2008....the best of..... lol, how traditional

Well, I thought I would put together some pictures of some of my favourite things....and that turns out to be people, of 2008.

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER....:)) and very aware, as I am, that there are many missing. I have particularly missed Izabella and Charlot....two very good friends who have been abducted by RL. I hope they return in 2009.

....and everyone who bought trees from me should have a special mention too..... particularly those that dug deep into their pockets....particularly, Earth, Alex, Pandaemon, Giancarla, Jade, Sabrinaa, the list would just be tooo long...:))

People like Bettina and Fab amongst others have just been plain supportive too....... anyone I have forgotten will know it is my frail brain that is at fault... xxxxxxxxxxxx

EEEEEK.....I knew it would happen...... I have no photo of Caro Babenco...and she is the person I chat most with, probably, thousands of words we've exchanged in 2008.... Ah well, she knows how much i love her,....:))
Its her spirit, her sense of exploration, as much as her humour that keeps us chatting....
and i dont have photo of Selavy, just her work......





Dorney Vaher, a fairly recent friend, compared to others, but has a heart of pure gold and hair to match...:))




Selavy Oh, probably my favourite builder in SL cos of her scripting abilities and her fertile imagination.. . she and Aliz (and Bryn) really understand (as I have said before...sorry) that SL is a medium... and a cos she's a generally nice person.




Bryn Oh ...... Such a lovely looking being would make anyone swoon, I think. A great builder and imaginative artist she keeps creating good stuff.





Although offline at the moment due to house moving, Pixi Cosmos is one of my friends, and like my others, have kept me happy and smiling....





Betty Rogan with one of my favourite avis of all time... posted earlier.... Yao Ogee's humour and Betty's lovely nature....(she's also a budgie at times, when she's not a bee)





This is an old photo of Mr Widget, tho he hasnt aged at all..... best dance music of 2008, I think.... always have a good bop if I'm online at the right time





The wonderful Wizard Gynoid, talented and witty, a pleasure to know.





Sporadic Flow, here pictured with a likeness of Mr Moonsoo, a welcome return of this talented builder. He was my first mentor and a real gem.





ColeMarie Soleil, another very welcome return... A talented girl with great ears and voice...:))) without you I wouldnt have a thing to wear....:))





Alizarin Goldflake I have mentioned before in these pages... great textures and a great friend. Always a pleasure to see what you are up to.

Consciousness and Second Life.

Botgirl, as usual raises the most pertinent questions in her ongoing interest in SL consciousness. I have posted a lengthy reply to her blog ..........
I repeat it here for those who might be interested:

"This post and previous ones have only reinforced my belief that understanding the shift in consciousness that happens as we become a virtual being can only be understood when we go back to the question of how we understand consciousness.

I resisted writing after watching the Ted Talks clip you posted, because, as he said, everyone has their own particular theory on consciousness, and I felt that mine was really just more virtual space junk. Later, I realised that very few people have a theory about consciousness, and those that do, I like to hear.

I think that a major breakthrough has come for the science community now that it has realised that all that black stuff we see in the night sky is not Nothing, it may not be matter as we know it, but it is Stuff. Similarly, consciousness may be better understood when we we start to look at the Unconscious, (and here I am thinking of the individual unconsciousness).

The decisions we take in forming our avatars “ beneath ... conscious awareness” are, like our dreams and inspirations, coming from a place which is outside our conscious control. Because dreams (and, I suspect, inspiration) are uncontrollable Jung called them autonomous, and postulated that the unconscious was both autonomous and older than consciousness.

This, if applied to Second Life, gives this (Virtual) conscious state a very unusual place in our experience, being a sort of waking dream. It is a hitherto unknown mixture of conscious and unconscious words, acts, and decisions. It is populated by Colonials trying to maintain their old culture ( the “real life” brigade) and by those that have “gone native” and become Archetypes, (dragon, elves and the like).

Those of us living in the land between these two extremes are being formed by the people we meet, the experiences we have, the clothes we buy. My human likes to think they make more rational decisions than Soror. But that is delusion.
A dream is a natural phenomenon, it is real. There is nothing unreal about SL either. It is a frontier land for the psyche."

:))

More Christmas

Hmmm.. think I may have run out of Christmas now. If I hear another lame christmas song I may scream.

It was nice, thanks..... lets get on with it and get the occasional decent tune on the radio now, shall we.... :)))

Other breaking news is my 7th dodgy skin, lol, I am making the Lindens rich with my attempts. My clothes I made last year cost me thousands, and the skin looks like exceeding that by a long chalk, at this rate. And my optimistic claims to have cracked Gimp were just that....:)) still.....its all good fun.... mostly...


:))

Mary had a baby boy

Why??
If she had had a girl, things would have gone very differently...
(probably better)
and its not as if God wandered around Bethlehem wondering if his first born was a boy or a girl.
So why did he have a boy?

Not such a stupid question, (although mostly hero myths do involve boys) some of the Greek female gods had a bit of backbone.

Well, according to Jung, in his studies of the rise and fall of religious sects in ancient Egypt, as one new religion was trying to take power from the current one.... the current power was (almost obviously) branded as the devil. It seems that this is a universal pattern, echoed a bit in our "democratic process".

The last religion that ruled (or political party) become demonised by the current religious power.

And so we come to the question again, why did Mary not have a girl? The answer may be found in the preceding religion. The preceding religion in much of the Middle East and Europe was the cult of the Goddess. To have had a girl would have reinforced that particular view point, and given power to the priestesses.

And so it came to pass that a totally male dominated religion was born and all 3 of the top jobs were given to men, viz. Father, Son and Holy Ghost, although I suspect the Holy Ghost has (inspite of Mary's impregnation) more female attributes than male.

This unholy holy alliance was reinforced in the following centuries and women were demonised, religiously.....and the world, well, European world, fell down into a dark depression where Dogma was wielded like a blunt instrument, and intellectual activity was basically looked down on. The knowledge of the natural world that women had was hidden, then forgotten.

Well, thats all old history, you might think, but this decidedly dodgy state of affairs continues in our culture and our laws due to the historical influence of the Church. I'm not saying anything really new here, I know, but....at Christmas its good to remember thats Mary's little boy has been a curse as well as a blessing.

Mary could have had a baby girl.


:))

MERRY KISSMAS

A very Merry Kissmas to all.


xxxxxxx

:))

The Pope and the arab.

Now, Michael Faraday (1791-1867) said, and obviously its not a unique observation, "There is nothing as frightening as someone who knows they are right".

and when the Pope and the arab, whose name its best not to type, agree on their attitude towards homosexuality, I think my remarks in a previous post concerning Religion are a little justified:

"Religion..... not a topic to touch on if you wanna make friends they say. Hmmm.... well, my opinion is that religion has been the justification for more murderous activity than any other. If you have God on your side you are permitted to do anything. It is basic form of schizophrenia, where the responsibility is foisted onto an invisible entity, like listening to walls, but more socially acceptable."

After writing the above someone asked me why I didnt just join an atheist group. Well, I have gods, I am not without beliefs, but my gods live in flowers, trees, fields, sunsets, mountains and all living creatures. My gods dont judge you by how "good" you are, or "pure" and they dont pronounce on what is "right" and "wrong". They dont cause wars.

Not that I have anything against the roman catholic Church either; in fact, I like colourful pomp and ceremony more than the dour anti-everything Protestant Churches whose petty-mindedness has infected our laws and culture. But it is, beyond any shadow of doubt, a work of evil for the Powerful to single out any particular minority and judge , condemn or ridicule.

It is done...always has been, of course, to control.
Those in positions of power have, by definition, a power-complex... and dont tolerate any attempt to usurp their Control. As they are normally paranoid-schizophrenics this normally means everyone else.
This is the psychology underlying the Popes recent comment.
Well, he never had a life....


xxx

Alizarin Goldflake had a skating party

As usual the environment Aliz had created was wonderful, the snow is just beautiful and the anims for the skaters was super cool.... I had a great time. I made some frozen fish skate skates....and they went down well with Aliz and I who did some amazing synchronised pieces before the guests arrived and Aliz played hostess while I went to bed....:)))

I am currently waiting at Weblin to get my photo done for the little chat avatar at the bottom of this blog...we shall see how it all works out. Interesting.

Other, non vital, news...well, this blog hits the 6000 mark, and I think I have cracked Gimp, well, enough to use it for tex. So all is well with the world ... the squirrel is still burying the birds peanuts, and the birds are annoyed.... all sane...:))

Hope to turn my mind to Christmas these next few days, and made a start at Lalala.....:))

have to get a party frock on...

:)))