?

… but I am, anyway, so let's continue, shall we? I just had the most pleasantly surreal experience which is no doubt going to bridge my waking reality and my sleeping dream, and my memory of it is still fresh, so I should get it all down while I can. (Bless nonlinear text editing.) I was doing my usually unusual round of exploring Second Life venues at a wee hour and checking out clubs and dancing… and then I wanted some peace, quiet, and solitude. I was already really quite tired but the SL addiction dragged me on + on + on. I soon found myself flying above a snowy yinyang — which itself is a landmark if you know where to look for it.

Trudging on a bit until I approached the green dots on my mini-map, and who should I see other than… well, I'll let the pictures speak since I'm almost out of words at this point:

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Whipped into a frenzy by the surreality of the moment — recalling a dream I had as a youth of walking a long distance in the snow in my bare feet and never getting cold — the music soon shifted from a mellow jazz to a fervent, thumping type of psychadelic, trancey, techno music.?I was?flanked by Gunnar and Angelina aka "Angie" on one side, and on the other by the effervescent Hamlet. He?soon shouted out references to SNL's Sprockets, and seeing a mental picture of Mike Myers as Dieter "get down" to Kraftwerk, I accordingly "got down" as well.

Knowing that if this was a dream, I wouldn't be dancing anywhere as fast as I should, I summoned the power of the CCD (Cristiano Crack Dance) and double-timed it up and down the crunchy snow. Surreal, with a very appropriate name I might add, soon joined the scene, and she commented that I was on too much caffeine… or some such substance… I don't recall — it must have been because I was high.

In the background, massive billboards showcasing models as part of the New World Notes Fashion Expo '04 seemed to spin around my avatar as my avatar — well — spun around, as a representation of how I really would spaz-dance in a situation like this. The whirring of digitally digital (redundant!) cameras soon went clicking through what would have felt like a cold air if it was real snow, and we danced. We danced. We danced.

Need I say: OMG!!! WHAT A TRIP!!!

?

Today, there were a number of exciting adventures which I will post up later. For now, I want to spontaneously write about something that just happened to me. I was in Bonafacio (the cyberpunk district) near the Morris Sandbox, and all of a sudden, time slowed. You know bullet time in the Matrix? Just like that. Except it was not so cool when I was trying to get from Point A to Point B (being the other end of the city). I promptly filed a bug report, as this was not just my imagination. Earlier in the day, other users recalled such experiences and they were likened to Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone or some sort of Bermuda Triangle. Although we weren't in Bermuda and the occurances seemed to happen far beyond the geometric radius of such a thing, it was good enough to describe the freakiness.

Not too long after, in the snow of Seefeld, I met Ferran Brodsky and Paca Hannibal, who happened to have quite a handy device nearby that dispensed skulls from a box levitating above the white terrain. It dropped them out slowly but surely, one every five seconds — sometimes two at a time with glitchy lag — and produced a punchy knock with each surface impact.

Moments earlier, I had come on this sim, exploring as usual (or unusual), and it had crashed. Exact reasons remain unknown but one thing that is known is that Ferran and Paca, as well as Nolan Nash, were having an intense gun battle for fun. Second Life froze shortly after, and the simulator had to be reloaded.

Fast forward in time, Ferran exclaimed that they were weirdos, and I said that I was one as well. "Better to be weird than boring", I chirped. We talked about how many multiples of skulls the box could dispense, and Paca chimed in that skulls could spawn skulls, making for one heck of a skeleton construction kit, I'm sure. Shortly after, much gunfire amongst the icy peaks resumed, and the cold air was steamed by the furious rounds of ammunition making their way across cyberspace. I walked into the stream of bullets with a hesitant thought and proceeded to be blasted all the way beneath a floating shoppe in nearby Anton (I believe it was). FUN!!!

I went back to the Welcome Area in Ahern and greeted Darkmoon Zephyr, who is a newbie — today's his first day on Second Life. A cheery welcome to you, Darkmoon!

?

Continuing off from my last adventures, I am reminded of fall. The leaves have really started to fall around where I am IRL, and in my Second Life, so they have as well. So without further ado, I present to you the following photos, this time in chronological order:

1. I was struck by the realism of this pile of leaves. Oh, if I looked closely enough, I could see the jaggy edges, and that's not what I mean. This is a still picture, but were it a motion picture, there was something very hard to describe — fluid and graceful — about the way the orangey clusters bobbed back and forth as I observed the martial arts duel in progress. More about martial arts in a sec. I remarked how neatorama the Starbucks copy called Coffee Talk in the distance was, and I think it was Kenzington (Fairlight) who perked up and declared, "Aren't knockoffs great?" I had to agree.

2. It shouldn't be a surprise that I get down to techno music, even in my Second Life. Ah. Hiijoro Platini busted out Daft Punk's "Aerodynamic" inworld, and I could not resist dancing along. Also pictured raving are Shugo Gomez and Subliminal Mackenzie. I kept going "OMG!!! WHAT A TRIP!!!" and declaring loudly which parts of the track I enjoyed, such as the big DONG bells, the Bach-baroquey section, and most certainly THE GUITAR RIFF! DISTORTION!!?Shugo and Subliminal did this awesome moment of synchronicity and started bobbing in time with prim-guitars when the riffs came into play again, and I danced some more. Brings a whole new meaning to "Sandbox", doesn't it? TECHNO TECHNO TECHNO TECHNO.

3. After some flying around — which I like, but I wish it would go faster, especially travelling across great expanses — I happened to chance upon the sisters named Hawk Falcone and Nagi Akebono. They were in their red VW beetle convertible — not my fave neon green but still a cool car — and invited me to take a ride with them. Dayum, sitting is tricky in SL. Notice how in the pic, I am teetering off the edge. It wasn't until later that I was able to "properly" ease into the seat and firmly wedge myself as we went around the city. There were a lot of red bordered-off private areas, I observed, and soon enough, we found ourselves caught in a driveby shooting from afar. The brave sisters got out to defend yours truely, and soon, there was silence again. Several times, we got caught in the middle of a watery groove, but this was quickly solved by way of… explosives. Believe it or not, the bangs sent us sky-high, and then, it was on to…

4. Kuroda. The sisters seriously explained to me about their "Second Culture" within Second Life — the way of the samurai and ninja. They spoke many Japanese terms to me which I only had a passing familiarity with, so I asked them for explanations. They showed me to places like the tea room (which had a very short ceiling) and the dojo where they train. They also vomited for me. Yes, you read that last sentence correctly. Apparently, there is a device called a "puker" that will make you blow digitized chunks of undigested nutrition. It was in stark contrast to the classy outfits that Hawk and Nagi wore, but as you know, I enjoy this diversity.

5. Hawk and Naki toured me through more locations , and there was a weapons demonstration given consisting not only of swords but guns and other such combat machinations. I was given a bow and arrows and kindly encouraged to visit in the future and practice my archery in the dojo. I may have to take them up on this invitation. Thanks, girls, you're very honorable.

6. While chatting in the Welcome Area for a bit, I was contacted by Cristiano Midnight, who I talked to about Second Life even before downloading the program and trying it out for myself (as you may have read on my FAQ). We had a good talk. I told him I wanted to be teleported to his area as I really don't like text chat alone. I asked him, quite literally, if he built a lot of stuff in SL. The answer, of course, is a more-than-resounding YES. One of his innovations happened to be a whimsical method of expressing one's self I had earlier seen in a sandbox area. A girl used it to spaz her way across the virtual landscape, to none other than a soundtrack of "Battle Without Honor Or Humanity" from the Kill Bill soundtrack. IT MADE ME LAUGH SOOO HARD, OMG!!! I inquired about this to Cristiano, and within seconds, he had identified it as the Crack Dance. I suppose it's named that because of its similarities to how a human would behave upon consuming an entire ice cream-pail of crack cocaine, but I didn't ask. True to form, we both broke out in a "crack dance". (The other mode of behavior upon ingesting so much crack, I suppose, would be dying dramatically. Cristiano graciously showed me an animation for this as well. )

7. Now, here we are at Cristiano's art gallery. You can read what it says on the wall, it's very meaningful. Interestingly enough — and I like to make connections — when I was playing trivia earlier today (not pictured), one of the questions happened to concern The Wizard of Oz. You can see this is in one of the pictures. Ever-so-timely Myradyl Muse dropped in to say hi! She is Cristiano's neighbor and a top builder in SL, I am told. She is also very nice, being a mermaid. Cool cyan hair, it matches her dress.?Apparently, she helped create the Heaven section of Kris Ritter's Heaven and Hell exhibit on Krittania, which I enjoyed immensely but did not know she did. I wish Second Life had a better auto-journalling feature for travels. I know I've mentioned this before, and so I'll be needfully redundant and mention it again. It was nice to meet her, and I hope to see her again.

8. Now, here we are at Cristiano's hotel, the last stop of the night. I have long mentioned that there is something very magical about hotels and airports. I really like all the work he's put into the place. It has nice swatches of blue and classy furniture, and the stairs are ever-so-smooth to walk on.?This is a great balcony view, and although the hotel only has one room, that's because its primary purpose is to host events. I stood briefly at a podium in a room to declare, "HI, I'M DONALD TRUMP, AND YOU'RE FIRED!" Works for me.

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Oh joy… Ishkur (of Ishkur's Guide of Electronic?Music fame)?has let me know he has found out what the mistitled "Robert Miles - Rain" track is actually called, and it's DJK's?"I Like Chopin". That name rings no bells to me, but at least we now know. Thank you graciously, Ishkur. That's one less unsolved EDM mystery to wonder about.

~~~

Here's an octet of my latest Second Life adventures. I'll provide descriptive captions, starting with the first one.

1. It can be somewhat unsettling yet pleasing at the same time to see such lush beauty created within in the inorganic confines of a bits-n-bytes framework. Humans have come this far, and yet, we have such a long way to go.

2. Here I am at FairChang Island again, after playing Jeopardy. Yes, that game where you give answers in the form of a question. That's one reason I like it. Another reason is because Garth Fairlight and Pituca Chang are such gracious hosts. As of this writing, not only are they standing together in SL, they stand together in RL! Awww.

3. This house-in-progress reminded me of my allies Paul and Dana's real house.

4. Chance Abattoir invited me to his new place. It's very icy indeed, and it gives him far more room to put up his photographs. We discussed his future plans and what will become of the snowscape, and I flew to the top of his smokestack, which seems to be much higher and smokier — and crystal-lier! — than ever before. Nice wings, Chance. Remind me to ask Aria about the ants . . .

5. OMG!!! This sushi was sooo yummy-looking I wanted to shove it all in my virtual mouth (prolly some extensive polygon deformation would then take place), and eat the table too. This is Francis Chung's work.

6. Don't ask, don't tell — but do know that using the Sit command in strategic locations can be amusing.

7. Cyrena Zamboni's cakeplate in the sky, aka her home. I flew towards it to snap this pictar just as she had to go. In the daytime, it's easier to see and even more beautiful.

8. Kenzington Fairlight?plays with particles… it reminded me of some of the laser effects from the classic Mega Man games on the NES. It was very trippy. We started dancing, as is customary to do when there are neon lights.

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I just had to post this on the Second Life Forums a few moments after it happened:

A friend of mine, Mel ( http://chandrasutra.typepad.com/ ), sagely remarked that looking at someone's Second Life screenshots is kind of like seeing into someone's dreams.

You may have visited my blog lately, and if you have, perhaps you have seen the following picture:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v…napshot_030.jpg

The eagle in question, I am told by Keith Extraordinaire, was skillfully crafted by none other than the Birdman of Avatraz himself, Psyra Extraordinaire.

Well, guess what happened? It had to happen sooner or later, since I am a magnet for the weird… or what seems normal to me but odd to others.

I was just hanging out at Tony Tigereye's Casino in SL and decided to take a walk for some fresh air in RL. Moments later, I was struck — almost literally — with surprise, as I heard and felt something shake the air around me. Panicking, I flailed my arms and did all sorts of nervous gestures like my Second Life does when I say "fun".

When I came around to assess the situation better, what did I see on the path of my afternoon walk, but an EAGLE! That's right, an eagle, had just fallen and almost slammed into me, missing me by very few and landing behind my back. However, unlike Psyra's, this eagle did not continue to go around in a circle, nor was it constructed with warm-n-fuzzy luv out of prims. It had plummeted to her tragic death behind me. It didn't seem to be a very bloody sight, but it was definitely a shocking experience.

I do not have photos but I am trying to find a camera. This bizzare blend of First & Second Life now shakes me up! Will other creations from inworld be appearing at my doorstep? Will I try to script my bed to "change spreads" automatically with a single command? Will I try to levitate and saunter through the air in an effort to sit on a chair on the other side of a room? Will laws of physics go wacky as the two worlds blend into each other?

Only time will tell. It's inevitable!

It's dark here now (as in, "the sun went down"), so I'm going to wait it out until the daylight shines again and then hopefully get some snapshots of the eagle. I've never seen an eagle here before, even flying. My Mum says it's good luck. Really? A few feet away and I prolly wouldn't be typing this here.

As humorous as it sounds, I'd like to seriously say that I am grateful for both my First Life and my Second Life and all the goodness that has come from within. Things could be so much better (my hearing should come back, my ears would stop popping,?and I could make techno music again), but on the other hand, things could be so much worse.

I do have to be thankful for what I have.

~~~

I was just thinking about music genre names. Specifically electronic ones, but all across the board. Each of them has a story behind them, some of them more convoluted and extrapolated from multiple sources than others — "jungle" being a prime instance — but if you really, really think about them,?they can sound silly. And it's even sillier how some people will unfortunately get into long, winding, heatedly clashing disputes and personal attacks over these labels which have been assigned to the clumps-n-chunks of organized sound we listen to… and should ENJOY. It isn't worth beating up and killing each each other over music, but sadly, as has been historically shown, this is what happens. Often, other issues get mixed in like economic concerns or ideological fanaticism tied to a "sonic strain", but it's all connected to the music at the end of the night and the beginning of the day when the sun starts to rise again… and all of the ravers are still dancing, tired but happy — and hopefully rehydrated!

Here are some names that make me giggle with glee. Mind you, I like actual music that falls under these categories, so use the "Would a rose smell… —" rule judiciously, and apply it creatively:

• Progressive House
  Why not call it Mansion?

• Garage
  Okay, so your Progressive House needs a Garage. Would that be, Progressive Garage? Never heard of it (yet) but it's bound to happen. Oh, and then we go down the line to the US and UK varieties, and subvarieties thereof. Funny!

• Breakbeat
  Well, this and "broken beat" go hand-in-hand. I bet there's a "busted beats" out there and even a country-breaks crossover featuring penny whistle, steel guitar, washboard scraping, and b-a-n-j-o. Yeehaw!

• Acid
  Does this have a "base" counterpart, musical?chemistry-wise? If not, why not?

• Acid House
  See above, above, above, above.

• Experimental
  At one point in time, anyway. Another way of saying, "lacks melody, tries to get on your nerves". (And I suddenly see a laughing gas-chromatograph of Ishkur's face.)

• Disco
  What's the origin of this word, anyway? I don't know, so if you know, please let me know. Thank you graciously. Is Disco to DISCOVERY what Techno is to TECHNOLOGY?

• Grunge
  Wait, this is "guitar music". I like the sound. Is there a "grunge techno"? Rocktronica (ha!) maybe??Anyhoo, next.

• Big Beat
  Is there a small beat? Otherwise clinical microhouse mixed with samples of drunken sailors, maybe?

• Illbient
  Accompanied by her sisters, Chillbient and Pillbient.

• Nu Breaks/Nu Skool Breakz
  Yeah, 'cuz in the "new school", spelling's a lil' different.

• Tech-House
  Why not call it "the best of both worlds"? Wait . . .

• Neurofunk
  It's a catchy label and I like it, just like I like all the other labels here, actually. But when I hear it, it conjures up, in my mind's eye, the very vivid visual (V^3) of a brain gettin' down at 170-180 BPM. That must be a good thing, yes? Which brings us to…

• Intelligent Dance Music aka Braindance
  Smile your heart out!

I have more but wanted to select the Lucky 14 that came off of the top of my head……

This is to be taken lightly,?and hey, the bottom line for me is that IT'S ALL TECHNO; IT'S ALL ROCK 'N' ROLL!? It can soothe, it can heal, it can energize, but no matter what it's called, I believe music?should enrich and make your?life better.

Fin du jour.

I noticed my images on this site, which are hosted kindly by Photobucket, were not loading — period –?or loading very slowly. I went "Hmmm?" for a second and then went to their site, and found out they are having technical difficulties. I was going to put some pictures up, but since they're down, I cannot. Sorry. I hope they recover soon because so many people, myself included, rely on them.

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~~~

Today I played two new games I hadn't before in SL: they were The Weakest Link and Family Feud, both adapted for inworld. Fun stuff. Maybe someday the lag will be gone and people will be on parity in regards to that! I'm thinking that now, since I am a full RESIDENT of Second Life, I should learn to build also. Scripting may come later… I'm told I'll get sucked into it eventually — like owning land, another box of donuts entirely but they all go hand-in-hand like Smittens.

In other adventures, I just came back from Uli and then went to Telador, where a creation of Myst-Uru is being made. Or is it done? I am not sure, it was sort of hard to see in the virtual darkness. But of what I could see, it was very beautiful and lush. Lush as in "beautiful", not as in "drunk".

Prior, I had fun visiting Goshua Lament's new house. It looks great. We talked architecture for a bit?and discussed the possibility of making something that COULD be real in SL, but was just teetering off of that magical edge known as "surreality". Something a little tweaked that makes you blink cutely and wonder what would be really possible. Seems like houses have to have extra space and stuff for camera angles. If you build to scale, the room may be more cramped than?cheese full of mice! In a related conversation, Loki Pico told me something I never knew before: that the average height of people on SL is pretty tall, approx. a foot taller than real life it seems. I had just measured my avatar relative to other folks walking around, and after Loki got out a handy measuring tool — virtual, of course — I found out that I was almost 7 feet tall and he was 8 feet! Wow. He'd sure qualify for the SLBA, with his mohawk and horns and bright orange skin.

Yesterday was my first encounter with a new bug. I'll call it the "slip bug", because all of a sudden, whenever and wherever I walked, I started to slip and tumble flat on my face, hand and feet flailing fastidiously. It was comical, but tragic, so let's call it tragicomedy. I was hesitant to relog because I wanted to ask others if it was just me experiencing this, or if they were seeing me slip all over the… uh…?slipstream too. The verdict came in, and I was not alone — this was no imagination. It was as real as Second Life gets, and as I slipped past the Prim Attack table, the side of a TIE fighter, and a cart of icecream, it made me ponder something really shallow. Needless to say, I posted a bug report on the Forums and relogged in. All better — no slipping!

Inevitability happened. I finally met up with Cyrena Zamboni. Joy. After IMing some, I was transported to her magic cakeplate in the sky, which is her home, and we talked whimsy. Ah yes, we are whimsical people. She has a great sense of humor and I like to smile when I converse.

A plethora of dazzling other locations awaited: from a magic skybox where skilled scriptcrafters work their digital witchcraft; to a colorful church decorated with more glamour than most real-life ones; to a field where Jedi warriors, careful not to incur the wrath of Lucas and Luke S., do battle with lightsabers capable of performing many tricks unachievable by their film counterparts. And I knew there was something special about Tina's YUGE hat.

There is so much to see and do, and more. Suggestions for future upgrades taken into consideration, will wonders ever cease?

Note to self: I think I've got to use a Second Life logo or something to symbolize my SL blog entries for efficiency in the future. Ah, here it is now.

~~~

Alright, I was getting antsy and decided to do something about it. I'm testing ImageShack, another image-hosting service. Heard about them awhile back but just reg'ed for a free account, so let's see how this kitty purrs. Here are snaps of some of my many latest SL adventures:

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They're in reverse-chronological order. I haven't found a way to flip them all back using the otherwise-handy ImageShack feature of generating mass (<15) image code. From Snow Fairies to Stargates, there you have it.

You may have heard a legendary Internet ditty that goes "Where can ya see lions? Only in Kenya!" Well, it's only fitting then, that I?cheerfully?sing the following:

Where can ya hug care bears?
Only in Second Life*!
Come to Second Life we got care bears!

Where can ya dance with martians?
Only in Second Life!
Got care bears and martians only in Second Life!
Forget There**!

Second Life, oh Second Life!
Where the furries are,
and the manga!

Second Life! Second Life Second Life Second Life!
Second Life! Come to Second Life!

Can ya build & script it?

*awkward, I know, but there was nothing else I could use!
*I didn't know what else to put here, so I used this humorously.?This in NO way is meant to bash There.

Torley's ?FAQ

It constantly amazes me in life how things can sometimes come together at the freakiest moments and produce magical results. You remember those classic "Synchronicity" ads by VW? Yeah, that's exactly what I'm talking about. I've had several cool occurrences of talking to people on the SL boards and then meeting them in the metaverse without expecting it or having any prespecified agenda, and I'm always so excited. I'm like: "OMG!!! IT'S YOU!!! IT'S REALLY YOU!!! SOOO KEWL TO MEET YOU." Thankfully (or not) I don't have number 1's following my exclamation marks, LOL.

I've seen some remarkable creations of amazing intensity within the simspace. Problem with some of them is that they are?"prim pigs", as Ace Cassidy so effectively puts it. In other words, they are constructed of a large number of primitive polygon shapes, and if you know about 3D games and all that, more can correlate with slower. Not to mention that there are technical "prim limits",?so not everyone can have an elegant grand piano or two in their simulated abode. One must be efficient and maximize usage, and must be careful to count prims like calories. (But hopefully not so self-consciously, as this is supposed to be FUN.)

Gwyneth Llewelyn?with a fresh blog entry, who is such a dear to me, took me on a tour of her home in Uli and the neighborhood. It's really, really nice. Like something out of one of those annual National Geographic specials, but better. It was very scenesque and picturesque and lots of -esque (even some MC Escheresque ) and was a nice place to unwind and relax. Gwyn had lag to contend with but she persisted and we made it through. Several events of said synchronicity happened.

For example, we were talking about pollution and then I brought Charles Dickens up because of the filthy capacity in which Oliver Twist existed. Bach had come up in an earlier discussion that day, and there was another connection which I can't remember at the moment, but anyhoo… I was sitting in a virtual swimming pool, and then all of a sudden, Mono's "Life In Mono" comes on, and I'm like: "OMG!!! THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVE SONGS!" Which makes me now recall the third connection! AHHH… okay, if you've heard the ch00n in question, you know that:

• it was used on the soundtrack for Great Expectations, an adaptation of the Dickens tale
• the chords of the piece are delicate and harpsichordy, and baroque like Bach!
• the movie stars GWYNETH Paltrow

I couldn't help but notice all of that with my associative thinking. So pleased, so pleased.?That was just too cool. Other moments followed when I heard more of my fave music, namely Aphex Twin and Yanni, being played. And again, I was like "OMG!"

Sometimes, I am not a very excitable person and can be quite serious in tone, so to put it in context, this is a big thing for me. Or things.

Gwyn L. explained the philosophy of neighbors working in harmony and building a lush 'scape together. It's turned out quite well so far, although she was right to wonder why there isn't more vegetation in a certain area. As you look through these snapshots, see if you can figure out which one she's referring to:

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I took so many snapshots. It was so lush and green! Props go to the people who put all of these pixels together to come up with something that is rapidly approaching photorealism in its scope, and certainly more flexible than going at the earth with gloves, a spade, and wheelbarrow in tow. I meditated on top of a mountain for a moment, as you can see, and there was an "endangered species" circling around me. Unfortunately, that's all it did — circle. I hope future versions of Second Life will allow for wildlife that comes out and interacts with you, that you can perhaps pet. I'd get a big kick out of feeding squirrels and hugging penguins, that's for sure.

Another great moment of synchronicity occurred when Gwyn told me about Lily Lightcloud,?who is a tremendous benefactor to the Uli community. A few minutes later, what do ya know — she shows up right in front of us! She gave us a tour of her home and was most gracious, 'cuz she had to leave shortly. I didn't want to keep her. Ain't those the comfiest lounge chairs? IRL, I always wanted to have a canopy on my bed, but haven't to this day. I keep telling myself it's because I want to do my darnest impression of Scrooge McDuck as featured in Disney's retelling of A Christmas Carol, which was written by — you got it — Charles Dickens!

Some of these spaces are places I've dreamed of for years; like what would it be like to visit such a location in the flesh? Similar to the true-to-form?Simpsons house, maybe some ambitious peeps will recreate SL sims in the real world. I hope so! (I'm still looking for a Dr. Seuss-themed venue.)?Another fine translation I can think of, real —> virtual, would be the Spook House by Sinatra Cartier which is part of Midnight City. I visited MC for the first time and was greeted by Mistress Midnight (what a classy name, huh?) and her friends, who were hanging out by the Spook House. I'd seen it featured on TechTV but wasn't sure where it was in Second Life. I could have searched, but surprises are awesome, and surprised I was. Mistress uploaded her own voice clips into SL so whenever she typed "Yes", it would play it back fo' real!

I stayed up wayyy too late. It's always such a trip for me to see the sun go down in SL and watch the sun come up for real out of a window, or the inverse.

?

When I woke up,?my avatar came to?to?find himself in the middle of a ravey party which was happening on top of the swimming pool –?which had previously been so quiet before my RL slumber. I observed a DJ booth was set up, lights were flashing, and food was laid out to the side. Someone who came as Snoopy AND Woodstock was party-hearty. Gwyn and the others were dancing, and I couldn't help but join in for a bit before coming back here to blog.

Ah, the wonders of it all!!!

I am repeatedly reminded on amicable terms to read the book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. It's garnered much well-deserved press and praise over the last — well, it's been quite awhile — and I most recently saw the aforelinked article. I am aware that I can relate to the main character, Christopher, who has a difficult time relating to others and putting himself in their figurative shoes. While Asperger's Syndrome is not explicitly mentioned, Chris's (may I call him that?) eccentricities and personality are fundamental to how the story unfolds and is told. I think I was more like him when I was his age, though. Now, I have improved in regards to socialization, and hope to continue to do so. I still do not relate to a number of things, which I'll get to in a moment, but I really do feel excitement when some people are excited about some stuff. When I see someone in Second Life make an offhand Stephen King reference, for example, it really makes my day! In fact, it makes me wanna toot the Horn of Eld.

I both love and hate techno music. This is a given, given my history of embracing contradictions. Some people apparently have a problem with this. I do not. It feels natural and very wholesome in a Brady Bunchesque way to me. On one foot, techno can be mind-numbing, repetitive, mechanical, full-frontal "machine music". Then again, that might why I like part of it. But not all of it. I also like to juxtapose, as I have mentioned before on several occasions. For example: taking that locked groove and improvising live sax (which apparently is part of the woodwind section of an orchestra) or even a jazzy piano riff over it. So you get both the robofunk and the anthrosoul, what some call "the best of both worlds" but perhaps that expression is too tired to even wake up. Or is it?

~~~

Which brings me to expressions I don't really get, and doubt?I ever will. One is the anti-literalism of calling certain music "cheesy". I don't get it. I know of basic parameters that form such criteria, but beyond that, I don't relate to it at all. I like some death metal as much as I like the Hamsterdance or X trance anthem (clonetrancers are another story; they be damned), and besides, cheese can be part of a balanced breakfast. If I was going to compare music to food, I might have to go the Tom Green route and say something akin to "This song sounds like apples!" Or in my case, WATERMELONS.

~~~

That last emoticon brings me to another topic. I don't like live text chat a lot. I don't IM?devotedly apart from?Second Life, which I'll explain more in a sec. Forums may be a different situation, because it allows me some space to compose my thoughts + feelings and organize them out. I do enjoy spontaneity as well, and there is a time and a place for that. Emoticons help me a lot because I have enough trouble reading expressions and emotions in real life as it stands. So for me:

hi

is VERY different from

hi

is STILL different from

hi

I feel very uncomfortable with the way some people type and I can't explain it other than saying this. There isn't anything necessarily wrong, as each of us has and should have a personal style, but it's just not my way to communicate. I try not to read into the little sideways smilies too much but they do help, and I use them a lot myself. Also of cuteness are the horizontal variations like =^_^= which a lot of anime buffs apparently use.

I am facial recognition-impaired, and while I was in denial about this for the formative years of my life, I realize it's unhealthy and it'd be better for me to explain it to you instead of leaving you frustrated. There's specialized software called Gaining Face which I haven't tried, but is directed towards improvement of these skills. I have partially trained myself through… yes, you guessed it… emoticons. Also, RL trial-and-error has helped, and my experiences include some stories which were embarassing when they happened, but which are quite a delight to recall now.

One reason why I am enjoying Second Life is that part of the third-person perspective allows me to see how I am Gesturing to others. I am watching myself, in effect. In addition to text chat, you have this whole visual frame that is an analog for the way things would really be done on Terran soil and beyond, and you also have zany sound effects and voices for LOL and even?the rather infectious?hehehe that skilled waterfallex Toy LaFollette uses. You've got to hear it to believe it.

So, in short, Second Life gives me more "cues" to work with in interpreting others, and that's really helpful. I still try to give the benefit of a doubt and see how someone behaves over an extended portion of the spacetime continuum, but with some people, I get good vibrations right away. So if I appear confused, I most likely am. Please be gentle and use plenty of :) if you are happy!

~~~

There's an article I haven't fully read yet, by Cory Ondrejka, who I haven't really met in SL yet (that I can recall). It's titled: "Aviators, Moguls, Fashionistas and Barons: Economics and Ownership in Second Life". It's looking good.

~~~

Yesterday, shortly before logging off from SL, I met my first pair of twins in the simspace. They are Bethea and Jasmin Opel, and I bid them a warm welcome to Second Life. I was talking with Trinity Templar as I met them, and oddly enough, I wasn't tempted to crack a Matrix joke.

Nice to know cyberspace has blondes night out too!

Sometime previous, I enjoyed another beautifully virtual sunset. Note the architecture of this area. It's meant to be Asian in design and it is in fact an orientation area for those who wish to refresh their basic SL skills. Goshua Lament?first let me know about this during his balloon ride — it was pretty near to the Welcome Area but I missed it each and every time prior.

Later in the timeline, here I am talking to Beat Master Ace Cassidy about… his beats! He is the one who unleashed Tribal Drums onto Second Life. I am hoping that if it hasn't happened yet, someone with a lot of rage and anger in real life will be able to come here and bang on a virtual drum instead of smashing up a hotel room or hurting a fellow human being.

Even better, be a part of a drum circle with others, and realize that we can all let our problems out and channel them into creative expression!