Day: December 3, 2020

Pandemic Diary, December 3rd, 2020: “If you don’t think COVID is real, right now, you are an idiot.”

Today, beleaguered Manitoba premier Brian Pallister (who is currently the least popular premier in Canada because of his government’s mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic), made an emotional plea to Manitobans to avoid holiday gatherings:

One commenter on Twitter said:

The problem isn’t that he’s the bringer of bad news; it’s that his government failed to have the foresight to prepare for the inevitable second wave of the pandemic back in the summer when things were relatively under control. It’s also his and his cabinet’s arrogance.

To see his arrogance first-hand, all you have to do is watch the following recent CBC News interview with Rosemary Barton, which is a total cringefest:

The CBC’s Rosemary Barton rightfully grills Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister on his woeful mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic. You can watch him deflect, blame the people of Manitoba, boast about his government’s response, and squirm. Brian even goes so far as to blame Rosemary herself for not having any ideas on how to respond to a pandemic (and she is NOT having it, rightfully reminding him that she is not an elected official).

Today, Brian was also complaining about aboriginal Manitobans getting a share of any coronavirus vaccines delivered to the province by the federal government, when they become available. CBC Manitoba reporter Bartley Kives tweeted:

Pallister insists Manitobans will be short-changed on initial vaccine deliveries because of our large Indigenous community. Indigenous communities are more vulnerable and need to be served early. Says per-capita distribution won’t take that into account.

Dr. Victoria Austen responded:

Indigenous Manitobans ARE Manitobans. Pallister’s point is only true if you don’t believe this.

Racist, dog-whistle politics has zero place in a pandemic. Brian Pallister should be thoroughly ashamed of himself. And I dearly hope the Conservative party will get their asses kicked in the next provincial election, and that the opposition NDP, under their party leader Wab Kinew*, forms the next government.

Meanwhile, south of the border, at a Michigan hearing looking into election fraud, part of Donald Trump’s quixotic quest to get the U.S. federal election results overturned, Melissa Carone (a contract worker for voting technology company Dominion Voting Systems) gave such unintentionally hilarious train-wreck testimony that it quickly went viral.

You simply have to watch the following three-minute video (I simply cannot WAIT to see what Saturday Night Live does with this…is Victoria Jackson still around to play Melissa?):

I have now watched this video several times, and I still completely crack up when Melissa says to Rep. Steven Johnson on the House panel (who is a Republican), “…And I signed something saying that if I’m wrong, I could go to prison *tongue pop*. Did you?”

And, of course, the Twitterverse is giving Melissa Carone the roasting which she so richly deserves! Comedian Kylie Brakeman promptly posted the following hilarious video to Twitter:

Feminist website Jezebel has reported:

According to [Melissa] Carone’s Wednesday night testimony her life has been “destroyed” by speaking out. “My life has been completely destroyed because of this,” Carone said, claiming that she and her family has been threatened and that in addition to having to move, she’s “had to get rid of social media.” (Carone seems to continue to have a Facebook page, where she describes herself as a proud #boymom and #girlmom, as well as a LinkedIn account.)

“I can’t even get an actual job anymore, I can’t,” she said. “Because Democrats like to ruin your lives. That’s why. Just like they do to Trump.”

Oh, honey, NO.

Melissa, the reason you can’t find a job anymore is not because of the Democrats. It’s because you’re a delusional, pathalogical liar and a lunatic. I mean, you made Rudy Giuliani—Rudy Guiliani!— look relatively sane by comparison, as he tried and failed to shush you in abject embarrassment. That’s a pretty mean feat!

*Wab Kinew is an indigenous man, and if he were to be elected, he would become Canada’s first aboriginal premier.

Cas and Chary: The VR Proposal

Cas and Chary are two women from the Netherlands who have a YouTube channel where they review virtual reality games and apps, called Cas and Chary VR, which has nearly 80,000 subscribers. I blogged about Cas and Chary before here.

The Netherlands is one of the countries around the world which recognizes same-sex marriage, and recently, Cas proposed to her partner Chary, and she shared the following video of how she did it:

Cas says:

Last Wednesday, I proposed to Chary. You may have seen our social media posts about it. But what I didn’t tell people then is that I actually learned to make a VR game for this occasion. And it was everything I wanted it to be…

So we hope you enjoy this not-so-usual video from us where I share with you what I did, how we got there, and then me… on my knees.

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Advent Calendar Gifts for December 3rd, 2020

Here’s my blogpost with links to four lists of Advent Calendars and 12 Days of Christmas Calendars, plus my “Top Ten” Calendars you should not miss in 2020!

Hoo boy, do I have a lot of gifts to show you today! So let’s get started. Remember, these Advent calendar gifts are only available today, December 3rd. Snooze, ya lose! So, let’s get started…and please note, unless I say otherwise, you do need to join the store group to pick up the following gifts (and, unless I state otherwise below, that store group will be free to join, so if you are short on group space like I am, you can join the group and then leave it).

Today’s gift from Firelight Hair is the long Clarissa hairstyle, which comes with a mini-HUD with 3 blonde colours as shown:

Virtue‘s Advent Calendar today gives you this lovely peach-and-white floral blouse and matching long skirt, which can be worn separately:

Here’s the gift from Wow Skins (group join fee is L$199). The Sharon skin includes Bakes on Mesh body skin, and is designed for LeLutka mesh heads, but as you can see, it works well on the LOGO Chelsea head I am wearing in this picture!

Here’s the December 3rd group gift from 7 Deadly S[k]ins (group join fee is L$1,000). Today you also receive the Hope Bakes on Mesh skin with lipstick as shown below, plus a male skin, plus a fatpack of the Miss Behave Omega skin appliers!

The gift from Essenz (L$50 for non-members, or pay the L$350 group join fee to pick up all of the Advent Calendar gifts, plus a fatpack of the versatile Wales pumps) is called Guayadil, which comes in sizes to fit Maitreya, Belleza, and Legacy feet:

A large pink notice on the floor in front of the Advent calendar at Vagrant states:

So here’s a look at two of the gifts, from December 1st (the Camila earrings, which come with a HUD to select one of seven metals) and December 3rd (the Aurora floral wreath includes a HUD which allows you to tint the three different sets of the roses separately, either to match or differ, and also includes optional Christmas lights!).

Tucked in behind the Christmas tree at the Vagrant store are a whole whack of group gifts (the group is free to join, so be sure to scoop them up, too!).

Here’s the present from Emerald Couture for December 3rd, the Krista minidress in a plum-coloured snowflake pattern, perfect for your next holiday party!

Pink Mango offers up another minidress in blue suede:

The Advent calendar gift from Justice is this fern green Misty dress (which also comes in an ombre colour):

In addition to the gifts I have pictured here, there is a also a set of four unisex dances from Abranimations, a black puffed-jacket-and-T-shirt combo for men and women from ML Designs, and a pair of black sweatpants for male avatars from Fashion Fantasy (please use one of the Advent calendar lists in this blogpost to find the SLURLs).

Happy freebie shopping!

P.S. If you are in the market for an Ugly Christmas Sweater™, for only L$1 you can pick up the following red sweater from Xtra Ordinari (warning: adult sim), which comes in versions to fit a wide variety of both male and female mesh bodies:

And today’s Advent calendar gift from Entice is an absolutely HIDEOUS ugly Christmas sweater for women in purple and teal. I won’t show it to you here, you have to go over to Entice and see it for yourself. I have to give the designer credit, though…you have to truly work at it to come up with something so horrible!