Torley Lives

Asketh and thou shalt receive. Isn't that how it goes?

Remember when just the other day, I was observing the lack of pretty pictures in news articles about Second Life? Not to mention the genericism (baaaad) in the press. Just today, I noticed my wish was granted, and more!

I'm a Canadian. The Vancouver Sun is blessed to have Randy Shore not just doing a single article, but a whole series about his Second Life adventures. Complete with red clown nose (I'm sure clio would approve), and PICTURES. Well, they're just thumbnails in Randy's Second Life blog — he's Silas Leroux in SL, BTW — but a promising start. Maybe his paper-published articles will have more SL snapshots too.

Coming closer and closer to my roots — first the Telus store as blogged by Mark Wallace, now this: Randy wrote that a Masters of Digital Media Program in BC is coming to fruition, complete with virtual campus in Second Life. Wowza. See, this is the stuff I care about: gemful points that tend to get overlooked, and when you see them, you smile. And that's what it's all about —

but wait, there's more!

Also check out "Livin' da vida loca in a virtual world", and his latest, "Virtual world, real cash". Yeah, it's another of those articles about the economy, but certainly don't get me wrong: a topic can be opined about many ways. It's like Second Life itself: so you've got a block of atomistic Legos, called prims (short for "primitive shapes") in our world, and what do you do now? What you do says a lot about who you are.

Continuing the Canadian — and specifically, British Columbian, where I'm from — tradition of excellence in Second Life happens to be Randy covering a local success, Nyla… who goes by her first name in RL and is Nyla Cheeky in Second Life. Of course I think her designs are genius, how could I not? A wonderful example of someone who hadn't heard of me previously but I can certainly relate to in the sphere of colorful, vibrant fashion. Nyla was certainly excited, she even IMed me to tell me the good news. Being the avid newswatcher I am, even moreso for watermelony dresses, I let her know I'd already read the article. I'm just glad she got off of Help Island; we need more people like her bridging realities and bringing their physical fabrics into Second Life and vice-versa. It's rarer than one might think (or hope), and I'm hopeful for more pioneers like Nyla.

The article also has a great nod to Fox Diller. I don't know what the percentage of Resis in Canada is, but I'll just mention I'm blessed to work from such a quiet location. This was the way of the future, and is the way of the present.

Another suggestion for Randy in addition to linking thumbnails to fullscale piccies: please use hyperlinks! One of my pet peeves is when a web address is on the web without being linked. I think more articles should be designed for the web and presented for paper.

Speaking of pleased, I'm more pleased than punch. Wonder Punch, the name of the Nyla dress Torley Jr. is wearing in these stylized photographs:

Most of what you see is the hat, but it begs the fundamental question: isn't it a nice hat?

This one's a repeat, and worth republishing!