Life in this Digital Frontier
Just a quick “I’m not dead” post here. Something’s wrong with my left hand (wrist nerves in particular) so I’ll be taking the next few days off to rest it.
Himself said, “Well, boredom’s better than pain.”
I replied “Well… let’s see after two days if I agree with that.”
So for now Mistletoe Creek will remain a ghost town. I’ll get back to it when I can.
‘I am not saying here, by the way, that this is all the fault of Lindens, or anything like that: I have, though, increasingly felt “this world is not for me”, particularly with issues such as the increasing split between “consumer” and “creator”, which I have written about previously.’
Ordinal Malaprop, here.
The depot platform is right at the center of the sim, so it’s where new people are most likely to show up. There will be notecards, LMs, and freebie stuff here.
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I like to keep informed as to what’s going on over at the Land of the Hand. In part it’s because I’m curious, but mostly it’s for my own smug sense of satisfaction at making the right choice in dumping that bastard. Yeah. I’m in that phase of the breakup I guess.
Well the latest reminder of the bullet I dodged comes in the form of a “conversation” initiated by new Conversation Guy, Wallace “Herald? What Herald?” Linden. In a post at the blog/forum/wtfever they’re calling it now, Wallace asks, “Will the Real You Please Stand Up?”. It opens with what sounds an awful lot to me like a threat: the story of Friendster dumping user accounts suspected of being less than 100% genuine. It’s almost like he’s saying without saying that LL could just as easily do the same in the future. He then talks about Facebook and Twitter (cause that’s what all the cool kids are using don’tchaknow) and spends paragraph after paragraph rambling in a way that “Doc” describes as a kid answering an essay question on his exam, who has no idea what the answer to the question really is.
Hey, I got nothing against verbose. Hello, it’s ME. But I like to think at least that when I’m verbose, I’m making clear what it is I’m saying.
I think what he’s asking, is what residents think about integrating their very RL personal ID information into their SL profiles. Well, they don’t like it. Least most don’t.
Now, you probably know my feelings on identity. I’m not too concerned who knows my SL, OL, or even RL name (especially since the latter is shared by at least 643 other people just in this country). I’ve said before that I’m much more likely to take seriously the sentiments of commenters in this blog if I have some idea who they are (and not necessarily who they are in RL; but rather who they are in the virtual/digital sense). After all, if they’re actually someone from another grid, for example, it’s plain to see a likely agenda. I like to see if someone’s an alt, but as long as there’s no drama/manipulation/deceit, I can live without knowing. I surely don’t need to know your home address, occupation, phone number, or mother’s maiden name in order to think you’re worth talking or listening to.
Second Life already has a way for you to divulge your RL information to other people, right in your own Profile. You can put as much or as little info as you wish into it. On the Web tab, you can put links to your blog or website or whatever you wish. Or, you can leave it blank.
So knowing such a thing already exists, one has to ask: Wallace, what are you talking about?
OK. There are people who are (in my opinion, unreasonably) creeped out by kid avatars. But I do think that there are some such avatars who are guilty of contributing to that creep factor. They’re the ones who look like this:
(P.S.: Don’t read the comments. They’ll eat your brains.)
So if I could offer one bit of advice to people who have or are thinking of creating child avatars, it’s this: don’t make them look like pageant kids. That’s more creepy than most normal minds can bear. Try and make your kids look like kids. Not whores.
Click here to see tonight’s episode!
“Midnight Setting” stars Mark Pixel, and is a late-night comedy monologue about OpenLife. Produced by Mistletoe Ethaniel. 
So there’s a newish post at the SL Revolution (or as Hawks calls it, “The Rev”; ’cause all the cool kids have abbreviations. I’m not going to start calling my blog LITDF because it’s way less cool and I never claimed to be one of the cool kids anyway), listing 20 things the poster has never done [link] in SL. After reading it over and going “done it, done it, do it all the time…” I decided I’d give such a list a go. Considering my being an immigrant into a different country, I’m going to broaden mine a bit to be 20 things I’ve never done in a virtual world. Some of them I hope to get to, some I never wish to attempt.
1. I’ve never made a pose or animation.
2. I don’t think I’ve ever NOT had some kind of business going.
3. I’ve never owned my own sim.
4. I’ve (also, like the original list author) never met anyone in person that I’ve met in a virtual world.
5. I’ve never been in a Gorean RP sim (except to shop, and that very briefly).
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moar funny pictures
Someone (I don’t know who) once said that it takes an average of ten years to become an overnight sensation. I’ve had this little blog for, oh, a year and a half or so, but only now is it starting to get anything remotely resembling Heard Of. I’ve had ridonkulous spikes in readership in the past couple days; seems something got the attention of some Plurkers, not to mention the generous folks who worry so much about my money and how it gets spent.
So anyway, now that I know folks are actually reading this thing, it makes me put a bit of pressure on myself to come up with something interesting for you folks to read. Seeings how you’ve only recently come to discover my blog, there’s tons of back stuff to hold you over until I think of something. At least I hope so.
See, the thing is, I don’t blog for an audience most of the time. So I don’t focus on what X reader or Y reader would find interesting. I blog, purely and simply, to hear myself talk. Honestly, that’s it. But this much I can promise you: I don’t do boring-ass fashion blog posts. I gave one or two a try a long time ago and it was painful. I give about as big a flying fuck for virtual fashion as I do for real fashion. Does it cover me, keep me warm, and not make me look like an idiot? Good enough for me.
I’m opinionated, sometimes mouthy, and I talk here like I do in my own house. If you don’t like it, nobody’s forcing you to stay; but who knows, every now and then someone finds something they can relate to and I’m glad I can do that much.
You come upon my blog about my life in virtual worlds just as my real world is going through some major changes and lots of uncertainty. I don’t do well with uncertainty. I’m the kind of individual who has a Plan B, C, and D in place at any given time; and when things get uncertain, I kind of get scattered. As a result, my virtual world time has been decreasing of late. It’s something I intend to get back into once things are less scattered.
What other interesting stuff can I tell you about me, my writing, and this blog? I like semicolons; I like them a lot. I track IP addresses. I moderate all my comments. I’m bullshit-intolerant. But I’m also mostly harmless. So anyway, happy reading to you, welcome to the mess that is my blog, visit the ads and the links and stuff, and enjoy.
