Donald R. Glass

Not all is lost yet! I do still exist and blog!

2008-01-22T23:11:18Z

Many things happened over the last few months!

I am posting this to let everyone know that I am here and ready to resume my blogging.

From all that happened there were two major events that I will just mention:

The first and foremost is that on November 14th, 2007, Soco and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary... in London watching The Phantom of the Opera!

The second most important event happened yesterday, January 21st, 2008. Ariana Galli accepted to be my Second Life partner. She has been my SL harbor since before I ended my relationship with Gemini Galatea. The man I am now in SL is, in part, the result of all her cares.

More to come soon :)

What Tarot card are you? (irrelevant post)

2007-10-12T18:23:59Z

You are the Hanged Man

Self-sacrifice, Sacrifice, Devotion, Bound.

With the Hanged man there is often a sense of fatalism, waiting for something to happen. Or a fear of loss from a situation, rather than gain.

The Hanged Man is perhaps the most fascinating card in the deck. It reflects the story of Odin who offered himself as a sacrifice in order to gain knowledge. Hanging from the world tree, wounded by a spear, given no bread or mead, he hung for nine days. On the last day, he saw on the ground runes that had fallen from the tree, understood their meaning, and, coming down, scooped them up for his own. All knowledge is to be found in these runes.

The Hanged Man, in similar fashion, is a card about suspension, not life or death. It signifies selflessness, sacrifice and prophecy. You make yourself vulnerable and in doing so, gain illumination. You see the world differently, with almost mystical insights.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Trust

2007-08-27T15:25:46Z

What is trust? This is a question that I've been asking myself for the last few days.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary trust as a noun is defined as:

1 a : assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.

So, according to that definition trust is based on reliance. To trust someone, you have to rely on that someone. I suppose you have to believe that the individual you trust will do/behave in a way that will prove no harm.

]]> When it comes to relationship I strongly believe that trust is the foundation of all.

Can there be love without trust? Friendship without trust?

OK, you can define areas of trust... I may have a friend that has my trust in anything related to my feelings and at the same time I might not trust him financially. But I think those cases are sparse at best.

Getting back to the issue of trust. What does not trusting means? I imagine that if I don't trust someone, every action taken by that someone will create a certain level of suspicion. I will never be sure, why he/she acts or behaves the way he/she does. I will probably wonder if there is a secret agenda that I know nothing about.

At the end, mistrust will kill any relationship... simply because mistrust will corrode the one in the non trusting side.

Then, how do you gain someone's trust? The answer to this question seems to be an easy one. You gain someone's trust by showing you can be trusted, by your actions. Honesty will always be the most important part of those actions.

Of course, there is a little caveat, if you ever did something to break someone's trust, rebuilding that broken trust is much harder. It also requires showing (in actions) that you are to be trusted. It does require that and something else. It requires that the opportunity to rebuild that trust be granted. Without that opportunity trust could never be regained.

But why should I ever trust again? If someone broke my trust, what will stop him/her from doing it again? The answer to the second question is nothing, and there is where trust is needed. What does anybody gain with trusting again? We are all fallible, so mistakes are bound to happen... trusting again means forgiving, and forgiving is a gift like no other.

Together Again

2007-08-21T16:01:57Z

A part of you has grown in me.
And so you see, it's you and me
Together forever and never apart,
Maybe in distance, but never in heart.

~ by Anonymous ~

No more SL wedding :-(

2007-07-12T19:31:24Z

Today (July 12th) Gemi decided to call off our wedding.

July 21st will just be another normal day...

For those of you who were planning on attend the ceremony, here is the speech (sort of vows) that I was going to give:

]]> It all started when two young adventurers met at the stairs of the
Scarlet Monastery in the world of Azeroth.; one beautiful and deadly
huntress, one resourceful druid. That was the first time I met you
Gemini, but back then you were called Cheta and I was Dreadmoon.

Our friendship began in the World of Warcraft and slowly, but surely
took over all our other worlds. In SL I found the woman behind the
night elf, and in SL I met love for the second time of my life.

Today, I am ready to start this new SL with you by my side. Today I
declare my love to you in the company of the other love of my life,
Een Maculate, and my few but strong SL friends.

There is nothing new I can say to you that I hadn't said before. There
are so many words to express what I feel.

Today I will only make one promise, and that is to love you and be by
your side every time you need me. No more, no less.

I am blessed, not only for being the one chosen to be your SL husband,
but for having Scorpio as a friend to make sure that you will be loved
and taken care of in and out of this world.

Whatever the future brings, we'll be all together to face it, enjoy it
or pwn it if necessary.

Everyone! Behold the woman that ninja'd my heart!

I am a jealous person...well, I never said I was perfect

2007-06-06T20:36:31Z

I've always been a jealous person; I also always attributed it to my own personal insecurities.

This morning on the way to work I realized that being jealous is just an expression of fear. Is being afraid someone else is going to take the one you love away from you. After doing some reserach I found a nice definition in the Wikipedia website:

]]> "Jealousy typically refers to the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that occur when a person believes a valued relationship is being threatened by a rival. This rival may have no knowledge of threatening the relationship."

So fear it is! Now, there is no way to escape fear, as Frank Herbert once said:

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

Then facing my fear will help me with my issues of jealousy. Good, I have something to start with.

Next question will be, how do I face my fear? I normally do two distinctive things:

1) I go to the one I love and explain what I am feeling. That conversation normally leads to reassurances about what she feels about me... and a whole load of "fgs, you are silly!" and more colourful expressions along the way.

2) I go and meet my "rival". After all, in my mind, he is the "enemy". The result of the meeting usually goes one of two ways. I either like the guy, so I start to relax and began bonding with him; or I confirm he's a complete jerk so I get an ego boost and stop worrying about him.

One thing I am learning about my own jealousy, is that the best response to deal with it is thru love. I do not need to get angry with the one I love to justify my fear, I just need to approach the issue from a more positive side... which, by the way, is always a challenge ;-)

Thought/ Quote of the week

2007-06-06T20:24:28Z

To look is one thing
To see what you looked at is another
To understand what you see is a third
To learn from what you understand is still something else
But to act upon what you have learned is what really matters

Taoist saying

Heads up! July 21st is the day when Gemini and I will say our vows

2007-05-14T17:51:37Z

WEDDING HAS BEEN CANCELED, MOVE ON, NOTHING TO SEE HERE

Yes! We finally set a date for the wedding. Saturday, July 21st will be the day when Don Mill and Gemini Galatea will become virtual husband and wife.

With Scorpio Galatea as the best man and Jade Jensen as the maid of honor, Gemi and I will be starting a new phase of out SL life that day. :-)

First (and last) SL wedding for me :-)

<3 beauty!

And lots of love to Scorpio and Een who happen to be our RL (real life) spouses and who are giving us their support, love and acceptance that let us make this important decision :-)

We have a new SL island, welcome to Gaea

2007-05-02T17:24:37Z

As the title sugest, we (Soco and I) did our first real state investment in Second Life.

]]> Gaea is a project designed to be a private residences condominium for rent. It will also host my secondary house (I now am officially moved with Gemini) and the Een Maculate gallery.

Gaea will be managed by a combination of talents: Een Maculate, Gemini Galatea, Scorpio Galatea and Don Mill.

If you are interested in having your place to live while you enjoy the beauties of SL, don't forget to IM any of us :-)

Thought/ Quote of the week

2007-04-20T18:16:13Z

Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character for it becomes your destiny.

Ancient Oriental Proverb

What men want?

2007-02-05T22:27:06Z

Just talking to a friend that was going thru a gloomy day because of a bad-moods encounter with his boyfriend, I stumbled with an attempt to explain what men want.

Is a very interesting reading that might fit some people as well.

Looks real. Is it?

2007-02-05T19:22:36Z

I am not a knowledgeable art person, but this type of art draw my attention:

This is a part of a series of pieces that Julian Beever and Kurt Wenner created in the streets of several cities.

If you want to see more samples of this amazing type of art, check this site.

Note: Thanks em0ry and catspaw for the link!

Yes baby, dance for me...

2007-02-01T12:01:20Z

So my SL girlfriend got together with her best friend and created a show for their loved ones (I am luckily one of them).

]]>

isn't it just a great surprise to get when your work day is over?

New cell phone... and now I am online everywhere...

2007-01-31T20:33:40Z

...well not really everywhere, as I am writing this I am working in Atlantis (Paradise Island in the Bahamas) where my new phone doesn't work.

]]> Anyway, I had to change my old phone, not only because it didn't allow me to be a part of the web but specially because the thing went dead whenever it pleased it.

So now I am the owner of a new T-Mobile MDA phone with the Full Internet Plan. This morning I got a taste of my uber-connectivity when I found myself IMing with a friend from the MIA airport.

Why do I need such a fancy phone? I really don't.. it's more like a whim than anything else. At least is clearly cheaper than buying that red corvette all middle aged men think about, right?

I now have, officially, a Second Life

2007-01-17T15:19:31Z

A few weeks ago, I decided (with the help of a very good friend, Gemini) to venture into the virtual metaverse known as Second Life (SL). This was my second incursion into this world after a brief incursion months ago when it was a World of Warcraft (WoW) server maintenance day.

]]> That first time was all about... "OK, this is nice... can we get back to kill murlocks? please?". I never thought I was going to actually enjoy this weird thing so similar to the Sims game that I hate.

That is why I am not sure what drove me into SL last January 11th; probably the failure of a Zul’Gurub raid that left me and Gemini with a sour taste in our mouth and no desire to spend extra time in WoW. With some time to spend and no desire to remain in WoW, Gemini convinced me to give SL another try; and she got me hooked.

Let me make a disclaimer. I do not consider myself a real SL “resident” in the sense that I am not someone that is adding to the SL content and experience. So far, the best I’ve done is frame 2 pics and hanged them on my virtual home.

What I am, is someone that rediscovered that there are no physical boundaries to having good fun with friends. Most of the time I spent is Sl I am in the company of close friends from around the world, Een and myself from Florida; Jade from DC, Baccara from NYC; Gemini and Scorpio from Oxford and Azrazael from Vancouver… we are all over 8 time zones and sharing time together.

I believe that being a part of SL gave me a glimpse of what the future holds; and I don’t seem to be the only one. Real life (RL) companies are getting their feet wet in this amazing yet unexplored new digital world.

Second Life has became the place to be when you want to enjoy the company of friends or are just willing to see something new. At the time of this writing; Soco (my wife in RL) is planning an art exhibition in parallel between DC and SL… so much fun waiting to happen.