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May 11th, 2030
 | 04:14 am - See how popular this journal is . . .
 visitors have read my LiveJournal since September 2003
Current Mood:  pleased
Current Music: "Popular" (from the musical "Wicked")
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February 15th, 2012
 | 08:33 pm - Now on Inworldz
I've been involved with Second Life for almost five years now, but as time passes, it changes more and more from the place I fell in love with, in ways that are increasingly bad. I'm also no longer sure if it will remain an economically viable company, since its financial footing seems more and more shaky as more and more users flee.
And now I'm one of those users, as of today. For a variety of reasons, while I will maintain a presence in Second Life (for now), I've decided to open an account on rival service Inworldz. It simply seems prudent to no longer have all of my virtual eggs in one virtual world's basket.
I expect to set up shop in Inworldz after I become better acquainted with the place. It will take time to rebuild my product line there, but hopefully the company that runs Inworldz will be more merchant-friendly than Linden Lab has been.
Current Mood:  working
Current Music: "Genesis" by VNV Nation
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November 17th, 2011
 | 12:18 am - Another friend is no more
The Reaper has shown me his love once more. My friend Moogy Klingman of the band Utopia has passed away. I met many of my famous friends through him -- he enjoyed putting people together.
So now the count of people gone from my life in just over a year is 10 -- three close relatives and seven friends. I'm so very, very tired of going to funerals and memorial services.
I'll be sitting shiva with the family for the next few days.
Current Mood:  sad
Current Music: "You've Got to Have Friends" by Moogy Klingman
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September 19th, 2011
 | 08:22 pm - Marathon ahead, me hearties -- yo ho!
I'll be spending "Talk Like a Pirate Day" in the company of Captain Jack Sparrow and a bottle of rum as I watch all of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies tonight.
Current Mood:  drunk
Current Music: "Give the Fiddler a Dram" -- Rafe Stefanini
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September 16th, 2011
| 11:39 pm - The Reaper loves me
I've lost another family member. In the past year-and-a-half, I've lost 9 people from my life, 3 of them close relatives.
Current Mood: crappy
Current Music: "Lilies" by Jamie Fessenden
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September 15th, 2011
 | 11:23 pm - Today was my eighth LJ-versary
This LiveJournal was created eight years ago today. What a long strange trip it has been . . .
Current Mood:  nostalgic
Current Music: "Anniversary" by Voltaire
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September 11th, 2011
 | 11:28 pm - On the tenth anniversary of the terrorists' victory
Five years ago, I told my story of September 11, 2001 and why it had particular significance for me.
Now it's the tenth anniversary and in the intervening years life in the US has grown grimmer. I recently watched some movies that were made prior to the fall of 2001 and was struck by how curiously innocent they seemed, when dealing with terrorist acts on-screen. Die Hard and its sequels, The Siege and Swordfish stood out in particular as documenting a time that is gone forever. The current reality of a de facto police state, with TSA frisking, soldiers in train stations and airports and the police and FBI no longer needing warrants to track the movements of citizens via GPS, show how much life in America has changed in the past decade, fueled by provisions of the Patriot Act, which ran over the civil liberties of citizens like a tank, all in the name of security.
The terrorists sought to destroy our way of life. They succeeded.
When I traveled in Peru in 1998, I remember being glad that I lived in a country without soldiers posted all over the cities. A dozen years later, there are soldiers on guard in NYC, just as I had seen in Lima. They have been there for years. They will remain there for the foreseeable future.
Now when I watch Swordfish, which was created with characters meant to be villains, covert government agents fighting terrorists, the events of the intervening years since its original theatrical release have flipped the audience reaction on its head, since modern mores would consider those characters to be heroes, protecting and serving the people of the United States. After a decade of state-sanctioned torture, rendition and interrogation of prisoners, the actions of those characters, which would have been considered heinous when the film was first released, now seem almost . . . normal. And that shows how far we have come from the America I grew up in, the one with "liberty and justice for all".
On this day, I mourn.
I mourn not just for those who died that day, but also for the children born since then, who will never know an America that was untarnished by the stain of the torture chamber, one that was a beacon of hope to the world, an American that could chide other countries on their human rights and civil liberties records without the stench of hypocrisy befouling everything. The America that had moral standing in the world is no more.
I'd like to hope that that America can arise once more, some time in the future. I just hope that I am around to see it.
Current Mood: melancholy
Current Music: "Lilies" by Jamie Fessenden
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August 27th, 2011
 | 08:04 pm
Hurricane Irene is expected to make landfall in my backyard at 10 am Sunday. Joy.
Current Mood:  gloomy
Current Music: "Das Rad des Schicksals" by E Nomine
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July 22nd, 2011
 | 06:49 pm - Hazy, hot and hellish
It's 102 degrees F now, with a heat index of 109, down from 104 with a heat index of 113.
My area lost power briefly, but other areas nearby are still without power.
~~ hates summer ~~
Current Mood:  hot
Current Music: "Les flammes d'enfer" by Beausoleil
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July 2nd, 2011
 | 03:13 pm - Sometimes one can only point and laugh
Received a comment notification in my email from a post I made more than two years ago. It seems someone got her vampiric panties in a twist over it and booted me from a community -- one that I haven't looked at in over two years.
Ooooooo. I'm SO upset over that.
~~ yawns ~~
Seems some folk need to ride the drama llama, and if there isn't one around, will go and resurrect a two-year-old one.
I mock them.
~~ points and laughs ~~
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "I Don't Like You Song" by Joe Black
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June 24th, 2011
 | 11:44 pm - This. Is. Love!
New York has made gay marriage legal! :D
(Thanks to a number of REPUBLICANS voting for marriage equality, I'd like to add!)
Christopher Dallman wrote the perfect song to celebrate this wonderful day. The song asks "How long?" "Immediately!" is the reply from the politicians of New York State! :D
Current Mood:  bouncy
Current Music: "Anthem" by Christopher Dallman
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June 22nd, 2011
| 09:20 am - Another friend gone
Just found out one of my high school classmates was murdered on Sunday. There are no words to express how I feel about his death.
Current Mood: numb
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June 9th, 2011
 | 10:40 am - These lemons are sweet
So I googled "lemon party" today, because of a reference to it in an article, and even though internet taste-makers put it up as an "offensive pic", I thought it was rather sweet, that the fellows had found one another at their advanced age. It reminded me of a favorite video from Oomph, "Sex". (Translation by me here for the German-impaired.)
Sex isn't just for the young and pretty, in my opinion, although others may disagree.
Current Mood: pensive
Current Music: "Sex" by Oomph
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March 11th, 2011
| 02:29 pm - 2010 redux
I'm feeling depressed. I just found out an old friend has died. I really don't need this. 2010 was bad enough. Don't want a repeat.
Current Mood: depressed
Current Music: "Spirit Waltz" by Green Crown
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March 4th, 2011
 | 11:25 am - A song for those of us tired of the oversharing TMI addicts in our lives.
Current Mood:  cranky
Current Music: Joe Black strumming a ukelele
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February 6th, 2011
 | 02:13 am - A real-life blonde joke in action
A blonde goes to the carwash . . .
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Green Camaro" by Christopher Dallman
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January 23rd, 2011
 | 11:32 pm - A frigid but friendly evening out
Just got back from dinner with a friend visiting from Alaska. We had a scrumptious dinner at my favorite Moroccan restaurant, where I had a lovely lamb tagine with apricots and prunes and couscous.
Unfortunately, she also brought Alaskan weather with her, as it is now 13 degrees F with a windchill of 1, soon to drop to 0 degrees F with a windchill of -10.
Current Mood:  cold
Current Music: "Yam Safereen (You Travelers!)" by Mohammed El-Bakkar
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January 19th, 2011
 | 10:22 am - Second Life Art -- Kushner's "Angels in America" (Part 1)
I've created a gallery of Second Life art, illustrating scenes from Tony Kushner's play "Angels in America". The picture for this post is one of them, a closeup of the Angel. You can click on it to go to the individual pictures in the gallery. If you want to see a larger version of a picture in the gallery, click on the thumbnail in the gallery to go to the individual picture's page then click on the image to see the fullsize version. Some are as large as 1200 by 700.
All the pictures illustrate scenes from the first part of "Angels in America", the play "Millennium Approaches". I'm working on more scenes from "Angels in America" in Second Life, from both Parts 1 & 2, so there will be at least one more post of images from Kushner's masterwork in the not-too-distant future.
All images were created by me in Second Life, on my land in Persephone's Grove.
Current Mood: artistic
Current Music: "Dark Angel" by VNV Nation
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January 1st, 2011
 | 01:11 am - The New Year begins!
Happy 1:11 1/1/11! :D
Current Mood:  geeky
Current Music: "Der Anfang" by Eisbrecher
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December 29th, 2010
 | 09:27 pm - It's all about the interpersonal chemistry at parties . . .
Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: "Ion" by Apocalyptica
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theentwife's journal