Kota

Linda and I have known Dakota (Dakota0therbee) for about a year now.

I remember the first time Linda and I met her was late one night on December 7, 2014  at the Cafe at Austin, when my girl handed out big hairdos to all the other girls and  her, Kota, and Reni (Serenity Streusel) did some line dancing with me.

As is common at night, I had to go afk, and when I woke up I found that the girls had conspired to push my body into a river! When I confronted Kota and Reni later, Kota said she was "< 50% innocent"....

I laughed and thanked them for making my boo happy, and Kota said that Linda was "great" and that she became less shy when "people like Linda are around".

Fast forward several months. Kota had come out of the Chateau a full O-girl, and had started handling discussions at the sim.

I attended a couple of them (she does the discussions at night, which is usually hard for me), and I found out my initial impressions of her were right. She is an extremely intelligent person, with a serious bent that is ameliorated by a fun streak that she shows to those she gets to know well.

I was impressed, and we started talking more often in email and in chat. After a series of long email discussions with her this December (and I do mean loooong lol), I decided to take her in as my ward, which means I take some responsibility in guiding and protecting her during her path along the winding D/s way (much as I endeavored to do with Melinda Nyn almost exactly a year earlier).

I introduced her as such in a pick, and I believe this describes her well:

She is seriously intelligent but funny, reserved but quick to join in on the fun, and thoughtful but blessed with a touch of spontaneity. She is a mass of contradictions, an attractive and appealing girl whose calm exterior hides deep and perhaps dangerous ocean currents. She is my ward, and under my care.

I look forward to the journey, and I know that Linda and I will learn just as much from her as she learns from us.

Secret Santa Revelation Dance at Austin

I attended for a short while the Santa Revelation dance held at Austin, which was hosted by Melinda, with music provided by DJ Painthorse Graymark.

At the center of the dance venue, which was hastily put up by Aria, was placed a red chair. When a person sat on the chair, Meli would announce to everyone who their Secret Santa was....

It was a lot of fun, though I was kinda minimized the entire time, and my boo could not be there with me this time.

I was Secret Santa to two girls...I gave Sassy two beautiful dresses from another O girl's store (Sozome Resident "Meme"), and I got Aqua full perm mushrooms, which I'll be adding sit poses to.

The final pairings at the end were (Secret Santa in BOLD to the left):

SAGE - Rafe
BELLE -  Tiny
AIMEE - WW
DAKOTA - Tiger
JESSIE -  Jon
SASSY  Marcus
SWEETNESS - MK
LENTHE   -  Marcus
JEN  - Screwtape
JACI  - Billy
AVRIL - LG
MARCUS  - Belle, Avril
WW  - Dakota
MK   - Sassy
BILLY  -Jessie
SCREWTAPE - Sage
TINY NEWT   - Jen
JON - Lenthe
RAFE  -  Jaci
TIGER  - Sweetness
LG -  Aimee
WILDSOUL -  Jen
MK - Aqua

Attendance was heavy, and a fun time was had by all. More pics of the event below:

Austin magazine Holiday issue released!

A new edition of the Austin magazine was released for the Holidays by its awesome Editor-in-Chief Avril Aura.

As always, the mark of professionalism was evident throughout the magazine, and I contributed two articles to it, the first being an introduction to some of the "O you may not know these people" of Austin, and the second being an article about Objectification, Dehumanization, and Depersonalization as it pertains to the sim.

Click here to view the PDF on the web.

The Austin magazine was started in February 2013 by O-girl Caliope (Caly Gothly), and run for 10 issues, with the last previous issue on May 2014. Avril restarted the magazine on September 2015. We should all thank these O-girls for their hard work (as well as the writers of course!) in producing such informative and entertaining reading!

Season's Greetings from MK and Linda!

It's been a great year for us, and we hope it's been a great year for you too.

Linda and I would like to wish everyone we know Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!!!!

We love ya all!!!

And that goes for you too Xavier....and Carlos.....and Mr. UPS man....and uh...Mr. Fireman....and uh...The Village People...and uh...*squints at tiny scribblings on Linda's Black Book*

Star Wars The Force Awakens gets rave reviews

The reviews are starting to come in, and they are very good.

I'm also happy to see the inclusion of Boyega as Finn, as it has caused quite a stir among racists who have threatened to boycott the film (yes, good luck with that). Now if only the Chinese would get with the picture.

Lesson learned

One thing that I have learned is that life is not a series of experiences to indulge in, because all such things are fleeting in the end, and will never fully satisfy you. Life is instead the people who you choose to keep close to your heart and mind. Those who will walk beside you in your journey, hold you close when times are dreary, and sate your troubled soul.

Making an animated gif: Yes I have way too much time on my hands

animated gif of Linda hugging me

I remember when animated gifs first came out and I thought the concept was pretty cool. You could have simple animated images on your website without the need for Java applets or flash or whatever.

I took several pics while we were attending the voice chat at Austin, and later noticed that two of them captured two separate frames of the seat animation at precisely the same angle.

Inworld in Second Life, making animated images as a texture involves using scripting and the function llSetTextureAnim, but for web pages making animated gifs has never been easier.

I used a web app at Gifmaker.me to upload the two png images and create the animated picture.

Try it youself!

One Year Ago

December 1, 2014 at Linda's Store Balcony

One year ago:

Linda used to decorate the balcony of her inworld store at the Cobra MC biking sim according to the passing seasons, and we frequently spent time just sitting there and watching the bikers pass by. I remember sometimes just going there when she wasn't inworld and sitting on one of the balcony chairs, feeling somehow satisfied and content.

December 7, 2015 at Heart's Cove

One year later:

The Cobra MC is no more, and their sim is gone too. Our inworld stores are now parked in some anonymous mainland parcel, and I hardly go there anymore.

How times change.

And yet, some things still remain the same.

We're still together, despite some of the usual shenanigans that beset couples everywhere.

I love her still, more than ever, despite some of the things I've learned about her (yes, omg, she snorts!!!!)

In many ways we've come a long way as a couple....but the more important thing to me, the thing that excites me, is the realization that we have so much more in front of us, so much more to explore together and enjoy together.

As that old 1970s song used to say (ok, shoot me, but I used to listen to my grandfather's collection of 1970s tapes when I was a kid and he loved the Carpenters)....

Australian Dance and Racing Roos Event at Cafe LaPe'rouse @ Austin

I attended the last part of Belle's (Darlingbelle) Downunder@Austin race and dance event on December 5, 2015 at Austin. The event was to complete her GIS requirement to run an event - G111.

The Racing Roo race had been finished by then, but Belle told me the roos had been a huge hit, for which I am very glad.

The winner of the race was Bahkana Hadazuma, with second place going to Aqua Fearne, and the third place won by Marcus Massaro.

Afterwards, the participants retreated back into the airy comforts of a structure which looked like the Sydney Opera House, where DJ Nan (Nan Swindlehurst) spun some Aussie derived songs for their enjoyment (I didn't have media on, but I suspect the sweet strains of some Air Supply tunes were probably on the list).

The awards for best dressers were also handed out, with LG (Lord Glasswing) taking the award for the males, and Aqua winning as the best dressed female (which only shows that those darn Kiwis are winners...or maybe that down under people stick to their kind...whichever lol).

I managed to come inworld for the end part of the dance, and took a turn swirling around the floor with Belle, who looked quite fetching in her racing outfit.

The success of the Racing Roos in this event means I'll probably spend a bit more time upgrading the item, and perhaps placing it on market.

More pics from the event, courtesy of Belle.

You're weird! My kinbaku studies

I decided to restart learning kinbaku (which people sometimes call Shibari) a couple weeks back. I had been learning and practicing this since about two years ago (I even made youtube videos if I remember correctly), but the very sporadic nature of my practice prevented me from undergoing more advanced studies.

However, I really do like this art. I've found that the feelings it evoked in both myself and my play partner were quite strong and deep and unique. I relished the feeling of complete domination of her, while I've found that nothing got her into some sort of headspace faster than being made completely immobile and helpless.

I also like the feeling of learning something complex and structured. Most other toys tend to be simple and easily mastered, and I like the challenge of something where the only limit to the various possibilities is your imagination, and where you can actually create something unique and artistic (in addition to being seriously erotic).

I broached the idea of "experimenting" with my spouse, and her immediate response was "No way! That's so weird!!!!" smh....lol....oh well, perhaps I can convince her sometime. But it did remind me again how off the mainstream some of my interests are, and how "weird" our practices might seem to those viewing our activities from the outside.

Nevertheless, I have decided to proceed. I still have some hemp, jute, and nylon from before (in addition to some manila that i've never used), but I'll be placing orders for more hemp of varying widths (though probably will start with 6 mm) and lengths, and will be trolling home depot for more nylon.

And now that I've "introduced" the topic to my spouse, i may even be able to attend meetings for rope enthusiasts out in the open ;-)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Looks like an amazing movie.

I've always liked the Star Wars movies because the Jedi were supposedly based on some of the tenets of the Tao (or Dao), which I practice.

All the clips and trailers so far:

Heart's Cove: Avril's Winter Wonderland

My friend Avril Aura is one of the best graphic artists I know, and she owns an entire sim called Heart's Cove, which introduces itself as a place that was created for people who are willing and open to accepting others no matter their creed, race and faith. It is based on D/s BDSM, and its goal is to promote tolerance of lifestyle choices.

Click to TP to Heart's Cove

Avril had mentioned during a voice chat at Austin that she had decorated the sim for the Fall Season, so tonight I TPed over to take a look see.

It would be an understatement to say i was amazed at the sim, which was hauntingly beautiful using firestorm's midnight setting.

I walked around in wonder, taking pics of the scenery and marveling at the talents of people like Avril, who have the imagination and perseverance to create such beautiful things in a world that is frequently beset with problems and trivialities.

The sim at 65,000+ sqm is huge and I am sure have not explored a fraction of the things to see in it, so i will be going there again tomorrow to continue my explorations.

But below are some other pics that i took tonight...enjoy!

Hopping Racing Roos

People seemed pretty ok with the Racing Roos for Belle's (DarlingBelle) event driving like a bike, but after some thought I decided it wasn't a kangaroo if it didn't hop up and down.

I added the hopping motion to the Roos such that the things started jumping up a few meters after riders sit down on them, and completed the Finish Line as well.

Take a quick look at the result in the youtube video above.

Blonds, belly buttons, and Stephen Hawking

Linda and I attended the voice chat on November 20 at the Austin Starbucks and had a great time.

It's been awhile since Linda could stay long for the chat, but on that Friday night we stayed and talked for more than 3 hours (until almost 5 pm SLT)! It's the longest she's been able to stay since we held impromptu voice chats at the Cafe during Austin's 7th anniversary celebrations.

Melinda Nyn hosted the event, and the topics were as diverse as ever. Some of the subject matter included Thanksgiving and how the British fit into it (with Ratzu joking about handing over control of Austin to Linda for the weekend, at which point my little boo finagled to get access to the Austin music stream and hidden cash); the "O you may not know these people" (Linda's name for regulars like us who are not Austin members); Ratzu's chest hair (hmmm...thanks Ara); Pigeon for dinner (flying rats anyone?); Sim-hopping to get laid (don't ask!); Blonds and belly buttons (it took me until the next day to figure out the joke - duh); the allure of UPS men (ugh!); and Physics and the status of Pluto as a planetary object. I forgot what else, but you can cover a  lot in 3 hours lol.

We also got Fia to moan and whimper for us...oh wait, i mean READ for us; Screwtape gave his great rendition of a South Park song; and I finally got to know my boo's IQ (she's an RL blond so the bubbly headed blond stereotype is a recurring theme, and as expected her smarts is way way higher than the average).

All in all, we had a great time, and the list of people who attended included (I am probably missing people here, so please IM me if I missed your name):

MK
Linda
Belle
Aqua
Sage Avedon
Sage-D
Billy Avedon
Screwtape
Dakota
Melinda Nyn
Marcus Massaro
Aisha Sohl
Mari
Marion?
Ara
Fia
Ratzu
Dancer
LG
Rafe Allardyce
Jen Umaga
Kaer?
Lairdscott

Hooray for Midway Dance at Cafe LaPe'rouse @ Austin

These are exciting times for Austin.

I've only been at the sim regularly for a bit more than a year now, but at no other time did I ever see so many advanced trainees of such high caliber.

I have grown to know and appreciate all the trainees. I frequently bump into Peter and his girl Cara (Cara Olivieri) late at night as they hang out in the Cafe, and LG, Fia, Aisha, and Sage-D are all regulars in voice chat. I can say honestly that they are all first class people who are quite deserving of our respect and encouragement (not to mention all the girls have awesome sexy voices!)

It was in this spirit that the Austin Events Committee organized a house party on November 19 to honor these advanced trainees, which include (in no particular order):

LG (Lord Glasswing)
Peter (Peterjackson72)
Fia (Fiammetta1981 Resident)
Aisha Sohl
Sage D  (Desertwoman Glasswing)

Dakota (Dakota0therbee Resident) helped organize the event, which was originally an idea from Crux Maximus.  Aria Vyper provided the posters and schedule, and Naughty Glimmer created the decorations.

The DJ was Jonathon Carbenell, and Melinda Nyn and Sage Avedon (Sagewisdom) helped as hosts.

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the event, but people were encouraged to share little tidbits and stories about the trainees, and I'm sure a lot of fun was had by all.

According to Dakota, "the girls that were there did provide some insights as to what they'd learned so far in their journey and they all had such great comments.  Naughty had an awesome beer keg nearby and we had to explain to the non-US folks what the significance of a solo cup was....then Sage mentioned there was a country song by the same name and Master Jon played it...was the funniest thing ever."

In the end, Crux noted the reaction to the event made the entire thing worth it.

Below are some great pics taken by Aisha. Thanks Aisha, and enjoy!