A public announcement

Apologies to everyone for my absence in SL recently but RL is very busy. I have been finishing my annual report for work and both my children have had their birthdays this week.
They are 8 years old (today) and 10 years old (Tues just passed), and time with them has flown. In about the same number of years they might well leave the nest and find their own place in the world.

So on that note I wish to make an announcement!


*shouts out loud*........... I LOVE MY CHILDREN!
No apologies for being sentimental, no moaning about parents being soppy over their kids, just the honest truth.

I try and tell my children everyday how much I love them.
There are too many children in the world who never hear these words.

So if you are a parent, or a carer, a daughter or a son,or just have someone you love who you haven't told for a while.
Go tell them you love them, don't be shy, don't feel its silly, just do it, its simple, easy, and can brighten up someones life.

A poem

I found this on anothers blog and thought I would share it.

Anam Cara by Ulrike Gerbig

The sun
Bears you

The wind
Knows you

The rain
Cries you

Water
Holds you

Night
Sends you

Day
Claims you

Valleys
Hills Meadows
Woods Brooks Rivers
Ponds Lakes
Desert
Sea

Pass by

In my heart’s many folds
I carry your image

I feed on your love

Inside
And out

My search for you
Is endless

Your call made me
A pilgrim

I follow
Your song




*in Gaelic Anam is soul and Cara is friend

January 2007

Avatar

If you met your second life Avatar in your real life, what would you say to them?

Avatars fascinate me. How do you feel about yours?
Do you see them as separate from yourself? a part of yourself? a relative, friend, child? a simple picture or a game piece/pawn.
Could you give up your Avatar? how would you feel if you did?.

I have two Avatar's (secrets out!) Wren being my main one, and another (who shall remain nameless) with whom I come online when I want some peace to explore.
Personally Wren and I are very similar and I tend to think of her pretty fondly, like a close friend. She carries parts of me in her , but I don't think she is fully me. Wren allows me to explore parts of myself that perhaps I cannot normally use. She speaks some of my words, but strangely has her own things to say also.
If I had to say goodbye to her forever, it would be very sad.

My alt is a simple game piece, a useful tool when things get too much, but I don't have an emotional connection to her, well not yet. If she had to go, it would be no great loss.

How strange to feel emotionally connected to a virtual character of my own creation. Perhaps its like a computerised piece of art. Artists put much of themselves into the work they do. They often express parts of themselves in their paintings or sculptures, and I am sure they feel sadness when some pieces have to go to new homes.
Perhaps we are all virtual artists, with our moving, speaking, interactive creations.
What do you think?

Many Worlds?

Last night I watched a fascinating documentary called "Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives". It followed the singer songwriter Mark Everett as he tried to understand his father Hugh Everett's scientific theory, and ultimately to try and understand his father better also.

Hugh Everett came up with an interpretation of quantum physics which essentially meant that every time we make a decision or choice we split, and somewhere there exists a universe in which we made the opposite choice to the one we are living now.
I am no scientist and the finer details of this theory leave me baffled, so i wont delve deeper into the science. But it certainly caught the imaginations of many writers, filmmakers and artists. The Parallel universe idea seems to appeal, I suspect because we all wonder, when we look back, what if I had done this? how different would my life be now?

It occurred to me last night that if we apply the theory to Second Life, then there are millions of other second lives also out there,where we have all made different choices.
I wonder what they are like?

On a totally different note, I read a really interesting study of Second Life religion recently, http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2008/02/the-soul-of-sec.html
its not finished, but it makes stimulating reading.

A creative mind....

....a blessing or not?

I had my yearly appraisal in my Real Life job yesterday. I was very nervous about it, but it turned out I needn't have been. My boss was very pleased with what I have been doing and said lots of complimentary things about my work in the last year and direction I am taking the team.
I don't take compliments very well, and am quite critical of the work I do, but I do recognise one of the skills which is valued by my boss. I am a very creative person, always have been, and I am always full of ideas. This has been good for my work, and I have been put into all sorts of creative thinking groups. Many of the ideas I have come up with have been taken up by head office, some are seen as best practice and others are now used by teachers across the country. However it can be curse as well as a blessing to have a creative mind.

I was reading Hobbits blog yesterday.. http://hobbitripley.wordpress.com/2008/02/20/stress-top-tips/ .. and Ben had written about not letting things get out of control, about planning ahead. Unfortunately my creative mind often doesn't listen to sound advice like this. When something new comes along that interests me, I invariably get excited about it, my mind kicks into gear and a million ideas come up. Then, being the active doer type of person that I am, I want to make my ideas into reality and thats where things usually start to unravel a bit.
Often the idea is a great one but I don't have the skill or expertise to actually put it into practice.
Or the idea is a rubbish one and I fail to see that until I am halfway through putting it together.
But the most common thing is that there are just too many ideas, and I try and do them all and end up burning myself out or I create lots of half done things which 'could be great'.
I am not very good at delegating either, once I have an idea I usually want to do it all myself.
If I am lucky, which sometimes I am, I will have a good idea, be able to make it happen and enjoy doing it.

I wouldn't change it, I like to be creative and a little chaotic, its who I am. But sometimes I wish I could be a little calmer in my mind.
Perhaps I should take up meditation?

Isn't it funny...

.......you moan about the lack of buses and then three come along at once.

After my gloomy post earlier, it seems fate is determined to show me up.

Arriving in the realm tonight I decided to go explore the new islands. Passing the gyspy camp on the way, I stopped to warm myself at the fire and ended up, three giant mugs of mead later, chatting away. I have missed that kind of RP, I have spent so much time sitting in the guild doing admin.
Unfortunately I crashed and had to re-log, but arrived at the guild to meet two new people, one of whom joined as a Twilight sister, and the other who took away information on the guild to enable her to make up her mind.

Then, glory be, I made contact with Alphonsus, and cleared up about three things in the space of a couple of minutes ,I could have kissed him if I knew how!

Suddenly the realm doesn't seem so gloomy

*whistles a wee tune as she heads off to bed*

Alone

Sometimes I feel so alone in Triskele.
The nature of my timezone means that although I am helping to create RP opportunities in the realm, I have no idea of the master plans. Those who do RP there are more often than not coming online at about 3am my time, just when I really need to be in bed!
If it weren't for Malakyte (Goddess bless you) and the Acolytes in the order, I would have given the whole thing up by now.

For example. We recently received an order from the Queen and Alphonsus, to search for 5 scrolls hidden in the realm. Although its likely that my character Wren would not do this (leave it to the Dawn clerics), the order seemed pretty insistent, so dutifully I went off to find them. In due course I found them all, and they tell an interesting story of the history of the King and Queen.
However it took quite sometime to find them, I met only one other who was searching, and now I have them I have no idea what they are for, why I had to search or what the point of the whole thing was.
Especially as everyone in the realm has just now been handed the story in the general welcome pack.
We have received no notice if the search is finished or ongoing, so I have to advise the acolytes to do it, even if its pointless.
Its probable that the whole thing is being discussed by roleplayers in the twilight hours when I am in bed, but when I am online the place is empty and I am clueless.

The new Guild has arrived, a huge church like building, and it needs filled. But I have no idea of Alphonsus's plans for it. Malakyte and I have been adding things, being creative, filling empty spaces. But its very piecemeal, and some things are simply to fill space until the true furniture arrives. But what the plans are, I have no idea?
Our spell list has yet to be approved so we are powerless, and my acolytes want to know what's going on, but I cant tell them.
And to top it all off Everwind is back up it seems , so Triskele is likely to lose many of its roleplayers back there.

I know that things have been hard for Alphonsus recently with personal illness and other saddening second life things, so I understand his not being around. He has a huge job as leader, and when there are so few of us its even bigger, but I miss his guiding hand and his knowledge of the management to the realm.
I am trying hard to make it work, I love to be creative and enjoy managing things, but I don't want to do it alone anymore.

Some nights I am but a few steps away from packing up and leaving.

(I want to add that Malakyte has been great thoughout this, although she has a million things she is doing, she has taken the time to chat, discuss idea's and help create things for the guild. Thank you Mal!)