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Scylla Rhiadra

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Everything posted by Scylla Rhiadra

  1. Scylla Rhiadra
    I am quite sure this online phenomenon has been the subject of study . . . . . . but what is it about SL in particular that seems to lead men (and women too certainly, but mostly in my own experience, men) to regress to the maturity level of their early teens? Yeah, I get that pseudonymous identity here gives people the "freedom" to sound like they're early pubescents snickering and leering over a women's lingerie catalogue, but honestly . . . why would they want to sound like this? Who exactly do they think is going to be impressed by their Beavis and Butthead imitation? Do they really think that poop jokes, or yelling "BOOBIES!" in public chat is going to sound "sexy"? No, it's not particularly "offensive," and yes it's easily dealt with using block, but it is soooooooo idiotic and boring. Grow up. No reasonably self-respecting woman wants to hang out with someone who sounds like they're still stashing Playboy mags under their mattress so their mother won't find them.
  2. Scylla Rhiadra
    Oh dear. I quite liked Istelathis. 😢 Has anyone had any thoughts yet about a memorial of some sort?
  3. Scylla Rhiadra
    On a side note: I LOVE LOVE LOVE this pic of you being all dramatic at the bar! I can almost hear your breathy, tear-laden whining! Wonderful!
  4. Scylla Rhiadra
    I actually thought he was, but maybe I'm wrong!
  5. Scylla Rhiadra
    You couldn't possibly be more accident prone than I am! I'm actually fascinated by process pics, and mean to do more. And I'd love see some by other people! I did a few for this pic: Starting with this one. It's "fictionalized" -- I was my own photographer, for instance -- but it's the actual set I used, and it does show some of the changes I made as I took the pic(s) that led to the one above. It would be interesting and fun to do some more elaborate ones. I think I'd keep them "realistic" (no one needs to see a pic of me tinting or texturing a backdrop) but still try to show as much of the process as possible.
  6. Scylla Rhiadra
    Did you just flip the bird at a LINDEN???? 😮
  7. Scylla Rhiadra
    Busy busy busy. God I hate setup. I'm an AHTIST, dahling! Where are my minions???
  8. Scylla Rhiadra
    I'm really sorry to hear this, Ian. Maybe stepping away for a bit might help? I've done that too. Yes, there are . . . "difficult people" whom I wish I could better avoid here. But there is also a lovely community of really nice people who make it all worthwhile. I've made many very real friendships here. The point is, you've got over 1k posts here. You're part of that community, and one of the voices that makes it worthwhile. We're diminished without you, so I hope you'll reconsider.
  9. Scylla Rhiadra
    Kinda. Yeah. I'm not sure it's a really useful definition, unless those norms are themselves well defined.
  10. Scylla Rhiadra
    These aren't terribly useful, because they all suffer from the same lack of context and precision as "sick" and "healthy." "Dysfunctional" suggests a "function" -- what is it? "Unfit" . . . for what? Flawed or broken in what way(s)? I'm not challenging your view, Arielle, I just don't understand what exactly it MEANS.
  11. Scylla Rhiadra
    Define "sick" and "healthy," in this context?
  12. Scylla Rhiadra
    Well, yes. Which is one reason why I put "naturally" in scare quotes. The other reason is that "goodness" is really an entirely abstract and utterly human conception -- or at least it is if you don't believe in a divine being. Hence the origin of terms like "humane." I tend to think of "goodness" as being things that conduce to how well and harmoniously we live with other humans and within communities that are also geared towards that. I don't see it as an "ideal value," something carved on tablets or delivered in a book, but rather (particularly if I am being very cynical, maybe) a recognition of the evolutionary value of living well together.
  13. Scylla Rhiadra
    I too believe that humans are "naturally" good -- in the sense that hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of years of cultural evolution have demonstrated that we recognize the value of community and connection. We have evidence that Neanderthals cared for the aged and the sick, something that in purely evolutionary terms makes no sense whatsoever. And, we have developed the ideas of "right and wrong," of ethics and morality, however we may sometimes distort these. At the same time, of course we are all "mixed." Some of what is "bad" or "immoral" about us as individuals is undoubtedly hard-wired, but a great deal derives from social conditioning, our upbringing and experiences, etc. I know that I have racist or homophobic impulses. Hell, I know that I am sexist and misogynist. Most of us, I suspect, are at some level or another: it would be almost impossible not to harbour such notions given the world in which we live. True "goodness" or "morality," I think, consists not of eradicating these tendencies, which is likely impossible (and maybe even undesirable), but rather in recognizing and acknowledging their existence, and working hard not to give them voice or allow them to dictate how we think or what we do. Which is where critical thinking and critical self-awareness come into play. I don't think "goodness" is a static quality. It comes into being when we actively struggle to be good, in spite of our own demons.
  14. Scylla Rhiadra
    This isn't terrible. And it's obviously by someone who knows Second Life reasonably well, and uses it. But it really doesn't address the things (notably, the unique mode of content creation here) that makes SL unique and, arguably, still successful. https://twitter.com/business/status/1689625896867819520?s=20
  15. Scylla Rhiadra
    Hey! It's not even OPEN yet!!! I still have stuff to add! Thank you, though! 🙂 (And yes, there is a fair bit of nudity in this one. Unusually for me, but I'm interested in the relationship between geometry and the body.)
  16. Scylla Rhiadra
    Most of you will likely recognize the stunning red head in this image. No, not the one in the foreground, trying to block your view of said stunning woman, but the one in the poster labelled @Katherine Heartsong. I dropped by her exhibition at the Cornbread Cafe tonight -- it opened last night. Katherine's images are ridiculously beautifully and accomplished. You can see me trying to hide two of them behind me. And I totally hate her, her gorgeous long red hair, and her artistic talent. Well worth a visit. If you want to earn my eternal enmity. https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Vile Chapel/44/17/45
  17. Scylla Rhiadra
    Thank you! I can barely draw credible stick figures. I did, however, spend a very happy week with paper, pencil, protactor and ruler in my late 20s when I happened across a technical description of how early Renaissance artists used math and geometry to calculate perspective in their pics. I "drew" a ton of totally empty rooms (cuz, stick figures) with beautifully tiled floors and windows. It was fun! PS. Both you and @SlammedSam have, by your foolish, thoughtless words here, earned an invitation to my exhibition. Let no good deed go unpunished, says I. You don't actually have to attend the opening, or the exhibit of course, but I do insist that you give the invitation a dignified end. A Viking funeral will suffice.
  18. Scylla Rhiadra
    Yes. Yes, it does!
  19. Scylla Rhiadra
    You've seen my pic, then? CW: NSFW content https://www.flickr.com/photos/144085527@N07/53103087733
  20. Scylla Rhiadra
    Probably, and justifiably! In some ways, I'm consciously critiquing him (although I find his art beautiful). Mondrian wanted to strip away the particulars and details of life in his art, and portray the beauty of the simple forms (lines and squares, geometric patterns) and colours that he saw beneath them: "I wish to approach truth as closely as is possible, and therefore I abstract everything until I arrive at the fundamental quality of objects." (You'll notice I quote this on the building behind me.) What I'm sort of symbolically doing is restoring that lost particularity, because it interests me more than the Neo-Platonic urge to find "universals" and "ideal forms." I'm also critiquing Saint Laurent a bit (although I love his Mondrian dresses), but that's another story.
  21. Scylla Rhiadra
    I built it myself, dahling. Do you like?
  22. Scylla Rhiadra
    There was much hilarity in Dutch on GD forum the other day -- and I'd quite forgotten that I had just finished a picture that is a sort of homage to a famous Dutch painter, Piet Mondrian. Or, rather, Mondrian and Yves Saint Laurent's homage to him. So, sort of a Canadian's homage to a Frenchman's homage to a Dutch painter? Whatevs. This is one of the pics in my new exhibition.
  23. Scylla Rhiadra
    And EVIL High Elvish, no less! This place is just going to Mordor.
  24. Scylla Rhiadra
    It would seem that there are certain important advantages to being a "complainer"! HEY ME! OVER HERE! I'M COMPLAINING, LOUDLY AND FREQUENTLY!! So . . . where do I go to collect my shoulder and foot massages?
  25. Scylla Rhiadra
    Isn't that essentially ALL Klingon?
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