Lisa+Enters+Second+Life

4/28/10
I went to a formal dance place today. I was greeted by a standard basically... The owner of the area said: "Welcome to Sweethearts jazz!!" ... "Please enjoy your stay. Keep in mind this is a formal venue, appropriate clothing is appreciated, no advertising, and be nice to everyone. Remove your scripted attachments."

This is the first community guidelines I've directly been given. There are a lot of people wearing formal gowns and suits/tuxes-- and there isn't a lot of local chat happening. (So I'm assuming it is more on an individual basis. I also don't think that you typically come here by yourself. The owner kept welcoming people who he's seen before or knows. Saying... "Oh Cindi! It's good to see you again, enjoy your stay!"

On the dance floor avatars can double click on balls-- which make the avatars move and do things. (I've seen these before in the sex rooms). So avatars will be moving gracefully on the dance floor. Another reason why I am guessing you should know someone when coming is because I put out a comment in the local chat asking if anyone would like to dance- and no one responded. (Where as if I were in a more common area, I probably would have been answered by many people-- looking for sex, most likely). So this place is a little classier with rules/regulations.

I found this sign interesting... but I'm trying not to judge avatars and second life users... I guess I personally would rather find a real life date, but that's just me.

4/10/10
I finally understand (after 2 and a half months) how to properly change my outfit.

So that's exciting. But I've also recently joined a group. **Jobs** I couldn't really search any jobs at first, but now I get at least 5 e-mails a week of people who post jobs in the group. Most of them are in a foreign language, however others mostly are looking for DJs or other kinds of entertainers.

I haven't found a post yet that I have any of the qualifications. I'm not sure if I really will find anything- but it'd be great if I could. So in the meantime, I've been exploring new places and trying to transport to different sites throughout Second Life. There is one attachment I found that has the popular spots to go to based on whatever your interests are. So I transported to a church.... but it was night- and nobody was there.

Then I tried to go to a CNN location. It turns out it was an iReport place- but again... there was nobody there. So that was disappointing. I'm trying to check out other places but it seems like people either use second life with a specific reason to meet up with people they know offline (like the Nurse I met a while back figuring out second life so that her students can use it) OR people use it to have virtual sex. Bascially... leaves me feeling like an outsider- but maybe I'll get better luck in the last month of school and meet some people to hang out with on SL.

3/17/10
Happy St. Patrick's Day! I got an e-mail from Second Life advertising the different places you can teleport to, so I thought I'd check it out! Looks pretty cool, huh?

I floated on those coin things for a little while. Random people come up to talk to me. Conversations usually begin like this: Person: hello me: hi Person: you speak ___ (Fill in language here. Today it was "German") me: no sorry, just english person: ok bye.

Maybe next time I'll say yes- and then I'll go to babblefish.com or google translator and try to have a conversation in German or Portuguese or whatever language they speak.

As for that box I'm sporting. I finally figured out how to alter clothes and appearances, so that's good! Now I'm changing up my wardrobe and I no longer look like the standard second life avatar.

Hopefully a lot more exploring and meeting people on second life will happen over spring break. (Yay for not going to a tropical island and instead just going home!)

2/22/10
I was a little weary to be back in the Second Life realm after my last experience-- even though it was something to laugh about. I roamed around the "home" and saw an avatar just lying on the ground. He looks dead, but I didn't know avatars can die? Also, there was another avatar looking kind of like a prostitute. Maybe that's a little judgmental of me though.

My mindset about how to learn Second Life has changed. I decided I am no longer going to just go with the flow of what other people tell me to do and what they say. I am being more decisive and going to research within the Second World life.

I finally had an interesting and worthwhile conversation today. I met an avatar named Nurse Serendipity. She is also new to Second Life and looking for a simulation program to have her nursing students use.

I also found a new avatar support group (well kind of). There is a Web site with a ton of information and it is put on by the New Citizens Incorporated group. They provide training classes for new avatars and have different forums for people to talk about Second Life stuff. I find it very interesting how dedicated people are to Second Life- even producing so much work off of second life and putting it onto the Web.

2/16/10
So I still am completely unsure of what I'm doing and how to actually live in second life. My mindset has been to talk to anyone and everyone and try to pick up on what they do.

For a long time, I was wandering around what seemed like a shopping mall where someone transported me. I was only looking for free things because I don't have any linden dollars, so most of my time was spent wandering around.

Finally I logged off for a day or so and came back on today and nothing was familiar and there was only a big tree in front of me --> So I wander around again and try flying a bit. So the a guy named LB Ruby starts talking to me. Exciting? Yay! ... At first. Then it gets weird.

So the conversation can be seen on the screen shot below. He is a total creeper and kinda weird. Kinda a creeper right? So anyway- he leaves for a little and then I wanted to ask him some questions to get an idea of the types of people on Second Life and how to actually play, but before I can ask him more questions- he's invites me to teleport somewhere. So I go with my plan of not saying no- and I teleport with LG Ruby.

BAD IDEA!

He ends up taking me to some sex room/porno like place! I was so freaked out, I literally screamed out loud. And then I was just freaking out trying to figure out how to leave. I wrote on the local chat, while others were saying weird things, "How do I get out of here?!" Finally I remembered that I can always "Teleport Home" via the toolbar on the top. So I went to this "Home" of mine, and just searched for normal people. I awkwardly sat down next to two people having a conversation on a bench, but didn't even care. I decided that was enough Second Life for the afternoon.



2/8/10
Being in second life isn't easy! Maybe I just need to read up on how to actually use second life. So I started asking random people in the live chat what to do with my time in this world. I explored and transported to the option which sounded coolest-- Dance Party! Problem: I don't know how to make my avatar dance .... I can barely walk! One person started chatting with me (I didn't even realize that they were for a while) and told me that I looked new, and asked if I needed help (see below) :( I'm a dead give-away, I guess.

BUT... I did make an actual friend on Second Life: Rienne Nider. After being at the dance party thing where "Takoda Toxx" asked me to be in a group-- I wanted to "transport" out of there. (There is a lot of new lingo that I'm trying to learn). So I transported home, but had no actual idea of where that was. At home is where I met Rienne Nidler. I randomly started instant messaging in the chat box if anyone could help me- and she (I'm assuming) said yes. She's also somewhat new at second life, but said she knows what she is doing. She taught me a bunch of things: She said the place we were standing at was a "dumping ground" as she called it, for people that are new and don't really know what to do. (I then asked her why she was hanging out there, if it's just a dumping ground and she replied saying that second life is like real life and get really boring sometimes... Great! I have a lot to look forward to.)

She also informed me that you need to pay for your second life account in order to get certain clothes or go places or change your hair! So Rienne and I are stuck with the brown hair you see above.

Then she invited me to transport with her to some place where we can get free things. I said yes because basically my limits in this world are zero since I have no clue what I'm doing and I need guidance.

We ended up in another realm, where we can get free things. However, I still don't know HOW to get the free stuff. I definitely need to research and look into how to do gestures and use the keyboard to command my avatar and whatnot. Back to the new transported place with Rienne... there were some weird things at this place. Some of it is normal and there are clothes and accessories and it seems like shopping mall, but there were also naked avatar pictures throughout the place. I'm not sure if that means your avatar can pick it and choose to roam around second life naked or not. ?? So I guess that will be a mystery to solve.

I don't know what to think about second life right now. I definitely want to keep interacting with people, but I also want to have some kind of purpose and not just randomly bump into things and look lost, having people ask me if I'm new. I thought going into this I would be able to become a singer and travel throughout the world and swim in the sea... but I don't know if that is really possible. I probably have to pay money to do those things.... even second life is controlled by the economy. I thought this was a place to escape!

So more to come... I'm going to do some research away from second life world, maybe read some blogs and how to's. I get e-mails sent to me with Second Life updates, so I should start paying more attention to those. I definitely have a goal to go to UW-Madison's union at some point. A lot of my friends who make fun of me for doing this and make fun of second life in general, make comments like- "I don't understand why these people don't just GO to the union-- they don't need to do it via second life!" And I used to agree with those comments-- but I'm trying to keep an open mind and figure out what it is about second life that is so appealing to so many people. It's kind of like Twitter: I used to be totally against it and would say "I don't need to know what you are doing at every single second- don't update me that you're going to the bathroom." They were stereotypical judgments I would make because I didn't research what Twitter had to offer me besides simple status updates. Now I'm in love with Twitter!

So I want to do the same for second life. I've laughed at it in the past- but I do want to take this seriously and try to understand where players are coming from. I'm trying to not be stereotypical and pre-judge people. I want to have conversations with other avatars throughout and get their input for the pros and negatives for second life and why they use it.

Even though this past session was a little frustrating, I was laughing at how into it I was getting and how silly I seemed. More laughs and awkwardness to come (I guess I can't escape awkwardness on second life either...)

2/1/10
Oh! Duh... I almost forgot the most important part. My second life name is Joella (derived from Yoela, originally a Hebrew name meaning "Yaweh is God") McAndrews !!! Obviously I put an unnecessary amount of time into deciding this. This isn't good if Second Life is already consuming me and my time.

I wouldn't mind being called Joella in class occasionally...

2/1/10
It is official. I now have two lives.

As much as I love my life (the real one), I'm looking forward to starting fresh with 21 years of real life experiences to build off. I hopefully will accomplish dreams (like being a singer, even though my voice in real life is awful), go to new places (I'm thinking I'll make a trip to Croatia, then the bottom of the sea, and maybe even Hogwarts) and meet new people (maybe Brad Paisley has a second life character!)

In all honesty, I have no idea what to expect from this. Just glancing over the possibilities my second life person has is overwhelming and weird to think that people spent time creating such a detailed and in-depth life behind a computer. BUT! I do recognize my prejudice, stereotypes and ideas of virtual reality, and I am going to put them aside. I really want to divulge into this project and understand the people in second life, and the controllers on the other side of the computers.

I'm looking forward to exploring this new life of mine. My initial thought is this may be similar to The Sims, but I'm expecting it to be way more in-depth and not just people flailing around and speaking gibberish.

I'll keep you posted...