This is truly a day for melancholy and reflection. Today, the last processor in the world for Kodachrome-processed film stock closed to processing that particular film.

Now, was this closure avoidable? Not at all; back in June of 2009, Kodak stock labs had long since started closing, and the company itself stopped making the chemicals needed to develop the film.

Though digital photography and cameras have largely replaced actual photography, many say the colors are not as rich, as warm, as close to real life as Kodachrome. But, just like vinyl records, and analog's depth and richness of tone, the world rolls on, and it will roll on without Kodachrome film.



Dwayne Steinle, the owner of Dwayne's Photos (the last processing lab) actually opened their last processing chemicals last week. But he's a careful man. They lasted until Thursday.

The last picture on the last roll of film developed, by the way? Is the employees of Dwayne's Photos standing in front of the lab, in commemorative attire--which you can buy on the site. Never let it be said that Dwayne Steinle doesn't have a sense of style.

[07:17 PM] Entering chat range: Oonariannabelladavoratrelundara Resident

Come on now, people. You've gone straight to comedy at this point.

She's forty-three days old, and she has red hair. Beyond that, no one knows anything else--because there's nothing else on her profile. Phht.

The one thing she does have, with that improbable and ridiculous name? A name that is the maxed allowable, as far as I know, for characters. And to date the only other person with such a mouth-filling nominative is SheOfTheSourSnailSuckers Sellery.

Sorry, Snails; I won't say you've been beaten, but you've been equalled--in length of name, anyway, if nothing else.

Also, while we're here, meet Lieutenant Newey.

[04:28 PM] Emilly Orr: Hello, Lieutenant! If I can help, just ask.
[04:29 PM] Lieutenant Newey: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Tranquility%20Lake/114/224/21/
[04:30 PM] Emilly Orr: That's what you want info on, or that's where you're planning on going next?
[04:30 PM] Lieutenant Newey: you a bot
[04:30 PM] Lieutenant Newey: ?
[04:30 PM] Emilly Orr: Not as far as I know.
[04:30 PM] Emilly Orr: Why would you think I'm a bot?
[04:30 PM] Lieutenant Newey: Your grammer
[04:31 PM] Emilly Orr: Because I can spell? Please.
[04:31 PM] Emilly Orr: That just means my brain works.
[04:31 PM] Lieutenant Newey: seems like the kinda place you would find a bot
[04:31 PM] Emilly Orr: Ah.
[04:31 PM] Emilly Orr: Well, if you say so.
[04:31 PM] Lieutenant Newey: i didn't say spelling i said grammer
[04:31 PM] Lieutenant Newey: but yeh
[04:31 PM] Lieutenant Newey: thanks lol

According to her profile, she's twenty-three, and works in "Web Design & Developeloperment" (that is a direct quote, I'm not making that up--look up her profile).

Apparently, these days, if you can speak with any accuracy whatsoever, you are considered a computer program. Some days I loathe the human race, I really do.



Alas, poor Rudolph...Someone beheaded a reindeer at Bare Rose! Nooo! June, that is not the spirit of Christmas!

"Admittedly, there’s a chilly thrill in moving with the herd while quietly being tuned in to something dark, complicated, and unknown just beneath the topsoil of popularity."

Patton Oswalt wrote that, and the entire article is brilliant. And eerily feasible. Are we too caught up in pop culture analysis to heed his warnings? Probably. Still worth the time to read.

So, back to reviews.

This was nowhere near the level of the Caverna Obscura/Evie's Closet brouhaha, but some interesting allegations have come to light. Unfortunately, because I can't find other verification, it's pretty much a she said/she also said situation, so ethically, I don't feel like I can do much from the accusation end of things.

What I can do is review the two outfits in question, and to that end, I've finally acquired both of them.

First: Elvenbreath's "Maylea" gown. It only comes in white; well, it says white on the vendor, but what you get is a softly glowing, pale pink and muted red outfit, that flows in a silken, nearly liquid fashion from the hips.



It's a mix of system layers and prim bits, and it's completely integrated. The only adjustment I did was on the collar piece (shown in the third picture).



It's definitely fantasy wear; Elvenbreath's main consumers are fae, elves and Gorean women who want to look drop-dead beautiful. And that's not a bad mix to have; as most of the fae designers on the grid know, there's a lot of crossover between fae and Gor (about the same amount as between Gorean Free Women and Victorian ladies, to be truthful; most Free Womens' attire can be worn swimmingly in steampunk and Victorian sims--just remove the veil, perhaps add a hat, and you're good to go).



The only piece I adjusted was the collar, as said, and truthfully, it didn't even need that much. It's very nearly wearable as is, it just needed to be moved down a fraction of an inch. All in all, it's lovely, elegant, and appropriate for elven soirées to sinuous dancers in Gor, and quite likely beyond. Satin beachwear? Fantastic lingerie? Add some spikes in the right color tones, you have demonic queen; add wings, you might have angel. Very flexible outfit.

(The hair is Deviant Kitties' "Mary" in White. The eyes are Pixeldolls' "Starry-Eyed" in Ruby, no longer available. The skin was a holiday freebie from 2009; don't remember where I got it, because--amusingly--the maker defaults to "newbie_template Linden". The antlers are mine, currently only available on the Marketplace. Yes, yes, I gave in finally; shush.)

Second: Wishbox's "Cassiopeia" in Royal Purple. I thought about getting it in one of their paler tones, but figured, if I'm going to wear this at all, I should get it in a color I'll actually want to wear, and their paler tones just did nothing for me.



First off, surface impressions. Yes, they have a similar--but by no means exact--scalloped top. Here's the big difference: Wishbox's is prim. Entirely. That was the biggest adjustment on this outfit, frankly, which I'm still not sure I got right. I think I either need to shrink the top or inflate the breasts, not sure which.

(By the way, as an entirely prim top? It clocks in at a sim-punishing 241 prims. This is pretty much just a photo outfit now.)



The skirt is held on kind of similarly, but not exactly. There are loops, yes, but multiple, not single, and the skirt is more "skirt" and less "silks", because it is a full circle skirt, as opposed to Elvenbreath's multi-panels that expose the wearer from ankle to hip. (The belt for the skirt, though, adds another 167 prims. Yipe.)



I have to say, though, sim-crushing or not--the primwork is exquisite on this one. It pulls off delicate and feminine while still appearing supportive enough for the weight of the sumptuously textured material hanging from each finely silvered bit of chain. The maker states this is for the "Moon Elf Priestess", and sure, that does explain the crescent moon details, but to be fair, I think anyone fae- or fantasy-inclined could wear this without difficulty.

Well, unless you wanted to move.

Or rez anything in.

My conclusion: they're inspired from the same single source, perchance, be that movie or runway, but they're not inspired directly by each other. Unless I hear otherwise, I don't see evidence of direct copying.

(And I should also add, finishing off, that neither designer has complained; this was an entirely separate occurrence.)

"Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings."
~Anaïs Nin

=====================================================================
I AM A PLAYER, NOT A BOT -- GREAT GREAT BED, CUDDLE AND SEX, SLAP IT NOW SO WE CAN GET IT!!! -- target 50 only,
powerhouse bed, gorean and modern, 129 poses, threesomes, bath, shower,
selling for 3000 In the store, mm board Kink (184,246,24) ,
see and try it here Kink (184,246,24)
==============================+++++++============================++====

"I sometimes think that people's hearts are like deep wells. Nobody knows what's at the bottom. All you can do is imagine by what comes floating to the surface every once in a while."
~Haruki Murakami

"We do not remember days, we remember moments."
~Cesare Pavese

Warren Ellis notes that Yahoo's being stupid again, closing del.icio.us, which seems to me both a jerk move and an idiot one--not only are they closing a service which relied predominantly on loaded text over graphics, so was inordinately cheap to run, but they're also firing people who worked for the company right before the holidays. Way to go, Yahoo. Go kick a puppy and light a baby on fire while you're at it, and you'll confirm your reputation as nearly as awful as Linden Labs for customer service and trust issues.

[Insert from the Editrix: as Samantha Poindexter notes below, Yahoo is not closing del.icio.us, but rather selling it. An important and notable distinction. One can only assume fan outcry forced part of the change...]

And some people are just way too oversensitive--an adult couple complained to Macy's, and they fired their Santa of twenty years. Employees and fans both are devastated--and even "Santa John" himself is wondering what he said that was so beyond the pale. It's nothing, he says, that he hasn't said every season for the last nineteen years--and only to adults, never to children.

In the meantime, the Ozimals/Amaretto feud has reached the court level--and what's amusing me beyond all reason is that the main accusation--that Amaretto's breedable, feedable horse line copies product code from Ozimal's bunny line--fails to appreciate a basic fact--chickens and turtles were there before bunnies and horses. Get real, guys.

"Crazy, isn’t it, the way copyright, trademark and patent law have been so twisted and distorted recently into the ridiculous by the desperation of buggy-whip men trying to hold back the steam engine.

It is insanity like this...that will finally show people that lawyers and Inquisitorial corporations need to be seriously reined in and to quit attempting to patent ideas (shades of the Ministry of Truth), which is actually almost the complete polar opposite of the intention of original copyright and patent law." (Miso Susanowa)

Alchemy Immortalis is feeling the holiday spirit in spades--if you go to their store on the Marketplace, there's a ton of gorgeous, sumptuous items, from jewelry to furnishings to poses, that are L$99 or below. I'm serious. Go look!

So Turner asked, just what is the deal with Minecraft, anyway? He's right in that the main video on the site seems to show how easy it is to build a low-rez rollercoaster system, and that that makes it sound like traveling around the world via minecart is the way to play the game.

It's not. There's a truly excellent set of tutorials on YouTube by X, which are worth watching both for their instruction value, and their humor value, but they do go on a while. And he's big on the gadgetry in the game, which is not a bad thing; he's also very organized, in what he wants where. There is value in his worldbuilding skill, but as even he points out, Minecraft is different for every person who plays it, because the worlds themselves--at least in single-player mode--are randomly generated.



Here's a pic of the world screen. I've deleted my Glasscraft world because I've already posted pics of some of the odd bugs found there, but otherwise have pretty much accomplished all I set out to do. So. New world, new start, here goes.



You'll rez somewhere on a beach, or somewhere on a flat surface; occasionally you'll rez somewhere in the foothills, but rarely. This is your spawn point--the place you'll come back to every time you die. I like to mark my spawn point, so I can come back and build there later--but I'm paranoid that way.



How I do it is look down, dig out the square directly under me (usually sand), go off until I find dirt, dig out a square of dirt, and come back and mark that point. Sometimes this helps. (Sometimes I get lost anyway.)



The first thing you want to do is find a tree. You've got seven minutes, more or less, in the average day. Depending on when you rezzed in, you have between five and seven minutes of daylight (before the monsters come out). Takes about half that time, maybe a little more, to cut down trees for wood. (To cut down a tree: Walk up to the trunk. Hold down the left mouse button. The tree will cut down in single-cube trunk sections.)

I ended up harvesting five trees for twenty-four trunk sections. The screen above shows how things become other things: one trunk section becomes four plank cubes; one plank cube becomes four sticks.

But the sun's going down, and we don't have a shelter. What now?



Tip #1: Hide. Seriously--if they can't get to you, they can't kill you. And you haven't wandered around enough to find coal for torches, make tools, build a home--so, pick someplace that's not directly at a water's edge, and just dig straight down four squares. (Note: it is not recommended you dig straight down anywhere else in the game, especially when tunnelling through stone--this is a good way to find a dungeon and either fall to your doom or be eaten by bad things, so don't do it.)

Now, the drawback with Tip #1: this leaves you in a little box, no light, nothing but the sounds of creepy monsters doing creepy things overhead. And livestock. Boring and occasionally unnerving way to spend a night, which is supposedly also seven minutes long.

But, while monsters can spawn in darkness and shadow, they can't spawn if something--earth, stone, tree, livestock, or you--already exists in that space. Drawn from the spawn point outward, there are eighty places on every map that the server checks during night. If there is no one in that space, and the conditions are right (night for zombies, say, day for pigs, tunnels on the lowest levels for slimes, for instance), a monster will spawn.

If you are in that space, it doesn't matter how dark it is, that monster won't spawn there. (Also remember to put a cap of dirt over you--sand and gravel will fall, and you likely won't have stone at this point. How to tell if night's over? Dig out the dirt cap and check. If it's still night--put the cap back on!)

While you're stuck there, might as well work on some of the wood things. First, 24 trunk pieces will net 96 planks. Planks can be used to make sticks, crafting tables, chests, and tools. Your first job: a crafting table.



Carefully dig out one square and place your crafting table there. (It's okay, you can hold down your left mouse button and carve that back out again later.) Notice how the crafting screen goes from four squares to nine. This becomes important for storage chests, furnaces, and tools.



First: the standard pickaxe. Wooden pickaxes have low durability, but the one thing they're good at is digging out stone and coal. Once you get coal, one stick plus one piece of coal makes four torches, and you now have light. Once you get stone, two sticks plus three pieces of stone makes a stone pickaxe, which is much more durable, and will get you iron. Two sticks plus three iron ingots (smelted in the furnace with iron ore) will get you an iron pickaxe, which will let you mine redstone, diamond and gold.

That comes later, though.

(And one stick plus two of nearly anything--wood, stone, iron, gold, or diamond--will make a sword.)



You've found coal! (Oh, this is terrible. I found I hadn't saved a good coal picture the first go-round, so I dipped into one of my newer worlds quick, tracked down some coal, and took a picture mining it out. But....unless you're on the holiday Painterly pack, your coal won't look like this! Argh!)

Your best way to find coal is wandering around. Look for stone deposits, look for gravel deposits. Unless you've modded your version of Minecraft with a specialty texture pack (and I have), coal is nearly always a grey stone with black flecks in it. That is coal--each cube mined gets you one floating coal chunk, and each coal chunk with one piece of wood, remember, gives you four torches. Torches keep the monsters at bay. This is VERY IMPORTANT.

Tip #2: Mine out all the coal you can find. If the sun goes down and you're still mining a rich vein of coal, dig down four squares, cap the top of the tube, and wait out the darkness. Stay near the coal deposit, and in the morning, pop back out (best way: select dirt or sand or whatever, look down, hold down the space bar to jump, and then drop cubes until you're at ground level again) and start digging again. Remember: trapped in the tube, if you got to coal, you can now make torches, and you don't need your crafting table--one stick plus one bit of coal goes in FINE in the four-square personal crafting screen.

Once you have coal, and have pickaxes, and build up either a ton of wood planks, or a ton of stone, you can return to the beach and build your first home. (Use the crafting table to make doors from wood--six planking cubes, two on top of two on top of two, makes a door you can click open and closed.) Build it out of sand, dirt, wood--whatever. You can always dig that out and put in a better material later. Want windows? Make a furnace (drop one cube in each of the outer squares of the crafting screen, leaving an empty spot in the middle, with stone; for a chest, the same thing, only with wood, creates a chest), set it out, fill it with coal and sand, and presto--glass cubes!

Tip #3: Always put the door of a house on from the OUTside, not the INside. Why? Because if the door is placed outside, you can stab the monsters through the closed door with no risk to yourself. If not...THEY can stab YOU.)

Past that, the world is yours--with light, stone tools, and a place to sit out the dark hours, anything truly is possible. Welcome to Minecraft.

This is likely classified under 'being mean on the internet', but come on, now...who does this? Seriously?

[07:01 PM] brantlover35 Resident: do u need anything tattoos,land hoiuses ant thingy free come to me
[07:01 PM] Emilly Orr: I beg your pardon?
[07:02 PM] brantlover35 Resident: if u need anything frreee just asked me
[07:02 PM] Emilly Orr: Why in the world would I ask a random spammer for *anything* on the grid?
[07:02 PM] brantlover35 Resident: idk
[07:02 PM] Emilly Orr: Who *are* you? Other than new?
[07:03 PM] brantlover35 Resident: britty
[07:03 PM] Emilly Orr: British?
[07:03 PM] brantlover35 Resident: no...
[07:03 PM] Emilly Orr: Oh, so you're compounding the error by giving out your real name? Unwise. Also against ToS stipulations.
[07:04 PM] brantlover35 Resident: no my screen name is britty
[07:04 PM] Emilly Orr: I'm more curious in why you're IMing me out of the blue.
[07:04 PM] Emilly Orr: Obviously, you read nothing on my profile, so what made you think I would just be agonizing over the need for free things from you?
[07:05 PM] brantlover35 Resident: nvm
[07:05 PM] brantlover35 Resident: dont im back if u dont want the offer
[07:05 PM] Emilly Orr: It's 'you'. And I'm genuinely curious. Why did you think I'd be the most gullible mark for this?

She didn't answer. I suppose I wouldn't either, considering I came off all hostile and aggressive, but honestly, people! Second Life is not a spammer's paradise! We are not, overall, fond of ads, especially stupid ones. Plus? She cannot spell, and it may be an elitist twitch, but it's my elitist twitch. People who can't spell--or, in her case, likely don't even bother to try--get under my skin.

What a waste of pixels. Oh, sure, if I need freee houises, tattoos and land ants, I'll just run right over, "Britty". You just wait.

Moron.

You know what the worst of it is? I can't even ban her. I can mute her--which I've done--but I can't ban her from my parcels just to keep her far, far away, because "Resident" isn't officially her last name! Linden Labs, you are SO fail over this one!

Not only that, but is this what the Labs are sending onto the grid now? All of the 'fast easy fun' mechanics have given us...that? A nameless bimbo lacking even basic social graces who thinks the best way to get ahead on SL is to be the go-to pimp for FREEBIES?!?

I'm appalled. I'm shocked. And I really want to shove her into an avatar-shooting cannon along with a few nuclear warheads--back when they worked--and launch the whole lot over Linden land. Maybe the scattered shrapnel will give them a heads up that their way of 'streamlining' things has resulted in this pinnacle of idiocy.

*breathes* Maybe I need some hot cocoa. Y'all excuse me, I'm just going to nip off for a bit and calm down. I'm actually unnerving myself now with how enraged I am. Just let it go, Orr. It's not this big a deal. So there's stupid on the internet, this is not news.

*wanders off in search of the peppermint whipped cream*

^&^

(Later insert: Talked it over with an estate manager--not from Caledon or Winterfell, but the same principles apply--who asked me, "Did you have your estate tag on when you tried to ban her?"

(Which, of course, I didn't. Proving the adage that as anger goes up, intelligence goes down. I logged back in just a few minutes ago, switched to my Winterfell tag--and voila, "Britty" becomes the first person I've ever banned from my Winterfell land.)

And the last one.

Worst Wedding DJ Ever



I'm still pondering if that's the correct title. I mean, he's no great shakes as a DJ, but there must be worst wedding DJs out there. No, what gets me--and what perplexed more than four million other people--is the casual bit of tit-slapping on the--is it his wife? Gods help us all if she's just a casual bystander standing so completely unfazed on the stage--woman in the video.

Nanaimo Fire Rescue



Now, by report, this man is disabled, with both motor-skill and speech-center impairments. Even so, he's cognizant enough to flip off the paramedic who comes to his side after rescuing him from the burning house. (One naturally would presume, his burning house.) So it's not an unreasonable assumption, I would think, that perhaps intoxicants of some kind played a part in this.

Brendan Fraser remix



This is a work of insane genius. I'm sure we've all had moments where our bodies just don't respond to the commands given, and we look foolish doing something we honestly hadn't given that much thought to, either way.

But how many of those little, human moments are then immortalized with a remixed song and bouncy Gwen Stefani lyrics?

The Trololololo song



As we all know by now, this is something that used to be quite popular in Russia called vocalise. This performance was sung by Eduard Anatolyevich Khil, but there are other examples of the medium, including Khil's student, Koós János, singing the same song.

Old Spice Guy responds to Old Spice Guy



Isaiah Mustafa, a talented voice actor, was given an opportunity to be in an Old Spice commercial, and everyone went crazy--both for his performance, and for the quirky, original play on the brand. Countless other commercials were made, and for a while, Mustafa would answer questions sent to him on YouTube.

This was one of them. As Videogum put it: "Old Spice Guy Responds to Old Spice Guy, Internet Explodes". Precisely. I'm on a horse.

Alexis Courage



Oh, man. Footage from the oft-cited sports competition from hell--as far as mistakes made--paired with Scala's rendition of Radiohead's "Creep". Could it get more perfect? The original was something to wince over or to laugh at, depending on temperment--but the remake elevates Alexis to the stature of embattled woman-on-the-verge, poised to wrest greatness from failure--backed by a choral group who will forever be immortal for not understanding the lyrics.

And finally...

Double Rainbow All the Way



First, there was a quiet wanderer in the wilderness. Then Amanda Palmer spent some time surfing the net, and discovered it. And posted it on Twitter. It hit almost instantly into song turf, and the phrase "Double Rainbow" worked its way onto t-shirts and into the personal lexicon of Nathan Fillion. It was the Tube heard round the world, literally.

And hey, advancement for the species--for once, it had nothing to do with hatred, cruelty, disaster, tragedy, or overly twee pets and kittens! Go us! We're learning!

Okay, that's all of them (that I intend to cover, anyway). Just to round things out, have the Pillow Song:



and then that's it for the year. I may cull through my own personal trove of 'really liked these vids' over the next few days, but trust me, it won't be such solid video-embed glut. Happy holidays!

So, a Norwegian paper has gained access to all of the diplomatic cables that Wikileaks had access to; the fun thing is their proud trumpeting that they have no restrictions on how to use the material. Bit confused, there--I thought Wikileaks had no restrictions on how to use the material, either...

In a similar vein, the UN has finally finished considering the issue and has released a joint statement on Wikileaks that is, all things considered, surprisingly fair. We're the United States, and we don't listen to the UN--occasionally to our detriment--but it's a reasonable, solidly considered decision.

Back to the vids. I do plan on finishing this list, damn it...

Dude, you have no Quran



Mostly just a news clip, but the skateboarder hit huge on public consciousness. And yes, there's also a song.

Antoine Dodson: Bed Intruder



Antoine Dodson, everybody. This one went everywhere. Almost instantaneously it became an Auto-Tune song, which eventually went on iTunes due to sheer popularity. And it's one of the few cases where the spoof videos weren't as over-the-top as the original news interview!

There was a choral version; a video featuring a little girl trying to sing the song; and a high school marching band released videos of song rehearsals as well as actually marching on the field.

There were cat remixes; a capella versions; and a spoof version involving the summoning of the Inner Shatner.

It finally comes full-circle with CBS Online News' division interviewing Dodson about his internet celebrity. (What kills me about that vid? How unnatural the reporter makes "Auto-Tune the News" sound. Lady, do you even own a computer to use beyond sitting in front of it and staring fixedly at the camera?)

Gingers have souls!



On the surface, this is specious beyond all belief--assuming we believe in the concept of souls, of course red-haired people have them! But this is Murphy Brown/Dan Quayle territory--he's upset because South Park--a series which holds no sacred cows--attacked red-haired people for being 'soulless'. Um...look...kid? It's a cartoon. Calm down.

Why Single Girls Want to Meet European Men



I...have no place in my head for this. I so want this to be a parody video. It really doesn't seem to be.

My brain is now scared.

Colleen Thomas



Speaking of having no place in my brain for this...This is seven and a half minutes of cracked clear out of the universe, the blonde version. In her own words: "I channel all consciousness but did not realize this when I made this video." Yeah, Colleen, based on this, there's a lot you don't realize.

In her own words: "Asking an alien whether or not they're from the light is meaningless." Oookay. Sometimes, they fool you by walking upright. This video serves best as a necessary reminder, I think.

Psycho Girl Freaks Out



Five million people turned to YouTube to see this one. Warning: there's a little bit of cursing, but there's a solid metric ton of migraine-inducing screaming. Just because she can't belt out Celine Dion. Stunningly bizarre.

Fainting Goat Kittens



As the copy-over said on the Videogum site, this is both cute and depressing. Apparently, both kittens have an actual ailment called myotonia congenita, the same disease responsible for the so-called 'fainting goats'. Hence the video name. One has since died--of respiratory complications, not the disease (per se; it can cause respiratory issues as a side effect). The grey-mix kitten is still around, how'ver--and still fainting at any sudden noise.

How to Protect Yourself with a Rolled-Up Magazine



This is serious martial arts. You can protect yourself with a rolled-up magazine. And then beat up your attacker with the fold-up chair to finish him off.

One Man's VCR Collection



It's like a train wreck, in a sense: it's hard to look away from. It's not the haircut, the accent, or even the material; but it's the whole being more than the sum of its parts.

And boy, are there a lot of parts. On shelves.

If you watch the whole thing, by the way, eight minutes of your life are now gone. Enjoy.

Homeless man under pressure



Videogum says "This is the video of the day, apparently, because it combines everyone’s three favorite things: David Bowie, the Muppets, and systemic economic inequality." While they're right, it should be noted, this man isn't homeless. But he is a street performer, and street performers know intimately what it's like out there, for people who don't have the skills to turn performance into a paycheck. Just ask Amanda Palmer.

Besides, I think Kermit would approve of the cause.

Hand Model Ellen Sirot



In the words of Miss Sirot: "I view my hands as elite athletes...And so everything I do is to protect them from being in any jeopardy or any danger in any way. So for me, that means no cooking, no cleaning, no taking out the garbage, no opening cans, no opening windows, no opening doors, no gardening, no sports, no no no no no. A million no's."

I can't put it any better than she does. Must pay well enough to pay other people to do everything for her...

...yes, there's one more of these coming. But only one more.

Building on yesterday's video embed nightmare, ten more. (Well, at least ten more. I hope not more than ten more.

(For this entry.)

ANYWAY...

Pamela Gorman for Congress



There are a lot of odd Gorman videos out there, but this one actually got endorsed as a campaign ad. And yes, that's her son in the video. (Note: I'm not equating any political party with gun violence, but it is pretty odd to rely on gunfire to get elected. Keith Olbermann did a bit on it, even.)

The thing which leaps out at me--even more than the gunfire--is the over-the-top, almost satire-enriched narration. It sounds like a parody ad. It looks like a parody ad. But it's officially from the Gorman campaign.

Phil Davison wants your vote



Watch as an apparently rational, educated human being runs headlong into the wall of hysteria and screaming...for no apparent reason.

I think the voices are trying to drown him out, that's why he got louder, and louder, as the speech goes on.

Basil Marceaux for Tennessee Governor



"I'm Basil Marceaux-dot-com..." Really, do you need to know more than that? He is a man in dire need of a professional campaign ad...and a limit on ad length. Plus, he wanted to fine people for gun ownership--not owning them, no, but for not owning them. He wants everyone armed...then to congregate in groups of twenty-five for...what? It's not really clear.

Tim James: "We speak English here"



Now, to be fair, the man makes a point--that point being, everyone should be fluent in the main language of their culture. However, it's about accessibility, in the end. Printing government pamphlets and tests in a variety of languages--because America is a land of refugees, and English is the second most difficult language on the planet--only helps citizens understand those tests, and become better informed.

I don't have that knee-jerk "OMG RACIST" feeling, watching this--it's actually a well-made ad, and it communicates his point clearly--but I do feel, that as a citizen running for office, the last thing he should identify with is the restriction of understanding and the further impoverishment of people who are trying to live according to the rules of the culture, who are already impaired for not being fluent speakers of English.

The real fun in this ad was never the ad itself--it got a lot of hits, but the viral aspect was what came from this ad. There were parody ads playing on Tim James' odd sense of movement; extrapolating his original ad into an attack on Braille; a New Jersey variant; a planned theft of Disney World; and a closed-caption ad version, among countless others.

Dale Peterson for Agricultural Commissioner



This is another one whose base message seems to be Hi, I'm paranoid and strident. Vote for me or I'll shoot you. It doesn't put Alabama in the best light, I will admit.

To his credit, how'ver, even though he wasn't elected, he did get people thinking about the wisdom of having the Agricultural Commissioner be an elected position, rather than appointed for merit. So maybe that's a good thing?

Glenn Beck for President



"This is parody, right? Please?" I'm very much afraid that it's not.

Christine O'Donnell: I'm You



I can't put it any better than she does. "I'm not a witch. I'm you." And with that stunning statement, she says if elected, she will go to Congress and do what you would do there--because she is you. And not a witch. And nothing you've heard, either. So just ignore all the shady dodging and weird "but I'm totally Christian now" statements. And put aside the suspicions on the source of her income, the misuse of campaign funds, and the IRS suing her for back taxes. Because none of that is important. We have seen the future, for she is us.

Truly frightening stuph.

Carly Fiorina for Congress



I really have no words for this one. Keith Olbermann addresses what he calls the "worst ad campaign of all time"; Rachel Maddow mentions that among politicians and viewers alike, they were waiting for the punch line that said it was all just a joke. There's also the meeting of two memes to create the Dramatic Sheep moment, and--perhaps the only thing weirder: a Lady Gaga remix.

Drunk Bus Lady



Getting away from the political ads for the moment, I won't go on record as saying she is conclusively intoxicated. But she's something. And she leaves no doubt that hitting the bus was not just an accident, but clearly driver error.

Way Too Much Coffee



There are times in watching the news, we wonder why the people on the screen are given such extended screen access. Sometimes we grow frustrated, and yell at the screens, hoping our futile protesting will clear the babbling terror from our view.

This is not one of those times. This woman is absolutely enthralling, and I totally understand why the cameraman just let her talk. She's priceless. Maybe overly-caffeinated, but priceless.

There's also a song version.

Videogum covers a full retrospective of the best 2010 viral videos, hands down--no pun intended--but I wanted to explore the list a little, because honestly, I'd missed some of these.

Double Dream Hands



How on earth did I miss this? Best description: Whiter than frightened milk. There's even a mash-up version that works frighteningly well. (But I still say nothing beats Glee's version of that song on the football field.) Honestly, my jaw hit the floor when he said "Double dream hands", and then I started giggling like a mad fool when he made the distinction between dream hands and jazz hands. Well, I guess you wouldn't want to get those confused, huh?

Rock on.

Sesame Street 'Whip My Hair'



The weird thing about this one? I don't think the original message--that if you're black, you can still love the hell out of your hair, because it's just as beautiful as anyone else's--is diluted at all by this mash-up.

BRODYQUEST



You ever think celebrities watch the videos that feature their names? This one would at least give me the feeling that I made people happy--for at least four minutes. (Also, if you think you recognize the name of the video maker? If you've ever seen the Potter Puppet Pals, you've seen his work.)

Stop, Think, Connect



I didn't get the creepy stalker vibe Videogum seemed to off this teacher; I figure, more power to him, he's at least out there trying to keep kids sort of safe online (even though the chorus of the song seems to fly directly in the fact of several of the song's cautionary lyrics). It's still funny, though, in that realm of "Aw, he's so cute when he tries to be hip".

Ghost Rides the Tractor



Apparently there are a lot of "Ghost rides" videos out there, both good and bad. (And really bad.) This one? Is at the top of the list. You have to be some kind of bored to spend this much time playing in the field with props. World, give this poor man something else to do.

There's a horse in that car!



There is. They're not kidding. It looks to be a dwarf pony, but even so. Spring for a trailer next time, honestly.

Best Day of Her Life



Ostensibly, this is at a wedding in Belarus somewhere. I must confess: I have never heard of a folk dance before that involved armament.

Olson Twins Nightmare



I'm...not entirely sure it didn't air this way on the original Full House episode...

Just Up Dude



Best comment to describe this one: "This is clearly a being who has penetrated the Darkest Reaches of Cosmic Mystery and returned...changed." Um....yeah. Plus, he lives somewhere in Colorado. In a very odd home.

With padded walls.

And the last one for this entry (don't you think ten is enough?):

Cheer Up, Sad Keanu

Sometimes I'm deeply confused as to what makes a meme in the first place. Whatever does, That Picture of Keanu Reeves did. And it went into everything.



And then someone wrote Keanu a song. To cheer him up. And then Keanu started getting some of his own back. So it wasn't all bad.

More later.

Ghost urns! I really, really like these.

Fawkes: QUILTBAG as a term scares me.
me: bwuh?
Fawkes: Queer, Undecided, Intersexed, Lesbian, Transexual, Bisexual, Asexual, Gay.
me: Oh, that.
Yeah, that's an extraordinarily stupid contraction. And what gets me--'queer'
It fits
Like, EVERYONE
Fawkes: Apparently there's also QUILTBAGPIPE.
me: ...pipe?
Fawkes: Pansexual, Indefinite, Polysexual, Everyone.
Emilly sighs
Look, if we're going to include everyone? Then we can just say EVERYONE
Fawkes: Why would we ever do that, then we can't have Quilt Bagpipe patches.
me: Hmm
You make a serious point.

It's true. Now I'm imagining, in addition to little triangles, little gender signs, little flamingoes, and little rainbows--we can have little quilted bagpipes to demonstrate our open-mindedness on the whole gender issue! We're so damned inclusive as a community, why, we'll let in STRAIGHT people, because they're just as gay as we are!

I'm getting too old for this.

But I do want a quilted bagpipe now. Just a little one. Something I can pin on a fabulous hat.

There's a great description on the intersexed side of things on Tumblr; but for the most part, when your acronym is longer than most actual words? Find a new goddamn word.

This may be the first ever casual coat for the triple-J set. And it's quite reasonably priced. If you are one of said damsels so plentifully endowed--or, mayhap, you know one who is--there you go. Simple, attractive, casual--and built for all body types.

About a week ago, I started hearing from friends who follow the SL blog more closely than I do, these days. There was an entry, a week or so back, just packed with typical Torley advice, set in Stepford. What I got from a couple friends was (paraphrasing): "This can't be the same Stepford, right? Torley has to be kidding. Do the Lindens know about Stepford?"

So I checked it out. This isn't the same one. This Stepford seems to be almost excruciatingly "family-friendly", which makes my head spin for a couple reasons:

1. Stepford as a township name cannot be divorced from the 1972 novel by Ira Levin, which--to date--has spawned six sequels or retellings of the source work, as well as becoming a divisive term for any woman who seems to be caving to societal pressure overly much; and

2. Part of the reason "The Stepford Wives" hit such a deep horrific chord in American culture, at least, if not world, was that it was entirely fixed on the struggle of the time--a struggle which persists to this day: what price independence? At what point does social balancing become intolerable conformity? And is what men want, against what women want, in relationships really that different, gender to gender?

But put all of that to the side; there's already a town of Stepford on the grid, and has been for some time--the only abiding change, in fact, seems to be that they've upgraded from a mainland Mature sim to an Adult estate sim. That town of Stepford can be found in Porten Hill, and--before you ask--yes, they still practice gynophagia, or the fine art of whole-female barbecue. (No, I'm not a fan. I just know it's out there.)

The Labs being the Labs, they're never going to budge on this position. In fact, once a company changes their Terms of Service to reflect any given change, even if it's a massively unpopular one, it won't go back. Still, it seems like there's one of these threads popping up on the forums every other day. This one has some amusing points, however...

From MilosZ Milosz:

Say, for example, an adult is wandering around a general region. This adult has adult groups in his profile, for example "No limit C** S***s". A child scans this person profile and sees this group, double clicks on it and opens the group window which, wow, is open enrollment much to his glee. Said child then opens an IM window for that group and attempts to start chatting up adults. Regardless if this groups are flagged as mature or not, the group can still be opened by double clicking it on a persons profile page.

Too late...cope.

...While you are at it, why not ask LL to return to the Old Viewer too. Ain't gonna happen. Get over it.

maybe people should not name their groups that way.

anything visible in a profile is supposed to be G rated.

That said yes groups (and everything else in SL) need content ratings so non account verified people will never see any of it.

I concur there are various reasons (still) to object to the merger, but as indicated by others it's too late for any reversal to be taken into consideration by LL. It is done. Perhaps a different title of your thread like "Did you consider this too ?" would have been better.

That being said, the overall idea of minors mixing with adults in an environment that is far from suitable to minors even if parts have been marked as PG and disguised as 'merely a 3D game' is a severe chance being taken.

Let LL handle those cases. It's their responsibility now. Meanwhile, start blogging about this and other scandalous things. SL needs a lot of media attention right now...

It would have been great if LL had advised us to do this before they let the teens in, and before they start banning us for indecency. That's so typical of SL, everything is utterly haphazard and uncoordinated.

Like many said before, it is too late. Since the new ToS from Dec. 15 is in effect, teens from all over the world are able and allowed to join the main grid "fast, free and easy", like the join button says...

This is the small "thank you" from Linden Lab, a christmas gridmess gift for us adults, for our efforts to build an interesting and attractive grid for years and for our efforts to drive the company into the black numbers.

Here's the situation. The "good kids" are going to stay in the PG sims - they're the ones who signed up for the Teen Grid, rather than sneaking into the Main Grid all along. And to be honest, they probably want to stay as far away from the tantrum throwing "adults" as possible.

The rest of the teens - and there are a LOT more of them than the ones who are moving over from TG - have been here all along. And see, that's what *really* has the Chicken Littles running around like the sky is falling - they now have to contend with that reality. They can't cover their eyes to it anymore. Teens have been among us all this time - in violation of TOS. The problem is not that the Teen Gridders are coming. The problem is that anyone can sign up for a Main Grid account with zero verifiable idenficiation required. None. Getting to the Moderate/Mature grid? No obstacle whatsoever.

That is the problem. And it has been for a very long time.

People are freaking out because "OMGGG there's gonna be KIDZ on teh main gridd!!!11!!1!" but forgetting that kids have been on the main grid for a long time - they just kept the fact that they're kids hidden. I met my first one a year ago. He was only 11 years old.

And as for asking for a RL age...there's no guarantee that even if asked, the person's going to tell the truth. In fact, chances are they won't. So hopping on the poseballs with ANYONE who you don't know well is a risky thing.

I don't see why the sky is suddenly falling just because the teen grid is closing. Teens have been sneaking on to the Main Grid ever since the beginning. If anything, I think the teens coming from the teen SL will be less of a problem because LL knows they are here, knows their age, and knows what they're doing. It's the teens (and pre-teens) that are here now masquerading as adults that you should be more concerned about.

Also covering yourself from what? Last time I checked there is no law against RP'ing with minor. If you go into RL and have sex with the minor fine... against the law. But I cannot recall a court case where someone had virtual sex with a minor that they had no idea was a minor and went to jail. You guys are freaking out over nothing.

Asking for real life information can get you AR'd according to the safetly guidelines for teens. You may end up being flagged as a predator or you may not, you might just suddenly get logged off, who knows whats going to happen whent those types of AR's are sent in.

And asking will not cover you, just research some RL cases in the US for that.

If you are worried about RL age, then it might be best to not use SL as there guidelines for teens supports staying anonymous.

I think that it would be best if they had their own continent or grid.

That's not going to happen and LL is going to dump them into the mainland. LL's track record for sound decisions speaks for itself. I'm sure this will turn out about as well as the other times they have had a "bright idea". It's pretty clear that other than tweaking the TOS, they haven't done much to prepare for this.

If people want to disregard some fairly well justified concerns and mingle and do busines with the teens, then that's their business.

The fact that they're now officially allowed to be here changes everything.

You're right that the teens have always been here and we knew that. So what? Back when LL opened the floodgates and let the NPioFs in, we already knew full well that a large number of the new anonymous throwaway accounts were created by kids. I actually pointed that out in the old SL forums, added that Philip didn't give a fork as long as his user numbers looked good on the paper, and was permanently banned from the Resident Forums for telling the truth.

But the legal situation was different until now. That's all that really counts. Seriously, who gives a damn about the wayward offspring of inconsiderate parents? The important thing was that the kids had to misrepresent themselves in order to gain unauthorized network access. That wasn't LL's legal liability, nor was it ours.

Now it is. Not only do we have to be damn careful in G and M rated areas from now on; the entire world will soon know that LL allows children into an adult online game that features the wildest sexual perversions. LL will soon be under a lot of public pressure and find themselves faced with the choice to either go back on their inane decision or make changes that will pretty much ruin SL for the adult RP community.

Let me try and spell it out for simply: The Second Life you knew and joined, as an adult virtual world has come to an end. You think that's a good thing? Well, good for you. The overwhelming majority of adult residents do not. At all. Unfortunately, LL could care less what the adult residents think, despite the fact they outnumber any teen influx considerably, their opinions and concerns are not so much on the bottom of LL's list, they are not even on the list at all...

It is also interesting seeing the increasing sly and subtle and not so subtle attacks on any adult resident who is - shock, horror! - on here for adult purposes or visits adult sims having joined what they foolishly thought was a adult virtual world playground, where they interacted with adults. Truly, the Disney process is well under way. The shills and idiots are primed and can be depended upon to slavishly support LL's road to ruin

The contempt LL has for it's adult, LL-wage-paying residents is nothing short of staggering. It illustrates beautifully the dangers of monopoly and next to no competition in a market.

Of course, the writing was on the wall a considerable time ago. The creation of Zindra, and the 'Disney-fication' of SL were all geared to letting the teens in.

I agree with others that said if you are that concerned about it, hide your groups. Do you really need to tell everyone in SL that you are in a group called, "No limit C** S***s"? Also, if you are not happy with TOS, don’t agree to it and log out.

Get over it, change happens... move on or hit X.