New World Notes: NWN Poll: Who is Your Very Favorite Second Life Musician?

New World Notes: NWN Poll: Who is Your Very Favorite Second Life Musician?

New World Notes: Sander's Villa: The Man Who Gave His Father a Second Life

New World Notes: Sander's Villa: The Man Who Gave His Father a Second Life

I really recommend this museum. It is wonderful.

Rennete

To find an inspiration or my muse is not quite simple. It is more difficult, when you have to write or to talk about it, just only to show, who you are yourself. The ideas chaotically flow here and there. Some sleeplessness has been troubling you during the dreamless nights. And then?! This Moon with its majestic magnificence as a full moon pushes you down!

Early morning this huge circle is still shining. However, over its face the wide bands of the black clouds are coming along. Maybe my muse comes and suggests me, whether I can hope for an accomplishment of the most fervid wishes.

It has happened. Her face is still blurry, but I can identify her. We have never met each other. She is coming near and my heart beat is coming behind its limits. Maybe only few small steps to …

Both worlds have merged into one. There was a cruel awakening of treacherous Moon. What I just did you? It is useless to be irritated; the world of dreams and visions is like the virtual one, which reflects the real one.

---

She was the most beautiful woman of France. Her family and friends called her Rennette. However, she was called Jeanne Antoinette Poisson and later as married – Madame d'Étiolles. The French King loved her implicitly and introduced her to the court in Versailles, in spite of a big protest of the court and family. She was the cleverest woman of France and she governed King and France in a certain sense, even if they had called her as a bitch.

She died at the age of 42 in Versailles. When her coffin left Versailles, King said: “La marquise n'aura pas beau temps pour son voyage.“ (“The marquise won't have good weather for her journey.“) Only her Élysée Palace has remained. Toady, it serves as the residence of the French presidents.

She was called Marquise de Pompadour.

(Source: Wikipedia.org)

SLurls: Arc de Triomphe, Alma Bridge

Valentine

Late evening, on the first of May—
The twilit May—the time of love.
Meltingly called the turtle-dove,
Where rich and sweet pinewoods lay.
Whispered of love the mosses frail,
The flowering tree as sweetly lied,
The rose's fragrant sigh replied
To love-songs of the nightingale.
In shadowy woods the burnished lake
Darkly complained a secret pain,
By circling shores embraced again;
And heaven's clear sun leaned down to take
A road astray in azure deeps,
Like burning tears the lover weeps.

(Karel Hynek Mácha: May)

February is now only and these verses about love would look like not to fit to the current time. But it is not so like one could imagine for the first look. I am not in no way some favorer of the coming holiday, St. Valentine, because it has no absolutely anything to do with history and culture of my country.

Traditionally, just May is connected with love. Nevertheless, I have not resisted and I have strayed in SL at a ball in our community yesterday. This one was just Valentine’s ball. There were several people in the romantic arbour in Bohemia. So, I have call one lady to dance. Evening has run in nice atmosphere, so no one has wanted to leave.

What was there? So I offer some pictures for an inspiration, even if two last ones are from other time and other place.


The whole poem is here.

A Secret Garden in Second Life | The Alphaville Herald

A Secret Garden in Second Life | The Alphaville Herald

Wealth

"Gold is the money of kings; silver is the money of gentlemen; barter is the money of peasants; but debt is the money of slaves."

(Norm Franz: Money and Wealth in the New Millenium)^*

Have you ever held it in you handy? Of course, I think physical gold. This is the yellow metal, which is pleasant to touch and also to look. And also nowadays after many millennia, what people know it, it fascinates, attracts and tempts them. They are able to do everything to acquire it, and at the same time they do not sometimes detest even the most terrible thing, which man can do it to another one.

However, there are even other possibilities to exchange – however not with gold, silver or other precious metals. It is money, concretely paper money, but also virtual money of which real value one can maybe doubt.

When Marco Polo showed Venetians paper money, which he had imported from far China, one form the attendees had took one note and had lighted it. Of course, it burned completely. After that this man took out one coin from his pouch and knocked on a hilt of his sword: “This is a sound of money!” Marco said: “You just burned the note valued at ten golden Venetian ducats.”

Is it that real wealth, which is in our wallets as the notes and coins of dubious value? Is it that, what enrich us? Or is it a freely convertible virtual currency in the whole world like credit cards, bank accounts or checks?

These are quite hard questions and probably there is no unique answer. Whether you think about the real world or about virtual one. I always will be an opinion of particular person.

I try to outline, how I see it, and for both worlds.

Real Life

Something to own is thing, which man has maybe encoded in its genes already from the very ancient time. Maybe even the predecessors of contemporary Homo sapiens sapiens (wise man) wanted to own something, what the others did not have and they regarded it as a kind of “their wealth”. Remember the opening sequence of the movie: A Space Odyssey: 2001. Some chief of one troop find a long bone and begin to bang with it on earth. When he finds out its strength, he tries to beat some animal similar to today’s pig a he kills it. Later he uses this weapon against another troop of modern men in a battle for a water source – the wealth – and hi kills chief of this troop. The first murder in a history of humanity comes to the world.

Nowadays the wealth concentrates to collect all sorts of everything, starting with money, properties, things and ending with others. The mammon governs the world. But to be not so skeptical, there are people that are at least indifferent to that. Their wealth is the wealth of an intellect, whether it is the fine art, the architecture art or the music art, gourmet art, art of enjoying the life, art of love and many others. This is the wealth that I respect and I strive to achieve it. But to have money is still always good. Do not you think? The old saying already says it: “Do not enter into the pub without money!”

Second Life

“Just I do not know!” This world has fascinated me for long time. However, I have never thought about some wealth form. As an avatar you collect many things until your inventory already is overflowed. And to find something there it is sometimes quite horror. Nevertheless, you feel the most things as nothing important one.

Everybody knows that. As newbies, you took everything, what was close to you and cost nothing. The reason was evident – no lindens. Later you obtained some lindens, mostly from today non-existent “camping“, or you had to hire for some job (dancer, DJ, companion, escort service, etc.) and in the best case you have rented something or have sold your own creations to other in SL.

For me the SL wealth is something other. Yes, my inventory contains many nice things with excellent design, mainly branded products. There are several things of the personal character there too. I received them form somebody and I never give them away. However, the avatars are the right wealth of Second Life world, actually live being behind them. This is the right social, multidimensional network. This is an attribute, which will never unsew to SL. And in my private opinion, SL is more “social network” than Facebook.

Tedy:

• The wealth is nice, sometime.
  
• The wealth sometime hurts and sometime troubles.
  
• The wealth is a contribution.
  
• The wealth is a burden.
  
• We want the wealth.
  
• We hate the wealth.
  

We pay for everything.

However, we are not able ever to pay off the wealth.

^*Quoted from a presentation of Nick Barisheff, January 6, 2011 at the Empire Club 17th Annual Investment Outlook Luncheon, full text here

Did Vikings navigate by polarized light? : Nature News

Did Vikings navigate by polarized light? : Nature News