Vint Falken

Shockwave Plasma
Originally uploaded by VintFalken

I've never looked so good. :-)

Thank you so very much Vint.

I posted the 2000th comment on her blog, and this was my present.


“It takes more than just a good looking body. You've got to have the heart and soul to go with it.”

Epictetus

When enough is enough

I've known Dani Ferguson ever since I landed on her head, on her first day in SL. Teleports will do that ya know
..
It was a long time ago, at least it feel that way. Sometimes you meet someone and you get a gut feeling, for some reason I felt it for her. I gave her some $L and said the place for new peopel is "The Shelter" and she turned up, met Erbo and the rest is history as they say.

She has done some great stuff, built a business, had an SL marridge ( or two ). We don't chat much, my friends list is very small, with about 12-15 people on it. When I was thinking to delete SP and start again, I would have added her first to my new friends list. We probably still would hardly ever talk, but again it's nice to have her there.

Oddly enough in SL people can really show their true face. Sound strange? Your anonymous, you can delete your account and then come back as someone else, you can be a never ending cycle of being a total bastard.

On the otherhand your kindness, drive and generosity also can come through, and you can do what you can do to make things better.

Dani is one of the second, but it seems has met too many of the first, she is thinking of leaving , if so I would miss her.


“True friends are like diamonds, precious and rare. False friends are like leaves, found everywhere.” -anon

Blog postings

Back again,
I had one of those times when things just went to hell for a bit. So what does a blogger do to be self destructive? Starts to delete bits of the blog, and info sources.

That's where the links sidebar went. I'll put it back soon.

I was about to give it up, and just press "Delete" on SL, and everything involved, and just walk away. But I have to much time and effort in Shockwave Plasma to do that.

I have noticed a lot of my older friends have dropped off the "League of Bloggers", but it's just as well there are always more :-)


“It matters if you just don’t give up.” - Steven Hawking

Another update

I think I have said a few times the stress of lots of things has been getting to me. It seems most of the friends/family I am close to are either ill, sick or very sick, physically or mentally. I know it can't do much about it for anyone.

There are some I'm trying to help, and will keep doing so, until they tell not to. I just have to figure out how to do it best.

But the angst is burning into me.

I love all of them, and would feel diminished without them.

I'm not really a social person, never have been, but I am learning how to be better at it.

Living in one's own head has it's benefits, but you can only go so far before you get wondering where else you can go.

Sleep has been a problem as well, insomnia either getting to sleep, or going back to sleep after a few hours. Strange dreams as well, Freudian, not my usual Jungian stuff. It's not stuff I would share with just anyone, it's rather personal.

I have been examining my mental states all my life, and my subconscious has been doing something odd...it's like it's detaching or moving from my friends as if it's getting ready for something. So that's a worry for me as well.

I work on the NLP theory, were we are made of small self contained mental processess, sometimes in harmony, mostly in conflict.

It's strange, I can really feel activity in different parts of my head, and that when I wonder whats going on. Then these strange ideas or obsessions start.

Occasionally some brilliant idea comes out if it. But it's not that common :-)

Thinking is getting harder, my imagination and creativity seems to have suffered, it's been like thinking through mush...it started after I went head first into a car a few years ago.

Time to do a few more mental exercises...I have been going to the gym, at least that is getting me somewhere. Weight is coming off, and feeling a much fitter.

I've much more to work on, so much to do. Time to clear out the mush.

I'm not dead

Just an update.

Personally its been a bit stressful recently, quite a few things going on, I seem to have lost about 2-3 in off my waist. A bit of mental fatigue as well. Work, family, friends, study, etc all seem to be a part of it.

I have been writing to my sister, and telling her...well everything...who, what, where, how many times and where the bodies are buried, I'm finding it's quite cathartic.

I have been doing a lots of reflection and thinking.

During this time I have emailed people I knew in the past, and had both positive and negative replies, but on the whole, it's good to be in contact with old friends.

A lot of people I have met in SL have been a positive influence on me without them realizing it, and I wish to say thanks. I makes my days more bearable knowing your there.

Also the LL new, (but not new) policies are totally pissing me off. Has the Moral Majority (an oxymoron if I ever heard it) take over Linden Labs, or have they put the squeeze on the place. Maybe someone has got religion...(ok..we interrupt this rant)

Your world, Your Imagination is the slogan, but are some peoples imaginations just to wild? I guess so.

So what could be happening really?

Legal issues would be the obvious thing. But finer minds than I have been discussing it in the many fine SL basedforums.

Action seems to be centred here at United Protest , but let your voice be heard.


What is morality in any given time or place? It is what the majority then and there happen to like, and immorality is what they dislike. ~Alfred North Whitehead

Break time

I've decided to take a break from SL to concentrate on my studies. Please feel free to contact me anytime.

I've had another set of syncronistic events..here we go again.

There are more men ennobled by study than by nature. cicero

Headstone

I put this on Jaceks Blog, but thought to share it with you here as well.

I’ve asked for this to be on my headstone, should I need it soon. Actually might go on the Footstone.

Here lies buried Shockwave Plasma
Two minds are gone to be phantasma
Her polygons did stir your eyes
With boots going up past her thighs
His Noodlyness did raise her high
As a model for the stripper factory, he did her espy.

“The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead.” Albert Einstien

Late Introduction

Natalia has one of the best blogs I have seen. It's updated everyday, and has great locations, and great pictures. I have found her tutorials to be clearly written, and very helpful.

It should be mandatory ready for new people.

Great work Natalia.

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. -Henry Ford

Not a Meme number 13

Thanks to Vint for this one.
What have I done in SL and never told anyone.

I got my first rental in a beach hut on the edge of the sand. I was only about 6 weeks old. When it was night time and there was not many people around the Sim, I would strip off and fly around naked.

That was until I discovered "force sun". Oh...dear. Then I stopped.

RL secret, I'm 5 foot 7 or about 155cm tall, not 6 foot 3.

New SL books

A new SL book is coming out The Unofficial Tourists' Guide to Second Life

Tim guest has Second Lifes coming out soon.

Aimee Weber has a book coming out on advanced building.

Hamlet Linden is working on his own book to come out soon.

Now all we need is the Phinn Boffin/Vint Falkin coffee table picture book.

A room without books is like a body without a soul - Cicero

IBM article on Linux

Linux Sl client for beginners

"Linux was made by foreign terrorists to take money from true US companies
like Microsoft." - Some AOL'er.

Not a Meme Challenge Number 9

Coles Not a Meme Challenge What has SL brought to your RL?

I would say, More friends.

But I will go further and say this is what it was brought to other peoples RL, a decent article in The Times about disabled people and their experience in SL. This is a two page spread in the Body and Soul section of The Times, so will be read by a large number of people.

It also has quotes from Torley and Bacarra Rhodes.


For me, the wheelchair symbolizes disability in a way a cane does not.
Annette Funicello

The Green Hand of Phillip

Have a look at the Handmark Logo

And remember these Zip Drives ?

Could that be a Eye in the Hand logo as well ?

Yes, I am a bit bored...







Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it's not going to get the business. Warren Buffett

Not-a-meme Challenge Number 8

Dolmere has started the Not a Meme Challenge
and having been asked to contribute to Number 8.

Here it is:-

Now that you have been outed as an SLer.

What would you show your Grandmother in SL?

( As she has read about all that sex stuff, and now thinks ( or has proof ) your a dangerous pervert)


I would take her to Svarga and show her all the right-ups about it in the press.

New world Notes and the New York Times for example.


So, what would you show "your " Grandmother ?

Dolomeres Not-a-Meme

Dolomeres Not-a-Meme challenge


I only have one useful hint.
Ever bought a lot of stuff and then wonder what it was called a few days later?

I did, and what were those clothes called again??
Bummer, it's lost in my inventory, never to be seen again.

So I just now right click on myself and write myself a note.


































Sometimes I even understand my notes a few weeks later.


Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them. - Dalai Lama

A confession

I have a confession to make...I've become a Stripper..hard to believe I know.

I'm taking it all off, all of it, I'm not even wearing my gloves or my boots, and you know I almost always have them on.

Why am I doing this, you ask, simple, it's for the money. I'm not going to pretend that I like it, but it's something that needs to be done.

But I think I am doing rather well, I have the hip and and the hand motions down well.

Sometimes I take it off bit by bit, one piece at a time, other times I just just grab handfuls and just wrench it off.

Some have asked to see me with no clothes on as well, I won't name anyone. So here's a picture for you.




Stripping this horrible 1970's woodchip wallpaper from the walls of my flat is taking ages.

Antarctica, the cursed, is the continent that is the Pastafarian equivalent to Christianity’s Hell. The beer volcano froze over millennia ago, the strippers wear big bulky parkas and snow pants, and the place is covered in ice and snow. - Rev. St. Tobias Leonard

Hello to Vint Falken

Second Life Sex profile
Originally uploaded by VintFalken.

It's good to see some new talent and humor.

I'm surprised no one thought of this one before. :-)

Vint does some great shots, and her tutorials are well worth reading.

( To any non-sl ppl, its a joke )


When authorities warn you of the sinfulness of sex, there is an important lesson to be learned. Do not have sex with the authorities. - Matt Groening

University of Southern Queensland

slusq
Originally uploaded by shockwaveplasma.

The slow but sure creep of education in to SL is happening.

This in not my Uni, but it was one of my options.

Part of a Queensland Govt grant to a Phd student, it's an OK build, not great or flashy. I don't recall a Unicorn on the Uni shield.

Nice horn :-)

Update 25-2007:- Decka has left a comment, that updates my factual errors (ooops, sorry Decka.) I visited again last night, and realized it does sort of remind me of going to the beach, and is quite relaxing. I only had very short chat to Decka, as it was very late here.

I think I read on sloz.com that it was the official USQ island, and that is why I was expecting something different.

( As usual any errors are my own, and I take responsibility for them )

To live in Australia permanently is rather like going to a party and dancing all night with one's mother.
Barry Humphries

Shockwaves handy tips for Geeks

Tip 1

Today I have been tiding up my flat, it's very small, really really small. If you are like me and you have cables left right and centre, you need a place to put them away, but then to be able to find them when you need them.

I also have a bunch of those neckstraps that you seem to get at every convention or meeting.

So now I have my ethernet cables hanging from itsafeonline neckstrap, power cables from netintelligence.

Naturally the only cable I want now is the one I can't find :-(


Tip 2

Keep one of those really cheap LED lights on the floor, at the back of your PC so you can see what you are plugging in to.

Tip 3

Always make private backups of your RADIUS logs and your Squid proxy server logs.
Both are time stamped, RADIUS records the IP address of your customers/users and Squid records what websites they have looked at.
This information is invaluable for when you belive you should have a "pay-rise", or your users decide to be ...... "difficult".


If you have any trouble sounding condescending, find a Unix user to show you how it's done. ~Scott Adams

Truth, Lies , Deception and Second Life

From The BBC site last year

A survey found 43% of online networkers from the US felt "as strongly" about their web community as they did about their real-world friends.

---

It also revealed net-users had made an average of 4.6 virtual pals this year.

---

The survey, from the US-based Center for the Digital Future, of 2,000 individuals forms part of a six-year study into attitudes to the web.

When I first started n the Internet, It was really just Usenet eg, Newsgroups. I never used my real name, and most people where the same. It was "Hello Space Ghost" or "Hello Pooka". I never felt the need to meet anyone I met online.

But just to contradict myself, most of the people I knew in the few years I was in NZ, I met via BBS or flatmates friends who coincidentally were also on the same BBS.

Second Life is sort of like the new Internet, but it's not the place to be yourself, it's the place to be what you want to be.

For many of the older residents, what happened in SL stayed in SL, and RL was separate. But it seems to be that the newer residents are just being themselves.

Some people just lie totally, and this can be really heartbreaking.

What do you do when old and new meet? Is one person being more honest than the other? Being of the old school, I've given this a lot of thought.

My personal belief is that any sort of cyber-based emotional involvement, without having a way to check who the other person behind the keyboard is, would be a major mistake.

But then I'm a boring person and like to play safe.

I've met some great people, and I count some of them as my friends, but I'm not planning on going to any SL meet ups. My SL has spilled over to RL a bit, and I'm a bit concerned that they might want to know more than I'm preparded to give.

I would really hate to think that I have been deceiving anyone, but it's only in SL that I could be a 6 foot tall, blond, pirate, buxom Barbie. ( and it's a fun thing to be, and remindes me of a cousin )

So I talk very vagely about myself, but I never lie to anyone, because if I care enough to communicate with you, I care enough not to want to hurt you.



Real friendship is shown in times of trouble; prosperity is full of friends- Euripedes