Spring Flowers

Written 6 March, 2011

Spring Flowers

For the past six weeks or so I've been walking daily around the little lake that is just feet from my house, taking photos of plants and wildlife and enjoying Atlanta's early spring. I'm happy to share some images of flowers with you. I'll post more photos in a day or two.

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A High-Tech Lynching

Mary the Elephant, Lynched in Erwin, Tennessee, 13 September, 1916

A High-Tech Lynch Mob, 2 April, 2011, Help Island Public. The Headless Victim is at Center

Written 2 April, 2011

A High-Tech Lynching

I saw something ugly tonight, and I'm afraid to say I was caught up in it for a time, until I processed what was going on and tried to put a stop to it.

I was hanging out at Help Island Public, along with about 40 other avatars, when a one-day-old new resident appeared and managed, in the space of three short minutes, to antagonize almost everyone.

It started in a small way when an older resident welcomed her to Second Life and called her man. You know, like "Welcome to Second Life, man." She said "I"m not a man!" He apologized, telling her he had read the wrong tag in the crowd.

She then said hello to everyone. But then she made the mistake of bragging. She said she had just gotten home from a photo shoot in a club. She hated the smoke, but they paid her $3000 USD for 30 minutes work, she said.

That started it. The resident bully, a popular DJ in Second Life said, "Of course they are."  When she said she did it for the fans and mentioned she was an Eye Candy model, he called BS on her. From then on everything she said was somehow wrong. Before long most of the people present were picking on her, ridiculing her, sniping at her. Eventually she snapped back, and the bully's girlfriend decided she was the target.

That's when the lynching really began.

Suddenly her avatar was being animated and deformed, and against her will.. She was hunching the air, rolling on the ground, sticking her head up her backside, spinning her head like a top. Eventually she was grossly deformed, stretched out 50 meters in all directions.

This went on for an hour (I timed it from the chat log). Through it all she kept asking why her person was behaving so. Through it all people kept saying horrible things to her and laughing at her. It was a high-tech lynching.

I had participated at first, but found it increasingly unfunny as the scene continued to play out. I was in IM with a friend who was also present. He grew upset before I did, and our conversation helped me understand early on that something horrible was happening.

I made a few feeble attempts to stop it, but the group dynamic was going strong and the lynching continued. So I IMed the victim and talked to her at length to make sure she understood she was being abused. She wound up friending me, which made me feel a bit guilty.

The more I process what happened, the more angry I become. I'm mad at the people who led the pack, I'm angry at the people who followed, I'm angry at whoever deformed her, and I'm angry at myself for not coming to my senses sooner and for not trying harder to stop the lynching.

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Robot Love at First Sight

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Comment Latency: Nearly Three Years

Written 31 March, 2011

Comment Latency: Nearly Three Years

Some anonymous person just left this comment on a post I wrote in November, 2008-- two and a half years ago. That's like 20 years ago in sped-up Second Life time. The post was about the then new OS Grid, and you can read it here. Here's what Anonymous wrote:

I hardly think your stating the truth here.. I run "SIX" Sims at once and never see a issue with the Physics engine. No one I know loses their hair. Maybe you have a extremely poor internet connection.. Personally I think you are just here to Troll with lies and non facts.

Two and a half years ago the physics engine on the OS Grid has serious problems. Today it still isn't up to snuff-- there are still no vehicles, for example. No vehicles

News to you, Anonymous. Here's what the OpenSim Wiki has to say:

OpenSimulator lacks support for many of the game-specific features of Second Life (on purpose), while pursuing innovative directions towards becoming the bare bones, but extensible, server of the 3D Web... OpenSimulator is getting more stable as it approaches release 1.0, but we still consider it alpha software; so should you.

So, anonymous, since you called me a troll while blowing it out your a**, let me say in all sincerity: eff off.

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A Night at the Opera-- Err, Ballet

Written 29 March, 2011

A Night at the Opera-- Errr, Ballet

On Thursday my friend Bonneville Nightfire told me this weekend marked Ballet Pixelle's final presentations of Narnia. When Saturday came it had slipped my mind, but I remembered Sunday morning and Sweetie and I showed up in all our finery for the final performance. Alas, it had been cancelled. :(

Rats! But a couple of hours later Bonne IMed to say the show would go on. :)

I phoned Sweetie and we made it just in time. An avatar I had just met at Help Island Public decided to go to, and had a good time-- as did we.

Next up for Ballet Pixelle is Time Burton's Alice.

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How to Be Cool in Second Life

Written 26   March, 2011

How to Be Cool in Second Life

Today I tagged along with Sweetie as she searched for a hairdo at the Amacci store, and I saw without doubt the tackiest thing I have ever seen in Second Life-- and believe me, in my 1614 days on the grid, I have seen some taaacky things.

This woman at Amacci beat them all, however, for she had a sound loop that played, badly and loudly, whenever she walked. And she walked a lot.

And to boot, she had clackety shoes set to the highest possible level.

In my earnest hopes that you, faithful reader, do not venture down the dark road of offensive public behavior, I offer you this list of things to maintain your dignity in second life. You'll be able to walk through stores without offending others by your presentation. You might even be cool.

So pay heed, please.

First, the shants.

1. No bling. If you have an object with bling call the bling disposal squad so they can remove it from your inventory and explode it. Bling is touchy and hard to handle, so just hope it doesn't go off before you're safely out of range.

2. No clackety shoes. If your shoes clack, people 100 meters distant are hearing you and cursing  you. Turn off the clackety sound or find other shoes.Or for god's sake, turn it way down.

3. No public gesture spam. Please. Friends don't let friends do gestures in public. When you pull out that gesture that makes you laugh like an apoplectic three-year-old, you're not impressing anyone. If you want to do a gesture, do it when you're around friends who like gestures or applaud at appropriate times at concerts. Otherwise, just back way. Please.

4. Wear some clothing, for god's sake. Dress appropriately for the situation. Bikines are not the hot thing to wear when mountain climbing.

5. Don't offer friendships to people who you don't really know. You can give calling cards from the right-click menu. Try that instead.

6. Don't spam people with notecards and landmarks.

7. Don't beg for money.

8. Don't be stingy. When you go to a concert, tip the performers and the venue. When you go to a nice sim, tip the owners. When you go to an art show, buy a piece of art, unless it's extravagantly expensive.

9. Respect PG sims. Take your adult behavior to Zindra, the adult continent.

10. Keep your mic closed when you're not speaking.

11. If you walk into somebody, please say "Excuse me."

12. Please respect the privacy of others. Don't walk into people's houses.

13. Show consideration for the diversity of people in Second Life. Don't bully or defame others or say things that might cause people to feel defamed. Don't make fun of people because they don't speak your language or because they're new. Help them instead.

14. Don't pry into the real lives of other avatars. If they want you to know, they'll tell you.

15. Don't shoot or push people without their permission.

16. Don't disrupt quiet areas with noisy vehicles.


Now the shalls.

1. Be yourself. Express yourself as is appropriate for the maturity rating of the sim.

2. Be friendly. Say hi to people who are near.

3. Get involved. No matter what your interests, there are people here who share them. Use Search to find them.

4. Be creative. Second Life is a wonderful place to express your artistic abilities. Here you can build things, take photographs, conduct business, write scripts, and out of world you can make clothing and textures and write blogs. If you're into role play, pour your creativity into your character. Play to your strengths and you'll be surprised what you can accomplish.

5. Tell others about Second Life. Getting people here makes this world stronger and ensures it will be here for you to enjoy.

6. Share with others. Express yourself in your profile and share a random tidbit or two of your real life is you feel comfortable doing so. Put your favorite things and people in your Picks tab, and be sure to include a photo of your avatar in the Second Life tab.

7. Work with others. Find an individual or a group and collaborate on projects. Whether it's building a house, staging a play, or shooting a machinima, get involved.

8. Play with your avatar. Try out clothing, skins, hair, and entire avatars. You needn't spend money; a lot of things are free. Eventually you'll find a combination that expresses your avie's personality as well as your own.

9. Play with the interface. Whether you're running Viewer 1.x, Viewer 2.x, or a third-party viewer like Imprudence or Phoenix, you'll be surprised to learn what can be done. Did you know, for instance, that when you're falling you can slow yourself almost to a stop with the space bar? Try it.

10. Document your experience. Write about it. Blog about it. Talk about it. And above all, take photographs. You needn't pay to import them into Second Life; save them to your hard drive for free and bring in only the images you want to share with your friends. Learn how to control your camera and you'll be rewarded with stunning shots.

11. Learn new skills. Linden Scripting Language is an adventure in coding. Building is an adventure into three-dimensional shapes. But you can learn other things. Sailing, for instance, works just like in the real world; if you learn to sail here you can sail in real life. If you publish a magazine here, you can publish a magazine in real life.

12. Practice social interactions. Are you shy in real life? Introverted? Are there social situations that make you uncomfortable or that you'd like to practice? Well, practice them here. The costs of missteps is far less here than in your real life. Here you can build skills you can take to the real world. Here you can become comfortable with things that ordinarily stress you out. Take advantage of others to help you learn to navigate the social ocean.

13. Get out of your rut. If you spend all your time in Caledon, try a post-apocalyptic sim or the Costa Rican jungle. If you spend all your time at home, dress yourself up and go to a concert. If you have been building for seven days, take a break and watch a particle show. Go check out all those places and experience that at some level intrigue you.

That's it.

If you do these things, I guarantee you, people will think you're cool. And how cool is it to be cool in Second Life?

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Chey's Travels: The Docks

Photo by Sweetie

Written 26 March, 2011

Chey's Travels

The Docks

Week before last Sweetie and I journeyed to  Amase Levasseur's wonderful Originalia sim, where four impressive bodies of art are on display.

First up was Scottius Polke's The Docks, which I described to another visitor as a cross between and Vincent Van Gogh and Tim Burton-- although now, upon reflection, I think I should have mentioned Edgar Allen Poe as well.

The Docks is a purplish, cartoonish quarter sim populated with Burtonesque puppets and Vincentian clouds and catapulted over the top by a liberal application of Glow. I can't describe it any better; just look:

If that doesn't look like Starry Night meets The Corpse Bride meet Chuckie I'll eat my 231-prim LaLa Moon hair.

Scottius' earlier works include Lunamaruna and MushROOM, both on the Lennox Hill sim.

At sim center we found Dog Dreams-- The Second Life of Al, a series of illustrations from RAG Randt's book by the same name. Clever use of multiple layers and animated textures created a shadowbox effect, adding interest to Doggie Al's technicolor cartoon dreams.

Sweetie's favorite was Eliza Wierwight's Aria, a collection of the artist's furniture, housewares, sculptures, and miscellaneous whimsical objects like giant keys and flowing  aqua particles, all meant to be viewed with Eliza's suggested Windlight settings while listening to opera.

The photo at the top of this blogpost is of Aria, as is this one, also, I believe, by Sweetie:

My favorite exhibit was Em Larsson's Temporal Dreams, which consisted of a series of evocative photographs and abstract graphical pieces set in a mist-enshrouded lowland. Best viewed at night (as are The Docks and Aria), the presentation is subtle, with images rezzing slowly as they're approached.

Before I saw her exhibit, I ran into Em at The Docks (in fact it was to her I said the build looked like Vincent Van Gogh meets Tim Burton). Later I IMed her to congratulate her on the haunting beauty of her presentation. It really was quite stunning.

The artists and especially sim-owner Amase Levasseur are to be congratulated for provided a wonderful experience. It's everything Second Life art should be.

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