Quote du Jour: from "Epilogue" by Mark Tredinnick

    There will come
         a morning             
 I don’t wake and think first of you. 
                             But that day can wait.


See the entire poem here at Terrain.org. 

Song du Jour: Regina Spektor "The Call"

It started out as a feeling
Which then grew into a hope
Which then turned into a quiet thought
Which then turned into a quiet word...
I'll come back
When you call me
No need to say goodbye
Just because every thing's changing
Doesn't mean it's never been this way before...
Now, we're back to the beginning
It's just a feeling and no one knows yet
But just because they can't feel it too
Doesn't mean that you have to forget
Let your memories grow stronger and stronger
'Til they're before your eyes
You'll come back
When they call you
No need to say goodbye....

My Song for D: "Having Wings" Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals (Live @ XM Studios)

I heard a street singer play a song I knew
It brought me closer to you
I heard a street singer play a song I call my own
It brought me to my childhood home

Did you go back from where you came?
If I get there, will they have my name?
If they don't, I'll only have myself to blame
For all these things, true happiness is having wings

Life is a blurry-eyed, heavy-hearted whirlwind of a storm
Some things just hurt too much to cry
Memories are like shadows the light won't make disappear
I still see you smiling with your eyes

Did you go back from where you came?
If I get there, will they have my name?
If they don't, I'll only have myself to blame
For all these things, true happiness is having wings

Le Mont Saint-Michel in SecondLife: Official Cafe Open!

Le Mont Saint-Michel in SecondLife: Official Cafe Open!
(reposted from http://le-mont-saint-michel.blogspot.com/)

The cafe opened on the hillside in Grande Rue.
You can enjoy coffee, tea, and snacks here :)

The waitress is waiting.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Mont%20Saint%20Michel/222/95/27

A Song for Draven: Citizen Cope "Healing Hands"

...Turn the tape recorder on
He just left Jackie O for Marilyn Monroe
We're all bought and sold
For tobacco, firearms and alcohol
What's a pocket full of gold
Without a woman that you could hold
Can't afford to be on the back burner no more
Now I got a lot of places to go

Well I don't know about your right and wrong
I got a muse from the east to the west
All I know is if I never said it before
I'm going to say it with my last breath....

I will never forget your healing hands my love
I thought my heart had stopped
I swore I had given up
I will never forget your healing hands my love
You gave me daylight you gave me sunlight

I will never forget your healing hands my love
I thought my heart had stopped
I swore I had given up
I will never forget your healing hands my love
You gave me daylight you gave me twilight

Never forget...

Memories...

I have spent the last few days... well, the last week or so really, ever since Valis disappeared, collecting all my memories of it. I have always been a SL shutterbug. Problem is I have photos scattered across at least 4 computers/laptops (and let's not talk about the many flash and portable hard drives). The thing is SL is just so damn pretty. And in SL we are so damn pretty. And there are all those magic moments.

It is hard to not get caught up in the magic of Second Life, in the "SL effect"--that sense that the things that happen in the virtual world are sometimes more real than your real world. It is true, it can be dangerous and even painful to expect too much from a virtual world. To believe in the game. But here's the thing: in SL we are real people, too. I don't want to think of SL as a distraction from my real world--I like my RL. I think of SL as a beautiful addition to my life. Enrichment. I have met more people that I would never have had the chance to meet. I have learned how beautiful it can be to love someone in SL. I refuse point blank to believe that love is ever a bad thing. Or that happiness, however fleeting, is bad either. I refuse to think that time spent with another person, caring about, getting to know that person, intimately: mind, body, and soul--no matter what ever happens in the long run--I refuse to think that kind of connection is ever a mistake.

So I have been gathering my memories, of Valis, and of Firefly before it. Of Draven. Of Heron and Wren, Hawk, Mal. Of Dabrin, and of Jinara, Jhai, and Noir. Of everyone who came, and so briefly lived, and loved someone at Valis. I am gathering all my pictures--all my memories. And putting them up in Flickr.

Right here... where I can look and remember. And never regret a single moment.

Tsai in Valis

Tsai in Valis, originally uploaded by Tsai Jie.


Evening, That moment of peace when the sun touches the horizon and you close your eyes to feel the last rays on your face. It is then when we think about all the things we have seen and done during the day. All the words spoken and unspoken, all the people we love. Hopes. Dreams. Tomorrows.

Dancing in the Colors of Second Life

My first SL video... for my first real love in SL.

The paths we were walking did crumble... but, baby, if you again start hoping, with your arms wide open... come and dance with me into the colors of the dusk.

Song du Jour: Jack Johnson's "Better Together"

There's no combination of words
I could put on the back of a postcard
No song that I could sing
But I can try for your heart,
our dreams, and they are made out of real things
like a shoebox of photographs
with sepia-toned loving
Love is the answer
at least for most of the questions in my heart, like
Why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it's so hard?
It's not always easy and
sometimes life can be deceiving
I'll tell you one thing, it's always better when we're together

Mmmm, It's always better when we're together
Yeah we'll look at the stars and we're together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah it's always better when we're together

And all of these moments
just might find their way into my dreams tonight,
But I know that they’ll be gone
when the morning light sings
and brings new things
for tomorrow night you see
that they’ll be gone too,
too many things I have to do
But if all of these dreams might find their way
into my day to day scene
I'd be under the impression
i was somewhere in between
With only two,
Just me and you,
Not so many things we got to do
or places we got to be
We'll sit beneath the mango tree, now,

Yeah It's always better when we're together
Mmmm, we're somewhere in between together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, it's always better when we're together

I believe in memories
they look so, so pretty when I sleep
Hey now, and when I wake up,
you look so pretty sleeping next to me
But there is not enough time,
There is no, no song I could sing
and there is no combination of words I could say
but I will still tell you one thing
We're Better together

Love like you'll never be hurt, dance like nobody's watching...

I thought I'd post this picture of dancing with a special friend in Valis. . . . just because sometimes we are so very pretty.

[Fashion by Emo-tion, Dirty Lynx, Bird of Prey, and DE Designs]

Here's Wishing You all a Happy New Year filled with Love

2007 brought me into Second Life, and gave me a lot of wonderful new friends. 2008 will be my second year in SL, and I look forward to many more wonderful days with the friends and family I have in both my real and second lives.

So to all of those who have become dear to me: Rhiannon, Patrick, Insightis, Amanda, Bobby, Bes, Adair, Krew, Rojelio, Jamesen, Corwyn and Emerisella, Grim and Mari, Varuk, Doc, Woody, Karra, Katieh, Baron, Calv, Bastion, Maggy, Xanna, Partial, Crazy, Elanna and Macho, Jamien, Jara, Cat and Star, MC2U, Nhoj, Jeanine and Jane, Nerdi, Nixon and Serenity, Justinfra, Jordan, Starman, BigE, Burke, Callie, Ryker, Trinity, Raza, Stella, Anatol, Kilroy, Roy, Malcolm, Jinara, Dabrin, Jhai, and Draven . . . and to all of you I have met and hope to meet again in the coming year . . .

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Today's Song: "Remember" by Josh Groban