OK, enough of all the melodrama such as the unexpected alchemical side effects of unrequited love, the merits of middle age versus youth – and all the rest of that malarkey! Time to talk about some really important stuff – such as friends and friendship, which brings me to a currently absent friend, wolfgeng Hienrichs. (Incidentally, I think that I am probably the only one around who has the bloody cheek to call wolfgeng “wolfie” or sometimes even “wolfiekiens”; but to his credit, he does seem to tolerate this with high good nature. Everyone else calls him wolfgeng or wolf – as would indeed be quite appropriate!) wolfie’s human is off in Greece somewhere fixing a leaky roof at the moment. I do wish the blasted thing would fix itself and wolfie would hurry up and come back home where he belongs. The metaverse isn’t quite the same without his little black snout in evidence. It took me some time to befriend wolfie. Truth is I was intimidated by him. (Those horrible boyzz will not believe me when I say this, but I am actually quite shy). So, I would watch his tall dark figure from a distance, thinking to myself that there was something quite regal and sort of military about his demeanor. At some point wolfie asked me to come along while he was talking to a potential tenant for some Klein land. Quite needless to say I was highly flattered by the fact that he seemed to value my opinion on the matter and rushed over, falling over my own boots as I went, so to speak. From that point onward we were friends.
wolfie is the creator, owner and director of the Search and Rescue operations of Second Life, headquartered at Klein, our home sim. I will be writing separately and at length about S+R, for now suffice it to say that the regal and military bearing has a lot to do with this important mission/position in life, to which wolfie rises with aplomb and dignity.
wolfie is very funny, in fact he is quite pricelessly so. There are so many incidents where wolfie had me in stitches that it would be impossible to remember them all. The one that sticks in my mind right now, since it is quite recent, is the little conversation we had about his car: During the early days of Syncretia I stumbled upon what I thought was as a terrible accident: A car had fallen down a flight of stairs into the whale basin! These being indeed the early days of Syncretia I immediately cleared what I thought was the sad remainder of that evil day. However, as time went by I really began to cherish all the debris that the crashes and accidents caused, as well as all the parked vehicles and even (or indeed especially all the bombs and land mines) at Syncretia. So, I have been making a point of keeping them right where they are (the only exception being a spaceship I returned to Hack just last week – he had left it in the middle of the sky and the bloody thing had a couple of hundred prims to it. So, obviously no parking or accident – just a forgetful avatar, getting off a spaceship midflight and promptly forgetting all about it)… Anyway, back to wolfie’s car: So, the car was the only accident debris that I had ever deleted and the other day I asked wolfie if he could please do a simulation of it and put it back there.
Well!!! O Boy o boy o boy!!! Did he flip out or what???!!! Was I completely mental? I had done whatttttt???? I had deleted the car? That had not been an accident for pete’s sakes!!! Did I not have eyes in my head? He had PARKED the car!!!! Could I not tell an accident from a parked car? That was a brand new car too!!!!… and meanwhile me piping in – “yes yes, but surely we can somehow sort this out wolfiekiens, come to some kind of amicable solution?”… “sort it??? sort it??? Amicable solution???? Go, speak to my insurance guy Alpha! But I can tell you right now it will be gross!!!“ Oh, and of course: How funny is wolfie? He is this funny: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfgeng/2442449025/
wolfie is not only an officer, he is also a gentleman: For instance, there was this one little episode where I traumatized the living daylights out of him with my black ocelot skin. A lesser man would have thrown up into his flight helmet right then and there. Not our wolfie – “oh, very cool Alpha” he said, meanwhile heroicallly managing to hold in his stomach contents no doubt… And of course another evidence of gentlemanly behavior would be his wonderful piano playing, in full tuxedo: Not only is wolfie an officer and a gentleman, he is also a true friend: He calls me “alph” sometimes, which I totally totally love. Reminds me of Alf. But… it is the diminutive address that just about chokes me up with gratitude: I think wolfie is the only person that has ever addressed me in the diminutive and it gives me a good feeling that is almost pathetic in its intensity.
So wolfie baby… Time to come back home I think! Klein is quite deserted without you; not to mention the fact that Hack is in a god awful mood these days (he really is acting up something terrible you know) and I am pretty sure that at least some of it is due to the absence of your steadying influence!