we won't put our money where your Catholic mouth is

Today I received a message about a very old entry (clear back in 2012), with a very simple request: could I link the mention of mesothelioma to mesothelioma.net as a site? And yes, as evidenced by this entry and the correction on the 2012 entry, I can.

Pursuant to the levels of suspicion writ plain in that 2012 entry, I did read through the site fairly completely. It's not a charity site, it's more a clearinghouse for medical and treatment information, personal stories (like Virgil's, the fellow who wrote me), and links to charities and foundations. It seems pretty above-board, and has already taught me something--I thought the disease was restricted to asbestos miners and contractors, but Virgil worked in the car industry, where apparently asbestos fibers are used. So while it's still rare, there are more means of delivery, which are pretty dire.

In more local news, it seems Mondragon coffee grown in the high fields is not reaching Babbage. Piracy is suspected, but nothing seems to be proven yet. (Though I'd tend to suspect Mr. Callidus Waydelich, the current leader of the new Mondrago, but he swears he's given up his piratical ways.) For me, as a non-Babbage resident, I'm mostly reporting from afar, but if the situation worsens, I will let you know. In the meantime, traveling to Jadida Mondrago seems safe, and it is known that coffee is plentiful there; not sure what's going to happen in Babbage.

Me being me, I'd source out coffee elsewhere, but riot in the streets if the Caledonian catnip brandy supplies drop. But...that's me.

In other, other news...this one's weird.

So, New World Notes covered Kim Kardashian's branding exploits in Second Life, which is strange to begin with. First, it's all to advertise a perfume in SL, and...pardon me, I know the entire grid functions on imagination, but what's the point of perfume in a grid without the sense of smell? Maybe I'm limited. But, that's what she's doing, and she's been uploading images taken in SL to her Instagram feed (said feed largely being "Hi, I'm pretty and I post lots of pictures of me being pretty", with occasion side excursions into "Hi, I'm pretty, buy this thing" and "Hi, I'm pretty, my husband's famous". I'd say that's pretty typical of Instagram, but the few accounts on Instagram I follow feature cats, so what do I know?).

But it gets weirder. Her SL avatar, which looks less like her and more like a digitized Cher, wasn't even developed on SL originally. It's a recreation of an avatar first seen in IMVU, where she's had a much longer relationship pimping out consumer goods. And...maybe I'm wrong, but isn't IMVU somewhat antagonistic to SL in the first place? I know they've been accused of imitating SL's advertising, back when SL decided ripping off Avatar's look was the way to go, so that's sort of copyright infringement cubed on all sides. But to me, it still seems like IMVU's more Tinder and SL's more Tumblr--still the same amount of hookups and drama, but also the ability to explore other things, whereas IMVU still seems "log in, dress up, get shagged". If I'm wrong, please, someone tell me. I've never had an IMVU account, I've just seen videos of things that happen there.

take it easy Arlene, don't give me no lip

Well, this is just a terrible friggin' idea. Listen--I know we're all paranoid since Teen Grid closed. I know a lot of sims don't want any possible connection to ageplay in any way. I get it, okay? But this is not the way. This is the worst level of tattletale coding, and from what I understand from the article, it's something I could be involved with without even knowing it, and that's a dangerous road to go down.

Think about it. Say I'm wandering--me, an RL adult, outside of some extremely rare occasions playing an adult, officially rated Adult for all sims--in my Kemono, and I found a cute little romper that I wanted to wear on the MP from someone. Unbeknownst to me, they've put this coding in, and since they tell makers to make it a no-mod script in a no-mod item (we'll save the no-mod rant for another day, thanks), I'm likely not even going to check to see what's in it before I put it on.

So I'm happily wandering and then suddenly POOF--no warning, I'm banned from someplace. I have no idea why. I try to go back, can't. I contact the owner, and if everyone's on a rational page that day, maybe I get back in to look that sim over. But in all likelihood, if they look at their "Agegate" system software, and see my name, then they're going to get their back up and say I was bounced for very good reason, and I'm some kind of low, illegal pervert for even asking to get back in. And if they're really in a mood, they go off and report me for being an ageplayer on their sim.

That threatens my account and I never did a thing. All I did was wear an outfit. THIS IS VERY BAD, PEOPLE.

Elsewhere...



The Manisha does not function.

That is all.

(Yes, there's a story behind this, but I just wanted to save the image, so...presented without context.)