Mixed (pick 'n' mix) feelings at solstice

Solstice – in Latin “solstitium” = “sol” (sun) + “statum” (stay motionless)
Welsh word for the solstice is “point of roughness”.
Talmud calls it as “Tefukat Tevet”, i.e. the first day of “striping time”.

Longtime I have not anything written, but as onetime I am sitting on the roof in Bohemia, the hard feelings is pouring on me from the last days. It is due to this season shortly after the solstice, or coming of the Christmas. I do not know.

Time goes so fast that one does not suffice to remember all occurrences from our world and also them from the other world. Maybe only several snapshots that show it. It is this roof, party by Nancy and a resurrection of the disappeared Slovakia at the party of its long-time friends.

Let us stay in coming time, same way as our Sun did it.

Let me allow quote Alan Furst about the solstice:

“…day, when supposedly the sun does a break… Pleasant idea… As if the universe stopped for a moment to think about something and to take a day off. One directly feels how time slows.”

Marry Christmas a Happy New Year 2011

Coral

SL Newser - Events

SL Newser - Events: "– Odesláno pomocí lišty Google Toolbar"

World AIDS Day 2010

Today is December 1 and many of us in a big hurry and a Christmas rush, by cleaning fresh snow or by carefully driving on the frozen roads, have forgotten that today is the World day of the fight against on of the most terrible illness in the world – AIDS. When I in year 2008 wrote in the context of Second Life world about this day (here), some both sad and terrible statistics had been missed there. So, here are the facts about HIV and AIDS.

• To date around 65 million people have been infected with HIV and AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognized in 1981.
  
• The vast majority of the 38.6 million people living with HIV in 2005 are unaware of their status.
  
• In 2005 AIDS claimed the lives of 2.8 million people and over 4 million people were newly infected with the virus.
  
• At around 17.3 million, women make up almost half of the total number of people living with the virus.
  
• Sub-Saharan remains the most affected region in the world. Two-thirds of all people living with HIV, 24.5 million, are in sub-Saharan Africa.
  
• Declines in HIV prevalence have been noted in some countries, including Kenya, Zimbabwe, urban parts of Haiti and Burkina Faso and four Indian states including Tamil Nadu.
  
• There are more new HIV infections every year than AIDS-related deaths and as more people become infected with HIV, more people will die of AIDS-related illnesses.
  
• Worldwide, fewer than one person in five at risk of becoming infected with HIV has access to basic prevention services. Only one person in eight who want to be tested is currently able to do so.
  
• Each day, 1500 children worldwide become infected with HIV, the vast majority of them newborns.

What will you do for this thing? I have donated into above mentioned fund in RL and in SL I wear the symbol of the fight against AIDS – red ribbon.

Sources: Care, Keep A Child Alive, USA Today, World AIDS Day 2010

Time

Jacques Prévert

transl.: Johnny Mercer

Autumn Leaves
(Les feuilles mortes)

Oh, je voudrais tant que tu te souviennes Des jours heureux où nous étions amis En ce temps là la vie était plus belle Et le soleil plus brûlant qu'aujourd'hui Les feuilles mortes se ramassent à la pelle Tu vois je n'ai pas oublié Les feuilles mortes se ramassent à la pelle Les souvenirs et les regrets aussi Et le vent du nord les emporte Dans la nuit froide de l'oublie Tu vois je n'ai pas oublié La chanson que tu me chantais C'est une chanson, qui nous ressemble Toi tu m'aimais et je t'aimais Nous vivions tous les deux ensemble Toi qui m'aimais, moi qui t'aimais |: Mais la vie sépare ceux qui s'aiment Tout doucement sans faire de bruit Et la mer efface sur le sable Les pas des amants désunis :| Les pas des amants désunis

Autumn leaves fall and are swept out of sight The words that you said have gone too Autumn leaves fall and are swept out of sight So are the memories of love that we knew The wind of forgetfulness blows then Into the night of regret, The song you would often sing Is echoing, echoing yet The falling leaves drift by the window The autumn leaves of red and gold I see your lips, the summer kisses The sun-burned hands I used to hold Since you went away, the days grow long And soon, I'll hear old winter's song But I'll miss you most of all, my darling, When autumn leaves start to fall When autumn leaves start to fall

The scenery is going so fast behind the windows. On scene is switching over another one. It is like slow movie, when the frame by the frame of the film strip passes the light source and it is grabbed by the optics, i.e. by the system of the magic lens, to show the two-dimensional picture to the impatient viewers.

However, it is only an illusion. Only bit to draw mist away and to look through a time mirror. An eyewink, the reality is back again. The car is driving through the hairpins and is coming near to a village. It is long time that I was here. The memories are coming up from my memory.

We are on the place. The car has driven through the village and then into the forest. Only for me as if time has stopped. Actually no in the literal sense, because time still passes. It is never-ending story. So, we, PEOPLE, invented it!

In vain I am seeking some words. After all it is useless, though! It suffices only to listen. Yes, it is that space banked by the trees, in whose treetops wind is spinning. I want only to wait. I want only to embrace everything around me. I want only to forget.

The dead leafs cover the graves of the dead. Autumn has come.

(P. S. I wrote this contribution after our visit of the small forest graveyard, where my beloved great-grandmother rest in peace.)

3 Amazing Second Life Sims You’ve *Never* Heard Of | The Alphaville Herald

3 Amazing Second Life Sims You’ve *Never* Heard Of | The Alphaville Herald

One Man’s Story: The Second Life Economy

One Man’s Story: The Second Life Economy: "Selling virtual drugs, guns, clothes, and wheels while camping for L$s
by Frankie Antonioni.
Since early 2008 I have been in business in Second Life, and by March of 2008 I had two stores running. In August of 2008, I had about 19,000 L$. Both of my stores sold drugs and other goods: clothes, cars, guns, motorcycles, [...]"

To rule the world?

Oh such a tempting offer! But it is old one as humanity alone. Nevertheless, the big and small men and women don't resist it with unflagging desire. So to have this power to control, to create, to destroy or even to kill. So only when these letters spring from the keyboard of my PC and they appear on my PC screen, so it makes a horrible silent thing.

The world of Second Life seems to be created for these abilities. Where can you find such possibilities? Where elsewhere can you find such a freedom of language, being and creation? Where elsewhere can you find so hate and so envy?

Yes, I would like to rule this world. But it is not like so. It is a responsibility. It is a humility. It is a love.

So, let us it for the next time.

Burning Life 2010

So, after one year it is coming again. The Burning Life will open its gates and as you certainly know, this time it is already not in Linden's direction, but Burn2. And as a small taste, sooner before it will break up on 16^th October, look the machinima by ColeMarie Soleil.

SLurl: Playa

The Rocks

„The sorrow is only loss of time.“

Wind juggled with the branches of the palms. The sunny beach was empty. Only stormy sea broke its water against the huge arc of the rock. He stayed there struck dumb, when he had seen this beauty. Whether the sun was high in the sky or the moon with its stars. In all things, everything reflected in water of the large bay themselves.

He stayed there so alone, as if he had not had any troubles. As if he had not felt this soft wind from the sea. As if he had not felt this burning of the sun rays. As if he had not felt the cold of the night. This cold between an hour of dog and wolf.

His sorrow was endless. The endless one in its depth and width consumed his soul and reason. He was fearful that. He was scared. His face was contorted. The loss was big. He did not feel this world even another one. He still came back to it. However, hopelessly.

An then, a distant singing was heard from the see. The luscious Sirens lured this man into their webs. But, he resisted. He did to hold out, even in spite of it that his grief was big. Nobody knows, how it happened. Nobody was there. Only bluish see waves attacked the rock and the snow-white beach

Time has remained.

Second Life Newser: Reaction at Rockcliffe College to Linden Lab's New Policy

Second Life Newser: Reaction at Rockcliffe College to Linden Lab's New Policy

Autumn Ball

“One says that dance is the only social activity, when you can without any risk to come near to a partner, her or him, within the shortest possible distance, as it is just possible.”

As I have already written last time, summer was ended, but the season of the balls has begun. It was the same as on last Friday. An arbour near the place in Bohemia has welcome several visitors. Even if they have arrived in some small amount, in spite of them, party was nice. The beautiful evening dresses of the present ladies have glared their partners and we, men, have marveled at their beauty under the light of thousand stars. And maybe in the early morning, tired from the long dance in the red light of sunrise, our pace has led to our homes, where we have fallen into the all-hugging armful of our beds.

Summer

Summer with the biggest probability has already ended, at least here in the north hemisphere. Even if so called “beldam summer or St. Martin's summer or St. Luke's summer” has come, nevertheless the long and slow rains and cold had come. It is this one what is getting behind your nails, just autumn and its sleet. In spite of that, our so called “frog ladies” promise us more “beldam summer”. Maybe.

Footnote 1: “Frog ladies” is some familiar name of the nice ladies that make the weather forecast on TV. It is linked with some species of frog – tree frog, in Latin Hyla arborea. Historically, it is famous as some barometer, because it reacts to the change of pressure, which varies usually before rain. This frog begins croaks after that.

Footnote 2: “Beldam summer or St. Martin's summer or St. Luke's summer” (or ecological year period called as late summer) is name of long-term dry, sunny, warm and not so much windy weather at the end of summer or at the beginning of autumn. This phenomenon arises at the European continent. During this period, one can often observe free floating webs of the small spiders. In past, these webs suggested gray “beldam” hairs to people. The name of this period originate from thence.

Unlike our world, the weather plays no role in Second Life. The weather is given by the builders of the given sim. In our power there is only to change daytime, respectively to change the sky and water as possible as can be do it to our own idea.

It is only about it to find a suitable sim, where some party takes place, for example by the pool. An then to sink into cool water, take a beautiful woman in the arms and only to have a rest and to enjoy. Other people are coming and leaving, party is in full swing and a pleasure music is playing.

Sun is overcoming the highest point of its orbit and the it is slowly bending down to sunset. Soft see wind is bringing a relief after the hot day. Gradually all people are disappearing. Only I am staying and listening the singing of wind and far see. Sun is drawing to the end of its daily orbit and it is undergoing subsidence into the see as a great light cataclysm.

Summer never ends.

The Ravine

This one, who for the whole own life is being strong brave and strong persistent to look in the darkness, then that one will see as the first a flash of the light.

Dmitry Glukhovsky: Metro 2033

We are attended by the darkness sooner than we are born into this world. We are attended by the darkness every day, when we sink into to the Morpheus's arms to become anyone we want to be in our dreams. The darkness is present in each of us, because we are maybe afraid of us ourselves, all others around us or all things around us.

The darkness is in hiding in all the corners, it rises from the deep abysses of the Earth, it fills the deep valleys and the ravines. The darkness attracts all material one even an immaterial one, the mass and the light. It suffices only to cross yours event horizon and you are irretrievably lost.

And why now at the beginning do I so philosophize, such a fatalistic one? Just at once I has come to me by my remembrance about such event in Second Life. One club was reopened again at one sim of our community. This club has got a strange industrial face, some mixture of the dark and the light. It has burned from the whole space, as if the walls, the floor and even the ceiling have breathed by the own life themselves. For all that, it was not something like the house of Usher in the old tale by Edgar Allan Poe.

First of all, there were people and music that have filled this space, Also there was a lot of beer there. Maybe even “femmes fatales” or men succumbing to their temptation. Maybe only the flashes of the dawn will slash the darkness and we will from now on live in light.

The club “Rockle” has revived again.
SLurl: Rockle