I'm slowly but surely getting back to my old computer habits. We're all settled in in our new place and it's wonderful. Each morning I wake up with gratitude -- everything is so totally different here compared to the old place. We've been out much more...not only to shopping malls like before but rather to the ocean or just to watch the duck population at Lily Lake. We had a cold spell for a few days so there's much less open water now.
Last night I watched a show on a Canadian channel about the computer game Second Life. It was about how people had gotten affected by it... «cheated» on their spouses, divorced, re-married and so on.
It was quite amazing, listening to grown-ups, people who had been well-adjusted in society, openly talk on national TV about their experiences with this game.
One Canadian woman had actually married her «virtual lover» -- a biker from Kansas. He was married in real life when they met online, but his real life wife finally couldn't take it anymore.
I remember when Second Life came out. Uffling told Angharod and me about it and we both installed it but never figured out how to handle it. It didn't seem to agree with my computer either. Online games have never been my thing so even though I'm a 'computer person', and even met my 'significant other' online, I have a hard time understanding this.
The show was pretty graphic so you got a good idea of what it was all about...how you created an avatar for yourself and then lived out all your fantasies. I just don't think I have enough imagination to do it.
It seems that Microsoft have given up on Windows Vista and released a new operating system called Windows 7 in Beta. From what I read in news groups and such, most people seem to be really positive about it. I never had Vista...haven't even used a computer with Vista on it so I can't say anything about it personally but I haven't heard much good about it. With its bad reputation I think it would have been hard for them to carry on with it, no matter how much they'd fixed it up.
Anyway, just thought I'd post a little «sign of life». It's a good thing to have this blog to keep up with one another. We're very happy here in Atlantic Canada...we love the apartment, the city with its friendly people and...the ocean! No matter what the weather conditions might be -- it's always there to watch and it has a soothing effect on the mind.
Cheerio!
Rebekah /formerly Webby/
3 comments:
How terrific to see your post Reb! And a lovely one it is too. Maybe Willie will come in and explain his experiences in Second Life...or Uffie...tho I can't see how either man has the time to have other lives than their own...*S*
Yeah, it was quite amazing! One woman was a single mom with a full-time job and two kids. Another woman's husband said he wouldn't be allowed in the bedroom, where the computer was placed, anymore.
From what I could see, all the avatars somehow looked like those Japanese «anime» or whatever it's called...
First of all, we don't call it a game. LOL
That's probably the first warning sign, eh...?
Presently, I'm renting a three storey luxury modern house in a place called Harpton, which is a resort set by a sunny, palm-shaded beach with a lighthouse and long, straight American style city streets. My Avatar is named Si Lytton, and he runs a weekly game of Dungeons & Dragons at Chez Lytton.
On the ground floor we have the D&D game, where people using Avatars to represent their SL selves pretend to be D&D characters -- miniature models, representing the characters played by the avatars played by the people at personal computers.
What is Second Life then?
To me, it's what the Internet should always have been.
I spent an hour last week in Dresden Museum of Art, looking at the works of the Old Masters, Si Lytton wandering about the actual floors of the gallery, looking at the art works and listening to a taped commentary. I learned about the composition of paintings and about the studio painting system and I bookmarked the location for future visits. I didn't have to read or scroll through anything: the pictures were there in front of me and the commentary came on as I wished it to, just like the real gallery.
At night-time (my local time), from around 23.00 to midnight, I might visit the World's End Tavern, and Si will dance for an hour to rock music, or disco, or whatever the evening's theme is. SL is equipped with many options for your Avatar to dance individually, as part of a group led by a dancer, or as one of a couple. I tend to let Si be led by the dance leader, and sometimes will dress him up to match the evening's theme; sometimes not. I may join in the on-screen chat and banter, or I may just acknowledge the hellos and then enjoy the music without further comment.
I've visited desert islands, industrial complexes, fantasy forests, flown in my own airship, swam in the sea, used a hovercraft, a spaceship, sat on a hobo spooltable listening to the Blues, driven a racing car, built my own mansion and torn it down again. The list goes on.
So have I answered what it is yet?
It's a chatroom.
A chatroom you can walk around in.
Do we know people who have broken up their families in chatrooms? Yes we do. Do we know folk who are doing the same in Second Life? Yes we probably do too. It's the nature of humanity, not of the chat room and not of Second Life. But it's good to make a television program on, I suppose.
Yes, I'm a fan of it. But I also know it has all the allure and temptation you guys already know about on the "regular" Internet. Except in SL, the difference is you can *see* what's going on..... and buy attachments if you want your AV to go on at what's going on.. LOL
Check out http://www.flickr.com/groups/rezzable/pool/ to see images, some enhanced but many exactly as SL is, of some of the people and places in Second Life. Some of the content may be adult themed.
I'm off to the World End's Tavern. Good night! :-)
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