Sudden Photo Shoot

We had a sudden and unexpected photo shoot today. It was nice. Here's some pixels for proof!

~Shye~

Linden Labs Pulls a Boner

Linden Labs makes it harder to share items for free, among residents, in a blatant money-grab.

https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/commerce/blog/2009/11/18/roadmap--managing-freebies-on-xstreet-sl

The response:

https://blogs.secondlife.com/thread/4902

And my two cents there:

I wonder, how many Lindens stay up how many hours trying to think up ways to make Second Life *less* useful and *less* user friendly for the residents? And how serious are the Lindens about getting accurate and valuable feedback when the only time one can give feedback that counts are in "office hours" in-world? My First Life is busy. When I am in Second Life, I am not usually on the lookout for "office hours". Synchronous feedback channels that have limited seating room for changes in policy that affect residents from time zones around the planet is just a stupid means of collecting serious feedback - unless that is the point. The feedback you're getting here should hold as much weight. Or more.

There are *lots* of freebies that are not marketing ploys in XStreet. There are a *lot* of residents who do not have shops and do not want to sell things... they make something cool and want to share it with other residents in a very open-sourcey kind of way. Linden Lab's money grab is closing down that channel of the true community sharing spirit that is Second Life.

Thanks, Linden Labs!

Relaxing

Every so often, people need a little break from Second Life. Sometimes you have real life things that you want to tend to, or need to tend to, and sometimes you just want to reduce your immersion in the pixels for a few days. Sometimes it's both!

Alysa has been offline for a few days, and will be off for a couple more... doing real life things with her real life time and enjoying herself, deservedly so. And I am taking advantage of her absence, and focusing less on pixels, and more on real life. Just for a few days.

In the middle of this short, casual break, we were to do a photo shoot. It was unexpectedly canceled. So we found ourselves in a warm cuddle for the whole evening, just the two of us. A wonderful chat about what we've been up to for the last several days, and what our plans are for the next few, before our pixels meet again.

I cherish these relaxing moments... the moments when Second Life and First Life mix together for a short time - at once sitting alone in an easy chair with a laptop in real life, and also in a close embrace with my pixel partner on the screen, talking about a mix of Second Life things, and First Life things... appreciating not only the pixely partnership, but also the depth of our friendship.

Religion, Fear, Closed Minds, Apathy and Sexuality in Real Life

A note about Real Life, for a change.

My real life physical pixels walked into the voting booth yesterday. It's an off year... no president, senators or representatives to vote for. But here in Maine, where I live, there was a Big Question on the ballot.

It was a "People's Veto". You see... earlier this year, the legislature in the state of Maine passed a bill making it legal for same sex couples to marry. The Governor of Maine signed the bill into law.

The law never went into effect. A group of out of state interests with deep pockets, coupled with religious groups within Maine, initiated a People's Veto, getting the question on the ballot for a public vote. Opening the issue up for a vote sounds good, in theory. It is what a democratic society is all about. In practice, it doesn't always reflect the feelings of the majority. Religious zealots, fear-mongerers, and apathy among young eligible voters served to doom this law from the start.

Those who know me in Second Life know that I am, at least, open-minded on issues of sex, gender, and sexuality. It is obvious by the role I play and how I explore these issues in Second Life. The truth is, I am about as open-minded as one can be. One's gender and sexual orientation are barely on the list of attributes of a person that I consider important when getting to know them, or to love them, in Second Life or in Real Life.

So it always annoys me when I encounter a closed mind.

Back to the Big Question. The Question, itself, was closed-minded, and designed to illicit a fear response on the part of the voter.

Question 1: People's Veto

An Act To End Discrimination in Civil Marriage and Affirm Religious Freedom

"Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry and allows individuals and religious groups to refuse to perform these marriages?"

Do you get it? A rejection of a law that rejects discrimination of same sex couples ends discrimination and affirms religious freedom. While it would be hard for anyone not entering the voting booth in Maine to not be aware of the issue and what a yes or a no vote meant, given the advertising going on for the last three months, the question is framed in a way as to mislead the voter.

By voting "Yes", you will "end discrimination in Civil Marriage". How is that, exactly, when a Yes vote revokes the law allowing same sex marriage in a civil ceremony? By voting "Yes", you will affirm religious freedom. Only, the law that ever so briefly allowed same sex marriage in Maine never had anything to do with religion or religious freedom. The laws separating church and state allowed a religious practitioner to reject a religious marriage in the church.

It wasn't just the question on the ballot that promoted fear. The advertising promised that if the law allowing same sex marriage was allowed to remain, that "they" would be "teaching gay marriage in the schools!"

First off, I see nothing wrong with teaching that. But even if I did, it's a crock. There is no curriculum in schools that "teach" heterosexual marriage in the schools. Why would there be a curriculum designed to "teach" gay marriage? Scare tactics were used, showing covers of children's books like "Heather Has Two Mommies" and using them to promote the fear that a curriculum would be designed around them. Hogwash.

Allowing people of the same sex to marry is about equal rights and equal protection under the law. It is not about special privilege. It is not about eroding religious freedom. And it certainly isn't about making our children gay by teaching them how to be gay in school.

In a big election year, Maine sees an impressive 75% or so turnout at the polls. Apathy among voters tends to keep them away on the off years. Apathy among 18-39 year olds is a greater problem than in older voters - and 18-39 year olds are far more in favor of gay marriage than older voters.

Maine could have been the first state to affirm the right to same sex marriage by popular vote.

Question 1 passed 53% - 47%.

I voted "No."

I am not an activist.

I could maybe have been more involved... but at least I voted.

And I removed the "Yes on 1" sign that someone placed in front of my house.

I'm sure Mainers will see this issue up for a vote, again. I hope they will wait until the next presidential election year, when more voices will be heard.

The Power is in the People, not the special interests groups. Let all the voices be heard, next time.

Halloween, continued

I love Halloween more in SL than in RL. We can be so free with the setting and the creativity, and do things not possible in real life. Being creative in making spaces is the biggest draw for me in SL. They don't have to be complicated builds, all custom made. Alysa and I made the Halloween graveyard in a little over an hour, from things we mostly had in our inventories and adding a few custom touches. It was creative, and fun to do together. And, it was a smashing success.

Unfortunately, real life had me away from my keyboard for half of the party, so I couldn't take as many photos as Alysa did. I'm sharing here the one I made of her and me.

Time to start planning the next party!

~Shye~

Halloween 5 - Harpo Live at Blacklist

Halloween is behind us *sobs* but this day will soften the pain and sorrow. The Day of the Dead, a celebration where people go to the graveyard with food and music to honour the dead. Today we got Harpo to do his live music performance and he came in style as you can see at this picture. Skeleton!

Harpo Jedburgh is so great. I'm a fan of him! Besides his original songs and covers, his special voice and the different guitars he uses. I love his own style and the way he is so true, having fun with what he does. Something that keeps amazing me. And today he had such fun song! I forgot the title but he had to do two voices, it was great and hilarious, super well preformed.

We also had a very nice turn up and i hope Harpo's 'marmalade tipjar' got a bit fuller. He's saving up for a new microphone. Thanks for a great show Harpo!

Halloween 4

I already told you Halloween is great, it's great! But i also discovered it has a day in front, Devil's Day, and a day after it, Day of the Dead. I'm not sure how correct that is, and they might be very local but who cares? It's another reason for a party. Shamefully i missed Devil's Day but we got something for Day of the Dead. But now... first Halloween.

We made a big graveyard in the sky and i loved it. Three big isles and a few small ones hovering around, scary trees, gravestones, ghosts and little cute walls. Great work of Shye and me if i might say, simple but effective. And then we had the party and it was great to see how some of them where dressed up. The picture above show Andrea and Feysha, i really liked their costumes. But there where more and i made around 10 pics, shamefully i can't show them all.

Here is Hyang and Belatrix, panting and resting after all the dancing and chatting. Hyang had the first two hours and she had a great set. After that Lectra took over with her amasing oldies, they are so much fun. As last was Yoshi and her first song, self made by her, was great! It was a great party and now we must say goodbye to halloween....