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

New World Notes: Second Life & Facebook Were Once Considered Social Network Equals (Or, a Case Study in Mistaken Assumptions)

New World Notes: Second Life & Facebook Were Once Considered Social Network Equals (Or, a Case Study in Mistaken Assumptions)

Second Life Avatar Profiles Now Published on Their Own Web Page, Shareable on Facebook & Twitter!

Second Life Avatar Profiles Now Published on Their Own Web Page, Shareable on Facebook & Twitter!: "Linden Lab has a new feature for Second Life users that as far as I know has not been announced yet, but is pretty big: Selected details of SL avatar profiles are automatically published to an individual web page, where..."

Poppies in the wind and Falco

A piece of work comes to the world as from the movements that failed
as from those ones that succeeded.

You cannot divide any human being, and if you allow to live only the great sculptors,
then you will not have any great sculptors.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

They waved only so, these red little skirts, in the wind. It bowed them first to the one side and then to the other side. They did not scare. They did not scare even of a pestilent fire that somebody kindled on a small fireplace. Maybe he did it to heat water for a cup of tea, to roast potatoes or to barbecue some sausage.

However, a white duvet covered all country. The poppies disappeared to yield to hegemony of the Lady of Winter. I had a feeling, as if I had lost some something. Something, what never come back. I still see these red dots on the golden plains of the ripening corn.

After that some shadow slashed the sky. There was a big bird that majestically flew there. It eagle-eyed looked down to the earth and looked for its prey. However, it was not a merlin. It was peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus). It stooped to the earth so that it forever disappeared in the distance.

These poppies flow in the wind on the wall of my room.

Falco and his Jeanny sound form his special album of 25^th anniversary as a Deluxe Edition from the speakers of my tower, also in my room.

:::: Tribute do Andy Irons ::::

:::: Tribute do Andy Irons ::::: "

Tuesday 2 November the unfortunate news of the death of Andy Irons (32) filtered through all world wide surf communities.
The 3x ASP World Champion, Irons, was our surf style inspiration.
We still can't believe Andy is gone.

The last time Andy surferd was on Rip Curl Pro Search, Peniche - Portugal. 

The waves and all fans of your surf style - will miss you,
Aloha and Mahalo Andy. 

THIS PACK CONTAINS 3 T-SHIRTS IN MEMORY OF ANDY IRONS

GET IN FOR FREE HERE

"

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.