Scylla Rhiadra

Can we please not -- ANY of us -- turn this into another political mudslinging match? Empathy is, by definition, about feeling what it is to be someone -- to understand them, if only imaginatively, "from the inside," as fellow humans. Can we just talk instead about human connection? About the importance of feeling across divides, and perceiving each other as valuable and worth our love?

Are we rationing out our grief?

Sorry, Gopi. I don't believe you. Everything I know about you from here says otherwise. Including this post. So many people are angry about the insurrection, about the past four years in the US. I get that -- I am angry too. But so much of it is also just so unbearably sad.

Wow. I'd never have thought of that. I'd never have thought you could even do that. I'm never wearing something I care to hide, tbh, but that's cool info, Molly. Thank you.

I'm pretty sure not. I'll test it out tonight, but I don't think I've ever seen a tattoo layer appear using that HUD.

I have no idea, unfortunately. But then, I don't use a wide variety of skins. Have you thought of contacting the merchant, to see if they know, or can put you in touch with someone who does?

No. System layers and appliers aren't shown, unfortunately. Just attachments.

Like nearly everyone else in SL, I have that HUD, and occasionally use it . . . but wow does it seem invasive. Not to mention over-brimming with TMI. Sometimes, you just don't want to know everything that someone is wearing. 😦

I've been equipping a male alt, whom I want to use for photos. (Because, you know, why use an actual man? They are terrible at taking direction.) And I want to do it cheaply, so as not to waste money that could be spent on meeeeeeeeeeee . . . As some will already know, @Skell Daggerhas a post in his utterly invaluable blog about how to set up a good looking mesh male avatar for next to nothing. He includes links and directions to in-world stores and MP pages that sell really surprisingly high-quality men's clothing and accessories for L$1 or less. Lots of nice stuff here -- not L&B quality, admittedly, but still very acceptable. I particularly recommend the Gabriel L$1 discount stuff. And, again, huge kudos to Skell for putting this together: it's a legitimate public service. https://virtualbloke.com/archives/3931

Yeah. The swab looks like it's a yard long. It's sort of terrifying. I was expecting it to hurt. It didn't. Instead, it felt like someone was shooting a stream of high pressure pool water to the back of my nose. It's surprised me so much I actually giggled through the whole thing -- the nurse and her trainee probably thought I was nuts. It's really really uncomfortable, but it's bearable. And when it's over, it's over.

The symptoms for Covid-19 are so generalized that it's pretty easy to convince yourself that you might have them. My main symptom was an occasional (but pretty slight) sense that I was having some difficulty breathing. And getting a bit dizzy or out of breath as a result. And then, of course, I began to "spot" other symptoms. Was my throat closing up a bit, making it harder to swallow? Didn't I feel a bit achy and flu-y, maybe? I didn't have a temperature: I was able to check that myself of course. Before they administered the swab (which was an interesting experience . . .), they tested my oxygen levels and heart rate, and both were completely within the "normal" range, so that actually put my mind somewhat at ease, even as I waited for the test results. If they couldn't detect what I thought was my main symptom, difficulty breathing, then I figured I was probably ok. As indeed was the case. I will confess, however, to being sufficiently nervous that I checked the web site that posts the test results fairly compulsively every half hour or so. And I'm glad I did, as I might not have found out I was ok as soon had I waited the 12-24 hours they suggested it might take to get results.

Your bedside manner leaves something to be desired.

The language of my own online lab report yesterday was kind of like this: "COVID-19 virus NOT detected by real-time PCR." It seems odd, given the importance (to MEEEEEE) of the results, that it's expressed in this way as a negative. Like, as you say, I've "failed" at something. I was expecting "CONGRATULATIONS! You don't have Covid-19! YAY YOU! YOU GO GIRL!" With, of course, fireworks animations. And maybe a cake. Yes, definitely a cake.

Well, there's an example of a toxic personality. And Trump is even worse.

I've been feeling sort of generally under-the-weather the last few days . . . including occasional bouts of shortness of breath. So, this afternoon I went to get tested for Covid-19. They said 12 to 24 hours before the results would be available, but actually it was about 7. Probably the longest 7 hours I've spent in recent memory. The results were negative: I do not have Covid-19. Sobering though.

You've been in quarantine too long.

I'd totally have taken a ride with the guy on the horse at the end. I guess I impress easily?

Second Life https://secondlife.com/

Lolwhut? You think those are complicated? How do you manage traffic lights?

In this one, @TatianaNikolay, @Stranger Hoxley and I look rather like we're on the run from zombie hordes, trying to find a place of shelter. Really, though, we just had no idea where we were going.

Today, a hike in Walsh County, through the melting snow, and along a rather muddy country road. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Campton/54/54/22 Pausing a moment to take stock during the hike. With @Saskia Rieko, @Laurel Aurelia, @BelindaN, @Stranger Hoxley, and myself. Also present, but no in the frame, @TatianaNikolayand @Pacific Fanshaw

When they are not logged in, our avatars exist in a glorious and wondrous state of in potentia: wonderful and powerful substance (code) without shape or form. They are wondrous in this state because they, unlike we merely physical beings, can become and be anything. They have not yet been confined by form, restrained by rendering, confined by the choices we make. They are like unborn gods, all powerful simply because they have yet to be limited by algorithm and our choice. They mean everything, and nothing, at the same time. Of course, as shapeless potential, they aren't a whole lot of fun to play with. And that's why our role -- what Aristotle called entelechy, the giving of form and shape to something that has heretofore existed only as potential -- is so important. Ours are the choices, ours is the will that activates and makes real all of that powerful potential. Just as code is meaningless until it is parsed, manipulated, and applied by an application, so too do we give our avatars meaning. The moment our avatar rezzes is like a new birth, bursting with boundless possibilities, because we suddenly find ourselves empowered to shape that potential anyway we wish. The world, as Milton wrote, lies all before us. What will we become? How will we deploy this power of potential? In what directions will we move this boundless power to realize and create something that did not previously even exist in form? Each choice we make diminishes that potential somewhat . . . but residing within our ability to make choices, we share, momentarily, in the split second before we choose, the boundless and godlike power of potential. Alternately, our avatars are reduced to a whole bunch of incomprehensible binary numbers recorded on a magnetic disk somewhere that we can only access if we don't forget to pay our ISP. Philosophy is still undecided.

Well, no. Which is actually precisely my point. You have broken this down into a neat and highly reductive binary: "appeasement" or "total war." What I'm suggesting is that neither, employing your own historical example, has produced very satisfactory results. Chamberlain enabled Hitler through appeasement. Churchill helped get rid of Hitler, but enabled Stalin, though war. I'm not seeing a whole lot of difference, to be honest, in the results of these two approaches. The "sausage making" that you are endorsing actually helped produce a situation in some ways even worse than Chamberlain faced. What is needed is a way to break out of this violent and ultimately profitless cycle of one or the other. God knows, we don't want to appease the racists, the fascists, the misogynists, and the homophobes. But total war against them isn't going to work either. Surely we're sufficiently clever and subtle to come up with some alternate strategies? Perhaps ones that strike at the root of these evils, rather than seek (fruitlessly) to eradicate the symptoms?

And left, as part of his legacy, and Roosevelt's, half of Europe in the thrall of a dictator every bit as brutal as Hitler. Not a great example, perhaps?

Can I suggest a quick course in Public Relations 100? Your tone and language here is not making you someone I'd particularly want to patronize with my business, to be honest. Perhaps you can lower the temperature a bit? I haven't seen anyone -- and especially neither Kimmi or Rowan -- who have said anything to merit this level of vituperation.