. Melissa's lips did taste that much sweeter, her skin feel that much softer, her embrace seem that much warmer for our enforced seperation, but I do not relish the prospect of another seperation so soon!

The pictures; me in an outfit from Silver Rose Designs of Caledon - Maximillian in Plum. Below that, a longed-for embrace with Melissa, who is wearing a sensational outfit that goes by the appropriate name of Naughty.

A Night Without You Is As A Day Without Sunshine

After watching the shuttle launch, I bimbled about the Grid for a while, then headed over to the Bubblegum Music Factory at the behest of my little sister Sorcha. I wanted to discuss an idea I had for a CEN fundraiser with her, as she is a superb hostess, and can make any event buzz. It was Tommy night, and the DJ played the Who's rock opera from start to finish. Sorcha was half-naked as usual, but I understand that is quite the height of fashion among young people today. Sister or not, she is very easy on the eye!

I had hoped to see my beloved at some point, but sadly I was to be out of luck. I did hear from her that she was experiencing all sorts of echoes with the Grid, and I thought it was just me! SL is having a difficult time of late, with some incredible lag at anytime of day or night, and the aforementioned echoes. Hopefully the Gods will sort this soon, if no earlier than the proposed update to 1.13 due on Wednesday - they brought Melissa and I together, how ironic that they should in some measure be keeping us apart now. With any luck Monday will soon be here, and I can once more feel alive in the arms of the woman who has my heart.

The Future Is Now

As per usual, I was unable to sleep last night because of my condition, so I took a handful of painkillers and meshed with the Grid. And it was just as well I did, for on looking through Search>Events, I saw there were only minutes to go before a shuttle launch, which was being streamed live into SL! I tp'd to Spaceport Alpha, part of the International Spaceflight Museum, and joined over two dozen other residents to watch this spectacle.

I present here a few images of the lauch, read from top to bottom. I am always impressed by such displays of raw technology. A bit of an uncomfortable juxtaposition, perhaps, for a memeber of a renewables group, but not for me. I have always believed it is part of a manifold destiny that Mankind should stand on, and live on, other worlds. It will not happen in my lifetime, but if the US administration of the late 1960's hadn't gotten cold feet, we would have a fully functioning ISS by now, as well as a moonbase, and even an orbital platform around Mars.

Yes, I advocate the use of renewable energy sources, to try to slow down the decline of an environment suited to humans on earth. But as a believer in the power of technology, I find I cannot denigrate the space programme. Admittedly it is not using clean fuel, but those who complain about the amount of CO2 a shuttle launch releases should instead look at the rise in global air travel, if they want to point fingers. Yes, the unfettered use of technology has gotten us into this pickle, but as the problem has been going on for well over 200 years now, stopping shuttle launchs is NOT going to make any difference at all. Technology will also be our saviour, for how else will we develop better and more efficient wind turbines, or tidal barrages, or solar arrays etc. No, whilst I am an environmentalist I also look to the future, not back to the Stone Age like the Greens do. The future is in our hands, in the here and now, and burying our heads in the sand OR simply blaming everyone and everything is no solution at all. Properly managed (and there's the rub!) the space programme can and will produce many technological benefits for mankind. So back off, and watch in awe as another small part of our destiny is carried toward the stars!

Saving The Planet By Committee

Yesterday I attended a meet and greet at the Clean Energy NOW! Headquarters. This was an opportunity to meet the other volunteers, and to see what I had really let myself in for. As it turned out, I made six new friends! Lynn managed to talk me into - or rather allowed me to talk myself into - the role of one of the CEN site newshunters, and I will be collaborating with two of my co-workers (Earadriede Callisto and Sapphira Dulce) on the creation of a radio ad to be played Gridside. Not a burdensome task at all, as all my fellow treehuggers are very personable, very go-getting types, so it appears as if the workload will be shared out very well. I also managed to come up with some ideas for events, some at the Celebration hall, some elsewhere, so watch this space. And the next time you are in SL, join the CEN group, and help build up it's profile!

Flight Of The Muse

With Search > Places still unavailable, another way of exploring the Grid is required. I am thus forced to buy some transport. One of the freebies I picked up in Caldeon was this wonderful airship, created by Omega Steam. Here are some shots of her maiden voyage around the Celebration Hall, and of her docked alongside the solar, complete with proud pilot!

She steers beautifully, indeed all the controls are a joy to use. If you remember the inherent inertia of a LTA vessel, that is! Like everything else that is important to me here in SL, she (look, I'm a man, so all vehicles are female, ok?) is named after my beloved Melissa - as was the Rose Garden, and the venue. Rather more subtly this time, this the first ship in the SEAS (Scaggs-Yeuxdoux Estates Air Service) will be known as the Muse Of The Skies.

She is a lovely craft, and has inspired me much as Melissa does (hence the name) - now for a full dirigible, perhaps the size of the Hindenburg, as a skybox? At least there is no risk of explosion due to faulty hydrogen bags!

And You Thought You Had Managed To Avoid This Shot.....

So here it is, the preferred skin. Tan Defined. Of course, if my beloved has a different preference, that will be the preferred skin!

The beauty of shop-bought skins is their completeness. Mine will come with nipples, and genitals! Unscripted of course, but even a flaccid cock is better than none! It will be nice for taking artistic nude self portraits at least, and make me (er...me as Mordecai!) feel more, um, complete.

More Than One Way To Skin A Scaggs

So, as I have mentioned, Melissa and I went skinshopping for my updated look. A few shots of me trying out some demo skins. You lucky lucky readers! More so as I can only upload five images per post, so you are spared the worst!

top down, the pictures illustrate;

Current skin, newbie one in light tan, with nipples by Dark Designs, and Blue eyes by KittyCat Rosebud.
Light Demo.
Light Demo, with Stained Glass Blue eyes, again by KCR.
Tan Demo, with Indigo eyes by KCR.
Tan Demo, my usual Blue eyes.

The demo skins are from a range by Lost Therian, and if the demos are anything to go by, well worth the L4000 they cost. I prefer the Defined skins, and will look for one with lighter eyebrows. The eyes will remain the same ole blue one I wear now.

Am I turning into a Ken? I think not, when did he last have lox, pointy ears and a sharp nose? no, like all residents to whom SL is more than a game - indeed, to whom it really does become a Second Life, I want my Gridself to look as good as he possibly can. Tis only when you start trying on the expensive skins that you notice how poor in quality the freebies are - though mine has served me well, it is time to move my level of immersion up a notch. Time also to start making the money to afford such "realism"!

Beauty Through The Ages

The title is a bit of a misnomer, granted, but any excuse to show a picture of my darling looking gorgeous! And doesn't she just! I have said that Melissa wears the clothing of Caledon with easy perfection, so here is proof.

Through the ages? My love looks stunning in outfits from any era, real or imagined, but after Caledon we moved forward in time to the age of the skinshop! Melissa looks even more a goddess in her new skin, so of course I must do the same, if I want to keep her. Here she is helping me choose a new skin - she will be seeing the most of it, so her opinion is the only one that really counts. How wonderful it is to be in love on the Grid, where a man can please his lovers every wish!

Caledon

The other morning I met my beloved in the sim of Caledon. This is an area I am growing to love, for the clothing, the architecture, the concept. Melissa wears the clothing of a steampunk femme with easy perfection! We met in Wind Plaza (top picture) before moving on to the Victorian City - not before I had changed into more appropriate attire!

Outside the Silver Rose boutique, they were giving away some seasonal freebies, including some very useful textures - expect to see them in a build near you soon! I returned to my love's embrace before time made us part once more - a hard part of any day, but something I can deal with easier now, knowing that with the changes to my RL, I can be in SL whenever I want to now!

Solar Extension

Like any builder, I like to see my structures evolve. Soon I will be building a new structure entirely, but first I thought the solar atop the Celebration Hall needed tweaking. It is a private space for myself, Melissa and friends, so needs to be able to accommodate more than one person easily. Thus the extensions. They may stay, or be redesigned - firstly a safety balustrade is needed. The pictures also show the venue quite well, but more pictures of it are bound to follow.

Patties Pix

As the venue is finished, it would be nice to have it used as an art space! To this end, I have been checking out other galleries, to scout for exhibitors. One gallery I like is The Gallery Tamrannoch, on Tam Street in Caledon. Here I am talking to the owner, and an exhibitor herself, Autopilotpatty Poppy.

Ms Poppy is quite a big noise in the SL art world, managing as she does four of Smart Arts galleries, and exhibiting her own work in several of the other majors. The second and third shots show the first floor of her mansion gallery, with more of her work on display. APpatty is a photographer, using RL images to create pictures in SL. I recommend you catch her work as soon as you can. You may soon be able to do so at The Yeuxdoux Celebration Hall, as Ms Poppy was kind enough to offer her work as an opening collection!

An Apology, Wholly Deserved And Unreservedly Given

Isn't she gorgeous? My dear friend Cheyenne Palisades - check out her blog here - is not only that, but perfectly capable of sorting her own life out. I made the mistake of thinking that because she chose to confide something in me, I could then offer my opinion on how she should resolve the situation. That was pompous and boorish of me, and I am ashamed I did not realise this until after the mistake had been made.

To cap it all, I also made a numpty of myself in front of a person who she was not only dealing with in a professional, business relationship, but who is also a good friend of hers. In doing so, I have portrayed Chey in a less than helpful light, as someone who is not a good judge of character if they count me as a friend also.

I cannot apologise enough for the upset I thus caused, and the dent in Cheyenne's standing that went with my tomfoolery. Here on the Grid, Mordecai Scaggs is a charming fool, a bit pompous, a bit foppish, head full of dreams and ideas, but very little else. The difference between him and my real self being that he is at least funny with it, or mostly so. I have said elsewhere that we bring parts of our real selves to our Grid makeup, and the ability to embarrass and dishearten is a skill I am much practiced in, unfortunately. Dear Cheyenne, I am truly sorry for my ignorance and oafish behaviour. You say we are okay, and I sincerely hope we are. You mean a great deal to me, and more to Melissa, so it would be a terrible shame if you and I were no longer friends. Whilst this abject rambling is no real recompense, I hope that in some small way it has redressed the balance for us.

Chewin' The Fat At The 'Gum

Yesterday evening I went to see my little SL sister (SLista?) perform in her job as Hostess at the Bubblegum Music Factory. The DJ was a very talented Jenny somebody (memory loss!), but it was dear Sorcha who got the place jumping.

It was also an opportunity for me to meet the man who had captured my sisters heart. Kiyotei Xi (second picture) is a delightful character, very easy going, the perfect foil for Sorcha's irrepressible energy. We had a good chat, and I hope we will become good friends.

I got into the mood of the themed event, a 70's night, although not the correct attire, and had a whale of a time, also gaining a bonus in the form of a L50 prize! All I had to do was know that the original version of "Spirit In The Sky" was performed/created by Norman Greenbaum. A goat herder in California, last time I heard. I did have a play with my appearance throughout the night, deciding on another (really! Normal people go for hats, or shoes - but no, I have to accessorize with feathers!) new set of wings (middle), this time from a freebie box I picked up somewhere.

Such comestic juggling went quite unnoticed by the other patrons at the 'Gum, which was busy all through Sorcha's time (penultimate picture). Not being able to hula hoop, I danced with my fire poi's for a while (bottom). A nice anim set from Abranimations, who else? I thoroughly recommend them for such things, and Tuesday Nights with Sorcha from 1800SLT at the 'Gum whether you have poi's, hula hoops, wings or tails - or not!

Back To The Volcano

With the ability to Search for new places to explore still lacking, I took Melissa back to the G'aal Volcano sim for another look around. It is a big volcano, the top picture illustrating the depth of the caldera at lava level. Melissa spotted a table and chairs in a treehouse, so we alighted to sit awhile. Another period of time spent heavenwards by me.

With Love & Kisses

At risk of embarrassing my beloved Melissa, here are two shots of us checking the operation of a new Kiss I have bought for our use. We normally use Abranimations Couples Animator, a HUD controlled syatem with some twenty anims loaded in, covering the romantic and the ridiculous! Everyone likes a change though, and we found this Kiss to be very pleasing indeed. Not only does it work at ground level (top picture, taken insdie the Yeuxdoux Celebration Hall) but it also functions well at height too, here shown being tested in the air above the G'aal Volcano sim.

My humble apologies, dearest, if my candour is too candid. Readers, for more intelligent and incisive comment on SL, surf over to Melissa's blog, to be found here.

Cafe Society?

After Melvin Took had finished his performance, Melissa and I went to The Cafe in Obscuro Valkyrie, to meet up with friends and to hear friends performing, in the the very talented forms of Pam and Bill Havercamp. They seem to play every night of the week, and I try to catch them twice in a sevenday.

The music was good, the company even better, and Melissa took me in her arms for a wonderful slow dance. There is nowhere I won't go with this woman, nothing I won't do for her. Following on from my previous post, I spent hours in the Garden this night.

Melissa has a packed RL, so took her leave of us, hoping to meet up in the morning as we try to do. I would have logged off then too, save for the presence of another lady dear to my heart, Cheyenne Palisades, and we salsa'd on until Pam and Bill ended their set!

Also present was Exuberance Lefleur, the architect of Cheyenne's new house. A highly talented lady, we did not hit it off, instead engaging in polite conversation for a while. Chey's house is apparently her first paying commission, and she has already won more since. The quality of her work and ability is superb indeed, and I wish her godspeed and all good things en route to a prominent reputation amongst the finest of the Grid's artisans.

However, inadvertently I must say, Ms Lefleur did cause Chey and myself to almost fall out the following day. I was carrying on in my usual vein, trying to put a positive spin on a situation that she (Ms Lefleur) found herself in. The offending remark was something about "Love coming in many forms here in SL, and not to be blind to opportunities for companionship, however bizarre they may be to our RL components". This is a true statement, and we are after all, each and everyone us resident on the Grid, building a new version of society, where structures of communication and relationship are being forged anew. Intense and probably indicative of my need to get out more! But as regular readers know, I am a bit of a thinker, and see this environment, this Second Life I lead as Mordecai Scaggs, as being my time to spend just behind the cutting edge of something new and potentially world-changing.

Ms Lefleur obviously took the view that sane people do, that this is a bit of fun and relaxation, a chance to be someone we dream of being in RL, but nothing more, not something with real potential to change the way people communicate, do business and indeed how they lead their lives. I suspect she said something to Chey along the lines of "who the funk is that wierdo? Did you know what he said to me? Some weird shit bout love taking many forms here...". Sadly this led to Chey having words with me, and I fear I have let her down somehow. It appears to be sorted now between us, but the whole incident has reminded me that we do bring a lot of our RL modus operandi with us when we mesh with our Grid selves. Ms Lefleur is a talented woman, perfectly able to think outside of the box with regard to designing structures in a world where normal physics do not apply, yet like every other architect I have known, seemingly unable to accept that people can be other than what they would have them be. I don't think we will become bosom buddies, is the short version :)

Melvin, Menorca And Male Chauvinism

I was once again lucky enough to have time to spend with Melissa of an evening. We took in a performance by Melvin Took at Menorca. Another highly talented singer and musician.

The arena was designed like an old amphitheatre, with scatter cushions and rugs around the upper levels. As you can see, we took advantage of these, to lie together and go with the music. I thought our pose uncomfortable for Melissa, with my lumpen mass upon her, but she insisted this was not the case. Personally I don't like the arrogance in the male pose, and the subservience in the female pose. A Gorean I am not, and I would not be surprised if these rugs were originally created for that particular environment. However, to lie with my beloved at all is a joy and an honour I will not turn away, for those are the times when I enter the gates of a higher place.

Blink And You'll Miss It

Two pictures of me trying out a freebie smile I picked up somewhere. Can you tell which is the before and after? Hard to tell, isn't it. Personally I do best with a slightly coy, almost mischevious grin in RL, anything akin to a smile just contorts to my face into further grotesqueries. So as in RL, in SL too! Expressions are one of the hardest things to animate on the Grid, so I am more than happy with my face unanimated, given the slight upturn to the corners of my mouth. I smile with my words, if not otherwise. Also, I don't look like anyone famous, which is no surprise! What do I mean? Check out this article recently posted by Melissa to her blog!

Double At Cecilia's

Last night I was again unable to sleep much, so Mordecai used his new-found freedom to experience the livelier side of the web. Looking for a gig, I went to Cecilia's, one of the venues that make up Muse Isle. First up was Charles Coleman (top). Sadly things were slow rezzing, and so the picture is not as good as it could have been, but Mr Coleman's talent was undiminished by this. Testament to this is the next picture, there was plenty of dancin' to his songs. A great performer, catch him as soon as you can.

Next on the bill was Picker Apogee, obviously better known to the rest of the Grid than to me, and rightly so. Beautiful playing and vocals on a range of covers - including a joyous rendition of "Brown Eyed Girl" - and his own work, Picker really sent the crowd to bed feeling like they had been to a show.

Cecilia's is a great venue, I will certainly be catching more gigs, and I urge you to do the same!

The Ladies In My Life Pt. 1

I am blessed by a surfeit of riches in respect of the friends I have made here on the Grid so far. I may associate with some of them more than others, but they are all dear to me, and I am happy to see them whenever they have time for me. I am also pleased that the majority of my friends happen to be women. In as much that they use human female avatars to define their SL persona, at the very least!

First up in my Gallery Celebrating The Forms Of My Friends, comes the lovely Evie Mikazuki. Evie works at the Library in SL, and is a fellow blogger. I met up with her the other day to ask about the possibility of the Library giving or sponsoring readings in the venue. After all, it is an art space, created in part for just such an event. She seemed to think it was a good idea, and said she would float it with her boss. She also advised me to IM Ms Lorelei Junot, the Library Director, myself, something I duly did. I like Evie for her enthusiasm. A day at the library listening to her tell you all about the project and its aims, current projects etc, is to be given a glimpse into the future of an institution of great import and standing. Maybe not yet, but with people like Evie working at it, it soon will be all that and more. Do go and let her show you around, you will come away enlightened and inspired, and a regular visitor to the Library's facilities ever after.

Next up isNatalie Oe, of True Blue Designs, formerly Spend Less. She was looking as groomed as usual, and also as usual was up to her arms in her business life, completing a revamp of her premises to fit the change of company. She still had time for a quick chat, though. Lovely lass, great creatrix, fantastic shop, spend some Lindens there!

In a class all of her own, and a person who started off as a friend, and moved through being a dear friend to become my dear love, the one person who makes the sun shine for me, and for whom alone my heart beats, is my beloved Melissa. Regular readers will be bored of seeing her image and hearing of her virtues yet again from me, but I think they can handle a retelling! At the risk of embarrassing Ms Yeudoux with my candour, I have included a picture of us embracing, which shows not well enough her Rossettiesque* face. Does it not glow, the beauty without a function of the beauty within? Melissa is the one person ever in my life to take me as I am, at my word, and to be happy with that. No constant questioning, no constant need to justify myself. She knows I mean what I say, whether I am turning down a choc chip cookie or I am stating the depth,width and breadth of my love for her. She makes me feel as if I have some worth and value in this world, and she is so encouraging of my efforts to build. As my muse, the Melissa of the Rose Garden and the Yeudoux for whom I raised the Celebration Hall, she has shown me how to be more than I am. Such a person comes to each of us only once in any lifetime, and for once I have been awake to a gift from the universe. when it was offered me. Yes dear reader, I am in love with Melissa. What's more, she seems to like me a bit, too!


*Dante Gabriel Rosetti, the greatest of the Pre-Raphaelites.

Flying Fish

I had an IM from a neighbour, telling me that harrassing objects were being left on my land becuase it didn't have auto return enabled. Puzzled, I went to check this claim out. I was puzzled as all my plots have the auto return of unauthorised objects to their owners enabled and set to one or two minutes delay. There was nothing to see initially, but after I had been working at a project for a while, suddenly a fish appeared over one of my plots, which immediately became a dozen fish (see pictures). I definitely didn't rez them, so they were unauthorised.

They also didn't auto return in the allotted time. Now concerned, I investigated, determined who the creator was, and proptly sent Black Felix an IM warning not to trespass in such a manner again. He was offline, so I sent in an Abuse Report as well. I hope he is censured over this blatant intrusion into my space. I managed to delete all the offending fish within a few moments, but it is still a bit of a worry that this happened.

Clean Energy Now!

Yesterday I went looking through Search Events for a class or two on scripting. There are a few I shall be attending, but in the end I took a look at the Clean Energy Now! headquarters. They were running an ad for volunteers to help out in a number of ways. I have been/ am a freelance proof reader, so I thought that maybe they could use me every so often.

Clean Energy Now! is a lobby group, based in SL, and intent on raising the level of awareness around Clean Energy, but also educating about sustainable energy at a personal level. In your own life, or your community life, or your working life, there are always ways to increase the sustainability of how we live that life. Whilst there are a lot of people out there telling us we are doomed, very few are saying anything about the issues at a level that people can grasp. Now Big Government need to do Big Things to sort this mess out, and I applaud their enthusiasm for just such Big Things in recent months, if not the Big Things themselves. Nor am I suggesting that normal people can't take all the detail and science. Many people have a knowledge of the mechanics of global warming et al, that it makes my head spin, and I try to stay as well informed as I can. But when these issues are raised in the media, they are always portrayed as needing Big Things to sort them out, and thus people feel powerless and helpless, as it appears there is nothing they themselves can do at a level that impacts on them in more than just an intellectual sense.

So, Clean Energy Now! want to redress this imbalance in the reporting of solutions, and instead of doomsaying, actually telling people how to have hot water from the sun, electricity from wind, etc, all in their own homes! Now an individual can do something that impacts on them. I know many people will say that is like fighting a firestorm with a teaspoon of cold tap water, but I happen to disagree. If someone is able to improve their life and reduce their ecological footprint, they feel able to tackle the larger issues involved, and thus more likely to get involved in finding a solution. Also, the more people that do make such changes, the larger the reduction in the global ecological footprint. Pissing in the wind, in the last analysis, is at least better than bitching about the wind that might blow your piss back at you if you were brave enough to try taking that piss you need quite badly.

The creator of the group, and the project, is Lynn Evelyn (website here), who actually came to talk to me as soon as I asked about volunteering. She is a very good marketeer, and fiercely passionate about this project, which though based in SL will do its work in RL and with impact on the RL in mind. Thus you might get to attend a lecture here, that gives you the information you need to make a positive impact in your RL, for example by composting more kitchen waste, or having a grey water sewage system, and also why this is making a positive impact.

A very noble ambition, and one that I hope I can aid in some small way. Did I say Ms Evelyn was a very good marketeer? I did? Did I also say she has a great pair of legs? Well, you can she has in the picture of her bamboozling me (top) into actually writing articles for her website, and also giving lectures once a week! I am only joking, of course I am only to happy to help a great pair of...er no, a worthy cause, but which of her two talents I have mentioned was the swing vote that convinced me to volunteer in this way, is hard to say. So watch this space as the pompous fool gets his comeuppance in front of a digital audience! It might go ok, and I might scrape through, but the potential for hilarious humiliation looms large now I am actually thinking of what I have agreed to do!

I also bought myself a windmill (bottom), as I think they are incredible creations in both their utility and their aesthetic. I wish we had more of them in the UK, but it seems that people would rather have a cellphone repeater station blot their landscape than they would a landmill, which is both a useful item and a joy to look at. Please check out the Clean Energy Now! headquarters, read Lynn's blog, and even do a bit of volunteering as well. Good for the planet, good for you.

A Word From Our Sponsor

Todays posts were brought to you with the accompaniment of Sunburnt,performed by The Moon Seven Times, and occassionally available on file-sharing networks.

Bubblegum Sister

Being at the Ice Rink also allowed a meet pixel-to-pixel with a fellow blogger I have recently met. Sorcha McConachie (top picture - like you couldn't guess?) is a young lass who, like me, has a rather tangled RL/SL lovelife. We can empathise strongly with each other about what it is like to love someone in SL, and deal with people in RL who are not Net-literate, and therefore to whom falling in love with a cartoon character from a computer game you're playing is a strong suggestion of insanity. She has my total support and respect for however she plays out her romantic life, but please the Gods she doesn't have to go through what I have/ am. Why cannot outsiders to the relationship not understand that you fall in love with the real person who is represented by an avatar, whose words are spoken by real fingers typing on a keyboard?

Thanks to Sorcha, my SL family has grown to include a second member to myself. It was Sorcha who said we looked almost related, and so now I have a feisty little sister! SL is suddenly becoming a place where I am experimenting with several new varieties of male-female relationship! Sorcha has her own blog, so please head over and read it.

Sorcha is a Hostess for a few nights each week at the Bubblegum Music Factory and Shops, in Tona. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I think. Get on down there, with Sorcha hosting you are guaranteed a good nights entertainment! It happened that Saturday night was Pink Floyd Night (at least this one was) at the club, so after meeting up for a skate, we went over and had a groove, to be joined later by Cheyenne. I cannot remember the names of the other patrons there, but thank you all for adding to the great time I had. It was also a night to remember by the fact that I had my first SL Skype chat with Cheyenne. I use it a fair bit to chat with an Afrikaaner friend of mine, but I think Cheyenne was a total Skype virgin. We muddled through, and I can say she has a lovely voice, softly accented by the South. The bandwidth was an issue, but I think the recent emergence of dual-core processors will enable a lot more conversations using this medium. For one to ones at least, and I believe free, downloadable Skype allows conference calls of up to three people. I will certainly be hoping to have a Skype or two more in my Grid life.

All in all then, a good Saturday night out!

Music On Ice

The second gig I attended was also hosted by Moonlight Creations, and was performed at the Ice Rink (bottom picture) located elsewhere on their estate. This time the performer was Dimi Ludwig (top picture), also an accomplished singer/ guitarist. One can purchase ice skates at the rink, and skate whilst you listen. At least you can try to! I believe the Ice Rink is a fixture of the current festive season, so get along there and try it out the next time you fancy going to a gig.

Dancin' At The Moonlight

After an interesting week or so for my RL self, a place has been reached that I cannot imagine I deserve to be. It could be said that I have landed on my feet. I am the luckiest person, to have such friends as I do, and for them to have such wonderful people as mothers-in-law. Thus am I able to return to my recountings of one Second Life.

I was able to attend some live events over Saturday, the first being a performance by Edward Lowell (top picture) at the Moonlight English Christmas Village, in Waterton. Mr Lowell is a fantastic singer and guitarist, and if any of the songs he sang were his own work, then a songwright as well. He was joined for some of the works by his wife Nancy (?), who also had a wonderful voice, and played the flute. A young lass (his daughter? Maxi?) also joined him with a fantastic recorder. I had a dance (middle picture), and made some new friends. One of them being Ms Amythe Moonlight(bottom picture), owner of Moonlight Creations, who presented the music from their fresh-minted English Christmas Village, complete with church steeple (fantastic view) and shops selling all manner of seasonal fayre.

I understand from Amythe that this is a new venture for Moonlight Creations, so please go along to any gigs they put on. This venue is worth supporting.

Normal Service WILL Be Resumed

OMG! What was that last post all about?! Dear reader, let me apologise to you all for that rambling outburst, and more importantly a huge public apology to my beloved Melissa - there was a bit too much of everything in that post!

Things are certainly not yet ok in my RL, but that is for me to deal with, and not to burden you all with. In point of fact, my accomodation situation may just have gotten a little less fluid for the next two weeks before I take up the tenancy on my flat, so that is a move in the right direction. I am also back on track with regard to the love of my life - if anything is going to damage our chances of happiness, it's me posting drivel here! As long as two people believe in what they have, nothing can stand in their way.

So once again, apologies to all, and rest assured things are back to normal (if such has ever been the case!) in Scaggs Land.