My name is Torley Linden
What's the story of my life—my Second Life?
In 2004, Torley Wong (formerly aka Torley Torgeson, Sr.) was in the midst of a career composing techno music when he was struck down by hyperacusis, hearing loss characterized by a collapsed tolerance to sound. He was very depressed and devastated because he'd been involved in music for over two decades, and it all came to an end. On top of that, his father had recently died, his family was falling apart, and he sometimes felt alone. After several months wasting his life away—and trying to accelerate that process—he eventually found out about Second Life, and realized maybe things weren't so bad after all.
Having Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism, the eccentric Wong soon found that this online world was a perfect fit for him. As a Resident, he could contribute to the community without feeling uncomfortable, and was warmly welcomed as he indulged in his obsessions. Choosing a new name for a new life, Torgeson responded enthusiastically! Avatar-centric communication in a 3D environment proved to be a missing piece of the puzzle that Wong had sought for so long. And for the first time, Torley believed he'd found somewhere he could truely call home.
A couple months into his Second Life, Torgeson, Sr. had a crazy dream about his timetravelling daughter from a future alternate timeline—Torley Torgeson, Jr. So, he became she, she is me, and I've been brought to life in Second Life.
And then at the beginning of 2006 AD, Torley Torgeson became Torley Linden, and is presently working for Linden Lab, being myself.
I am a cyberpunk princess, picotech advocate, Technomusicologist-in-training, and much much more. Autistic. Mostly Asian-Avatarian, 2X, reasonably tall. A bit bratty and snarky, but ultimately a friendly explorer in search of new experiences. I like to do crazy stuff with my awesome friends on here! Specialties: making conversation, wearing neon clothes, fly real bad. An honorable partygirl, analytical yet casual… the adventures go on and on & on + onandon.
O, and I love watermelons!
For more info, you only need read this blog. It's been there since the beginning, and I hope it'll be here at the end.
Historical links… a play-in-progress of some milestones along the way:
- 2004.05.03
This blog is started, originally to highlight the music of Torley Wong. Within several weeks, that goes downhill.
- 2004.07.23
This is the day I come to the realization something's seriously wrong with my ears and I may be travelling down a road I can never backtrack from. I write about protecting one's hearing with a brave face, fearful of what is to come.
- 2004.09.14
The day before my Second Life began, "Living a Second Life"
- 2004.09.14
First post to SLUniverse.com, "A question about last name choice…"
- 2004.09.16
First photo taken inworld, "I'm now living…"
- 2004.09.19
First post to the SL Forums, "Event Notification when offline?"
- 2004.09.22
My first of many future feature requests, "Making the cake fluffier — improvements to Second Life"
- 2004.10.22
I have my first home in SL, a dumpster made by Aimee Weber in Midnight City. At this time, it was in Umber, but MC later moved to its own private island.
- 2004.11.11
Torley Torgeson, Jr. is born
- 2004.11.12
I partner with my Jadey (Jade Lily)! "Eat Static, Drink Dynamic"
- 2004.11.15
"Profile of Torley Torgeson, Jr." (an old bio)
- 2004.12.14
An open letter to Linden Lab, makers of Second Life
- 2005.01.05
Tony Walsh (Zero Grace in SL) writes "The Torley Effect", a beautiful sum of things to come
- 2005.01.10
Jadey and I appear in Hamlet Linden's New World Notes
- 2005.01.14
I'm interviewed by Cristiano Midnight for SLUniverse.com's Second Language
- 2005.02.24
I take my first snapshot on Ano's new photo-sharing-for-SL invention, Snapzilla. It goes on to be an immense hit with Resis. I eventually integrate it into my blog entries to document my happy memories here.
- 2005.03.16
Music must be free. 230 MP3s from Torley Wong's final recording sessions are released.
- 2005.03.17
Neal Stewart connects my First and Second Lives together, closing a loop
- 2005.03.xx
Sightings of Torange, the first alternate-virtual-reality Torley to be seen. Later dies in Preview 1.6 collapse.
- 2005.03.28
Torlop, another AVR Torley, comes to Second Life. Av by RynWorks. Stays about a month.
- 2005.06.18
After having a sequence of crazy dreams, I leave Second Life. "Watermelon Prime".
- 2005.08.28
Because Jadey said so, I return to Second Life, "Second Life" Soon, I come to acknowledge the metaversal truth that there's a galaxie in my mind called The Juicy Way which most, if not all Torleys come from (across parallel dimensions). I set out on an internal quest of electronic meditation to find them. Some are understandably resentful they hadn't been contacted until now.
- 2005.09.15
Torley Torgeson, Sr.'s first rezday. One year in Second Life!
- 2005.09.19
SLog, a Resident group blog, starts. I'm honored to be a contributor.
- 2005.09.19
Torlavian flies into SL. Psyra Extraordinaire's vision shines on with birdsong!
- 2005.11.09
After two years and many Resident requests, foot shadows finally get better. Link
- 2005.11.12
S_P.EXE
- 2005.11.18
In an entry titled "Qrecious", I finally say what I want to say on the SL Forums about personal limits. This happens after a year of it sitting around in my head. It isn't the only thing, either—a lot of my frustration has to do with the impatience of unfully-formed ideas that I know will be born someday. Just not yet.
- 2005.11.26
Day my dream of a sushi shoehat came true because of Stella Costello. IT HATH COME TRUE!
- 2005.12.06
My (T2) interview with Phoenix Psaltery (P2) is published in The Metaverse Messenger (M2)
- 2005.12.07
I'm a Torse of course! Courtesy of Wynx Whiplash.
- 2006.01.11
Torley Torgeson becomes Torley Linden.
Torley Linden has a Second Life.
Broken-link-fu alert!
I'm just running through the html for this biography, microformatising it out of curiosity.
In the biography alone, you've got 19 hCards, and 32 hCalendar events
Email coming your way once I've knocked up an extra stylesheet.
You sure are vigilant! O GEEZ ALL THOSE BROKERS LINKS.
I'm gunna rewrite my bio anyway… nuffin' like rewriting a lil' history, especially for a time traveler!
(Muhahaha.)
G'Day Torley!
Just been trippin' through your site, as I read your Bio I thought of this quote I'd read years ago; "Be all of what you can be, you can never be too much!". don't know who wrote it, but it's TOTALLY you :o) don't ever change matey, you rock!!!!
see you sometime in SL I hope,
Faery
G'DAY FAERY!!! Why thank you graciously.
That's a great quote, and similar to something I say (which I didn't wholly invent but like nonetheless), which is: "I am me, and that's all I can be."
Hope to see you inworld too! T'care.
[...] Who am I? [...]
just came across your bio after knowing you from the beginning my friend. I just wanted to send you the biggest Hug……..**MONSTER HUG**
Awwwz **MONSTER HUG** Lily! Reallyreally nice to see you here!
Your passion is inspiring!
Thanx Lloyd! I love being passionate.
wow.. i was here back when mp3.com was still the best place for new unheard of artists.. a friend of mine had burned the song "a new piano" onto a cd and we all thought it was cool. i later found an entire slew of songs back in the day and discovered who the true artist of the song was, Torley! i remembered i enjoyed his music so much, i even went out of my way to find him online just to have a chat. Then MP3.com was sold out and became a craptastic website. Much later, i downloaded his compilations of zip files of all the songs he had produced on his website. (i think they are all of them, or most of them anyway) and i just came across them today while browsing through my song archive. So, i decided to check in and see how my old pal was doing. but im sad and shocked to find out what had happened. i noticed the graphics, instead of the music, and was very puzzled.
that now brings me here, sad to see the music is no more, but congrats to your new life!
– MiztahSparklez (aka Jason)
Jason aka MiztahSparklez (is that like from The Simpsons?), thanx so much! Hahaha re: "MP3.com was sold out and became a craptastic website", I remember that. Gosh, thanks so much for sharing. It's certainly been a journey and some unexpected twists + turns have happened, one after another…
I still remember the first time when I played "An Old Piano". "A New Piano" was fully-fleshed out first from its skeleton, then I developed it into the soft, piano melodies you know today.
yes exactly from the simpsons.. the japanese dish soap box =)
good times indeed.
That's one of my FAVE episodes, hahaha it cracked me up so much!
What's your real full name? There were so many names and crap involved in there, I got confuzzled. What's your real life, full name?
^ If you tell me yours I'll tell you mine! XD
[...] I hope you're having a jolly Xmas day. I sure am! I also figured I'd get a head start on something I've put off for too long, and new self-bio (some call it an autobio, but heck, it didn't write itself!). The old, wordier one can still be found here. [...]
HELP me please Torley I know that this is not the right place for this but i ahvent been able to get into sl since the update and im freaking out , as I have a full time job in SL and that is being effected , im in australia and have emailed and called internationaly 6 times and gotten no response other than automated email number , please help me the sign in page is void of any usual inof time online status etc ive uninstalled reintalled and the beta grid lets me on no issues , Im desperate but realy need a Linden to actualy aknowledge me by email at least to reassure me something is happening as the blog says login in issues are DONE they arent done they arent fixed
please can you email me sassysinful@yahoo.com and let me know something please
thank you in advance
Sasy (and im sorry to use your blog to do this but its the only way to actualy speak somehow to a linden )
@Sasy: You said it — sorry, I can't provide support here. This is my personal blog, and I'm not Linden support staff either. We do have an Issue Tracker which I am active on, please check there for your specific problem, and feel free to email me at work (torley at lindenlab dot com).
Hey Torley! Remember me from high school? Anyway, I want to buy some of your albums, where can I get them?
@Luke: Hiya Luke! Nice to see you here! I'm currently not selling any albums, it's all FREE MP3 downloads… see the left-hand side of my blog? There are links to both the electronic and piano music. Look under the "My Music" section. Hope you're doing well.
"Friendly Greetings!"
Hiho Torley, i have been watching some of ur vids, they are awesome, u awesome ^^
By the way i really like the atention u give to the people who talk to u when u're recording tutorials
And u play piano very well!
and i like watermelons too :)))
Cya
@Arth: Hey, thanks for watching my vids! I love being casual and recording what happens, I'm pretty carefree that way. Take care.
Sa-wat-De-Ka
Torley
I not quite sure you can remember me or not but I still remember you for real, ha ha.
Aunt Ti just told me about your web-side , It was very nice I very enjoy it, specially your video. For to night I can't go on all your Bio yet but I will going in to it soonest ( may be tomorrow )
Hope to see you again some Day
K
"K", my dear cousin! I replied to your email too… it's been a long time. What a surprise to see you here!
uh… first of all: i am FL0 Cale in Second Life.
and… what a coincidence… i play piano and i wuz lookin for some piano mp3s in the web and i found one of ur tunes in the search. When i read "torley.com" i wuz like "uh, no…. impossible.." hehehe
Well, great job man, uh… ya keep goin!
@FLo: Oh, how nice of you to drop by. Also happy to know how you found me. And I will certainly KEEP GOING.
Hey Torley,
Thanks for all the vid's! You've been a true inspiration and fun to watch. I've learned so much from you.
I've got some great ideas for an island and would really like some help sometime if you have time.
Music oriented if that peeks you're interest!
Keep it up and stay in touch.
I'm usually in world at late hours from maybe 11pm CST to weeeeee hours of the a.m.
Look me up if your so inclinded.
other notes:
I play music as well.
I'm going to look into getting on at Linden Labs!
@Alex aka Axle: Why thanks so much for coming here and letting me know! And for watching my music videos! Alas, I am so short on time and NEED CLONES, so I apologize if I can't commit to helping with your islands, but you're most welcome to visit my inworld office hours (details @ http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User:Torley_Linden ). Take care and rock on!
I love your music torley and you know your my favy linden on SL although you never see me I'm around and would talk to you but i never wanna bother you any way I love how you play your piano
@HollyL: Aw, thanks! Do you know about my office hours? If you're around at those times, let's hang out inworld!
http://torley.com/office
id love that torley
[...] Torley Linden, probabilmente il Linden più amato dalla comunità dei residenti grazie alla sua simpatia e disponibilità, ai suoi tutorials ed ai suoi gadgets, ci chiede di buttare un occhio al futuro prossimo di Second Life. Leggete la notizia dal suo sito e fatevi quattro risate alla sfilata dei "saranno famosi". Giudicateli senza pietà! Dal vostro voto potrebbe dipendere il futuro estetico del metaverso e dei vostri scatti fotografici e machinima! [...]