Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Second Life

My youngest daughter has been a "resident" of Second Life's virtual world for some time now. Once she took me on a cyber-tour of the virtual world, we visited her shop, chatted with friends, checked out how one can modify one's avatar, and one of the highlights (other than checking out her store) was visiting a strip-joint, watching her avatar being hit on by a cigar-smoking baby, and watching as she kicked the baby across the dance floor only to have it come running back shouting "HEY!"

I was fascinated to see the real-time interaction with other avatars knowing that somewhere out there on the other end of the internet, real people were controlling those characters...and yet I wasn't fascinated enough to want to check out Second Life beyond that night's tour.

UNTIL I received a solicitous email yesterday from a stranger who had found my art online and was offering to display my digitally-enslaved art works for sale in his virtual gallery, in Second Life... for a $3.50 monthly fee. Knowing that many bonified businesses and schools are virtually doing real business and making real money, I became intrigued enough with this idea to log on and create my own free account. The plan was: Once I get a feel for it (which will likely be a loooong time from now) I am going to upgrade to a premium account (which allows me to purchase virtual land) and then I am going to build my own art gallery!

FINALLY! My OWN Gallery damnit!

I have not gotten past the initial "Orientation/Tutorial/Help" phase yet. In fact, last night I got pretty damn frustrated because I stopped to get a drink on Help Island and now the freaking glass of water is stuck to my hand and my avatar continually slurps from it. For the virtual-life of me, I could NOT figure out how to ditch the water and so I quit playing.

I don't know why the hell I thought I should give this virtual life a go-round because I can't even seem to keep my first life under control...sigh, what the heck. If you are a Second life resident and you feel like going to Help Island, you might see me walking around a dock somewhere, drinking water and bumping into things... please be kind to me, it seems I'm a little "challenged" with this whole hand-eye coordination thing and understanding written directions.

14 comments:

Cheryl said...

I poked around there awhile ago, but as I had the dial up at that point I didn't follow up. It seemed really cool, though.

Carolyn said...

I am totally laughing at the thought of you roaming around with your glass on Help Island....you have tweaked my interest! I gotta check this out...
p.s.a virtual gallery sounds very reasonable and the idea of purchasing 'land' seems so surreal---what a concept!C

Suzanne said...

One advantage of having a glass stuck to one's hand is that you'ill never go thirsty...Especially on a tropical island...Speaking of Islands

Someone,I know works for Ikea training staff. Apparently, she recently went to Palm Jumeirah in Dubai...A visit that made quite an impression on her. Apparently, their Ikea store has indoor cross-country skiing.
http://www.thepalm.ae/

Biddie said...

Talk about 2nd lives - I've seen reports on Dubai - an incredible place that is being built out of all the oil revenues collected from around the world - and us in particular!!!

An awful lot of the people in this world together are funding the outrageously extravagant building going on there because of $$ we're spending for our gasoline, oil and plastics - all spin-offs of their crude oil exports.

If we could ever develop alternate energy resources, we would leave a lot of this mid-eastern crap in the dust!

As for the cyber's 2nd life - it's definitely fascinating but don't even bother if unless you have a very fast line, a great computer and time on your hands. You have to admire the programming that has gone on behind the scenes to support this website!!!

I often wonder what intelligent people did back in more non-technological times (if they ever actually had some free time from basic survival activities) to keep themselves from going stark-raving mad ....

Suzanne said...

I totally agree about the excessive building of the Palm Island with Oil Money...My friend was shocked about the cheap labor from India and Indonesia (that's Globalization for ya) that were hired with limited visas and confiscated passports (Modern Slavery. Funny that Donald Trump's company is involved...huh!!!

Jamie Lee Awesome said...

To get rid of the water -

click on your inventory button. (bottom right, blue button)

do a search for "water" or "glass"

Something should pop up in the list that is highlighted.

When things in your inventory are highlighted it means that you're wearing them.

apple+click the highlighted item, and pick "take off" or "detach" from the dropdown menu that pops up.

and POOF! the water should be gone.

mike macgirvin said...

Ms. Biddie - I believe that in primitive societies those who could... read books, wrote poetry, played music, or painted. Some even got involved in organizations in the local community in order to make friends.

Then again, an usually high number just went stark raving mad.

Michael-Ann said...

"...Then again, an usually high number just went stark raving mad..."

Me thinks this is still the inclination today :)

Cheryl said...

Hey, are you starkers yet? Me bum hurts, and it's darn near a full enough moon..how ya doin dahlin?

Cheryl said...

Where are you today???

Mitch! said...

Yeh! Where ya been slap happy?

Shelli said...

where ya at Mikie, where ya at??!!
c-ya tomorrow w/ our mutual friend Jose Cuervo Especial!!! w/ shot glasses on hand!! yee haa!!!

Biddie said...

I found this interesting spoof on 2nd Life - it's called Get a First Life.

Here's an article about some
"non-pending" legal action
against the website.

Cheryl said...

Well, it's 6:00 here, so it's 5:00 there, you have one more hour to go. I hope you didn't freeze your butt off, and that you come home and snuggle beneath a warm blanket and prop your feet up, I wish I could lend you a bully because there isn't anything more soothing than a snoring bully snuggled into you. I hope the day went well, and now take some pure selfish time and coddle that cold you have. Art is a harsh mistress, but sometimes it's ok if you're not in the mood. Warm food, good sleep. Love you.

The Morning After Jerkiness

It has been that slow creep from silent defense shields in place to tiny snippets of less awkward conversation sometimes accompanied by an o...