The machinima at Oolon Sputnik’s 500 Year Diary: Secret Policemens Ball is a fine result of Saturday night’s events. It shows considerable creativity, as do the swirling intrigues and drama being carried forward on various Caledon blogs. In addition, Mr Zealot Benmergui very graciously stepped out of character on the Caledon Forums to help out the clueless such as myself, and Guvnah Shang himself posted to the Forums to reassure residents.
Project Open Letter
While I have not personally experienced each bulleted item in Project Open Letter, I’ve had some of those bugs as well as being tired of other, “ambient suffering” glitches that seem to be perpetually with us. I fully support the open letter’s plea that Linden Lab give priority to stabilization and scaling over new features. I’m especially glad that the authors added this:
We remain fully supportive of Second Life and are more than willing to continue doing our part to help, . . .
I enjoy SL so much, most of the time I’m just delighted to be able to be at play there and overlook the ongoing problems. But it would be so much nicer to have teleports and sim crossings always work, and attachments to stay put, and friends, groups, and search working consistently! So I’ve signed the letter.
Quakerism classes
Because the Quaker group in Second Life includes both experienced Friends and those discovering Quakerism for the first time, I’ll be offering a series of four classes on Quakerism. Come for one or all!
Four Tuesdays: May 8, 15, 22, and 29, 6:30-8:00 PM SLT/PDT (9:30-11:00 EDT)*.
Classes will be held at First Friends Church of Second Life (Quaker/156/22).
SYLLABUS
A class of four sessions begins with the assumption that most things are left out! Here are the topics I plan to present:
May 8: Quaker History
The Religious Society of Friends from the 17th century in England to today all over the world.
May 15: Biblical Origins of Quakerism
We will be using the Friendly Bible Study method on John 1:1-9. If you have a preferred translation of the Bible, please come prepared to share the text in your version.
May 22: Meeting for Business
How do Quaker meetings and churches make decisions? What are the roles that are involved?
May 29: Quaker Spirituality
What are the distinctive elements of Quaker spirituality? What practices do Quakers use to deepen our spiritual lives?
The classes will include a combination of presentation, exercises, and discussion; the balance will vary considerably from week to week.
- I’m sorry that I’m not able to commit to a series of weekend times that would include people far from my own geographic location.
Caledon-Neualtenburg Reconciliation Ball
Last night’s Reconciliation Ball, with its distressing conflict between Hotspur Otoole and Edward Pearse and the unpleasant abduction of the Kaiserin of Port Neualtenburg, induced my typist into a long reflection on role-playing.
Victorian housewifery
Mrs Beeton’s THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT in the aetheric medium:
it contains all that was needed for a newly-married woman to face keeping house with confidence
Sim crossing into a full parcel
The Prim and Proper store near my home in Tamrannoch has been transformed into a stables, selling sleighs and hackney carts drawn by draft horses. Naturally, I had to have one, and I’ve been taking it out for driving lessons. Pretty pictures will have to wait for later. In the meantime:
That’s the cart.
And that’s me and the Percheron.
And this is how it first started, before the horse and I became separated from the cart. You can see Caledon Victoria City there, far below us. (Linked to 800 pixel wide version.)
Family tragedy
With heavy heart I report that I have become head of House Heidrun, through the death of all senior members in a terrible molasses flood. This brings to me responsibility for the ancestral property in Caledon Highlands, and I know not what else. My cousin Mr Paderborn and I are the only known surviving members of the clan, although I shall ever be on the lookout for other distant relatives and retainers.
I have never concerned myself with the family business of mead-making, and of course now all of our facilities have been destroyed. Oh, that Great-Uncle Oskrr had not hazarded the experiment of substituting molasses for honey! The only thing recovered from the accident was a single beehive. There is still a terrible mess of congealing molasses at the plant; who knows what yet may be salvaged, or indeed, if House Heidrun should ever again produce the healthful and invigorating draughts for which it has ever been known!
New “governance” options on the horizon
Linden Lab announced what they are calling Estate Level governance, and reaction has been, to say the least, mixed. I really like Tateru Nino’s take on it: Rule of the sandbox
This way the system balances itself. People join communities with compatible rules and comfortable enforcement levels. Nutjobs (that’s apparently a technical term) running sites and services ultimately wind up running them for no audience. Far from celebrating the mean, or the mediocre, the Internet Rule of the Sandbox elevates choice and moderation.
Beauty amongst silliness
Mr Mordecai Scaggs reports on the Secret Miranda Society, which was a very silly, and very fun, impromptu happening last Sunday. Mr Scaggs has a number of good photos showing the early progression of the experience. But he goes on to share, “At the height of this silliness there were 30 of us, resplendent in our full Miranda regalia, raving in sync to medieval lute music, much to the amusement of onlookers. This was one of the times I have felt most part of Caledonian society, to be part of such spontaneous tomfoolery is something I shall treasure. My Aspergers means I always feel apart from other people. . .”
Aspergers is not a mental illness, nor is there a cure. It is a physiological condition, present from birth, where the neurons in the brain are wired to follow very different pathways than in the “normal” person. Thus it is something I have to live with.
Go read the whole thing. And there you will see beauty amongst the silliness.
It’s all done for charity
Caledon’s SLRFL team held a Renaissance Faire this weekend in Caledon Carntaigh. I was delighted to be able to attend on Sunday, buying an assortment of outfits from the vendors, trying out the catapult, and even taking a turn in the stocks, just to give others a reason to purchase tomatoes. At some point, those assembled began dancing, and well, one thing led to another:
Here’s a closer shot of yours truly:
By later in the evening, the crowd had easily tripled, and all manner of accoutrements had been added to the general costume. At one point Her Grace, the Duchess of Carntaigh herself dropped by, taking a break from her Gen X radio duties. (We were wonderfully entertained by her 80s program as we danced.)
And, of course, [shhh!] there was the formation of a secret society.