Madelaine McMasters

On this, my second tour of SL, I started with the "Female Rocker" avatar and made changes along the way. That library avi is on the right and the left image is what I was wearing today, with the shape/skin/eyes reverted to the Rocker. Reverting has reminded me just how preposterous the standard Linden avatar shapes are. I think I whacked a full foot off my height to achive believable proportions in my current avi. Right click and open the image in a new window to get a closer look.

valerie Inshan wrote: I have never *bleeped* with another woman, in SL or in RL I may have *bleeped" with a woman in SL. There were people who'd suggested she was a guy. That's okay, I may have *bleeped* with a guy in RL while I was married to him. But, I think it's possible I've never *bleeped* at all! What the hell are we talking about, Val?

Until April of this year, I'd never owned a TV. Now I own one I've never watched. I'm giving it to my Mother, so that the guilt of saying "I have never owned a TV" in my SL profile doesn't eat me alive.

16 wrote: like i was at this place and was this person standing off to the side all by himself. after a time i walk over and stand beside him facing in same direction. ... and it all went from there --- stands next to you and points off into the distance. And it'll all go from here.

Marioni Unplugged wrote: Does anyone know how to make a sculptie with SHARP edges? Im trying to make a simple gem stone using 3ds max and prim composer, but eventhough in 3dmax the sculptie looks fine, the edges of the exported prim always turn out gradient/softened. I also want it to be "viewer 1 proof". Hi Marioni, This sounds like your sculpt map is being compressed on upload. Look at the upload box when you import the map and, if you see a checkbox for "Use lossless compression", check it. I think current viewers have an option for uploading sculpt maps, which disables compression. If there is that option in a pull-down, select it.

Val and Hippie, thank you both for the compliments! I'll trot them out the next time someone says I'm too tart, or leave a bitter aftertaste. ;-) Hugs!!!

9-14-1999 Kiribati joins the United Nations, but only after explaining how they got the International Date line to zig-zag around them the way it does. 9-14-2000 Microsoft releases Windows Me, which is widely mistaken for malware.

valerie Inshan wrote: Jesus is needed here asap. We need WINE! Wedding parties can get rough when they run out of booze. Sonja might take advantage of the potential bloodshed.

Nyll Bergbahn wrote: You've tried all the lightest viewers then Emma. Could your laptop and fans be full of dust and overheating? Maybe get it cleaned out. This was the problem with my MacBook Pro years ago. I was always impressed by how quietly it ran SL, until the crashing started. It was then that I discovered the GPU cooling fan had inhaled the fuzz equivalent of a chipmunk and jammed. I was able to disassemble the thing to blow out the fuzz, after which SL hummed right along.

Tamara Artis wrote: hope you like it I sure do!

Snugs McMasters wrote: valerie Inshan wrote: @ Echo and all! THIS IS FIXED, YAY!!!!! OMG 7:00 AM here, just woke up and THIS IS FIXED!!!! YAY!!!!! I have to say Live chat and LL techs were awesome on this one! Lol, I've never been so pleased to receive emails from LL: "Thank you for contacting Linden Lab regarding your account. I apologize that you're having this problem. This appears to be a part of a bug and we are currently working on it. Thank you for your patience. You will be updated soon." Then: "Greetings from Second Life. Occasionally, Linden Lab needs to determine the cause of bugs, simulator slowdowns, and various other occurrences that you may have experienced while in Second Life. Your account will be returned shortly (usually within a 1/2 hour), and no changes will be made to your character or account other than those required to resolve the problem. Your account will be restored as soon as we resolve the specific issue, and we will notify you via email when that happens. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please feel free to contact us if you have further questions. Best Wishes, Linden Lab" And finally: "Dear valerie Inshan, Thank you for your patience while we worked on your Second Life account. If you have any difficulty accessing your account, please reset your password at: https://secondlife.com/my/account/request.php We hope that this did not impact your Second Life too severely, and apologize for any inconvenience that it may have caused. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact us by visiting http://www.secondlife.com/community/support.php Best Wishes, have fun, Linden Lab" Woohoo!!! Now I know why I am paying for a premium account! Thank you all for your support!!! :heart: Oh sure. Just as I get out of my jammies to join Mandji, you come back. Pffft, Maddy can have you! I'll take her, you jackass. Welcome back, Val!

Solaria Goldshark wrote: Madelaine McMasters wrote: Solaria Goldshark wrote: Madelaine McMasters wrote: Solaria, have I learned anything about myself I'd not have learned had I not come to SL? I don't know. And that has made all the difference. Thank you for that post Madelaine. That was pure joy. I hadn't read that Frost poem for a very long time. At one time I would have said that the traveler was confident that the choice of roads was the right choice. Wisdom and time, and further ruminations of this Frost classic tells me that is not the case. Frost is my "stranded on a desert island" poet. I think he was poking fun at we who look back and make the nostalgic, romantic leap to suppose that even our most mundane choices are life changing. I'm sure there are people for whom Second Life has had a tremendous impact. I also believe that it's difficult to know which of us are those people. Although this place is called Second Life, in truth we don't get to run the experiment of our lives twice. But in many instances it (this) is that experiment. Setting forks in the road aside for the moment, for many, for some, or even for few, it is that chance..to experiment..to take an alternate path...and perhaps to learn things about yourself on a different road....a different role. I agree in full that we don't get to live our lives twice....I'll climb out on a limb and say that you're different for being here and have leaned something about yourself, even perhaps others, that you would not have if not for this....I'm pretty sure I have. Would I have learned these things if not for this? Perhaps not. I don't know. Well, sure I'm different for being here. But I could argue that I'd be different for being anywhere, couldn't I? I don't know what else I would have done with the time I spent in SL over the last four and a half years. What if I'd joined the local theater group and gone up on stage? What if I'd fixed up my home and re-started the family tradition of hosting house concerts? I've no reason to believe that the path I'm on is the best path I could have taken or the worst... but it's been a pretty cool path and here I am! What different things would I have learned on another path? What similar things? I don't know! This is one of those philosophical discussions that I truly enjoy, can approach from any angle, and may be absolutely pointless. Thanks for indulging me. ;-)

Solaria Goldshark wrote: Hippie Bowman wrote: Circe Broom wrote: Hello all.. I am usually a forum lurker, but wanted to try out this new setup. So far, it looks okay, maybe better than before.:smileyhappy: Ahhhh! Welcome to my thread! Hippie hands Circe a drink, a bowl of popcorn, and points to a comfy spot near the fire! Peace! I remember seeing this thread when it started.....getting close to a year and a half or something. Please publish the Cliffs Notes to this if you are able.....or put a few more logs on the fire.....I have some 500+ pages to read. Welcome aboard, Solaria. The thread title is all the Cliff Note you need!

Solaria Goldshark wrote: Madelaine McMasters wrote: Solaria, have I learned anything about myself I'd not have learned had I not come to SL? I don't know. And that has made all the difference. Thank you for that post Madelaine. That was pure joy. I hadn't read that Frost poem for a very long time. At one time I would have said that the traveler was confident that the choice of roads was the right choice. Wisdom and time, and further ruminations of this Frost classic tells me that is not the case. Frost is my "stranded on a desert island" poet. I think he was poking fun at we who look back and make the nostalgic, romantic leap to suppose that even our most mundane choices are life changing. I'm sure there are people for whom Second Life has had a tremendous impact. I also believe that it's difficult to know which of us are those people. Although this place is called Second Life, in truth we don't get to run the experiment of our lives twice.

Val, I think it's unlikely that your Mac got a bug. The only vulnerability I've heard about recently is if Java 7 is installed and enabled. Mountain Lion hasn't got Java and the last version of Java included with Mac OS was 6, so unless you downloaded and enabled Java 7, you should be fine. I think it's more likely to be a technical glitch that might not have bothered you so under better circumstances. Hopefully LL will get to the bottom of it. Hang in there, Kiddo. The life guards may be busy reading The National Enquirer, but there are plenty of people out here in the pool with you that will be happy to start waving hands to get their attention. Maddy ETA: See, Nyll has already started!

Dokter wrote: Thank you all for this great discussion. I have an old iMac dual processor (2006?) that I run firestorm on with no problem ( medium and no shadows) and loving it and have considered getting a MacBook Pro but wasn't sure how it would run SL. Was thinking of waiting until next year to get the new iMac but now you all got me thinking of buying myself a Bday present of the MacBook. The rumor mill says new iMacs will be announced shortly, perhaps as early as this Wednesday.

Good morning Hippie... and Kids!!!

9-9-2012 Seventy two years to the day after George Stibitz first demonstrated the control of a digital computer from a remote location, he rolls over in his grave after getting a glimpse of SL from the great beyond. 9-9-2012 NASA collects a $1 Million bounty from Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flint after e-mailing him high resolution images of Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's tax returns, which were discovered on the surface of Mars by the Curiosity rover.

Deja Letov wrote: bejjinks wrote: Solaria Goldshark wrote: Without using coercion, perhaps you'd be so kind as to bestow upon us simpletons this amazing evidence you have for us to examine, since as you say, having examined the same evidence you have we would come to the same beliefs as you have. The entire flaw in your position is that troublesome issue of "Belief" The problem is that it is not my attempt to prove anything to you and it was never my attempt in the first place. My real objective is to ask whether people of differing beliefs can be friends or not. I used to believe that people of differing beliefs could be friends but the more feedback I get from the forum, the more I begin to doubt that people of differing beliefs can be friends. The more aggressive people are to try to get me to change my beliefs, the more I wonder if it's even possible for a Christian, an Atheist, and a Muslim to have a CIVIL conversation. I will share my evidence, not in any attempt to coerce you or force you to believe as I do, but just out of hopefully friendly dialogue. I cannot share all the evidence I have because there's just too much but I'll share some of the most memorable. For nearly my entire life, I have had respiratory problems. My nose was nothing but problems. I went to doctors and their treatments helped. I even had surgery but the doctors said that some of the problems were too deep and they didn't want to risk trying to fix it. So I was resigned to live the rest of my life with repiratory problems. I was not seeking a healing. I was not looking up any miracle workers. I'd given up. Then three people from church spontaneously prayed for my nose and within a week, the problem went away and has never come back. Not only can I breath, I can smell things that I never could smell before. Before October 3, 2008, I was in major financial trouble. I was regularly coming up in debt at the end of each week despite all my best efforts to manage my money. It was supernatural why I was in so much debt. All the searching I did through my records could not find where the money was disappearing to. It was just disappearing. On October 3, 2008 I had a life changing encounter with God. The next week, I had thirty dollars left at the end of the week. The week after that, I had three hundred dollars left at the end of the week. The next week after that, I had six hundred dollars at the end of the week. I'm not wealthy but God has helped me not be so desperately poor. God has also spoken to me. Now I'm sure several of you are gonna accuse me of being schizophrenic but this was not a delusion. God didn't speak in audible words. He's a spirit. But it was absolutely convincing that it was God and not a demon or my imagination. Frequently, I have also been impressed by God's timing. I've gotten sick at the best times I could have gotten sick. God is not similar to Santa Claus in any way. God makes it rain on everyone, good or evil. But . . . Romans 8:28 NASB And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. In other words, God doesn't prevent Christians from suffering but directs the suffering for our benefit. I have seen this time and time again in my life. I've had some horrible things happen in my life but do to timing or some other circumstance, even the most horrible thing wound up benefitting me. I'm not just talking about "that which doesn't destroy us makes us stronger" I'm talking about it as if God was an athletic trainer purposefully controlling when I hurt so that I would get the most benefit from it. That has been one of the most significant miracles in my life, the amazing timing of God. I'm not a great person. I struggle a lot. I have faith though that God will see me through this year. If God doesn't exist, I'm going to wind up homeless because I don't have enough of an income to keep paying the rent. In fact, if it wasn't included in the rent, I wouldn't have internet and wouldn't be able to write to you. My life is scary right now but God has seen me through scary times in the past so I know he will continue to see me through. There is my evidence of why I believe. The reason I can't convince you is because it's all experiential and you've had different experiences. I respect that. So I'm not even going to try to convince you of anything. I'm only asking that you respect my experiences. My experiences are my own. Absolutely people of different faiths can be friends. I have friends of all sorts of religions plus some atheists. We are all good friends. Do we discuss religion? Not really. Why? Because of the way this thread has gone right here. People get bent out of shape and will defend to the death what they believe in...and honestly...no amount of defending will ever convert anyone. So it's really a pointless conversation. Honestly, I know we have freedom of speech and all that, but there is truly no point in even making a post like this except to get a rise out of people. You know the answer for yourself to every question asked...does it really matter what others think? Of course not...it's just a futile attempt at spreading the word of God around and attempting to convert people...but it never works. It just ends in bad feelings and tons of drama. As far as all the rest of it...I would hardly call that evidence. I would call it your opinions based on experiences you've had. I could get better from a sickness as well...and that's not evidence of divine intervention nor is it evidence of the lack of it. but I will tell you what I think caused it based on my belief. But none of it evidential. I have friends of many faiths, and of no faith at all. We sometimes do discuss religion, though I don't know if anyone has shifted position much as a result. Our discussions don't last long enough to have that effect. While it may be true that no amount of defending will ever convert anyone, I don't generally defend. I simply wonder aloud, discuss things I've read, heard and observed, and explain why I find those things compelling, or not. I don't try to convert other people, I simply try to explain why I believe what I believe. As for developing my opinions from my own experiences, I find that a dangerous thing to do without critical self analysis. I am easily fooled, spotting patterns and causality where none exist. This can produce amusing or frightening results. So I must depend on and cooperate with others in the search for knowledge. In that sense, I too am faithful. I'm faithful that people with vastly different beliefs are nevertheless curious enough to explore and open enough to change their minds, and that collectively we will, though it might look like a drunkard's walk, head in the general direction of the truth.

Dillon Levenque wrote: <snip> Would you have Alfred Einstein sit at the children's table? I sure would. That's where I sit!

Shortly after I moved into the Forgotten City lighthouse, Samuel Clemens, Richard Feynman, Hedy Lamarr and Robert Frost stopped by to visit. Unfortunately, I was not home at the time. It was a chilly evening, and it seems the four warmed themselves by the fire while imbibing the wine they'd brought to welcome me. I've tried to piece together what happened from the evidence left behind, and from the best recollections of each, who all claim not to remember much of that evening. On the wall near my workbench, Sam chalked sketches of what appear to be a corset and a pair of lederhosen, in what I believe was an attempt to coax investment money from the others in pursuit of his latest inventions. On the wall of the lighthouse tower, I found, drawn in red lipstick with exquisite detail, the cover page from Hedy's 1942 patent for an ancestor of Wi-Fi. Across from that, Richard had sketched an aft view of an exotic dancer who once worked Gianonni's Bar, no doubt inspired by the view he likely had of Hedy, as her patent sketch was tall enough to require the use of my loft ladder. I can almost hear the raucous debate as the artist did her science and the scientist did his art. And finally, on the shaft that turns my lighthouse's "Beacon of Hope", Robert carved these words into the wood with the knife he used to remove the cork from the wine bottle... Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim Because it was grassy and wanted wear, Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I marked the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. I can't say I was terribly happy to see the graffiti my friends left behind that evening, but I have had my sigh over it. Though Sam's chalk and Dick's charcoal are easy enough to scrub away, there's little I can do about the work of Hedy and Bob, who were well aware that if you wish to leave an indelible impression, nothing works so well as lipstick... or a knife. Solaria, have I learned anything about myself I'd not have learned had I not come to SL? I don't know. And that has made all the difference.

Good morning, Hippie! I'm on the road this weekend, so stay on the sidewalk and enjoy Labor Day!

Jenny Siddeley wrote: It looks like there is a misunderstanding about what "choose what we believe" means. I'm agnostic, and I would love to believe in God, but I just can't, the idea of the existence of God doesn't make sense to me. If I could choose, I would believe in God, believing in an afterlife and knowing we go somewhere after we die is much more attractive to me, but like I said, I can't believe in it. My logic makes me unable to believe in what I want to believe in, and I think that's what the OP meant, we cannot choose what we believe in, just like we don't choose what our favourite color is, or what food or music we prefer, etc. In the case of religion, it can only change through self-convincing ourselves by reading others opinions and arguments, and not just because we want it. I think it's just the way we are and the way our brains acknowlege and understand the different informations or 'evidences' coming from all sides. We don't choose our tastes and appreciations of things deep inside of ourselves. Now, if what you believe in is exactly what you want to believe in, of course you will have the illusion that you chose what you believe in, but I don't think it's that simple. While I don't share the OP's beliefs, I think this is what he meant. Or maybe I'm just an unlucky person with the inability to choose... Jenny, being unable to choose a particular belief does not mean you can't chose others. I don't know that I'd like to believe in God and an afterlife, particularly if everybody there knows all about me when I arrive ;-) I do wish I could have the purported health benefits that accrue to people of faith, as hinted at in scientific studies. And maybe I can, by joining social groups that might fullfill whatever needs I don't recognize in myself. And right there is a fairly recent belief I've come to have, that my mental/physical health may be more dependent on my interactions with others than I'd long thought. So, while you and I may not be able to choose to believe in God and the hearafter, there's a lot of other cool stuff we can choose to believe in... or not.

8-31-1803 Lewis and Clark start their expedition to the west by leaving Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at 11 in the morning. By noon, Meriweather Lewis becomes the first in the Corps of Discovery to ask "Are we there yet?" 8-31-1966 One year to the day after the maiden voyage of the Aero Spacelines Super Guppy , several baby Super Guppies are spotted on the tarmac at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. With no male Super Guppies in the area, the babies become the first recorded example of aircraft parthenogenesis. 8-31-2016 The Republican National Convention is stunned when rogue delegates nominate an empty chair to run as the Republican candidate for President of the United States. When queried by reporters on the convention floor, one delegate exclaimed "In a world gone crazy, having Clint Eastwood just a non-existent heartbeat away from the presidency will assure our position as leader of the free world!"

Hippie Bowman wrote: Good morning all! Happy Friday! Peace! Good morning, Hippie... and the rest of you Kids!!!