Pandemic Diary, November 22nd, 2020: Fuck You, Donald Trump

One of my quality-of-life metrics is the number of really good laugh-until-you-cry moments per year (obviously, they have been in rather short supply this year).

The health benefits of laughter are already well known:

Laughter relaxes the whole body. A good, hearty laugh relieves physical tension and stress, leaving your muscles relaxed for up to 45 minutes after.

Laughter boosts the immune system. Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease.

Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain.

Laughter protects the heart. Laughter improves the function of blood vessels and increases blood flow, which can help protect you against a heart attack and other cardiovascular problems.

Laughter burns calories. Okay, so it’s no replacement for going to the gym, but one study found that laughing for 10 to 15 minutes a day can burn approximately 40 calories—which could be enough to lose three or four pounds over the course of a year.

Laughter lightens anger’s heavy load. Nothing diffuses anger and conflict faster than a shared laugh. Looking at the funny side can put problems into perspective and enable you to move on from confrontations without holding onto bitterness or resentment.

Laughter may even help you to live longer. A study in Norway found that people with a strong sense of humor outlived those who don’t laugh as much. The difference was particularly notable for those battling cancer.

Yesterday evening, while scrolling through my Twitter feed and clicking on Twitter’s suggestions for trending topics, I chanced upon the following funny tweet by Brian Guest:

I filled out a Trump survey trashing him a week ago, and in the NAME field I put Fuck You as my name. Forgot about it. Then just got this email out of the blue. And I’ve never been more baffled or laughed as hard as I just have. I thought he emailed truly addressing me like this:

Brian followed up with:

For 10 minutess I stared at my phone in awe—thinking this crazy man just tried to connect with supporters by droppin F-bombs in a campaign email! I was shocked. Mad. Sad. It was so unbelievable [yet] believable at the same time. Then the wave of laughs, realizing I just pranked myself so hard.

I then spent the next 20 minutes reading through all the comments which people left on Brian’s post, some of which were also extremely funny:

And the whole time, I was sitting at my computer, reading through all the posts, just absolutely HOWLING, with tears of laughter running down my face! (I’m quite sure the woman who lives upstairs from me in my apartment complex thought I had completely lost it.)

It was the best laugh I have had in months, people, perhaps all year. and let me tell you, in the middle of province-wide, code-red pandemic lockdown, I very much needed that laugh.

Stay healthy and stay sane in these trying times!

UPDATED! Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: You Can Pick Up the Jennifer and Naomi Mesh Bodies by Dream for Only L$50

I got the following message yesterday from Eve via the Contact Me page on my blog:

 Hello! I thought you might like to know that Dream currently has both of their female mesh bodies available in their Midnight Madness boards in store, since you maintain a list of free mesh bodies. One body is designed to fit into Maitreya clothing, and I believe the other fits either Slink or Freya—I can’t remember at the moment! They are both very nice bodies—I had demoed them and was going to check them out for purchase for an alt and saw the boards! Here’s the SLURL to her shop: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kasimir/178/13/1196

Now, you will need to join the Dream Official Group (the group join fee is L$50) in order to slap these boards. There’s not a lot of information on the panels; from what I can tell, just by examining the pictured bodies carefully, the Jennifer body is the Maitreya Lara-compatible one Eve was talking about, and (I think) the Naomi body is compatible with Belleza Freya (although I can’t be sure until I actually receive them and test them against clothing already in my inventory).

I mean, having to shell out only L$50 for a Maitreya Lara or Belleza Freya compatible mesh body is a pretty good deal!

Here’s your taxi to Dream, in case you are curious, which should place you directly in front of the Midnight Madness boards. I double-checked and, unfortunately, the boards reset to zero every day at midnight Second Life/Pacific Time, so it might be rather difficult to reach the 50 hits in 24 hours necessary. (I would dispatch my small army of alts to help, but alas, I am not willing to spend L$50 per alt to reach the goal of 50 slaps! I already have plenty of free and inexpensive options for female mesh bodies.)

The Dream store also sells the Ciara Bento mesh head (a former Stay at Home Club freebie I blogged about here) for L$99, and another Bento mesh head called Lida for L$499. If you don’t want to wait for the Midnight Madness boards, you can purchase the Naomi mesh body for L$99 (a significant saving over the L$2,499 Belleza Freya body), and the Jennifer mesh body for L$999 (compared to the L$2,750 Maitreya Lara body). There’s also a male mesh avatar called Milan, on sale for L$50.

I will add the Jennifer and Naomi bodies to my constantly-updated list of free and inexpensive mesh heads and bodies for female avatars.


Thank you to Eve for the heads-up!

UPDATE Nov. 24th, 2020: I have received the following comment from a reader:

The Naomi mesh body you have [listed the price as] L$99. When you click on the sign, it does ask for L$99 BUT you don’t get the body, you get lingerie (I bought and verified). The creator messed up. The real price should be L$999, which you will see if you hover your mouse over the sign. So, the creator needs to fix this.

And I did wonder about the price discrepancy between the full-price Naomi and Jennifer bodies, so this now explains it! Thank you, Karissa!