Reflection on a Linden...

Okay for those who haven't already heard, it was announced this past week that Cory Linden (Ondrejka) will soon be leaving Linden Labs for greener pastures. Being the Chief Technological Officer and the 4th personage ever to be involved with Linden Labs is quite a feat on its own. According to his bio (oddly still up on Linden’s company site) he’s one of the primary distributors into things like Avatar design, 3D streaming, and in-world editors. To put it mildly, Second Life would not exist as it does today without Cory’s supervision and know-how.

Many other news and blog articles thus far have been trying to sort out whether he is being fired or leaving on his own. Official responses from both Cory and Philip Rosedale have been very vague on the whole matter except that both parties had reached “irreconcilable differences”. In layman’s terms that means “we refuse to budge on both of our ideals and so we’re going to part ways”. The details of said differences can only be speculated at this point, but as of the end of December does it really matter?

Second Life has its share of bugs which is to be expected when it’s constantly changing and updating. Despite as much as we all bitch about the lag, the inventory mishaps, the hair & shoes up our butts... we continue to logon for everything from running a business to simply going to various club parties every night. I know I haven’t had the same experiences with SL as folks who’ve been logging in since 2006 on back, but even with innovations such as Sculpties and Windlight in recent months I can certainly appreciate how it has grown.

Now to hear that one of the biggest innovators of SL is leaving sort of feels like having an uncle who’s watched over you from afar suddenly vanish. You’re sure that there will be a void from his departure, but not quite sure how much that absence will impact you and those around you. We can only hope that this rift will not impact Second Life too much.

A toast to Cory on behalf of Mean Girls. Here’s to hoping that his future endeavors are as fruitful as his past ones.

Rip Off Fraud Exposed! as... as a Bigger Rip Off!

It's with a heavy heart that I make this post. Something has happened that has forced me to leave my seclusion and deal with the goings on of the new additions to the Mean Girls bloggers. Each one of us at Meangirls has always done our own thing, with no censure or judgement. The trust and camaraderie among us has allowed us to create a blog that is as individual as it's contributors. It's a sad day when I have to put an end to all that.

It's clear to me now that Jelly and I made a mistake when we invited Kitty Lalonde to join us at the Mean Girls. Her recent allegations of wrong-doing by resident Zennor Cornwall caught my eye and piqued my interest. What was even more interesting was the discovery that this was much more of a mess than it first seemed to be.

Upon my visit to this so-called store, I found some very unsettling facts. For starters, Zennor is a member of Tiny Empires. What could this mean?! But that was only the beginning! I hate to admit that I spent my 200L to buy said prim (I chose a cube), but I had to in order to get to the bottom of this! It seems not only that this business was created in SL to defraud the new, and otherwise inexperienced players, but it was not created by some noob who maybe could have been explained as not knowing any better. To my horror, Zennor Cornwall's prims were made by none other than Kitty Lalonde herself! (proof provided)




Not only has Kitty created an alt to do her dastardly deeds, but she's also used this blog to promote her nefarious ways and turn a quick linden. And I cannot let that go unnoticed or unpunished.

Normally, I would not openly promote drama on this blog, but I feel I have no choice but to cut all of Kitty's ties with the blog and out her for the underhanded shyster that she is. On the flip side, GO ME... I so scooped this story!

Rip offs..

I'm writing today, not in my usual middle of the road stance, but in utter disgust at the unscrupulous nature of some residents in SL. They are here to rip other residents off, pure and simple.

The store itself is called Primacy, owned by one Zennor Cornwall. I leave the SLurl here so you can all go and voice your complaints directly to the vile perpetrator.

In the store which claims to be "Haute Couture Prim Design for discerning admirers of art and culture" he only sells four things. A cube, a pyramid, a sphere and a cylinder. So what's the problem you ask? Well these are the basic SL prims, that anyone can rez for free, and this diabolical creature is selling them for 200L$ EACH! Not only that but he has the gall to put permissions on his wares of copy/mod/no trans. The shop is situated on a Linden road a mere stones throw from an infohub. So that Zennor may prey upon hapless newbies, who have no idea about SL.

Hiding behind a businesslike nature and, admittedly, beautifully designed store. Lurks an evil monster who needs to be stopped, and hopefully. Getting this message out will help.

SLunchtime Poll Results - Last Week (Christmas in SL)

Click to Enlarge

A question of priorities

Yesterday I spied on the forums an outfit called Jihad Joe. Made by Fedor Mcnally, and advertised as

"So Gi-Joe has been getting too comfortable with Barbie and has no competition, so He has began to pimp Barbie out. Gi-Joe's technology and weapons is too great for ken, because Ken is a hippy and vegan.

BUT NOW OUT IS JIHAD-JOE. Jihad-Joe comes with a shemagh (head rag), in 2 colors, but is modifiable if you wish to customize your shemagh. it also comes with a pipe bomb vest that explodes via a grille igniter that is located on the HUD, the explosion both pushes, and kills.

4 gestures are included to shout at gi-joe to encourage him to repent and take into consideration what he is doing to Barbie is WRONG.

But don't worry, this isn't only for men, there is also a jihad-jane for Barbies who wish to convert and rebel against their rulers."



Obviously I decided that would be a riot and scampered off to purchase it. The problem comes when I have a few friends who have decided that 'jihad joe' is wrong. They didn't necessarily say it was sick and wrong. But wrong nevertheless. This got me thinking.

Yes. It's symbolic of murder and destruction. But so is a gun, which I've previously blogged as fashion accessories on the grid and no one batted an eyelid.

So why do we have different priorities? Second Life is all about dressing up in costumes and outfits, body shapes, genders, races and species that are different from the real life ones sitting at the computer. And just about everyone has opinions on which guises are tasteful and which are at the other end of the scale descending from mildly annoying to downright offensive. Dressing up like a pirate or viking is fine, humourous even, despite the fact that historically both these groups spent much of their time raping and pillaging and generally being bastardy. But dressing up like a nazi is 'in bad taste'. When does something stop being a 'sacred cow'?


Time is definitely a big factor in making distasteful subjects more acceptable - not many people cringe when the Spanish Inquisition is mentioned, but moving forward into the 20th century, into living memory, Naziism is still a highly emotive topic. Humour is a good measure of when past events become socially acceptable. It's okay to mock and laugh at the Nazis, but to do the same with the Holocaust would undoubtedly be considered in deeply bad taste. There's also a good helping of historical manipulation when it comes to uncomfortable events from the past. I doubt many people would recoil in horror at seeing an avatar dressed up as Columbus, despite his extermination policies that saw the death of millions of Native Americans, ranking as one of the worst genocides in human history.

In 2001 a british satirical show, Brass Eye, aired an hour long special regarding paedophilia and the moral panic drummed up by various media outlets at the time, leading to a witch hunt in which many innocent members of the public had their lives upended. The show inevitably recieved a slew of complaints. Despite the absurdity of the jokes (internet paedophiles can make computer keyboards emit noxious fumes in order to subdue children), many of these complaints were from politicians who later admitted that they hadn't actually seen the show. Many people were left questioning why it was wrong to take the piss out of paedophiles.

Maybe it's just human nature. People feel normal and accepted when they have something definite to fear, a shared enemy to loathe. And maybe that's a good thing.

Can you handle the truth?

Everyone has a flaw. Some trait that they detest in themselves. I have at least thirty, but my worst one is jealousy. I'm the first to admit to being a slave to the green eyed monster. Anyone speaks to my wife and a lil' radar pops out of my head and whirls around frantically beeping out the psycho tune, and I'm not the only one.

Whilst fairly popular in RL, detective agencies are to be found in SL. They offer to catch your cheating spouse, check up on employees and get the lowdown on what your friends are saying about you behind your back. I thought for my usual piss taking post that I should get one to track Tie for a few days just to see what they did. But then I thought about it.

Second Life is an online world (duh). Lies are as easily typed as truths with no facial expression to give the game away. Your favourite fashionista might spend her evenings, bent over a pool table, bound and gagged, with a ponytail butt plug protruding from her arse. The female friend who's fashion sense and shape you envy might be a 35 year old bloke from Woking. Called Derek. Oh and your boyfriend? He's a closet RL furry with three eyes. Okay, okay, I ran away with that. But you get the gist. Nothing in SL is exactly as it seems, and it's the same in relationships.

So you've partnered, exchanged RL pics, spoken on the phone and spent the entire evening attempting to outdo each other with lavish declarations of adoration whilst snuggling under the straylight tree. But you still don't know that person. Having an alt is practically a necessity these days, and there's a bucket load of people out there with more than one alt. Even if you get to the situation where you have account details, email log in, messenger passwords.. Hell, you can have their whole computer to poke around in and you'll STILL have odd moments of doubt, believe me.

So what's my point? Ummmm... Oh yeah. Like the X-files, the truth is out there. But unless you’re hardcore you're unlikely to find it, and why the fuck should you? Enjoy people for the time you spend together, rather than get worked up about what they didn't tell you. If they took the time to tell you then it was probably a well mulled over decision and you should be honoured to have been told. Rather than dwell on the time when you didn’t know.

As for partners, well it’s the same as RL relationships. You don’t know how long it’ll last, and how it’ll turn out. Generally speaking even the most intense and loving relationships have a shelf life and when that time is up you can expect an explosion of mould and rotting waste. So just chill out, enjoy the moment. And if you can’t then you can always go here.

Blog Drama and You

Its no secret that blogs are filled with drama. Not only SL fashion blogs, but personal ones as well. My husband finds it hilarious that I find such amusement in 'blog trolling'. I'm a silent observer - so I have to remind him that I'm not an actual troll. Its all the same to him, though.

Most days, Second Life is like a soap opera to me. My monitor is like a television while I sit and watch these plots and story lines unfold. I try to pick the villains from the heroes while the verbal abuse spews from commenter's fingers with marksman-like accuracy. There are times I imagine funny images of "POW" "Zip!" and "BANG" flash across the screen in the equivalent of the early 1990s 'Your Momma' jokes. Its hysterical!

Then I have to ask myself - who is taking this seriously? Who is actually trying to inflict some sort of real pain and who's just in it for the lulz. The folks who's first few words are "I hate drama" are usually the ones that I watch more closely than the ones that make no mention of that naughty five letter word. Do I have drama? Of course I do! I think everyone does in some shape or form.

People come to Second Life for different reasons. For some its a creative outlet - though the definition of 'creative' is often distorted to whatever the 'creator' wants it to mean. Some folks venture into SL to experience things they can't be part of in real life - and in such an exploration they are rewarded with drama. Stop fighting it! Drama just happens, and it only gets worse with the more acclaim, fame, or infamy that you acquire in SL. It isn't any different IRL. The more famous you are IRL - the more scandal you're surrounded with. The more money you have, the more people want from you. Its just this hard-knock fact of not only life, but Second Life.

Many think that because you live your life (or second life) in the public limelight that everything becomes public domain. Is this true? To an extent. If you're going to make a complete ass of yourself, expect to be labeled an ass and definitely expect for that occasion to not go forgotten for a decent period of time (and sometimes never!)

I've thought all this time that maybe just my twisted sense of humor hasn't allowed me to fully appreciate some bloggers as humans. Well okay, that's true. There are some blogs I'll read just because they are so hideously filled with the most stupid sense of drama that it reminds me of Dallas or Knotts Landing. Its so ridiculous that you just have to sit and watch. It's also highly possible that I take the written word far too literally and find just as much amusement in the mental images projected from what some bloggers say/write.

Its also funny to me how defensive people get against such small, trivial things. If I were to stand on a blog soapbox and proclaim something which doesn't even matter like .. "I hate apple juice and I don't care what you say!" that someone would be completely appalled by my statement and feel the need for rebuttal. Does that mean I should indulge them by stating every single reason why I hate apple juice - or does that give me any kind of blogging right to tell everyone who DOES like apple juice that they are wrong? No, but that doesn't mean that the apple juice lovers won't unite against me in blind rage of their love of the fruity drink.

There are, of course, different levels of drama. Some SL drama is just that - SL drama. Its shit that goes on in world that really shouldn't involve other people, but someone has felt the need (urge?) to proclaim their emotions publicly which then makes it everyone's drama. The problem with big communities like SL is that there is such a wide range of emotions, ideals, interests and social standards that you can always bet that no matter what you think/say/do that there will be someone right behind you with a lynch mob ready to take you down. Should there be? No, but it is entertaining!

I do find it hilarious that in a community that was formed on the ideas of sharing that so many people are so selfish with their knowledge. 99% of designers don't do any form of tutorial to say - this is the basis on which you should start. Instead everyone is left to fend for themselves and do things trial-and-error and in the meantime get their asses kicked on fashion blogs about how bad they fucking suck. This then leads to drama - and there are fewer dramas more entertaining than designer drama.

Some designers are so quick to cry "thief" that they forget that their very own SL logo is VERY heavily borrowed from a very famous RL brand. Is this not theft? Or is it called inspiration? If I were to make a wig which was almost identical to one of Six Kennedy's .. but I made my own texture - would I be lynched as a thief or would I be able to pull that 'inspiration' card? Its hard to say. It would depend on who you are, who your friends are, and which blogger gets a hold of your weave.

Should bloggers be able to publicly maim other human beings? I don't know. I honestly don't care - unless it came down to insulting them on a RL basis. RL drama is probably the most touchy of all the dramas, but its no less entertaining. At least in my eyes.

I have my share of RL drama - and I'm sure the rest of SL does too. But if you 'hate' drama, why do you even talk about it? Its because you can't avoid it - and you can say you hate it all day long but in all reality drama is what makes the world go round ... even virtual ones. There are the drama mongers which will start it, the drama stirrers which will read deeper into it to keep it going, then there are the drama referees who will sit on the sidelines with their popcorn and just dream of the day that they get to sit in and hear a drama fight on voice (I've yet to sit in on one of these events).

So if some blogger is all up in your KoolAid and talking shit about you - why not just switch to another fruity drink? Like apple juice.