AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH--I, um, mean...I got some news this morning, in the form of a notecard:

It has been a wonderful 10 years working in SL. I have met so many wonderful people many have become great friends in RL & SL. I loved being creative and doing something I loved. I have enjoyed working from my home as my kids have grown. I have no regrets. But, I am in need of a change. It is time for me to close Carrie's Lingerie. August will be my last month and the 21st my last day. I will leave my items on marketplace but the store will be gone and I will be on only to enjoy my friends I have made along the way. I am excited for my new adventure whatever it may be. I want to thank all of you who have supported me through the years. Thank you for being loyal customers and friends. I love you all!

Much Love,
Carrie

PS: Everything in the store is 50% off or more - more items coming out everyday as I sort my inventory. So come see me often in the next month! Muah

So what does this mean to me? That my absolute favorite lingerie maker in SL is going away, and there will be mourning. Though it also means that the store is 50% off until August 21st, so GET IN THERE already!

That is all.

Jesus wept.

[13:35] oxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: hewo me was wondering if there any family poses hewe for me n mommy

Do you HAVE to? I've heard toddlers speak better.

[13:35] Emilly Orr: 1. You can speak like a proper human.

Was I snappish? Hell, yes. I've gotten so tired of this of late, especially as the group in question allows nudity (no actual sex, but nudity) throughout, including ground level. Which means children of her supposed age should NOT be present.

[13:35] Emilly Orr: 2. I don't know, but they may know in the update group.

I was trying to pull it back from full-on knocking the idiot down and dumping gasoline on her pointy little head.

[13:36] oxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Im a child i will speak like a child you should learn to respect peoples rp

She CAN be taught!

[13:37] Emilly Orr: Children don't speak like that. I've been around a lot of children.
[13:37] Emilly Orr: The GOOD children on SL know how to speak.

And I maintain this. Loki Eliot knows how to speak. Jimmy Branagh and the rest of the Babbage orphans know how to speak. Even Marianne McCann, as much as I still despise her for visiting Zindra the day the continent opened (again, because she's supposed to be a GODDAMN CHILD), knows how to speak. They speak like actual children. Ms. O up there speaks like a gnat-brained idiot who's been hit too many times in the head and what never had no education beyond what she could make out on the tree bark.

[13:37] Emilly Orr: I'd still recommend you join the [group for sim] (it's free) and they'd be able to better tell you if there are family poses, and/or the best PG areas.

Because I truly don't know. I know they have winter, gothic, beach, and forest areas, most with cuddle and solo furnishings and decor, and if that's not enough for the up-close shots, they have a studio in the sky that has several different styles (some adult) of photo boxen. I've enjoyed my limited time in the group, and I'm fascinated to see what they do next.

But not to the point of putting up with this moron.

I did decide to pull her profile. Her SL bio says only "*waves* I'm [initials]. I'm mommy's mini me and me lobes hers to muchs". Riiight.

THIS is the bit that kills me, though:

MY eberyting her my foreber mommy and im blessed to be her daughter

It's from her picks. Note how it starts out as lisping gibberish, then pulls into she-actually-has-a-working-brain speech? Why do SL kids do that? Even when I did lisp (due to an overgrown tongue leader), I tried to avoid sibilants as much as possible, so I had a better chance of being understood. And I was in kindergarten then.

I don't get why SL kids seem to think they need to speak like idiots to be understood. I've never met any RL child who's said "me was wondering" or gad, even worse, "hewwo do ewe kno where me mommy iz?" Because with statements like that? I'm more inclined to snap or just poof away.

Might be better to poof away, all things considered. Or just block them on first contact.

This is another strange religious freak-out, feel free to skip if that's not your thing.

So, Robert Ritchie of the America Needs Fatima group (I have a thing for Lourdes and Fátima, sue me) is freaking out again--this time because of a convention in Louisiana.

Yes. Really.

Dear Ms. [Emilly Orr],

Hi there!

"Everyone therefore that shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven."

(Matthew 10:32)

URGENT: on August 9 – 11, the Bourbon Orleans Hotel is planning to host HexFest: A Weekend Of Witchery.

Now, from my perspective, that's fine. I've been to alternate religious festivals, both the camping-in-the-woods versions, and the booked-into-hotel versions. They're fun. I've learned a lot about forms of faith that aren't mine, and it never once challenged my own faith.

O Virgin Mother, Help Us!

Oh, calm down.

Here’s their plan, and make no mistake...this is part of a full-blown, ongoing, nationwide assault on the remnants of Christian Civilization in our dear American society.

Um, point one: Christianity is a "remnant"? I thought it was the majority religion, at least in the US. Point two: A convention in one single hotel is an "full-blown, ongoing, nationwide assault"? How so? Are you expecting the hotel to lift from its moorings and stagger around the country, infecting other hotels with eeeeevil?

• HexFest is a gathering of "Witches, root workers, Voodoo priests and other magical teachers from within New Orleans and around the world..."
• For the witches, its opening ritual on the riverboat Creole Queen will "align us to the energies of the work to come."
• It "will feature an invocation of the spirits of New Orleans while the Dragon Ritual Drummers invoke the spirits with powerful percussion!"
"It is to honor the Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau."

Okay, none of that sounds worthy of this level of hysteria.

Last year, we organized an on-site rosary rally of reparation for this evil event. But prior commitments and activities this year make doing an on-site protest very unlikely. So I'm asking thousands of our email friends to make prayerful reparation at home. Prayer is so POWERFUL!

I bet. But let me get this straight, they did this last year, and you protested? I was on your list last year, why didn't you completely lose your mind over it then?

Also, this "rosary rally"--you mean, what, you stood outside the hotel and read the rosary loudly at the building? Okaay...

So May I Count On You To Console Our Lady
For This Weekend Of Witchery
By Making A Powerful
Act of Reparation

Yes, every time I've bolded text, that means the original email had bolded text. And yes, the original of this rote quartet (repeated ad nauseum below) was not just bolded and centered, but also in a much larger font.

• Followed by Litany of The Blessed Virgin Mary
• And the "Short Exorcism Prayer to St. Michael"

It might not seem like much on our part, but when The Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Michael the Archangel present our pledges to The Blessed Trinity...well, nothing is impossible for God, Whose Spirit will be gladdened by our little effort of love for Him.

Sure, there's nothing wrong with prayer if you believe in it. And I've never turned down anyone offering to pray for me, whether they're of my faith or not. I treat it as a demonstration of care, not an offense.

But.

If what you're telling people to do, Ritchie, is to stand in front of the hotel and stage a peaceful protest while praying, great. More power to you. Have at it. Make sure you get the proper permits from the city, for anyone who does actually go to do it in person.

How'ver, if what you're actually telling people to do is send negativity and psychic bile towards this event, is that really the best use of your energy, or the people following you? If you truly believe witchcraft is that challenging to your faith (and if your faith is secure, nothing will challenge it, so...if you feel challenged, your faith is weak), then praying for their hearts to change, without animosity, seems in line with Christianity and Catholicism, right? Not praying for them to die, or for the hotel to burn down, or for their brains to explode, right? Can we agree that is anti-Christian to do?

So, if every one of us reading this email will pledge to devoutly pray this Act of Reparation To The Blessed Virgin, the Litany of The Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Short Exorcism Prayer to St. Michael, not only will we be able to "send" to God close to 100,000 devoutly said prayers of reparation...

Sounds like you're playing the lottery, here. One person praying, sure, fine. But one hundred thousand people praying, why, your adversaries will be SURE to change!

Yeah, that's not how anything works.

...I'll then send a list of our thousands of pledges to Mr. Mark Wilson, manager of the host venue Bourbon Orleans Hotel, asking him not to host HexFest. And our acts of reparation will be a powerful and real deterrent to the evil spirits sure to be summoned at 'HexFest.'

That's assuming they're summoning evil spirits. Oh wait, you do believe that, even though it's stupid.

And I'll also send them to the two organizers and hosts, Brian Cain and Christian Day. Cain "is a teacher, psychic, medium and a New Orleans Warlock." "He is a devotee of several forms of British Traditional Witchcraft and is a High Priest of the Alexandrian Tradition." Day is "a modern-day Warlock" and he is a "practitioner of the ancient arts of Witchcraft."

Okay, and?

• Act of Reparation To Our Lady
• Followed by Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary

And the "Short Exorcism Prayer to St. Michael" Yet another iteration of the urging to pray these three prayers.

FURTHER INSULT OFFERED TO GOD
The Hex Fest is being hosted at the Bourbon Orleans Hotel. Built in 1817 as the Orleans Ballroom, in 1881 the Sisters of the Holy Family, founded by Venerable Henriette Delille and two friends, and "the oldest female-led African-American Catholic order of nuns in the United States", purchased the property and for the next 83 years ran it as an orphanage, medical ward, school, and convent by, of, and especially for African-Americans.

And that's a good thing. But for some reason the Sisters sold the property off, either on their own or by edict handed down from the Roman Catholic Church (because from time to time, they do that). At that point, neither the Sisters or the church had any say in who bought the property.

Several of the rooms still bear the names of saints. For example:

• Saint Mary Salon
• Saint Joseph Salon
• Saint Anne Cottage

Sounds like a lovely naming schemes. Glad the hotel kept it.

So May I Count On You To Console Our Lady
For This Weekend Of Witchery
By Making A Powerful
Act of ReparationL

And here we go again. And yep, again, all in bold.

• Followed by Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary
• And the "Short Exorcism Prayer to St. Michael"

A Sovereign Contempt For The Demon
The Saints and spiritual authors also encourage a sovereign contempt for the demon.

Let us hear what Saint Therese says:

"It is very often that these damned spirits come to torment me; but they inspire very little fear in me, because I know them well and they cannot even stir without God's permission… This should be well known by all: every time we show our contempt for the demons, they lose their strength and the soul acquires more predominance upon them… To see themselves despised by weaker beings is, in fact, a severe humiliation for these arrogant beings. Well, as we said before, humbly supported by God, we have the right and the obligation of showing our contempt: if God is with us, who will be against us? They can bark, but they cannot bite, unless in the cases that - by imprudence, or pride - we place ourselves in their power".

Sure, if you believe there are evil demons, great, stand against them. Go for it. But don't automatically assume that anyone who's not Catholic is evil and summoning demons.

Importantly, we must not confuse this contempt for the demon with the vain pretension that we, by ourselves, have any power over the fallen Angels.

Wait, all these urgings to pray and turn the tide of evil in lo, these fallen states, and now you say there's nothing you can do about evil in the world? What?

• Act of Reparation To Our Lady
• Followed by Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary
• And the "Short Exorcism Prayer to St. Michael"

So much repetition.

"By our nature, we have no power whatsoever over them; on the contrary, by their superior nature, they are far more powerful than us. Therefore, the foundation of this healthy contempt for the infernal enemies must not be based on a rash disregard of danger.

"Rather, it must be supported by a most sincere humility and true confidence in the Creator and in the Most Holy Virgin."

Oh, right, it's not us as individuals, it's not OUR own strengths held up against evil, it's all God moving through us. I forgot that precept of the crazy, that if we do bad, it's on us, but if we do good, we had no part in it, it was just God all along.

"If these cares are taken, it is befitting to do what the great Saint Therese indicates with such propriety.

"Above all, we should make every effort to live a life of serious and sincere piety, without superstition or sentimentality. This will certainly maintain the demon at a distance, as much as that is possible."
(A Sovereign Contempt For The Demon by Luis Solimeo, from his book Angels and Demons.)

I think that's Luiz, not Luis, but I couldn't actually track the book down to verify the quote. I did track down this, however, which spells Solimeo's name the same way, and does seem to be the same passage quoted above? For what that's worth. maybe it wasn't a book, maybe it was a named essay.

So May I Count On You To Console Our Lady
For This Weekend Of Witchery
By Making A Powerful
Act of ReparationL

• Followed by Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary
• And the "Short Exorcism Prayer to St. Michael"

God love you!And Mary be with you.

Yeah, sure. Really, you'd be better off just brewing a cuppa, laying down with a cold cloth on your forehead, and just breathe for a week or so. Nothing is going to light on fire because you're not hyperventilating every five minutes. Let it go.

Was Lucrezia Borgia the calculating, greed-driven murderess history has painted her? Perhaps not.

There is a real, and very human, cost of loot boxes and gachas in triple-A games. And let's be fair, we've seen some of this with rare items offered in gachas in Second Life. Digital addictions can be just as devastating as physical ones.

And now...let's discuss Tilia.

Now, I will say this is not the first time I've heard of Tilia, because when I bought Lindens today, it said I was buying them from my Tilia account. My what? But I was busy, so I just hit "Buy" and went on with life.

From the page linked above:

"We’re making some important changes to Second Life that will help us comply with U.S. laws and regulations. To do this, Linden Lab formed a new subsidiary, Tilia, to offer certain financial services to the Second Life community. While Tilia might not be a name that is familiar to many in the Second Life community, it was created to efficiently handle the ever-growing and complex needs of our operations."

So, near as I can figure out so far, the formation of Tilia shoves financial responsibility off to this newly-formed subsidiary division, so that if anything really goes wrong, Tilia takes the hit and not Linden Lab? Am I wrong, or am I misunderstanding?

Pursuant to that mention, one of my groups started discussing a bit of the situation:

[20:46] Fxxxxx Bxxxx: does anyone see this already?

Ms. F is referring to the link given above, which I'm going to break down further as we go on.

[20:46] Ixxxxxxx Axxxx: yeah
[20:48] Cxxxxxxx Kxxxx: Goodness! they're going to ask for social security numbers!

Really? Where does it say that?

Beginning on August 1, 2019, Tilia will take over certain aspects of the Second Life service. Tilia enables Linden Lab to continue the Second Life service in its current form through enhanced regulatory compliance protocols.

"Enhanced regulatory compliance protocols" seems to mean, to me at least, "We got caught doing something hinky and we're being told not to do it again" or "Some other country has exacted better financial guidelines than the US has, and we have to comply with those whether we like them or not".

I did a search for the phrase and came up with the WhatIs definition:

"Regulatory compliance is an organization's adherence to laws, regulations, guidelines and specifications relevant to its business processes. Violations of regulatory compliance regulations often result in legal punishment including federal fines."

That still sounds obscure, but reading through the WhatIs article gives me several examples of regulatory compliance laws: the Dodd-Frank Act, which imposes far stricter guidelines for banks and financial institutions, the PCI-DSS, which is essentially a group of guidelines and laws that are used together to regulate credit and debit cards, and to secure digital privacy, HIPAA, which is supposed to ensure digital privacy for medical insurance, plus prohibits insurance and group health plans from denying health insurance based solely on pre-existing conditions, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, turned into law in 2002, which is designed to protect investors from accounting "errors" by large financial firms, and other fraudulent financial reporting, and FISMA, which is another series of regulations and bylaws that assign data privacy protection to several governmental agencies in case of "natural or man-made threat". So, I think I'm getting the gist of what they mean--Tilia is Linden Lab's new financial arm. I think.

To achieve this, Tilia will assume responsibility for managing your USD denominated account, which will be referred to as your "Tilia Account." After August 1, Tilia will handle process credit requests and payments made from your Tilia Account.

So...we won't be registering a new account with Tilia? I'm confused.

What’s changing?

Effective August 1, in order to continue using Second Life you will have to agree to Tilia’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. A Tilia Account associated with your Second Life Account will automatically be created for you and you will not need a separate username or password to access your Tilia Account.

So.....Tilia's going to create individual user accounts for all of us and they will use the same password and username as Second Life? That's very dubious. At the least it's very insecure, especially considering how many laws listed above feature data protection.

In order to stay in compliance with regulatory requirements, if you wish to process a credit, we will need certain personal information to verify your identity, including your name, address, date of birth, and social security number (or government-issued identification if you are not a U.S. Citizen). You may be required to provide additional information to complete the transaction. Tilia will securely store this information so that you should only need to provide it once.

Ah, here it is. And now I can see why people are worried. Even in this country, giving unknown entities our SSI numbers is iffy, but for residents of the EU? It's actually illegal for them to give out personally identifying information.

Note, also, that this seems to apply only to people who "cash out", so to speak--in other words, mainly estate owners, businesses, nonprofit charities that need to withdraw Linden funds into local currency to complete the financial amount owed to said charities. How many of those are people living in the EU, who cannot give out such forms of identification?

Additionally, please note that customers under 18 years of age will not be able to process credit after August 1, 2019 until they reach the age of 18.

I'm actually fine with that, I'm still creeped out that the Lindens merged Teen Grid with the regular grid, and all of a suddden, I had to look at everyone through that "Is this going to get me accused of statutory rape?" lens.

As always, Second Life remains free to access and enjoy! However, if your Tilia Account is inactive for a period of 12 months we will charge your Tilia Account a fee to the extent permitted by applicable law. If you have questions about the inactivity fee, please see Tilia’s Terms of Service.

First time I'd heard mention of a fee, so I went looking. Their ToS contains some dense legalese, but I think section 3.4, "Fees", covers it:

You agree to pay the applicable fees listed on our Fee Schedule published on the Website (”Fees”) for use of the Tilia Services. All Fees are charged at the time we process a transaction and are applied to the payment method you select. We reserve the right to change our Fees upon thirty (30) days’ advance notice. By continuing to use the Tilia Service after a change in the Fees, you hereby agree to such change. All Fees, charges, and payments collected or paid through the Payment Services are denominated in US dollars.

Or...not, because they're still not saying how much the fees will be, at least in the ToS. That's irksome.

And when I went off to Google to check if the website was up yet:



...Oh.

Look, Lindens, I realize you have a theme, I realize "tilia genus" is the name of the Linden tree, ha ha, very amusing...but did you not once stop to consider other businesses running with the same name? By my count, just on the first page, there's a couple wineries, four restaurants, and a band--not to mention on the second page, there's a naturopathic clinic, more restaurants, a property management group, and a flooring company. Great.

[20:48] Fxxxxx Wxxxxxx: Linden Lab has done a *horrible* job of communicating what's going on. But if you read and understand the TOS and a bit of contract law (I'm a contract lawyer in RL) then it's not the big deal it sounds like.

Well, really, when hasn't the Lindens done a horrible job of communicating, on ANYTHING? Be real.

[20:48] Mxxx Hxxxxxxx: its going to basically be illegal to withdraw money in many countries due to LL asking for more information than even some financial institutions are allowed in some cases
[20:49] axxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Is this due to money laundering?
[20:49] Mxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: whats up with an inactivity fee?
[20:49] Ixxxxxxx Axxxx: ok then i'll stop it
[20:49] lxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: yep I am confused. I already did the verify with LL's.
[20:49] Mxxxx Sxxxxxx: I thought it pertained to people who make money in here
[20:50] txxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: thats wrong
[20:50] kxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: I don't like this inactivity fee, seriously?

I don't either. I especially don't like not being able to find even briefly sketched guidelines for what it will eventually be.

[20:50] Axxxx Nxxxxxxx: is this just for if i wish to convert L$ into USD? or is this for buying L$ also

Don't quote me, but it sounds like it's just when people are transferring Lindens into local currency? But I could easily be wrong.

[20:50] axxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Long ago, when I joined nearly 13 years ago, we had to give personal information such as our driver's license number or passport ident. That was to ensure that we are in fact of age to be in adult related sims. A few years after I joined LL got hacked or something, so they removed that requirement.
[20:50] Bxxx Hxxxxxxxx: Meh, my identity isn't doing much for me. Maybe someone else can do something exciting with my SSN. lol
[20:50] Sxxxxxxx Lxxx: there is a decent thread about it in the SL Forums, lots of questions and confusion, but a few tidbits that are helpful
[20:50] Fxxxxx Wxxxxxx: Nope.
[20:50] Pxxx Dxxxxxxxxx: maybe they trying to find out how many alts people have
[20:50] Fxxxxx Wxxxxxx: Sigh. I'm lagging so bad I give up.
[20:51] axxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: You can have alts, back in the day you had to pay $9usd to create a new account.
[20:51] Fxxxxx Wxxxxxx: I remember that [Nxxx]! I gave them my credit card number or my paypal or something so I could buy Lindens. But I never did give them my drivers license or passport. Still would have a problem with that.
[20:51] jxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Tilia is owned by Linden Lab
[20:51] Mxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: so if we dont cash out any more lindens after August will we still have top pay a fee?
[20:51] jxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: wasn't there was an issue years ago with the gambling' in SL and there was money laundering going on?

Oh, there probably still is, it's just more underground than it used to be.

[20:52] kxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: this is just following the same path as crypto. The gov wants their cut of money made in sl. its income.
[20:52] axxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: There was a data breach before, it was even listed on the wiki once. Where all those driver's licenses and passport idents were at risk.
[20:52] Ixxxxxxx Axxxx: as i've already said, i paid for a year of my premium membership already and wasnt asked anything

Because this is a separate system from paying premium fees. That is likely still handled by the Lab. Financial withdrawals, starting August 1st, will not be handled by the Lab, but by the functionary Tilia.

[20:52] jxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: l have a small store but I have never cashed any in. I just us the lindens inworld
[20:53] axxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Same with Skype asking for mobile now, it's voluntary now but one day it might be the gatekeeper.
[20:54] jxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: all they are doing is gathering our personal info and sharing it

Well, any large company is doing that. In that regard, LL is just doing the same thing everyone else is.

[20:54] Mxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: the tilla is for cashing out or using your lindens as a credit right?
[20:54] jxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: SL is free to play as long as you pay the yearly fee to there new company Tilia

Wait, there's a yearly fee to use Tilia? When Linden Lab is making it mandatory for all users of SL? I haven't heard that.

There's a lot that's still up in the air, apparently. I'll keep reading.