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.

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.

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.

Trent's Final Pictures

Starting with a MySL feed post from Venus Petrov, I got myself involved with a contest (see here) to see who could make the best Alt from nothing but freebies. No dollarbies, no gifting from your Main character to your noobie, no Demowear, and no out-of-the-box starter avies. Of course, since you've been reading my blog, you saw all that in my last blog post (here). With all that out of the way, I'll say I'm done. These are the final pictures for the contest and the details of each outfit, all taken on Social Island (SLurl), the second place in Second Life that new residents see. I present Trenton Aloysius Kalamack.

• Abraninmations: Male AO 4 [Pose: ao2-male-standing 2 (P2)]
• AnyPose: Expression HUD v1.0
• AJ Designs: Men's Underwear Gray
• Avi-Glam: Illusion Eyes *grey (m)
• BlakOpal: Tramontane Shirt with Collar
• BlakOpal: Tramontane Sage Vest
• Linden: Male Pirate Boots Linden: Male Pirate Pants
• Linden: Short with Bangs (Blonde) hair
• Linden: Socks (Light Grey)
• Nivaro: Adam Skin Lighttone - trailhair_clean_bald
• Ruby: Levi Brows
• TrentonKalamack Resident: Custom Shape
• TrentonKalamack Resident: Small (Gold) Earring Left

I very much like many of the items that the Lindens give us in our basic Inventories. These boots are awesome and look great with the matching pants. The Lab gets the credit, but the creators are really the folks behind Adam and Eve fashions. They created many of the nicer outfits you'll find if you dig around your Inventory.

Trent's shape is original but is based in some part on the Standard Mesh Size that many clothing creators use.

• Abraninmations: Male AO 4 [Pose: ao3-MaleStand5 (P2)] 
• AnyPose: Expression HUD v1.0 
• AJ Designs: Men's Underwear Gray 
• Avi-Glam: Illusion Eyes *grey (m) 
• Blackburns: Canvas Dark Stars Color sneakers 
• Blackburns: Computer Glasses 
• Linden: Male Logo Top (not really visible in this pic, but it provides the longer sleeves and the bit of color at the collar)
• Linden: Short with Bangs (Blonde) hair 
• Linden: Socks (Light Grey) 
• Nivaro: Adam Skin Lighttone - trailhair_clean_bald 
• P's: Keep Calm Bacon On mesh t-shirt 
• PEER: Love Sucks Jeans Ruby: Levi Brows 
• TrentonKalamack Resident: Custom Shape 
• TrentonKalamack Resident: Small (Gold) Earring Left

For those of you that have looked, Trent's hair is a women's style from the basic Inventory, but this character's look in the novels where he originated features slightly longer hair like this so it was a great find. That and it is far superior to the several free styles I came across while shopping. Male characters have so few choices of freebies in Our World. Just yesterday I found a shop that had about a dozen outfits for female characters 30 days old or newer but none for me despite being a shop for both men and women.

But it was my choice to "go male" for this so I can only blame me. But it was refreshing to try. At least I didn't have to fall back on the freebies that I've created for Bay City, the LDPW fan group, and other sources. Now I have to figure out what to do with Trent. I thought of offering his account to a friend of mine that is also a fan of the books from whence Trent sprang. We'll see.

Good luck to everyone who entered. Check out the Flickr group here to see other entrants.

The contest allowed only two pictures, but I managed to score  a few swimsuits and other pieces that I could not feature. Before terminating Trent's stay in SL I might feature a few of the better ones in future blog posts.

Who is Trenton Kalamack?

According to his Real World biography, Trenton Kalamack is a "Former Cincinnati City Councilman, philanthropist, successful businessman, and leader of the recently revealed Elf society in Our Fair City. Married to the lovely Ceridwen Merriam Dulciate (though she it too busy with our children to join Second Life)." In other words, he's a main character in Kim Harrison's Hollows novels (Web), a series of books I have enjoyed over the past few years.

He is also my newest Alt, specifically created for a challenge from Venus Petrov from her recent MySL post to create an alt using only freebies. No Demos, no Dollarbies, no out-of-the-box default avatars. Figuring that most who try the challenge are women and thus would create female alts, I thought I'd try to make a dude. Silly me. This has been near impossible, but he's almost done so I think it is safe for an "official" picture at this time. The final pictures, when posted on Flickr, will have breakdowns of what he's wearing, but here's a rough list:

Skin: From Nivaro. I tried about five freebie skins from actual creators (not the ones you find at any nude beach's freebie shop) and this was the best overall. Good free skins for men are few and far between.

Hair: From the Linden stuff library we all have in our Inventories. This is the "Short with Bangs (Blonde)" style in one of the folders for women. Since he's a classical elf I think this really suits him. I tried quite a few free styles from across the Grid but most were only marginally acceptable.

Shape: A home-grown shape since the free men's shapes that I found were too comicbook hero-ish for me. I tried to follow real-world standards and I think I did okay (see here). Despite lots of looking I didn't find any good elf ears for free, but the Linden tools were good enough. Other vitals are set up so he can wear "standard" medium mesh clothes. Don't ask about freenises and I won't lie.

Eyes: From Avi-Glam, a nice set of gray eyes with a system layer and mesh if I wished to use them. It wasn't that hard to find some very good eyes out there and I even grabbed a slit-pupil set that I rather like.

Shirt: From BlakOpal. This is a tasteful vest/shirt/cravat that my brother wears on his Steampunk alt and that I think is fitting for an old world elf, though Trent is really very modern. I figure as a long-lived creature he has probably kept some of his favorite clothes over time.

Trousers & Boots: From our Inventory's Male Pirate option. Despite grabbing a ton of free footwear from Blackburns, this combo is a great match with the BlakOpal topper.

Finding clothes was hard, too, but I have a couple casual outfits and some swimwear. Silly me, I spent as much time organizing all the finds as I did finding them. Trent's Inventory is flawlessly organized with backups properly stored and his "drawers" labeled and sorted. Elves are such neat freaks. Hopefully he'll be done and photographed before the February 1st deadline.

Meme: My Three SL Wishes

This week Strawberry Singh setup "My Three SL Wishes" for her meme challenge and wrote very eloquently about her desires. My first thoughts were very shallow and simplistic compared to her lofty wishes. Be sure to check out her thoughts here and I'll wait for you.

Ready? Go back and read them again if you want because I'm not sure I'm entirely ready. I had to think over night and I really don't feel as if I'm completely free of my comparatively simple mindset ... still thinking about nit-picky viewer changes or things that would for the most part benefit me and few others. Keeping in mind the inherently ephemeral nature of wishes, here are three that I'll commit to for now.

The Isle of Lesbos is BACK! I wish *sigh* ... If I could afford it, I'd bring back the Isle. It was home to so many women over the years; a safe haven and a family. More than likely there are many fine places similar to the Isle, but I have trouble bringing myself to even search for them because the Isle meant so much to me. Increasing responsibility helped me gain confidence, let me exercise my creative side, and made me interact with other people, thus building my social skills. Bonus? I have to admit that it was a real treat to have full run of the place, doing pretty much what I wanted regardless of the prim count. And need I point out that I met my SL wife there? We've been together for many years thanks to the Isle. Of course, there's the enduring friendships, too, particularly with my "sister" Threshin and her innumerable alts.

An end to lag is a big wish! That's not likely to happen. I've done what I can afford to do so as to reduce client-side lag and in a couple years, provided Second Life is still around, I'll likely try to upgrade my computer one more time in effort to do my part. Sadly, there are so many people, I'm sure, who try Second Life, get hit with lag, and leave, not knowing that they have at least some control. Of course, primary control rests with The Lab. They've tried educating Residents in the best ways to reduce lag (such as using the right size texture for a build) but it doesn't always work. Incompetent builders and Residents that insist on having hugely laggy avatars are a  major problem. Maybe it is time to revisit how the world is built behind the scenes ... new rendering engines, a more efficient script language, and a better way to handle textures and traffic loads.

If only my pixy alt, Zyx Flux, was real. I logged her in the other day ... the first time in a while ... and it was refreshing to be this little free spirit again. Like many Residents, when I log in as a different "character" (AKA Alt) a new part of me comes out. I'm still me, but she's a different part of me. It is so hard to describe. I just sat here staring at the picture above for several minutes while writing this post at a loss for words, unable to express what it is like. Being blue, by the way, totally rocks. I'm seriously thinking of changing Uccello to be blue, too, if I could find a way to match my mesh hands/feet to my pixy skin (most of my characters have the same blue skin that Zyx has in their inventories). There is something to be said for Pixy Power!

Only three wishes? There are a number of viewer enhancements I could think of, bits of land I'd like to own, skills I would love to have, and .... well, I could use unlimited wishes. But who couldn't? What are your top three (for now)? Let me know in comments here or use comments to point to your blog so I can visit.

My Seven SL Facts Meme

First I saw Caitlin Tobias do it. Then I saw Vick Forcella do it. Apparently they both saw Strawberry Singh do it. Now I have to just do it, too ... write down Seven SL Facts. Based on what I've read from these people's blogs, these facts are about me. Well, their blogs were about them so mine should be about me. You get the idea.

ONE – That's me in the picture above. Yes, I have a male form for my Uccello Poultry "character." Basically I flipped the gender switch in the shape editor, tweaked a few numbers so "he" meets the so-called Standard Sizing that most clothing creators adhere to, then grabbed a skin and some clothes. Of course, I'm also a Furry, a Tiny, a dragon, and hundreds of other forms. Like many in  SL, I'm a polymorph.

TWO – When I started afresh on the Main Grid after dumping my Teen Grid account, I began as a male to avoid getting hit on by men. Sex wasn't rampant on the TG, but if anyone tells you there was no sex there, they are pulling one of your body parts. Two days later I switched to female when one of my first neighbors tried to introduce me to gay male sex in SL.

THREE – Yes, I have had pixel sex (not with that neighbor). Deal with it.

FOUR – Second Life has helped me come to terms with a number of phobias and neuroses so my Real Life is much less turbulent. Thank you, Linden Lab. Now can you please make a good iOS client?

FIVE – Why don't I use Voice in Second Life? Same reason I have phobias and neuroses. My throat was slit so badly (as in inexpertly) when I was nine-ish years old iRL that my vocal cords are irreparable. I can use an electrolarynx to speak, but it is much easier to use American Sign Language or write on an iDevice to communicate.

SIX – I don't dance iSL, either. Well, if my wife (Angela Seale with whom I have had pixel sex – deal with it) wants to dance then I will. Or if it is a special event like One Billion Rising or someone's Birthdday/Rezzday then you might catch me doing it (dancing, not pixel sex). Dancing just strikes me as silly. Really, most animations do at different times, but dancing is just ... just ... I dunno. I'm baffled.

SEVEN – As far as I know, I am not banned anywhere. There was a time I was banned in lots of places just because I worked at the Isle of Lesbos. Proof that lesbians are human, too, as they can be just as mean and petty as straight people. Makes you wonder why someone is banned from certain activities and conventions because who they want to have sex with when by all other accounts they are "normal."

BONUS FACT! I have more than a few alts.  This one is from India.

MyWeek on MySL

If you haven't been following my past week on MySL then you've missed a fairly busy time. Here's a sampler from the snapshots section:

In my travels I re-found some places I had forgotten about, like the Bay of Space Pigs (SLurl) and picked up some freebies like this snapshot HUD. The Moles of the LDPW often display a wickedly sharp sense of humor in their builds making each visit a treat.

After The Lab finished rolling out Havok updates to all the regions it was safe to use mesh vehicles at sim border crossings again so I leaped in the Black Chicken and flew around the Coastal Waterway (Web) until I hit a ban line which disintigrated my chopper and dropped me in the water. Thank goodness this kitty can swim and has a day-glo flight suit for the Search And Rescue teams to spot.

On Election Day in the USA I visited an unofficial Obama 2012 campaign headquarters and took several snaps with owl buddy Daniel Voyager. Can't see it in this picture, but I'm wearing my Flufee for President hoodie. Later, Daniel searched for a Romney HQ but couldn't find anything. It's not like four years ago when lots of politicians had a presence in Second Life, official or otherwise.

The day before the US elections I ran amuck in some UK sims to celebrate Guy Fawkes Day (Web) and took a few snaps. There didn't seem to be much of a party for the remembrance anywhere and I actually met folks who thought I was just an Occupier (Web). My, how folks forget their traditions.

Despite Halloween having passed, I hit up Grendel's Children (Web) to search for pumpkins with avatar prizes inside. One of my favorites of the couple dozen I got is a pair of giant spiders. Amazingly textured, artfully sculpted, and brilliantly scripted, these critters can actually build webs and use them! Here I'm setting up house on the sign at one of Robin Sojourner's shops (SLurl) in Bay City.

A couple times during the week I attended the burning of the little Man at Burning Man's Inner Child Camp. Marianne McCann (far right) streamed some great tunes while a big crowd of people danced, watched the Man burn, and generally had a great time. Of course, Mari set off fireworks. The girl likes fire.

The week saw a couple visits to the Mad Pea Carneval (Web; SLurl), a fantastic build that must be experienced. There are so many talented artists that use Second Life as a medium that it's hard to understand why the platform, at least by general consensus, seems to be floundering.

On my first visit to Mad Pea I picked up a stalker, one Tem Haalan, who has a fabulous avatar that fits the Carneval so beautifully. Tem inspired me to spend several hundred L$ on new boots, leather pants, and other sundries to make a similar avatar which in the end I (A) forgot to photograph and (B) realized was nearly a clone of my Zyx Resident alt character. DOH!

So that's a sample of my week in MySL. How was yours? What? You don't use it? Shame on you! A premium account is not needed, its fun, and you can meet new people like Tem (he watched my MySL feed before we met, hence the stalkerness).

50 Thousand Plus

Uccello the Owl swooping in to catch some squirrel prey for her Inventory.

Last night after doing a little bit of Inventory maintenance I was pleased and dismayed to see my total item count was just over 50,000 pieces nearly 51,000 pieces. Mind you, my least used Alt has a mere 3, 205 pieces in her Inventory, nearly 10 bird avatars being the bulk of her acquired-since-Rez Day additions. Quite a difference, but some things really need to be noted:

• My wee pixy Alt has been accumulating items for landscaping so my total inventory is actually much larger.
• The bulk of my textures are not in viewers.
• My Building folder is filled with stuff — raw materials, if you will — such as columns and arches and furniture bits and .... you get the idea.
• I've been fairly good at but I could be much better at keeping Uccello's Inventory organized by boxing backup copies of most everything that had Copy perms and boxing up unused items such as 20-something shades of a particular hair style when I really wear but five at the most.
• Landmarks and Note Cards I don't frequently use are deleted almost immediately.
• Calling Cards count toward your Inventory total so if you remove a friend, remove their Calling Card (especially since every time a friend logs in or out, your entire Inventory is scanned so your experience slows).
• I keep too much stuff out of sentimentality.
• Too many items I've collected were picked up for "I might need this some day" reasons.

All this was on my mind when I was making lunch today and listening to Episode 24 of The Ihnatko Almanac podcast, "The Big Edit," which focused heavily on keeping only things you can't really live without by editing your complete collection of stuff. Like do you really need all those comic books (the host's example) or all those Legos you don't play with (my example). Or those ten pair of boots you have in your Second Life Inventory just because you had to have them for particular outfits you don't really wear any more. Yes, I really need to do some editing, if only more boxing of things I don't use much and don't want to lose.

Yclept's Last Day

Since I don't really need another alt, I decided to let Yclept Resident, an alt I created to visit the new Destination Islands (Web) off into the sunset and cancel the account, but I let her loose to play for about an hour first. Here is her "last day" in pictures.

After hitting the Home button a few times, Yclept wound up in the midst of a Griefer Attack in the Hellfell Infohub (SLurl). This portion was mild but at one point the particles spanned the whole region with images of the Microsoft Blue Screen of Death, FOXnews screen caps, and more. Hellfell is a very empty and dull Infohub, but it is near a road.

Not far from the Infohub is a Linden-owned beach with some sort of camp built by airplane crash survivors. I wonder how long it took the downed flyers to notice all the near by buildings.

Yclept finally found some shade at this Mole-made beach. Darkness is important for vampires but so is excitement. Out of boredom, Yclept left and headed to the road.

The same Linden scuba gear you can grab at the Premium Wilderness regions is at Route 7's southern terminus. No idea why as there is no sea life in the water, just bare sand. Still ... Freebie!

Contrary to climate, someone built a Winter paradise just off Route 7 and then put up ban lines, contrary to the greeting messages one sees when trying to enter.

It appears that Route 7 ends after just 10 minutes (or less) flying time and about five regions. But if you look beyond the barriers, there is a free boat rezzer and a stretch of water to sail.

Someone didn't tell the horrible, laggy cars that Route 7 becomes a waterway at this point. This one smoked it's tires trying to get up onto the dock, blocking Yclept along the way. As she sailed along, waiting for sunset, more vehicles fought with Yclept to control the sea lanes. Eventually the road returns in the Sunspiral sim (SLurl) and that is where Yclept logged out before I cancelled her account. I kinda miss her.

Shekhawati

Having recently watched and greatly enjoyed the movie Outsourced (released 2006 and the inspiration for the 2010 US television show), I've been spending time reading about India and looking to experience the culture in Second Life. In my quest I visited the Shekhawati region, home to Medley Builds, a mini-mall, and a nice art museum.

Much of the art is nicely framed and organized by series themes. It doesn't appear to be original, but rather nice quality scans or photos of classic art. Sadly. sometimes you'll see that the original was badly cropped or wasn't includes part of the frame from the Real Life version.

Murals are everywhere, such as this one (showing some of the bad cropping I mentioned).

The walls themselves are art, too, teeming with frescos and embellishments.

And outside the main hall you'll find examples of Indian architecture in Second Life style. And that's the rub. Much of the region is what I call "SL 1.0" ... what Our World looked like early in it's life when folks would make everything Full Bright, prims would float above the ground, terraforming was haphazardly completed, and textures placed so one prim face looked good but became horribly distorted on the other five faces. Some "errors" are egregious but some are amusing, like when I went into the fountain to splash with an elephant and found that the bottom was more than 10 meters below the elephant's feet. No one is perfect of course. But Shekhawati has a soul. You can tell that time was taken to capture the spirit of India. The region isn't a slap-together of items that Westerners would recognize and be satisfied with saying "I've been to India." Rather there are details and subtleties that evoke a deeper feeling of not just having "been" but of having "experienced."

Many thanks to my new friend Xandah, pictured above, for finding Shekhawati and helping me experience the culture. Yes, I have now have another alt, but through Xandah I hope to explore a culture that is superficially familiar to me but in need of much more understanding.

About Alts

Just yesterday I was given a gadget that lets me detect the use of Redzone, a system that identifies a Resident's Internet Protocol (IP) address in an effort to determine if an avatar is an alt of a banned Resident. Someone is assuming that common IPs mean that the same human is behind the keyboard of each. That strikes me as a potentially false assumption. The IP for my computer is the same for my iPad, my AppleTV, my neighbors, and for the guy in the car parked across the street surfing on the neighborhood's unsecured networks. So if my neighbor logs into Second Life and visits a Redzone-provisioned place where I am banned, she or he is likely to be banned, too.

Silly, I know, and I made the same observation as part of a (poorly written) comment on Tateru Nino's blog post about the Quickware product (apparently it is like Redzone). I also noted that my alts are fairly public. For those of you not up to speed on who I am in various places at various times depending on my various moods, here is a recap and a small surprise.

Uccello Poultry, my first alt, if you think of all my accounts as alts. Not to be confused with Uccello (Resident), a recent account I made to "protect" the name when the new avatar naming scheme was implemented. Ms Poultry is a polymorph but is usually human-ish and sometimes goes by the Display Name of Caitlin Peale or Uccello Peale (sharing a last name with my wife, Angela Peale), though at the moment she is Caitin O'Mygosh for the coming holiday. She is my oldest account and was started the day I turned 18 and could flee the Teen Grid. That avie will remain anonymous if only to keep my reputation cleaner than the sullied state it is in now. My avatar looks very much like the Real Life me, though with my most recent skin purchase I've adjusted the face a bit to better fit the texture.

Uccello (Resident) looks nothing like me, seldom appears on the grid, and has but one "human" form. Nearly 100% of the time she is some form of bird ... "Uccello" is Italian for bird. Flying in Second Life is a great way to relax and that is what I use her for. Sure, I can fly in all my avies, but she needed some purpose.

Usra Ostrich, also known as Mousra in Display Name and in spirit. She is my twin. We have identical hair, skin, eyes, shape, clothes, though she is most often a Loco Pocos mouse. This account was started to help safely explore aspects of my personality with the help of a Real Life therapist. Actually, that is why I started in Second Life, but there's a long story and not that important right now. What you should know about Mousra is ... well, nothing. She's me. Just a mini version. She has morphed in purpose over time and is more or less just for fun now (and not "fun" like most SLers mean it).

Zyx Flux, the first of my pixy alts. As noted elsewhere on this blog, this account was created to help win prizes from Lucky Chairs, but has since taken on a life of her own. She's child-sized and child-like, but is adult verified. I think of her as my landscaper as I'm focusing her inventory on items used to create garden environments. This is helping my main inventory stay in check. But I also love to explore the world with her. Others seem to delight in her presence and are more receptive to chatting. I guess her smaller size and unique appearance make her "less threatening" in some respects. She's not the sexpot that Uccello Poultry often appears to be so folks seem to relax more.

Zyx (Resident), the bigger, more adult version of the previous avie, was born to preserve the name, much like Uccello (Resident) was created. But unlike the bird avie, she's become a complete entity unto herself. In Real Life, I am a rather butch, mousy, plain, quiet lesbian that practices not-standing-out in a crowd. In Second Life, Zyx (Resident) is my fashion model ... the sophisticated, confident me, that exudes a calm womanliness without pretention. But she's still a pixy and plays the role to the hilt. Magic is at her soul. Here is her debut on this blog.

Torii Heron, my very first alt after coming to the main grid. Notice her name is a form of Bird Bird like Uccello Poultry? Yes, I was on a streak. For a long time Torii was an asian woman then she became a fish, but lately she's a bird, like Uccello Resident, befitting her name. Originally she was created as per The Lab's suggestion in the first book on our world (don't buy it, it is dross, but you can see it at Amazon) to make an alt to store excess inventory or to back it up. This was going well until The Lab's servers decided to ruin my life one day by trashing the inventories in all my accounts, including Torii's. I've not really had the heart to cancel her account, though, partly because her name is so cool. No picture of her here but if you really want to see what she looks like, peek out your window. See those winged things flapping about?

Delicate Quandry, one of two alts I share with my Real Life brother (CC Columbo in Second Life), is the surprise I mentioned ... this is her first public outing. Several people know that she is me (or my brother) and henceforth so as to make it clear who is "behind the wheel" I'll make arrangements. She came about partly because the opportunity for a cool name came up, but my brother needed a female alt for modeling and I wasn't giving him my password so we decided to share. Likewise, he has a male alt that we share for the times I need one and to keep me out of his account.

Mystery Woman (not her real name) is another surprise. Not sure what to do with her yet. One person other than my brother knows her, but for their privacy I won't reveal Mystery Woman's name. She is sort of a "get away" alt, like many folks have ... an avie you use to be anonymous. I keep her solitary with no one but "family" on her Friend list and she doesn't socialize, that includes cybering. She could be the reason that systems like Redzone exist as I've used her to "spy" on griefers that have bothered the Isle of Lesbos and for similar activities.

So, those are the names. Ban away. Second Life is a big, big place, and I'm sure I'll find some place other than yours to visit and spend my money. But do me the courtesy and tell me I'm banned, please. It could all be a misunderstanding.

Click Here for more of Tateru's posts on the topic of Alt Detection.

PS: There is one more alt ... but I don't have permission to mention her as even a post-script ... ooops.

Can You Tell?

Can you tell that I like my alts, Zyx Flux and Zyx Resident? Here they are at home, talking about the day's events. I spent most of Real Life today in a dark, quiet closet with a migraine. Lucky pixies.

This is why you have Alts

Earlier today the Second Life viewer froze and I had to close the application. Sadly, this made my avie 'stick' at her last location. Waiting the usual 5-minutes before trying to log-in again, trying to log-in at other regions, and the other usual tricks didn't work. So several hours later I contacted Live Chat (Web). I got a representative that had on a previous occasion simply ignored me and on another merely told me to file a ticket. This did not bode well. Over twenty minutes later the rep tried to suggest another ticket submission.

The pic here is from my alt, standing on the region edge, 49m from me and camming into our living room.

Here is my Live Chat, name of the rep withheld:

Chat Started: 01-25-2011 15:29:33
Chat Log:
REP: Thank you, for conatacting Second Life Support.
My name is REP, how my assist you today?
You: Hi! My Uccello Poultry avie is stuck in my Home spot near http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Merrow/149/209/23 and I can't log in. My alt can see Uccello there. I've tried logging in to Pooley and other regions, but I've been getting the "wait 5 minutes" advisory for a few hours now.
REP: hi
You: this is probably from a viewer crash I had earlier.
REP: One moment please
You: Okies :)
You: /me hums while waiting .. "I have an alt on an adjacent sim, watching."
REP: have you submitted a ticket?
You: No, I haven't. I tried that once and waited over a week before contacting Live Chat again. They cleared it up in 5 minutes.
You: From what I can see, she's the only avie in the Merrow region. Can you do a restart? It is Linden property.
REP: This issue requires ticket submitsion
You: May I ask why? Again, i'd rather not wait a week.
REP: The ticket response team have improved dramatically, according to our Second Life Residenst
REP: no worries they have been fast stately
You: /me sighs. Pardon me if I have my doubts after nearly 5 years with three premium accounts. But I'll try it. TThank you.
REP: np
REP: Thank you for contacting Linden Labs
This chat has been ended by the operator.

So off I go to file a ticket. Don't try contacting me for a while because I doubt they will do anything until I contact Live Chat again.

Your Case has been submitted!

Thank you for submitting your issue to us.

You will be receiving confirmation email with the case number to the email address you provided within 24 hours.

/me sighs

Update: Jan 26 - after being "stuck" for coming up on two days, I gave in and contacted Live Chat again. A wonderful rep had the situation fixed in 5 minutes. Interesting, my avie was stuck at home and was still there when I was able to log in. She existed in Pooley and at home for some time, but that cleared up when I had the avie bounce around SL a few times.

Re-Creation for Posterity

Do you have a wonderful first name in Second Life? One that is unique to you? I (and one of my alts) am well known by my first name so it occurred to me that with the new naming scheme anyone can create an account with just my name. The default last name of Resident is not automatically shown, even if you edit a new player's profile. Is your first name valuable enough to you that you should create an alt with that name to protect your identity? Think about it.

New Memorial Park

When my brother, CC Columbo, started his Second Life^® one of his activities was building a parkland with a memorial for his daughter. At one point he owned most of the mainland region called Nangrim and when I came from the Teen Grid I added to it, helping to form a sprawling landscape where people could relax in a "natural" setting. Over time it had many forms but it always featured a focus point about my niece, usually pictures and an info signboard. Eventually we sold some land when CC minimized his time in-world and then sold the balance when a pre-gambling ban casino kept the sim full, completely locking us out.

Not too long ago I used nearly the last of my Christmas gift money to get a premium account for my regular Alt and then had her buy a 512m² plot of land (SLurl) to use as a home and to re-create -- if only in part -- the Memorial Park. Since then I sometimes wander by the computer while CC is using it for something and spot the SL viewer, open and showing his avie sitting at the grave.

If you visit, please click the stone for information about the disease that took little Lydia's life.