Online Play

Today I bumped into an article , written by Penny Seauterau : "the Healing Potentials of Cybersex", published in the Second Life News Paper. There is no direct link to the article , but you'll find it in the Red Light section of the SLNP website ; the date is April 28, 2009.
Overall an interesting read, especially as I agree with Miss Seauterau that it is a worthwhile quest to wonder about the why of online philandering. The Pearl being what it is, I think no-one will be surprised to see me promote an article that tries to break a lance for the core activities of the Great House, but I have some critical remarks nonetheless, which I will discuss later .
Let's first throw some light on the things I agree with . Miss Seauterau comes at times very close to the reasons why I personally have been engaged in erotic roleplay for almost two years. Most people experiment at some time in their online lives, but two years is generally considered a long time. Avatars have no expressions, but if they did, I'd probably see incredulous stares, mixed with condescending amusement. The words "pervert" and "nympho" pop up, blinking with angry neon red letters. "How on earth," I'd see them thinking, "can someone keep interested? Surely every possible way to describe the process will have been exhausted after a few months ?"
Which brings us to the core of online sexuality : descriptions, words. Even SL with its convincing avatars and photorealistic skins has only added spice. And indeed, we see that silent poseball hoppers -they use both hands, Miss Seauterau- engage in what I would call animated porn. Nothing wrong with that, no animals are harmed in any way, but it is not cybersex. Not in my book. My book is full of words. And it is interactive. You do not know in advance what your partner in crime will say or do. An interesting partner does the unexpected and finds new ways and phrases to make it all worth while. So, returning to the statement that at long last, all descriptions turn stale and predictable, I am reminded of some of my collegues, who use scripted objects -I call them quoting machines- to recite pre-written paragraphs. How appealing.... not.
If that is all the effort they put into the engagement, I can truly sympathise with the feelings of ennui and disappointment of their customers.
To paraphrase Miss Seauterau, writing arousing words has existed for a very long time. I just have to remind the reader of Ovid (yes, I promise to publish more) . I can imagine not everyone feels the same excitement as do, when reading acomplished phrases, and I am the last person to claim that you have to. On the other hand, there is no need to call me an over-excited freak either. The brain is Man's crucial sex organ. It is, has always been and will forever stay so. can I help it that I use my brain more than other people ?
All by all, Miss Seauterau's article is a very useful reminder what it is all about.
Some criticism is at its place , however : as the central theme revolves around her debilitating ailments, she unintentionally raises the impression that cybersex is only an accepted and viable alternative if "the real thing" is impractical. In other words, unless you are bedridden or hideously deformed, there should be "no need" for the virtual playgrounds.
I remember hearing similar arguments against masturbation. I still encounter people that at best ridicule masturbation as equivalent to the toupet, or else claim that it is harmful. It isn't. It is a private thing I loathe to discuss, but so are all things I do in the toilet and bathroom. Or bed. Or bus. Or ...
Whatever.
Toupets aren't ridiculous either, by the way.

well, are we adults now ?

Well, the Lindens have lifted part of the veils of uncertainty around the "Adult region" dabate. You can find the main article here (at the time of writing this, the heading of said article stated it was still being edited) and a FAQ list here .
Note that I say "part of the veils". The wording of both documents leaves much to interpretation. reading the list of criteria , for instance, we can safely assume that the Pearl does not "advertise or publicly promote" extreme violence, photorealistic nudity or explicit sexual acts. Pearl ladies do not hip around naked, engage in public fornication or decapitate innocent bystanders. But what is "publicly promote" ? there is a picture of our Dungeon on the premises. Is that promotion of extreme violence? Are the pictures of the other rooms promotion for sexual acts ?
Clearer to the eye is the rule that using sugestive search terms in the description of parcels can result in "Adult" designation. The Pearl calls itself a brothel and thus refers explicitely to sex. We do this, because we want to attract a public that is looking for that kind of entertainment. We do this also to warn people what they may expect to find. Not doing this is not an option, in my mind. Judging the examples quoted in the text, we would otherwise pass muster as "Mature", although the remark about the use of sex poseballs is annoyingly vague. Do our skyboxes qualify as "backrooms" ? I think not: our private rooms are not publicly available and therefore do not "publicly promote". the point is moot, of course, as we would still use the search tags, and on that point at least, the lindens are clear.
Supposing that at some point we would be branded as "Adult", what consequences would this have ? I can be brief about that : a lot of nuissance.
First off, an Adult parcel would have to be relocated to an Adult region. If the Mayor of Victoriana refuses to stamp the Harbour sim as Adult, we would have no option but to move. Would the Mayor be that cruel ? well, it is not a matter of cruelty, but economic sense. i will refer here to the second item on the list of nuissances : only age verified avatars (or people with payment info on file) are able to enter an Adult region. That would mean that some potential renters wouldn't be able to enter Harbour.
A nuissance for us too : some of the ladies and customers have no payment info on file, let alone age verification (which so far has always failed for me, as it is America-oriented and refuses to believe I do not live in a USA state). I can't be sure, but the recent mishaps where people could no longer enter Harbour because of an accidentally changed setting might be a foretaste of the havoc an Adult status change would create.
Bottomline : we would probably be tagged "Adult" and will need ways to adapt to the changed circumstances. I would also suggest that ladies and visitors alike start changing their payment info status , which seems the easiest way to keep your freedom of movement. If not you might find yourself mightily restricted when the Lindens implement this policy change.

Ovid (or why men never change)

Have I gone soft in the head ? Why on Earth did I organize a public reading with poems from a 2000 year dead poet ? Surely his literary drivel must be just as dusty as what's left from the man's bones! And he wrote Latin! The language of mouldering old tomes filled with religious rants about the number of angels on a pinhead. I'm sure they grew people in cauliflower beds in those days, so what on earth is a Roman poet doing at a house of ill repute ?
Well, probably because the man himself was of ill repute. Augustus banished him because the man's lifestyle and poetry rubbed the wrong way, given the emperor's campain for improved public morals. Well, rumours have it that Ovid in fact had a passionate fling with the emperor's daughter, which -if true- would explain why Augustus never called him back from exile. A discussion about that would get us too far, but you get the point: Ovid was past the cauliflower stage.
Publius Ovidius Naso is a name that sooner or later appeared on the menu of many a classical student. His most famous work, the Metamorphoses is usually the dish of choice and possibly caused his dusty reputation among the easily distracted and bored youths that had to wrestle through its pages. Ovid wrote this later in life, however. He earned his first fame as a young man with poems about his dealings with his mistress Corinna. Later on, he even wrote a love manual, cynically instructing the male reader in the arts of seduction and adultery (to the great annoyance of Augustus, who had made adultery a punishable offense)
But enough of history. Allow yourself to discover why those present at the reading soon had the chains that held them to their chairs cut. The man was timelessly witty and his naughtyness still inspires. let me introduce you to him and his Corinna :

It was hot, and the noon hour had gone by:
I was relaxed, limbs spread in the midst of the bed.
One half of the window was open, the other closed:
the light was just as it often is in the woods,
it glimmered like Phoebus dying at twilight,
or when night goes, but day has still not risen.
Such a light as is offered to modest girls,
whose timid shyness hopes for a refuge.
Behold Corinna comes, hidden by her loose slip,
scattered hair covering her white throat –
like the famous Semiramis going to her bed,
one might say, or Lais loved by many men.
I pulled her slip away –not harming its thinness much;
yet she still struggled to be covered by that slip.
While she would struggle so, it was as if she could not win,
yielding, she was effortlessly conquered.
When she stood before my eyes, the clothing set aside,
there was never a flaw in all her body.
What shoulders, what arms, I saw and touched!
Breasts formed as if they were made for pressing!
How flat the belly beneath the slender waist!
What flanks, what form! What young thighs!
Why recall each aspect? I saw nothing lacking praise
and I hugged her naked body against mine.
Who doesn’t know the story? Weary we both rested.
May such afternoons often come for me!

We are all Adults ! Ehrm... are we ?

You probably heard it. If you didn't, I recommend waking up from your winter slumber. The Lindens are busy implementing changes that will introduce a new concept. We had "Parental Guidance" (PG) and "Mature", now a new status will be defined to discern regions (and later parcels) from each other : "Adult". In brief, Adult regions will be reserved for places with sexualy explicit material.
At the core of this development is the idea that visitors should be able to decide whether or not they want to enter that club where people are tortured, raped, maimed or undergoing a whole range of other eyebrow raising activities. The Lindens are not forbidding sex per se, just making sure everybody knows what (s)he will find at the other end of the teleport. While this sounds laudable, one of the measures proposed did cause me to blink. Several times. Adult places might be forced to move to a new, Adult Continent (nicknamed "Ursula"). From blinking it was but a small step to worrying . Would the Pearl be forced to move ?
The answer is likely "no". First off, forced moves would only be enforced on land that is controlled by the Lindens (i.e. the Mainland) and we took up residence in a private sim. Unless the Mayor of Victoriana decides to lose us, there is no reason for us to move. Second, part of the Pearl ethos is that we do not publicly show sexualy explicit material. Private rooms where explicit activities do take place do not count and our rooms are far away from accidental view. It takes quite some effort to reach them and the security system keeps prying eyes away.
That still leaves questions about what exactly would be the difference between "Mature" and "Adult". Admit that this is not evident at first sight. Let's quote Blondin Linden :
"Are there any clear, uncontroversial, unanimous agreed, examples of activities which are "mature" but not "adult"? ANSWER: Nude beaches, Dance clubs with "alcohol" and dancing, combat sims, lingerie shops, private builds with furniture and accessories."
I suppose the Pearl would qualify as a private build and therefore "Mature". The definition of this boundary is far from clear, by the way, as freely admitted by the Lindens. Does it matter if the Pearl should be marked as "Adult" ? Yes, it does, judging this quote, also from Blondin Linden : "Adult content can not be advertised on non-Adult land, so if you want your content found, it needs to be on adult land."
"Found" in this context is "found in the Linden search engine"; we do want to be found, so if we are marked Adult, either the whole sim should be Adult or we must move. We may take it for granted that residents in Victoriana harbour will react squeamish to the idea that their parcels can be mentally associated with the extreme debaucheries that cling to the whole concept of "Adult". To be honest, so would I. An "Adult" Pearl would be avoided by our target audience and ridiculized by the people that frequent the other establishments.
To be scrutinized, closely....

the rising sun

Sometimes I wonder about Lady Hagar. I mean, I have met no-one else that can meticulously plan to accidentally disclose the fact that it's her birthday. What a mind. As it happens, someone else was having her birhday too around that time, but this Lady had no qualms whatsoever to share the secret with the rest of the universe.
I am certain that we may thank the second lady for having an official double birthday party. I witnessed how she cornered her fellow merrymaker . I kept my respectful distance, of course -privacy is an important thing at the Pearl, especially if it looks like you could be drawn in- but judging from the enegetic gesticulations, the point was hammered through.
So we all got invited to a themed ball. The theme was quite in vogue, as it turned out : it was to be oriental, more specific japanese.

Well, the message was understood, clearly. Those who honoured us with their presence all showed up in period and in geography. In the center of this picture is Lady Hagar, annex opium pipe (maybe that's why she was so meek that day?) . Miss Levenque (to the left) was asking her whether the screen behind her only looked like the one in her room by coincidence.
Lady Anske, who was responsible for the décor (and the commandeering of props) certainly won the prize for most beautiful kimono. On this picture you'l see her dancing with mister JP, also in skirt. By the time this picture was taken, Lady Hagar had retired behind one of the screens puffing smoke rings.
All this happened early december. All in all, a nice, quiet party

Josie's goodbye

JB Barnstormer left us. A day of sadness for those who knew this wonderful, soft and caring lady and thought her presence an enrichment for the Pearl. Things change, however and after having convinced lady Hagar that chains were out of the question, a party was held in her honour to wave her goodbye. She presented this letter to everyone

Thank you for coming here today to wish me well. I had considered this move for several months. Second Life, like Real Life, generates priorities, relationships, duties and desires for change. Recent events in my second life have only sharpened my desire to explore in other directions in SL.
Shortly after arriving in second Life, I applied to Club Pearl, and in particular to Chel Crimson and Vlad Opus for a job as an Escort.
At the time, there here two jobs, Hostess and Escort in Pearl. Recently, I looked at the picture of me as a newbie in SL. And as I appeared to Chel.
Frightening. But I got a new skin, a shape, some hair, some clothing.
And of course, at the time, being an Escort at Pearl meant you received a cute red, black, blue or green dress – mini length, with petticoats. I miss that outfit – I know that we are more authentic now. The clothing each of us buys is truly beautiful, but there was a certain freedom of spirit that the original Pearl outfits gave us.
While I served in Pearl, I began to make friends, and that is what I treasure most about Pearl Club. When I returned to SL after a year’s absence, I met Agile Innis, a funny, sexy woman who had been a fine friend in the original Pearl. There are many other women who have given intelligence and energy to Pearl, but I want only to mention a few who have made Pearl what it is: the club owners and the madames, past and present.
Bella is a warm and funny woman who always is ready to offer help, support and a great laugh – a wicked an playful sense of humour.
SuzeeQ Cazelet has been my BFF since I rejoined Pearl in February. Not only quick-witted and entertaining, she has been a pillar of support for me in my various romantic escapades – and then points out to me what a silly goose I have been. I love her like a sister.
Anske Beattie, who is famous for her high spirited romp through the garden, has become the heart and soul of Pearl. Always friendly, Anske is one of those persons who spreads happiness, laughter and good cheer wherever she goes. Where most people greet you with a “Hi” or “Hello”, Anske always shouts “Hiiieeeeee!!!!! Josie!!!!! Schatje – how are youuuu!!!!!!” Were it not for the exclamation mark key on the computer, Anske might be rendered almost entirely speechless.
Lady Hagar Qinan, with Bella, an owner of Pearl, is a scientist who also possesses a quality that I deem essential to in all worthy humans – she laughs at my jokes. Her dedication to the success of Pearl is without equal. Hagar manipulates and controls SL and its many odd features with ease.
One of the most beautiful women in SL, Hagar’s business-like demeanour may occasionally conceal the warm, passionate woman who is able to leave me laughing so hard I can barely type. Hagar is also one to whom you can turn in time of need. One night quite late, I found Hagar online at about 3:30 am Holland time. Most of the Euro crew had long before departed for the night, but there was Hagar, hanging in to be present at an important event for one of her friends. Hagar has won my personal gratitude and friendship for the kindness to me and understanding whe has shown me.
Other men and women of have also become good and true friends. These persons have been unfailing in their kindness, sense of humour, cultural interests and dedication to the principle of a gloriously sensual life within a decorous shell of culture, manners and formal appreciation of the human condition.
JP, who set a record bidding in a mock slave auction, is also a reliable movie critic and nice guy. AP not only appreciates the women of Pearl, he possesses a keen love of poetry and the arts. SB, so kind and courteous, so often entertained me with stories of life in the world of networking and information technology infrastructure. An animal lover, his heart has recently been captured by a Labrador Retriever. If only he would scratch me behind the ears with the same dedication. FB long helped provide stability to Pearl Club. He is the last person in the world to grab the spotlight, yet he provides kindness and thoughtful appreciation to the club and its activities. CS I never grew to know very well – except that he always seemed to win the sailing race with Lady Hagar. You may have heard my muttering about a Low Countries cabal, but the truth is the he always supports the club and its activities – so of course he becomes an expert sailor. Finally, Chiron Winkler – he never joined Pearl, but he has offered his consulting services on several occasions and also became a really good friend.
My point int this ramble? Pearl has given me friendships I wold otherwise have missed out on completely. I will miss Pearl greatly, but it is time to move on.
Thank you to all of you for your goodness, kindness and affection – each one of you holds a special place in my heart.

The Great Land Crunch

Many of you must have heard by now : Linden labs increased its purchase and maintenance fees (tier) on OpenSpace (OS) sims by a hefty 60%. If buying land was far from your mind thus far : OS sims offered the space of a full sim and 3750 building units (prims) instead of the full 15.000 for a very interesting price; tier fees were 75 US$ a month which made it an interesting product for several purposes : themed simgroups, like Antiquity or the famous sailing sims of Nantucket used them to create a large estate for a bearable cost. Land barons used them to rent out private islands. With the Pearl having been through 2 unanounced estate sales and Bella and I becoming nervous as the sims of the new estate remained eerily empty, unrented and thus unprofitable for the new owners, the propect of having an OS sim became very attractive indeed.
Praise the Lord we didn't succumb to the temptation.
while the old OS fees would have meant an increase in monthly tier, it would have been feasable; the new fees are simply impossible to cough up. Unfortunately, this is not only the case for us, a lot of estate owners are now taking a daily asprin dose against the headaches of trying to cope with the enormous maintenance cost. Selling surplus sims is tempting, but not exactly easy, as just about everybody is trying to do the same thing. It is possible to convert 4 OS sims to a single standard one, if one has enough OS sims. If all else fails, abandoning the sim is the only option. In short : the grid is becoming smaller. Very fast.
As we are based on a standard sim, we are not directly endangered by such actions. As the renting malaise in standard sims is largely caused by OS sims seemingly being a better deal, we might even hope that the land crunch will bring renters back to standard rentals.
Antiquity seems to be hit severely. After the initial shock ebbed away, a plan was devised to save the estate from finantial ruin. If the plan is executed as portrayed, the present 30+ sims will slink to around 20, maybe less. I am not well informed about what is going on elsewhere, but this article in the Herald makes an estimate (and I pledge a tear on the loss of the Paris 1900 sims, which are featured in my picks and holds some special memories) .
Many have questioned the motives, or even the good sense of the Lindens in making this decision. While questioning some other person's brain capacity is a favourite passtime of mine, I must grudgingly admit that this article , also in the Herald is one of the few that gave me the impression that I understood some of the rationales.
In the mean time we all hope that our sim will not be "rationalized" and we kicked out unceremoniously as I am not sure how the rents will evolve over the folowing months.