"Traveling somewhere… could be anywhere?"

Posted on: April 25, 2006

I'm very hands-on in Second Life. While it may not be the best idea to compete in events (such as trivia contests) as I once did, I'd like to attend as many as possible and enjoy them as any Resident would. First, let me just make it clear I really enjoyed attending a Building Basics class taught by Mera Pixel @ the Shelter in Isabel. The way she phrases things—love her take on physical objects—and demonstrates with visual aids, and encourages the class to practice for themselves.


Mera writes at her blog, appropriately called MeraTalk. I think she is a superb personality, an inspiration to future volunteers, and indeed, I wish we had a way to show "lineages of tutelage". You might as well say Mera is descended from the line of the great Tateru Nino, who foresaw Mera's excellence over two months ago. And I'm sure Mera will bloom (much as her favored flowers too) apprentices, making Tat (even more of) a proud Grandmomma. When we inspire each other to do great things, everyone wins! Update: see more coverage of this event at Dolmere Talasmasca's blog.

Now, I read a lot of SL blogs, not so much the external ones reporting as observers, but a focus on the ones telling stories about actual Second Lives lived inworld. All these "views from the outside" are really like peering into a different culture, and with a new BusinessWeek issue focusing on the economics aspect$ of SL, what caught me was they even published a little glossary to SL terminology. We might as well be speaking our own language, and while even Esperantons find their way in (thanx for the link, Pathfinder!), I'm particularly fascinated in cultural developments that couldn't have come about without SL.

In more blogging goodness, I also target reading blogs by Resis reporting about their early experiences inworld. Tao Takashi, who I've blogged about before, gives an extensive writeup about a day in his Second Life. I'm glad I got to share it with him! The more I think about it, the more of a wry smile I get over the tan fleur-de-lis on his header: his photos look like they're about to jump out of a paper bag. And that's what really gets me: on our travels inworld, not once but several times, he handed me edited renditions of photos he'd just taken. I think he could make an artform out of this! See Tao's Flickr gallery. And I wish SL really had more glow. Vertex Shaders in Second Life Preview 1.9.1 looks like it'll help some, but it desaturates colors too.

Blogging (there's that word again)—it's a stamina thing. I've seen many SL blogs come and go, or some that start off with a big bang for the few entries and then fade quickly. Lost of interest? Lack of time? Or in some mysterious cases, Resis who sounded like they were having such a great time, then the next time I searched for them in Find: gone. I'll never know.


Let me say outright that SL doesn't tend to reward the nonchanging. But, some things will stay the same. :) On the very left is a watermelon by FireEyes Fauna. Watermelon is my favorite fruit. And then, Ben Linden at the Maker Faire offline, but demoing SL to the crowd and driving me around wildly—what a chauffeur! Muhahaha. That's the newest version of Damanios Thetan's Roadster. Next we have SteveR Whiplash new invention, a Slip-n-Slide which uses FollowCam for extra thrills: run into the distance and wheeee! The plywood box on my back is, of course, Ben Linden's own FollowCam script in a box, for double the cinematic trouble. And finally, Osgeld Barmy nicely gave me an animated hypnotic interweaving "floor test pattern" in my fave colors.

All this happened in a public Linden sandbox, free to use and enjoy for all Resis: in a way, they're like Second Life's parks. Sure, we have parks, but most are privately-owned. Unlike parks, there isn't much grass to speak of, and you can throw an elephant there and an antigrav racer there and sort out your inventory. Cleaning out one's closet is usually a private act, but therein lies a pleasing public exhibition when you rez (materialize) something you never knew you had before, and as both you and your avatar (you are the same, after all ;) ) stare at it wide-eyed, mouths agape, several passerby remark, "Cool! What's that?"

It's Second Life. :-D

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