The Sands of Time

My arrival point in Sands of Time.

Visit at slurl.com/secondlife/Sands%20of%20Time/8 0/110/55

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

            A PSALM OF LIFE

      WHAT THE HEART OF THE YOUNG MAN
                    SAID TO THE PSALMIST

    Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
        Life is but an empty dream ! —
    For the soul is dead that slumbers,
        And things are not what they seem. 

    Life is real !   Life is earnest!
        And the grave is not its goal ;
    Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
        Was not spoken of the soul.

    Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
        Is our destined end or way ;
    But to act, that each to-morrow
        Find us farther than to-day. 

    Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
        And our hearts, though stout and brave,
    Still, like muffled drums, are beating
        Funeral marches to the grave. 

    In the world's broad field of battle,
        In the bivouac of Life,
    Be not like dumb, driven cattle !
        Be a hero in the strife ! 

    Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant !
        Let the dead Past bury its dead !
    Act,— act in the living Present !
        Heart within, and God o'erhead ! 

    Lives of great men all remind us
        We can make our lives sublime,
    And, departing, leave behind us
        Footprints on the sands of time ; 

    Footprints, that perhaps another,
        Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
    A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
        Seeing, shall take heart again. 

    Let us, then, be up and doing,
        With a heart for any fate ;
    Still achieving, still pursuing,
        Learn to labor and to wait. 

 Finding many wonderful Persian and other texts to peruse.

Majillis Al Jinn, an island of worn ancient cliffs sheltring a garden of wonders; Lost for countless ages in the midst of a vast ocean, home to Jinn, Elves and gentle spirits.

Visit at slurl.com/secondlife/Sands%20of%20Time/8 0/110/55 

More photos on my Flickr set and the wonderful set in PJ Trenton's Flickr collection.

Alirium: Light and Shadow

For higher quality images please have a look at my Flickr set .
 

 Fields of Gold

You'll remember me when the west wind moves

Upon the fields of barley

You'll forget the sun in his jealous sky

As we walk in the fields of gold

So she took her love

For to gaze awhile

Upon the fields of barley

In his arms she fell as her hair came down

Among the fields of gold

Will you stay with me, will you be my love

Among the fields of barley

We'll forget the sun in his jealous sky

As we lie in the fields of gold

See the west wind move like a lover so

Upon the fields of barley

Feel her body rise when you kiss her mouth

Among the fields of gold

I never made promises lightly

And there have been some that I've broken

But I swear in the days still left

We'll walk in the fields of gold

We'll walk in the fields of gold

Many years have passed since those summer days

Among the fields of barley

See the children run as the sun goes down

Among the fields of gold

You'll remember me when the west wind moves

Upon the fields of barley

You can tell the sun in his jealous sky

When we walked in the fields of gold

OOO - I wanna go!!

For BardHaven's report from the Star Trek Museum of Science, please CLICK HERE. I think I just found my plan for exploration tonight. :)

My Word....It's Full of......Shadows!

Second Life Shadows Demonstration by Lordfly Digeridoo.
This is one of the most amazing things I have seen from the SL platform.




Thanks to Bettina Tizzy for posting this in her NPIRL blog. Her article may be found here.

And now...A fine post from Hotspur

As I have said in a few venues, I have not really had a chance to sit down and write for the last few days, but I have been able to catch up on some of my reading during lunch and whatnot.

Here is a very fine post regarding community development and psychology found in the pages of Hibernia on the Skids.

Wise Words Of My Friend, Otenth

and many comments from other residents and friends.

Whither Polite Victorian Steampunk Society

by the way Sir Telemachus, ORR. The Order of the Red Rose follows me to my new lands.

Tis the Season

...for Real Life to take over my event schedule.

Part of me is always a little saddened when I miss out on things in SL, particularly things such as The Grand Tour, which by all accounts has been a phenomenal success. Congratulations Miss Gray! Obviously I miss my friends and neighbors in the Metaverse most of all when I am away. The other part of me, however, always rejoices when wonderful, special events take place with friends and family in the realm of the flesh.

The next month is going to be terribly busy out here in the real, so I hope that you will indulge me as I write about some of those events in these pages as well. I expect that you will find me in and out of world most weeknights for a little while (save for when I have family visiting - oh like I do right now); however, most weekends are at least partially out.

I am going to jot an outline of my combine RL and SL commitments here - primarily for my own benefit as I, quite frankly, am having a little trouble making sure I don't miss things. Here goes:

Holiday Events through 12-24-08 (as known on this date)
Real Life events in this color
Second Life events in this color

• Family visiting for Thanksgiving: 11-20-08 through 12-1-08.
• Christmas Party hosted by us with Chef Pippa Calland: 12-6-08
• Cooking Class: 12-12-08
• Hubby's Work Holiday Party: 12-13-08
• Choral Cantata: 12-14-08
• Military Winter Holiday Celebration (Dining Out) hosted by Wrath Fleet at Artificial Isle: 12-14-08
• Story-Telling at the Anvil: 12-15-08
• 40th Birthday Party for a friend: 12-19-08
• Yule Celebration at Book End: 12-20-08
• Christmas Eve Services (several) 12-24-08

By the way, my typist was with her daughters and mother-in-law on a day trip to New York City yesterday. We spent some wonderful time in the city walking through Central Park and watching the ice skaters, horses and squirrels. Then after some hot chocolate, we made our way to FAO Schwartz where we spent a couple of hours looking and playing (including watching the giant piano being danced. Lunch was a quick one at TGI Friday's near our theatre. I took the group to The Little Mermaid, which was marvelously done. Costuming, sets, and music were fantastic! I would highly recommend it - particularly for families - but I think most would enjoy it. Ursula was played particularly well - as were Flotsam and Jetsam.
After the show, we made our way to Macy's (the kids' first taxi ride) where we shopped a little and grabbed a bite to eat at their Cellar Bar and Grill before hopping back to the bus for the trip home. All in all a really nice time.

Well that's it for now. Perhaps I'll make it into world in a little while. Perhaps not. But it is generally easier to blog or something similar when company is around. It is difficult to act and interact well when both worlds need high levels of attention, neh?

Much Love,
Eva

The Tunnel of Light

An expedition to King's Rezzable, Spiral Walcher's new build, with Pascale Illyra, Hotspur, O'Toole and Telemachus Dean (who showed up for our third trip through the tunnel and unfortunately did not make it into the pictures).

Such a wonderful experience in Second Life (Windlight required for the best possible experience). My thanks to Spiral who was on-sight the night we visited and was most gracious and hospitable.

Suddenly the Landscape Was Changed!

Loch Avie and the Terrain Disaster


Nicholas K, Bellambi E. Unexpected loss of terrain data in a Caledon duchy. Proc Royal Soc 2007;8.


ABSTRACT
Caledon Loch Avie suffered a data casualty on Friday, August 10, during a period of ongoing unusual server performance. One of the authors (EB) witnessed a whole-scale disruption in the Loch Avie terrain. Land elevations were affected across the sim, with some locations receeding over 1 metre. Three woman-hours of terraforming was required to return the Loch's landscaping to normal.

Imagine my surprise when I logged-in on Friday and found water in the Loch along the rail tracks. Yikes! What disaster caused this?
As I then rather frantically flew around the Loch, I found trees floating in mid-air, pieces of my land fallen into the Loch, and mountains which had made themselves smaller than they once were. WTF?

My heart sank. What had happened to my beautiful Loch Avie?? Rapidly I checked my Estate Tools. Everything was as I had left it. Had Phillip (the volcano - not Linden) done this??
Understanding that there was nothing to be done, but to attempt repairs, I set about raising, smoothing, reverting, flattening, etc., the land. Meanwhile the curses coursing through my mind - and sometimes coming out of my mouth would make a sailor blush. One could understand this I am sure.

After working for more than an hour at this and making slow progress, I telegraphed The Honourable Kate Nicholas. Her skills with terrain work are finely honed. She was not in world. But thankfully, sometime later that night she was able to assist me in the RE-terraforming process. Our abstract of the event is above and you may read the full article at Proceedings of the Royal Society.

It should be noted that when I logged into SL yesterday (Sunday), I was an island unto myself. By that I mean that despite seeing all sims active and open (save for Vic City which was listed as offline for the second time this weekend) on the map, I could see NONE of the other Caledon sims. Odd things appear to be afoot. I hope Loch Avie's server is not declining, but I am growing concerned. We will continue to monitor.

And she's off...Time for a little rest and recreation

My human and I will be away from Second Life and this blog for most, if not all, of the coming week. Enjoy the sights and sounds for me. I'll hope for a full report from you upon my return to the grid.


But for now............I am outta here.

Therapeutic Singing.....anastaa ajaksi Avustaa Elinikäinen???

Therapeutic Singing....appropriate for Second Life???

My human discovered that she will be traveling to Finland this summer. This came as a complete surprise to her when her spouse announced that his business will be sending him there for a European conference in July. In the mad dash to get as much information as possible on Helsinki, required visas, passport updates, etc., she discovered the Complaint Choir of Helsinki listed on the end of the wiki article.

The Complaint Choir??? This sounded too good to be true. Following the link to the youtube site, she discovered that there are MANY Complaint Choirs in the world. Why, oh why, has she never known about these before now?? She is a semi-professional singer after all. Good Lord, the fun that has been missed! The therapy of singing through all the injustices (minor and major) that might have been.....*sigh*

Nonetheless, she asked that I offer this selection up to you with the questions: Does Second Life have a Complaint Choir? If Second Life does not, should we start one?

Your comments are strongly encouraged.