Sid Nagy

Of course they are different, thank the force for that. 🤪 The Republic Of The Seven Provinces (big part of the current Netherlands) was the first republic in the western world. Napoleon Bonaparte made The Netherlands a kingdom again, with his brother as king on the throne. Our current king is only the seventh ruler in succession from the house of Oranje Nassau. And we did not make the historical mistake to keep the king/queen head of state of our former colonies (or better the former colonies were smart enough not to chose such a construction). But no matter what, the British royals are as undemocratic and obsolete as in all the other monarchies in Europe IMHO.

It is not only the amount of LI (prims), but the kind of textures (seize and number), the number of active scripts, the way the passengers are dressed and use resources. It is the total package.

Look at Germany. A ceremonial president. Works just fine. The royal charade in the Netherlands (I don't know about other kingdoms) is extremely expensive. The king gets a personal salary higher than the president of the USA, his wife gets one, his eldest daughter the moment she turns 18 this year. The 3 palaces they use are maintained by the state, they live there for free. They pay no taxes, while the family is filthy rich, like most monarchs who still reign. If we had a president it would be much more democratic and a lot cheaper. For the rest very little would change. We are a parliamentarian democracy and the role of the head of state is almost completely ceremonial. But a lot of people still love the pictures straight out of a fairytale on occasion of the opening of the parliamentarian year in September with the tour in the golden carriage. Very photogenic. Just like kings day when they try to act normal among their nationals. So they are in good nick for at least another generation. The taxpayer pays.

We have a royal charade in the Netherlands as well. This stuff belongs in the fairytales from the Grimm brothers or Hans Christian Andersen not in 21st centuries modern democracies.

My prediction for SL in 2021? It will be around. No spectacular new features or improvements. SL is aging, and it starts to show. Look at the paint on the brand new themes in Bellisseria.

This is the one we will gonna win with for the second time in a row:

Maybe it helps with the sim crossings, that I'm still have a classic avatar with only basic mesh clothing (shoes, shirt, pants). No hair, no jewellery. Only extravaganza are my glasses.

I'm 1.91m in RL and that feels as tall. I can easily look over the crowds most of the time when walking in a city. I'm 1.91m in SL and that feels as medium\small. There are giants everywhere.

Region crossing is much better for sure since months already in the LL browser. I can ride my boat very comfy on the waters of Bellisseria and on foot it is almost not noticeable when I cross a sim.

I want my kudos back. The swift loading only seems to work when you log out from Bellesseria and then later log in again. This morning I logged in on my private land parcel and later teleported to my home in Drinkwater (in Bellisseria): The usual grey world to start with....... slowly popping up as ever. Good thing is, I read more of my newspaper this way.

I was just generally speaking. Not about your club specific. Why should I, I don't know the place at all. And VIP stands for Very Important Person. Nothing else. Meaning "drama ahead" way to often in my GENERAL SL experience if people badge themselves with such titles. GENERALLY speaking. And see, were cheesy remarks can lead to.

I'm on the official one.

To be honest, whenever I see VIP in a groups tag, I read: possible drama ahead. And this cheesy one can be passed on to Rowan's BDSM greeter: "Welcome, Rowan Amore!! Owww, I love that lady, even when she hits me with her hand bag."

As with almost everything in RL and SL, many roads lead to Rome. Whatever is best for the venue and the DJ.

Well I logged in this afternoon into Bellisseria again and wow......... instantly every last texture and object loaded from start. Never seen before. Wow just wow. If that is the new trend: 1000 kudos for the LL engineers.

Play lists make great life lines. In the period that I was active as a student with DJ jobs as a side order (in the time you had to go to a record shop every week to get the new printed issue of the Top 40 lists), I used high quality tape cassettes a lot. On each cassette all music would have the same style and comparable tempo. Pitch control had still to be invented then. That made work a lot easier. After a request, I just had to search the song on the right tape and then let it play for 2-3 numbers, because they all would match with each other. That gave time to consider what would come next. I guess that is even a lot easier doable with the modern digital options.

I imagine if you make a playlist in advance and stick to that no matter what, then it is easy to great everyone who comes in. Playlist in Winamp or whatever you use and done for the night. But then you are not reallyDJ-ing but greeter/host number 2. DJ-ing to me is having great knowledge of the music you are playing and constantly testing the waters how your audience is receiving it. So adjust on the spot if needed. Putting up "We're good" from Dua Lipa is easy when it is requested, but to find within minutes a good next song is a lot more work, considering the rule that in a dance venue at least two songs in a row should have the same dance rhythm to ensure continuity. These things absorb most of the time. Not being on the lookout if someone on the VIP list shows up. But of course that is only my 2 cents.

Talking over songs is an old radio gimmick to prevent teens from copying music directly from the radio on a tape deck. There is no need for that anymore on the radio (Spotify, YouTube and others are the sources these days) and certainly not in a club, there was never the need to do so. But many club DJ's listen a lot to their radio colleagues and many try to copy them. If you have to say more than a line or two, I would trough in a filler as background. Radio and club DJ-ing are two different branches on the DJ tree. Worst thing you can do is talk the show into the ground. Considering the payments, top notch dabblers don't do SL, but work at a RL local station or when really good on national radio. They make their extra dollars by appearing on road shows or with guest appearances at local venues in RL. A good SL jock should know his/her limitations and play out their real trump cards: Share the love for and knowledge about music. I would never ever start greeting VIPs. IMHO keeping a party going is flexible DJ'ng, searching the requests in your music dungeon, checking how they match with the next song you have in mind after the request etc. And keep an eye and ear on how the crowd reacts to what you play. So a lot of work, editing, concentrating and thinking is going on behind the screens of the actual show you are putting up. If you miss one VIP by doing so, there is more harm done than good, so I would stick by not mentioning them at all. If a SL venue owner finds it important, hire a greeter. The DJ only plays the "don't forget to pay the lady" jingle once or twice an evening. I would never spin in SL considering what the financial returns are for the amount of work involved. Or it would be purely for my own entertainment. And the venue owners...... well.... I would not care if they invite me back or not. It would be a take it or leave it job from my side. No tip jar needed.

IMHO a DJ should have a few opening lines at the beginning of the show to Introduce him/herself and the hosts and a few thank you words at the end to close the show. That is also the moment to mention upcoming events. For the rest maybe a jingle here and there to mask all to hard pitch or key switches. And for the rest: let the music play and do it's job. And whatever you do: No cheesy jokes or remarks. At least that is what I did when I had an occasional gig somewhere in the good old days in RL.

At log in this morning it was totally crappy for me to be honest. But logging in on a Bellisseria sim is never really fun but a long grey experience.

Yeah, right..... You would be the only one in the history of SL. A TOS is there to agree upon, not to read it. People search in it at best, when they are in doubt about something.

All the totally dressed up chicos and chicas partying there are likely one of the major lag causes. They should at least only throw nude parties.

Talking about spam, I have that store that .............. I'll show myself out.

Not more suns or moons! We have to protect the market for face lights and tanning beds.

What about all the scripted dogs, cats, tigers, horses, lions, elephants, unicorns and what not that walk, crawl and use resources with no owner in sight? A few heavily dressed up avatars can be resource slurping as well. It is all part of SL. Get used to it.