Dreaming Under The Water...

Porter came to me a few days ago with an idea for an underwater garden/scuba area. Take a look at the pictures below, I think we did well...what you see is a collaborative effort between Porter, our friend Loegan Magic, and myself.

While most of the underwater garden area with places to sit, fish to enjoy, and a sunken ship to explore is close to the swimming dock here... http://slurl.com/secondlife/Benares%20East/142/2/21/?title=Scuba%20Dock

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I did deepen the entire sim enough that one can swim over and watch the mother Orca and baby, don't let them land on you...Look for the dolphin near Sophie and Felicitys! ************************* This parcel has a wonderful view of the above underwater garden...jump off the end of that dock and you will be just at the edge. 2880 meters 656 prims 7000L$ month tier land owner rights. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Benares%20East/189/25/21/?title=Bliss

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Nothing serious today...tomorrow there is something I'd like to chat about, I don't know if it qualifies as serious...today all my perceived problems are what one of my friends calls "quality problems". (You understand how hard it is to find a really good Lincoln Continental mechanic!) =^..^=

And so it goes

My love to you all, brinda

Namaste

नमस्ते

I don't Understand...

Well...more of the things I just don't *get*. A short list: Painting your name...or any name on something that doesn't belong to you...(unless the person that owns the object is paying you)... Breaking windows that you don't own... Flattening tires on anothers vehicle... You get the idea I'm sure. How about the recent server crashes in Inworldz? It's all meat from the same bone. I posted a few pictures recently of one of the brighter people I have the pleasure of knowing in Secondlife and the dominoes she had set up.....{below}*** ****** Yesterday, I logged in a bit earlier than usual, I had received an offline IM day the before...my Swedish friend Bubbles had let me know her summer vacation was over and we often meet early in my West coast time zone.

Looking over the sim, I saw an avatar out on Sophie and Felicitys parcel....camming out I see someone running around. Now I suspect that if you are reading this post you aren't new...and by default you don't "run" in Secondlife.

I teleport out to the land...and this {below} greets me.... Fjorn Arun had been running around knocking over dominoes, just to the upper left you can see him rezzing those dark blue cubes. The dominoes had been left physical so they would fall in a line... I had dominoes all over the place!

OK... first, I tell all my residents to set land to group object entry/create....for what ever reason this land wasn't. That's how he was able to do this...why he did this is the part I don't get.

When I landed I greeted him and asked if he was someone I knew..some one alting. His chat was a script I didn't immediately recognise...(turned out to be Korean) so I sent him home.

Thank you viewer 2.ought oh...he was back before I could get his name typed into estate ban. I did get him out and gone...and a couple minutes later I got an IM wanting to know why I had sent him away. I want to believe that he really didn't understand.

After thinking about it for a day....can't be cultural. My experience with Asian cultures would indicate that western cultures have a long ways to go. Age maybe... the deformed avie is odd, I guess I just don't get it.

People in Secondlife pay real money to own land...just as people in real life pay money to own things.

These are things that, first I don't understand...and second, that I hope that person remains in this world long enough to understand.

And so it goes

My love for you all, brinda

Namaste

नमस्ते

Friends...Some You lose...Some You Always Have

There is always a special place in my heart for those I meet when they're new.

No matter their real life age...it's much like watching children grow up, such a joy.

My dear friend Mucaro has made a major change in her real life and that change has impacted where she calls home here in Secondlife.

Caro was a resident here for over a year...she started in Twinkles rental 1024...moved a bit east to a larger parcel...onto a private islet, and finally to a parcel I've always seen as special...Bliss. The parcel was named Bliss by Andor some time ago and I always thought it was a perfect name.

Today Bliss will be again set for sale....as with all my land, the sale will be for zero L$...tier only.

Perhaps tomorrow or so I may re-image this beautiful parcel using daylight...Today it kinda fits my mood. {It's beautiful at midnight too}

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Good news........and some that's rather sad.

The good news first........

I got an off line IM this morning that my Bubbles has returned home from summer vacation...some of Bubble family lives in the UK and she spends a part of her short summer there. The not so good news.........

Again, those people I meet when they're new have that special place in my heart.

I see a close friend that I met well over a year and a half ago has removed me from her friends list. I'm not surprised...she often removes those that have no contact with her after a bit. I do as well, I will add a nooblet so as to keep track of them early on...and after a bit, once they find their way in Secondlife, if we find nothing in common I remove them as well.

Today I guess my relationship with my old friend is over...rather sad. And so it goes

I love you all, brinda

Namaste

नमस्ते

Notes from SL grid..X=1058 Y=1110...Yup, Benares

OK...let me be one of the first (that I know of) to not debate #Emeraldgate.... it is what it is, and nothing to really concern me. The other wild thing currently going around in the blogsphere is display names, for more information I suggest you look at the Official Secondlife Website {and no, I'm not going to link it...does that give you a clue about how important it is?} I will add this link from AlexHayden Junibalya just because everyone can use a smile. ******* There have been a few changes at home....let's see. In no particular order..... ******* *** Felicity is another of those people that just amaze me...she's not been here very long, but has to be another of the really bright people that Secondlife attracts. ***

I found this scene set up on Sophie and Felicity's parcel..(and no one around)... the prim with text said, "Tempting isn't it?" And of course I just had to kick a domino...............and couldn't stop the inevitable results. I'm standing there contemplating 500 dominoes all toppled over when Felice drops in. After I pleaded temporary insanity she said,"No big deal"...deleted my mess........

rezzed the tool she had made, turned it on, skipped around and around with dominoes falling on end all set up behind her!

***** Where on earth do these people learn all this? Felicitys parcel mate Sophie was here two weeks and built a fantastic house...I've been here three years and my houses look like poorly made boxes with badly fitting lids. ******* **** Krasin is our oldest continuous resident now...it's been a little over two years since she joined us and got a small 1024 parcel....a few months ago she decided to go to a 2048 meter parcel, and then last month when this private islet came open she asked me if she could move to it. Remember the freebie house on the Help Islands...the Archer house ? Krasin had a great time in that place for a very long time. ***** Ling has made changes to the southwest corner... btw, I had to derender her lighthouse to get this shot. Ravens new house behind Lings...more about hers in a later post. ***** Flor has redone the southeast corner as well. You might contact her to ask about a tour of the art library shes done up over this parcel...really well done build. Flors another that came to secondlife with so much talent. She is also the editor of the Palais magazine, you can find a magazine vendor at the Benares telehub. ***** Lastly I've added a few more things to the whimsy corner....this plot is just west of our guest house.

I wanted new people to see a bit of what is possible in Secondlife... much of the objects there are creations of soror Nishi.

****** OK real life calls...after I log in and tell Raven that we can re-rezz her deleted house easily (that's why I always have them write down the XYZ on the house!)...

I am still as fascinated and in love with Secondlife as I was on May 2, 2007

And so it goes

My love to you all, brinda

Namaste

नमस्ते

Looking Back...Thank you Blue Szondi...

I lay awake for a long time last evening thinking about the struggles that Linden Lab goes through in an effort to grow this world of ours. While those struggles are difficult for many of us... I believe the decisions are a lot easier when made from the point of view of a corporation... I begin to see why so few Lindens actually spend anytime in world...it would hurt too badly to be that close and have to actually feel what we feel. I originally took this screen shot from one of the old Help Islands the second week of December 2009. I will include the link to the original post below... but the body of this post is going to be what the Secondlife Mentor (retired) commented. I will always believe that this is how you keep people in Secondlife.

Blue Szondi said... What a lovely post brinda and thank you for the picture, it does sum up how I felt at the time. Lonely and abandoned by a company and philosophy I had worked years for. But in the end its not about you or I or the Mentors or even Linden Lab, but the newbies who are curious enough to download Second Life and log on. We have grown to love this world and want to share all the good that is and can be. So many log in for the first time and don’t see what we see and will quickly log off, uninstall SL and never give it a second look. I once heard there is a 87% attrition rate for SL. That’s barely 1 in 10 who try SL and stick around. In this world I have seen the lame dance, the mute wax poetic and the lowly thrive. SL can change peoples lives. Some for better some for worse but still if they cant understand the basics, how to open a box or pan their camera so they can see the face of their avatar, things we see as simple but so important. If they cant do those things then they will likely leave and never have a chance to know what SL can be. I was helped by a Mentor early on and was thankful. And like so many who became Mentors I wanted to share the exciting things I learned with others. Often the phrase “pay it forward” was used to describe why we mentor, and each day there is someone new who has the desire to share what they have learned as well. Becoming a Mentor wasn’t hard but did require enough enter prospective to string 500 characters together in an application describing why you wanted to be a Second Life Mentor. Now there is no standard to uphold. True anyone can mentor. But a tradition has been abandoned and a trust lost and no matter what new and innovative and “scalable” solutions LL has in mind, I can’t imagine it replacing the SL Mentors and the people who made it great. Blue S. December 12, 2009 1:00 PM http://brinda-benares.blogspot.com/2009/12/sadness-personified.html

****Thank you, Blue for all you did and continue to do****

And so it goes

I love you all, brinda

Namaste

नमस्ते

Thanks to soror for the title idea...LL you broke it... you fix it

There is something going on at Linden Lab that just baffles me. Actually much of the decision making at Linden Lab reminds me of a former significant other of mine from some years ago. It would appear as though the Lab in general suffers from severe adult ADHD . The latest fiasco was announced today on the Secondlife forums. I say fiasco because the Lab took a system that was working...the original help Islands... and destroyed it some months ago. They spent a lot of time and money on the latest "new and shiny" and produced something that I can't imagine anyone with any experience in-world would believe acceptable. The Help Islands were a place where new residents could learn the very basics of Secondlife without interference...a safe place. All that's left are the current "Welcome Islands"... they did one thing appropriate in my opinion, and that was to stop the gateways. The downside to that though is the gateways did have people there helping nooblets...more below. ******* After eight or nine months of the "community gateway" new user experience...that experiment is abandoned, as of today. Now personally I'm glad to see the gateways go ... they were a transparent attempt to steer new residents to selected venues of commercial use as well as steer them into various role play situations. The only part of that program I did find really great was that so many of those gateways were language specific...that's so important... in a very strange world, at least you will find yourself able to communicate. On the down side were those sites such as Fairies, Steampunk, and such.... while those are fine... let's allow nooblets to find those niches on their own...don't drop them into a lifestyle where the nooblet may not understand that all of Secondlife isn't that lifestyle. I found this comment on the SL website...while it's funny...at least to those who aren't brand new, if I look at it from my perspective of early May 2007.... not so funny. *************************************** Aug 19, 2010 2:28 PM Marx Dudek says: "A perfect example of how this will work. " http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpiwRN6OA2A ******** In case you came here before 2010, this is what the "welcome islands" look like today. You first rezz inside the "spaceship" looking affair. If you, as a nooblet loaded the 2.ought oh viewer... ('cause while 1.23.5 is available...it's 'below the fold' so you don't readily see it), you will finally see a way out of this place.

Load any other viewer and you won't see the link to leave. Seems like a door would be easy. Theres 'no build', no way to learn how to open boxes, so you get to wear your first box at a public welcome area........great fodder for older residents to get a chance to "welcome" you.

If you're curious about how this looks to a nooblet, enter Welcome Island Public on your map in-world....teleport. You will land outside the "spaceship" and have to click the little sign above to get teleported inside. No doors.

There were over two pages of welcome islands... as you can see with sixty plus "spaceships", you're chances of finding anyone to get any help from is limited to say the least.

******* Now I suspect most of you that read this blog entered Secondlife through one of the below 'Help Islands'. About the only change in the Help Islands since late 2006 was the elimination of a freebie building...I think it was about 2009 when the freebies were placed on sign boards at the far side of the image below.

The great thing about these islands was that access was controlled... if you rezzed a new account and left it there you could help brand new people. Or if you were a Secondlife Mentor you could come and go... all others were prohibited. You, as a new account, could make mistakes...learn how to get around...learn with everyone else without the teasing and griefing that goes on today at various welcome areas and info hubs. We can hope "The Benevolent Monarchy" will return to these islands.... but in my three years plus here they have shown a lack of willingness to admit any mistakes.

Time... and the Gift of Sight...

This is preface to how fast time flies at this point in my life..... And about the gift of sight.... I find it so funny that when I was *almost* twenty one {1962, but who's counting!} that year was sooo long. Please take a moment...particulary those of you say, over fifty... and think about this. If you live in a country that celebrates the winter holiday season, think about how long it took from January of any year when you were a child until the next holiday season. When I was a child that amount of time was inconceivable . I chose the arbitrary age of fifty plus above, because no matter what you believe now...if you aren't a "senior citizen" type, you will not be able to truly understand that youth is wasted on the young. It's like being born blind...there is no way one can understand the color green if you've never been sighted. I have found myself very real life busy these last few days and this morning before I had to go out again I took time to look at Twitter, E-mail, blogs, and log in world for a few to make sure Benares was still on the grid and nothing was "on fire". One thing I noticed was that I hadn't posted anything here in a couple days... and I really don't like to go three plus days. I know there are a couple of former residents of Benares that, while they aren't currently in world...they still feel "a part of " our Benares family and use this blog to kinda keep a virtual eye on the family they are a part of. I love how things seem to work out well if I don't get too involved. I say that because this morning, as I was driving around, I was wondering what I wanted to say here.... Returning a few hours ago I read this from AlexHayden Junibalya and the answer for a topic was obvious. Bye the time 1958 came along, I know now that I was a Buddhist... I didn't know the label then, but today in retrospect I realize that Buddhism fit my spiritual path to come. My daughter was born in 1970 and in August of 1973 it became obvious to me that while not celebrating the religious winter holidays suited me just fine, the lack of a Christmas tree and all those trappings would be a burden on my child that I couldn't justify.......so come December... we had to have a tree. Kindra had asked all early December if she would get a tree and if Santa would come. We put that tree up on Christmas eve after our child went to bed....and on December 25th Kindra woke up, came flying into the living room, slid to a stop on her knees about one meter from a beautiful tree surrounded by presents. I sat down beside her just looking at her face...she was totally transfixed by that tree....I saw Christmas through the eyes of a child for the first time............I was nearly thirty one. Thank you Alex for reminding me of that. Somewhere back in time there was a song lyric that went, "Just because you can see the stars doesn't mean you can see the light". So often today, we are all so convinced that we have the only true answer...to anything. Sometimes the true meaning of what is really important can be seen in the face of a child watching the sky...or a tree at Christmas And so it goes Gently My love to all...even the blind of heart, brinda Namaste नमस्ते

Courage...and care for others...

Many Thanks to Paisley Beebe for this link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc4HGQHgeFE&sns=tw It's so darned easy for me to forget just how great my life has been. First this year was my two weeks in Northeast India..... and now to watch this young man spend his time motivating young people. And so it goes I love you all, brinda Namaste नमस्ते Courage

Dreaming....What if....

I woke up in the early hours hours of this morning thinking about Secondlife... a not unusual thing for me. Secondlife has changed a lot since I came here over three years ago... I was one of those that came in those halcyon days of early 2007 when people were coming at a rate now seen as both unbelievable and as it turned out, unsustainable.

I had been rereading Wagner James Au's "The Making of Secondlife" , and from the benefit of three years experience, the book now gives me a much better view of where we are today in Secondlife. {btw, of all the google links to this book I tried to chose the least commercial and the most definitive}

Daily concurrency rates in early 2007 were in the very low twenty thousand range... and if memory serves me well, by the end of that year those numbers were nearly forty thousand on a busy day. A year and some later, those numbers reached the high seventys and ended over eighty thousand.

I have been as guilty as any of talking about my perception of how Secondlife might be failing. If history is prologue, things will change. But the doom I perceive is just that...my perception. The fact is, my past perceptions are a history of me rarely ever knowing what is really happening. Secondlife does need change... reading Au's book, it will change, and I believe we will change as well. Those days that Pituca Fairchang described are gone...(and thankfully the avatars that went with them) =^..^= Yes, I wish I had been there then... but if I practise my life philosophy properly, I need to Be Here Now.

****************************************************************** ******************************** Remember When? ************************ When I work with new people today, I see many with the same wideyed sense of the magic that captured so many of us that have remained.

As a realist, I know what I'm going to say will not happen...but what if. What if those that take a perverse sense of power by teasing new people didn't do that? You want to help stop that? Call the people that do that on the behavior...it's called peer pressure. What if those that ignore new people didn't do that... that they just texted a "Hi :-)" What if we all remembered how we felt when we were new? What if we all tried to actively help just one new person a week? It could happen... I will still dream... And so it goes My love to you all, brinda Namaste

नमस्ते

Bits and Pieces...Stuff

Just a few random gleanings from the blogosphere I peek into. In no other order than that chaotic place my mental me lives in: I saw this post from AlexHayden Junibalya, it's a great machinama look ...and yes, next you will see where it came from, but this is where I saw it first. {Don't yell at me, we aren't married!) =^..^= New World Notes...Hamlet had the post first. ****** I think I'll have to go look at Soror's dragons.... I'll likely end up with one for the whimsy area... I'm just hoping the prim count won't make me yell too loud! Take a look at these...too cool. ****** Not in the blogosphere.... Gabby came to chat with Victoria, Fenna, and myself today.... It's so cool for new people to see that people in Secondlife can have relationships that go back for years.... that Secondlife isn't just a temporary 'flash in the pan'. You can always see the interest from new people when old friends start chatting about "remember when". ****** I know I'm avoiding logging in just now....I've seen an off line IM that there's trouble in paradise.... You know....It seems that no matter how often I try to counsel newish people about Secondlife relationships... Hormones, I don't know...something allows people to disbelieve those of us midbies/oldbies that, most often, Secondlife love affairs don't end well. OK first a bite to eat. And so it goes I love you all, brinda Namaste नमस्ते

Pagans & Whimsy...

I had to put a part of my other "real life" on hold today for an extra hour after I saw this tweet!

The Born Again Pagans from Amsterdam were doing a gig in Secondlife and I admit to being totally in love with their sound... I've posted recently about first hearing them at soror Nishis tier party. They are such an eclectic group... no head banging, can't think music.... music that lets your mind just want to follow and yet you can have a chat too.

I've offered to host the October edition of the SL Bloggers party... no details just yet. If I get my way I want hexx Triskaidekaphobia and Madame Amoufhaz to provide the sounds.

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Images below... credits for the first two images courtesy of Lori Faerye:

I think their gig at Rastafairy Beach is a weekly thing...I'll be sure and let you all know.

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I've decided to do a "whimsy" corner up on the mesa... I read something from soror Nishi about how foolish it might be to just try to see art as only in terms of "art" as we know it in "real life" museums when we have the chance to create wonderful things here in Secondlife.

Not all you see below is from soror, but most is, and I've already had compliments on these creations.

Remember the very first "RULE" in Secondlife....have fun!

And so it goes

I love you all, brinda

Namaste

नमस्ते

Gods Own Drunk...

Just for fun, and in case you were too lazy to look for the lyrics =^..^= My daughter was about four when Jimmy Buffet recorded this in 1974 and she can still recite the entire lyrics God's Own Drunk By: Lord Buckley, Died November 12, 1960 New York City "Well, like I explained to y'all before I ain't no drinkin' man. I tried it once, and it got me highly irregular and I swore I'd never do it again. But I promised my brother-in-law that I'd go up and watch his still while he went into town to vote. It was up there on the mountain where the map said it would be. Friends let me tell you one thing though, it wadn't no ordinary still. It stood up that mountainside like... like a huge golden opal. God's yellar moon was a' shinin' on the cool clear evenin', God's little lanterns just a' twinklin' on and off in the heavens and, like I explained to you once before, I ain't no drinkin' man, But, temptation got the best of me, and I took a slash... (wshew!... woah...) That yellar whiskey runnin' down my throat like honeydew vine water, and I took another slash. Took another and another and another. 'fore you knew it I'd downed one whole jug o' that s--- and commenced to get hot flashes. Goosepimples was runnin' up and down my body and a feelin' came over me like, somethin' I'd never experienced before, It's like, like I was in love, ( "why don't we have a little love Mike [Utley]" ) In love for the first time, with anything that moved... animate, in-animate it didn't matter. It's like there's a great neon sign flashin' on and off in my brain sayin, "Jimmy Buffett there' a great day a comin'..." 'Cause I was drunk. Now I wadn't, uh, knee-crawlin', slip-slidin', reggy-youngin', commode-huggin' drunk, I was God's own drunk, and a fearless man; And that's when I first saw the bear. He was a Kodiak lookin' fella 'bout 19 feet tall he rambled up over the hill 'spectin' me to do one of two things: flip or fly, I didn't do either one. It hung him up. He starts sniffin' 'round my body tryin' to smell fear, but he ain't gonna smell no fear, 'cause I'm God's own drunk and a fearless man. It hung him up. He looked me right in my eyes and my eyes was a lot redder than his was. It hung him up. So I approached him and I said, "Mr. Bear, I love every hair on your 27 acre body. I know you got a lotta friends over there on the other side of the hill. There's ole' Rear Bear, Tall Bear, Freddy Bear, Kelly Jair, Relly Bear, Smelly the Bear, Smokey the Bear, Pokey the Bear; I want you to go back over there tonight and tell 'em I'm feelin' right. You tell 'em I love each and every one of 'em like a brother and a sister; but if they give me any trouble tonight, I'm gonna run every Goddamned one of 'em off the hill." He took two steps backwards and didn't know what to think. Neither did I, but, being charitable and cautious, well hell, I approached him again. I said, "Mr. Bear, you know in the eyes of the Lord, we're both beasts when it comes right down to it. So I want you to be my buddy, 'Buddy Bear.'" So I took ole' Buddy Bear by his island sized paw and I led him over to the still. Now he's a' sniffin' around that thing 'cause he's smellin' somethin' good. I gave him one of them jugs of honeydew vine water, he downed it upright, (looked like one of them damn bears in the circus sippin' sasparilly in the moonlight.) I gave him another and another and another 'fore I knew it, he'd downed eight of 'em and commenced to do the "bear dance." Two sniffs, a snort, a fly, a turn and a grunt; and it was so simple like the jitterbug it plumb evaded me. And we worked ourselves into a tumultuous uproar and I's awful tired, went over to the hillside, and I laid down, went to sleep, slept for four hours, and dreamt me some tremulous dreams And when I woke up, Oh, there was God's yellar moon a' shinin' on the clear cool evenin'. And God's little lanterns just a' twinklin' on and off in the heavens, And my buddy the bear was a' missin'... yeah, you want to know somethin' else friends and neighbors....... so was that still. And so it goes I hope this made you smile today My love always, brinda Namaste नमस्ते

For many of us Secondlife is a real existence, as real as our existence in our "real life". I know it has been that way for me since my second log in..(my first was on dial up so I didn't realise how dorky I looked.) I wonder how many of us ran around talking to our friends about this wonderful thing we had found in Secondlife only to see blank stares. I think that out of all the people I've ever chatted with about Secondlife only perhaps four created an account, one came once...the longest any of the remaining three came was a week. {Btw...I was given that avatar and Sunni still exists} =^..^= I suspect I'm not alone in this either..I rarely ever mention Secondlife to anyone today. Perhaps a good example....My television got very tired in this last month...plasma took forever to warm up enough to focus so yesterday I ventured out to Best Buy to purchase another. Now keep in mind that I don't cooperate well with giving out information at any store... I see little need to give them information to archive or sell. So when the sales clerk started asking me for info...phone,address, ect... I start telling them I'm homeless, and that always goes over big when you hand them a credit card. This clerk was very young, a really nice young woman and found it so funny when we got to talking about sales info. I explained that if one were to google my real life name.....nothing, but if you google brinda Allen it goes to like seven or eight pages, and then came, "Who is that?". Now keep in mind we are at a store that's heavy in Internet stuff, OK? The kid had never heard of Secondlife and neither had her coworker. Today in the blogs I see the answer to both the why Secondlife's growth has nearly halted...as well as the why social media has exploded. In reverse order... I have looked at Facebook, and My Space, and Farmville, and...and... You can log in spend four hours...or four minutes, and get an emotional "payback". Someone said Hi...or posted a picture...or you said hi or posted a picture. Now Secondlife.... In a post today from Gwyneth Llewelyn I think I saw exactly what it takes to stay in Secondlife and why making Secondlife "fast easy fun" for the nooblets isn't, "Secondlife". This quote is from the last sentences of her post, "However, the more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that we’re really seeing things from the wrong perspective. Second Life is not about happy newbies. It’s about high-quality immersion. And that has very low appeal to the vast majority of people out there." Please read the rest of what she has to say, I think it's time well spent if you have ever idly wondered why people will just look at you funny if you try to describe Secondlife. Trying to describe Secondlife kinda reminds me of a line from a Jimmy Buffet song so many years ago, "It was like the jitterbug...so simple it plumb evaded me." Maybe file this post under fast easy fun... at least those song lyrics from Lord Buckely {link to lyrics for "Gods Own Drunk" above} so many years ago should give you a smile. And so it goes My love to you all, brinda

Admitting a Mistake is the adult thing to do...

Before I repost a comment I made earlier today perhaps take a look at these links and tell me if you think this is the kind of guy you would want to have working for you. Qarl Linden http://www.qarl.com/menu/resume/ An employee that creates stuff like this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh-SJpg0FqY An employee that gets a quarterly performance report like this... (Thanks to Tateru Nino for this link) http://dwellonit.taterunino.net/2010/08/05/qarl-linden-laid-off/ I first saw a link to this from soror Nishis blog first thing this morning, Qarl Linden was summarily fired. Wagner James Au in his blog New World Notes, has a lot of links as well as comments posted... including mine. {Sheesh...that's a lot of html isn't it?} Here is my comment today on the New World Notes blog: RE: Qarl Linden Phillip Rosedale we have never met and most likely never will in this incarnation. I hope at some level you can possibly ever begin to understand what you have done for me. I am of a generation that predates broadcast television, I was born in 1942. I purchased my first PC in February 2007 and around the end of April that year I saw and ad for something called Secondlife. I logged in on dialup, couldn't even move...but I saw enough that the next day I ordered broadband and three plus years later I'm still here, paying substancial tier. I joined Secondlife unable to even copy/paste... my IT mentor has been an avatar from Bangladesh and we met in Secondlife. Because of your dream Secondlife, my life has been totally changed, I am now of this generation and I will be forever grateful. I say all that as prologue to this.... It totally baffles so many of us, your customers, that people with such incredible talent are not allowed to "slip away"... they are driven away. Your company asks me to take a survey and I gladly comply... the same comapny asks me for an email address for future surveys, I gladly comply. The next day that same company sends me a survey via email... I open it, and I'm told, "You have already taken this survey". You allow someone to keep a job like that, a job that I could do for minimum wage, and let talent with a resume like Mr. Stiefvater get away? I don't mean to imply any malfeasance did or did not happen...but there are only a few immediate things that should/could have precipitated this move. In no particular order: Theft... Incompetance by his superior... Drug use... Drug use by his superior... Or no ones in charge... You brought me new hope a few weeks ago... Please keep that hope alive. The mark of an adult is to be able to say, "I made a mistake". And so it goes I love you all, brinda Namaste नमस्ते

The Inevitabilty of Change...

**************************************************************************** As per the title, change is inevitable.... Just as we are no longer 65 cm tall and 14 kilos, we are not what what we will end up being... and neither is Secondlife or Benares. I admit to strong feelings concerning where Secondlife is heading, many of us do. And yet if I read posts from Lalo Tellings recent studies of Secondlife history... or the interesting stories of Pituca Fairchang, the direction Secondlife is heading is unclear... I'm sure of one thing though, no one knows. Yes, I have looked into a place for myself and my residents to go if we/they choose... but it's not time yet. I see the inevitability of change in myself, I don't do the same things I did three years ago. Benares has changed... and will change again. The basic plan for the estate will remain and my basic goals will remain, but residents come and go. The residents that are there now will change in how they live their Secondlife. ****** I saw Felicity out East last evening... Ling and I went out to see how she's doing. Felicity has spent the last couple of months in Japan. We were glad to see her... maybe I can talk her into rebuilding a house out there. that parcel looks so empty. ****** Lita IMed me from the East coast USA a day or so ago... She's been on vacation for about a week and a half now. I had to laugh when she told me she was going to kiss Mickey Mouse (Disney World, Orlando). I've missed her...it's been a little odd not to see a note from her everyday giving me stat reports on tier boxes at Benares. If anyone ever would like a little help/advice on how to furnish and landscape a place with a minimum of prims my Lita from Lima is the person to ask... just take a look at the beautiful, fantastic job she's done on her place sometime. (a 196 prim parcel that has prims left over!) ****** I've had a hard time getting much done in either life this past week. I spent a nice few hours yesterday with Victoria and Fenna, my two newest friends. I took them to both Steller Sunshines beanstalk as well as Fairchang for a little history lesson here. I think it's beneficial for nooblets to see where Secondlife has come from in order to perhaps see a direction they might wish to head...or at least to see some of the possibilities. ****** I stopped in long enough to get SLurl info for this post as well as to set a couple more objects at the "whimsy" corner. Saw my friends Victoria and Fenna...chatted for a bit, took them to Ferd Frederix place for exploration...and back now to publish this post. I do need to get outside and DO something today =^..^= Perhaps a drive to Los Angeles this evening would be fun...for those of you that don't know the city...LA downtown about 3:30 AM on a weeknight is a very interesting place. (I used to be part of the "entertainment") OK...let me finish the links and publish. And so it goes My love to you all, brinda Namaste नमस्ते

Just Thinking Today...

I guess this may well have been as long as I've gone between posts since I started this blog just three weeks short of one year ago. I hadn't realized it was coming up on the anniversary until I just went back and checked the date. ****** This past week has been an emotional one for me... A few things happening real life, a lot more going on here in Secondlife. Let's see... I've spent a considerable amount of L$ to advertise on Paisley Beebes Treet TV. Any operation / business / whatever, either has to grow or die. Benares isn't ready to die just yet. ***** During a chat last eve with a personal friend I was saddened to see that another person I thought was a good friend to my friend had cut them from contacts. Yes..I realize that a contact list can get a little long, and often I add nooblets to contacts for a few weeks or so and if they have taken their Secondlife in a direction away from me I do remove them.... On the other hand Katina has been on my friends list for three years now, and we might just IM a "meow" about 3 times a year. For me, keeping good friends here is something important and isn't determined by frequency of contact. ****** I'm again blessed with a couple of new women in my life here. One from the west coast {SLT} and the other from the Netherlands. Mentoring new people is what both makes me happy as well as passes along to new people what was freely given to me. ****** My dear friend Kattie has just about finished moving in real life and says she will be able to spend more time in Secondlife now... Kattie and I have a long history here. She is such a gift... true friends are priceless. **************************** Katties corner ***************************

I went to see some of soror's work a couple days ago... and found just the place for one of her creations, I just had to have it =^..^= I'm going to make this corner a place of whimsy. *** soror Nishi's creations are still available in Secondlife ***

Wandering around the sims this morning I took a couple of images... I'm always so amazed to see the beauty created here.**************** Both views from Benares West ***************** ****** Reading over this...there's a lot of rambling...and there's still several things left to say. Good! Now I'll have no excuse for not posting tomorrow or so.

And so it goes

My love to you all, brinda

Namaste

नमस्ते