Scylla Rhiadra

I have no idea if this is "appropriate" for this forum or not. The "rules" and moderation here are so completely inconsistent that it suggests that even LL doesn't really know what this place is for. What I do know is that so much stuff is horrible and crappy right now, that I need the affirmation of knowing that there are people who care about others -- who will speak out with them, march with them, fight alongside them. I need to be reminded, occasionally, that mostly people are pretty good, and that, little by little, actually, the world does become a little less dark every time someone reaches out for someone else's hand. This march is about a lot of things -- but right now, for me, that's what is most important. Phoebe Bridgers has recorded a cover of Bo Burnham's "That Funny Feeling" from Inside. It's a dark little song, in some ways -- neither Burnham or Bridgers are known for their cheerful optimism -- but what transforms it, somewhat, is that the money it raises is being donated to support various pro-choice groups in Texas. So, dark though the song might be, it is also a hand reaching out to help.

Why would anyone want that, Bree? Yes, I know you are being facetious in your own special Bree-ish way, but the point is a serious one: no one is "pro-abortion" in the sense that they think abortion is a wonderful thing they want to experience. That makes no more sense than being "pro-chemotherapy" -- and there'd be just about as much demand for RP of that in SL as for abortions. It's not actually about medical procedures. It's about choice.

Remember back when the forums weren't just a glorified dating app and centrespread? /me swipes left on the whole thing

What a lovely shot! Also, pretty adorable!

DUH

Not loud enough, TDD. Try again.

If I might humbly proffer a little well-intentioned advice . . . I don't think the Big Words are the problem. Me, I use de Big Words alot here. "Big Words Scylla" is what they call me here. (Which is a whole lot better than what they used to say was "Big" about me at the pool hall I used ta hang out at, let me tell ya lol!) But I think the real key to acceptance here is BEING SHOUTY. No, seriously. See that "cap locks" key? Use it! Trust me, THEY LOVE IT WHEN YOU ARE SHOUTY! Just ask anyone. @Rowan AmoreWE LIKE SHOUTY, DON'T WE? Tell him! Welcome to the forums, SynesthetiQ. You'll do just fine here. 🙂

You mean the guy who is also the founder of the SL group Proud Boys, the group profile for which proudly announces that it is "anti-muslim," and that includes links (happily, now dead) to the RL Proud Boys online? The guy who posted an approving pic of a Pegida demonstration in Germany in the GD forum? The one who posted a pic to this thread of a man wondering aloud whether he should exact revenge on "his woman" for looking at another man? Please note that these things -- and I could mention others -- are all within an SL context. I love ya, Skell, and have a great deal of respect for your opinion. And I take your overall point, and don't disagree. But the photo to which you refer needs to be read in a much broader context. I myself have posted pics here of gun violence. Merely including guns (or cigarettes) in a photo ain't the problem; the issue is the context in which they are likely to be read and signify. And he wasn't hounded off this forum: people, including myself, expressed discomfort about the image. I recall no personal attacks on him. If he can't handle a critique of his pics, then maybe he should post them somewhere where only fellow Proud Boys can view them. (I'm always amused when I remember the good old days, when "special snowflake" was a term of opprobrium hurled at progressives.)

Thanks Luv, this is sweet. For a great many of us in Canada, this is a rather sombre and muted Canada Day. Many of us are in shock over the "discovery" over the past few months (as a nation, we actually always kind of knew they were there) of three sites of shallow unmarked graves of First Nations schoolchildren who died of abuse and neglect in "residential schools" run, mostly, by the Catholic church on behalf of the Canadian government. Over the course of about a century, young indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families, and brought up -- if that's the right word for the combination of abuse and indoctrination they suffered -- in these institutions as part of a deliberate and entirely open policy of genocidal cultural eradication. In the words of Sir John A. MacDonald, Canada's first Prime Minister, in 1879: About 4,100 young First Nations children from this period are unaccounted for. They are the occupants of the shallow unmarked graves now being uncovered. A great many more of these will be uncovered: governments at all levels are allocating money to searches for them. So many dead children. The last residential school closed 25 years ago. This isn't ancient history. Canada is in many ways a wonderful nation. I count myself extremely fortunate to have been born here, and to live here. But it is also a nation built on broken promises, lies, and quiet violence. Residential schools are just the most horrifying instance of it -- starvation was routinely used in the west by the North West Mounted Police as a means of forcing First Nations groups to comply with the government's wishes. Canada is a nation build on genocide. I don't know what else to call the deliberate policy of annihilating the culture of an entire people. The one positive is that Canadians, on the whole, are beginning to come to terms with this, and recognizing the fact that our indigenous peoples still suffer under our system -- from a lack of safe drinking water, from rates of poverty and disease and suicide and police violence that far exceed the national average. Many cities and communities have literally cancelled Canada Day this year, and instead urged that the day be used for reflection and mourning. This morning my partner and I walked to a nearby baseball diamond to add orange ribbons -- orange ribbons on playgrounds and baseball diamonds have become a symbol of mourning for the lost children -- to the hundreds that already festooned the fencing there. The flags there -- Canadian, Ontario, and Toronto -- are being kept at half mast by the city for 4,100 days, in memory of each child. So, sincerely, thank you. But I'm not much in the mood for "celebrating" Canada right now.

What Nova says. You can get indoor shadows from sunlight coming through a window, but you won't see it otherwise from EEP. That's because you'll get indoor lighting from ambient light, but the direct light from the sun is stopped by the walls of the room. The answer is definitely to use projectors to cast the shadows where you want. And, of course, you can colour that light a tinge of orange (or red, or whatever) if you want to replicate sunlight at a particular time of day. You can do what Hunter says -- I have on occasion created my own shadow prims for objects when I was having problems with EEP and projectors. But you'll want to blur the mask a little, probably. Another tip: if this is just for a single shot, you can import the shadow mask as a "local" texture, which means that it will disappear when you log off, but you don't need to pay the upload fee.

Archbishop Ussher, presumably. One hopes that rushing all of those fossil fuels into existence doesn't mean that they didn't test it properly for safety. It would be awful to discover that the oil we've been using had serious and detrimental side effects . . .

Um, no. That's how experiments, used to prove or disprove a hypothesis work. That is NOT how most scientific inquiry operates. We've never had a "control subject" earth, or moon, or sun, or universe . . . and yet we've learned a fantastic amount about these things nonetheless. By your logic, we wouldn't understand tidal forces, as we don't have any large bodies of water not influenced by the moon as "controls," to cite one simple instance. As it happens, however, scientists DO have a model: our understanding of past climates and climate changes. We know how quickly glaciers have advanced or receded in the past, for instance -- and can use that data to measure current rates of melting. Who is being blacklisted? I hear ignorant misinformation and conspiracy theories about climate change all the time. Including, it would seem, here. Science, like most scholarly endeavours, functions through debate, a back-and-forth dialogue between different views, theories, and data sets. The way it is supposed to work, and the way it generally does work, is that this process eventually produces a consensus. It's fair to say that there is still a great deal of debate about the exact causes and effects of ongoing climate change, but a very clear consensus has arisen among scientists -- we're talking overwhelming here, as in well over 90% of experts in the field -- that human intervention is a major, if not the primary cause of global warming. Of course, that's just these scientist's "opinions," right? And you are entitled to your own! Absolutely! But as some wise woman or another (Marilyn Monroe? Cleopatra? I can't recall at the moment) once said, you are entitled to your own opinions. You are not entitled to your own facts. Which, given that you've produced none here to back up your opinion, is just as well.

Not sure about calling cards, but you can use subfolders in Outfits. I have about 3 levels (and occasionally more) of subfolder in my Outfits. It's sooooo much easier to find things.

Setting up my photo exhibition that begins this week at the ArtCare Gallery. (On the theme of "light," if that isn't perhaps evident enough from the pic.)

It is for SL: there is a huge presence by merchants, photographers, artists, and just people who like taking snaps on Flickr. (Which maybe says more about SL than it does about Flickr.) Join some groups and post. Follow people and fave; engage with them in comments. Some people use their Flickr handle as an advertisement too.

Wow. You're really getting the hang of this! Magnificent!

Kinda! Certainly pretty cool.

Gorgeous pic. See? I told you! Light is FUN! (Just keep away from Maddy, or it will be firelight.)

Always works on me.

Thanks Charalyne! Lighting is FUN!

I'm going to agree that this is NOT as bad as Red Zone, which didn't even bother to hide its central intent, and which leveraged paranoia to an unprecedented degree to advance sales. And I'm willing to accept that the way this has been setup (I'm intrigued by the issue of the use of Experiences) may have entirely innocent intent. But we can't know that. And right now, it's a loaded weapon that is certainly capable of being abused. LL can shrug this off, of course, for the reasons you suggest -- it's stated purpose is, I suppose, at worst marginally against the ToS. But waiting to see if this is abused -- and who knows how evident such abuse might be? -- is too much like LL's attitude towards Red Zone. If you see a vulnerability, you should deal with it . . . not wait until it blows up in your face.

Ok, so this is essentially a way to get around the "you need to be streaming media" thing. And it seems to make more sense to ask a visitor to open a web site than to start streaming media? I think I get it now, but it's still enormously intrusive, and potentially dangerous.