Dillon Levenque

steph Arnott wrote: your correct as in inflexible and fixed in a mindset without even thinking of the OPs upbringing, country or personal beliefs, Its call tolarance of others, a fundemental social skill of 50,000 years in development. I have found Second Life as a world, including Second Life's residents, to be the most tolerant place I've ever seen or heard about, let alone been a part of. Seriously. I'm a male biologically but there is such a strong female component in my psyche that I feel compelled to dress as and behave as a woman. It's impossible to explain how that works so I won't, I'll just state the fact. Do you have even a tiny idea of the intolerance someone like me faces in Real LIfe? Any? For the record, I never came out; I made sure I was places I could be comfortable when I dressed, but many are braver. And I live in California, widely regarded as a very liberal and tolerant place. In a town not fifty miles from my house, a 17-year-old girl who was still pre-op, but a committed TG, was BEATEN TO DEATH WITH A SHOVEL in the kitchen of her apartment because a boy who she'd given oral sex at a party had learned she was really a male. He brought along two of his buddies to help out, and they did. How's that for intolerance, Steph? That's RL. I started out in SL staying entirely within the TG community because I assumed SL would resemble RL. I eventually learned, mostly from the casual behavior of guys who were neighbors or acquaintances or even people on this forum, that tolerance here is for the most part a given. Who you are (as in your race, creed, gender (well....maybe not that last but I don't want to step on Laskya's toes), sexual preference) matters not to most of us. Political inclination does, but not nearly as much as it does in RL. Attitude does for sure, because we're people. But as a group one thing we do have, and I know this personally from my experience, is tolerance. To everyone but Steph, pardon the rant. I got off on a bit of a tangent and got carried away. I won't worry in Steph's case because she probably pegged me as old (correctly, I might add: 30 was a long time ago) so I'm sure she didn't bother reading. So, just for you, Steph. In this thread and in several others, you have come across as one of the most intolerant people I've ever seen. And one thing the forumites as a group generally do NOT tolerate is intellectual intolerance. You're the one who needs to learn other views have as much merit as yours, and thus if you want to disagree do so with logic, not with age-based bullbleep.

Freya Mokusei wrote: I'm well-aware you want to burn me down, and am okay with this. No, Freya, no! That way lies madness (I oughta know). On the other hand, it would give you a nice pic to go with your current very funny signature ;-).

KiraPatrick Lexington wrote: At what point does SL take cyber bullying seriously? I'm sorry but it just really bothers me when people call out 'cyber bullying' anytime they meet with an argument online. What happened to you is NOT cyber-bullying. There really is such a thing and it's a seriously sick problem. Young women—girls, really—have committed suicide because of cyber-bullying. Not quit playing an online game, but quit life. Jumped off water towers. Cyber bullying is about bullying people IN REAL LIFE ABOUT REAL LIFE THINGS on the internet. A high school girl makes bad choices at a party, finds herself intoxicated (no doubt with a whole lot of help from males) and winds up being raped while unconcious or semiconcious. A very bad thing, even if all the bad things stopped right there. But the cyber bullying starts after, when the sick little snots who staged the scene (or their hangers on) film it on their cell phones and put it on the Internet. She gets clips from it on her Facebook page. And not just from strangers. From people she goes to school with, sees every day. Everyone in school has seen the film, as far as she knows, to say nothing of everyone in the world. The latter people can only flood her social network outlets with vile comments. The former can shame her in person. Every single day. There are other forms cyber bullying can take but all of them have one thing in common: they are not confined to cyberspace. They involve things that happen in REAL LIFE. The internet is just the medium, the arguments take place in people's actual lives. It sounds as if you ran across some, for lack of a better word, twits. You have been here long enough to know that SL is an ungoverned collection of personalities. You wanted to take what you thought were tasteful and historically relevant pictures at a sim you found attractive. The pictures involved having the model being in various states of undress. Someone in a position of authority at that sim flew off the handle, all in a lather because some exposed skin might shock some blue-nosed prude. They said nasty things to you. Other than trying to contact the sim owner to see if you could get the blue-nose's objection over-ridden, everything you did after that was wrong. The correct response is to pack up the props, shut down the lights, and walk away muttering something that ends with ".....and the horse you rode in on." If something so vile was said that you feel it goes beyond the usual screamed obscenities, snapshot it, save the text, and AR. If LL agrees with you, something might happen to your abuser. But don't challenge. Don't go back and try again. They made their point. It's their place. They appear to be idiots, but SL allows localized idiocy and even non-idiots will fully support the philosophy behind that. Move on.

Thanks, Parhelion. I have read so much idle speculation about Sansar it's nice to see an SL relevant discussion which hits a lot of the "important" issues. So, no gawkers/wanderers need apply until early 2017. At best. And it clearly will not have SL's carefree vibe (carefree as in flirtation/tittilation) if the target age range is 13+. The normal 'just walking around' dress code for females in SL is inappropriate for thirteen year olds, to say nothing of the party outfits. Sansar will be a different place. When it's actually open for casual exploration (if such a thing even will exist in Sansar—there may not be interconnected sims, for instance—then I'll no doubt check it out. Until then (not being a builder or creator) I will pay little attention. Thanks also for the replay links, Inara.

Madelaine McMasters wrote: Over the years, several of my friends have told me "You are intimidating". I protested. But I've come to see it your way, Darrius. If they say I'm intimidating, I'm intimidating. Fortunately, those friends are still with me, and say that their first impression of me was wrong, and that I'm just far more curious and energetic than most. I made myself feel better by believing that I only seem intimidating until you get to know me, after which I'm all warm and fuzzy. They squashed that dream, too. But they say I'm getting better, and appreciate the effort. ;-). You've accused me of being one such: 'tis a vile slander. I never said you were intimidating. I said I was somewhat in awe of your forum presence, and I was. Not intimidated by it, but impressed. Still am, far as that goes. And even if I had been intimidated, I'd have gotten over it about the time I saw you at a concert, sitting on [a statue of] Philip Rosedale's head. Wearing a bikini.

steveyos69 wrote: insert gigantic letters w, t, and f here I had to laugh at your description—"like someone's after it"*—because I had never thought of that as a cause, but yes in can be a real pain when you're trying to work on the avatar, In fact, it's just the basic animation stuff responding to your mouse cursor. Bebejee's advice is the solution: a 'pose' animation will hold your avatar in a fixed position and ignore all other movement cues. *You'll know you are into Second Life beyond redemption when you phrase your title question as I would: "....without it looking left and right like someone's after me?"

There was quite a lot of that during my "Winter in the Upper Midwest", as the area around St. Paul got some unusually warm temperatures in February. I think I heard of at least three incidents where people had gone through the ice, all of them riding snowmobiles, as Tari suggests. I made return visits to California all during that trip, and I returned to the Twin Cities after one such trip to tell them I'd realized there was a Coastal California analog to driving through the ice: going out on the jetty to take pictures of the big surf during storms, and getting swept off the rocks by an unexpected wave. "Next stop, Guam", as we used to say. They had one in Santa Cruz while I was home. Like the new badge. Maddy puts the hammer down!

steph Arnott wrote: I did use caps, was a specific reason for that usage. Okay. That would not actually jive with what you've been saying in the linked messages, but okay. No problem. My mistake.

steph Arnott wrote: I dissagree, maddy is totally Miss Understood, by all, You're actually correct there in a way, but I'm not sure it's the way you seem to think. It's true Maddy is not "well understood". This is not an accident. Some people are just like that—right when you think you can predict their response or behavior, they do something that is completely at odds with what you were expecting. Maddy herself is that kind of person, but she adds to the effect deliberately. She does things that even she wasn't expecting, just for fun. Nothing pleases her more than seeing other people confused by her behavior. It's her modus operandi. Nefarious, you see. What she was thinking and intending to convey regarding your issue was clearly stated by Snugs. Even Snugs doesn't understand everything about Maddy, but on that particular topic there is no room for doubt.

Dramaz? I don't hafta show you any stinkin' dramaz! [And, totally thread OOC] I find I can't really equal the fabulous level of intensity that everyone who's posted to this thread has maintained but it's been a complete and utter pleasure to read. I've really enjoyed it. I'm very sorry for having said something nice. I'll try not to do that again and if I do so I'll be sure not do it here.

tish Celt wrote: no one has yet to prove me wrong on this subject really why do you need to know I have my payment info on file? No one is really trying to prove you wrong, they are just giving opinions on the subject. Perrie explained why the practice exists quite clearly back on Page 1 (Post 6).

Sigh. It's always upsetting when a child raised by obviously good parents, a child who had every reason to be a good person herself, turns out to be a nefarious ogress.

Darrius Gothly wrote: So, this probably pushes wide-spread adoption of the Oculus Rift back about ... oh maybe two years? By end of 2018 we should see something like 15% to 20% penetration of the "Maximal Market". Keeping in mind that the size of the segment that will eventually purchase a Rift is a small fraction of the overall computer market. Subtracting out those that will use theirs exclusively for MMORPG and real-time games. Eliminating those that are not and won't be interested in Virtual Worlds .. That leaves me and my neighbor .. pretty much. (And I won't spend that much.) Dangit! Where did they hide the "Told Ya So!" emoji? Indeed. They need pron, and pronto. Plenty of it, and in all varieties. That will move the market.

Madelaine McMasters wrote: I didn't say that mom's response was like the mother's, but that mine was like the little girl's. Nor did I think for even an instant that it had been. The thought never entered my mind. I have heard enough stories of your parents to have a pretty good idea who they were, and neither of them would have acted like the mom (if that's who she was, mighta been a baby-sitter or something) in that video.

I liked that quote. Chesterton is really a quote mine, it seems. Somehow, although I'd seen his name many times, I managed to go all this time without reading anything of his other than passages quoted here and there. I need to address that. He was talking about the fairy tales of his youth, and maybe of his era, so slaying of dragons was pretty much the best option, and makng it the 'solution to the dragon problem' told children a solution existed. Our modern fairy tales, from Disney and Pixar and the rest, tend to go in a direction more in line with Maddy's parents. The dragon/monster/scary entity is befriended or even just accepted. "Shrek" is a good example but there have been many like that (though maybe not as funny) before and since. Edit: Spelled the name wrong (twice!): it's Chesterton, not Chesterson as I'd written. I bet that happens a lot.

The little red-headed girl's (and yes, I said it that way on purpose) mom did not impress me, Maddy. When your kid starts crying for a reason, especially when that reason is fear, you don't just snicker. You don't just talk. You pick them up and hold them and calm them down. Once they are breathing normally you can talk about what's going on, explain things, whatever. I loved that "shadow dancing" in the third selection. Never seen anything like that.

DrJ Darkfold wrote: For several years I chaired a Tri-Service/NASA committee studying the causes and effects of simulator induced sickness (SIS) with the use of high-resolution head-mounted displays (HMD). These phenomena, which usually include nausea and some dizziness are mainly caused by a conflict between the visual system (telling you are moving) and the vestibular system (which is convinced that you are not moving). Increasing the instantaneous field-of-view, resolution, sharpness of image, update rate – all these engineering improvements have no effect on the SIS. SIS is more prevalent in users over 40 and also in females. What normally happens is that with repeated usage the incidence of SIS will decline, so the recommended approach is to limit the first several sessions with a HMD to short intervals with long breaks in between while the adaptation is taking place. Roughly 5-10% of users will not benefit by adaptation and will continue to experience SIS. Happy to answer any questions. I haven't tried any of the various Oculus or other HMD's, nor do I have any immediate plans to do so. I am strictly a casual observer here. I just think what you have to impart would be better done by linking studies/papers/articles that talk about the subject. You did say there were NASA studies and while I'm sure some were military related and classified, I find it hard to believe there aren't some available to the public. People who post to forums can claim to be anything or anyone at all. Anyone who spends much time in forums gets a bit wary of people who suggest they have out of the ordinary training/occupational experience/knowledge/etc. I am not suggesting you're a fraud at all, in fact truth to tell I'd be inclined to believe all you said (in spite of the fact I have absolutely no basis or reason for doing so). I'm just suggesting that for some things, and this is such, it's better to say "I know something about this, and there is documented intormation about it here", and then post one or more links. A lot of people won't click links but people who actually want to learn about the subject you're discussing will probably know how to check the link to see if it's reasonably safe.

SirLeighBastard wrote: Your "story" explains a lot about your paranoia. The story might not explain a lot about Maddy, but it does actually say a lot about who she is and how she got there. Your mention of paranoia is just the usual baiting attempt so I'll cut the line and dispose of that now. As it happens, you actually did form half of a valid point with the idea at the start of the sentence. I've heard the monster door story many times, first directly and then from overhearing it being told to others or seeing it in places like this. It's one of my favorite Maddy stories (not my very favorite: that one inspired my signature line). Both, interestingly enough, have a lot to do with Maddy's parents, most especially her father. Both demonstrate not just Maddy's delight in play, but her father's wonderful sense of play. His ability to share that with her and in fact nurture it is no doubt what made her the delightful person we know. She in turn has encouraged all who spend time with her to indulge our own playfulness. Second LIfe with its seemingly endless ways to be silly has been a perfect place to do just that, of course. That is obvious whenever someone starts one of those "Worst Noob Mistake" or "Dumbest Thing You've Ever Done in SL" threads. The obvious delight with which all the contributors share their gaffes makes it clear they got a bigger kick out of them than anyone. A slight derail: my favorite of that genre is from someone who doesn't visit the forums much anymore, if at all (and that's too bad, she was a great contributor). Quite new, she was dancing with her 'boyfriend' in his skybox and for whatever reason got nude except for her cowboy hat and cowboy boots. Her exuberant dance carried her off the edge of the platform and she fell to earth, all the while laughing and without the slightest clue of how to stop falling. She landed, supine and of course still dancing, in the center of a wedding ceremony. A gay male wedding ceremony. I had seen that Gnomist video before, Maddy. I loved the story but it never clicked that it had a resemblance to the monster door. I think the main reason was that the Gnome Forest was so benign. The children (and adults) who find the doors and interact aren't being exposed to anything that might be scary (although they are clearly being encouraged to let themselves use their imaginations). The gnomes apparently eat tea and crumpets. Your monsters left the bones of tiny animals. Your dad and mom treated you to a wonderful imaginary (well, potentially imaginary, nobody knows, right?) place and at the same time let it be just a touch macabre. This allowed you to feel unafraid in the face of what might be a scary thing, in this case monsters in the dark. I'm glad the door is being renovated, too. A special place like that needs to be preserved. Happy New Year to you, Maddy, and to everyone. Happy New Year to the monsters, too.

Well, fooey. I'm too late for 'holidays' but at least I'm ahead of New Year's Day for everyone GMT +2 or later. Happy New Year!

From my view, it still looks pretty much like that. Still fully compartmentalized. And I work with almost exclusively brick and mortar businesses. The relationships between the compartments is both difficult to understand and, it seems to me anyway, totally open to interpretation, but the bottom of that food chain is the merchant's customer. The merchant (LL, in this case) is only one rung off the bottom with all the capabilities and power that implies. From there it moves to the software, hardware, and possibly middleware LL uses to get credit card transactions (henceforth EFT) to the credit card processor. Probably none of it is actually LL's product, given the current PCI-DSS Standards* requirements, but I suppose it's possible. I'd guess third party, or 'us' in my case. We provided the merchant with the hardware/software and middleware. Next up, the credit card processors, also sometimes apparently called merchant banks. Then the gigantic server companies that provide the platforms the transactions go through to get to The credit card companies, who either approve or deny the validity of the original customer's EFT account, and finally The bank holding the merchant's account (that one recieves a deposit) and the one holding the customer's EFT account (that one recieves a debit). *Lot going on there, lot of computers, lot of regulations, and an industry that's changing so fast it never has time to tie its shoes. You want to waste at a minimum an afternoon (I've lost weeks I can never get back), google the PCI-DSS Standard and learn the regs. Then figure out how to explain all that to your customer, who runs his wildly popular seafood restaurant with his wife just as they've done for years, and who when he needs something fixed on a colmputer (including the one running his EFT app) he usually just calls his sister's boy, who knows all aboujt them.

jonhnnyroleplay wrote: Another armchair tech based upon personal opinions..LOL how much Nvidia stock does SL own??..LOL "armchair tech"? I don't know if you're aware of this but the majority of computer modification/configuration tasks are performed by people sitting in chairs with the computer on a workbench. It is not at all uncommon for the workbench to be at desk-height (even in professional computer repair centers) and the chairs to have arms. "personal opinions"? Oh, you mean something like this?: "IF you had a 3rd or 4th generation i7 ( LGA 1155 or LGA 1150) then yeah I say GTX 970 or AMD R9 390...unless all you want is to use SL then look at links above. I have ran BOTH Nvidia & AMD....I prefer AMD...more bang for buck....have fun..I AM..." In the seven plus years I've been here I have heard many tales of woe from AMD users. Sure, those people might have been doing things wrong. Not getting the right drivers, etc. But the point is that AMD tends to have issues with OpenGL and thus it has issues with Second Life. If a good graphics experience in Second LIfe is your target, why would you bother with AMD unless you were really at a high-level technically (as in a double-E at least, with hands-on graphics adaptor experience)? I mean, I can't think AMD is going to spend a lot of time worrying about how well their stuff works on Second Life! We aren't exactly the world's favorite online place to be, even if we are OUR favorite online place to be. Why not just go with Nvidia and not worry about it?

Snugs McMasters wrote: LaskyaClaren wrote: I, on the other hand, blameless ingénue that I am . . . I've tried that. It doesn't work. It has to be so hard being you, but yet you still do it. Admirable.

LaskyaClaren wrote: Well, I don't think that Super Villains are ever very credible when they try to make such claims. Good call.

Madelaine McMasters wrote: Dillon Levenque wrote: That is so in line with what I've experienced in the times I've been one of the (possibly intoxicated) dancers in RL. Or a blissful dancer in SL? ;-). Aye, that too. That's the thing about experiences. Once you've had them, they're part of you. They are an element in your narrative. In that particular instance, a very positive and treasured element of mine. Hiya :-) .

irihapeti wrote: he then said that is different with the pub crowd. He said that when we play covers, we play a lot of stuff from our youth and from the ages before also, mixed in with more modern stuff when a 30s-40s-50s+ is dancing (a little bit intoxicated sometimes) to a song from their youth then they arent dancing as a 30-40s-50s+. They are dancing as a teenager. They are transported back in time. In their minds and memories. They are young again, for those moments. We see this every weekend, in 1000s of faces, on 1000s of nights for over the 10 years now that we have been playing the pubs + SL is a bit like this as well I think. Sometimes we connect with others of our own age as ourselves, and other times we dont when we dont then we are dancing (a little bit intoxicated) as our younger selfs once more. In our minds and memories, for those moments That is so in line with what I've experienced in the times I've been one of the (possibly intoxicated) dancers in RL. When a live band is playing, in earnest, tunes of my youth I (and my usual dancing partner, my spouse) are dancing in our youth. I mean we don't think of it that way when it's happening but in truth that is exactly what is taking place. I was already well aware of the fact that it takes place in SL; I've sensed that about myself almost all along. But I'd never really tied that effect to similar RL experience 'til just now. Thank you for including that thought.