May 2024 - My Two Lives

My Two Lives has a new look

May 29, 2024

As I’ve uploaded pictures and videos to Flickr and YouTube, I decided it was time to update the logo and branding for the site. I’m glad to be able to present a new look for My Two Lives across my various platforms.

As I started setting up my home recording studio I created a logo for the studio, even though I’ll probably be the only person recording racks in it. It’s visible in the photo on that article as the bug in the lower right corner, and it’s based on the transbian (transgender lesbian) flag that HunterCatato shared on Reddit. I also included pictures of the Squier Strat and microphone I use.

The New Logo

The rebranded logo for the site uses the transbian flag and adds a Fender Stratocaster icon to represent my music, a cat icon for my request posts everywhere about the feline overlords in my house, and an icon with someone jumping into their computer screen to represent my use of the Second Life virtual worlds and communities.

I created the basic logo was created with the logo maker from Namecheap. the company that handles the hosting for my various websites. In the coming weeks, my YouTube channel will carry the My Two Lives moniker, and you can find my photostream on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/jmhardin/. (Yes. it changed with the rebranding. I’m updating the links where needed.)

Follow me on the things

There are so many things coming up this summer, and I hope you’ll follow My Two Lives on all the things so you don’t miss anything. You’ll notice I don’t have any links to X (née Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram. Those platforms have been taken over so much by haters that both as a trans person and as someone who cares about those who are voiceless, I refuse to give them my time or my data. I’m too old and do too many things to have the energy to deal with that kind of [Nan-E filter]male cow droppings[/Nan-E filter].

Babe's Babies - Day 3: A mound of adorable baby kittens

Babe’s babies are coming along nicely

May 27, 2024

Babe’s babies are three days old today, and they’re so sweet to look at, I’m glad I don’t check my blood sugar more often than I do.

I try to get at least one picture a day, and I’ve created Babe’s new babies, a Flickr album with the best pictures I get of Babe and her babies from every day. I’ve also created Babe’s Babies, a playlist of the videos I get of the furry family. There’s only one video right now, but I’ll be adding at least one or two videos every week.

You’ll want to check those two links often to see the latest photos. There will be a lot of furry content coming over the next 6-8 weeks as the kitties get ready to go on to their new homes.

The AM radio station I grew up listening to is now an FM station with the same music

May 24, 2024

I love listening to WWOZ, a radio station in New Orleans owned by the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation. I’ve often said I wish I could have listened to it growing up, but it didn’t exist until 1986. But as a teenager in the 70s, there was an AM radio station that was always on around my grandparents’ swimming pool, and I practically lived in that pool during the summer for a lot of years. This week I learned that the radio station I listened to is now a classic hits FM station, and it’s not owned and programmed by some radio conglomerate with a sound like hundreds of other stations across the country.

WTIX has been brought back as an FM radio station, and just reading the description on their website reminds me of those hot summer days around the pool.

WTIX 94.3 FM’s heritage call letters originate from the legendary Top 40 AM station WTIX 690 AM, “The Mighty 690.” WTIX 690 AM New Orleans dominated the airwaves from the 1950s into the 1980s as America’s first Top 40 radio station, and the FM station debuted initially as its sister station in 1995.Today TIX FM continues the legacy of the original TIX AM featuring the classic hits, heritage TIX jingles, and the famous “Chime Time” that rings when the personalities give the time on the air – a feature that was also a staple of Musicradio WABC New York in its heyday.

The website hasn’t been updated since 2020, but you can find WTIX-FM streaming on many online radio streamers like TuneIn. (I listen to The Mighty 690 on TuneIn.) Even if you didn’t grow up in New Orleans in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, if you like the music from those decades you should check out the WTIX-FM stream. It may just bring you back to the spots that you grew up in. I may have to make it the official radio station at the Pride Lanes Bowling Center in Second Life.

Congratulations to a new furry mamma

May 24, 2024

Today, the combined family in my building got a bit bigger. Babe, my neighbor’s cat, had kittens. Mom and babies are doing fine, and I was able to grab a picture of the new family.

Some of the kitties already have new homes waiting for them, and I know the others will go to homes where they will be welcomed and loved.

I’m now on Flickr

May 11, 2024

I’ve been on Flickr for a while for my Second Life avatar’s store, Nanci’s Naughties. But I realized I should also have one to share pictures from my First Life as well.

Today I created a new account on Flickr where you can find photos of me, my music, and the food I enjoy. Of course, it will also have photos of Babe, my upstairs neighbor’s feline overlord. She has run of the house and can’t have an account for sharing my photos without having my cat photos.

You can find my photos on Flickr, and feel free to follow me there. There’s no telling what I’ll post photos of next. Or when.