And I am really done...

It all gotten a bit much, so I left DJ-ing behind. I felt pigeonholed not only by what people expect of me but also by the expectations I set for myself. I want to be the best I can be, but if that means working in a structured format, please no! For structured formats I have a job, here in SL... I come to play. The activity that is being a DJ was more and more becoming a job.

Combine that with the gigazillion things that are coming my way in my private life, and that take up a boatload (and that is a standardized unit of measurement) of time, and you have a recipe for disaster... Well for a very stressed out DJ anyway. I already took it out once on my sis Emyly, and that is just not worth it. So this time around, I mean it. I QUIT! (DJ-ing that is)

I am done...

I come to this world with the best intentions. It seems that most of them are misunderstood. I am here to help people. But what I get is hostility. Maybe I am not clear enough... Do people really not understand that all I want is world-peace? a harmonious place for all of us to occupy? For all of us to get along? Based on the conversations I had tonight, it seems that I am the bad guy. I am the asshole. Well if that is how you all think about it, I best stay away.

Tonight I tried to give advise to a dear friend. It not only fell on deaf ears, it was met with so much hostility that it has me seriously wondering what the fuck I am still doing here... I was accused of wanting to see something fail, while all I was doing is trying to help it succeed.

I am so turned around I wonder which end is up. One thing I do know is that this digital world, the way it is right now, is not healthy for me to be in. So...

So long and thanks for all the fish!

To name but a few...

It's late here in BBQ land... Nonetheless, I feel that I should give some credit where credit is long overdue and let you in on some of the secrets. The secret, mostly, of what keeps me coming back to this silly game called SL. The secret, for me, is the people that inhabit this insane, made up world with me. So here is a list of names (and reasons) of people that I am very thankful for meeting over the past years...

If you didn't make the list, don't worry. I don't hate you!

First and foremost, there is Feenix. For reasons that are way too long to put to ink, I would not have been able to lead my life without her. Filling my heart with joy, my mind with pleasure, she is ALWAYS there for me (and I will always be there for her).

Otawan is the person that made me realize that even in this virtual world their are people that appear good but, just as in RL, you should stay away from. Too bad it took me so long to realize.

Emyly, of course, my adopted sister who I would not have given the light of day in RL. What can I say about her? Caring, loving, open to my madness, and always willing to be a friend... even in my darkest times. You surprise me on a daily basis.

Linri is a great experiment. She always gives people a chance, it's just too bad she chickens out too soon. She would be a great friend if she was just more open-minded. Thanks for giving me my break as a DJ in SL, but... you just don't cut it. One day you will learn to be as tolerant as you say you are.

Katiana you rock!! I will never forget that you invited me for thanksgiving dinner, nor the fact that you nearly ran me over with that god damn horse of yours. As different as our political views are, the respect for you remains the same. You, are real... A real redneck!

Jim & Baby, thanks for letting me by myself and accepting that.

Kathy, in times when you didn't think anything was wrong (but I could have killed myself) your silly pictures from that very cold place (with penguins) brought a smile to my face, keeping me going for just a bit longer! Long enough to learn that...

Gussica, is worth knowing... I will miss you! You brought back the believe that everything is possible. Too bad our freindship got cut short. Sleep well in your beach house on the moon.

Last there is Casandra... God I hate how perfect you are! But you have also perfectly shown that I should strive to be my own kind of perfect. Now stop!

Just a list of people that have taught me something over the last few whatevers... Credit where credit is due.

Sexism...

It's a harsh word I know, but I was dumbfounded to see it in the corner of the world where I did.

I was interviewing for a DJ gig at a gay club. I am super cocky (no pun intended guys) so I like to think that I am interviewing the club. In a way it's good I think like that because it once again saved me from what could be a very unsatisfactory engagement.

The owner, a Dutch gay guy told me I couldn't play rock... Fine, I don't like to anyway, so far so good. We started discussing time-slots and I said "before we do that, I have a choreographer, maybe we need to discuss that first". He asked me what that was, I explained and he said "we don't do dance hostesses". I told him that I didn't think he understood what choreography was all about, especially since he kept insisting on calling Emy's job that of dance hostess.

The guy said that he perfectly understood but that the club simply would not employ a hostess. I was going to get into my "She is not a hostess, she is a choreographer" routine, when it hit me... This guy simply has something against women! I asked if it would make a difference if the choreographer was lesbian. "Well," the guy said "I got nothing against women." You know what is coming next don't you?

"Some of my best friends are women."

Eureka! While it's OK to be a woman, a heterosexual woman even, you can't be employed in his gay club. DISCRIMINATION! He then rambled on and on about how much trouble he had in the past with the female employees of his club. That's like me saying I will not work with Turks because they all smell like goat manure.

In the real world, we have laws against this. In the US it' called EOE, Equal Opportunity Employment. His rational was that he wasn't in the US and besides this was SL. So as long as you are a guy, you are OK. Gay or not. If you are a woman, you are "welcome" as a patron (altough it's likely not encouraged), but you can't work there. Lesbian or otherwise.

Sexism!

A nice vacation

The RL me had to go to Chicago. Just a two day trip... and for business purposes, so not much of a vacation (although I did manage to catch and insanely good dolphin show at Shedd Aquarium). No the vacation I am hinting at, is no longer having to do two shows a week DJ-ing in SL. See the blog post below for that story, but it suits me just fine.

I am sorry that brought on by my interactions I now knocked the bread out of Emy's mouth, but she is still talking to me, so she must have forgiven me.

I actually like it like this. This weekend we (yes Emyly and me) are doing a show at the Castle of Jim and Baby. We played there once before and it was great. We will have to see if that turns into a standing arrangement or more of an ad hoc kind of thing. Also, once a month, we'll be at RastaFairy beach. A great club owned by some really fun people! Our next show there is hosting the annual drag queen contest... Wooohooo! Look for Emyly in a tux and me in a gown!

I could get used to this freelance stuff! It's so much more relaxed...

Ringing in the New Year (ASSHOLE STYLE)

Happy new year motherfuckers!

It all started innocently enough. On New Year's eve (that was yesterday) Emyly was slated to lead a couples dance at Linri's Palace. It takes two avatars to dance as a couple. I was going to be with Feenix (ringing in the new year in our own way, if you catch my drift) so my sister was short a dance partner. Not to worry, Emyly has a good friend who gave her access to his avatar, so if she is ever short a dance partner, she can use him.

Slight problem... This boy was banned from Linri's! Why? This guy never comes to Linri's if it isn't for Emyly needing a dancer, and if that happens, he never says anything because it's really Emyly controlling him and she is too busy dancing to make him talk.

Inquiring minds need to know! So Emyly asked. The reason she was given by the owner of the establishment (Linri herself) was as shocking as it was stupid. It turns out that several people at Linri's had complained about our behavior. This is where it becomes complicated (or totally imbecile, if you ask me). "Our behavior" in this case means that of Emyly and me. Yes, yours truly Tulsa! Why in god's name ban an avatar that isn't really there ever? I have no idea, and likely will never find out, seeing how moments later I myself got booted...

Way to go Linri! Let's deny access to one of your staffers! It was close to Emyly's performance when I inquired exactly what Emyly and me had done to deserve a third AV to be banned. I was told that several people had complained about me. I supposedly am rude and hard to work with. That's kind of funny, I come in set up my DJ rig, play songs and leave. Emyly, I was told was also complained about often. That, I have a real hard time believing... Where as I have a kind of "boisterous charm" Emy is the sweetest AV you will ever meet.

So I pressed on. Who came up with this bullshit (no definitive answer) and what exactly am I accused of saying/doing?

It turns out that Linri's palace has some secret financial backers. I always wondered how she kept that club going with such low patronage, but now I know! It's these "silent partners" that did the complaining. And of course money talks, and the low life DJ walks, right?

Among the accusations geared towards me, were that I once got in an argument with Emy her boyfriend. Indeed I did, but not after him insulting my girlfriend. Besides the whole argument lasted all but four lines of text. I was also accused of telling people they were naked. Well truth be told, Linri was naked, at least on my screen(you gotta love SL glitches). And which self-respecting heterosexual man would not make a comment about that? I mean, come on, Linri is one of the most attractive AVs in the metaverse.

Apparently Linri's "secret investors" keep a score card of how often I say something that is not to their liking. I don't know who these people are and Linri will not tell me. I do know who these people are not and some of the regulars at Linri's Palace are just as flabbergasted as I am.

So I was put in front of a firing squad without ever hearing what I was charged with. When I said to Linri I was canceling today's show and that she had until Sunday to sort out this mess, I was banned. Not by her stash of secret investors, no by her! Excuse me for wanting to find out what I am being accused of. All I was offered by Linri is that allegedly her band of silent partners had threatened to close the club.... Yeah right!

If this sounds fair to you, then fuck you and the horse you rode in on! That includes you Linri!

Changes...

Several aspects of my life have been changing dramatically over the past few months. One thing that I pushed forward without much regard for these changes has been my DJ-ing. It was inevitably about to break. You can't change your life on one side and expect the other to go on as if nothing happened. That would be like simultaneously trying to make a right and left turn. Every aspect of your life has implications for another aspect of your life. Upon turning left, that right turn moves away. Or rather you are moving away from it.

If I measure some of my success as an MC in SL by visitor number, I have been truly blessed. Never played to an empty house, always make good tips... Cooool beans!

But how important is that really? Some of you (I mean other DJs) may well be perfectly happy playing and announcing tunes and following chat and saying "Hey, thanks for that great tip". Good for you, if you are one of them. I came to realize that I am not.

You see I am on SL mostly for my own satisfaction. I want to do what feels right to me! And lately, Second Life has become work. While I still enjoy playing music in SL, other things, both in and out of SL have become more important. Struggling to make it to a gig so I can pay my rent, is not one of them. I have to do that on a daily basis in the realm of reality. I think I have said this before, but if I wanted to play house, I can turn SL off and be none the wiser! It's why I stopped playing the Sims!

I have decided that I should drastically reduce my DJ gigs. One casualty of that decisions is my "Soul 2 Soul" show at Linri's Palace. It never really worked very well to begin with, and it is one Friday night engagement I can live without. So this coming Friday will be the last time...

"Party Funk", for the time being will continue as scheduled. However, expect some changes in its format. What they are, I don't know yet but, I do know I have to make this interesting again for myself. Right now (with the exception of last night, when I took some liberties) it isn't. I realize that I have mostly myself to blame. I pushed myself into some sterilized version of what I wanted to think was best for my audience. No more!

It's a new year and a new me. Consider this my new year's resolution.

For Gucissa

Got me a little outfit together for Sunday's performance at Linri's Palace. In honor of our dear friend Guc, we are renaming (temporarily) the show to "Crimson Glory - Celebrating the life of Gucissa". Hence the red. In case you didn't know Crimson (Guc's last name) is a particular shade of red. Somewhere in between vermilion and carmine. Damn hard to match! Luckily my white tux from Blaze is tintable. The frog is of course in memory of Joshua and Guc and while not mandatory for attendance, it's highly appreciated if you wear one too. My sister Emyly will be handing them out at the door.

To a dear friend...

In early September I wrote about a friend that gave me a frog. In memory of a 9 year old boy named Joshua, that frog was. I wrote about how she herself (my friend that gave me the frog) was battling cancer. In that blog-post I wrote:

..."Take some time out of your busy schedule. Remember there are marvelous things to see and do every day. Miracles happen in your life on a daily basis, really! Just take the time to watch them."

Then a few short weeks later my frog-handling friend slipped into a coma. I think it was a coma anyway, the details are blurry. But she snapped out of it, and on September 28, 2009 I wrote in another blog-post how happy I was to see her back in this crazy world we call SL. I even joked how much I hate Jimmy Buffet, and how she surely would request me playing some upon her return. We didn't see each other much after that. Once she was a transformer like avatar for a Halloween event. When we did talk, it was mostly about her wigs. Not the SL kind, the real ones that kept her from showing her bald head to the world. I tried to be lighthearted, that wasn't always easy. And where previously we would have been joking up a storm, trying to not be outdone by the other with our witty one-liners, the conversation would often have these lengthy, awkward pauses. I don't think I even said goodbye the last time we talked.

I am not going to beat myself up over that, in SL those things happen. You know, you are busy, or your connection drops for the umpteenth time and you just decide to give up for the day... But I do wish I would have had a chance to say goodbye one last time.

When I logged on today, not having been on much because I have a pretty bad case of the flu, I found a saved IM from another good friend. My lady in Antarctica, who sends me pictures from her ice-diving adventures. She and my frog-toting friend are family (well sort of) in the real world. "Gucissa Crimson lost her battle with cancer".

That's pretty much all it said. I am devastated! Gucissa is/was one of those people to look up to. An amazing lady with an amazing outlook on life. An outlook that I can no longer share with her or quiz her about, but that I will continue (I will try at least) to carry forward. In time, you will, if you hang around me long enough, learn about her legacy.

Sleep well my dear friend, and sweet dreams. Oh, I heard there is a beach house for rent. On the moon!

Shove it down my throat, why don't you?

Judging by my accent, which is an odd mix of Kansan, Oklahoman, Dutch, Brummie and a touch of deep-southern US thrown together, you would never guess that I am not from the United States. I call that country, for the time being at least, my home, but it's not my home (so to speak). When you first set foot in SL, you probably weren't thinking too much about the fact that you were about to meet people from all walks, many different generations, and all corners of the globe (the latter being technically speaking impossible since a globe doesn't have any corners).

The other day I was at an event at Linri's Palace. I was probably not in the best of moods to start with, and poor DJ Winston got to carry to the burden of me becoming violently upset over something that, in hindsight, probably wasn't all that important. Looking back on it I realize that I should not have attacked him like I did. It did however (once I calmed down) give me a chance to reflect on some of the intricate intercultural socialization (wow that was a mouth full!) that happens in SL.

Even though Second Life brings together the planet in a way that was previously unheard of, the celebrations that we share seem to be heavily biased towards the North American calendar. At least, that's how it seems to be, but in all honesty that could be because I like to spend my time with people who I have a language in common with and the fact that I am in the same time zone (roughly anyway). But let us for a moment just use my observation as the working assumption... For the sake of argument.

There are two American celebrations that I, for reasons entirely personal, have a big problem with. Those two are Veterans Day (the cause of my argument with Winston) and Thanksgiving. There are others that don't have any meaning to me whatsoever, but they simply don't bother me as much. Veterans Day celebrates the lives (and losses) of US soldiers. It is my firm believe that none of the conflicts, starting after WWII, the Unites States engaged itself in, were warranted. So to honor the soldiers fighting in those theaters, is awkward for me to say the least. I fully understand that not everyone is going to agree with me on that, and if you want to honor your (fallen) "heroes", be my guest. But please do it in a way that actually honors them. Closing the post office and sticking toy flags in your lawn is not the way to go about it! If 80 percent of the nation goes about their business as if nothing ever happened, you are not properly (as a nation) celebrating those that "fight for your freedom".

But let's get back to SL. If the crowd is so international, how come the celebrations are so one-sided? Why is it that a club, with a Japanese decor even celebrates Veterans Day? Doesn't that just seem a little bit ironic? We honor the service men of WWII in a setting that borrows its decorations from a culture that attacked the US in Pearl Harbor?

So I am very vocal about what I think is right (or not). You probably don't agree, and that is good! But all of a sudden I understand how people must feel when they get something rammed down their esophagus. You know, the Jewish kid who, every December is made to listen to the stories about Jesus Christ... The pacifist that is made to observe 11 minutes of silence at work, even though he (or she) is against the violence that goes on in wars...

If, as an international, intercultural society, which is SL we want to have a future, we have to be more thoughtful of the people around us. That maybe means we have to let go of certain rituals and embrace others. Maybe we have to stop celebrating Christmas and instead adopt Kwanzaa. Better yet, we need to create our own celebrations. Those that are not tied to a certain nation or a certain belief, but instead celebrate the life, the culture, the people that make up the new society that we are part of. We owe it to the (in)world that we inhabit.

I win I win I win!!

Feenix is having a possitive affect/effect on me. Today I won the "race that stops the nation". Had I betted I would have been 120 dollars and 59 cents richer then I was before.

The Melbourne cup is the biggest horse race in Australia. People go goo-goo over it. To me it's just a bunch of animals that would be better served being in front of a plow, but ever since we mechanized those things I guess that the only way for a horse to not end up on a sandwich is to... RUN!!! I know nothing about horse racing, absolutely NOTHING. So when someone asked me which horses I'd pick I jokingly said: Shocking

Then they asked me to pick another name, for the long shot. I looked over the list and "Nothing Leica Cat" was already out of the race, so instead I (randomly) picked "Crime Scene". I thought it was kinda fitting that if Shocking was my number one pick, Crime Scene would be second. Well today whatever God you subscribe to smiled on me. In the order above, my picks came in. Shocking won and Crime Scene came in second.

Should have placed a bet, but... I win the race! My picks came in First and Second. Take that that you fools! Next year I will bet on "Purple Toothpaste".

Technology, or lack thereof...

This post was entitled "Crap!" but at the last moment I changed my mind.

I love it when technology just works. I just successfully sat here and watched my PC clock flip from 1.59 AM to 1.00 AM. Simultaneously my Mac did the same thing. All I had to do was sit there! It was a thing of geekly beauty. What bothers me then to no end, is that with all the machinery in the world, we can't seem to create an SL experience that is seamless.

Linden Labs has a few data centers that aren't anything to sneeze at. Yet, as 1.59 is quickly approaching a second time (an event that can only be witnessed once a year) in one hour, my AV has not fully rezzed yet. Oh and I already did three rebakes!

From a technical perspective, although I don't claim to understand how the SL viewer works, it shouldn't be that difficult. It is of course highly likely that me thinking it shouldn't be that difficult is exactly because I don't understand how the SL viewer works. But it occurs to me that the rendering engine of SL needs some work. Say... my upper body is gray, it stays that way until I change my shirt, in which case my torso is all of a sudden, as if by magic, rezzed in...

Again, I don't know the innards of the SL viewer, but I do happen to understand how data-communication works. And from that little experience I would have to conclude that somehow a message traveling between LL and my computer got dropped and neither machine is any the wiser. That being the case, I would have to conclude poor error handling. The other day, I saw Linri's boobs! She swears she had a shirt on and none of the other patrons at the Palace corroborated my experience. Mind you I am not complaining, the lady in question is not entirely unattractive so there is an upshot to all these glitches at times.

But lets think about this. Linri's computer sends a message to LL. The message being "I am wearing a shirt". LL responds "OK, you are wearing a shirt". Then my computer comes in and asks LL a question. That question being "What is Linri wearing?"

The computer sitting in the LL data center is a) ignoring my question or b) giving me the wrong answer! Before you ask, this wasn't a case of clothes not being rezzed yet, I actually saw boobage! The litmus test for this one is always "Do you see nipples?" And why is it, while we are at it, that the minimum configuration for running SL are so insanely high? Specifically, the graphics card!

SL uses a graphics rendering engine that is fairly unsophisticated. When I say unsophisticated, I don't mean bad, but's let's face it, it's nothing compared to some video games, which incidentally run fine on machines that the SL viewer can't even be started on. In my current household I am running FOUR different versions of the SL viewer. My netbook runs the Cool SL Viewer, on my laptop I run the SnowGlobe release, on my desktop PC I run the official release, and on my Mini I run the official Mac release.

Not surprisingly, the Mac does best... It has a wicked video card! On the Windows side, the two machines that do best run unofficial releases. One (Cool SL viewer) not even produced by LL! It's pretty sad that a third party can create a better experience than LL themselves, On less hardware no less...

Am I good or what?

The answer is: Or what!

I am sitting here this morning reflecting on what should have been the perfect evening in SL. Mind you it doesn't help that I have a headache, but I am left feeling slightly uneasy. I hadn't done a DJ gig in six weeks due to RL issues, so this was somewhat of a comeback-event. Maybe I was feeling slightly too cocky, or maybe six weeks is simply not long enough to be away, who knows... But the gig surely wasn't the material that makes say, Elvis's Las Vegas TV special.

First of all, it was a Halloween themed event. I picked a costume that was ultra-cool. To look at that is... I had hardly any control over my movement, so that left me with a serious lack of control of the room. The lag last night didn't help, but as an MC I need to be able to "pan" to see who is coming and going. I was in a blind spot! I had the distinct feeling that my song selection was way off. Sure people liked the music, but to me... It didn't seem to flow as nicely as I had hoped. I am gonna let the cat out the bag, the genie out of the bottle... I think that I have awesome timing. My announcements are always perfectly timed to the intro of a song. That is because I practice . I listen to each song, look for cue points, and when I am satisfied that I know the flow of the song I test talking over it. Sometimes I am reciting a grocery list for lack of anything useful to say but the point is that my speech should end right before one of those cue points. My sister Emy heard me do it last night before the show when we had an impromptu dress-rehearsal.

I had never used Rockwell's "Somebody's watching me" (which is one of those Halloween only songs) but in rehearsal I aced it at the first try. Not so during the gig. I crashed that intro completely! As I did with many others... I don't know what was up with me... Maybe being away for six weeks killed my skills?

Normally on Thursday's at Linri's I have no event's following me. I am it! The last event of the day, the head-liner if you will. I always jokingly call BBall's show my "warm-up act" Unbeknownst to me, yesterday there was an event scheduled following me... OOPS! I had selected a play-list that was slightly longer than my allotted two hour slot. I found myself having to cut songs from my set-list. I don't think I made the right choices. All in all, I was less than impressed with myself last night.

And people think that all DJ'ing is, is playing a tune and talking in between. Damn this is hard work!

About (virtual) money...

Unlike my RL, in SL I am pretty well to do... I never have to scramble to pay my rent and buy 500/1000 L$ outfits on a whim. If I did that in the real world, well lets just say I'd be walking everywhere... As long as I have a good internet connection, I can run a pretty successful business playing music (some call that DJ-ing) and it actually pays my bills. Now, mind you, even the biggest house in SL costs less than a case of beer RL.

I just teleported away from a very dissatisfying negotiation about a fee for doing a two hour gig. Mostly I play music in SL for fun... Having said that, there is cost associated with doing so, not to mention the time involvement. I ask a minimum of 500 L$ for two hours. In the real world, that doesn't even buy me a pack of cigarettes. If Walmart could get away with paying their cashiers like that the American economy would be even worse than it is now!

Still there are club owners in SL not willing to commit to beer money. I just had a conversation with one... Their argument is that they provide me a venue to perform at and access to their "clientele". I am putting the word clientele in quote marks here, because the notion is ludicrous!

Let's face it... What is a club in SL? It's a place for people to talk to other people. So it' a chat room? No wait this chat room has decor! Ah! It's a chat room while staring at a painting? Close, but... They play music in a club! So it's a chat room while staring at a painting amidst listening to the radio? BINGO!! In an SL club you can't even get drunk! Now don't get me wrong, the social aspect of these clubs is priceless. But having me spend two hours out of my day to entertain your guests without compensation, sorry that's not flying with me. Why not you ask? Let me explain!

As I said, your club is nothing but a chat room. A chat room with trees, but still... Are your guests really your guests, or are they there because you are throwing on an event? One that I am at the epicenter of. I can easily argue that most clubs are utterly and completely dead until a performer shows up. Go to any club, do it right now, where no performer is scheduled and tell me what you find... So is the club in business because I am there? Or am I in business because the club is there??

Like George Carlin said "A house is place to put your stuff while you are out looking for more stuff". If you own a club, and you keep paying the rent (or the tier, as the case may be) that club will remain. What you own is a building. A virtual one at that! People will not come to your shack unless you do something special. That something special is me...

Your patrons are there to see/hear the show, not to stand around in a nicely feng shui-ed virtual hangar. So having those patrons pay the performer... NO!!

If you tell me that most performers make 750 (plus) Lindens in tips and I ask you to back that up by a guarantee... Ask you to pay the difference if your "clientele" somehow do not tip me as expected... If you are unwilling to do so, all I can say is... You are bluffing! In other parts of the world we call that "liar liar pants on fire". All you have to do as a club owner is, put me on your calendar and maybe advertise me on the SL event list, a time investment of all but 15 minutes. On the other hand I am expected to entertain your chat room buddies for 2 (plus) hours.

Bottom line: You don't pay, I don't play!

Bye Goblins...

It came to my attention that to some my Halloween rags should have stayed a surprise. I didn't think anyone was reading this (then why do I write here huh?) but it came to my attention that my selection for Halloween outfits already made the rounds thru' my limited circle in the Metaverse.

So the cat is out the bag, the upside... yes there is one...

Now you can prepare to match!

Hi Goblins!

Ready for showtime? After a much too long hiatus, I am preparing for my return. And since my comeback show will be during the week of Halloween, I had to go look for a costume! Well, a previous SNAFU (making my legs disappear) in SL, inspired me to go hunt for... something. As it turns out I am not the only lunatic that thought of it. Found a cheap thingie that was just what "the doctor ordered". (Yes, pun intended)

Look at the photograph. This is as close as having my head on a platter (just in case you virtually hate me) as you'll ever get.

Of blogs and frogs...

So, I canceled Linri's until I am back home... There just doesn't seem to be enough time in my RL day to properly prepare for doing a show from the road (if you read my last post you will know it didn't go over quite so good). All I do is drive from meeting to meeting and work on my regular RL to do list in between. There is a down side to being away from home. Business is good, but SL suffers...

A while ago, I wrote about "frog toting" people (yes pun intended). Today I heard some great news. My friend Guc (the one that gave me the frog to wear) is back home and hopes to make an appearance in-world tomorrow. We missed her. I will not miss her requests for Jimmy Buffet. I can't stand Jimmy Buffet! And as soon as she will ask I will tell her I played it last week (no honestly, I did) while she was away in La La Land...

Anyway, it's good to hear she is recovering! Glad to have her back!

Weird...

What a crap ass day it was in SL! My Show at Linri's was weird! I am not home so I don't have access to my "pro" studio... and that was highly noticable.... UGH! I figured I could stream my show from anywhere. Well not from this hotel room! DSL is really not up to par... The music was skipping and too fast and cutting out and distorted and... YIKES! Emyly walked out after 45 minutes. While I was feverishly working trying to make it sound better. To tell you the truth, I love her, but I was pissed she walked on me. I am a perfectionist, so I can understand she was frustrated, but you know, sometimes life deals you lemons... Deal with it! And for crying out loud, don't use what happened before show-time as an excuse either. Especially if you don't tell me what actually transpired. How the hell do you forgive a person for their circumstances (and their reactions to them) if they don't tell you what these circumstances are?

Right after she left, things got much better. I grasped a fairly decent handle on the technical situation... Oh well, I made 1000L$, Emy made... well zilch, for not being there.

Sadly, the regulars were so glad I stayed, it would have been a big ego boost for my sister to hear that. It sounded like she needed it... Her own actions made her miss out on that token of affection from all the regular visitors to Party Funk at Linri's

Well next week I will try another tech solution... after all, the show must go on!
Meanwhile, here is a picture of the outfit I was wearing. Emy told me in no uncertain terms that the orange boots were HORRIBLE. Ah, she is so predictable!

Hit the (RL) road... Jack...

I have a small mixer(200 dollars), I could just drop it in my suitcase... But then I would have to bring a microphone (300 dollars), cables (50 dollars), a microphone stand (30 dollars), I would like to have my compressor (199 dollars) with me.... Oh the trials and tribulations of trying to play music for you guys (Having Delta break or lose my my equipment in NYC -- Priceless!)

I am going on the road Wednesday. As I said in my previous blog post, I don't know whether or not I can DJ from the road. Not that it can't be done, I am just one of those people that isn't satisfied with mediocrity. If it's not perfect, I rather not do it than do it half-assed. AND I AM RUNNING OUT OF TIME!! When the RL company planned this trip that is so interfering with my SL, I thought... Oh I have months to figure this out. Well now it's almost here and quite frankly, I haven't figured it out yet (how do you spell: procrastination?)

Speaking of not having much time... We usually don't (as a species in general, be it your pixelated or meat and potatoes form) take enough of it to smell the roses... I am reminded of this every day.

There are people in SL wearing frogs on their shoulder. Why? It's in memory of Joshua. A boy that died at the age of nine from the side effects of epilepsy and cerebral palsy. I was made aware of this by a good friend of mine, who herself is undergoing chemo for a very bad form of cancer. Speaking of cancer, a group of people got together and put on a charity event for a little three year old girl with leukemia. In a single day they raised over one million Lindens! That same friend wearing that silly frog on her shoulder, lost her husband. He was in tower two of the World Trade Center on September 11th.

There is so much we can share, good or bad, that makes SL an experience not to joke about... All we need to do, is wake up and take the time to smell the roses. That same frog wearing, cancer fighting lady has a sister. In RL she works in one of the craziest places... I wouldn't be friggin' caught dead in that joint, but... She sends me pictures of the things she does for a living and oh my god do I envy! Do I ever envy her!

Take some time out of your busy schedule. Remember there are marvelous things to see and do every day. Miracles happen in your life on a daily basis, really! Just take the time to watch them. If you are feeling low, talk to people that have been there before you. They will lend you a helping hand, if all you do is take the time to get to know them. This is a tribute to all the wonderful people I met over the past, say... three years or so. Give me you hand, lend me an ear (and I will try not to sing out of key)

Remember, you gonna get by with a little help from your friends. And in the words of a man with infinite wisdom... Be kind to the women of the world, just remember we all had mothers.

Jim, I want you to spell New York...

...Can you do that Jim??

A knife, a fork a bottle and a cork.

RL has got me leaving on a business trip soon, so I am going flat out, pulling 16 hour days making sure I can leave and leave everyone in good hands. Meanwhile SL goes on. Funny thing happened this week... In the midst of RL mayhem there is of course the DJ/MC gigs I do. During one of them, Jim offered me friendship. There is of course nothing strange about a fan of DJ wanting to be on your friends list.... that is...

Me and Jim go way way way back. The first time I met him, was also the first time I saw my (now adopted) sister Emy. Strange how things go. When I first saw Emyly in SL, I somehow offended her. She was dancing, I was bugging her (I really was just trying to make converation, but she didn't see it that way) and she recruited Jim to INTERROGATE me about my intentions. I was looking my old, harsh and brass, self, including bad skin and newbie hair...

And now, a long time later, me and Emyly work together. In the same club we met. In the same spot I offended her. It was in that same club that good ole Jim, during one of our gigs, he offered friendship. Already playing friends with his "loved one" and spinning requests for her, why wouldn't he?

Strange how things go huh?

My gig at P4 is canceled for the time being... Too much going on. Hate to leave them high and dry, but with me traveling, and being in a different time zone, there is not much I can do. Matter of fact, I really have to take care of this, I am not even sure if I can DJ at Linri's.... I simply don't know if I can bring enough equipment to do this from the road. I have to figure something out. After all Linri's Palace, is not just the place where I got my start DJ-ing in SL, it's where I met the best friend a boisterous asshole like myself can wish for... It's also where I met Jim.

A knife, a fork a bottle and a cork...
Hey Jim I want you to spell New York for me, can you do that Jim??