Stuff, the SL Plague, and more Stuff

I always think I am going to run out of things to blog about here... I mean, you can only babble on with nothing of substance to say for so long before you become ordinary. But today, I had so many things to mention that I didn't know where to start. None of them are worthy particularly of their own posting (okay, maybe the kudos section), so I figured I would stick them all in one spot and call it a day.

First of all, the SL Plague is going around.... again.

This poor soul logged on to find that her entire body had been eaten by the plague... leaving nothing but a black hole. After reverting to the test female shape and having no success, she called out for help, and 6-7 mentors later, discovered that the plague targets people who run two monitors.

Of course, this little case came about just after perhaps the worst griefer attack I have seen in SL. A newer resident of our world had just took up roots with her husband in a cute cottage. She was upstairs changing and all of a sudden, a stranger was in her home, asking her if she would like a TP downstairs.

From that point forward, it was pure heck for the gal. Luckily, she had the Hey Girlfriends gal pals to step up. And once she had them, she had a host of mentors available at her fingertips. Unfortunately, our typical tools didn't work. The gal hovered over us like something out of a bad 70's horror movie. And after three launches, two of them dropping me six feet under, I called in the big wigs.

It's always neat to see "them" work. They sneak in underground... are on rooftops... cam in from three SIMs over... kind of like how the US Navy SEALS take a beach. You never know they are there until it's too late. Eventually they contained the gal griefer. But in the process, a Girlfriend gal pal's boy was banned. Why? BECAUSE THE GRIEFER SCRIPTED EVERYTHING TO TAKE ON THE NAME OF THE ATTACKER'S TARGET. I'd call her a witch but honestly, I was too impressed with her creativity. These details are still being worked out and we keep our fingers crossed for a fair and reasonable Linden review of the situation and swift return of our friend to SL.

Sadly, it left a sour taste in the mouth of the renter as she had had a stalker there not a week before. (Yes, I know I know - you are all wondering about security - the landlord hadn't provided any nor the ability to ban. Slum SL Landlord. lol) Since, she seems to have bounced back but with caution.

Speaking of Hey Girlfriends, Catty Loon finally threw in the towel and is kicking off a new Hey Girlfriend blog coming soon. In it we all get to speak on important topics that require no words and giggle at each other when we walk out of the SL bathroom with tp on our shoes. What are girlfriends for, huh? ;)

On other horizons... Someone I met in a completely different medium did a google on me and pointed out that I should google myself. Much to my delight I discovered I had a mention on CNN.com. They were so kind as to suggest that you swing by the H&R Block party for some free tax advice and that while there, talk to Hope or to (are you sitting down?) me.

Let it be known that I am not an accountant. In fact, I know so little about taxes that I have a CPA and a tax attorney help me each year. When it comes to such things I am a total and complete dingbat. The only tax advice I give is 1) make sure you do them, 2) get professional help and 3) don't forget to mail them cause bad things happen when you don't like weird guys in cheap black suits showing up at your door in black cars with black windows. By the way, to make your accountant like you at least a little, hand them spreadsheets. They seem to make them smile which during tax season is a very very very good thing.

I also discovered via the googling that this little blog endeavour of mine was query worthy at technorati.com. Technorati currently tracks "112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media". Does that mean I made it to the big time? If so, who in their right mind would waste the time? lol

Honestly, I was flattered. Three hits, two of them from the Ribbons Learns to Swim friend Wrath Paine vs. Second Life (all one has to do for Wrath is write him a poll - he's addicted) and one of Misty is Foreverlost (misplaced the map again!). A big THANK YOU to Misty for the blog roll spot under "Misc Crap". One of these days I look forward to meeting her.

This discovery of course led DJ Tarsis to google his baby the alternativeclassix.com. Tarsis reports to me that out of 40,000 podcasts on Podcast Alley, we're ranked 3,000. That's actually not bad given the competition. Of course, when one sorts by genre, we're happy to report that darnit, people like us! Search for 80s, alterantive, 90s and we're probably number one. Yeay us!

I'm calling it a night. Many thanks, kudos, and candies to those who are helping make this gig a success. I cannot thank you enough for your encouragement, notes of ideas, and the occassional thrown shoe.