Greenhouse in Fall

This video is a SMALL depiction of the lovely sim "Greenhouse", which is owned by our good friend Transparent Banshee.  Transparent recently changed his sim to a fall season and I made this video to memorialize it.  Greenhouse is part of the United Sailing Sims and has connection to the Blake Sea.  Transparent welcomes visitors to the ground level of his sim.

"Bottle" by Kirsten Lepore (Official video)

What an awesome video!  Two "people" separated by an ocean... this brought a tear to my eye.

Ex-Linden Qarl...Align Tool

WOOOOOOOOOOT... please please please put this in Imprudence!  I WANT this building tool.

Unending Love

Below is part of a poem by Rabindranath Tagore.  It is one of the most beautiful love poems I have read.  Thank you :)

"I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times…
In life after life, in age after age, forever.
My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs,
That you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms,
In life after life, in age after age, forever.

 

Whenever I hear old chronicles of love, it's age-old pain,
It's ancient tale of being apart or together.
As I stare on and on into the past, in the end you emerge,
Clad in the light of a pole-star piercing the darkness of time:
You become an image of what is remembered forever.

 

You and I have floated here on the stream that brings from the fount.
At the heart of time, love of one for another.
We have played along side millions of lovers, shared in the same
Shy sweetness of meeting, the same distressful tears of farewell-
Old love but in shapes that renew and renew forever."

 

--Rabindranath Tagore

Exerpted from "Unending Love" by Rabindranath Tagore 

Tugby in Santa Rosa

This is a video of Tugby, filmed on location in Santa Rosa sim in Second Life. Some of the BEST fun that you can have on the water. For more information about Tugby visit the Starboards Yacht Club web site at: https://sites.google.com/site/starboardsyachtclub/

Come play with us on Sunday mornings at 8 am PST.

Around the world backwords!

Steve White will be sailing from west to east against the prevailing winds and currents!

"Fast, Easy, Fun" with Second Life founder Philip Rosedale - Computerworld Blogs

"Fast, Easy, Fun" with Second Life founder Philip Rosedale - Computerworld Blogs

Sept 11, 2001

Tugby TEAM League Being Formed

Starboards Yacht Club is happy to announce the formation of a Tugby TEAM League.  Captains can begin to sign up tomorrow (Sunday August 29th).  For the details, please visit the SYC WebSite and navigate to SYC Announcements.  If you have questions, please contact Nber Medici.

Regular play will continue on Sunday mornings at 8 am in Santa Rosa Sim.  Come join us... watch the action from the Observation Platform in Santa Barbara or come to the Tugby Dock in Santa Rosa to play. All skill levels welcome!

Norah Jones - Come Away With Me

I was cruising around in YouTube and came across this LOVELY Video.  Very nice... very peaceful.  You will have to go over to YouTube to watch it...but it is worth it.

Puerto Diego Drama

MarkTwain White published earlier this morning a new video featuring a Navy vs. Pirate Battle in the Blake sims (not to be confused with the Blake SEA sims which Linden Lab owns). We used this short video as the starting point for a new event we are calling Blake Bazaar: at eight am SLT every OTHER Saturday morning. After the video this morning, I entertained the crowd with my WAND from Starax Statosky (miss you Starax!) and then we had a pick-up game of Tugby (or rather a FORM of Tugby). Afterwards we all joined at the tavern in Puerto Diego and knocked back some Tequila and rum.  (IMPORTANT NOTE:  If you like the video - please go to YouTube and comment or give it a thumbs up.)

On a far more serious note: this morning is the beginning of Relay for Life. Let's go over to those sims, and walk the track... or sail the course. GO RELAY.

Chronicles of Puerto Diego

Recently the site "Chronicles of Puerto Diego" was launched.  If you have any interest in the pirate, navy, or Ironclad side of "water sports" in SL...then you should check this out.  I am especially pleased with the gallery of photos there.  Let me know what you think.  There is also a Forum associated with this site.

June 6, 1944 - Invasion of Normandy

In preparation for selling my mother's home, I have been combing through it looking for things that needed to be saved.  Recently I came across a small gem.  It is a small U.S. Government issue notebook in which my father recorded important events in his WWII US Navy service.  As I was thinking of the upcoming anniversary of the invasion of Normandy, I started to wonder what HE was doing on the other side of the world at the time of the invasion.  His initial records in his log book read:

• April 28 1944 - Left San Francisco Calif.
• May 5 - Crossed Equator
• May 9 - Crossed Date Line
• May 13 - arrive Noumea New Caladonia (sic)
  ........
• May 31 Frichshaven
• June 10 - Left Frichshaven - assigned LCI-28
  

If you don't know what a Landing Craft Infantry (LCI) is, take a look here at the USS Landing Craft site.  

ARMY.MIL provides an excellent overview of D-Day,

On June 6, I will take some time to stop and remember.

Leadership in Second Life Sailing

After a particularly nasty little spat on the SLSailing.net Forum, I made this post.  I rather liked it even if I do say so myself. 

"In a previous post on this forum, Armano Xaris made some VERY good comments which I have quoted from below: 

'I think we need better communications in second life sailing to at least try to stop drama.'

...and ..................

'Sometimes if a community grows large the way people communicate should be discussed (again) though in my opinion to keep things: effective, clear, to avoid problems and to make further growth possible. I can't imagine we don't want this to happen in a solid way for us ALL.'

Armano’s post made me start thinking about “leadership”, and in particular thinking about it in the context of Second Life. A virtual world like ours and a community like the sailing community in Second Life needs a variety of types of leaders and these different types need different skills. However, overall leadership and in particular leadership that transcends the boundary between the virtual world and the “real” world needs people who exhibit (in my opinion), the following characteristics. 

1. Integrity - In short - say what you mean and do what you say. Be willing to talk openly and honestly with people. Share your real thoughts, not what you think the individual wants to hear. This should be tempered with communicating in ways so that others are not demeaned or ridiculed, even if what you are saying is critical of them. 

2. Clarity of thought and communication - In a virtual world where many (although not all) primarily use text-based communication, good leaders are adept at clear communication. It is not necessary to always be grammatically correct. This is especially true since we share our “world” with many that do not have English as their first language and with people from a wide variety of educational and social backgrounds. What IS necessary is that clear communication should reflect clarity of thought. Your thoughts are, of course, probably always perfectly clear to you, the challenge is to articulate them in such a way that OTHERS see exactly what you mean. If someone has to read and reread what you have written to attempt to understand your point, then your communication has failed.

3. Organization - A good leader (again in MY opinion) is organized. He or she makes plans that consider the possibilities and the capabilities of our “world”. These plans are carefully thought out and (again) carefully communicated to people. A good leader modifies plans on the basis of reasoned, rational feedback. 

4. Passion - I am torn on this. Part of me says that YES... a good leader is passionate about what he or she does. Passionate leaders are able to move the community forward. Another part of me says NO... passion gets in the way more often than not. It clouds people’s perceptions and it clouds their ability to communicate clearly. I suppose what would be BEST would be a leader that is passionate about their vision, BUT is able to clearly set their passion aside or control it. 

My opinion - These are the types of leaders that the SL Sailing Community deserves and needs. We have some of these leaders. I would submit that THESE are some of the characteristics of those people that we want to represent us to the “real” world."

Facebook and Privacy

I have become concerned in my RL Facebook page about Facebook Privacy.  Take a look at the link that I have provided for a neat way of demonstrating the changes in Facebook's default privacy options.  I may decide to delete my account.  I haven't decided.

 Facebook Privacy Policy Changes Over Time

Evernote

I have started using this service and really like it.  "Use Evernote to save your ideas, things you see, and things you like. Then find them all on any computer or device you use. For free."  I've upgraded to the premium version, but I don't really think that is necessary.  The thing that I really like about this in the ability to access my "memory" from a WIDE variety of devices.  I haven't gotten it to work well on my Blackberry yet, but I'm OK with that.  You have to be out of touch SOMETIMES you know. :)

I also LOVE the logo (hope I don't get in trouble for showing it to you.   

Hollywood and Sailing in SL in the news!

Recently the Sailing Scene in SL was featured in two articles in the Examiner.  Links to the two articles are below.  In addition, a music video featuring Craig Lyons in the Hollywood Bowl has ben released.  For your reading and viewing pleasure!


First Article:
http://www.examiner.com/x-34056-Harrisburg-Second-Life-Examiner~y2010m4d19-The-United-Sailing-Sims-of-SL--where-sailing-is-serious-fun
Second Article:
http://www.examiner.com/x-34056-Harrisburg-Second-Life-Examiner~y2010m5d3-Sailing-in-SL-Style


Craig Lyons Music Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw5iwrEOBRg

Avatars United

Feel free to UNITE with me on Avatars United.Now that Second Life seems to be committing to upgrading Avatars United, I will be spending more effort here.  I have two groups there that you might be interested in following.  One is the group for Starboards Yacht Club and the other is Hollywood Real Estate.  The links to each are below:

Starboards Yacht Club  

Hollywood Real Estate

More from Eyjafjallajokull - The Big Picture - Boston.com

While this has nothing to do with Second Life, I found these pictures fascinating. Brought to you from the volcano with the unpronounceable name (at least to Westerners).

More from Eyjafjallajokull - The Big Picture - Boston.com