Second Life

Babyfur Leaders Tell-All

Writing by Green Guy on Tuesday, 11 of December , 2007 at 10:58 pm

Interview with Raven Welesa and Corsi Mousehold

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

[Recently, I sat down with Second Life babyfur community leader Raven Welesa for an in-depth conversation about community, publicity, and SL politics. We were joined by Corsi Mousehold, who acts as a sort of den mother to the babyfurs - changing diapers and giving cubs cookies. If you are at all interested in how SL has changed over the last few years, Raven and Corsi’s observations should be illuminating as they describe the struggle to build and maintain a virtual community. - the Editrix]

Bf_2
Linden Lab has created an insecure unstable welfare state - but you can still have fun pretending

Pixeleen Mistral: how long have you been playing SL?
Raven Welesa: since july 16th 2005

Pixeleen Mistral: wow! and the whole time as a babyfur?
Raven Welesa: With the exception of the very first day or two, yes

Pixeleen Mistral: so this is definitely what you have always wanted to be
Raven Welesa: actually no, on the very first day I got my first fox avatar, I went searching for others like me and happened to run into one of the original babyfur group officers and some others playing at a small building in the old continent of second life. Well to be quite honest, I had never heard of Second life until a website I went to had an article about it, and that was the only place I could actually be a babyfur and have some freedom. that is why I joined the game initially

Pixeleen Mistral: was it hard to find other people with similar interests in SL?
Raven Welesa: actually no, on the very first day I got my first fox avatar, I went searching for others like me and happened to run into one of the original babyfur group officers and some others playing at a small building in the old continent of second life


cub shootings in The Forest

Pixeleen Mistral: so have you always had problems with anti-babyfur sentiment? in the early days did people persecute you?
Raven Welesa: Within the first week of playing, I heard through the group chat of someone shooting at fellow cubs at what was then The forest

Pixeleen Mistral: so it has always been a struggle
Raven Welesa: more or less yes

Pixeleen Mistral: how do you cope?
Raven Welesa: Well we coped in 2 ways, first was my original Cubhouse and playground I had on a region called Aglia in the North Continent. The second was me creating my first island which you just came from, cub conclave. It gave others like myself a place to feel free to be themselves

Raven1
Raven Welesa - our enemies have threatened us with physical violence

Pixeleen Mistral: how is that working out for you?
Raven Welesa: Quite well actually. We have a strong community atmosphere here. Many of those around here are regulars and many more come by on a daily basis

Pixeleen Mistral: these sorts of communities are what SL is really all about
Raven Welesa: SL, in my image was a place to let your imagination run free, and thats what I have done here


the need for security and stability

Pixeleen Mistral: what would make SL better for you?
Raven Welesa: Thats a long list, but first would be better security enforcement by linden labs

Pixeleen Mistral: how so?
Raven Welesa: Well we have been hit on a regular basis by some people, who I will not mention their names, and the lindens have yet to prove they are using law enforcement to take them down

Pixeleen Mistral: I see. What else would help?
Raven Welesa: Well aside from the security issue, I would like to have more stable simulators

Pixeleen Mistral: I think everyone agrees on that
Corsi Mousehold: I am head of security for a large group of sims. To help us get the sims back in order the Estate tools need to be fixed and we need the power to return both scripted and non scripted items from an entire estate - And have it work the way we want it to work.
Raven Welesa: Another thing would be for the lindens to actually listen to us about problems, the lindens seem to turn a blind eye to the furry community in general


building community

Pixeleen Mistral: maybe if you can get more people in the community the Lindens will listen. How do you recruit or find new people?
Raven Welesa: Well in the beginning when my group was small, we used a friendly website to get new people. That ended within about 3 months and from then on, people just show up

Pixeleen Mistral: publicity ought to help
Raven Welesa: Well publicity is a double-edged sword for us

Pixeleen Mistral: you get both more friends and enemies - but don’t your enemies want to stamp you out? it seems like you have to keep trying to grow - or the enemies win
Corsi Mousehold: Bring us out into the limelight and we get cubs that didn’t know we were here but also those that want to cause problems and target us now know exactly where to do it.
Raven Welesa: the enemies want us stamped out and worse yes, they have threatened us with physical violence

Pixeleen Mistral: how do you fight back?
Raven Welesa: I’m afraid I will not go into that
Corsi Mousehold: Me? Smile and feel pity for them.
Raven Welesa: I do have friends that at one time or another were completely deadset against us

Pixeleen Mistral: do you ever worry about being infiltrated? like your enemies pretending to be cubs, getting in your group and doing damage that way?
Raven Welesa: Why worry about what I can’t control from happening? No I am not worried about it because I have connections with other admins and sim owners so that when something does happen I know who it was and then I act accordingly
Corsi Mousehold: Communities all get positive and negative people for and against them. what I have noticed is the ones in the community that get upset over the negative focus their anger on others and spread the negativity. For example. We are furries all in all but we have had some bad publicity as the larger group. There are some that take a look at that negativity and focus it on certain sub groups like the Cubs and Caretakers as the ones responsible instead of realizing the individuals that caused the bad press were working alone. One group gaining a stereotype and focusing on a subgroup and condemning that stereotype.

Pixeleen Mistral: this is a problem common to all groups I am afraid - the PN guys had a lot of this sort of trouble for instance
Corsi Mousehold: exactly. They look at us as a stereotype instead of getting to know us and seeing … we’re kids and parents that really just want to have fun, goof off and just enjoy our second life.
Raven Welesa: I will not discuss them here. I know who they are, and thats all I need to know
Corsi Mousehold: Well more accurately we pretend to be kids and parents for the sake of just getting away from daily stress.

Corsi
Corsi Mousehold - we pretend to be kids and parents to get away from daily stress


is ageplay a smokescreen?

Pixeleen Mistral: what message do you have for the Herald readers?
Raven Welesa: You know I have thought about a message to the Herald readers and its a rather long one. I think that they first need to realize that no group is ever perfect. You can name any group ever and you will find one bad apple in the bunch

Pixeleen Mistral: nods
Raven Welesa: We are no different and though I may wish I could control everyone’s thoughts and actions, I cannot do that. I think they just need to give us a chance, and if they don’t like us, to leave us alone and let us exist in peace. We are all different, no matter if you are most average person in the world, there are still differences between you and everyone else. And I think that those that hate us, they either have a bad impression from someone else, something they saw, or because they just flat out like to hate people for amusement. If people want to attack us based on who we are, then they need to take a long look inside themselves and see what makes them different from everyone and what makes them the conscience of the world

Pixeleen Mistral: hating another group seems to be a way some groups unite themselves - they need a common enemy. you may just be a convenient target
Raven Welesa: Well everytime someone does that, and there are instances in history of this. We may be a convenient target, but that doesn’t mean we will lay down and submit to them. For instance the ageplay ban Second Life issued. I was in compliance with the linden interpretation of it well before they came out with it

Pixeleen Mistral: I’ve been hearing people say the babyfurs are just a coverup for that ageplay thing but it sounds like you are staying away from that
Raven Welesa: That issue was a smoke screen for linden labs in my opinion.

Pixeleen Mistral: really?
Raven Welesa: They have many other issues that they could be tackling and instead went there. Now granted exploitation of children IS NOT, and I repeat IS NOT ever acceptable

Pixeleen Mistral: so this distracts people from the other problems?
Raven Welesa: Yes it does. The lindens could have been focusing on the many people that like to have fun destroying the grid for their own amusement. The damages from that has to be within the hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in expenses for linden labs and business across second life

Pixeleen Mistral: that situation is getting very bad - the Dreamland people are screaming about LL not doing anything but LL set up a situation where it is hard for them to do anything - unverified accounts and open source clients means anything goes
Raven Welesa: I have given Linden Labs suggestions on what to do, and they are that, suggestions, not orders, but whether they listen or not is another thing
Corsi Mousehold: Back in the days that you had to pay a small fee to set up an account. A one time 9.99 fee …. We had no major issues we had no major griefer attacks. We would have the occasional issue here and there yeah but …. Nothing major ever.

Pixeleen Mistral: I know - I miss those days
Corsi Mousehold: As soon as Linden Labs made this place open for free basic accounts … All hell broke loose.

Pixeleen Mistral: of course. but they went crazy wanting more “residents” at any cost
Corsi Mousehold: They could go back and have a … 5 dollar setup fee. Just 4.99 and that would stop the griefers Stop the unverified accounts Stop the big major issues that the game has.

Pixeleen Mistral: but at this point I am not sure if they can really go back
Corsi Mousehold: People buy video games all the time for 100$ a pop. Five Dollars is not a whole lot to ask. But sorry we are getting way off topic again. Oh of course they can go back. Not to 9.99 no but to five buck setup cost? Yeah they can do that and give it all back to the new account in Lindens.
Pixeleen Mistral: getting off topic in an interesting way though


the SL welfare state

Raven Welesa: Pixeleen, the problem from my standpoint is that the unverified accounts just allow the lindens to find more ways to charge folks like myself more money to cover the difference

Pixeleen Mistral: yes - you subsidize them giving away accounts, then some of the free accounts grief you - but some also come and play with you
Raven Welesa: If you think about it, they have created a welfare state
Pixeleen Mistral: exactly

Pixeleen Mistral: but the people paying the bills do not control the welfare. LL does
Raven Welesa: I’m surprised there aren’t collective farms yet. oh wait they have the infamous corn field
Corsi Mousehold: right now if I bought Five dollars … Just five in Lindens I would get about 1250 L$ …. People that get into the game spend that in the first week
Corsi Mousehold: Yes the corn fields. I asked Spike to send me there so I could see what it looked like just for the fun of ir but he said it would be a strike on my account and I have none as it stands.

Pixeleen Mistral: so if the government taxes you to give welfare to others and you have no vote - what can you do?
Raven Welesa: We do what any concierge customer does, bitch loudly when the grid goes down for a refund

Pixeleen Mistral: but they set things up so they will never pay a refund. the entire grid has to be completely down for over a day according to the terms. I looked into that over a year ago. if they bring one teeny bit up - they are off the hook
Corsi Mousehold: So as long as one sim is online …

Pixeleen Mistral: I guess until something else comes along you do the best you can
Raven Welesa: In my case, I do what I always do, rely on my friends here, who also rely on me, thats the strength of community at work
Corsi Mousehold: I would love to have more cubs. And hopefully more caretakers. I can’t make cookies fast enough already *giggles*

Create Instant Buzz

Leave a comment

Category: Main

Op/Ed: Why I’m not looking forward to OpenSim

Writing by Green Guy on Monday, 10 of December , 2007 at 9:31 pm

by Jessica Holyoke

JessicaI was sitting in Robin’s office hours and looking around. I came to the realization that I am not looking forward to OpenSim. 

OpenSim is the eventual program where the Grid All Hail the Mighty Grid exists as a centralized land.  Instead of everyone coming into Linden Lab’s jurisdiction, residents can host their own servers/land that are branches off of the Grid.  Supporters of the idea argue that if a resident does not like Linden Lab policy, wait to host your own land and you can do what you want.  So if you like gambling, build a server that’s not hosted in the United States. (Even though that does not take care of the payment issues that was part of the reasoning behind the gambling ban.  The Credit Card companies had as much an impact on the Lab banning gambling as US law.) 

But instead of opening up our shared internet experience, OpenSim promises to sequester us more.  The Goreans will be on their own servers.  The Furries will have their own lands, which may be separate from the Babyfurs.  The business people, the fashionistas, the licentious, the educators can all be sectored off in their own areas.

In many ways, SL is already sequestered, even if you don’t fall into one of the sub-cultures mentioned above.  If you don’t make the effort, you can see the same people day in and day out.  You don’t know about the Turk that’s studying astronomy in Greece.  You don’t discover the Spaniard that’s lost his way in a house store.  You don’t find out about the people who decided to create a motorcycle gang in a land where you don’t need motorcycles.  The people that go to technical office hours, hang out at Bondage Playground or want to recreate a caliphate are hidden if you stay on your own little plot of land, which can be good or bad depending on your point of view. 

OpenSim promises to make that situation worse.  The ability to mix and match, to see Rockefeller Center beside a Gorean enclave, is part of what make SL interesting.  Its our diversity and individually unique imaginations, not any one person or group’s shared views, that make Second Life a better experience than other virtual worlds.   

Which brings me back to Robin’s office hours.  Perhaps because her office hours are more about the community as opposed to coding, you see a wider range of residents.  At an office hour you can see me sitting next to a furry, a warrior woman, and Prokofy Neva.  The ideal proposed by OpenSim is that we would never have to sit down with each other and discuss the future of SL as a community. Which we, as residents, are no matter what the corporate-minded Lindens would have us believe.  And working with people that you disagree with is better than trying to create enclaves which contain only those who agree with you.  Eventually,instead of a shared internet experience, all you will have is yourself on your server.   

Click here to advertise on thousands of blogs including mine

Leave a comment

Category: Main

Religion in SL - Part 1: Christianity

Writing by Green Guy on Sunday, 9 of December , 2007 at 10:52 am

by Ms. Sautereau

welcome to the first in a series of articles exploring religion in Second Life. What’s out there, who believes in what, why they built churches/mosques/synagogues/etcetera. For a game that’s mostly obsessed with sexplay, there’s a lot of religious areas to be found. Having a small temple for my own small quiet faith, I wondered what inspirations may drive others to represent their faiths in our virtual world. This week’s article will cover Christianity and it’s branches.

Yahweh_chapel

outdoor wedding chapel on Summergreen Island

As near as I could figure weeding through the search engine, there are probably more than 3 dozen good sized areas containing actively Christian/Catholic churches. Some I toured were small, humble affairs. Some were large and elegant. One was absolutely huge and the architecture was gorgeous, a build that must’ve been quite the undertaking.

The main problem I found with researching these articles was the lack of anyone willing to talk to me. I had IM’d 43 different people of different faiths requesting interviews about their areas, and to date only 3 have thus far spoken to me at all, and only one at any length. So bearing that in mind, the bulk of this article will come from the lovely and kind Ms Gynan Sanders, co-owner of the Yahweh’s Truth Church in New Jerusalem on Summergreen Island.

Yahweh_churchinterior of the Yahweh’s Truth Church

The area is a lovely place, a scenic garden setting. Like a church you might find in the country in Britain. The look and feel is very much quiet country. The facilities on the ground consist of a large outdoor wedding chapel and the church itself, with a “gathering place” skybox for socializing and religious discussion.

The church itself is a decently sized building, with elegant architecture. Something I noted that caught my attention was that the church had only one visible symbol of Christianity, a recreation of the Ark Of The Covenant. It was devoid of crosses, as you might find in most Christian Churches.

“If you look around in the church and gardens,” Gynan said, “you will notice that we do not have any crosses. We do not believe we should be worshiping the impliment that murdered The Lord Christ. Besides the bible states “thou shalt not worship craven images of any kind”.”

Gynan, jewish by birth, refers to herself as a “Christian Jewess”. The church she and her partner have created is an all inclusive Church, welcoming anyone, regardless of faith or lifestyle, so long as they are respectful and not abusive or belligerent. Does that mean attempts at conversation might be made?

Yahweh_ark

recreation of the Ark Of The Covenant in the Yahweh’s Truth Church

“No, we do not try to convert anyone. They have their own beliefs and that’s fine. Although we will debate if the need arises.” At this she grins, obviously enjoying a good debate, something we ended up having a blast doing after the interview itself ended. “I believe both the old and the new testement,” she added.

Does this inclusiveness include GLBT folk? I asked.

“Well we know that it is written,” she replied, “that we should only copulate with opposite sexes, but in this day and age…”. With that she simply shrugged and said yes. Many Christian Catholic churches, most often Anglican, are slowly opening up to gays, if not outright accepting them. Gynan saw no good reason to exclude anyone beyond rude behavior.

We talked for awhile then of the Bible stories some use to justify hatred, and of the difference between true Christians who don’t hate or judge but just live by their faith, as opposed to evangelists who preach intolerance to line their pockets with donations. I commented about having Christian friends who accept me fine as I am without feeling a need to convert me.

“That’s true,” she said. “I mean I have a daughter who emphatically denies the existence of God and Christ, but its her belief so I let her be. My only problem is that she is shoving it down her own kids’ throats and that upsets me a little. They should be able to make up their own minds as to what they want to believe. I am afraid that I only believe in the one God, but I know others have their own gods, like “the Lady” for the Escerterics etcetera. It is their belief and that’s fine with me just as long as they don’t try to change my beliefs. As for my daughter, I believe that in the future something will happen to change her mind about God and Christianity.”

Is she what they call a “God Fearing” Christian?

“Why on Earth would you want to fear God? That’s just silly!”

So what prompted them to build their church?

“It’s there for the convenience of all,” she said. “If they don’t want to use it then so be it. We do not have sermons there unless specifically asked to have one. If one of us is online and someone enters the church and sends us a message then we attend.”

During our discussion the Knights Templar came up, as a part of Christian history.

“Ah, now there you go,” she said. “I am also a Knights Templar in RL, and to put it bluntly, we were misunderstood. As a Knight Templar I ‘ve been threatened with death via e-mails. Once we’d made the church rich then they got scared of us.”

In the end, she and her partner offer a Christian space that tries it’s best to live by “Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged”.

Monestary_cathedral
interior of the cathredal at the St’ Micheals Monestary, truly a feat of SL Engineering

“Well I do that anyway,” she says, “and still believe in God. As for worship, well, I love God but I do not worship Him. I pray when I need to. I do not go to a building to pray I do it in private as it should be. I refuse to go to church just to have dogma shoved in my face and then have to put money in the pockets of the church.”

Gynan was the only representative of any Christian church who was willing to speak to me at length, so I sadly can’t offer any other viewpoints for the Christian part of this series. That I suppose will have to be left to you the readers, many of whom I’m sure will post their own take on Christianity. Debate nicely if you can, hate is easy, discussion is the challenge.

Of all the other Christian locations I toured, one I must note simply for how utterly gorgeous a build it is, as mentioned at the start, is the Monestary of St. Micheal in Milarepa. Surrounded by trees looking like something out of the middle ages, the chapel is so huge I couldn’t fit the entire thing on screen for the screenshot. The interior is also huge, and the attention to detail in the design and the architecture is awe-inspiring. You don’t have to be Christian to be impressed with the feat of virtual engineering it took to create this place. I’d recommend it for anyone to visit just to study the build if nothing else.

Next up: Islam in Second Life.

We now return you to whichever life you’re living.

Monestary

exterior of the St. Micheals Monestary

Create Instant Buzz

Leave a comment

Category: Main

Open Letter To SL from Morden Winkler

Writing by Green Guy on Saturday, 8 of December , 2007 at 9:06 am

To: Second Life
From: An Angry Canadian SL user
Re: Age Verification

For ALL Canadians, the proposed new age-verification system for Second Life is a complete failure and possibly ILLEGAL under Canadian law. Here’s why:

Integrity CANNOT VERIFY YOUR AGE using your Social Insurance Number (SIN) or your passport number, and in fact, it is probably illegal for them to do so under Canada’s privacy act. Canadians can actually make a formal complaint to the federal government about companies asking for these numbers, and I’m sure you’ll be getting a few of those.

Check for yourself if you don’t believe me:

SIN: 1-800-206-7218 (Option 3 for SIN)
Passport Canada: 1-800-567-6868

I have called these 1-800 numbers and verified that the federal government will NOT provide ANY information, including age, to ANY third-party, except for other government departments, employers, and financial institutions. Second Life/Integrity does NOT fall into any of the exception categories. The law in Canada is quite clear, and quiite strong in this area, unlike the States.

Also, in my own case, I have confirmed through a phone call to my driver’s licence bureau that Integrity CANNOT VERIFY YOUR AGE using a Manitoba driver’s licence (although they might be able to using an Ontario driver’s licence number alone, apparently your birth date is embedded within your number). I’ve heard from other Canadian Second Life users that Quebec and British Columbia have similar situations. In all cases, the licensing bureau will not provide ANY information, including age, to ANY third party except government departments, employers, or financial instiutions. The law, again, is quite clear and quite strict on this point.

The most important point I am making here is this:
************************************************************
Since Integrity CLEARLY CANNOT VERIFY MY AGE using ANY of the numbers asked for, WHY IS SECOND LIFE/INTEGRITY ASKING FOR THEM? We are explicitly warned NOT TO GIVE ANY OF THESE NUMBERS OUT to companies. And under Candian law it is at best highly questionable and at worst ILLEGAL for you to require Canadians to provide ANY of the numbers given as options in the drop-down menu on the age verification page. Expect a flood complaints to various government agencies, and official follow up by provincial and federal governments as a result of this.
************************************************************

It is clearly illegal for you to refuse to provide age-verification services to Candians who refuse to provide ANY of these numbers. You can’t wiggle your way out of that. Canada’s privacy act is quite clear on this issue.

In summary, if you are providing services to Canadians, you are going to have to come up with another way to verify age, or no Canadians will be able to verify.

Blog advertising

Leave a comment

Category: Main

Age Verify or AgeLock?

Writing by Green Guy on Saturday, 8 of December , 2007 at 8:57 am

by Jessica Holyoke

Agelock
Agelock - another path to implausible deniability

As Age Verification continues to throw residents for a loop; some cannot verify, some can verify using false information, parcels marked as mature content are not allowing age verified people in, more and more questions are raised as a competing service, AgeLock, is being offered.

AgeLock is a database linked to a scanner placed on mature land.  It provides a drop down window that asks if you are over 18 and asks for your birth date to enter in a database.  Your birthdate and avatar name are linked and would allow you to access adult content anywhere AgeLock is used.  Conceptually, its just like the adult internet sites that ask if you are 18 or over before allowing you to view the content inside.

In looking for cases of where adults were charged for minors viewing their adult internet content, I found this http://www.birthdateverifier.com/ which is offered by a law firm dedicated to the Adult Internet industry.  It operates much like to AgeLock, with some small differences.  While the firm’s website, www.firstamendment.com, does mention the very real possibility of invoking “think of the children” when federal prosecutors go after obscene materials, no case is cited where a website owner is charged for a minor viewing their material.

Some residents complain about the possibility of data mining by the AgeLock owners.  While avatar name and birthdate alone may not be marketable data points, avatar name and birthdate combined with any information trail you leave on the internet or on Second Life might lead to marketable information.  The AgeLock website does have a privacy policy that states your information will not be mined.

Another downside to AgeLock is that most of the adult internet sites also work with Net Nanny, Cyber Patrol or other filtering software.  In the United States, Ashcroft v. ACLU, 542 U.S. 656 (2004) the Supreme Court overturned the requirement that commercial vendors of harmful to minor material, which is a lower standard than obscene, need to age verify the recipient prior to viewing.  Filters were the main reason for that decision.  While a resident has to chose to click Mature Content in order to Search for it, a child capable of being on SL is capable enough of clicking the box.  Additionally, even if the Mature Content was not clicked to search, it does not prevent arriving on a Mature parcel or accepting a Mature Content land mark.

Linden Labs, unless they merge the Teen and Main Grids, would never have an active filter for the Main Grid.  With the client code being open sourced, perhaps a PG only client that would prevent mature content from being checked and that would prevent an avatar from going onto or scanning into mature parcels would be a beneficial program for the mature content providers in SL. 

There are still many questions about Age Verification and adult content flagging.  If an adult content creator was flagging his land adult and a minor came on after falsifying his information or using her parent’s account, how would Linden Labs or Integrity/Aristotle help them in a legal sense?  There’s been no representations made regarding assistance to a adult content provider that falls into trouble. And wouldn’t Aristotle/Integrity want everyone to Age Verify, not just porn consumers, both from an insurance standpoint, if that’s what they are providing, and from a data collection standpoint?  AgeLock is making no such claims of protection or help beyond what is being offered, but they are also not being as intrusive and demanding as Aristotle/Integrity

Create Instant Buzz

Leave a comment

Category: Main

Updated: PonygirlSara Clapper Calls for Boycott: Linden Age Verification System is a Scam!

Writing by Green Guy on Thursday, 6 of December , 2007 at 8:42 pm

Community leader speaks out against Linden policies

by Urizenus Sklar, equestrian sports desk

Pony41

PonygirlSarah Clapper, a Second Life ponygirl stable owner that was recently featured in an interview in the Herald, has sent out a message calling on her group members to NOT participate in the Linden age verification system. Citing security and privacy issues, she says she will not require age verified accounts and is calling on her group members to reject the system as well.

Following is her missive:

PonygirlSarah Clapper: As LL continues its scam, I am informing all my group members NOT TO VERIFY! I am not going to turn on the age verification program here, because this is a GAME. Also, I am not sure LL or the 3rd party verification system is secure. I already have seen a charge made on the card LL has on file for me, so in no way am I going to require anyone to have a verified adult account. Anyone who does verify, my advice is to keep your statements under close scrutiny. DOWN WITH VERIFICATION. SARAH CLAPPER

Update: PonygirlSarah is calling for a Dec. 11 Boycott of…something…

[15:11] PonygirlSarah Clapper: Boycott Called for DEC 11 - It has been determined that the following actions will take place here, and hopefully across SL on Dec 11 to protest the verification process: 1) no one buys or sells L$ (rent is still due, if your renting a place and tier fees are due) 2) NO ONE VERIFIES THEMSELVES! 3) NO SIM OWNERS FLAG their land unless forced by LL. PASS THIS ON TO ALL GROUPS! the more involved, the harder the hit to LL.

Blog advertising

Leave a comment

Category: Main

The Sky Pirates of Antiquity

Writing by Green Guy on Thursday, 6 of December , 2007 at 11:13 am

by Kris Dibou, warrior poet/pirate


Across the sea in Antiquity
Where steam punk engines churn;
The royal navy set about
The task that we shall learn.

To protect the merchants and their ships
And the casual sailor, too;
They searched the sea of Antiquity
For pirates, mighty who

Attack and burn without a word
Or warning cannon shot;
And vanish soon without a trace
‘Cept burning flotsam, hot.

A trap was set to close a net
On the wiley pirates there;
The decoy sat on water that
The wind avoided, where

In the distance the navy sat
And waited patiently;
Scanning horizon far and wide
For any ship at sea.

The sun beat down and all around
Their patience reached a peak;
And just when anchor would be raised,
No more today to seek

The crafty pirates, all at once
A shadow fell from high;
Above the navy’s tallest ships,
Pirates in the sky!

Cannonballs, from heaven fell
And smashed the ships to hell;
And not a cannon fired back
Lest they sink themselves as well.

In the sky, up above
A mighty Airship steamed;
Down came ropes and ladders soaked
In blood of of innocents, gleamed

As up they raised the ammo saved,
Salvaged from the dead;
Who slowly burned as water churned
Around the wreckage, red

With the blood of those who never chose
A burial out at sea;
Yet down they go as the sea swallows
Antiquity’s navy

A burst of steam, the pirates sing
And dance a jig on high;
While widows cry and cast an eye
To the pirates in the sky.


copyright (c) 2007 - Kris Dibou - used by the gracious permission of the author.

Click here to advertise on thousands of blogs including mine

Leave a comment

Category: Main

In Every Dream Home a Heartache: Simulating the Simulacra

Writing by Green Guy on Monday, 3 of December , 2007 at 11:36 pm

Doll3

I Blew up Your Body, But You Blew My Mind

by Urizenus Sklar - Virtual Vinyl Desk

Today I discovered virtual inflatable dolls. Usually weird things in SL don’t give me pause but this did. I had thought that real inflatable dolls looked the way they did because they are cheap to make and they approximate a human form about as much as something can when you making bodies out of air and vinyl. But apparently I was wrong. In a world where you can build anything you want it appear that some people want to make it with a virtual simulation of a vinyl sex toy.

Below is a brief photo tour of the virtual vinyl doll options in SL. Definitely NSFW!

Doll1

Doll2

Doll4

Click here to advertise on the Worlds largest Blog Advertising Network

Leave a comment

Category: Main

Autor

This it is the text where you will have to describe briefly of which blog goes your and that type of things, you cannot excederte in the height of the text because it is a fixed size so that the gray bar adapts well. It is very important that the text is always square with the blue picture. This it is the text where you will have to describe briefly of which blog goes your and that type of things, you cannot