Fashion show at BardHaven

Caledon Mayfair 48,90,23 – Fashion show at the BardHaven estate, designs by sachi Vixen, including two new gowns. The models are ladies from Caledon, wearing Adam n Eve skins, hair, eyes, and shoes.

Caledon Mayfair 48,90,23 – One of the hair designs is Victoriana, and I intend to look at it in the store. Sadly, it was not well fitted during the show.

Caledon Mayfair 48,90,23 – The models are having attachment problems, and we have been requested to removed radar and HUDs, so this will be my last live post on the show.

Caledon titles

(Edit 14 July: There is now a Caledon titles page on the slhistory wiki, where you can make corrections, additions, and deletions.)

At one of the recent dances in Caledon, there was a brief conversation about titles and forms of address in Caledon. There was some jesting about Burke’s Peerage or Begonia’s Peepage. Baron Bardhaven stated that there aren’t that many titled personalities in Caledon, so I went ætherically hunting. And he’s right, or at least, I couldn’t find many.

While it’s all just fun and games, with a little role-playing here, a little prentension there, and a good dash of healthy fantasy life, the use of titles does do one thing, which I believe we must have a care about: Titles, especially for those who are new or who do not know the titles being bandied about, create a sense of an in-group. Now I believe that all groups have boundaries (some permeable, some semi-permeable, some closed), and that individuals can be closer or farther from the center. But I also believe that the common hope of all Caledonians is that our society will be free, open, and inviting.

In the spirit of making Caledonian society more open and inviting as regards formal address, having consulted the fine, though brief, histories available at the Caledon Forums and the slhistory wiki (which appears to be down at this writing), done some cursory searches of the æthernet, and paid attention at a couple of recent parties, I venture this very rough draft of the residents and friends of the Independent State of Caledon who affect titles. I encourage all those who read this to offer correction, addition, and commentary. When I am a bit more confident of the list, I shall add it to the slhistory wiki and submit it to the editor of the Caledon Forums for appropriate placement.

(Forms of address, where I know a preference or general practice, are noted in parentheses. Sir Edward Pearse has begun a series of notes on forms of address.)

Proprietor

  • Guvnah Desmond Shang (Guvnah, Des)

Stewards

  • Khashai Steinbeck, First Steward of Caledon
  • Sir Gerami Fizz
  • Princesa Yuiko Muromachi
  • Vicereine Kamilah Hauptmann, Last Steward of Caledon

Duchies

  • Her Grace, Gabrielle Riel, Duchess of Carntaigh (Your Grace)
  • Her Grace, Eva Bellambi, Duchess Loch Avie (Your Grace)
  • Her Grace, CoyoteAngel Dimsum, Duchess of Primverness, Baroness Lovelace, Defender of the Faith(less), Keeper of the Light (Beer), Speaker to Machines
  • Her Grace, Kamilah Hauptmann, Duchess of Lionsgate
  • ?? Shenlei Flasheart (former Duchess of Loch Avie)

Knights

  • Ordinal Malaprop, Knight of Caledon
  • Leosanni Somme, Knight of Caledon

Titled Caledonians

  • Baron of Bauerhoff Gottfried Eusebio
  • Amber Palowakski, 15th Baroness of Bauerhoff de Caledon (Lady Amber, My Lady)
  • Zealot Benmergui, Baron Bardhaven (Lord Bardhaven, Baron Bardhaven)
  • Kirawill Collingwood, Baroness Bardhaven (Lady Bardhaven, Baroness Bardhaven)
  • Hermione Fussbudget, Baroness Wyre (Miss Fussbudget, Baroness Wyre, Lady Wyre)
  • Lady Pym Sartre
  • Lady Lavendar Beaumont
  • Sir Edward Pearse (Sir Edward)
  • Christine McAllister, Lady Pearse (Lady Pearse)
  • Sir ZenMondo Wormser, Order of the Red Rose (Sir ZenMondo, Sir Zen)
  • Sir Telemachus Dean, Order of the Red Rose (Sir Telemachus, Sir Tele)
  • Sir Adso Krogstad, Order of the Red Rose (Sir Adso)
  • Sir Amplebeak Tinlegs (Sir Amplebeak)

Foreign titles

  • Her Majesty Kendra Bancroft, Kaiserin von Neualtenburg
  • His Serenity Otenth Paderborn, Jarl of Orcadia (Otenth; Your Serenity if you absolutely must on formal occasions: it’s an old germanic influence)

Military rank

(I confess to confusion and inability to keep up. The following is so woefully incomplete I hesitate to even reveal it. Won’t someone else, I beg of you, take up this gauntlet?)

  • Major Erasmus Margulis
  • Captain Lapin Paris
  • Admiral Carricre Wind
  • Colonel/Post-Captain Hotspur O’Toole
  • Colonel Exrex Somme

Hurry, hurry, hurry!

Check out Long Now « welcome to blueair.tv for SLURLs for “four completely unique installations of Brian Eno’s 77 Million Paintings as remixed by Angrybeth Shortbread.” They’re only there through tonight (Sunday), as they are concurrent with the RL premiere installation. Totally wild. The Hooper location isn’t included in the in-world TPs, but make sure you go there&emdash;rotating cubes in space that you can sit on (especially good in mouselook with names turned off).

Yea-sayers and nay-sayers

There’s a very nice summary by Christopher Mims of a presentation by Mitch Kapor, chairman of Linden Lab, (complete with slides) over at Scientific American: Second Life chairman’s stump speech takes us down the rabbit hole. Kapor, of course, is a yea-sayer. Christopher Mims is, if not a nay-sayer, certainly a skeptic. Much of the public conversation about Second Life as a business platform is neither here nor there for me, and so I often find critics’ objections or cautions to be irrelevant. Mims has one statement, however, that reveals a narrowness of vision that goes beyond Second Life:

This is the part of the speech where Kapor tells all the haters to talk to the hand. I’m not sure what this proves other than that in any transition, there are people who lack vision. This doesn’t mean that the folks who say similar things about Second Life are wrong–it just means that Kapor left off the ten million other quotes that would have represented legitimate skepticism of technologies of dubious value. Like, say, the airship.

Yes, it’s that little gratuitous dig at the airship. What world does he live in? Does he pay for gas? Has he heard of global climate change? Does he know what a massive amount of non-perishable goods are shipped by truck, train, or freighter, all powered by non-renewable fossil fuels? Airships would be an excellent solution to many—not all, of course—long-distance transit needs.

If we’re going to survive in anything like the style to which we have become accustomed, we need to get real serious about what parts of that style are essential, and which are not, and above all we need to become more creative in our thinking. Airships of dubious value? They may not turn out to be the best (or even a good) solution to our long-term long-distance transportation needs, but to dismiss them out of hand as part of a rhetorical argument reveals a mind-set that isn’t going to help us get closer to solving some of the worst problems facing us.

RL people

I’ve met two of my SL UU acquaintances here at the UUA General Assembly: Cathryn Cleanslate and Chara Allen. Both have been a delight to meet, and it makes me eager to have other opportunities.

In a similar vein, my (RL) friend Jan sent a note saying she had spoken at Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting and Association, and had mentioned me, and that two people had asked to be remembered to me: Harmony Bright and Turtle Boogiewoogie.

SL statistics as percentage of country population

I got a geeky urge, and played around with the SL statistics for May 2007. I added country population (July 2007 estimates, according to the CIA World Factbook) for the top part of the list as sorted by number of avatars, as well as selected countries from lower down the list.

Antarctica, 211 active avatars (who knew they would keep statistics?), is number one with over 5%, based on the peak summer estimate of 4,000 residents. If based on the winter population estimate of 1,000, the percent would increase to a whopping 21%. American Samoa, 419 active avatars, comes in with 0.73% of a population of 57,663. Netherlands, 17,130 active avatars, is third at 0.10% of a population of 16,570,613.

The United States, predictably, drops from 1 (130,033 active avatars) to 19 (only 0.04% of 301,139.947). Most European countries at the top of the avatar numbers move ahead of the US.

Here’s the abbreviated list sorted by % of population (google docs).

Wyre dance floor

Here are a few shots of the large dance floor I built for Wyre Warming Day. These were taken a few days later, when we had an impromptu dance party.

[many photos lost]

I’m very proud of how the steps turned out:

There was a bonfire on the hill above the dance floor:

Paavo came by for a little boating:

Taking a carriage ride along the sea road:

Asha’s home (built from scratch!):