Day 1 of 365: Welcome, Goodbye

The seconds tick into minutes, the minutes tick into hours, and the hours tick into days. How fast they come and how much faster they leave.

As I type this, 2010 leaves and 2011 arrives (finally). A year ago, I didn't have a Dollfie daughter, I didn't have a professional camera and I'd only gotten MRSA for once...

How things change.

A year ago, I didn't live and work in Bay City because property was overpriced and community development was undervalued.

A year ago, I was still a newb. Then I got old suddenly and channelled Baz Luhrmman through a refractory made of lots of prims...

A year ago, Leslie Nielsen was still alive. Now, not so much anymore. As I recall, he had a cocktail party at his funeral. God, if only I can have his chutzpah when it's my turn to go...

A year ago, the world seemed to be collapsing, especially for people with foreclosures in America, not all of them valid. Now, judges in at least one jusridiction are standing up for those with no wherewithal to voice their protest against invalid foreclosure and seizures...

A year ago, the waters of the Gulf were a byword for awesome. Now, a byword for British incompetence. Many many folks would like their lives back, thank you very much!

A year ago, Iran was ruled by a tyrant in a comfy chair. Now, that chair is sprouting barbs, and fires are now raging even more than they ever were at the height of a false election. Any moment now, Ahmadi?

A year ago, an Android was a futuristic construct with limbs. now, it's a mobile device without limbs... that somehow seems to go places.

A year ago, I'd never read the Qu'ran, and I ate pork with relish. Now, I despise it, and I read the Qu'ran... only to the extent that I respect its words even when they raise in me disagreement. I still drink, and I still eat pork, and I still lust after things of beauty and wonder, however much a sin it may be in any religion.

I had L$8365 at the beginning of the year, and five projects. Now, I still have the same amount, but all projects have vanished. But new ones are on the horizon, so I seem to be severely lacking in worry about this.

A year ago, mesh in SL was a distant futuristic thing. Now, it's just next door and about to knock on Agni. Any moment now (don't hold your breath)

I have changed.

I have remained the same.

This is Patchouli Woollahra, and for better and for worst, in this world, that world and the next world and hereafter, this is me... And this is my song.

(Im)Balance - PROLOGUE

And how long has it been since I last wrote a good story? Too long.

The following post is part of something that may go nowhere, like another story from a Crap Mariner weekly short story comp. Or it could go somewhere.

*deep breath*

Here goes...

---

The Great Lord of The Worlds leapt from the cliff, his previously shining golden yellow armor tainted a dark ochre with the blood of a horde that had proven he was far from immortal, his hand clutching the dagger the witch had supplied him with.

Wielding it had come at great cost - the metal, which glowed eerily in the darkness and even through the coat of ichor from many victims, sapped his strength as long as it was within his reach. Many a night, he had examined it closely by the firelight, his fingers and eyes tracing their way along its myriad curves, an artifact alien to the forces of Goodness that he served, and yet he was leery to cast it aside, for had the Prophecies not foretold that only such a blade could wound the Beast of The Eurides?

The Beast of The Eurides hadn't noticed his falling approach... He smiled as he fell downwards, letting out a cry of victory. The Beast blinked and stopped munching on a fallen comrade in her toothy jaws, then glanced back with its feral yellowed eyes.

The dagger found its mark, wedging itself between The Beast's shoulder blades. She roared half in pain, and half in surprise as the lush blue fur that had turned even the sharpest blade aside like feathers time and again suddenly failed to provide protection when she needed it most. This ambush was far different from all the previous ones... it hurt. It hurt very badly. The Beast of the Eurides shook herself angrily on all four paws, trying to dislodge the irritant that had taken root on her back.

And The Great Lord Of The Worlds fell away. The dagger had taken its toll on him all these weeks, and the weakness was showing. He coughed into his hand, examined the dark redness in his palm. Blood. He had seen plenty of it ever since this war started, but he hadn't seen his own in a long time.

He stood up and frowned, eyeing the Beast as she writhed on the ground, the dagger poisoning her very lifeblood even faster than it had poisoned his, short of breath. "Ha. Made you look, you wretched feline-"

And so a god died. Well, most of a god...

-----

So much pain.

Need to get away from it.

It keeps getting further and further in.

Need to get away from -

-----

Must Read for Metaversal Fashion Designers

If you're into the habit of adapting in any form from RL designs for metaversal avatars, you may want to speak to your congressman about the "Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevention Act" NOW.

This act (PDF of original US Senate Filing here) was recently passed in the US Senate on the Wednesday week as this blogpost.

Essentially, it prosecutes any attempts to replicate a design for anything wearable. Articles protected under this law must:

1. be "the result of an individual's own creative endeavour" and
2. provide a unique, distinguishable, non-trival, non-utilitarian variation over prior designs for similar articles of clothing.

This could possibly leak into the translation of such designs into virtual formats such as those used by Second Life, Frenzoo, Blue Mars, IMVU, Poser artists et al. The danger exists that this proposed new law may be enforceable across the RL/Metaverse barriers.

I would like to urge discussion on this topic (which for a change, is not frivolous, at least not compared to my usual stuff) - this is important, because last I checked, we do NOT go naked in most virtual worlds (clotheshorsing / clothes tailoring is, in fact, a major activity in Frenzoo!). While there is no place for blind copying of fashion (especially in light of the limited amount of dynamic cloth that many RL clothes rely on), I feel that this Act may have possible chilling effects. After all, how similar is 'similar'?

Comment civilly, retweet if this meets your interests, fret. And if applicable, write in to your Congressman.