Heavyweight Global Warming To Role Play In Gor

Most of my attention has been drawn to writing stuff on CNN this week, I have been invited to go to the in-world Copenhagen climate change conference by the organiser, as fellow ireporter Vickie Maistone had told him about me, but I had to IM the organiser back and say although I am accepting the invitation, which was really nice, I am also a sceptic and I have been writing about the leaked emails belonging to the top scientist Prof Phil Jones who it seems has been manipulating the data because the planet isn’t warming up at all.  See Global Warming or a Scam, An Update on Global Warming and Global Warming, when the Truth is Really Inconvenient.  I realised that I would be in for a lot of stick because people are pretty fanatical about green issues, calling sceptics ‘deniers’ or ‘flatearthers’ as it’s treated like a religion and I think if this had been going on in the 17th Century the Save the Planet brigade may have even hunted sceptics down and burned them at the stake, but I just think the truth should be out there, the media are doing a great job of covering the leaked emails up.  I will try to get to most of the in-world conference as it is linked straight into the real world one, who knows they may even have a balanced debate, but I doubt it somehow.   

The nice thing about SL is that you can take your mind off of stuff like Global Warming for a little while and just enjoy wandering around.  I took my Arabian horse for a ride around virtual London, Brie and Torric and their London team have been putting up the Christmas lights and it looks a treat.

Later on Drax and I took to the skies on the tarn again, he is getting really good at controlling the giant bird.  We flew back over to the Gorean City of Thentis and made a very smooth landing in one of the streets there.  The tarn really dislikes me, as every time I get off him he tries to bite me, I had a meter attachement on that shows when I am in danger and the tarn was having a right go.  I think he has bonded with Drax and doesn’t like anyone else, what a nasty bird!

We looked around the city and found some people sitting around a big fire and we asked if we could join them.  We sat and chatted for a while and I tried a bit of role play as a free woman.  I am still a bit rusty with it all, but I enjoyed having a go and exchanged questions with the others at the fireside.  It made a real change to real life politics and was a bit of fun.

Flying With The Tarn and Camera Mistake

I met Drax and we went over to a sandbox, Alphonso Pidgeon had kindly given Drax one of his Slea-z-boy chairs and we were looking forward to trying it out.  Drax looked relaxed in the chair as he put it through its paces. 

He suddenly thought it might be a good idea to fly the tarn again, the Gorean bird that he hasn’t practiced with for some time.  It’s a giant vicious looking black bird with nasty talons and a sharp beak.  As we intended flying over a Gorean city I put my new Freewoman Dress on (it’s lovely, pale blue and very floaty, plus you get the headdress with it too).  Off we sped and soon arrived over the rooftops of Thentis.

Drax soon got the hang of the tarn, turning and twisting above the city, it was a smooth ride, the tarn screeched and you could hear it’s wings flapping as it gained height.  Eventually Drax brought it down safely within the city walls and he jumped off.  I followed but landed near the vicious beak of the tarn who tried to bite  and scratch me with his huge talons, what a bad-tempered bird!

(You may notice I have blocked part of the pictures out with a blue square.  I took loads of pictures over the day and had forgotten to untick the bit on the camera that shows the interface of chat boxes and text, so it was a bit of a disaster.  There’s a real lesson to be learned for me to make sure I put the camera controls back the way they were at the end of using the camera to shoot the interface (I use it to photograph some pictures taken in-world).  I had a whole day of nearly wasted pictures.)

After Drax put the tarn back in its cage we decided to go to Avilion, which was great, as I already had my long dress on.  The Avilion ballroom is so pretty and we had a couple of dances until we had to return to real life.

Return to the Gorean City of Thentis

A few days ago Drax and I travelled to Thentis, you may have seen in the comments on this blog that Hilda from the Thentis sim invited me over to take a look around.  It was back to where Drax and I first met nearly two years ago, I had wandered into the old Thentis city and there he was.  He had been kind to me that day, offering to let me sit with him while one of the slave girls served him drinks.  I’d wanted to do a story on a Gorean sim and I was taking notes as I went along, little knowing that we would become good friends and have been on many adventures since.  At home beforehand, Drax donned his sword, and with his Gorean outfit he looked the true part.  I’d decided to go in as a Scribe Free Woman, as Drax had explained what the role was, and it seemed fitting for someone who does a lot of writing!

I’d wanted a nice dress for the journey and searched around until I found one at Evie’s Closet, it was a lot of Lindens, but worth it as the outfit was well made with the skirts moving gracefully as I walked.  Free women have to wear a mask over their lower face and I find this a bit strange, but rules are rules and it wasn’t as drafty as being dressed as a slave!  We set off and teleported over to a snowy Thentis which looked very prettily landscaped.  The gates were locked and there were not many people around, we had picked the wrong time to go really, and we will return when people are there, but we thought we would get the layout of the city this time around.  The new Thentis is very elegant with its light stone buildings and dwellings, we had scaled the gates and hoped Hilda would not mind too much if we did look around.

We met one of the slave girls Callie, who knelt shivering in the snow and we asked her a few questions before we carried on with our journey around the city.  She mentioned the gates being locked and Drax told her that he still had the key from the old Thentis (jokingly!!).  She kindly asked us if we would like a tour, but I was trying to find Hilda, so we declined her offer, thanking her.

As we wandered I saw Hilda on my radar and I sent her a message that we were in Thentis.  She came over to see us, and Hilda’s role is a slave girl to her Master Havoc Rau who owns the sim.  We told Hilda we thought Thentis looked very good, we were impressed with the city, but asked her why the gates had been locked.  She told us that they have been having raids, so it looks like there is plenty of action going on in the city.

We told Hilda we would like to return when we all have more time, (and I would like to thank her for inviting us over).  She took us back to the gates and kindly unlocked them for us to leave, we wished her Safe Paths and left the city.  We sat outside for a little while talking, we would like to go back soon and see some role play as well.  I will have to polish up on my Gorean greetings and etiquette, Drax is just a natural at it!!

 

Hibiscus Fights to the End and Murray Reunion

Hibiscus and I were talking about role playing sims like Gorean cities yesterday, and I suddenly thought about sword fighting, remembering the fun I had playing Combat Cards, (a sword fighting game using a card deck for the moves).  I asked Hib if she fancied learning it and she said she did, so we went over to the arena where I used to fight (and lose quite a lot, lol).   I showed Hib the rules and said it was best to fight the robot in the beginning until she got the hang of it.  So off she went and tried to work out her moves.  She did very well for a first time, although the robot did win in the end, but she had a couple of duels with him.

As she was doing well I asked her if she would like to fight me and Hib agreed.  She did ever so well, I am a bit rusty, but it all came back once I started playing.  It was a close thing in the beginning but I managed to dispatch her in the end.  Not sure about after she has practised a bit though, think I had better watch out!!

After the match I got a message from Ruskin Thor saying that mate Pinkie Delcon was logged on.  Pinkie has been away for a while with real life things, although I did speak to her for a little while when she logged on a couple of weeks ago, so it’s nice to see her back.  Hibiscus and I went over to Murray where Pinkie and the rest of the Murray gang were.  It was really like old times with most of us there and it felt like home again.  I should go over more often as it was great, and with a bit of luck they are all coming to SL London tonight for a bit of clubbing.  Ruskin being the top DJ at the Mayhem Club!  The Murray mates got together for an unusual group photo before we all logged off for the night. 

Gorean Tarn Takes Us For a Ride

I met up with Drax the other day and he had got something he had been interesting in getting for ages, a big black monster of a bird called a Tarn.  Tarn’s are part of the Gorean role play  and are used for carrying messages and things, as well as being used as fighting birds that you can ride, attacking your aggressors with the tarns sharp beak and claws.  We went to a building skybox to try to open the box containing the Tarn, but Drax had trouble there, probably SL playing up again, so he tp’d over to a sandbox to set the Tarn up there.

I tp’d over to Drax and there he was with the great black Tarn, it had a long vicious beak and sharp talons.  I jump up behind Drax for a ride and we took off, the bird twisting and turning as we held on tight.

I saw Hibiscus come on line and I sent her a message asking if she wanted to join us.  She came over and Drax showed her the magnificent black bird.  We all scrambled onto the Tarns back and took off once more.  Drax had done well up until then but suddenly the bird decided to ditch us and I found myself ejected off into the sea.  I caught up with Drax who had also been thrown off and Hib was still riding the tarn on her own, what a star!!   She did eventually fall off and joined me and Drax.  The only thing was that Hib still had the sitting pose, one of SL ‘s wonderful bugs of course! and she thought she was standing but we had to tell her that we could both see her in the sitting pose.  She tried everything but nothing worked and she had to log off in the end to get back to her feet. 

I’ve seen lots of people lately gliding around as if they are sitting or laying down, they must think they are just walking on their own computers, you never really know with SL just what you do look like, at least I have kept my hair on lately!!!

Gorean City Thentis destroyed

It was with great pity that I learned about the Gorean City of Thentis being razed to the ground.  It was a beautifully built city, with its Tudor style architecture and great Market Place. 

Drax and I took a look at the empty sim with a bit of sadness as its where we first met and he had his house there for a while.  We will both be glad that it existed at all though, as it was the beginning of our friendship.

Neon Nights Opening and CNN’s Gorean meeting

My friend Cher has been buying some land lately and has been working hard building.  What I did not realise though is that Cher has also bought the parcel of land next door and is building quite a complex, with places to rent out to shopkeepers etc.   We went over for a look, I took the first picture (below) the other day of the nightclub ‘Neon Nights’ Cher has built, it’s really glitzy and a good place to go to have a great time.

Cher is certainly a great builder, the colours are vibrant and the layout is eyecatching and different.  We all toured the inside of one of the buildings.  Good friend Ruskin Thor has aleady opened a shop there selling clothes, he is also a great designer and builder and his shop is well worth checking out.

 For further information about the club and shopping areas for rent contact Cherish Demonge ‘in world’ (location Ministry of Media 47, 217, 21).  For Ruskins clothes shop contact Ruskin Thor ‘in world’ as well.

I met Drax last night and he decided to come to the CNN meeting with me for a while.  We were a little late (sorry Nicole!!) and when we arrived Nicole had just started talking about my story about the furries and where I got the idea from.  I told Nicole that since writing the article I had met a couple of avatars who really hated the furries and even accused them of having particular sexual habits that did not apply to the human type avs.  Well I did take all this with a pinch of salt at the time, as like all other groups, furries are made up of all different types of people with different tastes in things.  There was a furry at the meeting who confirmed that this is nothing but urban mythe.  He did however say that some furries hate Goreans!!  (Furries are excluded from role playing sims because they do not fit the role playing characters).  Well, just as well Drax was with me, as he was able to explain the role playing and the need to keep the characters within the guidelines that the Gor books by John Norman are based on.  I think Nicole was quite fascinated as I don’t think she realised that there were Gorean sims with their reputation for slaves and Master situations.  Drax did explain that slaves were only a very small percentage of the characters in a very well structured society.  Rocket put on his furry av and sat next to Drax, he looked like a really cute little cat but very comical.

It was nice that Drax could throw some light on the actual role playing side of Gor without the total emphasis on the brutal sexual side that many people tend to attribute to it, without really knowing much about it.  Just like real life though, groups of people disliking other groups for no reason other than what someone else has said about them, must be human nature I suppose.   Drax had to leave, but the discussion carried on for quite a while and it was interesting to hear other peoples points of view.  Nicole and Henry the CNN reporters decided we should end the meeting with another site visit.  One of the Ireporters at the meeting Phorkyad Acropolis told us about a Greek theatre so I got the site address and teleported over.

When I arrived there was only Nicole and Henry there so I don’t know what happened to all the others.  I said to Nicole that sometimes the second life ‘chat’ is hard to follow at the meetings with everyone  chipping in at once, so the others may have missed the URL to get there.  Anyway, I’m glad I had a look at the threatre, its a fantastic place, so huge and really well done, bet its quite a place when they have plays and things going on there .        Greek Theater Cookie (58, 28, 32)