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Lol, see what I did with the title?

I’m glad Alicia came up with a BBBC topic for today, because I haven’t had much going on my my SLife and I’ve been wearing the same outfit for a few days.  She wants to know

If there was someone you could trade places with for one day in Second Life, who would it be and why? Bonus points if you find this person and snap a picture with them!

I know exactly who I’d switch places with, but because she scares me and is a self-googling, name calling, finger wagging crazy cat lady, I’m going to refrain from using their name.  On one hand, I want to understand how she’s made it where she is while being publicly insane and know more about the drama that has gone down between her and a group of individuals representing a certain Californian college.  On the other, griefing is fun and it would be easy to grief myself.

I must admit, I don’t know much about this person and the drama, but it’s interesting and the college individuals previously mentioned share most of the same feelings I have about freedom of expression in Second Life.

Just in case, I’m going to say this up front.  I’m leaving names out because I’m a shitless bystander when it comes to serious drama.  I’ll admit it.  I’m a no-one in Second Life and should I make the wrong people mad, I could lose what I have.

But, hey, I had to write my BBBC post about something!

Tags: BBBC09
Posted in Memes, Opinions | 3 Comments »

I don’t know if Zindra is male or female, but it sounds female to me.

If for some reason you’ve been living under a plywood cube and then somehow made it to my blog, Zindra is the name of the continent the Lab plans on shipping all ‘mature’ content to soon.  Exactly when I’m not too sure.  Thankfully the only land I occupy is on a private island so the Lindens can’t do anything about my particle sperm spewing penis throne.

Right now, the theme of Zindra is something out of the near future with sharp lines, lots of glow and a pretend dam generating pretend electricity.  I didn’t care too much about the buildings.  There’s roads that stretch from one side of the sims to the other.  Sounds like a perfect opportunity to hop on my little scooter and do some driving.

Well, you’d think that.  There are these beautiful intersections with modern stop lights and walls to keep you from crashing into other turning cars.  The problem?  These intersections are built where FOUR sims connect!  FOUR!  To make a left hand turn, you have to move through three sims!  Needless to say, I had some problems:

Tags: scooter, sim crossing, Zindra
Posted in Opinions, Videos | 2 Comments »

Out of all the different things there are to wear in Second Life, ugly shoes are the one things I cannot understand.  Even when I was a noob, if I put on a pair of shoes that squished my feet into impossible shapes or blinged to the point where I would never lose them in my closet, I took them off and trashed them.  There’s no shame in going barefoot if you can’t find decent shoes to wear.  I know for a fact there are cheap or free QUALITY shoes.  I rarely pay for shoes, and the ones I do are never more than a few hundred linden.

I don’t understand what makes an avatar put on a pair of terrible shoes and think they look okay.  I am generally very liberal when it comes to personal style.  Everyone has a different idea of what looks good.  However, there is no excuse for some of the ugly things you see on the feet of both new and old avatars.  When I take a snapshot of someone, it’s always after checking their rezdate.  You get the benefit of the doubt if you’re less than a few weeks old.  The freebie warehouses out there are full of ugly clothes, including ugly heels that blind you with bling.  I usually find myself running into avatars several months, or even years, old coming the same crimes against fashion that noobs do.  There’s really no excuse for it at that point.

To me, there are three main offences.  The first is the most plentiful: ugly, illfitting spike heels with poorly used invisiprims and an insane ammount of bling.  Most of these shoes have been around for a long time, but have evolved from a new concept into a clickyclacking, blingy, sexywalking, too small disaster.

The second is wearing shoe bases but forgetting to actually wear the shoes.  I imagine if our feet looked like footbound-esque stumps in real life like they do in Second Life without shoes, we’d never forget to put them on.

The last is dying out, but I still see them from time to time: SYSTEM SHOES!  It’s 2009!  We’ve got Havok 4, Midnight Mania and flexy sculpts!  You don’t have to wear system shoes anymore!  Honestly, system shoes were never good (just like everything else system based, like hair and skin) and I don’t even know where people get them.  They’re not even in the library anymore!

Not really sure what else to say to wrap it up that hasn’t already been said.  Stop wearing ugly shoes!

Tags: fug, shoes
Posted in Fashion, Opinions | No Comments »

Today my RL grandma brought a print out to the family get-together on Memorial Day that she thought was pretty interesting.  She knows that my brother and I are be into Second Life and found this related website of sorts.  Flipping through it, I couldn’t wait to get home and see if this website still existed as the print-out references somewhere called ‘LindenLand’.  Turns out it still exists and it still references ‘LindenLand’. The website is basically a manual on using Second Life as a platform for ministry.

There are lots of good points in the article, but unfortunately Second Life is not a good platform for most agendas, especially ones so personal that vary so greatly between people.  Political parties can rally their own troops, but anyone that disagrees with the party member being presented will just teleport home, or to the sim housing the rally for their own troops.

The very first place where this presentation fails is the graphics.  Second Life is always evolving, and ideas about how to interact and fit in with the virtual crowd need to evolve too.  The vectorized images of avatars styled straight out of 2003 is a big turnoff and a bad way to introduce people who are already going to be awkward to the virtual world.  If someone tried to talk to me seriously about a topic I’m not really interested in styled like the avatars pictured, I would most likely ignore them or teleport home.  Part of the article has the following:

Go without Purse, Bag, or Sandals (Luke 10:4)—There can be a temptation in Second Life to become driven by the L$. Commerce is a part of almost all aspects of the environment there, and it is easy to get drawn into it. Don’t give in to the temptation to overspend. Be a good steward in the virtual world as well as in real life, trusting God to provide for you each step of the way.

Unless you spend some L$ (or are an awesome freebie hunter, like myself), you’re never going to be close to the level of style that the average person willing to have a serious conversation about religion is going to have.

The best part is how they plan on hooking non-believers.

But many spend time in Second Life because, for one reason or another, they are happier in this “second” life than they are in “real” life. They leave the struggles of life behind momentarily when they go online and interact with others using a fictional persona they have created in this alternate world. They are searching for purpose and trying to create it for themselves there.

People in Second Life are only there because there is something missing from their real lives, apparently.  We’re all escapists ignoring our spouses and children to have flings in the virtual world with our Satanist concubines.  There’s a story about someone named ‘John the Satanist (not to be confused with John the Baptist)’ and how a noob Christian managed to get a hold on his cold, cold heart by telling him about how lonely she was before becoming a Christian.

I’m pretty sure the last thing that will convert an Agnostic or Atheist is a heartwarming story about how God changes lives.  Most non-Christians have heard it all before, and this article has it right:

However, the technological focus of Second Life and the nature of the game itself mean that you are likely to meet frequently a certain kind of person—specifically, people who have “been there and done that” when it comes to religion, including but not limited to Christianity.

So, what makes anyone think a tired approach is going to to convince someone when they’ve ‘been there and done that’?

Second Life is a great place for people with similar views to get together and share their experiences with each other.  If someone is interested in your topic, they will seek you out, ask questions and check out your build.  If you try and bring something a person is not interested in to them, they’re going to leave.

I encourage you to read the article on the World Gospel Mission website yourself and come up with your own opinion about what position religious missionaries have in our virtual world.

Tags: christianity, Opinions, religion
Posted in Opinions | No Comments »