I know I’ve seen this before…. Hmmm…. I think it had a clock on it. Yeah, that’s it. And mine is usually black.

-Veyron

Blogged with Flock

Apparently, I’m behind the times on this, but Tiana Meriman is gone, and her blog is gone too. Makes me sad that she left us all. I didn’t talk that much to Tiana, but I did find her an interesting person in more than one way. I’m sorry to see her go. Maybe she’s still around. Her last blog post maybe left a clue.

i guess i’m just not made to be a social person, i dont feel comfortable in the spot light. i feel good in the shadows, i feel good helping from the back scene. i want to go back to my spot of comfort, i want to go back to the shadows.

I can sympathize with how she thought here. But I still sort of miss her. I wish I had more time to spend with interesting avies like Tiana. Peace be with you Tiana.

-Veyron

Here’s a cool little video by Robbie Dingo. It has a number of interesting Second Life people in it. You might find it interesting to watch and see if you can pick out the avatars you can recognize in it before you look at the credits. It’s really well done.  If you have trouble viewing it below, a here’s a link to it.

So, I was dancing away at the Dark Eden party last a little while back and low and behold, a famous celebrity shows up…  Aimee Weber.  Slightly amused and then suddenly I think - “hmm, this might be time to snap a few pictures….”  Then after taking a few shots and seeing she was still around, maybe it was kind of amusing…  the Dark Eden party is a rather wild party and here’s Aimee partying away.  But then the chatting seemed to move on to more mundane Second Life things and less risque activities than this party usually has.  Anyway, the party ended and then I though, maybe this would be some good public relations for Dark Eden and Devil Made Me Do It and the rest of the Dark Eden mall owners to get into the … Avastar … and Aimee is for sure of interest to them.

Being rash, and more than willing to of course get into trouble, I fired off some pictures to the Avastar.   Well, about two and half minutes later, I was have a mild case of regret, but of course it was too late now….  Cover and page 14, as you can see.  Rather amusing text, which *I* didn’t write (but certainly looks like I could have….)  And she did keep her wings on the whole time. 

So Aimee, if you’re mad at me, I’m sorry.  But I think they say, there’s no such thing as bad PR…. 

-Veyron

This is a great post by lashxevious, How not to Charm a girl in SL. Covering some obvious points like moving too fast, cheesy lame Casanovary, IM whoring, Muscley-Caveman-Fabio drool, and of course Desecrating Dante. I haven’t seen too many of the big ugly out of proportion guys. You know with the giant arms and shoulders and tiny little heads? ::sigh:: Maybe that should be a contest?

-Veyron

It’s interesting how American English and British English are different. As Churchill once said, "Two nations separated by a common language." Amanda used an interesting term on Pownce today, and I actually had to look it up… "On the pull". An interesting idiom. I found this pretty amusing site, the English-to-American Dictionary.

pull v. The art of distracting the opposite sex. Pulling is conceptually very similar to hooking up. To be on the pull is a less proactive version of sharking. Single males and females are almost all on the pull but will deny it fervently and pretend to be terribly surprised when eventually it pays off.

I wonder if they have a Second Life to First Life Dictionary anywhere…

-Veyron

Hmmm, no this is not possibly the worst Star Trek episode ever made… it is a new odd search engine called Spock. It’s designed around finding people (and I guess now avatars). I’ve got Vint, Zoe and Codie (and it looks like Timothy) now hooked into this giant machine, you too can join in the madness. My entry can be found on Spock linked to other people. Now the amusing part it you can add tags (and sort of remove tags) and information for other people. Just think of the entries for Dalien, Gideon, Tiessa, and (gasp) Prok! Better get there before someone else creates your entry for you….

-Veyron

One of my favorite Second Life people has finally returned to her blog.  Tiessa is back, but I expect in a way she did not plan on….  I now hope to hear more in her in her very interesting and amusing blog.

-Veyron

In typical smart arse fashion, Veyron has put up her very own FAQ or Frequently Asked Questions.  It answers some basic questions we all want to know.  Veyron sometimes gets tired of answering them - but not often.  So, in the interest of smartassdom she has put the first version together.  While I was amused with it, I didn’t let her post it for sometime.  Veyron finally won over and so it is up and online.

If you can think of anything more she would need to add to the FAQ, I’m sure she would oblige.

-The Narrator

I got irritated last night. Then I got upset. It bugged me all morning. It gave me an upset stomach. So, I have a rant here. I’m ranting here to make sure that I can at least read it again in the future. Learning can sometimes be painful.

I joined up into Second Life fully planning to “ride under the radar” and have some fun. My situation has obviously devolved into something more (or less) than that. And I’ve been reasonably comfortable with that so far.

I have had a few bad experiences in the past with online relationships, so I’ve essentially sworn them off. No, I have definitely sworn them off. And that means what it means. And what I mean by a relationship is something beyond an acquaintance. I like meeting people, having fun with people online, but that’s as far as it is ever going to go. I have learned my lessons. In fact, I wrote down a memo to myself about a week into Second Life detailing what I will not ever do. It’s my contract with myself. When I feel I get close to violating it, I read it again. It’s good to remind myself of what I have learned.

Someone insinuated I was not who I said I was. So, being stubborn and bull headed, I couldn’t take it any longer. I charged right in to prove them wrong around noon today. Taking a cue from the old show, The Spot, I changed into a swimsuit and setup my camera in my living room on a tripod. I wrote up a small sign to hold and took a few pictures.

I shoot RAW, so I need to then process the shots in my computer. Since I do have some vanity, I though I would clean up a few “minor” (ahem) issues in Photoshop - I mean, why not while I’m at it? I was all smug thinking how I was going to prove them all wrong and I was going to show them up. I tinkered with the best shot for a while and then I realized that someone could obviously accuse me of Photoshopping the shot together, and this would be insufficient. More would be required. Visions of audio, and then video being required as proof…. Then I remembered my contract with my self…. I deleted the photos and seethed for a while at my computer. I felt I had let myself manipulate myself and that was the ultimate form of stupidity.

I play in Second Life for my entertainment and no other reason. Not for money, life or liberty. Only entertainment. And to be frank, my entertainment - not someone else’s. Letting myself get manipulated into doing something I did not want to do in the beginning was now not fun. It was drama way outside of what I needed or wanted, and I let myself get pulled into it rather than blowing it off like I usually do.

Lillie Yifu has an excellent post on what Second Life virtual sex revolves around, presence. I let some other people push their presence into my space without thinking about it. I have seen this happen to friends of mine inside Second Life. People get overwhelmed and consumed with Second Life without thinking about it. I let myself get consumed with it for a few hours, and I am grateful I was able to pull back.

My first two weeks or so inside Second Life I was obsessed with who was behind the keyboard. I’ve meet people like this - I was one of them. Then I had an epiphany. I have either no intention, desire, or real ability of ever meeting anyone in Second Life in Real Life. Therefore, who or what they are in Real Life actually is more of a fantasy than what they are in Second Life. Think about it. Inside a fantasy world, reality is the fantasy.

I take everyone in Second Life at face value. What does that mean? You are what you look like and who you say you are. Why not? While it’s obviously cute if two guys are doing a ridiculous job at cybersex with each other as girls - I really could care less otherwise. I feel for someone who is mislead about the other person who they are if it caused hurt feelings, last thing I want to do is see hurt feelings. There’s enough pain in the world.

But for me, I don’t necessary need to know about their Real Life lives. Again, that’s a fantasy here. If I wanted more Real Life - Life - I might be on IRC or something similar, but I’m not. I’m in the current ultimate fantasy land.

The annoying part about this whole drama is that it is no fun. Which goes back to the point of why I play in Second Life - to have fun. And then we circle back to why Real Life has to or needs to intrude in Second Life. The day Second Life is not fun anymore is the day I am done with Second Life. Today was a close call. I have too many people inside of Second Life I would miss to leave.

What does this mean? I had set my terms with myself up front. My terms were good terms and terms I need to and wanted to live with. I control my destiny. I am in control of who I am and what personal information I want to give out of any kind. It’s not a angry statement or loud statement, it’s just a firm stance. I don’t think it’s unreasonable either.

I think a lot of people in Second Life start out with the “I am going to be anonymous” position and let it erode over time. There is no recall button for information once it is given out. Just say no and walk away. It’s that simple. If the other person can’t live with that, then there are at least 5 million other people in Second Life to play with.

I just wanna have fun….

-Veyron

I spoke about Second Life friend who ended his account yesterday. As Vint said commented about a similar experience, I believe he did come back on a day or so later. I received an IM from another woman relaying some message about his “cousin or such” is online in Second Life. I was reasonably sure it was him back online.

I think that IM disturbed me even more. I felt like I had been unceremoniously and brutally rejected. Then a weak attempt to pretend as if nothing happened. I did not respond to the IM and never spoke with him again (if it was him). It was too much to deal with again - drama like this I do not need.

It is probably better that the old Avatar is simply laid to rest rather then resurrected in some poor replica.

When I last spoke about avatars and where they go when they die, something was on my mind about avatar death. I meet a really nice avatar about a month ago. He was fairly new to Second Life, but already had a cute body, skin, and nice clothes. He was also very charming, but was having a hard time with the “reality” of Second Life.

I spent about 5 days talking with him on and off. There was a mutual attraction to each other and I was beginning to get attached to him. On a Thursday night, I had some other business in Second Life to take care of and I was not able to spend much, if any time with him.

Friday morning, I received an IM in my email basket that he could not take the reality of Second Life and longer and deleted his account. By the time I got online he was already offline and gone. It was a surprisingly traumatic event for me. His avatar is gone from the database. I’m left with no way anymore to contact him. The only thing I have left is his friendship card, which has his picture and his old avatar profile. But his profile is gone from the database. He doesn’t even appear on my friends list anymore.

I wonder if I have the only copy now. The only piece of the avatar left is a card I carry in my inventory. No tombstone, no grave, no monument - nothing else - simply de-rezzed. Afterwards, I was upset and angry, and I almost deleted his card - out of spite for leaving me like that - but I didn’t. For which I’m grateful I kept the card. We had a good time for a few days and the card helps to remind me of that.

Tiana Meriman post about playing with the avatar shape sliders reminded me of this pretty funny image I got from someone - I can’t recall who gave me a this picture right now….

This is what happens when you move the sliders all the way to 100 percent.

What a pair… cracks me up every time I see it.

-Veyron

In my last blog posting, I talked about the Google Operating System. You can also expand on this and create an entire operating system for your Avatar, to better separate your lives from each other. It might also help in keeping your Avatar’s existence private. An interesting tool is the Free Portable Privacy Machine. It is a Linux virtual machine that will run under Windows or Linux using QEMU, potentially off of a USB memory stick.

From within the virtual machine you can run Firefox and get access at all of your Avatar’s life within the Google world. The only down side is the version of Firefox they have installed, version 1.5, is getting old. I’m not sure if it can be upgraded to the 2.0 version easily or not. In any case it should still do the job.

-Veyron

Well, looks like I won’t be served any drinks with this I.D. card, but it is pretty amusing. Much like taking your avatar to work, this might be fun. Then again, it might be a bit incriminating….

-Veyron