Topless Tuesday in a Blizzard

This is what I'm looking at outside today:

About 15" of snow in southeast Maine by Noon today, a bit more than an inch an hour. More is on the way in the next 12 hours. I really don't like snow. Nope.

This is what I want to be looking at today:

Click to embiggen or see it on Flickr here.

I want to be somewhere tropical with warm ocean water, a nice breeze, and a comfy tub to soak in when I feel like it. Being topless in the snow isn't nearly as much fun, I imagine. Happy Topless Tuesday!!

A Pretty Picture

Very long story very short: The Real Life home care I've been doing for my mother has turned into Hospice care; from daily needs long term to just being comfortable and happy for what time is left. If I'm in-world at all, I'm probably AFK or logged in as a "getaway" alt for just a few minutes relaxation.

And now, a pretty picture!

Click to Embiggen. Taken at Barneys Bay (find it on a Map).

Second Life Yearbook Photo Challenge

Strawberry Singh is back with blogger memes and I had a few minutes to kill, so ...

"Share an image of your Second Life avatar smiling for a yearbook photo" (orignal post here).

I decided to re-create my high school senior yearbook photo but thought "maybe I should't post a blank image." Since 5th grade my picture never appeared in school publications because I always refused to participate. Starting in 8th grade we all had to have our photos taken for security reasons. Sure, years after I was kidnapped,* they wanted a photo. Locking the school door after the fire started, I guess, or something like that. We all needed photos.

In my senior year we were all to go to a studio in town for those really nice formal sittings that seniors get, but since I wasn't going to do that I had to line up with the 11th graders and let the visiting photographer snap a pic and try to talk me into getting those cheesy portrait packs to give copies to friends and relatives. Didn't happen. It is very rare I even appear in the family photo album. One of the reasons I got a camera was so I could be behind it.

The funny part is, my senior picture got lost. The guy couldn't handle the concept of separating it from the juniors sets and managed to separate me all the way to the cutting room floor. So what I re-created for here is more or less what I looked like at the time. Set your Way Back Machines® for 2006.

Click to embiggen or see on Flickr.

You can't see it from here, but my hair was down to my butt. I wore the cheapest eyeglass frames possible, no makeup, and the only clean hoodie I had. In Real Life it was a zip-up bright green one whereas all my usual ones were dark colors. Sorry, but this one is blue. One of my many Disney t-shirts capped the outfit. Jewelry? I owned one necklace and no earrings. Since people could grab you by the necklace, I almost never wore it.

The photographer often commented "I'm glad you unzipped your jacket" while constantly leering at my chest and trying to take a few shots with my torso showing. One of his really nice Broncolor lights met an untimely death "by accident" while I was zipping my hoodie on my way off the auditorium stage where the pix were being taken. Oops. Maybe the most expensive leering he's done, I'm sure. At least he didn't cop a feel or I would have heard what a Mamiya 645 sounded like when hitting the hardwood.

Second Life should have a yearbook because every Profile photo is a special statement. Sometime when you are bored, perv some profiles and I think you'l agree.

*Read through the blog a bit and you'll learn about this.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! Sure, its an American holiday today, but even if you ignore the fact that we are the last Super Power and you should observe our holidays, I'm sure you'll find a similar day in your culture's pantheon of observances.

One of the things I'm thankful for is my sense of humor. I'd be dead without it, though sometimes it makes others want to kill me. And I'm thankful for Second Life, where I can vent my insanity and run (albeit temporarily) from things in Real Life that .... well, you get the idea.

So, thanks to all of you for making my life here and there and everywhere better.

Lost My Geek Cred

Some think that I'm quite the geek. After all, I've got the shirt. A Second Life shirt, which is quite geeky.  Really, if you believe some press, if you aren't a pervert in SL you must be a geek. Not that the two are mutually exclusive, but that's another blog post. If that's not enough, I have a ton of gadgets, many of which get press time on this blog. I read mostly Sci-Fi/Fantasy, I watch Dr Who, and I play with Lego blocks.

Geek.

Then came along Strawberry Singh's "Geeks'n'Nerds" post on her blog and my Geek Cred was seriously challenged. I took the "How Geeky Are You" quiz she mentions and it seems I'm just a Semi-Geek:

Maybe you're just influenced by the trend, or maybe you just got it all perfectly balanced. You have some geeky traits, but they aren't as "hardcore" and they don't take over your life. You like some geeky things, but aren't nearly as obsessive about them as the uber-geeks. You actually get to enjoy both worlds.

I'm crushed. I mean, no I don't own a game console (unless you count a Wii that is never used), my phone isn't "rooted," I can't drink Mt Dew like when I was a kid, and the only code I know is Hammurabi's (Still waiting for a chance to use it).

My Phone is Smart

What does a mute need with a mobile phone? Texting, at minimum. Great way to communicate. Then the iPod Touch came out and wherever I could find Wi-Fi, FaceTime was my go-to communications solution. Now I have a smart phone.

No, I wish it was an iPhone. The monthly cost would be prohibitive considering I only text or use Wi-Fi. So our family buys Tracphones, a pre-paid service here in the US that deducts "minutes" for voice, text, or data. I get a new phone every year because someone at Tracphone hasn't figured out that for not much more than buying a one-year service card I can get a new phone, a ton of minutes, and a year of service.

This year my brother and I got LG Ultimate 2 smart phones. Big learning curve to pick up Android compared to Apple's iOS but it was sooooo cheap! But now I have to get Skype. Then figure out how to get my iOS calendars to show up on Google calendars. Synching contacts was done with a cheat.

Up-sides? It looks like if I'm on Wi-Fi I don't use any minutes for texting (or voice, my brother tells me) and most apps I use on my iPod/iPad are on Android, too. Like Grocery iQ 9not as nice as the iOS version), Kindle,  Full Deck Solitaire, and then some. Thinking of getting Lumiya for Second Life on the road.

The biggest up-sides – I don't have to carry two devices and I can still do maps or Interwebs if I don't have Wi-Fi. Oh! And I used one of my pictures from Meauxle Bureaux (Slurl) as my wallpaper.

Warmth, Water, Food, & Shelter

If you had to depend on the World Wide Web for survival in the wilderness you might be up a creek. Or in a desert. Some dense forest. Anyway, a simple search turns up quite a few ways to buy DVDs on how to not die when you are stuck away from civilization but not a list of what to do first. After a while I found a few sites that more or less agreed that one should try to stay warm first then find water and food, in that order, then to find or make shelter. From there the various so-called experts I read divereged greatly.

Of course, if you have the electricity to be on the Web then you probably have time to visit some emergency preparedness sites (like this one from Lifehacker) or use the Red Cross mobile app to figure out what you need for various situations.

If that situation is entering Second Life for the first time, then you are still up a creek, albeit a virtual one. Without a survival guide, new residents (AKA Noobs) generate their a hierarchy of needs. Sit in any Info Hub, Welcome Area, or other area frequented by Noobs and the list seems obvious: Sex, Money, and a job. Shelter is rather pointless, but it shows up before food. Warmth? No one thinks about that, I'm sure.

What should Noobs list as Second Life survival priorities? That all depends on who you ask. Clothes and an Animation Override (AO) are often suggested by those not offering group memberships and landmarks to various entertainment venues. Fortunately this coincides with one the top ten things that Noobs are concerned with changing. Sit back and watch for even a short time and you'll see several trying all the choices in the Avatar Picker.

Helpful former mentors and other long-time Residents usually offer Landmarks to helpful places, such as New Citizens, Inc. or other Noob-friendly venues for the How-To tutorials, free clothes, and more.

What is seldom offered is simple advice. Rather, foisting one's personal opinions on how to do things and where to go is common (right up there with which Viewer to use). Instead, Noobs need to be welcomed, comforted in making the choice to be with us, and then told "Don't Panic." Despite the similiarites to Meatspace, Our World is strange and unfamiliar. This is why my first advice is to not worry about anything – money, sex, fame, etc. – but to just go out and explore. Learn as you go. What you should know for your needs will stick. What you don't need to know ... you get the idea.

Sure, I have some strong opinons based on my prefernces, like "don't IM me; talk to me in Main Chat" (I think of IMs like phone calls or texting) or "use math to align prims, not eyeballing" (I can be quite OCD at times). But that's me. I don't leap after a Noob and insist right away that they use a particular viewer (I favor the Official one), tell them to join a particular group (I'd swear there are more London City members in SL than in actual London), or to do anything in particular other than to explore.

So here's my list of survival needs for new Residents:

1. Explore
2. Keep exploring
3. Explore some more

What is on your list?

Women in Games

From left-to-right, coverage from iMore, Gameranx, and Circa.

Maybe I'm not helping the stereotype many males (and some women) have about women and gaming. Maybe I should help more.

The other day I closed the Topless Tuesday in SL Flickr group. My intent behind TTiSL was to challenge the right of male avatars in Second Life to bare torsos anywhere they wish while female avatars must remain fully-clothed in many places. Considering the number of frankly pornographic images – usually of submissive women and dominant men – regular sent to the TTiSL Flickr group queue and the general disregard for the group's other standards, I felt it was time to give up.

Bare boobs. Right. What was I thinking? As some of my first thoughts when I see a nude or partially nude woman are often less than pure I'm likely at least partially guilty, as well. Like many people, my first thoughts are seldom "My, she's brave and empowered" when I see a lovely pair of breasts.

Second Life is not a game. The gaming industry is not a game. This is all Real Life, people. What we do in-world and at our keyboards and out in Meatspace shows who we are. The relative anonymity of social media and assumed roles in on-line activities are weapons. Sadly, many mis-guided and selfish misogynistic individuals (and some women can wear this description) wield these weapons to hurt others. It is an easy means to get quick attention and praise from the like-minded and thus gives a quick sense of satisfaction and self actualization – both false – without revealing the truth that such actions are cowardly and pathetic. One needs real strength to aim these weapons to dispel myths and falsehoods, a strength that so few seem to exercise.

So it is time I step up my game, so to speak.

Brianna Wu fights back.

First, I don't apologize for the nudity on this blog or on my Flickr feed. I have breasts in SL and in RL. I like them. Others like them, too. Deal with it. They don't define me, though, and mature people should not use them as a measure of who I am. These pix have been the easy way out, in a fashion, of participating in Our World and moving forward, that is no more. I will increase my efforts to write on a variety of topics starting right now.

Second, time has come to get back to being active in Second Life. Anyone can put on a bikini (or take one off) and lay on a beach. It takes a Resident to leave the beach (and dress in accordance with ToS).

Third, though likely not last, it is time I stop being a girl in a game and grow up to be a woman that has Game. That'll help, right?

Topless Tuesday Video

A woman I know in Real Life video chats with me (via Apple's FaceTime) now and then. She's deaf and I'm mute so the medium is best for Sign Language. Most chats are of the basic How-are-you?-I'm-fine type but as she fancies me carnally so now and again I answer her calls to sometimes find a nude woman blowing kisses at me.

Not that I mind, of course. At least not too much.

But at this time I can't really be in a relationship and even if I could we both know the two of us wouldn't work out in the long run. That doesn't stop these "Boobie Calls" – her term – and I answered one this morning. She was in a super frisky mood and since I'm a good friend, I dressed in kind.  Which inspired my Topless Tuesday picture for this week.

Click to embiggen or see it on Flickr!

Here's the Webcam's point-of-view, the way it appeared on MySL ...

Writing Skills

Yes, this blog post starts on the paper above.

Of course, you can use the built-in keyboard, as shown, or a Bluetooth device for improved accuracy. As you can see, symbols can be added, or as you can't see, the app capitalized Stone Age for me. Some auto-correct works and text can be tap-selected for editing so Hanx Writer might be a bit more neolithic than paleolithic.

Documents are saved to .PDF format to preserve the special font used (optional, in-app purchased typewriter skins have different fonts) so one can't easily edit a document on another device or in another app. Andy Ihnatko describes how he wrote his review of Hanx Writer with the app itself and exported it for publication at the Chicago Sun-Times (here) but the whole business sounds laborious.

Still, I like the tappity tap of the keyboard, the ding-carraige return, and the need for focus on what I'm writing. In the latter respect this app is very much like the no-nonsense approach of IA Writer (for Mac or iOS). There is no getting lost in formatting options, layout, or other distractive elements. The words take center stage, a good simulation of the thoughts-to-paper experience of using a typewriter but IA Writer is tappity-free. Mores the pity.

I'm not the only one who likes the soothing sound of the machine doing my bidding. It seems that The Times has a plan to pipe in the sounds of newsrooms past with the constant flow of typebars pounding paper-clad platens at the behest of harried news hounds pounding out a story. They hope the soundscape will encourage productivity in the workforce.

Good luck. White noise is often a good thing, but for me that often means letting my iPad run Koi Pond HD for the lovely, natural background noises (and to occasionally poke at fish). I look forward to the results of the newsroom test and have Circa set up to follow the story.

In the mean time, I'm practicing my typing ... tappity tap tap tap tap ...

Ice Buckets on Topless Tuesday

Late Monday night, not long before I logged off, I got a message from Marianne McCann ...

As with Real Life Ice Bucket Challenges I had 24 hours to respond with a video (which I'm not capable of creating) or a donation to The ALS Association. Of course, I did both, zipping off to get free ice bucket (SLurl) and making a donation at the same spot then went to bed and thought about the photo I would sub in for a video.

After trying on all my wet shirt options, digging out my wet hair, and heading to a sandbox, I was stumped. Having tried the bucket's built-in animation, I knew I'd have to use a static pose and rez the bucket above me if I had hopes of getting a well-timed picture. After looking at a number of options, I set up a very simple scene and snapped away ...

You can see the original on My Second Life here.

Bucket Challenge accomplished!! I challenge CC Columbo, Slim Whitman, and Jennifer Jade Whitman to answer the challenge within 24 hours! And since this is Topless Tuesday, I re-created the same picture with an appropriate outfit.

Happy Topless Tuesday! I have this image in the Topless Tuesday in SL Flickr group, too.

Random Thoughts

• It has become abundantly clear to me that I blog almost exclusively on Tuesdays of late. I post my Topless Tuesday pic with a brief few comments, link to Flickr then I'm off like a prom dress. This tells me that I need to explore Our World some more, something I used to do quite a bit. Now I mostly pop into various beaches and swim around or lay on the beach while reading.
• Swimming in SL is fun, though I miss Real Life swimming. Having to attach a separate swim HUD is annoying as is turning on/off my regular movement AO HUD when I exit or enter the water. I know that Our World is now (in some eyes) obsolete, but perhaps it is time for The Lab to re-engineer the viewer so that there are standard animations for being in water.
• After all these years, body parts still talk. You know the ones. They are annoying at best and downright inappropriate in public places like shops, Infohubs, and the like. Why is it important that I know what one of your organs is doing at a particular moment? I'm tempted to go rogue and click away, randomly and often, until I get booted or someone leaves.
• I find it amusing that when I cam around at home the Kennylex-made cannon I have on my porch fires without being touched. Some particle sources do this. Also, some animations. As I write this I cammed about to greet someone and a row of girls "bounced" on the beach towels from Standing to Laying, taking on the pose in the towel.
• The User Interface of the Official Viewer still operates as if designed by engineers and not users. You would think that Third Party Viewers would fix this as they are, almost by definition, designed by users. No. In each case the designer is a geeky programmer not who tends to think in logical progressions like the ever present Directory Tree. There are too many bloody steps to change Windlights and the pop-up panels are unnecessarily large. Stop relying on "the task is done" and go for "the task is done with elegance."
• Sometimes if I forget to turn off my AO when sitting on furniture so the HUD's sit animation is played. Others don't always see it this way when I do and sometimes I don't see the AO being dominant while others do. This applies to everyone, I suppose. Right now a girl near me is floating mid-air in a relaxed sitting pose when I know the animation in the towel she's occupying should have her laying on her belly. Maybe SL 2.0 will address this.
• There is so much progress with using mesh to create ultra-realistic homes, furniture, and landscaping, but it seems to me that very few creators are working to bring similar gains to the underwater realm. PADI's Dive World sims were spectacular in their day and I'd love to see what they might look like with today's mesh advances.

• When I was showing off some new bedroom furniture on MySL today (see above plus here and here for more examples) I was trying to angle the shots to as the mirror wouldn't show it was fake and thinking "I used to have a table with an animation to do this" and "I wish SL really had mirrors." Not long after, I ran across a MySL post from Torley Linden that eventually led to the video below.

•  I need to enjoy my home more. Finances iRL are getting tight and even the $15/USD monthly tier I pay might get squeezed. Gone are the days when I raked in tons of SpaceBux hosting events at Lesbos and handing it to my sister Threshin for rent so that isn't an option, either. Premium membership is paid up for almost a year so I could at least have a Linden Home.

Best of Intentions for a New World

With great excitement the other day I ran about the newly remodeled LR Portal Park 1 (now simply called The Portal Park; SLurl), the region once used as the gateway to the Linden Realms game grid. When The Cornfield game was announced (see here) and released the region was given a make over so it would be a portal for not just Linden Realms, but for the new Experience Key-based game and several other wonderful Linden-created games and attractions. In my excitement I promised a soon-to-be-published blog post with many pictures and more information based on personal exploration.

Lately, though, I've had little desire to even get out of bed. Except for what I must do in Real Life (it is no secret I'm a Care Giver) I accomplish so very little it is almost laughable. If I could laugh. I'm stuck in one of my regular depressive lows. Until I can get a manic high again or at least up to a so-called normal I present my pictures as posted on My.Secondlife.com in the last week in lieu of something more original. Click each picture to see the original post (though the caption of each picture is more or less from the original post so the seeing the original isn't a time saver).

LR Portal Park 1 now takes you to The Wilderness and The Grid Hunt as well as Linden Realms and the new Cornfield. Note: The old Corn Field – two words, not one – still exists (SLurl).

Left to right: Ancient Mole and NaughtyMole on the bench. Abnor Mole looking griefer-y, me, and Alexa Linden!
The LDPW Moles have really gone above and beyond in this creation.

Selfie with Troy Linden.

Left to right: A Reseident I don't know, Bat Mole, Ancient Mole, Naughty Mole, and Kona Linden.

Tea Party?

Tea Party! And the source of some silly hats I've seen people wearing.

One of the silly hats you can get at the Tea Party.

My original guess that this is a portal to Social Island (SLurl) was wrong. It is simply a decorative gathering spot.

Me and Patch Linden in the new Portal Park. Amazing makeover.
I was able to trade Bears with a few Lindens and Moles. If you visit, don't hesitate to ask for a Bear or, better yet, trade your personalized Bear.

I wonder what Gnome Village is ...

The Gnome Village isn't really a portal but a fun, scenic place.

There's an un-named portal that looks scary ,.. lightning, rain, ruins, and an armoured car.

Of course, there's The Cornfield itself. Check out the video from The Lab and then head on over (you'll need a test viewer available here) and try it yourself.

20 (More) Questions

Navel Gazing in the Tub

It was quite amusing when I saw that for this week's blog challenge meme, Strawberry Singh mentions the almost-required ASL (Age Sex Location)-type question when you meet someone at a club in Real Life because I've thought about that for a few days now. Many places in Second Life are just Internet Chat Rooms with 3D avatars – people standing around spouting gibberish all the while Instant Messaging others one-on-one with the inevitable ASL after the now standard "Nice avatar bb" comment. I well and truly don't like that environment so I am generally not one for "clubbing" regardless of venue. Sadly, this means I missed many opportunities to hang out with a dear friend who is no longer with us.

My regrettable loss.

Perhaps I need to get back into the Second Life social scene, getting past the too often annoying banter, pointless gesturbators, mindless programmed dance moves, and the personal IMs that I equate with someone texting me without permission. So let me plunge into these 20 Personal Questions (which, like previous such challenges, I'm doing without having read anyone's – not even Strawberry's – responses) like I'm being hit on at a disco.

Meme instructions: Answer the following 20 personal questions about your Second Life. Don’t forget to share a link to your post in the comments!

01: When and how did you discover Second Life?
About nine years ago an off-the-wall shrink thought she could use Second Life to help me overcome some phobias and work on social skills that said phobias kept me from developing. I landed on the Teen Grid and mostly holed up on one sim, flying around and looking at stuff only when others weren't around.

02: Did you know about virtual worlds before or was this your first experience with them?
I had read about virtual worlds – my father was a big Sci-Fi nut who collected pulp magazines – but hadn't tried one. We had free AOL accounts while I was growing up so I lurked in chatrooms picturing in my mind the endless scrolling lines of gibberish as them as real places.

03: Has Second Life met your expectations?
Having had no expectations, yes!

04: If you could teleport back to the first ten minutes of your avatar’s slife, what would you tell yourself?
"TAKE THE BLUE PILL!!" Oh? After I logged in? Kinda late to change pills at that point. Right. I'd tell myself to relax, go with the flow, and meet people. Learn to build sooner and really make an effort to script. Lastly, "Keep your frakin' Inventory organized from the start!!"

05: How long did it take you to master avatar flying and driving vehicles in world?
Has anyone really mastered driving vehicles? Some vehicles are better than others and I do well with most that have hulls or wings, but not those with wheels (an aunt told me "If it has testicles or tires, it will be trouble). Let's call it a work in progress. Flying just my avatar is something I relish and think I'm pretty good at. Two of my alts never take off their wings.

06: Do you have a mystery alt?
Who doesn't? I share two with my Real Life brother, a male and a female. We both contribute funds to upkeep and feel free to form them in any fashion we wish regardless of the other driver, but they are loners and will not engage in close relationships. We think of these as our "getaway" characters.

07: Is your SL avatar a reflection of you, or someone you wished you could be?
My primary character, Uccie (Uccello Poultry), is closer to my RL self than my other characters but each is such a part of me that they frequently show up on my blog, like the entry from May 9, 2014. No matter who I am at the time, each character is inconstant in both appearance and behavior, adhering tenuously at times to a basic form and function. Best is example is Uccie – I'm a redhead iRL and while my meatspace body is getting thicker as I get older Uccie's blonde-haired cyberspace body is still as perky as an 18-year old.

08: Is there an individual you met in SL that inspired you in your RL? How?
Yes, several. Threshin and Ever and Angela and Parker and Marianne and Alx and Katta and ... Holy Carp, there are so many. Each has pushed me and pulled me in different ways at different times such that I'm not the same person I was eight years ago when I first hit The Grid. I should have learned when Parker passed away in Real Life that I need to tell these people how much they mean to me but but that nugget of wisdom passed me. Now Ever is gone and I never explicitly told her. Talk about an inspiration.

09: Do you feel it is easier to create stronger bonds/relationships with people you meet inworld as opposed to the real world?
Yes, though I don't get out of the house iRL. Back in the day when my phobias kept me in the house that would have been true, too, but once circumstances are such that I am not home 24/7 I feel I could do fairly well in starting and building relationships. The ready free-form nature of Second Life characters (I keep using that term, don't I?)* can easily lead one to be disingenuous.

10: Did you ever imagine or believe people could fall in love with someone they never met before Second Life?
Yes. Anything is possible, right? The Amish have a saying: "Kissin' don't last but cookin' do," meaning that what matters most the caring, emotional aspect of a relationship. Perfect example? Damien Fate and Wahsu Zebrastripe. They met in SL, fell in love, married in Real Life, and produced Baby Linden (read about it here).

11: How has your perspective of dating changed (or not) since you started playing second life?
No, not really. Then again, my SL relationship with Angela is pretty open and I don't date in Real Life.

12: How has your perspective of employment changed (or not) since you started playing Second Life?
Not employed in either world. Well, iRL I live with my step-mother as her home care aide, drawing no salary. So I work, just not in the traditional sense.

13: Name three things in both your lives that overlap each other significantly.
For one, my Real Life fashion sense has expanded since living in Second Life. I've gone from wearing the most nondescript outfits possible so people don't notice me to wearing brightly colored Crocs and hospital scrubs and even shorts and tank tops. Not all at once. I'm not that fashion-impaired.

For another, my musical tastes have grown in both worlds thanks to the DJs I know in-world.

A third? Can't really think of one. Sorry. There might be one.

14: If you could live your life more immersively in a virtual world, would you? (Kind of like the Matrix.)
Yes. What comes to mind is actually being able to speak iSL ... being able to Sign at my computer and have my avatar speak as if I wasn't a Mute iRL.

15: How do you think behavior changes for people if they’re inworld vs in real world? Why do you think that is?
Anonymity in-world means that people's natural tendencies can be magnified – a troll is a troll; a griefer is a griefer – or they can explore various aspects of themselves. It is easy to think "oh, that's a guy playing a woman," but it may be true for reasons that belie your first impression. There are a number of gay men and women that use avatars to explore their feelings or trans-gender individuals that acclimate to their choice via Second Life. Think about Furries. Holy Carp! Think of the children!!

16: How has second life consumerism changed your perception of spending habits, the value of money, the need to be “bleeding edge” with fashion?
It is not uncommon for me to make bad shopping decisions in either world. Search my blog for the word "closet" and you'll see I don't really understand fashion, but Second Life is helping me learn about it.

17: Do you think virtual worlds like SL drive and redefine human interaction or do they narrow and limit it?
Any limits one finds in Second Life are user-imposed. Well, there are certain software/hardware-imposed limits, but generally speaking, SL is a wide-open frontier. People have dragged Real Life conventions with them ... shopping malls, discos, lecture halls, homes, etc.. The Na'vi role play regions that popped up after the movie Avatar hit theaters? Still totally derivative. People say they want something different but they seldom strive for it.

18: If technology progressed tomorrow to allow you to send emotions to people the way you’d send text or voice messages, would it enrich your SL experience or infringe on it?
That certainly sounds dangerous and that makes it very attractive. I'd say that ability would enrich the experience, but with the caveat that it could be abused and misused. Some people can't handle drinking, others can't handle gambling, and I bet there are some that would have a lot of trouble with emotional transference (more than is possible now) such as you suggest.

19: Name three skills you attribute to having learned or honed in Second Life alone.
My writing has the added dimension of better dialogue and character depth.

Editing images and graphics electronically was a little-developed skill of mine before SL.

Um .... a third? Why do you always insist on a third?

20: If your grand kids googled your Second Life Avatar’s name, would they be intrigued, disgusted, proud, or something else?
This is why Uccello will always be a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, stuffed inside an avatar. She's the Turducken of virtual personalities.

About ASL ... that is how this 26-year old woman living in New England speaks in Real Life.

#  #  #

* In virtual spaces characters are the combination of avatar (appearance) and the personality they manifest (behavior). One could assert the same applies to meatspace as well. When I'm in my one nice dress with grown-up shoes I'm probably at a funeral or a wedding so my behavior reflects the circumstance. When I'm in hospital scrubs and wearing my neko ears and tail ... you get the idea. If you are going to a Goth club, you don't dress like like Snow White, right?

What's In My Closet? Why Do I Bother?

Try as I might, I just can't see myself as the glamorous sort. Slap on some makeup, a fancy dress, style my hair, add some jewelry, and ... dunno. To tell the truth, I don't think I can carry it off. In Real Life I wear (not all at once) hospital scrubs, shorts, t-shirts, hooodies, jeans, Crocs, or anything I can find so I'll be comfy and nondescript. In Second Life, I have a cage dress, heels, and dark makeup with bleached blonde hair.

WTF?

I'm totally convinced that this combo would look much better on anyone but me. A nagging thought of redemption tugs at me, though ... "What if I wore outfits like this in appropriate places?!?" Hanging out in Bay City or a nice forest in a cage dress? Probably not places one is likely to see this sort of outfit. Maybe I need to get out more.

The grown up Zyx can get away with it. It is her nature.

Ever Dreamscape, Ever With Us

Ever Dreamscape
Portrait by her close friend, Benjamin Wahl

A simple post by Marianne McCann to the My Second Life microblog was the first I heard: Ever Dreamscape passed away. Within moments I logged into Our World to find people starting to gather at a makeshift memorial at the Bay City Community Center (SLurl). Likely no one kept track of the numbers, but quite a few people dropped in, shared stories about Ever, and wondered what Second Life will be without this true friend.

Those who knew Ever just a little and those who knew her quite well grew closer, something that often happened in her presence, a true community cheerleader and organizer to the end and then some.

This picture is from an Espresso Yourself Night at The Pen in Bay City (SLurl), right as she was opening herself like I've never heard before. Everyone there was deeply touched by her "Hero's Journey" (read it here) making it quite the memorable night.

Various memorial plans are in the works as well as efforts to preserve her properties in Bay City. More importantly, our community is reaching out to her Real Life son, also a Bay City resident, to offer comfort and possibly assistance. An unofficial commitment has been made by The Lab to provide a memorial space in Bay City so future residents will know her impact.

Why Have Just One?

Jo Yardley started a meme on her blog.

See? I have four lives (at least). From top left and moving clockwise: Uccie (Uccello Poultry) Galway, my "adult" character; Xandah Resident, my world explorer; Zyx Resident, the quiet and enigmatic pixy; Zyx Flux, a child avatar and gardener pixy.

But wait! There's more!! Each character is also a polymorph. Uccie is often a dragon, a bird, a furry cat, or any of a couple hundred other avatars or skins. Xandah has a cute furry cow avatar and sometimes romps about as a tiny elephant. Zyx Resident seldom changes except for her skin. She has a lovely deep, deep blue skin that appears nearly black but also has a "human" option. Zyx Flux sometimes sports a tiny form such as a bunny or a kitten and is also a very colorful petite-sized pixy.

So why have just one life when you can lead another, and another, and (dare I say it?) another? It wasn't a lack of a Real Life that brought me to Second Life. Rather, Our World lets me have many lives filled with adventure, travel, creativity, and more that I just can't manage to have in Real Life at the moment.

The Hue & Cry of Color

This week's blog meme challenge from Strawberry Singh, "Color Meme," seemed easy at first.  How hard could it be to follow do as she requests?

Meme instructions: Blog a picture of your favorite color or a variety of colors that you like. Don’t forget to leave a link to your post in the comments and share your picture in the Blog Memes Flickr Group.

But when you like rainbows, how do you pick a color or a variety of them? My first thought was to take a picture of me in my rainbow bikini. Too obvious. Or in one of my other rainbow outfits. Still obvious. Then I remembered a dream from last night that was so real. I was my dusky blue pixy Zyx but the setting was Real Life. O M Goodness that was fun! Flying while looking pretty fly, turning heads but holding off inappropriate advances with a deathly stare, and generally reveling in my blue pixiness.

So into Second Life I bounded as soon as I could to take a picture. Out came my favorite silks, touched up my ear shading, and stopped cold when it came to a background. Discarding Zyx's usually haunts I took her to The Faerie Court at the Fantasy Faire (Slurl) where I could get some color in the background. Working with my Animation Override for live poses, fighting the lag that Advanced Lighting gives, and timing it all to work with the shifting colors of Elico Ember's marvelous build, my shooting ratio hit 10:1 so I gave up and picked the one above.

Yes, blue is a favorite right now, but give me a few minutes. That will change.

Why Are You Human in Second Life?

Weighing on my mind of late is the question of how we represent ourselves in Second Life, particularly as I re-read Greg Bear's novel Eon for the umpteenth time. A central thread drawn through out that story almost asks "What is a human?" but not quite. Except for a few assumptions by select characters, the novel takes as given that humans are not necessarily what we might consider them. In other words, one need not look "human" to be human.

Key to this concept is that humans have evolved in our future. Neomorphs (humans without human form; "The neomorph— vaguely fish-shaped, limbless—regarded Olmy with a crystalline fox face and picted casual greetings, but no ID."¹) and homorophs (essentially human much like your Real Life appearance or mine; "She was a homorph with elaborations designed to heighten both sexual and leadership traits."²) are introduced with as little explanation as necessary and then treated no differently than the more pure, primitive ancestral forms. Being non-human in appearance is as natural as being human in appearance and Bear makes it clear that such is a choice in the book's future society.

What's on the inside is what counts?

The choice is yours in Second Life, too. So why do you appear to be human? Assuming that you are, of course. That many of us have a variety of avatars from animal to cartoon character to golly-knows-what is obvious. But most residents seem to stay with the current concept of a human form for most of their virtual existence despite changes for special occasions or such. With the difficulty of creating virtual clones of ourselves or the desire to make ourselves how we would like to appear in Real Life, most everyone is human.

Why? Why stick with your Real Life gender? Why are most people in Second Life caucasian?

Why, why, why? I'm not being very productive here. Probably because I don't have answers, at least not for anyone but me and that is rather iffy. Being human is what we are comfortable with, I suppose. Being caucasian or blonde or female is familiar to us. But I really doubt that these conventions make us who we are inside. Uccie is a blonde in Second Life after years of being a redhead in both worlds. She is female, like me iRL, as are most of my alts probably because that is what I know best. But she's the only one consistently caucasian for some reason.

Among my other characters, Zyx Flux is now black (sometimes reverting to her original blue) and she's a pre-teen child avatar. Oh, and she's not exactly human. As a pixy she's humanoid. Her big "sister" Zyx Resident is still blue, albeit a darker shade than with which she was created. And when she's black she's obsidian, not a Real Life human shade. My pixies are part of me – a child-like, nature-loving explorer and a confident, aloof loner that lurks and watches – that is often hard to express as Uccello.

Xandah is from India as you may have read elsewhere on this blog. Not really. I was born in Ireland and raised in America, but Xandah the character in Second Life is from India. Through her I've learned a fair bit about the culture of the world's most populous democracy.

My brother and I share log-ins for a few characters: a furry female, a robot, and an all-male caucasian Average Joe. Using these "secret" alts and my known characters I am often reminded of the quote I keep in Uccello's Profile:

"Perhaps it is impossible to wear an identity without becoming what you pretend to be." O.S. Card

When I'm not being Uccie, I don't feel much like Uccie, though I'm still me ... sort of.

Sometimes when my wife spends time with one of my non-Uccello characters she remarks that she still loves the typist regardless of the virtual form. She sees that I retain my nature and my humanity because when I'm with her I am Uccie regardless of form. With other forms that is not so clear. If you see me when I'm a German Shepherd wearing a hat and bunny slippers my I am different. No, that word is not good enough, but it will do for now.

If I could could make such changes iRL as I do iSL, would the same be true? I'd trade my current physical form to look like the elder Zyx in a heartbeat. Of course, that would simply bring up the debate about becoming the person that others see us being.³ It never ends, does it?



¹ Bear, Greg (2014-04-01). Eon (Eon, 2) (Kindle Locations 4952-4953). Open Road Media. Kindle Edition.

² Bear, Greg (2014-04-01). Eon (Eon, 2) (Kindle Locations 5072-5073). Open Road Media. Kindle Edition.

³ Conger, Cristen. "How accurate is our mental image of ourselves?" 05 November 2008. HowStuffWorks.com. 04 May 2014.

Flat Ebbe Linden Meme

Last July, Strawberry Singh proposed a "Flat Rod Visits ..." meme where in bloggers would take a "cardboard cutout" of then Linden Lab CEO Rodvik Linden around to see the sights in Second Life. I rather enjoyed my time with Rod (see here). And I've gotten over the fact that Rod still owes me a bear because I gave I'm my bear and he wore it in public. With a new CEO, Ebbe Linden, comes a new chance at showing Our World to him and getting his bear (I've met him and offered my services in teaching him how to make a classic Linden Bear). Now Strawberry has given bloggers a chance to take take Flat Ebbe out for a spin with a new challenge.

Meme instructions: Pick up a copy of Flat Ebbe Linden from my marketplace store for free and take him to one of your favorite places on the grid. Also, share at least three things that you’d like to tell Ebbe. Please remember to leave a link to your post in the comments and share your Flat Ebbe picture in the Blog memes flickr group.

There are more places in Second Life that I'd like to recommend that the Real Ebbe Linden visit than I can fit on this blog, but I took the 2D "Monoculous Rift" version to the Garden Mole's greenhouse in Dokkaebi (SLurl). Readers may remember that this blog's pixy correspondent Zyx Flux visits there often and most recently posted about it last February (see here). I thought of this location first because one item I'd have to bring up with Ebbe is the quality work, dedication, and sense of whimsey that the Linden Department of Public Works brings to Our World. Numerous roadside builds like this greenhouse bring some extra joy to Second Life. The LDPW keeps giving these little gifts to the Residents yet how often do most of us really notice?

Many other items I'd mention (and have talked to him about) are already being addressed, particularly the new Resident experience and the selection of default avatars. Having Ebbe visit Bay City, Linden support for the arts, and the return of Lindens to The Grid socially have all been brought up and mostly implemented. Looks like there isn't much else to cover.

I would like to throw my support behind the numerous calls to improve community communications. The official blog is a joke. Public office hours for important staffers are nonexistent. The JIRA is open again but I firmly believe that they will still be ignored like in days gone by. We've seen some improvements in this area but let's keep up the changes.

Perhaps the biggest item that I would like to point out is Second Life's reputation. Outside a core community, SL is often seen as a porn-filled, low-quality joke. Advertising SL as just beaches and nightclubs is appealing to the lowest common denominator. Look at the pictures on MySL and Flickr to find a vibrant community of serious users – artists, creators, social crusaders, and more – use Our World as important parts of their Real Life. Promote that and you'll see Second Life flourish.